Opinion, comment and editorials of the day

Maria Corina Machado, banned opposition presidential primary candidate for the Vente Venezuela party, celebrates during an election night rally in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023

(Image credit: Gaby Oraa / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 30 January 2024

'Venezuela's Maduro tricks Biden — again'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

Venezuela's decision to bar popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from running for president "was predictable," says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. The Biden administration temporarily "lifted Trump-era oil and gas sanctions" after Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro pledged in October to work with the opposition toward free elections. Machado would be "a heavy favorite" in any fair vote, given Maduro's destruction of the economy. The White House was "naive" to think Maduro would keep his word.

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E. Jean Carroll once "blazed trails as a gonzo-style journalist," writes Jessica Bennet in The New York Times. Ever since she accused Donald Trump of a 1990s sexual assault, he called her a liar, and she sued for defamation, people see her, at best, as a former advice columnist. At worst, she's "the crazy Trump rape lawsuit lady." Beyond defamation, her case was about a woman, "long past middle age, who dared to claim she indeed still had value."

The romance between Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has "destabilized MAGA," says A.B. Stoddard at The Bulwark. With the Chiefs advancing to the Super Bowl, "addled Trumpers" insist the game will be fixed to help "brainwash" Swifties into liberalism and prop up the "woke NFL." What really "has MAGA filling up its diapers" is the fear Swift will encourage her 450 million social media followers to vote for Biden.

A dozen United Nations workers "allegedly helped carry out the Oct. 7 massacre of Jewish civilians," says Sean Durns in the Washington Examiner. If true, their United Nations Relief and Works Agency deserves no "role in Gaza after the war." The agency already had a "troubled history." Created in 1949 to resettle Palestinian Arabs, it views all Palestinians as refugees until they return to Israel, meaning it thinks the conflict can "only end with the Jewish state's destruction."

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.