Nebraska Democrat Denise Powell made tens of thousands of dollars working as a consultant for left-wing dark money groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund. Now, as a candidate for the state's Second Congressional District—and as some of her clients fend off a lawsuit from Nebraska's attorney general—she's campaigning on a pledge to "get dark money out of politics once and for all."
The post Nebraska House Candidate Who Worked for Democrats’ ‘Preeminent Dark Money Hub’ Now Campaigns on Getting ‘Dark Money out of Politics’ appeared first on .
President Trump on Monday expressed ambivalence about the status of peace talks with Iran, after he said earlier in the day that the Islamic Republic “really wants to make a deal” with his administration. “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly. I really don’t care,” Trump told CNBC’s Eamon Javers. “I couldn’t care less. If…
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is sticking by Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner in the face of controversy as he announced a get-out-the-vote rally with Platner in Maine for Friday. Platner’s campaign was hit with another scandal this weekend, as news broke that he sent sexually explicit text messages to multiple women while married to his […]
Republican Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska, chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus and a member of the House Financial Services Committee, stresses the need for Congress to move on reconciliation after the Justice Department made what he calls the "right choice" on the $1.8 billion so-called "weaponization" fund. He says a House vote on reconciliation could come as soon as Friday if the package clears the Senate, predicts a War Powers resolution on Iran will fail and calls for extending FISA authority. He speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)
As the war with Iran has eased into something of a hot ceasefire, with the two sides exchanging occasional blows as a peace deal is negotiated, the American Conservative has a dismal assessment of President Donald Trump’s performance: the outcome he’s arriving at appears to be “beyond parody.”Citing recent reports from Axios on the state of Trump’s peace deal negotiations, the American Conservative contributor Anik Joshi notes that “the deal will have the same core ingredients as the one negotiated by President Barack Obama and signed in 2015 that the U.S. later left — some kind of financial/sanctions relief in exchange for verification of promises not to pursue a weapons program.” These two aspects are vital, but ignore many other considerations that are essential to the war, like the activities of regional proxies. But to bring these other elements into the debate risks sidelining the core nuclear issue, which could tank efforts for a deal altogether. “This was exactly what helped nearly sink the original JCPOA in Congress,” writes Joshi. “There was significant opposition to all the things the deal didn’t do. There was also much opposition to what it actually did — contempt for sunset clauses, for the fact that the deal would require some level of trust in addition to verification, and for arguments against any kind of financial relief for a regime some saw as illegitimate.”His conclusion is not optimistic: “Nearly a decade later, with oil prices sky-high, it is beyond parody that we are back to where this all began, except this time with a massive war as a kickoff rather than negotiations.”Joshi is quick to note that negotiations are still worth pursuing as “the goal remains a quick end to the war before it has a chance to become another quagmire and cause sustained economic damage.” He does warn, however, that “that window closes more with each passing day.” With that in mind, he argues that the administration should focus on the most pressing issues and be willing to leave “nice-to-haves” on the table for a later date while addressing the “must-haves” now. While Joshi does think that the US is arguing from a position of power — an assessment that many analysts do not share — he does warn that “the country is still not in a position to impose its will on the Iranian government, and any kind of agreement will need to be give-and-take. As a function of that, it will contain the same key ingredients as the JCPOA with differences of degree far more than differences of type. There has been no unconditional surrender, and as such it is effectively impossible to impose unilateral terms, especially when the Iranians have shown what they’re capable of doing to maritime passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”At the moment, Trump is walking a tightrope between Iran hawks who demand maximal concessions and Republicans who just want the war to end. To bring about the latter, says Joshi, the president will likely have to anger the former. “If the government is serious about a deal,” notes Joshi, “it will require disappointing hawkish supporters, and the administration should steel itself for that sooner rather than later.”
The war in Iran has not been the unequivocal success that Donald Trump has claimed it to be.Tehran has damaged at least 20 regional U.S. military sites since the war began in late February, according to satellite imagery reviewed by the BBC. The damages have destroyed air defense systems, radars, and aerial refueling planes, costing the U.S. millions of dollars.The Pentagon, on the other hand, claimed in early April that it hit more than 13,000 targets in Iran within just 38 days of combat operations.Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has tried to rally attention toward the attacks. Last week, Khamenei wrote in Farsi on his official X account that “America will no longer have a safe haven for mischief and the establishment of military bases in the region.” Khamenei further vowed that the phrases “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” would remain the rallying cry of the Islamic community and “the oppressed of the world, especially the youth.”The reality is obviously a far cry from the Trump administration’s public declarations, which have involved claims as far back as June 2025 that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were obliterated and its military sites damaged beyond any scope of immediate repair.A peace plan does not seem to be on the table, despite a preliminary agreement that was drafted early last week. Iran on Monday suspended talks with the United States over continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon, which they say violate the ceasefire.That’s not likely to please Trump, who spent the weekend ranting about congressional opposition to his war.“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” the president wrote on Truth Social late Sunday. “But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever.“Just sit back and relax,” Trump concluded. “It will all work out well in the end—It always does!”
