America's 250th birthday party has gotten political. So did its last big one.

This episode was produced by Kelli Wessinger and Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King.

The Capitol and Lincoln Memorial near a video display showing "250" projected on the Washington Monument during an America250 kickoff celebration. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

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