A recently unearthed photo of an incumbent Republican congressman in blackface as part of a Halloween costume years ago could be enough to shift the needle to Democrats in a close House race in New York. Lawler is facing off against Rep. Mondaire Jones.
Rep. Michael Lawler (R-N.Y.) who is white, is pictured dressed like pop sensation Michael Jackson, complete with bronzer to darken his face in an October 2006 photo reported by the New York Times.
Lawler does not dispute the photo’s authenticity and has issued an apology to anyone who has taken offense, though he said it was not his intention to dress in blackface:
“As has been well-documented – most recently by the Daily Beast – I was a so-called ‘Super Fan’ of Michael Jackson, so much so that I was mentioned by name in his biography for my outspoken support of him and the Jackson Family. I loved Michael’s music, was awed by him as a performer, and by his impact on pop culture,” Lawler said in a statement. “One of my greatest memories is attending his concert at Madison Square Garden before his untimely death.
“When attempting to imitate Michael’s legendary dance moves at a college Halloween party eighteen years ago, the ugly practice of black face was the furthest thing from my mind. Let me be clear, this is not that. Rather, my costume was intended as the sincerest form of flattery, a genuine homage to one of my childhood idols since I was a little kid trying to moonwalk through my mom’s kitchen.
“I am a student of history and for anyone who takes offense to the photo, I am sorry. All you can do is live and learn, and I appreciate everyone’s grace along the way,” he said.
The race is one of 22 toss-up contests that may well determine which party controls the House of Representatives next year, according to Fox News’ Power Rankings.
By The White House - https://www.flickr.com/photos/202101414@N05/54346096651/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=160407812
Few political advisers in modern American politics have maintained influence as persistently as Stephen Miller. Long known as the architect behind many of President Donald Trump’s most hardline immigration policies, Miller is once again at the center of intense political scrutiny.
New reports published by The Daily Beast and widely circulated through media outlets including AOL News describe what insiders characterize as a carefully managed effort by Miller to preserve — and potentially expand — his political influence within the Trump movement.
According to those reports, Miller has reportedly reduced his public profile while continuing to exercise substantial behind-the-scenes control over immigration strategy and White House operations. Critics describe the effort as a “shadow influence campaign,” while allies argue he remains one of the administration’s most effective policy strategists.
The story has reignited broader questions about executive power, political loyalty networks, and the role of unelected advisers in shaping federal policy.
The Reports Behind “Stephen Miller’s Secret Plot to Cling on to Power”
The current controversy emerged after investigative reporting suggested Miller had intentionally stepped back from public visibility while maintaining substantial operational authority behind the scenes.
According to reporting cited by The Daily Beast’s PunchUp investigations unit, several senior administration officials claimed Miller’s apparent “retreat” from media appearances was strategic rather than accidental.
Claims Reported by Media Outlets
The reports allege that:
Miller continues participating in high-level immigration discussions
He maintains influence over Department of Homeland Security operations
Public-facing responsibilities have shifted toward other officials
Internal strategy meetings reportedly still center around Miller’s priorities
Political allies remain embedded across federal agencies
Importantly, many of these claims rely on anonymous sources familiar with internal discussions. No public evidence has emerged proving unlawful conduct or formal attempts to bypass constitutional processes.
The Department of Homeland Security publicly denied suggestions of internal conflict, stating officials work collaboratively to implement administration priorities.
The “Quiet Power” Strategy
One of the most discussed aspects of the latest reporting is the idea that Miller intentionally reduced his public visibility.
Political analysts say this approach reflects a broader strategy often used by influential White House advisers: remain operationally powerful while avoiding media backlash.
Reported Strategic Changes
Public Role
Behind-the-Scenes Activity
Fewer TV appearances
Continued policy meetings
Reduced public interviews
Coordination with immigration officials
Lower social media profile
Internal strategy influence
Delegated public messaging
Maintained advisory authority
Critics argue the strategy allows controversial policy initiatives to continue without attracting the same level of public scrutiny.
Supporters counter that Miller’s reduced visibility merely reflects an effort to focus on operational efficiency rather than cable news appearances.
The Role of Tom Homan and DHS Leadership
Several reports suggest Miller’s influence now overlaps significantly with other immigration hardliners, including Tom Homan.
Some insiders described Miller and Homan as operating “in lockstep” on immigration strategy.
The reports also referenced tensions surrounding leadership appointments within DHS and ICE.
Key Issues Reportedly Under Debate
ICE leadership succession
Deportation targets
Enforcement visibility
Recruitment and training standards
Public communications strategy
However, official government statements have rejected narratives of dysfunction or internal rivalry.
Facts vs. Analysis
To maintain clarity, it is important to separate verified reporting from interpretation.
Verified Facts
Stephen Miller remains an influential Trump adviser
He has played a major role in immigration policy since 2016
Multiple outlets reported he reduced public appearances
Administration officials confirmed continued coordination between Miller and DHS leadership
Claims of a “secret plot” are interpretive descriptions, not legal findings
Allegations about power consolidation rely heavily on anonymous sourcing
Assertions about long-term political ambitions remain speculative
No evidence has emerged suggesting unconstitutional activity
This distinction matters because politically charged headlines often blur the line between factual reporting and analytical framing.
Conclusion
The debate surrounding Miller’s role reflects broader tensions inside modern American politics — especially over immigration, executive authority, and the growing role of influential advisers operating outside the public spotlight.
Verified reporting confirms that Miller remains deeply involved in immigration policy discussions and maintains substantial influence within Trump-aligned political circles.
As the political landscape continues to evolve heading into the final stretch of another highly contested election cycle, Miller’s growing influence is likely to remain under intense scrutiny from supporters, critics, and media organizations alike.
For now, one thing remains clear: despite reducing his public profile, Stephen Miller remains one of the most consequential — and controversial — political strategists in Washington.
This article originally appeared on American Liberty News. Republished with permission.
A powerful group of Republican donors is calling for a change in leadership at the Republican National Committee (RNC).
On Monday, more than two dozen Republicans wrote in a letter stating their support for former Trump attorney Harmeet Dhillon’s challenge to current RNC chair Ronna McDaniel.
Several of the individuals listed in the letter have donated tens of thousands of dollars to the GOP over the years.
“We cannot continue on our current trajectory as a Republican Party,” the letter states. “We must change, in order to fulfill our promise to Republican voters to win elections.”
The donors warned the party “is on the verge of permanent irrelevance if we fail to come together to correct course.”
“As a nationally-recognized constitutional attorney and activist within the conservative movement for several decades, Harmeet has fought on behalf of Republican Party committees, candidates, and GOP interests, both with the party’s support and beyond it. She has served as a county party committee chairman, run for public office, fought for conservative causes at the Supreme Court, and currently leads the Republican National Lawyers Association at a time when election integrity experience is at a premium as a year-round, not seasonal, mandate. Harmeet is also a successful business owner, and as a nonprofit founder and CEO, understands the ethical duties inherent in raising and spending donor funds.”
McDaniel has served as the RNC’s chair since 2017, however, less-than-desirable midterm wins have caused some to question her leadership.
Other key Republicans have signaled interest in new leadership atop the national party organization.
According to The Hill, the Alabama Republican Party has opted to follow the Texas GOP’s lead and will not support McDaniel’s latest bid to run the RNC.
An endorsement letter circulated last month contained the signatures of 107 RNC members backing her to stay on as chairwoman. It is well more than the 84 members she would need to win reelection.
The party will choose its leader at its winter meetings this month.
This story is breaking. Click refresh for the latest updates.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed to unseal additional filings from special counsel Jack Smith laying out his election interference case against former President Trump
Chutkan agreed to a request from Smith to unseal exhibits that accompany his 180-page brief asserting that prosecutors can still bring much of their Jan. 6 case against Trump in the wake of a Supreme Court decision granting former presidents broad criminal immunity.
Chutkan granted Smith’s motion to post redacted versions of the exhibits, which could include grand jury transcripts, texts and other evidence assembled by prosecutors.
“The court determines that the Government’s proposed redactions to the Appendix are appropriate, and that Defendant’s blanket objections to further unsealing are without merit. As the court has stated previously, ‘Defendant’s concern with the political consequences of these proceedings’ is not a cognizable legal prejudice,’” she wrote.
Trump opposed both the unsealing of Smith’s motion as well as the accompanying evidence.
But Chutkan also agreed to stay her ruling for seven days after an earlier motion from Trump’s legal team asked for additional time “so that President Trump can evaluate litigation options relating to the decision.”
“There should be no further disclosures at this time of the so-called ‘evidence’ that the Special Counsel’s Office has unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized — during early voting in the 2024 Presidential election,” Trump’s team wrote in an earlier filing Thursday.
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s feud about the “Big Beautiful Bill” hit a fever pitch on Thursday when the tech billionaire responded to the president’s criticism in a post on X.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude,” Musk wrote in a post responding to Trump’s remarks about him.
Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.
While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that he was “very disappointed” by Musk’s vocal criticisms of the bill. The president claimed that Musk knew what was in the bill and “had no problem” with it until the EV incentives had to be cut.
“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it,” Trump said. “All of a sudden, he had a problem. And he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate.”
Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?
President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that Democrats would waste no time pursuing impeachment if they manage to retake the House of Representatives in November, arguing that their opposition is driven more by hostility than policy disagreements.
“They’ll find something. There’ll be something,” Trump said during an exclusive interview on “The Will Cain Show.”
“I made the wrong turn at an exit, and let’s impeach him. They did that before. They impeached me on a perfect phone call, turned out. They impeached me twice and, by the way, I won the impeachments very easily and quickly, but they impeach. They’re very nasty people [and] they have bad policy.”
Trump’s comments reflect long-standing frustration among Republicans with what they view as Democrats’ reliance on investigations and impeachment rather than legislative solutions. During his first term, Trump became the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice—once over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and later over events surrounding January 6. In both cases, the Senate declined to convict, outcomes Trump and his supporters cite as vindication.
The president joined Will Cain live from Iowa, where he kicked off a push toward the 2026 midterm elections. The visit included interactions with voters and culminated in a campaign-style event in Clive, underscoring the administration’s early focus on maintaining Republican momentum and defending narrow congressional margins.
Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, with 218 seats to Democrats’ 213. That slim advantage has heightened concerns within the GOP about historical trends that tend to favor the out-of-power party during midterm elections.
History suggests Trump and Republicans face an uphill battle heading into November. Since the 1930s, midterm elections have almost always resulted in the president’s party losing House seats—and frequently losing control of the chamber altogether. Political analysts often attribute the pattern to voter complacency among the president’s supporters and heightened motivation among the opposition.
Trump acknowledged that reality while speaking to Cain.
“Whether it’s Republican or Democrat, when they win, it doesn’t make any difference. They seem to lose the midterms, so that’s the only thing I worry about,” he said.
“Maybe they [voters] want to put up a guard fence. You just don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. Even if a president did well, they seemed to lose the midterms, but hopefully we’re going to change that around.”
Republicans argue that the stakes of the upcoming midterms are especially high, pointing to Democratic calls for renewed investigations, aggressive regulatory policies, and expanded government spending. Trump’s message to voters in Iowa centered on the need for unified Republican turnout to prevent what he described as partisan gridlock and politically motivated impeachment efforts from resurfacing.
Kari Lake speaking with supporters at a "Stand for Freedom" rally at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Scottsdale Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. [Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]
Former television news anchor-turned-staunch Trump supporter Kari Lake has been declared the winner of Arizona’s highly competitive gubernatorial primary.
With an estimated 94% of ballots counted, Lake has 46.78% of the vote, compared to Karrin Robson with 44.03%. Lake will now face off against Democratic nominee Katie Hobbs in the November 8th general election in what is expected to be one of the most closely watched races in the country.
Early Wednesday, Lake prematurely declared victory in the GOP primary while addressing supporters.“I wanted to come out here tonight, I wanted to say, ‘Wow, we already have the final results,’” she said. “But we know how our election systems work and they don’t work well. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m standing here.”
With three-quarters of the vote in, Robson led Lake by eight. However, Arizona is a state where mail-in ballots get tabulated first. Then, Election Day votes are counted. The process is the same in Florida. The result, depending on the order chosen by a given state, created red and blue mirages in 2020, given Democrats’ tendency to vote by mail and Republicans’ overwhelming desire to vote on Election Day.
Two years ago, that phenomenon lead to Biden leading Trump by four points in increasingly reddish Florida early on election night before Trump overtook him by a relatively decisive three-point margin. For Lake — who won the Election Day count in some precincts by as much as 40 points — the result was the same.
The highly anticipated race set up a proxy war between former President Donald Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence. Trump, who has become a kingmaker of sorts within the GOP threw his support behind Lake. Meanwhile, Pence and current Arizona Governor Doug Ducey chose Robinson.
Trump’s endorsements have become a sort of gauge of his own power within the GOP as he toys with launching a third presidential 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.
The move by Sinema means the Arizona Senate race has largely been solidified as a matchup between Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake.
The Arizona lawmakers changed her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent in 2022.
The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates Sinema’s seat as “toss up.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reacted to the news that broke during the daily briefing, noting that the White House has worked “closely” with Sinema on “key, important bills,” including the border security deal out of the Senate.
“She’s been a partner with us on many critical issues that matter to the American people and we think that’s important,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
President Joe Biden hugs his family during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)
ANALYSIS – Where there’s smoke there’s fire. And there is a lot of smoke surrounding Joe and Hunter Biden. It is increasingly clear that Joe Biden has repeatedly lied about his involvement in, and knowledge of, his son Hunter’s overseas influence peddling businesses.
And with Biden’s Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI dragging their feet with documents requested by congressional investigators, an official impeachment inquiry may be the only way to get to the truth.
And that official inquiry may be coming very soon.
Republicans could open an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over ties to his son Hunter’s shady and unethical business entanglements when Congress reconvenes on September 12.
In the final presidential debate of the 2020 U.S. election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden, moderator Kristen Welker asked Biden: “there have been questions about the work your son has done in China and for a Ukrainian energy company when you were vice president; in retrospect, was anything about those relationships inappropriate or unethical?”
“Nothing was unethical. My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China,” Biden replied.
Biden also said he never discussed business with his son.
Well, to put it in Biden terms, that was all a bunch of malarkey.
Now, nearly three years later, Hunter has rebutted Joe Biden’s assertions directly. In court testimony in late June, Hunter acknowledged that he had been paid substantial sums in China – the first official confirmation that this was the case.
This direct contradiction creates a major problem for the White House, and Republicans insist there’s a lot more to find out.
“A lot of the things the president said about his family’s shady business dealings, we’re proving every day that they’re not true,” Republican James Comer, Chair of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, said.
An impeachment inquiry is the next logical step to find out what is true.
The Epoch Times (ET) reported: “House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that initiating an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden would be a ‘natural step forward.’” This, following unresolved questions from the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings.
The speaker said on Monday that the impeachment inquiry could start soon. McCarthy added that an impeachment inquiry would provide Congress “the apex of legal power to get all the information they need” to investigate whether President Biden misused his office to assist family businesses.
ET continued:
McCarthy said on Monday that the inquiry was needed to overcome stonewalling of congressional investigators looking for transparency about the Biden family’s business records following testimony from former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer that President Biden met with son Hunter Biden’s business partners during the time he was vice president, as well as concerns raised by whistleblowers at the IRS regarding Hunter Biden’s tax records.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has so far subpoenaed six different banks, receiving thousands of bank records of businesses and individuals connected to Joe Biden’s family members.
Those records showed that more than $20 million in payments from foreign sources have been made to the president’s relatives, including Hunter Biden, and their business associates while Mr. Biden was acting as U.S. vice president from 2009 to 2017.
Romanian, Chinese, and Russian nationals were among those making payments to the Biden family and their associates. The records also revealed that the funds were funneled through a network of at least 20 shell companies before being transferred to Biden family members.
An inquiry doesn’t mean the House will impeach Biden. But it does give Republicans far more legal power to force reluctant Biden DoJ bureaucrats and others to come forward with the truth.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Great America News Desk.
