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Molly Ball
Molly Ball is TIME's National Political Correspondent.
Recent Articles
What Elon Musk Really Believes
In trying to read his motivations, both left and right seem to be getting Musk wrong
By Molly Ball
April 26, 2022
The Sunrise Movement Rethinks Approach to Creating Change
The doctor couldn’t understand why Kidus Girma wouldn’t just eat the sandwich. It was October 2021, and Girma, 26, was starving. He hadn’t eaten anything solid in four days. His vision was blurred, his heart...
By Molly Ball
March 17, 2022
How the Biden Administration Lost Its Way
One year in, U.S. President Joe Biden faces a long list of troubles and growing doubts that he’s fit for the job
By Molly Ball and Brian Bennett
January 20, 2022
Sen. Sherrod Brown Has Some Thoughts About 'Succession'
The chairman of the Senate banking committee believes the show is pretty realistic
By Molly Ball
January 14, 2022
Harry Reid Paved the Way for Dems to Kill the Filibuster
“There will come a time when we will all be gone,” Harry Reid wrote in 2008, “and the institutions that we now serve will be run by men and women not yet living, and those...
By Molly Ball
January 12, 2022
Harry Reid, Understated Political Strategist, Dies
The former Senate Majority Leader knew his greatest strength was not soaring rhetoric but the inside game
By Molly Ball
December 28, 2021
Inside Mystic Valley and the Debate Over America's Classroom
Eric Henry couldn’t believe what the 5th-graders at his triplets’ school were being assigned to read. On Jan. 31, the electrical engineer and Navy veteran fired off an email to a group of fellow parents...
By Molly Ball/Malden, Mass.
November 22, 2021
How Big Business Dumped Trump
The CEOs started calling before President Trump had even finished speaking. What America’s titans of industry were hearing from the Commander in Chief was sending them into a panic. It was Nov. 5, 2020, two...
By Molly Ball
November 1, 2021
How Chuck Schumer Became Key to the Biden Agenda
How the Senate's Great Kibitzer became the key to the Biden agenda
By Molly Ball
September 2, 2021
What Mike Fanone Can't Forget
D.C. police officer Michael Fanone defended American democracy on January 6. Now, he's defending the history of that day
By Molly Ball
August 5, 2021
Author J.D. Vance Turns Into Pro-Trump Candidate
“I’m not just a flip-flopper, I’m a flip-flop-flipper on Trump,” J.D. Vance says with a laugh, slicing into a half-stack of breakfast pancakes. The Hillbilly Elegy author and newly minted Republican Senate candidate is sitting...
By Molly Ball/Cincinnati
July 7, 2021
America's Racial Awakening Forces Virginia Military Institute To Confront Its Past—And Future
It was a cold morning last December when they finally took Stonewall Jackson down. No ceremony was held, no protesters gathered; snowflakes swirled in the air. A crane silently hoisted the enormous bronze Confederate general...
By Molly Ball/Lexington, Va.
May 27, 2021
Politics, Race, Religion: What Really Divides Americans?
America is divided—but by what? Race, religion, political party, education level: all are sources of significant social disunity these days, as people increasingly have trouble understanding or relating to those outside their identity groups. But...
By Chris Wilson and Molly Ball
May 20, 2021
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election
The secret history of the shadow campaign that saved the election
By Molly Ball
February 4, 2021
Republicans Are Split Over Trump's Second Impeachment—and the Party’s Future
"What are you afraid of?" Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican congresswoman from Washington state, demanded of her colleagues as they considered the second impeachment of Donald Trump. “I’m not afraid of losing my job,” Herrera...
By Molly Ball
January 20, 2021
The GOP's Last Chance to Quit Trump
As the House of Representatives voted Wednesday on the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, the leader of the chamber’s Republicans, Kevin McCarthy, sought to have it both ways. Trump’s actions were wrong, McCarthy said,...
By Molly Ball
January 13, 2021
How Trump's Effort to Steal the Election Tore Apart the GOP—and the Country
"We will never give up, we will never concede!" President Donald Trump told the crowd of supporters he had summoned to Washington on Jan. 6. They heard him and obeyed. Within hours, a mob of...
By Molly Ball
January 7, 2021
America Is Caught Between Crisis and Confusion
As Donald Trump refuses to concede, Joe Biden prepares to take power
By Molly Ball
November 12, 2020
Even If Biden Wins, It's Trump's America
No matter the outcome of the presidential election, America’s rifts are only deepening
By Molly Ball
November 4, 2020
Why Fears of Post-Election Chaos Are Overblown
Why fears of post-election chaos are overblown
By Molly Ball
October 22, 2020
Donald Trump’s Last Stand
With his challenger in the lead and the nation at a crossroads, Donald Trump makes his last stand
By Molly Ball/Ocala, Fla.
October 22, 2020
Donald Trump Faces a Personal and Political Vulnerability
When the President gets COVID-19, America, too, must contemplate its frailty
By Molly Ball
October 8, 2020
How the 1st Presidential Debate Devolved Into Chaos
It did not take long for the first presidential debate of the 2020 general election to spiral totally out of control. President Donald Trump simply would not stop talking—badgering, heckling, taunting and sniping at both...
By Molly Ball and Charlotte Alter
September 30, 2020
What to Watch For In Trump and Biden's First Presidential Debate
Four years ago, Donald Trump prepared to debate his general-election opponent for the first time. Down in the polls to an experienced, traditional pol, he had been reduced to spreading weird rumors and casting doubt...
By Molly Ball
September 28, 2020
Why Trump’s Move to Fill the Court Raises the Election's Stakes
There are many theories about why Donald Trump won the presidency, but Mitch McConnell gets some of the credit. In February 2016, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, paving the way for then-President Obama to...
By Molly Ball
September 23, 2020
Why Donald Trump Thinks He Can Flip Minnesota
There’s at least one person who thinks President Trump is likely to win Minnesota in November, even though polls show him well behind in the state. “There’s no way that I’m nine points down,” Trump...
By Molly Ball/Bemidji, Minn.
September 21, 2020
The Speech Joe Biden Waited His Whole Life to Give
Joe Biden gave the biggest speech of his life to a near-empty room, his words hanging in the air against a backdrop of hermetic silence. There was nothing fancy or newfangled about it: a graybeard...
By Molly Ball
August 21, 2020
How Kamala Harris' Senate Record Reveals What Kind of National Leader She May Be
Her time in the U.S. Senate reveals what kind of national leader the Democrats' VP pick may be
By Molly Ball
August 20, 2020
The Primaries Were a Mess. November Can Be Better
A report obtained exclusively by TIME explains how to fix the problems that plagued the primaries.
By Molly Ball and Lissandra Villa
August 13, 2020
What the Harris Pick Means for Democrats
In selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden did more than make history by putting the first Black woman and first Asian-American on a major national ticket. He all but...
By Molly Ball and Charlotte Alter
August 11, 2020
How COVID-19 Changed the 2020 Election
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we campaign, how we vote and what we value. Here's why that matters
By Molly Ball
August 6, 2020
Why Sen. Tim Scott Is Still Hopeful on Police Reform
Republicans and Democrats in Congress are still in active talks to reform policing on the federal level
By Lissandra Villa and Molly Ball
July 23, 2020
Education May Become the Pandemic’s Latest Casualty
Children tumble off a yellow school bus, where every other seat is marked with caution tape. Wearing whimsical masks—one has whiskers, another rhinestones—they wait to get their temperatures checked before filing into the one-story school...
By Katie Reilly/Middletown, Conn. and Molly Ball
July 23, 2020
How President Trump Politicized School Reopenings Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
The President practically snarled as he made the accusation. "They think it's going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed," Donald Trump said in the East Room of the White...
By Molly Ball
July 9, 2020
Inside the Legal Battles to Save Democracy From the Trump Administration
Since the start of the Trump presidency, non-profit Protect Democracy has cast itself in a role its name suggests: defender of America's government against the threat of authoritarianism
By Molly Ball
June 25, 2020
Why Valerie Jarrett Doesn't Support Defunding Police
Valerie Jarrett said the protests throughout the country in the wake of George Floyd's killing have "shone a light" on issues between police and communities of color. But President Barack Obama's former senior advisor said...
By Tessa Berenson and Molly Ball
June 9, 2020
'We All Have to Do Better'
Rep. Val Demings, a former police chief, said during Thursday's TIME100 Talks that she is watching how law enforcement is handling protests
By Lissandra Villa and Molly Ball
June 4, 2020
Whitmer: Trump's Attacks Complicate COVID-19 Response
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said during Thursday's TIME100 Talks that partisanship is complicating the response to the coronavirus pandemic
By Lissandra Villa and Molly Ball
May 28, 2020
Why Stacey Abrams Is Candid About Wanting to Be Vice President
Stacey Abrams took part in the TIME100 Talks Thursday and addressed her interest in serving as Joe Biden's running mate
By Lissandra Villa and Molly Ball
May 21, 2020
How Nancy Pelosi Saved the Affordable Care Act
As she pleaded with her Democratic sisters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had tears in her eyes. She knew they hated what they were being asked to do. She hated it, too. But if they didn’t...
By Molly Ball
May 6, 2020
Pelosi Is Trying to Save the Economy—Again
After passing four massive coronavirus relief bills, the House Speaker's legislative talents have been put on urgent display
By Molly Ball
April 30, 2020
Governors Take Charge in Coronavirus Response
Cut loose by Trump, America's governors are looking to one another for how to return to normal life
By Molly Ball
April 30, 2020
What Wisconsin's Election Can Teach Us About November
As voters in masks and gloves waited in line for hours to cast ballots on Tuesday, the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly insisted everything was fine. The election, Robin Vos said, was “incredibly safe.” But...
By Molly Ball
April 9, 2020
Biden's Super Tuesday Surge
"I'm above the ground,” Joe Biden said in Los Angeles the morning of Super Tuesday. The Democratic presidential candidate gripped a styrofoam cup of ice cream in his left hand, the city’s mayor looking over...
By Molly Ball
March 4, 2020
Bloomberg Wants to Fix America
Suppose, Mike Bloomberg is telling me, there’s been some sort of explosion. First of all, you want to be ready. “The first thing is preparation,” he says. “You don’t ever want to be in a...
By Molly Ball/Houston
March 2, 2020
Desperate Democrats Brawl in Chaotic South Carolina Debate
The stage in Charleston was set for a pile-on. Senator Bernie Sanders stood in the middle of the seven-candidate field, flanked by competitors all too aware that his lead in the Democratic primary is on...
By Molly Ball
February 25, 2020
Bloomberg Bombs, Warren Fights Back
Going into Wednesday’s Democratic debate, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg loomed over the field like a colossus. His hundreds of millions of dollars in TV ads had desperate Democratic voters casting him as a...
By Molly Ball and Philip Elliott
February 20, 2020
Front-Runner
Sanders’s success in the first two contests makes him the undeniable front-runner
By Charlotte Alter/Nashua, N.H. , Molly Ball/Concord, N.H. , Philip Elliott/Manchester, N.H. and Lissandra Villa/Manchester, N.H.
February 12, 2020
Low-Grade Panic in New Hampshire
This is the room that scares the crap out of the Democratic establishment: a college gymnasium in Keene, N.H., packed to the rafters with nearly 2,000 Bernie Sanders fans joyfully noodle-dancing to a Vermont-based jam...
By Molly Ball
February 11, 2020
The Biggest Takeaways From the New Hampshire Democratic Debate
With voting underway for the Democratic nomination, seven of the party’s presidential candidates met for a debate—and the collective anxiety was palpable. There’s no frontrunner, the president has just been acquitted for impeachment and voters...
By Molly Ball/Goffstown, N.H. , Philip Elliott/Goffstown, N.H. and Charlotte Alter/Goffstown, N.H.
February 7, 2020
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