The race to replace retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in Maryland’s deep-blue 5th Congressional District is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive House primaries in the country, fueled by millions of dollars from outside groups. Outside organizations had spent a collective $12.5 million in the race, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The largest […]
EXCLUSIVE — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is in the midst of returning from maternity leave following the birth of her second child, with administration officials discussing her first briefing back behind the podium as soon as next week. Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history, started her leave in April. A […]
New York City voters are set to deliver their verdict Tuesday in one of the most prominent election battles between artificial intelligence companies and the nonprofits pushing for stricter rules on the new technology. The fight over AI policy has loomed over the Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D), as pro-AI and…
New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman gave a shocking revelation while speaking on MS NOW Monday evening. According to the two writers of a forthcoming book, there is an entirely different group of people in charge of major national policy than the experts. Speaking to Lawrence O'Donnell late Monday, Haberman and Swan were promoting their forthcoming book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, which comes out Tuesday, the Daily Beast reported. “The thing that was really notable about this White House, compared to the first one, is they keep talking about how they’re the most transparent White House in history,” Swan explained. “It’s a canard. They’re actually incredibly good at keeping secrets.”According to Swan, “You have a tiny group of people that are running this country, five or six people and Donald Trump.”“The war-planning group had been kept so tight that the two key officials who would need to manage the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright — were still not in the loop, one day before the launch of the war,” Haberman and Swan note. “Nor was the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.”It isn't unusual to keep war-planning meetings small, but those in attendance generally have military experience. That wasn't the case in the Iran planning, which likely speaks to why so many important consequences weren't gamed out ahead of time. The authors say that those in the room plotting the war were Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Counsel David Warrington, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, State Secretary Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine. Not on hand were Bessent and Wright, who likely would have lent some comments about what would ultimately happen to global oil markets if the Strait of Hormuz were closed. Reducing costs on food and fuel were key pieces of Trump's 2024 promises.Another detail O'Donnell read from the book is that in the middle of the disastrous Iran war, Trump welcomed the two authors into the Oval Office, where he was picking out trees for the White House grounds. "I know how to pick out good trees," he told them. He then bragged about his views on TikTok and began showing off his "grand ballroom" designs. Behind the scenes, aides told the authors they wish Trump was more concerned about his plunging poll numbers and "the dangers he was courting." According to the staff, Trump isn't "receptive" to polling or to bad news in general. So, they simply don't tell him."He [is] willing to take breathtaking risks, risks that could throw not only his presidency but the Republican Party and the entire world into chaos and carnage. More than ever before as President, he was operating on pure gut instinct. It would take a combination of mind reader and psychologist to explain fully why Trump was willing to gamble so much more recklessly now," the book continues. His confidence in himself and his instincts had ballooned, and more often than not, he feels "vindicated." "Then there was the fact that he was a walking moral hazard, rarely saddled for long with the costs or consequences of his risk-taking and rule-breaking. Now was his moment to try things, like military adventures and overthrowing the global trade system," the authors cautioned.
The secrets Stephen Miller has kept about his role in the Trump administration may finally be revealed after a judge was handed a key FBI report.Miller, President Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff, has long shielded his White House communications from disclosure under executive privilege. Now, a court filing in federal court in Alabama threatens to crack that wall open.The Southern Poverty Law Center — a civil rights organization the Trump administration indicted on fraud charges — obtained the FBI report through the normal discovery process. It shows the government's case against the SPLC appears to trace directly back to Miller.The report reads almost word-for-word like a letter conservative groups sent Miller complaining about the SPLC's "Hate Map," which tracks hate groups across America. Six passages match so closely they're sometimes identical.Miller's ire at the SPLC dates back to 2019, when the organization published a series of pieces on hundreds of emails Miller sent to Breitbart News showing he had promoted white nationalist websites and literature.After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, Miller vowed to use "every resource" at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to "identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy" liberal activist networks. Federal agencies then piled onto a local investigation of a retired activist who had posted flyers near his Arlington home. His communications about that were kept secret under executive privilege.National security journalist Marcy Wheeler wrote on Emptywheel that the government handed SPLC — represented by attorney Abbe Lowell — proof that "Stephen Miller's grievance about being exposed as an extremist somehow led a prosecutor to test a theory whether pointing that out is itself inherently fraudulent."The SPLC's lawyers are now asking the court to hand over all communications between Miller and the Justice Department about the organization.
Eight activists convicted of terrorism-related charges and rioting for their role in a noise demonstration outside an ICE facility, at which a local police officer was shot, face up to life in prison when they go before a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, for sentencing on Tuesday.Another, the last of the nine convicted in March, will be sentenced on July 1.The Trump administration has hailed the case as a watershed in its campaign to dismantle “antifa” as a domestic terrorist threat. But as they await sentencing, the defendants are seeking to overturn the convictions based on the claim that the government suppressed evidence showing that the officer drew first, and based on potential juror misconduct.Defendants have also argued that they should be acquitted or granted new trials because the evidence shows they went to the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on July 4 last year to set off fireworks and cheer up the detainees. They argue there was no riot and no violence, with the exception of one or two individuals who committed vandalism at their own initiative — and the exchange of gunfire when the police showed up.“They weren’t doing anything wrong," Amber Lowrey, the sister of one of the defendants, told Raw Story. "They’re just human beings. Some of them knew each other, and some didn’t. They did similar volunteer work. People say, ‘It won’t happen to me, because I’m not involved with groups like that.’ Oh, but it will!"The first to respond to the scene when detention officers called to report a disturbance with fireworks on July 4, 2025 was Lt. Thomas Gross with the Alvarado Police Department. Gross’ dash camera, which was reviewed by Raw Story, shows him accelerating down the lane towards the facility. As he approaches the entrance, two figures in black can be seen running past the guardhouse, which is defaced with graffiti reading, “F--- ICE.”“Hey, stop!” Gross yelled.His body-worn camera video shows that he jumped out of his car and pursued the individuals on foot.Almost immediately, gunfire erupted and a bullet grazed Gross’ neck.“F---!” he said as his body landed on the wet pavement. “I’m hit.” Additional footage shows Gross seated in the back of a police vehicle as other officers arrive on the scene. “I’m hit — my back,” Gross says as another officer renders first aid.Later, as Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene and searched defendant Meagan Morris’ car, they discovered a rifle and ammunition.“This is like a straight coordinated terror attack on Prairieland,” one of the officers commented.One of the first of the protesters to be arrested was Nathan Baumann, one of the men Gross had seen running past the guardhouse.“If there’s anything y’all need, like, listen, I’m all for peaceful protest — if you want me to point out people’s vehicles to you, anybody doing dumb s---, I got you, sir,” Baumann said as an officer adjusted his handcuffs and detained him in the back seat of a cruiser.The charges against defendants linked to the noise demonstration initially focused on the shooting, although the shooter remained at large.Benjamin Song, a former Marine who provided firearms training to left-wing activists in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, would not be apprehended for another 11 days.The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 — more than two months later — brought the government’s case into focus.Later that month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order naming “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization, followed by National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-7, which described “antifascism” as an “umbrella” for “recurrent motivations and indicia uniting” a “pattern of violent and terrorist activities.” The memo runs down a laundry list of characteristics commonly associated with the left, including “support for the overthrow of the United States government” and “extremism on migration, race and gender.”The Prairieland defendants, who were protesting federal immigration policies and two of whom are transgender, appeared to present the Trump administration with an embodiment of the new threat straight out of central casting.When a new indictment was returned in October 2025, it described the defendants as members of an “antifa cell” and “militant enterprise.”As evidence that the defendants were planning violent action at the ICE facility, the government highlighted a statement by Song in a Signal planning chat: “Cops are not trained or equipped for more than one rifle so it tends to make them back off.”Last week, when the White House announced an indictment against 15 “antifa” defendants in Minneapolis for conspiracy to obstruct immigration enforcement, it cited the Prairieland case as part of its “relentless campaign to eradicate Antifa’s domestic terrorism threat.”The indictment against the Minneapolis 'antifa' defendants reflects a precedent set by the Prairieland case, Xavier T.
Two more dead ducks were found near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, after a separate bird carcass was found floating in the recently renovated site. The Washington Post reported Monday the two dead ducks were found in a pond at Constitution Gardens on the National Mall, located roughly 200 feet from the Reflecting Pool. City…
