Raw Story

A growing number of Republicans are doing cruel things to children's dogs then bragging about it in a new trend with ties to the former president, a new political analysis contends.

Kevin Roberts, Heritage Foundation president, joined the elite crew this week when his former New Mexico State University colleagues said he'd boasted of killing his 16-year-old neighbor's dog Loca with a shovel — a story the Project 2025 architect now denies.

"Killing a teenage neighbor’s pet out of irritation and then telling co-workers about it might seem like a whole new level of bizarre," wrote Heather Souvaine Horn for the New Republic. "In some ways, that denial is the most unusual part of this whole story."

Horn argues a mounting number of Republicans not only torment children's animals — but express pride after the fact.

Most notably among the crew is South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who boasted in her book that she shot her family's 14-month-old puppy without apparently warning her 7-year-old daughter Kennedy what was about to happen.

"Where's Cricket?" Kennedy reportedly asked when she came home from school.

There's also Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) who accidentally strapped his five sons' Irish Setter Seamus on top of the family station wagon for a 12-hour road trip in 1983.

On Thursday, Horn argued the three Republicans were merely building on a long history of Republicans expecting praise for hurting animals that began with vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who liked to shoot wolves.

"[Palin's] support for aerial wolf gunning—a practice deliberately designed to give hunters the advantage and thin out wolf numbers—was denounced by animal lovers but lauded by her supporters, who loved her “frontier femme” identity politics," wrote Horn.

But the tradition only reached a national level when it was picked up by the family Trump, Zorn argued.

"In 2011, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump traveled to Zimbabwe with a safari firm that Zimbabwean conservationists later said was not registered in the country," reported Horn. "They killed an elephant and leopard, among other animals, posing with the dead bodies."

A subsequent ProPublica report found Trump Jr. had shot an endangered argali sheep and received a retroactive permit to do so.

In the White House, the Trump administration reversed bans on importing lion trophies into the U.S., re-legalized killing wolf pups and using bait to kill bears in Alaska, Horn reports.

Trump famously was the first president in more than a century not to bring a dog to the White House — his late wife Ivana once explained her ex was "not a dog fan."

"It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that willingness to kill animals would become a kind of right-wing purity test," Horn concluded.

"So maybe Kevin Roberts bragged at work about killing his kid neighbor’s dog with a shovel, or maybe he didn’t. At this point in the history of American conservatism, he’s going to have a tough time convincing people to give him the benefit of the doubt."

The X (formerly Twitter) account of journalist Ken Klippenstein was suspended Thursday after he shared details of a dossier about Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) that Iran allegedly hacked.

"Here's the dossier the media refused to publish," Klippenstein wrote in a post on X soon before his account was suspended.

The former Intercept reporter also linked to an article on his website explaining why he published the so-called dossier.

"It reportedly comes from an alleged Iranian government hack of the Trump campaign, and since June, the news media has been sitting on it (and other documents), declining to publish in fear of finding itself at odds with the government's campaign against 'foreign malign influence,'" Klippenstein wrote. "I disagree. The dossier has been offered to me and I've decided to publish it because it's of keen public interest in an election season."

According to Klippenstein, the dossier consisted of a "271-page research paper the Trump campaign prepared to vet now vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance."

ALSO READ: 'Kind of crazy': Vance's Ohio neighbors can't help but notice his Secret Service detail

"As far as I can tell, it hasn't been altered, but even if it was, its contents are publicly verifiable," he added. "If the document had been hacked by some 'anonymous' like hacker group, the news media would be all over it. I'm just not a believer of the news media as an arm of the government, doing its work combatting foreign influence. Nor should it be a gatekeeper of what the public should know."

X CEO Elon Musk has previously likened the alleged suppression of stories about Hunter Biden's laptop to election interference.

Former President Donald Trump has found a new way to separate his supporters from their hard-earned money, according to critics.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, the former president announced he was now selling Trump-branded gold wristwatches.

"The Official Trump Watch Collection is here, and these Watches are truly special — You’re going to love them," he wrote. "Would make a great Christmas Gift. Don’t wait, they will go fast. GET YOUR TRUMP WATCH RIGHT NOW!"

In the past, Trump has also sold his supporters items such as golden sneakers, digital trading cards, Bibles, and cryptocurrency, so his foray into gold watches seems like a logical next step, observers says.

Nonetheless, many of the president's critics took to X to marvel at the sheer number of overpriced consumer goods he's pitching to his supporters, especially during a time when he is claiming that the American economy is in a supposed death spiral.

ALSO READ: 'I think it landed': Analyst singles out moment Kamala Harris won over Wall Street

"The grift never ends with Trump," wrote former NBCUniversal executive Mike Sington. "Now he’s selling watches to his MAGA fans. Get this, they’re priced from $499 to $100,000, and look like crap. Another total rip-off."

"He is the greatest conman and grifter in the history of America," wrote the pseudonymous account Spiro's Ghost. "He comes up with a new way to fleece his cult members constantly with completely worthless nonsense. All of this while he says AMERICA WILL END! and will become COMMUNIST! if he doesn’t win in November. Laser focus."

"If you already have a Trump Bible ($60), Trump digital Pokémon card ($99), Trump sneakers ($499) and Trump souvenir coin($100), clearly you need a Trump watch," joked Huffington Post reporter S.V. Dáte. "Prices: $499 to $100,000. This is what the second shift workers of western Pennsylvania have been clamoring for."

Twitter user Thomas Macioszek, meanwhile, dug up an old quote from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) during a 2016 debate in which the Florida Republican said, "If Donald Trump hadn't inherited $200,000,000, he'd be in New York City selling watches right now."

And former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele labeled Trump a "two-bit huckster" who is "pumping out another trinket for the masses to consume (at $100K a pop) because that’s better than actual policies."

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For decades, Republicans have relied upon older voters turning out in large numbers to make up their deficits with younger voters.

However, CNN polling expert Harry Enten on Thursday highlighted polling showing that this could actually reverse in the 2024 election.

During a breakdown of recent polls, Enten showed that Vice President Kamala Harris at the moment is enjoying a three-point lead among voters who are 65 years or older, which is a significant shift from the four-point advantage that Trump had among voters 65 and older back in July when he was still running against President Joe Biden.

However, the same polls show that Harris at the moment isn't doing as well with young voters as Biden did in 2020, which lead to Enten being asked if this was a good tradeoff for her.

"It is an excellent tradeoff!" Enten exclaimed.

ALSO READ: 'Embarrassing': Impeachment witness shames Trump for learning about WWII 'the other day'

He then explained that voters between the ages of 18 and 29 are projected to make up only 13 percent of likely voters, whereas voters 65 and older are projected to make up 29 percent of voters.

"If you're Kamala Harris, yeah, shed a little bit among younger voters," he said. "If you're going to shed support anywhere, shed it among younger voters.

Writing on X, Enten elaborated that Harris's lead among older voters is "one reason Harris has a small national lead over Trump" and is potentially a "huge development because seniors vote in huge numbers."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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Speaking with the co-hosts on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," on Thursday morning, business analyst Andrew Ross Sorkin explained that Vice President Kamala Harris alleviated a lot of concerns about her candidacy during a Wednesday speech and subsequent interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle.

Harris has been facing criticism from mainstream media members for not explaining enough about her policies while they have given Donald Trump a "pass" as co-host Joe Scarborough observed earlier.

According to Sorkin, Harris has some "reluctant" fans in the business community and one declaration she made on Wednesday allayed any fears they may have had.

ALSO READ: The simple yet powerful way Tim Walz just exposed Donald Trump

"There's a line in her speech yesterday where she said she was 'a capitalist,' and where she was free and fair markets, that was music to the ears of folks who weren't really sure where she really stood," Sorkin told the hosts.

"They have heard her called a progressive and then to hear her say that, you know we have heard from a lot of oh folks from inside her campaign that she was going to tack to the center, but was she really? I think this was, to the world of business a sigh of relief. Yes, she's going to have higher corporate taxes than former president Trump would be pushing for. At the same time there's a sense now you're going to have divided government anyway."

"The feedback I heard from the business community last night was very, very positive for her pretty much across the board," he added. "They want to know more, but they were feeling -- they were feeling better. Again, I don't know if this is a vibes campaign, but the vibes were better. "

"She also said something very interesting," he told the hosts. "She said I'm not against them being wealthy, I'm not against success. I just want to figure out a way to tax the system in a fair way. I think that to some degree resonated. Now I know there are going to be some selfish folks out there who are super greedy who don't even like the idea of it. But I just think that, when you start to think about what is the more practical approach to all these things, she definitely laid out her case, and I think it landed to a large degree."

Watch below or click here.

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Donald Trump spent Tuesday campaigning in Georgia, but someone apparently forget to tell him.

The former president spoke at a campaign rally in Savannah, where he touched on his plans to lower taxes and boost manufacturing, but he spent much of his 90-speech criticizing vice president Kamala Harris on border security and the economy, although he baffled many with a late-night post capping off the day.

"A great day in Louisiana!" Trump posted shortly after midnight on Truth Social.

ALSO READ: The week Fox News finally faces its reckoning

Trump seemingly tried to cover up his mistake by posting about "internal polling" that showed him winning Louisiana – which he easily won in 2016 and 2020 – "by the largest margin," and then sent out a "thank you" to Georgia shortly before 2 a.m.

"He was in Georgia," posted The Lincoln Project.

"Trump spent the day in Georgia then posted that it was 'A great day in Louisiana,' another example of how he’s changing American politics with his outside-the-box approach to social media," noted USA Today columnist Rex Hubke. "Also, Joe Biden is old and in mental decline."

"Trump was in Georgia, not Louisiana. Who’s gonna tell him?" said Bloomberg columnist and Trump biographer Tim O'Brien.

"Dementia Don strikes again. (Trump was in Georgia today. not Louisiana)," added the account Republicans Against Trump.

"Trump appears to have lost a total grasp on things," The New Republic wrote. "Donald Trump can’t seem to remember what state he’s even in anymore."

The New Republic pointed out that wasn't even the first geographical error he'd made that day after he misstated the name of Charlottesville, Virginia, the site of the infamous 2017 white nationalist rally.

“She didn’t say anything except lies, like bloodbath, like Charlottestown,” Trump said during the Savannah rally in response to an attack line from Harris during their debate earlier this month.