THE DNC AUTOPSY: DID DEMOCRATS REALLY WANT TO KNOW? Do you know who Paul Rivera is? Don’t feel bad if you don’t; he’s not a household name, even among political junkies. A little-known former Clinton White House aide and senior adviser to the losing 2004 John Kerry presidential campaign, Rivera became famous this week as the […]
The autopsy never once mentions the terms “Gaza” or “Palestinian,” a top issue for many voters in 2024.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) finally released its highly anticipated report about what went wrong with the 2024 election that cost the party control of the White […]
Focused on messaging and ad spend, the autopsy ignores Democrats' real problem: their platform
President Trump on Friday celebrated the cancelation of “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert and suggested other late night TV hosts would also shortly be on the chopping block. “Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the ‘Beginning of the End’ for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts,”…
When outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) decided not to seek reelection in the 2026 midterms, he likely avoided the fate that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and at least five Indiana state lawmakers recently suffered when they were voted out of office via GOP primaries. Trump was angry with Massie, Cassidy and the others, railing against them relentlessly and endorsing MAGA primary challengers — and Massie realized he was in danger as well. But Tillis plans to serve out the rest of his term, and he candidly spoke his mind about the Trump administration and the state of the Republican Party during an interview with Politico's Jordain Carney.Although the conservative senator isn't a full-fledged Never Trumper, he hasn't been shy about criticizing the president at times. And he attacked a variety of Trump administration and MAGA policies during the interview, giving fellow Republicans what Carney described as "a dose of bitter medicine." "Every time I've disagreed with the president," Tillis told Politico, "it's been almost exclusively because I think it's divergent from Republicans' interest in getting reelected this November. Every single time. The health care policy that got airdropped in the 'big beautiful bill,' I knew it was going to be a problem. It is a problem now. Now, everybody sees that. That's why I objected to the reconciliation last year. The reason I'm objecting to the ballroom and the slush fund for the DOJ — bad politics, really bad timing, bad policy. I mean, that's the trifecta. Every time I have opposed this president is because I believe it's at odds with getting Republicans reelected."Tillis offered a scathing critique of Pete Hegseth's performance as defense secretary, once again calling for him to be fired.Tillis told Politico, "I suspect that Hegseth cast aside concerns he was hearing from some of the finest people that ever served in uniform and took his cowboy-ish approach to going into Iran. I'm glad the president did what he did in Iran; I'm not glad that he has Hegseth advising him on the details…. I'd love to see Pete Hegseth fired because he's incompetent and doing a horrible job."During the interview, Tillis criticized Trump's "anti-weaponization fund" as "an embarrassment" — calling for Congress to "nuke it." And he was highly critical of U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations of outgoing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and others.Tillis told Politico, "I’m thinking about the picture that right now is the only basis I have for a new indictment against (former FBI Director) Comey. Some of the other bogus lawsuits from now no-longer-acting acting U.S. attorneys. All that, I want to know whose fingerprints were on it. I don't think big DOJ knew about the Powell investigation, so I wouldn't hold that against them; that was a boneheaded move in the bowels of DOJ. But anything where they were in the decision loop, yeah, they got a lot of questions to answer to get my support."
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has a new item on his holiday wish list: the firing of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.In a wide-ranging interview with Politico Magazine published Friday, the retiring North Carolina Republican made clear he wants Hegseth gone before he leaves the Senate at the end of the year — and he didn't mince words about why."I'd love to see Pete Hegseth fired because he's incompetent and doing a horrible job," Tillis said. "That's kind of on a Christmas wish list."Tillis, who announced last year he wouldn't seek a third term, said his main priority for his remaining seven months in office is getting Republicans reelected in November — including flipping the House back to GOP control. But ousting the embattled Pentagon chief is clearly a personal mission."As critical as I am of Republicans, a Democrat-controlled Washington concerns me more," Tillis told POLITICO. "It may seem counterintuitive, but every once in a while, you've got to recognize when your party's having problems you want to correct them before it matters, and that is on Election Day."The senator also blamed Hegseth for the chaotic messaging surrounding the U.S. strikes on Iran, saying the defense secretary "misinformed" President Donald Trump on the challenges of the operation."I suspect that Hegseth cast aside concerns he was hearing from some of the finest people that ever served in uniform and took his cowboy-ish approach to going into Iran," Tillis said. "I'm glad the president did what he did in Iran. I'm not glad that he has Hegseth advising him on the details."Tillis pinned the administration's muddled public posture on the defense secretary directly: "Are we in a war? Are we not in a war? Are we in a cease-fire? Are we not in a cease-fire? Do we have a deal? Do we not have a deal? Are they going to have nuclear capabilities? Are they not going to? All of that I'll lay at the feet of Pete Hegseth and his incompetence."The broadside is the latest in an escalating war of words between Tillis and the Pentagon chief. Earlier this month, the senator went scorched-earth on Hegseth over reported plans to downgrade the Army's top command in Europe and Africa and push out four-star Gen. Christopher Donahue, blasting the moves as "amateur hour at best and deadly at worst."In that lengthy X post, Tillis accused Hegseth of disrespecting "our greatest allies and some of our best military professionals with impulsive decisions not grounded in reality or good judgment." He urged the defense secretary to ditch his "mediocre yes-men" and surround himself with "more patriots like General Donahue."Tillis told CNN over the summer that Hegseth was "out of his depth" running the Pentagon, calling his decision to halt weapons shipments to Ukraine "amateurish" — a striking reversal for a senator who voted to confirm Hegseth in January 2026 after a contentious 51-50 confirmation vote.Asked whether the White House is factoring electoral consequences into its decisions, Tillis didn't hold back."I believe that there are people in the White House who couldn't care less about what happens in November, and that goes to show you how stupid they are," he said.
The absence of Israel in the Democratic Party’s examination of Kamala Harris’s loss isn’t stopping progressives from hammering the issue anyway.