S.E. Cupp Columns category, Page 5

“History will prove us right.” It was New Year’s Eve, 2007, and one of Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign strategists, Brent Seaborn, emailed supporters an upbeat memo promising that they were “looking good” heading into the Republican early state primaries. History, as it would turn out, proved them wrong. Giuliani’s...

“It’s an idea whose time is inevitably coming for Republican presidential candidates — pardoning former President Donald J. Trump.” That was National Review editor Rich Lowry in Politico this week, echoing others on the right who have decided that if Trump is convicted of any of the crimes he’s been...

At a spry 64 years old, former Vice President Mike Pence is celebrating. On Wednesday, he marked his birthday — and formally announcing his run for president. It’s a strange and circuitous series of events that led him from a promising future as a GOP rising star to here, polling...

In 1965, William F. Buckley Jr. decided to avenge the loss of Barry Goldwater to Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential election by running for mayor of New York. His goal was to restore attention to conservatism as he understood it, and take votes from Republican John Lindsay, who...

Way back in 2015, we all got to see then-candidate Donald Trump lay out his vision for America after he descended that infamous golden escalator in Trump Tower. It was, in a word, bleak. It included “beating” China, Japan and Mexico, the latter of which was sending drugs, crime and...

Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, as the old saying goes. As Republicans venture further off into the extremes, pushing regressive and unpopular culture war policies, Democrats have made the most of the GOP’s missteps. In three consecutive election cycles — 2018, 2020 and 2022 — Democrats have...

In the minutes, hours and days after the shock of Tucker Carlson’s firing from Fox News settled in, the immediate question became: Why? And more pointedly, why now? In some ways, these were ridiculous if not rhetorical questions — there were countless good reasons to fire Carlson, from his myriad...

“Will a network that has decided to recklessly traffic in and promote lies, junk science and unfounded conspiracy theories, and purposefully omit and distort the truth to keep its viewers rabidly tuned in, feel at all chastened by what can only be described as an unequivocal and unprecedented smackdown?” That...

Tuesday’s historic 11th hour settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems for a whopping $787.5 million for defamation was justice for Dominion, which Fox hosts had baselessly smeared to sow doubt in the 2020 presidential election results. “Over two years ago, a torrent of lies swept Dominion and election...

My phone buzzed with a news alert, which happens numerous times throughout the day. This one, at 1:45 p.m. on Monday, was yet another mass shooting. My stomach turned queasy anticipating the details. I knew they would be horrifying — they always are. But I feared the worst … and,...

As the 2024 presidential election gets underway, Donald Trump is testing out a risky strategy. He’s swinging hard and often at a competitor who hasn’t even gotten in the race yet. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has given every indication he likely will run, — hosting donor retreats, visiting swing states...

“A lie.” “Bull(expletive).” “Dangerous.” “Disgusting.” Those are just some ways that Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s sanitized re-framing of Jan. 6 is being described — by other Republicans. In case you missed it, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Carlson — a host even Fox News lawyers admit cannot be trusted...

“Toxic sludge, racism, disinformation and attacks on democracy.” This is how Charlie Sykes, a conservative commentator and editor of The Bulwark, recently described the Fox News diet to his longtime friend — and Fox News board member — former House Speaker Paul Ryan. It was a stunning interview between two...

Nearly three months after former President Donald Trump announced he was running again for president, he has his first major competitor (with apologies to Steve Laffey) in former South Carolina Gov. and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. In her video announcement Tuesday, Haley boasted of the need for “generational change,”...

If you tuned in to Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, Joe Biden’s third as president, it felt at times like we were watching the shouting matches typical of the United Kingdom’s Parliament more than it did a speech to the United States Congress. The unrulier members of the...

“Press them hard enough, and most Republican officials … will privately admit that Donald Trump has become a problem,” writes McKay Coppins in a new Atlantic piece. “Aside from his most blinkered loyalists, virtually everyone in the party agrees: It’s time to move on from Trump.” I don’t doubt that’s...

“Honesty is such a lonely word.” As the great Billy Joel once sang, “Everyone is so untrue.” That could be the anthem for this modern era, when liars and lying are not only tolerated, but rewarded for their artful deception. Now comically synonymous with the countless lies that he’s told...

As the ancient proverb goes, the fish rots from the head. The expression’s been used by countless leaders in business to describe the way a bad CEO can hamper productivity downstream, or to explain how corruption can infect an organization. Of course, it’s also been used by law enforcement to...

Céline Gounder was reeling. Her husband of 21 years, Grant Wahl, had died suddenly while covering the World Cup in Qatar. Despite a disorienting and painful flurry of initial speculation and conspiracies, Gounder waited to learn from doctors and experts what had killed Grant. But as she did, in the...

Poor Kevin. The Bakersfield, Calif., native who, by all accounts, came to Washington 16 years ago with the sole intent of becoming speaker of the House one day faced an embarrassing defeat this week when he failed — three times — to win the nomination by his own party. There’s...

While covid-19 thankfully waned in the U.S. and many of us felt a slow return to normalcy, 2022 was still an eventful year. From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to the death of Queen Elizabeth, the overturning of Roe v. Wade to midterm elections, the rise in inflation to the collapse...

“We’re giving it consideration in our house — prayerful consideration.” That was former Vice President Mike Pence, telling ABC News last month that he’s contemplating a run against his former boss and the only entry in the 2024 presidential election thus far, Donald Trump, a man he served dutifully for...

Despite all her tough talk on social media and podcasts, her hackneyed attacks on liberal snowflakes and cancel culture, and her daddy-issues affection for dictatorial strong men like Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Owens is seemingly afraid of lots of odd things no one should really...

“Disqualifying” and “un-American,” says John Bolton, the former national security advisor to former President Donald Trump. Trump is “spinning out of control,” says conservative Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen. “I’m at a loss for words — we need to move on,” says Sen. John Cornyn, who voted twice to acquit...

While it’s nearly impossible to think of a headline that Donald J. Trump didn’t relish, no matter the scandalous implications, he might just be getting sick of the never-ending loop of stories on his now-infamous dinner with rabid antisemite Kanye West and noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes. It was a...