Related articles
National News
‘Brutal’: Onlookers amazed as Ken Paxton starts chanting to cover up heckler at rally
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton started chanting "U-S-A" on stage during a rally Wednesday night in a panicked attempt to drown out a person in the crowd trying to confront him over why he gave an Epstein-style sweetheart plea deal to an admitted child molester.
Paxton, President Donald Trump's scandal-plagued pick in the heated Texas Senate race, has been facing scrutiny in the fallout over a plea deal for Adam Dean Hoffman, a 49-year-old attorney accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy for years, according to The Texas Tribune. Hoffman surrendered his law license, and in the deal, he was let out of jail in just days without having to register as a sex offender.
At the event at White Oak Music Hall in north Houston, he faced public questions over the decision.
"Why did you let Adam Hoffman free?" A person in the crowd yelled out at Paxton.
Paxton tried to sway the crowd and divert them to chanting instead.
"I'm going to do a little something different tonight. It's kind of risky," Paxton said, breaking into the patriotic chant.
Just before taking the stage at the event, Paxton had an aide step in between himself and a citizen asking him a critical question: "How come on a government salary you own over 15 houses?" Journalist Aaron Rupar shared video from the encounter.
Social media users called Paxton out over Hoffman and the plea deal.
"In a brutal moment, Ken Paxton’s rally was just interrupted by an attendee mad about Paxton’s Epstein-style deal for a child predator. What a disaster for MAGA," wrote X account Democratic Wins Media, which tracks campaigns and candidates.
"Notice how Paxton had to start the USA chant. His 'supporters' didn’t. Very 'please clap' vibes," wrote X user Mike in Houston, who self-describes as a 35-year veteran of the energy industry.
"If you have to drown out people asking why you released a child rapist by chanting USA, you're the f----- devil," Will Kelly, software recruiter and progressive political commentator, wrote on X.
National News
Trump ditched cabinet secretaries as ‘sacrificial lambs’ on decoy plane: NYT
President Donald Trump left his cabinet secretaries and top advisers on a plane threatened by Iran while he moved to safety, The New York Times reported.
Air Force One was targeted by Iran as he left a NATO summit in Turkey, but reports are surfacing that Trump switched planes by hiding in a catering cart. However, the latest reporting by The Times reveals Trump also ditched Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and traveling press, who were "kept in the dark."
Two anonymous officials told Times reporter Maggie Haberman that Stephen Miller, Trump's top domestic policy adviser, and Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, were also left on the threatened decoy plane. Trump meanwhile left Ankara, Turkey, aboard a C-32A military jet.
According to Haberman's reporting, Rubio knew about the threat from Iran and that he was traveling on a plane that had been targeted for an attack. However, it's unclear if other top White House officials knew about the threat too.
The anonymous officials who spoke with Haberman said that at least some of the White House staff who also left on the endangered plane were unaware of the threat.
A White House spokesman didn't respond to a request from The Times for comment about the discussion to decide who would be left on the threatened plane and who would be whisked to safety with Trump.
The New York Times's reporting did, however, include a comment from Andrew Marlowe, the Hollywood screenwriter of the 1997 Harrison Ford thriller "Air Force One."
Marlowe told The Times that even though the Secret Service was trying to keep Trump safe, the optics of the reporting that has been coming out don't make him look good.
"Now real life isn't a movie, but given the circumstances, I'm not sure I could ever script a moment like that for a heroic main character," Marlowe said. "If the threat were that great, it's hard to imagine the audience rooting for any character who would trade his own safety by treating the remaining civilians onboard as potential sacrificial lambs, especially without their informed consent."
