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Ken Paxton

Polling Memo Warns Paxton Nomination Could Sink Texas GOP In November

Texas Republicans are once again sounding alarm bells about the state’s U.S. Senate seat, saying that if Republicans nominate state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the May 26 primary runoff, it will create a drag on the entire Texas GOP ticket.

A polling memo commissioned by a super PAC backing Republican Sen. John Cornyn in the runoff said that nominating Paxton would be catastrophic, potentially costing Republicans the Senate seat, multiple House races, and possibly even control of the state House.

“A Paxton nomination creates measurable risk across every tier of the Texas ballot,” said the memo, which was obtained by Texas Tribune reporter Gabby Birenbaum. “The Senate race tightens significantly. Congressional pickup opportunities close. Republican-held seats that should be safe require active defense. And the Texas House majority—which took years to build—faces exposure it would not face with Cornyn at the top of the ticket.”

Among the poll’s findings is that the gerrymander Trump forced Republicans to undertake—which was supposed to net the GOP five U.S. House seats—could collapse if Paxton were the nominee.

The memo highlights four prospective GOP flips, saying, “With Paxton at the top of the ticket, all four opportunities effectively disappear. The drag is consistent across every key voter group—independents, suburban women, soft Republicans—and large enough to turn each district from a competitive opportunity into a likely Democratic hold.”

What’s more, the memo says that Paxton would jeopardize otherwise safe GOP House seats, including that of now-former Rep. Tony Gonzales and GOP Rep. Beth Van Duyne. The survey finds that suburban, independent, and Hispanic voters would likely turn away from the party in droves.

“The damage does not stop at lost opportunities. Redistricting produced several Republican-held congressional districts that should be safe holds under any normal electoral environment. With Cornyn at the top of the ticket, they are—comfortable margins, no defensive spending required, resources free for offensive races. Under a Paxton nomination, many of these seats become a problem,” the memo said, though it overstates Cornyn’s benefit to those seats, many of which are still competitive even if he is the nominee.

The Cornyn-supporting super PAC released the memo a little more than two weeks before the May 26 runoff in a desperate attempt to build support for Cornyn’s flailing candidacy.

The most recent public poll, commissioned by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs, found Paxton leading Cornyn, 48 percent to 45 percent.

However, the same survey found that electability arguments don’t seem to be working. When asked which Republican would be the strongest opponent to Democratic nominee James Talarico, GOP primary voters were split, with 43% saying Cornyn and 43% saying Paxton.

Cornyn, for his part, had been frantically trying to secure Trump’s endorsement, changing long-held positions and heaping embarrassing amounts of praise on Trump. And right after the initial primary, it seemed Trump was finally going to get off the sidelines and endorse Cornyn, according to reports at the time. But Trump has so far reneged on his pledge to make an endorsement.

It’s possible Cornyn’s supporters hope this memo scares Trump into backing Cornyn

In the process, though, they released a memo that shows Texas is competitive even if Cornyn is the nominee.

The poll showed Cornyn up only two points over a “generic Democrat” in the race, while Paxton trailed by four points. (Of course, Talarico is far from generic.) It also showed Democrats holding onto two of the gerrymandered U.S. House seats even with Cornyn atop the ticket.

Ultimately, the midterms will prove brutal for Trump and Republicans—whether or not Paxton is the Texas Senate nominee.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Greg Abbott

From Texas To White House, Republicans Are Bracing For The Blue Wave

With six months to go until Election Day, the White House seems to have already accepted that Republicans will lose control of at least one chamber of Congress.

A Washington Post report on Monday said that lawyers in Donald Trump’s White House are privately briefing Trump political appointees about how to handle congressional investigations—which Democrats are sure to launch if they flip the House, Senate, or even both in November’s midterm elections.

“It’s obvious to everyone that it’s very likely” Democrats will win the House, an unnamed Trump administration official who attended one of the briefings told The Washington Post.

The official added that the briefing on how to handle Democratic-led congressional oversight “was a sober-eyed conversation.”The Post went on to report that “At least some staff members have considered the briefings preparatory, given the growing sense across the Trump administration that the Republican Party is in trouble and that the time has come to prepare for worst-case scenarios.”

This is just the latest sign that Republicans have entered the acceptance phase of the stages of grief.

For example, Senate Republicans were publicly nudging aging right-wing Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to retire before the midterms, as the GOP may not have a majority next year to confirm Trump’s nominees if a vacancy arises.

Senate Republicans were also urging Trump to fire the Cabinet officials he’s sick of now, because confirming replacements if the GOP loses its Senate majority would be difficult if not impossible.

On the House side—where Democrats are clearly favored to win control after November’s elections—Republicans are also showing tangible signs that they know their fate.

For example, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is refusing to set an election date to fill the vacancy created by skeevy Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales’ resignation—likely because the race would be competitive and his party could lose the seat in a special election. That would put Democrats one seat closer to the majority, and deal a major psychological blow to GOP donors and voters.

And Republican lawmakers are retiring at a massive clip, with the number of GOP departures rivaled only by those from 2018. That exodus is a tell that Republicans know they would be returning to Congress in the minority, and thus chose to hang it up and leave rather than suffer that indignity.

Meanwhile, Republicans are desperately rushing to pass new, gerrymandered congressional maps to try to stave off losses in the midterms—a corrupt move blessed by a Supreme Court that Trump and the GOP stacked with partisan hacks.

However, even if their gerrymanders succeed, Republicans are still likely to lose the House. In fact, the redrawn maps Republicans passed to try to rig the election for their candidates may not even work. Trump’s coalition is falling apart as voters turn on him over the war he launched in Iran that is spiking costs here at home.

And gerrymandering cannot save the GOP’s Senate majority, which is now at risk due to Trump’s unpopularity.

Ultimately, the midterms are going to be a disaster for the GOP—and they know it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos



Steve Scalise

Terrified By Iran War's Impact On Gas Prices, Republicans Try Blaming Democrats

Gas prices surged this week amid oil scarcity and investors’ realization that the Strait of Hormuz is not close to reopening.

“If it feels like gas prices are suddenly jumping everywhere, you’re not imagining it—and in parts of the country, the increases have been nothing short of explosive,” Patrick De Haan, a gas price expert with Gas Buddy, wrote in a post on X. “As of Friday, the national average price of gasoline has surged to $4.42 per gallon, the highest level since summer 2022. Diesel prices are climbing even faster, now at $5.56 per gallon, within striking distance of their all-time high.”

Republicans are panicked, knowing that high gas prices will sink them in November’s midterm elections. And those prices rest solely at the feet of President Donald Trump. He launched a war of choice that led Iran to close the critical Strait of Hormuz waterway, which has shocked oil markets and continues to threaten the global economy.

Yet, rather than push Trump to fix the problem he started, they made an embarrassing attempt to gaslight America about high fuel prices and to concoct far-fetched scapegoats, including former President Joe Biden, oil companies, and Democrats.

Republican Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia, who is running for his party’s Senate nomination and auditioning for Trump’s endorsement, blamed the nebulous “Democrats” for surging gas prices, even though Democrats are against the war causing those price hikes.

“Remember, President Trump promised he’d make us safer and more prosperous. … Now yes, we’ve seen some gas prices fluctuation. Gas prices will go back down. Remember—high gas prices are the work of the Democrats,” Carter told Fox Business, reminding viewers of high gas prices during 2022, which were falling until Trump’s war.

That talking point was obviously sent around to Republicans. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise made a similarly ridiculous plea for voters to remember 2022.

“People will remember, you go back two years ago, we were paying almost $6 a gallon for gasoline,” Scalise said Thursday. “Right now, it’s in the 3s.”

Even conservative CNBC host Joe Kernen pointed out that Scalise was making up numbers. Gas was not $6 a gallon when Biden left office in January 2025, and on the day Scalise made that comment, AAA reported the national average was $4.30 a gallon.

Other Republicans came up with dumber scapegoats.

“It has to do with the greed of the oil companies,” Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told reporters on Capitol Hill. “And I blame Congress because every dadgum time we do this, ‘Oh, we’re going to bring the oil executives down here,’ and they shake the money tree, and every time I say this, my contributions from the oil distributors goes down.”

Rep. Burchett (R-TN) refuses to put any blame on Trump for high gas prices.Burchett: It has to do with the greed of the oil companies. We buy zero oil from Iran. 90% of their oil they sell to China. They're just gouging us. And I blame Congress.

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— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) April 30, 2026 at 11:04 AM

De Haan said Burchett fundamentally doesn’t understand the laws of supply and demand with that comment.

“That’s not how oil markets work,” De Haan said of Burchett’s assertion. “Prices are driven by global supply and demand—not just what we import or who we buy from. comments like this ignore basic economics. the rep badly badly needs an economics refresher class.”

Rep. Rich McCormick, Republican of Georgia, made a similarly dumb statement, claiming that the U.S. doesn’t get oil from the Strait of Hormuz. But McCormick added a bonus scapegoat, blaming the price jump on Biden for not building a pipeline.

“Remember, the United States is not as dependent on foreign oil as everybody else,” he said. “We do it just because it’s a quicker track, but we don’t have to do that. If we had the pipeline that we didn’t complete thanks to the Biden administration for so long, we’d be in a much better position.”

Rep. McCormick (R-GA) says he doesn’t worry about high gas prices because we don’t rely on oil from the Strait of Hormuz, and blames Biden.McCormick: If we had the pipeline that we didn't complete thanks to the Biden administration for so long, we'd be in a much better position

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— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) April 30, 2026 at 11:38 AM

Of course, the Keystone XL Pipeline would have little to alleviate the situation we are in. That’s because about a third of global oil supply goes through the Strait of Hormuz, and that traffic has plummeted since the start of the Iran war. That has created a shortage and driven up prices. And the Keystone XL Pipeline would have merely transported oil from Canada to the United States, not increased supply.

Ultimately, gas prices are high because of the war Trump started. Full stop.

The majority of voters are well aware of that, too.
Republicans can try to gaslight all they want. But they are to blame for this mess, and they will pay the price for it at the ballot box in November.

As Redistricting Fiasco Unfolds, Raging Republicans Blame Everyone But Trump

As Redistricting Fiasco Unfolds, Raging Republicans Blame Everyone But Trump

Republicans were in full-on meltdown mode this week after they lost a redistricting ballot measure in Virginia that will axe as many as four GOP lawmakers from their congressional delegation.

And the finger-pointing was out in full force, with conservatives blaming the Virginia Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, former GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and especially Democrats, who they called power-hungry cheaters while keeping a straight face.

But there was one person Republicans didn’t blame, even though he is squarely at fault for any House losses they suffer as a result of this race to the bottom that he started in the first place: their Dear Leader, Donald Trump.

If Trump had never pushed red states to redraw their congressional maps mid-decade in Texas and elsewhere, then Democrats never would have redrawn the maps in Virginia or California.Indeed, Trump likely thought that Democrats wouldn’t have the ability, nor the stomach, to engage in the kind of partisan gerrymandering that rule-followers usually hate.

But he underestimated Democratic leaders, who showed they had a spine and the guts to stand up and refuse to fight with one hand tied behind their back.

Still, Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to name Trump personally for the miscalculation.

Let’s take a look at some unhinged GOP reactions, shall we?

Republican Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia proposed legislation that would redraw Virginia state lines, giving the Democratic-heavy Northern Virginia suburbs back to the District of Columbia.

“DC Bureaucrats hijacked Virginia… but we will restore it,” McCormick wrote in a post on X. “Arlington and Alexandria were always meant to be a part of DC. That’s why I introduced the Make DC Square Again Act, because it’s a simple concept: DC = [square].”

Of course, changing state lines would require the Virginia Legislature to agree—which it won’t, given that it’s controlled by Democrats.

Also, the Virginia redistricting ballot measure would have passed even without the Democratic strongholds in NoVA, so good try bro. Even more ironic is that McCormick is only in Congress because Georgia Republicans gerrymandered their House maps to make his seat easier for him to win. Funny that he wasn’t anti-gerrymandering then.

GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina reacted by calling on his state to gerrymander in response to Virginia’s gerrymander.

“After the Virginia Democrats’ efforts to redistrict in order to increase Democrat seats in the House of Representatives, South Carolina should consider fighting fire with fire,” Graham wrote in a post on X, even though this whole ordeal was started by Trump and not Democrats. “I would encourage South Carolina’s next Republican governor and the Republican legislature to seriously look at what our state’s response should be to Democrats in Virginia. Republicans in South Carolina should consider being bold and fighting back.”

Note: The filing deadline for candidates in South Carolina already passed and the primaries are in a little over seven weeks, so even if they do redraw their maps, that wouldn’t take effect this year.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson slammed Democrats for the Virginia redraw, and said that the narrow margin the ballot measure passed by is proof that the redraw is bad.

“Virginia Democrats can’t redraw reality. This close margin reinforces that Virginia is a purple state that shouldn’t be represented by a severe partisan gerrymander,” Hudson said in a statement.

You’ll be shocked to know he didn’t raise any objections when Republicans in his state redrew their maps to give the GOP as many as 11 of the state’s 14 House seats—despite the fact that Trump only won the Tar Heel State by four points.

Other GOP lawmakers used ridiculous hyperbole and lies to slam the maps, yet refused to say Trump needed to take any accountability for the mess he created.

“The Marxists want to destroy this country,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told Fox Business. “That’s what [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries literally admitted yesterday. … We need the Virginia Supreme Court to hopefully save us by striking down this ridiculous redistricting map.”

Ultimately, Democrats finally fought back against Trump-fueled GOP power grabs—and Republicans can’t handle it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Nasty Nancy Mace Launches Expulsion Bid Against An Even Worse Republican

Nasty Nancy Mace Launches Expulsion Bid Against An Even Worse Republican

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has launched a new crusade.

After the Republican firebrand cruelly tried to ban a transgender lawmaker from bathrooms on Capitol Hill and feuded with airport leadership in her home state of South Carolina—two battles where she was objectively in the wrong—she has now taken on a new foe. And this time, her target is valid.

Mace is trying to expel fellow House Republican and skeeze ball Cory Mills, who is accused of a whole host of horrific things including assault, domestic violence, revenge porn, stolen valor, and even illegally obtaining federal contracts as a member of Congress.“The swamp has protected Cory Mills for far too long and we are done letting it slide,” Mace said Monday in a statement after introducing a resolution to expel the Florida man from Congress. “We tried to censure him and strip him from his committee assignments. Both parties blocked it, but we are not backing down. The evidence against Mills is overwhelming: beating women and telling them to lie about it, cyberstalking women, lying about his military service, and profiting off his seat. Any Member who votes to keep him here is voting to protect a woman beater and a fraud. He needs to be expelled immediately.”

Mace resorted to an expulsion resolution because Mills is refusing to resign—despite multiple other GOP members of Congress urging him to do so.

“There’s absolutely no reason to resign,” Mills told CNN. “He [Johnson] told me not to resign, and he told me that this is why we have this process.”

Indeed, House Speaker Mike Johnson has been protecting Mills for months, and even admitted to CNN that he did actually tell Mills not to resign.

“It is not something I encourage, no. Look, we have a process here,” Johnson said about encouraging his members not to resign amid personal scandals. “So no, I’m not in favor.”

Of course, that’s not surprising in the least. Johnson was happy to keep now-former Rep. Tony Gonzales around after the Texas lawmaker was exposed as a serial sexual harasser, because Gonzales was a reliable vote in Johnson’s slim GOP majority.

Related | Vile allegations against GOP lawmaker? Mike Johnson says no biggie

But wait, the story gets even messier!

Rather than lay low and hope the scandal goes away, Mills has actually picked a fight with Mace, threatening to expel her from Congress.

And he’s taunting her on social media as well, firing off multiple posts on X on Wednesday attacking Mace for her own scandals.

“Hey Nancy, I have no restraining order or any criminal or civil cases open. Can you say the same?” Mills wrote in a post on X, even though he has had restraining orders against him in the past. “What about your restraining order for harassment of your ex fiancé? What about the current gag order issued by the judge in SC and pending cases?”

Mills posted subsequent screeds on X accusing Mace of being mentally unwell, of drinking alcohol, and of being “fake MAGA.”

Related | Nancy Mace’s ‘very nasty’ conduct revealed in police report

Ultimately, in this battle between two utterly detestable and morally repugnant people, Mace is right.

Mills is a pig who belongs nowhere near a position of power, let alone as one of 535 people who make our country’s laws.

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

Republicans Signaling Fear That Midterm Will End Their House And Senate Majorities

Republicans Signaling Fear That Midterm Will End Their House And Senate Majorities

Republicans have expressed fears both publicly and privately that their congressional majorities are in serious danger in November, as voters angry with President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and the fact that it’s making life even more unaffordable in the United States threaten to punish the GOP at the ballot box.

But now they have moved on from merely talking about those fears to taking concrete steps that make it clear they know their prospects are dire and that they are on track to lose control of not just the House but the Senate, too.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he is taking steps to ensure that Republicans will be ready to replace Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito should he choose to retire this summer, giving a little hint-hint to the 76-year-old with a lifetime appointment who was recently hospitalized with an unspecified illness.

“That’s a contingency I think around here you always have to be prepared for. And if that were to happen, yes, we would be prepared to confirm,” Thune told a reporter from the Washington Examiner.

Even Trump himself brought up the possibility of Alito, as well as famously corrupt Justice Clarence Thomas, retiring before the midterms, telling Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday that the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a mistake by not retiring earlier because he got to fill her seat on the nation’s highest court.

“She decided that she was going to live forever, and about two minutes after the election, she went out, and I got to appoint somebody,” Trump told Bartiromo, in what sounded like yet another nudge at Alito and Thomas.

Indeed, pushing out an aging Supreme Court justice before the midterms is a massive tell that Republicans are worried they will lose the Senate majority, and thus their ability to confirm Trump’s judicial nominees. (It’s also wildly hypocritical, as now-former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat by claiming the vacancy came too close to an election, but I digress.)

Back in January, political analyst Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor of the nonpartisan political handicapping outlet Inside Elections, said that this very situation would be a tell that Republicans were scared of losing the Senate.

“We’re still a ways away from this so keep it saved in your bookmarks, but one way we will know if Republicans become truly concerned about losing the Senate is if there’s chatter or even pressure on Thomas and/or Alito to retire this summer,” Rubashkin wrote in a post on January 6.

Welp …

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis is getting cold feet about rigging—uh, sorry, redrawing -- his state’s congressional map.

While the Trump lackey was previously bullish that Republicans could extract as many as five more House seats in the state, DeSantis is now worried that the midterm environment—including shifts in Florida—will be so bad for Republicans that creating more nominally Republican seats could actually backfire. Spreading out GOP voters could turn Florida’s map into a dummymander—a political term that means an intended gerrymander actually winds up benefitting the other party.

What’s more, Republicans are sending Vice President JD Vance to campaign in Iowa, yet another sign that this otherwise reliably Republican area is slipping away from the GOP as Trump’s tariffs and war in Iran decimate the agricultural backbone of the state. Iowa was also the first state Trump himself traveled to on his midterm campaign tour.If Republicans are having to campaign in a state Trump carried by double digits in 2024, they are in some serious doo doo this fall.

Of course, sending Vance to campaign for vulnerable Republicans is likely not the best idea, as he’s not only unpopular but has also turned out to be bad luck for other candidates he’s stumped for.

Yet desperate times call for desperate measures.

So the midterms are shaping up to be a disaster for the GOP? Good.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Polls: Trump's Support Dwindling Down To His Base Of MAGA Diehards

Polls: Trump's Support Dwindling Down To His Base Of MAGA Diehards

President Donald Trump's approval rating is reaching new lows as Americans grow frustrated with the high cost of living and Trump's choice to mire the country in a new foreign war.

In fact, since Trump launched the boondoggle of a war in Iran, his average net approval rating has fallen roughly five percentage points, according to polling analyst Nate Silver. His approval rating now stands at an abysmally low 39.9 percent.

In fact, the latest Economist/YouGov poll, released Tuesday, finds Trump at just 35 percent approval—the lowest the organization has recorded in Trump's second term. It’s also near his all-time low in the poll, 34 percent, which he recorded in November 2017.

CNN Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten put it like this:

A steady fall into the abyss for Trump's net approval, as it falls into Death Valley. He's now at a term 2 low: -18 pts. Big reason why: Independents. Trump's at -45 pts. The worst for any prez at this point in term 2. Worse than Nixon (-36 pts) at the height of Watergate!

Indeed, the Economist/YouGov poll found Trump's support falling in almost every group. That includes self-identified Republican voters, whose approval has declined by 3 points since last week.

Trump's support from people who voted for him in 2024 also saw a precipitous drop since he launched the Iran war in late February.

In a poll conducted just as he started the Iran "excursion"—as he so eloquently described it—84 percent of Trump 2024 voters approved of the job he was doing as president. Now only 76 percent approve, marking a steep eight-point drop in about one month.

In fact, the only group where Trump's support has held steady is among self-proclaimed MAGA supporters, 92 percent of whom still approve of their Dear Leader. That's virtually unchanged from the 94 percent of MAGA supporters who approved of him as the war began.

That means we are quickly approaching a point where Trump's MAGA base may be the only ones who approve of the job he is doing in office. And that news should horrify Republicans, who were already battling extreme headwinds in the November midterms.

If Trump 2024 voters stay home or vote for Democrats, the electoral consequences for Republicans will be ugly.

And while there's a long way to go until November, Silver's analysis shows that even when Trump's approval rating likely improves after the self-inflicted messes die down, they may never fully recover. After all, Trump's approval rating shows a downward trajectory since Inauguration Day 2025.

Of course, an improvement in Trump’s approval assumes that the war in Iran and the fallout from it won't get worse.

Trump is clearly looking for an off-ramp, though his erratic missives about his plans are impossible to follow.

But even if the war ended today and Iran reopened the critical Strait of Hormuz oil passageway—which it has been blocking for more than four weeks—experts said fuel prices will take months to go back to pre-war levels. That's because it takes time for the commodity to be shipped across the world, as well as for refineries to restart their production and repair the damage they sustained from Iranian missile strikes.

Already, gas prices are now averaging more than $4 per gallon across the country—a high not seen since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. And we all know how that worked out for Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

And rising fuel prices have negative downstream effects on the economy. Companies and farmers have to contend with higher costs to ship and harvest their crops—costs they then pass down to consumers. Worse is that oil and natural gas are used in many other products, such as plastics, rubber, synthetic fabrics, and more. Thus rising oil prices make it more expensive to produce countless other necessary household items.

Given that inflation and the cost of living are the most important issues to Americans, that should have Republicans shaking in their boots.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Male Voters Who Returned Trump To The White House Souring On Him Now

Male Voters Who Returned Trump To The White House Souring On Him Now

President Donald Trump's job approval rating is now at the lowest level of his second term, but beyond that topline is an even grimmer reality for Trump and the Republican Party: Men, the lifeblood of the GOP coalition, are souring on the president.

As Americans express frustration with the struggling economy and his military quagmire in Iran, Trump’s approval rating is now 16 percentage points underwater, according to The New York Times’ polling average.

And multiple new polls show Trump now underwater with men, a group that backed him by a 12-point margin in 2024, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Trump’s high support among men helped him overcome the gender gap, in which women voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris by a smaller seven-point spread.

If men shift away from Trump—even modestly—it could be devastating for his party in the November midterm elections.

"Donald Trump and Republicans won in 2024 because of support from male voters,” Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst, said Tuesday in a segment on the cable network. “The only way they can win, given the gender gap in this country, is support from male voters, and male voters are abandoning Donald Trump.”

Indeed, the latest Economist/YouGov survey found 45 percent of men approve of the job Trump's doing, compared with 50 percent who disapprove. That's a 20-point slide in net approval among men from the Economist/YouGov poll conducted at the same point last year.

Meanwhile, a Reuters/Ipsos survey released on Monday found Trump at just 37 percent approval with men—the lowest rating among the gender bloc in all of his years in office.

Even Republican pollster Echelon Insights found Trump underwater with male likely voters. Forty-six percent approve of the job he's doing, while 53 percent disapprove—the majority of whom (46 percent) do so strongly.

Some surveys show why Trump's support from men is falling, too: Trump’s handling of the economy, inflation, and the war in Iran.

In the Economist/YouGov poll, 43 percent of men approve of Trump's handling of the economy—down from 50 percent last March—and a similarly low share approves of his handling of the Iran situation.

YouGov/The Economist polling dataChart by Andrew Mangan/Created with Datawrapper

Indeed, male influencers—whose support helped push Trump to victory in 2024—are now speaking out against his actions. A number say they were duped by Trump's now-broken promises to lower prices and stop foreign wars.

For instance, Joe Rogan, the popular podcaster, has a predominantly male audience and endorsed Trump in 2024. But now he says Americans are now feeling "betrayed" by him.

“It just seems so insane, based on what [Trump] ran on,” Rogan said in a podcast episode released earlier this month. “He ran on ‘No more wars. End these stupid, senseless wars.’ And then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.”

Comedian Tim Dillon, who helped Trump win in 2024, also slammed Trump’s war in Iran.

“This is a geopolitical nightmare now. It’s an economic catastrophe,” Dillon said on a recent podcast, saying anyone who is “trying to justify this as anything other than a strategic blunder” is a shill.

Put simply, Trump has guy problems. And if he doesn't fix them, it will be a bad election night for the GOP.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Trump 'Credits' Hegseth For Iran War -- And Sets Him Up As Scapegoat

Trump 'Credits' Hegseth For Iran War -- And Sets Him Up As Scapegoat

Pete Hegseth, you in danger, girl.

President Donald Trump on Monday laid the groundwork to blame his secretary of defense for the unfolding disaster in Iran, saying that Hegseth convinced him to start the “excursion” that the administration still has yet to give a coherent rationale for.

Seated alongside Hegseth at an event in Memphis, Tennessee, Trump said that the stock market and economy were doing “fantastic” but that he had "unfortunately" called Hegseth and others to discuss whether to bomb Iran and Hegseth was "the first one" to say Trump should attack.

"You said, 'Let's do it’—because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon," Trump said of Hegseth.

Trump blames Hegseth for the war: "Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. You said, 'Let's do it.'"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 23, 2026 at 12:58 PM

Sure sounds like Trump is laying the groundwork to can Hegseth.

Trump offered that insight into how he pulled the trigger on attacking Iran as the conflict is going off the rails. Iran has blocked a critical oil passageway and bombed other fuel infrastructure in neighboring Middle Eastern nations, leading to a spike in fuel prices that are shaking the global economy.

It's why Trump on Monday appeared to lie about negotiations with Iran to end the war. At least for the moment, it seemed to work as investors caused the stock markets to rise and oil prices to fall at the opening of the trading day. However, Iran has since said it wasn't speaking with Trump and has no plans to stop its aggressions, which may cause markets to trend back down.

Trump is clearly terrified about the chaos he unleashed—and new polling shows he has a reason to be.

A CBS/YouGov survey found 57 percent of Americans think the war is going "very" or "somewhat" poorly. Another 60 percent disapprove of Trump starting the conflict altogether.

As for Hegseth, he would be well-poised to start polishing his resume and reaching back out to his friends Fox News, where he worked before being confirmed to lead the Pentagon.

Trump has no qualms with firing officials to make them the scapegoats for his cruel and unpopular agenda. Kristi Noem found that out the hard way when she was unceremoniously fired as homeland security secretary earlier in March, after she was made the face of Trump's brutal anti-immigration actions.

In fact, Trump has toyed with axing Hegseth at least once before. Earlier in Trump’s new administration, Hegseth was embroiled in a controversy over use of an unsecured Signal chat—that inadvertently included a journalist—to discuss classified military operations. As the Signal controversy was unfolding, NPR reported that Trump's White House had begun the process of looking for Hegseth's replacement.

Nearly a year later, Trump is now publicly placing the war on Hegseth's feet, claiming Hegseth was a major advocate of the bombing operation.

Of course, the blame might not even be true.

Earlier in March, Trump said that Hegseth, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio convinced him that an Iran attack was “imminent” and that he needed to start this war.

"Based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me—Marco, so involved—that I thought that they were going to attack us,” Trump said on March 9.

But Trump can’t fire his family. Rubio is more popular than Hegseth. And Witkoff is a behind-the-scenes figure whose firing wouldn’t prompt the kind of news coverage that a Hegseth ouster would. Hegseth makes a better fall guy for Trump’s misguided war.

If there’s any consolation for Hegseth, though, it’s that his firing would let him unlock that liquor cabinet he claimed to have shut when he became the secretary of defense.

A scotch on the rocks may be in your future, Pete! At least you have that.

Rising Gas Prices Enraged Republicans Under Biden, But Not Any More

Rising Gas Prices Enraged Republicans Under Biden, But Not Any More

When the price of gas skyrocketed in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, Republicans fell over themselves to blame then-President Joe Biden in hope of hurting his reelection bid as well as Democrats in the midterms—even though Biden was not at fault for the spike.

But now, with President Donald Trump squarely responsible for the exponential increase in oil and gas prices after he launched an ill-conceived war on Iran, Republicans have completely reversed course, claiming that high gas prices are a cost that they're willing to pay.

It’s a message taken directly from Dear Leader, who had the gall to argue this week that higher oil prices are actually good for Americans.

Get a load of Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who said Thursday that he’s totally fine with higher gas prices in order to let Trump wage war in Iran.

"If that means prices go up for a short time, I think Americans understand we can live with that," Jordan said on CNN.

But in 2022, Jordan was one of the loudest voices criticizing rising gas prices.

"Real America doesn’t care about the January 6th Committee,” he wrote on X at the time. “Gas is over $5 per gallon!”

And he was still on a tear about gas prices in 2023.

"Gas prices are up 63 cents this year. Groceries prices are still at record highs. Good luck affording a house with 7% interest rates. Bidenomics!" Jordan wrote on X at the time.

But Jordan is not singing the same tune today, with gas prices up 69 cents over the last month, grocery prices rising, and mortgage rates at more than six percent—all directly thanks to Trump’s war and illegal tariffs wreaking havoc on the economy.

Then there’s Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri, who told CNN this week that “there may be sacrifices to be made at the pump on a temporary basis."

"I think the people in my district are [willing to pay higher prices at the pump],” Alford said. "I'm willing to pay 30 percent or 30 cents more at the pump to make sure Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon that's going to hit the U.S."

ALFORD: There may be sacrifices to be made at the pump on a temporary basisRAJU: Do you think Americans are willing to make it?A: I think the people in my district are. I'm willing to pay 30%, or 30 cents more at the pump to make sure Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon that's going to hit the US

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 11, 2026 at 2:50 PM

Just a few weeks ago, Alford was praising Trump for lowering gas prices.

"President Trump and House Republican’s [sic] America-First energy agenda is working—and it’s working so well that even networks usually quick to criticize are reporting the relief with a smile. When gas prices go down, American families go forward,” he wrote on X.

So then does Alford think that skyrocketing gas prices thanks to trigger-happy Trump make Americans go backward?

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida also said that Americans just have to get over surging gas prices because Trump's war is more important.

“We’d love to get gas prices back down, but the most important thing is [to] destroy Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon, destroy their military, their ballistic missile capability," Scott told CNN. “We all want gas prices to come down. Nobody wants gas prices higher. This president doesn’t want gas prices higher. But we have to be realistic."

Of course, Trump said in June that the United States “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities, so it’s unclear how in just a few months the country became such a massive threat that war was necessary.

Given that a majority of Americans don't support Trump’s war and only wanted to see prices in the United States come down, it's hard to imagine that being a winning message for the GOP.

But that didn’t stop Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas from pushing the same message.

"Freedom is not free. Americans are gonna have to make some sacrifices," Marshall said, even though the war in Iran has nothing to do with freedom in the United States.

However, there is one Republican sounding the alarm on Trump's war.

“If we are still bombing Iran with kinetic action—people don’t want to call it war—if there’s still kinetic action that causes oil to be over $100, I think you’re going to see a disastrous election [for Republicans],” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told Fox Business.

Rand Paul: "The 2026 elections, already we are behind the 8 ball. If you add in high gas prices, high oil prices, and if we're still bombing Iran with kinetic action -- people don't want to call it war -- I think you're gonna see a disastrous election."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 10, 2026 at 9:00 AM

Paul’s right: Rising gas prices are Trump's fault, and voters will punish the GOP for it come November.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

War On Iran Is Still A War Even When Gutless Republicans Insist It Isn't

War On Iran Is Still A War Even When Gutless Republicans Insist It Isn't

Republican lawmakers spent the past week trying to defend their refusal to give congressional approval for President Donald Trump's poorly planned and ill-conceived war in Iran, insisting that it’s merely a "conflict" that doesn't require a vote—or a spine.

It is painfully obvious that the Trump administration's extended bombing campaign—which may even lead to boots on the ground—to effect regime change in an adversarial country is a war.

Hell, Trump himself even called it a war when he brushed off the deaths of U.S. soldiers as something "that often happens in war."

But because a war would require congressional authorization, GOP lawmakers have twisted themselves into knots to explain why Trump can do whatever he wants in the Middle East—even though the public doesn't support it and it is already destroying the economy.

Indeed, both House and Senate Republicans blocked bills that would have curtailed Trump's war powers this week.

Take a gander at what the likely future Homeland Security secretary and current contender for dumbest U.S. senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said on Tuesday:

Reporter: You'll concede this is war?Mullin: We haven't declared war. They declared war on us
Reporter: The president called it war and Secretary Hegseth called it war
Another reporter: When you walked up just now, you called it war
Mullin: Okay. That was a misspoke.

RAJU: You'll concede this is war?MARKWAYNE MULLIN: We haven't declared war. They declared war on usRAJU: The president called it war and Secretary Hegseth called it war REPORTER: When you walked up just now, you called it warMULLIN: Okay. That was a misspoke.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 3, 2026 at 6:14 PM

Fellow moronic Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama also walked into the same trap.

“This is not your Democrat war. This is President Trump’s war, and he’s not going in to be politically correct. He’s going in to protect, first of all, Americans first and then our allies and the people around the world,” he told NewsNation Monday.

Tuberville: "This is not your Democrat war. This is President Trump's war. And he's not going in to be politically correct."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 2, 2026 at 10:29 PM

But when CNN later asked why such a war wouldn't need congressional authorization, Tuberville tried to backtrack.

“I wouldn’t call this a war as much as I’d call it conflict that should be very short and sweet, if you can put it that way," he told CNN’s Manu Raju Wednesday.

Similarly, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida also performed some mental gymnastics to defend Trump’s war, saying that it's not a war because there are no "boots on the ground."

"Strategic strikes are not war," she said on MS NOW.

And the virulently racist Rep. Randy Fine of Florida had the excellent argument that Trump’s war isn’t a war because Congress didn’t say so.

“It’s not a war,” he told The New York Times. “The way you are officially at war is Congress declares war, and we haven’t declared war.”

Anna Paulina Luna: “It is not the intention of the U.S. Government to invade…Targeted strategic military strikes and invasions are two totally different things.”@crampell.bsky.social: “They’re calling it a war. The President called it a war.”Luna: “Strategic strikes are not war.”

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— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) March 1, 2026 at 8:38 PM


That’s not how definitions work, Randy.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ken Calvert of California said that the war in Iran couldn’t possibly be a war because it hasn’t gone on long enough.

“This has been about 72 hours,” he told the Times. “I would call it an operation at this point.”

Of course, length of time is not what defines a war either.House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) also tried to thread the same needle, saying that whether it's a war or a conflict is "semantics."

“We’re not at war right now,” Johnson said during a news conference, describing the actions as defensive.

“We’re four days into a very specific, clear mission—Operation Epic Fury,” he added.\

Johnson: “We're not at war right now.”

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— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) March 4, 2026 at 10:41 AM

If by “clear” he means not at all clear and by “mission” he means totally conflicting objectives, then sure.

Even MAGA loyalists have slammed GOP leaders for their spinelessness.

“It’s not a war unless it comes from the war region of France, otherwise’s [sic] it’s just sparkling combat,” The Federalist co-founder and CEO Sean Davis wrote on X, mocking Johnson’s sorry attempt to explain away the war.

Ultimately, Republicans will do anything to let their Dear Leader get his way—even light the Constitution on fire to let Trump wage a war they didn't authorize.

When the country is a smoldering heap of ashes by November as gas prices surge, inflation spikes, and the economy craters, good luck defending this “conflict” to voters.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Trump Hardliners Raging Over His  Expected Endorsement Of John Cornyn

Trump Hardliners Raging Over His  Expected Endorsement Of John Cornyn

Some of President Donald Trump's biggest cheerleaders are irate at reports that he will soon endorse Sen. John Cornyn over MAGA acolyte and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas' GOP Senate primary. They say that Cornyn is a wolf in sheep's clothing who won't advance Trump's agenda.

Multiple right-wing podcasters and MAGA influencers begged Trump not to bow to the pleas from establishment GOP lawmakers to intervene in the May 26 Texas runoff, which both Cornyn and Paxton advanced to Tuesday night after neither received 50 percent in the primary.

"President Trump says he will soon endorse in the Texas Senate GOP race, & whoever he doesn’t endorse must drop out. Hopefully he endorses @KenPaxtonTX, because @JohnCornyn has a long record of being anti-Trump, pro-Islam, weak on illegal immigration, and anti 2A," right-wing agitator Laura Loomer—who has successfully gotten Trump to fire government employees for insufficient loyalty—wrote in a post on X.Loomer later posted a 2023 article in which Cornyn said Trump shouldn't run for president again. "John Cornyn has never been a Trump loyalist,” she added, in a clear attempt to try to stop Trump from backing Cornyn in the race.

Sara Gonzales, a host on the right-wing BlazeTV network, also urged Trump not to back Cornyn.

“I am one of your biggest supporters and I am urging you as someone who is in the Texas grassroots: do NOT endorse Cornyn,” Gonzales wrote in an X post addressed to Trump. “It will be one of your biggest mistakes. The majority of Texas voters voted AGAINST Cornyn last night. We don’t want him!”

Far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich said in a post on X, “Endorsing Cornyn will be more gutting to the base than the Iran air strikes”—a nod to the “America first” crowd that felt betrayed by Trump starting yet another open-ended war in the Middle East."We finally have a real opportunity to remove a swamp rat GOP senator for his betrayals. If Trump screws that up with yet another disastrous endorsement, it will be a total scumbag move," right-wing radio host Jesse Kelly wrote in a post on X.

Even former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a MAGA supporter who has recently distanced herself from Trump, also slammed the president for trying to shut down the runoff.

"This is wrong and the people of Texas should be able to vote for WHOEVER THEY WANT!!! NOT the candidate Trump demands," Greene wrote in a post on X. "People are furious over this and if Trump does this, it could actually be the real reason Texas Senate seat flips blue. Stealing people’s opportunity to elect their leaders by force will definitely piss off voters and will lead to even more sitting it out."

Ultimately, it's unclear when Trump will make his endorsement—and if Paxton will even agree to drop out of the race.

Protecting Their Majority, Republicans Back Scandal-Ridden Rep. Gonzales

Protecting Their Majority, Republicans Back Scandal-Ridden Rep. Gonzales

Republicans are rallying around a fellow GOP lawmaker who had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide.

Yes, multiple Republicans either refused to call for Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas to resign or flat out admitted that he should stay in Congress because kicking him out would hurt their chances at keeping their narrow majority.

They said this even after text messages were made public, showing Gonzales pressuring aide Regina Ann Santos-Aviles—who later died by self-immolation—to send him sexual photos of herself and asking if she liked "anal," even after she pushed back and said that he was going "too far."

Gonzales’ fellow Texas Republican,Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), told CNN that resigning would be “the stupidest thing he could ever do” because "if he does that, then you gotta give the gavel to Hakeem Jeffries, and I'm sure the Democrats would love that."

Of course, that is not the case. Republicans would still hold a 217-214 majority. But it would be hard, if not impossible, to pass legislation given that GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky often votes against must-pass Republican legislation.

A number of other Republicans made similar comments to MS NOW, but like the cowards they all are, they refused to put their names behind such a disgusting admission.“They can’t lose a single vote, and so members almost seem untouchable right now,” an unnamed House Republican told the outlet.

“It’s a game of numbers and we’re in a losing battle,” another unnamed House Republican said. “Anyone who is remotely considering leaving right now would be able to use that as an incredible bargaining chip.”

And a third unnamed House Republican told MS-NOW that, while the allegations against Gonzales are "a really ugly situation,” Republicans can't "afford" to hold him accountable until the "numbers get better."

Gross is an understatement.Other cowardly Republicans refused to comment publicly on what they think Gonzales should do.

“I’m not going to get ahead of the speaker on this," Rep. Richard Hudson (R_NC), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Punchbowl News. "The speaker said publicly that Tony needs to respond to the allegations."

And John Cornyn, the Republican senior senator from Texas, also refused to call on Gonzales to resign.

"I’ve got my own race to run. I’ll let the speaker deal with that," he told Semafor reporter Burgess Everett, referring to his uphill primary battle against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

To be sure, there are some Republicans calling on Gonzales to resign—most of them women who say that Gonzales’ behavior is disgusting and unacceptable.But the most important House Republican of them all—Speaker Mike Johnson—said that Gonzales deserves due process and therefore shouldn't step down.

Of course, as long as the text messages are legitimate, there’s no doubt that what Gonzales did violated House ethics rules, which clearly state that members of Congress are barred from having sexual relationships with aides.

"Send me a sexy pic,” Gonzales texted Santos-Aviles, who died by suicide after reports said that she had been sidelined by staff due to her sexual relationship with their boss.

“You don't really want a hot picture of me,” she responded.

"Yes I do,” Gonzales said. "Hurry."

Santos-Avile’s response made it clear that she was trying to shut down his advances.

“No, I just don't like taking pictures of myself,” she said.

What Gonzales did is despicable. But Republicans won't punish him, just as they won’t punish President Donald Trump, who has been credibly accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

Gaslight: Was This Trump's Most Unhinged State Of The Union Ever?

Gaslight: Was This Trump's Most Unhinged State Of The Union Ever?

President Donald Trump delivered an unhinged, lie-filled, racist, and disturbingly dark State of the Union address Tuesday where he gaslit Americans about his accomplishments yet ultimately did nothing to change his abysmal standing in approval polls.

In fact, he spent just a few minutes talking about the economy—the most important issue to voters as midterm elections approach—and instead spent the rest of the never-ending speech talking about murders and blood and other depressing things that likely had average viewers wondering what on earth he was blathering about.

Worse for Trump and Republicans is that when he did talk about the economy, he only boasted about how great it’s doing, saying it is “roaring like never before.” Yet he did not offer any plans for how he would bring costs down and help Americans afford their rising cost of living, which is what Americans want to hear.

For example, he boasted that "100 percent of the jobs created under my administration have been in the private sector." Yeah, all 181,000 of them—the lowest annual job creation number in decades?

He crowed that the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 50,000 under his tenure, even though the market is now 800 points below that. And the stock market in the United States is actually faring worse than other countries’ markets.

Americans don’t believe Trump’s economy is great, no matter how many times he declares it to be true. In fact, CBS News released a poll before the speech that found 60 percent of Americans say that Trump makes things seem “better than they really are.”

Aside from rambling like a buffoon and being a raging asshole—reminding a national audience why they dislike him so much—Trump bragged about other head-scratching things that are unlikely to help boost his popularity.

He gloated about having “lifted 2.4 million Americans—a record—off of food stamps." Again, that’s not because he helped people but because he cut the program and stripped food aid from millions.

He waxed poetic about his illegal and destructive tariffs, saying they are “saving our country.” Of course, the tariffs are hurting the economy and Americans hate them, so highlighting this policy is again idiotic.

And he even spoke about how he is working to fix health care—one of his worst policy issues—even though he has absolutely no plan, slashed Medicaid, and let Affordable Care Act tax credits expire, raising insurance premiums for millions of Americans.

In fact, Trump slammed Democrats for not voting for the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—which slashed health care for the poorest Americans in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Rather than cower, Democrats stood and clapped, proud of themselves for not voting for that unpopular legislation.

Trump’s speech coincided with his approval rating hitting second-term lows—rivaled only by the dismal approval ratings he notched after he incited a violent and deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

A spate of polls released before Trump’s address found a host of bad news for Trump, including that his approval with independents is at just 26 percent, that Americans disapprove of his performance on every major issue, and that his approval has fallen even among Republicans who he needs to turn out for midterm elections in November.

The nonsense he spewed in Tuesday’s speech—the longest on record—is unlikely to change that.

While we all just suffered through that absolute buffoonery, here’s a final reminder: This utterly embarrassing display won’t matter when it comes to the November midterms. Feelings about Trump are baked in, and nothing he said in that speech will change the minds of Americans.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos


Congressional Republicans Drop 'States Rights' To Help Trump Steal 2026 Midterm

Congressional Republicans Drop 'States Rights' To Help Trump Steal 2026 Midterm

President Donald Trump announced last week that he thinks that the federal government should take over the 2026 midterm elections—an obvious effort to rig the results in favor of Republicans to prevent Democrats from flipping control of Congress.

"These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally. The Republicans should say, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting," Trump told Dan Bongino, the loser podcaster who quit his top job at the FBI. "We have states that I won that show I didn't win. You're gonna see something in Georgia."

But rather than condemn the obviously illegal and dangerous threat, Republicans have been gaslighting Americans into thinking that Trump didn't mean what he said and is actually just talking about the need to pass their voter suppression SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Take a look at what Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said when asked whether he agreed with Trump's horrific demand to "nationalize" elections.

"I think the president has clarified what he meant by that, and that is that he supports the SAVE Act," Thune said Tuesday—an obviously false statement as Trump explicitly said that he wants the federal government to take over elections.

Q: Do you agree with Trump saying we should 'nationalize' elections?THUNE: I think the president has clarified what he meant by that, and that is that he supports the SAVE Act(That is not what he meant)

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 3, 2026 at 2:52 PM

Similarly, Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio was also asked if he agrees that the federal government should take over elections, and gave a mealy-mouthed response that did not answer the question.

"I understand the president's frustration," Husted said on CNN. "We can instill confidence in both the president and American people that elections are run well through the SAVE Act."

And when host Dana Bash pushed further, Husted demurred.

"I don't know exactly what he means," Husted said.

Yeah, sure bud.

BASH: Do you agree the state is 'an agent for the federal govt' in elections?HUSTED: I understand the president's frustration. We can instill confidence that elections are run well through the SAVE ActB: He wasn't talking about the SAVE Act, thoughHUSTED: I don't know exactly what he means

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 4, 2026 at 1:05 PM

Meanwhile, Coward of the Year House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spread voter fraud lies to defend Trump's call to take over elections—something the former constitutional lawyer should know is illegal.

Article I Section 4 of the Constitution explicitly states that, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”

So Congress can make laws regulating elections, but the federal government cannot run them—as Trump is demanding.

"We had three Republican candidates who were ahead on election day in the last cycle, and every time a new tranche of ballots came in they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost. It looks on its face to be fraudulent," Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. "Can I prove that? No."

Johnson: “We had three House Republican candidates who were ahead on Election Day…And every time a new tranche of ballots came in, they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost…It looks on its face to be fraudulent. Can I prove that? No.”

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— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) February 3, 2026 at 3:17 PM

Of course, the order in which ballots are counted means nothing.

Trump then made all of the GOP defenders look like idiots a day later, when he again said that, yes, he really did mean that the federal government should take over elections because of some nonexistent fraud he now has Director of National Intelligence Tulsia Gabbard probing.

"Take a look at Detroit … take a look at Philadelphia, take a look at Atlanta," Trump said Thursday. "The federal government should not allow that. The federal government should get involved. These are agents of the federal government to count the vote. If they can’t count the vote legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over."

Indeed, Trump has already tried to take over election administration with executive orders that sought to require people to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote, limiting the use of electronic ballot-counting machines, and blocking states from counting mail-in ballots that were postmarked on Election Day.

But federal judges have blocked the orders, saying that Trump cannot unilaterally change election law.

Republicans, who purport to be supporters of states’ rights, should be appalled at Trump's call to federalize elections.

But because they’re all sniveling cowards, they’ve instead found any way possible to defend Dear Leader.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos


Challenged Over Minnesota Shootings, Wyoming Republican Flees Town Hall

Challenged Over Minnesota Shootings, Wyoming Republican Flees Town Hall

GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming literally chose to run away from her constituents rather than answer a very fair and basic question about why she won't speak out against the federal government killing U.S. citizens in the streets.

Last week Hageman held a town hall in Casper, Wyoming—as the GOP-controlled House was once again in recess because Speaker Mike Johnson is apparently allergic to work—in which she was repeatedly asked by constituents to speak out against the evil actions of President Donald Trump's immigration goons.

“Why have you not spoken out against the Fourth Amendment violations that ICE officers and Border Patrol officers are currently engaging in by breaking into people’s homes without a warrant?” one attendee asked.

But instead of answering, Hageman assailed the constituent’s character.

“I don’t know that I trust your facts,” Hageman responded.

Later on, another constituent asked Hageman why she had not spoken out against the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, both at the hands of Trump’s immigration goons.

“They are killing American citizens in the streets, and you are doing nothing. You are not saying a single solitary thing to support constituents or to support the American people,” they said. “As a constitutional lawyer, you should be infuriated. You should be incensed. Why are you not?”

But rather than responding, the cowardly Hageman left, as one constituent yelled “coward” and “chickenshit" as she walked off stage.

It’s truly so easy to speak out against obvious wrongs being committed by the federal government. In fact, GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky had no qualms with criticizing the killing of Pretti.

“After seeing this, if you call this a good shooting, you aren't watching the video. This was a real tragedy and a mistake. The man had been disarmed and then was shot 10 times,” Paul said. “If we say things that are obviously not true, the situation is going to get worse.”

But Hageman chose to walk away rather than do the right thing.

To be sure, a number of Hageman’s GOP colleagues have said disgusting things to not only defend the killings of Good and Pretti but to also disparage them.

While Hageman didn’t do that, her silence shows that she knows the killings of Good and Pretti were wrong, but she’s still too cowardly to speak out against it.

Chickenshit, indeed.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos