The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Vivek Ramaswamy

DOGE Makes First Cut As Co-Chair Ramaswamy Is Reportedly Dumped

Awkward entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy already appears to be out at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, multiple media outlets reported, not even making it to Day 1 of the toothless advisory commission.

According to CBS News, Ramaswamy is expected to depart the pretend department, after he pissed off Elon Musk, a fellow awkward rich dude who Donald Trump jointly tasked with leading the entity that’s supposed to find ways to slash the federal budget.

CBS News reported that Ramaswamy was lazy and hasn't been working on the project, leading to friction with Musk.

"Vivek has worn out his welcome," an unnamed "person close to Trump" told CBS.

Rather than actually doing the work to find the $2 billion in cuts to the budget that he and Musk promised to make, Ramaswamy has instead been trying to get himself a role as an elected official.

He had reportedly wanted to be appointed to the Ohio Senate seat vacated by JD Vance, but the current Ohio governor snubbed him and chose someone else.

Now, Ramaswamy has his sights set on Ohio’s governorship, and could announce his candidacy for that by the end of the month, Fox News reported.

There’s nothing Ramaswamy—who ran a failed bid for president in 2024—likes more than losing elections, it seems.

As for the future of DOGE, Musk has already admitted that the commission, which is not a real department and has no actual power, likely won't even get to half of the $2 billion in cuts he once promised.

And the Washington Postreported that DOGE is expected to be sued by the public interest law firm National Security Counselors within minutes of Trump’s swearing in.

According to the Post’s report:

The lawsuit alleges that DOGE meets the requirements to be considered a “federal advisory committee,” a class of legal entity regulated to ensure the government receives transparent and balanced advice. These groups, known as FACAs, are required by law to have “fairly balanced” representation, keep regular minutes of meetings, allow the public to attend, file a charter with Congress and more — all steps that DOGE does not appear to have taken.

“DOGE is not exempted from FACA’s requirements,” states the lawsuit, written by Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors. “All meetings of DOGE, including those conducted through an electronic medium, must be open to the public.”

All in all, not a very auspicious start for the DOGE bros.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

President Elect Donald Trump

As Trump Takes Office, His (And Musk's) Approval Ratings Still Underwater

As Donald Trump prepares to take the oath of office for a second time, he claims to have a “massive” mandate to enact his destructive agenda. But new polling shows that’s far from the truth.

A NPR/PBS News/Marist College poll released Wednesday shows that just 44 percent of Americans view Trump favorably, while 49 percent view him unfavorably. That’s nearly identical to the 45 percent approval rating Trump has in Civiqs’ tracking poll.

The fact that Trump is viewed unfavorably before he even takes office is a warning sign for his tenure. The start of a presidential term is usually when a president is at their high-water mark of approval.

When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, 51 percent of registered voters approved of the job he was doing on the transition, according to an NPR/PBS News/Marist College poll at the time.

In the first two months after Barack Obama was sworn in as president, around 60 percent of Americans approved of the job he was doing, according to 538’s historical polling average. And when he was sworn in again four years later, his approval rating was around 53 percent.

The NPR/PBS News/Marist College poll has other warning signs for Trump.

Just 31percent of Americans say the tariff policy Trump plans to enact would help the economy. That should be a flashing red warning light for Trump, showing that Americans will likely blame him if those tariffs cause prices to skyrocket, as economists expect.

What’s more, 62 percent of Americans oppose Trump’s plan to pardon people who either pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes for their role in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

It’s not just Trump who is unpopular among voters. Trump's Cabinet nominees are also underwater.

Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Defense, has just a 19 percent approval rating in the NPR/PBS News/Marist College survey. And the survey was conducted before Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, when Democratic senators laid bare the nominee’s abhorrent behavior of alleged sexual assault, womanizing, on-the-job drinking, and misogynistic remarks.

Twenty-six percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Hegseth, with the remaining 55 percent not knowing who he is or having no opinion of him.

However, Trump’s co-president, Elon Musk, is broadly unpopular. Only 37 percent of Americans have a favorable view of him, while 46 percent view him unfavorably, according to the poll. That’s also a warning sign for Trump, who is allowing Musk to hog the spotlight and even letting the awkward billionaire occupy an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is next door to the White House.

Ultimately, while it’s awful that Trump will be sworn in for a second time, polling suggests that he will have no honeymoon phase and that backlash to his agenda could be a serious problem for Republicans in the 2026 midterms.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Ukraine war

Trump Special Envoy: No, We Won't Be Ending Ukraine War On 'Day One'

Donald Trump's incoming special envoy for Ukraine and Russia is tempering expectations about ending Russia's war on Ukraine, saying that the administration will try to end the war in the first 100 days of Trump's term, rather than in the first 24 hours Trump had repeatedly promised.

"Let's set it at 100 days and move all the way back and figure a way we can do this in the near term to make sure that the solution is solid, it's sustainable, and that this war ends so that we stop the carnage," Keith Kellogg, whom Trump appointed in November to advise him on the war in Ukraine, said in an interview on Fox News. "I think that's going to be very, very important to do. It's going to be important for our national security. It's a part of our vital national interests, and it's also good for Europe as well and the globe as well."

Kellogg’s comments are a major change from the Day One promise Trump made multiple times during the 2024 election campaign.

“They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done—I’ll have that done in 24 hours," Trump said during a CNN town hall in May 2023.

In September’s presidential debate—the one and only debate he had with Vice President Kamala Harris—Trump went even further, saying the war would be over even before he took the oath of office.

“That is a war that’s dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president," Trump said.

Kellogg isn’t the only Trump administration official to say Trump can’t end the war in Ukraine on his first day in office.

Rep. Mike Waltz, the Florida Republican who is Trump’s incoming national security adviser, told ABC News on Sunday that Trump will end the war “in the coming months”—which is not Day One.

"I just don't think it's realistic to say we're going to expel every Russian from every inch of Ukrainian soil, even Crimea,” Waltz said.

Ultimately, ending the war in Ukraine in one day is only the latest campaign promise Trump is backtracking on.

In December, Trump tried to temper expectations on lowering grocery prices—possibly the main reason why he won a second term in the first place. "It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard," Trump said in an interview with Time magazine.

Of course, Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on all of the country’s imports is expected to raise grocery prices.

And Vice President-elect JD Vance backtracked on Trump’s promise to pardon all of the people who pleaded guilty or were convicted for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

"If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned, and there's a little bit of a gray area there,” Vance said in a Sunday appearance on Fox News.

To be sure, not pardoning violent insurrectionists is a good thing.

But it’s nevertheless another campaign promise Trump and his administration are reneging on before they take office.

In a December interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump said he would be pardoning the insurrectionists on Day One.

"Look. I know the system. The system's a very corrupt system. They say to a guy, 'You're going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.' And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed," Trump said.

When asked if that means he will pardon them, Trump said, "Yeah, I'm going to look at everything. We're going to look at individual cases."

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Musk Admits 'DOGE' Won't Come Close To $2 Trillion Cut In Federal Spending

Musk Admits 'DOGE' Won't Come Close To $2 Trillion Cut In Federal Spending

Donald Trump's co-president, Elon Musk, admitted that he probably can't cut $2 trillion from the federal budget as he had promised, running into the political reality everyone told him existed but that he refused to accept because he’s a billionaire who thinks he knows better than everyone else.

In an interview with Mark Penn, the contemptible political strategist who once backed Democrats but now has become a Trump defender, Musk said that his toothless Department of Government Efficiency advisory committee can probably cut only half of the original $2 billion he promised to slash.

"I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting $1 [trillion],” Musk said in the interview, which aired on Musk's disinformation platform X. “And if we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and free up the economy to have additional growth, such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply, then there will be no inflation. So that, I think, would be an epic outcome.”

When asked what specific things he'd cut, Musk offered nothing concrete.

“It’s a very target-rich environment for saving money. … It’s like being in a room full of targets—you could close your eyes and you can’t miss,” Musk said, a metaphor so stupid he almost sounds like his buddy Trump.

Experts always said Musk's $2 trillion goal was unattainable.

The entire federal budget in fiscal year 2024 was $6.75 trillion, with massive chunks of it spending that is either legally or politically impossible to cut, including Social Security, Medicare, defense spending, and debt service.

“Our federal budget is about $7 trillion a year. And I still think that they're talking about that $2 trillion number with serious purpose, that that's what they're looking at. And it would be unimaginable that we could find $2 trillion in savings out of seven in one year," Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told NPR in November.

Even finding $1 trillion in cuts, as Musk now says he can achieve, will be extremely hard.

Of the discretionary spending Congress appropriates each year, more than half goes toward national defense, while “the rest to fund the administration of other agencies and programs,” according to the Treasury Department. “These programs range from transportation, education, housing, and social service programs, as well as science and environmental organizations.”

According to an analysis from the CRFB, “in order to achieve balance within a decade, all spending would need to be cut by roughly one-quarter and that the necessary cuts would grow to 85% if defense, veterans, Social Security, and Medicare spending were off the table.”

What’s more, Musk admitted in October that slashing the budget would require "hardship" for the American people. And given that members of Congress are accountable to voters, they are unlikely to slash spending for programs that their constituents could punish them for.

This isn't the first promise Musk and Trump are backtracking on after the 2024 election.

Trump recently admitted he probably can't bring grocery prices down—arguably the key reason Trump was elected in November. "It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard," Trump said in an interview with Time magazine.

The American people were sold a bag of goods that they'll never get.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Hakeem Jeffries

Democrats Begin Plotting Their Return To House Majority

The 119th Congress was just sworn in—and Democrats are already plotting how to take the gavel back from Speaker Mike Johnson and his noxious Republican conference.

House Majority PAC, a super PAC that seeks to elect Democrats to the House, announced its top 29 targets for the 2026 midterms, as well as another 16 reach seats that could be in play in the right political environment.

The group—which touted its 2024 track record of helping Democrats net a seat in the House despite the fact that Donald Trump won the popular vote nationwide—said it will begin by recruiting and vetting strong candidates in target districts.

“Headed into the midterms with lessons learned from 2024, HMP is today launching a 2026 Recruitment Fund—which will allow us to recruit and prepare potential candidates earlier than ever,” the group said in a news release. “With Republicans like [New York Rep.] Mike Lawler, [Arizona Rep.] Juan Ciscomani, [Michigan Rep.] John James, and potentially others likely leaving their seats, we must ensure Democratic campaigns are set up for success—and that comes through conducting qualitative and quantitative research to develop specific messaging and strategies for individual races.”

A few of the districts House Majority PAC is working to field strong recruits for include:

  • Colorado’s 8th District, where Democrats lost to Rep.-elect Gabe Evans by less than 1 point.
  • Iowa’s 1st District, where GOP Rep. Marionette Miller Meeks won by just 799 votes.
  • Pennsylvania’s 7th District, where Democrats lost to Rep.-elect Ryan Mackenzie by 1 point.
  • Pennsylvania’s 8th District, where Democrats lost to Rep.-elect Robert Bresnahan by less than 2 points.
  • Pennsylvania’s 10th District, where Republican Rep. Scott Perry won by just 1.3 points.
  • Nebraska’s 2nd District, where GOP Rep. Don Bacon was able to hold on by less than 2 points, even as Vice President Kamala Harris carried the district.

On paper, the 2026 midterms should be a good year for House Democrats.

They need to flip just three seats in order to win back control of the House—something they came painfully close to doing in 2024. Democrats fell short this year in the three districts that determined the majority by a combined total of just 7,309 votes.

And given that the party in the White House almost always loses seats in the first midterm election, that puts Democrats in prime position to oust Johnson from the speaker’s office.

Democrats will have the added advantage in 2026 of being able to run against what is sure to be Republican dysfunction in Congress, as the GOP will struggle to pass its agenda with a historically small majority and fractious caucus of members who love to vote against legislation and refuse to make the compromises necessary to pass bills.

For at least the first few months of 2025, the GOP majority will be just one seat, until special elections can be held to fill vacancies created by Trump nominating House lawmakers to serve in his administration. That means Johnson cannot lose a single vote if every member shows up, as it would result in a 216-216 tie and a vote would fail.

That will make basic tasks—such as funding the government—a tightrope act for Johnson, as Republicans love to vote against spending deals and often have to rely on Democratic votes to keep the government’s lights on.

In 2018, the first midterm of Trump’s first turn in the White House, Democrats ran on the Republican chaos and gained 40 seats to win the majority—far more than the 23 the party needed to win the gavel.

Meanwhile, what Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress are promising to achieve is unlikely to be popular with the electorate.

Republicans are already talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare—the third rail of politics—while at the same time slashing taxes for the wealthiest Americans. Polling shows that voters actually want the government to raise taxes on the wealthy.

Meanwhile Trump is pushing for tariffs that will increase costs for consumers and hurt the economy, exactly the opposite of what Americans supposedly voted for in November.

Democrats are already drawing attention to the GOP’s dangerous agenda.

"It has become increasingly apparent that many of my House Republican colleagues want to jam big tax cuts for the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected down the throats of the American people and try to pay for those tax cuts, which will not benefit everyday Americans, by cutting Social Security and Medicare,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a December 11 news conference on Capitol Hill.

“This is not a hypothetical. It's not hype. It's not hyperbole. It's happening before our very eyes because extreme MAGA Republicans in the House are telling us, publicly and repeatedly, that's exactly what they plan to do to the American people,” Jeffries warned. “House Democrats are clear we will oppose any effort to end Social Security and Medicare as we know it."

Expect to hear that message a lot over the next two years.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Mike Johnson

Johnson Barely Wins Speaker Election (And House Applauds Gaetz Absence)

Mike Johnson finally secured the speakership on the first ballot after three GOP lawmakers initially voted against his candidacy during a tumultuous start for the 119th Congress on Friday.

Johnson could afford to lose just one vote and win the gavel. But Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Keith Self of Texas initially voted against Johnson, which would have blocked the Louisiana Republican from winning a majority of the ballots—and handed him an embarrassing defeat.

Initially, Massie voted for House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Norman voted for Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, and Self voted for Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds. However, none of these Republicans were officially running for the position.

However, after some politicking on the House floor and negotiation by Johnson, Norman and Self changed their votes to support Johnson, giving him the speaker’s gavel.

The move was critical because Congress needs a House speaker by January 6 to certify Donald Trump’s presidential victory, which is expected to happen on Monday.

Johnson’s rocky vote is a bad sign for Republicans’ ability to govern since keeping a conference unified to pick a leader should be the easiest vote of a Congress. And the GOP has no room to spare to pass Trump’s destructive agenda, as Republicans have the narrowest majority in nearly 100 years.

The 220 seats Republicans won in November is set to shrivel to 217 in the coming weeks because Trump nominated two GOP House members—Elise Stefanik of New York and Mike Waltz of Florida—to his administration. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz also declined to take the seat he won in November after his nomination to serve as Trump's attorney general crashed and burned. (When it was announced on the House floor Friday morning that Gaetz would not be taking his seat, multiple members of the House clapped.)

With just 217 seats—at least until the spring when special elections can be held to fill the vacancies—the eventual GOP speaker won’t be able to afford losing a single vote if every lawmaker is present. That will give Johnson no room to spare when trying to pass Trump's agenda of tax cuts for the rich and border security.

Among the pieces of legislation Republicans are promising to pass include a bill to require doctors to provide care to infants that survive abortions and a bill to require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, among others.

Harder still, Republicans will have to put up legislation in the spring to fund the government as well as raise the debt ceiling so that the United States doesn't default and plunge the country—and likely, the world—into economic crisis.

Given that both of those tasks will require compromise with Democrats in the Senate—where the filibuster currently remains in place, requiring 60 votes for legislation to earn an up-or-down vote—Speaker Johnson could face another revolt from hard-liners in his conference.

Indeed, far-right Rep. Chip Roy of Texas signaled that Johnson’s future as House speaker may be anything but certain.

What Johnson does have going for him, however, is that Republicans are set to change the rules to make it harder to oust him from the speakership.

In the previous Congress, one lawmaker from either party could force a vote to oust a speaker. But the proposed rules for the new Congress, only GOP lawmakers can force a vote and only if they get eight other GOP lawmakers to co-sponsor their motion.

Democrats mocked Republicans for the chaos they created so quickly into the new session of Congress.

“Well folks… Johnson doesn’t have the votes… At least on this first round…” Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas wrote in a post on X. “THE PARTY of CHAOS is at it again! Welcome to the 119th Congress!”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the changing nature of the House speakership vote.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Chip Roy

House Republicans Suddenly Want To Make Ousting Speaker More Difficult

House Republicans released a proposal Wednesday for the rules governing the lower chamber of Congress to make it more difficult to oust a speaker—an effort to protect Mike Johnson, or whoever ultimately wins the gavel.

In the current Congress, any House member from either party could introduce a motion to vacate the chair, which would require the House to vote on a new speaker.

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made this rule in 2023 as a concession to House Republicans in exchange for their votes for speaker after an embarrassing 15 rounds of voting.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, used this rule to oust McCarthy in October 2023. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, tried to use it again in May 2024 to push out Johnson, but Democrats voted to keep him to avoid throwing the House into chaos for the second time in less than a year.

But Republicans’ new proposed rule, which the House will vote on when the 119th Congress is sworn in on Friday, would only allow members of the majority party to introduce motions to vacate the chair.

As the proposal states, “A resolution causing a vacancy in the Office of Speaker shall not be privileged except if it is offered by a member of the majority party and has accumulated eight cosponsors from the majority party at the time it is offered.’’

If adopted, this rule could insulate Johnson from being ousted if his own members revolt against him. Though, of course, Johnson has to be elected speaker first, which is not a sure thing.

Johnson can afford to lose just one Republican vote with his narrow majority and still become speaker. Already, Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, said he is not voting for Johnson, and Rep. Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, suggested that he isn’t either, putting Johnson’s speakership in potential danger.

It’s unclear whether anyone will challenge Johnson for the gavel, so the Massie-Roy effort would merely stop the House from having a speaker and paralyze the chamber until they relent. If no speaker is in place by Jan. 6, then Congress will not be able to certify Donald Trump’s victory.

Democrats, meanwhile, are irate about Republicans' proposed rule change.

Rep. Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, accused Republicans of "injecting partisan extremism into the rules."

"Their proposed changes would, for the first time in history, shield the Speaker from accountability to the entire chamber by making it so that only Republicans can move to vacate the chair," he wrote on X. "This makes it clear that they have no intention of working together to find common ground. Instead of electing a Speaker of the House, they decided to elect a Speaker of the Republican Conference—held hostage by their most extreme members."

Other Democrats said the rule proposal is an indication of Johnson’s weakness.

"I suppose this travesty is necessary in the Speaker's mind because his leadership is so tenuous,” Rep. Joe Morelle, Democrat of New York, told Axios. “There's no way for him to 'win’ the game unless the 'fix' is in. But this is deeply troubling."

The 119th Congress is already a mess, and it hasn't even started yet.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

'Better Do It Soon': Shaking Down Big Companies For Trump Inaugural Donations

'Better Do It Soon': Shaking Down Big Companies For Trump Inaugural Donations

Donald Trump is keeping a close eye on which companies are donating money to his upcoming inauguration, and issued a veiled threat to those that don't, Rolling Stonereported on Wednesday.

The report said Trump has been asking whether specific companies have given money to his inaugural committee, which is planning the events surrounding Trump’s swearing-in ceremony. When Trump was told that an unnamed "big corporation" had yet to give funds, Trump reportedly said, “Well, they better do it soon then"—a comment that sure as hell sounds like a threat.

A number of major companies are donating $1 million a pop to Trump’s inauguration, including Uber, Meta, Amazon, and major automakers like Ford, General Motors, and Toyota.

In fact, The Wall Street Journal reported that at least 11 companies that denounced the Trump-incited January 6 insurrection at the Capitol are now donating to his inauguration.

The Journal reported that Trump’s inaugural committee is seeking major donations from these companies as “a means for extracting a mea culpa from corporate America for its shunning of Trump.”

The capitulation to Trump before he even steps foot back in the White House is a sign that corporate America fears being on Trump’s bad side, knowing that he has a vindictive personality and seeks revenge against those he believes have wronged him.

Indeed, Trump targeted companies during his first term in ways that would hurt their financial bottom line. One of the best examples of Trump using his office to inflict pain upon someone he disliked is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

During his first stint in the Oval Office, Trump threatened to raise prices for the United States Postal Service to hurt Amazon's business, took away a major defense contract from Amazon, and threatened The Washington Post, which Bezos owns. Now, Bezos is sucking up to Trump and he chipped in $1 million to Trump's inaugural festivities.

Other companies are also capitulating to Trump to try to curry favor (and avoid his wrath) after Jan. 20.

ABC News gave $15 million for Trump's future presidential library to get Trump to drop what experts said was a weak lawsuit against the news organization.

Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski also visited Trump’s gaudy Mar-a-Lago estate to make amends with Trump after their coverage of the 2024 election.

And tech giant SoftBank Group announced a $100 billion “investment” in U.S. projects during an elaborate Dec. 16 press conference with CEO Masayoshi Son and Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

It’s all an ominous sign that corporate America is “obeying in advance,” a term author Timothy Snyder coined in his book On Tyranny, which he describes as a “guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism.”

“Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given,” Snyder wrote in the book. “In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked.”

That sure looks like what is happening now, as corporate leaders travel to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and fork over millions so the wannabe despot can throw himself a lavish celebration after he takes the oath of office.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

House Republicans Send Eviction Warning To Speaker Mike Johnson

House Republicans Send Eviction Warning To Speaker Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson's time as House speaker could be coming to an unceremonious end.

House Republicans and their real leader, Donald Trump, are furious with Johnson over the government funding mess that unfolded last week. Multibillionaire Elon Musk and Trump scuttled a deal Johnson made with Democrats to fund the government for three months, threatening a government shutdown just before the holidays.

The ultimate deal that was passed barely differed from the initial legislation—only it slashed money for childhood cancer research and did not include a provision raising the debt ceiling that Trump hypocritically demanded.

Politicoreported on Monday:

Not only is Trump unhappy with the funding deal, he’s unhappy with Johnson, too. He’s unhappy that he didn’t get the debt ceiling hike he made clear he wanted. He felt blindsided by the initial deal Johnson struck with Democrats. And, in the end, he was unimpressed with the entire chaotic process, which left the incoming administration questioning whether Johnson is capable of managing an even thinner majority next year.

Now, discussion is picking up about whether to dispose of the Louisiana Republican and replace him with a new speaker when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2025.

With a slim two-seat GOP majority, Johnson can afford to lose just one vote if he wants to remain speaker.

But at least three Republicans have already said they are not committing to voting for Johnson for speaker, and one has said he will actively support someone else.

“Since President Trump’s historic election to bring down spending, deficits, and inflation, the ‘Republican’-led House has INITIATED $300 billion in unpaid for new spending, without even ATTEMPTING offsets to prevent skyrocketing the deficit and debt. Future generations deserve better,” Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland wrote in a post on X on Monday. “I am now undecided on what House leadership should look like in the 119th Congress.”

On Friday, just hours before the government was set to shut down, GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York expressed frustration with Johnson over his “unacceptable” lack of communication.

"I don't know what's going on and really that's part of the problem,” Malliotakis told reporters on Capitol Hill. “The fact that there is zero communication from leadership to the membership, it’s very frustrating. Something should change before Jan. 3 here."

Axios reported that fellow GOP Reps. Tim Burchett, Victoria Spartz, Andy Biggs, Troy Nehls, and Josh Brecheen are also undecided on who to vote for.

And Rep. Thomas Massie is a firm no.

"I don't plan to enter it as a negotiation. I plan to just not vote for him,” the Republican from Kentucky told CNN, saying there is nothing Johnson can do to earn his vote.

Democrats, meanwhile, are not going to bail Johnson out.

" There will be no Democrats available to save him, or the extreme MAGA Republicans from themselves,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on MSNBC on Sunday, adding that Johnson’s job is at “risk.”

It's unclear who, if anyone, will challenge Johnson for the speaker role.

Republicans have floated Musk as a possible speaker—which would be a lot for Musk to take on as he has never been a legislator and already has a big job as Trump’s co-president.

But even if there is no one challenging him for the job, if just two Republicans hold firm against voting for Johnson, then there will be no winner and the House will have to keep voting until someone can amass a majority of votes. In 2023, it took 15 rounds of voting for Kevin McCarthy to win the gavel. And in October 2023, the House was in a state of paralysis for 22 days after now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz ousted McCarthy from the role without any plan of who to replace him with—a chaotic mess that ended with Johnson rising from relative obscurity to become speaker.

If Republicans can't coalesce around someone on Jan. 3, when the new Congress is set to be sworn in, the House could devolve into chaos. The legislative body is powerless without a speaker, and if Republicans don't figure it out by Jan. 6, then the House can't call a joint session to certify Trump's 2024 win.

Politico reported:

Congress is legally required to convene on Jan. 6 to certify the election results. But without a speaker, the House won’t be able to establish rules governing how it operates. And members who would need to vote on any successful objection can’t be sworn in until after those rules are adopted.

No one really knows if Republican chatter about Johnson’s future is just bellyaching or real grievance.

But either way, the chaos within the GOP ranks is not a good sign for the party’s ability to govern next year.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Police Report Reveals Disturbing Details Of Hegseth Sex Assault Charge

Police Report Reveals Disturbing Details Of Hegseth Sex Assault Charge

The police report detailing the sexual assault allegations against Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, will make your stomach churn.

According to a 22-page report, Hegseth was accused of raping an unconscious victim in the early hours of October 8, 2017, at a hotel after a Republican women's conference event in Monterey, California. The alleged rape was first reported to police by an emergency room nurse who treated the victim.

The victim, listed as Jane Doe in the police report, said she believes she was drugged at the event at a Hyatt Hotel, and "cannot remember most of the night's events." The victim said she had approached Hegseth at the event and told him she "did not appreciate how he treated women" after she saw him rubbing women "on their legs.”

During the confrontation, Jane Doe remembered Hegseth telling her he was a “nice guy.”

The next thing she remembered was being in an unfamiliar hotel room and Hegseth blocking her from leaving it. She told the police he took her phone. Then she said that Hegseth was on top of her and that he ejaculated on her stomach and told her to "clean it up." She remembered “saying ‘no’ a lot,” according to the report.

Through an attorney, Hegseth claimed to The Washington Post that the encounter was consensual. However, he paid the woman to remain silent.

Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, added that the police determined that “the Complainant had been the aggressor in the encounter.”

However, the report does not corroborate that.

What the police report documents was that Hegseth and Jane Doe were seen arguing by a pool at the hotel. A hotel employee, who responded to the incident, said it was Hegseth who “began to curse” when the employee showed up, and told the employee that he had “freedom of speech.” How very Republican of him.

In a statement to The Washington Post, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt did not address the sexual assault allegation and said Trump is standing by Hegseth to be secretary of Defense.

“Pete Hegseth is a highly-respected Combat Veteran who will honorably serve our country when he is confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense, just like he honorably served our country on the battlefield in uniform,” she said.

Hegseth is merely the latest Trump Cabinet nominee to be dogged by allegations of sexual impropriety.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for attorney general, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, have both been accused of sexual misconduct.

Gaetz’s nomination to head the Department of Justice is in peril as allegations that he paid a minor for sex at a drug-fueled party are dogging his confirmation.

The New York Times on Wednesday reported that federal investigators, who probed the allegations against Gaetz but decided against filing charges, had records of payments to the women who testified that they were paid for sex by Gaetz.

The House Ethics Committee also probed the allegations. But Republicans on the panel decided on Wednesday to block the report from being made public—apparently caving to the will of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is trying to shield Gaetz from accountability.

The Hill newspaper reported on Thursday that Senate Republicans are worried that Gaetz's confirmation hearing will be like "Kavanaugh on steroids"—referring to the hearings for now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's Supreme Court pick who was also accused of sexual assault.

But given the new details of the rape allegations against Hegseth, his confirmation hearing could be just as bad as Gaetz’s.

It’s unclear what will happen with Gaetz and Hegseth’s nominations. However, Republicans are good at making excuses for sexual assault. Trump himself was found liable for sexual abuse, and has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women, yet Republicans have stood by him the entire time. A party that is fully rotten to the core.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Sean Duffy

Trump Taps 'Road Rules' Ex-Congressman To Run Transportation

Donald Trump has nominated former MTV Real World contestant, current Fox News host, and congressional quitter Sean Duffy as transportation secretary.

Duffy has zero qualifications for the job. He has no experience in the transportation field, which he’d be tasked with regulating and improving as head of the DOT. Maybe Trump picked him because he won both Road Rules: All Stars and Real World/Road Rules: Battle of the Seasons, idiotic shows that had “road” in the title.

“He will prioritize Excellence, Competence, Competitiveness and Beauty when rebuilding America’s highways, tunnels, bridges and airports,” Trump said in a statement, which unnecessarily capitalized numerous words. “He will ensure our ports and dams serve our Economy without compromising our National Security, and he will make our skies safe again by eliminating DEI for pilots and air traffic controllers.”

After his reality-TV career ended, Duffy went on to run for Congress in Wisconsin, where he served for eight years before resigning in 2019. Duffy resigned because he said his ninth child would be born with complications, including a heart condition, and he needed to spend more time on taking care of her.

Over the course of his eight-year tenure, Duffy had just two bills he sponsored signed into law, one of which was the renaming of a post office.

However, when he was in Congress, he did complain that his $174,000 annual salary was too low, saying he had to drive a—gasp—“used minivan.”

“With six kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I drive a used minivan. If you think I’m living high off the hog, I’ve got one paycheck,” Duffy told an angry constituent at a town hall meeting. “So I—I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I’m not living high off the hog.”

Of course, Duffy’s salary was far higher than the $43,000 average annual salary the rest of Americans earned in 2011, the year Duffy made the comment.

Speaking of salaries—Duffy criticized teachers during an 2022 appearance on Fox News, saying they don't deserve pay raises, even though the national average starting teacher salary this year is $44,530, according to the National Education Association.

After leaving Capitol Hill, Duffy and his unnaturally white teeth became a Fox News contributor and co-host of the Fox Business show The Bottom Line.

While working for the right-wing propaganda networks, he's peddled wild lies and conspiracy theories.

He falsely claimed Disney was trying to "sexualize our children," that white people are now living under a new "Jim Crow," that Democrats are trying to ban cows, and that former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin was associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2018, Duffy blamed the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on abortion, saying the shooter may have carried out his killing spree because “[w]e dehumanize life in those video games, in those movies, and with abortion.”

Duffy also made an insanely racist comment in 2021 about Native Americans, saying that “they burned villages, raped women, seized children, took their—took the people they defeated, took their lands, scalped people.” Of course, he made no mention of the horrible injustices Native Americans have faced since Europeans colonized their land.

Duffy’s wife, fellow Real World contestant Rachel Campos-Duffy, is also a Fox News contributor, so she will be able to keep up the Duffy presence on the right-wing propaganda network.

Trump, a frequent Fox viewer, even mentioned that in his statement nominating Duffy.

“The husband of a wonderful woman, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a STAR on FoxNews, and the father of nine incredible children, Sean knows how important it is for families to be able to travel safely, and with peace of mind,” Trump wrote.

Don’t get us wrong, Duffy has spoken some truths in his career.

In 2013, Duffy said that Republicans can be "knuckle-dragging Neanderthals."

As the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Hacked Court Documents Implicate Gaetz In Misconduct Or Worse

Hacked Court Documents Implicate Gaetz In Misconduct Or Worse

Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz's problems are growing by the day.

The New York Timesreported on Tuesday that a hacker obtained "damaging" testimony both from the Department of Justice investigation into the former congressman’s alleged child sex trafficking, and from the House Ethics Committee's probe into his alleged drug-fueled sex parties.

According to the Times, the hacker obtained 24 exhibits, including sworn testimony from two women: one who said she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17, and another who said she witnessed the two having sex.

The Times reported:

The material apparently taken by the hacker is unredacted and includes the names and other personal information of the witnesses but is otherwise said to be more damaging to Mr. Gaetz than to his accusers, according to the person familiar with the hack. The hacker had not contacted the lawyers as of Tuesday morning, and it was not clear what motive the person might have.

Also looming over Gaetz is whether the House Ethics Committee will release its report from its yearslong probe into a number of allegations around him, including whether he “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

The committee will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to publicly release the report.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to help Trump get Gaetz confirmed by keeping the report private, saying the Ethics Committee shouldn’t release the report because it would “be a terrible precedent to set” and “open a Pandora’s box” by saying the committee could release information on other former members of Congress. Gaetz resigned his seat shortly after Trump nominated him as attorney general, likely in an effort to keep this report from becoming public since the committee no longer has jurisdiction over former members.

House Ethics Committee Chair Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi said he won't be influenced by Johnson's desires.

“I appreciate Mike reaching out,” Guest told Politico, saying that Johnson called him to express his wishes for the report to remain sealed. “I don't see it having an impact on what we as a committee ultimately decide.”

Nearly 100 House Democrats also signed a letter urging the Ethics Committee to release the report.

From the letter:

We are aware that traditionally, the Ethics Committee stops investigations into alleged misconduct when a member of Congress resigns. However, there is precedent for the House and Senate ethics committees to continue their investigations and release findings after a member has resigned in a scandal. For example, the Committee continued investigating Rep. Eric Massa for inappropriate sexual behavior even after his resignation. Similarly, in 2011, the Senate Ethics Committee publicly released its report on Sen. John Ensign in the days following his resignation and forwarded the report to the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission.

We strongly believe that this situation meets or exceeds those standards. This is not a partisan issue. In a statement to reporters on November 14th, Republican Senator of Texas John Cornyn, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted, “I think that there should not be any limitations on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.”

Given the seriousness of the charges against Representative Gaetz, withholding the findings of your investigation may jeopardize the Senate's ability to provide fully informed, constitutionally required advice and consent regarding this nomination. Representative Gaetz’s abrupt resignation from Congress should not circumvent the Senate’s ability to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities.

We urge you to immediately release the Ethics Committee’s report into allegations of serious misconduct by former Congressman Matt Gaetz.

Meanwhile, Gaetz’s former House colleagues have been trashing Gaetz publicly.

Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio said that Gaetz is "literally worse than gum on the bottom of my shoe.”

“I’m looking at him as a member of Congress and the job that he has done here, and it has been abhorrent,” Miller told CNN. “I'm not the only one who thinks this way. I just say the quiet part out loud, and I wish other of my colleagues would have the same courage to do so.”

Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia criticized Trump for nominating Gaetz in the first place, telling CNN of Trump’s decision to pick Gaetz, “It wasn't my decision to make, but I would have made it differently, I can tell you that."

What’s more, Politicoreported late on Monday that nearly a dozen Senate Republicans wouldn't commit to voting to confirm Gaetz. Of course, most Republicans are cowards who regularly cave to Trump, so you can't count on that many "no" votes in a potential confirmation vote. But the fact that they aren’t gung ho to defend Trump on this one is a telling signal that they don’t want to put their necks out for Gaetz.

Meanwhile, a poll from Echelon Insights, a Republican firm, found that Gaetz is the least popular of the cast of misfits Trump has so far nominated to serve in his administration. According to the survey, just 26 percent strongly or somewhat support Gaetz, while 37 percent strongly or somewhat oppose him—an 11-percentage-point deficit.

Even Trump seems to understand the peril Gaetz’s nomination is in.

The Timesreported that Trump believes Gaetz's chances at confirmation are less than 50-50.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Ryan Walters

Oklahoma Backlash Over Trump 'Prayer Video' Mandate In Public Schools

Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters defended on Monday his decision to force his state’s public schools to show students a video in which he spews right-wing rhetoric and asks students to pray for Donald Trump.

Walters told CNN’s Pamela Brown that his video is following through on Donald Trump's call for bringing prayer back to schools.

"President Trump has a clear mandate. He wants prayer back in school. He wants radical leftism out of the classroom, wants our kids to be patriotic, wants parents back in charge with school choice," Walters said, avoiding Brown’s question about what authority he has to demand students be shown his Christian nationalist prayer. "We are acting upon that agenda here in Oklahoma. That's what our parents want. Every county in Oklahoma voted for President Trump. His agenda is crystal clear, and we're going to enact it in the state of Oklahoma."

But even the state's Republican attorney general says that Walters does not have the authority to force schools to show his video.

"There is no statutory authority for the state schools superintendent to require all students to watch a specific video," Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, told the Oklahoman. "Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents' rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights."

Walters first sent the video to superintendents around the state on November 15, writing in an email:

Dear Superintendent:

We are in a dangerous time for this country. Student’s rights and freedoms regarding religious liberties are continuously under assault. The newly created Department of Religious Liberty and Patriotism will be working to thwart any attempts to disrupt our Oklahoma student’s fundamental freedoms.

In one of the first steps of the newly created department, we are requiring all of Oklahoma schools to play the attached video to all kids that are enrolled. We are also requiring that that school districts send this video to all parents as well.

Students are encouraged but not required to join me in this prayer.

The email linked to this video, in which Walters criticizes the “radical left” and “woke teachers’ unions,” adding, “I pray for our leaders to make the right decisions. I pray, in particular, for President Donald Trump.” (In the video, placed on the desk before Walters are a Bible and a coffee mug with the Latin phrase “Si vis pacem, para bellum,” or “If you want peace, prepare for war.”)

Many of the state's largest school districts aren't showing the video, which seemingly violates the Constitution's separation of church and state.

Oklahoma ranks 49th in the country for grade-school education quality, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Lawmakers in the state are slamming Walters for issuing the unconstitutional mandate to show his inappropriate prayer video.

“We’ve got such a deficiency in reading and mathematics. Those are the things that in public education, I think we need to be focusing on and not a culture war,” Republican state Rep. Mark McBride told a local Oklahoma news station

But rather than fund efforts to better educate Oklahoman kids, Walters is seeking to spend millions of the state's education funding on thousands of Trump-endorsed Bibles for classrooms, which Walters is mandating be taught in all public schools for kids in grades five through 12.

The ACLU is suing Oklahoma over the Bible-education mandate, saying that Walters’ policy “imposes his personal religious beliefs on other people's children—in violation of Oklahomans’ religious freedom and the separation of church and state.”

It’s not the first time Oklahoma has gotten in trouble for trying to infuse religion into public education.

Last June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court in a 7-1 decision blocked a state policy to fund religious charter schools, saying, “Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school. As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

House GOP Caucus Will Re-Elect Failed Speaker Mike Johnson

House GOP Caucus Will Re-Elect Failed Speaker Mike Johnson

Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana is expected to return as speaker in 2025, leading yet another narrow GOP majority that can barely agree on what color the sky is, let alone pass legislation.

NBC News, ABC News, and CNN all projected on Wednesday that Republicans will maintain control of the House, after the party clinched the 218 needed for a majority. And later that same day, Johnson secured the nomination of the House Republican caucus.

Some right-wing House members crowed about wanting to put up a challenge to Johnson, who became speaker in 2024 basically by accident after Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy and had an internal civil war about whom to replace him with—and Johnson coming out of nowhere to win that fight. But this time, the hard-line conservatives were unable to figure out who would challenge Johnson, according to The Hill.

But after Trump told House Republicans on Wednesday that he supported Johnson for another term as speaker, that opposition melted away.

That's unsurprising since when Trump says "jump," Republicans respond with "how high?"

“If Donald Trump says ‘jump 3 feet high and scratch your head,’ we all jump 3 feet high and scratch our heads,” Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, clad in fugly gold sneakers and a Trump tie, told reporters on Wednesday.

When all is said and done, Republicans will likely have between 220 and 222 seats, virtually unchanged from this current Congress. The fact that the race for the House was basically a wash was thanks to strong Democratic recruiting and fundraising, which led Democrats to pick off Republican lawmakers in states like New York and California, despite a vicious gerrymander in North Carolina that alone cost Democrats three seats.

With such a narrow majority, Johnson will have little room for error to pass bills.

And Trump is already narrowing that majority further. Recently, he nominated Reps. Elise Stefanik, Mike Waltz, and Matt Gaetz for roles in his administration. If they are confirmed, that will leave three House vacancies for a few months, until special elections can be held.

Given that the House Republican conference is filled with a bunch of lunatics who would rather watch the world burn than pass actual legislation, that will be a problem for Johnson.

During this current Congress, with a similarly small majority, Johnson has needed to plead with House Democrats to vote for legislation to fund the government because he could not get enough of his own conference to vote for must-pass spending bills. That gave Democrats negotiating power.

Ultimately, now that Republicans will have unified control of Washington, any chaos that comes out of Capitol Hill will cause blowback to the GOP that Democrats can capitalize on for the 2026 midterms.

And knowing this cast of clowns, there will be chaos. Buckle up.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Trump Urges Federal Probe Of Rumors He'll Sell Truth Social Shares

Trump Urges Federal Probe Of Rumors He'll Sell Truth Social Shares

Donald Trump on Friday broke his post-election silence on his failing Truth Social platform, issuing threats against unnamed people who he said were trash talking his company.

"There are fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumors and/or statements made by, perhaps, market manipulators or short sellers, that I am interested in selling shares of Truth. THOSE RUMORS OR STATEMENTS ARE FALSE. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF SELLING!” Trump wrote in the TruthSocial post. “I hereby request that the people who have set off these fake rumors or statements, and who may have done so in the past, be immediately investigated by the appropriate authorities. Truth is an important part of our historic win, and I deeply believe in it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

It was the first real comment he's made on his Truth Social feed since his victory on Tuesday. The few other posts he sent were merely images of newspapers announcing his win.

Trump's Truth Social stock price has fallen precipitously since the company went public in March.

Initially, the stock was trading around $60 when the company first went public. It's now trading at around $30, up from the nose-dive it took in September amid reports that Trump was eligible to start trading his own shares and possibly cash out on the failing platform.

The fact that Truth Social is trading at anything of value is confounding, as the site has barely any users and lost $19 million in the third quarter alone, Axios reported.

Now that Trump will take office again, it’s unclear whether he’ll put his shares in a blind trust to avoid flouting ethics rules. Of course, Trump has no ethics and did not put his companies in a blind trust the first time around, so it’s unlikely he’ll do so now.

Also absurd is that Trump said in his post the "truth is an important part" of his win.

Trump is a notorious liar.

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale wrote an article ahead of Trump’s win titled “Donald Trump’s campaign of relentless lying,” in which he implored media organizations to cover Trump’s lies more often.

“For the third consecutive presidential election, the Republican presidential nominee is running a relentlessly dishonest campaign for the world’s most powerful office,” he wrote. “Wildly exaggerating statistics, grossly distorting his opponent’s record and his own, regularly just plain making stuff up, Trump is lying to American voters with a frequency and variety whose only precedent is his own previous campaigns.”

In fact, during Trump’s first round, the Washington Post tracked over 30,000 misleading statements.

“If you met someone at a bar who told you 25 things that weren’t true, that would be one of the first things you told other people about this encounter,” Dale wrote. “Trump telling the American people 25 things that aren’t true in a rally speech should be one of the first things media outlets tell their readers and viewers about the speech. Maybe then Trump would care a bit more about being corrected.”

Here’s hoping the media takes Dale’s warnings seriously.

Former President Donald Trump

Donald TrumpFormer President Donald TrumpTrump Wants Everyone To Know He's Ready For His Perp Walk

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Democrat Crushes 'Black Nazi' Robinson In North Carolina Governor's Race

Democrat Crushes 'Black Nazi' Robinson In North Carolina Governor's Race

Republican Mark Robinson, a reportedly self-described “Black Nazi” and “perv,” handily lost his bid for governor of North Carolina on Tuesday night, giving him ample time to go back to doing what he allegedly loves: posting racist and creepy stuff on a forum for a porn site.

Robinson lost to North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, 58.1 percent to 37.8 percent, with 11 percent of precincts reporting, according to NBC News, which called the race less than an hour after polls closed.

Stein, who makes history as the state’s first Jewish governor, had a strong lead in the polling thanks to Robinson’s long history of making racist, sexist, and other incendiary remarks.

The Republican has denied the atrocities of the Holocaust, falsely saying, “This foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.”

Robinson also called for “wicked people” and socialists to be killed, saying in a speech ironically delivered at a church where parishioners are taught that murder is a sin, “Some folks need killing!”

However, the race was all but over in September, when CNN reported that Robinson had posted repulsive things on a porn website called Nude Africa.

Some of the horrific things he allegedly wrote include:

  • An assertion that he is a self-proclaimed “black NAZI!” and that “Slavery is not bad.”
  • Attacks on civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., whom Robinson called a “commie bastard,” “worse than a maggot,” a “phony,” and a “huckster.”
  • Robinson also said the only reason he wasn’t in the KKK was because it doesn’t “let blacks join,” and added of King, “If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer K--n!”
  • And a number of sexually explicit posts culminating in Robsinson calling himself a “perv.”

Republicans hoped they could get Robinson out of the race after the gross comments surfaced, but Robinson dug in his heels, denied the report, and stayed in the race, dooming the GOP’s chances at victory.

Revelations of the vile posts led Robinson’s campaign team to flee en masse, despite that his open Holocaust denial wasn’t too far for them.

Prior to the CNN report, Donald Trump had praised Robinson as “better than Martin Luther King,” but after it, he stopped inviting Robinson to his North Carolina rallies.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Trump, Harris

Trump Campaign Concludes With Incessant Whining About Bad Polls

Former President Donald Trump and his campaign are closing out the 2024 campaign not with confidence, but with a crap ton of whining about how unfair it is that he’s not being treated as the odds-on favorite.

The bellyaching began Saturday night, when Ann Selzer—an Iowa-based pollster who has been an oracle of sorts in predicting which candidate had the momentum in the final days of the last three elections—released a shock poll finding Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa.

Trump accused Selzer of voter suppression, and said any polls showing him losing should be illegal.

“It is called suppression. They suppress,” Trump said of the Iowa poll at one of his low-energy rallies on Sunday. “And it actually should be illegal. Because in many ways, it is worse than the written word."

Trump’s campaign also sent out a memo accusing media outlets of trying to suppress the vote by releasing polls showing Trump losing.

“On Saturday, top Democrats appear to have received early access to an absurd outlier poll of Iowa conducted by the Des Moines Register. Not to be outdone, the New York Times arrived right on cue with another set of polling data being used to drive a voter suppression narrative against President Trump’s supporters,” the campaign wrote in the memo, referring also to a spate of NYT polls showing Harris ahead in Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Georgia—enough to give her an Electoral College victory. “Some in the media are choosing to amplify a mad dash to dampen and diminish voter enthusiasm. It has not worked. Our voters are like President Trump: they fight.”

Of course, if Trump’s campaign had internal numbers showing Trump ahead they’d release them to counter the narrative. Instead of doing that, they’re lashing out—a sign they know they are losing.

But it’s not just polls Trump and his allies are whining about.

CNN also reported that Trump is privately complaining to his close allies about why women don't like him—apparently not understanding that women don’t like it when their freedom to make decisions about their own bodies is taken away from them.

They’re also publicly incensed that Harris made a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday night in a pitch-perfect sketch.

"It's a campaign ad, I mean they're trying to get her elected,” Trump sycophant Brian Kilmeade moaned on Fox News.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida,, who gave up his dignity to back Trump, accused “SNL” and “virtually every single media outlet in America to depress and suppress Republican votes and Trump voters.”

Rubio said Harris, “went to ‘Saturday Night Live,’ by the way in violation of the law. My only hope, I hope she laughed on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in front of millions of people, millions of people probably heard her laugh for two or three minutes, because that’s probably worth 2- to 3-million votes right there."

Harris, meanwhile, is projecting strength in the home stretch. She’s filling rallies with tens of thousands of people, and ending on a closing message of hope.

“Trump is spending the closing days of his campaign angry and unhinged, lying about the election being stolen because he’s worried he will lose,” Harris spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth and will walk into the Oval Office focused on them—that’s Vice President Harris.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.