We are now in what I believe to be a second, and more powerful, wave of Me Too, with the Epstein Files investigation and cover-up still raging in Washington, and Americans across the political spectrum demanding accountability. Beyond Washington, another bombshell story about sexual assault has been reverberating this past week about a global online “rape academy” that shares videos and tips on how to effectively drug and rape your female partner, that saw 62 million website visits in the month of February alone. You don’t have to be a victim or survivor of sexual assault as I - and one-in-three women- are to find these stories deeply upsetting and infuriating. What gives me hope in this timeline however, is the renewed calls and actions demanding accountability and justice for victims and survivors, and the national dialogue we are having once again as a result.

Last week, I sat down with Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, who has been one of the earliest and leading voices demanding accountability on the Epstein Files in Congress, to hear how those conversations are evolving on the Hill, and to get a sense of how she and her bipartisan colleagues are building on this national dialogue and momentum to bring justice to more victims and survivors.

What struck me most about my conversation with Rep. Lee is how clear-eyed she is about what this fight is actually for. It is not only about the powerful men implicated in abusing their power to dehumanize women, nor is it about Democrats or Republicans scoring partisan points by taking out members of the other team. It is about justice for the incredibly brave survivors who have already given more than they should ever have had to, testifying at great personal risk against the most powerful people in the world, and to establish a new moral and legal imperative that ensures this level of abuse can no longer persist, nor be protected, within either party, regardless of the political outcomes.

“There’s a reason why predators believe they can do this,” Rep. Lee told me. “It’s because everything in our society tells them that even if they are caught, the consequences will be minimal. And even if consequences come, the survivor will be punished in some way for coming forward. There will be dual punishment. Those are the things we have to change.

Throughout our interview, Rep. Lee laid out a path for continued investigation of the Epstein cover-up, and detailed what she thinks needs to happen to pursue transparency, accountability, and justice on the issue. I hope you’ll watch or listen to our full conversation on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple podcasts and let me know what you think. And if you know of other voices leading on this renewed fight to end sexual violence against women in America, please send them my way - I would love to talk to them.

More things you should read this week:

The Cover-Up

What You Need to Know Since the First Lady Took the Podium

Welcome to the first issue of The Cover-Up’s weekly newsletter! Glad you’re with us to follow the latest developments and collectively turn information into justice…

Read more

8 days ago · 26 likes · 2 comments · S.P. Galvin

Below The Beltway

ICE official behind warehouse detention camps quits after tense congressional hearing

Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky…

Read more

11 days ago · 29 likes · Camaron Stevenson

American Freakshow

Ciao Paolo!

Last week, we interviewed Amanda Ungaro, the deported former model haunting Melania Trump. RAI, the Italian broadcast network, has since broadcast a lengthy interview in which Ungaro shares more harrowing details of her longtime partnership with Melania’s former modeling agent – Trump’s current “Special Envoy for Gl…

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7 days ago · 141 likes · 12 comments · Nina Burleigh

This week on Gloves Off, I sat down with legal expert and viral YouTuber Leeja Miller to break down how Trump has systematically dismantled the DOJ’s independence and why it should alarm every American who still believes in the rule of law.

In our conversation, Leeja explained that the restrictions governing how the DOJ is supposed to operate stem from the Nixon administration—after Watergate, the country collectively decided that a president using the Justice Department as a personal weapon against his enemies was unacceptable. So, we built guardrails, and the DOJ at least maintained the appearance of impartiality. For decades, attorneys general from both parties understood that the job required maintaining some distance from the White House to preserve the institution’s credibility.

Over the past year, however, the Trump administration has taken a hammer to that credibility. “They’re not even pretending anymore to have an appearance of impartiality or propriety,” Leeja told me.

For example, from covering up the Epstein Files to attacking prominent Democrats, (former) AG Pam Bondi didn’t just fail to maintain distance from Trump, she sprinted to the Oval Office on a regular basis, openly calling her department “Trump’s DOJ” and doing whatever he asked. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t successfully weaponize the rule of law the way Trump needed her to, so she was forced out. Now, the acting AG is Todd Blanche, who served as Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney, proving that loyalty to Trump, apparently, is the only qualification that matters. For more reading on Blanche’s unyielding loyalty to the President, you should read this report from COURIER contributor Nina Burleigh.

What I keep coming back to from our conversation is this: Trump’s goal was always to find lawyers willing to make arguments untethered from law, logic, or reason, and he has spent the past decade assembling exactly that team. The fringe right-wing legal theories, the boundary-pushing executive orders, and the attempted prosecution of political enemies are all stress tests of our institutions, pushed relentlessly until something gives. These tactics were bad in the first Trump administration, but this time around, they’re much, much worse.

While lower courts and the judicial system have been one of the few functioning checks on this administration, Leeja and I also spoke a bit about the U.S. Supreme Court’s trajectory, which has become more openly political and is poised to overturn decades of established rights this term, including the Voting Rights Act and rules around mail-in voting.

Donald Trump’s legal strategy and personal takeover of the DOJ is just one part of his administration’s efforts to rig the rules of our Democracy. Listen to our full conversation for more on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to COURIER’s YouTube channel so you don’t miss what’s coming next.

— Tara

P.S., I’m hosting a Substack Live with Nina Burleigh at 4:15pm ET today (Thursday, April 16th) to talk about the latest in the Epstein Files cover-up. You can tune in and add to your calendar here.

For this week’s episode of Gloves Off, I spoke with Charlie Goldensohn, a political strategist and fast-rising content creator (@chez.chuck) who thinks Democrats are approaching their young men problem all wrong.

“These conversations are still decades behind where they need to be,” Goldensohn told me. Too many Democrats still talk about Joe Rogan as if he were simply a Republican pundit, when in reality, Rogan built his audience the same way many of these creators did: through hours of casual, unfiltered conversation that made listeners feel like they knew him. He built trust first, then influence, then political relevance. His lack of filter isn’t a liability, it’s his entire appeal.

The continued “manosphere” panic on the Left is flattening different figures into the same category, as if figures like Nick Fuentes, Rogan, the Nelk Boys, and Andrew Schulz, are all doing the same thing for the same reasons. Some of them, like Fuentes, are ideological, some are opportunistic, and some are simply following their audience wherever it goes. Goldensohn’s point from our conversation is that Democrats keep confusing these categories because they are looking at the landscape through an old political lens instead of one focused on culture and building community.

Maybe that’s why some of the same Democratic operatives who have bemoaned their Party’s problem with young men are now suddenly up in arms when candidates have campaigned alongside liberal streamer Hasan Piker. They still expect allied media personalities to tow their lines, repeat their talking points, and preach their politics—despite creators like Piker growing their reach by speaking to their communities in an unfiltered, authentic way. This posture is harming their ability to take advantage of a key opportunity: recent polling found that young male voters are starting to move away from Republicans by significant margins.

At the end of the day, most successful social media creators and podcasters are not created in a lab for the purposes of a political agenda. A lot of these podcasters and YouTubers are growing because they offer young men emotional or cultural connection before hard politics, and until Democrats are open to engaging with creators who compete on those terms, they’ll keep losing the audience to the Right.

You can listen to our full conversation on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts, and make sure to subscribe to COURIER’s YouTube channel for fresh content every week.

Tomorrow, I’ll be joined by COURIER national correspondent Camaron Stevenson to discuss his latest breaking news reporting on the Epstein beat, as well as our plans to continue investigating one of the biggest cover-ups in recent political memory.

Join us live at 1:00 pm ET tomorrow, April 7th here on Substack »

After joining her on “I’ve Had It” a few weeks ago, I invited Welch onto Gloves Off this week to get her thoughts on our current political moment. And lucky for us, our conversation came right on the heels of both the cringe-inducing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and a fairly hot (and 2016-PTSD-triggering) fight that’s still churning in our “big tent” between progressives who stan Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and the Democrats who hate (or fear) him…

I wanted to ask Welch about a certain moment I had caught from CPAC last weekend where the crowd cheered when asked about calls for impeachment hoping it was a sign of a deepening wedge on the right, and learned the man who was doing call-on-response on the CPAC stage was actually an alleged sexual abuser himself. This launched us into a conversation about the deeply hypocritical fusion of Christian virtue signaling with cruelty and abuse. In Welch’s words, Republicans keep “trotting out the sexual assaulters, the sexual abusers, the pedophiles,” all while pretending to speak for morality. She sees that contradiction as the kind of thing Democrats should be hammering relentlessly, not gently acknowledging and moving past.

“We have to talk policy, and we have to gossip,” Welch says. “We have to do reputational damage to their brand that is long-lasting because the way people vote now is different. There are vibe voters.” That idea sits at the center of our whole conversation. If Democrats want to win, she says, they need to learn how to define their opponents the way Republicans have defined them for years. Thankfully, they keep giving us fresh material!

That isn’t the only knock Welch has on the Democratic Party either. She has palpable frustration with party leaders like Chuck Schumer, who she doesn’t miss a beat in calling a “fascist collaborator” for failing to offer a clear opposition to Trump-era authoritarianism, and for treating the left as a problem rather than a source of energy.

Despite some political consultants’ frustration of “creators’” increasing influence over the political conversation today, Welch isn’t speaking as an outside critic throwing stones from a distance. Her rise in reach and influence is actually proof that audiences are hungry for voices who sound real, rather than poll-tested, and as she says, is an indictment of corporate media and a sign that people are building new political ecosystems outside the old guard.

I don’t agree with Welch on everything, but she and I do share a deep-rooted belief that the people who got us into this mess are decidedly NOT the ones who are going to get us out - and that by attacking those who are building influence by saying the true things many Americans are feeling, they are only reinforcing how deeply out of touch they are with an increasingly fed-up electorate. But don’t take it from us - that’s what primaries are for.

Listen to our full conversation on Spotify or Apple, or subscribe to COURIER’s YouTube channel for more clips from the interview.

“There was a group of people, I call them the Epstein class, who had wealth and power and thought that their wealth and power and connections entitled them to treat young girls as totally disposable and dispensable,” Khanna told me. “Some of them participated in the rape of these girls. Some of them abused these young girls. Some of them covered up the abuse of these young girls. And it’s totally disgusting.” These are the wealthy, well-connected men who believed their money, lawyers, and political friends entitled them to do whatever they want, cover it up, and then go back to writing checks to politicians and flying on private jets.

Throughout our conversation, he also talks about the Epstein issue in a way that relates to the troubles of regular working Americans. “Maybe this is the reason that people aren’t getting relief because these rich and powerful people have co-opted government, not allowing us to deal with the health care costs rising, not allowing us to deal with rents rising,” he said.

This is what two systems of justice look like in practice. One system where an average American gets jailed for a small time offense, and another where billionaires with private islands can traffic minors and still have their names redacted by the government you pay for. I think this is one of the most striking parts of my conversation with Khanna: how clearly he connects the Epstein scandal to the broader democratic crisis I’ve written about here week after week. When ordinary Americans say the system is rigged, this is what they mean, not a vague conspiracy theory but a decades-long pattern where some of the richest people on earth commit crimes and then get protected by the very institutions we are told to trust.

For many MAGA voters, the Epstein cover-up confirms every suspicion they have about a corrupt elite that gets away with everything while their communities suffer under rising health care costs and rents. For Democrats, it is a test of whether we are willing to stop scolding those voters from a distance and instead show up with them in fights that expose how deeply the Epstein class has co-opted our government and the economy.

I started Gloves Off to find out who is actually willing to do what it takes to get our country back on track in this new authoritarian era. Khanna’s work on the Epstein files is not perfect or finished, but it is a model for the kind of courage and cross-ideological organizing we are going to need a lot more of in the years ahead.

If you found this week’s interview worth your time, forward this email with a friend or colleague, share it on social media, and listen to my full conversation with Rep. Khanna on Apple or Spotify.

In our conversation, Raskin called Donald Trump’s deception around the Epstein files “one of the greatest coverups in American history, if not the biggest.” He described how Attorney General Pam Bondi initially ducked a subpoenaed deposition, choosing instead to deliver a short “briefing” filled with empty talking points. When Democrats finally secured a closed-door session, Republicans turned it into a three-minute stunt with no prepared materials, prompting Raskin and his colleagues to walk out.

With Republicans shielding Bondi and the administration, the strategy now seems to be delay until after the midterms. Bondi’s refusal to testify mirrors that of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was ousted after Raskin referred her to the Justice Department for alleged perjury tied to a $200 million taxpayer-funded ad contract.

Raskin’s relentless focus extends beyond corruption to democracy itself. The GOP’s SAVE Act—which they claim protects against voter fraud—would in reality impose new barriers by requiring documents like birth certificates or passports to vote. “When they talk about election fraud,” Raskin told me, “they mean to perpetrate it on the public.”

If (when) Democrats retake the House in the midterms, Raskin’s committee will take the lead on renewed investigations into Trump and his allies’ corruption, including potentially filing articles of impeachment. The panel is already compiling a record of violations for potential follow-up action.

Raskin’s approach offers a model for Democrats to truly stand up to the authoritarian moves defining this administration. Watch our full conversation on YouTube here, or listen to the audio version on Spotify or Apple.

This week, I had the opportunity to sit down with two of them—El Sayed and McMorrow—to hear how they would tackle everything from AI data centers in their communities to the Iran War, universal healthcare, and standing up to both status-quo protecting Democratic colleagues and the Trump administration in Washington.

El Sayed, a physician and public health expert endorsed by Bernie Sanders, has made universal healthcare via Medicare for All a centerpiece of his campaign (he literally wrote an entire book on it), and if elected to the seat, would become the Democrats’ first medical doctor in the Senate. He told me that Democrats should aggressively work to lower costs for working people, whether it’s in the form of medical bills or grocery bills. “I’m running to do three very simple things. I wanna get money out of politics, I wanna put money in your pocket, I wanna pass Medicare for All,” he says. He also discussed his concerns with massive AI data center projects, which have become a major issue with Michigan communities - and an issue more Democratic candidates running this year should work to bring attention to.

McMorrow, on the other hand, has become a rising star in the party due to her bold advocacy against Republican extremism in the Michigan state legislature. “We need Washington to function more like Michigan... I helped break the Republican super majority... and we really got to work delivering,” she says. Her campaign has been anchored by focusing on lower costs, democratic renewal, and to some extent, tech accountability. In our conversation, she took an aggressive posture against the big tech and AI companies that are increasingly taking over our politics and daily lives. “ I have parents tell me they’re at their wits end. I’m gonna quote one here: ‘fuck these tech companies for breaking my kids’ brains, period.’ How do we make sure tech companies are held responsible for creating safe products?”

At the end of the day, whoever emerges from Michigan’s Democratic primary in August will have a tough fight ahead of them in November—Michigan is the quintessential swing state after all. But, after speaking to both of them, they each exemplify a “gloves off” approach that I think is sorely needed in our politics right now.

Make sure to watch both episodes on COURIER’s YouTube channel, or listen on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts - and please share them with your friends and family in Michigan before their August primary!

This week, for our weekly podcast and YouTube series Gloves Off (this newsletter’s new namesake!), I was fortunate to sit down with Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, a leading voice on the House Oversight Committee and one of the fiercest, clearest truth-tellers in Congress demanding justice for the victims and survivors from the Epstein scandal and the systemic cover-ups that have protected powerful men for decades. She talks candidly about what it was like to depose former President Bill Clinton, why Donald Trump is now a person of interest, and how a new “Epstein Truth Commission” in New Mexico is poised to turn files into trials.​

Watch the full episode below:

We covered a lot of ground: Congresswoman Stansbury details how Donald Trump is a “person of interest” in the Epstein files with at least two to three separate allegations against him, and explains that his administration is actively breaking the transparency law he signed himself. She also discloses that the DOJ redacted some perpetrators like foreign leaders and Trump allies accused of rape, while exposing survivors’ names, photos, and addresses, calling it either gross incompetence or intentional intimidation.​

We also spoke about how New Mexico’s legislature unanimously launched an “Epstein Truth Commission” with subpoena power to investigate Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, the first reported abuse site to the FBI in the 1990s that was never searched by feds, despite raiding other properties. Stansbury is pushing states like New York and Florida to follow suit.

I hope you, like me, come away from this conversation with more clarity about how deep this cover-up runs. The only way this ends in real accountability is if we refuse to look away, keep the pressure on our elected officials, and help leaders like Stansbury fight for justice.

If you found this episode useful, please:

• Share the video on your social channels and send it directly to friends, family, and colleagues

• Subscribe to COURIER on YouTube so you don’t miss future Gloves Off conversations with the people doing some of the hardest, most necessary work in this moment.​

It’s been a big week: Polls are showing minimal support for the war, gas prices are surging, the MAGA coalition is fracturing publicly (don’t let the $170M jet door hit you on the way out, Kristi Noem!), and Epstein revelations are continuing to fuel accusations that all of this is just a deliberate distraction from his own corruption. Meanwhile, in scattered elections on Tuesday, Democratic candidates overperformed in Red districts and among key voter groups, which foreshadow major Democratic victories are coming in November.

On a number of fronts, the president and his allies have overreached and are vulnerable, and now is the time to put our foot on the gas pedal.

The war Americans don’t want

President Trump’s unauthorized airstrikes on Iran last weekend, launched without congressional approval or public support, have triggered widespread backlash. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 27% of Americans approving of the war, with nearly half of Americans less likely to support the campaign if gas prices continue rising, with overall disapproval hitting 59% in a CNN survey.

As we’re just days into the bombing campaign that could last weeks or months- or even years, that’s terrible news for the administration. Economic approval for Trump is also tanking amid the fallout, as voters connect the dots between his careless foreign crusades and their personal pain.

Pain at the pump

The visible impact of the war is starting to hit Americans’ wallets. AAA reports the national average gas price jumped nearly 27 cents in a week to $3.25 per gallon as of March 5. Analysts are warning the price increases are far from over. Trump has been downplaying this, telling reporters that the high prices will be resolved quickly. But other administration officials conceded it as a foreseen factor that they knew would happen all along.

Cracks in the MAGA machine

Some of the loudest and most visible frustrations about the war are coming from the President’s MAGA allies. Far-right personalities Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Matt Walsh have criticized the war, accusing Trump of being beholden to Israeli interests. Carlson didn’t mince words, he called last weekend’s attacks “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Meanwhile, members of Trump’s own administration can’t even agree on how or why we started this war, further reinforcing the lack of any cohesive strategy or loyalty within the president’s own ranks.

How Democrats can fight back

It’s within this context that I interviewed Congressman Pat Ryan (D-NY) this week, who is a rising star in the party and someone who served two combat tours in Iraq as an Intelligence officer and actually understands the nature of foreign entanglements. I asked him how Democrats should respond to the Iran war and he was unequivocal in his position.

Rep. Ryan laid it out pretty clearly: Democrats must refuse to fund this unauthorized war, forcing accountability and exposing Trump’s overreach. His blueprint emphasizes restraint and putting Americans first — a direct counter to Trump’s endless escalation. He also shared a vulnerable moment about how he hopes we can get back to a place where his own sons could be proud to serve their country under leadership that can be trusted to put Americans’ safety above their own self interest, a sentiment I imagine many parents across the country are thinking right now. You can watch our full conversation here.

As a fellow millennial whose own personal life and professional trajectory was directly shaped by 9/11 and the disinformation-laden, costly wars another Republican President started in reaction to them, I could not agree more with Ryan that this deathly military invention by Trump not only has the opportunity to further drag down this corrupt administration, but that it is up to all of us to ensure it does. Democrats in Congress should heed the lessons of our past interventions in the Middle East and stand their ground against this, and every unconstitutional move by this administration, and all of us should demand they do so.

What I’m reading this week:

Trump kicks Tucker Carlson out of MAGA movement after talker’s Iran war criticism: ‘Lost his way’ (NY Post, ⅗)

“Tucker has lost his way,” the commander-in-chief told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on Thursday. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”

Five Ways the Paramount-WBD Merger Is Bad News for Us All (Free Press, ¾)

“What’s good news for this president is bad news for our democracy and the constitutional rights that safeguard people across the United States from tyranny.”

New poll: Democrats’ real problem isn’t being too liberal — it’s being seen as too weak (Strength in Numbers, 2/27)

“The top descriptors of the party are empathetic (54%) and principled (49%). Comparatively few people think of it as “tough” (31%), and nearly half the country calls the Democrats weak (48%) and ineffective (47%). Democrats’ competence rating is 46% — five points higher than the GOP’s — but it’s the weakness and ineffectiveness labels that dominate voters’ impressions and national discourse about the party.”

That’s when the story exploded: One week after Nina published her story, NPR probed the DOJ’s handling of withheld Trump-related docs, and the New York Times also detailed how files related to the decades-old claims against Trump have now vanished from the files’ public releases.

These revelations are important because the DOJ is required by law to release these documents, and they had previously certified that all documents were public and in order. According to The Times, they’re now backtracking, saying in a statement that: “Should any document be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the Act, the Department will of course publish it, consistent with the law.”

House Oversight Democrats are now accusing the White House of a cover-up, and the story appears to be far from over.

This is just one small example of the power and necessity of independent journalism in America today. While mainstream outlets either abandon stories like the Epstein Files to continue to ride the news cycle - or worse, fail to assign reporters to them at all for fear of retribution by the Trump administration - fearless outlets like COURIER and journalists like Nina are staying on the beat, reigniting stories with new, unreported details, and planting the seeds that eventually lead legacy outlets to pick up the story and increase demands for accountability.

I know I talk and write about the Epstein Files a lot, and I do so for a number of reasons. For one, it is the biggest coverup story in our nation’s history - far, far bigger than Watergate, and one that reinforces the widespread belief among Americans that the powerful and wealthy individuals who run our institutions and industries are both deeply corrupt, and above the law. This has made the Epstein Scandal the most powerful political wedge issue we have seen in a very long time, with Americans on all sides of the political spectrum tuning into, and demanding accountability from our leaders. The MAGA regime was swept into power by screaming about the Epstein Files for years, and now that they’re in charge, they’re doing everything they can to protect their leader (and themselves) from humiliation or consequences. By exposing the corruption and hypocrisy of this administration, coverage of the atrocities in the files has only super-charged engagement on the story, and widespread, bipartisan calls for justice for the victims and survivors as a result.

It is my personal belief that this story is the Watergate of my generation, but instead of a legacy newspaper like the Washington Post leading the charge for truth and accountability, it will be independent news networks like COURIER.

- Tara

Support our Epstein Coverage Here >>

Watch: My “Gloves Off” interview with Miles Taylor

For the latest episode of Gloves Off, I sat down with author, security expert, and Trump Administration 1.0 whistleblower Miles Taylor. Taylor has firsthand experience fighting gloves-off with Donald Trump: after serving as a high-level admin official at DHS during his first administration, Taylor learned just how far over the line Trump was willing to cross – and how many people were willing to let him get away with it. Taylor joined me to discuss what it was like to work alongside Stephen Miller, have his life unraveled TWICE as a result of speaking truth to power, and how we can all defy corruption every day, if we’re only willing to look it in the face. I hope you’ll watch our conversation on YouTube, or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.

What I’m reading this week:

Tech, TV, Movies & News: Ellisons on Brink of Colossal Empire (NYT, 2/27)

“If Paramount can close its deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, Larry and David Ellison will influence nearly every corner of news, entertainment and tech.”

Paramount Skydance Poised to Acquire Warner Bros. Discovery After Netflix Bows Out of Bidding War (Variety, 2/26)

“Netflix says WBD deal was ‘no longer financially attractive’; Warner Bros. now says sale to Paramount ‘will create tremendous value for shareholders’”

What Are Young Men Seeing About the Epstein Files on Reddit? (YMRI, 2/26)

“While most political information on Reddit is “apolitical,” Epstein content seems to be more directly aimed against Republicans than other political news.”

The Media Merger You Should Actually Care About (New Yorker, 2/26)

“An under-the-radar, Trump-approved deal could create a broadcasting behemoth that controls local news stations across more than forty states. Why do some MAGA diehards oppose it?”

You’re Invited: Upcoming COURIER Events

• A Texas-sized Primary Debrief: Join us on Wednesday, March 4 at 1:00 PM ET/Noon CT for a virtual conversation breaking down what the Texas primary results tell us about the road to the 2026 midterms. Featuring COURIER’s Dawn Jones and Katie Serrano, alongside Matt Angle of the The Lone Star Project, this discussion will offer on-the-ground analysis of a pivotal election moment in Texas. More details + RSVP here >>

• MAHA & the Midterms: Join COURIER and 314 Action on March 12 for a live conversation that will examine how political choices are reshaping healthcare access ahead of the midterms. We’ll break down how Trump, RFK Jr., and the broader MAHA agenda are impacting public health, who benefits, and what’s at stake for families across the country. More details + RSVP here >>

First of all, 80% of Americans say people have a responsibility to stay informed when they vote, and 78% say news helps with voting decisions. That’s not surprising. But, only 11% call following the news “extremely important” as a civic duty, and many say it doesn’t help with daily life or being engaged in their communities at all.

Then there’s the exhaustion factor: 52% of Pew respondents said they are worn out by the sheer volume of news. 48% say most of it isn’t even relevant to their lives. Two-thirds have ditched a specific source, and six-in-ten have cut back overall. Just 9% follow the news because they enjoy it.

Staying informed by reading or watching the news has become a chore at best, and a threat to our mental health at worst, and one that many Americans would rather not deal with. That has dramatic implications for the fragile state of our Democracy.

It probably won’t surprise you that I place the blame for much of this exhaustion and “tuning out” of the news squarely on the failures of the legacy press, who spent years putting up paywalls and catering to elite audiences while their corporate owners consolidated and shuttered outlets left and right. Couple that with our new era of cowardly, pro-Trump capitulation from major networks and newspapers, and it’s no wonder many audiences are turned off.

These stats present hard truths for those of us who spend all day, every day thinking about how we reach and inform our audiences with relevant information about government, politics, and what’s happening in their communities. But, this current, somewhat sad state of news consumption also presents opportunities for new models to emerge of reinventing news distribution and making content that feels relevant to Americans’ lives.

At COURIER, we’ve spent six years experimenting and growing our strategy along these lines. By combining original reporting via free local newsletters and creator-driven social accounts with community news, lifestyle tips, and on-the-ground reporting, we’re reaching news-avoidant Americans directly in their feeds and inboxes. Year-round, we’re building trust and shifting opinions (and this year, ICYMI, we’re growing)!

So, if you work in media or politics, I hope you’ll take a look at Pew’s report and see it both as a wake-up call and a clear opportunity. The old guard’s failures have created an opening for newer models that reach Americans directly with news content they actually want to consume. Aside from COURIER, there are a number of independent creators and media brands that are growing and reaching audiences effectively in this new environment, and when you come across them, make sure to give them a follow, a share, and your support.

- Tara

Watch: My interview with Kara Swisher

Big Tech has been a prominent force in our culture for decades, but it’s only more recently that they’ve become a prominent and problematic force in our government. Kara Swisher is a journalist known for interviewing almost every tech CEO over the course of a quarter century, so if there’s anyone who knows the ins and outs of how these people think, it’s her.

What I’m reading this week:

Stephen Colbert says CBS didn’t air interview out of fear of FCC (NBC, 2/17)

“Colbert kicked off Monday’s episode of “The Late Show” by saying that the network’s lawyers told him he could not have Texas state Rep. James Talarico on the broadcast.”

X’s Algorithm Pushes Users to Lean More Conservative, Researchers Find (Gizmodo, 2/20)

“In case you had any doubt, Elon Musk’s X has an algorithm that favors conservative content posted by political activists over liberal content or posts by traditional news media accounts, according to a new study published in Nature.”

Trump met with David Ellison days before saying he’s ‘not involved’ in Paramount’s Netflix battle (CNN, 2/12)

“Paramount CEO David Ellison returned to the White House last week to meet privately with President Donald Trump, amid Paramount’s ongoing hostile takeover bid for CNN and the rest of Warner Bros. Discovery. Ellison and Trump had two wide-ranging conversations, according to two sources with knowledge of the meetings…”

I’m excited to share some big news from the COURIER team: Over the coming months, we will be launching nine (!) new local newsrooms across the country — bringing our successful model of values-driven, independent political and cultural journalism to communities in California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, and Utah. 🚀

That means by the end of 2026, our local news network will span 20 states in addition to our national outlet and bureau in Washington D.C.—each with its own on-the-ground reporters, online products and digital channels, all dedicated to reporting local stories, amplifying community voices, and connecting the dots on how politics and policy actually impact people’s lives.

Read more about our growth plans here in Axios >>

This expansion comes on the heels of a huge year of growth for COURIER. In 2025 alone, we more than doubled our online audience from 4 million to over 9 million followers and subscribers, and delivered over 4.5 billion content views across platforms, all by meeting readers and viewers where they are online with fearless coverage of the stories that matter most.

While so much of the legacy media world is disappearing or bending the knee to the current administration, COURIER is growing faster than ever, and it’s no accident. When we launched COURIER in our first six states in 2019, we were laser-focused on building a new kind of news organization—one that was transparent and unabashed about our values, and that centered the communities we serve in our reporting and distribution strategies—communities that have been left behind by traditional media that cater primarily to elite audiences today. That vision became a reality through the extraordinary work of our 100+ reporters, correspondents, and staff, who in the face of the most anti-press administration in our history, have not only delivered on our mission each and every day since, but who continue to ask what more they can do to hold this corrupt administration accountable.

Over the past 6+ years, our newsrooms and reporters have won dozens of state and national press awards, broken heartwrenching and policy-moving stories, and built innovative tools to make critical information more accessible to more people. This rapid expansion of our model is a testament to that work, and would also not be possible without the support of our brave investors, underwriting partners, sponsors, and most of all, the tens of thousands of readers and subscribers who donate to our newsrooms with their hard-earned dollars each and every day. Doing this work is both a privilege and a responsibility our team takes incredibly seriously, and we will never compromise on our values or mission to build a more informed, empowered, and civically engaged America.

This expansion to nine new states and communities brings us one big step closer to our long-term goal: bringing our values-driven news and content to people beyond the political bubble in all 50 states and U.S. territories, while setting a precedent for others on what credible social-first local journalism can look like.

In order to be successful, we know that our team’s growth will require even more support from this community, as well as buy-in from new partners on the ground in the states where we plan to work. We truly have no time to waste in getting these new newsrooms off the ground, so if you work in media, advocacy or just have meaningful networks in the states we are bringing COURIER to this year, please reach out to us, and spread the word to help us hit the ground running. You can find job descriptions for some of the new roles we’re hiring for here.

If you want to learn more about our work or follow along as our new newsrooms go live, check out our beautiful new local network site at courierlocal.com

At COURIER, we believe that the future of news that our democracy urgently depends on is honest, accessible, transparent, and powered by communities, not corrupt corporate conglomerates or ragebait— and it starts right here and now with all of us. Thank you for being part of this journey and this work as we build the media ecosystem we all deserve, together.

The criminalization of reporting

Last weekend, the Trump administration took the unprecedented step of arresting independent journalist Don Lemon for simply doing his job. Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles days after he covered an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church, and now faces federal civil-rights charges tied to his coverage of that demonstration.

It’s important that we call this what it is: an unprecedented assault on the First Amendment, and a clear attempt to intimidate journalists who document dissent against Trump’s policies. This is nothing more than Trump using the machinery of the state to send a message that reporting on protest, abuse, or state violence can carry criminal consequences.

What’s happening at the Washington Post

On Wednesday, the Washington Post laid off one-third of its workforce, cutting more than 300 journalists and shrinking its newsroom dramatically. Entire sections were gutted, including sports, books, much of local coverage, and significant pieces of its international reporting.

These cuts were ordered under the direction of Trump-allied billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, who has already overseen years of hiring freezes, editorial shifts, and buyouts as the paper lost an estimated $100 million in 2024. It’s another enormous blow to one of the country’s most important accountability institutions, especially at a time of rising authoritarianism and rampant disinformation, but not a surprising one.

Unfortunately, many of us saw this coming: The Post’s collapse is both something that has been underway since Bezos killed the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris for President just before it was set to publish in 2024, and is part of a broader pattern of billionaire and corporate owners treating core media institutions like short-term financial assets instead of infrastructure serving the public good. Years of consolidation have placed control of news in fewer hands, eroding local reporting, investigative capacity, and the diversity of voices that democracies need to function. The Post isn’t alone, this is happening everywhere.

When a single ultra-wealthy owner (whose $500 million yacht could make up for 5 years of company losses), can unilaterally decide to decimate a newsroom, the result is entire communities losing watchdogs over government, elections, and other institutions. And in this key authoritarian moment for American democracy, every newsroom weakened by cost-cutting becomes another vacuum that bad actors will exploit- especially with regards to the paper’s cuts to their local metro desk reporting.

Two sides of the same threat

These stories, taken together, represent two sides of the same threat. First, billionaires and financiers are draining resources from legacy outlets, shrinking newsrooms and narrowing coverage to whatever best serves their bottom line or political comfort. Legacy reporters then are forced to go independent, building small operations for reporting, investigations, and analysis. Now, the president and his allies are locking up and attempting to criminalize independent journalism and reporters that challenge their power with the intention of instilling fear in the rest of us who seek to hold the administration accountable through honest, brave reporting.

The intended result is a media landscape where fewer reporters are left to cover more corruption, more abuse, and more attacks on our basic rights. Meanwhile, those who keep reporting anyway face escalating personal and legal risk. That’s exactly how authoritarian projects work: shrink the information ecosystem, punish dissenters, and teach everyone else to look away.

There is another way forward, but it won’t happen on its own. We need to massively expand support for fearless, independent, and values-driven journalism at every level: local newsrooms rooted in their communities, national outlets willing to challenge both corporate and political power, and new digital creators reaching audiences where they are online. That means philanthropists, small-dollar donors, and everyday readers choosing to back newsrooms that are accountable to the public, not to billionaires or politicians. It means investing in reporters who will stay on key stories when the cameras move on, and in local journalists who will keep covering the types of stories and communities outlets like the Washington Post are now walking away from. I cannot stress enough that we cannot continue to do this work, or expand our accountability reporting, without philanthropic support, especially in this political environment. The other side understands this deeply, and it’s long overdue that our deepest pocketed friends and foundations who want to preserve our democracy catch up fast.

- Tara

Gloves Off: Minnesota U.S. Senate Candidates

For this week’s episode of Gloves Off, I had the opportunity to interview both of the leading Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig. You can watch the full episode below:

You’re Invited: MAHA and the Midterms

Join COURIER and 314 Action on March 12 for MAHA & the Midterms: How Trump and RFK Jr.’s Agenda Costs Americans. This live conversation will examine how political choices are reshaping healthcare access ahead of the midterms. We’ll break down how Trump, RFK Jr., and the broader MAHA agenda are impacting public health, who benefits, and what’s at stake for families across the country.

Featured Speakers include: Hank Green, Dr. Mary Trump, U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood, Shaughnessy Naughton, and Dr. Vin Gupta.

More details + RSVP here >>

What I’m reading this week

MAP: All 23 industrial warehouses ICE wants to turn into detention ‘death camps’ (COURIER, ⅔)

“Plans are underway to double the detention capacity of the Trump administration’s federal police force by converting massive, industrial warehouses unsuitable for people to live in into detention centers. COURIER has independently verified the location of 23 mass detention campsites that have been surveyed by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

‘The DOJ Cannot Be Trusted’: A Top Democrat Unloads on the Epstein Files Saga (POLITICO, ⅖)

“The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee discusses the Epstein files, accountability for the Trump administration — and what happens if Democrats take the House this fall.”

The Media Malpractice That Sent America Tumbling Into Trumpism (TNR, 1/31)

“We are now one year into Donald Trump’s second term, and something strange is happening in political media. A lot of people who spent years insisting that the so-called “alarmists” were being hysterical have started, tentatively, to admit that maybe they got it wrong.”

Dear media, stop acting like Trump means what he says (Margaret Sullivan/American Crisis, ⅔)

“Whether over “a deal” on Greenland or a “pivot” on ICE, we need far more skepticism.”

Breaking Up with Billionaire-Owned Media (Pressing Issues, ⅖)

“In this new Gilded Age, the Musks, Zuckerbergs, Ellisons and Bezoses haven’t just wrecked the news industry while enabling tyrants. They’ve crushed our collective imagination that we can have and deserve something better. They’ve made alternatives feel impossible. But they aren’t.”

It wasn’t until I spoke to my team at COURIER, in an emergency all-hands call we held this week, that I was able to shake myself out of the numbness. As I sat in the sadness, confusion, and fear with our reporters and strategists, deeply caring people who show up every day to cover and amplify the stories of their communities, hold power to account, and share the information people deserve to know, I knew there was no choice but to find the strength to pull it back together. As a leader of a deeply mission-driven organization in these times, I know I have a responsibility to not turn away, to not tune out, to not let my own fears take over—the same responsibility shared by every media publisher and business leader in America today.

I found my courage again in the faces of our incredible team—young reporters who will sit in a courtroom all day to ensure Lucy’s story, a three-year-old girl who had to serve as her own immigration attorney, is told. Reporters who will make sure nursing student Allison gets to speak her truth on her detainment and self-deportation. Digital organizers who honor Indivisible and ACLU’s work convening 200,000 people for a ‘No Kings’ training—and then help continue the momentum by directing our audience to sign up for the next one. In just four hours, COURIER’s post drove over 1,000 new sign ups. Faces of brave individuals who asked on our all-hands call what more they can do to hold leaders accountable and who show up every day to do this heart-wrenching hard work because they, and we all here, know it matters.

Later this week, I got on a zoom with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for my new episode of Gloves Off (you can watch here), and he told me, “justice will be served” against the ICE agents who killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti. I am going to choose to believe him. In the same episode, I spoke with Sunrise Movement’s Minnesota-based executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay to learn more about the effective tactics her team and volunteers are using to tear down the “pillars of support” ICE relies on to do their violent work. I was inspired all over again. The conversations with these leaders on the frontlines in Minnesota are ones you need to hear, and I hope they give you the hope that they gave me.

This work and this fight does not wash away the pain or minimize the human cost of the horrors underway; but it is my reminder, that we are not helpless. Alex Pretti’s life was stolen because he was observing and documenting truth. It is brave, it is purposeful, and it is a threat to autocracy to bear witness. To look when they spin every lie to try to force us not to see.

This week was heavier than most, but we also know it won’t be the last, or the heaviest we face. We didn’t choose to live through this moment in our history, but I do believe this moment chose all of us who are willing to look it in the eye, and let our anger and grief guide us to find the helpers who will inspire us to keep going. I’m so grateful to each and every one of you who are doing your small or great part to help in this moment, and I know that together, we will get through this moment together and build a better future for this country when we do.

I wish you all peace and rest this weekend.

Tara

What I’m reading this week

Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Minnesota Church Protest (The New York Times, 1/30)

“This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”

Top city prosecutors form ‘FAFO’ coalition to bring charges against federal agents (Courthouse News, 1/28)

“Nine prominent city and county prosecutors across the United States announced on Wednesday the formation of a national coalition dedicated to holding federal agents who commit state crimes accountable for their actions.”

Liam Conejo Ramos Is Sick In ICE Detention, Says Top School Official (HuffPost, 1/28)

“They mix baby formula with water that is putrid. The food has bugs in it. The guards are often verbally abusive… One of my clients had appendicitis, collapsed in the hallway, was vomiting from pain, and the officials told him, ‘Take a Tylenol and come back in three days.’”

ICE Barbie Throws Stephen Miller Under the Bus to Save Her Job (Daily Beast, 1/27)

“Miller, widely known as the architect behind the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies, called Pretti an ‘assassin’ in an X post shortly after the DHS statement, which was reposted by Vice President JD Vance.”

In my first episode, I spoke with Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who’s running in the competitive Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in Texas, about how she thinks about power, where she sources her courage from, and why she thinks it’s absolutely possible to turn Texas blue this year. I was deeply inspired and fired up by the conversation and hope you will be as well. You can watch the full episode on YouTube linked below, and please don’t forget to subscribe to COURIER’s page to get alerts when new episodes drop as we have some incredible leaders in the queue…!

🙏 🎙️ 🥊 🇺🇸

What I’m reading this week

These Democrats voted for the DHS funding bill despite ICE furor (The Hill, 1/22)

“Several House Democrats joined with nearly all Republicans to approve a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday, as anger grows over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. The $64.4 billion bill, which includes roughly $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), passed the House by a vote of 220-207. All but one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), voted for the measure.”

“We Ran High-Level U.S. Civil War Simulations. Minnesota is Exactly How They Start.” (The Guardian, 1/21)

“The core danger we identified is now emerging: a violent confrontation between state and federal military forces in a major American city.”

Minnesotans strike to protest ICE surge in state: ‘No work, no school, no shopping’ (The Guardian, 1/23)

“A childcare worker in Minneapolis, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation toward the immigrant families they serve, explained they were shutting down for the day after consulting and receiving immense support from the families of the children they care for.”

Maryland redistricting commission passes new congressional map | What happens next? (WBAL TV, 1/21)

“Gov. Wes Moore first floated the idea of changing the state’s maps in August, amid a proposal in Texas aimed at increasing the number of Republicans in the House of Representatives. The commission’s approved map heads to the General Assembly, which will make tweaks and turn it into a bill to be voted on.”

Trump is overreaching, and more and more Americans know it. What happened in Minneapolis has exposed what so many immigrant and refugee communities have long understood: that cruelty isn’t the consequence of Trump’s immigration policy—it’s the point of it. The administration will do almost anything in its attempt to win a political messaging war—including enabling the murder of American citizens who visibly oppose them.

Our own Panic World podcast host, Ryan Broderick, was in Minneapolis reporting the story for COURIER this week, following the large-scale mobilizations closely. His dispatch helps cut through the sensationalism dominating traditional media and tells the real story of how ordinary people are standing up to authoritarian tactics on American soil.

On the local level in other states, our team has been conducting original reporting of other abuses by the rogue agency, including this recent report from the Copper Courier in Arizona, this story from UpNorth News Wisconsin, or this opinion column from Cardinal & Pine North Carolina.

Meanwhile, in Washington, some Democrats are feverishly drafting messaging memos, running polls, and workshopping whether to say “abolish ICE,” “rein in ICE,” or “reform ICE.” Others seem terrified of saying anything at all. At the same time, the well-paid consultants and liberal Twitter pundits keep arguing over a magical, universal message on immigration that will make everyone nod in agreement. All of this is so wildly out of touch it makes me want to scream.

There’s no poll-tested slogan that can replace moral clarity. When government agents murder a woman in broad daylight, the right question isn’t how do we talk about it? It’s how do we keep people talking about it, and most importantly what are we going to do about it?

At COURIER, we’re focusing on what matters: making sure the truth about Renee Good’s murder and what’s happening in Minneapolis doesn’t get buried under spin from MAGA media. The right is already twisting this story into another “law and order” talking point. But that’s only the dominant narrative if we let it be.

According to the team at Magnitude Media (formerly Resonate), left-leaning accounts are starting to win the online battle for attention on this issue. In the past two weeks, major left-of-center social media accounts have received more engagement on immigration/ICE-related content than their conservative counterparts, with COURIER being one of the primary drivers of this coverage and narrative.

Among all of the several thousand accounts Magnitude tracked, COURIER is one of the top left-of-center brands by engagement on this issue, receiving millions of likes, shares, and comments on our immigration and ICE-related posts in the past month. And just this week, COURIER was ranked #2 for engagement on TikTok content about ICE and Immigration, just behind NowThis and far ahead of FOX News and CNN.

This data shows that we have a real opportunity to remind people that Trump’s America means more violence, more fear, and more government power used as a weapon against its own people. And that the only antidote to that is collective truth-telling, courage, and accountability.

As opposition to ICE grows among Americans at a rapid pace every single day, we cannot afford to dilute this story, and we absolutely cannot look away, or decide immigration is too tough an issue for Democrats to lean in on.

Whenever you see videos from COURIER or other outlets of the violence and inhumane treatment of people by ICE in your feeds or in your inboxes, please share it with your own networks and keep the drumbeat that is bringing more hearts and minds to our side going. You can start by helping amplify COURIER’s Minneapolis coverage and our broader coverage of ICE overreach.

What happened to Renee Good will happen to more innocent Americans if we don’t do everything in our power to keep saying her name, bearing witness to the terror ICE is bringing to our communities, and lifting up the voices of veterans, cops, and Trump voters alike who are standing up to say this is not America. We need to turn this moment into the turning point that brings this regime to its knees - for Renee, her children, and for the future we all want to live in.

What I’m reading this week

F.B.I. Searches Home of Washington Post Journalist for Classified Documents (NYT, 1/13)

“It is exceedingly rare, even in investigations of the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, for federal agents to search a reporter’s home.”

Democrats Appear Ready to Duck a Key Fight on ICE (The Bulwark, 1/13)

“Despite the fast-spreading outrage over the actions of DHS, many Senate Democrats aren’t eager to wage a fight over the department’s budget as part of this month’s funding fight.”

If You Think MAGA Journalism Is Bad Now, Just Wait (The Bulwark, 1/14)

“If this sort of person doing this sort of work can be so richly rewarded on the right right now, it’s safe to say both that Shirley will be a major fixture of the online right for a while, and that many others will try to follow in his footsteps. But if he’s the future of right-wing journalism, the future is very bleak indeed.”

As we all prepare ourselves for more political violence, preventable tragedies and locally felt human and economic impacts of the disastrous cuts to health care by this administration, here are a few major storylines that our reporters across the COURIER network will be watching, covering, and contextualizing for our audiences - all of which will undoubtedly have enormous impacts on our media, politics, and the fate of the midterm elections this fall.

1. Cycles of illegal overreach and backlash

The horrific tragedy we saw in Minnesota this week - in which an ICE officer executed an American citizen in broad daylight - is the direct result of Donald Trump’s authoritarian and illegal consolidation of power at the federal agency level. These instances of overreach, particularly of deploying troops and masked federal agents against American citizens on American soil, are becoming far too common, and will most certainly ramp up further as the administration doubles down on unconstitutional and illegal activities. If there can be any silver lining to their increasingly abhorrent, lethal and un-American agenda, I expect far more visible and organized backlash, mobilizations, and protests by Americans this year as a result. And it’s on all of us to continue to find new ways to ensure the false narratives being shamelessly peddled by the administration and right-wing media with each new story don’t stick, that people are armed with the facts, and to help harness their increased opposition into a tipping point at the polls and beyond.

2. More oligarchs getting sweetheart deals

If 2025 was the year billionaires started flexing their influence more openly, 2026 will be the year they cash in. From football team ownership to data centers, media buyouts, and AI investments with direct regulatory implications, oligarchs are cozying up to Trump in order to secure preferential treatment and public subsidies. Look no further than the oil and gas industry, which has been in frenzied meetings with the President and his team about sucking Venezuela’s oil fields dry. And just an hour ago, I received this news alert about another OpenAI Exec joining the ranks of Trump’s top donors, surely for purely non-financial reasons…

The silver lining of this dynamic will be that with the work of COURIER and our allies in the pro-democracy media and content space, more Americans than ever will realize our political system is now designed exclusively to reward elite wealth consolidation, not the public good. Watch for growing public backlash- particularly as economic anxiety continues to rise and voters demand accountability from politicians of both parties who enable these deals.

3. Continued media & corporate capitulation

Last year, many of us watched in shock as media outlet after media outlet, corporation after corporation, sold out their values to the Trump administration out of fear or desire to curry favor. We’re only a few days into the new year, and already we’ve seen how CBS’s primetime editorial content has shifted to echo pro-Trump talking points. (ICYMI: New CBS Evening News anchor literally says “Marco Rubio, we salute you.”) Expect this dynamic to deepen in 2026, as Paramount continues to build support among the administration in its hostile takeover bid of WBD, and other companies eyeing high-profile mergers learn this new playbook.

4. A Midterm “blue wave” and new Democratic leaders emerging

Despite (or maybe because of) all this chaos, I’m optimistic about the potential for Democrats to surprise people with unprecedented wins across the board this November- including in states and districts that conventional wisdom-obsessed pollsters and pundits would deem impossible to flip. Beyond the fast-plummeting favorability of Trump and his agenda and obvious referendum effect it will have at the polls, we are also seeing more and more new leaders emerging outside of Washington who understand the urgency of this moment; not just as a fight to preserve democracy, but to reimagine the future of the Democratic Party, government as a whole, and actually fight for and deliver on the needs of working people.

These new faces come in every shape and style - some are women, young people, and organizers who cut their teeth on the ground rather than in Washington. Others are gruff speaking male candidates, union leaders and firefighters seemingly plucked out straight of the “manosphere.” These diverse emerging leaders will continue to show that authentic communication and trust can still move voters, even in the most gerrymandered or media-starved districts. If Democrats can harness that energy and focus their storytelling on solutions and stakes, there’s a real chance not only for epic levels of momentum heading into November, but to carry towards 2028. My major caveat here is that Trump and Republicans are well aware of this trend as well, and so we should also expect their f*ckery with elections, voting, and of course the expected overturning of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court to escalate concerns about free and fair elections.

5. Growth and impact of independent and progressive media and creators

Relatedly, that type of midterm “blue wave” can only happen if the infrastructure is in place to amplify messengers, stories and issues that voters care about. One reason for optimism: last year we saw rapid growth of a more dynamic, more distributed progressive media ecosystem. Independent creators, newsletters, podcasts, and grassroots media outlets are filling the void left by corporate cutbacks and legacy media’s decline.

At COURIER, we’ve seen firsthand how community-rooted storytelling can break through the noise and change perceptions of what’s possible, having a historic year for audience growth in 2025, with big plans to be announced soon. (👀).

In 2026, expect even more growth, innovation, and collaboration across these left-of-center brands, creators, and networks as progressive communicators experiment with new formats, tools, and stories that meet audiences where they already are: online, in their feeds, and in their communities. The right has had decades to build this infrastructure. The left is finally catching up.

The TL;DR is that while those of us who care about democracy and oppose corruption face many headwinds, the fight for credible, values-driven information is where the battle for 2026 begins — and where we have the most momentum to build on. I hope you’ll join us in that fight.

- Tara

What I’m reading this week

Nonprofit funding flooded right-wing media in 2024 (Chaotic Era, 1/6)

“New IRS filings made available in December show that during the 2024 calendar year, the nonprofit affiliates of 18 conservative media organizations received $260.2 million in contributions from major donors and foundations.”

Manospheres of Influence: Why young men are souring on Trump (Puck, 1/6)

“The disaffected young men who helped elect Trump are fed up with high prices, worried about A.I., and frustrated by the president’s neocon turn. And, according to exclusive new polling data, they’re souring on Trump just as they turned on Joe Biden.”

MAGA Influencers Cheered Trump’s Venezuela War. Their Audience Said ‘WTF?!’ (The Bulwark, 1/5)

“Since Maduro’s capture, right-wing media figures who have staked their careers on Trump have found themselves caught between the president and their audiences, who were apparently gullible enough to think the president’s talk about not bogging down the United States in foreign wars was real.”

What a viral YouTube video says about the future of journalism (New Yorker, 1/6)

“A streamer’s investigation of fraud in Minnesota garnered millions of views. His content was questionable, but his methods will likely inspire scores of imitators.”

There Will Be More Renee Goods (The Dispatch, 1/9)

“This is what comes of an administration that circles the wagons rather than taking accountability every time a violent incident occurs. This happened before with Marimar Martinez. It happened again Wednesday. And it’s going to keep happening. Renee Good didn’t have to die. But unless there is a culture shift away from reckless violence and toward accountability and transparency, she will not be the last person federal immigration agents kill. “

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Announces It Will Cease Operations (NYT, 1/7)

“The family-owned company that operates the newspaper cited mounting losses and labor constraints. A final edition is expected on Sunday, May 3.”

Despite the darkening political and financial headwinds, COURIER still managed to grow our reach and impact faster and farther in 2025 than we had in the previous 5 years combined, became one of the most viewed media brands on TikTok, and shaped the conversation in ways that helped secure democracy wins big and small across the country.

Here are just a few of the team’s biggest wins in 2025:

We saw exponential growth across all social media channels.

2025 was, perhaps unexpectedly, COURIER’s most successful year for audience growth. With a much smaller budget than 2024 and nearly zero dollars spent on social audience acquisition, we more than doubled our audience network-wide from 4 million on Election Day 2024 to nearly 9 million today. That growth was spread across key platforms where millions of Americans spend their time, like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

…and our national audience grew influence among Americans under 40.

While the progressive media ecosystem (finally) began to grow across the board this year, our team filled a key gap in reaching audiences decades younger than most other left-leaning outlets. I often joke that many funders and industry operatives first become familiar with COURIER’s work because their teenage or college-aged kids follow us online. There’s a reason for that: On TikTok, @couriernewsroom has become one of the largest and most-engaged news brands in the United States, and our audience there is 64% under age 34. Similarly on Instagram, 57% of our followers are under 44. We have truly become a primary news source for young people - and I will remind you, in 2028, the majority of eligible voters in America will have been born after the year 1990!

We leveled up our local social operations and built new creator partnerships.

On the ground from Phoenix to Milwaukee, our state newsrooms have been relentlessly reaching local audiences directly in their feeds through localized content and trusted messengers.

In Virginia, we built a first-of-its-kind, test-driven local news creator program, partnering with a dozen trusted social media influencers to reach their audiences directly with our news content in their social feeds. Over five months, our VA newsroom, The Dogwood, partnered with these Virginia-based creators to deliver factual, relevant local reporting on the Trump and Youngkin administrations and the governor’s race — shaping public awareness while also testing new models for sourcing, paying, and building long-term creator collaborations. Collectively, these creators gained over 13MM video views informing Virginians about their state elections and mobilizing them to participate civically in their communities, and made lifelong friendships (and many collab partnerships!) along the way.

…Continuing to build out our live events portfolio.

On both the local and national front, our team worked to build community, cultivate partnerships, and raise revenue via hosting compelling events. We held 3 national events and 5 local events in 2025, with over 1,000 in-person attendees and tens of thousands of livestream viewers, as well as a new and powerful revenue stream we’re stoked to scale in 2026.

We began to diversify revenue with grassroots support.

As Americans grew outraged by the Trump administration’s actions, many looked for ways to support meaningful opposition causes and pro-Democracy media outlets. For COURIER, that translated into a historic increase in grassroots support, with our team raising over $1.5 million this year from 45,000 small dollar donors in all 50 states.

…and most importantly, our team published hundreds of stories detailing the direct impacts of this corrupt and cruel administration on our local communities, and drove key off-year election coverage, channeling our increased reach into support for anti-MAGA victories.

Both nationally and locally, our team stepped up to produce original reporting, compelling social content, and on-the-ground coverage of the key off-year elections that took place in 2025. Whether it’s the release of the Epstein Files, the fight over redistricting in California or the statewide elections in Virginia, these political moments and races in November mattered deeply as a first major test of MAGA’s popularity since the 2024 presidential campaign. Week after week, we educated our audiences about the stakes of the elections, and voters ultimately turned out in a historic sweep for the anti-MAGA opposition.

Looking ahead

As we move into 2026, another critical election year for our country and democracy, COURIER is poised to reach more people than ever — grounded in the mission we started with: to inform, empower, and engage communities through news and information that actually meets them where and how they want to consume it. We will have so many new plans and updates to share in the new year, but for now, I just wanted to express my deep gratitude to everyone who has helped us build so much momentum in 2025, and will keep the wind in our sails next year.

Here’s to the power of hope, hard work, and practicing both in community with all of you. Wishing you all a healthy + joyful holiday season.

Tara

What I’m reading this week

The Most Powerful Politics Influencers Barely Post About Politics (WIRED, 12/17)

“New research shows that social media creators have enormous influence over their audiences’ politics—especially those who don’t normally share political content.”

Breaking precedent, networks interrupt prime time for Trump political diatribe (Popular Info, 12/18)

“Typically, networks will interrupt their primetime schedule for presidents to address wars, crises, or very significant new policies. In his remarks on Wednesday, Trump delivered his standard talking points, bragging about his mass deportation policies and tariffs and attacking Democrats and the Biden administration. The only crisis was Trump’s sagging approval ratings…”

Dan Bongino announces FBI exit (Axios, 12/17)

“Dan Bongino said Wednesday he’ll leave his role as FBI deputy director in January, hours after President Trump told reporters the former conservative commentator “wants to go back to his show.”

Nearly $900 Million Flowed in Secret to Help Harris and Trump in 2024 (NYT, 12/18)

“As part of the post-election debate, some Democrats have wondered whether the Future Forward nonprofit group left any money on the table that could have been used to help the party more. The tax filing shows that the nonprofit ended 2024 with $26.7 million on hand, but an aide to the group said that this leftover money was ineligible to be used for electoral purposes.”