A MAGA lawmaker outraged critics on Sunday after her interview on CNN went off the rails.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) joined CNN's Omar Jimenez on "CNN Newsroom," where she was asked to defend recent comments she made about Muslim Americans that some described as Islamophobic. During the interview, Jimenez forcefully pushed back on several falsehoods that Mace reiterated.

Mace's critics responded to the interview on social media.

"I’m sorry, a Nazi who is trying to ban an entire religious community from serving in government and spewing bigoted racist rhetoric is on your show, and you’re treating them with kid gloves as if it’s a normal political disagreement? Come on!" Mehdi Hasan, founder of Zeteo News, posted on X.

"The fear mongering from my former colleagues on the right just keeps getting uglier and scarier by the day. And we’ve still got 86 days to go until Election Day. It’s only gonna get worse," Joe Walsh, a former Republican lawmaker who now works as a Democratic pundit, posted on X.

"Republicans are saying more offensive things about El-Sayed than El-Sayed has ever said himself; the political discourse has just absorbed that MAGAland is completely bats--- and so they can be as extreme as they want," Jesse Lee, a former Biden administration communications staffer, posted on X.

"Republican bigots like Mace pretend a single Democratic senator has this power. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. John Cornyn says the entire GOP Senate majority can’t do a damn thing to rein in Trump," Heman Mehta, a former "Jeopardy!" champion, posted on X.

"Yeah that’s stupid," Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, posted on X.

Things got heated between Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and CNN anchor Omar Jimenez on Sunday after he challenged Mace over her recent comments about Muslims.

Mace joined Jimenez on "CNN Newsroom," where she was asked about the upcoming election to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)'s seat and recent comments she made about Muslims. A few days ago, Mace claimed that Muslims holding office are "Trojan horses." On Sunday, she followed that up with a post that many people found to be Islamophobic.

"Are you saying that anyone who is Muslim is a threat to this country?" Jimenez asked.

Mace explained that she was only referring to elected officials who are Muslim, such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. She then claimed that Mamdani campaigned with people who share anti-American values, and suggested those associates may have participated in a terrorist attack.

"Congresswoman, there's no indication that Mayor Mamdani has brought any of those ideals to New York City governance, or that just being muslim allows you to bring those in," Jimenez countered.

Mace then pointed to a recent march in Dearborn, Illinois, of more than 45,000 Shia Muslims, arguing that it was an attempt to force Americans to accept their culture.

"Expression of culture, Congresswoman, is different than a blanket city policy," Jimenez said.

A REpublican senator's excuse for why the party has been so secretive about Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) health floored a political analyst on Sunday.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) appeared on "The Big Weekend Show" on Fox News over the weekend, where he was asked about McConnell and whether he will return to work. Marshall's answer floored Democratic analyst Mike Nellis, who reacted to it in a new podcast episode.

"Well, number one, I'm afraid you're going to turn that seat over to a Democrat, possibly very temporary if you go through that process," Marshall said when asked whether McConnell should give up his seat because he is unable to serve. "But the good news is Mitch McConnell spoke to several senators this past week. He was dismissed from the hospital. He's now at home recovering. So, let's hope and pray that he's better and he can come back when this break is over in September."

Nellis was floored by Marshall's comment.

"As much as that question was loaded with horseshit about Joe Biden, he at least asked a sitting Republican senator a tough question about why Mitch McConnell is not coming to work," Nellis said. "That's a lot closer than a lot of these Fox News hacks have been willing to do for quite a while now."

Nellis also took aim at the setup of the question, which included a jab at former President Joe Biden's mental decline while in office.

"They can complain about the autopen administration all that they want. Donald Trump loves the autopen, uses the autopen plenty, and the autopen is a legal way for the president of the United States to govern," Nellis said. "... And here's the thing, Joe Biden showed up to work every single day. We never went a two-month period without seeing Joe Biden. Are you kidding me? These two things are not the same. Mitch McConnell hasn't been seen in two months. That is not even remotely the same ... it is ridiculous to conflate the two."

Nellis noted that Marshall's comment was yet another example of Republicans bending the rules when it suits them.

"They're playing games," Nellis said. "This is what Republicans do. They change the rules in the middle of the game itself. They know that Andy Beshear will try to appoint a Democrat in violation of the law that Kentucky Republicans passed to try to take away his power to replace statewide offices."

A legal expert sounded the alarm about recent rumors of a possible retirement from the Supreme Court during a podcast interview on Sunday.

Rumors have been swirling that Justice Samuel Alito, one of the court's most conservative members, may retire before the midterms, giving Republicans an opportunity to replace him while the party still controls the Senate. Marc Elias, founder of the Elias Law Group and the voting rights website Democracy Docket, said in a new episode of "Democracy Watch" with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen that rumors of Justice Samuel Alito's retirement pose a pressing issue for Democrats during the 2026 midterm elections.

"This is a big deal," Elias said. "What it means is that Republicans will not be able to fill this seat while they have power."

Alito's retirement became a topic of conversation after NPR published, and then retracted, a story claiming the justice was considering retiring. The outlet explained that its reporter misheard a comment while leaving the Supreme Court one day.

On Friday, Alito publicly batted down the rumors, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"Obviously I’m here for another term,” Alito told the outlet.

Elias described the whole NPR issue as "weird."

Even so, it revealed an important issue that Democrats may have to contend with following the midterms.

The Senate doesn't officially change hands until January 3 when new senators are sworn in, Elias noted. Republicans could take advantage of that "lame duck" period to force through a new appointment if a Supreme Court Justice like Alito were to retire, he warned.

"I don't think that's going to happen ... but never say never to anything," Elias said.

President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that a new "highly credible witness" had come forward in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool case in a wild Truth Social post.

"ALERT: A National Park Service career employee, a highly credible witness, saw David Hearn (ActBlue) in broad daylight vandalize the Reflecting Pool by 'violently' ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating," Trump wrote. "The National Park Service employee provided this witness testimony to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in early July, as seen below," referring to a photo of the testimony he shared.

The post was made at a time when the president is trying to revive the vandalism case against Hearn. Last week, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dropped the case, citing a lack of evidence. Trump was furious at Pirro, and reporting indicates she is on thin ice in the administration.

Trump has since lashed out at Pirro, saying she "folded like an umbrella" by dropping the case. He has also tried to publicly pressure her into reviving the prosecution.

However, Trump's new claim that the Park Service noted the pool had been "vandalized" seems to undercut public reporting. CNN revealed internal communications from the National Park Service last week that made "no mention of any vandalism" in the Reflecting Pool, as Trump claimed in his post.

Trump also tied the vandalism case to other prosecutions his administration is pursuing.

"Numerous other events took place, including using an acid-like material on the just-installed grass adjoining the Pool," Trump wrote. "On it were written the letters, '86 47,' a phrase probably gotten from James Comey. There was substantial other damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself."

"We are working on the Pool, and it will reopen shortly. As with many jobs, there was also some contractor error done by rushing the job for a July 4th opening, but it was a very small area of this massive Pool, and was relatively inconsequential," Trump added. "Security cameras have been, and are being, installed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Critics were awed on Sunday after one of the top doctors in the Trump administration sparred with Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation."

Jay Bhattacharya, a physician who leads Trump's National Institutes of Health and is acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked by Brennan about the lack of trust in public health. In his response, Bhattacharya claimed that perceived censorship during the Biden administration led to mistrust in health officials. When Brennan reminded Bhattacharya that the pandemic occurred under the first Trump administration, the interview got heated.

"Just so we're clear, the Biden administration censored me, and people who disagreed about whether the COVID-19 vaccine stopped it," Bhattacharya claimed, referring to the throttling of his social media posts that contradicted government guidance. Bhattacharya joined a lawsuit that claimed such actions were illegal, which the Supreme Court rejected by a 6-3 majority in 2024.

"RFK Jr. called the COVID-19 vaccine the most dangerous vaccine ever made," Brennan shot back. "That is misinformation, and we're not being clear about that."

Critics were stunned by the exchange.

"Jay Bhattacharya is a dangerous, fraudulent quack who thinks COVID was a Chinese bioweapon," Jim Stewartson, a writer who recently defeated a defamation lawsuit filed by FBI Director Kash Patel, posted on X. "But he also said we should not vaccinate people and go for 'herd immunity'—which would have killed several million people. He’s a criminally negligent lunatic. What a charade."

"Bhattacharya has never acknowledged he got COVID wrong. In March 2020, he said it was more likely that the disease would kill 20,000 than 2 million. Big oops there," David Corn, a columnist at Mother Jones, posted on Bluesky. "And now he refuses to acknowledge RFK Jr.'s disinformation about the Covid vaccine. Instead, he whines that he himself was 'censored.'"

"It's impossible he's this stupid...but he is. And the fact that he is the @CDCgov director should scare the s--- out of you," Don Winslow, a New York Times best-selling author, posted on X.

"For someone who supposedly cut his teeth in econ seminars, I gotta say he's not that great at dealing with challenging questions," Dr.Alexander Tsai, a health scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, posted on Bluesky.

"Jay was never censored. He had his day in court and lost at the SCOTUS," journalist Walker Bragman posted on Bluesky.

President Donald Trump has developed a horrifying "little tic" as his poll numbers continue to sink, according to two analysts.

Trump, whose mental health seems to be deteriorating, has increasingly relied on what the president refers to as his "real poll numbers" to convince himself that the American people are still with him, analysts Sean Wilentz and Sidney Blumenthal noted on their podcast "The Court of History." Trump's "real poll numbers" suggest he has a greater-than-60% approval rating, even though polls from Quinnipiac and the University of Chicago measured his support at closer to 30%, the analysts noted.

"Oh my god," Wilentz said when Blumenthal shared Trump's supposed "real poll numbers."

What makes the situation even more horrifying is that the president seems preoccupied with comparing himself to his predecessors, another sign that he is not living in the present, Blumenthal noted.

Two of the presidents that Trump has associated himself with, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon, are particularly revealing, Wilentz argued.

Hoover once ordered the military to remove an encampment of military veterans that had formed in Washington, D.C., to demand that the government cash their service-bonus certificates that Congress awarded them after World War I. Nixon, on the other hand, has become known as one of the most corrupt presidents in American history because of the Watergate scandal.

Wilentz argued that Trump's "little tic" of comparing himself to Hoover and Nixon is "very telling."

"He'd like to construct a government that goes beyond what Richard Nixon would have wanted to do, as horrible as it was ..." Wilentz said. "He wants to go beyond that. He thinks that Nixon was a wimp. He thinks that Nixon was a wuss and that's why he fell, and that he is going to outdo him."

An economist flagged several warning signs after the latest jobs report showed President Donald Trump's economy had become "anemic."

On Friday, the Trump administration released a report that showed the U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, one of the worst monthly performances in several years. Heather Long, the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said on MS NOW's "Alex Witt Reports" that the data underscored "several issues for mainstream America."

"It's basically a job market on life support in many ways," Long said.

Long noted that the impact of Trump's war against Iran has only served to increase the financial pain many Americans are feeling. She noted that the latest showed inflation was 3.5% over the last year because of the war. That completely negates the 3.2% increase in wages that Americans received over the same time, she said.

"Unfortunately, inflation, particularly after the war in Iran, is growing way more than that," Long said. "We'll get some new data this week, but it's still going to be inflation totally wiping out wage gains. And that's why Americans feel squeezed right now."

Long also pointed to the low hiring figures as a sign that the economy is pushing many Americans to the brink. She said the economy has averaged roughly 20,000 jobs created each month, which she described as "anemic."

"Any job seeker knows how hard it is right now," Long said. And the big change, the reason so many economists gasped on Friday when these numbers came out, is we now have a 2000-a-month average. Back when we saw the June data, we thought the three-month average was over 100,000. So, things were picking up. That's really been dashed after this latest report."

A Republican senator was roundly mocked on Sunday after he mixed up two of his colleagues during a live interview.

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) joined Kristen Welker on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday morning, where he was asked whether Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) should stay in his re-election bid despite the horrific allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife. Banks said Miller should leave the race if the allegations are true, before telling Welker about how the saga had impacted one of his colleagues.

"The allegations are deeply troubling," Banks said. "I serve with his father-in-law, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and I know everyone involved. It's heartbreaking to see all of this playing out publicly."

Banks was referring to Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), who is the father of Miller's ex-wife, Emily Moreno.

Critics were quick to point out Banks's mistake and left a few sharp words for him on social media as well.

"Huge if true," Liz Charboneau, vice president of research at American Bridge, posted on X.

"They made this moron congressman Banks a senator because he owns a tie," Keith Olbermann, a political commentator, posted on X.

"With both Blackburn and Tuberville leaving, I gotta say that Jim here is firmly positioned to take up the mantle of 'dumbest motherf----- in the U.S. Senate,'" Clinton Reese, a former "Jeopardy!" champion, posted on Bluesky.

Some critics also pointed out that Welker didn't correct Banks after his mistake.

"Kind of stunned Welker didn't correct him and say that the father-in-law is Sen Bernie Moreno," Stephen Buckley, a lecturer in digital media sociology, posted on Bluesky.

"Curious that Sen. Banks wasn’t corrected — of course, Miller’s father-in-law is Sen. Bernie Moreno. Bernie Sanders has nothing to do with this," Jim Lokay, a broadcast news anchor in Washington, D.C., posted on X.

President Donald Trump gave Axios an update Sunday on his deeply unpopular war against Iran, during which he repeated a near-identical phrase to one he uttered to former ally Tucker Carlson just before launching the conflict.

It's a comment that led the conservative commentator to suspect at the time that the president was acting "against his will."

“We are low-keying it,” Trump told Axios in what the outlet described as a “brief phone call” regarding the U.S. war against Iran. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

It was Trump’s next remark that bore a striking similarity to his past remarks made just before the war.

“It will work out. It always works out,” Trump said.

The U.S. war against Iran has sent food and gasoline prices soaring in the United States due to disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil trade flows. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Trump has privately floated abandoning his top war objective – securing a nuclear deal with Iran – so long as Tehran fully reopens the strait, which flowed freely before he launched the war.

Earlier this month, Trump was prepared to launch a massive attack on Iran before walking back the threat amid reports of critical U.S. shortages of missiles, and on Sunday, he revealed to Axios how his administration planned on dealing with the war going forward.

Similar remarks were flagged by Carlson during his interview with The New York Times in May, in which he recalled pleading with Trump prior to the conflict not to launch the war.

“He said to me, 'everything's gonna be okay' because I was getting overwrought [and told him] 'don't do this.' He said, 'it's gonna be alright,' and he said, 'do you know how I know that?' And I said, 'no.' He said, 'because it always is,’” Carlson told the Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

Carlson’s read on Trump’s remarks, he explained, was that Trump was well aware that the conflict would “end his presidency,” but proceeded anyway, and “against his will.”

“I do think there's a kind of Teddy Roosevelt optimism there, but that's not really what it was,” Carlson continued. “This is my read: that was more a justification from a man who feels he has no choice, and that is my strong view, and not just my strong view, [but] the view of others who were around him.”

Carlson has also previously accused Israel – which has advocated for the United States to attack Iran since at least the 1990s – of exerting significant pressure on Trump to launch the war, and went as far as to suggest the president may have been the victim of a “blackmail operation.”

President Donald Trump, 80, revealed an arm covered in bruises while he was out on the golf course Sunday.

Trump's bruised arm stunned viewers who note the elderly president can frequently be seen with a bruise on his hand, but not often above the wrist.

"Trump is known for suspicious bruising, usually it’s the president’s hands—not arm—which draw attention," wrote the Daily Beast's Katie Francis. "His mysterious bruising has spread."

Francis also reported scrapes and band-aids on Trump's fingers in images of him "slouched" in a golf cart.

Trump was attending the LIV Golf New York tournament at his course in Bedminster, New Jersey — which rankled with political commentator Brian Krassenstein.

"What the heck is all that?" Krassenstein asked, zooming in on swollen veins in Trump's hands. "And why is he golfing while we are at war and can’t afford groceries?"

Trump's oft-spotted hand spots have been repeatedly brushed off by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt who tried to blame frequent hand-shaking until viewers found a bruise on his left, the Beast reported.

The president then blamed a large daily dose of aspirin to thin his blood for “chronic venous insufficiency,” according to the report.

A MAGA lawmaker on Sunday who tried to give President Donald Trump an A+ was caught in a "blatant lie."

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) appeared on "Meet the Press" to defend what analysts (even conservative ones) have described as a "big miss" and "significantly worse than expected" — a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report finding the U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July.

Asked if Trump deserved an A+ on the economy, Banks replied, "I do!"

Banks made this claim as fuel prices spike to the point where mothers are bursting into tears at gas stations, the prices of grocery store staples are "skyrocketing," the Gross Domestic Product growth has slowed to a crawl, and tens of thousands have reportedly given up on looking for a job.

A recent CNN analysis of the jobs report described the situation like this:

"The economy feels so perpetually uncertain, fragile and contradictory that shifts in any direction feel really consequential," their analysis states. "We don’t know if this report exposed deeper cracks in the job market that could swallow up peoples’ livelihoods."

Banks's analysis was quite different.

"We've seen a significant resurgence, because of President Trump's trade policies, in bringing back those good-paying factory jobs," he said. "That's the return of the Made in America economy."

But it was Banks' claim that "every single jobs report except for this one has exceeded expectations" that infuriated independent journalist Aaron Rupar.

"One-third of Trump's job reports in his second term have shown job losses," Rupar wrote. "This is a blatant lie!"

Journalist Prem Thakker on Sunday flagged a "notable" pattern in President Donald Trump's behavior in the days following Jeffrey Epstein's mysterious 2019 death, part of an analysis raising eight "unanswered" questions about the disgraced financier's demise.

Jeffrey Epstein died Aug. 10, 2019, in his Manhattan jail cell awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging – though guards had falsified watch logs, his cellmate was removed days earlier, and surveillance footage went missing.

Immediately following his death, then-Attorney General Bill Barr appeared to endorse Epstein’s supposed cause of death, expressing his shock that Epstein had died “from an apparent suicide.” However, Trump instead took to social media to suggest that former President Bill Clinton was somehow involved.

Trump was later asked about his social media post in an interview, and said he had “no idea” whether Clinton was involved in Epstein’s death, but did not walk back the suggestion.

“So you have to ask: Did Bill Clinton go to the island?” Trump said. “That's the question. If you find that out, you're going to know a lot.”

Trump would go on to repeat this suggestion, something Thakker flagged as potentially telling.

“While the New York City medical examiner affirmed Barr’s initial claim that the death was a suicide less than a week later, Trump flouted that. Over the course of years, he would continue to suggest Epstein may have been killed, or that something ‘weird’ had gone on,” Thakker wrote.

“The oscillation is notable on its own, given Trump’s ties to Epstein – but no less given he was, again, president at the time. If there were any answers to be had, he perhaps had the highest possibility to find them.”

Trump and Epstein were friends for years, with Trump once calling him "a terrific guy" who liked beautiful women "on the younger side.”

Files and testimony released as part of the broader Epstein investigation have since surfaced additional details about their relationship, including flight logs placing Trump on Epstein's private plane, a 2003 birthday letter bearing Trump's name that referenced a shared "secret," and accounts from Epstein's alleged victims describing encounters with Trump at Epstein's properties, though Trump has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime related to Epstein.

A Texas school principal accused of touching cheerleaders' chests found protection from an unlikely source; President Donald Trump, a new report revealed Sunday.

The unnamed principal, under federal investigation for sexual harassment, was not the only accused person to escape consequences because of Trump — people who hurled racist insults at children were spared, too, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

"Instead of resolving such investigations, the Trump administration indefinitely froze them," eight anonymous sources told the Washington Post. "The administration gutted the Office for Civil Rights and prioritized investigations into transgender athletes and other conservative priorities."

The Post's in-depth investigation reveals a horror house of racist and sexual abuse claims that might have been resolved had not the Trump administration issued a new directive to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.

In the 18 months since Trump reassumed office, only three settlements have been reached in thousands of pending investigations, the Washington Post reported.

In 2024, when President Joe Biden was in the White House, the office completed 72 settlements; 25 agreements linked to racial harassment and 47 linked to sexual harassment or violence.

The cases involve children who say they were terrorized at schools that do little or nothing to protect them.

A Texas cheerleader accused her principal of making her uncomfortable with his touches, commenting on her cheerleading uniform, and chest-bumping another cheerleader during a game.

A male student in Arizona was accused of climbing over a wall to film his female classmates in the bathroom — then shared those images without their consent.

In Grand Junction, Colorado, two students of Middle Eastern descent said they were bullied on the playground, in the hallways and in bathrooms by students who called them “camel humpers” and “terrorists."

The only Black girl in the fifth grade at Chesaning Middle School in Michigan said her fellow students called her “monkey,” the n-word and "slave."

They told her that her skin was “burnt like a piece of chicken.”

“Go get digging,” one boy told her. “I need some cotton.”

Read the full investigation here.

Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton of Texas was pressed by Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday as to why he was trailing behind his Democratic opponent in a state President Donald Trump won in 2024 by double digits.

“This is a state that President Trump won – why is this race so close, and what are you doing about it?” Bartiromo asked Paxton.

In early June, The New York Times’ aggregation of polls showed Paxton with a slight lead in several surveys. However, that lead soon collapsed, with the last seven polls showing Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico with a lead as high as five points as of July 31.

As to why the race had flipped in Talarico’s favor, Paxton blamed the development on the 2026 midterms being a “different environment” when compared with the 2024 election, and took to pleading with Fox News viewers to donate to his campaign.

“Go to KenPaxton.com and help us because we need help!” Paxton said. “We need help now because James Talarico has been spending $3 or $4 million a week on TV for the last month.”

A controversial figure in politics, Paxton faced accusations of bribery and abuse of public trust in 2023 during his impeachment trial. He faced accusations of infidelity from his wife, who filed for divorce on “biblical grounds” last year. Paxton was also accused of stealing a $1,000 luxury fountain pen from a courthouse, and faced criticism for offering what critics described as a lenient plea deal to a child abuser during his time as Texas attorney general.

Paxton won his GOP primary election in May against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) after scoring an endorsement from President Donald Trump, but has remained a controversial figure in politics, even among Republicans.

Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed fired back at President Donald Trump Sunday morning after the president lobbed an attack some critics have described as a blatant “racism.”

El-Sayed was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper about two images the president shared Saturday evening — one of Trump and his wife Melania, the other of El-Sayed and his headscarf-clad wife Sarah Jukaku — and the misspelled caption “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s.”

“He’s right!" the Michigan Democrat replied.

El-Sayed then explained to a surprised Tapper what he saw in the two photos: a decision for American voters.

"One in which your overlords are two people who don’t like each other but joined in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you," El-Sayed said, "or two people who genuinely love each other enjoyed some pancakes together want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family."

The Senate hopeful then turned to the issues he felt mattered more than his wife's headscarf.

“You’ve got two different visions of America; Donald Trump’s vision is the one you’re living in right now," he said. "Can you afford your gas, can you afford your groceries? Do you believe, when you look your kids in the eye, that they’re going to have a better future than you did?”

El-Sayed dove deeper into comparisons between his and Trump’s marriages – a comparison Trump first initiated – arguing that one factor clearly separated the two pairs.

“Sarah and I like each other,” he said. “I don’t know about the first lady and the president, but from what I’ve heard, it’s a bit of a rocky road.”

According to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, Trump and Mrs. Trump reportedly sleep in separate rooms, with Trump sleeping in what’s been dubbed the “living room” of the White House.

Mrs. Trump resides in the White House’s master bedroom. Also according to Haberman and Swan, Trump has resorted to pillaging gold from the White House hallways in a race to “have the better room.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) confessed Sunday he doesn't entirely trust soon-to-be Attorney General Todd Blanche to uphold the Constitution — but voted to confirm his nomination anyway.

Cassidy, the Republican Senator who made Blanche's confirmation possible by agreeing to vote the party line, made this stunning admission on "Face the Nation" Sunday morning when asked point blank if he trusted Blanche.

"There's always an existential anxiety, but I am as confident you can be," said Cassidy. "I can't predict the future."

Cassidy also admitted he was close to tears when he announced he would support President Donald Trump's nominee, despite mounting concerns that Blanche had already managed to make the Justice department a "shambles."

Cassidy said he choked up because it was such an honor to vote.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) refused to vote for Blanche because of his handling of the Epstein files, immunity protections granted to the Trump family and repeated attacks on the president's political rivals, she said Friday.

Conservative former judge J. Michael Luttig said of Cassidy and Republicans who did not follow in Murkowski's footsteps, "They will bear this badge of shame the rest of their lives."

But Cassidy, despite stated misgivings about Blanche's willingness to uphold the Constitution, said on Sunday he stood by his decision — even though he almost voted no.

"If you're looking for a black or white decision here," said Cassidy, "you're not going to find it."

The United States Department of Defense, an institution that once defined global stability, is an absolute mess of epic proportions. And you can blame 49 GOP senators for this abomination.

The man in charge, Pete Hegseth, has absolutely no business holding the job. And none of this would have likely happened if not for those 49 senators, who were aided in the crime by an equally incapable vice president, whose tie-breaking vote gave Hegseth a title he did not earn.

Among those 49 senators was Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy.

Senate Republicans keep telling us they take “advice and consent” seriously. Their voting record says otherwise. And with Cassidy’s latest capitulation to Donald Trump, another hack, Todd Blanche, has been elevated to a Cabinet position he has no business holding.

So far, the Hegseth confirmation is the gold standard in epic failure, so we shall see how long it takes Blanche to ascend the ranks, although he’ll be hard-pressed to outdo Hegseth’s incompetence.

Hegseth was confirmed by the narrowest of margins, 51-50. It was just the second time in American history that’s been necessary for a Cabinet nominee. The Senate narrowly confirmed Todd Blanche by a near-historic, razor-thin margin that underscores the furious anxiety over placing a former personal defense lawyer at the helm of the Justice Department.

But anxiety about anything related to Trump for GOP Senators is a mere afterthought.

For Hegseth, every Democrat voted no. So did three Republicans: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell, who looked at a nominee trailed by a paid-out sexual assault settlement, a sworn affidavit from his own former sister-in-law about fears for his ex-wife’s safety, and a résumé that topped out at running a small veterans’ nonprofit and hosting weekend cable news, and balked.

Fifty of their colleagues somehow thought Hegseth was a good idea. It’s at once stupid and baffling. Did they really think he’d surprise everyone and turn out to be competent, smart, deferential and, well, normal?

Cassidy was one of those senators.

And he did it again.

Likewise, 51 GOP senators thought there was absolutely nothing wrong with confirming Trump’s Roy Cohn to lead the Justice Department, or what it will now be referred to as: a captive law firm serving only one client.

Cassidy was once again among them.

With that moniker, it’s easy to see why Blanche will give Hegseth a run for his money. But still.

What’s going on at DOD should surprise no one. In fact, I wrote in my previous capacity that he would be a disaster, and he has not disappointed. He’s failed on a scale of epic proportions.

Hegseth has presided over this horrific, ill-advised war with Iran that’s burned through the munitions stockpile. He’s approved defense contracts flowing to Trump’s own sons’ investment funds. He cut roughly 80,000 civilian jobs and denied promotions to qualified Black and female officers, for no reason but their appearances.

That’s exactly what his qualifications predicted would happen. And 50 sycophantic cowards are really to blame for how the military has become a laughing stock around the world.

And I’m not talking about the troops, whose bravery and lives are being put at risk by a novice and inept leader. If you dare criticize Hegseth, even for his silly pocket-square flag, he immediately accuses you of dissing the troops.

In order to overtake Hegseth as the worst of the worst, Blanche will have to surpass another blundering nincompoop.

That would be RFK Jr., who has thrown the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services into the bottom of a metaphorical biohazard waste-material receptacle.

RFK Jr. has no business being our nation’s health secretary. He has zero public health credentials and a long paper trail of medical conspiracy theories, yet was confirmed to run the agency responsible for the nation’s health.

And this is where Cassidy’s record gets particularly hard to explain away.

In his first capitulation, making him Trump’s verifiable confirmation colluder, Cassidy, a doctor, sat across from Kennedy, forced him to admit on the record that vaccines don’t cause autism, voiced real doubts out loud, and voted yes anyway, citing “commitments” from the White House that evaporated the moment the vote was cast.

And just like RFK Jr., Cassidy admitted Blanche “is not perfect.” But he voted yes anyway.

That is not advice and consent. That’s executive fiat. That is surrender. An abdication. It’s lazy, it’s stupid. It’s ruinous.

Cassidy’s deciding vote to confirm Kennedy, who should be in prison or a mental institution, was his first epitaph.

Now, with his vote to confirm Blanche, Cassidy has written a second.

One vote helped put an unqualified conspiracy theorist in charge of the nation’s health. The other helped put Trump’s personal defense lawyer in charge of the Justice Department.

He was the person responsible for making America the sickest country on earth, and now, potentially, the most corrupt.

HHS got a secretary who fights his own scientists. The Pentagon got a man who can’t keep America’s munitions stocked or its promotion boards honest. And now the Justice Department is next in line, headed by a nominee who will go to bat for Trump Every. Single. Time.

And when the damage is done, Cassidy won’t be able to say he didn’t know. He did. He told us he knew. He raised the questions himself. He heard the answers. And then he voted yes anyway.

He now has two dangerous and ominous epitaphs with his votes for Kennedy and Blanche.

And unlike an epitaph carved into his headstone, these will be written in the darkest period in our nation’s history.

Outgoing Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) made startling admissions Sunday in a spat with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) — that harbored blatantly discriminatory views and can't spell.

In a social media post published on Friday, Mace, who lost her gubernatorial bid to a GOP opponent backed by President Donald Trump, claimed that “every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse and a threat."

The post drew widespread scrutiny and was viewed more than 7.6 million times. On Saturday, Jayapal condemned Mace’s remark as “absolutely disgusting and dangerous,” and urged Republicans to denounce what she called Mace’s “blatant Islamophobia.”

Instead of rejecting Jayapal’s characterization of her, Mace embraced the description as an admirable trait — if one she could not spell.

“I don't want to get stabbed or blown up by a suicide bomber – nor do I want to hear the call to prayer five times a day in the United States of America," wrote Mace. "Total Islamaphobe [sic] here.”

Mace’s rhetoric mirrors that of a growing number of Republican lawmakers.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), who recently lost his primary election, claimed in March that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.” Also earlier this year, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) came under fire for suggesting Muslims were worth less than dogs.

The rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric among American lawmakers has coincided with reporting on an influence campaign linked to Israel's government. An Al Jazeera investigation in 2024 found that Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs had funneled roughly $2 million to a Tel Aviv-based marketing firm that used AI-generated content and networks of fake social media accounts to spread pro-Israel narratives and Islamophobic material aimed at American and Canadian audiences, according to Middle East Monitor's summary of that reporting.

Mace also echoed her idol in another way. Trump's own recent Islamophobic attacks saw him misspell "Americas."

A White House insider was shut down on live television Sunday morning as he tried to defend a broken promise he made to the public.

Economic adviser Kevin Hassett's own words were thrown in his face by CNN anchor Jake Tapper as the pair discussed mounting gas prices amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

"A month ago, you said that you were, quote 'bullish that there's going to be a heck of a lot of traffic moving through every single day,'" Tapper said. "And that you expect that this will, quote, 'cruise to normalcy sometime really, really soon.'"

Iran instead has delivered a set of demands that President Donald Trump — so desperate that he's privately said he's willing to walk away from a nuclear deal — must meet before reopening the strait.

"That set of demands includes the lifting of the naval blockade and sanctions, war reparations, the release of frozen Iranian assets and end to attacks on Iran's allies," Tapper said. "So I guess I just don't know when 'really, really soon' is."

Hassett tried to frame oil prices falling from $100 a barrel down to $80 as an economic victory and praised ongoing action from the White House to increase U.S. production.

Then Hassett admitted their efforts hadn't really worked.

"Prices are still higher than we would like," said Hassett. "When the gulf situation is resolved, then we can expect prices to go way, way down."

Tensions mounted as Tapper once again threw Hassett's claims at him.

"You said you're bullish, there's going to be a heck of a lot of traffic moving—"

"There is traffic moving," Hassett cut in. As he tried to explain his reasoning, a frustrated Tapper shut him down.

"I wouldn't call it a heck of a lot," he snapped. "It's not a heck of a lot!"

President Donald Trump’s latest attack on a Democratic Senate nominee and his wife spurred a wave of rebuke on Sunday by critics who called him a racist and a convicted felon.

Trump took to Truth Social the night before to share an image comparing himself and First Lady Melania Trump to Abdul El-Sayed and his wife, Sarah Jukaku.

The image includes the misspelled caption, "Two VERY DIFFERENT America's," and shows Trump and his wife in formal attire alongside El-Sayed and Jukaku, who wears a traditional Islamic headscarf.

The image also uses El-Sayed’s full name – Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed – similar to how Trump often refers to former President Barack Obama as Barack Hussein Obama.

Karrin Vasby Anders, a communication studies professor at Colorado State University, has argued this is a “dog whistle” designed to highlight the Arabic origins of Obama’s middle name.

Kyle Kulinski, a progressive political commentator and podcast host, appeared to agree.

“All republicans have is racism,” Kulinski wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 560,000 followers.

Alex Cole, a progressive commentator, noted Jukaku is a licensed psychiatrist, and met her future husband while studying at the University of Michigan.

Cole shared his description of the images in a social media post on X to his more than 326,000 followers.

“One side is a convicted felon married to a former nude model," he wrote. "The other is a Michigan-born doctor married to a psychiatrist."

The progressive media organization MeidasTouch weighed in on the matter by describing the “two very different America’s” as “the Epstein class vs. regular Americans who know how to spell.”

Marek Magierowski, a Polish diplomat and policy analyst, also gave his take on the differences between the first lady and Jukaku.

“Sarah Jukaku is a psychiatrist, she holds a medical degree from Columbia and a master’s degree from [University of Oxford],” Magierowski wrote. “Melanie [sic] Trump is a former model.”

As President Donald Trump struggles to find an exit to his deeply unpopular war against Iran, U.S. officials revealed a stunning concession he’s floated privately to senior aides, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Trump launched the U.S. war against Iran in late February with one key objective: to prevent Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon, but on Sunday, U.S. officials told the Journal that the president had been “floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal.”

However, even Trump’s supposed watered-down offer to Iran may be off the table. On Saturday, Iran made public its demands for re-opening the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping vessels: a full withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the region, a lifting of the U.S. naval blockade, an end to all sanctions, unfreezing of Iranian assets, and billions of dollars in payments for reparations, among other things.

Trump’s supposed desperation to end the war is well known among Iranian officials, according to Gregory Brew, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, who told the Journal that Tehran was strategically using it against him.

“The Iranians fully believe Trump wants out and is focused on opening the strait, which is why they are playing hardball,” Brew told the Journal.

Furthermore, with the midterm elections just around the corner, Iranian officials could very well sink Republicans’ electoral prospects as gas and food prices remain elevated amid the Strait of Hormuz’s partial closure.

“Iran’s ability to essentially choke off the waterway through sporadic missile and drone attacks has proven to be powerful leverage for the country, stalling commercial traffic and roiling global oil markets,” the Journal’s report reads.

“Trump has declared repeatedly in recent weeks that the Strait of Hormuz was already fully open, but each of those promises has proven premature. Now, with less than three months until the midterm elections and the price of gasoline still much higher than it was before the war started in late February, Trump has been looking for ways to tell the American public that the war is won.”

President Donald Trump's penchant for slapdash D.C. makeovers was subjected to a brutal takedown by his hometown's newspaper of note.

The New York Times on Sunday obliterated Trump's gold-paint, wrecking ball plans — and dismissed his demands for an "Arc de Trump" as absurd.

"The proposed 'Arc de Trump' in Washington is less a monument than a gaudy construction the height of a skyscraper," wrote Paul Goldberger, a former architecture critic for The Times, "a travesty that, if built, would dramatically change the landscape of the nation’s capital."

Goldberger is not alone in being repulsed by Trump's proposed arch.

The National Park Service says the proposed 250-foot triumphal arch would harm 37 historic sites across Washington and veterans warn its observation deck would let tourists stare at private funerals in the Arlington National Cemetery.

On Sunday, Goldberger argued the criticism is the reason Trump feels a need for developer speed.

"This is probably why President Trump is so eager to get it made as fast as he can," wrote Goldberger. "It would be an unavoidable monument to a presidency and a man whom many Americans would rather not honor so conspicuously, if at all. He understands that once it is there, it will be hard to for anyone to make it go away."

Goldberger dismissed Trump's other design plans for D.C. — slapping gold paint on bronze statues and demands to make the Eisenhower Executive Office match the white house — as intrinsically tacky "fiascos."

"It will look cheap," Goldberger scoffed. "It will be effectively ruined."

The Republican Party as we’ve known it officially died this week as Acting Attorney General Todd “Trumpsimp” Blanche’s nomination essentially became inevitable. The personal lawyer of a convicted felon adjudicated rapist Epstein Bestie will almost certainly be the Attorney General of the United States of America.

Blanche will be remembered as the biggest traitor of them all, selling his spine to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin for a currently unknown reason. It’s clear all of the Republicans have a price, or else we’d either be enjoying President Joe Biden’s second term or President Kamala Harris’s first.

Blanche’s fellow spineless co-conspirators in the biggest political cover-up in American history are celebrating a hollow victory at the moment. How quickly they’ve forgotten Lindsey Graham and his tarnished legacy. If they think Trump wouldn’t rap his knuckles on their coffins, they’re very wrong. He’d step over the bodies of his grandchildren to escape a burning building and then blame them for starting the fire. I don’t know why Trumpublicans haven’t learned that their loyalty is never going to be returned, but I guess worrying about a mean tweet is more important than the lives of roughly 349 million Americans.

This farce played out by these fascists is fully insulting to all of us who have a functioning brain. It’s bad enough they’ve all remained silent while Trump vandalizes Washington, DC to make America look even weaker on the global stage, but that they remain willing accomplices is beyond anything the Founders could have imagined when they wrote the Constitution.

Donald Trump had to pay E. Jean Carroll the $5.6 million he owed her, and the Republicans said nothing.

Capital One just revealed in a federal court filing that it closed more than 300 bank accounts affiliated with the Trump Organization in 2021 due to “internal anti-money laundering concerns,” not political motivations, so Republicans said nothing.

Those two stories alone would have ended anyone else’s political career, but as it’s been repeatedly stated ad nauseum over these last 11 years of Trumpblight, nothing seems to stick to this guy.

Except the Epstein Files.

It’s so on brand (which means, it’s completely infuriating) for 2026 that Todd “Trumpsimp” Blanche barely made the deadline to hand over the unredacted files to a federal judge just days before his rescheduled confirmation vote. We should be forever grateful to Katie Phang, because the truth is going to come out one way or another.

I’m not enjoying being a witness to this kind of history, but I’m grateful that my two Democratic Senators (from Oregon) aren’t just sitting there and taking what the GOP’s razor-thin majority is doing to our democracy.

First, Sen. Ron “Chutzpah” Wyden cleverly timed the Tuesday release of his report documenting the Senate Finance Committee’s four-year investigation into the Wall Street banks that funded Jeffrey Epstein’s international sex trafficking ring. I know it’s not going to impact how Senate Republicans will vote, but when you follow the money, as Sen. Chutzpah and team have done diligently, you can’t help but wonder who else’s names are connected to those wire transfers that the Trump administration has declined to investigate.

This screenshot has lived on my phone since November 2025. My Senator DELIVERS, yo.

I can also share that I’m going to have a chat about all of this with Sen. Wyden once he’s home in Portland, and yes, there will be video one way or another. If I know him (which I’m lucky to say that I do), he’ll be in Portland very little, taking the August break to hold more Town Halls around Oregon as we face an increasingly scary fire season.

Just another thing Republicans don’t care about, as Trump has made drastic cuts to FEMA and we basically have no EPA while Interior Secretary Doug “Burgumeister” Burgum gleefully ignores Trump’s destruction of all of our natural resources as well as the Reflecting Pool.

As we fret over the fragility of our democracy, my other Senator, Jeff Merkley, has introduced the For the Republic Act, along with co-sponsors Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).

“Authoritarianism isn’t down the street or around the corner—it is here right now,” said Sen. Merkley. “We have all three ingredients of a strongman state in the United States: a rubber-stamp Congress doing the President’s bidding; a deferential Supreme Court finding ‘invisible ink’ in the Constitution to enhance the President’s powers; and a power-hungry President behaving like a king, breaking the law and violating the checks and balances of our Constitution.”

With “new provisions to counter the rise of authoritarianism and erosion of our democratic government under the second Trump Administration, as well as existing legislation,” the For the Republic Act outlines the steps to fight back against the known playbook of authoritarian governments:

[source: Sen. Jeff Merkley]

That’s where we are as a nation, Dear Readers, and it’s all because the Republicans don’t want us to know about the kompromat Putin has on all of them.

Therefore, this is where I’m going to ask you to take action beyond sharing this piece. I’m giving you permission to be furiously angry at the Republicans who got us here.

Unlike Sen. Chutzpah, I don’t expect Republicans to hold any Town Halls during their August recess, but if they do, I expect you to show up and show up MAD. Fighting fascism has never been easy or pretty, but it’s necessary, like cleaning your toilet. Except toilets serve a purpose, unlike Republicans.

If they can’t handle being yelled at, then they should resign. I can give you some questions to ask if you’re feeling shy:

1. Why is Trump more important to you than we are?
2. Why are you covering up the Epstein Files?
   

Everyone in the room would want those answers. You won’t get any real answers, but you’ll get great footage to share. They don’t deserve any peace after what they’ve done to our democracy. We need to use our voices like never before.

Before they take that away from us as well, that is.

The cast of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend” dedicated a segment Sunday morning to gush over President Donald Trump’s hair, while also insisting “the left” was furious with the president’s “great hair day” in a fawning display.

“So Trump has a great hair day, and the left goes absolutely berserk!” said Fox News’ Charles Hurt. “So Trump gave a speech last week and had a magnificent dome of orange hair, and, uh... obviously the left, they can't get enough of hating this guy.”

While speaking in Las Vegas, Nevada last week, onlookers noted Trump appeared to be sporting more hair than usual, and hair that was a slightly different color, sparking a flurry of speculation. The president’s new hairdo also sparked a wave of online “hair memes” in which Trump’s hair was compared to hamsters, among other things – online posts that the hosts of “Fox & Friends Weekend” took as attacks from “the left.”

“It's [Trump Derangement Syndrome] gone mad!” said conservative commentator Mitch Roschelle. “Have they completely run out of material that now the only thing they can focus on is his hair? I mean, it's so vapid, the hatred that they have for Donald Trump, but god bless him, he does have great hair!”

Speculation about Trump's hair has circulated for decades, tied to reporting on a 1989 scalp reduction surgery detailed in Harry Hurt III's 1993 biography, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump. According to that reporting, Trump's then-wife Ivana testified in a 1990 divorce deposition that he was in significant pain following the procedure.

Dermatologic surgeon Dr. Gary Linkov has separately told Newsweek that photos of Trump over the decades are consistent with multiple hair restoration procedures, including possible plug grafts, a rotational flap surgery and follicular unit transplantation, based on visual analysis of Trump's hairline and scarring.

A Republican, desperate to claim a swing-state Senate seat, made a last-ditch appeal to Democrats in his state — and it immediately blew up in his face.

Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan, published a video on X appealing to blue voters he hoped to woo away from their party after the nomination of progressive Abdul El-Sayed.

"The person who won does not represent your values," Rogers says. "You have a home with us."

Replied Travis Akers, "They look like Lifetime movie villains."

The "they" in question is Rogers and his wife Kristi, who says not a word but makes a slew of faces. She nods, grimaces, shakes her head and smiles.

Those faces didn't quite land with some viewers.

"Why she mad?" asked Brian Rosenworcel

Another X user took a screenshot of Kristi Roger's silent stare and replied, "I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE F---ING TERRIFIED IN MY LIFE."

Rogers faced rebuke from Joey Hannum, a spokesman for Michigan Democrats, who took the opportunity to share a headline with Rogers followers: "Millionaire Mike Rogers says voters blaming Trump for high prices are 'nuts.'"

"Wow that’s crazy," replied Hannum. "btw what did you mean by this?"

Melinda Collins accused Rogers of "Islamophobic fear mongering."

"[El-Sayed] actually lives in Michigan," she snapped. "You live in Florida."

Recent reporting from the Michigan Advance found Rogers bought a multimillion-dollar Florida mansion that was “his official residence until his decision to run for U.S. Senate.”

Journalist Mehdi Hassan shared an image of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, standing armed outside their St. Louis home amidst the George Floyd protests in 2020.

A company run by President Donald Trump’s three sons received a mysterious $100 million investment from a crypto fund run by an individual under investigation for money laundering, The New York Times reported Sunday.

In its investigation, the Times uncovered new details about the investor: Guren “Bobby” Zhou, a man with a “shady background” who’s currently under investigation for money laundering in England.

“The curious case of Mr. Zhou illustrates the ease with which buyers with unknown backgrounds and motivations can use the anonymity of cryptocurrency to shower Mr. Trump with money,” the Times’ report reads. “It is not clear how closely World Liberty scrutinized Mr. Zhou’s past, but the money laundering investigation in England was publicly available information, as were portions of Mr. Zhou’s troubled business history.”

In June of 2025, the United Arab Emirates-based Aqua 1 Foundation – run by Zhou – purchased $100 million in digital tokens from World Liberty Financial, an organization run by Trump’s family, along with the family of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special peace envoy. Those familiar with Zhou's “shady” history expressed confusion at how “he was able to access so much money,” the Times noted.

“[Many former associates] describe Mr. Zhou as a high-octane charmer with a British accent, persuasive enough to sell ice in a snowstorm, as one said,” the Times’ report reads. “But all were stunned to learn that after his departure from London, he was able to purchase $100 million in anything.”

Zhou's red flags include the aforementioned active UK money-laundering investigation, an unpaid $5 million debt from his collapsed flooring business, a failed crypto venture that burned through investor funds, and a string of fabricated corporate partnerships he was forced to walk back, the Times learned.

“In any prior era, a windfall for the president of that size from a foreigner with no public signs of access to that level of wealth would have certainly gone against norms and might have spawned a congressional investigation,” the Times’ report reads.

Of the innumerable Trump scandals in this or his previous administration, the mishandling or non-handling of the Epstein investigation manages to stand out which, given the scandal-a-day pace, all but puts higher functions into a comprehensive coma.

It would be fun to ask why the administration has gone to such great lengths to hide the matter and shown so little enthusiasm in prosecuting the co-conspirators were it not for Occam standing right there, aghast, shaving away: "Take a wild guess."

Well, thanks to the New Mexico Attorney General's Office, we may soon have well-tamed accusations, as New Mexico has sued Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the United States over why the Department of Justice has heretofore blocked the state from investigating the Epstein matter.

No lawsuit is fun, ever — but it's especially no fun when you have little to no defense for appearing to hide teen girl rapists.

Short and sweet, New Mexico — as is its duty and right — intends to investigate the crimes that may or may not have occurred at "Zorro Ranch," a sprawling estate 30 miles south of Santa Fe. But its investigation continues to stall due to roadblocks and uncooperative behavior by Blanche's DOJ, to the point that New Mexico feels it has little choice but to ask a judge to order the Justice Department to deliver some justice.

In response, according to MS Now, DOJ says any reluctance is due to its deeply sincere intent to preserve the victims' anonymity: "The Justice Department said it was not releasing some information the state requested because federal court orders ban disclosing “victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures.”

Hang on.

"Carte blanche"? This is not the University of New Mexico's library seeking access to the information. It's the state cops. Federal court orders banning dissemination of victims' names surely don't encompass "all other American law enforcement."

Were that the only problem. See, New Mexico isn't even suing "just to get the names of the victims."

"Torrez said his office has made 10 separate requests for key information and has been ignored or denied. "We have heard repeatedly they will cooperate and what our team has experienced is anything but cooperation," he said.

Right.

And that's a much bigger problem for Blanche than may appear at first blush. Because it's one thing to go in front of a federal judge and say, "But we cannot give this stuff out to them, and we've told them that repeatedly for 18 months now," versus that same federal judge reading an email or hearing DOJ say, "Yes, we will be getting that to you shortly," and never coming around.

Torrez says it's the second, and judges are busy enough without having the hassle of ordering you to do what you promised. Especially when it appears you might have an especially nefarious reason for holding back. Occam grabs the gavel.

Two elements make the suit even more complicated for Blanche, the first simple, the second less so. Right off, New Mexico has at least as powerful a right to investigate the matter as the feds. The Founders of this nation specifically contemplated granting the states the rights to ensure the safety and welfare of the people, including the police power, leaving national defense and international relations to the feds. It took cross-state cables, trains, and modernity to even bring about the FBI as a national police force. True, Epstein flew his victims in and out of New Mexico across state lines, but that hardly means New Mexico doesn't have a duty to prosecute crimes that occurred in New Mexico.

It's not like giving the victims' names to the New Mexico state police (For the love of God) is "publishing" or in any way placing the safety of the victims in any danger; indeed, one could make a very cynical argument that the more cops outside of DOJ having the names, the safer the real victims.

The second element is a bit more dangerous to Blanche personally and through Blanche, to Trump, and that is the definition of who is and who is not a "victim" in this matter. As reported, Blanche supplemented his filing to a federal judge last week by noting that the definition of a "victim" in the Epstein matter is anyone who so identifies. This is absolutely extraordinary in that men who believe aggressive questions regarding their behavior with teen girls may self-identify themselves as victims due to these questions, not victims of Jeffrey Epstein or any other rapists, but of the police themselves (In what other way could they be a victim?)

This is not to be taken lightly at all, but such self-identification regarding victimhood is not that far from "Yes, I slapped her, but this is my house, and you coming to ask me about it is intrusive, and so I declare myself a victim, too, and thus I shall not be prosecuted, and my name shall be protected." And, when you really think about it, this has been Donald Trump's approach to every encounter with law enforcement in his life, and thus not really a stretch.

But given Blanche's DOJ stretched the definition of victim this far (or at least that's how it appears as of now), he and his department are about to get stretched a bit themselves. It was bad enough back when Judge Emmet Sullivan effectively said, "Prove it to me, because I don't believe you" in asking about redactions, taking the files in camera (viewed privately in chambers). But now Blanche faces an even bigger problem with more significant ramifications.

Given there are indications that DOJ previously told New Mexico, "Yeah, we're getting right on that, we'll call you back," there is reason to believe that the Feds withheld far more than just victims' names — which they're not supposed to withhold from other police anyway — Blanche and his litigators will have to explain why they initially agreed to pass on information, broke that agreement, then believed that victim privacy meant withholding from other cops trying to protect victims, and explaining why their process allows the possibility that a rapist can claim victimhood and thus not only be free from bother by Blanche, but more interested parties in New Mexico.

That's a federal-sized problem and one that could shake the federal government to the foundation because. God only knows what New Mexico might "find" in its investigation, including stuff previously and intentionally hidden.

As noted far above, this administration's scandal-a-day service has served it well; it almost literally lulls the public into a hypnosis, where nothing seems to matter anymore, no amount of criminality threatens Trump, right up to shooting someone on Fifth Ave. When faced with such cries from readers or other interested Americans, it's always been good advice to suggest, "Then just pick one scandal and hold it tight, don't let go, demand answers. Oh, and if you're going to pick one, make it the Epstein scandal."

Not because raping teen girls is obviously the worst thing Trump could possibly do (if proven). We don't even want to assume there is a limit on what else might be out there. But because this scandal is so clearly and easily proven as wholly impeachment-worthy. Presidents used to keep DOJ at arm's length precisely because the DOJ may find itself investigating the president or their Cabinet members. A president could set DOJ policy: "No requesting jail time for small marijuana possession." But a president never involved himself in any single investigation, never mind one involving his friends, and really never mind one that involved him at some level, blowing the doors off possibly involving his own criminal behavior.

Such an act used to be laughably auto-impeachment and thus, if one picks a scandal, pick this one for meddling alone.

Blanche's problem is that this may be beyond political scandal because lawsuits still remain largely beyond politics. (Forget the SCOTUS momentarily, focus on the lawsuit itself). We know Judge Emmett Sullivan won't take DOJ's word on the scandal anymore. Soon, another judge will hear why their docket now includes having to force DOJ to simply do what they promised on a phone call just a few months ago, along with why men who, at best, AT BEST, socialized with teen girls get to call themselves victims of an investigation into who is responsible for raping girls, and do so all while explaining why DOJ believes they get to redact names from other cops in the first place.

One thing we know with certainty. No DOJ attorney, never mind Blanche, wants to answer these questions in front of a federal judge. Even their best answer, "We won't say who is or is not a victim; we let them decide," still doesn't answer the question, "But why won't you share victims' names with other cops attempting to catch bad guys?"

When you can't answer that simple question, the judge may turn to the new law clerk, Occam, and nod, "Gimme back that sharp gavel. You were right. It's most likely because these are the bad guys."

In more ways than we likely even know. So, focus on this one.

Jason Miciak is a Raw Story columnist, past editor of Occupy Democrats, an author, political consultant, attorney, and single parent, girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com

President Donald Trump appeared to target the wife of Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed on Saturday, part of a social media blitz that saw him publish 17 posts in under two hours.

Posting on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump shared an image comparing himself and First Lady Melania Trump to El-Sayed and his wife, Sarah Jukaku.

The image bears the caption: “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s,” and shows Trump and Mrs. Trump in formal attire, whereas Jukaku is seen wearing a traditional Islamic headscarf. The image also uses El-Sayed’s full name – Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed – in a manner similar to how Trump often refers to former President Barack Obama as Barack Hussein Obama.

In the same posting spree, Trump also shared two images of what he’s suggested to be vandalism to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool – a claim he's made repeatedly without evidence, and one his own handpicked prosecutor has since said isn't true.

Trump also shared three images of his proposed “Drone Port,” which he’s claimed will be constructed on top of the in-progress White House Ballroom, along with posts boasting about his golf clubs and statue renovations.

Saturday's spree is consistent with a broader pattern that has defined Trump's second term.

A Financial Times analysis found Trump averaged 19 Truth Social posts per day through the first several months of 2026, with a Daily Beast analysis putting his May output at 861 posts and reposts, or roughly 27 per day. His posting has periodically spiked into concentrated late-night bursts, including a December 2025 stretch in which he published 158 times between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), 92, issued an emotional eulogy Saturday for “Beth” – a vintage Hoover vacuum cleaner that’s been used by his family for close to 50 years.

“U willl see Beth no more,” Grassley wrote in a social media post on X Saturday, alongside a photograph of the vacuum cleaner with a black-charred power cord. “See black that’s from electrical sparks. It’s not safe to use anymore. GOOD BYE BETH . U hv been a real workhorse. Ur namesake still is hard worker. I will miss u.”

The 92-year-old senator continued, proclaiming in a follow-up post that it was a “sad day at the Grassley household,” and that the vacuum cleaner – which appears to be a Hoover Concept Two, introduced in 1983 – had operated in his home for 34 years, and 15 years before that at his mother-in-law’s home.

Grassley has shared photographs and video of his Hoover vacuum cleaner for several years, and so much so that the news saw a number of GOP lawmakers send their condolences.

“Sorry for your loss,” wrote Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) in a social media post on X. “They don’t build them like they used to.”

“Sorry for your loss, Senator,” wrote Republican Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek in a social media post on X. “Sounds like Beth had a heck of a run.”

In 2021, Grassley revealed the origins behind the name of his vacuum, as well as why he prefers to vacuum during family gatherings.

“Thanksgiving Time Grassley clan gathers. Get out old reliable Beth,” he wrote in a social media post on X. “Called Beth bc of a reliable Atlantic family farmer/former staffer for me & Iowans. I vacuum bc I don’t want to be peeling potatoes.”