Katrina vanden Heuvel is the part-owner and served as the editor of the left-wing magazine The Nation from 1995 to 2019. ¹ She is a commentator for media outlets including CNN and the New York Times, as well as writing a weekly column in the Washington Post. ²

For her work at The Nation, Vanden Heuvel has received awards from Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of New York. ³

The Nation

Vanden Heuvel has written for the left-wing magazine The Nation since the late 1980s, when she joined to work as the magazine’s correspondent in the Soviet Union. In 1995, vanden Heuvel joined other investors to buy The Nation and was named editor-in-chief of the magazine. ⁴ A host of left-wing groups have recognized vanden Heuvel for her role in progressive journalism including the National Women’s Political Caucus, New York Civil Liberties Union, Center for Community Change, and Progressive Congress. ⁵

The Nation has been criticized for praising radical-left regimes during vanden Heuvel’s tenure as editor. Venezuelan socialist dictator Hugo Chavez was frequently featured in a positive light by the publication. Articles gave him accolades for social programs he founded,⁶ lauded his socialist revolution, and claimed Chavez was “not authoritarian enough.” ⁷ The magazine has also praised the Castro regime in Cuba and used communist propaganda statistics. ⁸

Vanden Heuvel is married to Stephen F. Cohen, a Russia scholar and contributor to The Nation who has been criticized for his friendliness to Vladimir Putin’s regime. Cohen has been called “Putin’s American Apologist” by the left-of-center opinion journal The New Republic. ⁹ In a 2014 interview on CNN, Cohen denied Putin was a “rank dictator,” said “Putin is not a thug,” and stated Putin’s goal is “to restore Russia from the disaster of 1991”; namely, the collapse of the Soviet Union. ¹⁰

Left-Wing Views

In a Washington Post column, vanden Heuvel advocated for bringing the Green New Deal (GND) to a vote to showcase “who on the Democratic side is prepared to stand up and who is not.” ¹¹ The GND is an environmentalist policy package characterized by critics as a “radical, top-down, socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.” ¹²

In an article for The Nation, Vanden Heuvel praised the New York state legislature for increasing rent regulations, giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, and a supporting Green New Deal-style legislation. ¹³ She specifically praised legislators aligned with the left-wing Working Families Party (WFP). Labor unions historically backed the WFP, and socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) labeled WFP “the closest thing there is to a political party that believes in my vision of democratic socialism.” ¹⁴

Vanden Heuvel has backed Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) “wealth tax” proposal which would raise taxes on 75,000 households. ¹⁵ Legal experts have debated whether or not such a tax is unconstitutional. ¹⁶

Vanden Heuvel serves on the boards of left-wing groups including Institute for Policy Studies, Campaign for America’s Future, and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. ¹⁷

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood, one of the largest pro-abortion groups in the country, counts vanden Heuvel as one of its staunchest allies. In 1993, vanden Heuvel received a Maggie Award from Planned Parenthood for her The Nation article titled “Right-to-Lifers Hit Russia.” ¹⁸ The Maggie Awards are named after Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and are used to recognize members of the media for their coverage of issues important to Planned Parenthood such as “contraception, sexuality education, teen pregnancy, abortion, and international family planning.” ¹⁹

In 2015, after congressional Republicans opened an investigation into Planned Parenthood following the release of video recordings that appeared to show officials working for Planned Parenthood selling fetal tissue and organs to researchers, vanden Heuvel wrote a piece in the Washington Post titled “The War on Planned Parenthood,” labeling the congressional inquiries and proposals to remove public funding from the massive liberal advocacy group as an “existential threat to the pro-choice movement.” ²⁰

Political Donations

Between 1989 and 2010, vanden Heuvel gave $50,000 to EMILY’s List, a group that supports pro-abortion female candidates. ²¹ In 2018, she contributed $10,000 to the Political Action Committee of Planned Parenthood. ²² The far-left Working Families Party (WFP) received $10,000 from vanden Heuvel in 2008. She further gave the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $10,000 in 2004. ²³

Dating back to 1990, vanden Heuvel has contributed to left-wing politicians including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Rep. Elanor Norton Holmes (D-DC), Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). ^{24 25 26}

1. “Katrina Vanden Heuvel.” The Nation. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/authors/katrina-vanden-heuvel/.
2. “Katrina Vanden Heuvel.” The Nation. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/authors/katrina-vanden-heuvel/.
3. “Katrina Vanden Heuvel.” The Nation. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/authors/katrina-vanden-heuvel/.
4. Carmody, Deirdre. “Editor in Deal for Nation Magazine.” The New York Times. January 14, 1995. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/business/company-news-editor-in-deal-for-nation-magazine.html.
5. “Katrina Vanden Heuvel.” The Nation. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/authors/katrina-vanden-heuvel/.
6. Parenti, Christian. “Hugo Chávez And Petro Populism”. The Nation. March 24, 2005. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/article/hugo-chavez-and-petro-populism/
7. Grandin, Greg. “The Audacity Of Hugo”. The Nation. March 12, 2013. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/article/audacity-hugo/.
8. Hobson, Anne. “The Nation‘s Sympathy for Communism.” The American Spectator. July 23, 2014. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://spectator.org/the-nations-sympathy-for-communism/
9. Chotiner, Isaac. “Meet Vladimir Putin’s American Apologist.” The New Republic. March 2, 2014. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://newrepublic.com/article/116820/vladimir-putin-defended-american-leftist.
10. “Fareed Zakaria GPS Transcript.” CNN. March 2, 2014. Accessed July 18, 2019. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1403/02/fzgps.01.html.
11. Vanden Heuvel, Katrina. “Bring on the Green New Deal Vote.” The Washington Post. February 19, 2019. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bring-on-the-green-new-deal-vote/2019/02/19/ad2d40c6-339b-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a0425e84a181.
12. McConnell, Mitch. Twitter Post. March 25, 2019, 5:18 P.M. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1110289975386492929
13. Vanden Heuvel, Katrina. “The Working Families Party and a New Class of Progressive Lawmakers Are Revolutionizing Albany.” The Nation. July 1, 2019. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.thenation.com/article/working-families-party-albany-new-york-state-senate/.
14. Levy, Pema. “Bernie Sanders’ secret weapon in New York.” Mother Jones. April 18, 2016. Accessed July 17, 2019. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/bernie-sanders-has-secret-weapon-new-york
15. Vanden Heuvel, Katrina. “Warren’s Push for a Wealth Tax Could Be a Game Changer.” The Washington Post. January 29, 2019. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/warrens-push-for-a-wealth-tax-could-be-a-game-changer/2019/01/29/a6beced4-232a-11e9-90cd-dedb0c92dc17_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.79285705bc69.
16. Reilly, Peter J. “Wealth Tax – That Pesky Constitution Might Get In The Way.” Forbes. June 25, 2019. Accessed July 18, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2019/06/25/wealth-tax-that-pesky-constitution-might-get-in-the-way/#2082c2a8779c.
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18. “Katrina Vanden Heuvel.” BillMoyers.com. Accessed July 17, 2019. https://billmoyers.com/guest/katrina-vanden-heuvel/.
19. “37th Annual Planned Parenthood Federation of America Maggie Awards.” Planned Parenthood. Accessed July 17, 2019. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/5714/2730/4541/Maggies_Nomination_Form_2015_FINAL.pdf.
20. Vanden Heuvel, Katrina. “The War on Planned Parenthood.” The Washington Post. October 06, 2015. Accessed July 17, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-war-on-planned-parenthood/2015/10/06/d27409f2-6b83-11e5-aa5b-f78a98956699_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a770be6e0844.
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24. “Donor Lookup: Katrina vanden Heuvel.” OpenSecrets. Accessed July 17^th, 2019. https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=desc&page=3&q=Katrina+vanden+Heuvel&sort=D&type=donors
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