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Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) shocked the political world on Tuesday by announcing she would vote against confirming President Donald Trump’s acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, to hold that job in an official capacity. “I have carefully reviewed Todd Blanche’s qualifications to be Attorney General,” Collins posted on X . “This includes his record and responses to questions from Senators at the Department of Justice Appropriations hearing, his confirmation hearing, and in the weeks that followed.” She added, “While I believe Mr. Blanche is a capable lawyer, the Department of Justice has become increasingly political. Mr. Blanche has taken several actions that have further eroded the Department’s independence, and that is the basis for my vote to oppose his confirmation: Mr. Blanche approved an order to shield the President, his sons, and the family business from IRS audits, protections unavailable to other American taxpayers. He approved the creation of a $1.8 billion anti-weaponizatio...
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They’re done: Families are dumping MAGA relatives for good

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The “partisan split” of Americans showed up in a big way at Fourth of July celebrations and backyard barbecues last month, but the media, while noting or even complaining about it, rarely mentions exactly why it’s happening. A few weeks ago, Louise and I were having coffee with an old friend who’s known us since the early days of the radio show, and somewhere between the second cup and the muffins she said something that’s been rattling around in my head ever since. Her sister, a three-time Trump voter, had finally called — after months of silence — and demanded to know why our friend had stopped returning her calls. “It’s just politics,” the sister said. “Why are you taking this so personally?” Our friend, who is queer and married, listened for about 30 seconds and then said, very quietly, “Because you voted for the people who want me to disappear, and you knew that when you did it.” Then she hung up. She told us she felt awful about it for about an hour, and then she felt nothing a...
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Moreno profanely tells reporters to stop asking him about Max Miller

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After Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) urged his son-in-law Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) to resign from office due to allegations that Miller brutally beat Moreno's daughter Emily on multiple occasions, and on at least one also beat Moreno's 2-year-old granddaughter, President Donald Trump's allies and allegedly Trump himself have started concurring in Moreno's sentiment. Now, apparently, Sen. Moreno has had enough of answering questions about the matter. "Sen. Moreno basically tells reporters to back off on Max Miller," Politico's Burgess Everett posted on X on Monday . "He didn’t like being asked by one reporter why it took him so long to put out his statement." Everett then quoted Moreno, “I hope you never have to go through this situation, because you wouldn’t ask that kind of f----- question." When Everett asked Moreno why Miller is not taking Moreno's advice to resign, Moreno replied, "You'll have to ask him." He described the ...
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GOP braces for extinction-level disaster as Americans revolt

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The cake is baked. The Republicans are cooked. The Post ran a story this morning on the effect of "vibes" on the congressional elections. The story's takeaway was that how people feel is probably not going to change from now until Election Day, regardless of the facts. And how they feel is mad. The context of the story is a new poll by YouGov. In October 2018, Donald Trump's approval stood at -4 among indie voters. Last month, it stood at -53. The Democrats won over 40 House seats six years ago. At the rate things are going, the Republicans really are looking at an " extinction-level event ." But the trouble the GOP is facing isn't just vibes. People are mad for good, solid reasons, primarily the Iran War and its economic consequences. Even Trump's most reliable cohort is turning against him, according to the same YouGov poll . On July 11, net approval among white people without college degrees was zero. On July 25, it was -6. On July 11, net app...
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Allies urge Trump to drop GOP rep as president privately says he can’t win

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President Donald Trump’s Republican allies are trying to get him to rescind his endorsement of Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), who is accused of physically abusing two of his former romantic partners and his young child. Yet even after Democrats pulled their support from their nominee for the Senate in Maine, oyster farmer Graham Platner , when he was accused of domestic violence and sexual misconduct, Trump is reportedly struggling to do the same thing for Miller. “It's a very sad thing; I know Max,” Trump said during an Oval Office press conference on Monday. “He's a good person. I mean, I always thought he was a very good person. And I'm going to let the families figure that out. You know, those families, I know they're working on it. It's a very sad thing, but it's accusations, and I'm going to let them figure that out.” Miller, by contrast, has denied all of the accusations, falsely claiming that only his wife has accused him (Trump’s former press secretary S...
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Inside the trillion-dollar cost of Trump's lies

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It may be that society is often described as being built on “lies,” which can refer to the collective myths, social constructs, and commercial narratives that keep civilization functioning rather than literal malicious deceptions, as a Quora.com online discussion has batted around. But that is about cultural lies we tell ourselves about the shared American Dream, for example, not about intentional lying of the sort we see daily from the Trump administration. We even expect self-promoting “spin” from our politicians, whether we accept it or not. For the Justice Department to have dropped its inane criminal charges of vandalism against Olympian David Hearn for noticing the big paint chips floating in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pools is not just admission that the “damage” was from a botched painting job rather than criminal act. It was another in the long series of public policy lies that we endure from Donald Trump, who had insisted without evidence on his version of Truth. (Trum...
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Republicans panic as Trump and party leader go radio silent at the worst time

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Republicans are beginning to panic, according to a new CNN report , as a major rift appears to be growing between President Donald Trump and a top party leader at a time when everyone needs to lock in for the midterms . As CNN noted in a new weekend report, Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune appear to have gone largely radio silent with one another, with "days, if not weeks" passing between times when the top senator hears from the president. Thune has suggested that the two only speak "more on an as-needed basis" lately, in stark contrast to Trump's dynamic with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who "sometimes can’t get [him] off the phone." Johnson has been noted as one of the more committed and enthusiastic lieutenants for the president in Congress, making their active relationship somewhat unsurprising. Thune, by contrast, has drawn significant ire from Trump in recent months over his insistence that the SAVE America Act is dead on arrival in ...
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