Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Hours before Donald Trump is expected to formally announce his 2024 presidential campaign Republicans are making it clear his announcement won’t deter their own political ambitions.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been floated as an early contender to mount his own presidential bid, possibly teeing up a challenge against his old boss.
While some Republicans, like Nikki Haley, that have expressed interest in seeking the Republican nomination in 2024 have indicated their plans will ultimately rely on Trump’s decision Pompeo says that is not the case for himself.
“We’re trying to think our way though, figuring out what’s next for us,” Pompeo told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, adding, “But what happens today or tomorrow, what some other person decides won’t have any impact on that [decision].”
“We need more seriousness,” Pompeo said. “We need less noise. We need steady hands. We need leaders that are looking forward, not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood.”
Trump is set to make a “special announcement” at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night.
The former president could be facing another challenge for the nomination from another administration official – former Vice President Mike Pence.
On Monday, when asked by ABC “World News Tonight” host David Muir about his 2024 plans Pence answered that he’s giving “prayerful consideration” to a 2024 presidential bid.
“We’re giving it consideration in our house. Prayerful consideration,” Pence said.
Asked whether former President Donald Trump should ever be president again, Pence said, “That’s up to the American people. But I think we’ll have better choices in the future.”
He added, “For me and my family, we’ll be reflecting about what our role is in that.”
Geoff Duncan, who previously served as Georgia’s Lt. Governor, revealed he has officially registered as a Democrat.
Duncan, who served as lieutenant governor as a Republican from 2019 until 2023, wrote in an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday that his path to becoming a Democrat began before President Donald Trump attempted to overturn his loss to former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, which Duncan criticized at the time.
“My journey to becoming a Democrat started well before Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election in Georgia,” Duncan wrote in the newspaper.
“There’s no date on a calendar or line in the sand that points to the exact moment in time my political heart changed, but it has,” he continued. “My decision was centered around my daily struggle to love my neighbor, as a Republican.”
Duncan pointed to several policy issues that played a part in his decision to change parties, criticizing Republicans for their handling of issues such as health care, Medicaid, gun safety, immigration and how to help poor people.
The former Republican said GOP lawmakers have argued for decades that the solution to not having health insurance is to have a job, but noted that most uninsured people in the Peach State live in working households yet do not have insurance because of affordability or eligibility.
“So, the reality is they have a job, just the wrong job,” Duncan wrote. “One that doesn’t offer health insurance or generate enough spare money each month to afford their own health insurance plan.”
Duncan’s party switch comes after the Georgia Republican Party expelled him from the party earlier this year over alleged disloyalty. The party’s resolution cited his endorsement of Biden in the 2024 presidential election and, once he dropped out, his endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as alleged efforts to undermine and sabotage some Republican candidates, including current Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and failed 2022 Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
The former Republican also spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August in support of Harris.
President Joe Biden is already one of America’s most hated presidents in modern history but he still magically possesses the uncanny ability to sink his approval numbers even further.
Last week, President Biden who once labeled himself as a “unifier for the country” is now preaching division-literally. During a speech, the President labeled MAGA supporters a “threat to democracy” and Americans are not happy about it.
Watch Amanda break down American’s rightful fury toward Biden HERE.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
First-term Utah Senator Mitt Romney (R) isn’t ready to announce his re-election bid yet but he’s confident in the outcome.
During an interview with Politico, Sen. Romney wouldn’t reveal if he plans to seek another term in the Senate in 2024 but expressed his confidence in leading another successful campaign.
“I’ve faced long odds: Getting the nomination in 2012 was a long shot, becoming a Republican governor in one of the most liberal states in America, Massachusetts. … So I’m convinced that if I run, I win. But that’s a decision I’ll make,” the first-term Utah senator told the news outlet.
Romney previously served as the Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee. However, the Republican has made a name for himself by bucking his own party and his repeated criticism of former President Trump.
Romney voted to convict the former president in both impeachment trials, the single GOP senator to do so in the first trial and among one of seven GOP senators the second time around. Trump was ultimately acquitted in both trials.
High-profile Republicans have stayed quiet over Romney’s potential re-election bid but have signaled they plan to support his next campaign.
“He’s been a really important part of our conference. People respect his intelligence, his assessment of the era we find ourselves in. And I think his running for reelection would be very important,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Politico. “It’s important for the Republican Party and the country that he runs again.”
President Donald Trump holds a press conference with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Friday, June 27, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)
President Donald Trump is making a political statement without stopping one of Congress’ biggest bipartisan victories.
Rather than signing the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, Trump is allowing the sweeping housing package to become law automatically, using the moment to protest the Senate’s refusal to advance his preferred voter ID legislation.
“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump wrote on social media.
Housing bill takes effect anyway
Trump’s decision doesn’t derail the legislation. Under the Constitution, a bill becomes law if a president neither signs nor vetoes it within 10 days, excluding Sundays, while Congress remains in session.
The bipartisan package is considered one of the most significant housing reforms in decades. Among other provisions, it seeks to increase home construction, speed up environmental reviews, expand financing opportunities, encourage manufactured and modular housing, and curb certain institutional purchases of single-family homes.
Lawmakers approved the measure by overwhelming margins — 85-5 in the Senate and 358-32 in the House — giving it more than enough support to survive a veto.
Election integrity remains Trump’s priority
Trump has made clear that his focus remains on the SAVE America Act, which would establish nationwide voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements for federal elections.
Although the House approved the bill, it has stalled in the Senate, where Republicans do not have enough votes to break a filibuster.
The president previously canceled a White House signing ceremony for the housing legislation, calling it a “big yawn” compared with the push for election integrity.
A message to Congress
Behind the scenes, Trump’s move reportedly caught Republicans off guard. Many had hoped to showcase the housing bill as a marquee accomplishment before the 2026 midterm elections, only to see it overshadowed by the president’s renewed push for voter ID legislation.
Instead, Trump chose a different strategy. By letting the bill become law without his signature, he avoided a veto fight while keeping public attention on his demand that Congress move forward with nationwide voter ID legislation.
The episode underscores Trump’s determination to keep election reform at the forefront of the national debate as Republicans head into the final stretch of the 2026 midterm campaign.
Expert election prognosticator and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver called on President Biden to immediately resign and let Vice President Kamala Harris carry out the remainder of his term.
Silver’s argument came in response to a Washington Post article about Biden’s recent trip to Brazil that began like this:
MANAUS, Brazil — President Joe Biden was in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, unprotected from mosquitoes, fire ants and loud, squawking macaws. But there was another pest he did manage to avoid: the pack of reporters traveling with him.
For a short speech in front of about two dozen people, the journalists were initially instructed to watch Biden on a flat-screen television placed amid sand and lush trees as the president spoke about 50 feet away, though they were eventually moved closer. As Biden finished his remarks, maracas rattled by a local group prevented him from hearing reporters’ shouted questions about Ukraine.
During a six-day foreign trip to Peru and Brazil that wrapped up Monday, the president rarely spoke in public, answering almost no questions despite repeated efforts to engage him. One television producer took to writing messages on a large pad of paper, holding it up as Biden boarded and departed Air Force One.
The story went on to note that Biden has been conspicuously quiet about the results of the 2024 presidential election, which he “repeatedly called the most important election in history” and “warned would change the country forever if [Donald] Trump prevailed.”
Silver was unamused by Biden’s performance as described by the Post.
“Is there any particular reason to assume Biden is competent to be president right now?” he asked rhetorically on X. “It’s a very difficult job. It’s a dangerous world. Extremely high-stakes decisions in Ukraine. He should resign and let Harris serve out the last 2 months.”
Nate, you’re a little late to the game on this one.
Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer attend medal ceremony via Wikimedia Commons
A new biography on Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) exposes new details surrounding his tense relationship with former President Donald Trump.
Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief at the Associated Press, drew from nearly three decades of McConnell’s political career using sources including recorded diaries by the elder statesmen and past interviews. In the finished book, The Price of Power, which hits shelves on October 29, Tackett uncovered several shockingly negative assessments of the ex-president by McConnell, who has publicly expressed his support and endorsed him in the 2024 election.
After Trump lost the election in 2020, McConnell congratulated his former Senate colleague President Joe Biden and warned his fellow Republicans not to challenge the election results. But behind the scenes — and as Trump tried and failed to overturn the election results — he apparently couldn’t wait to see the last of Trump:
Privately, he said in his oral history that “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until Trump left office, and that Trump’s behavior “only underscores the good judgment of the American people. They’ve had just enough of the misrepresentations, the outright lies almost on a daily basis, and they fired him.”
“And for a narcissist like him,” McConnell continued, “that’s been really hard to take, and so his behavior since the election has been even worse, by far, than it was before, because he has no filter now at all.”
Before those Georgia runoffs, McConnell said Trump is “stupid as well as being ill-tempered and can’t even figure out where his own best interests lie.”
An account of the aftermath of January 6, which had McConnell in a secure location while his aides “barricaded” in the office, revealed an emotional moment between the former Senate Majority Leader and his staff:
McConnell then went to his office to address his staff, some of whom had barricaded themselves in the office as rioters banged on their doors. He started to sob softly as he thanked them, Tackett writes.
“You are my family, and I hate the fact that you had to go through this,” he told them.
Former CNN commentator Angela Rye revealed that she believed President Donald Trump and the Republicans cheated to win the 2024 election and are planning to do the same in the 2026 midterms.
“I think me and [Tiffany Cross] really might feel a way about telling y’all how many days are left till the midterms because I don’t really know this thing’s going to damn happen,” Rye said on her “Native Land Pod” podcast recently.
She added, “Even if they are going to happen, are they going to cheat like they did, I still feel like they did, in the 2024 election? I don’t have data. I got a gut feeling, but I’m going to tell you about the Black woman and the Holy Ghost. We be spot on.”
Her podcast co-star and former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross stopped short of outright accusing the 2024 election of being stolen, though she felt that the election may “require some investigation” based on arguments she has heard. (RELATED: MSNBC Rising Star Blames Joe Scarborough For Her Departure)
She agreed with Rye, however, that she didn’t see a point in looking forward to the midterm elections.
“Even if they did, okay it’s here now,” Cross said. “Like what, they’re not going to say ‘okay takesies backsies we stole it.’ Like they have already instituted this authoritarian regime, and I don’t know any post-industrialized country that has come this far into authoritarianism and turned around.”
She continued, “So why we think all of a sudden we’re going to have free and fair elections in this country for midterms, which we’ve never really had, as Black folks know all too well and, as women know all too well. We’ve never really had that, but we think somehow in 480 days that we’re going to have a better chance at democracy. I just don’t think so.”
Rye’s baseless claims come amid a time when the threat of political violence appears to be reaching a fever pitch.
Democrat lawmakers say their voters are enraged at the lack of ability to counter President Donald Trump‘s agenda, with some sounding the alarm that they could potentially resort to “violence,” Axios reported last week.
The outlet says it spoke to over two dozen House Democrats to measure the temperature of the Democrat base and what it uncovered was red-hot anger and a desire to circumvent the rule of law.
“We’ve got people who are desperately wanting us to do something… no matter what we say, they want [more],” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) told the outlet.
Another said their constituents are convinced that “civility isn’t working” and that they should prepare for “violence… to fight to protect our democracy.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is raising concerns about what he claims could be an effort by President Donald Trump and his allies to influence the 2026 midterm elections.
Speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday, Warner suggested that Trump’s recent comments about Republicans needing to “take over” elections from the states could signal broader plans to challenge state-run election systems.
“It appears there may be a coordinated effort to try to interfere in the ‘26 midterms,” Warner said. He added that he is concerned, “They may even start to interfere in the primaries.”
Watch:
Trump and many Republicans have argued for years that election administration should be strengthened through tighter oversight and more uniform standards, particularly after disputes over voting procedures in 2020. Democrats, however, have increasingly framed these efforts as threats to democracy.
Warner Criticizes Tulsi Gabbard’s Role in Georgia Investigation
Warner also expressed anger over Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s reported involvement in a federal raid in Fulton County, Georgia, where officials seized ballots and voter information as part of an investigation.
While details surrounding the raid remain unclear, Warner compared the situation to Watergate-era abuses of power — an analogy Democrats have frequently used in recent years when criticizing Trump.
In a clip posted to social media, Warner said:
“The Nixon era is back. What do I mean? Richard Nixon is most infamously known for Watergate, where he intervened in a domestic political effort under the guise of the Watergate break-in. He knew what was going on before the fact. Well, it appears the same is true.”
Trump is reviving Nixon-style scandals… and I’m worried our elections are at risk of interference because of it. pic.twitter.com/BLsnYe1FqF
Warner claimed testimony suggested Gabbard traveled to Atlanta because Trump personally asked her to.
“It appears the same is true. We got testimony yesterday that Tulsi Gabbard was down in Atlanta for that crazy raid on the voting machines because Trump asked her to go.”
Warner then questioned how Trump would have known about the investigation ahead of time:
“Well, how the hell did Trump know there was about to be a warrant issued in a lame criminal investigation before the act took place? How did he let Gabbard know to go there?”
He also criticized reports that Trump spoke directly with FBI agents involved in the case:
“This is not how American justice should work. When, when, when will any of my Republican colleagues find a spine?”
Democrats Claim Raid May Have Been Improper
In another clip posted Wednesday, Warner suggested the FBI raid itself may have been unlawful, pointing to leadership changes under FBI Director Kash Patel.
“We have seen Kash Patel basically decimate the leadership of the FBI to the point that that raid… the FBI agent in charge of that office got fired because I don’t believe he felt this was legal.”
Warner also argued that Gabbard, as DNI, should not have been involved in what he called a “domestic criminal investigation.”
“The director of national intelligence, who showed up at that domestic criminal investigation where she had no right to be there…”
He continued by questioning whether anyone in the administration attempted to stop Trump from contacting agents directly:
“I know Trump doesn’t know the law, but wasn’t there anybody in the White House Counsel that said, ‘Mr. President, you shouldn’t be talking to FBI agents…’”
Warner concluded with a sharp personal attack on Gabbard:
“This is a guy that’s being enhanced by a rogue DNI who’s way over her skis in terms of knowledge or competency.”
How far is this administration willing to go to attack our free, fair, and settled elections? pic.twitter.com/LECRngoven
Warner’s comments come as Democrats increasingly warn of authoritarianism and election manipulation, themes expected to dominate campaign messaging heading into 2026.
Republicans, meanwhile, have argued that ensuring election integrity — including investigating irregularities and enforcing stricter standards — is a legitimate government responsibility, not “interference.”
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will not be attending President-elect Trump’s inauguration on Monday, her spokesperson confirmed to The Hill.
Pelosi’s spokesperson did not share a reason for the former Democrat leader skipping the Monday event. The former Speaker attended Trump’s first inauguration in 2017.
Senior leaders of both parties typically attend presidential inaugurations, though Trump skipped President Biden’s inaugural event in 2021.
Former first lady Michelle Obama also won’t be attending Trump’s second inauguration, though former President Obama will attend
News of Pelosi not attending was first reported by ABC News.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
