SINCERETALK

After President Donald Trump helped nominate controversial Texas AG Ken Paxton as the Republican to run against Democrat James Talarico for Texas’ pivotal Senate seat, critics say the Lone Star state may now be in serious play . But it appears an unexpected new issue has reared its head to further complicate an easy Republican senatorial win in this red state — and nobody saw it coming. “My entire community is going to break rank. Everybody, all of us. We've had enough,” Texas Republican voter Cheryl Shadden told MS NOW reporter Josh Einiger . “… Red or blue. If you vote against data centers, we vote for you.” A lifelong conservative, Shadden is so angry she refuses to vote for Trump backed attorney general ken Paxton, Einiger reports. Instead, she's all in for Talarico to flip a seat controlled by Republicans since 1993. “You're willing at this point to forego basically every conservative issue and let the Senate fall into the hands of Democrats, if that's what it ta...

President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump-linked institutions and Trump supporters is, according to one conservative, a gateway to something most right-wingers oppose: Reparations for the descendants of American slaves “It will set a precedent that a future president could use to bypass Congress and the courts to implement wide-reaching policies without congressional support—including race-based reparations,” wrote The Federalist Society's Darin R. Batram, who practices appellate and constitutional law in Washington, for The Wall Street Journal . Batram then reviewed how the fund was created, observing that Trump sued the IRS even though as president he had two conflicts of interest: First, that he was suing an agency he controlled; and second, that the Justice Department which he likewise controlled is supposed to defend the IRS from his litigation. Trump sued the IRS by alleging that it owed him $10 billion because a contractor associated with them leaked his ta...

MAGA accounts were flummoxed on X Wednesday after the White House posted a puzzling 11-second clip of an unknown observer traveling over sand while somebody appears to shout instructions from a megaphone amid the blare of distant sirens. The post contains the short cryptic inquiry: “Are you listening?” “I think The White House is teasing that an alien has escaped a government facility,” posted right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on X. “DECLAS IS COMING … ALL OF IT!!” blared another MAGA account — although that same account also claimed former Intelligence Department head Tulsi Gabbard was “going to go out in a blaze of glory in her final month,” leading to “MASS ARRESTS … ELECTIONS OVERTURNED” with similar enthusiasm. “I am still trying to clean up the first word but I distinctly hear "where are they?” mulled another X commenter about the video. Other, more critical accounts, however, took that moment to vent their beef with the Trump administration. “Are YOU listening to We ...

President Donald Trump’s politicized Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who successfully accused Trump of sexual assault, but former Fox Host Gretchen Carlson said she was still waiting for the DOJ to do real work. The DOJ’s investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president – one alleging he sexually abused her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault after he was convicted by a jury of his peers. Hearst Senior Data Analyst Editor and Columnist Phillip Bump called the probe “dubious” on a CNN panel, and suspected it would be quickly thrown out for “vindictive prosecution” if pursued. “We treat this like it's a real case because it's the Department of Justice. …. But there's no reason for us to assume the justice department is acting in go...

There’s no hiding it anymore: Republican strategist and pundit Scott Jennings showed calm acquiescence to the realization that President Donald Trump is almost single-handedly deep-sixing the GOP’s chances in November with his war in Iran . Even better, Jennings appeared to cheer Trump’s war, which has had a ripple effect on voters’ gas prices and grocery costs as the nation slides into November. “The Democrats will make a case and the people will vote. Under no circumstances would you ever want the commander in chief making military decisions based on how many people might vote on in a precinct somewhere in the middle of the country,” Jennings told a CNN panel. “That is. That is not how you would want national security being handled. So when I hear him say he's put politics aside to do what's best for national security, that's what a commander in chief should do. Fellow panelist Axios political reporter Alex Thomson, however, warned Jennings that that’s not the way Re...

President Donald Trump’s controversial $1.8 billion slush fund exists as a result of his suit against the IRS. But now 35 former federal judges say the creation of that fund demands a reinvestigation of Trump’s suit. “The Court was deceived,” say the bipartisan group of former judges. “Despite plaintiffs not having mentioned any settlement in their notice, the Department of Justice publicly announced a ‘settlement’ of this action shortly after Plaintiffs filed their dismissal. The judges are asking the judge who oversaw Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS to reopen the case and begin an inquiry into whether Trump’s deal to resolve it can be challenged as an act of fraud. “The purported ‘settlement’ that was publicly disclosed after this court dismissed this matter raises profound questions about the parties’ candor toward the court and manipulation of the judicial system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice,” the former judges legal team argues. The f...