Charles M. Blow
@CharlesMBlow • 519,938 subscribers
Creator of @BlowTheStack Substack, @Harvard fellow. @MSNBC political analyst. Lecturer. Author of #TheDevilYouKnow & #FireShutUpInMyBones, Ex-@NYTimes columnist
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In the first excerpt from my interview for The Root with Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, I ask how his African origins informed his worldview. (His was born in Uganda, moved to South Africa when he was five, before coming to the U.S. when he was seven.) He says, “I’m so proud to be a son of Africa.” You can watch the full interview on Youtube. #zohranmamdani
Charles M. Blow129,110 views • 19 days ago
This is what has been unleashed in this country: a return to emboldened racism. They feel validated and vindicated. They no longer have to couch their bigotry in polite language. It can now, once again, be raw and visceral. This is what we are fighting people.
Charles M. Blow339,766 views • 1 month ago
Ma’am, now that I know that you are stalking my social media, let me give you the clip that you were trying to avoid but ironically created. I asked a rather innocuous question in a mild tone: “Do you acknowledge that Joe Biden won the election?” But then she thought she was *turning it* when she delivered that weak line that she’d been practicing in the mirror all afternoon. Wrong move. The difference between me and you, ma’am, is age, experience, and a wicked tongue as sharp as a knife. I don’t need to practice a line. I’m a seasoned gatherer. I do this as easily as I breathe. “You come at the King you best not miss.” — Omar, “The Wire”
Charles M. Blow123,477 views • 1 month ago
Cheering a man who is willing to destroy another man’s life in order to defend his lie is repugnant. And yet, that is precisely what this man was doing. Donald Trump is pressuring U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to “re-visit” her decision to drop the felony vandalism case against former Olympian David Hearn. Pirro’s office determined that the damage to the reflecting pool actually resulted from botched contractor work and a rushed renovation. Trump is embarrassed after pushing the vandalism lie and is willing to prosecute what Pirro’s office had deemed an innocent man. Outrageous. Ben came on tv with one mission and one talking point: to recast Trump’s brazen, immoral lawfare as the epitome of transparency, a virtue rather than a vice. He never even acknowledged Hearn. (Listen to how many times he say transparent/transparency in this short clip.) This is why I’m so aggressively dismissive of these people; they are accomplices to Trump’s evil. They help sell it to the masses. Someone, some group of people, insistent on truth and calling out corruption, must stand up and push back. I volunteer! These are not benign political debates to me. Every night, authoritarianism is being normalized, often by employing falsehood and misrepresentation, and I won’t simply play the “game” of gentlemen’s disagreement, in which both sides are deserving of honor and respect. F*** that! I’m calling it out. Someone has to. Our rights are on the line. Our country is on the line.
Charles M. Blow31,909 views • 8 days ago
I feel strongly about this: journalists have an ethical responsibility to call these election lies what they are. We just stop hiding behind the euphemistic “without proof.” Or democracy is fragile and under assault. Patrician journalistic niceties serve no one is a moment of crisis, not even journalism. We are called to reveal and convey truth. It starts with every interaction. It starts in the moment. It starts to their faces. It feels good to be free to do what I think is right.
Charles M. Blow151,292 views • 2 months ago
Thursday, I interviewed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani for @the.root. The interview, at New York’s City Hall, was a wide-ranging interview covering everything from how his African origins shaped his worldview, his relationship with the president, the declining Black population of the city, his position on reparations, and the appeal of democratic socialism. Stay tuned to The Root for the full interview, which will be released next week. #mamdani #democraticsocialism #reparations
Charles M. Blow52,020 views • 23 days ago
This was my first time meeting Isaiah Martin , and the first thing I said to him was that as black man of a certain age, I swell with pride with I see young black men like him doing their thing. I wanted to encourage him — not that he needed it — the same way that I would want people to encourage my children, all of whom are older than Isaiah by the way. Lol Black people must always resist the competition-for-the-only-spot foolishness that the world tries to force on up. I went to Black schools all my life. Our philosophy was different: you rise, I rise, we rise together. The world said there was limited space for black faces and black voices; we simply made more. We encourages, fought for and cheered each other. Isaiah is whip smart and good on tv. He has a bright future ahead of him. And this uncle will be cheering.
Charles M. Blow64,368 views • 1 month ago
Imagine coming on tv to say that Democrats only questioned a female accuser because she accused a Democrat when less than a week earlier you had come on the very same show and questioned a female accuser because she had accused Trump. Imagine knowing that I was going to be on the panel with you and not anticipating that I would have ALL the receipts. Imagine getting so nervous when I threaten to read your words back to you that you issue what sounded to me like a threat to sue. “Why is no one readdd-dy” — *Miranda Priestly voice, Devil Wears Prada*
Charles M. Blow68,496 views • 2 months ago
Hypocrisy hunting is one of my favorite sports. Over 15 months ago, former gambling industry executive Randy Fine was running for Congress in Florida. Trump had endorsed him. Then he tweeted: “‘Palestinian’ is another word for demon.” He wasn’t widely condemned for it. He didn’t apologize. The president didn’t retract his endorsement. In fact, the tweet remains up to this day. Fine won his race and is now a sitting U.S. congressman. On the other hand, conservatives can’t stop talking about people like New York’s Darializa Avila Chevalier, also running for Congress, who has since deleted her controversial tweets. Why the different treatment for a similar offense? Because these people don’t really care about hate; they care about using any and everything as a weapon against their opponents. So, I had one mission that night: make them condemn, on air, their own Republican hate speech. They didn’t have a choice. Mission accomplished!
Charles M. Blow42,643 views • 1 month ago
The vile comment about Michelle Obama is part of a nearly 20-year project to deny and defile the Obamas because their very existence confronted and did damage to the centuries-old lie of white supremacy and white control. Part of that project hardened into a cruel conspiracy: Barack was gay and Michelle was trans. It was an attempt to emasculate him and defeminize her, while creating a scandal and branding them as secret-keepers and liars. As long as the Obamas exist as qualified, competent, unmarred people, an example of excellence, they remain dangerous. I had to open the library for this man so that he could read and get read. #ReadingRainbow
Charles M. Blow39,060 views • 2 months ago
All you know?! lol. They send us these topics six hours before the show! I’m always flabbergasted that other panelists show up seemingly unprepared and having not done deep research. The privilege of believing that you don’t need to prepare. Not me. By the time I arrive I’ve researched the topics and every person on the panel. I know everything they’ve ever written or said about the topics. #MrReceipts
Charles M. Blow31,244 views • 1 month ago
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot to death by ICE in Houston. That is the tragic topic of discussion. But because she couldn’t defend it, she deflected to a pardon case in Minnesota, a thousand miles away, and a crime, admittedly heinous, committed 20 years ago. But if you are going to invoke the unrelated case, please at least have researched it thoroughly. Of course, they never do. They are lazy at this job. I, on the other hand, anticipate everything. It’s easy because they are so predictable. I researched this case all afternoon. It was complicated. This man was convicted, served his sentence, and now had a family. The pardon wasn’t letting him out of prison; he had been out. But more consequentially, the victim in this case, now a 30+ year-old woman, petitioned for him to be pardoned. If you are going to tell the story, KNOW the whole story. #MrReceipts
Charles M. Blow22,146 views • 1 month ago
During my appearance this afternoon on The Arena on CNN, Republicans tried to lecture about the “extremism” and “radicalism” of the Democratic Socialists who won in NY. Absolutely not! Republicans inflicted the abomination of DJT on us. I don’t want to hear a damned thing about “extremism” from that side of politics. It’s time to take the gloves off and fight like hell for our country and way of life. And, don’t be handcuffed thinking you have to play be a different, stricter set of rules.
Charles M. Blow29,704 views • 1 month ago
THROWBACK: Nine years ago, ditzy Kayleigh McEnany decided to pet me on the arm like a dog while she was disparaging me, and that did not end well. Lol. Imagine the audacity of this white woman arguing access to this Black man’s body under the false banner of patriotism! Turn the glove inside out: what Black man could ever argue access to a white woman’s body? Too many noosed-neck dangling from Southern trees for that. So, NO MA’AM, we are not doing that! #UnhandMe #HappyJuneteenth
Charles M. Blow29,094 views • 1 month ago
![From the Harvard School of Public Health on Nov. 20, 2025: “[Atul Gawande] wrote a Nov. 5 article in the New Yorker about the devastating impact of the loss of USAID funds around the world … In the article, Gawande cited an analysis in The Lancet that estimated that USAID assistance—aimed at combatting diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and polio, reducing maternal and child deaths, and fighting malnutrition—had saved 92 million lives over two decades. “The dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols, ‘has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children,’ Gawande wrote.” Graham knew this issue more than most in Congress. He knew the suffering. He knew that people would die if the aid was cut. But, he cheered its cutting for political reasons, to do Trump’s budding and stay in the circle of power. Disgusting! I will not mourn a man who callously allowed children to die. @oxfaminternational OxfamAmerica](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2076817673191575862/amplify_video_thumb/2076817524700704768/img/0C1XqcUIoCXgDb2L.jpg)
From the Harvard School of Public Health on Nov. 20, 2025: “[Atul Gawande] wrote a Nov. 5 article in the New Yorker about the devastating impact of the loss of USAID funds around the world … In the article, Gawande cited an analysis in The Lancet that estimated that USAID assistance—aimed at combatting diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and polio, reducing maternal and child deaths, and fighting malnutrition—had saved 92 million lives over two decades. “The dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols, ‘has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children,’ Gawande wrote.” Graham knew this issue more than most in Congress. He knew the suffering. He knew that people would die if the aid was cut. But, he cheered its cutting for political reasons, to do Trump’s budding and stay in the circle of power. Disgusting! I will not mourn a man who callously allowed children to die. @oxfaminternational OxfamAmerica
Charles M. Blow16,637 views • 1 month ago
Is it too much to ask for a conservative debate partner who sticks to the truth for the whole hour? I tried to throw this man some rope when he said the Electoral College wasn’t rooted in racism. Take the word “rooted” off the table — surely you’re not saying the Electoral College had NOTHING to do with slavery. He then said exactly that, so I had to school him on national TV. Thanks, my girl … for calling it. #WhatDidYouLearnInSchool
Charles M. Blow24,290 views • 1 month ago