Category: The Hill
Northern lights may be visible from these states Tuesday
Those who missed the stunning northern lights display in November may have another chance at witnessing the celestial phenomenon Tuesday night, depending on where they live.
Trump rails against Omar, migration from ‘hellholes’ like Somalia
President Trump on Tuesday went on a tirade against Somalian migrants and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) during a rally that was billed as focused on lowering costs for Americans. Trump went on multiple tangents during the roughly 90-minute speech about Omar and stopping the flow of migrants from Somalia and other “third-world” countries. Trump has…
House GOP leaders to pitch health care options for vote next week
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Republican leaders will present their health care proposals to the full House GOP conference on Wednesday to find out which items have consensus for votes in the House next week. The development comes after a meeting with a “good cross-section of our members” and committee leaders in the…
Beshear: Kentucky State University ‘not a mass shooting or a random incident’
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and local authorities said Tuesday that the shooting at Kentucky State University (KSU) was an isolated incident. Earlier in the afternoon, two individuals, both KSU students, were shot on the school’s campus, located in the state capital of Frankfort, Ky. The Frankfort Police Department (FPD) said in a release on…
Jasmine Crockett’s Farrakhan-Praising Pastor Launches Bid To Replace Crockett in Congress
Dallas pastor Frederick Haynes, who hailed anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan as a “great” man and lashed out at Israel in a sermon just one day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, is running to replace a member of his congregation in Congress: firebrand House Democrat Jasmine Crockett (Texas).
The post Jasmine Crockett’s Farrakhan-Praising Pastor Launches Bid To Replace Crockett in Congress appeared first on .
Inside the left’s push to reshape 2028 with ranked-choice voting
If Democrats seem extreme now, wait until they adopt ranked-choice voting. Some activists inside the party want exactly that — a reform that would push presidential nominations even further left and force establishment figures to navigate an ideological gauntlet to win.
Multiple reports indicate that Democratic Party activists and elected officials are pressuring the party to adopt ranked-choice voting for its 2028 presidential primaries. Axios notes that the push has grown serious enough that top party officials met in late October with advocates including Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), pollster Celinda Lake, and representatives from FairVote Action.
Ranked-choice voting would pour accelerant on a process already pulling Democrats further left.
Such an effort fits a long pattern: For decades, Democrats have shifted presidential nominations away from party leadership. On ranked-choice voting specifically, several states already use it — Maine and Alaska among them — along with deep-blue cities such as New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Ranked-choice voting takes multiple forms, but New York City’s model illustrates the dynamic. Voters rank up to five candidates. If no candidate wins an initial majority, the last-place candidate drops out, and those voters’ second-choice votes are redistributed. This “loser leaves” process continues until a candidate secures a majority.
Assuming rational behavior, Democratic voters would likely rank candidates from more extreme to less extreme. That pattern would advantage the leftmost candidates again and again as lower-preference votes transfer upward.
This structural boost would encourage both supply and demand for extreme candidacies. Candidates on the ideological edge would have more incentive to run. Voters who prefer them would have more influence. Ranked-choice voting’s supporters tout this expanded participation as a virtue.
Offering voters multiple choices would foster coalition-building. Knowing the race may go to multiple rounds, candidates would angle for second- and third-choice votes. The horse-trading once done in old convention “smoke-filled rooms” would unfold publicly through a series of ranked ballots.
But the key question is simple: Why would ranked-choice voting necessarily supercharge extremism inside the Democratic Party? Because the system rewards voters for casting marginal votes — and among today’s Democrats, “marginal” means “further left.”
The party’s ideological shift is measurable. In Gallup’s 2023 polling, 54% of Democrats identified as liberal — an all-time high. Support for democratic socialists in major-city mayoral primaries shows how rapidly the party’s activist base has moved left. In 1995, the liberal share of the party was 25%, roughly equal to conservatives. Three decades later, conservatives make up just 10% of Democrats.
Exit polling confirms the trend: In 2024, 91% of self-identified liberals voted for Kamala Harris; only 9% of conservatives did.
Extrapolate from this trajectory, and the danger becomes even clearer. Extreme candidates increasingly win Democratic primaries in major cities. Those cities dominate statewide Democratic politics. And in closed primaries, only Democrats vote — meaning the hyper-engaged activist left already sets the terms of competition. Ranked-choice voting would amplify that influence. The same voters who nominated democratic socialists in New York and Seattle would wield disproportionate power in a presidential contest.
RELATED: Democrats are just noticing a long, deep-running problem
Photo by RYAN MCBRIDEDON EMMERTDON EMMERTKENA BETANCURROBYN BECKANGELA WEISSROBYN BECKROBYN BECKROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
Consider how the 2020 Democratic primary might have played out under ranked-choice voting. Joe Biden — an establishment candidate favored by moderates — would have faced a field dominated by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Tom Steyer, and others to his left. Ranked-choice voting would have forced him through a gauntlet designed by the party’s most ideological voters.
This trend is not new. In 1972, George McGovern reshaped Democratic nominating rules and then benefited from the changes. Since then, the party has repeatedly weakened its establishment’s role (with key exceptions). Ranked-choice voting would accelerate that shift dramatically.
With moderates now only 36% of the party, according to Gallup, how could they resist a move toward ranked-choice voting? More importantly, which remaining moderate or establishment Democrat could survive a ranked-choice system dominated by the party’s left wing?
Ranked-choice voting would pour accelerant on a process already pulling Democrats further left. The only question is how long it takes for the party to adopt it — and how long the party can remain viable nationally if it does.
Frustrated Trump calls for Ukrainian election after Zelenskyy seemingly torpedoes another peace opportunity
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has effectively torpedoed President Donald Trump’s peace plan.
After his meeting on Monday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and French President Emmanuel Macron — who reportedly suggested last week that the U.S. might “betray” Ukraine — Zelenskyy reportedly told reporters that Kyiv will not cede any territory to Russia.
‘A lot of people are dying. So it would be really good if he’d read it. His people loved the proposal.’
“We have no right to give anything away — not under our laws, not under international law, not under moral law,” said Zelenskyy, reported the New York Post. “Russia is, of course, insisting that we give up territory. We, of course, do not want to give up anything — that is precisely what we are fighting for, as you are well aware.”
Zelenskyy, whom Trump accused in February of “gambling with the lives of millions of people,” added, “To be honest, the Americans are looking for a compromise today.”
Russia, which has slowly captured additional territory over the past year, presently occupies around 20% of the entire country and most of the Donbas — including all of the Luhansk region, most of the largely Russian-speaking Donetsk region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Under the Trump administration’s initial 28-point peace plan, embraced by Moscow but rejected by Kyiv and European leaders,
- the U.S. would recognize Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk as de facto Russian;
- Kherson and Zaporizhzhia would be divided along the current line of contact;
- Russia would cede other territories under its control outside the five regions; and
- Ukrainian forces would abandon the part of Donetsk Oblast currently under their control, leaving it as a demilitarized buffer zone.
Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images
Trump has long maintained that Kyiv will have to make some territorial concessions to bring an end to war that has resulted in millions of casualties. In August, for instance, the president said that while the U.S. seeks to negotiate for some of the Russia-occupied territories back for Ukraine, inevitably “there will be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody.”
On Monday, Zelenskyy suggested that he and Trump see things differently, stating that Trump “certainly wants to end the war. … Surely, he has his own vision. We live here, from within we see details and nuances, we perceive everything much deeper, because this is our motherland.”
‘It gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.’
Trump said in an interview with Politico on Monday that while he credits the Ukrainian people for their bravery in defending their homeland, Russia is presently in the stronger negotiating position and “size will win, generally.” Accordingly Ukraine has to “play ball,” suggested the president, who was uncertain about whether Zelenskyy had even bothered to read the latest peace proposals.
“That’s as of yesterday. Maybe he’s read it over the night,” said Trump. “It would be nice if he would read it. You know, a lot of people are dying. So it would be really good if he’d read it. His people loved the proposal. They really liked it. His lieutenants, his top people, they liked it, but they said he hasn’t read it yet. I think he should find time to read it.”
Zelenskyy indicated this week that he will provide Washington with his views on the current U.S. peace plan — which has reportedly shed eight of the original points Zelenskyy characterized as “anti-Ukrainian” — on Tuesday night but not until he discusses with European leaders the “reparations loan and security guarantees” he regards as critical to the peace process.
When asked what would happen if Zelenskyy rejected the deal, Trump said, “He’s gonna have to get on the ball and start accepting things.” As for the European leaders who appear keen to involve themselves in the process, Trump said, “They talk but they don’t produce, and the war just keeps going on and on.”
Trump noted further that it’s time now — 18 months after Zelenskyy’s term was originally scheduled to end and in the midst of an ever-worsening corruption scandal involving Zelenskyy’s administration and close allies — for a Ukrainian presidential election.
“It’s been a long time,” said Trump.
“I think it’s an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election, but I would think the Ukrainian people would, should have that choice. And maybe Zelenskyy would win. I don’t know who would win. But they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
Zelenskyy said in a statement on Tuesday, “We are committed to a real peace and remain in constant contact with the United States. And as our partners in the negotiating teams rightly note, everything depends on whether Russia is ready to take effective steps to stop the bloodshed and prevent the war from reigniting.”
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Jasmine Crockett’s Senate Campaign Going As Well As You’d Expect
The campaign is already getting mocked
Mamdani Transition Adviser’s Nonprofit Under Congressional Investigation for Allegedly Teaching Illegal Aliens How To Evade ICE
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s (D.) transition team includes a man whose organization is under congressional investigation for allegedly teaching illegal aliens how to evade ICE officers, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
The post Mamdani Transition Adviser’s Nonprofit Under Congressional Investigation for Allegedly Teaching Illegal Aliens How To Evade ICE appeared first on .
The New Yorker Makes a Shrine to Itself
The New Yorker was founded in 1925 as a humor weekly — a whimsical little Roaring Twenties bauble written largely…
