Elon Musk is going to throw some of his millions of dollars into the midterms and back Senator Susan Collins. The New York Times reports that Musk plans to spend $100 million to $120 million to help Collins, as well as other Republican candidates in close Senate races. Collins, who recently got a new Democratic challenger in former state Senator Troy Jackson, has an uphill battle to keep her seat in the blue state of Maine. In addition to Maine, Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, plans to spend money in Alaska, Iowa, Ohio, and Michigan, all states with Senate contests where Democrats are polling well. The super PAC is also considering investing in the Senate races in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, and is already backing House Republican candidates in California, Wisconsin, and Washington. America PAC is reportedly coordinating with major conservative organizations outside of the Republican Party, including the Sentinel Action Fund and the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity. Musk’s organization plans to utilize its funds to knock on voters’ doors before November. While Musk’s efforts successfully got President Trump elected in 2024, his political work since then has backfired. His money and public appearances in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election last year ended up costing conservatives the race, and possibly even broke the law. After initially swearing off politics, he’s now back with a vengeance to back his old friend Trump.But with more than a year of bad press from his Department of Government Efficiency’s decimation of the federal government, Musk’s name is mud with voters. Democrats will be only too happy to point out when he backs their opponents, and he’s going to have to resist his desire to make public appearances unless he wants a repeat of Wisconsin.
Last month, an ICE agent gunned down a 25-year-old immigrant father outside his house in Biddeford, Maine. The shooting was a horror. His three-year-old daughter was seen crying after the killing. The victim has been widely described as a good man. The shooting spawned outpourings of protest in the state.Yet Senator Susan Collins, who recently voted to give ICE $70 billion in funding with zero reforms, is now trying to mitigate the issue as a liability or even turn it in her favor. And I fear this is something that Democrats—who almost certainly must defeat Collins to win the Senate—have to take seriously.Collins told Semafor in an interview that she’s personally secured a new commitment from ICE to require all agents to wear bodycams going forward. “By the end of August, body-worn cameras will be deployed nationwide,” Collins said, emphasizing that this is “by my request.”Collins’s effort to take credit for this is ridiculous. She voted for the aforementioned no-strings-attached $70 billion, which will supercharge ICE’s paramilitary operations in countless awful ways. She also voted against an amendment in early June that would have required bodycams. The commitment she’s secured from ICE is a joke in comparison to all she’s done to empower it.But it’s absolutely possible that Collins’s bodycam gambit—and other tricks she might cook up—could nonetheless soften this issue’s impact on her reelection effort. Democrats cannot let that happen.Here’s why this is a concern: It’s exactly the sort of tactic that has made Collins a wily, resilient survivor in the Democratic-leaning state of Maine. Gestures just like it have persuaded many Mainers that she’s independent of the national party and Donald Trump and, importantly, that she fights for the state.Collins will say, in other words, that after this horrific ICE shooting, she aggressively represented Maine’s interests and directly took on the Trump administration to do so. Again, it’s preposterous. But note this: There are already examples of local press coverage crediting her with securing ICE bodycams. The headline from one Portland-based outlet reads: “Collins says ICE agents will start wearing body cameras by end of August.”If you want to know how Collins keeps getting reelected in a state that Donald Trump lost by seven points in 2024, one that no Republican presidential candidate has carried since George H.W. Bush in 1988, take a gander at those press clippings for a clue.To be fair, Maine Democrats are pushing back hard on Collins’s ploy. “Collins’s support handed ICE $70 billion with no guardrails,” the campaign of Democratic challenger Troy Jackson told me in a statement. “If she wants credit for a bodycam headline this week, she can start by explaining why she voted to fund ICE with a blank check and zero accountability attached.”What’s more, Democrats assure me they take seriously the need to prevent Collins from turning the tables on ICE in any way. They say Collins is already in deep trouble on inflation and health care, issues that will drive the race. They doubt Collins can use ICE bodycams to establish her independence in the face of those other overwhelming problems. Even if she tries, they say, it will only remind people of her votes to empower ICE.But the worry here is not that Collins can suddenly campaign aggressively to transform ICE into a uniformly winning issue for herself. She’ll still have to tiptoe around it. What can happen, however, is that she starts citing the securing of bodycams in a longer litany of things that demonstrate her willingness to take on Trump on Maine’s behalf.Put it this way: It’s not hard to imagine ads from the Collins campaign addressing ICE appearing on Mainers’ televisions before Democratic ones do. Such an ad would not be all about ICE. But it might highlight her move on bodycams as a bullet point among others establishing her “independence.” The problem is that preventing this might require Democrats to put real money into their own ads attacking her over ICE. They may still do this; earlier this year, the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC launched $2 million in ads targeting Collins this way. But that was months ago, and the latest ICE shooting has galvanized Mainers anew. Top Democrats tell me no decision has been made on whether to run ads on this going forward.All of which has bearing on the interminable argument among Democrats over how hard to lean into ICE and immigration. Democrats should stick to kitchen table issues instead, we keep hearing, since voters care about them more (or worse, they should avoid immigration entirely because it automatically favors Trump). But the Maine race underscores why this sort of advice is mostly useless.Look: Even if you accept that economic issues matter more to voters than ICE does, surely Collins shouldn’t be given free rein to cite ICE bodycams as a signifier of her fighting independence, with little or no Democratic paid media pushback.
Obama’s Call to Fauci Provides More Evidence that Obama Was Running the Biden White House Jeffrey Tucker shared this piece from Fauci’s diary that was released this past week.
The post BREAKING: Obama’s Call to Fauci Provides More Evidence that Obama Was Running the Biden White House appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Dear Democrats, Since too many people are complaining about you without providing any suggestions on what you could be doing better (other than “DO BETTER FFS!”), I’m here to help. We’re all tired of watching Democrats tweet without really doing anything, or getting into dumb flame wars with MAGA Republicans. Let’s fight smarter! Before we dive in, I know nobody likes being criticized or hearing the phrase, “You know what you should do?” When someone tries that with me, my immediate instinct is never to do whatever it is, because I’m a stubborn Taurus woman who hates being told what to do, like most women. But in this case, I must insist on telling you what to do, because it’s what you should do. Not to humblebrag (and yet also to brag like a man with a track record like mine would be allowed to brag about), but I have a long, long history of offering my ideas to people (men) in positions of power who laughed at me, but then made a lot of money from my ideas — but never kicked down any scratch or gave me credit. Non-political examples from my real life include:*Telling my first (male) radio boss in 1994 that Radiohead and Beck weren’t one-hit wonders *Telling my last (male) radio boss in 2006 that creating social media accounts for our station and streaming our signal online were essential for us to stay relevant [I also helped to create and named the station’s annual holiday concert series, which continues to be its biggest annual moneymaker]*Telling Dave Grohl in 2002 that if he wouldn’t cover my favorite song (“Heroes” by David Bowie) with Foo Fighters at Coachella ahead of their impending rumored breakup, then he needed to write me a song just as good. Dave then wrote “Times Like These,” which is just a rewrite of “Heroes,” and while he didn’t laugh at me, the Foo Fighters also never broke up, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never get any credit for it.Then there’s my entire Twitter political history, getting blocked by Trump and so much of MAGA, and all of the things I’ve written about how Democrats need to fight the Trumpublicans better. It led one of my followers to dub me Dublin “NosTARAdamus,” even though I’m more of a Cassandra when it comes to the political side of my predictions.Most importantly, I was a guest of then-DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison at our 2024 convention in Chicago, and I got myself there with all of two days’ notice, because I’m a magical human with amazing connections. I even met Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta and his husband, and Rep. Kenyatta told me he read my tweets. I’m tired of giving away my ideas for free, but I’m equally tired of not getting anywhere when it comes to getting Democrats to listen to me. Short of running for office (never happening, I’d be a nightmare of a candidate), I can either keep screaming my ideas into the abyss, or I can try to get the DNC to at least put me somewhere on the payroll as a consultant. The number one thing I’ve been screaming about (besides never understanding why no one challenged the 2024 election results, but we’ll circle back in a sec) since January 2025 is how much the party needs our own press secretary.A Democratic Press Secretary could easily set themselves up at the Capitol and hold a daily briefing to fact-check whatever KKKaroline Lie-vitt had just lied about. An immediate Democratic response every day, similar to the State of the Union response, would have an impact. Every member of the press would cover it, including the right-wing media, because they’d try to make content with gotcha questions. It would be the party’s best opportunity to get the truth out before the lies can take hold.And it would be a chance to show the American people what Democrats are actually doing to combat the barrage of awful from the Trump regime. Instead of tuning out the way Trump wants us to, more people would tune in because they’re starving for the truth, along with something to hope for.We need to see more Democrats bringing back some dignity to their offices, and we have the perfect model with Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), a new contender for the 2028 ticket. I’m also very proud of my Oregon Democratic delegation, who’ve collectively fought for all of the right things, yet fly under the radar despite their consistently strong performances. We also have an out and proud lesbian Governor, Tina Kotek, who could really use more support from the party right now, as could the record number of women (51!) currently running for Governor in their own states. Here’s the free advice I’m offering right now, but I’m not kidding when I say you need to reward those of us out here trying to keep/put as many Democrats in Congress in November, even as the GOP is doing everything to cheat. Every Democratic candidate needs to frame their Trumpy opponents (Trumpponents? Is that a thing we could make stick?) as willing co-conspirators in the Epstein Files cover-up. Make it as much about Epstein as possible.
The Department of Health and Human Services keeps saying it's turning over a new leaf, but it has only been partially successful — and controversial vaccine policymaking appears to be back on the table.Why it matters: Though the agency reset was launched with the midterm elections in mind, it's already under strain and the elections are still more than three months away.State of play: Until this week, the administration had spent most of this year toning down its approach to vaccines, after it became clear through polling that vaccine skepticism was a political liability for the GOP in the midterm elections.But it wasn't just vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration had become dysfunctional enough that critics were warning of irreparable harms to the biotech industry and lost cures for patients, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been without a Senate-confirmed director for the vast majority of Trump's second term.At the same time, HHS elevated people with much more traditional backgrounds to senior positions within the department, most notably installing Chris Klomp effectively as chief of staff.Former FDA commissioner Marty Makary and top regulator Vinay Prasad both left their jobs in the following months, signaling what the biopharma industry hoped would be a reset on a relationship that had become poisonous.Other controversial personnel either left the administration or — in the case of surgeon general nominee Casey Means — failed to be confirmed.Where it stands: The projection of a return to business as usual experienced some serious cracks this week.The Senate confirmation of Sean Kaufman, the administration's nominee to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, seemed to be in trouble over his past anti-vaccine statements, though the Senate health committee did approve his nomination Thursday.And most prominently, the WSJ reported that President Trump has been pressuring Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to do more on vaccines, including probing the alleged connection between vaccines and autism and reducing the number of shots children receive."💯 true," a source close to HHS and the White House texted Axios in response to the story.That's a stark departure from White House staff urging the department to tone it down — but a testament to the president's genuine commitment to the topic.Scientists have repeatedly said there's no evidence of a connection between vaccines and autism.The other side: The administration's nominee to lead the CDC, Erica Schwartz, was approved by the Senate health committee with significantly less drama Thursday, even earning a Democrat's vote.And while the FDA is lacking permanent leadership, both the acting commissioner and the acting heads of drug regulation have received widespread praise from industry and other critics of the agency under Makary's tenure.Klomp, who has been nominated as deputy secretary, continues to be largely regarded as competent and a steadying hand.HHS said in a statement: "We have an exceptional team in place across the Department, that is dedicated to serving the American people and carrying out President Trump's bold vision to reverse the chronic disease epidemic, restore trust in public health, and put prevention at the center of health policy as we Make America Healthy Again."Between the lines: The likelihood that controversial vaccine policy returns with a vengeance post-midterms is completely underappreciated across Washington.Sources close to the administration are confident that vaccine-skeptical rhetoric and policy actions will resume in a few months."I have full expectation that many of MAHA's goals will reappear after midterms. They'll actually get finalized in the second half of the administration, and the real question is what happens in the next administration?" said David Mansdoerfer, a senior HHS official during Trump's first term.What they're saying: Parents' "questions and concerns about America's skyrocketing autism rates have long been ignored if not mocked. That changed the day President Trump took office, and the Trump administration is committed to leaving no stone unturned to finally address these concerns with Gold Standard Science," White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.The intrigue: Trump's urgency could add longevity to Kennedy's tenure. There's been rampant speculation about whether the secretary will leave the administration after the midterm elections, with many sources believing he'll be gone after they're over."Of course this means that the Secretary will stay to the end of the Administration," the source close to HHS and the White House told me."He's been stymied time and again by staff who were worried about the political optics of questioning vaccines.
President Trump warned the storming of a small Spanish enclave by tens of thousands of migrants would look "small time" compared to what happens in the US if voters pick open-border Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.
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