— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), quoted by Punchbowl News.

“They are among the Republicans who have descended on Southwest Florida in recent years and are now in pursuit of an open House seat there, transforming a deeply red district into a staging ground for comeback stories.”

“The plan is more regime alteration than regime change.”

“The Trump administration has pressed its spy agencies to identify someone in the mold of Delcy Rodríguez, who became Venezuela’s interim president after U.S. forces captured the previous leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January.”

The Guardian: Trump unbound: the making of an imperial presidency.

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”The high court dealt Trump both of the losses during the term that ended in June, striking down his executive order to end birthright citizenship and blocking his attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. This week Trump tried again on both fronts.”

“That could be typical candidate bravado, and Republicans say he has little chance. But Colom is drawing attention for a potentially competitive campaign, a reflection of a wider Senate map than either party envisioned at the midpoint of Donald Trump’s second presidency.”

“That means the list of notable races now goes beyond obvious battlegrounds like Maine, New Hampshire, Michigan and Georgia and even the once-surprising contests like Ohio and Texas.”

Wall Street Journal: The balance of power in the Senate is on the line in the 2026 elections. Our tracker digs into the most competitive and emerging Senate battlegrounds.

”Although most pundits’ doubts about Dr El-Sayed’s electability focus on his strident progressivism, our model knows nothing about his ideology: quantifying political positions is hard for candidates with no legislative voting history. Instead, three non-ideological factors explain the model’s relatively dim view of his chances in November’s election.”

Mediaite: CNN data guru says Dem odds of winning Michigan seat have fallen dramatically.

Said Carlson: “So you have the President of the United States—whatever they tell you—openly threatening the use of nuclear weapons in a conflict that has no immediate or obvious resolution. So where’s that going? Well, toward a nuclear strike. And what happens then, God knows.”

He added: “But if you can even live with that fact—if you could even say, or just acknowledge without words, that yeah, this could wind up with people unleashing nuclear weapons on civilian populations—you’re already around the bend. You’ve already proven yourself incapable of leadership, because that’s crazy. That’s beyond reckless. That’s, well, it’s literally suicidal. And homicidal.”

For more than a decade, every Republican House speaker has faced the same problem: the biggest threat to their leadership came from within their own conference.

John Boehner battled the Tea Party. Paul Ryan never fully tamed the Freedom Caucus. Kevin McCarthy was ultimately toppled by members of his own party.

“In an interview released Friday, Trump denied not caring about the GOP’s fortunes in the midterms. But he didn’t actually dispel the idea that he’s not terribly interested in being a team player and doing the things his party needs.”

“The amendment, if approved by voters in November, would give the Democratic-controlled General Assembly far greater latitude to redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of the 2028 election.”

“Should Democrats take control of the Senate in November, they would be in position to stop Trump from filling any Supreme Court vacancies for the last two years of his presidency. If Alito retired shortly after the election, Republicans could potentially confirm a successor during a lame-duck session before the new Congress convenes in January.”