Morning Digest: Wyoming’s GOP establishment fights to hold off ‘authoritarian’ Freedom Caucus

Posted on by Daily Kos Elections

The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.

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Leading Off

● WY State House: While Wyoming has long been one of the most conservative states in America, the local affiliate of the nihilistic House Freedom Caucus is calling on GOP primary voters to move the Equality State even further to the right next month. WyoFile's Maya Shimizu Harris details how the Wyoming Freedom Caucus is targeting several seats in the state House of Representatives on Aug. 20 as part of its long-term effort to replace a party establishment it has denounced as "liberals."

The state Freedom Caucus' intraparty enemies, though, have organized their own Wyoming Caucus to counter an organization they've derided as "authoritarian." Speaker Pro Tempore Clark Stith, who chairs the Wyoming Caucus, argued to the Jackson Hole News&Guide's Jasmine Hall, "[I]f the Freedom Caucus takes over there will be a dismantling of programs that ordinary citizens come to depend on." Stith, who is trying to fend off a primary challenger, added, "It would be very destructive."

The battle between these two factions began well before this cycle. "Everything started with the failed Tea Party movement," state Rep. Pat Sweeney told reporter Ben Jacobs in 2022 as Sweeney himself was trying to fend off a primary challenge from the right that year. "[I]t moved the needle in my mind to Campaign for Liberty, Ron and Rand Paul. So that element gained a little more traction and a little more traction."

Former state Rep. Tim Stubson, though, argued to Jacobs that this battle wasn't about actual policy differences. "I mean, everybody’s gonna say ‘pro-Second Amendment,’ everybody’s gonna say ‘we’re pro-life.’ Everybody’s gonna say ‘we’re pro-oil, -gas, and -coal," he said. "It’s [about] who is flipping those levels of power? It’s as simple as that."

The far-right went on to score some big wins in that year's primaries on the same night that attorney Harriet Hageman overwhelmingly defeated U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, whose vote to impeach Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot left her with few friends in either wing of the state GOP. State Rep. Chuck Gray, who insisted the 2020 vote was “clearly rigged," won the primary for secretary of state, while Sweeney overwhelmingly lost renomination to challenger Bill Allemand.

There still weren't enough hard-liners in the state House after the general election to prevent a member of the establishment, state Rep. Albert Sommers, from narrowly winning the GOP caucus contest for speaker. However, the faction that soon dubbed itself the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is one of several state affiliates of the eponymous national organization, does have more than enough members to cause trouble.

Harris writes that, of the 57 Republicans in the 62-member chamber, 26 of them are "relatively consistent Freedom Caucus-aligned lawmakers." (She adds that the official membership of this group, which keeps its list hidden from public view, "is less than that.") That's a massive increase from less than a decade ago: Hall writes that this faction had just five members when it began to take shape in 2017.

Because it takes two-thirds of the chamber to introduce measures during budget sessions, the Freedom Caucus has used its influence to negotiate the passage of plans that Harris says seemed doomed to failure, including "legislation to restrict crossover voting and an abortion ban that’s now held up in court." However, a bill to require a minimum age to get married did become law over the objections of several far-right legislators, including state Rep. Scott Smith, a Freedom Caucus member who said that the children in his district "seem to be pretty mature."

The bloc, though, is now hoping primary voters will help it gain enough members to hold a majority in the chamber. The group is targeting several incumbents as well as open seats, including the one that Sommers is giving up to run for the state Senate.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is getting an assist from state GOP Chair Frank Eathorne, Gray, and Hageman. The Freedom Caucus' PAC and Make Liberty Win, which is an affiliate of the libertarian organization Young Americans for Liberty, are also paying for mailers to boost its candidates. One such message targets hostile lawmakers by accusing them of voting "with the radical left to remove" Donald Trump from the ballot; Cowboy State Daily's Leo Wolfson writes of this line, "Calling this claim a stretch would be generous."

The Koch network's Americans for Prosperity, though, is intervening on the other side. AFP is sending out its own mailer to Republicans that bash the Freedom Caucus' candidates for "bringing Washington’s failed values to Wyoming."

One powerful Republican who wants this clique to fail is Gov. Mark Gordon, who has feuded with the bloc and received a censure from the state party in April for vetoing a property tax cut and a bill that would have abolished gun-free zones. The Freedom Caucus, though, is already planning for the 2026 cycle when Gordon will be termed out. "If we want to change how this land is governed," said state Rep. Jeanette Ward, "we need to change the butts in the seats, including the governor."

And the group may have its sights set further afield than just two years down the line. "The Freedom Caucus has gone so far as to endorse candidates for [the University of Wyoming's] student government," student Tanner Ewalt wrote in WyoFile earlier this year. "Make no mistake," Ewalt warned, "the Freedom Caucus is meddling in our student elections because they are 'building a bench' for tomorrow so that one day people who share their radical ideology will be running for the Wyoming Legislature and even U.S. Congress."

The Downballot

● We've strived mightily to stick to down-ticket elections since launching our show more than two years ago, but the universe finally forced us to discuss the presidential race on this week's episode of "The Downballot"! But it's for a good reason: The new surge in Democratic enthusiasm for the top of the ticket is likely to have a salutary effect further down the ballot. And the events of the last few weeks are a reminder, as host David Nir and guest host Joe Sudbay say, that things can change awfully fast and we all need to remain humble.

But have no fear: We haven't forgotten our true calling! Our guest this week is Inside Elections publisher Nathan Gonzales, who is as devoted to downballot races as anyone. Gonzales tells us how the world of election analysis has changed over the last two decades and explains how his publication's widely followed race ratings are actually put together. He also talks about Inside Elections' efforts to fill a major data gap by polling key House races—and even breaks a little news about where they'll be polling next!

Never miss an episode! Subscribe to "The Downballot" wherever you listen to podcasts. You'll find a transcript of this week's show right here by Thursday afternoon. New episodes every Thursday morning!

Governors

● MO-Gov: Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has shared an internal poll from The Tyson Group with the far-right site Newsmax arguing that he remains the front-runner in the Aug. 6 Republican primary for governor despite getting badly outspent by Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe's forces.

The survey, which was conducted from July 14 through July 16, finds Ashcroft outpacing Kehoe 29-18, with another 13% going to state Sen. Bill Eigel. That's much closer than the secretary of state's 36-11 advantage in Tyson's April poll, though it's better than what more recent surveys from other firms have shown. This is the first poll we've seen of this contest from July.

Eigel, for his part, is hoping a xenophobic new ad will help him gain the type of attention he needs to pull off an upset in two weeks. Eigel pledges to jail and deport undocumented immigrants, much to the increasing consternation of a Latino man tasked with translating that message into Spanish.    

● NH-Gov: Former state Senate President Chuck Morse is using his opening TV ad to argue that former Sen. Kelly Ayotte has betrayed Donald Trump and New Hampshire conservatives, a message he's hoping will help him turn around his fortunes ahead of their Sept. 10 Republican primary for governor.

The spot reminds viewers that Ayotte announced in October 2016 that she wouldn't be voting for Trump, a declaration that came one day after the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape seemed to doom his campaign. Ayotte went on to narrowly lose reelection to Democrat Maggie Hassan, but she returned to Trump's good graces months later when he recruited her to guide Neil Gorsuch's successful confirmation to the Supreme Court.

The commercial goes on to attack Ayotte's record in the Senate, with the narrator declaring, "She voted with President Obama to give amnesty to 11 million illegals, and turned her back on both Donald Trump and us." The rest of the commercial touts Morse as an ardent conservative.

House

● AZ-01: The cryptocurrency-aligned group Protect Progress has deployed over $400,000 to boost businessman Andrei Cherny in next week's six-way Democratic primary to take on GOP Rep. David Schweikert, which makes Cherny by far the largest recipient of outside support. We do not yet have a copy of the ad Protect Progress is running in Arizona's 1st District.

● AZ-08: While state House Speaker Ben Toma's campaign for Arizona's conservative 8th District has largely been overshadowed by the truly ugly battle between venture capitalist Blake Masters and attorney Abe Hamedah, Toma's outside group allies are hoping their combined $1 million investment will help propel him to an upset next week.

One of those groups is an entity called National Interest Action Inc., which has not yet disclosed its donors. The only other race this organization has gotten involved in is the Aug. 6 GOP primary for Missouri's 3rd District, where it's aiding Kurt Schaefer against another former member of the state Senate, Bob Onder. The other major pro-Toma outfit is the Koch network's Americans for Prosperity.

Two Masters internal polls conducted in recent weeks show Toma, who has the support of outgoing Rep. Debbie Lesko, in third place but still within striking distance.

A survey from Fabrizio Lee that was conducted July 8 to July 9 finds Masters edging out Hamedah 27-26. Toma and former Rep. Trent Franks, who resigned from Congress following a 2017 sexual harassment scandal, respectively clock in at 17% and 16%; another 4% goes to state Sen. Anthony Kern, who was one of 11 Arizona Republicans indicted in April for serving on a slate of fake electors as part of Donald Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election.

While Masters argued that this poll shows "this race is close, and I’ve got the momentum," Fabrizio Lee shows both Hamedah and Toma making gains since May. That last poll gave Masters a 28-16 advantage over Hamedah, with Franks grabbing 14% as Toma took just 8%.

The GOP firm Data Orbital, meanwhile, shows Masters outpacing Hamedah 23-20 as Toma and Franks respectively clock in at 17% and 13%. The poll, which was publicized by ABC 15's Garrett Archer, was conducted July 17 and 18, and the firm tells us it was conducted for Masters.

While Donald Trump is supporting Hamedah, Masters is hoping his commercials will convince voters that he's the candidate that MAGA's master is behind. A new spot features footage of Trump praising Masters as an ardent conservative and concludes with the two men smiling next to one another. The spot does not note that Trump's testimonial about this "incredible person" was filmed in 2022, when Trump endorsed Masters' failed campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.

● MO-01: Inside Elections' Jacob Rubashkin reports that the pro-cryptocurrency group Fairshake has launched a $1.1 million ad campaign attacking Rep. Cori Bush ahead of her Aug. 6 Democratic primary against St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. The opening commercial accuses Bush of "dishonesty," with the narrator declaring that the congresswoman took credit for securing billions in federal aid from bills she didn't vote for.

KSDK's Mark Maxwell reported last month that while Bush claimed to have delivered $2 billion for the 1st District, the figure includes money provided by bills that passed long before she joined Congress following her 2020 win. Bush's team pushed back and argued that because the congresswoman voted to continue those programs, she should be credited for the funds they've continued to provide. Maxwell also discovered other issues with the list provided by Bush's office, including "duplicate entries."

Fairshake's offensive makes what was already an imposing advertising advantage for Bell's side even wider. AdImpact reports that, with this new ad campaign factored in, Bell and his allies have spent or reserved $12.2 million on the air, compared to $2.1 million for Bush and her backers. The main pro-Bell group remains AIPAC's United Democracy Project affiliate, while the progressive group Justice Democrats is responsible for most of the outside spending directed toward helping Bush.

● NJ-10: Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell's chief of staff told the New Jersey Globe on Wednesday that the 87-year-old congressman remains in intensive care following his July 14 admission to St. Joseph’s Medical Center for a fever, but that doctors believe his condition is improving.

"While recovering from a respiratory infection in the hospital, Congressman Pascrell had a setback," said Ben Rich. He continued, "Since then, the medical professionals at St Joe’s have given the congressman breathing assistance and are monitoring his condition. Doctors tell us he continues to improve and remain hopeful for a complete recovery."

● NM-02: Former Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell and her allies at the NRCC have released a mid-July internal poll from The Tarrance Group that shows her edging out freshman Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez 48-46 in their rematch from two years ago. This survey, which was first publicized by the National Journal, is the first we've seen of this contest all year.

President Joe Biden carried New Mexico's 2nd District, which is based in the western Albuquerque area and southern part of the state, 52-46 in 2020. Two years later, Vasquez unseated Herrell, who had been elected in a more conservative version of this constituency, by a narrow 50.3-49.7 margin.

● TN-05: The super PAC Conservatives With Character is using its newest ad to attack GOP Rep. Andy Ogles for claiming to be an economist―which is one of many apparent fabrications he's made to his life story―with the narrator declaring, "[T]he only expertise Andy Ogles has with taxes is raising yours and ignoring his own." The commercial, which shows a picture of the disgraced George Santos alongside his now-former colleague, goes on to accuse Ogles of repeatedly failing to pay his property taxes.

Conservatives With Character has spent over $380,000 so far to attack Ogles or promote his intraparty opponent, Davidson County Metro Councilmember Courtney Johnston, ahead of their Aug. 1 Republican primary battle for Tennessee's 5th District. Pro-Ogles groups have deployed around $290,000 to help him, with most of that coming from Americans for Prosperity. (Ogles is AFP's former state director.)

Johnston herself has massively outraised Ogles since she launched her campaign for this gerrymandered Middle Tennessee seat in April, but the congressman is hoping that his endorsement from Donald Trump will help him overcome the obstacles to his renomination. Ogles, who curiously spent almost nothing during the first 12 days of July, also tried to secure some free publicity for himself this week by introducing articles of impeachment against Vice President Kamala Harris―a doomed effort that comes a year after he first tried to impeach President Joe Biden and Harris.

● TX-18: Houston City Councilwoman Letitia Plummer tells the Texas Tribune that she's considering running to succeed her fellow Democrat, the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, though she said she'd need to find out if the city's resign-to-run law would apply. Meanwhile, former Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards, who decisively lost the March Democratic primary to Jackson Lee, said she didn't want to say anything about her political future so soon after the incumbent's death.

The leadership of the Harris County Democratic Party has until Aug. 26 to select a new nominee for the general election, but party head Mike Doyle tells the Houston Landing's Paul Cobler this decision will likely take place on Aug. 15 or Aug. 17. While it's not clear yet when any interested names would need to declare for this safely blue seat, a candidate forum is scheduled for Aug. 10.

Ballot Measures

● AR Ballot: The state Supreme Court handed Arkansans for Limited Government a partial victory on Tuesday evening when it ordered Republican Secretary of State John Thurston to tabulate the roughly 87,000 signatures that volunteers gathered to get an abortion rights amendment on the fall ballot. The decision, though, did not apply to the more than 14,100 signatures collected that Thurston disqualified on technical grounds.

AFLG needs election officials to both validate that it turned in 90,704 signatures statewide and that the campaign met certain thresholds in 50 of Arkansas' 75 counties. State law gives campaigns an extra 30 days to gather signatures if election officials say they're 75% of the way to the target both statewide and in 50 separate counties, but it's not clear if this cure period could apply to this situation.

● MT Ballot: The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday all but ensured that voters would get the chance to decide a proposed constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights—as well as two amendments to change the state's electoral system—when it unanimously rejected a petition from Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen.

Jacobsen sought to disallow signatures from "inactive" voters—those who haven't voted recently and haven't responded to attempts to confirm their address but still have valid registrations on the voter rolls. However, all three campaigns appear to have submitted enough signatures from active voters to earn their respective spots on the ballot even if Jacobsen had gotten her way.

● OH Ballot: The Ohio secretary of state's office confirmed Tuesday that a proposed state constitutional amendment to end Republican gerrymandering would appear on the ball ballot. We recently detailed how this amendment, which needs a simple majority to pass, could dramatically reshape the Buckeye State's congressional and legislative maps starting with the 2026 elections.

Legislatures

● TN State Legislature: The hard-line Club for Growth announced earlier this month that its School Freedom Fund affiliate would spend $3.6 million ahead of Tennessee's Aug. 1 primary to help five Republican legislative candidates who support using taxpayer money to pay for private schools. SFF is largely funded by Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania-based conservative megadonor who is an ardent charter schools advocate.

The effort comes months after the Club waged a similar and largely successful campaign in Texas, though it narrowly failed to defeat state House Speaker Dade Phelan.

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Campaign Action

Shocker: House GOP gives up on Biden impeachment dreams

Posted on by Joan McCarter

If there was any question that the House GOP’s investigations into President Joe Biden and his “crime family” were purely political, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer just put that doubt to rest. Now that Biden’s not running for reelection, Comer doesn’t care what happens with the impeachment inquiry.

“I feel like we’ve done our job. … Our part of the report has been finished for a long time. They can publish it or not — I guess things change if he’s not running again,” Comer told Politico.

That capitulation comes after countless hours—and taxpayer dollars— wasted, and plenty of embarrassment for Comer and his fellow impeachment hound, Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan. House Republicans introduced 11 separate impeachment resolutions against Biden.

Extremist Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado filed one of those resolutions, and she’s ready to move on, too. 

“I think Republicans’ best strategy is introducing Kamala Harris to the world,” she said, ready to bail on the pointless quest for revenge that most defined the Republican majority this session. At least their legacy of chaos lives on!

But there are still a few holdouts who aren’t quite ready to let go.

Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Nancy Mace of South Carolina have each introduced resolutions calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Biden from office on the grounds that he is incapacitated. They’re not getting a lot of takers: Roy has three co-sponsors, while Mace has zero.

Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee still has the impeachment bug—but his target has shifted. He has introduced two separate resolutions to impeach Harris for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” with a grand total of two co-sponsors. 

Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota is one of the House Republicans who is over all of this. When asked about the possibility of pivoting to impeaching or investigating Harris, he told Politico, “we’ve got appropriations we need to take care of.”

That’s a nice excuse, but that’s not happening either. The House was supposed to pass four of the 12 necessary government funding bills for 2025 by the end of July. Instead, GOP leaders have canceled votes and are now preparing to start their August recess early after a quick Thursday morning session.

House members will be away from D.C. until Sept. 9, and then they’ll have to focus entirely on making sure the government doesn’t shut down on Oct. 1, when the 2025 fiscal year starts. All of the GOP’s hopes and dreams for revenge against the Democrats are circling down the toilet.

Let’s exact some revenge of our own. Contribute now to help flip the House back to Democrats!

Biden will discuss his legacy—and why Harris must continue it—in speech

Posted on by Associated Press

Even though President Joe Biden won't be on the ballot this November, voters still will be weighing his legacy.

As Vice President Kamala Harris moves to take his place as the Democratic standard-bearer, Biden’s accomplishments remain very much at risk should Republican Donald Trump prevail.

How Biden’s single term and his decision to step aside are remembered will be intertwined with Harris’ electoral success in November, particularly as the vice president runs tightly on the achievements of the Biden administration.

Biden will have an opportunity to make a case for his legacy—sweeping domestic legislation, renewal of alliances abroad, defense of democracy—on Wednesday night when he delivers an Oval Office address about his decision to bow out of the race and “what lies ahead.”

And no matter how frustrated Biden is at being pushed aside by his party — and he’s plenty upset — he has too much at stake simply to wash his hands of this election.

Biden endorsed Harris shortly after he announced Sunday that he would end his candidacy, effectively giving her a head start over would-be challengers and helping to jumpstart a candidacy focused largely on continuing his own agenda.

“If she wins, then it will be confirmation that he did the right thing to fight against the threat that is Trump, and he will be seen as a legend on behalf of democracy,” said presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. “If she loses, I think there will be questions about, did he step down too late? Would the Democratic Party have been more effective if he had said he was not going to run?”

Similar what-ifs play out at the end of every presidency. But Biden’s defiance in the face of questions about his fitness for office and then his late submission to his party’s crisis of confidence heighten the stakes.

The last vice president to run for the top job was Democrat Al Gore, who sought to distance himself from President Bill Clinton during the 2000 campaign after the president's affair with a White House intern and subsequent impeachment.

Harris, in contrast, has spent the better part of the last three years praising Biden’s doings—meaning any attempt to now distance herself would be difficult to explain. And she has to rely on the Biden political operation she inherited to win the election with just over 100 days to go before polls close.

Speaking to campaign staff on Monday, Harris said Biden's legacy of accomplishment "just over the last three and a half years is unmatched in modern history.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden in 2021

Trump and his allies, for their part, were eager to tie Harris to Biden’s record even before the president left the race—and not in a good way.

One campaign email to supporters declared “KAMALA HARRIS IS BIDEN 2.0 – Kamala Harris owns Joe Biden’s terrible record because it is her record as well,” calling out high inflation and border policies, among other things.

Biden this week promised the staffers of his former campaign that he was still “going to be on the road” as he handed off the reins of the organization to Harris, adding, “I’m not going anywhere.”

His advisers say he intends to hold campaign events and fundraisers benefiting Harris, albeit at a far slower pace than had he remained on the ballot himself.

Harris advisers will ultimately have to decide how to deploy the president, whose popularity sagged as voters on both sides of the aisle questioned his fitness for office.

The president’s allies insist that no matter what, Biden’s place in the history books is intact.

Biden's win in 2020 "was that election that protected us from a Donald Trump presidency,” said Rep. Steven Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. “Yes, we have to do it again this November. But had Donald Trump been in office another four years, the damage, the destruction, the decay of our democracy would’ve gone even further.”

Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way, predicted there will be a difference between short-term recollections of Biden and his legacy if Democrats lose in November.

“It is true that if we lose, that will cloud things for him in the near-term” because Democrats will have to confront Trump, Bennett said. “In the long term, when history judges Biden, they’ll look at him on his own terms. They will judge him for what he did or did not do as president, and they will judge him very favorably.”

Biden’s decision to end his candidacy buoyed the spirits of congressional Democrats who had been fretting that the incumbent president would drag down their prospects of retaining the Senate and retaking the House. An all-Republican Washington would threaten to do even more damage to Biden’s legacy.

Already, congressional Republicans have tried to unravel pieces of the Inflation Reduction Act, a central Biden achievement that was passed on party lines in 2022. And they could succeed next year, with a President Trump waiting to sign a repeal into law.

GOP lawmakers could also vote to reverse key federal regulations that arrived later in the Biden administration.

“If the Republicans get dual majorities, they’re going to claw back as much as they can, they’re going to undo as much as they can and not only will that be a disaster for America and the world, it’ll be really bad for the Biden legacy," Bennett said.

Biden aides point to the thus-far seamless nature of Harris’ takeover of his political apparatus as evidenced that the president has set up his vice president to successfully run on their shared record. But the ultimate test of that organization will come in November.

No one will be cheering her on more than the president.

As Biden said to Harris: “I’m watching you, kid."

Campaign Action

GOP calls Harris ‘weird.’ These 19 moments prove Trump’s the weird one

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has some dazzling guidance for attacking Vice President Kamala Harris now that she is considered the front-runner to face convicted felon Donald Trump this November. According to a memo obtained by Axios, the vice president should be described as a “radical” progressive and an architect of the border crisis. And she’s “weird.”

The memo also includes a "weird" category—mocking Harris's "habit of laughing at inappropriate moments," her self-proclaimed love of Venn diagrams and her call to ban plastic straws, among other things.

Trump’s policy record is garbage, his immigration record is one of human rights violations, and his tendency to be “weird” is off the charts. Here are 19 times Trump was … weird.

1. Praising “the late, great, Hannibal Lecter.” 

Trump has repeatedly conjured up fictional serial murderer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter during rally speeches—he even did so in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Famously played by Anthony Hopkins in the film “The Silence of the Lambs,” it is hard to parse exactly what Trump is getting at when he praises the psychopathic character.

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2. His strange preoccupation with the “genius” of realizing that the word “us” appears in the acronym “U.S.A.”

“You know, you spell us right? You spell us U-S. I just picked that up. Has anyone ever thought of that? A couple of days [ago] I’m reading and it said us. And I said, you know, if you think about it, us equals U-S.”

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3. Remember that photo, alongside the Saudi King, with his tiny hands on the glowing orb?

Trump’s first foreign tour as president began in the Middle East where he met with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, and the two men did this:

Picture of really rich guys putting their hands on a lit up orb depicting the earth. Totally normal. Nothing to see here.

4. When Trump sorta curtsy-bowed before the Saudi King? 

After he had attacked President Barack Obama for leaning over to receive a similar Saudi welcome, Trump did this?

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5. “Melania’s son.”

Trump was delivering remarks to the press on vaping, when he referred to Barron Trump—who is his third son—as “Melania’s son.” What is that about?

6. Humping the American Flag on various stages across the country.

Why does he do that so much?

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7. Saluting a North Korean general.

We all know that Trump loves him some dictators, but it was strange when he decided to give a military salute to an adversarial country’s general. The strangeness took place during a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Trump when the salutation occurred. 

8. Electric boat versus battery versus shark?

Do you remember where you were when Trump offered up a thought experiment about whether you would prefer to be electrocuted in water or eaten by a shark? And that tangent was in response to Trump explaining the problems with electric vehicles?

So I said, so there’s a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards or here, do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking? Water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking. Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted, or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted? Because I will tell you, he didn’t know the answer. He said, ‘You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.” I said, ‘I think it’s a good question.’ I think there’s a lot of electric current coming through that water. But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted, I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark. So we’re going to end that.

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9. Trump’s toilet claim: Americans need to flush “10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once.”

That was Trump rambling about toilets, sinks, and showers. “You turn on the faucet and you don’t get any water. They take a shower and water comes dripping out. Just dripping out, very quietly dripping out,” was just one of the many odd facts Trump gave out during his attacks on water-saving regulations. The ranting went on well past the White House, as Trump took his mystifying takes on the road to rallies—all the way through his second impeachment.

10. Doctoring a weather map with a black Sharpie.

Trump’s bizarre attempt to frighten Alabama residents by crudely doctoring a map, forecasting the path of a hurricane, will always go down as both ridiculous and insidious.

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11. Making Clorox great again.

It was April 2020, and while COVID-19 was ravaging countries around the world, Trump took to the world stage to suggest to the press, and his own officials, that disinfectant might be injected into the human body to kill the virus.

So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light. And I think you said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting. Right? And then I see the disinfectant, it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical doctors, right? But it sounds interesting to me. So we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.

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12. How do magnets work?

It is hard to compete with this Trump statement from January: “All I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that's the end of the magnets.” 

13. Does Trump not know who Frederick Douglass was, or did he just find out?

“I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things,” Trump said. “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.”

14. The time when the Continental Army took over the airports.

Trump blamed his teleprompter, but his retelling of the American Revolution, including the heroic takeover of airports over 100 years before the airplane was invented, was very peculiar.

“Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory.”

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15. Trump hates windmills and thinks televisions turn off if there isn’t enough wind.

Trump has frequently railed against windmills but he’s also shown a curious understanding of how renewable energy functions in the real world. Here he is in 2019, explaining a theoretical conversation a couple has after installing windmills.

“Let's put up some windmills. When the wind doesn't blow, just turn off the television darling, please. There's no wind, please turn off the television quickly.”

16. When Trump shoved a world leader out of the way in order to be in front for a photo.

Who does that????

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17. When Trump asked a 7-year-old if he still believed in Santa.

Real War on Christmas vibes here.

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18. Trump seems to believe we have invisible planes.

Trump’s comments in 2017, coupled with comments he’s made since, sure implies he is under the impression that we have Wonder Woman technology.

"With the Air Force, we're ordering a lot of planes, in particular the F-35 fighter jet, which is, you know, almost like an invisible fighter," he said. "I was asking the Air Force guys, I said, 'How good is this plane?' They said, 'Well, sir, you can't see it.' I said, yeah, but in a fight —you know, a fight, like I watch in the movies —they fight, they're fighting. How good is this? They say, 'Well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if it's right next to it, it can't see it.' I said, 'That helps. That's a good thing.'"

19. Robert E. Lee was a pirate shanty singer?

Finally, who could forget Trump’s attempt to give his own wow-filled Gettysburg Address in April. That’s when he recounted American history like … this:

YouTube Video

There’s an infinite amount of examples detailing the strangeness of Trump. The GOP going after Harris for laughing sounds like a desperate recipe for failure. Here’s a bonus memory for the QAnon traveler who happens upon this article, because Trump hangs with only the best people:

YouTube Video

Pitch in what you can to help Kamala Harris win the White House this November.

Kamala Harris hit with articles of impeachment over border crisis, ‘misleading’ people on Biden

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

A House Republican lawmaker is filing articles of impeachment against Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, over both her handling of the border and knowledge, if any, of President Biden's alleged cognitive decline. 

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is accusing Harris of breaching public trust and of willfully refusing to uphold U.S. immigration law in two impeachment articles, obtained by Fox News Digital.

The former article on public trust accused Harris of having "knowingly misled the people of the United States and the Congress of the United States, principally to obfuscate the physical and cognitive well-being of the President of the United States, Joe Biden."

It comes as a growing number of Republican lawmakers question what Harris knew and when about Biden's mental state after even allies observed that it had worsened over the course of the 81-year-old's White House term.

HOW WOULD A PRESIDENT HARRIS HANDLE IMMIGRATION, BORDER CRISIS?

The latter article is targeted at Harris's handling of the crisis at the southern border over her role as the Biden administration's "border czar." She was tasked early on in the administration with addressing the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America.

It's now the cornerstone of GOP-led attacks against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, as states across the country continue to struggle with the migrant crisis, though the number of border crossings has somewhat slowed in recent months compared to the record numbers seen last year.

CREATOR OF IMMIGRATION CHART THAT ‘SAVED’ TRUMP'S LIFE FROM WOULD BE ASSASSIN CREDITS ‘PROVIDENCE’ 

"Kamala Devi Harris has demonstrated extraordinary incompetence in the execution of her duties and responsibilities, a stark refusal to uphold the existing immigration law, and a palpable indifference to people of the United States suffering as a result of the ongoing southern border crisis in the United States," the impeachment articles state.

"During her tenure as the designated border czar, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency ‘encountered' nearly 302,000 illegal aliens at the southwest border in December 2023, the highest monthly total ever recorded and representing 4 consecutive months of over 240,000 illegal alien ‘encounters.'"

Ogles' impeachment articles are the latest update in the House GOP's legislative offensive against Harris ever since she took up Biden's mantle on Sunday.

FLASHBACK: KAMALA HARRIS COMPARED ICE TO KKK IN SENATE HEARING 

Biden caught millions of Americans by surprise on Sunday afternoon when he announced he would drop out of the presidential race after mounting pressure to do so by fellow Democrats.

Just as Ogles introduced his legislation on Tuesday, the House Rules Committee advanced a resolution by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to condemn Harris over the border crisis. That bill is expected to get a House-wide vote sometime this week.

Fox News Digital reached out to Harris' office for comment.

Top five moments from Secret Service director’s hours-long grilling after Trump assassination attempt

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified for hours on Capitol Hill Monday, facing a grilling from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle over the agency’s lapse in security that enabled the assassination attempt on former President Trump. 

Cheatle testified before the House Oversight Committee, led by Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., after he subpoenaed her to appear.

REP. MACE CALLS 'BULLS---' ON RESPONSE FROM SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR CHEATLE

Cheatle testified before the House Oversight Committee Monday, just over a week after a would-be assassin Thomas Crooks attempted to take the life of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13. 

Trump, during his rally, ever-so-slightly turned his head—narrowly missing the bullet shot by 20-year-old suspect Crooks’ AR-15-style rifle by just a quarter of an inch. The bullet hit him, instead, in his upper right ear.

The bullet killed firefighter, father and husband Corey Comperatore as he protected his family from the shots, and severely injured two others. 

Cheatle admitted under oath that the Secret Service "on July 13th, we failed." 

Here are the top five moments from the highly-anticipated hearing: 

Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee that "on July 13th, we failed" when it came to her agency's handling of the assassination attempt on the former president and the shooting at his Butler, Pa. rally. 

"As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency," she continued.

"We must learn what happened, and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again," Cheatle also said. "Our agents, officers and support personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice our lives to execute a no fail mission."

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., called on Cheatle to resign, along with other Republican lawmakers. 

But Democrats called for her resignation as well, including Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who said, "If you have an assassination attempt on a president or a former president or a candidate, you need to resign."

Cheatle has maintained that she will not resign, and said she is committed to getting answers on the massive security failure for the American people. 

TIMELINE: TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., says he plans to introduce articles of impeachment against her.

"In light of Kimberly Cheatle’s unacceptable handling of the Trump assassination attempt, her disastrous appearance before the House Oversight committee today, and her refusal to resign, we have no choice but to impeach," Steube said in a post on X. "I will be filing articles of impeachment against Kimberly Cheatle this afternoon."

And Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., accused Cheatle of perjuring herself and stonewalling members of the House Oversight Committee, telling her protectees are "sitting ducks" with her in charge.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday that her response that she had "no idea" how her opening statement for today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the Trump rally shooting got leaked to media agencies is "bulls---." 

The fiery remark from the South Carolina lawmaker came after Cheatle was directed by Mace to answer a series of yes or no questions on the Secret Service’s response to the attempted assassination of former President Trump in Pennsylvania, in which Cheatle said "yes" to it being a "colossal failure," and a tragedy that could have been prevented. 

"Would you say leaking your opening statement to Punchbowl News, Politico’s Playbook and Washington Post several hours before you sent it to this committee as being political? Yes or no?" Mace asked Cheatle. 

"I have no idea how my statement got out," Cheatle responded. 

Mace fired back: "Well that’s bulls---." 

Mace started mentioning news articles published between 5 and 7 a.m. ET, about three to four hours before she said the House Oversight Committee received Cheatle's statement.

Mace then asked Cheatle, "Have you provided all audio and video recordings in your possession to this committee, as we asked on July 15? Yes or no?"  

SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR OPENS TESTIMONY WITH FRANK ADMISSION: ‘WE FAILED’ -- BUT WON’T RESIGN 

"I would have to get back to you," Cheatle said. 

"That is a no. You're full of s-- today. You're just being completely dishonest," Mace told Cheatle, before being interrupted with a call for decorum inside the hearing room at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday said that "for the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied" from former President Trump's team. 

"They asked for additional help in some form or another. You told them no. How many times did you tell them no? And what'd you tell them no to?" Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, asked Cheatle, referencing comments made by Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi. 

"What I can tell you is that in generic terms, when people when details make a request, there are times that there are alternate ways to cover off on that threat or that report," Cheatle responded. 

Cheatle testified Monday that she called former President Trump after the shooting to apologize. 

She stressed, though, that the Secret Service and "the people that are in charge of protecting the president on that day would never bring the former president out if there was a threat that had been identified." 

Trump told "Jesse Watters Primetime" in an interview that aired Monday night that Cheatle came to see him in the days following the assassination attempt.

"It went very nicely. She was very nice, I thought. But, you know, somebody should have made sure there was nobody on that roof," he said. 

Fox News' Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

House GOP sure wasted a lot of America’s time and money on Biden

Posted on by Mark Sumner

Republicans have wasted so much: It’s not just the carloads of “Let’s Go Brandon!” merch now on its way to landfills, it’s a huge amount of time and money that is owed directly to Americans. As soon as they gained a small majority—and once they were past the first round of follies in naming a speaker—Republicans got right on their No. 1 priority.

That priority wasn’t passing legislation to help people. They've been one of the least effective Congress in history. Instead, they jumped right into the most important task of all modern Republicans: Showing their loyalty to Donald Trump by launching unfounded attacks on his opponents. 

In the House, that meant not one, not two, but three simultaneous investigations into everything Biden. A car loan, his son's private parts, anything was fodder for a mill meant to crank out a never-ending stream of Biden "scandal."

All of this is completely worthless to the country. Now it’s not even useful to Trump.

The Republican grovel fest, headed up by Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan, was ridiculous from the outset. 

There was the fake FBI document produced by a Russian mole whose repeated claims were originally pushed in 2019 by Rudy Giuliani and were debunked almost as soon as they appeared. That hasn’t stopped Jordan from repeating these easily disproved lies and pretending to seriously investigate Biden’s actions in helping to get rid of a corrupt official. 

Meanwhile, Comer was busy trying to prove that Biden was the recipient of money from China, talking up a witness who could prove everything if Republicans could find him. Comer went after Hunter Biden for paying back a small loan when Biden wasn’t even in office. Then there was a small personal loan to his brother, also while Biden wasn’t in office. In the end, they turned on Attorney General Merrick Garland when they could find no reason to impeach Biden. 

That was the biggest problem for these Republicans: Biden hadn't done anything wrong. But that didn't stop them from crowing over every false claim as if it were proof that Biden was the godfather of the "Biden crime family." A crime family that is somehow so huge and corrupt and has netted Biden a beach home that isn’t even on the beach rather than towers full of golden targets. 

Efforts to generate support for a Biden impeachment ran out of steam last fall, so Republicans were never able to present to Trump that “see, he was impeached too!” present they were so anxious to deliver. By spring, Republicans were looking for some way to escape this whole pointless exercise.

And now ... all of it is a waste. Republicans loved to complain about how much former FBI Director Robert Mueller spent investigating Trump’s connections with Russia, but they haven’t been as quick to post how much they’ve spent investigating Biden to absolutely no purpose. 

Want to see how important it really was? Just watch how quickly Republicans drop these investigations for vital hearings over plastic straws and whether or not Harris was too tough on crime.

But, even before Biden withdrew from the election, this was already a waste. For everything they had done, House Republicans never laid a finger on Biden. Nothing stuck to Biden because it was all malarkey.

But they did show that they were completely under Trump's control so ... job well done.

RELATED STORIES:

Latest GOP conspiracy theory: Biden’s doctor is part of the ‘crime family’

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Biden says he won’t step aside. What happens next?

Posted on by kos

Despite continuing calls for him to step aside as the Democratic Party’s nominee, President Joe Biden says he’s not going anywhere. A significant contingent of Democratic leaders disagrees with that decision.

So where do things stand now?

This year’s presidential race was already neck-and-neck heading into a June 27 debate that Biden requested, using rules he established. The result was not great, as I wrote at the time. “President Joe Biden had one job Thursday, one job only—prove to America that he still has what’s needed to be president, despite rampant questions about his age. He didn’t do that. Instead, he validated the worst criticisms.”

Three weeks later, the debate rages on inside the Democratic Party: Should Biden stay or should he go?

The problem is, there is no real mechanism to force him out. Some have said that delegates can take it upon themselves to ditch Biden, given the party rule stating that “Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.” That sounds good on paper, except that it’s not as simple as that.

There are 3,979 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention. To oust Biden, 1,990 would have to not just abandon Biden, but do so for a single other candidate. This means there would have to be an actual campaign, with all the trappings that would entail—public appeals for support, clearing the field, and managing the inherent divisiveness of such a move. (Disclosure: I’m a California delegate to the convention.)

In other words, forcing Biden out of the race against his will would require an organized rebellion and unity in purpose that is well beyond the Democratic Party’s ability. You can see it even in the statements of those demanding that Biden quit—few are clearly advocating for the obvious alternative, Vice President Kamala Harris. They all talk about some truncated primary process because the second an actual Biden alternative is named, it generates opposition from supporters of other potential replacement candidates.

That’s why on Wednesday, California Rep. Adam Schiff called for Biden to “pass the torch” without explaining how and to whom. The second he named a name, people would disagree with that alternative, starting a debate that does nothing to help us win in November.

Timing is important here, as there are several deadlines approaching. One is the party’s decision to nominate Biden in a virtual roll call, first agreed on to avoid the filing deadline in Ohio. Like Alabama, Ohio’s deadline has since been moved to after the convention, so efforts to continue with the virtual roll call appear to be motivated by the desire to shut down Biden’s intra-party detractors and lock in Biden’s nomination ahead of the late-August Democratic convention.

That doesn’t mean that Biden, even after being nominated, couldn’t drop out and release his delegates by the convention’s start. The bigger timing issue is simple: We’re less than four months away from Election Day, and every single day that the focus isn’t on Donald Trump is a day that he has effectively won the news cycle.

Elections are usually a referendum on the incumbent. This year, we effectively have two incumbents—a sitting and a former president. So in order to win, we have to make this election about Trump and ask voters whether they want to return to the chaos, incompetence, and fascist tendencies of the Trump administration … but supercharged.

538’s polling average has shown a roughly 2-point drop for Biden post debate, a relatively small effect given his disastrous performance and the media’s near-constant coverage of it. But the explanation is simple: It’s about the narrative.

Before the debate, Democrats said Trump was a dangerous liar, and Republicans said Biden was cognitively addled and old. Then the debate happened, and what did voters see? They saw that Trump was a dangerous liar, and Biden was old and suffering from cognitive decline. The narrative had been set, and the debate confirmed it. Biden missed a golden opportunity to reset that narrative, but it wasn’t to be.

Ultimately, voters saw nothing in the debate that they didn’t already assume was true.

And because of that, some Democrats’ efforts to push Biden out of the race have largely proven self-destructive. The news cycle is speeding past at a dizzying pace. An assassination attempt on Trump four days ago is now old news. Had Democrats shrugged off Biden’s performance and quickly moved on, the whole debacle would now be ancient, mostly forgotten news. Instead, Democrats have insisted on replaying the ordeal in the news every single day.

I get it—we have a lot more at stake than Republicans do. Democrats recognize that our rights and our very democracy are on the line. As for Republicans: What do they have to fear from Biden? Just look at Trump’s nickname for Biden—”Sleepy Joe.” We are fearful of losing our rights, they are fearful of what—a president that falls asleep?

We even have data on this. A March AP poll found that around 70% of Democrats were fearful of another Trump presidency, while a significantly fewer 56% of Republicans said the same about a Biden presidency. He’s just not that scary.

That’s why conservative memes often portray Biden as a puppet being manipulated by George Soros or Bernie Sanders (the Jews!), or Barack Obama or Harris (the scary Blacks!). Or maybe all of the above.  

Trump and his MAGA ilk really don’t know how to run against an old white man, someone who looks just like the Republican base. They prefer to run against the “other.” That’s always been the case, and that’s why Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 25, 2019, to try to manufacture a fake investigation against Hunter Biden. That was the same phone call that led to Trump’s first impeachment.

At that time, Biden was polling in the high 20s or low 30s in the Democratic primary. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were polling high, and had they united the left wing of the party, could’ve posed a serious threat. But Trump wasn’t worried about them: He was worried about Biden, and actively working to kneecap his candidacy early. Turns out, Trump had every reason to fear Biden the most.

For his part, Biden is through listening to his party’s critics. He wanted to run for president in 2016, but party leaders pushed him aside in favor of Hillary Clinton. When he geared up to run in 2019, the same voices claimed he was too old and archaic to defeat Trump. Heck, I was saying those things. Yet Biden proved his critics wrong, and did something that has only been done five times since 1912—he defeated an incumbent president.

Biden is done listening to critics.

So the critics in the Democratic Party are saying he should step aside, and he’s thinking, “They were wrong in 2016, they were wrong again in 2020, and they’re wrong again today.”

Of course, the Biden of four years ago is a different one than today’s Biden. Heck, he even seems different from the Biden who nailed the State of the Union address back on March 7. So yeah, people have reason to be freaked out, but the fundamentals of the race haven’t changed. Swapping out a candidate won’t reset the race for the Democrats; it’ll just create strife and ill feelings at a time when we need to be focused on Trump and his Project 2025 agenda. And much of what I wrote pre-debate about why Biden is not looking as bad as the polls indicate? It still holds up today.

Democrats have been overperforming polling since 2020. That includes 2022, when everyone declared that a red wave was inevitably going to sweep Democrats out of power in Congress, state houses, and state legislatures across the country. That certainly didn’t happen. And in regular and special elections, Democrats continue to overperform. Meanwhile, Trump underperformed his polling during the contested part of the Republican primary season.

Even globally, the far right has underperformed polling and expectations in India, Poland, and most recently, in France. (The right was swept out of office in the United Kingdom, but that was well predicted by the polling.) We’re consistently seeing that when facing right-wing authoritarian fascism, voters turn out in greater numbers than predicted, no matter what the polls say.

None of that means Biden is a shoo-in, but we’re not facing a calamitous situation. Indeed, Biden’s chances of winning in 538’s election model have inched up in recent days, to 54%. That’s a coin flip, within the margin of engagement. That was true before the debate, it’s true after the debate, and it will be true after the Republican convention and even the Democratic one.

The winner of the 2024 presidential election will come down to which side out-hustles the other one on the ground, turning out their vote in just a handful of battleground states. There isn’t a single potential candidate (pie-in-the-sky nominee Michelle Obama doesn’t count) that would significantly change the dynamics of this race. The country is locked into hyperpartisanship so strong that few people’s minds will be changed by anything—not even the attempted assassination of one of the candidates. (It’s true: Trump got zero bump.)

With Biden fully committed to his reelection campaign, it serves little purpose for senior Democrats to continue undermining the sitting president. You don’t have to like it (most don’t), you can think it sucks (and you might be right!), but Biden is holding all the cards. We either get back to focusing on Trump and Project 2025, or we give Trump a big assist in his bid to reoccupy the Oval Office.

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