What a show: Trump’s press conference on Wednesday was less an explanation than an infomercial, Jamelle Bouie writes. Katy Waldman wants you to watch the props. And Jeremy Stahl points out that everything Trump said about his businesses just confirmed that he’s not at all free of his conflicts of interest.
The telling detail: After watching Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearings on Tuesday, Dahlia Lithwick found her mind stuck on one terrifying moment.
Small silver lining: Gen. John Kelly, in his Tuesday confirmation hearings for the post of the head of the Department of Homeland Security, said several things that directly contradicted Trumpian campaign rhetoric. Fred Kaplan explains how Kelly deviated from his future boss’ party line.
The smoking gun: How and why did BuzzFeed decide to publish the Trump-Russia memo that launched a thousand ill-advised urine jokes Tuesday night? Will Oremus shows how a choice like this one gets made in the age of social media.
For fun: These Norwegian novels from the 1920s sound excellent.
The next Ferrante? I’ll be the judge of that,
Rebecca
