Ari Berman: Harry Reid’s Jedi Mind Tricks

Ari Berman: Harry Reid’s Jedi Mind Tricks

Ari Berman: Harry Reid’s Jedi Mind Tricks

All the appalled commentary about Reid’s so-called ethical lapse has crowed out the real question: What was he trying to achieve?

Press Room
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Citing an anonymous source, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently added the claim that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid his taxes for ten years to the Senate record. A flurry of appalled commentary about Reid’s so-called ethical lapse soon crowed out the real question: What was he trying to achieve?

Nation writer Ari Berman’s answer? “I think Harry Reid is playing Jedi mind tricks with Mitt Romney,” Berman said to comedian Lizz Winstead and Republican strategist Susan Del Percio on The Ed Show last night. Every day that Romney’s tax returns are in the news is a day of poor press for the GOP candidate. Plus, it keeps Romney’s incredibly extreme tax plan in the news as well: He wants to cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy, and pay for the difference by cutting benefits from the bottom. What he’s hiding in his tax returns is only the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg for the Romney campaign.

—Zoë Schlanger

Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign

With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Press Room Big Nation announcements and select interview clips. For media inquiries, booking requests or further information, please contact: Caitlin Graf, VP, Communications, The Nation press [at] thenation.com / 212-209-5400


Ad Policy
x

Latest from the nation

Today 12:05 pm

The War in 3 Quotes

Steve Brodner
Today 8:30 am

Animal Liberation

Praxis vgz and Peter Kuper
Today 5:00 am

Lessons From the People’s Historian, Howard Zinn

Dave Zirin
Today 5:00 am

How a New York Primary Wound Up at the Center of the AI Storm

John Nichols
Today 5:00 am

I Hope Iran Wins at the World Cup

Elie Mystal

editor's picks

VIDEO: People in Denmark Are a Lot Happier Than People in the United States. Here’s Why.

The Nation

Historical Amnesia About Slavery Is a Tool of White Supremacy

Mychal Denzel Smith