Raw Story

The super PACs backing former President Donald Trump's political rivals for the 2024 nomination were "money pits" that did next to nothing to challenge the former president's dominance, former GOP strategist Tim Miller wrote in a scorching analysis for The Bulwark.

This comes after extensive reporting about Never Back Down, the super PAC of failed Trump rival and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who himself called out how inept their efforts had been.

"Much can be said about about the incompetence, self-dealing, and cowardice of the Republicans who were charged with challenging Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign. Marc Caputo covered it colorfully and thoroughly earlier this week," wrote Miller. "But after you have cut through all the tweets and trivia and backbiting and biorhythmic disruption that spilled out of the DeSantis 'campaign' — if you can even call it that — there is one strategic choice that stands out."

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Namely, wrote Miller, records show that the major super PACs representing the non-Trump Republican candidates -- like DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, which raised a combined $225 million -- spent just 2 percent of their revenue targeting Trump, versus supporting their candidates and attacking the non-Trump rivals.

And when these super PACs did target Trump, contended Miller, they only released "limp-wristed" efforts.

"With these resources, Trump’s opponents availed themselves of the best Republican consultants money could buy," wrote Miller. "Those political strategists in turn had titans of industry — millionaires and billionaires — at their disposal. These wealthy individuals were willing to offer their private-sector expertise and burn ungodly sums of their personal fortune to advance the interests of Tim, or Nikki, or Ron. DeSantis even had the world’s richest man giving him free rein and free PR in his personal global town-square on the campaign’s announcement day."

A similar pattern happened in 2016, noted Miller. But "at least in 2016, those choices were defensible. We had never seen a candidate like Trump before, and there was reason to believe that in the end, Republican voters would come to their senses — as they had in every other nominating contest in living memory. We didn’t know what we didn’t know."

"There was no excuse to make the same mistakes this time," he concluded.

Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway recently wrote a story for the New York Times making some recommendations for whom he should select as his next vice president.

However, The Daily Beast's Michael Ian Black speculates that the entire point of the Conway column was to manipulate Trump into seeing her as VP material, despite the fact that she's never held elected office.

Black argues that Conway has proven herself to be a very deft power player in the Trump White House, where she worked for four years and never suffered Trump's wrath the way countless others did during his tenure.

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In particular, Black argues that Conway is "shameless" enough to unlock the keys to Trump's "syphilitic mind" with a combination of all-out flattery and the promotion of Trump's own business interests.

"She happily promoted Trump brands during her time in the White House, to the point that the Office of Special Counsel recommended she be fired for multiple violations of the Hatch Act," writes Black. "Further, she understands that loyalty-as-obsequiousness is precisely what Trump desires."

As an example of this, he cites Conway's claim that "Trump is someone who is not fully understood for how compassionate and what a great boss he is to women," despite the fact that Trump "was ordered to pay over $80,000,000 for defaming E. Jean Carroll, who had previously been awarded millions in damages when a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting her."

The bottom line, he concludes from reading her op-ed, is that "Kellyanne wants in."

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.