Raw Story

The newly-elected Arizona Republican Party chair, Gina Swoboda, proudly told longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon on his "war room" show that the former president personally urged her to run for the position, reported KPNX's Brahm Resnik — and vowed to continue pushing lawsuits on his behalf to restrict access to voting in Arizona.

"How can the Arizona GOP be dead broke in an election year with nine months to go?" asked Bannon.

"They are," acknowledged Swoboda, saying that financial statements haven't been filed in the party for a year. "On the election side, we have to litigate, we have to litigate now, we have a lot of lawsuits going on, we have to get rid of the unmanned drop boxes, that judgment is imminent."

ALSO READ: GOP efforts to keep major issue off ballots in 2024 is an 'implicit admission'

"I don't think the courts in Arizona have exactly cut our way," said Bannon. Swoboda responded that they had secured two voting restriction wins in Yavapai County, and said the GOP legislature would soon be stripping certain powers from Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, whom Bannon blasted as a "cartel lawyer."

In response to Bannon asking her how she would handle tough issues like improving the GOP's fundraising and uniting warring factions, she said, "I'm Wonder Woman ... I'm fueled by God. The president — I have to say, I'm wearing the armor of God. I think that the reason the God made me my nerdly election self is for this time."

Swoboda was appointed following a leadership crisis after the previous party chair, Jeff DeWit, was caught on hot mic allegedly offering far-right Senate candidate Kari Lake a bribe to exit the race. DeWit maintained that Lake set him up, but stepped down out of fear that she would release a supposedly even more incriminating tape of him.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

— (@)

The “God's Army” trucker convoy that's headed to the southern border in a "Take Our Border Back" campaign has been decimated by conspiracy theories that it's an FBI front, Vice News reported Monday.

The line of trucks that departed Virginia Beach Monday had just a few dozen participants — much less than the 700,000 organizers had promised.

According to Vice's report, the less-than-stellar turnout was likely due to theories circulating in right-wing circles that the convoy could be a “psyop” or “honeypot" trap laid by the federal government to coax people into committing violence.

“I have 3 former associates doing lengthy prison sentences because of the [Jan. 6] setup,” one person wrote on Telegram. “I know first hand, even if they don’t have charges they can pin on you, they will make some up.”

One of the organizers of the convoy, former military commander Pete Chambers, even gave credence to the conspiracy theory in a video message to supporters, telling FBI agents that if they "start going after these people, trying to trap them, you’re going to be found out."

Also read: 'Could ultimately doom you': CNN host gives GOP lawmaker wake-up call over border deal

“There’s too much momentum on the other side bro, so just let it go. Stop working for that entity. They’re just going to tear you down, they’re going to use you like a kleenex, just like they did to me," Chambers said.

From Vice News: "Organizers of the convoy, who include QAnon-world influencers and anti-vaxxers, characterized the demonstration as an 'army of god,' and have spent the last couple days putting out PR fires — and trying to distance themselves from any possible future unrest or bad optics.

"'No we are not militia friendly,' wrote Christina Holbrook, aka 'Thought Criminals,' who is an admin for the convoy’s Texas Telegram channel. Holbrook has also asked participants to leave their long guns at home."

Read the full report over at Vice News.

Rep. Cory Mills schooled fellow Floridian Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz Monday over former President Donald Trump's Middle East policy.

During an episode of his Firebrand podcast, Gaetz told Mills that Trump had kept Iran in check by assassinating Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Gaetz said that Trump's policies had prevented the deaths of soldiers like the U.S. saw on Sunday when three troops died in Jordan. An Iranian-backed militia reportedly carried out the attacks.

But Mills explained how the assassination of Soleimani could have led to the deaths of the three U.S. soldiers.

ALSO READ: A murderer massacred July 4 revelers. Park workers suffered. Now some feel abandoned.

"I would argue that the elimination of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis only resulted in the replacement of Esmail Qaani," Mills responded. "So that's why, what did we actually create? We had the general secretary of Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, who leads Hezbollah, basically have his son marry Qassem Soleimani's daughter, thereby giving him more political power of the Ayatollah and creating Qatar Hezbollah, who's responsible for the majority of the tax on us in Iraq."

"So, this is not just, look, the bottom line is that we should have learned over the last 20 years, you cannot kill and defeat an ideology through bombs, bullets, and grenades," he remarked. "That is not how ideological beliefs exist. That is not how these people become radicalized."

Watch the video below from Rep. Matt Gaetz or at the link here.

Appearing on CNN early Monday morning, New York writer E. Jean Carroll called Donald Trump an "emperor with no clothes" whose power has diminished now that he has been held responsible for defaming her.

Accompanied by her lawyer Robbie Kaplan, the recipient of a $83.3 million damage award levied against the former president admitted she was initially nervous about encountering the ex-president in court but then she realized he has become a non-entity.

"There he was, and he was nothing," she told CNN hosts Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly. "Just, no power. he had — he was zero. That was, I was flabbergasted and from then on we just sailed through."

Asked if she made "eye contact with him," she replied, 'Many times," she added, "He's an emperor without clothes. it's like looking at nothing. It was like... nothing."

ALSO READ: Few Trumpers who embrace political violence understand its endgame

"I had been prepared for the worst force, you know, on the Earth today, the most powerful, the most effective, the most money, the richest, the most, you know —— and there he is, he's nothing," she elaborated. "It's just the people around him who give him the power; it's the emperor without clothes."

Watch below or at the link.

CNN 01 29 2024 08 15 21 youtu.be

CNN's Briana Keilar on Monday got into a heated exchange with Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) over the Biden administration's Middle East policy, which he said was emboldening Iran to sign off on proxy attacks on American soldiers.

During an interview, Keilar argued to Waltz that figuring out how to deter Iran-backed proxies had plagued multiple administrations, including Trump's whose policies Waltz touted as a better alternative.

"I know you're critical of President Biden, that you think he is emboldening Iran, but how should the U.S. respond when even former President Trump -- I mean, you said that peace broke out [under his watch], but his direct and controversial action like taking out [late Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani] did not stop the deadly attacks on U.S. troops," she noted.

READ MORE: Big Trump secret about to be revealed

Waltz replied that Trump ordered the assassination of Soleimani after Iran-backed proxies had launched multiple strikes on the U.S. and its allies, and he claimed that those strikes single-handedly fixed the problem.

"They launched some missiles and that was it!" he claimed.

"Service members died!" Keilar interjected.

"Who died, post-Soleimani strike?" Waltz demanded to know.

"March 2020, service members died," she said. "You had Iranian-backed proxies... the one in March was determined that it likely was [Iran] and you had service members, two Americans and one Brit, who were killed... So if we're talking realistically on what deters and what does not deter the proxies, then let's use those facts to talk about what might actually be a way to... get them to stop."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Keilar gets into heated exchange with GOP lawmaker www.youtube.com

A new conservative conspiracy theory that the Super Bowl will be rigged to prop up Taylor Swift’s imminent endorsement of President Joe Biden is being torn to shreds by critics who call it “by far the dumbest.”

The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch Monday took to X to vent frustrations over the strange theory — centered on Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce — detailed in a new Rolling Stone report.

“Of all the dumb things the nascent nouveau right has tried over the years, attempting to turn conservatives against the NFL is by far the dumbest,” Bunch wrote.

While Rolling Stone takes time to detail how Swift’s perceived liberal politics and Kansas City’s AFC victory Sunday have created an NFL “scriptwriting” narrative, Bunch doesn’t pull the punch of his summary.

"Two hot celebrities dating is a psyop culminating in the Illuminati fixing the Super Bowl so you'll have to get vaccinated," he writes. "Get people to say the dumbest s--- imaginable ... and they'll believe anything."

The conspiracy theory has been shared by people including former President Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer, failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, reports and social media show.

ALSO READ: Trump’s spell is broken — no wonder he’s mad

“Thinking about when Taylor Swift called out the Soros family in 2019 for buying the rights to her music and then how she came out a super liberal in 2020,” Posobiec told X followers Sunday.

“I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” Ramaswamy replied.

Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez wasn’t impressed by the conclusions drawn, which she argues ignore some pertinent information.

“One must really stretch the depths of credulity to convince oneself that Swift’s success isn’t a result of her record-breaking songs, albums, tours, movies, and a career that has redefined the music industry, but rather a government psyop that forced her to date an NFL star and take up entertainment as a career,” she writes.

“It’s all really stupid.”

Several X users following news of the theory agreed.

“Taylor Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 but this time it’s definitely a psy op,” wrote Noam Blum. “Amazing that people buy this grift horses--- and ask for seconds.”

"Trump’s insecure brand of fascism requires constant attention and seeks to insert itself into every situation,” wrote GQ editor Luke Zaleski. “Like a kindergartener acting like he doesn’t like the girl he’s crushing on in hopes he’ll to trick her into liking him."