Congress and the White House averted a default on the nation’s debt, ratifying a deal struck by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden. Jack Ohman leads this week’s editorial cartoon gallery captures the fraught politics of the moment by depicting McCarthy swarmed by the Republican Freedom Caucus dogs and Biden herding Democratic Progressive caucus cats.
The fact that neither side got everything it wanted signaled to Bill Bramhall that governing had occurred. Mike Luckovich thinks Biden got the best of the GOP in a game of strip poker. Joey Weatherford’s Republicans feel the same way. Nick Anderson draws Uncle Sam repeatedly hitting himself in the head with the debt ceiling hammer, saying, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?” Steve Breen draws the debt crisis as a roped steer … until the ropes come off again.
Meanwhile, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joined the crowded Republican presidential primary field. Drew Sheneman of Christie’s home state Newark Star-Ledger draws Christie telling a Trump supporter, “I’m running to give the GOP a dose of reality.” “Hard pass,” replies the man carrying a “Stop the Steal” flag. Ohman borrows the infamous image of Christie sunning himself on a closed beach during the Covid lockdown, regretting how he used to surf the Trumpism wave.
Cartoonists also keep raising the alarm about artificial intelligence, with riffs on AI replacing fast food workers; making nuclear war more likely; and hallucinating a world where humans are enslaved by robots … or is it a hallucination?
Also in the news last week: Pride Month and pushback; Russia’s victory in a now-leveled Bakhmut, Ukraine; and word that former First Lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia and is living out her days at home with former President Jimmy Carter.
Cartoons were drawn by Jack Ohman, Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and Mike Luckovich, Steve Breen and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.
View more editorial cartoon galleries.
