CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings signaled that he would run for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) seat in 2026 if President Donald Trump tells him to.
During an interview with Jennings on the Real America’s Voice show Bolling!, host Eric Bolling asked, “A lot of people are floating your name to take over, to jump into Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat next year in ’26. You thinking about it?”
BREAKING: GOP pundit and CNN contributor Scott Jennings says he’s open to running for Mitch McConnell’s seat — but only if President Trump asks him to.
“Yeah, I haven’t made any announcements about that,” replied Jennings, who worked as a special assistant for former President George W. Bush. “There’s three people in the race, I know them all, like them all, have been in and out of their lives in varying degrees over the years. I’ve supported them all in various endeavors, so I’m confident the seat will remain Republican.”
He continued, “I do think politics is a team sport, and I think Trump’s the head coach. And eventually he’s gonna weigh in on this, and my political advice would be to anybody, you know, if he calls a play, we’re gonna have to run it. I wouldn’t want to run against the president in Kentucky. So, I don’t really have any announcement about it at the moment.”
After Bolling pressed, “If Trump taps you, you’re gonna run?” Jennings said cryptically, “I pay very close attention to everything the president says.”
McConnell, who has held his Senate seat since 1985, announced in February he would not seek re-election in 2026 amid growing concerns over his health.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and businessman Nate Morris have all declared their candidacy in the race.
Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino is reportedly preparing to leave the Bureau in the coming weeks, fueling speculation that he may soon return to the conservative media landscape where he built a powerful national following. According to The New York Times, several individuals familiar with the situation say Bongino is already packing up his office and sending personal items back to Florida—an indication that an official announcement may be imminent.
These sources told the Times that Bongino could depart “as soon as this week or as late as mid-January,” though he has not yet publicly confirmed his plans. The former Secret Service agent and best-selling author was appointed to the FBI leadership team earlier this year by President Donald Trump, who tasked him with bringing greater transparency, accountability, and ideological clarity to an agency long accused by conservatives of political bias.
Dan Bongino via Gage Skidmore Flickr
Conflicting Signals About Bongino’s Plans
Other reports offer mixed signals. Fox News Digital, citing its own sources, noted Monday that Bongino has “not made a final decision” and disputed claims that his office was already empty. However, Fox’s sources did acknowledge that he is expected to clarify his future “in the coming weeks.”
If Bongino does leave the Bureau, many expect him to reenter the conservative media sphere in time for the 2026 midterm elections, when Republican strategists anticipate a major national referendum on the direction of the country.
Potentially Strategic Timing for His Exit
According to the Times, Bongino has privately floated the idea of aligning his departure with a major law-enforcement development—specifically a press conference connected to the long-running federal investigation into the pipe bombs planted near the DNC and RNC headquarters on January 5, 2021.
The incident, still unsolved after nearly four years, remains a source of public frustration. Conservatives argue the lack of progress underscores deep institutional failures at the FBI—failures Bongino has long criticized both before and during his time at the agency.
Repairing Tensions With Attorney General Pam Bondi
Behind the scenes, Bongino is also said to be smoothing tensions with Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom he sharply criticized earlier this year. In July, Bondi’s office released a memo stating that the much-discussed “Epstein client list” did not exist, contradicting years of speculation amplified in part through Bongino’s own podcast prior to his government service.
The Times reports that Bongino was so dissatisfied with Bondi’s handling of that matter that he threatened to resign at the time. Since then, he has reportedly worked to repair the relationship—an indication that he may be trying to ensure a clean exit from the Bureau, should he choose to move on.
Broader Political Context
Bongino’s potential departure comes at a pivotal moment for federal law enforcement. Republicans continue to push for sweeping reforms at the FBI, citing concerns about political motivations behind high-profile investigations dating back to the Russia probe. Bongino, viewed by many grassroots conservatives as a no-nonsense reformer, entered the FBI leadership at a time when trust in federal agencies has been sharply divided along partisan lines.
A return to broadcasting would position him once again as one of the most influential voices in conservative politics—a role he previously used to energize Republican voters, challenge media narratives, and champion pro-Trump policy priorities.
For now, the timeline remains unclear. But by all accounts, Bongino’s next move—whether announced this week or early in the new year—will be closely watched
Elise Stefanik with Donald Trump via Wikimedia Commons
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik was the bearer of bad news this week.
Stefanik (N.Y.) announced she is revoking her endorsement of former Ohio state lawmaker Crag Riedel’s bid for Congress over his reported criticism of former President Trump.
Earlier this week, I informed Craig Riedel (OH-09) that I will be withdrawing my endorsement. I was very disappointed in his inappropriate comments regarding President Trump. As we begin 2024, my focus is on ensuring we nominate the strongest candidates on the ballot who are…
“Earlier this week, I informed Craig Riedel (OH-09) that I will be withdrawing my endorsement. I was very disappointed in his inappropriate comments regarding President Trump, Stefanik wrote Thursday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “As we begin 2024, my focus is on ensuring we nominate the strongest candidates on the ballot who are committed to electing President Trump this November and expanding our House GOP Majority.”
Riedel came under fire last month after leaked audio showed the Ohio lawmaker was not interested in Trump’s support.
In the audio, first obtained by the Charlie Kirk Show, Riedel was asked, “You’re not looking for a Trump endorsement, are you?”
Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Just in…
The Supreme Court granted a partial stay Friday of President Donald Trump’s request to block lower courts from issuing universal injunctions, granting a par victory for the administration as it looks to execute many of its top priorities via executive order and action.
In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines allowed President Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship to go into effect in some areas of the country, for now, by curtailing judges’ ability to block the president’s policies nationwide.
Ruling that three federal district judges went too far in issuing nationwide injunctions against Trump’s order, the high court’s decision claws back a key tool that plaintiffs have used to hamper the president’s agenda in dozens of lawsuits.
But it does not yet definitively resolve whether Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship are constitutional, a hefty legal question that could ultimately return to the justices.
“The applications do not raise—and thus we do not address—the question whether the Executive Order violates the Citizenship Clause or Nationality Act,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, writing for the majority. “The issue before us is one of remedy: whether, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions.”
“A universal injunction can be justified only as an exercise of equitable authority, yet Congress has granted federal courts no such power,” she added.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Donald Trump’s legal troubles are bleeding him dry…
New reports show Trump has spent around $60 million on legal fees of the four criminal indictments and various ongoing civil lawsuits against him.
According to Mediaite, disclosures indicate that Trump’s campaign and the various political action committees supporting it have spent millions, leaving his primary PAC with a little over $5 million.
Save America PAC, Trump’s primary PAC heading into his likely rematch with President Joe Biden, once had over $100 million in the bank. Now, it has just a little over $5 million left after spending over $25 million on legal bills in the second half of last year alone.
Here come the Trump FEC filings…first up, MAGA PAC (formerly his 2016/2020 campaign cmte). It received $5.9M from his Save America leadership PAC, spent $5.9M (including over $4M on legal fees), and had $572,828 remaining pic.twitter.com/zfTrsMmIlg
🚨Trump's Save America leadership PAC raised $6.6M and had $30M refunded by the MAGA, Inc. SuperPAC. It burned $35.2M (over $25M on legal fees, and another $110.5K to Melania's stylist Herve Pierre Braillard for 'strategy consulting'), ending w/$5.14M on hand. pic.twitter.com/3AnqCUIgSy
Make America Great Again PAC, which served the same function as Save America is now back in 2016 and 2020, spent $5.9 million in the back half of 2023, with $4 million of that going toward legal fees.
Most troublingly of all for the former president, perhaps, is the fact that the Super PAC raised only $6.6 million between July and December, a possible indicator of failing enthusiasm for Trump’s candidacy or suspicion of his political operation.
His campaign itself, meanwhile, raised a little over $19 million, but spent over $23.5 million in the latest fundraising period.
Finally, the Trump 2024 campaign cmte brought in $19.1M in Q4 but burned $23.56M on operating expenditures, cutting its cash from $37.5M down to $33.1M.
Top expense categories: $7.6M on ads, $3.7M on legal consulting, $1.7M for Trump's plane, $1.66M on event staging. pic.twitter.com/84NghQFbeD
On Friday, New York Judge Juan Merchan sentenced President-elect Donald Trump, making him the first felon to become President.
Merchan sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge, which eschews any prison time or probation but cements his status as a convicted felon.
“After careful analysis and obedience of government mandates, pursuant of law, the court feels the only sentence is an unconditional discharge, which is a lawful and permissible sentence for falsifying business records,” Merchan said.
“I impose that sentence for all 34 counts, and sir, I wish you godspeed as you pursue your second term in office,” he said.
Trump, in remarks virtually to the judge inside the courtroom, said that his experience throughout his criminal case in Manhattan has been “very terrible,” calling it a “tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system.”
“He said I was falsifying business records; I was calling a legal expense a legal expense,” Trump said, reiterating a defense argument from trial.
“It’s an injustice of justice,” he added.
🚨 Donald Trump’s FIRST Post on Truth without having Merchan’s unconstitutional gag order 🔥
Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the Manhattan case in May 2024.
Friday’s sentencing comes after multiple efforts to appeal the decision. On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s final effort to stay sentencing proceedings.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
By Dan Scavino - https://twitter.com/Scavino45/status/924068892984725504, Public Domain
President Donald Trump is seeking more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and legal costs from the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, following the dismissal of the 2020 election interference case she brought against him.
The request comes after Willis was permanently removed from the case last September, when the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that she and her office could not continue prosecuting it. The court cited an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from Willis’ romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had appointed to lead the case. The prosecution was formally dismissed in November.
Under a law passed by Georgia state legislators last year, defendants are entitled to seek reimbursement of legal costs if a prosecutor is disqualified due to their own improper conduct and the case is subsequently dismissed. The statute allows defendants to request “all reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred” in their defense. Any award is reviewed by the judge overseeing the case and paid from the prosecutor’s office budget.
Trump’s lead Georgia attorney, Steve Sadow, said the request follows directly from that law.
“In accordance with Georgia law, President Trump has moved the Court to award reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in his defense of the politically motivated, and now rightfully dismissed, case brought by disqualified DA Fani Willis,” Sadow said in a statement.
A motion filed Wednesday asks the court to award Trump $6,261,613.08 in legal fees and costs.
“President Trump prays that this Court award attorney fees and costs for the defense of President Trump in the amount of $6,261,613,08,” the filing states.
Trump and 18 others were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in August 2023. Trump surrendered at the Fulton County Jail on August 24, where he was booked and released.
Last month, another defendant in the same case filed a similar request for reimbursement. In response, Willis’ office submitted a motion asking to be heard on any fee and cost claims.
In that filing, Willis’ office challenged the constitutionality of the law that allows defendants to seek reimbursement, arguing it improperly targets elected prosecutors.
“The statute raises grave separation-of-powers concerns by purporting to impose financial liability on a constitutional officer, twice elected by the citizens of Fulton County, for the lawful exercise of her core duties under the Georgia Constitution,” the motion said.
Willis’ filing also argued that the law violates due process by applying retroactively.
The statute, her office said, “retroactively impos[es] a novel fee-shifting scheme” that places a substantial financial burden on Fulton County taxpayers without providing them any recourse.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy delivers remarks at the 2021 Capitol Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Washington DC, December 1, 2021. USDA Forest Service photo by Tanya E. Flores.
The prominent Club for Growth organization is preparing to spend millions of dollars to help reelect the 20 House Republicans who opposed Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid.
David McIntosh, the president of the group, told donors he was preparing a $20 million defense fund to help “The Patriot 20”, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO.
“Making our financial commitment public may serve as an effective deterrent to some potential challengers,” he wrote. “Moderate donors and candidates seeking to settle scores should save their money, because we are prepared to win at all costs.”
The Club’s primary goal will be to defend the five freshmen members of the group who are especially vulnerable: Reps. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) and Keith Self (R-Texas).
McIntosh wrote the Club would also closely monitor any primary challengers to the 15 other members such as Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.). Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), who is considering a Senate run, is also on the list.
McCarthy won the speakership after a historic 15 rounds of voting.
In the memo, the Club also noted that it would also help the three members of the 20 who could be most at risk from Democrats in a general election: Boebert, Luna and Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).
A longtime Trump supporter is cutting ties with the former President, instead choosing to endorse Nikki Haley to become the Republican nominee.
Andrew Stein, the son of the late publishing giant Jerry Finkelstein, served as the president of the New York City Council as a Democrat before crossing party lines to support Trump in the past two elections.
However, in a scathing Wall Street Journal op-ed on Friday, Stein made it absolutely clear that he was moving on from Trump and holds serious concerns about the former president’s ability to be reelected.
“Mr. Trump’s poll numbers show him with a clear path to the Republican nomination and rising ahead of Joe Biden. Given his mounting legal troubles, however, today’s polling may prove irrelevant. If Mr. Trump is found guilty of some of the charges against him, voters would have to choose between an old felon and an old fool,” Stein wrote in the Journal.
While making the case that Trump is an electoral liability, Stein also argued that Haley is best positioned to win over independents.
“Ms. Haley is likely to have a broader appeal than Mr. Trump for independents and suburbanites, especially women,” Stein wrote, adding:
The Democrats hope he wins the nomination and is convicted of felonies, leading him to lose the presidential election. Republicans need to consolidate around Ms. Haley so they have a credible nominee who can take on any Democrat.
