Corrections

Trump offers 'proof' of award he never received

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include The Oakland Press' correction that Donald Trump was not honored with the "Man of the Year" award, but "Man of the Decade" in 2013.

Trump is claiming — for a fourth time — that the state of Michigan honored him with the "Man of the Year" award.

“I've had a recent thing, where an [ex-President Barack] Obama disciple — his name is Peter Baker — he said that I would go around saying that I was honored here years ago, or whatever," Trump said during an appearance at the Detroit Economic Club Thursday. This was many years before I ran for president — maybe 18 or 20 years ago. He made the statement that I was never honored here, which was quite insulting, actually. I didn't remember the specifics of it. But he said it never took place."

The GOP nominee continued, "Very much like Kamala. She said she worked at McDonalds, and she didn’t. And I didn’t want to get into that, so what I did is, I asked my people, ‘You gotta find it.’ It was a long time [ago] but I was honored. And guess what? They found it. I was. Right here. That was a long time ago. It says 'Oakland party GOP to honor Donald Trump.'"

READ MORE: Trump's Michigan con: Why his supporters keep falling for it

Journalist Justin Baragona responded to the former president's claim via X, writing, "Trump claims he finally has proof that he won the ‘Michigan Man of the Year’ award. The proof? A 2023 article in a local paper that features the Oakland County GOP exec director saying the group gave Trump a ‘Man of the Year’ award in 2013."

The journalist also notes, "While that article, which reported on the Oakland County GOP preparing to give Trump a 'Man of the Decade' award, quoted a local GOP official claiming Trump was named Man of the Year in 2013, those in attendance at that event said he never received that honor."

CNN reported in that Trump lied during a Detroit rally in June, "for the third consecutive presidential election," saying "You know, I got the ‘Man of the Year’ in Michigan. Years ago, long before politics, like 12, 13 years ago."

READ MORE: Trump bails on interview when challenged on Michigan 'crime wave' stats: local newspaper

The news outlet fact-checked the ex-president's claim, reporting:

Trump’s claim remains false. Nobody has ever been able to find any evidence that he was ever named 'Man of the Year' in Michigan before he ran for president. The state itself does not give out a 'Man of the Year' award; Trump has never lived in Michigan; and he has never specified who supposedly gave him this award and when.

The 2013 article — which was published by The Oakland Press — now has an editor’s note at the top “setting the record straight," according to NBC 4 WCMH-TV.

"Trump was the keynote speaker at the 2013 dinner in Novi, which drew a record crowd. He was not honored as Man of the Year. During the 2023 dinner, Trump was honored as the Man of the Decade which was reported in the 2023 story," the note says. "We’re setting the record straight after the former president incorrectly cited the 2013 Man of the Year award during a recent speech to the Detroit Economic Club."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Trump so 'obsessed' with RFK Jr. gossip he almost taunted reporter’s ex-fiancé on Truth Social

Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that Ryan Lizza and Olivia Nuzzi are no longer engaged.

The news of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s alleged affair with a journalist reportedly captured former President Donald Trump's attention so much he almost made a post taunting the journalist's former husband-to-be, according to new reports.

In a Friday article for the Daily Beast, Trump is described as being "obsessed" with the news that RFK Jr. — the 70 year-old former independent presidential candidate who is now on Trump's transition team — was sexting with 31 year-old New York Magazine star political correspondent Olivia Nuzzi. RFK Jr. has denied any affair took place, and Nuzzi has insisted their relationship was never "physical," though she remains on leave from New York.

In the wake of Nuzzi's alleged racy texts with RFK Jr. (who is married to Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines), her fiancé, Politico chief Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza, broke off their engagement, ending their roughly two-year relationship. Puck News reported that Trump almost taunted Lizza in a post to his Truth Social account, which he ultimately refrained from publishing.

READ MORE: (Opinion) Could RFK Jr. be Trump's Project 2025 liaison? Asked to 'help pick' government officials

"I’m told that Trump almost posted to Truth Social, his social media platform, 'My condolences to Ryan Lizza…' But ultimately, he demonstrated better judgment, realizing it wouldn’t help his newest surrogate, RFK Jr," Puck's Tara Palmeri wrote.

A Vanity Fair article from Thursday described a call in which Lizza confronted RFK Jr. about the alleged affair, with the publication reporting that the call became "heated" at times. Lizza has so far not publicly commented on the affair aside from referring to Nuzzi as his "former fianceé" in Politico Playbook, which he co-authors.

Top Trump ally Corey Lewandowski reportedly didn't exercise the same level of discretion in a post of his own, who tweeted and later deleted a post about the affair in which he shared reporter Oliver Darcy's article exposing the news. Mediaite reported that it wasn't immediately clear whether Lewandowski was ordered to take down the post by the Trump campaign, or if he did so of his own volition.

According to Puck's report, Trump followed up with RFK Jr. to ask about the details of the relationship, and if Nuzzi ever went beyond sending what have been described as "demure" nude photographs. The outlet reported that "a source with direct knowledge" said Kennedy "denied the whole thing."

READ MORE: 'Real potential blunder': How RFK Jr.'s campaign is 'now evidently hurting Trump'

“He said he hardly knows her," the source said. "He said he met her one time.”

The scion of the Kennedy dynasty has maintained that he only had one in-person encounter with Nuzzi, when she interviewed him for a story he later described as a "hit piece." An internal review of Nuzzi's reporting by New York Magazine reportedly found "no evidence of bias" in her coverage, though Vanity Fair reported that several of her colleagues say her continued employment at the outlet is "untenable."

Click here to read the Beast's report. Vanity Fair's report can be read in full by clicking here. The Puck report can be read here (subscriptions required).

READ MORE: 'Whole thing is an epic fraud': RFK Jr. official admits goal is to elect Trump

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'Depressed and unhappy': Trump posts late-night, all-caps rant directed at women

Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that Trump is up to 13 points behind Harris specifically among women voters.

Late on Friday night, former President Donald Trump hammered out a 181-word post on his Truth Social platform in his signature all-caps style, targeted at "DEPRESSED AND UNHAPPY" women who are "THINKING ABOUT ABORTION."

The 45th president of the United States — who is behind Vice President Kamala Harris by as much as 13 percentage points among women according to an August poll by Reuters/Ipsos — insisted that he was the better candidate for women in the lengthy post. He specifically argued that four years ago, when the country was fully in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic and the global economy was in tatters, women were better off.

"WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS SAFE ON THE STREETS THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE MORE DEPRESSED AND UNHAPPY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, AND ARE LESS OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT IN THE FUTURE THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO," the former president wrote. "I WILL FIX ALL OF THAT, AND FAST, AND AT LONG LAST THIS NATIONAL NIGHTMARE WILL BE OVER. WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE!"

READ MORE: Trump's Truth Social stake down by $6.5 billion — on day he's allowed to start selling

Trump then insisted that women would no longer be preoccupied with abortion, arguing that the overturning of Roe v. Wade (assisted by three Supreme Court justices he appointed) made reproductive freedom a states' rights issue. However, he did notably double down on abortion restrictions in the third trimester — which account for less than 1% of all abortions nationwide — and repeat the baseless lie that Democrats are executing babies after birth.

" I WILL PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE. THEY WILL FINALLY BE HEALTHY, HOPEFUL, SAFE, AND SECURE," he continued. "THEIR LIVES WILL BE HAPPY, BEAUTIFUL, AND GREAT AGAIN!"

The ex-president's Friday night rant was posted as his opponent hosted rallies in the battleground states of Georgia and Wisconsin focused on abortion rights. During her Georgia event, the vice president spoke about the death of a pregnant woman who died of sepsis after more than 20 hours of doctors refusing to treat her for an infection. Because abortion is outlawed in Georgia, any physician who performs the procedure could face a lifelong prison sentence. Harris argued abortion bans have a chilling effect on doctors who are afraid to do anything to help pregnant patients out of fear of being prosecuted.

“One in three women in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said at the Atlanta rally. “This includes Georgia and every state in the south except Virginia."

READ MORE: Debate could make Trump's 'double-digit' deficit with women even worse — here's why

"Think about that when you also combine that with what we know has been long standing neglect around an issue like maternal mortality," she added. "Think about that when you compound that with what has been long standing neglect of women in communities with a lack of the adequate resources they need for health care: prenatal, during their pregnancy, postpartum."

While Trump argued that the question of abortion is now "WITH THE STATES, AND A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE," it's worth noting that since Roe's fall in 2022, every single state has voted in favor of abortion rights when it came up on the ballot. This includes deep-red states like Kansas, Kentucky and Montana in 2022, and Ohio in 2023. Voters will be deciding the issue this November in Trump's newly adopted home state of Florida.

Click here to read Trump's full Truth Social post.

READ MORE: 'Where you been?' Harris rips GOP 'hypocrites' on abortion in fiery speech

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CNN host smacks down Ohio GOP AG live on-air after he downplays bomb threats targeting Springfield

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story misspelled "bomb" in the headline.

Dave Yost, the Republican Attorney General of Ohio, took a shellacking Monday afternoon after a CNN host debunked some of his claims made in support of Donald Trump’s lies that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating residents’ pets, including cats and dogs, as well as geese. Yost also downplayed the bomb threats in Springfield that have closed public schools for days, saying he has no information on who is responsible, and suggesting it could be someone from anywhere in the world.

Donald Trump’s lie that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating pets has been refuted and debunked by the Republican Governor of Ohio, and the city’s mayor and city manager, along with local law enforcement.

But Yost wrongly insisted that there are credible reports that have been called in to city officials, claims he made days ago on social media that were quickly also debunked.

“There’s a recorded police call from a witness who saw immigrants capturing geese for food in Springfield. Citizens testified to City Council. These people would be competent witnesses in court. Why does the media find a carefully worded City Hall press release better evidence?” Yost asked on X last Wednesday.

READ MORE: Trump Repeatedly Blames Biden, Harris for Assassination Attempt Allegedly by Another GOPer

AG Yost over the weekend also weighed in on the alleged 20,000 Haitian immigrants (city officials estimate 12,000 to 15,000) who now live in Springfield.

“There’s not a town in America that could absorb a quarter to a third of its population of new immigrants. Don’t buy the shrill ‘debunking’ by the leftist media outlets that desperately want to shut down this debate just weeks before voting starts,” he wrote on X, appearing to use his office to make a political statement.

Yost is perhaps most well–known for falsely denying that 10-year old rape victim who wanted an abortion had been raped. He also tried to block President Joe Biden from appearing on the November 2024 ballot, and has published 28 statements attacking President Biden or his administration on a wide variety of issues. Among them: COVID and vaccines, abortion, the Supreme Court, the teaching of history in public schools, and election laws. Yost also signed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to disenfranchise the votes of thousands of Pennsylvania voters.

On Monday, CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked Yost how concerned is he about the bomb threats that have shuttered schools and other government facilities, including city hall and a motor vehicle office.

“Look, in Ohio, a bomb threat, particularly one that disrupts something like a school, is very serious crime. It’s felony, and my message is, whoever is responsible, knock it off,” Yost replied. “So let’s understand what there really is no evidence of, which is that these bomb threats are coming domestically. They might, they might not. That’s why we have investigations.”

READ MORE: ‘Hell Isn’t Hot Enough’: Fury at Trump as More School Evacuations Follow ‘Pet-Eating’ Lies

Keilar also told Yost, “So you’ve been tweeting about this controversy, giving credence to what is so far and after quite a lot of investigation and unsubstantiated allegation that Haitian migrants are eating people’s pets in Springfield as well as waterfowl in public places there, and local authorities have investigated both, and they have found nothing to support that. The mayor says this is the case. Do you think the mayor is lying?”

“No, my comment, and by the way, most of my tweets have been about the impact, the real impacts on this town, but my tweet was about the media’s disregard of citizen interactions, citizen reports with their government,” Yost replied, despite the citizen reports having been debunked.

Yost went on to complain about the increase in the number of school children in Springfield needing translators.

Later, he complained, “I’m trying desperately to bring attention to the very serious issues, that’s mostly what I’ve been talking about. You’re the one that’s taking one tweet and trying to make a national news story out of it. How much time have we spent on this? In this interview?” he asked.

“It’s not my tweets, sir, it’s your tweets,” Keilar replied.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Black Trump supporter sues Florida Republican group alleging supervisor called him 'a slave'

Editor's note: This headline has been updated.

Carl Baxter — a supporter of former President Donald Trump and a Republican activist in Fort Myers, Florida — is suing a major Republican group and accusing its leadership of using racist language.

According to local ABC affiliate WZVN, Baxter is suing Americans for Prosperity (AFP), alleging his supervisor used racially insensitive language during recent canvassing operation. Baxter's suit claims that while on a call with an AFP staffer, she repeatedly referred to Baxter, who is Black, as "a slave."

"I know you are doing the work and I can see the doors that you are hitting on my iPad on my side. At least you are working as a slave (sarcastically) but at least you are getting paid, many slaves today do get paid, many used to never get paid," she is accused of saying. "Are you a slave?"

READ MORE: 'I'll vote for Biden': Top Koch group official rebels against Nikki Haley endorsement

Baxter, who is the president of the Republican Club of North and East Fort Myers, is also accusing another AFP member of attempted bribery. While the two were at a restaurant in downtown Fort Myers, an unnamed AFP deputy grassroots director offered him "$500 in bribe money to provide 'dirt' on Cape Coral city council member Patty Cummings." Baxter declined the money.

James Muwakkil, who is the president of the Lee County, Florida branch of the NAACP, said that given Baxter's reputation as a "non-reactionary person," his lawsuit likely has merit.

"The surprise is that we’re still having to fight these battles that should’ve been won way back when the Civil War ended," Muwakkil told WZVN.

Other prominent Republican activists in the area are already distancing themselves from AFP. Lee County Republican Party executive committee member Elaine Green told the outlet that the group has since been "taken over" by an unwelcome faction of the GOP.

READ MORE: Koch network pledges 'full support' of 'unmatched grassroots army' to stop Trump in GOP primary

"My husband and I used to make big donations to Americans for Prosperity," Green said. "They are the original open borders, people in Chamber of Commerce, everything opposite of what we want... Less government less intrusion."

AFP — which is funded in large part by far-right billionaire Charles Koch — has faced controversy elsewhere in this election cycle. After the group endorsed former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, one of the group's top officials in New Hampshire revolted, even threatening to vote for President Joe Biden out of protest.

The AFP members named in the suit did not offer comment.

Click here to read WZVN's full report.

READ MORE: Former RNC chair explains why Nikki Haley doesn't fill MAGA Republicans' 'thirst for retribution'

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Dems’ new swing state ad blitz wants voters to 'hear every single day' about Project 2025

Editor's note: A previous version of this story erroneously stated that a key feature of Project 2025 included "ramping up Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have a beefy force of several hundred thousand agents to round up, detain and deport undocumented immigrants." This statement has hence been removed. AlterNet regrets the error.

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has been pushed to be more policy-oriented. Now, a major new blitz of ads in battleground states is aimed at educating voters about the most extreme policies that could become reality if her opponent wins in November.

According to the Hill, Harris is now running an ad in several major battleground states tying former President Donald Trump to the far-right Heritage Foundation's controversial Project 2025 initiative. The ad refers to the document as "a 922-page blueprint to make Donald Trump the most powerful president ever," and says it would give Trump "unchecked power to seek vengeance" against his political enemies.

"Donald Trump may try to deny it, but those are Donald Trump's plans," a voiceover says in the ad. "He'll take control. We'll pay the price."

READ MORE: 'He is on our side': Org behind Project 2025 boasts repeatedly about close ties to Trump

Between Labor Day and November 5, the Harris campaign said it hopes to make sure voters in swing states "hear every single day about the existential danger Trump’s Project 2025 agenda poses to American democracy, freedom, and the middle class." The ads are part of the campaign's previously announced $370 million ad spend on both broadcast television and on digital platforms (like YouTube, Spotify and other services).

Democrats' Project 2025 ad blitz will primarily target voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, whose electoral votes will likely decide the victor of the November election. However, the Hill reported that the ad will also air in Palm Beach County — a strong Democratic area that also happens to house Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

This could suggest that the Harris campaign is hoping to flip Florida despite the Sunshine State reelecting Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) by decisive margins just two years ago. Trump's campaign is also spending money on ads in Palm Beach County, which a Democratic consultant argued earlier this week was a signal that Democrats could be in "landslide territory."

People magazine described Project 2025 as "a far-right, Christian nationalist vision for America that would corrode the separation of church and state, replace nonpartisan government employees with Trump loyalists and bolster the president's authority over independent agencies" in a comprehensive write-up earlier this year. Trump has publicly sought to distance himself from it in multiple posts on his Truth Social platform and on the campaign stump, though Democrats spent a bulk of their nominating convention last week calling attention to "Trump's Project 2025" in an effort to more closely tie him to it.

READ MORE: Harris campaign announces largest single ad buy 'in the history of American politics'

The Heritage Foundation has somewhat undermined Trump's efforts to claim ignorance of the initiative and the people behind it. Various fundraising emails and posts on its website have boasted about the group's close ties to Trump's first administration. Even Trump himself was seen addressing a Heritage gathering in 2022 and lauding them as a "great group" that is "going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do."

Among the more controversial policies in the document include abolishing the Department of Education and implementing a national anti-abortion coordinator to assemble a database tracking pregnancies. But a key portion of the plan is to staff federal agencies with tens of thousands of MAGA loyalists who will replace experienced career civil servants in key decision-making roles.

That portion of Project 2025 relies on Trump passing an executive order known as Schedule F, which would remove various employment protections and allow for a president to have as many as 54,000 direct political appointees compared to the previous limit of roughly 5,000. Trump passed Schedule F during his lame-duck period, but President Joe Biden promptly rescinded it shortly after taking office.

Click here to read the Hill's full report.

READ MORE: Trump again denies Project 2025 — despite Vance writing foreword for chief architect's book

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GOP group claims Kamala Harris is ineligible to be president due to Dred Scott decision

Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that Dred Scott lived in Wisconsin, which was included in the portion of the Louisiana Territory that outlawed slavery.

A prominent Republican group is citing one of the most reviled Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decisions in American history to justify its case that Vice President Kamala Harris should be deemed ineligible to run under the U.S. Constitution.

In an official resolution, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) – a 90 year-old GOP-aligned organization that counted former President Ronald Reagan among its membership — took the position that Harris should not be allowed to hold the office of president, citing several "precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court cases." Among the six cases the NFRA cited was the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857, which is regarded as one of the worst SCOTUS decisions of all time, if not the worst ever.

"Several states, candidates, and major political parties have ignored this fundamental Presidential qualification, including candidates Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Kamala Harris whose parents were not American citizens at the time of their birth," the NFRA's resolution read.

READ MORE: Legal expert reveals the 'only effective way' to hold Supreme Court justices accountable

The resolution — which attorney Andrew Fleischman posted to the social media platform Bluesky — cited Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 5 of the Constitution, which pertains to only natural-born U.S. citizens being eligible to serve as president. The NFRA argued that the phrase "natural born citizen" is defined as "a person born on American soil of parents who are both citizens of the United States at the time of the child's birth."

However, as numerous Bluesky users observed, applying the NFRA's interpretation of that clause would have made multiple U.S. presidents ineligible to hold office, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, among others. Dallas-based attorney Santiago Reich pointed out that because those presidents' parents were born on land classified as British colonies at the time, they would not meet the standard the NFRA set to define natural-born citizenship.

One of the other SCOTUS decisions the NFRA cited in its resolution was the 1939 Perkins v. Elg case, which states: "A child born here of alien parentage becomes a citizen of the United States." Reich called the NFRA "pretty f—ing bold" to cite a decision that undermines their core argument.

Other Bluesky users responding to Fleischman's post further argued that the mere existence of the 13th Amendment (the abolition of slavery), the 14th Amendment (equal protection for formerly enslaved Americans) and the 19th Amendment (universal women's suffrage) make the cases the NFRA cited in its resolution invalid.

READ MORE: 'Loss of trust': Growing chorus of federal judges speak out against 'out of step' SCOTUS

"All of these cases except Perkins v. Elg have been abrogated or are completely unrelated," one user wrote. "Dredd[sic] Scott was overturned entirely by the 14th and its text cannot be meaningfully cited for any reason whatsof—ingever."

The Dred Scott case concerned a slave from Missouri who then lived in the free states of Illinois — which sided with the Union in the Civil War — and Wisconsin (which was initially a part of the Louisiana Territory that did not have slavery due to the 1820 Missouri Compromise). When Dred Scott sued for his freedom, the Supreme Court denied his petition stating that he lacked the standing to sue in federal court.

In the decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney asserted that Article III of the U.S. Constitution made it impossible for the descendants of slaves to have the rights of citizenship. The Supreme Court's own website has since referred to Dred Scott v. Sandford as "a legal and practical mistake."

READ MORE: 'Recklessness' of SCOTUS conservatives may result in 'collapse' of Court: ex-prosecutor

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'Morally and ethically bankrupt': Republican mayor endorsing Harris rips 'out of touch' GOP

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include an additional quote from Giles.

John Giles — the longtime Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona — is not only throwing his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, but he's confronting his party directly for being in thrall to former President Donald Trump.

Both Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz, are campaigning in the Grand Canyon State on Friday night in front of a massive audience of approximately 20,000 supporters in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale. Giles spoke ahead of Harris and Walz to warm up the crowd, and launched right into an attack on both Trump and on his own party.

"As you may know, I'm a lifelong Republican ... I have to tell you, I do not recognize my party," he said. "I have something to say to those of us who are in the political middle: You don’t owe a damn thing to that political party. In particular, you don’t owe anything to a party that is out of touch and hell-bent on taking us backward. And by all means, you owe no loyalty to a candidate who is morally and ethically bankrupt."

READ MORE: Mayor of AZ border town who shared stage with Kari Lake now endorsing Democrat Ruben Gallego

"In the spirit of the great Senator John McCain, please, please join me in putting country over party and stopping Donald Trump and protecting the rule of law, protecting our Constitution and protecting our democracy of this great country," he added.

Earlier this month, Giles — who has been mayor of the city of roughly 400,000 residents since 2014 — announced his support of the Democratic ticket in an op-ed for the Arizona Republic. He notably heaped praise on Biden and Harris for their handling of the economy in his home state, which is considered one of the major issues voters are paying attention to in the 2024 campaign cycle.

"Under the Biden-Harris administration, Mesa has seen historic federal funding for the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, along with investments to make sure our streets and public transit systems benefit from modern technology," Giles wrote. "With the CHIPS Act, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are delivering thousands of new jobs to Arizonans and helping us grow critical industries."

The lifelong Republican also used his op-ed to tear into Trump, ripping the former president for his role in firing up a mob of his supporters on January 6, 2021, who then laid siege to the U.S. Capitol.

READ MORE: 'Out of control': Ex-AZ Republican governor slams MAGA election deniers for 'destroying' GOP

"Trump poses a serious threat to our nation," he argues. "We can’t have a felon representing us on the national stage, let alone one who would threaten to abandon NATO and ruin our standing abroad. We are in a moment that only happens once every few generations, when we have to defend democracy, and stand up for the right to vote and our civil rights."

Giles' endorsement is a major get for the Harris/Walz campaign in the critical battleground state that went for Trump in 2016 and for President Joe Biden in 2020 by just over 11,000 votes statewide. And while the state's coveted electoral votes may play a decisive role in who wins the presidency, Arizona may also determine which party controls both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. In addition to the presidential race, Arizona also has a hotly contested U.S. Senate race between Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) and far-right former news anchor Kari Lake, who has still not conceded her loss in the 2022 gubernatorial race.

Click here to watch the video of Giles' remarks, or by clicking this link.

READ MORE: 'Massive implications for November': AZ Supreme Court upholds 19th century anti-abortion law

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'Real potential blunder': How RFK Jr’s campaign is 'now evidently hurting Trump'

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include an additional quote from Aaron Blake's analysis.

Throughout the 2024 campaign cycle, the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was thought to be beneficial to former President Donald Trump by siphoning support from the Democratic ticket. But an analysis of new polls suggests otherwise.

The Washington Post's Aaron Blake found that, since President Joe Biden left the race in late July, RFK Jr. has been dragging down the Republican ticket. He's not only been sliding in the polls, but his continued presence on the ballot may in fact be more detrimental to the Trump campaign than to Vice President Kamala Harris' candidacy.

Initially, the scion of the beloved Kennedy family — legendary in Democratic Party politics — appeared to be cutting into the Democratic base given both his name recognition and his significant financial resources. Now, Blake writes that the most recent data shows the nephew of the late former President John F. Kennedy "is now evidently hurting Trump" by staying in the 2024 race.

READ MORE: 'Wasted protest vote': Trump unleashes on RFK Jr. after polls suggest appeal to GOP voters

Blake based his argument on a Wednesday poll of American voters from Marquette University. That survey shows the vice president ahead of Trump by a 53-47 margin, with that lead stretching to eight percentage points after lumping in third-party contenders like RFK Jr., Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidate Cornel West, among others.

"Kennedy takes just 3 percent of both Democrats and Republicans in the poll, while taking 13 percent of independents," Blake wrote. "But the independents he takes come at Trump’s expense: Kennedy wins 8 percent of Democratic-leaning independents, compared with 23 percent of Republican-leaning independents."

"If you lump Democratic-leaning independents in with Democrats and Republican-leaning independents in with Republicans, Harris loses just five points from her base in a crowded field (dropping from 95 percent to 90 percent), while Trump loses eight points from his (dropping from 94 percent to 86 percent)," he added. "The initial elevation of Kennedy’s campaign on the right ... is now looking even more like a real potential blunder."

According to Blake, these numbers suggest RFK Jr. is no longer a useful wedge to divide Democratic voters, but is instead a liability to the Trump campaign. Trump may be aware of this, as he attacked the independent candidate in a Truth Social post earlier this year warning that any ballot cast for RFK Jr. would be a "wasted protest vote."

READ MORE: 'Whole thing is an epic fraud': RFK Jr. official admits goal is to elect Trump

"His Views on Vaccines are FAKE, as is everything else about his Candidacy," Trump said in reference to RFK Jr's anti-vaccine crusade. "Let the Democrats have RFK Jr. They deserve him!"

While Trump publicly railed against Kennedy's debunked views on childhood vaccines, he privately expressed agreement with him in footage of a phone call he had with the independent candidate in July. The former president also urged Kennedy to endorse him — something Kennedy notably declined to refuse on the call.

“I would love you to do so,” Trump said, “And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you."

READ MORE: 'We're run by a pedophile ring': RFK Jr. fan called out for conspiracy theories on C-SPAN

Click here to read the Post's analysis in full (subscription required).

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'Mass challenges to voter eligibility': Far-right groups plan widespread election disruption

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect that the cancellation of 400,000 Pennsylvania voter registrations was due to normal list maintenance, not challenges from outside groups.

A collection of GOP-aligned organizations are already hard at work planning to make it harder for predominantly Democratic constituencies to cast their ballots this November.

According to a Wednesday report in tech publication Wired, groups like True The Vote, the Election Integrity Network, Check My Vote and the Nevada-based Pig Pen Project are planning to blitz urban voting precincts in some of the more competitive battleground states this November like Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This initiative is likely to create headaches for voters who may show up to their polling place this fall only to find that their registration was removed due to challenges from one or more of these groups.

“These groups and the broader election denial movement have been building these structures, building these projects, over the course of many, many months and years, in preparation for this moment,” Brendan Fischer, who is the deputy executive director at Documented, told Wired. “And the pieces are finally falling into place, where they can begin to file these mass challenges for voter eligibility.”

READ MORE: Lara Trump says Republicans plan to 'strike' at 'major polling locations' and 'hit things'

"Staffing poll observers, both during early voting and on election day, in addition to mass voter challenges, in addition to conducting citizen research about election conspiracy theories, these are all priorities for them," he added.

Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Lara Trump — who is former President Donald Trump's daughter-in-law — has previously hinted at a well-funded infrastructure put in place to both challenge voter eligibility and to challenge election results themselves. During a Fox Business interview in May, Lara Trump told host Maria Bartiromo that the RNC is ready to engage in a campaign of mass disruption in the weeks following the November election.

"We plan on having attorneys in all of these major polling locations across the country," she said. "We can't wait to litigate something weeks after it has happened. We need to strike at a moment's notice. We want people there on the ready to hit things and hit the ground running when they happen so that we are never seeing 2020 happen ever again."

Pennsylvania Secretary of State press secretary Matt Heckel told Wired that election officials are already constantly working to keep voter lists accurate and up to date, saying that 400,000 registrations were removed in 2023 due to regular list maintenance. He warned that a wave of superfluous challenges from outside groups would only add to what is already a considerable workload.

READ MORE: 'Carry that with me for the rest of my life': PA election worker lives under constant threat

"Challenges which seek to remove voters on the basis of unverified information or a timeline inconsistent with federal law will lead to disenfranchisement, unnecessary litigation, and a harassing diversion of already-stretched county resources," Heckel told Wired.

After losing the 2020 election, former President Trump filed more than 60 legal challenges to election results in various states. He lost all but one of those challenges, and the sole victory involved a negligible number of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania that were rejected on a technicality. Those ballots did not have an impact on the final tally.

READ MORE: Election workers 'scared to death' of threats from 'volatile' conspiracy theorists in 2024

Click here to read Wired's report in full (subscription required).

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JD Vance ridiculed after dolphin-based social media post backfires

Editor's Note: This headline and story have been updated to reflect that there's no definitive proof Sen. J.D. Vance searched for "dolphin porn."

Republican Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), a staunch ally of former president Donald Trump, was the subject of ridicule this weekend after attempting to post a photo on social media that took aim at content that could be found on the internet.

The Ohio senator was mocked on his own social media post because of a picture that he shared which showed a dolphin apparently attempting to mate with a woman.

"Maybe the internet was a mistake," Vance posted Saturday with the picture, which was captioned with: "Woman gets violated by a dolphin and enjoys it."

The problem, according to the commenters, is that the words "woman" and "dolphin" were highlighted in the image, suggesting that whoever took the screenshot apparently searched for those exact terms.

"Damn you, Internet, for showing people things they search for," former journalist Morten Øverbye wrote in response.

"Why you searching for dolphin porn, my guy?" asked user Matt Ortega.

Charlotte Clymer said, "The bolded words indicate the terms you searched to find this."

User Aaron Meyers echoed those sentiments: "Nuclear level self own posting that with your search terms highlighted."

Freelance writer Charlie Cy also chimed in: "Maybe electing a Senator spending his time Meme-Mill-Generating for clicks was a mistake?"

Conservative anti-Trump activist Rick Wilson also had this to say about Vance's post:

"Well, I did not have 'J.D. Vance searches for dolphin porn' on my Saturday night bingo card, but here we are. Rule 34 never fails," he wrote.

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Fox disputes 'massively racist' host’s comment about Harris addressing 'colored' sorority

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include a response from Fox News stating that Kilmeade said "college sorority" instead of "colored sorority," along with tweets from Black journalists disputing Fox's explanation. The headline has also been updated.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade recently made a eyebrow-raising comment on Wednesday's episode of Fox & Friends about Vice President (and now presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee) Kamala Harris.

On Wednesday, Harris — who is a graduate of a historically Black college and a member of the historically Black Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority — will address the Zeta Phi Beta sorority's annual convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. While Harris won't be attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint session of Congress, she will be meeting with him one-on-one prior to the address.

Kilmeade made no mention of Harris' solo meeting with Netanyahu when criticizing her decision to not attend his joint address. And he notably used a decades-old descriptor for Black Americans when describing Zeta Phi Beta.

READ MORE: 'Only viable option': Document calling for Harris to be nominee goes viral among Dem donors

"She will not show up for the Prime Minister's joint session of Congress. She'd rather address — in the summer — a sorority, a colored sorority, like she can't get outta that!" Kilmeade said.

Kilmeade's remark drew widespread criticism from journalists, commentators and others on X (formerly Twitter). Former Pennsylvania Democratic state lawmaker Brian Sims encouraged his followers to "call out this kind of racism every single time you hear it."

"The word 'colored' is a massively racist Jim Crow relic that has no business in anyone’s mouth, especially a white person’s," he tweeted. "Every single time you hear it, it’s wrong. Say so."

Hamilton R. Grant, who is the Democratic nominee for South Carolina's 79th house district, shared his own experience of encountering racism as a Black candidate seeking elected office.

READ MORE: GOP ignores Johnson's plea as reps attack 'DEI hire' Harris

"Black candidates experience racism like you wouldn’t believe," he wrote. "Racist attacks like this is what sparks the very same political violence people condemned a few weeks ago."

Democratic campaign consultant Tim Fullerton opined that Kilmeade's "colored" attack meant that Fox hosts "aren't hiding their racism anymore." MSNBC host Katie Phang called the remark "disgusting." SiriusXM radio host Zerlina Maxwell quote-tweeted the video of Kilmeade's comment and simply wrote, "wow."

Julie Roginsky, whose bio describes her as a "former Fox News and CNBC contributor," reminded her followers that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who is former President Donald Trump's 2024 running mate, is also not attending Netanyahu's speech. However, she noted that "Fox won't say a word about his absence or where he might be going instead" because "he is a white man."

In an emailed statement to AlterNet, a Fox News spokesperson disputed that Kilmeade said "colored" and insisted he said "college sorority" instead. The spokesperson pointed out that Politico correspondent Eugene Daniels — who first drew attention to Kilmeade's comment — deleted his initial tweet.

READ MORE: Kentucky's Andy Beshear 'auditions' for Kamala Harris' running mate

"Eugene Daniels’ now deleted tweet completely misquoted and unnecessarily maligned Brian Kilmeade who clearly said college sorority," the spokesperson said.

Daniels wrote in a subsequent tweet that he spoke to the network — who assured him that executives would speak to Kilmeade off the air — and that he chose to "take Brian and his team at their word." However, two other Black journalists cast doubt on Fox News' explanation. Both Touré and April Reign tweeted that they both heard "colored" instead of "college," and that "college sorority" was superfluous phrasing.

"Are there non-college sororities? There would be no need for him to clarify college sorority as opposed to non-college sorority. I heard colored," Touré wrote. "But either he's a moron who says racist things (Fox) or he's a marble-mouthed word garbler which is unacceptable in a broadcaster."

"He said 'colored.' 'College sorority' is redundant and them trying to save face," Reign tweeted. "No need to belabor it."

READ MORE: 'What about white females?' GOP rep calls Kamala Harris 'a DEI hire'

Watch the video of Kilmeade's remarks below, or by clicking this link.

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Dems 'slept-walked into Armageddon' as Trump coalesced GOP into 'wholly owned subsidiary of MAGA'

Editor's Note: This story and headline has been updated.

Some Never Trump conservatives have long since left the GOP, while others are still registered Republicans but are no longer influential in their party. And some conservatives who were critical of former President Donald Trump in 2022 and 2023 have given him lukewarm endorsements, including House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.

According to Politico's Jonathan Martin, the assassination attempt that Trump survived in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon, July 13 is likely to quell the small amount of opposition to Trump that remains in the Republican Party.

Martin warns Trump's "GOP critics have retired, lost, died, capitulated or fallen silent as the former president has all but made the Party of Lincoln a wholly owned subsidiary of his MAGA movement."

"The complete and total, to borrow a phrase, realignment of the GOP into the Party of Trump was nearly complete after he avoided being seriously challenged, let alone defeated, through the primaries," Martin explains in an article published on July 15 — the opening day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. "But it was cemented in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Trump escaped death and seconds later rallied his stunned audience to forge a bond few American presidents have enjoyed with their supporters."

READ MORE: Progressives condemn GOP attempts to blame Biden for Trump rally shooting

Martin adds, "With that instant moment of political iconography, Trump is well-positioned to stifle what little intra-party dissent remains in the GOP. More worrisome for his opponents, and perhaps the country, the shooting and his defiant response will strengthen his case for a brand of strongman politics to which our democracy had mostly been immune."

Two days before the assassination attempt, Trump hosted far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — often described an authoritarian strongman by critics — at Mar-a-Lago.

The Politico reporter notes that previously, Haley said she wouldn't be attending the convention — but following the assassination attempt, has indicated that she will be there.

"Haley was not only the former president's last standing GOP opponent this year, she was also a symbol of opposition from the pre-Trump party," Martin explains. "For months after she dropped out of the race, she still claimed tens of thousands of votes in state after state, as Republican holdouts registered their discontent with the presumptive nominee."

"Instead of spending Biden’s first term determining who could block Trump’s return, they slept-walked into Armageddon," Martin said. "Democrats are now attempting to compress what should have been a three-year-long conversation into three weeks, the summer of the election. And they’re speaking in existential terms about the stakes."

READ MORE: Assassination attempt likely to make Trump voters even more energized: experts

Read Politico's full report at this link.


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Matt Gaetz one of top congressmen exploiting 'ridiculous loophole' in new expense format

Editor's note: A previous version of this article said that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was the reimbursement program's top 2023 spender. The Washington Post's original analysis was based on data release by Congress last week. New data reviewed by The Post Tuesday shows that Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) was reimbursed for more than Gaetz was. The headline has also been updated to reflect this new data.

Just last year alone, nearly 75% of the House of Representatives was reimbursed to the tune of more than $5 million on food and lodging expenses incurred while conducting official business. But an anti-corruption watchdog group is sounding the alarm over the system's lack of transparency.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a program the House rolled out last year with bipartisan support to allow lawmakers to submit expenses for reimbursement without having to provide receipts has already been used by 319 members (153 Democrats and 166 Republicans). The program effectively recognizes the "dual duty station" of lawmakers, in that they have to carry out official duties and incur expenses both in their home districts and in Washington, DC, and allows them to be reimbursed with discretionary money used to spend on their own office expenses. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) ranked at the top of the list for reimbursements, getting more than $40,000 back last year for money spent on food and lodging.

Craig Holman — a lobbyist for the non-partisan government transparency group Public Citizen — argued that the new program's "ridiculous loophole" of allowing lawmakers to use the honor system is an open invitation for abuse.

READ MORE: 'Matt sent this to me, and you're missing out': Gaetz allegedly showed nude pics to colleagues

"Clearly it becomes very difficult to tell whether or not it’s a legitimate payment and whether it’s proper," Holman told the Post.

When the program was first rolled out, rules stipulated that the reimbursements couldn't cover mortgage payments, and can only be used for smaller costs like insurance, taxes, maintenance and utility costs. Cassie Baloue, a spokesperson for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) — who bought a 3,000 square foot, $1.2 million home in the northeast quadrant of Washington, DC in 2020 — defended the lawmaker's reimbursements of roughly $19,000 over the course of 2023. She insisted his expenses submitted "reflect the actual cost of working in DC and are signed off by House Administration."

In a statement to the Post, a spokesperson for Gaetz defended the Florida Republican's 2023 expenses, asserting that even though he submitted expense reports on days Congress was not in session, the reimbursements were necessary given the work he conducted in his capacity as a member of the House's Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

"Rep. Gaetz has always complied with House rules regarding congressional reimbursements," the spokesperson said. "In 2023, Rep. Gaetz dedicated significant time to his work on the Weaponization Subcommittee, requiring his presence to be in Washington, D.C., on days often when there were no votes, which incurred additional reimbursement expenses to conduct depositions."

READ MORE: Jon Stewart blasts 'dumbest thing' about 'cartoonishly corrupt' senator's alleged crimes

The program was initially set up to help lawmakers offset the costs of having to simultaneously maintain two residences — one in the nation's capital and one in their home districts — as many members of Congress opted to sleep in their offices and bathe in government buildings. Former Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Mississippi), who used to chair the House Administration Committee, told Politico last year that he still couldn't afford DC's sky-high rents even on his $174,000 Congressional salary.

"My view has always been that you shouldn’t have to be independently wealthy to serve in the United States House of Representatives," Harper said.

Additionally, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida), who is the youngest member of the House of Representatives at age 26, said $174,000 still wasn't enough to even rent an apartment. He added that a prospective landlord was unmoved when Frost showed documentation proving that he was a member of the House.

"Just applied to an apartment in DC where I told the guy that my credit was really bad. He said I’d be fine. Got denied, lost the apartment, and the application fee,” Frost tweeted a month after he was elected. “This ain’t meant for people who don’t already have money.”

READ MORE: Watch: 'Furious' Gen Z lawmaker delivers blistering remarks to GOP following Nashville school shooting

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'Directly threatening': Alito’s security parked in front of liberal neighbor’s home amid dispute

Editor's note: The spelling of Emily Baden's last name in the sixth paragraph has been corrected.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's neighbor — who reportedly displayed a sign that made the Alitos respond by flying of an insurrectionist flag outside the judge's Alexandria, Virginia home — is now accusing the conservative jurist's private security of intimidating behavior.

The Guardian reported Friday that former Alexandria resident Emily Baden said a "large black car" driven by someone on Alito's private security team started parking in front of her mother's house, where she and her husband lived after the dispute began, even though it was several house's down from Alito's. The car first started appearing during former President Donald Trump's lame-duck period after he lost the 2020 election, before President Joe Biden was inaugurated.

"“This happened a handful of times,” Baden told the outlet. “I took that as directly threatening.”

READ MORE: Flag outside Alito's vacation home 'literally carried by insurrectionists': J6 investigator

“I couldn’t say who was in the car because of the tinted glass, and nobody ever said anything. I took it as a general threat,” she added. “The message was, we could do terrible things to you, and nobody would be able to do anything about it. When it comes to justices at the supreme court, they make the laws, but the laws don’t apply to them.”

Baden said the car notably started appearing in front of her mother's house around the same time that Baden and Martha-Ann Alito — the George W. Bush-appointed judge's wife — exchanged terse words about lawn signs on the Baden's front yard. One sign read "BYE DON" on one side and "F— TRUMP" on the other. After the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection, Baden displayed another handmade sign that read "TRUMP IS A FASCIST" on one side and "YOU ARE COMPLICIT" on the other. Baden said the latter message was directed at Trump supporters in general and not the Alitos personally, whose house was not visible from the Baden's front yard.

After the New York Times reported recently on the inverted American flag being flown outside of the Alito residence in the days before Biden's inauguration, Baden's husband (who asked to not be identified in the story) confirmed that the black SUV once again parked in front of Baden's mother's home. He told the Guardian that the car showed up in front of their house in 2021 the same night that Emily Baden and Martha-Ann Alito had a shouting match that culminated in Baden shouting an expletive at the Supreme Court justice's wife.

"Right after, a security vehicle moved in front of our house and stayed for the remainder of the night," he said.

READ MORE: Why Alito's response to inverted flag controversy is as troubling as troubling as symbol itself: analysis

Justice Alito has blamed his wife for the kerfuffle over the flag, saying that he personally asked her to take down the flag outside of their home but that she refused. Alito — who voted with other conservative justices to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 — said his wife "makes her own decisions, and I honor her right to do so."

Despite Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin (D-illinois) calling on Alito to recuse himself from cases the Court is currently reviewing pertaining to Trump and the 2020 election, the justice has so far refused. Chief Justice John Roberts has also declined a meeting with Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) over the flag controversy.

Click here to read the Guardian's full report in its entirety.

READ MORE: 'There! Is that better?' Martha-Ann Alito reportedly had a meltdown when asked about flag

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Trump quietly working with Republicans on bill making it impossible for him to be prosecuted

Editor's note: The headline and second paragraph have been updated.

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly laying the groundwork to make it so he can be effectively above the law if elected to a second term this November.

According to a Friday report in Rolling Stone, Trump is reaching out to Republicans in Congress and urging them to pass legislation to make it essentially impossible for local district attorneys and state attorneys general to prosecute him in court. The bill is called the "Stop Political Prosecutions Act," and would shield all former presidents from all non-federal prosecutions by allowing a president to move local and state cases to federal court.

"Even after a second term, he doesn’t think any of this is going to end,” one unnamed Republican lawmaker told Rolling Stone. “He doesn’t think Democrats are going to quit coming after him.”

READ MORE: 'One of the reasons we went': Tuberville admits bizarre reason for attending Trump trial

Earlier this week, Trump made off-the-cuff remarks to reporters gathered outside of the Manhattan courtroom where his ongoing hush money cover-up trial is taking place, and hinted that many of his GOP allies in Congress want to aid his efforts to fend off criminal prosecutions.

“We have a lot of ’em. They want to come," Trump said. "I say, ‘Just stay back and pass lots of laws to stop things like this.'"

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has voiced support for the proposal in an interview with Politico earlier this month. Johnson notably did not say no when asked directly if presidents should have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution.

"I think it’s common sense that you can’t have the president sitting in the Oval Office worried about whether some lawyer or some local DA somewhere is going to go after him," Johnson said.

READ MORE: Michael Cohen predicts Trump will be found 'guilty on all charges' in Manhattan trial

Of course, while federal prosecutions aren't affected by the legislation, Trump himself would be able to handily dismiss federal prosecutions, given that his appointed attorney general would have oversight over the Department of Justice. And there's already a long-standing DOJ policy that prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents, meaning if the legislation were passed then Trump would effectively be granted a permanent get-out-of-jail free card.

Should he win a second term, it's likely whoever Trump appoints to head the DOJ would dismiss the two federal cases brought by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith. And even if either the classified documents trial or the D.C. election interference trial were to return guilty verdicts before November, Trump could still technically be able to pardon himself if he returned to the White House.

However, the former president may have already succeeded in pushing his two upcoming federal trials back until after the November election. The Supreme Court has until the end of its term in June to decide on Trump's argument that presidents should have absolute broad immunity for all acts carried out while in office, meaning U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan likely wouldn't schedule the trial until late August or September, provided the Supreme Court rules against Trump. And U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — who was appointed by Trump to her lifetime position in 2020 — scuttled Trump's initial May 20 trial date, said she might not finish ruling on the backlog of pre-trial motions until late July.

Click here to read Rolling Stone's report in full (subscription required).

READ MORE: Legal experts shocked by 'inconceivable' arguments in Trump immunity case

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Alito tells Fox News story behind his 'Stop the Steal' flag — but critics unconvinced

Editor's note: The spelling of Fox News host Shannon Bream's last name has been corrected.

Justice Samuel Alito on Friday appeared to compound concerns over the bombshell New York Times report revealing a flag associated with the January 6 insurrection and the “Stop the Steal” movement was flying at his house just before Joe Biden was inaugurated and while the Supreme Court was reviewing a 2020 election case.

Alito, whose far-right positions including writing the majority opinion in the Supreme Court case overturning Roe v. Wade, have infuriated and frustrated the left, once again has found himself the subject of apprehension over his impartiality and grasp of ethical norms.

In a rare move, the embattled justice, who now faces strong calls for his ouster, spoke immediately to the news media to address those issues, and revealed the story behind the decision to fly the “Stop the Steal” flag at his home.

Confirming again it was his wife who put the flag up, Alito seemed neither remorseful nor cognizant of the great ethical and credibility violation that act represented.

RELATED: ‘Partisan Insurrectionist’: Calls Mount for Alito’s Ouster After ‘Stop the Steal’ Scandal

“I spoke directly with Justice #Alito about the flag story in the NYT,” Fox News host Shannon Bream reported late Friday morning via social media. “In addition to what’s in the story, he told me a neighbor on their street had a ‘F— Trump’ sign that was within 50 feet of where children await the school bus in Jan 21. Mrs. Alito brought this up with the neighbor.”

“According to Justice Alito, things escalated and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the Jan 6th attacks,” Bream continued.

“Justice Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign. Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language, ‘including the c-word’,” she wrote. “Following that exchange, Mrs. Alito was distraught and hung the flag upside down ‘for a short time’. Justice Alito says some neighbors on his street are ‘very political’ and acknowledges it was a very heated time in January 2021.”

The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol chastised Bream, noting she got Alito’s side of the story without “trying to see how it compares with the accounts and recollections of others involved. If only the anchor had the resources of a ‘news’ channel to seek out the truth!”

Some critics responding to Bream’s report say Alito’s explanation doesn’t make their perception of his actions — or his wife’s – any more reasonable.

Former George W. Bush administration official Christian Vanderbrouk commented, “Sam Alito is unapologetic for desecrating an American symbol as part of a neighborhood feud.”

READ MORE: Why Are One in Five GOP Voters Still Voting for Nikki Haley Over Donald Trump?

“Interesting claims by Alito,” attorney Robert J. DeNault remarked. “Not sure it’s reasonable to think any person would react to a neighbor disagreeing — even crassly or rudely — over Trump by hanging an American flag upside down. Does not feel credible to contend Alito’s upside flag was divorced from MAGA symbolism.”

“Alito speaks to Fox about New York Times report, continues to attribute it to his wife, but does not explain why his wife’s reaction to a ‘fuck Trump’ sign and being insulted was to hang an American flag upside down in the days after Jan. 6.” observed CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere. “Suburban neighborhood disputes happen all the time – over lawn care, noisy children, Christmas lights… all sorts of things. Not many instances of an escalated response being a now very politicized symbol of military distress.”

“Friendly reminder the entire GOP and Fox News is screaming on practically a daily basis that Judge Merchan needs to recuse because of the work his adult daughter separately does,” national security attorney Brad Moss offered. “But yeah, this is no biggie.”

READ MORE: ‘Long History of Playing Games’: Biden Campaign Shuts Down Trump’s Tantrum

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Tuberville slammed for berating 'supposedly American citizens' in Trump hush money courtroom

Editor's Note: This headline has been updated.

Monday morning, May 13 marked an important point in former President Donald Trump's hush money/falsified business records trial when Michael Cohen — Trump's former personal attorney and fixer — was called as a witness for the prosecution and detailed his role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Meanwhile, outside the Lower Manhattan courtroom, MAGA Republicans voiced their support for the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee — including Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), who angrily railed against the jurors.

Tuberville told reporters, "I am disappointed at looking at the American — supposedly American citizens in that courtroom — that the DA comes in and he acts like it is his Superbowl. And I guess it is. To be noticed."

READ MORE:Eric Trump breaks judge’s rules by attacking witness Michael Cohen from courtroom

The far-right Alabama senator continued, "But that's what's happening in this country. The Republican candidate for president of the United States is going through mental anguish in a courtroom that's very depressing. Very depressing."

Tuberville's comments are receiving a lot of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

Biden-Harris HQ, in a tweet, claimed Tuberville was "suggesting" that the jurors "aren't American citizens."

Under a partial gag order imposed by Justice Juan Merchan during the trial, Trump is not allowed to publicly attack either the jurors or members of the judge's family. But Democratic strategist Ally Sammarco argued, "Trump is now using his spokespeople to attack the jurors."

READ MORE: Jurors were suppressing laughter as Stormy Daniels slammed Trump at trial: George Conway

Activist Jeff Fleischmann posted, "Tommy Tuberville attacks the jurors, suggesting they aren't American citizens, and says they're putting Trump through 'mental anguish.' I should hope so! Good job, jurors!"

DNC War Room observed, "Tommy Tuberville, who endangered America's national security by blocking key military promotions for months on end, demands that Trump be treated with 'respect' by referring to him as 'President.'"

READ MORE: 'Unflappable': Legal expert advises Michael Cohen to be like Stormy Daniels on the stand

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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How 'Trump and his people' took 'over state parties across the country': GOP consultancy analyst

Editor's Note: This headline has been updated.

The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson, a Never Trump conservative and former Republican strategist who is rooting for President Joe Biden, was extremely skeptical about the possibility of anyone other than Donald Trump winning the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. And Trump, just as Wilson predicted, is now the presumptive nominee.

Trump's stranglehold on the Republican Party, according to The Guardian's Richard Luscombe, is evident not only at the Republican National Committee (RNC) — where his daughter-in-law Lara Trump is now co-chair — but also, at state GOPs all around the United States.

Dan Judy, a senior analyst for the Virginia-based Republican consultancy firm North Star Opinion Research, told The Guardian, "The big, sort of under-the-radar story in American politics over the last couple of years was the way Trump and his people had taken over state parties across the country. Even early in the primary process, a year and a half ago when (Florida Gov.) Ron DeSantis was riding high and leading a lot of the polls, I was always thinking: Trump has control of the state parties."

READ MORE:'Weakened' DeSantis meets with Trump after brutal GOP primary 'shellacking'

According to Judy, state GOPs have been thoroughly taken over by Trump loyalists.

"He's got his people in, and they are, for lack of a better word, going to attempt to rig the process in favor of Donald Trump," Judy told The Guardian. "If you look at it, that's exactly what happened. A lot of state parties changed their rules to make their primaries winner-takes-all, which absolutely helped Trump — especially as it came down to a one-on-one with Nikki Haley."

Judy continued, "It was clear that she was going to have to win some of these things outright to get any delegates at all, and she couldn't do it. The fact that the Florida GOP has also been completely taken over by Trump folks is really indicative of a trend that has happened everywhere."

Judy cites Gov. Ron DeSantis' unsuccessful presidential campaign as as example of Trump's influence on the Florida GOP.

READ MORE: Why Trump still has a 'Nikki Haley' problem at the ballot box

DeSantis was reelected by a double-digit landslide in 2022, but his followers were disappointed by how badly he performed against Trump as a presidential candidate. And DeSantis eventually ended up dropping out of the race and endorsing Trump.

"As high as (DeSantis) was riding after his huge reelection victory," Judy told The Guardian, "just any hope that he would have had of continuing to be top dog in the Florida GOP went out the window when he failed to get any traction at all in the presidential race. He's not the kind of person who cultivates relationships, who builds relationships, who builds a party, an organization, and an apparatus. He's just not that guy, and if you're going around Florida looking for Ron DeSantis people, there are shockingly few of them."

Judy continued, "But if Donald Trump is reelected, there might be a place in the administration for (DeSantis). If he wants to have a future in the current Republican Party, he cannot be an enemy of Donald Trump. And you're seeing him do the things that he needs to do to remain in good standing.”

READ MORE: Watch: George Conway hopes Nikki Haley won’t make a 'devil’s bargain' with Trump

Read The Guardian's full report at this link.


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Alito leaving SCOTUS 'out on a limb' with 'puzzling' judicial approach: legal experts

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story attributed a quote by Neil Siegel to Sherif Girgis. The article has been updated.

During his 18 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito has been known as a tough-on-crime jurist.

But NBC News legal reporter Lawrence Hurley, in an article published on May 12, reports that some legal experts believe that Alito is expressing more sympathy for criminal defendants if the person is former President Donald Trump or Trump supporters facing January 6, 2021-releated charges.

"Alito, appointed in 2006 by Republican President George W. Bush, has a reputation for being the justice on the Court most hostile to criminal defendants," Hurley explains. "Earlier in his career, he was a U.S. attorney in New Jersey and held several other positions in the Justice Department. He sides with defendants less frequently than any of his eight colleagues, according to numbers crunched by Lee Epstein, a political scientist at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law."

READ MORE:The Supreme Court’s farce — and Mike Johnson's absurd demand

Hurley continues, "But in several recent oral arguments in some of the most contentious cases currently before the Court, Alito has notably raised questions about the Justice Department's decisions to prosecute certain cases, expressed sympathy for Trump's argument that former presidents should be immune from prosecution, and aired concerns about gun owners being charged."

Neil Siegel, a law professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, believes that Alito has some major contradictions where criminal justice is concerned.

Siegel told NBC News, "It's really quite puzzling that the most pro-government, anti-criminal-defendant justice is the one who, when it comes to President Trump being a criminal defendant, is willing to slander the career attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice."

In a recent article, Yale University law professor Kate Stith wrote that Alito is showing an "aversion to reasoning that will leave the Supreme Court.... out on a limb, in a place that threatens to undo social understanding and order."

READ MORE: Legal experts shocked by Supreme Court’s 'inconceivable' arguments in Trump immunity case

Sherif Girgis, a former Alito clerk who now teaches at Notre Dame Law School, believes that Alito's approach to criminal justice "raises extremely unusual constitutional questions."

Siegel similarly describes Alito as "the most MAGA Republican justice," adding, "and that is a horrible, horrible thing to say about any jurist."

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Read Lawrence Hurley's full NBC News article at this link.


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'Ambidextrous' Trump tells Telemundo his 18-year-old son is 17

Editor's Note: This headline has been updated.

Donald Trump, who frequently boasts about “ac[ing]” a “tough” cognitive test, “misstated the age of his youngest son” in a Telemundo51 of Miami interview published Thursday, NBC News reports.

In the interview, Telemundo’s Marilys Llanos asked Trump about his reaction to Barron Trump, his youngest son, being selected as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention.

“To me, that’s very cute, because he’s a very young guy and he’s graduating from high school this year,” Trump said. “He’s a very good student, very smart, and I think that’s great.”

“I think it’s very interesting too,” Trump added. “But he’s pretty young, I will say — he’s 17.”

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Barron, NBC News notes, turned 18 in March.

“But, uh, if they can do that, I’m all for it,” Trump continued. “I think, I’m all for it. And he probably would be, knowing him, he’d probably be for it, too.”

Trump’s comments came after he told Llanos he’s “able to put [aside]” his legal problems when it comes to his family.

“I’m able to put it aside and to think about other things,” Trump said. “I’m very ambidextrous, so to speak. I can do a lot of things at one time."

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In addition to describing himself as “very popular in the Republican Party and very popular in the country,” the former president dismissed reports he’s fallen asleep in court during Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s ongoing hush money trial against him.

“I don’t fall asleep, I close my eyes sometimes,” Trump said. “You know it’s very bright in that court, actually.”

“It’s also very cold,” Trump added, telling Llanos he'll sometimes “sit back close [his] eyes" in court.

“At some point I may fall asleep, but I’ll let you know when that is,” Trump quipped.

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“I haven’t fallen asleep, but I probably will,” he added.

Asked for comment about misstating his son's age, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung accused NBC News of suffering "from Trump Derangement Syndrome."

Watch the videos below, via Telemundo, or at this link.





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