Gaetz Challenges Anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger: ‘F***ing Bring It’

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Rusty Weiss

Florida congressman Matt Gaetz challenged anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger (IL) to “bring it” after the latter named Gaetz as a target for his newly formed PAC.

Well, he actually used slightly more colorful terminology than that.

Gaetz, first elected to Congress in 2016, has fast become one of former President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters.

In a late-night tweet on Wednesday, the Florida Republican began by praising Kinzinger for his military service before making it clear he wasn’t afraid of a fight.

“Adam is a patriot who fought for America from Northwest Florida. We will always appreciate [and] honor his service,” Gatez wrote.

“Now, he wants to target my America First politics, referencing me by name,” he added. “My response: F***ing bring it.”

Adam is a patriot who fought for America from Northwest Florida.

We will always appreciate & honor his service.

Now, he wants to target my America First politics, referencing me by name.

My response:

Fucking bring it.

Adam needs PACs to win elections.

I don’t. https://t.co/TE9TPt6QJv

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) February 11, 2021

GOP Civil War: Matt Gaetz Fights Back Against Adam Kinzinger

Matt Gaetz was responding to an article published by The Hill in which Adam Kinzinger announced a new PAC he claims is fighting to “take back” the GOP from Trump.

Kinzinger went on the offensive against Gaetz and recently punished Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

“Oh, there’s a huge list. … I mean, look, all you have to do is see people like, of course, Marjorie Taylor Greene. You look at people like Matt Gaetz, who know better,” Kinzinger said. “I think neither of them believes the stuff they ascribe to, they just want fame.”

Ironic, considering the only reason anybody even knows Kinzinger’s name is because he’s willing to pimp himself out to liberal media by attacking Donald Trump.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who voted for impeachment, starts anti-Trump Republican PAC | Just The News https://t.co/I2nKPKLSKk

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) February 1, 2021

Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump, one of 10 Republicans in the House to do so, making him a poor man’s Mitt Romney. Or a dumb man’s Ben Sasse, depending on how you look at it.

“The party that always spoke about a brighter tomorrow no longer does,” he said. “It talks about a dark future instead. Hope has given way to fear. Outrage has replaced opportunity. And worst of all, our deep convictions are ignored.”

“This is not the Republican road and now we know exactly where (that) new and dangerous road leads. It leads to insurrection and an armed attack on the Capitol,” Kinzinger suggested.

.@MattGaetz lashed out at his colleague, @AdamKinzinger, over his new PAC meant to purge Trump sympathizers from the GOP. https://t.co/SbBKhbD9rF

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 11, 2021

Gaetz Leads the Way

Gaetz has been leading the charge in the GOP’s civil war against anti-Trump Republicans.

Gaetz actually traveled to Wyoming for a rally in which he ripped Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), another pro-impeachment Republican.

There, he suggested the only two things Cheney has done in Congress is “frustrate the agenda of President [Donald] Trump and sell out to the forever war machine.”

Cheney and Sasse (R-NE) were both censured by their own party in various counties due to their anti-Trump actions.

And many Republicans who sided with Democrats in the House are facing other issues.

Of the 10 House members that voted for impeachment, seven of them, including Cheney, already have primary challengers.

Senate Republicans have seen controversy of their own, with six of them voting Tuesday alongside Democrats to affirm that the impeachment trial is constitutional.

The post Gaetz Challenges Anti-Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger: ‘F***ing Bring It’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Ana Navarro Claims McCarthy’s Mar-a-Lago Trip Was ‘White Slavery’ – Says He’s Owned By His Master, Trump

Posted on January 30, 2021 by LifeZette

On Friday’s episode of “The View,” host Ana Navarro ripped Rep. Kevin McCarthy for going to visit former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, saying that this was an example of “white slavery.”

Navarro Blasts McCarthy For Visiting Trump

“This has been such a sad week for the Republican Party because this is a time when they had a chance to get rid of the cross that they have been bearing with Donald Trump, who has divided the party and opened it up for all sorts of nut jobs to come into the party,” Navarro said.

“Instead, what we see is Kevin McCarthy, who has been all over the place, making a pilgrimage to I guess what is going to become now the Republican Mecca, I call it Far-a-Lago. And by the way, can we put the picture back up?” she added.

“Can we just talk about the interior of Mar-a-Lago?” Navarro continued. “It’s like, what vintage bordello look? And so he went down there to make nice with Donald Trump because Donald Trump is threatening to open up a third party if Republicans don’t continue kissing his ring, among other body parts.”

“I think it’s pathetic,” she said. “You know, I think it’s white slavery, what I just witnessed from Kevin McCarthy. He looks like he’s owned by his master, and his master is Donald Trump, and it’s pathetic.”

.@ananavarro on. @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy visiting Trump in Fla.: “It’s white slavery … He looks like he’s owned by his master, and his master is Donald Trump, and it’s pathetic.” pic.twitter.com/VA93GO23zV

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 29, 2021

McCarthy Visits Trump

This comes after McCarthy had a “very good and cordial” meeting with Trump in Florida, welcoming the president’s support in promoting GOP candidates in the next election, according to Fox News.

“President Trump has agreed to work with Leader McCarthy on helping the Republican Party to become a majority in the House,” read a statement from Trump-aligned Save America PAC.

“They worked very well together in the last election and picked up at least 15 [sic] seats when most predicted it would be the opposite. They will do so again, and the work has already started,” the statement continued.

Navarro has made a career for herself by claiming to be a Republican who was disillusioned by the party due to Trump. However, virtually nothing that comes out of her mouth sounds like it’s coming from someone who was ever a Republican.

This piece was written by James Samson on January 30, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Marco Rubio attempts to attack American Federation of Teachers and is demolished on Twitter

Posted on January 29, 2021 (Updated January 29, 2021) by Walter Einenkel

After toeing the Republican line that COVID-19 wasn’t a big deal, questioning mask mandates, promoting the false narrative that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to the American public, and questioning stay-at-home orders, Florida coward Marco Rubio stepped up in front of everyone else—teachers, first responders, and the elderly—to grab a vaccine for himself. Rubio is recently remembered for saying an impeachment trial for a president who helped create, fester, and enact an attempted coup d’etat on the United States is “stupid.” He’s also seemingly only been able to muster up the work ethic of a toddler during nap time, trying and failing to attack real legislator, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

On Wednesday, probably unable to read clearly from underneath the boots he’s been licking for the last four years, and unable to find his Bible Quote of the Day calendar, Rubio tried to attack public school teachers, and more specifically the “National Teachers Union” on Twitter. Rubio wrote, “National teachers’ union (not teachers) are saying they won’t go back to work until 2022. We should not send a single taxpayer dollar in Covid funds to schools that aren’t going to reopen.” Yup. Guy has very little to say about an insurrection from within his own political party, but he’s got serious grandstanding to do when it comes to promoting bad public health safety and our children.

It’s hard to know exactly what Rubio was talking about; perhaps he was referring to the impasse that the Chicago Teachers Union and the city has come to over COVID-19 resources and the safeguards being presented to teachers for reopening schools. Maybe he’s talking about the American Federation of Teachers? Not sure. Marco needs to go back to school. Badly. In the meantime, the internet learned him a little.

First, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten stepped in, to point out that Marco Rubio is a lying sack of shit.

Marco Rubio is lying. Our union has been talking about reopening since April, in fact I published an OpEd on it this week. The fact reopening safely costs money. Trying to withhold money from schools only slows down reopening. Stop lying Senator. https://t.co/PZnU7xxXGU
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) January 27, 2021

Daily Kos’ own Mark Sumner called Rubio out as well.

Marco Rubio continuing the trend of using the Big Lie to spread hate and divisiveness. Tell me, Senator, is there an appropriate Bible verse for that?
— Mark Sumner (@Devilstower) January 27, 2021

Then a simple statement of facts.

You do realize that remote and hybrid learning require infrastructure, implementation costs, curriculum costs & personnel, right? Instead of threatening to make education MORE difficult, maybe you should listen to what educators say they need to meet the needs of their students.
— doesnotexist (@BrianFiddle) January 27, 2021

Those are big ideas for Rubio. This might be more his speed.

That's smart: They don't have the resources to get open, so the natural thing to do is: Cut their resources more. Thinking like this is proof of why kids need to be (safely) back in school. We've turned out too many stupid people already.
— Virgil Simpson (@HorseyDC) January 27, 2021

Maybe this approach will be easier for him to understand.

I’m of the opinion that we don’t pay legislators until they start focusing on Americans instead of trying to tear each other apart based on party politics.
— Elysabeth Britt (@ElysabethBritt) January 27, 2021

Maybe we can appeal to his Santa Claus-level understanding of Christianity and Catholicism?

does your jesus tell you to lie
— Atrios 🟨🟥 (@Atrios) January 27, 2021

But let’s be clear what is going on here.

Shame the National Teachers' Union dissolved the National Security Council's Pandemic Response Team in 2017 and then ignored their federal intelligence regarding an impending pandemic and then got on air to tell us 15 cases were going to zero and then told us to shoot up bleach.
— Gen X Army Brat (@GenXArmyBrat) January 27, 2021

The depths of Marco Rubio’s crapitude are just staggering.

Biden White House Responds To Twitter Banning Trump – They Feel ‘Blessed’

Posted on January 28, 2021 by LifeZette

President Joe Biden’s White House reportedly feels “blessed” over the fact that Twitter banned Donald Trump earlier this month.

Biden’s White House Feels ‘Blessed’ Trump Has Been Banned From Twitter

“The President spent two years ignoring Trump’s distractions and staying focused on the message he wanted to deliver, and it paid off with a commanding win,” an unnamed White House official told Politico, which described Twitter banning Trump as a “priceless gift.”

The official went on to say that the Biden administration will stick to its communications strategy regardless of what Trump does in the future.

“Whether or not Trump slinks back into public view or opens up a Parler account isn’t going to make a difference in how we communicate with the American people,” the official said.

Another source who Politico described as an “outside adviser” said that Biden’s White House feels “blessed” by Trump not being on Twitter.

“Not having to deal with a deranged new tweet every hour? They feel blessed,” the adviser claimed.

Trump Banned From Twitter Earlier This Month

Twitter banned Trump earlier this month after accusing him of inciting the riots at the Capitol. Since then, Trump has remained almost completely silent after leaving the White House and heading to Florida.

“It has become abundantly clear since his absence on Twitter how much Trump was driving a media narrative,” said Paul Bentz, an Arizona-based Republican strategist and pollster.

Philip N. Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, celebrated Trump being removed from Twitter as well.

“Trump had an amazing ability to distract from issues. He was able to plant seeds of doubt about entire institutions and regular democratic processes,” he said. “Having him off Twitter allows the conversation about climate change to stay on topic — and about evidence. The conversation about race and social inequality can stay focused on policy ideas.”

“He was a kind of sinkhole in the media ecosystem,” Howard added, “which often trapped professional journalists into covering inane stories or simply burned them out as individuals.”

Though Twitter banned Trump, however, support for him is not dwindling. A new Morning Consult poll found that an increasing number of Republicans, 50 percent, want Trump to play a “major role” in putting together the future of the GOP.

This piece was written by James Samson on January 28, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post Biden White House Responds To Twitter Banning Trump – They Feel ‘Blessed’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Watch Florida Republican try to explain why he thinks Trump impeachment trial is ‘stupid’

Posted on January 24, 2021 (Updated January 25, 2021) by Marissa Higgins

Appearing on Fox News Sunday to chat with host Chris Wallace, Sen. Marco Rubio delved into his feelings on former President Donald Trump. What about Trump, specifically? Oh, just the articles of impeachment against him. In a word, Rubio said he finds the trial “stupid.”

In a very slightly more eloquent attempt to express himself, Rubio said he feels, “We already have a flaming fire in this country,” and that a trial would amount to “a bunch of gasoline.” Basically, just another way of arguing that a trial would rupture unity efforts, even though as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued last week, ignoring all that’s gone is actually what is more likely to sow division in the country. Why? Because we need accountability.

As of Sunday morning, at least one Republican sees the impeachment trial differently than Rubio, however. We can check out more of what Rubio said below, as well as what one of his peers in the Senate argued.

Rubio said he does think Trump “bears responsibility for some of what happened” and that it was “certainly a foreseeable consequence of everything that was going on.” It would be fascinating to hear what Rubio qualifies as “some” of what happened when a group of pro-Trump rioters surged into the U.S. Capitol and effectively terrorized elected officials. Rubio, instead, stressed he thinks that is “separate” from the idea of revisiting it and “stirring” it up.

Here’s that clip.

Marco Rubio acknowledges Trump "bears responsibility" for the Capitol insurrection, but insists holding him accountable with an impeachment trial is the wrong move because it'll "stir up" the country again pic.twitter.com/egtvNAgrS8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 24, 2021

Also related to the Trump family, Wallace asked Rubio how he feels about whispers that Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, may run for a senate seat in Florida. Given that Rubio is up for reelection in 2022, a primary challenge is considerably important. Rubio, however, dodged the meat of the question by declaring that he doesn't “really get into the parlor games of Washington.”

He did say that if he wants to be “back in the U.S Senate, I have to earn that every six years” and that he doesn’t own his seat. Which is true, but would ring as a touch more meaningful if Florida didn’t have rampant voter suppression issues.

Wallace also spoke to Sen. Mitt Romney about the impeachment trial, posing the same question to both Republicans. Did they agree with fellow Republicans who argued that the trial should be thrown out under the alleged basis that it’s unconstitutional to convict a former president? Rubio said yes, he’d definitely vote to nix the trial, but Romney thinks the proceedings are constitutionally solid. (Which, of course, they are.)

“if you look at the preponderance of the legal opinion by scholars over the years,” Romney explained, “the preponderance of opinion is that yes, an impeachment trial is appropriate after someone leaves office.” Romney, who did vote to convict in the first trial, however, did not say how he would vote either way a second time, noting they have yet to actually hear arguments and evidence from both sides.

Marco Rubio Says It’s Time For ‘Honest Reflection’ Among Conservatives Following Capitol Riots

Posted on January 8, 2021 by LifeZette

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) spoke out on Friday to call for a time of “honest reflection” in the conservative moment in the wake the riots that saw supporters of President Donald Trump storm the Capitol on Wednesday.

Rubio Calls For ‘Reflection’ In GOP

“For those of us on the center-right of American politics, now is the time that calls for honest reflection,” Rubio said in a video that he posted to social media.

He went on to remind the president’s supporters that while Republicans had won the House, the Senate, and the White House in 2016, they lost all of these majorities in the last election.

“We need to reflect on why this has happened because this country needs a viable, attractive alternative to the agenda of the radical left,” Rubio said.

He added that he does not want to see the GOP return to the way it was in 2012, a time when he said it was “out of touch” with the working Americans. He explained that it was these Americans who rejected the establishment and ultimately backed President Trump.

Rubio Calls For Improving Elections

Rubio then touched on the need to improve America’s elections.

“We have to investigate what went wrong in the last election and fix our elections laws, so people can have faith and confidence in them,” he said.

Rubio also stressed the importance of calling out the corporate media bias and the hypocrisy of the left.

“We must continue to call out the media bias instead of being bullied by it,” he said. “And we must oppose political correctness, social media censorship, identity politics, and this cult of wokeness.”

“We can do all these things without indulging the darkest instincts or inciting the most destructive impulses — and without the rhetoric or behavior that keep the millions of Americans who agree with us from joining us in this fight,” he added, appearing to be chastising some of Trump’s behavior.

Rubio Calls Out Liberal Hypocrisy

Though he condemned the Capitol rioters, he also expressed sympathy for the Americans who see the left’s double standards when it comes to these protests.

“Now, are the Left hypocrites? Absolutely,” he said. “I remember, what they now are calling insurrection, they were justifying just this summer. They were called it the ‘language of the unheard’ when rioters were burning cities.”

Rubio specifically called out CNN and MSNBC, bringing up comments that host Chris Cuomo made in June, when he said, “Show me where it says protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful.”

“This kind of blatant bias and double standard is one of the reasons that so many Americans have sought political shelter in divisive political movements and in conspiracy theories that offer the promise of fighting back against it,” the Florida Republican said

Rubio Addresses Trump Supporters

Rubio concluded by urging Trump supporters to not let their anger make them violent.

“Here is what I want you to hear right now: We can’t allow our anger about all that stuff to turn ourselves into them,” he said.

The video ended with Rubio quoting former President Richard Nixon.

“He said, ‘Others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself,’” Rubio said. “We can’t destroy ourselves.”

This piece was written by James Samson on January 8, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Whoopi Goldberg Claims Trump Won’t Run For President In 2024 Because He’ll Be In Jail

Posted on December 1, 2020 by LifeZette

Whoopi Goldberg’s obsessive hatred for Donald Trump reared its ugly head once again this week when she claimed that he won’t be able to run for president again in 2024 because he’ll be in jail.

‘The View’ Discusses Presidential Pardons

While the panel of the ABC talk show “The View” discussed presidential pardons, cohost Sara Haines asked, “Sunny, how are all these people being pardoned unless they spell out what they did? Don’t you have to have a reason to pardon someone?”

She addressed this question to “The View” cohost and legal analyst Sunny Hostin.

“That’s a great question,” she said. “The bottom line is that the president’s pardon power is extensive. You can’t pardon someone from impeachment. There’s no question you can issue a blanket pardon even for crimes that were committed, maybe could be —that haven’t even been charged, that could be charged.”

“His power is exhaustive,” Hostin added. “One thing he can’t pardon for is state crimes. He can only pardon for federal crimes. I would imagine New York is still open to investigation, Florida is still open to investigation.”

“Letitia James is waiting on him,” said Goldberg, who was clearly itching to have another Trump-bashing session.

“She really is. That’s the attorney general of New York,” Hostin said in agreement.

Whoopi Goldberg Goes In

That’s when Goldberg went in.

She is waiting on him,” Goldberg added. “Well, I think it’s very exciting that, you know, he can try to — he can pardon himself federally, but there are all these people waiting. Letitia James is waiting with her little foot. She is patting that foot, waiting for him to make a step out.”

‘He keeps saying he’s going run in 2024,” she added. “You are not going to run if you are in jail, my friend. That is something you must also think of. I’m just saying tick tock baby.”

Goldberg has been wrong about nearly everything else about Trump. Here’s hoping that she’s wrong about this one, and that she gets a nasty surprise in 2024.

HANNITY URGES TRUMP TO PARDON HIMSELF: The co-hosts react to Fox News host Sean Hannity suggesting that Pres. Trump should pardon himself and his family. https://t.co/cVclFZyKV0 pic.twitter.com/S3dAnBPSKP

— The View (@TheView) December 1, 2020

This piece was written by James Samson on December 1, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post Whoopi Goldberg Claims Trump Won’t Run For President In 2024 Because He’ll Be In Jail appeared first on The Political Insider.

Limbaugh: Election Will Be Like 2016 With Conventional Wisdom Proved Wrong

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Jack Hadfield

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has said this election will end up like 2016, with conventional wisdom about who will win proved massively wrong.

Limbaugh: “It’s Always Wrong And It Is Groupthink”

Speaking to Fox and Friends on Tuesday, Limbaugh said this election was especially important, as it will “determine what kind of country we have going forward.”

He slammed the narrative that the media was pushing, that the election was some sort of guaranteed, landslide Biden victory.

“I look at the conventional wisdom and I make it a point never to follow it,” Limbaugh said.

“It’s always wrong and it is groupthink. Why you want to go along with what everybody else thinks?” he added.

“Everybody thinks it is a bunch of Democrats that hate Trump showing up because they hate the guy and they can’t wait to vote against this and that’s what the media has been telling us,” Limbaugh continued.

What a day! Let’s go red wave. Be sure to tune in to the show today, Donald Trump Jr. and Governor DeSantis will be joining me, your Real Anchorman. Oh, and VOTE! @DonaldJTrumpJr @GovRonDeSantis

— Rush H. Limbaugh (@RealRLimbaugh) November 3, 2020

“A Whole Different Way Of Looking At This”

“They are fed up with the way he has been lied about, they are fed up with this Russian conspiracy hoax and this impeachment hoax, they are fed up with the attempts to destroy this country via Antifa and Black Lives Matter and they are tired of watching the cities burn,” he argued.

“They’re tired of watching Democratic governors and mayors shut down their cities and states. What’s to say this early voting isn’t a bunch of Republicans and Trump supporters showing up to get it out of their system?” he asked.

“I think there is a whole different way of looking at this. It is my way of looking at it and I welcome everybody to join me in my way of looking at this because my way is victory, my way is Trump winning and preserving the American way of life,” he concluded.

Who Says Conventional Wisdom Is Wisdom?

Limbaugh, who is currently dying of cancer, has been urging his millions of loyal radio listeners to re-elect President Trump today.

“This is not the old ‘Republicans versus Democrats,’ where we all have the same objectives, just different philosophies on how to get there,” he said in October.

“They do not have those objectives any more. Their purpose is to erase the Constitution, start over rewriting it, eliminating the concept of ‘The citizen has rights which prevail over government,'” he added.

“It’s serious, and it’s scary, and we don’t have a choice,” he argued. “You have to get out there and vote Trump.”

Today’s Democrat party is not the caring party or the party of JFK. Break that myth, don’t follow just because there is a D beside Buy-den's name. Look at Trump’s results not just talk. https://t.co/KuIQ2MdAze

— Rush H. Limbaugh (@RealRLimbaugh) October 30, 2020

Limbaugh may also very well be correct about conventional wisdom.

One serious way the media could be wrong involves the overestimation of minority voters coming out for Biden.

Multiple polls have shown that Trump is well up with Hispanics and Latinos, along with black Americans too.

These polls are not the only evidence in favor of his hypothesis.

The Trump campaign massively outweighed the Biden campaign in gaining newly registered voters in key battleground states, like Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona.

And in Florida today, a state that pundits predict will go blue, Republican turnout could very well flip the script.

Florida 2:30 update:

GOP: 4,041,888 (+157,090)
DEM: 3,884,798
NPA/Other: 2,432,650

Total: 10,359,336

Via @umichvoter99

— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) November 3, 2020

All of this combined together suggests the conventional wisdom, as Limbaugh said, really isn’t wisdom at all.

The post Limbaugh: Election Will Be Like 2016 With Conventional Wisdom Proved Wrong appeared first on The Political Insider.

Registered foreign agent Pam Bondi and her large lobbying fees attacks Biden for … corruption?

Posted on August 26, 2020 by Walter Einenkel

Former Florida Attorney General and corrupt government official Pam Bondi was one of the speakers on Tuesday night’s fear and terror revisionist history broadcast by the RNC. As with every single person speaking for the Trump administration, the cosmically lazy writing of their personal narrative brings to mind the phrase “the banality of evil.”

Bondi spent her convention time telling viewers that Joe Biden had only enriched his family during his many decades in public office. She said this while the chyrons below her literally promoted the next three speakers for the RNC being Tiffany Trump, Eric Trump, and Melania Trump. The irony of Pam Bondi telling anyone anything about other people being corrupt was not lost on anyone with at least three brain cells to rub together.

More specifically, Pam Bondi’s Fox News’-level expertise on the matter of corruption, according to her, makes her uniquely qualified to point fingers at Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Of course, Pam Bondi’s job for the past year or so has been to act as a lobbyist for foreign business and government interests. She gets paid to bring political power and influence into our government on behalf of people and organizations that are not citizens of our country. That’s what she does. For money. In fact, according to the Foreign Agent Registration form, filled out by the White House, Ms. Bondi has pulled in almost $1.5 million in lobbying fees from these foreign entities over the past year.

Of course, the government interest for whom she works on behalf of, Qatar, was just implicated, along with Russia, by Trump’s own Department of Justice in an enormous corruption scandal involving the 2018 World Cup.

According to the prosecutors, representatives working for Russia and Qatar bribed FIFA executive committee officials to swing votes in the crucial hosting decisions of world football’s governing body.

After coming from her work on behalf of the government of Qatar to help with the sewage plant that is the Trump White House, Bondi was somehow able to leave this past March to restart her work with that government. In an utterly unsurprising turn of events, Donald Trump’s supposed executive order banning former administration officials from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments doesn’t apply to Bondi. Pam is right when she says she’s knows all about corruption.

Trump’s polling collapse puts Ohio back on the map

Posted on June 8, 2020 by kos

Once upon a time, Ohio was the ultimate swing state. President Barack Obama won it as recently as 2012! But then, non-college whites turned sharply in favor of bunker-hiding Donald Trump, and Ohio was both (82% non-Hispanic white, and ranked 35th in college graduates). Trump won it easily by over 8 points.

So Ohio wasn’t included in the early tally of 2020 battleground states. Early polling wasn’t encouraging for Democrats, and there were seven other states that would clearly decide the November contest: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

But, you can now officially add Ohio to that list.

As I wrote in my last story, we’re seeing clear correlation between Trump’s personal ratings, and his head-to-head matchups. In other words, whatever his favorability rating is, that’s what he’s pretty much getting against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Here are the four last Civiqs state polls:

STATE TRUMP FAVORABLES TRUMP vs. BIDEN GEORGIA KANSAS NORTH CAROLINA SOUTH CAROLINA

47-51	47-48
51-47	52-40
45-53	46-49
51-47	52-42

Also, in the last story, I wrote about Trump’s overall collapse in his personal approval ratings. Well, Ohio has had a more exaggerated collapse compared to the country at large.

Civiqs Results

During impeachment, Trump had a +4 favorability rating in Ohio, or 51-47. That’s important because it meant he was likely over 50% in head-to-heads against Biden. We were right to keep the state off the battleground map.

However, those approvals have dropped a net total of 12 points, to an anemic 45-53. So what other states have approval ratings in that -8 range?

APPROVALS NET APPROVAL Iowa Florida Ohio Georgia North Carolina Wisconsin Pennsylvania MICHIGAN Arizona

45-52	-7
45-52	-7
45-53	-8
44-53	-9
43-54	-11
43-54	-11
42-54	-12
42-56	-14
40-57	-17

We know Florida is tied because not only the polling says so, but, you know, it’s Florida. (Actually, the polling gives Biden a small lead in Florida, but it’s Florida. So it’s tied.)

Trump’s ratings in Ohio are a hint worse. Trump’s Ohio ratings are still better than they are in Georgia and North Carolina, two states we know that he is narrowly losing. But they’re all in the same range, with Trump getting roughly 45-46% of the Trump versus Biden vote. He’s slipped away from that 50% mark. The state is in play. And it makes that Fox News poll last week showing Biden leading in Ohio 45-43 make plenty of sense.

Now Ohio won’t be deciding this election. If Biden wins the state, it’s because he already won the other seven battlegrounds. There is no scenario imaginable in which Ohio casts any deciding Electoral College votes. (Iowa and Texas are in a similar situation, as well as Minnesota and Nevada for Trump. If he wins those last two states, he’s already won the election.)

What it means is that a panicking Trump campaign is already spending money trying to shore up the state.

Over the past few weeks, the president’s operation has spent about $1.7 million on advertising in just three states he carried in 2016 — Ohio, Iowa and Arizona — that it had hoped would not be competitive at all this year. Much of that sum went to a concentrated two-week barrage in Ohio [...]

As I wrote last week, this spending is proof that Trump’s campaign is either being driven by Trump’s whims—he likely hates the idea that he’s losing Ohio, or his campaign manager Brad Parscale is utterly incompetent. Again, if they lose Ohio, they already lost the election, so why waste money there when Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have all fallen seemingly out of reach?

(To spare you the math, picking up just those four states—Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin is a 289-249 Biden victory. Including North Carolina, which also has a Trump double-digit approval deficit, makes it 304-234 Biden.)

But whatever the motivation to piss away millions in Ohio, it again proves that the state is in serious play. And that is, quite simply, remarkable. There’s nothing about the state that suggests it should be competitive. It seemed headed into Missouri territory—a once competitive state relegated by demographics to solid red status. And yet, here we are.

Ohio, welcome back to swing-state status!