Brendan Nyhan
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brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan
@brendannyhan.bsky.social

Dartmouth political scientist and Bright Line Watch co-director. Previously Upshot NYT / CJR contributor, Spinsanity co-founder, All the President's Spin co-author.

https://sites.dartmouth.edu/nyhan/
http://brightlinewatch.org .. more

Brendan Nyhan is an American political scientist and professor at Dartmouth College. He is also a liberal to moderate political blogger, author, and political columnist. He was born in Mountain View, California and now lives in Hanover, New Hampshire. .. more

Political science 39%
Sociology 22%
Pinned
There is nothing complicated or subtle or hard to understand about what is going on.

Trump may not succeed. But he will only fail if patriots stand up and defend our democracy and the Constitution. We must act, as @mashagessen.bsky.social writes, while we still can. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...
The year is 2015. China is getting richer and more powerful every year, but America has three trump cards: universitities, biomedical research, and immigration.

A patriotic judge who will fight to defend our Constitution:

"The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights."
The details of the Kristi Noem blanket incident are just fucking perfect

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

How bad do the facts have to be, how outrageous did the lies have to turn out to be, for a Trump-appointed US Attorney to say and do this?

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/u...

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

“Noem routinely berated staff if she saw Homan on TV and kept track of both their appearances to make sure she was on TV more than him…”
The same story. Over and over again.
BREAKING: DOJ moves to drop criminal charges in alleged shovel/broom attack in Minneapolis that led ICE to open fire. "Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the Complaint Affidavit," prosecutors say. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
“…in one incident, Lewandowski fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noem's blanket was left behind on a plane, according to people familiar with the incident.”
Every single time a story like this is reported, we must assume that there are many many more that do not.
CBP didn’t give her or anyone any water; she asked 3 times accg to other reports. CBP killed a 7yr old.

“8 hours after the girl & her father were taken into custody, she began having seizures & her body temperature was measured at 105.7 degrees by emergency medical technicians. shorturl.at/d2OTJ
7-Year-Old Migrant Girl Dies Of Dehydration And Shock In U.S. Border Patrol Custody
The girl's death underscores the crisis precipitated by large groups of families seeking asylum where there are inadequate facilities to detain them.
shorturl.at
CBP didn’t give her or anyone any water; she asked 3 times accg to other reports. CBP killed a 7yr old.

“8 hours after the girl & her father were taken into custody, she began having seizures & her body temperature was measured at 105.7 degrees by emergency medical technicians. shorturl.at/d2OTJ
7-Year-Old Migrant Girl Dies Of Dehydration And Shock In U.S. Border Patrol Custody
The girl's death underscores the crisis precipitated by large groups of families seeking asylum where there are inadequate facilities to detain them.
shorturl.at

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

The fact that all of them, from Trump to Hegseth to Noem to Miller, have no business running a bake sale of a book club or a fantasy sports league, is just the icing on the ignoramusocracy cake. 10/

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

Giving this type of weapon system to CBP to use is like giving a kindergartner an RPG. It was always going to end badly. We’re just lucky that all that happened was a confirmed kill on a party balloon & a lot of embarrassment. This could’ve been much worse. 5/
BREAKING: DOJ moves to drop criminal charges in alleged shovel/broom attack in Minneapolis that led ICE to open fire. "Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the Complaint Affidavit," prosecutors say. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Reposted by James Goodwin

The history books will remember this one
Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu
Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu
In a normal government, this results in the resignation of multiple cabinet officials (Transportation, Defense, and Homeland Security), and the closure or (at least!) radical reorg of the cartoonishly incompetent agency at the center of it: CBP.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/u...

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

weird memories of, wait for it, another echo of Russian politics in Trump politics- undertrained regime-aligned yahoos with powerful weapons, questionable morals, and no sense

🤡🤡🤡 "The abrupt closure of El Paso’s airspace late Tuesday was precipitated when Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti-drone laser on loan from the Department of Defense without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft" 🤡🤡🤡
"C.B.P. officials thought they were firing on a cartel drone, the people said, but it turned out to be a party balloon."
Border Officials Are Said to Have Caused El Paso Closure by Firing Anti-Drone Laser
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

the list of entrees is really the chef's kiss for the whole thing. I kind of want to go.
@normcharlatan.bsky.social know there’s a lot going on but wanted to make sure you saw this
NEW: “CBS Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey sends a bombshell farewell note:

Stories are “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

"C.B.P. officials thought they were firing on a cartel drone, the people said, but it turned out to be a party balloon."
Border Officials Are Said to Have Caused El Paso Closure by Firing Anti-Drone Laser
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

"The GOP-led House...voted 219–211 to approve a Democratic resolution that would invalidate the emergency declaration that underpins Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Six Republicans broke ranks with their party in voting for the measure."

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
GOP-Led House Rejects Trump’s Tariffs on Canada
The vote in the chamber is a significant but largely symbolic repudiation of the president’s signature economic policy.
www.wsj.com
This is the second account - the first being in Chicago - of DHS agents mass detaining people and then *sorting them by race*.
More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan

More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news
"It is totally inappropriate and against the separations of powers for the DOJ to surveil us as we search the Epstein files. (US Attorney General) Bondi showed up today with a burn book that held a printed search history of exactly what emails I searched." - Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).
Just take a look at this and remember, Pam Bondi's concern here was not with any of the victims of these crimes but with the nosy Democrats who actually gave a shit about them.