John Bowden
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jbowden.bsky.social
John Bowden
@jbowden.bsky.social
DC correspondent for The Independent.

Orioles fan, Elon University alum.
Reposted by John Bowden
Really cool project that @jbowden.bsky.social ,
@alicjahagopian.bsky.social and I worked on for the last month:

Trump set off a nuclear war on redistricting, with Democrats pledging to fight fire with fire. So how would the map look if both sides go nuclear?
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Doomsday scenarios of Texas and California going nuclear over redistricting
A mid-decade redrawing of congressional maps would have implications far beyond the 2026 midterm elections, write John Bowden and Eric Garcia. The Independent illustrates, with interactive maps by Ali...
www.independent.co.uk
August 26, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by John Bowden
As Texas House Republicans passed their map, Democrats in California plan to counterstrike. Here's what the congressional map might look like, and what actions Democratic governors can (and can't take). via me and @jbowden.bsky.social
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Doomsday scenarios of Texas and California going nuclear over redistricting
A mid-decade redrawing of congressional maps would have implications far beyond the 2026 midterm elections, write John Bowden and Eric Garcia. The Independent’s interactive maps illustrate the Cold Wa...
www.independent.co.uk
August 25, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Here's Karoline Leavitt truly not knowing what she is talking about:
EARHARDT: Dems were spreading the narrative that we don't need the National Guard in DC bc crime has gone down around 30%, but then we heard those numbers might be inaccurate. Can you clear it up? Are those numbers correct?

LEAVITT: These numbers are absolutely correct. We're proud of these efforts
August 14, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by John Bowden
uhhhhhhhhh
EARHARDT: Dems were spreading the narrative that we don't need the National Guard in DC bc crime has gone down around 30%, but then we heard those numbers might be inaccurate. Can you clear it up? Are those numbers correct?

LEAVITT: These numbers are absolutely correct. We're proud of these efforts
August 14, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by John Bowden
epic re-frame here
August 6, 2025 at 12:40 PM
I talked to
@abdulelsayed.bsky.social
about the Senate race in Michigan and the lessons 2024 should teach the Democratic Party:

"These people made a calculated decision about who they needed and who they didn't. And it turns out that that decision was way off.”
August 4, 2025 at 11:37 PM
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Let’s just take a moment to thank Donald Jr for his clear eyed, and steadfast determination to get answers with Epstein. He says to ask ourselves DAILY what SCUM would be against disclosure and truth? Hmmm….
July 21, 2025 at 11:40 PM
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July 22, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Reposted by John Bowden
Any Democrat who can answer a question without 50 words of focus group-speak stands out rn
In response to White House staffer Stephen Miller’s comments, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said: “If we wanted a white supremacist’s opinion, we’d ask. But we don’t. So we won’t. Also, Minneapolis is great.”
Watch: Senior Trump adviser dumps on Minneapolis, prompting retort from Mary Moriarty
Stephen Miller’s comments are the latest in a recent string from Trump loyalists targeting Minneapolis.
bit.ly
July 17, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by John Bowden
Shane Gillis, hosting the ESPYS: “Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here but I guess it got deleted. Must have probably deleted itself right? Probably never existed, actually. Let’s move on as a country and ignore that.”
July 17, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by John Bowden
Trump to the President of Liberia: "Such good English. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?"

English is the official language of Liberia...
July 9, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by John Bowden
Riley Gaines spinning coming 5th in a college swim meet into a career as a political commentator says a lot about the dynamics of right-wing punditry.
Gaines: “You have to remember, it’s Joe Biden who allowed millions and millions and millions of Democrats into this country…”
July 6, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Trump's dig at Tucker over audience size was very telling. He's leaning back into pro-war Fox News as the "manosphere" and paleoconservatives react with horror to the prospect of another war in the Middle East: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Trump clings to friendly Fox News as Tucker Carlson and ‘manosphere’ sour on Iran war
New media figures like Joe Rogan and Theo Von are increasingly backing away from Trump as he plots war with Iran. They’re driving him back into the arms of Fox News, writes John Bowden
www.independent.co.uk
June 19, 2025 at 6:12 PM
For our next very expensive study we'll be asking those monkeys with the typewriters if they really understood the theme of Macbeth or not
New research from MIT found that those who used ChatGPT can’t remember any of the content of their essays.

Key takeaway: the product doesn’t suffer, but the process does. And when it comes to essays, the process *is* how they learn.

arxiv.org/pdf/2506.088...
June 19, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Does this qualify as waste, fraud, abuse, or all three?
SIXTY federal agents kitted out like they were taking on Osama Bin Laden to raid a swap meet.

The ONLY people they ended up arresting were to people already going through immigration court proceedings, seemingly rearrested because ICE agents didn’t want to go home empty-handed.
June 18, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Reposted by John Bowden
a nation on edge holds its breath as the former host of celebrity apprentice huddles with his advisors, the wrestlemania ceo and the former co-host of fox & friends weekends
June 17, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Trump is, by all accounts, inching the U.S. to the brink of war with Iran. By doing so, he's "angrily hemorrhaging" his own voting coalition, one of his supporters wrote on Tuesday.

www.independent.co.uk/news/trump-i...
Trump isn’t just burning his MAGA coalition over Iran he’s inspiring a new one
Trump’s sudden re-embrace of the ‘neocons’ he just recently spurned is leaving Democrats a major political opening — if they can seize it, writes John Bowden
www.independent.co.uk
June 17, 2025 at 11:44 PM
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to be clear: when they write "Democrats" they actually mean Third Way and a guy who was a Deputy Mayor 25 years ago
June 14, 2025 at 8:32 PM
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I don't think anybody's quite gotten to the full Mike Lee story. He rarely talks in hallways, now posts conspiratorial stuff regularly, went from 2016 warning against Trump to working with members of his team ahead of 1/6/21.
Lately a cheerleader for nixing NATO, Fed, impeaching judges, etc.
June 16, 2025 at 12:26 PM
3 months. He's been sitting on this reply for 3 months.
The Foreign Minister of Poland quote tweets Elon Musk’s reply to him from a few months ago.
June 5, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by John Bowden
We've got to find better terms than "baseless" for this stuff. Unhinged, Cult belief, there's plenty terms out there the press could use to inform if they didn't think informing you was biased
June 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by John Bowden
NEW: The Trump administration has conceded that it improperly deported another Salvadoran man in violation of a court order — blaming a "confluence of administrative errors."

The man's lawyer plans to demand his return.

www.politico.com/news/2025/05...
May 30, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by John Bowden
been saying this for like 3 years now, the core constituency of the "manosphere" is not Gen Z or teenage boys, it is 35-55 year old dudes who wish they were still teenage boys
How do famous right-wing influencers actually poll with young men in 2025?

Rogan: 27% favorable, 35% unfavorable, 45% don't know/never heard of
Theo Von: 21% fav, 16% unfav, 55% dk
Andrew Tate: 12% fav, 47% unfav, 36% dk

Source: iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/5...
50th Edition - Spring 2025
A new national poll from the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School reveals a generation navigating financial hardship, frayed social bond
iop.harvard.edu
May 28, 2025 at 6:55 PM
That common thing where you accidentally refer to yourself as divorced on national TV
Dan Bongino has a nice cry on Fox & Friends: "I gave up everything for this. I mean, my wife is struggling... I stare at these 4 walls all day in DC, you know, by myself, divorced from my wife. Not divorced, but I mean, separated. And it's hard."

(Note that Brian Kilmeade has to encourage him lol)
May 29, 2025 at 4:37 PM