MAGA Republican abruptly ends presser rather than disavow son-in-law's Nazi posts

A Senate candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump fled a rural Georgia press conference Thursday rather than answer questions about his son-in-law, white nationalist influencer David Alan Scheer II.Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) abruptly ended the event after reporters peppered him with questions about a CNN report that found Scheer had built a large online following promoting white nationalist ideology, sharing Nazi imagery, and posting antisemitic conspiracy theories.Collins is the Republican Senate candidate challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in November. "We fully addressed that, but Jon Ossoff refuses to disavow these Democrat socialist movements in our country," Collins said, according to Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when reporters asked him to condemn his son-in-law's statements."Could you address the question regarding anti-Semitism?" a reporter asked.Collins deflected with a list of complaints about Ossoff's votes on spending, cash bail and immigration."These aren't Georgia values, y'all. That's what he needs to answer to," the candidate said.Then he packed up his notes, and a reporter followed him out."You don't want to talk about your son-in-law at all? Do you embrace him in the family? Share his views?" the reporter called out.Collins did not respond.CNN's reporting found that Scheer — who is married to Collins' daughter and lives on a Collins-owned property — promoted Patriot Front, the white supremacist group that marched through Washington, D.C., over the July 4th weekend. "There's nothing wrong with White Nationalism," Scheer wrote in YouTube comments, according to the CNN report.Scheer also warned in a podcast that white people faced extinction and called for "clearing our land of other people."Collins quietly removed Scheer's photo from his campaign website after the CNN story broke.Trump's pick for the Georgia Senate seat has not condemned his son-in-law's statements."Nobody speaks for me, and I don't speak for anybody else," Collins said when asked about the controversy last week.In a statement, Ossoff called Collins "a known bigot and antisemite" and said his ties to Scheer disqualified him from office."Mike Collins has always stood with the Jewish people and Israel, and condemns all forms of antisemitism, no matter the source," deputy communications director Sam Densmore said, not addressing Scheer directly.

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Netanyahu confronts Vance over his criticism of Israeli government

Vice President Vance and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a "direct" conversation about their differences in a one-on-one meeting in Washington on Tuesday evening, Israeli and U.S. officials said.Why it matters: Vance has been the most Netanyahu-skeptical voice in Trump's inner circle since the beginning of the war. As the war dragged on, he became increasingly critical of the Israeli prime minister. Vance took on a larger role in war policy and Iran negotiations as the conflict progressed. That culminated in the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, which Vance took a lead role in defending. Netanyahu opposed the agreement but didn't come out against it publicly, hoping it would collapse on its own. It did several weeks later. Tensions between the two have been simmering behind the scenes. Netanyahu was unhappy about Vance's public criticism of him — the vice president accused the Israeli leader of stoking opposition to the MOU and of being insufficiently loyal to President Trump. Netanyahu was also privately critical of Vance's role in the war. Vance, meanwhile, believed Netanyahu was deploying his associates and allies in the pro-Netanyahu media in Israel and the U.S. to attack him and undermine him politically. The meeting at Blair House on Tuesday was a chance for the two men to try to clear the air. Inside the room: A senior Israeli official said Netanyahu spoke to Vance about his recent criticism of the Israeli government and Israel's standing among Republicans. "It was a frank and candid conversation," the Israeli official said.A U.S. official confirmed that characterization: "The conversation was direct." The vice president's office declined to comment but a second U.S. official said Vance and Netanyahu had a "cordial and productive conversation about Middle East issues that are important to both countries.""The Vice President and the Prime Minister agreed to continue pursuing opportunities for Israel and the United States to cooperate in areas of mutual interest and shared goals," that person said, adding that the meeting was not confrontational and that Vance and Netanyahu have a productive working relationship. Catch up quick: In March, Vance and Netanyahu had a tense phone call during which Vance pointed out that several of Netanyahu's predictions about the war had proved far too optimistic, particularly the prospect of a popular uprising toppling the regime.Since the April 8 ceasefire, Vance has become the administration's most outspoken defender of diplomacy with Iran, repeatedly arguing that Trump's objective should be to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon without becoming mired in an open-ended military campaign.In June, Vance issued a blunt public warning to members of the Israeli government who were attacking the deal with Iran. "If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world," Vance said.Then, in a July interview on Joe Rogan's podcast, Vance accused some members of the Israeli government of running an influence campaign to push the U.S. away from diplomacy and keep the war going. On the same podcast, Vance claimed Jeffrey Epstein had connections to "the highest levels of Israeli intelligence."

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Frothing MAGA will implode once it sees the true source of its hate

[Writer’s Note: This is an open letter to MAGA, which in and of itself might be a fool’s errand since they don’t usually read anything longer than social media posts. But maybe someone who loves someone who’s MAGA will see this, and maybe we can start figuring out a better way to reach them, since nothing has worked as of yet.] Dear MAGA, I’ve tried to get through to you in multiple ways over the last decade. Despite the way you’ve treated me and anyone else who votes for Democrats, I remain fascinated by the groupthink mentality you deploy as a protective shield against the truths about Trump that don’t sit well with you. A recent incident within my own social group has led me to consider a different tactic with you. I talked to someone far outside the group (okay, it was my Mom), and she began her reply with, “As an outsider who’s just making an observation, this is what it looks like to me.” The topic of the conversation doesn’t matter. She prefaced what she was about to say to lay the groundwork for me to hear a different answer from the one I wanted. I also knew she was going to offer me advice that wasn’t going to sit well with me. This doesn’t make her wrong or a bad person. It makes her someone outside of the situation who can see things in a way I couldn’t. She didn’t change my mind, but she did make me pause before deciding what to do next. I know that’s hard to believe just based on my Twitter history, especially since Trump blocked me in August 2015 and has never unblocked me, but I’m honestly here to help as someone who’s been an outsider from up close this entire time, MAGA.Since I suffered your horrific cyberharassment during the 2016 campaign, I feel uniquely qualified to discuss your behavior. Those of you who claim to be “good Christians” gave this Jewish woman plenty of reasons to never have forgiveness in my heart for any of you.Not cool, MAGA. See, what had happened was, Trump gave you all a green light when you started wearing those red hats back in 2016. Once you were allowed to dump all of your issues on your chosen scapegoats, it was easy for Trump to keep breadcrumbing you by yelling things like “FAKE NEWS!” when something true was said about him.So he could keep you on the hook, to keep grifting you. I’m sorry, but it’s true.You voted for him for reasons that actually ended up hurting you as much as the rest of us. Some of you can admit this, but too many of you just haven’t suffered enough personally from his tariffs or his egregious cuts to all of the agencies that keep America functioning. You were mad that Barack Obama wore a tan suit while being a melanated President, yet you don’t care that Trump has demolished Washington, D.C., and turned the Oval Office into the tackiest Hobby Lobby in Moscow.I understand wanting to belong to a group, especially if you’ve often felt alone in the past. Being a part of MAGA made you feel accepted for qualities which had caused others to reject you. But ALL groupthink is bad, even in groups created for good reasons.There’s a reason it bothers you when people call you a cult, MAGA. It’s because you exhibit all of the behaviors of a religious cult: Your whole ideology is centered around your extreme devotion to Trump, who’s been able to use social media to manipulate you into near-total submission. Cults use specific behavioral patterns to break down individual autonomy and establish complete social control, which explains the widespread social media campaigns from paid agitators repeating the same lies over and over until enough of you shared them and believed them. Trump’s strategy of overwhelming Democratic strategists worked in 2016 because no one had ever seen anything like MAGA online before. The biggest example of this manipulation was, of course, January 6th. Too many of you still refuse to call it what it was, and Trump’s pardons will never erase the facts of the day. MAGA, as someone who is outside of your situation, I’ll always see your behavior in a very different way than you do. I see it as you hurting yourselves, whether you’re aware of it or not, and there’s really no reason for you to keep suffering for someone who’s made it abundantly clear that he couldn’t care any less about you. Haven’t you noticed that he keeps taking things away from you, mostly your money? Did you know that it costs the average American family in a Red State nearly $6,000 more to live this year than it cost before Trump’s tariffs? The questions I asked in 2016, 2020, and 2024 are still valid, MAGA.Before Trump, would you have voted for a convicted felon? Before Trump, would you have accepted any Epstein Bestie as the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2012 instead of Mitt Romney? Before Trump, would you have let anyone fracture your family over politics?I don’t know those answers, but I’d love to believe you wouldn’t have done those things.

'Laughably bad': There’s 'never been a president' polling worse than Trump

President Donald Trump continues to lose ground with key voting groups outside of his MAGA base. It's become so bad that CNN data analyst Harry Enten called it "laughably bad." While the economy is slowing, inflation is on the rise. Enten was asked by host Sara Sidner just how bad things were for the president, who won his 2024 election on inflation and the economy. "Sara, the numbers are laughably bad. They are laughably bad. But no one is laughing about these because just take a look here. Trump's not up on inflation. Our latest CNN poll that has been coming out over the last few days, the net approval minus disapproval: 50 points underwater," Enten explained. He said he checked polls for every past president he could find and discovered that there has never been a president "who had ratings this bad.""That's an over 50-point shift from where we were before the election, where, of course, President Trump was more trusted on inflation than Kamala Harris, which is why he got a second term," Enten said. Sidner called it "insane." "Not only on gas prices, which of course is part of this equation, right? I mean, as I said, laughably bad. You just don't ever see numbers like this," said Enten. Questions like whether America is on the right track or wrong track now has 70 percent of voters willing to say the U.S. is on the "wrong track." The "right track" number is just 16 percent. A stunning 50 percent of Republicans agreed it was on the wrong track. "No wonder that President Trump is putting up historic numbers in the wrong direction when it comes to inflation," said Enten. Republicans also believe that Trump is focused on the wrong things (58 percent) and should instead deal with lowering costs. The overall number is 78 percent of Americans who believe he should deal with the affordability crisis. Enten noted that prediction markets thought that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates because of the increase in inflation, and at least three governors on the board did support raising the rate. In the end, however, new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh kept the numbers unchanged. "While the decision to stand pat could be seen as good news for consumers, they might not feel much relief with the average credit card rate still near 20 percent and mortgage rates the highest since last August," reported PBS News on Thursday after the announcement.