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'Wow': MS NOW hosts cut in to blast JD Vance's 'preposterous' defense of Trump threats

2 hours agoFar Left

MS NOW's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski cut into a live press conference to call out Vice President JD Vance's remarks in real time.The vice president spoke to reporters Monday morning in Switzerland, where he's been engaged in high-stakes talks with Iranian officials, and Vance was asked about President Donald Trump's threats to kill those same Iranian negotiators before they returned home if the Strait of Hormuz remained closed."No, they didn't throw a wrench in the system," Vance said, when asked about the president's threats. "The thing with the Iranians, yes, they did threaten to walk out, or at least there were social media threats that they would walk out. But we were negotiating well past 1 in the morning yesterday, so they didn't walk out, and their technical team is still here in Bürgenstock, working with our technical team, actually, as we speak, though, I imagine maybe some of them are taking a break to watch this news conference.""But look, what we told the Iranians yesterday is when you guys engage in what us millennials might call trash talk, you can't expect the president of the United States not to respond and not to correct the record," Vance continue. "So when they say things that aren't true, the president is going to respond to it, I'm going to respond to it, Americans are going to respond to it. When they make threats that aren't rooted in reality, they have to accept that the president of the United States is actually going to set the record straight. That's all that happens.""So, yes, there was a little bit of threatening, there was a little bit of whining," the vice president added. "But at the end of the day, the talks continued and we made great progress."The "Morning Joe" hosts interrupted to react to Vance's excuses for the president's threats."Wow," Brzezinski said."While he waits for the next question," Scarborough said, "we will be talking ... about how every statement from the Trump administration is either projection or confession. That certainly was the case on that last preposterous answer about accusing the Iranians of, quote, trash talk destroying civilizations." - YouTube youtu.be

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Conservative justice splits with MAGA pal over handling of Trump cases

Raw Story

11 minutes ago

Conservative justice splits with MAGA pal over handling of Trump cases

The once tight bond between Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and MAGA ally Mike Davis has fractured, offering a personal window into the broader rift between the Trump administration and the justices it helped appoint.Gorsuch once nicknamed Davis "the general" for the leading role he's taken in his career, first by helping him secure his first federal judgeship, then by leading the public campaign for his Supreme Court confirmation and later serving as one of his inaugural clerks – but that closeness has since deteriorated, reported The Daily Beast.One source with direct knowledge of the relationship told the Washington Post that Gorsuch was upset after Davis publicly attacked Justice Amy Coney Barrett, calling her a "rattled law professor" over rulings she joined against Trump alongside the court's liberal justices. Another source with direct knowledge said Davis, in turn, was angered by Gorsuch's vote to block the administration's use of a wartime authority to deport Venezuelan migrants.The strain became visible last year when Davis was notably absent from a gathering Gorsuch hosted for his former clerks. The two sources differed on whether Gorsuch asked Davis not to attend or whether Davis chose to stay away on his own.Davis declined to discuss the relationship directly but defended his broader criticism of the court in an interview, arguing that an unfavorable ruling on birthright citizenship would damage the court's standing. "They are following politics and vanity projects instead of the law," he said, adding that public pressure on the justices could be productive. "Sometimes feeling the heat helps people see the light."The falling-out reflects a wider pattern playing out across President Donald Trump's relationship with the court. Despite Gorsuch being one of three justices Trump appointed during his first term, the 80-year-old president has at times publicly criticized him by name, including accusing him of lacking "loyalty" after he joined a ruling striking down Trump's tariffs.Gorsuch, for his part, has avoided directly engaging with the criticism. Asked in a CBS News interview whether he owed loyalty to the president, he said simply that his "loyalty is to the Constitution." Gorsuch did not respond to a request for comment on his relationship with Davis.

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Reflecting Pool starts to stink after Trump orders it drained: DC photographer

Raw Story

25 minutes ago

Reflecting Pool starts to stink after Trump orders it drained: DC photographer

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has a new problem: it's reportedly starting to smell.Washington, D.C., freelance photographer Joe Flood posted a photo on X on Monday of the pool being actively drained. "As they drain it, the Reflecting Pool is starting to smell," he wrote.President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Saturday that the pool would "probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to do the necessary repairs."The drain order came after a $14 million no-bid renovation cratered almost immediately. Workers painted the pool bottom "American flag blue" — then algae bloomed within days, turning the water green and sending the new paint peeling off in strips.Trump blamed unnamed vandals, without offering evidence. United States Park Police separately arrested David Carter Hearn, 67, a three-time Olympic canoeist who says he stopped at the site out of curiosity and reached down to touch a piece of peeling paint. He was charged with misdemeanor destruction of government property."I was just a curious, concerned citizen," Hearn told the Washington Post. "I guess I was there at the wrong place, wrong time."Scientists weren't surprised by the algae. National Public Radio reported that the pool's dark new surface absorbs more sunlight, warming the water and creating ideal conditions for blooms.

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Trump's DOJ unleashes new ploy to punish Democratic cities

Raw Story

40 minutes ago

Trump's DOJ unleashes new ploy to punish Democratic cities

The Justice Department is dangling nearly $1 billion in public safety grants in front of cities and police departments nationwide — but with a condition that critics say is designed to freeze out Democratic-led communities.The grants announced this month comes with a catch requiring local officials to work with federal immigration officers as the Trump administration works to draw local police deeper into immigration enforcement in the wake of widely criticized federal surges in cities like Minneapolis and Chicago, reported NPR."They are trying to take dollars that local agencies have been depending on for years and saying, 'Oh, well, if you want these dollars, then you need to help us out with our immigration enforcement work,'" said Tahir Duckett, executive director of the Center for Innovations in Community Safety at Georgetown Law.About $700 million comes through the DOJ's long-running COPS grant program, which has funneled more than $20 billion to local police departments since 1994 for everything from hiring officers to school safety initiatives. An additional $300 million — a new program called the Model Cities Initiative, created under Trump's tax-and-spending law — will go to just two to four midsize cities, with the DOJ bypassing its standard competitive peer-review process in favor of direct review by agency leadership.Buried in the fine print is a mandate that any program that "impedes or hinders" federal immigration enforcement, including failing to honor requests from the Department of Homeland Security, won't be funded. The COPS grants similarly give "priority consideration" to jurisdictions that cooperate with immigration authorities."That is highly unusual and especially concerning, because the grants appear to be bypassing the standard competitive peer review process," Amy Solomon, senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and former head of the DOJ's Office of Justice Programs, told NPR.Teams of reviewers with expertise in diverse subjects would typically evaluate the grant applications, but critics say the new plan would have he practical effect of shutting out Democratic-led cities entirely. What's the end result? The only cities and localities that apply are Republican-led cities," said Insha Rahman of the Vera Institute of Justice, predicting the administration will use the contrast on the campaign trail to paint Democrats as soft on crime.Police chiefs have long resisted entangling local law enforcement with immigration enforcement, warning it erodes community trust and discourages witnesses from cooperating with investigations. Research has also found immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens, and federal data shows more than 70 percent of current immigrant detainees have no criminal convictions — undercutting the administration's public safety rationale.The DOJ declined an interview request, but in a statement called the disconnect between immigration and public safety "ludicrous," touting the arrests of "hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens" including alleged terrorists and gang members. DHS, meanwhile, said cities refusing cooperation force federal agents into a "more visible presence" in their communities.The first Trump administration tried a similar tactic, but it was challenged in court and later reversed under President Joe Biden.

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'Big trouble': Analyst flags 'severe cracks' in key bloc over Trump's broken promises

Raw Story

58 minutes ago

'Big trouble': Analyst flags 'severe cracks' in key bloc over Trump's broken promises

Republicans have signs of trouble ahead of the midterm elections after President Donald Trump has "failed to deliver on his economic promises," an analyst argued on Monday. In a column for The Guardian, journalist and author Steven Greenhouse pointed out how the GOP will have to face this growing problem among white, blue-collar voters in the fall."If any demographic group was key to Donald Trump’s election victories in 2016 and 2024, it was white, blue-collar voters," Greenhouse wrote. "But in perhaps perilous news for Republicans, Trump’s support from that group has plummeted – as many white, working-class voters have grown upset about everything from increased inflation and gas prices to Trump’s war against Iran. These glaring cracks in Trump’s blue-collar base point to big trouble for Republicans in this November’s midterm elections."The disappointment among GOP voters is "bad news" for Republicans, Greenhouse argued. And polls point to that mounting dissatisfaction — a new CBS poll revealed that 54 percent of white voters without a college degree disapprove of Trump's performance as president. Trump won 66 percent of white voters without a four-year degree in the 2024 presidential election."This shows severe cracks in Trump’s white, blue-collar base, a group that candidate Trump wooed by promising to crack down on immigration, to reduce prices on day one, to bring back manufacturing jobs and to not start new foreign wars," Greenhouse wrote. "Many blue-collar voters see that Trump has failed to deliver on any of these promises except for his massive crackdown on immigrants – that crackdown has grown unpopular, however, after Trump’s masked agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis."Democratic candidates in states with a large population of blue-collar, white workers could benefit in midterms from voters turning on Trump, especially in states such as Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas."To increase their chances of taking back the House and Senate, Democrats need to tap into the growing blue-collar disenchantment with Trump and Republicans," Greenhouse wrote. "And let’s not forget that it’s not just white, blue-collar voters who have turned against Trump – many working-class African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans are also upset that Trump plunged the US into war and that gas prices have soared and that tomato prices are up 32% over the past year, coffee prices up 17% and beef up 13%."

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Trump blindsides GOP as leaders warn he's giving control of congress to the Dems

Alternet.org

1 hour ago

Trump blindsides GOP as leaders warn he's giving control of congress to the Dems

GOP senators were quite frustrated when, on Wednesday, June 17, President Donald Trump delayed the nomination of federal prosecutor Jay Clayton for director of national intelligence (DNI) in order to keep Acting DNI Bill Pulte in that position longer. That delay, according to The Hill's Alexander Bolton, underscores growing tensions between Trump and Senate Republicans."President Trump's relationship with key Senate Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), is crumbling after repeated clashes over strategy on an array of issues," Bolton reports in The Hill. "The two sides are splitting further apart as the midterm election nears and GOP lawmakers fear the potential loss of both chambers of Congress. GOP senators say there has been a major loss of trust between the president and many members of their conference as the White House has repeatedly blindsided Thune and other Republican leaders."Another source of frustration for Thune, Bolton notes, is Trump's decision to endorse far-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary for Texas' 2026 U.S. Senate race. Paxton won the nomination, and Thune isn't shy about saying that Cornyn would have had a much better shot against Democratic nominee James Talarico.Cornyn told The Hill, "In my case, there was no real reason given my support for the president's agenda. When he endorsed my primary opponent, people realized you could never do enough to stop the president from endorsing your primary opponent. I think that destroyed what remained of any kind of trust. I think that changed the playing field in a way where you see a lot more what I would call transactional relationships as opposed to one based on trust."Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) warns fellow Republicans that Trump is making it easier for Democrats to flip either or both branches of Congress in the 2026 midterms.Tillis told The Hill, "When we're five months out from a major election (when) we historically have headwinds, you've got to be pitch-perfect and you got to execute with precision. We can't surprise the president and the administration cannot surprise us. Every time we do that between now and November, we're diminishing our chances of holding our majorities." This Wednesday, June 24, according to Bolton, Trump "will have a chance to discuss his differences with Republican senators in person" and address the Steering Republican Committee at the invitation of its chairman, Sen. Rick Wilson (R-Florida). "Republican senators are growing more and more frustrated over Trump's unrelenting calls to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which would require people to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and to show photo ID when voting, despite the fact that it has already failed five times on the floor," Bolton notes. "Trump surprised Republicans again when he posted on social media Wednesday morning that he would not sign an extension of FISA's enhanced surveillance authorities unless the SAVE America Act is attached to it — something that is a complete nonstarter with Republicans."

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Nobel Prize winner issues major prediction about impacts of Trump's 'screwups'

Raw Story

2 hours ago

Nobel Prize winner issues major prediction about impacts of Trump's 'screwups'

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman warned the damage from President Trump's failed war in Iran — and his broader approach to governing — will outlast his presidency, leaving the U.S. diminished on the world stage for years to come.In an interview with The New Republic's Greg Sargent on his "Daily Blast" podcast, Krugman dismissed Trump's claims of victory in Iran as detached from reality."Iran won," Krugman said. "Iran is in a much stronger position and the U.S. in a much weaker position than before the war started."Krugman called the resulting ceasefire deal "vastly inferior" to the Obama-era nuclear agreement Trump abandoned during his first term, adding that the conflict cost lives, depleted weapons stockpiles, and exposed the limits of American power."He could have just done nothing — that would have been better," he said.The conversation centered on a series of early-morning social media posts in which Trump demanded credit for the outcome and touted economic gains. Krugman pushed back point by point, noting that job growth has actually been slower than in the last two years under Biden, with unemployment essentially flat and real wages lower due to inflation accumulated since Trump took office, and he argued stock market gains reflect a global rally rather than anything specific to Trump's policies."The stock market is up, no question about that," Krugman said. "Although the stock market rose a lot under Joe Biden, too, Trump would like you to put that down the memory hole. Stocks are up, by the way, around the world. There’s a stock market boom. I haven’t checked the numbers lately, but I believe that they’re up substantially more outside the United States than inside the United States."Krugman framed Trump's behavior as part of a broader pattern of decline, arguing the war revealed that the U.S. could not impose its will on a "third-rate military power" and that American allies increasingly understand they don't need Washington — citing Ukraine's continued resistance despite a U.S. cutoff of arms and funding. He warned this erosion of credibility is not easily reversible."There’s a lot that has obviously been made much worse by Trump screwups," Krugman said. "What the world now has to suspect, even when Trump is gone from the stage, is who’s the next guy? How do we know that we won’t have another Trump-like figure? Does an agreement with America mean anything, since we’ve just seen an American president rip up every agreement that we had?""We don’t get that back," he added. "It took generations to build the reputation of America. You don’t get that back unless you give us three generations of good governance from here on in."Krugman was equally blunt about Trump personally, describing him as someone living through a kind of public unraveling."If you look at some of those late-night tweets, the tweets we’re talking about here, you kind of get hit by a real dose of somebody in very steep mental decline," he said. "It’s sort of two-layered. On the one hand, it’s the sheer nakedness of the demand for adulation, which is just completely crazy. Somebody who’s sunsetting very plainly in plain sight, who knows he’s on his way out and is desperate to have something that he can call a legacy. That’s what we see there.""But at the same time, you also see him completely detached from the reality of what he’s actually done to us," Krugman added. "What he’s done to you and me, to liberal America, to blue America, even to red America, even to MAGA country."Krugman highlighted the administration's renovation of the National Mall's Reflecting Pool — drained, repainted and resealed, only to be overtaken again by algae — as an almost literary metaphor. "Everything Trump touches turns to crud," he said.

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Trump's 'mad hatter' legacy cemented following latest cabinet member fiasco: analysis

Raw Story

2 hours ago

Trump's 'mad hatter' legacy cemented following latest cabinet member fiasco: analysis

The Washington Post’s bombshell report Sunday that revealed Tulsi Gabbard may have been guided throughout her political career by a “cult guru” cemented the Trump administration’s legacy for the worse, argued Zeteo’s Martin Pengelly, who noted how the revelation made clear that the federal government had transformed into a full “kakistocracy.”Gabbard, who resigned from her position as Director of National Intelligence last Friday, was revealed to have received guidance throughout her 20-plus years in politics from Chris Butler, the leader of a religious group that countless former members have described as a “cult.” That guidance allegedly shaped nearly every facet of her political life – from her talking points to the bills she introduced – with the Post identifying several instances where she appeared to follow through.“Ask yourself a question: ultimately, what does Gabbard’s career tell us about how we are governed now?” Pengelly, who previously worked for Raw Story as an investigations editor, wrote in an analysis published Monday in Zeteo.“A Fox weekend host with an alleged drinking problem is secretary of defense. An anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist runs health and human services. And a dedicated cult member became director of national intelligence, despite the association being long known. This is what a kakistocracy looks like.”The revelation also painted a rough picture of President Donald Trump’s legacy, Pengelly argued.“And Gabbard’s extreme behavior in particular, highlighted by [journalist Jon] Swaine and the Post, shows us it’s not just a matter of Trump being mad as a hatter,” Pengelly wrote. “He’s dragged us all through the looking glass now.”

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‘Christianity to me was Mamaw’: JD Vance opens up about faith journey and choosing Catholicism

Blaze Media

2 hours ago

‘Christianity to me was Mamaw’: JD Vance opens up about faith journey and choosing Catholicism

In his new book “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith," Vice President JD Vance unveils the story of his spiritual journey — straying from the Christianity of his youth, periods of atheism, and his eventual conversion to Catholicism in 2019.In a recent interview with BlazeTV’s Allie Beth Stuckey, Vance opened up about his turbulent faith journey, the pain of losing his anchor in Christianity, and what ultimately led him back to God through Catholicism. Raised primarily by his Baptist “Mamaw,” Vance’s childhood was defined by Scripture readings, televised Billy Graham revivals, and occasional church visits — an upbringing he describes as devout but “unchurched.”When Mamaw passed away when Vance was 20 years old, the faith she had raised him with fizzled quickly.“I was an atheist two years later ... Christianity to me was Mamaw, and when that was gone ... I just didn't really have any anchor to Christianity anymore,” he says.But there was another factor in his falling away from faith: the evangelical church's heavy emphasis on culture wars, especially the Terri Schiavo case, which he felt distanced from in light of his impending Iraq deployment, loss of his grandmother, and his mother’s severe drug addiction.“Why are we talking so much about [Terri Schiavo] when I saw so much that was going wrong in my own community that it felt like the church wasn't speaking to,” he recounts, emphasizing the importance of Christians caring about both public policy and the individual issues impacting communities.“There was this sense of almost betrayal that there was a total chaotic situation in my own life, and the faith didn't speak to it in the same way. And again, was that totally fair? No, but it's certainly part of the story of why I lost my faith,” he confesses.As a born-and-raised Southern Baptist, Allie has a different perspective on evangelicalism.“Something I really appreciate about evangelicals is not only, you know, doctrinal fidelity and being consistent on that, but the willingness to take that and take those doctrines into the culture and to say, ‘Look, if God is the creator and the authority of all things, then that has to dictate what we think about life ... [and] all of these other other issues as well,” she explains, “and when Christians don't do that, especially if evangelicals didn't do that, we'd be in a really bad spot.”Despite these strengths, Vance ultimately found his way back to faith through a different tradition.After achieving much worldly success, he found himself feeling empty and uninspired despite being surrounded by fellow high achievers at Yale Law School.“These Christians in my life, they're actually the ones who seem to have it figured out. Like they're much happier, they're much healthier, they're much more well-adjusted,” Vance recalls.“So that got me on the pathway of like, well, if they're right about virtue and they're right about character and they're right about the things that actually matter, maybe they're right about Jesus. Maybe this actually comes from some inner truth that radiates outward.”This intellectual and personal reckoning eventually led Vance to Catholicism in 2019.To hear more about his spiritual journey — including what ultimately drew him to Catholicism rather than the evangelical faith of his youth — watch the full interview above.Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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