A federal judge in Virginia agreed to indefinitely block the Justice Department’s "anti-weaponization" fund after previously agreeing to temporarily block any payments. The decision from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema came during a Friday hearing on whether to bar any payments from the $1.776 billion fund for the duration of the case. Democracy Forward, a [...]
In a ruling on Friday, Judge Amit P. Mehta wrote that the lawsuit arrived last minute and failed to show how the event irreversibly harmed the individuals who sued.
Assistant US attorney in California questions why the state won't open its records: 'What are they afraid of?'
Crews have put up scaffolding ahead of the Friday deadline to take President Donald Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center. WHO IS MORE DESPERATE FOR A DEAL: TRUMP OR IRAN? A federal judge ordered last month that his name must come off the building, and renovation plans that would’ve closed the center for two years […]
President Donald Trump's poll numbers are so bad that Republicans are facing one of the toughest elections in years. But outside of those poll numbers, Republicans face a deeper problem than the president's coattails: a president who desperately needs public credit for every success and won’t let the party shift the conversation. Speaking to The New Republic's Greg Sargent, Democratic strategist Christina Reynolds compared failures in 2006 at the hands of George W. Bush to Trump's 2026 election. Bush was happy to step aside and allow others to claim credit for fixing things. That didn't prove successful, as Democrats won a staggering number of seats in both the House and Senate. As November's midterm election approaches, Trump faces losses on the war, the economy and the affordability crisis that he maintains is a hoax. But the larger problem is that any success won't be thanks to their work. Trump needs the public's appreciation for the win, if the country is lucky to have one. "And I think Republicans have an even bigger problem than those numbers," said Reynolds. "They have a president who absolutely wants credit for fixing everything. He believes his own spin, certainly, but also he believes he’s taken action and should get credit for that action. And to some degree, that happens with a lot of politicians, but this president is especially guilty of that. And so he is not going to fade away into the background, which Bush did largely in 2006. He is not going to let the Republicans go out and shift the conversation."Another problem is that all of these issues are at the top of mind for Americans, but they're not what Trump wants to talk about. "When inflation is growing higher than your wages, voters understand that. They know it. They live it," said Reynolds. "And so you can’t convince them things are better when they’re literally not. But Trump is not just going to go out and talk about things and remind voters of that — he’s going to go out and talk about his ballroom. He’s going to go out and talk about the reflecting pool, as he did in Wisconsin when he went to one of the most vulnerable Republicans."That is a huge problem for Republicans who are desperately trying to stay on message about the economy. It isn't just Trump's bad poll numbers, Reynolds said. "It’s what Trump’s going to do because of the polling number[s]."Unlike Bush, Trump doesn't appear to care much about the midterms. "Trump is about what gets Trump where he needs to go. And it’s a huge problem for Republicans," explained Reynolds. "I mean, you heard it in the 'I don’t care about the midterms' comment. You hear it in everything that he does."She said that Republicans likely want him to take a back seat, but he's doing the exact opposite. Rather than dealing with issues that matter most to people, Trump simply can't stop himself from talking about things that are unpopular. "He is just clinically unable to move on because of that rage and that frustration, because it didn’t go the way he assumed it would go," said Reynolds. "And so we are stuck in a war that people didn’t ask for, that we proactively started. But we are domestically stuck with higher gas prices and everything that stems from that."Reynolds said that it's all from Trump not getting what he wants, not getting credit and not being praised by the public. "I am a little baffled as to what he thinks he should get credit for at this point, but no one is giving him any credit. They are giving him, rightly, the blame. And he can’t handle that," she said.
Former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews on Friday tore apart Republicans who have suddenly found their backbones after losing in GOP primaries. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Thursday got into an online battle with outgoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) over Republican-on-Republican attacks. Cornyn spent the past several months being attacked by his own party for not being pro-Donald Trump enough, despite having a 99 percent voting record with the president. Cornyn's interview with The New York Times cautioned that he thinks the worst is coming for the GOP in the final two years of the Trump administration. "He's going to have the most miserable two years of his life in the last two years of his term, I think, because I think November is going to be a disaster," Cornyn said. After harsh primary races, Republicans have often pivoted to try and appeal to voters outside of the MAGA wing. Trump may not be up for reelection, but one reporter explained he's not going to pivot to being more moderate or more focused on issues that matter to voters.MS NOW White House reporter Laura Barrón-López said that the White House told her, "There is no pivot," even if some of the aides around the president want there to be one, want more focus on the economy and domestic issues," said Barrón-López. "The president himself isn't focused on that. And there are others around the president who genuinely believe, this former official told me, that he has the unique ability to turn out republicans in election cycles."That hasn't necessarily worked out in past midterm elections. This time around, Trump has told reporters that he doesn't care about the midterms. "But another source close to the White House did tell me that they think that Senate Republicans don't really fear the president anymore," she continued. "And you're starting to slowly see over the course of the last month or so, even though the president has clearly knocked out Republican incumbents and attacked members of his own party, there are Republicans across the Senate, especially, and also the House, who are voting against him on key issues."But it was Matthews who clapped back at Cornyn for only now standing up to Trump. "There is never going to be enough for him, other than 100 percent, you know, slavish adherence to whatever he wants. But obviously that's not what the Senator's role is supposed to be," Cornyn told the Times."Yeah, it's a little rich to hear him say that now, because this is what we've known all along about Donald Trump," Matthews said of Cornyn. "That loyalty is a one-way street with himwith him. He demands it from everyone, but he gives it to no one. And so, it's nice to hear Senator Cornyn find his voice and some of these other Republicans be more emboldened now."The problem, she said, is that this is always the way Trump operated, and it should have been something Republicans realized much sooner. "He's always operated not in the best interest for the Republican Party or for the American people. It's always been what is in Donald Trump's best interest," explained Matthews. "And we're seeing that play out with all the things that he has been focused on in this second term, whether it be the ballroom or the arch or the UFC event at the White House for his birthday, he's not actually focused on the priorities of the American people, which would then help the Republicans in the midterm elections, because Donald Trump doesn't care about the Republican Party."She said that she's happy to see Cornyn finally pushing back, but it should have been something he did long ago. "I guess I'm happy to see Cornyn, you know, pushing back on Trump now that he's going to be leaving office because he lost his primary election. And it's not just Cornyn I'm singling out. There are other republicans like [Thom] Tillis and [Bill] Cassidy who have now become a little bit more emboldened," she name-checked. But she sees this with Republicans frequently. They suddenly "find their voice when they're retiring, or they've been primaried out." She said she wishes that "more of them had a backbone" to push back against Trump. With more willing to do that, "Trump wouldn't have been able to get away with some of these other things that we've seen take place in his second administration," she said.
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is facing another catastrophic financial blow after the Washington National Opera filed a $17 million lawsuit against the troubled institution for refusing to release funds the company claims belong to them.According to New York Times reporting, the suit filed Thursday accuses Kennedy Center officials of withholding "endowment funds, donor gifts, and other contributions" collected for the opera's benefit since the company struck out on its own earlier this year."W.N.O. reluctantly files this case to preserve its future and to protect its donors and artists," lawyers for the opera said in court papers, identifying the funds as donor gifts received over years that are "critical" to its operations.The opera's attempt at negotiation went nowhere, it said. "For months, W.N.O. repeatedly tried to address these issues with the Kennedy Center, including through written requests, requests for meetings, and meetings with Kennedy Center leadership. Those efforts were met with indifference," the suit states.According to the Times, the opera's departure in January marked a dramatic rupture with an institution where the company had performed since 1971. Kennedy Center officials claimed at the time they decided to part ways "due to a financially challenging relationship"— but the lawsuit suggests a more sinister financial maneuver.The timing is damning, according to the Times' Julia Jacobs. The day before the separation announcement, Kennedy Center CFO Donna Arduin allegedly told opera leaders in an email that money in a fund containing bequests and contributions designated for the opera was being used as collateral for a line of credit for the center itself.Arduin asserted the funds belonged to the Kennedy Center. The opera company contends they were expressly reserved for its benefit. The suit does not specify how much money was used as collateral.The Kennedy Center's institutional collapse accelerated after President Trump assumed the chairmanship at the start of his second term and installed his allies as leadership. The move triggered an exodus of audiences, artists, and donors.The report noted that the opera's lawsuit comes amid broader institutional chaos at the Kennedy Center. A federal judge recently ordered Donald Trump's name removed from the center and temporarily blocked his plan to close the institution for two years of renovations. Trump and Kennedy Center lawyers appealed the decision Thursday.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday announced that she is declassifying evidence of US-funded biolabs and gain-of-function research around the world as one of her final acts before stepping down as DNI. "After months of searching through intelligence community holdings and files, today I'm releasing longstanding US government funding of more than 120 bio labs in over 30 countries," including Ukraine, she said in a video statement. The post NEW: Tulsi Gabbard Announces She’s Releasing Evidence of US Funding to Over 120 Biolabs in Over 30 Countries, Including Ukraine, for Gain of Function Research (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
