SPECIAL — Posted 4:51 pm After President Trump met with Russia’s President Putin in Helsinki, Finland, the press conference that followed boiled down to one question and Trump’s response. The question from Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire, as transcribed by VOX. LEMIRE: Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence...

If you think that civility in America has disappeared. If you think that kindness and decency are lost in a sea of cynicism, then this commentary is for you. Two documentaries – RBG, an “affectionate look” at U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? about PBS superstar Fred Rogers – are making the rounds...

In what is becoming routine, Donald Trump issued another pardon. This time to “two Oregon cattle ranchers,” The New York Times reports (July 10), “who had been serving out five-year sentences for arson on federal land — punishments that inspired the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in 2016 and brought widespread attention to anger over federal land management in...

Richard Painter served for two years as George W. Bush’s ethics counsel. Since Donald Trump took office however, he’s frequently spoken out about Trump’s ethical lapses on cable news shows. Painter, along with Norm Eisen, Obama’s ethics counsel, have made clear that this president is perhaps the most ethically conflicted of the past 100 years. Last Sunday’s (July 1), New...

This is what passes for civil discourse in the current House Judiciary Committee. Ohio representative and House Freedom Caucus founder, Jim Jordan (R), accused Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of hiding information and documents requested by the committee regarding the FBI’s Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation. Rosenstein politely but firmly responded, “I’m not trying to hide anything.” Rosenstein and FBI Director...

Twelve days ago (June 15), I wrote “Without standards of courtesy, civility and decency, everyone is free to engage in a bickering brawl of incivility that only continues the cycle.” Last week confirmed that we are officially in the brawl. Most Americans are good, decent, honest people. They’re respectful and courteous. If they make a mistake, they usually make amends....

Approximately 20 minutes into a one-on-one conversation with PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff last month, CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl revealed something that Donald Trump told her in a pre-interview conversation. “At one point,” Stahl said, “he started to attack the press, and I said, ‘You know, that is getting tired. Why are you doing this? … You’ve won...

Every week some new Trump controversy sucks the oxygen out of the news cycle, and humanity. Even TIME magazine can’t keep up. This week’s cover story on the Kim-Trump summit… sorry TIME, old news! Every time we think Trump hits a low point, he invents a new one. Remember last summer’s Charlottesville? “You had a group on one side that...

In January 1969, I was roaming around a local bookstore. My second year in college and I had to select a non-fiction book to read and write a report for a history class. History… what book am I going to find that’ll maintain my interest? I couldn’t finish reading the flyleaf of most history books much less think of writing...

Last Sunday’s Tony Awards show was debased by displays of indecency and disrespect. Actor Robert De Niro walked on stage to introduce Bruce Springsteen, but the first words out of his mouth were, “I’m going to say one thing: F#$k Trump!” The disrespect quickly followed when much of the 6,000-seat audience at Radio City Music Hall stood and cheered De...