Mother Jones
Stress Test: Will Elon Musk Be the October Surprise?
- Title
- Stress Test: Will Elon Musk Be the October Surprise?
- Runtime
- 0:57
- Date posted
- 17 days ago
- Description
- Elon Musk is the midterms’ biggest disinformation risk, reporter Anna Merlan told us on Stress Test. Will he be the midterm’s October surprise?
Watch the full Stress Test episode and subscribe at YouTube.com/MotherJones, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday.
- Title
- Booted from Ken Paxton’s Campaign Event
- Runtime
- 2:57
- Date posted
- 17 days ago
- Description
- Warning! Do NOT film the breakfast buffet at Ken Paxton’s “Come and Take It” Bus Tour.
You might get kicked out like our reporter did.
Paxton, dogged by scandal, is trying to avoid becoming the first Republican to lose a Texas statewide race in 32 years. After a career as a legal attack dog, can the king of conservative lawfare pivot to tariffs, the Iran war, and affordability?
Mother Jones’ national correspondent Tim Murphy went to Rockwall, Texas to answer these questions and to hear Ken Paxton's closing pitch in his tight Senate race against Democrat James Talarico. But Murphy never got the chance. After he started filming some video, someone working with the campaign warned him against any "outburst," or he'd be handed to police. Murphy, assuring he was not there for outbursts, handed over his business card and offered to sign up for a press badge. He eventually got the hook instead.
“We’ve looked up your credentials,...
- Title
- This Nevada Republican's Financial Disclosures Raise More Questions Than Answers
- Runtime
- 0:43
- Date posted
- 17 days ago
- Description
- There is no shortage of Trump-backed candidates this cycle drowning in election scandals.
Take Nevada Republican David Flippo, who, since 2023, repeatedly failed to file legally required financial disclosure forms. After our report, Flippo provided a handwritten disclosure to the Nevada Independent. But it raised more questions than answers.
WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhc-3LYvUMU
- Title
- Stress Test: The Right Has a Nazi Problem. What Are They Doing About It?
- Runtime
- 0:48
- Date posted
- 18 days ago
- Description
- For some Republican voters, racism is not a deal breaker. Islamophobia is not a deal breaker. Anti-semitism is not a deal breaker, Garrison Hayes says on today’s episode of Stress Test. Will that get voters to side with Democrats?
Watch the full Stress Test episode and subscribe at YouTube.com/MotherJones, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday.
- Title
- How Low Can the Ohio Governor Race Go?
- Runtime
- 1:24
- Date posted
- 18 days ago
- Description
- An attack ad against Democratic nominee for Ohio governor Amy Acton started circulating online this week. It included her mother calling Acton a liar and urging Ohioans not to vote for her. But Acton says she has not talked to her mother since 1978, when she was 12-years-old and her stepfather was charged with raping her. According to Acton's brother, the mother stayed married to the alleged rapist until he died.
Her opponent Vivek Ramaswamy confirmed the ad came from his campaign.
- Title
- Meet the Trump-Backed Candidates Drowning in Scandal
- Runtime
- 40:34
- Date posted
- 18 days ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
A candidate for governor in Colorado said living together without getting married leads to demonic possession. A Senate candidate in Georgia featured in his campaign materials his son-in-law, who has promoted white nationalist and antisemitic content online. And there’s a new ad in the Ohio governor race, weaponizing the childhood trauma of a Democratic rival.
“There are some bat crap crazy Republicans on the ballot,” says David Corn on this episode of Stress Test. Across the country, many Trump-endorsed candidates are now mired in self-inflicted scandals or displaying the kind of extremism normalized by MAGA’s takeover of the GOP. These candidates, win or lose, will be part of Trump’s legacy, David predicts. Even though the Republicans are “heading for a major drubbing on Election Day,” David says, “there’s still gonna be a tremendous amount of right-wing extremism within the GO...
- Title
- Hecklers Interrupt Trump in Kansas... 5 Times
- Runtime
- 1:18
- Date posted
- 20 days ago
- Description
- “They’re paid protesters.” Like we’ve NEVER heard that before. 🙄
During his rally in Park City, Kansas, on Monday, Donald Trump was interrupted by hecklers… 5 times.
Trump looked aggravated and repeatedly raised his voice to be heard over the crowd. He, of course, still tried to play it cool.
“I love our law enforcement,” Trump said, praising officers who removed the protesters. “You are very good. You know, a lot of times it takes a little longer. These guys are gone within seconds.”
- Title
- You should pay attention to the bottom of the ballot
- Runtime
- 1:55
- Date posted
- 20 days ago
- Description
- So much attention is focused on whether Democrats can take back control of Congress this year. But little-noticed state legislative races could be just as consequential.
If Democrats retake Congress, they can block Trump’s MAGA agenda. But if Democrats retake control of the states, they can actually begin to reverse it.
- Title
- Katie Zacharia, Trump's New Press Secretary, Is Out
- Runtime
- 0:24
- Date posted
- 23 days ago
- Description
- Katie Zacharia, Trump's new press secretary, just set a new record: five days on the job. That's half a Scaramucci.
After widespread ridicule of her job performance, the president encouraged Zacharia to step down.
- Title
- Getting Desperate: Inside Musk's Midterm Disinformation Blitz
- Runtime
- 32:02
- Date posted
- 23 days ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
Election Day is less than three weeks away, and panic is setting in for the GOP. “We see Republican groups pulling money away from House incumbents,” says host David Corn on the latest episode of Stress Test. “They’re cutting them off. They’re saying, ‘So long, Charlie! We don’t think you’re going to survive this blue tsunami.’”
The one lifeline Republicans have right now is big money—and nothing gets bigger than Elon Musk, who has poured $366 million into this election cycle in an attempt to rescue at-riskRepublicans, making him the biggest known political donor in midterms history. But David warns, “It’s not just money with Elon Musk. It’s also disinformation.”
On this episode, David and fellow host Garrison Hayes check the state of the race as we hurtle toward November. They’re joined by senior reporter Anna Merlan, who has been tracking Musk-amplif...
- Title
- Stress Test: Dark Money is Threatening Democracy Like Never Before
- Runtime
- 0:34
- Date posted
- 23 days ago
- Description
- A helluva lot of dark money has poured into this year's midterm elections.
Donors are exploiting loopholes in "arcane rules that were written for a different era" to influence campaigns, reporter Russ Choma told us this week on Stress Test.
Watch the full episode at YouTube.com/MotherJones, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday.
- Title
- Stress Test: Pete Hegseth's Spiritual Leader Said What About Women??
- Runtime
- 0:58
- Date posted
- 24 days ago
- Description
- What should we know about Doug Wilson, a Christian nationalist leader and Pete Hegseth's spiritual adviser, heading into the midterms?
Kiera Butler, who has been reporting on Wilson for years, has the answer this week on Stress Test.
Listen to the full episode to learn more about how the Christian nationalism movement is impacting the midterms.
You can watch Stress Test, our new video podcast with David Corn and Garrison Hayes, on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones.
- Title
- Anti-abortion Group Sued Under a Law They Helped Pass
- Runtime
- 2:19
- Date posted
- 24 days ago
- Description
- Last month, we published a profile of Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life.
In our short documentary, we show Kristan and a colleague standing outside the Space Center Houston as they try to order abortion pills online. The goal? They said they wanted to show their audience just how easy it was to obtain pills in Texas, a state that has essentially banned all abortions.
Now, Hawkins has been sued over the stunt, under a 2025 “bounty hunter” law she and her team publicly lobbied for that was meant to target abortion providers and advocates.
Read more about the lawsuit and Amy Littlefield’s profile on Hawkins at MotherJones.com.
Reporting by Amy Littlefield
Produced by Rachel de Leon
- Title
- God is On the Ballot in the Midterms
- Runtime
- 0:20
- Date posted
- 25 days ago
- Description
- This isn’t Bible study! (But we may have accidentally gotten into a little bit of Bible study on today’s episode of Stress Test). WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg2s68uYVKc
- Title
- The Kansas governor's race is getting spooky
- Runtime
- 0:20
- Date posted
- 25 days ago
- Description
- It wouldn't be spooky season without a GOP gubernatorial candidate accusing his opponent of witchcraft...🙄
Ty Masterson, president of the Kansas State Senate, is running for governor against Sen. Cindy Holscher, a Democrat. At a recent church event in Wichita, he reflected on the race being a "spiritual battle," where "evil is maturing." As an example, he called out Holscher for "doing witchcraft," referencing a TikTok featuring the Democrat and her daughter participating in a trending audio.
“They’re doing witchcraft spells on TikTok so she can win the governorship," he said. "It's like demonic stuff that they're doing."
Just how demonic? See for yourself.
- Title
- The Midterm Spending Bonanza Is Threatening Democracy Like Never Before
- Runtime
- 0:58
- Date posted
- 25 days ago
- Description
- This election cycle, the quid pro quo of campaign money for preferential government treatment is more brazen than ever before. It's no wonder people's belief that the government is corrupt is at an all-time high.
This week on Stress Test, reporter Russ Choma analyzes the $1.7 billion poured into the election so far.
Watch Stress Test, our new video podcast with David Corn and Garrison Hayes, on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones.
- Title
- Whose Jesus? The Left and Right Fight Over Faith in the Midterms
- Runtime
- 32:16
- Date posted
- 25 days ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
Christian nationalism—the idea that strict adherence to Christian theology should govern American political life, separation of church and state be damned—has been on the rise in America for years. Some vanguard elements of this revolutionary movement believe adherents are called to wage a spiritual battle for control of the United States, seeking command of schools, public policy, and even the courts. Its ascendancy helped propel Donald Trump into the White House the first time, and it continues to find purchase at the highest rungs of government, including inside Trump’s second-term cabinet.
How is the movement impacting the midterm elections? Our guest on this new episode of Stress Test is Kiera Butler, a Mother Jones national correspondent who has tracked Christian nationalism for years and documented the shifting fortunes of its top leaders. In Trump’s first term, the charismatic pro...
- Title
- Stress Test: The Midterm Spending Bonanza Is Threatening Democracy Like Never Before
- Runtime
- 0:27
- Date posted
- 26 days ago
- Description
- This election cycle, the quid pro quo of campaign money for preferential government treatment is more brazen than ever before. It's no wonder people's belief that the government is corrupt is at an all-time high.
This week on Stress Test, reporter Russ Choma analyzes the $1.7 billion that has been poured into the election so far.
You can watch Stress Test, our new video podcast with David Corn and Garrison Hayes, on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones.
- Title
- The Midterm Spending Bonanza Is Threatening Democracy Like Never Before
- Runtime
- 29:37
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
Big money has long dominated American politics, with wealthy donors, corporations, and special interests dumping tons of cash into presidential and congressional elections. This year is no exception. But what’s different is that the quid pro quo of campaign money for preferential government treatment is more brazen than ever before and has become part of the cornucopia of corruption running through the Trump administration.
In this new episode of Stress Test campaign finance reporter Russ Choma joins hosts David Corn and Garrison Hayes to analyze the $1.7 billion that has been poured into the election so far—including hundreds of millions from crypto and sports betting, industries that were barely on the political map in 2020. “There’s no sign of deceleration,” Russ says in the episode. “There’s no sign of slowing down, it’s only acceleration.”
So much of what’s h...
- Title
- Rhodesia Is Gone. So Why Is It Everywhere Online?
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- From battleground candidates to Elon Musk, Republicans can’t stop posting wistfully about Rhodesia, the defunct white supremacist state in southern Africa.
“We say Zimbabwe now, don’t we?”
Last year, Rep. Mike Collins, a second-term Georgia Republican who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff this fall, posted a meme that appears to have gone largely unnoticed.
On the left was a photo of Donald Trump in the Oval Office, pointing to someone just out of the frame. The photo was accompanied by a quote from the president: “Can you turn the lights down? I want to show you something.” Next to it, Collins had attached an image and a snippet of dialogue from the 2006 film Blood Diamond. It comes just after Leonardo DiCaprio’s grizzled mercenary tells an American journalist, played by Jennifer Connelly, he’s from “Rhodesia.”
This meme is popping up all over right-wing X accounts, and was even referenced by Brandon Her...
- Title
- Stress Test: Is THIS The Issue Uniting Democrats and Republicans?
- Runtime
- 1:43
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- America is hopelessly divided along party lines. But in these midterms, the left and the right have found something so commonly loathed that politicians across the country are flip-flopping in real time.
This week on Stress Test: How data centers—and other AI-boom technologies, like Flock cameras—have ripped up the partisan playbook ahead of November’s vote.
You can watch Stress Test, our new video podcast with David Corn and Garrison Hayes, on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones.
- Title
- Pete Hegseth Wants the Public to See a Firing Squad Execute a Person
- Runtime
- 0:53
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Pentagon officials confirmed that for the first time in US history, a public execution will be livestreamed. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he wanted the public to witness a firing squad execute Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter convicted of killing 32 people in 2009.
- Title
- Jim Crow 2.0 is here
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Here's some history the US Supreme Court doesn't want you to think about.
In April 2026, SCOTUS effectively ended the Voting Rights Act, opening the door to an all-white Congressional delegation from the South.
The decision has startling parallels with Plessy v. Ferguson, the decision that established “separate but equal." The infamous ruling gaslit Black people for claiming segregation put one race above the other and cemented Jim Crow—which sanctioned racial apartheid in the American South.
Now, with the destruction of the Voting Rights Act, legal arguments that enshrined slavery and segregation, which were once stamped out, are rising again.
Read: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/supreme-court-jim-crow-voting-rights-act-history-cleo-fields-louisiana-callais/
- Title
- Stress Test: Everyone Hates Big Tech... Except Trump
- Runtime
- 0:49
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Trump loves Big Tech leaders. But when the American public distrusts the surveillance state Big Tech has created, his buddy-buddy relationships with them don't exactly make the president more likable.
On this episode of Stress Test, national correspondent Tim Murphy breaks down the issue uniting Americans on both sides of the aisle: Hatred of data centers and Flock cameras.
You can watch Stress Test, our new video podcast with David Corn and Garrison Hayes, on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones.
- Title
- Stress Test: Why Do Americans Hate Data Centers? And Why Does Trump Love Them?
- Runtime
- 0:48
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Data centers are ENORMOUS. They're being measured out in multiples of Manhattan, national correspondent Tim Murphy tells us on the latest episode of Stress Test.
On today's episode, Tim and Garrison Hayes break down why hatred of data centers is uniting voters, no matter their political party.
You can watch Stress Test, our new video podcast with David Corn and Garrison Hayes, on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones.
- Title
- We Challenged His Claims of Widespread Voter Fraud. He Walked Out.
- Runtime
- 1:12
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
“Bye-bye!” When host Al Letson challenged conservative activist J. Christian Adams’ claims of widespread voter fraud across the US, Adams abruptly ended the interview.
Hear their contentious conversation on this week’s “More To The Story.”
https://bit.ly/4rRJJid
--
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- Title
- Megyn Kelly Forgot What It’s Like to Be an “Imperfect Victim”
- Runtime
- 1:31
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Megyn Kelly has been criticizing the Cornell Jane Doe for how she responded after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by multiple men in one night.
But Kelly seems to have forgotten what it feels like to be blamed after coming forward with allegations. Her message ten years ago to survivors sounds quite different than her message today.
- Title
- "The Single Most Toxic Issue in the Midterms": How America Turned on Data Centers
- Runtime
- 27:23
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
America is hopelessly divided along party lines. That's a stubborn fact, we're told, and the polling bears it out: Democrats dislike Republicans and Republicans dislike Democrats, in almost precisely the same proportions.
But every election produces surprising coalitions that defy entrenched partisanship. In these midterms, left and right have found something so commonly loathed that politicians across the country are flip-flopping in real time.
Mother Jones has been tracking the backlash to data centers on the ground long before the water-guzzling behemoths became the country's bête noire. The AI boom, with its insatiable need for computing, has unleashed a power grab by tech billionaires. "Data centers have replaced megayachts as the preferred theater of oligarchic status signaling," national correspondent Tim Murphy wrote in his big Mother Jones investigation into hyperscale data...
- Title
- Stress Test: Just How Far Will the Supreme Court Let Trump Go?
- Runtime
- 0:48
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Where does the Supreme Court draw the line on Trump's attempts to delegitimize the midterm elections? Do they have a line at all?
National voting rights correspondent Ari Berman joined us on Stress Test to discuss.
You can watch Stress Test, our new video podcast with David Corn and Garrison Hayes, on YouTube. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones.
- Title
- Trump’s Response to Russian Plague Reports Sounds…Familiar
- Runtime
- 1:57
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Phew, guys, we're in safe hands. 🙄
Reports out of the Irkutsk region of Russia reveal a potential public health crisis after a lab accident exposed a researcher to a “particularly dangerous infection.” The researcher died days later.
Commander-(and unofficial doctor)-in-chief Donald Trump gave his thoughts on a seeming outbreak of the rare and often deadly pneumonic plague.
“They call it pneumonia,” said Trump, apparently mistaking pneumonia (an inflammation of the lungs) for the pneumonic plague (a disease caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria that is usually fatal if not immediately treated.)
Trump assured that the White House was “looking at it very closely” and would help Russia with the problem.
Of course, Donald Trump was in charge during the COVID-19 global pandemic, when he downplayed the threat, promoted false and dangerous treatments, and actively disseminated conspiracy theories about the origin...
- Title
- Stress Test: How Trump is Delegitimizing the Midterms Before They Even Happen
- Runtime
- 0:44
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Trump is already claiming the midterm elections are going to be rigged. How else, exactly, is he delegitimizing the upcoming elections?
Listen to Stress Test, our new video podcast with David Corn and Garrison Hayes, to find out. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjones.
- Title
- Democrats Keep Filming Themselves Pumping Iron
- Runtime
- 2:51
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
They might be woke, but don't call them weak.
After a historic setback in 2024, the Democratic rebrand appears to be working out.
No, seriously—the rebrand is that they’re all filming themselves working out. In late September, Manny Rutinel, a Democrat challenging Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado, posted a video of himself doing bicep curls while blaring “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. The week before that, a very energized Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed was in Washington, DC, challenging JD Vance to a squat-off. Before that, it was Indiana secretary of state candidate Birch Evans Bayh IV—please, call him Beau—airing an ad in which he racked weights and bench-pressed while lamenting that “most politicians are weak.”
You could keep going back, if you wanted—to Cait Conley, running against Rep. Mike Lawler in New York’s Hudson Valley, flipping over a ti...
- Title
- Trump’s Deportations Are Tearing Apart Florida Communities
- Runtime
- 2:59
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
Last month, Rep. María Elvira Salazar—a Miami Republican endorsed by Donald Trump—launched a TV commercial criticizing the president's mass-deportation campaign. "Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far," she warned, speaking directly into the camera. "Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy. The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
Salazar's ad was one of the most public signs of the brewing anger in Florida over Trump's draconian deportation policies.
So what's causing the backlash in the Sunshine State? In late August, journalist Amanda Moore traveled traveled to southwest Florida—a couple hours from Salazar's district—to report on a surge of ICE and Border Patrol agents in the area. What she found was less dramatic than the heavily militarized immigration ...
- Title
- JD Vance urges voters to keep the country heading in the “right direction.”
- Runtime
- 0:54
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- “This is not the time to sort of gripe about all the little things,” said Vice President JD Vance on Thursday about the coming mid-term election season.
Speaking with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Vance asked voters to overlook “little things” like a drawn out war with Iran , and the skyrocketing price of gas and groceries, warning voters that Democrats will “permanently disempower you, make it so that even if you vote Republican, your vote doesn't actually count anymore.”
Despite the fact that a recent AP-NORC Center poll from late September found 73% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, Vance says, “you need to give us two more years to get more great results for the American people.”
- Title
- Book-Banning Utah Governor: Buy My Book!
- Runtime
- 2:59
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- A book-banning GOP governor wants you to… buy his book??
Utah Governor Spencer Cox is touring national TV—from Jon Stewart to CNN—to sell his new book, Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt. He’s preaching political depolarization, but back home, his approval ratings have plunged 23 points since April.
Turns out, signing laws that remove fluoride from drinking water, replace Pride Month with “Fidelity Month,” and enact one of the country’s most extreme book-banning measures doesn't exactly make you a unifier.
So far, Utah has banned 44 titles from public schools statewide—including works by Toni Morrison, Stephen King, and Sarah J. Maas—with the state even requiring schools to destroy banned copies so they don't accidentally fall into the hands of an unsuspecting youth.
But the governor’s book-banning decision may now be coming back to haunt him as he tries to get people to buy his own book. When r...
- Title
- Stress Test: SCOTUS Doesn't Want You To Know It Killed the Voting Rights Act
- Runtime
- 1:06
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- The Roberts Supreme Court doesn't want you to know it killed the Voting Rights Act. But it did.
National voting rights correspondent Ari Berman joins us this week on Stress Test, our new video podcast, to pull apart the biggest stress test facing the midterms: whether the vote will proceed smoothly, or whether Trump will meddle even more.
After all, Trump and his gang are already claiming the election will be "rigged," pushing false voter-fraud claims, trying to disrupt mail voting, and demanding voter-roll data that could be used to challenge or purge voters.
Then there are the redistricting wars that have shaped so much of 2026, and the Supreme Court's role in diluting Black political power. At last month's Republican midterm convention, Trump even went so far as to lead the crowd in a performatively jokey pledge to "cheat like hell."
New episodes of Stress Test drop every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe at youtube.com/motherjon...
- Title
- The Trump Rule that Could Put Guns in Your Mailbox
- Runtime
- 2:59
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Soon you could buy a gun online and have it shipped to your door without ever setting foot in a gun store—if a Trump administration proposal is finalized.
Donald Trump Jr. is a shareholder and board member of a company that says it’s “uniquely positioned” to capitalize on the opportunity. GrabAGun bills itself as the “Amazon of guns.” Don Jr. has pitched it as buying a gun the same way you’d buy home décor.
The ATF estimates that as many as half of all gun buyers could one day skip the store entirely. But even the gun industry’s top trade group says its members are “overwhelmingly opposed” to the new rule.
Video by David Ritsher
Reporting by Amanda Pike
- Title
- "Cheat Like Hell": Can Trump Actually Rig the 2026 Midterms?
- Runtime
- 31:19
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
He tried really, really hard in 2020. With his souring presidency on the line, he's intensifying his efforts again. You know what we’re talking about: Trump's election meddling.
"After 2020, I think one of the lessons that some of us learned—but unfortunately not everybody—is that our democracy is fragile," says Washington, DC, bureau chief David Corn in the very first episode of our new podcast, Stress Test, a white-knuckle guide to the midterm elections. "Trump came pretty close, even with all the guardrails."
And Trump isn't the only one meddling—to which David can personally attest. Shortly after the release of his new book, How Russia Won, the very Russian disinformation operators he wrote about started circling deepfake videos of him, claiming he'd written a very different book: one detailing 300 crimes committed by Democratic candidates.
In this episode, D...
- Title
- Introducing "Stress Test": The Midterms Will Test Democracy. We'll Help You Through It.
- Runtime
- 2:02
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
It's only a few weeks away. It feels like an eternity.
The midterm elections have officially entered their looming phase. Worriers of all stripes (doomscrollers, political junkies, fuel tank fillers), we get it. There's a war, an unpopular president, a MAGA capture of Congress, and a bunch of multibillionaires blithely slop-ifying our jobs. It's a lot.
That's where we come in. We know how to tease out what to pay attention to and what to tune out, and we were early to identify the big issues shaping this election. We were on the ground as local groups banded together across party lines to oppose data centers. We profiled the rise of Christian nationalism and its infiltration of the highest ranks of government. And we've never taken our eyes off the threat of election interference and the systematic erosion of voting rights across the country.
Enter "Stress Test," a new video pod...
- Title
- Can Kristan Hawkins Turn Gen Z Against Abortion?
- Runtime
- 1:59
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Kristan Hawkins wants to talk to young women about abortion. As president of Students for Life for the past two decades, she has been mobilizing an army of college students to help with her mission: to make abortion “unthinkable and unavailable.” But she has a problem. Most young people think that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
The Mother Jones team followed Hawkins during her spring campus tour to see how college kids are reacting to her message. Read Amy Littlefield’s full investigation: https://tinyurl.com/bdzc83hv
- Title
- It Looks Like This Senator Needs Better Fact-Checkers
- Runtime
- 2:07
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Perhaps Senator Eric Schmitt was a little too hawkish during his questioning of Jack Smith today. After accusing the former special counsel of perjury over whether he’d been at a Hawks basketball game, Schmitt was hit with an awkward moment of live fact-checking.
- Title
- EXCLUSIVE: OpenAI's ChatGPT Told School Shooter How to Evade Its Own Safeguards
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- “What I found was far more disturbing and extensive than has been known to the public,” reporter Mark Follman told Canadian national media.
After we published “ChatGPT Helped Tumbler Ridge Shooter Focus on Guns, Tactics, and Terror,” Follman got a flood of media requests to discuss his investigation uncovering how OpenAI’s chatbot had fueled the Tumbler Ridge school shooter for months up to the attack—a grim chat history that OpenAI has declined to answer any of our questions about.
One shocking finding was what happened after OpenAI banned the shooter’s account about eight months before the attack for discussions of violence, but decided not to alert authorities. The shooter got back on with a second account—and soon got advice from ChatGPT about how to evade its own safeguards for blocking violence.
“Don’t use real-world locations,” ChatGPT said, later adding: “You can still be twisted. Just be clever about it.”
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- Title
- Trump Blames "Fake Polls" for Iowa Republicans’ Lackluster Numbers Ahead of Midterms
- Runtime
- 0:55
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- “First of all, the polls are fake.”
When asked about competitive congressional races in Iowa, Donald Trump predictably called Iowa Republicans’ lackluster polling numbers “fake” news and blamed Democrats for the high prices farmers and other businessmen in the state are experiencing. Never mind that he started a war in Iran that’s sparked soaring energy and fertilizer costs.
“I don't know, I love Iowa,” Trump said during an Oval Office address in which he announced a new $15 billion steel plant in the state. “I've always been very strong with Iowa. There's been some things that the Democrats have done that are very bad for our country.”
Meanwhile, one Iowa farmer stressed how difficult the economy has gotten for small business owners.
“Folks that have trucking businesses, they're just bleeding money right now like crazy,” he said during an appearance on MSNOW. “Farmers are bleeding money like crazy. We need ...
- Title
- Why Did ICE Buy Electric Shock Gloves?
- Runtime
- 2:13
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ICE just spent $16.7 million arming agents with shock gloves—wearable devices that deliver a painful electric shock. Some law enforcement officials praise the gloves for their ability to inflict pain without causing marks that could leave an officer vulnerable to lawsuits. Human rights organizations like Amnesty International say the gloves “could be readily misused for torture.”
So when parents in Omaha, Nebraska learned that school resource officers were equipped with these devices and could use them on children, they decided to fight back.
Read Mother Jones reporter Sophie Hurwitz’s full investigation here:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/ice-shock-gloves-torture-compliant-technologies-jeff-niklaus/
Reporting by Sophie Hurwitz
Produced by Rachel de Leon
- Title
- Meet the “Charlie Kirk” of abortion
- Runtime
- 2:33
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Meet the “Charlie Kirk” of abortion.
Mother Jones followed anti-abortion leader Kristan Hawkins across the country as she tried to make abortion “unthinkable and unavailable.”
But with the majority of Gen Z supporting legal abortion, it’s an uphill battle. Watch our full documentary on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk0ua1HFNmk
- Title
- She’s the “Charlie Kirk of Abortion.” Her Post-Roe Work Is Complicated
- Runtime
- 23:42
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/kristan-hawkins-roe-anti-abortion-charlie-kirk/
Once considered on the fringes of the anti-abortion movement, Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins has moved squarely into the mainstream. She considered Charlie Kirk a dear friend, and rubs shoulders with top Republicans like Mike Johnson and Ben Carson.
She’s built Students for Life into one of the country’s most well-funded anti-abortion groups, expanding its reach to over 1,500 campus groups. She showed an unusual willingness to publicly embrace extreme views – from opposing rape exceptions to calling for IUDs to be illegal.
With the fall of Roe v. Wade in the rear view, Hawkins is the best window into the future of the anti-abortion movement, as she desperately tries to stop the flow of abortion pills, change the minds of a mostly pro-choice Gen Z, and eventually, end access to abortion for every single ...
- Title
- Trump Spent a Decade Saying "I Wouldn't Give Him a State Dinner." He Did Just That.
- Runtime
- 1:06
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Trump, for over a decade: "I wouldn't give him a state dinner."
This week: A full state dinner at the White House for China's Xi Jinping, complete with the arrival ceremony, a gift, and billionaires everywhere.
- Title
- Is Male Birth Control Finally Coming?
- Runtime
- 2:53
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Is male birth control finally coming?
There’s a joke in the world of male contraceptives: They’ve been five years away for the past 50 years. Again and again, promising new treatments have been halted by critical setbacks.
But now, it might actually be just around the corner.
Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/male-contraceptives-birth-control-gel-pill-iuds-hormones-depression/
- Title
- Protesters in New York City Demand Accountability for Benjamin Netanyahu
- Runtime
- 0:56
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Thousands came out to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to New York City. As he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, protesters shouted "Stop the killing" in Gaza and accused Netanyahu of committing a genocide against Palestinians. Dozens of protesters were arrested, including local politicians and celebrities like Hannah Einbinder and Caleb Hearon.
- Title
- 4 Jaw-Dropping Moments from Netanyahu's UN Speech
- Runtime
- 2:16
- Date posted
- 1 month ago
- Description
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on the defensive when he took the stage at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.
His country is facing growing condemnation from all sides. In September, 11 European countries and Canada announced a joint plan to sanction Israel’s West Bank settlements, and 62 percent of Americans report a negative opinion of his government in a recent Pew poll.
Netanyahu himself faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes, including genocide.
Protesters blocked streets outside the UN hours before Netanyahu took the podium, and within the chamber, half of Netanyahu’s audience walked out before his speech even began.
Watch four of the most jaw-dropping moments from his address.
Producer: Rachel de Leon
