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House Speaker Called Trump to Apologize After Criticizing 2024 Campaign

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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.

Warning: This article contains graphic language.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy(R-Calif.) is begging Donald Trump for forgiveness.

McCarthy reportedly called the 2024 White House hopeful on Tuesday to apologize for casting doubt on the strength of Trump’s campaign against President Joe Biden.

McCarthy appeared on CNBC Tuesday morning and was asked if Trump could win the election.

“Can he win that election? Yeah, he can,” McCarthy said. “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know that answer.”

“We’re told top aides to the former president and allies who know both men quickly traded messages asking, in short: What the fuck? Some called McCarthy a ‘moron,’ we’re told. Others looked to Trump campaign hand Brian Jack, who also advises the speaker and has been a critical bridge between both men, to play mediator as Trump hit the trail in New Hampshire,” Politico reported.

On CNN’s News Central Wednesday, reporter Lauren Fox called Tuesday a “a day of cleanup” for the House Speaker. She continued:

He held a call, called the former president yesterday to apologize, according to new reporting from our colleagues Melanie Zanona and Kristen Holmes. He told the former president he misspoke, and, of course, he blamed reporters for taking the comments out of context, according to McCarthy, but that isn’t where it ended…He had an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, a right-leaning news agency, to try to talk more about why he believed Donald Trump was the strongest candidate to beat Joe Biden. Later, his campaign sent out a fundraising email saying that Donald Trump was stronger than ever.

This just goes to show you that Kevin Mccarthy knows that his right flank is so important for him to hold on to his speakership. He cannot anger people in his conference who are getting behind the former president, who are fervently behind him at all times, no matter what that means in term of defending Donald Trump, and that is why Kevin McCarthy went out of his way yesterday to go ahead and apologize to the former president, and then in subsequent interviews, make it clear that he does believe Donald Trump could be a strong contender to beat Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

Winner Projected In Wisconsin Supreme Court Race In Blow To Trump

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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.

As The Hill reports, 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.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to Challenge Ronna McDaniel for RNC Chair

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Mike Lindell via Gage Skidmore Flickr

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is planning to challenge Ronna McDaniel to become the next chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Despite midterm election losses, McDaniel recently announced her plans to seek re-election to the position.

In a livestream this week, Lindell called for new RNC leadership and suggested he would be up to the job.

“We need someone everybody, and I would step into that, if God willing,” he said, according to Mediaite.

“Ronna McDaniel has failed in her leadership,” he said. “We need a new input to get a different output.”

“We need someone who knows how to run a business to lead one of the most important organizations in our country,” Lindell said.

The MyPillow CEO continues to claim he has evidence of mass v*ter fr*ud, though no actual proof has been found to back up his claims. Lindell claimed he would “drop everything” to present his supposed evidence to Elon Musk so he could get his Twitter account back.

“I would fly to him, do whatever it takes. I would hand- deliver it on a silver platter and say, ‘here you go, look at it,” Lindell told Steve Bannon this week. “You’re a very smart man. Look at this and do whatever you want to do with my Twitter account. But for sure I would like you to say, ‘hey, this guy got banned and he’s banned right now for no reason.’”

Retired Conservative Judge Says American Democracy ‘In Peril’ Due to Trump

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Gage Skidmore Flickr

Retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig says that America’s democracy is at risk due to the current state of the Republican Party.

Luttig, a conservative-leaning former judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, joined CNN This Morning on Wednesday to discuss the “decay” of the Republican Party under Donald Trump’s leadership.

“What do you think has happened to your party?” Harlow asked Luttig.

His answer:

Frankly, I don’t care about the Republican Party at all, except to the extent that the two political parties in America are the political guardians of democracy in our country. American democracy simply cannot function without two equally healthy and equally strong political parties. So, today, in my view, there is no Republican Party to counter the Democratic Party in the country. And for that reason, American democracy is in grave peril.

“There is no Republican Party?” Harlow asked him. Luttig explained by outlining his view that “a political party is a collection, an assemblage of individuals who share a set of beliefs and principles and policy views about the United States of America.”

“Today there is no such shared set of beliefs and values and principles, or even policy views, within the Republican Party for America,” Luttig determined. “Until or unless the Republican Party can pull itself together into a credible Republican political party, we simply don’t have two competing parties in America.”

Former Biden Official Demands Media Stop ‘Gaslighting’ Americans About Biden

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Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

On Sunday, a former Biden official made it clear he can’t defend the President anymore.

The shocking remarks come after Biden stunned Americans with his debate performance last week. Throughout the live event, Biden could be seen stumbling over his words and seemed to struggle with hearing responses from Donald Trump and moderators.

Michael LaRosa, who previously served as press secretary to First Lady Jill Biden, lashed out at the White House’s former communications director Kate Bedingfield over her appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” — and argued that she was gaslighting the American people.

Watch:

Bedingfield conceded that debate night had not been “great” for the president — but she then claimed, “The reality is that the race has not fundamentally changed.”

“What we see in all the data that has emerged since Thursday is the fundamental head-to-head hasn’t shifted,” she added.

But LaRosa wasn’t buying it, and said so in an X post.

“The data!? If there is data that counters the impact of what we all saw then WHERE THE HELL IS IT??? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR?? SHOW US!” he demanded. “Jesus Christ with the gaslighting, the talking points, and the damn spinning. Enough already.”

“Show your supporters or the media this data so we can help you help him! You’ve told us for A YEAR that data and polling can’t be trusted … no one is paying attention … and all of the polling and data are unreliable,” he continued. “Are we NOW supposed to believe it? You’ve been undermining all of the public data and polling and attacking news outlets and their independent data for a year! Is it now safe to trust the data? Should we believe your data instead of independent media data and polling??? Ok, cool. WHERE THE HELL IS IT?”

Republican Group Planning $50M Campaign To Stop Trump Re-election

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

A coalition of anti-Trump Republicans are willing to do whatever it takes to prevent a second Trump term in the White House.

Republican Voters Against Trump plans to spend $50 million on the anti-Trump campaign.

The campaign is organized by Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist and longtime Trump critic. The plan is to target “moderate Republican” and Republican-leaning voters in swing states with testimonial videos of past Trump supporters who will share why they won’t be supporting the former president in the next election.

According to The Hill, the ads featuring the former Trump voter testimonials will be deployed on TV, streaming platforms, billboards, radio and digital media. They will run in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

“Former Republicans and Republican-leaning voters hold the key to 2024, and reaching them with credible, relatable messengers is essential to re-creating the anti-Trump coalition that made the difference in 2020,” Longwell, the president of the group’s Republican Accountability PAC, said in a Tuesday statement.

“It establishes a permission structure that says that—whatever their complaints about Joe Biden—Donald Trump is too dangerous and too unhinged to ever be president again. Who better to make this case than the voters who used to support him?”

The voters who are sharing their testimonies are generally not applauding Biden or arguing why he should be reelected in 2024, but mostly sharing which incidents made them oppose the former president. 

“I voted for Donald Trump in 2020. January 6 was the end of Donald Trump for me,” Ethan, a Wisconsin resident, says in the video. He will be voting for Biden. “The peaceful transfer of power is one of the defining pieces of our democracy, and I could not believe that someone I had formerly supported would get behind an effort that would throw that under the bus … There is no choice.”

 The group had a similar strategy in 2020 where they shared over 1,000 testimonials during the election.

Report: Vance Gave Clinton Camp A Warning About Trump

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Hillary Clinton via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Vice President JD Vance reportedly opened a private channel to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, urging her team to change course in the Midwest as Donald Trump closed in on the White House.

The previously unreported episode adds a striking new chapter to Vance’s well-known evolution from a fierce Trump critic into the president’s running mate and one of the most prominent figures in the MAGA movement.

According to a new Vanity Fair profile by Chris Whipple, Vance repeatedly asked an intermediary connected to Clinton’s campaign to put him in touch with Jake Sullivan, who was serving as one of Clinton’s senior policy advisers.

The intermediary recalled Vance saying, “I hate Hillary. But I hate Trump more.”

A Midwestern Warning Clinton Did Not Heed

Vance reportedly believed Clinton was in danger of losing the industrial Midwest and wanted her to make an urgent appeal to voters in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The source told Vanity Fair that Vance wanted Clinton to spend less time campaigning with celebrities and more time confronting the anger surrounding her 2002 vote to authorize military force in Iraq. His argument centered on working-class communities that had sent family members to war and felt forgotten by national leaders.

Vanity Fair reported that Vance eventually spoke directly with Sullivan roughly six weeks before Election Day.

A second source close to Sullivan confirmed that a conversation occurred but offered a narrower recollection. That person did not remember Vance laying out a broader strategy for the so-called Blue Wall states. The source did recall Vance pressing Clinton’s team to repair the damage from her “basket of deplorables” remark about Trump supporters and warning that she needed to sharpen her focus.

Clinton ultimately lost Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—three states Democrats had carried in every presidential election since at least 1992. Trump captured all three by narrow margins, breaking through the Democratic firewall and winning the presidency.

Vance’s Office Pushes Back

Vance spokesman Taylor Van Kirk disputed Vanity Fair’s description of the outreach.

Van Kirk said Vance did not work for either campaign and was encouraging politicians in both parties to pay attention to working-class communities like his hometown of Middletown, Ohio. The spokesperson said the vice president’s office “100 percent reject[s]” the suggestion that his purpose was to help Clinton win.

The report does not claim that Vance formally joined Clinton’s campaign or held any official role. Its central allegation is that he privately delivered political advice to a senior Clinton adviser because he wanted Trump defeated—a characterization his office denies.

From Never Trump To Trump’s No. 2

Vance’s opposition to Trump in 2016 was never a secret. While promoting his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, he publicly called himself a “Never Trump guy,” described Trump as unfit for office and ultimately voted for independent conservative Evan McMullin rather than Trump or Clinton.

His position changed in the years that followed. As Vance entered the 2022 Ohio Senate race, he apologized for his earlier attacks and aligned himself with Trump’s political movement. Trump endorsed him in a crowded Republican primary, Vance won the Senate seat, and Trump selected him as his running mate in 2024.

The new account is especially notable because Vance’s reported advice identified the very weakness that helped decide the 2016 election: Clinton’s failure to hold key Midwestern states. It also reveals just how far the future vice president may have been willing to go at the time to stop the man whose administration he now helps lead.

Still, the most explosive interpretation remains contested. Vanity Fair’s sources portray Vance as trying to help Clinton defeat Trump. Vance’s team portrays the conversation as a bipartisan plea for Washington to stop ignoring working-class America.

Vanity Fair’s account, including confirmation from a second source that Vance and Sullivan spoke, offers the clearest description yet of the distance between Vance’s 2016 politics and his role in the Trump White House today.

CNN Clashes With Trump Spokeswoman, Abruptly Ends Interview

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CNN Headquarters via Wikimedia Commons

On Monday morning, CNN anchor Kasie Hunt abruptly ended her interview with Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. The interview aired during CNN’s “This Morning,” just three days before the network is set to host the first Trump-Biden debate on Thursday.

Fighting Words From Team Trump

The tension escalated when Leavitt accused the debate moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, of having a bias against President Trump.

“That’s why President Trump is knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network, on CNN, with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years and their biased coverage of him,” Leavitt stated, previewing the upcoming debate.

Visibly annoyed by Leavitt’s remarks, Hunt defended her colleagues. “I’ll just say my colleagues, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, have acquitted themselves as professionals as they have covered campaigns and interviewed candidates from all sides of the aisle. I’ll also say that if you talk to analysts of previous debates, that if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing.”

Fox News reports:

After Hunt tried to steer the conversation back to the debate, Leavitt told Hunt that it would take just five minutes to research Tapper and his commentary on the former president. 

“Ma’am, I’m going to stop this interview if you’re going to continue to attack my colleagues,” Hunt said. 

After Leavitt argued she was stating facts about Bash and Tapper, Hunt cut the interview off, her voice rising as she went back to the panel.

“I would like to talk about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, whom you work for,” Hunt said. When Leavitt continued, Hunt signaled to cut her off.

“I’m sorry, guys, we’re going to come back out to the panel,” Hunt said, clearly fuming. “Karoline, thank you very much for your time. You are welcome to come back at any point. She is welcome to come back and speak about Donald Trump, and Donald Trump will have equal time to Joe Biden when they both join us later this week in Atlanta for this debate.”

Thursday’s Debate: What You Need to Know

The first 2024 presidential debate featuring President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is scheduled for Thursday, June 27, at 9 p.m. (ET).

CNN will host the event at their Atlanta studios, without a live studio audience.

The debate will have strict rules. When one candidate isn’t speaking, their microphone will be muted. Each candidate will have only a pen, paper and water at their podium. There will be two commercial breaks during the 90-minute event.

Viewers can watch the debate live on multiple platforms, including CNN, CNN International, CNN en Español and streaming on Max (formerly HBO Max). The debate is the first of two agreed upon by both campaigns, with the second one scheduled for September 10, hosted by ABC News.

Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News

DeSantis Asks Fox News Host To Tee Up Debate With Trump

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The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ron DeSantis is issuing a challenge to his rival Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, the Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis asked Fox News anchor Sean Hannity to arrange a debate between himself and former President Donald Trump.

Recently, Hannity moderated a long-awaited debate between DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Fox anchor seemed to welcome the idea of a similar event involving Trump before asking if DeSantis was confident Joe Biden would be the Democrat party’s nominee for president.

“Well, Sean, I don’t think we’ve spoken since that debate, and the reaction that I’ve gotten has been incredible in terms of obviously being able to show that freedom works and the California models of failure, what that means for the country. But people appreciated the way you set it up, and they said it was the most substantive debate that they’ve seen in this entire election cycle, and so kudos to you for doing it,” began DeSantis before throwing down the gauntlet. “So I’m glad we were able to get that done, and just know if you want to do other debates — Nikki Haley and me, I’m in, Donald Trump, and me, I’m in — so just say the word. You’ve shown that you can do it in a way that I think really helps the voters. So I’m game. Just let me know.”

“Okay, those are two. Do you have any more on your list? Maybe Joe Manchin, He’s going on a two month tour. Anybody else on your list that you’d like to do?” replied an amused Hannity.

Trump has dominated the polls and so far has refused to participate in any Republican primary debates.

The surveys tested how Biden would perform against the Republican frontrunner — whom Biden defeated in the 2020 election — and found that Trump would beat him in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Prominent Foreign Politician Meets With Trump

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Marine One lifts-off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago Friday, March 29, 2019, following his visit to the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike near Canal Point, Fla., that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. The visit was part of an infrastructure inspection of the dike, which is part of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee Everglades system, and reduces impacts of flooding for areas of south Florida. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) [Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

On Monday, Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron met with former President Donald Trump in a surprise visit to Mar-a-Lago.

Cameron serves as the U.K. foreign secretary and is in the U.S. to urge lawmakers to back additional funding to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

A spokesperson for the British government’s Foreign Office described the Mar-A-Lago meeting as “standard practice” to meet with an opposition candidate, with Trump being the presumptive Republican nominee for this year’s presidential election.

It is unclear how the meeting went or what exactly was discussed. Trump has previously stated that he would end the war within 24 hours should he be reelected while he has also touted converting the cost of weapons transfers to Ukraine into a loan.

Fox News has more:

Cameron will meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday to discuss the $60 billion military aid package which he has held up for months, while the pair will also discuss the Israel-Gaza war.

Last week, Cameron called on Western leaders to put pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans in Congress to approve the additional aid for Ukraine, as Britain and the European Union have already done.

“Speaker Johnson can make it happen in Congress,” Cameron said in a video posted on social media platform X. “I’m going to go and see him next week and say, ‘Ukraine needs that money. It is American security, it’s European security, it’s Britain’s security that’s on the line in Ukraine, and they need our help.’”