A Democrat Senator isn’t ready to give up his presidential aspiration quite yet.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin signaled that his interest in potentially launching his own presidential campaign has not been deterred by President Biden’s reported re-election plans.
While speaking with Semafor’s Steve Clemmons, Sen. Manchin declined to rule out a bid for higher office.
“I don’t know what the next chapter will be, I don’t know [where] the future lies, I really don’t,” Manchin said when asked if he would run for president next year during a question-and-answer session hosted by Clemons.
“I can tell you one thing: I feel, like most Americans, we’ve got to come together. Americans want to be united, they want to be together and right now we’re going further apart,” he said.
He predicted that voters are going to be looking for “somebody” to bring the country together but didn’t say whether he would be the politician to do that as the next president.
“I’m not saying I have any aspirations” to run for the White House, he said, adding a caveat: “I’ve been [in Washington] 12 years. I don’t like what I see; I don’t the direction we’re going and I’m going to work and commit myself to try to get people who want to do the right thing to find the pathway forward, bringing the country back together.”
Manchin has recently criticized Democratic leaders for refusing to negotiate with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over a package of fiscal reforms to attach to legislation raising the debt limit.
“It’s unreasonable for any senator, any congressperson representing the United States government to say, ‘I’m not going to negotiate,’” he told reporters on Capitol Hill. “If you can’t communicate and you won’t talk to each other, you got a problem.”
Donald Trump is not impressed by the current pool of Republican candidates…
Following the second Republican presidential debate Trump, the current frontrunner, responded to speculation he could choose his next running mate from the group of current candidates. His answer? No way.
“We’re competing with the job candidates, they’re all running for a job. No, they’re all job candidates,” Trump said of his competition. “They want to be in the – they want to, they’ll do anything, secretary of something, they even say VP.”
“Does anybody see the VP in the group? I don’t think so,” the former president added.
Seven GOP candidates were on the stage Wednesday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
The seven candidates were North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, biotech entrepreneur and political commentator Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Who should Trump pick to be his next running mate? Tell us your favorite candidate below.
Georgia National Guard from United States, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A prominent Republican governor is preparing to meet with top Senate leaders this week.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is meeting with two top Republican leaders in the Senate in Washington, D.C. over the next two days, a spokesperson for the governor confirmed to The Hill.
Kemp will meet with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday and National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.) on Wednesday.
The pair of meetings come after the Peach State governor told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins that he is “certainly” not running for president in 2024.
“In politics, there’s always doors opening and closing. I got a great job right now. I personally feel like having more people in the race does not help us win and beat Joe Biden,” Kemp told Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.” “So, you know, I’m certainly not running for president. But there’s always doors opening in politics depending on how things play out, and we’ll see what happens.”
The Georgia Governor reiterated that Trump should stop constantly referencing the 2020 election if he hopes to re-win the state.
“If he continues to do that, he’s going to lose Georgia in November,” Kemp said, later adding, “There is no path for us to win the White House if we can’t win Georgia.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has reportedly had discussions about resigning from his role in the Pentagon to run for political office next year.
If Hegseth were to follow through with a political campaign, it would amount to a major leadership shake-up at the department that oversees the American military and millions of federal employees. The Defense Department bars civilian employees from running for political office, meaning Hegseth would have to resign to do so.
By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America – Pete Hegseth, CC BY-SA 2.0
In a statement, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said, “Hegseth’s focus remains solely on serving under President Trump.”
One of the people said their discussion with Hegseth happened within the past three weeks and that it was serious, not simply spitballing ideas. The other person, who also characterized it as serious, wouldn’t say when they had spoken — except that it was since Hegseth became defense secretary in January. The two sources, along with others in this article, were granted anonymity to speak candidly.
The discussions centered on what it would take to run. One person said they discussed the eligibility requirements to run for governor of Tennessee and Hegseth’s chances of winning. The other person said they talked with Hegseth about the realities of a campaign.
The sources said Hegseth has mentioned a 2026 gubernatorial run in his home state of Tennessee, where Governor Bill Lee is term-limited.
David B. Gleason from Chicago, IL, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
However, officials close to Hegseth have strongly refuted the rumors that the Pentagon chief is planning an early exit.
Parnell said in the statement: “Fake news NBC is so desperate for attention, they are shopping around a made up story… again. Only two options exist: either the ‘sources’ are imaginary or these reporters are getting punked. Secretary Hegseth’s focus remains solely on serving under President Trump and advancing the America First mission at the Department of Defense.”
Others in Hegseth’s orbit said he doesn’t plan to launch a campaign. A person who spoke with the secretary last week asked him about speculation that he was looking for an off-ramp from being defense secretary, such as running for political office in Tennessee. This person said Hegseth was “very, very clear” that he wasn’t going to run and denied even considering it. The idea, this person said, is “totally off the table.”
NBC News reported that a longtime Trump adviser familiar with political discussions around Hegseth said he won’t run for office in Tennessee.
Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer and Fox News host, has campaigned for political office before. He ran for the U.S. Senate in his home state, Minnesota, in 2012 and withdrew after he failed to win the GOP nomination.
Casa Rosada (Argentina Presidency of the Nation), CC BY 2.5 AR via Wikimedia Commons
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is attacking Fox News prime-time hosts for their “ruthless” approach to media.
The Democrat governor, who has been floated as a possible 2024 contender, remarked over the weekend that Democrats are getting “crushed” by Fox News hosts. Newsom cited his Father-in-law as an example of someone for whom he has great respect, but at the same time, is often confused about his conservative narratives, which he blamed Fox News prime-time hosts for.
According to Mediaite, a portion of Newsom’s remarks aired Monday morning on CNN’s New Day for discussion.
“These guys are ruthless on the other side. Ruthless on the other side,” Newsom reiterated. “That prime time line up by Fox, they are ruthless. They dominate the most important thing in American politics today, and that’s the narrative. Facts become secondary to narrative. They dominate with illusion. We are getting crushed.”
Panelists Margaret Hoover and John Avlon didn’t refute Newsom’s allegation that hosts for the top-rated cable news program are consistently lying.
Coming out of the clip, Erica Hill noted, “when it comes to messaging in terms of getting crushed, this is something that has been an Achilles heel for Democrats in terms of having a united message across the party.” This may be a shock to any conservative viewer who watched years of Russian interference narratives that, for reasons good and bad, never amounted to anything other than breathless media analysis.
Hoover also noted a media narrative favorable to Democrats seemed a pretty well-oiled machine during past Democrat-led administrations.
“I don’t think necessarily Democrats suffer from lack of a narrative,” Hoover continued. “They own the presidency right now and have control of the Senate. I worry about what he’s pointing to,” which she summarized as getting away from the Michelle Obama rhetorical ethos of “when they go low, we go high.” She ultimately landed on the real issue as she saw it, which was the impact Donald Trump has on political discourse.
“[Newsom] is right in saying Democrats want a fighter right now. He has a good point about the unified narrative of Republicans that tends to put Democrats on defense because they are saying ‘Gosh, look at all those lies.”
The high-stakes Wisconsin Supreme Court race shaped up to be competitive as predicted, with control of the court—and potentially the future of election law, redistricting and abortion access in the battleground state—hanging in the balance.
However, the end result saw Susan Crawford, a liberal-leaning Dane County Circuit Court Judge, defeat Brad Schimel, a conservative Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge, preserving the court’s 4-3 liberal majority until at least 2028.
I've seen enough: Susan Crawford defeats Brad Schimel in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, preserving liberals' 4-3 majority.
As The Hillreports, Tuesday night’s outcome comes as a blow to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk:
The election offered the first big test for both parties since the November elections and came after record-breaking amounts of money poured into the race. In particular, the race was seen as a test of Musk’s political sway, as his super PAC, America PAC, alone spent more than $12 million to support Schimel. He also traveled to Wisconsin the Sunday before the election, where he handed out $1 million checks to voters who had signed his petition against “activist judges.”
Musk’s involvement sparked controversy, with Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul unsuccessfully suing to block his actions as potential vote-buying.
Musk’s unpopularity may have played a role in the election, though it’s not the sole factor in Crawford’s victory. Economic uncertainty, a declining stock market and sweeping cuts to government programs with little congressional oversight seems to have motivated Democrats and independents.
Trump also waded into the race, repeatedly urging voters to go to the polls and support Schimel.
The race will also be a bitter disappointment for Wisconsin Republicans, who lost a chance to keep their conservative majority after Justice Janet Protasiewicz defeated conservative candidate Dan Kelly in 2023.
This year’s race, which shattered the 2023 race’s fundraising records by tens of millions of dollars, received outsized national attention not just because it determined the partisan tilt of the court, but also because it comes less than three months into Trump’s second term as president, making it the first critical referendum on the president.
Turnout was significant in key battleground counties, with Schimel performing worse than Trump in urban, suburban and rural areas.
According to projections from Decision Desk HQ, Crawford is expected to receive 54.5% of the vote, while Schimel is projected at 45.6%, giving Crawford a decisive 8.9-point margin of victory.
For context, Trump won Wisconsin in the 2024 presidential election by approximately 0.9%.
With national implications in a perennial swing state that will help decide control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, all eyes will remain on the Badger State as next year’s election cycle gets underway.
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Former President Trump is suing CBS News for $10 billion in damages.
Trump’s attorneys said the complaint comes due to “CBS’ partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.”
Trump’s legal team also argued the edits were done in an effort to “attempt to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election — which President Trump is leading — approaches its conclusion.”
“President Trump brings this action to redress the immense harm caused to him, to his campaign, and to tens of millions of citizens in Texas and across America by CBS’s deceptive broadcasting conduct,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit comes after Trump’s attorneys wrote letters to CBS News demanding the network release the full transcript of the “60 Minutes” interview with Harris after it aired two different answers to the same question. Trump attorneys asked CBS to preserve all documents and communications related to the interview pending a potential legal battle.
The lawsuit filed Thursday specifically references the exchange Harris had with “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker. In a preview clip that aired on “Face the Nation,” Harris was asked why it seemed like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t listening to the U.S.
“Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris responded in the “Face the Nation” clip.
“We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” Harris said in the primetime special.
Critics have accused CBS News of editing Harris’ “word salad” answer to shield the vice president from further backlash.
Trump lawyers argue that news organizations “are responsible for accurately representing the truth of events, not distorting an interview to try and falsely make their preferred candidate appear coherent and decisive, which Kamala most certainly is not.”
“Due to CBS’ actions, the public could not distinguish which Kamala they saw in the Interview: the candidate or the actual puppet of a behind-the-scenes editor,” the lawsuit states, noting that Whitaker’s question “was of the utmost public significance — U.S. foreign policy on the matter of the Israel/Gaza war — at a time of immense importance, mere weeks before the most critical presidential election in American history.”
Trump is demanding a jury trial and at least $10 billion in damages for CBS’ alleged “ongoing false, misleading, and deceptive acts; the attorneys’ fees and costs associated with this action; and such other relief as the court deems just and proper.”
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
First Lady Melania Trump participates in the Senate Spouses Luncheon at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, May 21,2025. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
Things are about to get ugly…
First Lady Melania Trump is threatening to sue former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, for $1 billion over “defamatory” claims linking her to late financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Melania’s attorney Alejandro Brito demanded that Biden “immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump,” which were contained in a video interview with Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan and posted to Youtube in early August.
Read the full letter:
“Failure to comply will leave Mrs. Trump with no choice but to pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to her to recover the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that you have caused her to suffer,” Brito wrote.
In the video interview, titled “Hunter Biden Returns” video earlier in August, the former first son claimed “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep.”
Biden also claimed that “Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania, and that’s how Melania and the first lady and the President met.”
“If you do not comply with the above by August 7, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. EST, Mrs. Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce her legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for over $1 Billion Dollars in damages,” Brito wrote. “You are on notice.”
A source close to the matter told Fox News that Biden did not comply with the requests by the set deadline.
After Fox News published the piece, however, Melania Trump got Biden’s reply addressing the attorney’s letter when Callaghan posted a further interview with him to YouTube on Thursday.
Callaghan, holding up a copy at the interview’s opening, declared: “The day of presidential litigation has arrived!”
“We’re here, maybe, to give you the platform to apologize to the first lady for your statements that you made about her possible connection to Jeffrey Epstein,” the host said to Biden.
“F*ck that! That’s not going to happen,” Biden laughed.
Defending his comments as citation, Biden continued:
First of all is that, what I said was what I have heard and seen reported and written, primarily from Michael Wolff but also dating back all the way to 2019 when the New York Times – I think Annie Carney and and Maggie Haberman – reported that sources said that Jeffrey Epstein claimed to be the person to introduce Donald Trump to Melania at that time.
Biden added that he would not bow down to pressure or lawsuit threats: “I also think they’re bullies and they think that a billion dollars is going to scare me.”
I have this to say to them: If they want to sit down for a deposition and clarify the the nature of the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein, if the president and the First Lady want to do that and all of the known associates around them at the time of whatever time that they met, I’m more than happy to provide them the platform to be able to do it.
The letter comes after the Daily Beast pulled the article detailing allegations by journalist Wolff that Melania Trump was introduced to her husband Donald Trump via a modeling agent connected to Epstein, after a challenge from the first lady’s lawyers.
“Editor’s Note. After this story was published, The Beast received a letter from First Lady Melania Trump’s attorney challenging the headline and framing of the article. After reviewing the matter, the Beast has taken down the article and apologizes for any confusion or misunderstanding,” The Daily Beast posted in place of the article. The url for the article appears to have been amended to remove the original headline and now reads: thedailybeast.com/epstein-this-story-has-been-removed.
It also comes after famed Democrat strategist James Carville apologized to the first lady after repeating the same claim.
“In last week’s podcast episode, we spoke with Judd Legum,” he said. “After the episode, we received a letter from Melania Trump’s lawyer. He took issue with our title of one of those YouTube videos from that episode and a couple of comments I made about the first lady. We took a look at what they complained about, and we took down the video and edited out those comments from the episode. I also take back these statements and apologize.”
An aide to the first lady, Nick Clemens, told Fox News in a statement, “First Lady Melania Trump’s attorneys are actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods. The true account of how the First Lady met President Trump is in her best-selling book, ‘Melania.’”
Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge by social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to court rulings that forced the platform to turn over data on former President Trump’s account to special counsel Jack Smith.
Early last year, Smith obtained a secret warrant for Trump’s account on X, where Trump posted constantly during his White House term, as part of prosecutors’ federal election interference investigation.
X was prohibited from informing the former president about the warrant. It only became public last summer, after Trump was charged with four felonies in the case. He pleaded not guilty.
The company challenged the order, arguing the records were potentially covered by executive privilege and not being able to tell Trump violated the First Amendment. Court filings show X at one point was fined $350,000 for not timely turning over Trump’s data.
X brought its fight to the Supreme Court, hoping to prevent the process from happening again, insisting most similar challenges never reach the high court and the case was a “rare opportunity” to review the issue.
“If the Court does not grant this petition, it could be decades (if ever) before it gets another clean vehicle to resolve the important and recurring questions presented,” X wrote in its petition.
The Supreme Court declined to take up X’s appeal in a brief, unsigned order.
“If review of the underlying legal issues were ever warranted, the Court should await a live case in which the issues are concretely presented,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that Tucker Carlson is no longer part of the MAGA movement, declaring in an interview that the former Fox News host “has lost his way.”
“Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”
In a lengthy conversation just now, President Trump hit back at Tucker Carlson who called the Iran war “absolutely disgusting and evil.”
"Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told me. “I knew that a long time ago, and he's not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our…
Trump’s comments come after Carlson sharply criticized the administration over recent U.S. strikes on Iran. Carlson called the military action “absolutely disgusting and evil.” He has also criticized the Trump administration on other issues, including the Epstein files and the war in Ukraine.
In the same interview, Trump defended the Iran operation and described it as a success. The president gave multiple interviews Thursday in which he praised the strikes and insisted that Americans support the decision, saying people are “loving it,” despite polls suggesting a more divided public response.
“They are decimated for a 10-year period before they could build it back,” Trump said of Iran.
Carlson, meanwhile, warned that the decision to strike Iran could reshape Trump’s political movement. In an interview with Karl, he said the move would “shuffle the deck in a profound way” politically.
Trump previously dismissed Carlson’s criticism of the strikes, saying it had no impact on him. Carlson reportedly visited the White House multiple times last month to lobby against the attack.
Despite the public criticism, Carlson said he still supports Trump.
Speaking to Status reporter Oliver Darcy on Thursday, the former Fox News host expressed continued loyalty to the president even after Trump publicly distanced himself from him.
“There are times I get annoyed with Trump, right now definitely included,” Carlson said, adding, “but I’ll always love him no matter what he says about me.”
