Poor Convicted Felon Donald Chump. They have traced the calls and they are coming from inside the house. Zac Anderson (USA TODAY) reports:
President
Donald Trump led an insurgent takeover of the Republican Party. Now one
prominent MAGA dissident believes the same playbook could be used by
conservative critics of the Iran war.
After resigning from the Trump administration
over his opposition to the conflict, Joe Kent has been exploring how to
channel anti-war sentiment into political action. Trump led the MAGA
movement astray with the war, he believes. War critics could take a
lesson from the president and "hijack" the GOP, he told USA TODAY in an
interview.
Kent is at the center of growing MAGA
backlash to the war, which has sparked outrage among some on the right
who believe the conflict clashes with Trump's campaign pledges to avoid
foreign military entanglements. He met with other prominent MAGA war
dissenters last month to plot their next steps.
[. . .]
Trump
has struggled to end the war. He announced a peace deal in June, but it
quickly fell apart amid jockeying over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital
waterway for oil shipments. Iran has continued to threaten shipping in
the strait. Trump said Aug. 18 that the U.S. is not engaged in talks
with Iran amid an ongoing naval blockade, suggesting a stalemate.
The
unpopular war is shadowing the 2026 midterm elections, hurting Trump’s
approval rating and threatening to drag down his party as it seeks to
maintain control of Congress. Just 39% of voters approve of Trump's job
performance in the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls. But Kent
believes the political fallout could extend further, with the war
continuing to be a potent issue in the 2028 presidential contest.
Mr. Chump is sinking. I am guessing all that extra weight does not help him. Max Burns (THE HILL) notes Mr. Chump's sinkage:
In
any normal campaign season, now would be the time President Trump and
his embattled Republican colleagues would be trying to expand their
base. Given a generic congressional ballot that has consistently favored
Democrats by between 6and 11 points,
one would think appealing to the nation's wary centrists and
independents would be a matter of basic political survival for the
Republican Party.
But this is not a normal campaign season, and Republicans aren't led by a president with normal political concerns.
Trump's
continually cratering approval rating reflects just how well his
campaign strategy is working with voters: a Reuters poll released this
week found Trump’s favorability rating at just 33 percent,
a new low for his presidency and down 2 points in less than a month. If
Republicans have a secret plan to fix the country, they are running out
of time for the big reveal.
And
though we have known about this and seen it coming, as Elaine pointed
out in "Time for a good laugh" last night, it is suddenly a surprise to them. Mr. Chump has
been playing intentionally stupid as well -- for months now. But even
he has to face reality -- he is sinking. William Vaillancourt (DAILY BEAST) reports:
Three
Republican candidates endorsed by Donald Trump lost their primary races
on Tuesday, adding to the list of the president’s failed efforts to
sway election outcomes.
Two of the losses were
in the president’s home state of Florida, a week after Mike Lindell came
up well short in his bid for Minnesota governor, and two weeks after
Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles and Michigan Rep. Amir Hassan lost their
seats. All three had Trump’s support.
In
Florida’s 19th congressional district, which includes Naples and Fort
Myers, there was a crowded field to replace Rep. Byron Donalds, who won
his gubernatorial primary on Tuesday. The ten candidates on the ballot
included former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who lost his seat
in 2022 amid scandals, and former New York Rep. Chris Collins, whom
Trump pardoned at the end of his first term after he pleaded guilty to
insider trading and lying to Congress. Trump endorsed neither, instead
opting for Catalina Lauf, a failed Illinois congressional candidate in
2020 and two years later in a different district.
Mr.
Chump's already unable to sleep at night and with the realities that
even he cannot ignore (all these candidates losing after he endorses
them) about his shrinking popularity, I wonder what toll it will take on
his health? He is cranky and grumpy all the time now.
Wednesday, August 19, 2026. Chump and Hegseth continue short changing
the US military, Hegseth makes time to go on the campaign trail (and
ditch his work as Secretary of Defense), Chump's endorsement doesn't
lead to wins on Tuesday night, ICE continues to terrorize, Epstein
continues to circle Chump, and much more.
State Representative Angie Nixon, a
progressive firebrand who ran such an underdog campaign that she could
not afford a single television ad, won the Democratic Senate nomination
in Florida on Tuesday in a shocking upset.
With
her defeat of Alex Vindman, a candidate with establishment backing who
raised more than 16 times as much campaign money, Ms. Nixon, a
democratic socialist, continued the left’s winning streak this year in
Democratic primaries.
Florida had
appeared impervious to the prevailing political winds in recent election
cycles, with Republicans doing exceptionally well in the state in 2022,
in what was otherwise a strong year for Democrats. Ms. Nixon’s
breakthrough victory, and losses by Republicans endorsed by President
Trump in several Florida congressional primaries, suggested that maybe
Florida is no longer quite as immune to national trends.
On Monday, the 60-day period
from the June Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Iran
expired, seemingly rendering that agreement even more dead than it
previously appeared.
This leaves the conflict
between the U.S. and Iran in a sort of limbo, as the sides have not been
attacking each other in recent weeks, but have also not made peace.
Iran
and Oman have, for nearly two weeks, been reportedly close to a deal on
control of the Strait of Hormuz, but no agreement has been announced,
and earlier this week, President Donald Trump threatened to bomb the
U.S. ally Oman.
So, what’s next for the Strait of Hormuz and the broader conflict? Trump provided some clues on Tuesday.
On
Truth Social Tuesday, the president declared that “there are no talks
or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of
Iran.” In addition, Trump said that “The Naval Blockade remains in full
force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water
mines have been removed or detonated.”
A few hours earlier, Trump had posted a graphic to Truth Social, proclaiming the Strait of Hormuz a “New U.S. Territory.”
Per CNBC,
no one but Trump seems to agree that the U.S. now controls the Strait,
nor does it appear to be official U.S. policy to treat the Strait of
Hormuz as a U.S. territory.
Traffic through the Strait remains at a standstill.
Marc
Sievers, who served as ambassador to Oman for most of Trump’s first
term, discussed the situation there and expressed doubts that the U.S.
would actually go through with bombing Oman.
“It’s very
hard for me to imagine [U.S. Central Command] planning bombing raids on
Omani targets when we’ve worked very closely with the Omanis and
developed their ports and so forth for access for the U.S. Navy over a
number of years,” Sievers said in a CNBC appearance this week.
The
U.S. Army is considering pulling back troops from the Middle East as
the impact of the Iran war becomes increasingly evident, according to a
new report.
The Washington Post claimed that the Defense Department has already signaled it might not rebuild struck bases as they were before the war began.
The
outlet went on to detail that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not
ordered a formal review, but the Pentagon's policy office is already
conducting an evaluation. The Joint Staff and the U.S. Central Command
are also considering the possibility.
Brent crude rose above $90 a barrel for the first time since 30 July, and was trading at $91.63 on Tuesday morning.
Angeline
Ong, a senior technical analyst at the investing and trading platform
IG, said: “Trump’s threat to bomb Oman could be the moment the oil
market shifts from pricing a temporary disruption to pricing a prolonged
one.
“If Muscat pulls back from talks with
Tehran, the diplomatic route to restoring normal flows through Hormuz
narrows considerably. That would be a signal to add to energy longs
rather than fade the rally – with roughly a quarter of global seaborne
oil normally passing through the strait, even a small reduction in the
probability of reopening warrants a higher geopolitical premium in
crude.”
At
some point, probably after the Iran War is over, people are going to
examine what took place and they're going to ask -- scholars are going
to ask -- was part of the problem the lack of strong negotiators? Jared
Kushner? Who the hell picked that loser and greedy crook to negotiate
on behalf of the US? Trained negotiators were always an option. As was
a bipartisan panel of former government employees. But Chump kept
insisting upon his son-in-law and his Cabinet.
Scholars will examine the poor results and will look to
see how much blame to hand to those who were supposed to be
negotiating.
A U.S. Navy destroyer suffered a total loss of
power while operating in the South China Sea last month, leaving its
crew without drinkable water, hot meals, working toilets or air
conditioning for four days.
The
USS Benfold was sailing with the George Washington carrier strike group
on July 24 when an “engineering casualty involving its generators”
caused a complete loss of power aboard the ship, according to Cmdr.
Matthew Comer, a spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, per The Washington
Post.
As the Benfold was towed to port in the
Philippines, other ships in the carrier strike group — including the
cruiser USS Robert Smalls — helped supply the destroyer’s crew with
meals. Once ashore, sailors were provided with contracted lodging and
meals away from the ship, Comer told the US Naval Institute News, an
independent military publication, in a statement.
MeidasTouch
has obtained exclusive text messages from a military spouse describing
conditions aboard the USS Carl Vinson that paint a troubling picture of
morale inside the U.S. armed forces as the ship prepares to head back
out on deployment.
In a private
conversation shared with MeidasTouch, the wife of a sailor currently
doing a “work up” aboard the Carl Vinson off the coast, the training and
readiness period ships go through before deploying, described
conditions onboard that she called “insane.” According to her texts,
sailors on the carrier do not have access to warm water to shower, and
the water fountains on the ship have been shut off entirely.
“Yep
my husband is doing a work up right now just off the coast on the Carl
Vinson before he goes back on deployment and they don’t have warm water
to shower and the water fountains are all turned off,” she wrote,
adding, “Like wtf is going on.”
The messages
also reveal that the problem isn’t isolated to one ship or one branch.
In the same conversation, the woman’s friend, who says she is close with
an Air Force Major, relayed that his morale is also cratering.
“I
know it’s happening on more than just one ship too,” the friend wrote.
“One of my close friends is a Major in the Air Force and he told me he
hates his job right now. If he wasn’t so close to his 20 years, he
would’ve quit already. Morale is basically in the shitter across the
board it seems.”
So what's going on? And should Hegseth be in Iowa at a time like this?
Pete Hegseth used an anti-trans slur during a campaign visit to Iowa on Monday.
The
Defense Secretary spoke with veterans at the Iowa State Fair and
honored soldiers killed in Kuwait. During the event, Hegseth spoke on
the anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion policies the Trump
administration has made at the Department of Defense.
[. . .]
The
event was originally scheduled for March, with Hegseth as a special
guest, but was postponed following the deaths of two Iowa soldiers in an
Iranian strike on a Kuwait facility on March 1.
Pete
broke the rule that has governed previous persons who were the
Secretary of Defense by going out and doing partisan campaigns.
Previous people in his position had respected the non-political nature
of the job but this is Pete who now briefs just Republicans in
Congress. This is Pete who is a feather weight and a feather brain.
And he knows he's breaking custom as evidenced by a report from John McCormick (WALL STREET JOURNAL):
“According
to the lawyers, I’m only here in a personal capacity today,” Hegseth
said roughly halfway through what was essentially a 19-minute campaign
speech for Nunn, President Trump, military spending, the Iran war—and
perhaps himself, down the road—in a state that starts the GOP
presidential nomination process.
When Nunn
“asked if I’d come on out here, it was an absolute no-brainer,” Hegseth
said. “We need those reinforcements in Washington, D.C. We need him to
continue to be there.”
Hegseth
said he was there in strictly a "personal capacity," yet he traveled to
Iowa in a taxpayer-funded military aircraft. And media figure Paul
Rieckhoff, who served in the U.S. Army during the Iraq War, is calling
out the visit as highly "inappropriate."
In
a Tuesday afternoon post on X, formerly Twitter, Rieckhoff posted,
"Unprecedented and inappropriate. Not acceptable on any level. [Donald]
Rumsfeld, [Dick] Cheney, [Chucl] Hagel. None of them did this. Or would
have."
Rieckhoff, in his tweet, was referring
to two officials who served in the George W. Bush administration during
the 2000s — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick
Cheney — as well as Chuck Hagel, secretary of defense under former
President Barack Obama. Although Obama led a predominantly Democratic
administration, conservative ex-U.S. Sen. Hagel (R-Nebraska) was a
Republican when he hired him to lead the Pentagon.
Rieckhoff,
who served as a U.S. Army first lieutenant, said of Hegseth's Iowa
visit, "These are lines that have never been crossed. With good reason.
It's bad for our troops, bad for our politics, and bad for our
democracy. Yet they continue to politicize our military like never
before."
Some have taken his Iowa visit to mean he's planning to run for president in 2028.
Former
Fox News personality and all-round macho-man Pete Hegseth wants to be
your next president, according to officials familiar with the
self-proclaimed Secretary of War’s thinking.
Those sources, who spoke anonymously in order to be frank about the Trump Cabinet member’s ambitions, told the Washington Post
that Hegseth’s trip to Iowa on Monday suggests he may very well have
his sights set on the White House. The Defense Secretary, 46, headed out
to stump for GOP Rep. Zach Nunn in the battleground state, where
presidential hopefuls have historically tested their mettle.
He also stumped for Sen. Darline Graham in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina last week.
He
also showed up for congressional candidate Ed Gallrein in his
successful primary run against incumbent Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie
earlier in May. CBS notes that it’s rare for any sitting defense secretary to head out campaigning for candidates.
And
it's rare for someone with as many ongoing scandals as Hegseth to be
traveling around the country campaigning for candidates . . . while the
department he heads is failing troops.
In
a pointed letter obtained exclusively by MeidasTouch, Illinois Governor
JB Pritzker excoriated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over
deteriorating conditions and a near-total lack of transparency
surrounding the USS Abraham Lincoln’s marathon deployment, demanding
written answers within days.
The
letter, dated August 18 and addressed directly to Hegseth at the
Pentagon, lays out in stark terms what Pritzker calls a “profound and
serious threat to the health and safety” of the roughly 5,000 sailors
and Marines aboard the carrier, which has now been at sea for more than
200 days without a single port call since December.
Again,
is this really time for Hegseth to be prancing around the country?
Seems like he should be hunkering down and fixing these problems.
Minnesota's
attorney general sued the governor of Texas on Tuesday, seeking to
compel the extradition of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent
charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting
during the agency's crackdown in Minneapolis.
Attorney
General Keith Ellison is asking a federal judge to bar the sheriff in
Cameron County, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro, and to
order Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign his extradition warrant so that
Minnesota officers can take custody.
Castro was arrested in Texas in May on Minnesota charges of assault
and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 wounding of Julio Cesar
Sosa-Celis. Castro, 52, is accused of firing a gun through the front
door of a Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg with a bullet
that lodged in a child’s bedroom wall. Prosecutors say Castro then
falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer
with a broom handle and a snow shovel.
Former
acting ICE Director Todd Lyons previously said Castro and another ICE
agent lied when they claimed Sosa-Celis had attacked them with a shovel
and broom.
It’s the latest
legal fallout from Operation Metro Surge, the White House’s December and
January push to swell federal authorities to Minneapolis in an attempt
to crack down on illegal immigration and crime. Two Americans, Renee
Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by federal agents as protests ripped
through the state. Minnesota officials have spent months pushing for
more visibility into the violent incidents.
Castro
was arrested in Texas in May. But he has still not been extradited to
Minnesota to face charges, Ellison said Tuesday, despite repeated
attempts from state officials to compel Abbott to greenlight his
extradition.
“Instead of promptly fulfilling
his legal, ministerial duty to execute the governor’s rendition warrant
for Castro, however, Governor Abbot has withheld the warrant and held up
Castro’s extradition for nearly three months,” Ellison told reporters
in a press conference.
Mr.
Ellison and Mary Moriarty, the elected county attorney in Minneapolis,
said that officials in Mr. Abbott’s office told them this week that the
governor did not intend to act on the request to send Mr. Castro to
Minnesota.
Ms. Moriarty’s office believes Mr.
Castro could flee to Mexico if he is released, she said. She cited
unspecified links she said the agent had to that country.
“We do believe he is a flight risk,” she said during a news conference.
Jose
Mejia Hernandez, a man allegedly beaten by ICE agents so brutally that
he suffered a brain bleed, is demanding a probe into what happened to
him, MeidasTouch News reported.
Mejia
Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant, claims that while on his way to work in
Virginia on Aug. 11, he was abruptly chased by two ICE agents and when
they apprehended him, they viciously attacked him and hit him on the
head with either a Taser or stun gun. What ensued was a series of
several confusing, painful days, Mejia Hernandez alleges, where he was
hospitalized, monitored by ICE agents, denied private time with doctors
and kept out of the loop about the severity of his condition. Mejia
Hernandez alleges no one at ICE, nor the hospital where he stayed,
attempted to notify his family that he had been hurt or detained.
A brain bleed? ICE continues to roam the country without any oversight and without any consequences. Li Zhou (HUFFINGTON POST) notes an attempt at oversight on the part of Democrats:
During
a field hearing in Maine on Monday, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)
pressed for answers regarding the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer this past July.
Pingree
revealed during the hearing that the intended target of the immigration
enforcement operation was allegedly Durán Guerrero’s roommate, who did
not have a final order of removal and was the owner of the vehicle.
Previously, the Department of Homeland Security had claimed that agents
were surveilling the “last known address of an illegal alien with a
final order of removal” ahead of officers’ attempts to stop the vehicle.
The ICE officers targeted Durán Guerrero, who also did not have a final
order of removal, after he left the residence they were surveilling,
DHS claimed.
“This shocking revelation and clear
contradiction to what ICE and DHS have been saying about the operation
raises fundamental questions,” Pingree said.
“How is ICE deciding who to target and detain in Maine? What
information are its agents relying on? And is anyone checking whether
that information is complete, or even correct, before armed officers are
sent into our communities?”
For decades, Chump was best pals with pedophile and sex
trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In fact, had Jeffrey not passed away in
2019, they'd probably still be hanging out since we now know that they
were in contact after the 2016 election. (We also now know that Chump
never kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago.) Chump is thought by many to
have been so agreeable to starting the Iran War in the hopes that it
would distract from his Epstein scandal. If so, that really hasn't
worked out for him -- or for his enabler Todd Blanche. Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:
Virginia Giuffre’s 2015 civil lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell is going to be unsealed.
A federal court in Manhattan last week ordered
the public release of the files from Giuffre’s defamation lawsuit
against the accomplice and partner of convicted sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein following eight years of litigation from the Miami Herald,
reported Julie Brown, the investigative journalist for the newspaper
best known for covering Epstein’s crimes.
Maxwell
had been fighting to keep the lawsuit details under wraps, but her
arguments were not enough to convince U.S. District Judge Loretta
Preska, who ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act supersedes the
grand jury arguments Maxwell cited to keep the records sealed.
Giuffre
brought the lawsuit more than a decade ago after Maxwell accused her of
lying about being abused by Epstein, Maxwell, Prince Andrew, Alan
Dershowitz, and other powerful figures. The lawsuit’s discovery process
yielded thousands of pages of documents, including depositions of
Maxwell, Giuffre, and many others, and Brown was told that it contains
more evidence against Epstein, Maxwell, and their accomplices.
Miami
Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, whose reportage is credited with
catalyzing the disgraced financier’s downfall, wrote on her Substack
Tuesday about Manhattan Federal Court Judge Loretta Preska’s decision to
unseal the “voluminous” documents.
[. . .]
Brown
wrote she and The Herald fought a nearly decade-long court battle to
have the documents released, arguing that they weren’t properly sealed.
The case was settled in 2017.
“Judicial
records by law are supposed to be open to the public. In this case, the
former judge (Robert Sweet, now deceased) issued a blanket sealing on
all the documents because they contained “sensitive” and “private”
information,” Brown wrote.
“Sweet placed a
protective order on massive amounts of material, including hearings and
judicial decisions made in the case — and voluminous evidence that
Virginia presented to show that Epstein and Maxwell were operating an
underage sex trafficking operation,” she continued.
“This
is not the way sealing is supposed to happen, however. Each document
that the lawyers want sealed has to be examined, and those requesting it
be sealed must provide legal justification to the judge for doing so.
This wasn’t done in this case.”
In
a wide-ranging interview with NewsNation, former Playboy Playmate Audra
Christiansen detailed the alleged sexual abuse and sex trafficking she
says she endured from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2004.
Christiansen said she was contacted by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator,
who is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for the
trafficking of minor females. Maxwell said that the then-24-year-old
model should meet with Epstein, who had ties to Victoria’s Secret and
could offer her opportunities in the fashion and entertainment industry.
“Basically,
it was like she was pretending to be like an agent or like a manager
that she could introduce me to all of these people. And I kind of
ignored it, because as a model, you get that a lot. You get a lot of
people who contact you and say they can make you a star; that's the big
thing in Hollywood, and I found out that my information had been sold to
her," Christiansen said.
[. . .]
Christiansen
said it was her lifelong dream to be a model and actress, so she
decided to meet with Epstein at a hotel in Los Angeles, which she said
was not unusual in Hollywood.
“I tried
everything I could to protect myself. And he made me feel very
comfortable in that setting. We talked for like an hour, and everything
seemed to be going really smoothly and really great. And I was excited
about the possibilities of what he had to offer,” Christiansen said.
The model explained that Epstein then briefly left the room.
“Then that's when he excused himself to go to the bathroom and came back with a robe, and my life changed,” Christiansen stated.
Christiansen told NewsNation that when Epstein returned, he sexually assaulted her.
“I
think that every woman, we all play through the scenario of 'What ifs?'
in our head, and I had played the 'What if?' so many times in my head,
and I thought I'm a fighter. I'm vocal. I'm a fighter. I'm not somebody
that usually just gives up and submits. And it was really frustrating to
have my brain telling me what to do and to run and to fight back. And
my body just would not move,” Christiansen said.
“It
was like there was a total disconnect from my brain to my body. And that
is the hardest part. And I think it's the hardest part for a survivor
that's gone through that is that we knew we should run. We knew that we
should do stuff, stuff to make it stop. But when you're in that
situation, it's just you freeze,” she described.
After
Epstein allegedly sexually assaulted her, Christiansen said she called
Maxwell to report the abuse. She says Maxwell then threatened her.
“I
called Ghislaine, and I was crying. I was sobbing. That's when she was
the one who was threatening … they get to you. They talk to you. They
find out what your weaknesses are. My weakness was my family, my
parents. My parents meant the world to me,” she said.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of
the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined 25 of her Democratic
colleagues in demanding the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdraw its proposal to roll
back drinking water protections—which, if finalized, would remove
federal public health limits on the amount of certain PFAS compounds in
our drinking water.
The Senators emphasize in a new letter to the EPA that removing these
health limits will expose Americans to unsafe levels of chemicals that
have been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, immune suppression
problems, developmental harm, thyroid disease, pregnancy complications,
and liver damage.
“Safe drinking water is not a partisan issue. Families across
the country expect that when they turn on the tap, their water is safe
to drink. Congress enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure EPA
relies on the best available science to protect public health—not to
weaken existing protections once the science has been established,” the Senators wrote.
Despite the administration touting their ‘Make America Healthy Again’
(MAHA) agenda, if enacted, EPA’s proposal would rescind the 2024
National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFAS and delay
compliance for the PFOA and PFOS standards until 2031 – putting the
health of millions of Americans at risk.
“As far back as the 1950s, scientists observed that PFAS
compounds could accumulate in human bloodstreams. It took decades of
advocacy and heroic scientific research to reach the historic moment in
2024 when EPA finally promulgated the very first national drinking water
standards for PFAS compounds. We cannot afford to go backwards and make
Americans’ health worse,” the Senators concluded.
In addition to Senator Murray, the letter is signed by U.S. Senators
Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public
Works (EPW) Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife Subcommittee, Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the EPW Committee, Tammy Baldwin
(D-WI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Chris Van Hollen
(D-MD), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Edward Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA),
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL),
Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Michael
Bennet (D-CO), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ben Ray Luján
(D-NM), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Elissa Slotkin
(D-MI), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Cory Booker
(D-NJ).
Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:
Dear Administrator Zeldin:
We write in strong opposition to EPA’s proposal to rescind the 2024
National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFHxS, PFNA, GenX, and
the Hazard Index mixtures, while also delaying compliance for the PFOA
and PFOS standards until 2031. These actions would reverse the
first-ever national drinking water protections for six of the most
dangerous and well-studied PFAS chemicals, despite overwhelming
scientific evidence demonstrating that there is no safe level of
exposure to many of these chemicals. Furthermore, there is a strong
case to be made that this proposal contravenes the Safe Drinking Water
Act’s anti-backsliding provision.
The agency’s proposal is inconsistent with both the scientific record
and EPA’s own prior findings. The 2024 drinking water standards
followed years of scientific review, public input, and economic
analysis. EPA concluded that the standards would protect up to 105
million people from exposure to toxic PFAS in drinking water, prevent
thousands of premature deaths, reduce tens of thousands of serious
illnesses, and generate billions of dollars in public health benefits.
PFAS contamination is one of the most widespread public health
concerns facing our nation. Nearly every American has PFAS in their
blood, and millions of people continue to rely on drinking water
contaminated with these persistent chemicals. Exposure to PFAS has been
linked to kidney and testicular cancer, immune suppression,
developmental harm, thyroid disease, pregnancy complications, and liver
damage.
EPA has repeatedly stated that protecting Americans from PFAS is a
top priority. Yet these proposed rollbacks move in the opposite
direction. In addressing revisions to drinking water regulations, the
Safe Drinking Water Act itself states that “each revision shall
maintain, or provide for greater, protection of the health of persons.”
Rather than strengthening protections, the
proposal eliminates enforceable standards for four PFAS entirely and
delays protections for the two most prevalent PFAS. Communities living
with contamination should not be forced to wait additional years for
clean drinking water while polluters and regulated entities receive
regulatory relief.
Your agency has suggested that regulating only PFOA and PFOS is
sufficient because these chemicals are often found alongside other PFAS.
However, EPA’s own scientific record demonstrates otherwise. Other PFAS
occur independently, contribute to cumulative health risks,
and warrant their own enforceable protections. Removing standards for
these contaminants will leave significant gaps in public health
protections and create unnecessary uncertainty for water systems and
states that have already begun compliance planning.
Moreover, many utilities and states have already invested substantial
resources to comply with the 2024 standards using Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law funding and other federal assistance. Weakening the
standards now undermines those investments, creates regulatory
uncertainty, and penalizes communities that have acted responsibly to
protect public health.
Safe drinking water is not a partisan issue. Families across the
country expect that when they turn on the tap, their water is safe to
drink. Congress enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure EPA relies
on the best available science to protect public health—not to weaken
existing protections once the science has been established.
We therefore urge EPA to withdraw its proposal to rescind the 2024
drinking water standards for PFHxS, PFNA, GenX, and the Hazard Index
mixtures, reject the proposed delay for the PFOA and PFOS standards, and
fully implement the 2024 National Primary Drinking Water Regulations as
finalized.
As far back as the 1950s, scientists observed that PFAS compounds
could accumulate in human bloodstreams. It took decades of advocacy and
heroic scientific research to reach the historic moment in 2024 when EPA
finally promulgated the very first national drinking water standards
for PFAS compounds. We cannot afford to go backwards and make Americans’
health worse. Thank you for your consideration.
President
Donald Trump erupted Tuesday morning in a lengthy 526-word rant on
social media attacking Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a GOP
gubernatorial candidate who polls show is neck-and-neck with a
Trump-backed opponent.
“Gentner Drummond is a
FAKE Republican, who donated to SLEEPY Joe Biden, and the totally
corrupt and anti-American ‘Lincoln Project,’ which is now in shambles
because of their views on Open Borders, Men playing in Women’s Sports,
and Transgender Mutilization [sic] of your Children,” Trump wrote on his
social media platform Truth Social.
A recent independent poll
showed Drummond pulling 44% support among likely Republican voters, and
his Trump-backed opponent, former Oklahoma state senator Mike Mazzei,
also polling at 44%.
Mr.
Chump seems very angry and it is most likely due to the fact that he is
realizing how unpopular he now is. That is true all over the country.
Especially, as Jesus Mesa (NEWSWEEK) reports, in Alaska:
President
Donald Trump carried Alaska by double digits in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
Republicans have held both of the state’s Senate seats and the
governor’s office for most of the past two decades.
That
history is now colliding with a Senate race Republicans are struggling
to put away, a 17-candidate governor’s field splintering their own base,
and a president whose standing in the state has slipped enough that
strategists on both sides are recalculating their odds.
For
some Americans, the reality of who Donald Trump really is is coming
home to roost. And for the sailors trapped aboard the USS Abraham
Lincoln, that moment has already arrived.
The
Lincoln left San Diego last November. Nine months later, it is still at
sea, its crew stretched past 250 straight days without meaningful
relief. What was supposed to be a seven-month deployment has become
closer to a floating humanitarian disaster.
Families
have shockingly described broken toilets, moldy showers, food
shortages, and sailors surviving on little more than rice and tortillas.
It’s been called a “floating bucket of filth.”
So much for valuing the valor and bravery of our troops. To me, that’s Pete Hegseth’s “big lie.” He’s their worst nightmare. He doesn’t give a rat’s about the troops. Well, he does care about their “T” levels.
This
is a very bad moment and a very bad optic for Mr. Chump. He has made
it worse with his comments about not caring about gas prices. He looks
very remote and out of touch.
Donald
Trump once again voted by mail in Florida elections despite repeatedly
attacking mail-in ballots as “mail-in cheating” and a “scam” that his
administration has spent months trying to restrict for millions of
Americans.
Records in Palm Beach County, where
the president’s primary Mar-a-Lago residence is located, indicate that
he requested a mail-in ballot last month to participate in Florida’s
Republican primary elections. His ballot was received August 14.
Politico first reported his ballot.
Tuesday, August 18, 20026. Chump and Hegseth fail our troops daily,
Democrats want answers, Todd Blanche isn't fit for the position of
Attorney General, and much more.
Operation Hot Air. That's what Chump and the administration have provided since the start of the Iran War. Scott Waldman (POLITICO) reports:
Energy SecretaryChris Wright says about 9 million barrels of oil are moving through the Strait of Hormuz every day.
But nonpartisan oil tanker trackers say it’s likely 7 million barrels at best, or more likely, closer to 5 million.
President
Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the oil is flowing freely through
the strait, which even before the war was a global energy chokepoint.
On Monday, he told reporters at the White House that the U.S. has total
control over the strait and that “we’re taking out millions of barrels
of oil a week.”
"The strait is open and the oil
prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we
decide to do something more drastic than what we've been doing,” Trump
said.
But experts say the Trump
administration’s figures cannot be trusted because there’s no data that
shows that volume of oil is actually moving through the strait.
The
Trump administration chose this war, launched it without congressional
authorization, has repeatedly changed its definition of success and has
failed to define an achievable political end. It owns the strategic
failure. But bad strategy does not absolve military leaders of
responsibility for how military force has been employed.
Senior
military leaders must advise whether the administration’s objectives
can be achieved through force, design and adapt the campaign, protect
and supply the forces doing the fighting and tell civilian leaders when
an approach cannot succeed. We do not know what advice commanders
provided to civilian leadership in private, but we can evaluate the
campaign they planned and conducted.
American
forces have accomplished some extraordinary things. They destroyed much
of Iran’s conventional navy, operated extensively inside Iranian
airspace and struck thousands of targets with remarkable precision. That
performance deserves credit.
But Iran did not
need to defeat the U.S. conventionally. It needed to preserve enough
combat power to keep imposing costs. After five months of American
attacks, Iran remains capable of striking U.S. forces and disrupting
global commerce.
Iran has largely refused to
fight on America’s terms. It has dispersed and hidden its missiles and
drones, attacked U.S. bases and the logistics networks that support
American power, and used mines and shore-based weapons to threaten
commercial shipping.
U.S. military doctrine
identifies protection and sustainment as fundamental functions:
protecting forces and the bases, equipment and communications they rely
on, while ensuring they have the weapons and supplies to continue
fighting. The campaign has fallen far short in both.
At
Shuaiba port in Kuwait, an Iranian drone struck a tactical operations
center lacking overhead protection or a counter-drone system, killing
six American soldiers. CBS News reported that ground leaders used the
site despite a recommendation against it and that requests for
additional defenses went unfilled.
And the dishonesty coming from Chump and Hegseth only drags it out further.
Pete
Hegseth is known for his loose lips, for his efforts at playtime and
for being unfit to serve as Secretary of Defense. Even he knows he's
not fit which is why he tries to get people to call him Secretary of
War. He's failed the enlisted time and time again. He's fired
qualified generals. He's attacked trans troops. He's ridiculed those
serving under him as he pretends that he's the state of manhood and
masculinity when he has the body of a very lazy fourteen-year-old. What
kind of a person let's people serve on the USS LINCOLN without the
needed supplies and resources?
The tale of Donald Trump sneaking off Air Force One
in a catering truck captured public attention for many reasons. It was a
reminder that, for all his tough talk, the president harbors a sense of
fear. Hiding away in a glorified ice chest would also have been a blow
to the 80-year-old’s dignity. But the charade, which was first revealed
by the Washington Post, also gave us insight, as political scientist
Scott Lemieux wrote, “into who he considers his actual inner circle.”
Left behind
on the decoy plane were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen
Miller and other administration officials and aides. The only people
deemed worthy of saving from Iran’s reported threat were people whose
full-time jobs are tending the president’s body and, more importantly,
his ego: Natalie Harp, who writes Trump love letters, and whose main job is showing him flattering social media posts. Body man Walt Nauta. Dan Scavino, Trump’s former golf caddie. Oh yeah, and Pete Hegseth.
The
defense secretary’s inclusion on this list does not suggest he is an
especially well-regarded or important person, especially when other
prominent Cabinet members — not to mention White House reporters — were
left vulnerable to the rumored assassination threat.
On the contrary, his inclusion in Trump’s flock of flatterers is
another sign that Hegseth’s main skill is fluffing up the
narcissist-in-chief. It helps explain how Hegseth — unlike former
Cabinet members such as former Attorney General Pam Bondi or former
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, who recently lots their jobs — seems in
no danger of losing his job, even as his manifest incompetence is a big
part of the reason Trump is losing the war with Iran. He may be bad at
running the military, but Hegseth is good at lying to (and attacking)
the press and stroking his boss’s ego, which are the only skills that
count in Trump’s White House.
Recent news about
the ongoing disaster aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln is another reminder
of why Hegseth may indeed lead the highly competitive race to be the
most hated man in Washington. Both Stars and Stripes and the Military Times
reported that multiple service members had attempted to jump off the
aircraft carrier, which has been deployed for over eight months without
any real breaks. Sailors are reportedly “struggling with exhaustion and
declining morale, including reports of suicidal thoughts,” explained
Alison Bath of Stars and Stripes.
The details
coming from family members offer a chilling illustration of how little
regard Hegseth has for the actual well-being of service members, even as
he releases videos implying they have low testosterone levels or berates them for being “fat” or “beardos.” Sailors have reported being fed “rotten” food or barely being fed at all, and desperate family members have been begging the Navy for relief. The wife of one sailor told MS NOW’s Priya Sidhar
that the company is working 12-14 hour days and that her husband “said
that he was exhausted working on the flight deck.” He also raised safety
concerns with his superiors. “His prescription contact lenses had
expired,” Sidhar reported, “and he told his chain of command that he
couldn’t even see what he was doing, and he was worried about causing
accidents.”
Hegseth, though, is shrugging off the concerns, telling reporters
the issue is “completely misrepresented” and that the service members
have “everything we can provide them at every single moment.”
He
lies and then he lies some more. He denied the reports when they first
surfaced in April and, all these months later, he's still denying
them. Mike Nelson (THE i PAPER) explains:
At
the end of July, Sean Parnell, the chief spokesman for Secretary of War
Pete Hegseth and his rebranded Department of War, released a flashy
video on his social media platforms in which he announced: “The era of
putting public affairs on the back burner is over.” It was fitting, as
an indicator of how Parnell views his job and the larger conversation of
public affairs, that he spoke in the video from the podium of the
Pentagon press briefing room – speaking to an empty room without an
audience in a space where he rarely briefs the press, a departure from
the weekly briefings conducted by previous Department of Defence
spokespersons. Purely performative, purely for the image and, as the
young ones would say, “the vibes”.
Parnell’s
message behind the video was a jarring departure from reality. A
defence department so incredibly hostile to the press and so dishonest
in countering reports on its actions can’t really be seen as putting
public affairs front and centre. But the department appears focused on
public relations over everything – tightly controlling the image of the
influencer turned defence chief rather than presenting honest
information to the American public about what the military is doing. It
shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hegseth, a man whose primary
experience was as a news infotainment personality, defaults to what he
knows. Before becoming Secretary of Defence – later changed to
“Secretary of War” – Hegseth had never run anything larger than an
organisation of just over a hundred or so people. Now he leads the
single largest employer in the United States when accounting for the 1.3
million active duty service members, more than 750,000 reservists and
National Guard and an additional 750,000 civilians employed by the
department.
In fact, Hegseth has
more experience being a Fox News pundit and political advocate than
anything else. That’s not to knock these professions, merely to point
out that for much of Hegseth’s professional life, the mission has been
cultivating his image and “putting on a show”. From the earliest days of
his tenure at the Pentagon, his focus on controlling the narrative,
promoting his desired public image, and a strict, almost paranoid,
response to even the slightest perceived criticism have been a defining
part of his leadership. He hired close personal friends and advisers to
be part of his growing communications shop. He engaged in several
witch-hunts among senior department staff to determine who might be
providing unflattering details to the press. Often, these investigations
were launched into stories that didn’t represent threats to national
security, but were personally embarrassing or critical of Hegseth. He
used the department’s public affairs platforms primarily to release hype
videos in which he worked out with the elite units of which he was
never a part.
Hype
videos. Designed to make him seem more than he was, more than his
record is. Hype videos to make him a semi-star like the way he was when
he was a weekend on air for FOX "NEWS." Just a weekend on air. Never
Tucker or Greta or Bill. Forever the second (really third) string.
That's why he had to install a make up room in the Pentagon. Colin
Powell didn't need one, Donald Rumsfeld didn't need one, Chuck Hagel,
Leon Panetta, Lloyd Austin . . . None of the previous Secretaries of
Defense needed to put a beauty salon into the Pentagon until Pete showed
up. But his starry feet are still grounded, the Pentagon insists,
because Pete applies his own make up. He does. Make up he wears for
the camera and make up he wears in regular life.
He shows up before members of Congress made up. It usually covers his psoriasis -- usually. Travis Reed (THIRSTYY) reports on his meetings with some members of Congress:
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing an unusual problem: some of the
sharpest criticism of his approach is now coming from his fellow
Republicans. Several GOP senators have objected to the Pentagon's
decision to exclude Democratic lawmakers from some classified briefings,
warning that the strategy could make it harder to build bipartisan
support for the administration's enormous defense agenda.
The
dispute comes as Hegseth promotes a historic $1.5 trillion defense
request for fiscal year 2027. While the administration is pursuing parts
of its spending agenda through reconciliation, lawmakers still face
major negotiations over defense funding. That makes the growing
Republican criticism particularly significant.
The
controversy centers on reports that Hegseth has repeatedly kept
Democrats out of certain classified discussions involving defense policy
and spending. Republicans, including Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, and
Mike Rounds, have questioned whether excluding an entire party is a
sensible way to build congressional support.
Their
criticism does not amount to a Republican revolt against Hegseth.
Instead, it reflects concern from several senators that
national-security decisions and major defense investments require
cooperation across party lines, especially when Congress must eventually
consider legislation implementing them.
Senator
Thom Tillis of North Carolina has been particularly blunt. He argued
that Hegseth's decision to limit Democratic participation could
undermine the secretary's own efforts to secure support for his defense
priorities, especially when lawmakers need to understand the
administration's plans before deciding how to vote.
Tillis'
criticism highlights the practical problem facing Hegseth. Persuading
lawmakers to approve enormous military expenditures requires more than
speaking to supporters who already agree with the administration. It
also requires convincing lawmakers who may have serious questions about
strategy, spending, and oversight.
Adm.
Brad Cooper, the highest-ranking U.S. military commander in the Middle
East, wrapped up a 10-day regional tour with a stop on the aircraft
carrier that has spent nearly nine months at sea.
The
Lincoln has been stationed in the Middle East since January, playing a
key role in the U.S. war against Iran, including enforcing a blockade on
Iranian ports. It was initially deployed in the Pacific in November
2025.
It has now surpassed a record-breaking
240 consecutive days at sea. The prolonged deployment of carriers has
sparked growing concerns about the strain placed not only on the ships
themselves, but on the service members aboard. The Lincoln has about
5,000 service members.
Family members of those on board have reported their loved ones facing "appalling" conditions and food rationing.
"History
will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense
and consequential of the modern era," Cooper said of the Lincoln strike
group in a statement released Saturday.
President Donald Trump dismissed reports of exhaustion during a press briefing in Maryland on Friday.
He bluntly stated that the uninterrupted deployment was “not nearly long enough.”
A combat veteran bites back
Those
remarks triggered a furious response. On Saturday, Democratic
Representative Seth Moulton, a former Marine, went on television to fire
back.
“Typical from a draft dodger, not a surprise,” Moulton told MS NOW.
He
argued the president ignores the troops. Moulton said Trump is “going
to spend his weekend at his luxury golf course, not thinking one bit
about the troops who he’s put in harm’s way for a war of choice that he
and Hegseth are losing.”
Hegseth and Chump's actions are drawing fire from many in Congress. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA),Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined all
thirteen members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) minority
and the Democratic leader of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
in sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanding
answers about deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln,
following reports that the aircraft carrier’s crew has endured food and
water shortages, broken plumbing, and mental health crises severe
enough that multiple sailors reportedly attempted to go overboard during
its record-setting deployment. The Lincoln has been at sea for
more than 250 days, including over 200 consecutive days without a port
call, the longest continuous deployment at sea for a U.S. aircraft
carrier in the modern era.
The Senators pressed Secretary Hegseth on his Department’s failure to
provide a clear timeline for the crew’s return and condemned his public
dismissal of the reports as “completely misrepresented,” as well as
President Trump’s remarks suggesting the Lincoln had not been
deployed “nearly long enough.” The Senators demanded detailed answers on
mental health and medical resources aboard the ship, the state of good
order and discipline, hygiene and food conditions, the full extent of
the reported man-overboard incident, and support being provided to
military families, along with a formal request for a bipartisan
congressional delegation to visit the ship.
In addition to Senator Murray, the letter was signed by the following
SASC members: Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), Senator Jeanne Shaheen
(D-NH), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Senator Richard Blumenthal
(D-CT), Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Senator
Angus King (I-ME), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Senator Gary Peters
(D-MI), Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV),
Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Senator
Chris Coons (D-DE), the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Defense, also joined.
Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:
Dear Secretary Hegseth,
We write regarding the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln and
mounting evidence that conditions aboard the carrier have deteriorated
to the point that the safety and wellbeing of its crew could be
compromised. These are deeply troubling reports, and the American people
deserve honest answers.
The USS Lincoln departed San Diego on November 21, 2025. The ship has
now been deployed for more than 250 days, including over 200
consecutive days without a port call, setting a modern-day record for
continuous time at sea for a U.S. aircraft carrier. Family members of
the sailors and Marines serving aboard have received urgent messages
describing conditions that should alarm you, and everyone serving in a
position of leadership at the Pentagon, to include concerns about
exhaustion, food and water shortages, and mental health crises serious
enough that multiple sailors reportedly attempted to go overboard.
In response to these reports, you publicly stated that the conditions
aboard the carrier have been “completely misrepresented.” Even more
galling, when asked by reporters about the conditions on the Lincoln,
President Trump dismissed the concerns of the families and stated that
the Lincoln had not been deployed “nearly long enough.”
Our sailors and Marines signed up to serve and to be treated with
respect. They did not sign up to be kept at sea indefinitely with no
announced return date and, by multiple accounts, without reliable food,
hot water, or working plumbing. That is not how we treat the men and
women we ask to carry out this mission.
This situation was preventable, and the conditions aboard the Lincoln
are nearly identical to the issues faced by the USS Ford when it
conducted an extended deployment that ended earlier this year. The USS
Lincoln was redirected to the Middle East as the war with Iran began and
has remained there as that war has dragged on with no clear endpoint.
This is a symptom of poor planning by both you and the President and
exacerbated by the deeply unsound decision to start a war with Iran.
Open-ended deployments driven by an open-ended war have real
consequences for our servicemembers, and we are seeing those
consequences now.
Recent press reports indicate that the USS George Washington will be
deployed to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln. While
that is welcome news, the Department’s mismanagement of carrier
deployments also means that the U.S. will not have an aircraft carrier
in the Pacific for the foreseeable future. However, ensuring the USS
Lincoln returns to port takes precedence, and it is incumbent on the
Department to inform Congress, and the families, on the plan and
timeline to get the crew home. Denial and defensiveness are not
acceptable responses. Congress and these families need accountability.
Given the seriousness of these reports, we request written answers to the following:
What is the current timeline for the USS Lincoln’s relief and return
to homeport, and what specific operational requirements are driving
continued extensions of this deployment?
Was the crew informed that the deployment could be extended
indefinitely? Have any members of the crew been changed out since the
beginning of this deployment, and if so, how many?
Has there been any degradation in the operational capability of the USS Lincoln or her airwing?
What mental health resources are being provided to the crew?
Have there been any suicides aboard the ship during this
deployment? How many instances of detected suicidal ideation or
attempted self-harm, including attempts to go overboard, has the
Department recorded?
What other medical resources are available aboard the ship, and are
resources sufficient to meet the crew’s needs given the length of this
deployment?
What chaplain resources are available to the crew, and have they been adequate to the scale of need aboard the ship?
What is the current state of good order and discipline aboard the USS Lincoln?
What is the hygiene and healthy food situation on board, including
the status of reported plumbing failures, water contamination, and food
shortages?
What is the extent of illness or injury aboard the ship, including
full details of the reported man-overboard incident and any other
similar incidents?
What is the state of the families of the sailors and Marines aboard
the USS Lincoln? What resources are being provided to them, and are they
being kept informed on a regular basis about the status of the
deployment and their loved ones’ wellbeing?
Will the Department authorize a bipartisan congressional delegation
to visit the Lincoln to conduct firsthand oversight of conditions aboard
the ship?
As the Secretary of Defense, you are accountable to the men and women
who serve our nation. It is time for you to demonstrate leadership,
rather than peddle excuses. The servicemembers we send into harm’s way
deserve nothing less.
GOP
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska on Sunday called for congressional oversight
of the USS Abraham Lincoln amid reports of poor conditions on the
aircraft carrier.
“We should have oversight,”
Bacon said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” while adding
that the secretary of the Navy or its service chief should testify in
front of lawmakers. His statement adds to those of congressional
Democrats who have similarly pressed military officials for more answers
regarding how they’re supporting service members on extended
deployments.
Bacon, a retired Air Force
brigadier general and moderate Trump critic, also said that he had seen
service members experiencing mental health challenges when he was
stationed on an aircraft carrier in 1996. He noted that “we had a couple
members jump overboard and commit suicide” at the time, describing the
incidents as “terrible” and “sad.”
In the early morning hours, before the sun came up on Saturday Aug. 8, the Senate confirmedTodd Blanche
as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. But long before the vote,
Blanche’s comments inside and outside of the confirmation process
signaled an escalation of President Donald Trump’s anti-abortion
agenda.
In a now-deleted audio recording
with the White House Faith Office, Blanche outlined a plan to utilize
multiple agencies, including his Department of Justice and the Food and
Drug Administration, to end abortion access in all 50 states. Blanche
illustrated how these departments—which should work independently of the
White House in service to our collective health and safety—are blurring
lines in service to an agenda targeting abortion providers and
patients.
The
National Abortion Federation, which sets clinical standards for
abortion care and provides security and safety support for clinics
nationwide, knows firsthand the grave dangers when checks and balances
disappear within the federal government. Law enforcement is the only
mechanism of accountability our current system provides for people who
engage in violence and disruption at abortion clinics. While these
activities are illegal under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinical
Entrances (FACE) Act, the law is only as protective as the person in
charge of enforcing it.
Not only did Trump pardonviolators of the FACE Act, the DOJ has also paid them with tax dollars as a backwards form of restitution. Just last month, Paul Vaughn
received a Trump pardon and $1 million from the DOJ after staging a
blockade at a NAF member clinic in Tennessee. NAF is actively suing the
DOJ to stop more payouts of this kind. But the Trump-Blanche duo has
already sent a message with serious consequences.
Since Trump took office, NAF’s most recent Violence and Disruption report
showed a 113% increase in threats of death and harm. Clinic blockades
increased from one to six. While we know laws like the FACE Act are a
limited means to protect people, not only is the federal government
failing to meet these low bars, it's abusing the law to incentivize
violence. Blanche’s confirmation is part of a larger pattern of
involving law enforcement in pregnancy, including abortion care. That
should scare everyone no matter what you believe.
Todd Blanche just let the mask slip in real time, and the thud of
post-Watergate norms hitting the floor should echo straight through the
halls of Congress. Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press
with Kristen Welker, Donald Trump's former personal defense
attorney-turned-Attorney General didn’t bother with the traditional,
polite fiction of an isolated, impartial Department of Justice. Instead,
he stared down the camera lens and openly declared that absolute
independence is a bad idea, telling the country point-blank: "No, I'm
not going to pledge that, and no attorney general should ever pledge
that."
For
fifty years, the unwritten covenant of the nation's top law enforcement
post was that the Attorney General operates as a constitutional
firewall against West Wing vengeance. Blanche didn’t just tear down that
wall; he ground it to dust.
Cornered
on whether he would factor Donald Trump's personal feelings into
reviving dead cases, Blanche admitted "of course" he would. He’s not
hiding the ball anymore. He has recast the Justice Department not as an
independent watchdog of the people, but as an interactive policy desk
for the Oval Office, openly dismissing neutral oversight as a dangerous
administrative glitch.
This
marks a radical departure from everything the country learned from the
dark days of the Nixon administration. The post-Watergate consensus was
established specifically to ensure that the terrifying power of federal
law enforcement—the power to wiretap, to indict, to seize property, and
to strip citizens of their liberty—would never again be used as a
private blunt-force instrument for a president's political survival or
personal vendettas. By rejecting this consensus out loud, Blanche
signaled a return to an era where justice is defined entirely by
executive whim.
