Mollie Hemingway

Early in the 2016 presidential campaign, she described then-candidate Donald Trump as "a demagogue with no real solutions for anything at all."[4] However, since then, she has been staunchly pro-Trump,[4] with Politico describing her as "a reliably pro-Trump commentator",[10] while Salon called her The Federalist's "most reliable Trump defender".[11] The New York Times wrote in 2020 that Hemingway's columns "have earned presidential retweets and affirmation for their scathing criticism of Democrats and the news media, whom she accuses of lying about just about everything when it comes to the president."[4]

In May 2017, Hemingway defended Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.[12] In July 2017, after Comey testified to Congress, Hemingway questioned Comey's character, saying "this is not a choir boy here. [Comey] could teach masterclasses in how to cover your own behind and engage in typical Washington, DC shenanigans."[13]

In February 2018, she argued that Carter Page, a former Trump campaign advisor who had been subjected to intelligence surveillance since 2014, had his civil liberties violated.[14] Hemingway warned, "if the civil rights and civil liberties of Carter Page can be violated, they can be violated for anyone."[14] Page, who had murky relationships with Russia and unusually pro-Putin views, had been the subject of attempted recruitment by Russian intelligence since 2013.[14] In April 2019, the Mueller Report revealed that investigators found no direct evidence that Page coordinated Trump campaign activities with the Russian government.[15][16]

In May 2018, Hemingway claimed that the theory that FBI spied on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and said that this was "unprecedented and scandalous".[17] Hemingway's claims were retweeted by President Trump.[17] Vox countered Hemingway, stating that while an FBI informant did meet with several Trump campaign advisers, the FBI didn't actually intend to spy on Trump, but was instead "most likely part of a legitimate counterintelligence operation targeted at Russia’s election interference campaign..."[18]

In November 2018, Hemingway described Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as "very Stalinist-type approach to criminal justice".[19]

In September 2019, Hemingway showed that a New York Times story containing allegations about Brett Kavanaugh omitted that there was no corroboration from a supposed victim.[20] The New York Times corrected the omission after Democratic presidential candidates had used the story when advocating Kavanaugh's impeachment.[21]

In a November 2019 Fox News appearance, Hemingway purposely named the alleged whistleblower whose whistleblowing exposed the Trump-Ukraine scandal.[22]

In June 2020, she accused the media of fabricating reports that law enforcement used tear gas and excessive force against peaceful protestors to clear a path for Trump to stage a photo op in front of St. John's Church.[4] Law enforcement later acknowledged that it did in fact shoot pepper-based irritants into the crowd of peaceful protestors.[4]

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank criticized conservative panelists, including Hemingway, for concluding in a discussion that marriage is good for women.[23] Hemingway responded with her own column, "Dana Milbank Is Incoherent On Marriage". Hemingway wrote another column later that year criticizing Milbank, "Friends Don't Let Friends Read Dana Milbank".

In 2016, New York Times writer Ana Marie Cox characterized Hemingway as "no fan of Donald Trump", despite writing for conservative publication The Federalist. Cox characterized Hemingway as surprisingly open on issues of marriage and sexuality for a conservative Christian, saying she "sound[s] a little bit like a feminist in talking about sex..."[24]

Charlotte Hays of the Independent Women's Forum described her as "a lightning rod in the debates about feminism and religious liberty" and, "a big deal in conservative-leaning intellectual circles of the nation’s capital."[25]

Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine has said that Hemingway's work is becoming increasingly reactionary during the Trump era, adding that she has joined a cadre of conservatives whose "increasingly right-wing character has been mixed with a conviction that Democratic elections are inherently fraudulent, and that extra-legal processes can be justified as countermeasures".[26]