Ken Hughes

Author of Chasing Shadows and Fatal Politics. Bylines: @NYTimes @WashingtonPost @ConversationUS
Now @fatalpolitics.bsky.social

[Ken Hughes @FatalPolitics]

Thank you to the 15,000+ people who read my debunking of RFK Jr.'s false account of #OperationNorthwoods. Please share it with people who only know the false version. They deserve better.

[The Conversation U.S. @ConversationUS]

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s accounts of the notorious false flag operations proposed during the Kennedy years omit the most important part of the story. Hint: It's a family affair.
https://t.co/wePhLctVZN

[Ken Hughes @FatalPolitics]

Stephen Miller’s New Attack on Green-Card Applicants Is Simply a Scare Tactic

https://t.co/DUPyzLPLuT

[Miles Taylor @MilesTaylorUSA]

This isn’t a “plea deal.” It’s a tornado siren for democracy.

John Bolton’s diaries were private & contained no classified docs.

Yet he might go to prison.

Trump stole actual classified docs, lied to investigators, and reportedly hid them.

Yet he’s in the Oval Office.

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

At least 97 of the nearly 1,600 people who were charged in connection with the Capitol riot have been accused of new crimes since Jan. 6, 2021, according to a study released from @lawfare. @lukebroadwater https://t.co/KdixHNBElX

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

Zelensky sends a tough letter to Putin, stating some of the truths that his aides may be too fearful to deliver. https://t.co/GelCVZfGBP

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

There were multiple votes tonight to make the $1.8 billion cop beater fund illegal and Republicans blocked every single one, paving the way for Trump to resuscitate his slush fund.

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Applebaum: Trump is using a specific language from the 1930s: “enemies within,” “enemies of the people,” migrants and political opponents as “vermin,” migrants “poisoning the blood” of Americans.

That language comes from Hitler, Stalin and the Stasi. 1/

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

You built a career on the proposition that cancel culture was silencing brave voices who said forbidden things.

Scott Pelley said true things, professionally, without cursing or threatening anyone. You fired him for it.

JVL has it right: you never wanted to end cancel culture. You wanted to control it. The forbidden ideas were always just your ideas. Everyone else's were always going to be the problem.

The mask came off in the 60 Minutes newsroom. The staff saw it. Now everyone has.

[Fred Kaplan @fmkaplan]

Why Hegseth is firing so many senior officers, and the consequences. https://t.co/aEjIElJunp

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

Nick Bilton walked into the 60 Minutes newsroom four days after Bari Weiss fired the people who built the show. He tried to pretend he didn't know about the firings. Scott Pelley, in front of the remaining staff, would not let that stand.

"She loves 60 Minutes," Bilton said. "She's murdering 60 Minutes," Pelley said back. "She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it - and she's doing exactly that."

One of Weiss's lieutenants kept interrupting to say Pelley was being rude. Pelley kept going.

JVL's framing is the right one. The corrupter depends on the existing institution being too polite to say the obvious thing out loud. Christopher Wray resigned quietly to "preserve the integrity of the FBI." John Kelly gave print interviews after he left. Thom Tillis, John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, Jim Mattis, Bill Barr - all of them saw it. All of them objected privately. None of them said it in the room where it was happening, to the person doing it, while the cameras were still running.

Pelley said it in the room. To the person's face. In front of witnesses. While he still worked there.

That is a different thing entirely. Not a memoir. Not an anonymous source in a tell-all. Not a carefully worded statement issued after the resignation letter was already filed. The true thing, said out loud, to the people who needed to hear it, at the moment it could still matter.

Authoritarianism counts on politesse. It counts on people deciding the fight isn't worth the awkwardness, the career risk, the label of being difficult. Scott Pelley decided it was worth it. The republic needs more of that calculation to come out the same way.

[Human Rights Watch @hrw]

When the #FIFAWorldCup kicks off, most football fans visiting Mexico’s Guadalajara will have no idea of the history beneath its walkways and modern stadium.

But for some people, the surrounding area has become synonymous with excavations, exhumations, and missing loved ones.

Learn more ⤵️

[Human Rights Watch @hrw]

June 5 marks World Environment Day, and this year's occasion arrives as armed conflicts persist around the globe.

The environmental impact of war can be immense, and major attacks on oil and gas facilities have poisoned the land, seas, and skies. #WorldEnvironmentDay

Learn more ⤵️

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

This shows how the Chinese government has snuffed out not only Hong Kong's freedom but also the annual commemoration of the Tiananmen massacre. The photo from 2019 is the last time the people of Hong Kong could express their desire for democracy.

[Tammi Minoski 🟦 @TammiMinoski]

#OTD 1968: After delivering his victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, 24-year-old Sirhan Sirhan ambushed #BobbyKennedy with a .22 caliber revolver in a crowded kitchen passageway and fired eight shots -three bullets struck the Senator.
#KennedyHistory #USHistory

[Ken Hughes @FatalPolitics]

Ballroom donors won $50B in contracts after giving to Trump project, watchdog group finds

Read free gift article:
https://t.co/gCdTej2n3Y

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

Pulte referred Lisa Cook and Letitia James for criminal prosecution over mortgage document errors. Scott Bessent committed the same errors. No referral. No investigation. Bessent is in the cabinet.

Same paperwork. Three people. Three completely different outcomes based entirely on who they are to Donald Trump.

That is the man now running 18 intelligence agencies. The willingness to weaponize regulatory authority selectively wasn't a disqualification. It was the job interview.

[Ken Hughes @FatalPolitics]

Good morning, #FirstAmendmentPeople.

#FreeSpeech
#FreePress
#FreeAssembly
#FreedomOfReligion
#PeacefulRedress

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Elias Irizarry, a recent appointee to a counterterrorism job in the Defense Department, was filmed moving through restricted grounds and climbing through a broken window during the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a Post analysis. https://t.co/d7J9SOjIda

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

Remembering the excitement of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement and the brutality of the Chinese government's massacre and crackdown that ended this moment of hope 37 years ago.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Rubio once again complains US-led negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were "unfruitful":

"We invested tremendous amount of high-level time in that conflict over last year. Neither side is prepared to make concessions necessary to reach agreement."

Once again, it is necessary to point out the obvious: when you have a nation trying to murder its neighbors to steal their land, and people just trying to survive, there is no middle ground.

Ukrainians, as the victims of this unprovoked attack, cannot just agree to die under Russian occupation, rot in FSB torture chambers, and be thrown into unmarked mass graves to never be found.

We simply want to live. There is zero room for concessions. As for Russia, they can be forced to stop killing us.

You could bring them to that breaking point much faster than we can do without you, if you finally stopped this disgusting bothsidesism, stopped endless sanctions waivers, seized their shadow fleet, and armed Ukraine to the teeth.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Rep. Keating to Rubio: "I'm sure you're aware that Ukraine, country that at the time had third-largest nuclear arsenal, peacefully turned over their nuclear weapons in conjunction with Budapest Memorandum.

And in exchange for U.S. commitment to defend Ukraine if it ever came under threat. The U.S. gave its word to Ukraine that it would defend them.

And I find this amazing. In your opening remarks, as you took us all over the world and mentioned 15 different incidents where you have interceded — 15, the top 15 — not once did you mention Ukraine when you were prioritizing achievements that are there."

[Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi @CongressmanRaja]

Bill Pulte has no national security or intelligence experience. But President Trump just put him in charge of America’s intelligence community anyway.
Americans deserve intelligence leadership focused on protecting our country — not helping carry out a political revenge tour.