Raw Story

President Donald Trump's first ten days back in the Oval Office have included wildly controversial decisions such as granting full pardons to violent criminals who attacked a coequal branch of government on his behalf four years ago, expelling transgender service members from the United States military, and unilaterally stripping birthright citizenship from the United States Constitution.

As Rolling Stone reports, Trump and his team have concocted a strategy to "flood the zone" with "uniquely depraved" orders and policies in the hopes of mentally overwhelming a demoralized Democratic Party.

"Trump and his officials were confident the general public would grow numb — and stay numb — to this opening onslaught," the publication writes. "Trump appears to be taking that mentality to heart. The first 10 days of the administration have been marked by an unprecedented barrage of barbaric policy moves and casual executive depravity. In many cases these actions have flown in the face of the law, decades of tradition, and even the constitution."

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The publication then throughly documents all of the actions Trump has taken over just the last ten days, which have resulted in multiple lawsuits being filed by blue-state attorneys general.

At least one Trump executive order has come back to bite him, however, as his decision to shut off all federal loans and grants this week led to mass chaos throughout the country that temporarily shut down Medicaid portals in all 50 states.

This led to a federal judge in the District of Columbia to block the freeze until at least next week.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to enact a ban on the abortion drug mifepristone if President Donald Trump told him to do so after he was confirmed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) asked Kennedy about medical abortion policies during a Wednesday Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing.

"The FDA has been under scrutiny and brought to court for failure to properly assess this drug as well as subsequent deregulations," Daines opined. "Some of these deregulations included ending the requirement that these drugs be prescribed by a doctor, ending reporting requirements for adverse events, and allowing these pills to be obtained through the mail."

"In fact, the FDA's own prescribing label mentioned that three to five percent of women taking this drug end up in the emergency room," the senator continued. "My question is, if confirmed as Secretary of HHS, will you commit to working with the FDA Commission to review these deregulatory actions that are threatening the safety of women?"

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Kennedy called the current policies on abortion drugs "immoral."

"President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone," the nominee added. "He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it."

"Whatever he does, I will implement those policies."

Watch the video below from CNN or click here.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) raised her voice to yell back at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his confirmation hearing on Wednesday as the Heath and Human Services nominee tried to twist her question in knots.

Warren pointed out that Kennedy has made over $2 million from a law firm that is searching for plaintiffs to sue over vaccines. Warren asked if Kennedy would agree that he would not accept any cash payments while serving as secretary of HHS.

Kennedy twisted the comment into Warren asking if he won't sue drug companies, putting the words in her mouth.

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"You're asking me to not sue drug companies. And I'm not going to agree to that," Kennedy said.

Warren shouted over him, "No, I am not!"

"So, let's do a quick count here of how, as secretary of HHS, if you get confirmed, you could influence every one of those lawsuits," Warren, a former Harvard professor and lawyer, continued. "Well, let me start the list. You could publish your anti-vaccine conspiracies, but this time on us government letterhead, something a jury might be impressed by."

"I don't understand," Kennedy fumbled.

"You could appoint that vaccine panel who share your anti-vax views and let them do your dirty work," Warren continued. "You could tell the CDC vaccine panel to remove a particular vaccine from the vaccine schedule. You could remove vaccines from special compensation programs, which would open up manufacturers to mass torts. You could make more injuries eligible for compensation, even if there is no causal evidence. You could change vaccine court processes to make it easier to bring junk lawsuits. You could turn over FDA data to your friends at the law firm and they could use it however, it benefited them. You could change vaccine labeling. You could change vaccine information rules. You could change which claims are compensated in the vaccine injury compensation program."

She demanded to know if he would refrain from taking a financial cut from those lawsuits while at HHS and in the four years after.

All Kennedy would commit to is to follow current ethical guidelines.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got an assist from a leading law enforcement organization as his push to see through a sweeping illegal immigration package in his state is being met with resistance – including from Republicans.

The Florida Sheriffs Association on Tuesday threw its support to DeSantis and President Donald Trump, who have both placed illegal immigration at the top of their legislative priorities list.

“Removing illegal immigrants who commit crimes in our Florida communities is an issue that affects all of us, and we are grateful that the Governor and the Legislature were willing to address it immediately,” Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell, who also serves as organization president, said in a statement. “The Sheriffs of Florida strongly agree on the importance of assisting President Trump and ICE in accomplishing this vision quickly.”

Prummell added that the Florida Legislature has “worked closely” with the longtime sheriff's organization for decades “to ensure our concerns are heard so we have the tools we need to effectively and efficiently remove criminal aliens from our communities across the State of Florida, thus protecting Floridians and visitors of our great State. We are thankful for their support.”

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The development comes as DeSantis has been engaged in a showdown with GOP leaders in the Florida Legislature over their conflicting views on immigration. The governor on Monday called lawmakers’ threat to rip him of immigration enforcement powers “bizarre.”

That followed DeSantis’ own threat to state lawmakers last week when he warned them, “It would be very, very hazardous politically” if they rebuffed his legislative demand.

NBC News national politics reporter Matt Dixon told his followers on X Tuesday that the FSA coming out to back DeSantis is a “pretty big deal.” He added that the sheriff’s organization is a “powerful group that aligns with Republicans, and has done a lot with DeSantis over the years.”

CNN's Jake Tapper cornered far-right White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, as he tried to justify the Trump administration's discretionary freeze on federal grants announced by the Office of Management and Budget — and blame the media for the public's confusion on whether they're about to lose access to critical support programs.

"So let's just walk through this, because obviously there's confusion," said Tapper. "Is this pause going to affect Medicaid?"

"It does not affect any service that the government is required to provide, does not affect any entitlement, does not affect any service to citizens, does not affect any individual benefit, any public assistance program or anything of that nature," said Miller. "So we found, after the president had issued a pause on funding to [non-governmental organizations] that were settling illegal immigrants, we found that bureaucrats at HHS were trying to funnel billions of more dollars to those resettlement agencies and try to get around the executive order. It became clear that bureaucrats were still trying to funnel unapproved discretionary grants of funds to their pet projects."

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"So let's get into that, because a number of government-funded organizations — so these are organizations like Meals on Wheels, right? Their job, their mission — it's a private organization, they get grants from the federal government, they feed seniors. Meals on Wheels is currently in the dark. They don't know, does this order affect us? Does this mean we're not going to have any more funding coming in? They feed like 2 million seniors. So I'm just wondering, first of all, why a pause? An investigation, sure, I get that. Auditing? Sure. Why a pause?"

Miller dodged the question, redirecting back to his complaints about the civil service directing grants.

"Joe Biden gave just one NGO responsible for resettling illegal aliens $3 billion, with a B. $3 billion! President Trump, when he said drain the swamp, he meant it."

"Okay. I don't think anybody's taking issue with, if you find money that is being disbursed in an inappropriate way, halting it," said Tapper. "I think what the confusion is, is this seemed to a lot of groups and a lot of states, Republicans, Democrats, independents, like a very sweeping order. And there is confusion ... we just talked to Congressman Don Bacon, a Republican, a Trump supporter. We just interviewed him. He said that there was a lot of confusion."

"Created by the media, Jake," insisted Miller.

But Tapper insisted that much of the confusion and anger is within Trump's own party.

"Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said, quote, 'nobody really knows how long,' unquote, this review of these federal funds is going to last. And she said it's, quote, 'been a big challenge,' unquote, to get answers from the Trump administration. So here's an opportunity. How long is this review going to take? And when does the federal funding for these programs resume?"

Miller once again refused to answer. As Tapper repeatedly asked this question, Miller finally said, "I am sorry that the media has falsely reported on this story."

"I don't know what you're talking about in terms of false reports," shot back Tapper. "It was a broadly written executive order."

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President Donald Trump announced a spending freeze that will have a ripple effect across the country, and even the MAGA base will feel the severity. This is so significant that MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace thinks it could change the game for Democrats.

Speaking on her show Tuesday, Wallace said that by reaching out to Democrats to appear on her show, she's seen this issue "wittingly or unwittingly ... completely resuscitate the Democratic Party."

"They were flatlined spiritually. Politically," said Wallace, speaking to The Bulwark's Sam Stein. "Basically, since the election night. And what he has done is — they have suddenly woken up. They remember why they're there. They're there to make the government work the way it's supposed to work. They're there to keep their promises to all voters, whether they voted for them or not."

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And the thing that you just outlined, what Trump has done is Republican governors — now whether they'll go on Fox and say it or not, who knows — but Republican governors are going to have to align themselves with the members of Congress who" want to see the law followed, she continued. "Republican governors have a bleep ton of voters who would like their services, funded their cancer research, and Republican governors are a lot closer to their constituents. Sometimes, they're their neighbors."

"Those people will want to know why they can't access Veterans Affairs mental health appointments they drove three hours and waited months" to get "was suddenly canceled because of a political stunt," said Wallace.

"What Trump has done is by pulling this political stunt, he has completely resuscitated the Democratic Party against him," Wallace assessed.

Stein disagreed, saying this is a big issue today, but tomorrow, something else will distract people.

"One of the clear objectives for this White House is to just flood the zone. And by that, I mean a new chaotic moment, a new crisis point is produced every day, and something that seems even more radical than what we just went through the day before," said Stein.

Wallace said the difference is that many issues require voters to care about something other than themselves.

"Even a cop requires a cop to care about another cop. And I think if we're being blunt, I'm not sure that's the moment we live in. But this is about you. This is about your drugs. This is about your child care. This is about your food stamps. This is about you," she closed.

Wallace said she doesn't believe the issue will disappear with the next outrageous Trump social media post.

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