Pressed on election fraud claims and a proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, the president abruptly ended a tense exchange with NBC’s Kristen Welker.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin will speak with reporters Thursday morning about the Trump administration’s efforts to protect unaccompanied migrant children. The joint press conference comes as the administration has faced scrutiny over President Trump‘s sweeping immigration enforcement and deportation agenda. It also comes a day…
The prospect that a group tied to White House adviser Stephen Miller may be working behind the scenes to meddle in the upcoming election has become so alarming that an Arizona county attorney, who endorsed Donald Trump for president, has asked a court to intervene.According to MS NOW reporting by Ja'han Jones, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell—who gained national prominence questioning Christine Blasey Ford during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing—is leading the charge against America First Legal's influence over the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, which administers elections.Recorder Justin Heap, who has previously encouraged the Trump administration's attempts to seize sensitive Arizona voter data, has allegedly allowed America First Legal to exercise sweeping authority over his office. This comes as Trump has openly called for Republicans to "take over the voting" in major cities, including Phoenix.In a June 8 legal filing, Mitchell's lawyers asked Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney to rein in America First Legal, describing the group's actions as an "unprecedented power grab.""The Recorder lacks any explicit or implicit statutory authority to hire outside counsel—let alone a partisan organization—to serve as in-house counsel on 'all' matters under his 'purview,'" Mitchell's lawyers wrote, according to the Arizona Republic.According to Jones, America First Legal is advising Heap's office as he battles the Republican-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in a dispute over official powers. According to Democracy Docket, the conflict escalated when Heap allegedly seized election equipment and provisional ballot envelopes while votes were being cast in a March local election, prompting county supervisors to warn of "grave chain-of-custody concerns."Mitchell's legal team identified six examples of America First Legal exceeding its intended scope, according to Arizona Republic reporting. The group has claimed authority over all early voting matters, directed election officials to disregard directives from Mitchell's office, threatened prosecution over drop boxes, and sent warning letters signaling new litigation against the board.According to Jones, "The fact that even conservative officials are sounding the alarm here shows how extreme, unprecedented and potentially threatening to democracy this situation could prove to be."
A group of 10 Democratic senators and the party's top election lawyers quietly convened to game out responses to what they fear could be an unprecedented attempt to disrupt or overturn the results of this fall's midterm elections.The closed-door session, first reported by Politico, brought together a roster of high-profile legal and political strategists, including former Attorney General Eric Holder and prominent Democratic election attorney Marc Elias, to walk senators through a series of extreme yet increasingly plausible scenarios. Among them: armed federal agents stationed at polling locations, the Justice Department seizing ballots in competitive races and a foreign-backed disinformation campaign powered by AI-generated deepfakes."Trump has talked about stealing the election, violating the election, perverting the election, over and over again," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who convened last week's meeting. "We are going to be prepared for anything that he throws at us."The tabletop exercises, the first major effort from an election-protection task force Schumer launched earlier this year, produced concrete legal playbooks. Participants mapped out injunctions to block armed agents or citizens from appearing at voting sites, and drafted lawsuit strategies to compel the Trump administration to return ballots if confiscated in key battleground contests. They also coordinated messaging plans to counter disinformation in real time across campaigns, elected officials and advocacy groups.Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) were among those who participated, and a second exercise is already being scheduled for July.The urgency behind the effort stems from a string of actions the Trump administration has already taken. It has seized 2020 ballots from swing counties in Georgia and Arizona, sought confidential voter files from nearly every state, and pushed executive orders aimed at restricting mail-in voting and federalizing parts of the election process. When asked last month whether he would send troops or immigration agents to polling sites, Trump said he would do "anything necessary" to ensure honest elections.Democrats are careful to acknowledge the limits of their power as the minority party — they cannot force hearings, and most legal battles are expected to be fought by state attorneys general and outside groups rather than Congress. Some in the party have also privately warned against catastrophizing the issue, noting it could suppress Democratic turnout as much as Republican tactics.“This administration is one that wants people to feel alone, they want people to be afraid," said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, who took part in the war games. “This exercise is actually an exercise in confidence and trustbuilding."But Schumer signaled the preparations will continue regardless."We know that the threats are broad," Schumer said. "They evolve, and we're preparing for them."
President Donald Trump proclaimed on Truth Social on Thursday morning that not only would the United States engage in new offensives against Iran, they are gearing up for an invasion of the country and a seizure of its oil industry."The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT," wrote Trump. Furthermore, he added, "At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America."As of now, Trump's claims about the takeover of Venezuelan oil "working out brilliantly" are unverifiable, because there has been next to no transparency about how that money is being spent.Kharg Island is a major hub for Iran's oil infrastructure, and U.S. forces have attacked it in the past — though experts are highly skeptical that a full invasion and seizure of the island would be defensible.This comes shortly after Trump boasted that he had secretly secured the passage of 100 million barrels of oil through the still-blockaded Strait of Hormuz, a claim analysts say is impossible.
President Trump on Thursday morning vowed more attacks on Iran and threatened to seize Kharg Island, after the two countries exchanged fresh strikes this week. “The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY…
Ted Lasso will deliver a message of hope before the USA’s first game, in an America that is not a fit or desirable host right nowShortly before 6pm local time on Friday night at the Los Angeles Stadium, the actor who plays Ted Lasso – the fictional manager of a fake team in a falsely heartwarming version of football – will tell hundreds of millions of TV viewers tuning in to watch the start of the American leg of the Fifa World Cup that football unites the world.In an interesting twist, the actor Jason Sudeikis will do this at a time when the World Cup host is simultaneously bombing the second-ranked country in Group G, having recently murdered its head of state. The message of unity is one likely to be heard by the US president, Donald Trump, who has initiated six military conflicts in his second term, and whose brutally divisive immigration policies have now led to the barring of Omar Artan, the reigning African referee of the year. Continue reading...
President Trump said the U.S. will hit Iran with new strikes Thursday and threatened to seize Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export hub. Why it matters: This will be the third consecutive night the U.S. military strikes Iran. U.S. officials say the goal is to push Iran to show more flexibility in the negotiations over its nuclear program. What he is saying: "The United States will be hitting Iran VERY HARD TONIGHT," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. He added that "at some point in the not too distant future" the U.S. will take over Kharg Island, and other oil facilities in the country "and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets" like it did it Venezuela. Screenshot / Truth Social
President Donald Trump said the US would strike Iran again Thursday and threatened to take control of the country’s energy infrastructure including the key oil export hub of Kharg Island “at some point.” Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall has the latest. (Source: Bloomberg)
