Franklin Foer
@FranklinFoer
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Staff writer at the Atlantic.
Washington, DC
Joined June 2010
This needs to be stopped. Cruises lines and casinos have no systemic importance. There’s not an argument to be made. That they would receive relief, while your neighborhood stores withers, is tantamount to theft.
Special federal relief now on table 4 following industries:. -- Casinos.-- Cruiselines.-- Airlines.-- Hotels.-- Oil & gas (enacted). The next congressional package -- on which work began today -- will be where all this is expected to be fought out.
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The phrase "Otherwise Blameless Life" has me hopping mad. I've made a list of the ways this is not the case.
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I just reported: Donald Trump has a secret server. it connects to Moscow.
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This is outrageous. Manafort spent a career lobbying for arms for clients who burned children alive; he represented gangsters who broke democracies and whose thievery destroyed health systems. He literally created corruption as we know it in Washington.
NEW: Judge Ellis says that the sentencing guidelines are "excessive" and he says that Paul Manafort was involved in "lots of good things" he says Manafort is "a generous person." He says Manafort, "has lived an otherwise blameless life.”. @GaryGrumbach reporting.
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Credit where credit is due: It’s hard to imagine another President handling this crisis better than Biden.
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Let's sum up: While a hostile foreign power was actively trying to elect Donald Trump, it communicated constantly with his top aides.
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I’m sorry, but Paul Manafort is literally one of the worst human beings in this debased town. There’s nothing in his career, not a moment, that demands anyone’s sympathy.
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Sean Spicer just reminded millions of people why they marched today.
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When John McCain realized that Paul Manafort was trying to exploit his campaign in 2007, he banished him and wanted nothing to do with him.
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My jaw hit the floor, when Donald Trump's ambassador to Hungary told me: "I can tell you, knowing the president for a good 25 or 30 years, that he would love to have the situation that Viktor Orbán has."
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I wrote a prayer for the survival of the Ukrainian president—and all the he has come to represent.
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Remember Judge Ellis refused to let Mueller’s team describe his clients as “oligarchs.” He compared that group of kleptocrats and gangsters to George Soros. Perhaps that’s why he considers him a good citizen. How mind blowing.
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I spent six months reporting this profile of Paul Manafort—which is also a portrait of the Washington he created.
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Tonight was a warning: When Trump is in a corner, he breaks every rule and unleashes his most violent self.
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I spent months studying Merrick Garland. I interviewed him and other top DOJ officials. They didn't tip their hand, but here's why I convinced he will indict Trump.
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On October 31, the FBI denied any links between Trump and Russia-confirmation of these ties could have easily changed the election.
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Dexter Filkins does a meticulous job revisiting the Trump/Alfa Bank server connection--and lands at about the same conclusion I did a few years back: This wasn't random.
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Before Manafort worked for Trump, he worked for two oligarchs close to Putin. They paid him millions. But that's surely coincidence.
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Megan Rapinoe is the Mohammad Ali of our era. I wrote an homage to her joyous style of play and dissent.
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For Jared Kushner, his dad’s pardon is the ultimate trophy. His whole existence has been about removing the stain of criminality from the family. I wrote about his pathological obsequiousness toward father figures last summer.
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This is why we have a kleptocracy problem in America. Corruption has been normalized and infected public morality. Manafort is both a pioneer of this system and a symptom of it.
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In summation: Facebook-- a dominant source of global news and information--pays to spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and shades the truth to avoid offending Republicans.
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I’ve been working on this since January: Russian interference is going to happen again—and the story of US preparation is a maddening account of haplessness and Trump undermining well meaning reforms. Sorry to add to the anxieties.
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I've never been more clobbered for a story than when I suggested communication between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
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Jordan Peterson makes common cause with Viktor Orban in the war on poltical correctness. His ally in the global struggle for open-mindedness has forcibly exiled its best university, installed minders in every college, and steers research grants to cronies.
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Russia tried to elect Trump. And Trump's campaign manager worked for Kremlin's inner circle for decades. But surely that's coincidence.
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The FBI can't casually flip positions. It needs to explain why it told @nytimes this on the eve of the election.
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Forget all the specific details, this vague sentence is the game: "Cohen provided the SCO with useful information concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact with Company executives during them.".
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You know that Art of the Deal strategy? It yielded six bankruptcies.
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Thugs murdered Luka Modric's grandfather and burnt down his house. Mario Mandzukic fled to Germany during the war. Croatia's triumph is the culmination of an incredible story.
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My latest: The world is not up to the crisis in the Amazon. We need to rethink our conception of national sovereignty.
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My latest: Collusion was a thing! But we still don’t know the full story. The senate report shows how badly Mueller botched the Manafort prosecution—and how thoroughly Trump’s cronies have obstructed the investigation.
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This is my reported study of Jared Kushner’s relationship with Trump—a father-son saga that defines our times. It’s a profile of cowardice.
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Sadly, this was all knowable before the country elected this man president.
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Lev Parnas’s interviews push Dymtro Firtash closer to the central of the Ukraine scandal—which should raise questions about Russia’s role in it.
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This is a piece I wrote about the New Yorker’s Alfa Bank story—-revisiting a painful moment in my career and the painfully unresolved mysteries at the heart of the Russia scandal.
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This is a eulogy for my grandmother—who lived through hell but emerged capable of the greatest love.
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I wrote a prayer for the the victims of today’s massacre. The loss for American Jewry is beyond calculation.
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There's no silver lining here. Stop searching for it. This is unmitigated disaster.
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Liberals are suddenly concerned about Orban? I wrote this a few years back about how he destroyed media, crushed academic freedom, and created the most anti-Semitic country in Europe. We’re actually not outraged enough at the right’s embrace of him.
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Here’s my old profile of Konstantin Kilimnik. Manafort would call him “My Russian Brain.” They confided in each other about women. Of course, they colluded. The big question is did they work a deal with Oleg Deripaska?
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Once upon a time Monica Lewinsky was enough to provoke a constitutional crisis.
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Curtains will be raised: The Paul Manafort trial is about the growing rot of the American elite.
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When you read Mueller’s just published masterwork on how Paul Manafort conducted a smear campaign on behalf of his Ukrainian client, the mind begins to wonder what he did on behalf of the last campaign he chaired.
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Senators, any memories from the Spanish Flu that might help us through this difficult moment?.
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I wrote a tribute to the legacy of my friend Grant Wahl. His absence is crushing.
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Everyone described Biden’s speech as normal. But has a president spoken so expansively and passionately about race and diversity in their crowning moment? It might feel in step with the zeitgeist, it’s also historic.
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I wrote about Trump 's misogyny. The material is endless, stomach churning and essential to understanding him.
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Well, I might as well wish this piece a belated birthday. It's a one year old.
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Also, the organized shunning of Adelson, Kushner, and other Jewish enablers is a matter of protecting the security of the community.
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My piece on Mueller’s fascinating obsession with Konstantin Kilimnik—and where that storyline might lead.
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I've been writing about Manafort for years. It was painful to absorb this latest turn. But the lesson of his life is that venality always prevails in the end. I should have seen this coming.
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Republican members of congress have essentially given him permission to do this, with their unwillingness to challenge him on anything.
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I’ve tracked DHS’s election efforts. They were heroic. Without any real money or new authority, they bolstered the safety of election infrastructure markedly and made local officials sharper. Of course, Trump is now rewarding their efforts by pushing their leaders out the door.
Joint Statement from Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees: . “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.“
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My @TheAtlantic cover story on the bureaucratic and moral crisis that is ICE. This is what happens when the cultivation of fear becomes national policy.
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Dean Baquet didn't run the Times story on the subject--and he slammed my piece on Alfa to @ErikWemple . But he now says, "It felt like there was something there.”.
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I'm sure there's ugly stuff on DNC severs. But a foreign freaking power is trying to install a president. Perspective please!.
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When I wrote this on July 5, people said I was a paranoid red-baiter. via.
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Journalism has treated Big Tech with stunning reverence, given the fact those companies were destroying our business. It’s a joke that Facebook is complaining about unfair coverage, given its crimes against the press.
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In light of Jeff Bezos’s climate commitment, I’m re-upping my piece on him. Whatever his intentions, he (and his company) are increasingly amassing the power of a state. And that’s a problem for democracy.
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Filkins also notes that Alfa "began trying to uncover the anonymous sources" in my piece. And sent intimidating letters to my named sources, hoping to uncover the ultimate source of the data.
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One of the most ignored and interesting turns of this campaign is Joe Biden's transformation from cautious pragmatist into a candidate with FDR-like aspirations that are both sincere and credible.
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One investigator told Filkins: “Is it possible there is an innocuous explanation for all this? Yes, of course. And it’s also possible that space aliens did this. It’s possible—just not very likely.”.
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While Obama's FBI director smeared Hillary, Obama sat on evidence of Russian efforts to elect Trump that had basis in evidence.
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It’s hard to imagine a bigger strategic blunder than exploding our relationship with Mexico. It would be a huge gift to China and would threaten a supremely effective counterterrorism program. And it would likely spike immigration to the US.
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I spoke to @mPinoe about the disgusting Spanish federation president, the backlash against USWNT, her missed penalty kick, and what she'll miss about the World Cup.
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I spent five months on this cover story about Jeff Bezos, his master plan for humanity, and the problem of his power. It's about how one man is able to impose his values on the rest of us
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Donald Trump Jr: "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets."
For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.
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Senator: Do you preside over a creepy, manipulative surveillance system that is spreading lies and misinformation at the behest of genocidal actors and democracy-shredding regimes? . Zuck: Let me have my team get back to you. Senator: Terrific. Thank you.
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I hope the @nytimes investigates why Comey misled them about the Kremlin's role in the campaign.
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What’s happening in the streets—and with officials refusing to cooperate��is a lot like the revolutions that toppled dictators in Serbia, Ukraine, and Tunisia.
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Who needs a pardon when you have Judge Ellis presiding.
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The biggest problem with senatorial ignorance about Facebook is that they don't grasp the manipulative, addictive core of the product. Therefore, they don't mention it.
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No matter what you think of Elizabeth Warren as a presidential candidate, her economic theories are very well developed and deserve your attention.
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I care about Biden’s position on Simpson-Bowles. I really do. But we can get back to the possibility that one million Americans might die because of government failure in the coming months?.
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Lester Holt gently making sure that he doesn't go down in history as Matt Lauer.
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The company formerly known as Collusion has rebranded and relaunched as Synergy.
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What’s always been striking about RussiaGate is how it sprawls. There are so many dubious-seeming activities to investigate. It’s stunning how many major questions remain open, how investigators haven’t been able to get to the bottom of some central questions.
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Back in 2001, I reported a piece on Trump’s replacement for Acosta. So . the guy now running the Labor Dept was a lobbyist on behalf of sweatshops. It’s a gross tale and implicated a lot of conservatives.
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“These players are a reminder of how, in the depths of a dark political era, it’s possible to love one’s country; they are an object lesson in how the values of liberal America can be patriotically trumpeted.”
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A gentle reminder that you’ve handed sensitive data to Facebook, a profoundly unethical company. Everything we know about Facebook suggests you should delete your account as matter of self-defense.
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Ethics lessons from Paul Manafort! The man who lobbied for a dictator who burned kids alive.
Clinton picked a career politician with questionable ethics just like her. Birds of a feather. .
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Russian propaganda congratulates Russian hackers for tipping the election.
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Paul Manafort apparently keeps lying to Robert Muller about his dealings with Konstantin Kilmnik, whom the Special Prosecutors has described as a Russian intelligence "asset". Nothing dodgy about that!.
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“One of the reasons that I’ve become so enamoured with this team is because it has permitted me to feel an explosion of joy about the country, a sentiment that has felt especially alien these past few years.”
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This is very convincing and comprehensive on the Russian origin of the DNC leaks.
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It’s an honor to work for the magazine that published the Battle Hymn of the Republic—especially as it proves itself so essential to the old cause. Please subscribe
Great News: The boring but very nasty magazine, The Atlantic, is rapidly failing, going down the tubes, and has just been forced to announce it is laying off at least 20% of its staff in order to limp into the future. This is a tough time to be in the Fake News Business!.
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Trump is merely the last in an endless line of Manafort's authoritarian clients.
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Things look bad now. But they can get much worse. This is a story about how the unthinkable happens.
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Trump seems intent on antagonizing Mexico. That is a strategic blunder of the highest order—a big opening for China and it could create a genuine immigration crisis.
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Corruption and plutocracy are the twin evils of our time. I tried to write the story of how we came to accept them as normal—Trump is an extension of our recent history, not an outlier.
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When Manafort was dumped, reporters stopped digging into the real Trump/Russia story. Too bad.
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Netanyahu has tried to turn the most pro-Israel president in US history into his enemy. That's a terrible message and will badly hurt Israel in the long-run.
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Mueller’s prosecutors jumped up and down about Kilimnik, but they never pursued those questions to the end. They quit before they finished the job—and they were played by Manafort.
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I have spent the last couple of days pondering who Manafort would call in his own defense. I couldn’t come up with any good names. And apparently neither could he.
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Al Franken's speech on the perils of big tech is well-argued and brave. It's what leadership looks like.
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Paul Manafort knows things. As a flipper, he can help clarify several of the biggest mysteries of the scandal. (I list 'em)
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