Latest Stories By Louis Jacobson

Surprise guests are a feature of the president’s State of the Union address. President Joe Biden’s March 7 speech had a big one, though not one invited by the president: former Rep. George Santos, who was seen mingling with his former Republican colleagues a little more than three months after the House expelled him.   This […]

Facing a challenging path to reelection amid low favorability ratings and public wariness over the economy, President Joe Biden used his 2024 State of the Union address to take a fighting posture. He repeatedly drew contrasts with his presumptive Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, and occasionally sparred with GOP lawmakers in the audience. “This […]

Talk about a disconnect. Unemployment is near record lows. Job creation is robust. The economy is growing, driven by healthy consumer spending. And the stock market has hit record highs. Yet surveys show that Americans are disgusted with the economy. And President Joe Biden, seeking reelection in November, is feeling the public’s agitation.  Biden has […]

President Joe Biden has often touted that his administration has cut the federal deficit, sometimes communicating that record more accurately than others. At campaign fundraisers in December and February, he told audience members that on his watch, the deficit fell by “$7 billion.” The actual decline is more than $1 trillion, not billion.  He used […]

Get ready: In the 2024 presidential race, the candidates will talk about the economy. A lot. We know because it’s already happening. Incumbent President Joe Biden has touted the rapid growth of jobs on his watch. His predecessor and front-runner for the Republican nomination, Donald Trump, has focused on the four-decade-high inflation that peaked in […]

A January Fox News segment promoted the bubbling conspiracy theory that singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is a government operative whose mission is bolstering President Joe Biden’s reelection chances. Now a poll shows a significant percentage of Americans are buying the false claim. Monmouth University Polling Institute’s mid-February survey of 902 adults found that nearly 1 in […]

The available evidence suggests Joe Biden and Donald Trump will face each other for the presidency in November.  They are 81 and 77 years old, respectively. Trump is facing up to four criminal trials that could theoretically land him in prison. Also, some states are trying to keep Trump off their ballots for his role […]

The special counsel report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents was a major discussion topic on the Sunday morning political talk shows.  The president’s critics played up Special Counsel Robert Hur’s description of Biden’s allegedly poor memory; defenders countered that such details were inaccurate, out of bounds for such a report, or both. […]

Just hours after the release of a special counsel’s report on a document-retention case, President Joe Biden called a prime-time press conference to applaud the counsel’s decision not to prosecute him and to rebut the report’s suggestion that aging has left him with “a poor memory.” Biden said media reports were misrepresenting the special counsel’s […]

A special counsel investigating President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents concluded that no criminal charges were warranted. However, Robert Hur in his final report criticized Biden’s practices in handling sensitive documents, saying he had found evidence that Biden had “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” as a private citizen after he served as vice […]

In a case with implications for the 2024 presidential election, the U.S. Supreme Court heard historic oral arguments Feb. 8 that former President Donald Trump should be removed from Colorado’s presidential primary ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court in December ruled that Trump was ineligible to be on the ballot because of his actions on Jan. […]

The expected presidential rematch between two men, ages 77 and 81, is a fight over many things: How to protect the border; foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine; abortion access. And now, the potential for a 34-year-old superstar’s endorsement. Last fall, Taylor Swift encouraged her more than 270 million Instagram followers to register to vote, […]