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Taking down House Speaker Kevin McCarthy paid off for his Republican enemies.

Six of the eight GOP lawmakers who joined Democrats to oust the former speaker saw an increase in small-dollar donations from the third to fourth quarter of last year, according to a Politico analysis of campaign finance disclosures.

And ringleader Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) enjoyed the biggest boost.

“As the only Republican in Congress who refuses all lobbyist and PAC donations, we are humbled and honored by the support we have received from across the country,” Gaetz said in a statement. “And we hope folks keep giving!”

Between the third and fourth quarter, the Florida Republican raked in an additional $725,000 from individual donors giving less than $200 and saw the second-highest percentage growth, only behind likely Senate candidate Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT).

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Gaetz made McCarthy's route to the speakership tortuous and made life difficult for the California Republican throughout his brief tenure holding the gavel, and he used that notoriety to raise nearly $770,000 in the third quarter of the year. His fundraising exploded to $1.8 million over the last three months of 2023.

Three other members — Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Bob Good (R-VA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) — also saw a boost in the fundraising, but the other four Republicans — retiring Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), first-term Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), Rosendale and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) — raised less money in that period.

McCarthy allies, led by Brian O. Walsh, are recruiting primary challengers to the so-called "Gaetz Eight" as revenge for taking him down as speaker, and they've identified Crane, Good and Mace as particularly vulnerable, according to a report.

Former Barack Obama campaign manager Dan Pfeiffer is calling the new Republican culture war against Taylor Swift a gift for Democrats.

Writing Thursday, he explained that the GOP's freakout over Swift is another example of how "out of touch" they have become.

Swift, who began her career in the right-leaning world of country music, revealed in the past has openly said she couldn't vote for Donald Trump. It comes after the pop star registered 35,000 people to vote with a single social media post. Then, she began dating a Kansas City Chiefs football player, infiltrating the conservative stronghold of the NFL.

The conspiracy theorists went wild.

READ MORE: A neuroscientist explains how Donald Trump exploits the minds of conspiracy theorists

"The Right Wing’s bizarre conspiracy theory about the Deep State scripting the Super Bowl so that Taylor Swift could help Biden win has been THE topic of the week; one of the few things that actually broke through in our disaggregated, chaotic, confusing media ecosystem," wrote Pfeiffer in his newsletter, The Message Box.

He explained that it brought the country together, mocking the idea that Swift is some "deep state" psyop.

"Beyond making fun of these yahoos, there is something notable about the Right Wing picking a fight with America’s most popular singer, one of its most popular athletes, and the most popular sport by far on the occasion of what will be the most watched television event of the year," Pfeiffer continued.

"The 'Taylor Swift is an op' accusation is an example of the Democrats’ continuing and too often unrealized opportunity to paint the Republicans as out-of-touch."

It's a similar take that Republican communications strategist Ana Navarro made on CNN Thursday, saying it "takes the cake as the stupidest conspiracy theory" that she's heard from "a group of people who have come up with some of the stupidest conspiracy theories we have ever heard."

Navarro explained that it has nothing to do with Swift and Travis Kelce, love or even football.

"Their issue is that the woman tweeted out and said, go register to vote, and she burst the internet. It blew up, that she has that kind of political influence. If she was a MAGA person, they would love all sorts — they would all be Swifties," Navarro explained.

Pfeiffer explained that the right-wing endeavors to "otherize" the opposing side. He used John Kerry as an example. Despite being a war hero, they painted him as an "elitist, wind-surfing Boston Brahmin who hated his fellow troops." The Obama "birther" campaign was another attempt by the right to "otherize."

"All of the 'Defund the Police,' Critical Race Theory, DEI bulls--t were attempts to make Democrats seem extreme," he said. "And all of this is why, dating back to Richard Nixon, Republicans have worked so hard to claim ownership of the words 'freedom' and 'patriotism.'"

"Democrats are often ahead of public opinion on issues of civil rights and reproductive and sexual freedoms and, therefore, on the defensive over these sorts of cultural issues. But those days are no longer. Republicans are on the wrong side of public opinion and backing themselves into a corner by picking some truly bizarre fights," Pfeiffer noted.

He named not only the right's Swift war, but baseball, football, Bud Light, Target, Disney and a slew of other big brands that they've tried to go after.

"While this whole Taylor Swift psyop thing has gotten some attention, most voters don’t know just how far from the mainstream Republicans have wandered. Therefore, it’s our job to tell them," he said, before detailing how to do so.

Read the full piece here.

See the Navarro video below or at the link here.

The Swiftie war shows just how angry Republicans are youtu.be

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.

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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.

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"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.

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