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.
Larry David sparks internet firestorm with ‘genius’ sketch-comedy roast of RFK Jr.
Comedy legend Larry David ridiculed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a hysterical sketch delivering laughs online.
David, who was formerly a personal friend of Kennedy's and even played the husband of Kennedy's real-life wife, actress Cheryl Hines, on the popular show "Curb Your Enthusiasm," made it clear what he thought about the Trump official. He appeared to tell his character in the spoof to "drop dead" in one segment of his new HBO series, "Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America."
In the sketch, David casts himself as the mother of Jonas Salk — an American virologist and biomedical scientist who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines — who gets into a fighting match with neighbor "Bobby," who has a similar-sounding voice and tan as the health secretary.
The internet reacted to the brutal burn.
"Holy s---, Larry David absolutely COOKED RFK Jr's stupid a--, playing Dr. Jonas Salk's mom, saying it would be a 'dark day for humanity' if some idiot ever put HIM in charge of health. This is HILARIOUS!" The X account BrooklynDad_Defiant!, which has more than 1.3 million followers, wrote.
"The bear part is by far the best SICKO!" Journalist Meghan McCarthy wrote on X.
"Larry David is a flat out genius," Eric Land, a political commentator with nearly 10,000 followers, wrote on X.
"Larry David casting himself as Salk's mom is the kind of absurdly precise satire that makes the point better than any actual policy debate could. It's the only way to fight that level of chaos," author Hüseyin Örskaya wrote on X.
