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Graham’s death, McConnell’s absence wreak havoc on GOP agenda

12 days agoCenter

The sudden death of Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who’s also a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and the Judiciary Committee, plays havoc with Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) agenda, which now faces weeks of delay because of key Republican absences. Graham was one of the most outspoken and effective advocates…

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Trump allies offering startling advice to GOP candidates with midterms just 100 days out

Raw Story

1 hour ago

Trump allies offering startling advice to GOP candidates with midterms just 100 days out

People close to President Donald Trump are giving GOP candidates some startling advice as the midterms approach, according to new reporting. MS NOW's Jake Taylor revealed on Sunday's edition of "Alex Witt Reports" that Trump White House insiders are quietly telling GOP candidates to distance themselves from the messaging Trump has put out about the war in Iran. Taylor pointed to the consistent negative polling about the war and Trump's public messaging that the war is going well as reasons allies have put forward for candidates to create the airspace. "They're advising, whether they're incumbents or challengers, Republican candidates to essentially not talk about the war the same way President Trump is," Taylor said. "They're encouraged to actually put some distance [and] space between the way Trump talks about the war and the way they do, because they're aware they don't have a winning strategy when it comes to the midterms."Taylor's report underscores the growing divide between Trump and the Republican Party over the war against Iran. Several Republican lawmakers have sharply criticized the president for launching the war without Congressional approval, although that feeling has yet to metastasize into an official vote to curtail Trump's war powers. "Obviously, we are just 100 days out [from the midterm elections]," Taylor said. "Every bit of messaging on this matters. And the Republicans around Trump know that, and that's why they're encouraging others to distance themselves from his language in this moment."

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Jeffries pivots to Trump and GOP when asked about noncitizens on New Jersey voter rolls

Washington Examiner

1 hour ago

Jeffries pivots to Trump and GOP when asked about noncitizens on New Jersey voter rolls

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sidestepped a question about New Jersey’s disclosure that thousands of noncitizens were mistakenly registered to vote, instead criticizing President Donald Trump and Republicans over election messaging. “I continue to have confidence in state and local authorities in making sure that there’s going to be a free and fair election […]

Center Right

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'Exhausted' Graham complained before death that GOP colleagues wouldn't help him: report

Raw Story

3 hours ago

'Exhausted' Graham complained before death that GOP colleagues wouldn't help him: report

A "disheveled and exhausted" Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was heard complaining before he died that his GOP colleagues wouldn't help him, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.The new revelations come from documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, who had “been granted extensive access to Graham since 2023” for a documentary he was filming about the South Carolina Republican, per the Journal. Holder revealed a number of new details about Graham to the Journal, chief among them being what occupied Graham’s mind in his final weeks.“Graham frequently looked tired, prompting Holder to ask if he was doing OK,” the Journal’s report reads.“Graham would say he didn’t have time to sleep because he needed to finish off the Iranian regime; sort out a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine; and establish ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel by the end of the year," the report stated. "At one point, when Graham looked ‘absolutely disheveled and exhausted,’ Holder said, the senator complained that others weren’t helping him.”Graham had long been a proponent of U.S. military action against Iran, and played an outsized role in pushing President Donald Trump to approve a more aggressive posture against Tehran. In a newly published video filmed by Holder of Graham’s reaction to the U.S. attacks on Iran in late February, Graham could be seen struggling to contain his excitement.“Look what we’ve done here," Graham could be heard saying. "I almost cried."Holder told the Journal the GOP senator remained dedicated to achieving his self-imposed goal of toppling Iran, among other things, despite a growing weariness. Holder told the Journal, “He’d say, ‘There’s no way I can die yet.'"🇺🇸🇮🇷 Unreleased documentary footage of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham reveals his years-long effort to push for regime change in Iran and lobby President Trump to expand U.S. military action against Iran, according to WSJ.The footage shows Graham speaking candidly with world… pic.twitter.com/xIb8gRWS1J— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) July 26, 2026

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GOP strategist: Democrats are destroying themselves

Alternet.org

3 hours ago

GOP strategist: Democrats are destroying themselves

President Donald Trump is so weak that political experts anticipate potentially Democrats flipping the House of Representatives, Senate or both — and yet an anti-Trump Republican strategist warns they may be undone by incompetence at the top of their organization. “The Democratic National Committee is failing every person reading these words,” Steve Schmidt, who advised President George W. Bush, wrote for his Substack on Sunday. “You should be very angry about it because that failure is neither providential nor pre-ordained. It’s a choice — like Trump — and it’s killing the United States of America.”Schmidt reviewed the party’s financial travails, writing that “the MAGA Republicans have more than $128.5 million cash on hand compared to the Democratic National Committee, which is more than $2 million in debt. It’s also on track to spend exponentially more money on politics in Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marianas, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa than across Mississippi and Louisiana, both of which have great US Senate candidates.”He added, “It’s unacceptable. The DNC is terribly led by Chairman Ken Martin. A sign of the political ineptitude of both [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer and [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries is their inability to deal with what must be dealt with.”He went on to quote The New York Times story that shed light on these travails. The report found that when it came to Democrats’ troubles “at the center is Ken Martin, the 53-year-old party chairman, who has found himself increasingly isolated, gripped by the fear that he will lose his job and relying on a vanishingly small circle of people he trusts, according to interviews with more than two dozen Democrats, including current and former D.N.C. officials and members. Most of them spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the party’s troubled state of affairs.”The Times added, “Mr. Martin’s fraying nerves are showing. In a pique of frustration in early July, he threw his phone at the desk of a junior aide while upbraiding the person. The phone-tossing incident resulted in a formal complaint to the D.N.C.’s human resources department.”Schmidt condemned Martin’s reported behavior, writing that “personally, I’m sick of the tolerance for losing and the Democratic Party mediocrities, careerists and hustlers who can’t, won’t, and will never stop losing because deep down they’re simply doing what they’re good at: losing.”He continued, “The problem is that we’re losing the country because it isn’t being properly defended by the institution that’s built to stand up to MAGA and be for something better. It’s one of the foremost tragedies of this whole era. It’s deeply true and very real.”AlterNet previously reported on criticisms of Martin’s performance. In June anonymous high-ranking DNC sources told AlterNet that Martin has failed to prepare for Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting, mishandled releasing an autopsy of its failed 2024 presidential campaign and refused to adequately address threats to voting security on electronic machines, even though it admitted that "any assessment of the state of technology in the Democratic party would be incomplete without an acknowledgement that comprehensive data warehouses like Phoenix represent an irresistible target for hackers and other bad actors seeking to undermine the integrity of the modern political process."

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Sanders says he does not regret supporting Graham Platner in Maine Senate race

The Hill News

4 hours ago

Sanders says he does not regret supporting Graham Platner in Maine Senate race

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday said he did not regret supporting former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner (D) after a former girlfriend’s accusations of sexual assault came to light and led the progressive candidate to drop his bid. CBS News’s Margaret Brennan asked Sanders about his support for Platner on Sunday’s “Face the Nation,”…

Center

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Trump spurs GOP panic with one 'scary number': Report

Raw Story

4 hours ago

Trump spurs GOP panic with one 'scary number': Report

It's not the number of service members who've been killed in the war with Iran. It's not the number of people who have died in ICE custody. It's not the millions of people imperiled by the Trump administration's decision to dismantle USAID.The number terrifying Republicans, according to a new Washington Post report, is the amount of voters worried about the economy. “This is a big chunk,” Nathan Nascimento told the Post. “This is a scary number.”Nascimento, executive director of the conservative super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action, told the Post Sunday that he's disturbed by polling that shows even loyal Republicans and consistent voters are losing enthusiasm for President Donald Trump.About 1 in 5 of those voters in swing states such as Ohio and New Hampshire told the PAC they think they'll either stay home of vote blue in November, the Post reported. There is however enthusiasm on the left, Mitchell Brown, a Republican pollster, told the Post. "Democrats are as enthusiastic about voting as they were at the same time ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, when they swept back into power in the House," Brown said. "But Republicans are far less excited to vote at this point than they were then, posing an issue for the party." In particular, men under 40 represent the greatest risk as they are most likely to have concerns about the economy and prices. "This group proved pivotal to Trump’s 2024 electoral victory," the Post reported, "which included a sweep of some of the same battleground states holding critical elections this year."Natalie Baldassarre, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, denied a dour state of affairs within her party. “Republicans are united, on offense, and armed with our largest war chest in party history because voters are energized and understand what’s at stake in November’s election,” said Baldassarre. As of Sunday, the number of service members who've been killed in the war with Iran is 18. The number of people who have died in ICE custody is 19. The number of people imperiled by the Trump administration's decision to dismantle USAID is 14 million.

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Meet the South Carolina Democrat looking to flip Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat

US news | The Guardian

8 hours ago

Meet the South Carolina Democrat looking to flip Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat

Dr Annie Andrews says her ‘mission remains the same’ as she now aims to unseat Darline Graham, sister of the late Republican senatorIt was early Sunday morning and Dr Annie Andrews was far from the political fray, dropping her youngest daughter off at a summer camp, when she heard the news.“It was shocking and unbelievable,” she says of the death of Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who defined South Carolina politics for a generation aged 71. “It’s a profound moment for the whole state of South Carolina.” Continue reading...

Center Left

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Trump's now thinking about his own death — and that's petrifying

Raw Story

8 hours ago

Trump's now thinking about his own death — and that's petrifying

It’s hard to believe that we’re less than two months away from the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, that horrible day when war arrived at our doorstep.One thing that’s always stuck in my head was the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers onboard the four jets that wreaked such deadly havoc were citizens of Saudi Arabia. This doesn’t necessarily mean that kingdom had an active hand in the terror, and the 9/11 Commission found no evidence that the Saudi government knowingly funded or directed the attacks. But it still makes you wonder.I bring this up now because you may have heard that Trump this week approved a landmark 30-year deal to provide the Saudis with the civilian nuclear program they had long sought. It gives U.S. companies a monopoly on developing a nuclear infrastructure for the Arab country without the necessity of requiring monitoring and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency to make sure the “peaceful” use of nuclear fuel isn’t enriched for a weapon.If it sounds like a horrible idea, that may be because it is. No oversight to keep a rogue nation in line? What could possibly go wrong besides everything?But of course, money talks, and that’s something the oil-rich Saudi Arabia has in outrageous abundance. It’s the only language that Trump understands, and the deal would be worth billions in contracts to U.S. firms that work in nuclear technology.And of course, this is a giant victory for the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, better known as MBS, who has long vowed to build a nuclear weapon if Iran is permitted to. It’s frankly difficult to argue with this logic, even if Trump’s much-repeated reason for his war is to stop Iran from making nukes.What’s the difference between Iran and Saudi Arabia having a nuclear weapon? Several billion dollars, that’s what. The deal with the Saudis pretty much guarantees that nuclear nonproliferation is out the window in the Middle East for the foreseeable future.But let’s get back to MBS for a moment. He is the key to this whole deal, and his relationship with Trump is at the center of it. The president basically sees the guy as a living, breathing ATM who has access to so much wealth that Trump is willing to look past the fact he’s a murderous swine.It was a little under eight years ago that a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist and editor named Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage. He never left. He was assassinated and carved into pieces by a bone saw, and all suspicion fell on MBS for having approved the operation to murder Khashoggi for his critical assessment of the Saudi government.MBS denied any involvement. But we might imagine that this incident would stain the relationship between America and Saudi Arabia. And that assessment would be wrong. Trump for one never thinks less of someone who dismembers a journalist and in fact has disparaged other journalists for making MBS feel uncomfortable in press briefings.When Trump traveled to Riyadh in 2025 and stood beside MBS, he smiled broadly while declaring of him, “I like him a lot. I like him too much.” Indeed, we all know how Trump feels about vicious leaders. These are his people. His cup of admiration runneth over.There is also too much money at stake for Trump to ever seriously question his buddy about something so minor as a nuclear agreement. He is literally selling out the world’s safety. Just look at how handsomely his relationship with the kingdom has paid off for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.It was in 2021 that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) committed $2 billion to Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners. It’s been emphasized by Kushner that this is an investment in the fund, not a personal payment to him, except for the fact that the fund is him. He owns Affinity and his firm collects management fees. Senate investigators estimated in 2024 that Affinity had accrued roughly $87 million in fees from the Saudi government to date.Then this past March, Kushner – while working purportedly as a Mideast envoy – in his spare time spoke with potential investors from PIF about raising an additional $5 billion for Affinity. Do I even need to mention that PIF is led by MBS?It thus goes without saying that this nuclear pact stinks of nepotism and payoffs. The interest conflicts are glaring and multitudinous. You think that when there are billions of dollars of family money at stake, the extended Trump family is going to worry about inspections and keeping Saudi Arabia from developing nukes when that’s already their stated goal?This is how graft and corruption puts the world at risk. It extends far beyond personal accountability. The only thing keeping the kingdom from enriching its own nuclear fuel to create weapons is its own assurances.Are we really supposed to trust the Saudi energy ministry’s promises of “cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy”?

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Graham’s death, McConnell’s absence wreak havoc on GOP agenda

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Graham’s death, McConnell’s absence wreak havoc on GOP agenda

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