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‘It’s scary’: Dem candidate speaks out after Trump admin’s ‘surreal’ prosecution of her
Progressive Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh spoke out against President Donald Trump's administration for prosecuting her after she participated in a protest against an immigration raid in her home state of Illinois.
The indictment, which was filed on Oct. 23, accuses Abughazaleh of one count of conspiracy and one count of forcibly impeding an officer. Abughazaleh told NBC News that she plans to self-surrender to authorities next Wednesday and described the incident as "political prosecution."
Abughazaleh joined Jon Lovett, a former Obama administration staffer, on a new episode of the "Pod Save America" podcast on Thursday, and further discussed the prosecution.
"It's scary. It's surreal, and it's also totally expected," she said. "This is what this administration does. They go after people who disagree with them, and this case is an attempt to criminalize protest, to criminalize freedom of speech, and to criminalize freedom of association."
"This is what authoritarians do," she added. "They try to find any excuse to punish their political enemies, to punish populations they deem as enemies. We've seen that a lot in how ICE is functioning."
Abughazaleh noted that the Trump administration has admitted to catching very few criminals during its immigration raids. She suggested that reveals something more sinister about the raids.
"That is one of the best examples to show that this has never been about crime," she said. "This has never even been about immigration. This is about securing and cementing power for the Trump administration."
Ex-GOP spokesperson rails that red states are suffering due to Trump’s cuts
Former Republican Tim Miller, who hosts a podcast for the conservative anti-Trump news outlet The Bulwark, discussed with MSNBC host and former Republican Nicolle Wallace that the GOP is stiffing its own voters with slashes to food stamp benefits.
"I know food stamps is like a 90s era right-wing racist smear, but SNAP, which is sort of the new EBT — this is food assistance. [It] knows no partisan affiliation. If anything, it disproportionately benefits households in Trump voting counties and districts," said Wallace. "And it feeds a whole lot of kids who don't have any responsibility for any of the political decisions that adults make."
Miller noted that the GOP's rhetoric has clearly shifted from the days of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Mitt Romney (R-UT).
"But the policies are harmful to them. And this ... the expiration of SNAP — or the fact that they're not going to continue funding SNAP during this shutdown, beginning this weekend, I think is the most acute example of this, where, you know, if the party had fully switched to being a multiracial, multiethnic, working class party like they pay lip service to, this would be an emergency right now," said Miller.
The situation would involve Republican lawmakers fearful "our own voters are literally going to go hungry beginning this weekend. You know, we need to serve to service them. And meanwhile, Donald Trump's in China or in Korea getting a, you know, Burger King happy meal crown from the head of South Korea. And Congress isn't even in session, right? Like they're not doing anything."
He called it a catastrophe and a tragedy if the problem isn't fixed in the coming days.
"But it's also a very stark demonstration of just how this kind of MAGA populism is a lot of lip service and not a lot of action," Miller continued. "And you're seeing it in real time also in the states where, you know, in Colorado, Jared Polis and some other states, governors, mostly Democratic governors, are working to try to patch this right now. And in some of the red states, it's not going to get patched."
‘Which side do you want to win?’ Hegseth dodges Mitch McConnell on Ukraine war
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about his views on Russia's war in Ukraine.
"Number one, who's the aggressor and who's the victim in the conflict?" McConnell asked Hegseth during a Wednesday Senate subcommittee hearing.
"Russia's the aggressor," Hegseth said.
"Which side do you want to win?" McConnell pressed.
"As we've said time and time again, this president is committed to peace in that conflict," Hegseth dodged. "Ultimately, peace serves our national interests, and we think the interest of both parties, even if that outcome will not be preferable to many in this room and many in our country."
"Which side is President Xi pulling for?" McConnell wondered.
"There's no doubt that China would prefer that Vladimir Putin have a good outcome," Hegseth admitted.
"One thing I'm sure we agree on is we don't want a headline at the end of this conflict that says Russia wins and America loses," McConnell stated.
CNN conservative melts down over Newsom’s ‘litany of complaints’
CNN commentator and longtime GOP insider Scott Jennings tore into California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, accusing him of launching a presidential campaign “on top of this lawlessness” in Los Angeles.
The fiery remarks from Jennings came moments after the Democratic governor delivered a nationally televised address accusing Trump of unleashing a “military dragnet” across Los Angeles. But Jennings wasted no time unloading on Newsom over what he mocked as a “litany of complaints” in his speech.
“It's amazing to me,” Jennings said on CNN. “First of all, this guy is the governor of a state, and it has got one of its most important cities burning on his watch, and he's out here launching a presidential campaign.
Jennings blasted Newsom for pivoting from Trump’s military deployment in Los Angeles to broader attacks on the federal government, misinformation and political control.
“He went down a litany of things that have nothing to do with what's happening in California,” Jennings added. “We get this litany of complaints from Gavin Newsom about everything, about how much the Democrats in California have failed.”
The CNN conservative commentator blasted Newsom’s address as “opportunistic.” Newsom, in his video message Tuesday evening, warned that “the moment we have feared has arrived,” and called the president’s actions in his state a threat to democracy.
But Jennings quickly dismissed the Democrat’s framing of the fast-moving events.
“All that's happening in California is that a bunch of foreign nationals have occupied large swaths of the United States,” Jennings said. “One city is burning, and the president of the United States is trying to bring order. That’s all that's happening.”
Jennings added: “And people are going to wonder, ‘why in the world is the governor of California complaining about Harvard when one of his cities is on fire?’”
Watch the video below via CNN or at the link here:
‘This moment we have feared has arrived’: Newsom rips Trump’s ‘military dragnet’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a blistering rebuke of Donald Trump on Tuesday, accusing the president of unleashing a “military dragnet” across Los Angeles and targeting vulnerable residents under the guise of law and order.
“This moment we have feared has arrived,” Newsom proclaimed in a televised address Tuesday.
“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here,” the Democratic governor added. “Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes.”
Newsom said Trump’s federal agents were arresting “dishwashers. gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses” – far beyond the stated goal of apprehending violent criminals.
“That's just weakness. Weakness masquerading as strength,” he said. “Donald Trump's government isn't protecting our communities; they're traumatizing our communities, and that seems to be the entire point.” But he added: “California will keep fighting.”
He announced that the state had filed an emergency court order Tuesday to block the use of military forces for domestic law enforcement. The new action follows a legal challenge California filed Monday over what he called Trump’s “reckless deployment” of troops.
“Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles,” Newsom said Tuesday.
Newsom also warned that Trump has taken “a wrecking ball to our Founding Fathers’ historic project – three co-equal branches of independent government,” and also saved a jab for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
“Speaker Johnson has completely abdicated that responsibility,” Newsom said.
Watch the video below via CNN or at the link here:
‘Preaches humility while flying private’: Analyst slams Bannon’s ‘shameless act’
Since being ousted from his position in President Donald Trump's first administration, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has carved out a new lane casting himself as a populist outsider advocating for the American working class. But one analyst is arguing that Bannon's new image is simply an elaborate ruse.
In a Tuesday essay for the Hill, writer and researcher John Mac Ghlionn pointed out the numerous ways in which Bannon has "conned" his target audience. He accused the "War Room" podcast host of "LARPing as a coal-dusted crusader for the common man" despite having a net worth in excess of $20 million and a cushy career on Wall Street before launching his political career.
"Steve Bannon was something far less revolutionary: a banker. And not just any banker — he was a high-powered executive at Goldman Sachs, the very temple of global finance he now pretends to rage against," Ghlionn wrote. "He didn’t walk picket lines. He walked into boardrooms, advised mergers and helped move capital around like puzzle pieces in the portfolios of the powerful. He got in on the deals most Americans would never even hear about, let alone benefit from."
Ghlionn expanded on calling Bannon someone who "talks like a patriot but lives like a prince," pointing out that he was a "Hollywood financier" who acquired a stake in Castle Rock Entertainment — which produced the hit 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld." The analyst observed that every time Americans laughed at "Seinfeld" character Cosmo Kramer's over-the-top entrance, Bannon literally "got richer" thanks to the royalties he got from the show.
"While working-class Americans were juggling bills and wondering if they could afford another tank of gas, Bannon was cashing passive income from a sitcom about nothing," he wrote.
The essayist reminded readers that Bannon was also the brainchild behind a crowdfunding campaign that successfully convinced Americans to donate millions of dollars to build a wall along the Southern border. The former Breitbart leader ultimately pleaded guilty to fraud in order to avoid jail time (Bannon still went to federal prison in 2024 after defying a Congressional subpoena). Ghlionn contrasted Bannon's everyman branding as a facade to hide his true identity as a "salesman in battle gear, with a podcast mic and a passport full of donor meetings."
"The flannel, the Catholic mysticism, the bunker aesthetic — it’s all part of the shameless act," he wrote. "Underneath is a Machiavellian tactician who understands power not as something to dismantle, but to inhabit. Part P.T. Barnum, part Pat Buchanan, this is a man who preaches humility while flying private."
Click here to read Ghlionn's full essay in the Hill.
‘Disarray’ as Republican senator gets into ‘shouting match’ with Stephen Miller
A Republican senator reportedly got into a "shouting match" with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller Thursday.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) confronted President Donald Trump's leading adviser during a Senate Republican meeting over funding for border security, and the pair got into a heated argument when the senator told Miller his numbers don't add up, reported Punchbowl News correspondent Andrew Desiderio.
— (@)
Multiple GOP senators left the room frustrated," Desiderio reported.
“We’re fighting over an issue that unifies us," one GOP senator told Desiderio in a text. "Can’t wrap my head around it.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tried to ease tensions with a rallying speech reminding the senators they had all campaigned on border security, so he urged them to carry through on their promise and deliver a win for the president.
"Republicans in disarray!" commented the reporter's X follower Davis Michael Wayne.
"The unlikeable quotient in a Stephen miller vs Ron Johnson contest breaks my brain," said X user dbr0675own1.
"if even ron johnson's calling out your math, you know it's bad," added X user Abdul Rahman. "gop's own house is crumbling over border bills now."
JetBlue flight skids off runway at Boston Logan airport during landing
Officials said a JetBlue flight rolled off the runway Thursday morning at Boston Logan airport.
WCVB reported that Massachusetts State Police confirmed the flight skidded off the runway and into the grass.
Reports indicated that the runway was closed until at least 1 p.m. EST.
The flight, JetBlue flight 312, left Chicago's O'Hare International Airport at 8:41 a.m. The plane was in the process of landing when the incident occurred, reports said.
Watch the video below from WBTS.
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‘It’s scary’: Dem candidate speaks out after Trump admin’s ‘surreal’ prosecution of her
Progressive Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh spoke out against President Donald Trump's administration for prosecuting her after she participated in a protest against an immigration raid in her home state of Illinois.
The indictment, which was filed on Oct. 23, accuses Abughazaleh of one count of conspiracy and one count of forcibly impeding an officer. Abughazaleh told NBC News that she plans to self-surrender to authorities next Wednesday and described the incident as "political prosecution."
Abughazaleh joined Jon Lovett, a former Obama administration staffer, on a new episode of the "Pod Save America" podcast on Thursday, and further discussed the prosecution.
"It's scary. It's surreal, and it's also totally expected," she said. "This is what this administration does. They go after people who disagree with them, and this case is an attempt to criminalize protest, to criminalize freedom of speech, and to criminalize freedom of association."
"This is what authoritarians do," she added. "They try to find any excuse to punish their political enemies, to punish populations they deem as enemies. We've seen that a lot in how ICE is functioning."
Abughazaleh noted that the Trump administration has admitted to catching very few criminals during its immigration raids. She suggested that reveals something more sinister about the raids.
"That is one of the best examples to show that this has never been about crime," she said. "This has never even been about immigration. This is about securing and cementing power for the Trump administration."
Ex-GOP spokesperson rails that red states are suffering due to Trump’s cuts
Former Republican Tim Miller, who hosts a podcast for the conservative anti-Trump news outlet The Bulwark, discussed with MSNBC host and former Republican Nicolle Wallace that the GOP is stiffing its own voters with slashes to food stamp benefits.
"I know food stamps is like a 90s era right-wing racist smear, but SNAP, which is sort of the new EBT — this is food assistance. [It] knows no partisan affiliation. If anything, it disproportionately benefits households in Trump voting counties and districts," said Wallace. "And it feeds a whole lot of kids who don't have any responsibility for any of the political decisions that adults make."
Miller noted that the GOP's rhetoric has clearly shifted from the days of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Mitt Romney (R-UT).
"But the policies are harmful to them. And this ... the expiration of SNAP — or the fact that they're not going to continue funding SNAP during this shutdown, beginning this weekend, I think is the most acute example of this, where, you know, if the party had fully switched to being a multiracial, multiethnic, working class party like they pay lip service to, this would be an emergency right now," said Miller.
The situation would involve Republican lawmakers fearful "our own voters are literally going to go hungry beginning this weekend. You know, we need to serve to service them. And meanwhile, Donald Trump's in China or in Korea getting a, you know, Burger King happy meal crown from the head of South Korea. And Congress isn't even in session, right? Like they're not doing anything."
He called it a catastrophe and a tragedy if the problem isn't fixed in the coming days.
"But it's also a very stark demonstration of just how this kind of MAGA populism is a lot of lip service and not a lot of action," Miller continued. "And you're seeing it in real time also in the states where, you know, in Colorado, Jared Polis and some other states, governors, mostly Democratic governors, are working to try to patch this right now. And in some of the red states, it's not going to get patched."
ICE sent into frenzy to return longtime Trump golf employee mistakenly deported to Mexico
A longtime former employee at one of President Donald Trump's golf clubs was mistakenly deported to Mexico, The New York Times reported — sending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into a mad scramble to correct the error and bring him home.
"Alejandro Juarez stepped off a plane in Texas and stood on a bridge over the Rio Grande, staring at the same border that he had crossed illegally from Mexico 22 years earlier," reported Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Hamed Aleaziz. "As U.S. immigration officials unshackled restraints bound to his arms and legs, Mr. Juarez, 39, pleaded with them. He told them he was never given a chance to contest his deportation in front of an immigration judge after being detained in New York City five days before."
As it turned out, the Department of Homeland Security had mistakenly put him on a deportation flight instead of sending him to a detention facility in Arizona ahead of his immigration hearing, to which he was entitled.
"Their actions probably violated federal immigration laws, which entitle most immigrants facing deportation to a hearing before a judge — a hearing Mr. Juarez never had," said the report. "ICE officials raced to decipher his whereabouts, exchanging bewildered emails and contacting detention facilities to pinpoint his location, according to internal ICE documents obtained by The New York Times. It is unclear how many other immigrants like Mr. Juarez have been erroneously removed, in part because ICE has not in the past tracked such cases."
Juarez "had worked for more than a decade at a Trump Organization golf club in New York," noted the report, and suddenly found himself expelled from the United States.
Similar administrative mistakes have happened on other occasions, most notably with Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from his family in Maryland to the infamous CECOT megaprison in his home country, despite a court order prohibiting his removal there. After months of denying they had jurisdiction to repatriate him, the Trump administration finally did so, but then immediately hit him with flimsy gang charges, and started shopping around for any other country that would accept him, including several in Africa.
