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An Iraq War veteran flatly rejected what he felt was a deflection by a Republican strategist during a tense segment on CNN on Tuesday night.

Paul Rieckhoff joined CNN's "NewsNight" with Abby Phillip to discuss new bombshell reporting in The Atlantic that former Marine General John Kelly, who served as Donald Trump’s longest-running chief of staff, repeatedly called slain soldiers "losers."

Rieckhoff noted that amid speculation a lot of anti-Trump reports have come from dubious sources, but not this time.

"He's going on the record," said Rieckhoff of Kelly. "You're hearing his voice. He wants everybody in the world to hear his voice."

Rieckhoff finished by noting that one of the only key figures in the first Trump administration not to speak out against the former president is retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who served as Trump's defense secretary from 2017 to 2019.

At this point, Scott Jennings, a senior political commentator who served as special assistant to former President George W. Bush, posed a question.

"What do you think of the way [President Joe] Biden and [Vice President Kamala] Harris have treated the families of the Abbey Gate soldiers?" asked Jennings.

But Rieckhoff swatted away the question.

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"I'm not going to go into a different topic. No-no," he said, shaking his head. As Jennings started to protest, Rieckhoff continued. "If this was your show and you want to ask me questions we can line them up but that's a total distraction."

As Jennings again tried to protest, Rieckhoff again insisted, "No-no. I'm not going to take the bait on that."

"I've been very vocal about — I've been very vocal about Abbey Gate and other issues. We're talking about one singular issue," said Rieckhoff.

The Abbey Gate terrorist bombing in August 2021 happened during the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. At least 182 people were killed, including 169 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members.

Before the panel could fall off the rails, Phillip regained control — and pushed back against Jennings.

"Even if you take that as fact, you can't just address what is on the table here which is Donald Trump, his actions, his words, his character —I mean, a year ago, I kind of wonder, a year and a half ago, if you had heard ... I mean, you probably heard about some of these things — I'm not sure that you would have defended Trump on this. So why do you defend him now?"

Jennings defended his decision to bring up Abbey Gate saying there are varying opinions on the MAGA leader "up and down" the military — a statement met with pushback from Rieckhoff, who said, "Not among all the senior officials."

Jennings said the panel has been "one-sided" and forgotten the treatment of military families by the Biden administration.

His claim was again met with pushback from Phillip, who noted no one has ever accused Biden and Harris of disparaging the families of fallen soldiers.

Watch the tense discussion below or at this link.

Right-wing activist Laura Loomer is suing HBO comedian Bill Maher over a suggestion he made that she was in a sexual relationship with Donald Trump, TMZ reported Tuesday.

Maher's remark followed commentary about the Sept. 11 conspiracy theorist traveling with Trump to several campaign events, despite not being an official part of his team.

During his Sept. 13 Real Time show, he questioned whether the two were having an affair — with Loomer hitting back with a complaint that she was defamed, TMZ reported.

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Legal documents shared with TMZ state Loomer's complaint that the claim was damaging to her reputation and was "false, malicious, and defamatory."

She denied any illicit relationship with the ex-president.

A week after the show, Trump attacked Maher on TruthSocial as a "mess" with low ratings.

Loomer seeks $150 million in damages.

Read the full report here.

CNN has done a deep dive into political fundraising tactics deployed by political parties to extract money from donors — and has found that Republican-aligned groups have been especially exploitative of elderly voters.

The key tool for soliciting funds by both parties has been text messages that target elderly donors.

However, CNN noted that "ultimately, some of these elderly, vulnerable consumers have unwittingly given away six-figure sums — most often to Republican candidates — making them among the country’s largest grassroots political donors."

As a case example, CNN pointed to an 80-year-old Texas voter who is suffering from dementia and who "began making online political donations over and over again — eventually telling his son he believed he was part of a network of political operatives communicating with key Republican leaders."

Over the span of just two years, wrote CNN, this man gave away "nearly half a million dollars to former President Donald Trump and other candidates." Now, the report stated, "the savings account he spent his whole life building is practically empty."

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If there is good news, it's that the man's son managed to get just over $150,000 of the money he donated to right-wing platform WinRed refunded, although that total represents just a fraction of the man's overall contributions.

The CNN report noted that while both Republicans and Democrats have used these kinds of tactics to extract money from elderly donors, the GOP has embraced such spam texts much more wholeheartedly.

"Mainstream Republican candidates have only doubled down on this strategy, using more aggressive and predatory tactics than those used by Democrats, according to donor complaints, interviews with experts and a review of solicitations," the report noted. "The Republican fundraising machine has been subject to more than 800 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission since 2022 — nearly seven times more than the number of complaints lodged against the other side."

Democratic strategist David Axelrod tore into former President Donald Trump on CNN for his refusal to commit to raising the minimum wage — and cracked a joke about Trump's recent McDonald's photo-op that even made his pro-Trump counterpart on the panel, David Urban, chuckle.

Trump's McDonald's stunt was part of his ongoing obsession with an unsupported theory that Vice President Kamala Harris fabricated her work at a McDonald's between college semesters — and yet, Axelrod noted, he hasn't actually proposed any economic policies for the wellbeing of people who actually work there for a living.

"Trump won't commit there to increasing minimum wage, Harris will," said anchor Sara Sidner. "David Axelrod, how much might this issue matter to voters and others? Probably, I think it's around 1.3 million people who make at or below minimum wage according to the Bureau of [Labor] Statistics; how much does this matter?"

"Of course, you raise minimum wage and other wages rise as well," noted Axelrod. "Listen, this is a matter of concern to and support for people across the country. There is broad support for raising the minimum wage. But it goes to the larger battle here about the economy."

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"Donald Trump would like to run on the issue of the economy, and he has some advantages on the issue of the economy," Axelrod continued.

"But what Kamala Harris is trying to do strategically is ask the question, who's going to fight for you in the economy? And it's very much much geared at working-class people and people who are aspiring to become middle class. And so the minimum wage becomes a very, very important issue. And it was interesting that Trump didn't answer. He really more appropriately belongs at Burger King, because of the Whoppers, man."

Urban cracked up at this remark. "He's been saving that, it's a good one!"

Watch the video below or at the link here.

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Donald Trump’s bizarre town hall last week that turned into a 40-minute dance party was part of a “great week” the former president had on the campaign trail, a comment made by an ex-Trump adviser that prompted laughter on CNN Monday night.

The moment came during “The Source” with anchor Kaitlin Collins when longtime Trump supporter David Urban told the panel that included former Obama White House official Van Jones that the Trump campaign feels good because “they had a great week last week.”

“I know we have this skewed view here of how you want to see the world in anti-Trump terms,” Urban said as Jones, seated directly next to him, burst out in laughter before breaking out in dance gestures with his hands to mock Trump.

“That’s a great week?” he said with a laugh.

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Urban went on to reference the crowds outside of the Pennsylvania McDonald’s location that Trump visited Monday as a sign that enthusiasm for the former president’s campaign is soaring, which he claimed isn’t the same for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The enthusiasm for Donald Trump during this campaign is – to paraphrase Spinal Tap an 11 – right? It is unprecedented.”

But Jones couldn’t help but circle back to Trump’s awkward dance routine.

“What I’m telling you is when your candidates up there and doing this for 40 minutes,” Jones said while again making dance gestures with his hands and chuckling.

“People love him,” Urban said with a smile.

“Yeah crazy people,” Jones quickly responded as the two continued the jovial exchange. “People who are insane. Nobody loved that. The people who were on stage did not love that – it was not good.”

“They loved it, I’m telling you they loved it,” Urban insisted.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

The president of the United Auto Workers slammed former President Donald Trump's visit to a Pennsylvania McDonald's, calling it a "joke" on CNN and saying Trump was simply playing "dress-up."

Trump visited the fast food chain in suburban Philadelphia on Sunday, working the fry station of the McDonald's, which was closed to the public during his visit. During the roughly 30-minute event, he took questions from customers through the drive-through window.

But Shawn Fain, head of the UAW, wasn't impressed, telling CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, "I think it's a joke and I think most voters see it that way."

"Let's be real," he said. "Donald Trump wants to play pretend and put on a show and play dress up and act like he understands what working-class people go through, what fast food workers go through."

NOW READ: Not even ‘Fox and Friends’ can hide Trump’s dementia

The reality, he noted, is the eatery was closed to the public.

"It was franchisees and campaign supporters that were screened and allowed to be customers," said Fain.

He added: "This is not the life of a McDonald's worker," noting they work at a furious pace to clear people through the line and make the company money, all at "poverty wages."

"To me, it's a slam and it's an insult to people that have to do that work every day that are trying to pay the bills at the end of the week and that's their biggest fear is getting their bills paid," said Fain. "Trump doesn't understand that. So I think that whole charade was a joke."

On the contrary, he said, Vice President Kamala Harris knows what it's like to struggle, said Fain.

"Really to me [that's] one of the distinct differences between these two candidates," he said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.