Josh Hammer

Josh Hammer

LATEST STORIES BY JOSH HAMMER

 

HAMMER: What was the Matt Gaetz attorney general pick really about?

Barely a week after he was announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. attorney general, MAGA firebrand Matt Gaetz has withdrawn himself from contention for the post. Officially, Gaetz said on X (formerly Twitter) that his “confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.” Unofficially, The New York Times reported that the votes in the Senate simply were not there: Republicans are set to hold a 53-47 Senate majority come January, but there were at least four implacable “no” votes from Republicans. Interestingly, one of the widely reported “no” votes apparently was outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), an inveterate MAGA foe.

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November 23, 2024 Columnists
Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), left, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Attorney General, walks alongside Vice President-elect JD Vance, right, as they arrive for meetings with Senators at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.

HAMMER: Donald Trump, class traitor par excellence

If there is one data point above all that suggests Donald Trump and JD Vance are headed for a resounding victory on Nov. 5, it is this: By a nearly 40-point margin in the polling average, Americans are more inclined to believe the country is currently on the wrong track than the right track. There are other reasons to believe the 45th president is peaking at the best possible time and that dimwitted California commie Kamala Harris is cratering at the worst possible time, but the stubbornness of the right-track/wrong-track polling has surely led to many sleepless nights at Harris-Walz campaign headquarters. It defies common sense for Americans to reelect the vice president from the administration responsible for so much misery. At some level, Democrats surely know this.

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October 25, 2024 Columnists
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HAMMER: Jack Smith, Democrat-lawfare complex hitman

The modern Democratic Party operates like a Mafia family. Like the Mob, Democrats have a specific organizational hierarchy. There are the grand bosses who sit atop the entire food chain, such as the Obamas and the Clintons. There are the trusted consiglieres, such as Attorney General Merrick Garland and outside super-lawyer Marc Elias. There are caporegimes, such as Govs. Gavin Newsom and Kathy Hochul. Heck, there was even a yearslong omerta vow of silence surrounding President Joe Biden’s obvious physical and mental decline.

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August 31, 2024 Columnists
Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of former president Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington.

HAMMER: Post-Trump verdict, will the American Right finally wake up?

Like many others in the punditry space, I am a lawyer by background. I practised law at a major global law firm. I clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. I have published multiple pieces of formal legal scholarship on constitutional issues. I regularly lecture at law schools and present to professional lawyer groups across the country on assorted legal topics. I host two shows, one of which is explicitly legal-based — and with a focus, above all, on the unprecedented lawfare tactics sullying the 2024 presidential race.

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June 1, 2024 Columnists
Former U.S. president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower on May 31, 2024 in New York City.

HAMMER: Democrats are stuck with Joe Biden as their presidential nominee

President Joe Biden is currently losing the 2024 presidential race to former President Donald Trump. If the election were held tomorrow, Trump would win — likely convincingly. The fact that this is increasingly obvious, and that Biden finds himself fighting an uphill battle to prolong his already ancient political career, has precipitated some epic handwringing on the MSNBC airwaves and a veritable five-alarm fire at the Democratic National Committee.

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May 27, 2024 Columnists
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HAMMER: Joe Biden, Dearborn Shahid, commits political suicide via Hamas appeasement

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s ill-fated 2024 presidential campaign was much criticized for being “too online.” But Democrats are no less prone to fall into that same trap. Now-Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, which generated considerable initial buzz before it abruptly sputtered, was infamous for listening too much to left-wing TV hosts and social media blue checkmarks — not actual Democratic primary voters. Indeed, that a loud political minority — either within a party or across the broader electorate — can drown out a less vocal political majority is now a fixture of our politics, helpfully explained by public choice theory.

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May 5, 2024 Columnists
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony in the East Room of the White House on May 3, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
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