Chevron Is Letting Californians Know Who Is Really at Fault for the State's Sky-High Gas Prices

Howard Lutnick gave millions to Republicans just before high-stakes Epstein interview

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dropped $5 million on the main House Republican super PAC just four weeks after lawmakers arranged to interview him about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — making him the first Trump cabinet official to make a seven-figure disclosed federal donation since being confirmed.The April 1 donation went to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC backing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Republican incumbents — including those who sit on the very committee scrutinizing Lutnick. The closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee took place on May 6 and lasted more than four hours.Lutnick's Epstein entanglement has dogged him since January, when the DOJ released millions of documents tied to the late financier. His name appeared in more than 250 of those files. The Times found he had traveled to Epstein's private Caribbean island in 2012, years after he claimed to have cut contact with Epstein following a 2005 encounter in which Epstein made suggestive comments about a massage table.In the closed-door interview, Lutnick downplayed his interactions with Epstein as "virtually nonexistent," telling investigators the three encounters he acknowledged "do not constitute a relationship." Committee Democrats called the testimony evasive. Victims' attorney James Marsh said the hearing "does not provide any real substance" for identifying alleged perpetrators of Epstein's network.A Commerce Department spokeswoman said Lutnick "made a political donation in his personal capacity, just as many Cabinet Secretaries from both parties have done in the past."The super PAC declined to comment.

The DNC autopsy: Did Democrats really want to know?

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 […]

Major oil group claps back at Gavin Newsom’s Chevron attack with reality check about gov’s driving

This major oil group is slamming Gov. Gavin Newsom for his routine chauffeured rides while he gives tips to commuters on where to get gas.

'We'll never know if he could have been saved.' The gaps in Trump's rural health fund

Republicans promise that $50 billion in new health funding will help rural America. But it's not expected to aid the years-long effort in North Carolina's Martin County to reopen its only hospital.

Trump’s latest early-morning grievance session reveals what he’s really worried about

President Donald Trump used his executive time Friday morning in an hours-long Truth Social session, attacking late night television hosts and a Republican senator while pushing two of his primary agenda issues and celebrating the rising stock market.His posts paint a president securing the Republican future and vanquishing his enemies. But his targets suggest a president focused on threats, real and perceived. “Stop playing games and pass the Save America Act!” Trump wrote, seemingly out of nowhere Friday morning, ignoring the tumult and GOP anger his $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund and $1 billion White House ballroom security request had, disrupting vital funding legislation this week. The Save America Act is — at least at the moment — effectively dead in the Senate, and not on the list of the majority leader’s top priorities. Trump has been repeatedly promoting the Save America Act, declaring if it passes Republicans won’t lose a race for the next 50 years.“I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced Anti-Weaponization Fund to go forward,” he wrote. It has not gone forward and is causing massive upset in the Republican-controlled Senate. “I could have settled my case, including the illegal release of my Tax Returns and the equally illegal break in of Mar-a-Lago, for an absolute fortune. Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, justice!” Trump’s claim he could have settled what was a $10 billion lawsuit is contradicted by reports showing the IRS was preparing to fight him, until Trump’s DOJ intervened.Critics of the proposed $1.8 billion fund say it rewards criminals and could incentivize his supporters to take violent action on his behalf in the future.Trump also attacked Stephen Colbert after his final show Thursday night — and appeared to threaten other hosts with a similar fate.“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,” he wrote. “Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!”But Trump saved his enmity for an outspoken critic from his own party, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis calling him “weak and ineffective” while taunting him for retiring.The North Carolina Republican lawmaker, Trump charged, “didn’t have the courage to fight it out in the Senate, remain in place, and run again for office, a thing he desperately wanted to do.” “When I told him that I would not, under any circumstances, endorse him for another run, too much work and drama (he couldn’t have won, anyway!), he immediately quit the race and publicly announced that he was going to ‘retire.’ I said, ‘Wow, great news, that was easy!’ The media said how brave he was to take me on, but he wasn’t brave, he was just the opposite – he was a quitter!”Despite reports that Trump’s actions may hamper his agenda and GOP congressional majorities, the president wrote that Tillis can now “have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party. In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!!!”

Trump targets grocery prices as DHS reveals new deportation numbers

President Trump says rolling back Biden-era climate regulations could help lower grocery prices for struggling Americans. The administration is also touting new deportation figures, highlighting a sharp increase in removals during Trump’s second term.

House GOP’s 'attendance problems' threaten Trump with 'high-profile defeat' – and soon

Despite having a razor-thin majority, House Republicans continue to be plagued by absent members — including one GOP representative who’s missed 100 votes during a “mysterious” 77-day absence — and those absences now risk handing the president a “high-profile defeat" as soon as next month, Punchbowl News reported Friday.On Thursday, House GOP leaders “abruptly" canceled a vote on a resolution that would have limited Trump’s war powers amid his deeply unpopular war against Iran — a vote that, had it been held, would have likely passed due to the number of absent House GOP members, 10 in total."We had the votes without question and they knew it, and as a result they're playing a political game," said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the sponsor of the resolution, CBS News reported.The vote was subsequently rescheduled and is expected to be held in June, though with “Republicans’ attendance problems” not “going away” any time soon, the risk of Trump being handed a “high-profile defeat remains acute when the issue comes up again," Punchbowl News reported.“It’ll take nearly all GOP lawmakers to be present — and no further Republican defections — to ensure the Iran war powers resolution doesn’t pass,” the outlet reported in its morning newsletter Friday.“Support [for the resolution] has risen in the House, where Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Tom Barrett (R-MI) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) joined with Democrats last week to back the resolution. It ultimately failed 212-212.”Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who previously opposed the resolution to check Trump’s war powers, has since reversed his stance, giving Democrats another number alongside the handful of defecting Republicans. As to House Republican leadership’s decision to cancel another vote on the resolution Thursday, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) suggested it was only a matter of time before the resolution passed.“It tells me that we now have the support to pass the war powers resolution, and they’re trying to scramble to figure out some way to avoid that reality,” Smith told Punchbowl News.

Hey Guys! Did You Know It’s Racist to Have to Go to School in Your Own School District?