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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.

Joe Manchin Reignites 2024 White House Speculation

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Joe Manchin via Wikimedia Commons

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.”   

Trump Goes Off on Gov. Ron DeSantis, Glenn Youngkin

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Gage Skidmore Flickr

Former President Donald Trump unleashed a fiery monologue against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Thursday evening after winning re-election with higher-than-expected margins in the Sunshine State.

In a statement sent by Trump’s Save America PAC to his supporters, the former president called DeSantis an “average” Republican governor with “great Public Relations.” The former president also took credit for DeSantis’s 2018 gubernatorial victory that earned him his first term as governor and honed in on DeSantis’s response to COVID-19 which has largely been credited as the move which propelled him to national recognition.

In the unprovoked attack, Trump also revived the nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious” in what appears the most extreme escalation between the two Florida Republicans to date.

Read the statement below:

“NewsCorp, which is Fox, the Wall Street Journal, and the no longer great New York Post (bring back Col!), is all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious, an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations, who didn’t have to close up his State, but did, unlike other Republican Governors, whose overall numbers for a Republican, were just average—middle of the pack—including COVID, and who has the advantage of SUNSHINE, where people from badly run States up North would go no matter who the Governor was, just like I did!”

Trump continued by saying that DeSantis was “desperate” in 2017 and that DeSantis “had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win.”

“I also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart,” Trump continued. “I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen…”

“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games!” Trump concluded in his attack on DeSantis. “The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”

However, Trump wasn’t done bashing Republican governors and soon turned his ire toward first-term Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin in the second wave of rage-filled statements.

“Young Kin (now that’s an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump Rally for him telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him – or he couldn’t have come close to winning. But he knows that, and admits it. Besides, having a hard time with the Dems in Virginia – But he’ll get it done!”

It’s unclear what provoked Trump’s comments against Youngkin but hours before the enraged message Virginia Lt. Governor Winsome Sears announced she will not support Trump’s 2024 bid despite supporting him in past elections.

“A true leader understands when they have become a liability,” Sears said. “A true leader understands that it’s time to step off the stage. And the voters have given us that very clear message.”

“I could not support him. I just couldn’t, because we have seen, for example, in those states where he has endorsed the candidates, in fact, Republicans on the same ticket who he did not endorse over-performed, whereas his candidates totally underperformed by as much as 10 points,” she added. “We have a clear mission, and it is time to move on.”

On Friday, Gov. Youngkin said he hadn’t seen Trump’s comments.

“I didn’t see it. And I have to be honest, I’ve been busy all morning. Listen, you all know me, I do not call people names. I really work hard to bring people together,” Youngkin said.

Trump Cuts Tucker Carlson Loose From Political Movement

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Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

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.”

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.”

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.’”

Obama Reveals The Small Issue That Will Keep Pete Buttigieg from the Presidency

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The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A new book reveals why former President Barack Obama says former South Bend mayor-turned Biden cabinet member, Pete Buttigieg will not make it to the White House. The former commander in chief who still holds a celebrity-like presence among Democrats says Buttigieg’s height is a big problem.

According to The Washington Free Beacon:

“Obama had actually been impressed by the brains, charisma, and chutzpah of the thirty-something mayor of a small midwestern city,” writes New York magazine correspondent Gabriel Debenedetti in The Long Alliance. “Obama just doubted it would all add up to viability in a presidential campaign where image and fame mattered immensely—he thought Buttigieg was too short and, as a former volunteer for Obama in 2008, seemed too young—and where such a large field would make breaking through that much harder.”

Trump wasted no time calling attention to Mr. Buttigieg’s height during the 2020 election, spurring tons of memes and viral reactions on Twitter to the mayor’s short stature.

Every single commander in chief since William McKinley (1897-1901) has been at least 5 foot 9 inches tall. It’s never going to happen, but height isn’t the only reason. Debenedetti also notes that Obama was rightfully “turned off by Buttigieg’s apparent inability to win over nonwhite voters” in the Democratic primary.

Biden was similarly impressed by Buttigieg’s “gay Obama” schtick but “also thought everyone was kidding themselves” about his viability as a candidate. “The guy had gotten destroyed in the piddling race for DNC chair in 2017, so how was he going to be the party’s presidential nominee?” Debenedetti writes of Biden’s thinking at the time. The former VP was particularly annoyed when a bunch of former Obama staffers started lining up behind Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke, another candidate with no shot at winning. “You believe this shit?” Biden would often vent to aides and associates.

Of course, Obama didn’t even want Biden to run in 2020 (or 2016). “You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t,” he reportedly told his former vice president before Biden declared his candidacy. As the Democratic primary wore on, Obama tried to warn his fellow Democrats not to “underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.”

There have already been some rumors Buttigieg may seriously be considering making another run for president in the near future, however without the support of past presidents like Obama it’s doubtful he would be successful enough to gain the party’s nomination.

Nancy Mace Jumps Into Race For South Carolina Governor

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It’s on…

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace announced she is entering the race to become South Carolina’s next governor.

Mace made her official announcement at her alma mater, The Citadel, a senior military college, on Monday. The congresswoman was the first woman to graduate from the college in 1999. 

“This morning I am making it official. I am running to be your governor of the great state of South Carolina,” Mace said, speaking from the school. “I didn’t come to join the club. They don’t want me and I don’t want them. I came to hold the line.”

“South Carolina is tired of the politicians who smile for the cameras, lie to your face, and then vanish when it’s time to lead,” she said. 

On Sunday, Mace posted a video that concludes with a graphic that reads “Nancy Mace For Governor.”

“Do you like our X header?” she asked in a post on the social media site with the same image.

The firebrand South Carolina congresswoman had teased a potential run for weeks. Last Monday, she released a video highlighting the governor’s race and President Trump’s praise for her. The video included the caption “Coming soon.” 

According to Fox News, Mace told a crowd at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics over the previous weekend that “not only do you pick presidents, maybe you can pick the next South Carolina governor too while we’re here today, because we’re going to be announcing a run very shortly potentially for that as well.”

Mace joins fellow Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), state Attorney General Alan Wilson (R), Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell (R) in the primary. 

Since February, Mace has been at odds with South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, criticizing his perceived inaction on prosecuting sex crimes — particularly in relation to video recordings she says were taken of her and other women without their consent by her ex-fiancé.

Mace told Fox News that if she launched a gubernatorial bid, it would be a “two-man race” between her and Wilson. 

In June, Mace went toe-to-toe with failed vice presidential hopeful and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as he struggled to define what a woman is during a House Oversight Committee hearing.

“What is a woman?” Mace asked Walz after several minutes of the two officials going back and forth over various topics. Mace peppered Walz with questions about comparing immigration officials to the Gestapo, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, his time in China in the late 1980s, his time in the military, and other topics.

Walz paused to gather himself before responding.

“I’m not sure I understand the question here,” Walz told Mace. “What do you want me to say?”

Mace then ripped into Walz. 

“I want you to say that a woman like me is an adult human female. That men can’t become women,” Mace shot back. “You guys are the party of violence, and you’re the party erasing women. You don’t respect us. You’re a bigot. You’re a misogynist. You’re a sexist. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.”

“Tampon Tim Walz couldn’t define a woman today in GOP Oversight when I had him in the pressure cooker,” Mace said on social media with a video of the exchange. “He was speechless.

WATCH:

Usha Vance Addresses Possibility Of Becoming First Lady In 2028

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By Office of Vice President of the United States - @VP on X, Public Domain,

Second Lady Usha Vance is taking it day by day.

During a recent interview, the second lady responded to speculation her husband, JD Vance, is angling to be the next Republican presidential nominee.

“People do ask about it,” Usha Vance told Meghan McCain on her podcast “Citizen McCain.”

While she acknowledged the possibility of her husband, Vice President JD Vance, running for president, Usha Vance emphasized that she moved into the Washington area with “no intention whatsoever” of considering his political future. However, she pointed out that she also had no intention of being involved in politics four years ago.

For now, Usha Vance said she is focused on the present, though she did not completely dismiss the idea.

“My attitude is that this is a four-year period where I have a set of responsibilities to my family, to myself, to obviously the country and that’s really what I’m focused on,” Usha Vance said. “I’m not plotting out next steps or really trying for anything after this.”

She continued, “In a dream world, eventually I’ll be able to live in my home and kind of continue my career and all those sorts of things. And if that happens in four years, I understand. If that happens in some other point in the future, I understand. Just sort of along for the ride and enjoying it while I can.”

As vice president, Vance is considered the political frontrunner to be the Republican nominee for president in 2028.

“I really am just not focused on politics. I’m not focused on the midterm elections in 2026, much less the presidential election in 2028. When we get to that point, I’ll talk to the president. We’ll figure out what we want to do,” Vance told Lawrence Jones in a “Fox & Friends” exclusive interview in April.

In March, Tucker Carlson, co-founder of the Daily Caller News Foundation, forecasted that Vice President JD Vance will emerge as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2028. Carlson’s statement, made on the “VINCE” podcast, sheds light on the increasing influence of Vance within the party and the likelihood of him becoming the successor to Donald Trump’s political legacy.

Despite Donald Trump declining to endorse Vance during a February Fox News interview, where he stated there were “a lot of very capable people” in the Republican Party, Carlson is optimistic that the former president will ultimately support the vice president in 2028. Trump’s comment, which may have seemed like a rejection to some, was interpreted by Carlson as a temporary stance, not a definitive end to any future support.

“I think people want to leave a legacy, all of us do, and great men especially do. And the only person in the entire Republican Party from my position who’s capable of carrying on the Trump legacy and expanding it, making it what it should fully be, is JD Vance,” Carlson explained. He also praised Vance’s loyalty to Trump and his profound service, indicating that Trump’s current withholding of endorsement may have been a strategic decision.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Turns On Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill

Marjorie Taylor Greene -Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, via Wikimedia Commons

Tensions are rising…

Staunch Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene seemed to side with Elon Musk’s opinion that the lawmakers who voted to support President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act should be “ashamed” of themselves.

NewsNation host Blake Burman asked Greene on The Hill, “Congresswoman, you say in full transparency you didn’t know that this was in there and now you’re shining a light on it. How did you not know?”

“Well, we don’t get the full bill text until very close to the time to vote for it, so that was one section that was two pages that I didn’t see,” replied Greene. “I find it so problematic that I’m willing to come forward and admit that those are two pages that I didn’t read because I never want to see a situation where state rights are stripped away, and that’s exactly what it– that’s what it says in that bill text, that it would take away states’ rights to regulate or make laws against AI for 10 years.”

She continued, “And I think that’s pretty terrifying. We don’t know what AI is going to be capable of within one year, we don’t know what it will be capable of in five years, let alone 10 years.”

Burman went on to ask Greene about Musk’s post attacking the “disgusting abomination” of a bill and declaring, “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Last month, the House of Representatives voted 215–214 following a turbulent 48 hours that saw late-night committee sessions, procedural skirmishes, and lobbying by House Speaker Mike Johnson to get Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” over the line.

“He doesn’t specifically say you, but you did vote for it,” Burman pointed out. “Why do you think he’s doing this now, and do you take issue at Musk calling out folks like yourself?”

Greene responded:

You know, I take no issue with anyone calling out the government. I think the American people, including Elon Musk, have the right to do that every single day. As a matter of fact, I wish they would come to Washington and call out this government a lot more. I’m one of the people that ran for Congress because I was angry at Republicans. I wasn’t angry at Democrats, they say what they’re going to do. They support big government, they support massive spending, they support the invasion of our country by illegal aliens from all over the world, including cartels and helping the cartels make billions of dollars. I ran in 2020 because I was angry at Republicans, so I fully understand what Elon is saying and, you know, I agree with him to a certain extent.

She concluded, “However, I don’t want to continue this government on a CR that’s funding Democrat and Biden policies and funding, and this bill was important to transition over to exactly what the American people voted for.”

The White House defended the President Donald Trump-endorsed “big, beautiful bill” on Tuesday. 

Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Musk’s social-media post. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”

In May, when Trump was asked about Musk’s criticism of the bill on CBS, he responded, “Well, our reaction’s a lot of things,” before pivoting to talk about the votes needed to support pass the bill. 

“Number one, we have to get a lot of votes, we can’t be cutting — we need to get a lot of support and we have a lot of support,” he said. “We had to get it through the House, the House was, we had no Democrats. You know, if it was up to the Democrats, they’ll take the 65 percent increase.”

Trump Calls On New York Times To Issue Apology

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Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Trump is going to have to keep waiting for this apology…

President-elect Donald Trump called on The New York Times to “apologize” on Tuesday and said the outlet got “years” of coverage about him “so wrong.”

“Will the failing New York Times apologize to its readers for getting years of ‘Trump’ coverage so wrong. They write such phony ‘junk,’ knowing full well how incorrect it is, only meaning to demean,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

He also appeared to call out Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent at the New York Times, who has focused much of her reporting on the president-elect. 

“They do no fact checking, because facts don’t matter to them. I don’t believe I’ve had a legitimately good story in the NYT for years, AND YET I WON, IN RECORD FASHION, THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN DECADES. WHERE IS THE APOLOGY?” Trump continued.

The Times responded in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“As an independent news organization The New York Times doesn’t produce stories that are ‘good’ or ‘bad’, only reporting that is true. Maggie Haberman and her colleagues have an unrivaled record of providing deeply-reported and authoritative coverage. Every president has complaints about coverage but this work has been widely recognized as fair, accurate and unflinching,” the spokesperson said.