Scandal-mired GOP rep backtracks on advocating for controversial projects he profited from

GOP Sen. Pulls Off Amazing Play at Congressional Baseball Game, Dems Have a Tough Day

'Every Republican just winced': DC insider reveals 'big problem' Trump created for GOP

This fall's midterm election is a referendum on President Donald Trump, according to a veteran journalist, and he's not making things easy for Republicans trying to hold onto their congressional majorities.Polling has made clear that affordability remains the top voter concern, and Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan told "CNN News Central" that Republicans on Capitol Hill, whom he's covered for decades, were aghast when Trump declared "I love inflation" during an Oval Office event."Oh yeah, Trump is the issue of the election," Bresnahan said. "I mean, he is the biggest issue. His conduct, the war, his handling the economy, his conduct in office. I've got to tell you, I was on the Hill yesterday when he made those comments and they went through the Capitol pretty quickly, and it was just, you know, every Republican just winced. They're upset."Trump was re-elected to a second term on a promise to fix the economy on Day One, but a year and a half later, voters have soured on his handling of the affordability crisis."The messaging they're hearing out of the White House is not about inflation," the well-connected reporter said. "It's not about the economy. It's not about Americans' financial status, their overdue credit card payments. They're struggling to pay for school, and every day that Trump is out talking about Iran, he's talking talking about other issues, he's talking about the 2020 elections is a disaster for Hill Republicans. They're just – it's a big problem for them.""Speaker Mike Johnson can talk, you know, say Trump's labors are focused on inflation, but the American public doesn't think so, Congress doesn't think so – even the Republicans in Congress, I'll tell you that," Bresnhan added. "So this is a big problem for them." - YouTube youtu.be

INSIDER: Platner survives the onslaught, should the GOP be worried?

Views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author. It turns out that voters didn’t care so much about the Nazi tattoo after all. They threw […]

Will Congress Renew Controversial Surveillance Law? Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cindy Cohn

A key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire Friday unless it is reauthorized by Congress. Section 702 allows for the warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals believed to be outside of the U.S., yet, in practice, it also sweeps up and stores vast amounts of data from people inside the country, including their emails, texts and cellphone data. The FISA provision was enacted in 2008 to legalize George W. Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program that was developed after 9/11. A bipartisan group of senators is opposing the reauthorization of Section 702 due to President Trump’s naming of MAGA loyalist Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, to replace Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her resignation in May. Pulte has no known background in intelligence. He currently serves as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he has used his position to carry out Trump’s campaign of retribution against his political enemies. “It took this nomination of a completely unqualified guy to get enough members of Congress to really stop [Section 702],” says Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It’s time to take a look and listen hard about the privacy protections that are needed, at a minimum, for this program to go forward.” Cohn notes that the “massive national security surveillance state that was built after 9/11 has always been a threat to freedom.”

'Bleak': Trump's massive new Pentagon push crashes into a GOP wall

Two of the Senate GOP's most senior figures are openly questioning President Donald Trump's massive new Pentagon funding push, throwing fresh doubt on his ambitious $1.5 trillion military budget goal, according to Punchbowl News.Trump launched his latest funding blitz on Truth Social Wednesday night, demanding Republicans "IMMEDIATELY advance and pass" a $350 billion reconciliation package, which he called "Recon 3.0," that he said is the only way to reach a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget. He framed the request as building the "ARSENAL OF FREEDOM" and demanded "no games, no delays, and no weak compromises."But the outlook for Trump's plan is "bleak," Punchbowl reported Thursday. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who chairs the Defense appropriations subcommittee, have openly raised concerns about the approach. Punchbowl bluntly put it: "Trump wants his Golden Dome and Golden Fleet, but for GOP leaders, the vote counts may not be golden."The fight comes against the backdrop of Trump's escalating Iran war, which has stretched past 100 days with no resolution. Trump threatened recently to "bomb the s--- out of them" if Iran didn't sign a peace deal soon.The Pentagon push is also complicated by Trump's previous demands for emergency war funding, requests that GOP leaders already balked at. The Pentagon's $200 billion supplemental request has stalled in Congress amid bipartisan demands for cost transparency that the White House has yet to provide.Punchbowl reported that the SAVE Act, the GOP voter ID bill Trump wants attached to the reconciliation package, cannot pass via reconciliation due to Senate parliamentary rules.Even defense hawks who applaud the $1.5 trillion request face vote-counting problems in both chambers.

Platner's accuser ran with the playbook that saved Kavanaugh: former GOP operative

One of the three accusers against Graham Platner had a role in helping Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh survive his confirmation fight, according to a former GOP operative.In the latest episode of his podcast, "Against All Enemies," former GOP operative Rick Wilson detailed the history of Lyndsey Fifield, the ex-girlfriend featured in the New York Times article about Platner's past relationships."She's a CPAC person. She's a conservative activist person," Wilson explained. "She ran a group, of course, called Ladies for Kavanaugh, which might have been a giveaway if you thought it through."Fifield's "most recent gig" is working at the Independent Women's Forum, which Wilson described as "a right-wing group." He added that "this attack coming from this particular person makes a lot of sense." Wilson played a clip of who he identified as the chair of the IWF publicly boasting how her group wrote a memo "about supporting Kavanaugh without alienating the Me Too movement." Kavanaugh faced a tough confirmation hearing after allegations of sexual assault against him surfaced."We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House and Fox News and elsewhere," the speaker said in the clip. "But most important is Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she could not have seen how to support him, and if you look at her speech that she gave on the Senate floor, it is entirely the playing out and architecture of how we structured the argument."Platner is running to beat Sen. Collins (R-ME) and win a seat that will be critical to helping Democrats take back control of the Senate.Wilson ties the connections together, saying Fifield is "the woman who ran Ladies for Kavanaugh, who works for Independent Women's Forum that provided Susan Collins with all of her talking points about Brett Kavanaugh and how she could support Brett."He added that the attack against Platner resembles the kind of political hit he would have carried out."That's precisely the kind of thing I was extremely good at doing when I was a Republican," Wilson said. "That is precisely the kind of thing I would engineer and stage and find somebody who would go out and be the face of it."MAGA Hit Jobs and How To Beat Them by Rick WilsonBreaking down last night's resultsRead on Substack

'That’s absolutely not true': GOP pundit's blame game gets pounced by panel

Republican pundit and Trump supporter Scott Jennings suffered an odd moment of silence after CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and Democratic strategist Karen Finney corrected his claim that inflation numbers today are better than they were under former president Joe Biden.Collins asked Jennings point blank for his take on President Donald Trump’s claim to “love” inflation—even as it plagues voters seeing $70 vehicle fill-ups and $500 increase in monthly grocery bills.“No, it was very inartful. I mean, I understand what he was I think he was saying that he feels encouraged that the numbers are better today than they were under Biden,” Jennings informed the panel of the Source with Kaitlan Collins.“That’s absolutely not true,” corrected Finney.“They’re as bad as today as they were since 2023,” said Collins.After a pause, Jennings said: “You’re arguing that inflation today or during Trump’s term is as bad as it was during Biden’s term? Surely nobody would argue that.”“No, I'm saying that Trump said he was going to come into office and lower inflation and it's higher today than it was when he took office,” Collins said. At that point, Jennings grabbed the familiar GOP refrain that the rate of inflation is what really matters, as if the speed with which inflation changes is what’s impacting voters’ bank accounts — rather than the amount of it.“The rate of inflation today is certainly lower than the rate of inflation during Biden's term,” Jennings insisted.“But not when Trump took office,” said Collins, perhaps not fully grasping the length of Jenning’s logic twist. “It's the highest it's been since 2023.”“I'm not, I'm not arguing the numbers,” said Jennings. “I saw the report. And by the way, it is a political issue. I mean, if inflation continues to trend up, if gas prices don't come down, you can't deny that.”At that point Finney and Jennings launched into crosstalk.“But do you think he'll apologize to the American people for taking the economy and making them broke?” challenged Finney.“We've had three straight months of massive job growth,” Jennings insisted. “We have manufacturing—”“Well then why are people losing their health care. Why are gas prices over $6? Why are grocery prices [exploding].” - YouTube youtu.be

Florida Supreme Court paves way for GOP-backed congressional map

The Florida Supreme Court declined to block the newly enacted congressional map that could net Republicans up to four seats in the Sunshine State. In a 6-1 ruling, the state’s high court ruled it lacks the jurisdiction to rule on a case currently being litigated in a lower court.  The ruling does not end the […]