CNN-Opinion

Analysis by Daniel Dale, CNN There is no honest denying of the fact that New York City’s Board of Elections is a problem-plagued, patronage-ridden organization that just made a major mistake. But there is also no honest pretending that this mistake — accidentally including 135,000 test votes in a preliminary tally of real votes in

Analysis by Brandon Tensley, CNN A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Race Deconstructed newsletter. To get it in your inbox every week, sign up for free here. “They’re shooting at us. They’re supposed to shoot BLM, but they’re shooting the patriots.” That was one of the Trump-supporting insurrectionists who laid siege to the

By David Gergen, CNN Senior Political Analyst On Wednesday, America learned of the death of Donald Rumsfeld. Though he was one man, it’s hard not to think of him as two distinct political figures: one who helped to save a presidency and was widely seen as a brilliant newcomer, the other whose later misjudgments helped

Opinion by Rana Mitter A hundred years ago, sometime in July 1921, 13 young men gathered in the Chinese city of Shanghai to found a tiny political grouping: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Today that party rules a quarter of humanity, presiding over the second biggest economy and second-best funded military in the world. How

Opinion by Robert C. Gottlieb CNN and other news organizations have reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that a Manhattan grand jury indicted the Trump Organization and its Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, on Wednesday. It’s now a safe bet to expect former President Donald Trump to go on his usual rampage — an

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN Donald Trump has long evaded the consequences of his questionable business ethics and personal and political scandals. But the grand jury indictments returned against his company and a top executive will test the ex-President’s charmed life as never before. The charges, expected to be unsealed Thursday, are related to alleged

Opinion by Rick Steves I’m a hard-working, kid-raising, churchgoing, tax-paying American. And if I work hard all day and want to go home, smoke a joint and stare at my fireplace for three hours, that’s my civil liberty. This is my basic, principled message on marijuana legalization, a cause I’ve promoted for many years. But

Victoria Valentino, one of the women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, says that the decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to vacate Cosby’s conviction was a “gut punch” and came out of the blue.

Opinion by Kara Alaimo Bill Cosby, who has been accused of misconduct by 60 women, was released from prison Wednesday after Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction. That he is a free man today sends a profoundly disturbing message to women who survive sexual assault: that if they come forward they will confront

CNN’s Brynn Gingras reports.

Opinion by Don Lincoln On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery was launched. Discovery’s engines and boosters thundered away as the spacecraft was pushed upward with over a million pounds of thrust. It achieved orbit in a mere eight and a half minutes. While the launch of any space-going vehicle is a glorious spectacle,

Arick Wierson and Bradley Honan The hugely consequential New York City Democratic Primary election took place last Tuesday, June 22, and the winner is … “chaos.” Here is a quick recap: Back in November of 2019, New York City voted in favor of adopting a ranked choice voting (often abbreviated as RCV) system in which

CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali analyzes a C-SPAN poll that ranks former President Donald Trump as the worst living President.

Analysis by Lauren Dezenski, CNN Even though President Donald Trump famously boasted he would be “more presidential than any president that’s ever held office” with the exception of Abraham Lincoln, historians now say he’s among America’s worst presidents. Ever since 2000, when a new president has been elected, C-SPAN surveys presidential historians and asks them

Opinion by Nicole Hemmer During the insurrection in January, a rioter hoisted a Confederate flag over his shoulder, letting it furl out behind him as he marched through the Capitol. It was an outrageous sight: not even during the Civil War had insurrectionists breached the halls of Congress with the battle flag. Yet there it

Analysis by Harry Enten, CNN The New York City Democratic mayoral primary is a total mess. The city’s Board of Elections, known for previous errors, managed to make its biggest one to date when it accidentally included about 135,000 test ballots in its initial calculation of the primary results under the city’s new ranked-choice voting

Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN The counting error in New York’s mayoral primary is the last kind of screwup American democracy needed. Not right now. Not when the whole idea of people choosing their government is on the ropes in so many ways: A proposal for a new national voting standard has been blocked.

Opinion by Thomas Balcerski On Wednesday, C-SPAN released its 2021 Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, including for the first time former President Donald Trump. The survey organizers have assembled a broad ideological and demographic spectrum of 142 presidential historians and professional observers of the presidency invited to participate. I was one of them. The results

Opinion by Michael D’Antonio During the 2016 election campaign a new political phenomenon emerged: journalists seemed to take then-candidate Donald Trump literally, but not seriously, while his supporters did the reverse: They took him seriously but not literally. This curiosity was noted by many, including tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel explained that while Trump may

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan outlasted the first three commanders in chief of this century. But this week, Joe Biden is set to become the president who imposes closure on the US’ role in the bloody, intractable conflict. Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks — plotted by al-Qaeda from Afghan