A furious Democrat lawmaker on Tuesday delivered what he felt to be dark truths about President-elect Donald Trump, his would-be Cabinet, lawmakers willing to serve them, and the people they plan to serve.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), ranking member of the House Rules committee, delivered a lengthy screed against Trump and the Republicans ready to back him as he returns to the White House in 2025.

"The new administration is leaking plans to court-martial military officers who are not sufficiently loyal," McGovern said. "Isn't that usually how things go in an authoritarian dictatorship? Purge the military of anyone who might have a spine and refuse to obey an unlawful order? What the hell is going on here? And their Cabinet picks so far? These are like beyond insane."

McGovern made this declaration in the House of Representatives during an address to his "Republican friends" detailing his concerns about controversial policy and nominations.

ALSO READ: People expecting Trump voters to turn on him are fooling themselves

Those nominations include people such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Fox News host Pete Hegseth and former Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz.

McGovern referenced each by reported scandals, such as intelligence community concerns that Gabbard has spread Russian propaganda, Hegseth's admitted payment to a woman who accused him of sexual assault and Kennedy's claim that tap water makes children gay.

"This is the dream team?" said McGovern. "Someone who sucks up to foreign dictators and has attracted major concern that they can't be trusted to protect America's secrets from our adversaries? Someone who paid hush money to cover up a sexual assault accusation? ...Someone who says that tap water turns kids gay?"

McGovern added, "Seriously, it would be funny if it weren't so sad."

Then, McGovern raised concerns about recent reports of policy Trump and his allies plan to pursue.

CNN analysts said Monday they were "scared" by reports the Heritage Foundation is pursuing plans to scan government workers' emails and texts for signs of liberal bias and a Wall Street Journal report that Trump wants to purge disloyal generals.

The bill under debate Tuesday was one that MSNBC analyst Ja'Han Jones described as a "gift to Trump;" H.R. 9495, which would allow the U.S. Treasury to yank tax-exempt status from nonprofits deemed “terrorist supporting organizations.”

McGovern described it as a bill that would grant Trump "a new power to unilaterally accuse an American group of terrorism and then shut them down."

The Massachusetts Democrat pleaded with his Republican colleagues not to interpret Trump's Election Day victory as a mandate to grant the president-elect absolute control, but a plea for cheaper groceries.

"They voted for their pocketbooks and frankly I don't blame them," he said. 'Beyond insane': Furious Dem lashes out at Trump Team on House floor"You know who I do blame? I blame the billionaires who have rigged our country against working people and spent the last four decades squeezing every penny they could out of people. I blame the politicians, including the incoming administration, who have abandoned workers and who have done nothing while the rich get richer and everyone else gets screwed."

Watch McGovern's full speech here.

The Onion just bought Alex Jones' conspiracy-pedaling platform Infowars, according to reports.

CNN correspondent Hadas Gold delivered this apparently real news Thursday morning confirmed by the New York Times and an editorial from the satirical news outlet's owner Bryce P. Tetraeder, CEO of Global Tetrahedron.

"Much like family members, our brands are abstract nodes of wealth, interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market," wrote Tetraeder.

"And just like family members, our brands regard one another with mutual suspicion and malice."

Gold and the New York Times report that the Onion ate InfoWars with backing from several families of victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting who successfully sued Jones for nearly $1.5 billion in defamation damages.

Jones, who notoriously spread a conspiracy theory claiming their children's deaths had been faked, was forced to declare bankruptcy and liquidate assets.

ALSO READ: Why Trump voters should be held accountable for their choice

The Times reports the Onion bought Infowars in a bankruptcy auction. Jones confirmed InfoWars was being shut down and taken over by the Onion in a video comment.

"I don't know what's going to happen," Jones said. "They want to silence the American people."

On Thursday, Tetraeder provided Onion readers with answers — in classic Onion style.

"InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses," he wrote. "With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal."

Tetraeder praised InfoWars for what he described as their commitment to inducing rage and radicalizing vulnerable Americans. He then took two direct jabs at Jones by boasting of the price he'd paid for Inforwars and quipping he'd forgotten his name.

"No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds," Tetraeder wrote. "And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars."

The future looks uncertain for Infowars but Tetraeder had a slew of suggestions for possible future investments, among them business school scholarships for promising cult leaders and a program to pair orphans with factory jobs.

"As for the vitamins and supplements, we are halting their sale immediately," Tetraeder wrote. "We plan to collect the entire stock of the InfoWars warehouses into a large vat and boil the contents down into a single candy bar–sized omnivitamin that one executive (I will not name names) may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal."

Gov. Kristi Noem's assent from admitted dog killer to national watchdog is spurring howls of rage and disbelief on social media.

President-elect Donald Trump's selection of Noem, the South Dakota Republican who boasted of shooting a pet dog to death, as secretary of Homeland Security on Tuesday stunned political spectators.

"Trump wants the dog-shooter to be his Secretary of Homeland Security," author Stephen King told his followers. "We're sure not in Kansas anymore, Toto."

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News broke in April that Noem's memoir "No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward" included an anecdote about shooting a 14-month-old dog named Cricket in a gravel pit because she "hated that dog."

ALSO READ: What Trump's win really means for America

"The puppy-killer will be in charge of homeland security," SiriusXM radio host Michelangelo Signorile wrote on X, "making critical decisions over people's lives."

Noem will head a sprawling agency that oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Secret Service, two sources told CNN Tuesday.

"She was willing to shoot her own dog," responded USA Today columnist Michael J. Stern on X. "Imagine what she'll do to immigrants crossing the border."

The non-partisan advocacy group Veterans for Responsible Leadership argued Noem's decision to share the anecdote suggested she catered her message toward Trump loyalists alone.

"Noem never cared that we were disgusted with her dog murder," the group wrote. "We weren’t the audience."

Political analyst Russell Drew was one of many commentators to suggest Trump granted Noem the powerful position in gratitude for her support.

"With Kristi Noem head of Homeland Security, not only will people not be safe, but neither will their dogs!" wrote Drew. "Talk about being completely unqualified for a job."

"Noem, it will be recalled, scuttled her bid to become Trump’s vice presidential nominee when she published an account of how she gunned down the family pet," added John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation. "But she remained absolutely loyal to Trump and has now been tapped to keep America 'safe.'”

CNN analyst Jeff Storobinsky resorted to dark humor, writing, "All dogs, please, this is not a drill, please seek shelter immediately."

Cartoonist Adam Zyglis joined in by sharing a cartoon that depicts Noem and Trump, both toting smoking guns, next to the corpses of a dog and Lady Justice.

It is entitled "MAGA Meet-Cute."'

Republican senators are pushing back against President-elect Donald Trump and his base of MAGA supporters as they try to ram a potential party leader down their proverbial throats, according to a new report.

Mounting calls for Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) to become next majority leader has infuriated several GOP senators who do not want to consider conservative pundits' demands when choosing a candidate to support, Punchbowl News reported Monday.

“I really don’t much care what Tucker Carlson thinks," one GOP senator, who asked not to be named, said. "They’re trying to bully us. That’s not how these elections work.”

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Scott is considered an underdog in the race to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell next to favorites Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

That hasn't stopped Carlson, Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk from throwing their support behind Scott, according to the report.

The senator told Punchbowl they felt such calls represented an effort to intimidate Republicans in the months before Trump returns to the White House.

And several Republican senators and aides have been complaining in private about outside efforts to influence an internal decision, according to the report.

What remains to be seen is how Trump himself will respond — although he's already influenced the race, the report states.

"Speculation over whether Trump is going to endorse in the Senate GOP leadership race — and efforts to persuade him to do so — is already having a big impact on the contest," Punchbowl News reported.

"Trump is testing whether Senate Republicans will defend the chamber’s independence as an institution or bow toward his victory and his agenda."

An ally's attempt to defend Donald Trump after his onetime chief of staff alleged startling praise for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's generals was repeatedly shut down on CNN Wednesday morning.

Trump's former strategic communications director Marc Lotter faced off against The Grio senior vice president Natasha Alford in a dark debate about John Kelly's recent report to the Atlantic that the former president requested he be more like "Hitler’s generals."

"Voters need to listen to people who are in the inner circle," Alford said. "There's no reason to lie."

Alford's warning to American voters came in response to Lotter's claim that Kelly's words should be dismissed as "one man's perspective."

Lotter claimed he'd never heard the former president praise Nazi leadership's loyalty, accused Trump's critics of name-calling and told voters to put prioritize financial concerns and immigration policy over everything else.

ALSO READ: 'He’s mentally ill:' NY laughs ahead of Trump's Madison Square Garden rally

"The world was safer when Donald Trump was in the White House compared to the mess we've got going on right now," Lotter said.

Lotter did not explain by what metric he measured safety and economic success. Under President Joe Biden's administration, violent crime has dropped to historic lows, inflation has decreased and jobs and wages increased.

This may be why Alford asked Lotter to check his numbers.

"This is about more than the dollar," Alford said. "We are talking about the ability to be able to do business, right, to do the business of democracy, going forward."

Alford praised Kelly's courage at stepping forward, urged other former Trump allies to do the same and voters to listen.

"Think about not just the public persona you see, not the charming sort of charismatic personality that Donald Trump may put on when he's trying to get you to vote for him," she said. "Think about how he will actually run the country behind closed doors."

Tempers flared at the end of the segment when Lotter made a call for unity and warned of darkness to come otherwise.

"How powerful would that message be if Donald Trump said that," Alford snapped. "He's not saying that."

Lotter cut in to blame Democrats for calling Trump a threat to democracy, a comment that spurred a fact check from host Sara Sidner

"It wasn't a Democrat in this instance," she said.

Added Alford, "Look at what John Kelly just said."

Watch the video below or click the link.

A conservative Supreme Court justice's new book received a scathing review Tuesday from a former Justice Department prosector who described its contents as error-riddled, right-wing propaganda.

Ankush Khardori panned Justice Neil Gorsuch and his book "Over Ruled" in a lengthy Politico Magazine take-down that questions both the ethics behind the publication and a member of the nation's highest court.

"The book...is riddled with glaring factual omissions and analytic errors that seriously call into question its reliability and rigor," wrote Khardori. "It represents a remarkable attack by a sitting Supreme Court justice on the other two branches of government."

Khardori said Gorsuch ducked interview and comment requests for two months before his co-author, a former clerk named Janie Nitze, issued a statement dismissing his concerns as “nonsense.”

The former prosecutor took umbrage with many of the book's arguments, which he said misled readers with an emphasis on anecdote over evidence, but focused on Gorsuch's narrative of a commercial fisherman named John Yates and his undersized fish.

As Gorsuch tells it, Yates was improperly imprisoned for 30 days under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act — which criminalizes the falsification of objects to impede a federal investigation — after an agent seized 72 red grouper, then returned to discover the fisherman had quietly swapped out the offensive catches.

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled the provision did not apply to "all objects in the physical world" and therefore did not cover Yates’ misconduct.

But Gorsuch's argument for federal overreach omits two points, Khardori argues: that Yates told a fellow fisherman to lie to the government and that he was also charged with destroying property seized by the government.

"These are not obscure facts — they are contained on the first two pages of the Supreme Court’s opinion — but they are not mentioned anywhere in Gorsuch’s account," the former prosecutor wrote. "What’s left out of the book is often just as instructive — if not more so — than what’s in it."

Other problematic anecdotes involve a magician regulated for use of a rabbit and a race car driver who received a $75 fine, according to Khardori, who ultimately concludes the book is an "embarrassment."

"If the problem of over-enforcement had actually become ubiquitous, then Gorsuch would not have to trawl through old media stories in order to make his point," Khardori wrote.

"Even setting aside the questionable optics, the book does not come close to establishing its thesis."

An election official appointed by a powerful swing state Republican has condemned his colleagues for exploiting their power to support former President Donald Trump, according to a new exclusive report.

Georgia State Election Board chair John Fervier, an appointee of Gov. Brian Kemp, told the Atlantia Journal-Constitution Monday he does not support the election rule changes that received Trump's praise.

“Our job is to clarify law, not create new law,” Fervier reportedly said. “This board needs to stay within its boundaries.”

Those election rule changes — which mandate an election night hand-count and “reasonable inquiry” before certifying results — face legal challenges this week from opponents who argue they'll cause chaos on Nov. 5.

The Republican-dominated board has passed nine recent rule changes and earned a shout-out from Trump at a recent campaign rally, according to the report.

Board members Rick Jeffares, Dr. Janice Johnston, and Janelle Kington began plotting in early August multiple changes to Georgia election administration long sought by Trump allies, reports show.

Trump referred to the trio as "pit bulls fighting for victory."

Georgia officials from both sides of the political aisle call the hand-count superfluous and a potential means to sow doubt in election integrity.

Trump faces criminal charges in Fulton County linked to his efforts to sow doubt in Georgia's 2020 presidential election after he lost to President Joe Biden.

The former president pleaded not guilty and claims he's the victim of a political witch hunt targeting his presidential reelection campaign.

But Fervier, a self-described traditional conservative, told the AJC he believes county officials will run an honest election.

The Waffle House executive added he resented public character attacks his colleagues have hurled at each other over recent weeks.

“This hyper-partisanship doesn’t serve anybody," Fervier reportedly said. “I’ve seen a lot of that character assassination that’s just inappropriate and unprofessional conduct for a member of this board."

Fervier put his faith in county officials dedicated to conducting a fair election and committed himself to business as usual after Nov. 5, but admitted, “They’re absolutely frustrating times."

A Republican strategist tried to raise a ruckus about former President Barack Obama's diaper-themed jab at former President Donald Trump — and found himself shut down instead.

Political analyst Scott Jennings attempted to disparage Obama's suggestion that Trump never changed a baby's diaper — and laughter when a heckler retorted the 78-year-old Republican nominee had likely changed his own — but was swiftly cut off by New York Democrat Christine Quinn during a CNN panel discussion Friday morning.

"Oh jeez," Quinn told Jennings. "Don't even start."

This command came amid a snappy back-and-forth between Quinn and Jennings, who tried to express moral outrage that the Democratic former president had alluded to low-brow humor.

"The high-minded elevator discourse of civil discourse in our country, Barack Obama has gone from making penis jokes as the Democratic National Convention—" he said.

"Oh, please," interrupted Quinn with an eye roll.

"To making adult diaper jokes," Jennings concluded.

This, technically, did not occur, as anchor John Berman was quick to point out.

During his speech, Obama argued the Republican presidential nominee did not seem like the kind of father who would get into the nitty-gritty of parenting, asking the crowd, "Do you think Donald Trump ever changed a diaper?"

"No!" a man in the crowd replied. A voice cried out, "His own!"

Obama pointed in the heckler's direction and smiled. "I almost said that," Obama said. "But I decided I shouldn't."

This back-and-forth infuriated Jennings who claimed Obama wanted to have things both ways and maintained the former president's sense of humor undercut the sincerity of his messaging.

"I'm here to elevate the discourse," Jennings said, mimicking Obama. "By the way, let's joke about genitalia and diapers."

Quinn's eyebrows shot up her forehead as she reminded Jennings about the oratory stylings of his own party's presidential candidate, who in the past has mocked opponents, critics and journalists as "filthy" and "nasty" and referred to Harris as a "b----."

"Anyone associated or affiliated, whatever the right way to say it is, with the Trump campaign can't raise issues of civil discourse," Quinn said with a laugh. "In the world of who hasn't engaged in civil discourse in elections, Donald Trump is at the top of the heap."

Watch the video below or click the link here.

Vice President Kamala Harris neatly sidestepped a rhetorical trap set by former President Donald Trump as he courted a key voting group with less-than-convincing protection promises, a new political analysis contends.

The Republican presidential nominee failed to drag Harris down with campaign messaging, and instead provided the Democratic candidate a chance to rise above his fear-forward utterings, journalist Susan Faludi argued in a New York Times column.

"Harris has demonstrated her ability to stand up to America’s most poisonous huckster without being intimidated by or engaging with his scare campaigns," wrote Faludi.

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"Crucial to our nation’s future, she’s proving to be an effective protector against the protection racket itself."

Faludi's column Monday focused on Trump's messaging to women and the many hurdles Harris must clear as a political candidate who is not a man.

The journalist argued Trump was trying to bait Harris into messaging that would outrage male voters when he delivered an age-old promise to female ones.

"[Women] will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared," Trump said. “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.”

Faludi believes that Trump was hoping this statement would force Harris to echo his protective rhetoric and appear as a feminist — and make some male voters turn against her.

"Many voters, especially men, perceive the prospect of being protected by a woman as a threat," Faludi wrote. "In a society where men judge their worth by their ability to protect, being protected by a woman is seen as a disgrace, a stain on one’s honor."

But Harris instead relied on her own linguistic prowess to target a weakness of the former president's — and in doing so used Trump's trap against him, Faludi wrote.

The journalist points to a single word in Harris' response that she believes changed the messaging and undercut the power of Trump's gender attack.

“I don’t think the women of America need him to say he’s going to protect them," Harris responded. "The women of America need him to trust them.”

Faludi argued this simple statement on trust pulled the narrative out of gender politics and back into plain old politics where Harris' strengths, and Trump's weaknesses, are easy to spot.

"If Mr. Trump embodies the make-believe rescuer, the bombastic redeemer who speaks loudly while carrying a tiny stick, Ms. Harris is his levelheaded, no-nonsense opposite," she concluded.

"Her record of public service and her utilitarian policy plans attest to workable fixes to actual dangers instead of the amplification of invented ones. She offers herself up as the calmly common-sensical civic warden."

A North Carolina Supreme Court judge who spoke out against her state's decision to suspend early voting and allow Robert F. Kennedy to disregard election deadlines warns elections are under attack from Republicans in her state.

Justice Allison Riggs, one of two Democrats on the seven-person court, told Slate on Wednesday she rejected the panel's decision to allow Kennedy to remove his name from the key swing state's ballot — and the Republican legislature's decision to nix crucial election funding.

"It is not my job to denigrate the integrity of the courts," Riggs said. "But when the courts need to be held accountable, it is my job as a constitutional officer to make sure that voters have information to understand when a court is acting inappropriately."

Riggs added she does not regret her outspoken stance — even if it costs her her place on the North Carolina court in the upcoming election.

"My seat is the only seat up on the North Carolina Supreme Court this year," Riggs said. "I want voters to know that when I say transparency, consistency, and integrity are important characteristics to me, I mean that I will speak the truth in my written word, as well."

Riggs opined that Republican lawmakers in her state have desecrated the judicial branch by cutting public financing for court elections.

"I’ve talked to judges in a lot of states who are horrified that I call lawyers and ask for money directly," Riggs said. "How can you possibly expect a fair hearing when you run elections that way?"

Riggs said she felt compelled to speak out in part because of the greater problems she sees with her state's judicial branch.

"It’s my moral and constitutional obligation to try and make this court work as best it can for the people of this state and to defend the founding documents that we hold so dear," Riggs said.

"So I have been talking about my values with voters. And it’s walking a fine line."

Riggs detailed lessons learned as a voting rights attorney in Florida, a state that denies millions of convicted felons the right to vote or obtain state licenses to work — the latter point she emphasized as a crucial hurdle.

It leaves potential voters struggling to put food on the table for their kids instead of securing a right Riggs argued should be granted — and a right that protects American democracy.

"We, as a society, have to meet people’s immediate needs if we’re also going to ask them to see the power in their vote and exercise it," Riggs said.

"When you don’t have a holistic system to support people voting—if you say, Well, you didn’t care enough, you didn’t jump through these hoops—you’re excluding people from civic participation in a way that has a domino effect in so many other areas."

Former President Donald Trump stunned onlookers Tuesday with a slow-paced speech in Wisconsin even as his campaign manager raged on social media.

Trump's second event of a day spent campaigning in Wisconsin saw the Republican presidential nominee address a crowd at a Milwaukee museum at about 7 p.m. with a speech that surprised MSNBC conservative analyst Tim Miller.

"You're main, your basketball arena, we're all sort of set and we're gonna do Green Bay," Trump said. "We'll do it the day before the game as opposed to the day of the game. But Michaela graduated with honors from high school in May—"

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These were the rambling words Miller clipped in the video he shared on X, with the message, "Think it’s nappy time at Del Boca Vista."

Del Boca Vista is the fictional Florida retirement home in the television show "Seinfeld" where Jerry's parents chose to spend their remaining years.

Florida of course is also where Trump spends much of his time at his social club and residence Mar-a-Lago.

As Trump's campaign speech drew comparisons to residents of the place "where people go to die," his campaign spokesperson was kicking up a ruckus on X over the "60 Minutes" announcement that the former president had backed out of an upcoming interview.

"60 Minutes is a relic of the past, unable to keep up with the times and changing media environment, instead turning into liberal, biased propaganda," Cheung wrote.

Critics such as Dan Pfeiffer, co-host of Pod Save America, agreed, replied, "Trump’s campaign clearly believes that the less people see of Trump, the better."

Watch the clip below or click here.

Women like North Carolina Lt. Gov Mark Robinson — the gubernatorial candidate recently linked to boasts of an affair with his wife's sister on a porn site — more than former President Donald Trump's own supporters like running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), a new analysis contends.

The Bulwark Wednesday heaped scorn on Vance over recently released Harvard Youth Poll data that found he is only viewed favorably by 18 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 30.

Editor Johnathan V. Last contrasted this data to an Elon University poll that found 27 percent of North Carolina women view Robinson favorably.

"The guy who says the Holocaust was overblown and Hitler was great, who wants to own slaves, who was a frequenter of backroom porn video booths, and who bragged about banging his wife’s sister . . . That guy was able to get to 27 percent favorable with women in North Carolina," wrote Last.

"But JD Vance is stuck at 18 percent among people who are basically his same age."

The Harvard poll also put Trump's favorability rating at 31 percent and Vance's unfavorability rating 46 percent, data show.

According to Last's analysis, this means that "almost half the people who like Donald Trump don’t like JD Vance."

Last explained this phenomena by likening Vance to a notorious pro-wrestler named Sean "X-Pac" Waltman who drew a specific type of response (or heat) from the audience.

While all wrestlers seek to elicit heat — be it cheers for the "faces" or boos for the "heels" — another kind of reaction is less desirable, and it's called "X-Pac heat."

"This is when the audience boos and insults the wrestler not just because they are a heel and they hate the gimmick," explains The Sportster. "They boo because they hate the wrestler unrelated to the character or gimmick they are portraying."

It's also reportedly called "Go Away Heat," and was expressed by a pro-wrestling fan's sign that read, "Sir! I feel compelled to stress that we are not booing because of your effective heel work, we are booing because you are simply awful."

This is the sentiment Last argued Americans hold for Vance.

"This Harvard poll did not test favorability ratings for the Taliban, or Vladimir Putin, or herpes," Last wrote. "If they had, I’m sure all three would have been less popular than JD Vance.

"But not by much."

Colorado Republicans want to pause their federal lawsuit against the state's secretary of state until they figure out who's in charge of the party, court records show.

The Colorado Republican Party on Thursday filed a motion to modify scheduling in their suit against Jena Griswold in which they ask for a four-month delay to deal with an internal political battle.

"Two sets of individuals currently claim to be the Colorado Republican Party's leaders," attorney Randy B. Corporon explained.

Or, as Politico reporter Kyle Cheney put it, "Colorado GOP is asking a federal court to postpone an ongoing election-related lawsuit because of an internal power struggle over who is actually running the party."

The lawsuit filed in August reflects the Colorado GOP's latest attempt to limit its primaries to registered Republican voters by invalidating 2016 ballot measure Proposition 108, which they argue harms the party and infringes on free speech, the Denver Post reported last month.

Party chairman Dave Williams threw his support behind the renewed effort, rejected by a federal court in 2022, and looped in John Eastman, the former lawyer for Donald Trump indicted on election fraud charges in Georgia and Arizona, according to the report.

Williams faced backlash from within his own party the same month over a slew of controversial decisions made since his election in March 2023, local reports show.

The Colorado Sun reported Williams used state party resources for his failed congressional campaign and sent out anti-LGBTQ emails that infuriated fellow party members.

Competing factions organized dueling votes on whether to replace Williams with U.S. Senate candidate Eli Bremer and, predictably, came up with opposing results, the Denver Post reported Wednesday.

Bremer sued Williams when he refused to hand over the keys to party headquarters and a trial is slated to begin on Oct. 14, according to the Denver Post report.

Williams tried to have that court date pushed back until after the election but was met with rejection from El Paso County District Court Judge Eric Bentley, according to the Colorado Sun.

“It appears self-evident that the Republican state committee cannot function as intended without its leadership issue resolved,” Bentley reportedly said. “It is necessary in order for the party apparatus to function as intended — as a state party — before the election."

Donald Trump outraged veterans and legal experts Wednesday with a new social post that they say disrespects U.S. service members who died in the line of duty — and may have violated federal law.

Trump posted to TikTok a video montage of his visit Monday to Arlington National Cemetery, where he spurred outrage for a gravesite thumbs-up and possibly broke a law that restricts political campaign activity on military burial grounds.

Trump is filmed partaking in a wreath-laying ceremony on the third anniversary of a deadly attack that claimed 13 U.S. service members' lives amid the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

"We lost 13 great, great people," Trump says in a voiceover. "What a horrible day it was."

Trump does not mention President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, his political opponent in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, but he appears to draw a comparison between his administration and theirs.

"We didn't lose one person in 18 months," Trump said. "And then they took over that disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan."

A link at the bottom of the post sends viewers to a 2024 Election Center and voter registration site hosted by TikTok and the nonpartisan nonprofit Democracy Works.

Trump posted the video to his @realdonaldtrump account, in which he claims the title of president and identifies himself as the 45th president of the United States.

The video does not include any disclosure messaging from Trump's campaign. It appears among videos that include Trump campaign events, criticisms of Harris and his campaign slogan "Make America Great Again."

It was shared on X Wednesday by VoteVets, a progressive political action group of U.S. war veterans that claimed Trump violated the law by posting the video publicly.

"Trump is using footage and photos his campaign took at Arlington National Cemetary [sic] for political purposes -- against the rules and laws that govern this hallowed ground," the group wrote.

"This whole episode is sickening and affront to all those hundreds of thousands of families who never agreed to allow their deceased loved ones to be dragged into politics."

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung has responded to an NPR report that Arlington National Cemetery filed a report after campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation with an official who tried to bar them from filming.

"The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony," Cheung said in the statement to NPR.

Cheung also shared a screenshot on X of what he says is official permission to film.

"Only former President Trump may have an official photographer and/or videographer outside of the main media pool," the screenshot reads.

This did not stop the Trump campaign from receiving an onslaught of criticism from political experts and stakeholders.

"It’s against the law to use images from Arlington National Cemetery for politics," Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett replied. "Someone should ask J.D. Vance today about his running mate breaking the law while using veterans as pawns."

"I don't know how much more plainly I can say it," Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal wrote. "This is outrageous."

"You can see his #BoneSpurs," said Mario Nicolais, general counsel for the Lincoln Project, referencing Trump's controversial medical deferment to avoid the U.S. military draft during the Vietnam War.

Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who specializes in American elections, reminded readers of the conclusion of Trump's criminal hush money trial in New York City.

"Convicted felon breaks the law before his sentencing," McDonald wrote.

A police official told USA Today that no criminal charges regarding the Arlington vist have been filed.

The Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling could force Donald Trump to backtrack on one of his most controversial campaign talking points, a legal expert says.

The ruling has thrown a wrench in the works of Trump's promised $100 million lawsuit against the Justice Department, which can now only succeed if he contradicts one of his most prevalent "lawfare" claims, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said Tuesday.

"You gotta love the Trump inconsistency here," Weissmann wrote on X.

Weissmann's analysis relies upon the comparison of three legal cases involving Trump: the Justice Department lawsuit, the recently dismissed classified documents case and the ongoing election interference case in Washington D.C.

In the lawsuit, Trump claims the Mar-a-Lago search in August 2022 — which found classified documents stored haphazardly in toppling boxes and showers — hurt Trump's reputation.

ABC News characterizes the Republican nominee's lawsuit as "an attempt to keep alive the narrative that the former president has been persecuted by a biased Biden administration."

It arrives a month after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump enjoyed limited immunity when the then-president pressured the Justice Department to investigate election results on baseless claims of voter fraud in 2020.

"Because the President cannot be prosecuted for conduct within his exclusive constitutional authority," the majority ruling states, "Trump is absolutely immune from prosecution for the alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials."

Herein lies the rub, according to Weissmann.

"Trump prevailed in SCOTUS on his claim that a president is immune from prosecution decisions," Weissmann writes. "And he has claimed that President Biden was behind the MAL prosecution, yet he now says he is suing the [government] for the harm from that prosecution.

"To avoid ramifications of the new SCOTUS immunity decision, Trump now will have to say that Biden was not behind the prosecution at all."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) "jabbed" former President Donald Trump over his choice of running mate in an exclusive interview released Friday.

McConnell was dismissive and slyly critical of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) in the upcoming presidential election he is determined Republicans should win, Punchbowl News reports.

"It’s not my job to tell the president who he ought to run,” McConnell said. “With regard to Sen. Vance… yeah, we have a different point of view.”

McConnell did not shy away from taunting President Joe Biden, whose recent call for Supreme Court reforms he compared to the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the report.

“We can have our arguments," McConnell told reporter Andrew Desiderio. "But we ought to not try to break the rules.”

This is why Desiderio dubs McConnell a "maddening figure to Democrats" who champion his work fighting Republican isolationists who wanted to block aid to Ukraine while also enabling Trump and the MAGA right's ascent to power.

The report suggests McConnell supports Trump not because he believes in the former president as a leader but simply because he wants Republicans to win and Democrats to lose.

"McConnell has long despised Vance’s worldview and believes Trump is culpable for Jan. 6," writes Desiderio. "Without directly criticizing Vance or Trump, McConnell said the foreign policy doctrine Vance and others in his party believe in is 'nonsense.'"

The Senate minority leader went so far as to compare Vance's views to those who tried to stop the U.S. from entering into World War II, saying, “Even the slogans are what they were in the 30s — ‘America First.'"

Writes Desiderio Friday, "It’s classic McConnell, twisting the knife in his own unique style."

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) said he plans to resign his congressional post after a New York City jury found him guilty of federal corruption charges, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

Menendez told associates he plans to step down in late August, according to the the Times.

The New Jersey lawmaker will resign in the middle of his third term as he plans an appeal to his criminal case, according to the report.

New Jersey Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, is expected to appoint a replacement to serve until Jan. 1.

Read the full report here.