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TRUMP 21 1126

ESTB ELECTION DAY

BIG LIE 6

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AN 11 26

The former Trump lawyer who signed a multi-million contract with a prominent Venezuelan family with suspicious timing to a pivotal Trump pardon has lost her contract, according to the New York Times.

“Alina Habba Mildon, one of President Trump’s former lawyers, was fired last week by the family company that gave her a $50 million contract weeks before Mr. Trump granted a pardon to the family’s patriarch,” reports the Times. “In a letter dated Nov. 4, the company, Concord Partners, terminated Mrs. Mildon citing a ‘failure to perform duties,’ according to a person close to the family and documents obtained by The New York Times.”

The person said Mildon’s priorities appeared to shift away from Concord after she started dating Turhan Mildon, a 25-year-old Turkish investor, earlier this year.

The Times reports the firing came days after it disclosed the deal and prompted an angry outburst from Trump, who called the deal “totally obnoxious and outrageous” and urged the Herrera family not to pay her.

It would appear the family agreed, allowing Mildon to keep $6.5 million already paid to her and her signing bonus of $8 million. Her four-year contract that would have paid her $10 million a year for four years along with a range of bonuses, however, is defunct.

Concord Partners was set up in Florida late last year by Isabela Herrera, the daughter of Julio Herrera Velutini, in curious time with a pardon request to the White House concerning the billionaire banker facing felony bribery charges in Puerto Rico. Weeks after Mildon started, Herrera was granted a full and unconditional pardon by Trump.

Representatives for the Herrera family declined to comment about the sudden collapse of Mildon’s contract, as did Mildon herself.

However, a source close to Mildon told the Times she is planning to pursue legal action.

After hearing of the contract, Trump demanded Mildon share some of her largesse with him by donating “a portion of that money to his future presidential library or another Trump-related entity, according to multiple people briefed on the conversations.”

"I thought it was terrible," Trump said. "I told her, I said, 'I don't want her paid.' We had somebody speak to the people that did it, and she used her relationship to do that. And it was far too much. You know, it's one thing for a person to get paid legal fees or whatever — she's a lawyer. I thought it was a totally obnoxious and outrageous and it's not acceptable. Not acceptable, at all."

When asked if Mildon would be making sure Trump gets his cut of her new four-year contract, Mildon laughed.

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RWW MISC

11/10/2026

byKyle Mantyla

MAGA failed because it didn’t go far enough, right-wing extremists say—and following devastating midterm losses, they see an opportunity to take over.

A new Republican group thinks their party is too old, too moderate and too weak. So they’re launching an effort to replace the outgoing generation of politicians with a younger crop of America First-aligned lawmakers. American Ascent launches Monday with an eye toward building a bench of young conservatives that could flip some of the dozens of congressional seats that will be held by aging lawmakers in 2028. The 501(c)(4) will be run by Ryan Neuhaus, the former Heritage Foundation chief of staff. Its partners include an array of new-right allies of Vice President JD Vance, including Turning Point Action, which has already endorsed Vance for president in 2028, as well as the conservative think tank Claremont Institute and the watchdog group Oversight Project.

Pardoned January 6 Capitol rioter Jake Lang found himself humiliated in the second stunt of the weekend, when he crashed a convention in Seattle he thought was a gathering of "furries" — but was actually just a gathering of cat owners.

AS AMERICANS SETTLED IN to watch the midterm results last Tuesday, neo-Nazi internet personality Christopher Pohlhaus had different plans: World of Warcraft. And perhaps something a little bit more erotic after that.

The speaker sounded quite pessimistic about the future — to say the least.]

The former lieutenant governor and his wife, Yolanda Hill, are seeking protection under Chapter 13 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which enables wage-earning debtors to manage debt payments while protecting some assets from foreclosure.

Is regime change coming for the Defense Department?

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AN 11 26

Trump’s unedited CBS interview exposes much less 'sane' answers

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AN 11 26

President Donald Trump was reportedly taken for a ride by a Brazilian beef billionaire in a futile attempt to lower food prices for American consumers.

"Imports have drifted between 10 percent and 15 percent of the overall U.S. beef supply over the past decade, rising with the demand for fast-food burgers," reported The Wall Street Journal's Patrick Thomas on Tuesday. "The USDA now estimates imports rising to a record 20 percent of U.S. beef supplies this year."

Thomas added, "In late August, Brazilian billionaire Joesley Batista, who shares control of JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, met with Trump in the Oval Office to discuss how additional beef from Brazil could lower U.S. beef prices, the Journal reported. To do that, though, Trump would have to drop a 26 percent import tax."

He continued, "The next day, Trump announced on social media a plan to temporarily allow 300,000 metric tons of beef imports into the U.S., which the president said would be sold at a 25 percent discount to market prices. So far, there is little sign that the imports have lowered prices. The American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest farmer trade group, said Trump’s plan has done little to lower prices across the U.S. so far, except for a few cents at some grocery stores."

Trump's willingness to lower tariffs on Brazil in return for a bargain that helps him with a key voter bloc for an election speaks to a deeper concern experts have raised with his protectionist policies. Speaking to AlterNet in September, Dr. Elizabeth McKillen, professor emerita of history at the University of Maine, answered a question comparing tariffs under Trump to former President Grover Cleveland's 1894 that high tariffs create a "communism of pelf."

"Tariffs lend themselves to corruption by the president," McKillen told AlterNet. "And certainly that was true back in Grover Cleveland's period, when many of the corporations worked with the presidents directly to try to extend their own wealth, and then the president was doing the same thing.So yes, I think it's true that tariffs lend themselves to Trump's corruption, certainly, and they have in certain other periods as well."

According to Dr. Robert J. Shapiro, a top economic adviser to former President Bill Clinton, Trump's tariffs have become so unpopular that they have fundamentally transformed national conversation on trade policy.

"The party has shifted fundamentally on tariffs, and they're doing so because of the effects of the tariffs and because the tariffs are a signature Trump policy," Shapiro told AlterNet earlier this month. "Look, the most direct and easy-to-understand step the Democrats can take to address prices is to repeal all the tariffs in the first week. All the Trump tariffs, just repeal them. You pass a law, let him veto it, and then let's see whether you can get enough Republicans in the Senate to support it."

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AN 11 26

Judge issues swift order in response to reports Trump is destroying docs

Trump suffers unanimous court defeat over illegal firing of VOA chief

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AN 11 26

Trey Gowdy goes nuclear on Fox News over Trump’s missteps

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AN 11 26

President Donald Trump is attempting a "tough sell" on the American people by belatedly claiming the 2026 midterm elections were stolen from him. In those contests, Democrats shocked the political world by winning back the Senate and House of Representatives by landslide margins, with most polls indicating that the key issues were high prices and government corruption.

"Today, it appears Trump has entered the denial stage of grief," CNN's Jake Tapper said on Monday. "On Truth Social this morning, the president wrote, quote, 'Does anybody really believe that this election was honest? How could the polls be so wrong? Some early voting dumps were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote. It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter,' unquote."

Tapper added, "The president is, of course, offering zero evidence of fraud. Zero. Per usual. To the president’s question of whether anybody believes the election was real and honest: well, yeah. Yeah, they do. Election officials, secretaries of state, governors, Democrats, Republicans — all have said the elections ran smoothly."

He continued, "And how exactly would this rigging scheme work in, let’s say, Texas? The diabolical conspiracy to hand the state over to Democrats, led by the scheming heads of that state, Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, both of whom were running for office and both of whom lost? Were they in on it?"

Pointing out that CNN had reported on Trump's baseless fraud accusations for months, Tapper concluded that "before Trump reached the denial phase, he spent time in other stages of grief. In a 60 Minutes interview taped Friday that aired last night, the president was in what seemed like the bargaining stage, surprising his own base by saying that he would be open to bargaining with Democrats on the matter of immigration."

Speaking to AlterNet last week, polling and politics expert Kyle Kondik — the managing editor at Sabato's Crystal Ball — explained why Trump's Republicans lost so decisively in 2026.

"This was such a thumping that even he couldn't deny it with a straight face," Kondik told AlterNet when asked why Trump had, at that time at least, not contested the results.

"This is one of the biggest waves in American history," Kondik continued, adding that "the Watergate wave of 1974 might be the only comparable election in modern history. This was kind of like 2006, but clearly bigger."

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AN Fox News' Rupert Murdoch is finally 'done with Trump': report

VID STATUS

It appears that President Donald Trump is losing one of his biggest promoters: right-wing media owner Rupert Murdoch.

The reckoning has already begun, explained Status' "Power Lines" with veteran journalists Oliver Darcy and Jon Passantino. Darcy said that both the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, owned by Murdoch, are explicitly calling on Republicans to look beyond Trump after the shellacking on Nov. 3.

The men connect the Murdoch shift to Fox News’s declining audience. They noted that Fox News lost roughly a third of its viewers in October compared with the previous year. Their argument is that a divided Republican coalition creates a ratings problem. While loyal Trump supporters want favorable coverage, disillusioned conservatives increasingly gravitate toward independent personalities such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, who are willing to lash out at Trump when he's wrong.

They agreed that Murdoch, a shrewd businessman, is looking at the actual data for his network and the online readership.

“Rupert’s looking at the cold, hard data and knowing that the audience wants this and is now calling on the Republican Party to just basically throw Trump overboard, ignore him, and let’s figure out where to go now," said Darcy.

It's also politically convenient, he added. By jumping on the anti-Trump bandwagon, now that he's no longer good for ratings, Murdoch can throw Trump overboard for financial reasons.

Trump called into Fox News on Tuesday night to lash out at the hosts for reporting his failed polling. According to Trump, he has a 99 percent approval rating with Republican voters and that should be enough to carry his polling. Bret Baier told Trump correctly that the Fox polls he loves to rail about were accurate on election night. Fox polls tend to be close to accurate.

"Well, I don't know about that," Trump said, passing over the reality.

"There was a blue wave forming and we've seen in other reporting this week that the White House and Donald Trump, these people were all acutely aware of what was going on in the country and could not figure out what to do and that's obviously because in many ways MAGA was p----- just like the rest of the country about the war and the price and the cost of living," said Passantino.

Darcy told Miurdoch, "he should also look in the mirror" when it comes to the election loss. According to Tucker Carlson, if Fox hadn't been so pro-Iran war, chances are Trump likely wouldn't have gone to war.

"So, he gets involved in a foreign war, prices skyrocket, and while obviously Donald Trump is the commander-in-chief, he's the one who made the decision to do this," Darcy said. "He was very much prodded along and encouraged by a lot of voices at Fox News. Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and others were itching for Donald Trump to attack Iran. And so when Tucker says, you know, that Fox deserves some of the blame, I think — he's actually spot-on there."

The Murdochs could very easily have told the team at Fox to dial down the war talk if he'd wanted to.

"So, I think there's a little bit of blame that Rupert Murdoch should absorb as well here," said Darcy.

Passantino agreed, saying Trump was "a little high on his own supply" because Fox News told him what to think.

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RWW MISC

11/09/2026

byKyle Mantyla

Jake Lang is asking President Donald Trump to protect him from his various legal problems by declaring Lang to be a political refugee.

The movement will have to look elsewhere to rebuild on a map with a shrinking number of safely red states.

Throughout the country, voters rejected politicians who wanted to put conservative Christianity into law.

People familiar with the arrangements allege pay-to-play business practices by one of President Donald Trump’s biggest online acolytes. Financial documents show details.

The former star, whom a British judge sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison on Monday, became an anti-establishment flag-bearer through conspiracy-minded commentary.

After a dramatic trial just outside of Columbus, Ohio, former megachurch leader Gary “Tom” Keesee Jr. was found guilty today of 27 counts of child sex abuse.

While some white evangelical leaders have responded to results of this week’s midterm elections with dismay, others are responding with calls to action that echo the insurrection of January 6, 2021.

In Trump’s first term, the president famously asked in frustration: “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” Now, in the aftermath of calamitous midterms, Trump has concluded he needs a new chief of staff, and he has found his Cohn: Stephen Miller.

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AN 11 26

Republicans lost the Cheesecake Factory vote — by a lot

POD SAVE RALLY DROP 5 PTS

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RWW MISC

11/05/2026

byKyle Mantyla

A top Justice Department official and staunch ally of President Donald Trump has stepped down following Democrats’ sweeping midterm election victories, according to new bombshell report.

Everyone with a podcast is feeling terrible, and they’re ready to fight about it!

Republicans’ stinging midterm election loss is already the subject of right-wing infighting over how much Donald Trump is to blame — and whether it’s time to abandon him altogether.

Reeling from Republican losses, conservative hosts blamed each other, the party, and Donald Trump himself

The new award, the administration’s latest show of support for the Afrikaner cause, comes after it cut human rights funding to nations in crisis. One former diplomat called the move “offensive.”

Amid these results, far-right extremists who backed Trump in the 2024 election and cheered on his agenda, such as the neo-Nazi Active Club movement, the white supremacist Proud Boys, and other far-right influencers, are ditching their support for Trump. Others, such as irregular militias, are rejecting democracy altogether. Instead of Trump, white supremacists are searching for a more antisemitic leader, or the second coming of Adolf Hitler

Republican Anthony Constantino launched a brutal attack on the press after declaring victory in his ruby-red seat, going so far as to call one female reporter an “a--hole.”

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AN 11 26 NEEDS GAY PAL

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order deeming the Oval Office a national monument, hoping to prevent future inhabitants of the White House from tearing down all the tacky gold stuff he's put everywhere. The move comes two days after the country dealt his party a staggering midterm defeat, largely because voters think the president prioritizes his vanity projects over the needs of the country.

" Trump is sitting at his desk, with his 'VETO' hat sitting on a stack books, signing an order making the Oval Office a historic landmark, per pool report," posted HuffPost White House reporter Jennifer Bendery. "This weirdness is being live-streamed." Trump also complimented himself on his signature, noting, "It's important to have a good one for this. Very artistic."

“We’re going to send it over to Congress to have it ratified,” the president told to the press, referring to an order placed on the Resolute Desk. “It will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people in order to build something in a slightly different shape." For instance, he suggested a future White House occupant could decide: “Let's not have an oval anymore, let’s make it square.” Trump has previously suggested giving the office monument status, though it has been widely assumed that it would be to prevent the alteration of his signature gold decor choices rather than the shape of the room itself.

Trump's move is unlikely to alleviate the perception that he's ignoring the suffering of Americans to focus on his vanity projects. On Wednesday, the day after Election Day, he gave reporters a tour of the White House ballroom site with a breezy attitude that many slammed as "tone deaf." And the day before the fateful midterm climax, he delivered his closing message by standing in front of the Reflecting Pool and rambling about algae, marble, grass, and imaginary vandals. Following the Oval Office event on Thursday, commentators were quick to offer their takes in light of the president's midterm shellacking.

"Americans rejected Trump’s vanity projects," noted one. "Among his first actions since those elections? Try & protect his vanity projects." Another mused, "The guy who knocked down part of the White House without the approval of Congress, wants to protect parts of the White House so they can't be knocked down without the approval of Congress. Looney Tunes." And another pointed out, "It's been 10 years and this stupid f---still doesn't understand how EO's work." Executive Orders can be overturned by subsequent presidents, meaning a future Democratic president can simply countermand it.

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AN 11 26

Likely 'to go very badly': Critics gobsmacked as Miller becomes chief of staff

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POP INFO 11/6

Trump welcomes rapper Nicki Minaj on stage during a campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on October 25, 2026.]

On Monday, House Judiciary Committee Democrats released a new staff report about President Trump’s alleged relationship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The report details allegations involving 11 women, including five of whom accuse “Trump of rape or sexual assault in Jeffrey Epstein’s close company or presence.”

The report is based on interviews conducted by Judiciary Committee staff, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records, released documents, and survivor accounts. While the majority of the allegations included in the report were already public, it includes a new allegation that Trump raped a young model at a 1993 pageant.

“The report concludes that, based on the available evidence and witness testimony, Trump and Paolo Zampolli—who until recently served as a senior Trump Administration official and diplomat—may have been co-conspirators in Jeffrey Epstein’s conspiracy to traffic and abuse young women in the 1990s,” a press release states.

The report alleges that “Trump has lied about the nature and extent of his relationship with Epstein dozens of times.” For example, Trump has claimed that he kicked Epstein out of his club at Mar-a-Lago. But according to the report, members of Congress reviewed a 2009 document that reveals that Trump “stated unequivocally that Epstein ‘was never asked to leave’ Mar-a-Lago.” The file is redacted in public documents. Trump has also denied ever being on Epstein’s plane, but files show that Trump is listed on the plane’s flight logs “at least eight different times” throughout the 1990s.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are now asking for a new independent investigation. The report calls for an independent special counsel to be appointed to investigate potential co-conspirators.

A press release argues that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) “conflict of interest and obstruction make clear that Trump’s appointees cannot be trusted to pursue accountability.” The report alleges that the DOJ “actively obstructed the Epstein investigation into any co-conspirators, attempted to prevent the release of the Epstein files, and then released an incomplete and heavily redacted set to the public.”

The report also reveals that documents in the Epstein files allege that Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was Deputy Attorney General at the time, “likely knew about certain survivors’ claims against” Trump when he interviewed Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in prison. According to a transcript, Blanche, on at least three occasions, “directed Maxwell not to discuss” an individual whose report to the FBI implicated Trump, but whose allegations were not yet public. The report alleges that by doing so, Blanche “may have engaged in criminal obstruction of justice.”

“The bottom line: there is more than sufficient evidence to launch a criminal investigation,” the report states.

“The women who survived Epstein deserve to be heard, Congress must have the complete files required by law, and an independent special counsel must investigate Epstein’s co-conspirators and DOJ’s cover-up and ensure that state and foreign prosecutors have the evidence they need to pursue justice,” Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said.

The White House has denied the allegations laid out in the new report. “None of these allegations are true. This ‘report’ is nothing more than a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans from the surging Republican momentum driven by President Trump’s historic achievements,” a White House spokesperson told NBC News.

“I will take care of you”

The report reveals new allegations against Trump from Beatrice Keul, a former Swiss model who participated in the Donald J. Trump American Dream Pageant in 1993 at age 24.

According to an interview she gave to committee staff, both Trump and Epstein introduced themselves to Keul when she arrived and promised to take care of things like her travel and education. Keul said Trump told her “I will take care of you” several times. So, when a Trump representative asked her to come to his room later in the day, she assumed he was following up on his promises to get her a visa and a New York University education.

Instead, Keul alleges that Trump raped her in a “brutal” assault that left her bleeding and covered in bruises. She said she went through the rest of the pageant in a “daze” because her passport had been taken from her and she did not want to raise alarms. After the pageant, she got her passport back and returned to Switzerland. She declined to participate in another Trump-sponsored pageant a few weeks later, but Trump called her and repeated his offer to take care of her.

In 2024, Keul told a different version of this story to the Daily Mail. At the time, she said when she arrived in Trump’s room, he “jumped” on her and began “grabbing and touching” her, but that ultimately she was able to hold him off. “I’m very tall, that’s what helped me a lot,” Keul said to the Daily Mail. The report does not say why Keul changed her story.

The report also includes the stories of four other women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.

Stacey Williams, a swimsuit model who dated Epstein in the early 1990s, has accused Trump of groping her when she and Epstein visited Trump’s office in 1993. According to CNN, three friends of Williams have separately confirmed that she told them about the incident, which Williams later described as “trophy hunting” for the two men.

Jill Harth, who recruited young models for Trump’s pageants, filed a lawsuit against Trump in 1997 claiming that he had “forcibly kissed, fondled, and restrained” her at a Mar-a-Lago party in 1993 when she was 31. The lawsuit also claimed that the same year, Trump had demanded Harth provide him with access to an 18-year-old contestant “whom Trump referred to as a ‘sex object.’” Harth’s lawsuit was resolved as a part of a settlement by Trump in a separate contractual suit brought against him by Harth’s then-partner.

A woman identified by the pseudonym “Katie Johnson” filed a lawsuit against Trump in 2016 accusing him of raping and sexually abusing her in 1994 at a party hosted by Epstein when she was 13 years old. According to DOJ documents, Johnson “was asked to strip down to her underwear and give a massage to Epstein” and “massage the penis of Epstein’s guest, Trump, with her hands.” Johnson later dropped the suit.

In 2019, a woman described as Jane Doe 4 came to the FBI with claims that in 1983, when she was 13 or 14 years old, she “bit [Trump] while performing oral sex” and that he “hit [her] in the face after she laughed about biting [him].”

Although Jane Doe 4’s claims have not been substantiated, the report alleges that the DOJ may be “still withholding a huge number of documents related to the allegations,” stating that the Post and Courier reported that it had reviewed FBI agents’ notes that contained new details about Jane Doe 4’s interview, but that those notes have been withheld by the DOJ for being “duplicative.”

In addition to these five women who claim to have been abused by Trump, the report also details the accounts of three Epstein survivors who believe that Trump participated in Epstein’s crimes.

Maria Farmer, a former assistant to Epstein who was abused by him, has said that on one occasion she went to meet Epstein in his office and Trump approached her there. But Epstein told Trump, “No, no. She’s not here for you,” before taking Trump to a different room. Farmer believed that there was a different young woman in that room waiting for Trump. She has said that she urged authorities to look into Trump decades ago. According to the report, Farmer’s “reports to FBI appear to be unlawfully omitted from the files released by DOJ pursuant to” the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA).

DOJ documents released under the EFTA detail other concerning incidents involving Trump. In one case, Trump was accused of agreeing with Epstein that one of Epstein’s victims, who was 14 at the time, was a “good one.” In another instance, a Jane Doe described how she was introduced to Trump by Maxwell and felt she was being offered to him for sex. She recalled Maxwell saying “things like, ‘Oh I think he likes you. Aren’t you lucky. This is great.’”

The report also provides three additional examples of women who seemed to have connections to Trump and Epstein. The first woman, Lauren Petrella, has never made accusations against Trump herself, but Harth’s lawsuit claimed that he sexually assaulted her. The other two women, Jane Does 5 and 6, spent time with Trump and Epstein during the 1990s, but have not accused Trump of any wrongdoing.

REF NBC

Oct. 26, 2026, 8:40 AM PDT / Updated Oct. 26, 2026, 11:59 AM PDT

By Ryan Nobles and Kyle Stewart

WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee Democrats are calling for an independent special counsel to investigate evidence of President Donald Trump’s alleged criminal ties to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new report made public Monday.

“The bottom line,” they wrote in the report: “There is more than sufficient evidence to launch a criminal investigation.”

They acknowledged the Justice Department under Trump would be unlikely to appoint a special counsel — such as Robert Mueller, who ran the Russia investigation, or Jack Smith, who led the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump has repeatedly denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s criminal activity, and he has said he cut ties well before allegations of sex trafficking by Epstein became public.

“None of these allegations are true. This ‘report’ is nothing more than a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans from the surging Republican momentum driven by President Trump’s historic achievements,” said Lauren Bis, a White House spokeswoman. “The President kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club at Mar-a-Lago because he was a creep.”

The report comes on the brink of the midterm elections, when Democrats hope to seize control of Congress as Trump’s approval rating tanks over the economy, affordability and the war with Iran. The report signaled an avenue of focus for lawmakers in January should Democrats win a chamber of Congress.

A bipartisan law Congress passed in November ordered the release of millions of documents related to the case against Epstein, who died by suicide in jail while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Many of America’s wealthy and powerful appear in the files, including Trump, who is mentioned thousands of times.

But only one person was ever convicted, Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. No one else has been charged in the U.S.

Right now, the Democrats’ oversight efforts have been limited because they are in the minority in Congress, unable to compel witness testimony or solicit documents through subpoenas without the help of Republicans. While the Republican-led House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed several Epstein associates and Republicans helped pass the Epstein Transparency Act, they have been largely unwilling to look deeper into Trump’s ties to Epstein.

Democrats’ power would change dramatically should they win the majority back in either chamber. They would be able to issue subpoenas with or without the help of Republicans. In addition to the Epstein probe, Democratic leaders have promised robust investigations into allegations of corruption and grift in Trump’s administration and family businesses.

In their report released Monday, Democrats accuse the Justice Department of obstructing investigations into potential Epstein conspirators, including, they say, Trump. The report alleges the Justice Department worked to cover up Trump’s connections to Epstein and says an independent special counsel is necessary, because Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was once Trump’s personal attorney, was compromised.

“The women who survived Epstein deserve to be heard, Congress must have the complete files required by law, and an independent special counsel must investigate Epstein’s co-conspirators and DOJ’s cover-up and ensure that state and foreign prosecutors have the evidence they need to pursue justice,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the panel’s top Democrat, said in a statement.

A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement Monday that the report was “nothing more than a last-ditch effort by House Judiciary Democrats to mislead the public.”

The department complied with the congressional act, “making public the nearly 3 million investigatory documents which were responsive to the Act,” the spokesperson said. “The Department also freely offered members of Congress the opportunity to view the files unredacted. All these files were part of FBI investigations that spanned decades and these claims were investigated by agents at the time.”

The spokesperson said the Justice Department can’t talk about the existence of any ongoing investigations but noted that the only administration to bring federal charges against Epstein was Trump’s.

Democrats vowed to continue investigating it themselves.

“Given DOJ and FBI’s abdication of their law enforcement duties and prosecutorial ethics, there is little reason to believe this administration will take even this minimal step,” according to the report. “Accordingly, Congress must continue to use its legislative and oversight powers to pursue justice for survivors and bring an end to the Trump Administration’s shameful, bureaucratic, and political cover-up.”

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 22, 1997. Davidoff Studios / Getty

Trump was at one point friends with Epstein. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002, before there were any public allegations of wrongdoing by Epstein. “He’s a lot of fun to be with,” Trump said then. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in a Florida court in a heavily criticized plea deal to felony solicitation of prostitution and procuring minors for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months, about a year of which he served before he was released.

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11 26 RWW MISC

11/04/2026

byKyle Mantyla

It was hard to imagine that an electoral wave this big was still possible. But there have been extraordinary changes just beneath the surface.

A stunning rebuke of Trump’s Republican Party left many on the right shaken and some questioning the president’s strategy.

Republicans dummymandered themselves into some major midterm losses.

Trump acolytes Kari Lake and Liz Harrington are continuing to beat the drum over the midterm elections being “rigged,” despite President Donald Trump himself telling The New York Times that he accepted the results that had Republicans getting trounced across the country.

Green: “There's so many things that can happen in the next two months or more. God can override. God can overturn. God can throw out. God's also talked about martial law.”

Vice President JD Vance blamed President Donald Trump’s agenda for Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses, writing that “everyone knows why we lost.”

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an 10 26

A GOP donor has had it with President Donald Trump and has declared his intention to distance himself from the president.

The blue tsunami gave Democrats power in both chambers to usher in Trump’s lame duck era. In trying to determine where they went wrong, some GOP insiders and operatives have pointed to Trump at the top, according to Fox News. Even his hand-picked candidates were soundly defeated in races that used to be safe for the party.

“First and foremost, this is a Trump loss,” said Dan Eberhart, an oil drilling chief executive and well-known Republican donor. “He wanted people to consider him on the ballot. Unfortunately, as a Republican, that’s what we got.”

Eberhart put it bluntly: “I think Trump being a lame duck starts today. You know, if I’m up in the [2028] cycle, I’m waking up today, I’m against the arch. I’m against the ballroom. I want space from Trump.” Some are anticipating a big change in Trump’s support in Congress as he heads into a lame-duck period likely marked by investigations and stalled agendas.

Democrats turned over seven Senate and 27 House seats on Election Night. They will hold at least 54 in the Senate, with upsets in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina among them; Alaska and Mississippi are still in the balance. In the House, the flipped districts put Democrats on pace to win more than 250 seats, with some outlets predicting in the 251–268 range.

One House Republican took issue with the GOP leadership for all the “bluster” and not enough “doing the job,” though he did not name Trump. “All the name changes were so unnecessary – Gulf of America, Lake of America, Department of War,” the lawmaker said.

Another put forward a long list of failings: the quality of some of the candidates, Trump’s tariffs and immigration enforcement, affordability, the historic headwinds of a midterm and a move toward populism at the expense of traditional conservatism.

Trump has his own explanation. He says he was not on the ballot, and that if he had been, voters “would have gotten out.” Vice President JD Vance has laid the blame at the feet of the Iran war.

For his part, Trump posted a picture of a red hat inscribed with “Veto” on Truth Social late Tuesday, and he has promised to veto any “insane” legislation from the Democrats in the wake of their victory. He told Fox News’ Bret Baier that the gasoline prices driven by the conflict with Iran probably had something to do with the Republican losses. The fallout is already underway.

CBS News reports Mr. Trump has been asking advisers whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should remain in post, though he hasn’t decided to replace him. Separately, House Speaker Mike Johnson intends to stand down as the party’s leader.

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Revealed: How Susie Wiles kept Trump in the dark about looming GOP disaster

Trump loyalists target Pete Hegseth to shield president from election fallout

an 11 26

Incoming Texas attorney general fires warning shot at Trump

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intel stock?

an 11 26

Trump’s bad week gets 'worse' as his taxpayer-funded gamble loses billions

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mma misc

Some right-wing media figures say midterm losses are a death knell for a JD Vance 2028 run

11/04/26 3:54 PM EST

Megyn Kelly on Alina Habba: “I actually am looking forward to seeing her go before Congress”

11/04/26 3:32 PM EST

MAGA “prophet” Julie Green: “There was a red wave last night. It was stolen.”

11/04/26 1:57 PM EST

Nick Fuentes: “This is literally the worst case scenario for Republicans playing out tonight. And, honestly, I could not be happier.”

11/04/26 1:28 PM EST

Tim Pool credits Nick Fuentes for midterm shift toward Democrats: He “speaks to young men”

11/04/26 12:23 PM EST

Tim Pool: “This is the end of the Trump era”

11/04/26 12:08 PM EST

The midterm results are a crushing rebuke to Fox News’ Trump propaganda

11/04/26 10:28 AM EST

caroline sunshine spox?

Fox guest calls for Susie Wiles and “anybody involved in what was 100 percent a preventable election wipeout” to resign

11/04/26

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MMA

November 3, 2026, coverage of the midterms on Real America's Voice

STEVE BANNON (HOST): I'm going to go to John Solomon.

...

JOHN SOLOMON (JUST THE NEWS): So, this is starting to sweep across the country, a blue wave and many different things, including governorships that have long been in Republican hands.

So you're seeing this continue to sweep across the country. Same trend lines, safe red seats, safe red governorships beginning to tilt blue. This is definitely going to be a blue wave tonight. Darline Graham, perhaps the most perplexing, just because he's someone who seemed reluctant in the job. And ultimately, there were other candidates who had better statewide organizations in South Carolina. That one's going to be a candidate decision. South Carolina was probably a savable senate seat with the right candidate. But tonight, it looks like Darline Graham is going down. Iowa's going to be a tough night, I think, for Republicans. Wisconsin has very quickly flipped to the blue column. Tom Tiffany, a great guy on our network often. But, right now, now with about 35% of the voting down about 10 points. So the trend lines are pretty clear. I think the coalition that Donald Trump put together in 2024, young males, Hispanic voters, independent voters has tilted to the left. They're willing to give socialists a chance because they don't think the economy's been fixed.

And then some of the core constituencies of the Republican Party when you dig into these exit results like I've been doing, Steve, evangelical voters way down, the young voter, the young conservative voter way down, that Charlie Kirk voter that was so energized in '24 way down in the fall. You can see how how this night is shaping up and what lessons we take from this. The one interesting thing though, socialists are doing very well tonight. The overall national sentiment is Americans do not want socialism. So they're just picking socialists out of anger over the economy, but it is not an embrace of socialism, It's a rejection of the current economy.

BANNON: What — Let's go back to Darline Graham. She was a reluctant candidate, but pushed by Hannity and other people at Fox as a tribute to Lindsey Graham, who, as you know, had a huge contention on the right, the anti-war right, or people didn't want to get into the situation in in the Middle East. What is the lesson we can learn? Because it's pretty stunning that you win the governorship in South Carolina, and you're going to lose the senators?

SOLOMON: Yeah. Listen. If Ralph Norman's in that seat, you probably won both both seats tonight. At the end of the day, Donald Trump has always been an instinctual politician that has normally served him very well, and his record over the last ten years is extraordinary. His comeback in 2024, anything unlike anything we've seen in American history, his rallies.

Tonight, some of the candidate decisions are part of the problem. The bigger problem is the instinctual decision to do the war, which triggered the gas prices. That fractured his coalition and gave Democrats — and now, the — what's interesting in in watching MS NOW or whatever we call these days and the left, they're interpreting this as an embrace of socialism.

It is not. It is a rejection of the current state of the economy and gas prices predominantly. Data centers somewhere downstream in some of these places. But this is an economic election. It is not embrace of socialism.

And quite frankly, when you look at the Hispanic vote, which broke from Republicans tonight, like the young vote, there's still a lot of distrust of socialism among Hispanics. There's a lot of connectivity with the Hispanic voter when it comes to abortion and cultural issues and family issues, small business. One of the lessons tonight is that the Fox era of the Republican Party is probably coming to an end. You've seen Fox's ratings collapse a little bit. You see the president being uncomfortable with them.

There is a new type of constituent that needs to be engaged, a real American that needs to be engaged. They're Hispanic. They're young. They're a working class. The cultural wins, the communication wins that the Republican Party need to be made before the next election have to be made in conversations like we have every day on this network.

It starts with a conversation getting back to what we promised people we would do. And I think the old coalitions are fracturing. The older evangelical vote starting to fade into history. You got to replace that with something Hispanics and Catholics are a possibility. But there's a realignment going on, an exciting realignment going on.

But I do think some of the mainstays of the Republican Party, the Fox News, the Christian coalition, they frayed in this election. And it is a challenge for the Republican Party to put together a new coalition in time for 2028. It's very doable. Fix the economy, get back to the issues at one in '24, stay true to the MAGA Trump phenomenon, fix the wars. There's still a coalition to be regathered, but tonight, it fractured and it fractured under very clear circumstances, the economy and not sticking to your promises and bad candidates in some cases.

But all of these are fixable issues. This is not a seismic shift in politics. It is a blue wave rejection of the state of the economy. Very fixable for '28, but some sort of conversation has to happen in the Fox News style of having that conversation with Republicans. That era is over.

The evangelicals always carrying the Republican bacon. That era is over. It's going to be about winning young people, about winning Hispanics, about winning the working class and putting that in together, being an economic-first Republican party. Those are the messages that are very inherent in tonight's results.

BANNON: Talk to me about, before we go to break in about 90 seconds, the — did the Christian — did the evangelicals, give me the math on that, did they turn out?

SOLOMON: Yeah. They're they're down about 5%, which is a big — that's a big loss in the coalition. In Texas, it's a little bit more. So maybe the whole sinner phenomenon is real with Paxton.

But Hispanics broke in a big way. By the way, Hispanic Catholics could be an enormous part of the Republican Party for the future, but there hasn't been the investment in a real relationship with Hispanic voters.

...

SOLOMON: It's got to start with having a Hispanic news channel that's reliable, not Univision, things that, you know, RAV and I and others are working on right now. Lots of opportunity.

I mean, the the nice thing about this election is there's a road map for what Republicans can do, and I think Democrats are going to misread the road map tonight as an embrace of the far-left socialism. It's not.

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an 11 26

MAGA is at each other’s throats in the aftermath of the brutal blue tsunami that washed Republicans out to sea, and Bulwark editors Sam Stein and Will Sommer are apparently here for it.

“You it’s getting rough when they’re on like the fourth quote tweet, where it’s like “I’ll tell you what I think,” said Sommer, reading vicious exchanges between MAGA pundits on X.

“Mark Levin is a moron. And heavily contributed to the devastating losses suffered last night by republicans,” posted Rep. Nancy Mace on Z, speaking of the MAGA podcaster.

“S--- you washed up political loser,” posted Levin in response on X. “You’re angry because you’ll actually have to now work for a living. You’re one of the most mentally unhinged POS to ever be in Congress. We lost last night for many reasons, including because of useless, self-promoting, do-nothings like you. Good riddance, crackpot.”

“You know, Etiquette would be just to reply. You don’t want everyone to see [post quotes],” advised Stein. “Just reply. It’s easier to consume that way. These are all adults, presumably, and they’re just out there throwing as many haymakers as they can, calling each other [names] and wishing they’d die. You wouldn’t talk like this to anyone in real life.”

The two then turned to the online lamentation of MAGA influencer likes Laura Loomer, who critics say holds undo influence in the White House, sometimes ending whole political White House careers by whispering into President Donald Trump’s ear.

“Sadly now, it’s too late and America is over,” posted Loomer on X the day after the Democrat wave. “Plan for your survival. Stock up on supplies, finalize your will in case massive political violence erupts, and temper the expectations of your children and grandchildren who will never know the American Dream. Make sure your children have food and shelter, but aside from that, most people’s kids are not going to have a future full of aspirations.”

“We are going to watch our country implode in the next five years,” she continued. “Eight jihadi candidates will now be headed to Congress after last night’s election. They will take their oath of office on the Quran, which explicitly causes for the killing of non-Muslims. They will have access to classified information and they will leak that information to America’s enemies and sleeper cells in our country who will without a doubt work to kill Americans. I’m glad that I was able to predict America’s future because it gave me time to plan. But aside from just trying to stay alive every single day, most Americans will not be experiencing much joy in the coming future. If you think things are bad now because gas is a dollar more expensive, you are in for a serious rude awakening.”

“Oh, my God. ‘Just Let me die,’ basically,” said Stein, describing her post. “Are people trying to talk her off the ledge? This kind of looks like a cry for help.”

“She tends to go to a dark place anyhow,” said Sommer. “She made statements during past Republican defeats where she’s said, ‘I can’t have a family. I’ve destroyed my life for Donald Trump’ …. So, she’s one who kind of puts the pathos out there a little more than most.”

“It makes sense that she’s out of reach, but she’s not the only one,” said Stein, who then quickly added that her “foe, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is clearly having the time of her life because she gets to say ‘I told you so.”

And MTG did just that, posting an AI image of herself holding court as a queen while Loomer bawls her eyes out behind her.

“Good morning, everyone. Except Laura Loomer,” posted MTG on X. “An insane woman, two-time congressional loser, who has zero real life experience. Yet Natalie Harp somehow helped Laura become Trump’s crazy train late-night advisor. Make her the press secretary! Make her chief of staff! Give Laura something! Please entertain me!”

Other MAGA entertainers, however, like far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, appeared to cry into their beers.

“I love winning,” Fuentes, mewled on X, Tuesday night as results began rolling in of Republican defeat after another.

“The knives are out on the right and It’s all out pleasure to look at it,” said Sommer.

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an 11 26

On Wednesday, following the GOP’s historic midterm bloodbath, President Donald Trump received another humiliation when the price of his signature DJT stock plunged to its lowest point ever. While investors were once paying $175 per share, it’s worth just over $5 as of this writing, or as the internet noted, “about as much as a Happy Meal.”

DJT is the stock ticker for Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG), the parent company for Trump’s Truth Social social media platform. Launched in 2021, early investors paid as much as $175 per share, which plunged to about $13 per share within two years. After the company went public in 2024 amidst Trump’s presidential campaign, its value briefly jumped to $61.96 but has been falling off ever since, and has been in freefall since October. Then on Election Day, as it became clear that the Republicans had been decimated by the midterms, its price went over a cliff, plummeting from just under $6 to a record low of $5.05. The internet noticed and offered its thoughts on the matter.

“Trump Media stock is down,” Washington Post contributor Drew Harwell pointed out. “A share costs about as much as a Happy Meal. At its peak, investors paid $175 a share.” But as writer Amanda Knox noted, “With a Happy Meal, you get a toy that you can keep.”

“Do not buy the dip,” warned New Yorker staff writer Philip Gourevitch. “If you're baffled by Trump voters, consider Trump investors,” mused another comment.

“Chugging this stuff until my torso kerplodes,” admitted one reshare of the disastrous stock chart. And All In producer Adam Weinstein needed no words to express his sentiments, adding only a clip from Mad Men in which character Don Draper achieves a moment of zen.

This isn’t the first time Trump’s company has been hit by bad financial news. In 2025, Truth Social reported net losses of $712 million. At the same time, data suggests that its traffic has fallen by 30 percent year over year, while its users dropped from a peak of roughly 420,000 in June 2025 to about 260,000 in September 2026. In 2023, it was also reported that TMTG was under investigation for laundering money for Russian oligarchs. While TMTG sued the Guardian and Variety for reporting on the story, the suit was dismissed. According to the Washington Post, a federal probe found that one of the company’s wealthy investors was linked to efforts to move assets from Russia, Ukraine, and China to the Caribbean. Over the past two years, the company has been increasingly involved with various cryptocurrency ventures, and the Trump family’s crypto schemes have reportedly raked in roughly $2.3 billion since he reentered the White House.

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an 11 26

Trump’s Pentagon chief is waking up to a nightmare as the blame game ensues and he is right on the chopping block, according to a White House official.

Republicans are still reeling from Tuesday’s midterm bloodbath. Democrats have secured at least 54 Senate seats and crossed the 218-seat threshold for a House majority early Wednesday, winning every toss-up race except Alaska, which remained uncalled overnight.

One senior White House official speaking to the Washington Examiner suggested War Secretary Pete Hegseth was squarely in the firing line over his advice to Trump regarding the Iran war.

“The polls were right. Were Pete Hegseth’s projections about this war right? I hope he’s ready to explain to Congress what he told the president would happen,” that person said.

With Democrats taking control of both houses in January, Hegseth could soon face committees run by the opposing party, which means investigations and a likely impeachment.

The Iran war has become the common thread in Trumpworld’s finger-pointing. Trump himself told Fox News early Wednesday that the conflict was part of the problem, while also blaming candidates he said failed to inspire voters. A veteran operative working with Trump’s outside political operation told the outlet the results came down to Iran and its fallout, not campaign strategy.

Some former Trump insiders aren’t buying the excuses. Sarah Matthews, a deputy press secretary in Trump’s first term, pointed the finger straight at her old boss.

“Trump has no one to blame but himself,” she told the Washington Examiner, citing the Iran war, tariffs that drove up costs, mass deportations and corruption in the administration.

Trump has continued to downplay getting rid of his embattled Pentagon chief. He told Fox News host Bret Baier just after midnight Wednesday that there were unlikely to be personnel changes.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “It had nothing to do with my Cabinet. It was just a point — honestly, look. I’ve been doing a lot of great things for a long time, and it’s just a point in time.”

The president rarely signals the press before he fires his officials.

For now, Trump has aimed his fire elsewhere, spending election night blasting Fox News over its coverage and polling and branding Texas Gov. Greg Abbott a RINO after Abbott lost his race.

Another White House aide insisted to the outlet that nobody was at fault, chalking the losses up to a wave. But with Democrats poised to wield subpoena power on Capitol Hill, the questions about what Hegseth promised the president on Iran are not going away.

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an 11 26 blame fire woman?

As Republicans search for someone to blame for the shellacking they received on election night, the knives are out at the White House for chief of staff Susie Wiles.

According to the Daily Beast, MAGA is calling for her to be gone.

“Susie Wiles should be fired tomorrow!” demanded white nationalist podcast host Nick Fuentes, ranting late Tuesday night. “You’re going to have a 260-seat Democrat majority in the House, a 55-seat Democrat majority, and these deputies for the White House were in Bosnia while this bloodbath was going on, making money from foreign governments.”

“[Wiles] should be fired immediately,” he continued. “Vance and Rubio should never get close to the nomination in 2028. That’s the point. That’s why we’re doing this. These people should be investigated. They should go to jail. They should lose their jobs. They should have no political future.”

" Trump should fire Susie Wiles, who most Republicans have an inexplicable affection for. Her role doesn't even need Senate confirmation. Trump needed a wartime consigliere and Wiles was Tom Hagen. Nice, practical, but not suited for these midterms and definitely not good for the next two years," said host JD Rucker.

While President Trump went into Election Day saying that he was confident and ready to stand up to Democrats, he now appears to be "eager" to make deals with Democrats. While Trump bragged that he was ready to get his veto stamp out, he now appears open to working together. The MAGA faithful said that Trump doesn't want to spend the next two years "vetoing everything."

However, Trump may be in deeper trouble than having to deal. He might be forced to spend the next two years begging Democrats not to hurt him.

Other MAGA supporters agree that Wiles is the one to blame and they're eager to throw her under the bus.

The Beast said that some claim that they have been against Wiles since her Dec. 2025 Vanity Fair cover. In the article, she promised: “We’re going to win the midterms.”

A Daily Mail report said Trump spent the evening shuttered in the White House residence while a crowd of Republicans patted themselves on the back and ate catering from the Cheesecake Factory.

"Ensconced with his redoutable Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Natalie Harp, the aide who has enjoyed unusually direct access to Trump throughout this second term, the President watched as the Blue Wave swept in. His First Lady was not watching with him," the Daily Mail said.

As the numbers came through and it became clear just how bad the night would be for Republicans, those who know Trump best quickly disappeared. First were his senior staff, followed by his Cabinet officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was there early in the evening, but the report said he suddenly couldn't be found.

As the clocks approached 10 p.m., everyone was almost completely gone, and the Cheesecake Factory food went uneaten.

After midnight, an angry Trump called into Fox News trying to blame them for all of the Fox polls that showed him with horrible polling. "But, tonight, actually, the results was pretty close to what the Fox polls showed," said Bret Baier.

"Well, I don't know about that," Trump said. "I can just tell ya about speaking for myself. And the results for Fox for me were wrong for 12 years. I mean, you got me wrong for 12 years. But I don't care. It doesn't matter. People... you know... people see... when you look at the pollster recently that admitted they weren't even doing polls and they gave the information to the New York Times. They weren't even a legit — it wasn't even a question of legit!"

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AN 11 26

Trump’s global enemies rush in to celebrate his humiliating defeat

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RWW --> 11 26

With polls indicating that the Democrats are poised to win big in the midterm elections, the Trump administration is already attempting to mount legal challenges in certain races and cast doubt on the results.

A post published last month by the Center for Renewing America, an influential right-wing think tank, suggests a more radical strategy, asserting that a number of Democrats could be prevented from holding office even if they win their elections.

The post, titled “Can Congress Seat a Member-Elect Who Vows to Destroy our Constitution?” argues that even winning candidates from what it believes to be a purported “Red-Green Alliance” between “neo-Marxist progressives and anti-Western Muslims” can and should be kept from being seated in Congress. The post, in effect, claims that Muslim and progressive candidates don’t have to be legally accepted into their elected positions.

“This is another attempt to contort and twist basic norms that have never been used this way for their own partisan purposes,” says Richard Pildes, a professor at New York University’s School of Law.

The CRA was founded by Russell Vought, one of the main architects of Project 2025 and now the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought faced criticism for his anti-Muslim comments—he once said that Muslims had a “deficient theology” and “do not know God”—when he was nominated for OMB director during the first Trump administration.

The Center for Renewing America (CRA) did not respond to a request for comment.

Though Vought has described himself and allies, including members of the CRA, as “radical constitutionalists,” he has taken several steps that have infringed on the powers of other branches of government to expand the power of the executive branch. Most notably, although Congress is tasked with allocating and approving funds for the operation of the federal government, Vought has impounded, refused, or delayed the disbursement of funds, including billions of dollars that Congress has approved. Last year, Vought put a freeze on $5 billion in foreign aid funding, which was followed up by clawing back more than $800 million this year, a move that may violate the Impoundment Control Act, Maine senator Susan Collins said in late September.

The recent CRA piece—authored by Benjamin Osborne, a Georgetown Law School graduate who is serving as the organization’s legal fellow—argues that the beliefs the organization has imputed to so-called Red-Green politicians are against the US Constitution. Osborne writes that “when someone elected to Congress has personally embraced the destruction of the constitutional order espoused by these groups, he or she cannot truthfully swear to support that order as a condition of taking office.”

According to another CRA publication from earlier this year written by the organization’s executive director, Wade Miller, the so-called Red-Green Alliance includes the “Squad,” the nickname for the group of four progressive women of color who all won seats in Congress in 2018: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar. It also includes politicians like New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. These politicians, the publication claims, are purveyors of “ideology dedicated to destroying capitalism, Christianity, and the Western political tradition.” None of the politicians named in the piece have self-identified as Marxists, though some, including Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani, are Democratic Socialists.

Corey Brettschneider, a professor of politics and constitutional law at Brown University and host of the The Oath and the Office podcast, says that both posts are “engaged in an attack on the Constitution and then trying to use the law of that as an attack on opponents,” something he believes a court would quickly be able to identify and quash.

Trying to use a Muslim politician’s religion as a reason for them to be disqualified from holding office, says Brettschneider, would likely be even more difficult than taking aim at a certain political group. “The protections I'd say are even stronger against that maneuver because the Constitution is explicit in saying you can't have a religious test for office,” he says.

El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether it was aware of the Renewing America piece or what, if any, steps it is taking to prepare for challenges to a possible win.

While any successful legal case based on the CRA's logic would be unlikely to hold up in court, Brettschneider says, “clearly what they're doing is floating it to see if it will stick.”

Christian Grose, a professor of political science at the University of Southern California, says the effectiveness of a strategy like the one outlined by the CRA would likely vary widely depending on the margins of a possible Democratic victory. If the Democrats win one or two seats in the Senate, he says, Republicans could try to dispute results in order to maintain control of the Senate. “But if Democrats win the Senate by something like four seats, I think we will be less likely to see those kinds of things,” he says. “The bigger the margin is on either side, the less likely this will be a viable strategy, and it becomes more preposterous the larger number of winning candidates that someone would try not to seat.”

For members of the House, the outcome could depend on whether Democrats can snag a majority. If Republicans maintain the majority, they could vote to refuse to seat incoming Democrats. In 1967, the House refused to seat Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a Democrat representative from Harlem and the first Black person from the state of New York to be elected to Congress, due to allegations that he was misappropriating funds.

Grose says that any legal case would risk going unresolved beyond the start of the new Congress in 2027, meaning that whether or not a senator whose win was challenged could be seated would likely be determined by a judge issuing an injunction. “It could become a Congress-versus-courts showdown,” he says.

Pildes is more direct: “This isn't going to happen.”

But just because the legal strategy may not work, it doesn’t mean the administration or Republicans wouldn’t make the attempt. Brettschneider noted the administration’s multiple attempts to charge former FBI director James Comey with various crimes, even if prosecutors are unlikely to secure a conviction. “We absolutely need to take it seriously because Trump has been dismantling the guardrails and the norms that are supposed to protect against this, or trying to influence the courts through appointments,” he says. “Even if they don't get away with it directly, threatening and shutting down opponents creates fear and makes people worry ‘they might come after me next.’”

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RWW MISC

11/03/2026

byKyle Mantyla

Vittoria Elliot @ Wired: A Right-Wing Think Tank Has a Plan to Prevent Democrats From Being Seated in Congress

The influential Center for Renewing America says that “neo-Marxist progressives and anti-Western Muslims” can’t sincerely swear to protect the Constitution—and shouldn’t be allowed to assume office.

Will Sommer @ The Bulwark: MAGA Preps for the World to End—Literally

With Republicans fearing electoral doom, right-wing pundits send their audience to the bunker.

Molly Olmstead @ Slate: We Went Looking for the Most Extreme Candidates in the Nation. Four Stood Out.

It’s not easy to separate yourself from the extremist pack during Trump 2.0. These candidates found a way.

Kathianne Boniello @ Mediaite: DeSantis Scolds Trump for ‘Gaslighting’ Voters on Iran and Gas Prices: ‘It Hurts People’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is urging Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to stop “gaslighting” voters.

Madeline Peltz @ Talking Points Memo: ‘Theobros’ Want to Strip Women of the Right to Vote—But Only After They Vote Republican in the Midterms

With Trump’s approval ratings at a record low, the cult personality they’ve staked their name on is now more of a liability than an asset. The young men they were credited with recruiting into the winning 2024 coalition are now telling the mainstream press they’re disillusioned with the MAGA movement. Conservatives are already pointing fingers at each other in anticipation of losing control of Congress.

Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: It’s not just the Social Security Administration: IRS pushes partisan pre-election message

The tax agency has apparently joined a growing list of politicized agencies that are being used as partisan tools in the White House’s political toolbox.

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