Raw Story

Republicans are on the wrong track for holding onto their congressional majorities, according to a new data analysis.

CNN's Harry Enten crunched the numbers on a series of new polling that found Americans are concerned about the direction the country is headed, and the data analyst said they seem to be in the mood for a change in leadership heading into next year's midterm elections.

"I like going traveling, we all do," Enten said. "Look, you know what it was, the NBC News poll came out this weekend, and I saw this wrong track number, and it just kind of jumped out to me because it was 66 percent, and one of the things I always like to look at is, you know, Donald Trump historically has done better than his polling suggested. But these right track-wrong track numbers have generally tracked with what actually the country is feeling. We see 66 percent there, more than three in five Americans who say the country is on the wrong track. Ipsos, 61 percent, MU, Marquette University Law School, 64 percent, Gallup, 74 percent of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the state of the nation."

"You see it on your screen right there, and all of these numbers, all of these numbers that I could find were the highest percentage who said that the country was on the wrong track since Donald Trump took office," Enten added. "It's not just Trump's poll numbers, it's disapproval that's going higher and higher and higher. It's the wrong track numbers that are going higher and higher, as well."

That's quite a turnaround from the start of Trump's second term, Enten said.

"Yeah, it's a huge change – it's a huge change," he said. "Think that the country is on the wrong track or the right track, you go back to April, May – look, the clear majority of Americans thought that the country was on the wrong track, at 58 percent, but you see 38 percent, a 20-point difference here. Look at that: What we've seen is a ballooning of this, a ballooning. Now you take the average of the polls, right, and now we're talking well north on average."

"Two and three Americans say that the country is on the wrong track now," Enten added. "Less than three in 10 Americans say that the country is on the right track, and when we look at this back in the going into the 2024 election, right, the election in which the Democratic Party was pushed out of power, this number looks a whole heck of a lot. This right track number looks a whole heck of a lot what it looked like going into 2024 election. This 66 percent looks a whole heck of a lot like that number going into the 2024 election."

That's an ominous sign for Republicans heading into next year's election, he said.

"President's party didn't lose House seats, midterms since 1978, percentage said the country was on the wrong track, 46 percent in 2002, 38 percent in 1998," Enten said. "The 66 percent now, the 66 percent, a lot of numbers on the screen right now who say the country is on the wrong track? This doesn't look anything like those midterms where the president's party didn't lose. The Republican Party is on track to lose the House of Representatives if the wrong track numbers look anything like they do right now."

- YouTube youtu.be

Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend revealed a rare glimpse inside the late financier and convicted child offender's life — and how he manipulated women "for connections, for money and for social capital."

Patricia Schmidt, who was a 23-year-old working at Bear Stearns, shared pages from her diary with The New York Times Magazine and, for the first time, spoke publicly about her relationship with Epstein. Schmidt first interacted with Epstein after her boss sent her to his home in 1987.

The diary contains descriptions of her life, the couple's interactions and moments together from the 1980s.

In one remembrance, Epstein had apparently confused Schmidt's mother, whose maiden name was Arlene Dahl, with a former Hollywood starlet with the same name. But that wasn't actually the case and Schmidt never corrected him. In May 1987, he apparently found out and then called her at work to chastise her over it.

"It was terribly awkward," she said. "He sort of felt played."

By February 1988, Schmidt arrived at Epstein's apartment at 1 a.m. where he was on the phone with Eva Andersson, his longtime girlfriend that friends have said "was the love of his life." He lied to Andersson, telling her that he was receiving work materials and passed the phone to Schmidt to try and "back him up."

"Schmidt perceived it as a power play by Epstein, who was seeking not only to appease Andersson but also to show Schmidt that she was not his top priority — and that he was in control of both," according to The Times.

The dynamics between the two and diary entries show the unique ways Epstein attempted to use this "relationship for his advantage."

"On a number of occasions, Schmidt described in her diary how she and Epstein had sex. But other times, she noted his preference for cuddling or kissing on the cheek. 'He was like a little boy almost,'" she said.

In July 1989, Schmidt told Epstein that a married colleague said he liked her. She initially told him in an effort "to remind him of my value" and that another man was interested in her.

But that backfired.

"His response was that Schmidt was being naïve if she thought the man was looking for anything other than sex," according to The Times. "In the diary, Schmidt berated herself for having hurt Epstein."

"In the end, though, she was the one feeling guilty — a sign that Epstein still had the upper hand," The Times reported.

Criticism of Donald Trump's remarks regarding Rob Reiner's death intensified on Tuesday morning when a prominent conservative columnist questioned the aging president's mental fitness.

In a notably direct column for conservative publication The National Review, Jim Geraghty asserted that Trump's statements suggest "something deeply wrong." He proceeded to question whether "psychopath or sociopath" better characterizes the president's behavior.

Acknowledging the tragedy of Reiner and his wife Michele, who were reportedly killed by their son, Geraghty suggested that Trump's actions reveal long-standing indicators of instability. He characterized the president as consistently "obsessed with grievances; vindictive and prone to posting late-night tirades on social media; uninterested in details; erratic, impulsive, spiteful."

Geraghty argued that Trump lacks the capacity to assess moral character through objective standards. Instead, he wrote, "Donald Trump's entire worldview of whether someone is a good person or a bad person depends entirely on whether that person offers praise or criticism of Trump."

The columnist raised concerns about Trump's access to nuclear weapons while simultaneously pursuing aggressive military policies globally, suggesting his emotional state presents a national security concern.

Geraghty acknowledged that Trump supporters could defend his policies or express satisfaction with their electoral choices. However, he concluded, "But what you can't say is that Donald Trump is a good and decent human being."

He further contended that Trump's inability to empathize with the Reiners' tragedy mirrors his disconnect from Americans struggling with cost-of-living concerns. "This is why his approval rating on the economy hit 31 percent. There are far-reaching consequences of having a president who is emotionally broken," Geraghty wrote.

You can read more here.

President Donald Trump announced plans to give an "address to the nation" on Wednesday night but did not explain why.

"My Fellow Americans: I will be giving an ADDRESS TO THE NATION tomorrow night, LIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE, at 9 P.M. EST. I look forward to "seeing" you then. It has been a great year for our Country, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!" the president wrote Tuesday on his Truth Social platform.

The internet shared plenty of responses on Monday after President Donald Trump blamed Brown University over his own FBI for failing to swiftly catch the suspect in a mass shooting on campus this weekend.

A manhunt was underway Monday while investigators continued to search for the suspect in the shooting that left two students dead and nine others injured over the weekend in Providence, Rhode Island. During a press conference on Monday, Trump suggested that the university had somehow mismanaged the initial investigation.

"It's always difficult. So far, we've done a very good job of doing it, with Charlie [Kirk], with the various times this has happened. They've done it pretty much in record time. You'd really have to ask the school about that," Trump said.

Social media users responded to Trump's comments:

"He is literally the worst person," user Hayley Becker wrote on X.

"If you watch carefully you can see the specific instant when Trump decides to try to shift blame for the failure to catch the perpetrator of the Brown University shooting from Kash Patel and the FBI - who claimed credit for catching the wrong person yesterday - to the university," Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff for Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), wrote on X.

"He just really blamed the school for getting shot up I hate it here," user Mari wrote on X.

"Then: FBI chief takes credit for detaining 'person of interest' in Brown U. shooting (person later released). https://x.com/fbidirectorkash/status/2000244040667676940?s=46 Now: Go ask the school why they haven’t caught anyone," writer Paul Farhi wrote on X.

"I didn't think it was possible for his Rob Reiner post to be the second most repulsive thing he said today," MeidasTouch editor Ron Filipkowski wrote on X.

"This guys could give a s---- about anything that he can’t profit from or denigrate others. Despicable that Americans voted for this disgraceful man," user Mike Swain wrote on X.

Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.