jim david adkisson

Former state lawmaker Jim Marchant just won the Republican primary for Nevada Secretary of State, according to a report by The Answer Detroit. Marchant’s victory will set him up to oppose the incumbent, Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, where he can potentially try to overturn the results of the 2028 presidential election on either Trump’s behalf or that of one of his supporters.

Marchant has spent his recent career baselessly questioning Nevada’s voting security and promulgating the debunked claim that he and Trump were victims of election fraud in 2020. In that year, when Marchant was defeated in his race for Nevada’s 4th Congressional District by Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, while Trump lost to then-Vice President Joe Biden.

In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in the popular vote by 81.3 million to 74.2 million and by the same Electoral College margin (306-232) by which Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. As conservative columnist George F. Will wrote in The Washington Post in February, Trump’s claims of being robbed have been indisputably disproved.

“Someone should read to him ‘Lost, Not Stolen,’ a 2022 report by eight conservatives (two former Republican senators, three former federal appellate judges, a former Republican solicitor general, and two Republican election law specialists),” Will explained. “They examined all 187 counts in the 64 court challenges filed in multiple states by Trump and his supporters. Twenty cases were dismissed before hearings on their merits, 14 were voluntarily dismissed by Trump and his supporters before hearings. Of the 30 that reached hearings on the merits, Trump’s side prevailed in only one, Pennsylvania, involving far too few votes to change the state’s result.”

Will added, “Trump’s batting average? .016. In Arizona, the most exhaustively scrutinized state, a private firm selected by Trump’s advocates confirmed Trump’s loss, finding 99 additional Biden votes and 261 fewer Trump votes.” Therefore he wrote of Trump, “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”

President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday dinner is notable because, despite the octogenarian’s ongoing health concerns, he chose foods that are not exactly known for being healthy.

In a social media post by Bettina Trump, his daughter-in-law and the wife of his eldest son Donald Trump Jr., it was revealed that Trump’s guests were treated to a bacon-covered salad covered in buttermilk ranch and blue cheese; a herb-roasted turkey with bread stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy; and a dessert of chiffon birthday cake with vanilla ice cream and créme chantilly.

The food choices are especially notable because Trump’s own Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has reportedly encouraged the president to try to eat a healthier diet as part of his agenda to “Make America Healthy Again.” By Kennedy’s own admission, he was not successful at doing this.

Trump is well-known for his proclivity for fast food. He has a Diet Coke button on the Oval Office’s Resolute Desk and Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters once admitted that the president ate a Quarter Pounder, a Big Mac, a Filet-O-Fish and French fries in a single sitting while the two of them were together.

“I had two of the sandwiches, and I was as sick as a dog for 24 hours,” Gruters recalled on the Chambers, Changes, and Conversations podcast in October. “How does a guy who’s as senior as him get away with eating all this McDonald’s on a consistent basis?”

In addition to the efforts to get Trump to improve his health, there have been ongoing concerns about Trump’s seeming obesity, a rash on his neck, his diagnosed Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI), his recent habit of slurring his words, the numerous occasions when he has fallen asleep at public events and indications that he is experiencing cognitive decline. The menu at his birthday bash indicates that, despite the growing public alarm on this subject, Trump is not altering his personal habits.

Even at his birthday bash itself, there were signs that Trump’s health could be an issue. Specifically onlookers noticed “heavy makeup slathered across his hand,” according to The Independent. Throughout his second term, people have drawn attention to the bruises that repeatedly appear on Trump’s hands.

“Trump’s hand appeared to be discolored and coated in a thick layer of concealer, despite having thrown no punches himself,” The Independent added. Similarly political analyst Brian Krassenstein posted that “Trump’s hand this evening at the UFC fight. Totally normal…if you are one of the fighters who just completed 3 rounds.”

A commenter on social media wrote, “What happens when you shake his hand?Do you get finger tips full of makeup?”

Another joked, “Maybe the ‘fight’ will be over soon.”

Yet another pointed out that the makeup clearly had not been effectively applied, writing that “they should have picked a better shade of orange. He has billions of dollars. Why can’t he get a concealer that matches?”

According to a Republican writer who has worked for three Republican presidents, President Donald Trump is more divisive than any of his partisan predecessors.

“All presidents are partisan,” explained Peter Wehner, who served Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, in a New York Times piece on Monday. “But prior to Trump, most presidents picked moments. Sometimes there were moments of national tragedy, sometimes they were anniversaries, and they use those moments to try and unify the country. And in this case, Donald Trump, because of his own peculiar sociopathy and psychology, uses everything to divide us. So a lot of the country is just checking out and that’s a shame.”

Wehner then compared America as it celebrates its 250th birthday under Trump with how it celebrated America’s 200th birthday under a different Republican president, Gerald Ford.

“It’s interesting because when you think of the year 1976, that is very close to a period when our country was deeply divided,” Wehner wrote. “We think of the year 1968, when we had the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. The Vietnam War tore us apart. We were in the midst of a vast cultural change, and so that division in the country could easily have played out in 1976.”

Wehner emphasized that, although Americans were not “completely united” in 1976, Ford made good faith efforts to bring Americans together to celebrate.

“The incentives for Gerald Ford, who felt that the right thing to do and the politically smart thing to do both was to bring the country together,” Wehner wrote. “That’s not the leadership we have at the moment.”

Speaking with this journalist for Salon in 2021, Francis Marion University historian and Ford biographer V. Scott Kaufman elaborated on Ford’s efforts to unify the country after the tumult of the previous decade and President Richard Nixon’s resignation due to the Watergate scandal.

“He began things off on a good note,” Kaufman wrote. “He said our national nightmare is over. He reached out to groups like the Black Congressional Caucus to try to say, ‘Look, I’m not like Richard Nixon. I want to reach out to all Americans.’ He also approached things so he came across as just your average American, while Richard Nixon was very aloof, was not very gregarious.”

Gleaves Whitney, executive director of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, reinforced Kaufman’s observation.

“In the wake of the Watergate scandal, President Ford knew the most important thing he could do to heal the nation was reinforce that he was trustworthy,” Whitney told Salon at the time. “He just had to keep being himself. That meant he would lead by example. He would be transparent with the media. He would talk straight with the American people. And he would work his hardest to reestablish trust, at home and abroad, in the office of the presidency of the U.S.”

In addition to saying Ford tried to bring America together, Kaufman also told this author that the president would have been appalled by Trump’s attempt to overthrow an election after he lost.

“After Jimmy Carter’s inauguration, President Ford departed the White House via helicopter,” Kaufman wrote. “As he flew over the Capitol building, he said, with tears in his eyes, ‘That’s my real home.’ For a person who had served in Congress for a quarter century, Ford knew that that ‘home’ was where the representatives of the people conducted business for American people. It is a hallowed place, a symbol of democracy. Had he been alive today and witnessed a group of thugs break into the Capitol, ransack it, and desecrate his statue by putting a Trump flag in his hand and a MAGA hat on his head, he would have been irate.”

President Donald Trump has been secretly planning to seize Greenland, the world’s largest island, even though it is owned by Denmark and an overwhelming majority of its citizens do not want to be owned by the United States.

Describing an ongoing ambition that traces back to his first term, The New Yorker’s Ben Taub reported on Monday that a quartet of Trump loyalists have continued to push to annex Greenland even after large majorities of Americans pushed back against the idea last year. These include Chris Cox, who founded Bikers for Trump in 2015 and participated in Trump’s attempted coup after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Taub described Cox attempting to push Trump’s case to Greenlanders who mostly reacted with hostility, especially when he told an Italian TV channel that “without knowing it, a lot of the Greenlanders are living in the Stone Age.”

As Cox put it, “I’m receiving a lot of death threats as a result of my work here in Greenland. People are looking at me like I’m a Russian with a machine gun right now, when they see the Trump patch.” He dismissed the fact that Greenlanders began wearing “Make America Go Away” hats at large, instead telling the Washington Times that he was succeeding in his mission “to change the hearts of some of these Greenlanders.”

Cox is not alone in working for Trump to take Greenland from Greenlanders.

“Along with Cox, the Danish government has identified two other Americans as running private ‘influence operations’ in Greenland: a former venture capitalist and pecan farmer named Tom Dans and a former Army Special Forces commander named Drew Horn, who has sought to dominate Greenland’s rare-earth-mining sector,” Taub reported. “Both men served in Trump’s first Administration—Dans at the Treasury, Horn in the Office of the Vice-President, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Departments of Energy and Defense. But the Danish and Greenlandic governments were unaware that, during Trump’s first term, they had also represented their respective agencies on a secret National Security Council task force whose focus was the acquisition of Greenland.”

Taub added that there is “a fourth man, Jørgen Boassen, is one of the very few Greenlanders who loudly support Trump; he spent much of the past year in self-imposed exile, floating between far-right American and European political gatherings, his travel and living expenses covered by American benefactors whom he refuses to identify. And then there is Trump himself, whose stated reasons for coveting Greenland do not stand up to scrutiny—except that he considers it ‘psychologically important,’ as he recently put it to the New York Times, to own the territory rather than merely have military access to it, as the U.S. has had continuously, under a treaty with Denmark, since 1951.”

Taub also described Trump’s attempts to win over Greenland by appointing Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) as his special envoy to Greenland. Landry controversially attempted to send Greenlanders to America for health care on a boat based on right-wing propaganda, and was publicly miffed when Greenland Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen responded that they “have a public health-care system where treatment is free for citizens. Please talk to us instead of just making more or less random statements on social media.”

“Shame on Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen!” Landry replied in a post on X. “President @realDonaldTrump and America care.”

One day after Landry left, the US opened a new consulate in the center of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, while “American officials and businessmen ate musk-ox hot dogs and discussed their ambitions for Greenland’s future” and “hundreds of Greenlanders protested outside.” Taub quoted Greenland politician Rasmus Jarlov, who recently ended his term in parliament.

“It is utterly insane that we allow their presence,” Jarlov wrote on X. “The new, very large American consulate in Nuuk has one clear mission and task, and that is to pave the way for an American takeover.”

He added, “The only thing that has worked was when we, along with our allies, made it clear that we would rather go to war with the United States than let them have Greenland.”

Describing Taub’s story for their newsletter, journalist David Remnick said that "Taub reports on the secret plan to take over the world’s largest island." He also reported that “these men represent the vanguard of a ludicrous—and deadly serious—plan that has threatened foundational transatlantic agreements, escalated into military maneuvers among allies, and provided further evidence at home and abroad that American foreign policy depends entirely on the whims of the President.” The New Yorker story comes on the heels of a Politico report earlier this month that Trump’s efforts suffered a setback with the reelection of Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who staunchly opposes Trump’s ambitions.

"The four-party coalition is expected to bring together Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, the Moderates, Green Left and the Social Liberals, according to the DR public broadcaster," Politico wrote. "The incoming PM met King Frederik X Monday evening to inform him."

“I think everyone will be surprised by how much we want to do. It is a government platform that is good both for the people in Denmark, for the generations to come, and for animals,” Frederiksen said in a statement.

In February, America’s European allies began to separate their financial and national data away from America to attain “monetary sovereignty” and “digital sovereignty” as a way to reduce America’s influence on their continent. This move was largely inspired by the “Greenland moment,” or the realization last year that America could declare war on European nations despite being ostensibly at peace with them.

While some of President Donald Trump’s supporters and critics are claiming he lost America’s war against Iran, one foreign policy expert says Trump is losing a different consequential geopolitical battle — namely, America’s rivalry with China.

“An uneasy quiescence has come to define U.S.-Chinese relations during U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term,” wrote Jonathan A. Czin of Foreign Affairs on Monday. “Although both governments are calling it ‘constructive strategic stability,’ U.S.-Chinese relations have been so tenuous and shallow, so lacking in ambition or any affirmative vision from either side, that it seems more apt to describe the current moment as a stalemate defined by ‘mutually assured disruption.’ Going forward, the crucial question for both sides will be who is making better use of this interregnum.”

Czin went on to explain that the Chinese government sees the ongoing stalemate as a victory because China has positioned itself as America’s peer on the global stage. He continues that there is a lot of evidence to support this interpretation, even though Trump insists that he actually made America the winner in the bilateral exchange.

“Trump himself seems stuck in history, as he is taking U.S. China policy back to the engagement policy found in the 1990s and early 2000s,” Czin wrote. “He has put commerce in the foreground and security in the background. He seems more concerned about Taiwan destabilizing the cross-strait dynamic than Beijing doing so. And of course, the administration this year has devoted nearly all its bandwidth to yet another war in the Middle East, replicating the distractions of the past quarter century but without the valid excuse of a calamity like 9/11 or the dramatic rise of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) a dozen years later.”

He added, “If every day of this stalemate is ‘strategic,’ the United States is squandering its hard power and dissipating its military strength—rather than enhancing it—while also putting the federal budget on an even more unsustainable trajectory.”

Similar to Czin, the anti-Trump Republican group The Lincoln Project argued in May that Trump sold out ordinary American workers to benefit China.

“China: They've been taking our jobs for decades — millions of jobs lost to unfair trade and cheap labor, crushing American workers,” The Lincoln Project posted on Wednesday. “Elon Musk made $178 billion last year. His largest factory is in China. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, made over $100 million last year. iPhones are made in China with cheap labor. These companies made billions in profits exploiting American workers.”

The post added, “Who's going to speak up for the American worker? Nobody. Donald Trump and the Republicans don't care about us. They're cutting deals with China and laughing at us. More AI to kill our jobs — they love it. They get richer, we get screwed. It's wrong, but until we stop them, it will only get worse.”

President Donald Trump’s endorsement of a Republican lawmaker in the 2026 Georgia Senate primary is exposing fault lines in his own MAGA base, according to a new report.

“The final days of Georgia’s Republican primary campaigns have exposed internal party fault lines, produced unusual alliances and will test the party’s ability to consolidate quickly to match Democrats’ head start on the general election campaign,” reported the Associated Press’ Bill Barrow on Monday. Describing how Trump recently endorsed Rep. Mike Collins in his campaign against former football coach Derek Dooley, while Trump backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones over billionaire Rick Jackson in the gubernatorial race, Barrow concluded that the Georgia elections exposes deeper rifts within the party.

“There’s a lot of division in the MAGA world and across the Republican Party,” Debbie Dooley, a former tea party organizer who is backing Jones for governor and Dooley in their respective campaigns, told Barrow. (Dooley the organizer is not related to Dooley the candidate.)”

She then told Barrow, “We better get it together after Tuesday.”

“Kemp’s and Trump’s differing courses highlight their complicated relationship — Kemp certified Biden’s electors in 2020 over Trump’s objections — and the results Tuesday will tests both men’s internal party influence as their final terms play out,” Barrow wrote. He added that Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who Trump opposes for refusing to go along with his plot to steal the 2020 election, argues his own strategizing is about maximizing the GOP’s advantage in November.

“I’m not worried about any political equations or keeping score,” Kemp said Monday. “It’s making sure we have the right people at the top of the ticket.”

Last month Politico did an in-depth report on how Georgia, a make-or-break swing state, has emerged as a key pickup for both parties.

"The old-guard of the Republican Party in Georgia has fallen after withstanding MAGA's furor since 2020, replaced by a new breed of candidates — up and down the ballot — closely aligned with President Donald Trump," Erin Doherty and Alec Hernandez reported in Politico. "On Tuesday, the Trump allies marched on: Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones clinched a spot in the gubernatorial runoff on Tuesday alongside billionaire Rick Jackson, who told supporters he'd govern like the president 'with a southern tone.' In the GOP Senate primary, Rep. Mike Collins, a staunch MAGA ally, advanced to a runoff. And House candidates Jim Kingston, Houston Gaines and Clay Fuller won their races by wide margins, boosted by the president’s endorsement."

Doherty and Hernandez added, "Meanwhile, longtime Trump antagonists — especially those who denied the 2020 election was 'stolen' — lost their primary battles: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Attorney General Chris Carr and Gabriel Sterling, a former top Raffensperger aide.”

President Donald Trump's administration has reportedly been pressuring prosecutors to "come up with a case" to press against one of his top political enemies, according to MS NOW, seeking to knock down a major 2028 contender potentially.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, took to social media to reveal that he and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, were being investigated by Trump's Justice Department. Newsom accused the department of trying to fabricate a case that was not there, and said that this was happening not because of his viral tweets mocking the president, but because he is "considering running for President" in 2028.

"Today, my wife [and] I

joined Donald Trump’s hit list," the tweet read. "He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They have not found a crime - they are simply trying to find one. He isn't coming after me because of mean tweets, but because I am considering running for President. He hates that I consistently call him out. He is simply the most corrupt President in American history. We have nothing to hide. Mr. President, come after me. I am not going anywhere. The country is watching."

In an appearance on MS NOW later in the day, Carol Leonnig, a senior investigative correspondent for the network, revealed what she fellow reporter, Erum Salam, had found out about the story from sources, backing up Newsom's claims about the DOJ "trying to find" a case against him.

"First off, I want to say that we have from sources two really important nuggets," Leonnig said. "One is that the central district of California, the U.S. district attorney's office in the central district, has been pressing the line prosecutors to come up with a case against Gavin Newsom."

Sharing a clip from that broadcast to X, Izzy Gardon, Newsom's director of communications, highlighted the "come up with" phrasing, backing up the governor's claim about the administration trying to fabricate a case against him.

"However, a source tells us that the prosecutors and investigators that have been contacting Newsom are actually based out of Sacramento, in what's called the eastern district of California," Leonnig added. "And there was an investigation of a staffer of Gavin Newsom's that was based out of that office, or if not led by that office. And now we are hearing again from one source with some reliable information, that this is the office that Newsom is referring to, although he may not know it, that the investigators who have been contacting family and friends are based out of."

Zeteo's political reporter Asawin Suebsaeng told Thor Benson that the president may not have the best track record using the "fake it until you make it" strategy.

For the veteran journalist, Donald Trump's administration challenges are growing worse than his first term.

Suebsaeng told Benson, "Things have changed since he was covering Trump's first term — and not for the better."

"Not just illegality ... but the tolerance for scandal within the second Trump administration is somehow markedly greater than it was during the first four years," Suebsaeng continued. "And I am not someone who looks through rose-colored glasses [regarding] the first Trump presidency."

While the first Trump White House was laughably corrupt and a political joke, there's a different situation evolving in which Democrats may not hold Republicans accountable if they can win the House and Senate.

"It was one of the most bats—— eras of modern American politics or world history," Suebsaeng recalled. "Now, they're working towards the rapid consolidation, expansion and perversion of presidential power in the most rapaciously right-wing, blood-lusting [way] they can possibly get away with — within, at least, the four years they have right now. That is the mission statement."

Trump's staff has certainly been part of the team behind some unethical and questionable activities; they shouldn't be the only ones held to account.

"I get why that's kind of comforting, because Trump is such a grotesque force that you don't really want to believe that he's commanding all of this stuff ... but it is a direct expression of what Donald Trump wants to do," Suebsaeng explained. "This Trumpist far-right authoritarian administration is, at its core, an expression of his desire to punish his enemies, both big and small."

"Things are falling apart. Yes, they're encountering political resistance, especially from ordinary people on the ground. Yes, certain things are getting tied up in the courts here and there, but that can only take you so far," Suebsaeng explained. "Boy, have they had a lot of wins, and they're going to keep trucking for the next two and a half years or more."

Three major court cases last week showed just how weak Trump is when it comes to some of his pet projects. The bravado in the White House isn't an indicator of where he is emotionally, and certainly not politically. Behind the fake smiles and empty promises is very real fear.

Republicans "want to portray the Democrats as weak or irrelevant, which in many respects they objectively are, they do understand that political gravity does exist for everybody and everything," Suebsaeng said.

"Don't let them fool you with whatever they say publicly. Yes, they are afraid of jail," Suebsaeng explained. "Yes, they are afraid of potential investigations, including at the state and local level. Yes, they are afraid of expensive subpoenas from Capitol Hill probes."

Trump's war in Iran is making things worse, increasing "their paranoia and anxiety about this — that there is a very good chance that if or when the Democrats gain power again, they are coming for them," Suebsaeng assumed. "That is why, as we reported last year, Trump has already discussed the idea of preemptive federal pardons."

And if Democrats think they can get away with the "let's just move forward" message, he cautioned, they're sadly mistaken. There are plenty of liberal voters who will be demanding accountability. So, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking everything will be fine when Democrats win the House and Senate. If Democrats don't act after the election, the Democratic base isn't going quietly into the night.

President Donald Trump's appearance at the UFC White House event this weekend sparked renewed concerns about his health, with one pathologist revealing several signs from the evening that pointed to "deterioration" from dementia or a stroke that he "cannot hide."

Hilary Shae is a licensed speech-language pathologist specializing in concussion recovery, who also works as a content creator sharing criticisms of Trump and offering professional insights into signs from his behavior that indicate his declining mental and physical health. In her latest videos from Monday, she broke down several things she noted from Trump's appearance at UFC Freedom 250 over the weekend that triggered dementia alarms for her.

In her first video, she highlighted Trump's initial walkout for the evening alongside UFC CEO and MAGA ally Dana White, noting a moment where his left arm appeared to graze, or nearly graze, the side of a door he was passing through. This, she argued, was "very likely due to visual, spatial and depth perception issues," which can "be very common within dementia." She also suggested that Trump might not have been fully able to comprehend where he was supposed to be in the doorway, and noted that we do not often see him walking through them these days.

She also highlighted the odd way in which his left arm appeared to swing more than his right arm during the walk, which she suggested could mean that the left one is his "normal" arm in the aftermath of a possible stroke. Citing rumors that Trump suffered a left-sided stroke at some point after returning to the White House, she said that the would impact the movement of his right side, accounting for the more "muted" movements seen at the UFC event.

This discrepancy could also be a sign of dementia, she added, as patients suffering from that condition often struggle with "multitasking" while in motion, meaning that they might not be able to keep the movements of their arms and legs in sync. This would also explain his tendency to appear hunched over while sitting, and why he is not seen standing as much in public appearances during his second term.

In a second video shared later in the day, Shae highlighted more concerning footage of the president from the UFC event. In the lead-up to the performance of the national anthem, while he was standing on a White House balcony alongside White, he appeared to walk off early and had to be brought back by the UFC CEO. This would appear to run counter to his known affinity for attention and getting cheers from a crowd, as well as the likely possibility that he was briefed on how the appearance would play out.

"That is a very odd thing that you would not expect from a man who is getting a whole bunch of cheers, who wanted this whole event to be just for himself," Shae explained.

HOUSTON — To some extent, Mohamed Hussein knew he was preparing to enter the lion’s den.

But he made the decision to attend the Republican Party of Texas Convention to confirm for himself that he had a place in the GOP, even as members of the party have railed for months about the urgency of ending Sharia Law and the so-called “Islamification” of Texas.

What he found was a party that didn’t want him. He arrived with hope, but left in tears after being told explicitly that he should leave the country.

Hussein was among four Muslims, who arrived at the convention in earnest — not as protesters, but as delegates or attendees — to participate in the annual meeting of the state’s most hardlined Republicans as they vote on the party’s priorities and hear from GOP leaders. Two prevailing themes from the Houston gathering were party unity and combatting Sharia Law, a movement that veered into outright Islamophobia by members of the convention.

“When they say Sharia-free, that means Muslim-free, no practices of Islam,” Hussein said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. “No one is calling for the state to implement Sharia laws.”

Hussein said he was in disbelief that he was told to convert or leave — for the first time in his life — at a Republican convention with the tagline, “Unity drives victory.”

That slogan, touted by the governor on press releases, placards, lanyards and even the elephant he procured to march through the convention haul, became a rallying cry for the state’s leaders and party nominees heading into November. If fractured, they warned, the party could lose the state to Democrats and their U.S. Senate nominee, Austin state Rep. James Talarico.

But in spite of that warning, members were willing to lose the support of Muslim conservatives.

On Saturday, outgoing GOP chair Abraham George, addressed two Muslim delegates from the stage, who members tried to expel from the convention because of their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group the GOP and Gov. Greg Abbott have deemed a terrorist threat.

“I would strongly advise you to leave our caucus,” George said. “There is a Democrat convention happening in a couple weeks. Join them.”

“There’s no place in America for you”

On Saturday, the last day of the convention, Hussein attended a panel from the Judeo-Christian Caucus moderated by Dr. Rick Scarborough, a former Southern Baptist pastor and the president of Recover America, an organization to engage ministers and pastors in politics.

Speakers told the audience that immigrants who don’t believe in Judeo-Christian values will erode those values and create problems for America. Scarborough accused Muslims of lying to win political power.

“You’re going to find Muslims that aren’t being antagonistic or mean, at least not publicly. But I'll guarantee, if they get power, they’ll cut your head off as believers of Christ,” he said.

State Sen. Bob Hall, an Edgewood Republican, also repeated the accusation that Muslims are “required by Sharia to lie” in order to “stay below the radar of being aggressive.”

Hussein was appalled by what he was hearing. From the back of the room, he objected, declaring that attendees have heard lies about Sharia throughout the convention. He was practicing Sharia at that very moment, he said.

“When they tell you that we’re compelled to lie, they are putting your Texan neighbors in an impossible position where nothing that we can say or do can absolve us from the crimes that they are accusing us of,” Hussein told the crowd. “That is not just, the Bible commands you to be just, and that is not American.”

Sharia are the lessons of the Prophet Muhammad, interpreted as the framework, or laws, for how Muslims should live their life which call for fasting, daily prayer, modest dressing and charity.

Following the panel, the two shared contact information. Shortly thereafter, Scarborough approached Hussein.

“What do you want me to do, leave?” Hussein asked Scarborough.

“Yes,” replied the minister.

Hussein, sobbing, turned from Scarborough, retreating to some chairs to cry alone. Scarborough followed and sat down next to him. The pastor placed an arm on the back of Hussein’s seat, leaning in to console him.

Scarborough, in an interview with The Texas Tribune, clarified that he thought Hussein should leave the country: “If you’re going to embrace the values and the teachings that you’re advocating for, there’s no place in America for you. That’s not assimilation. That’s taking over.”

A CAIR chapter founder

Hussein’s family moved to Houston from Egypt in 1992. He loved U.S. history in high school, and regards the Bill of Rights, which provides for freedom of religion, as a “beautiful document.”

These days, he is a father and works as a manager at a health care company.

Hussein, a religious man who prays multiple times a day, called himself a “conservative-leaning person” on economics, social and religious values, and he believes that religion has a role to play in social and public life.

He attended the convention with his father, Tarek Hussein, who founded CAIR Texas-Houston, the local branch of the Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in the wake of 9/11. Tarek Hussein attended as a registered delegate.

In November, Abbott designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations with the goals of imposing Sharia law and supporting terrorism worldwide. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed in December. The Trump administration began naming foreign branches of the Muslim Brotherhood — but not CAIR — as terrorist organizations days after Abbott. The federal government expanded the list this year.

CAIR has denied wrongdoing or terroristic activity. The group says they follow all laws, and exist solely to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims. They have said they’re being targeted for opposing Israel in the war in Gaza.

“CAIR is a radical organization connected to terrorists who killed Americans and has been condemned by both Republicans and Democrats,” Texas GOP Chair D’rinda Randall said in a statement to the Tribune, just days after her election to the post. “Republicans are fully united and focused on victory in November.”

The elder Hussein said he aligns with the GOP on fiscal conservatism, and opposing abortion and Obamacare. A staunch social conservative, he opposes pornography and prostitution, and even the alcohol industry.

He became politically active following the 2001 terrorist attacks, during a heightened period of Islamophobia. The next year, he founded the local branch of CAIR-Texas with the goal of educating fellow Muslims in the American political system. By giving them hope in America, he said he hoped to drive people away from extremism, fundamentalism and terrorism. Those, he said, are borne out of frustration and hopelessness due to discrimination.

In a social media post on Friday, Frank Gaffney, a defense policy analyst and Defense Department official under President Ronald Reagan, referred to some of Hussein’s old writings as a paper on how to “infiltrate” political parties.

“When I educate my community about how to get active in the political party, now I’m being accused as [an] infiltrator,” Hussein told the Tribune.

Efforts to expel

Samar Halabi stood out as the only woman at the convention wearing a hijab.

“Do not sit down with terrorist organizations,” a passerby at the convention told a woman sitting next Halabi. “You know they’re CAIR, right?”

“I care about everybody,” Halabi responded, trying to make light of the moment.

Shortly later, another attendee approached Halabi and told her to leave the country.

She wept into her husband’s chest.

Halabi, a teacher, declined to say how she would vote in November, but said that she is a Republican and always votes.

Halabi and her husband, Amjad Muhtaseb, were both registered as delegates for the convention.

Muhtaseb, an engineer and business owner, said Muslims are conservative by nature.

“We believe in Adam and Eve,” he said. “We don’t believe in this, multiple gender. We don’t drink. We don’t gamble. We are against pornography.”

They hope to bring more Muslims into the Republican Party.

In the days before the convention, Muhtaseb, along with Tarek Hussein, who founded the Houston CAIR branch, were gaining attention as other delegates began realizing they had connections to CAIR.

Muhtaseb spoke at a CAIR news conference about Abbott’s CAIR designation in his capacity as executive director of Muslim American Society-Houston. Muhtaseb said that was his only affiliation with the organization. However, Bonnie Wallace, chair of the convention’s Credentials Committee, incorrectly claimed Muhtaseb served on the board of CAIR-Texas.

Throughout the week, members of the convention attempted to remove them as delegates.

Ultimately, the party concluded that even the full convention did not have the power to boot them. However, the convention on Friday updated its rules so that next time it meets in 2028, the Credentials Committee could vote to remove delegates with ties to a terrorist organization.

“While, philosophically, we can agree that CAIR is a terrorist organization and we would not promote them or materially help them, we’re moving the goalpost,” said Gaylyn Devine, an SREC member representing their area in Senate District 11, who defended their place at the gathering. “They followed the rules. They voted in the Republican primary. One of them has been, like, a 40-year Republican.”

Tarek Hussein said they have the right to practice Islam as long as nothing contradicts the Constitution.

“It’s well known that there is [an] American system, American law, and as Allah-abiding citizens, we all follow that law,” Tarek Hussein said. “How come you try to create a boogeyman called Sharia law?”

Growing the party

State Rep. Brent Money, a Greenville Republican who founded the Sharia-Free Texas Caucus, told the audience at Scarborough’s panel on Judeo-Christian values that there should be religious tests for people who run for office and that the country should be run by Christians. After his speech, Hussein asked whether Money was saying only Christians should be elected.

“I’m not saying that,” said Money, wearing a red “Defend Texas, Defeat Sharia” hat. He cited the first U.S. Supreme Court justice, John Jay, who wrote in 1816 that, as members of a Christian nation, Americans should elect Christians to office.

“We’ve proven over 250 years that we’re best ruled when we’re ruled by Christian men who serve a God that’s bigger than them and that seek the welfare of everyone that’s here,” Money said.

Houston state Rep. Mano DeAyala, the former chair of the Hispanic Republicans of Texas, questioned the wisdom of alienating non-Christians who want to join the party. He acknowledged the “Christian warrior’s” anger, disappointment and frustration with politics, but said the way forward was to “be Christians,” “be the good spirit” and to “love each other like ourselves.”

“What I’m about to say may be a little sacrilegious, but working with the Hispanic Republicans of Texas, there was a point here,” DeAyala said. “We’re trying to grow the party. We are trying to bring more people in this tent.”

Another convention delegate, Kevin Jennings of San Antonio, who was attending his first convention in several years, said while he agreed about the dangers of Sharia, he was concerned that Republicans were becoming consumed by the topic.

“I think that we’re getting focused off of where the truth should be, and we’re becoming lured around with Sharia focus, and I think that’s a risk that is not well spoken of,” Jennings said. We need to have overwhelmingly speak about Christ, speak about God, and that’s where the focus should be.”

Convention reflection

When it comes time to vote in the midterms, Tarek Hussein plans to support his party where he feels it’s deserved.

“I will vote Republican for the good Republican candidate,” he said.

Mohamed Hussein, said the convention left himself asking questions.

“How can I possibly get behind a party that tells me to leave, that says convert or leave?” he asked. “How do they think that is going to be some kind of winning strategy?”

The Abbott campaign declined to comment on Hussein’s incident. It was also silent on George’s direction for the delegates to join the Democrats.

He also is worried the anti-Islamic rhetoric could lead to more violence against Muslims. Last month, two gunmen, 17 and 18, killed three men when they opened fire at a San Diego mosque. San Diego Police, who are being aided by the FBI, are investigating it as a hate crime.

Asked whether he would vote for Talarico, a Presbyterian theologian who frequently discusses his Christian faith on the campaign trail, Hussein said he would vote for the candidate that champions religious liberty and economic prosperity.

“I will vote along those principles, but what I saw at the convention is not conservatism, so I’m going to assess in November and vote along with my values,” he said. “Absolutely, I will be voting for Republicans who denounce this extremism.”

In an interview Sunday, Scarborough said he had some regrets about his interaction with Mohamed Hussein, even though he thought he only attended his panel because he viewed the pastor as an enemy of CAIR.

“I’m not an enemy that fights like they fight,” Scarborough said. “I’m gonna fight on my knees, and I will fight in an effort to win Mohamed to Christ.”

When Hussein broke down crying, Scarborough said he realized he had pushed Hussein too hard. After insisting that Hussein should give up Sharia or leave the country, “the pastoral side of me reached out to him in genuine care,” he said, and he offered to pray with Hussein.

Scarborough said he has asked God and Hussein for forgiveness for not setting a good example of Judeo-Christian morality. He prayed that Mohamed would convert to Christianity.

“I'm trying to process how somebody can say this and then try to pray for me,” Hussein said.

But he said he forgave Scarborough.

Rattled by the experience, Mohamed Hussein isn’t sure what it means for his politics going forward.

“Many, many hear these things, the messaging, and think that they're dog whistles,” Hussein said. “I was hopeful that I’d come here and get a clarification. What we got was kind of a confirmation.”

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.