The two candidates for U.S. Senate in Georgia could hardly be more different, both in their presentations and their policies.
Vice President J.D. Vance defends Trump-Iran memorandum of understanding, pushing back on GOP critics who say the deal gives Tehran economic benefits.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is splitting with the state GOP over in vitro fertilization after it became a line of attack in his battleground Senate race. Paxton stated a more centrist position on IVF as polls show a tight race ahead of the November general election, saying he supported the procedure. The development sets […]
A new book recounts one of the most rambunctious moments on the floor of the House in modern history.
President Donald Trump's new acting spy chief arrived at his post Friday with orders to fire hundreds of intelligence officials — clearing the way for Trump's election meddling aspirations in the midterms.Bill Pulte, who took over the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday without Senate confirmation, can hold the post for up to 210 days under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act — well past November's midterm elections.CNN reported that Pulte showed up on his first day with a list of employees and that he "eyes firing hundreds."Trump has been explicit about what he wants Pulte to do with that window."He may find out some things about the rigged elections," Trump told reporters this month. "I think he wants to do it very much."Reuters reported Friday that the White House has suppressed an ODNI report on voting machine vulnerabilities for months.Some officials believe the report doesn't go far enough to validate Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Pulte has already been briefed on it, two sources told Reuters.Trump has told the Wall Street Journal he wants Pulte to fire "a lot of people." Pulte's acting status is the point, Trump said: "You're less shackled."Those firings would gut the career analysts most likely to push back on the ODNI report's findings, and on any action taken aimed at midterms.Reuters and Foreign Policy have reported that the CIA has already stopped contributing to some ODNI assessments because of friction under outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard, and that top analysts are avoiding the National Intelligence Council for fear of political pressure."DNI Gabbard spent 18 months and untold taxpayer dollars trying to give substance to lies about the 2020 election and found absolutely nothing," election law expert David Becker said, adding that Pulte was "hand-picked to replace her precisely because he too embraces the lies and conspiracy theories while ignoring the evidence."
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wasted no time swiping back at President Donald Trump on Friday after he said that she "begged' him to take a photograph together, a spat that left one GOP strategist completely flabbergasted. Brad Todd, a veteran GOP operative, discussed Meloni's sharp rebuke of Trump during a segment on CNN's "The Arena." Meloni released a video statement in which she said Trump's comments were "completely made up." She also canceled an upcoming trip to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami, Florida. "I am frankly astonished," Meloni said. "I don't know why the President of the United States behaves like this towards his allies. It is not the first time, moreover."Meloni's response earned her cheers across the globe. Todd reacted to the back-and-forth during the CNN segment. "I'm equally flabbergasted by this because Giorgia Meloni is Donald Trump's best ally in Western Europe," Todd said. "And furthermore, they share many of the same populist viewpoints and perspectives. And so, to the extent he's always said he wishes Europe would conform more to his view of how things should operate, she's the poster child for that. She's exactly the person for it. So it is odd to me." "But partnership does not always come easy to President Trump. And in order to continue to have that relationship with her, it would require being an equal partner, much like he has to be an equal partner with John Thune. And that's just not his favorite paradigm," he added.
Vice President JD Vance ripped Israeli officials who have criticized President Trump over the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, blasting them for complaining about the document that requires them to stop striking Hezbollah in Lebanon. Vance told reporters in the White House briefing room Thursday that Israeli cabinet members had, in some cases, “very personally attacked...
With Senate Republicans nearing their goal of running out the clock on passing legislation to ensure election integrity in America, President Donald J. Trump took to Truth […]
Punch Bowl News reported Friday that it seems like every time Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) gets ahead, he is thrown back several steps by Donald Trump. House and Senate Republicans don't see eye-to-eye on much, but they can both agree they've been waylaid by Trump just when it seems they're "turning a corner." For Thune has accelerated over the past month. Thune "had just about the worst luck over the past couple of months, getting blindsided repeatedly by a president who sometimes seems not to care that much about the fate of his congressional majorities," the report explained. The holiday edition of the site's morning news explained that Thune had things well in hand before being thrown into a tilt-a-whirl being run by a madman. While lawmakers were desperate to end the government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Trump began demanding that lawmakers help him fund $1 billion in funds for his ballroom project. Trump initially said that $200 million is all he would need and that he would fundraise to afford it. That has since changed to be $600 million and Trump was only able to raise half of it. There was backlash from Republicans, but in the end, taxpayers must pay for half of it. In another matter, Republicans thought they'd be able to fast-track Trump's choice for the Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulte. That was scrapped and his lack of support turned Pulte into an "acting" secretary. Trump then shut down the hearing for his real choice that was scheduled for this week. "Thune has seen that even when he does what Trump wants, the favor is rarely, if ever, returned," wrote the Punch Bowl team. Meanwhile, Thune is taking it in stride, managing to only flash "some anger here and there. But his relationship with Trump has clearly taken a hit.On Thursday, Thune said he hadn't spoken to Trump since the previous weekend, so there was no interaction about Trump abruptly trying to stop Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing set for Wednesday. “I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before,” Thune told Punch Bowl. “We’re just executing — or trying to execute — on what they had asked us to do. They nominated him.”Instead of Clayton's confirmation, Pulte will take over and start making big changes. There are challenges with that, as Pulte appeared not to know the basics about the post.It remains unknown why Clayton's nomination hearing was stopped, and Republicans were just as "perplexed that Trump was deliberately slowing down his own pick’s confirmation process."The GOP lawmakers have also been public about their dissatisfaction with Trump's Iran deal. Thune had been asking all week for the White House to brief him, but for an unknown reason, he "was consistently stiff-armed."Then there's the infighting in the Senate GOP itself. A closed-door meeting on Wednesday resulted in a battle after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) began "undermining the GOP majority by continuing to push for the SAVE Act," Trump's flagship voting rights restrictions. Thune made it clear the SAVE Act was dead unless they killed the filibuster, and that's never happening, he made clear. “Everybody knows we’re not nuking the filibuster,” Thune told Punchbowl. “It was on the floor for two weeks. We’ve had now five votes on it, none of which have gotten 60, and SAVE America hasn’t even gotten 50. So at some point, it seems like we ought to start making this an issue with the Democrats rather than with each other. That was the gist of the [lunch] conversation, and that would be my view.”It's a rare rebuke of one Republican by another, the report sussed. Meanwhile, Republicans are preparing to debate a bipartisan housing bill because they want to refocus Trump on issues that Americans actually care about. That hasn't worked in the past, however. Thune, rather than Trump, has been the one to get the blame, even if other Republicans don't think it's right"What’s true is that Trump is never going to accept the limits of the Senate’s legislative power. Thune is always going to have to tell him 'no' when the votes aren’t there. And 'no' is a word Trump doesn’t like," the report closed.