‘Nobody’s going to forget’: Senator takes parting shot at outgoing colleague
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) offered a dose of cordiality Thursday afternoon to his colleague, former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) amid reporting he will not seek another term in office.
Murphy, while speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper, took a shot at McConnell over his moral convictions, arguing that he bears much of the responsibility for the GOP allowing Trump to remain the central figure in the party and set him up to run for his second term.
"I want to get your reaction to Mitch McConnell announcing he's not going to seek re-election," said Tapper. "I know you've disagreed with him on a number of policy fronts and strategic pursuits by the conservative movement. He is one of the few Republicans saying anything challenging at all about President Trump. How do you think the Senate will be different without him there?"
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"Well, listen, I appreciate the votes that Mitch McConnell has taken," said Murphy. "I appreciate the fact that over the last four years, he was willing to reach out to Democrats. We got the bipartisan gun bill done in 2022 that has reduced gun violence rates in this country by 20 percent, because Mitch McConnell wanted to do something in a bipartisan way on the issue of violence in this country."
Nonetheless, Murphy continued, "Nobody's going to forget the fact that after the riots in 2021, he had the chance to vote to impeach Donald Trump and deny Trump the chance to be back in the White House. Had Mitch McConnell decided to vote for impeachment, enough Republicans would have followed him to get that number above the requisite two-thirds."
"So his legacy is going to be very mixed," Murphy added. "He is the reason why Donald Trump is president today, albeit with a record that also includes a lot of bipartisan accomplishment that he helped make possible during the Biden administration."
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Fox News’ Jesse Watters begs Trump to save his friend from firings: Be ‘less callous’
Many right-wing media outlets are vigorously defending the mass layoffs of federal government employees being pushed by the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE (which is not yet an official agency authorized by Congress). And they are claiming that the Trump/DOGE efforts will save taxpayers a lot of money.
But Fox News' Jesse Watters is urging Trump and DOGE to spare a personal friend who is a military veteran facing a layoff.
On a Wednesday, February 19 broadcast of Fox News' "The Five," Watters asked Trump to be "less callous" with the mass firings, noting that his friend Chris is working for the U.S. Defense Department and at risk of being laid off.
Watters told his colleagues, "He punched out after 20 years, and (is now) working for the Pentagon. And he's only been there a few months, so he's probationary, and he just found out he’s probably going to get laid off. He's going to get DOGE’d."
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The right-wing Fox News host went on to say, "This guy is not a DEI consultant. This guy is not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran. So when you’re talking about DOGE-ing people, veterans should get priority. Because if you’re going to go out there and kill enemies, and put your life on the line for this country, you should not be in the same category as people that are doing DEI."
The Trump administration and DOGE are targeting a wide range of government agencies for layoffs. According to the Washington Post, as many as 200,000 probationary-level federal government workers may lose their jobs.
The New Republic's Hafiz Rasid said of the Fox News host, "Watters is only upset because someone he knows personally was affected by Trump and Musk’s mass firings. Otherwise, he’d continue to cheer on the arbitrary cuts across the federal workforce. What he and the rest of right-wing media don’t realize is that plenty of other federal workers like Chris have lost their jobs or will soon."
DHS chief’s election threats shut down as critics tell him he has ‘zero power’
Online critics scoffed at threats from the head of the Department of Homeland Security that he would mandate election changes.
At a press conference where DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened to jail state officials, he also said that he plans to make "mandatory" changes to elections, including having states "scrub" their voter rolls. Mullin's remarks came the day after Trump delivered a speech about supposed election security vulnerabilities.
While reactions were swift to his threat to jail state officials who don't cooperate, with blue states daring him to follow through, online critics pointed out that Mullin doesn't have any power to implement the sweeping election changes he planned to mandate.
"Yeah, no lil buddy," former GOP operative Rick Wilson responded on X. "That's not how this works."
"Someone should read the Constitution," wrote Melanie D'Arrigo, a former Democratic congressional candidate and the executive director of the Campaign for New York Health. "The executive Branch cannot mandate states to make changes to how they administer elections."
"Senate Republicans, this is the crap you pretend will not happen when Trump nominees sit in front of you and lie," complained Michael Steele, a political commentator and former chairman of the Republican National Committee. "And you know they are lying. The DHS secretary has NO role to play in our elections. You know that too. 'Mandatory' my a--!"
"Ha! No he's not," immigration attorney and policy analyst Aaron Reichlin-Melnick posted in response to Mullin's claims. "DHS has literally zero power to do this. The Trump admin has lost every single lawsuit on their efforts to get state voter data or change voter requirements. The power to administer elections is given to the states."
"This would be actual proof of rigging an election," commented disability rights advocate James Tate.
Trump’s ‘fix is in’ rhetoric is about to boomerang back and hit MAGA: ex-adviser
President Donald Trump's "fix is in" rhetoric could compel his biggest fans to skip voting, a new analysis contends.
Miles Taylor, chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during the president's first term, argued Thursday that Trump's constant pushing on the SAVE America Act is fundamentally flawed.
That's terrible news for GOP candidates on the November ballot who are already looking at an uphill battle, Taylor said.
Trump's approval ratings have collapsed to disastrous levels, recent reports show.
A recent poll shows just 30 percent of Americans approve of his performance—catastrophic territory achievable only when millions of your own supporters have abandoned you. Most damaging: his economic approval ratings hit their worst marks of either his term.
With that in mind, Taylor argued Trump was making a big mistake.
"The real headline is that the president is sabotaging his own side’s turnout in the very act of seeking to meddle in the election," he wrote. "It’s like a burglary that’s backfiring in real time. Trump is trying mightily to break into democracy’s back door but making such a racket with his crowbar that he’s woken up the whole neighborhood."
Pointing to Trump's infamous 2024 claim he would fix elections "so good, you're not gonna have to vote," Taylor argued the president's boast will boost complacency when he should be pushing for his MAGA fans to get off the couch.
Meanwhile, Trump has motivated Democrats.
"Every lever he pulls to 'tilt' the playing field risks convincing his own voters they don’t need to show up at all," he wrote before predicting, "Again, each of these election-rigging maneuvers tells the MAGA base: relax, the fix is in! Unfortunately for the Republican Party, the data shows its voters are getting the message. They’re becoming more indifferent."
He then quipped, "The president wanted to mount the biggest midterm election operation in modern history. Well, congratulations, Mr. President. You did it. Your 'get out the vote' operation is massive. The only catch is that it’s inspiring the opposition, not your own team."
Ken Paxton runs away as reporters bombard him with fraud allegation questions
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's press conference to attack his Democratic rival, state Rep. James Talarico, went off the rails on Tuesday as reporters repeatedly asked him about his own political scandals — ultimately driving him to cut the event off early and run away.
The event was a gathering of Texas sheriffs, intended to focus on police issues and attack Talarico for supposedly wanting to defund law enforcement.
"General, I wanted to give you a chance to respond to State Representative Talarico and his campaign," said one reporter. "They've made a lot about the reports that have come out, one in the New York Times, about you acquiring properties worth—"
"Can we keep this to law enforcement?" Paxton said, cutting him off.
"I'm giving you the opportunity to answer—" the reporter said.
"I'd like to — because we're here with the sheriffs, I'd like to keep today to law enforcement," said Paxton. "So that's what I'm going to hand you. Questions about law enforcement."
Paxton's aide then called on another reporter.
"Will you answer a question about why you voted in Collin County?" asked the reporter. "Clear that up?"
Paxton shook his head with agitation, as his aide said, "So we're just going to do questions on law enforcement today, because we're joined with 22 amazing law enforcement officers."
Shortly after this, as another reporter tried to ask a question, the aide started waving her hand, saying, "We're going to get out of here. We're going to get out of here," as Paxton walked off the stage, leaving the sheriffs to stand around.
