media bias

Fox News personality Tomi Lahren blasted the Republicans controlling the House, Senate and White House for neglecting to get anything done over the past two years.

In a post on X, she said she didn't care "who it p—— off," but she wanted to know why Republicans should be reelected when they failed while in power.

"Mass deportations aren’t happening. Most of us are single issue voters on immigration and DHS under Markwayne [Mullin] has decided they would rather appease CNN and MSNBC," she wrote.

She also blasted Republicans for refusing to do whatever it takes to pass President Donald Trump's election restriction bill before the 2026 midterms. She then alleged that, in the end, Republicans are the same as Democrats.

"They haven’t done, frankly, jack s—— outside of a tax cut extension. So why? Why push Maine to vote for Susan Collins? Because at least she’s not an admitted communist? In the end, though, what’s really the difference? Vote Republican, get Democrat policy anyway," she closed.

In response, Mediaite noted that former Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino agreed with her comments.

“So well stated!” Bovino replied to Lahren’s X post.

Lahren became so famous for her support of Trump in 2016, that she was bigger on Facebook than even he was at the time, the BBC wrote at the time. She earned a full endorsement from Trump in 2018, when he called her "a truly outstanding and respected young woman."

Progressive commentator Alex Cole replied, "I love it when some MAGAs realize that Republicans can't govern. They only have slogans."

One person who indicated they were a "three-time Trump voter" who has abandoned him, wrote "I no longer support him or his corrupt GOP," the person said in an extensive post. "Trump used MAGA as a marketing gimmick to get elected and avoid prison. Afterwards, he became so arrogant and disrespectful towards MAGA that he even said that if we talk about Epstein, he no longer wants our support. Well mr president the midterms are coming, and many of us MAGA will honor your request. And please don't give me that crap about if the DEMS win its the end of America as we know it. I've heard that crap for the last 30 years, and America is still standing. Trump and his GOP deserve a big fat demotion during the midterms."

President Donald Trump touched on an odd theory while talking about the passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham, as noted by reporter Jim Acosta, and in doing so, might have unwittingly exposed his own fears about descending into dementia.

Acosta, who previously served for many years as CNN's chief White House correspondent, appeared on the latest edition of the "Fast Politics" podcast hosted by commentator and writer Molly Jong-Fast. During the wide-ranging conversation, the pair touched on Graham's surprise death and Trump's reaction to it, with Acosta noting that it brought out the president's long-held fascination with the so-called "race-horse theory."

“His father died just about at the same age," Trump said about Graham in an interview with Newsmax. "You know, I’m a believer in the racehorse theory, you know. If you have problems, you have problems.”

Racehorse theory, in the context of humans, is a scientifically unfounded idea about the quality of genes from one's parents determining one's quality as a person. Speaking about Trump's fixation on the idea, Jong-Fast summed it up as "you are the same as your parents, and so how you die will be the same as how your parents die."

A medical examiner's report found that Graham appeared to have died from an aortic rupture. While racehorse theory is not an accepted idea in legitimate scientific circles, it is accepted that family medical histories can indicate which conditions people are at a higher risk of developing. Graham's father died of a heart attack when he was 68, just three years younger than the senator was.

Talking about the "truly insane" idea of racehorse theory further, Jong-Fast noted that her "favorite part" of the situation was applying it to Trump himself, which might inadvertently reveal his own fear about his family history of cognitive decline.

"My favorite part of the story is that, like, Donald Trump's parents both had dementia, right," Jong-Fast said.

"Right, and his father was a son of a b——," Acosta responded. "There's that too."

Despite the pair's assertions, publicly available information does not indicate that Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, suffered from dementia at any point. His father, however, famously suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and severe cognitive decline throughout the final decade of his life. This key piece of family medical history has often been cited, as the president has also appeared to deteriorate cognitively over the last 10 years, though he and his staff have strongly denied any and all claims that he is suffering from cognitive decline.

George Will's disdain for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement was so vehement that the conservative Washington Post columnist, after many years, left the Republican Party and became an independent because of it. And that disdain extends to members of Trump's second administration, including Vice President JD Vance.

Once a scathing Trump critic himself, Vance became one of his most ardent defenders. Will, in a blistering Post column, slams Vance as an opportunist who is willing to flip-flop incessantly in order to advance his political ambitions.

"JD Vance has an aptitude for conversions," the 84-year-old Will writes. "His have involved politics, economics, history and religion, so far. Whatever his next one is will probably not be his last. One propelled him from the Pentecostal Protestantism of his youth, through atheism, to Catholicism. As the U.S. government's 'most senior Catholic' (his self-description) he, in the church since 2019, warned the pope to 'be careful' when speaking 'on matters of theology.' Leo XIV was careless (in Vance's view) when criticizing the Iran war."

Vance, Will argues, repeatedly contradicts himself in service of Trump and the MAGA movement.

"Five months ago," the Never Trump conservative notes, "this column listed examples of Vance's many public vulgarities, as when he denounced a 'd––' critic, and others who can 'eat s––.' Five months is, however, plenty of time for a Vance conversion, this time to decorousness. In 'Communion,' his new delicacy causes him to obscure the adjective 'p––.' So, presumably, he will not again talk of tech corporations telling a 'b–– story' about the need for more foreign workers."

Vance often declares himself to be a devout Catholic, attacking other Catholics he considers insufficiently devout. And the vice president, Will notes, repeatedly uses religion to promote the MAGA agenda.

"Christianity, Vance says, 'is America's creed,'" Will observes. "His Christianity often dovetails with MAGA commandments. He says a 'Christian statesman' must preserve 'social cohesion.' This is code for restricting immigration. Something already has, Vance says, made America a place where 'you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.' Especially if you are properly descended. 'I think,' Vance says, 'the people whose ancestors fought in the Civil War have a hell of a lot more claim over America.' More 'claim' (whatever that means) than most of today's Americans, whose descendants arrived too late to fight. What conversion convinced Vance of this?"

Vance, Will writes with biting sarcasm, had "another in-the-nick-of-time, road-to-Damascus epiphany" when he declared that the United States' 2020 presidential election was "rigged" and that unlike then-Vice President Mike Pence, he would not have certified the election results.

"Whether Vance has excelled as a result of his serial conversions is a matter of opinion," Will laments. "But certainly, he has risen fast and far because he is as unstable as water."

President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, slipped in his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, saying "I'm his lawyer" when asked whether he and Trump were "friends."

Blanche quickly corrected himself, but it was a moment that quickly went viral, with progressives calling it an admission that he continues to act in the interest of the president, and not for the American people.

On Wednesday morning, two of Blanche's former colleagues penned a column saying that this was their precise concern that should be disqualifying.

Critics on social media responded with swift condemnation and mockery.

"Todd Blanche just said the quiet part out loud. He is DONALD TRUMP’S LAWYER — not yours," said the Senate Judiciary Democrats on X.

"At least their plane tips didn’t ever touch," mocked legal commentator Chance the Lawyer on BlueSky.

"Smooth," said one New York lawyer.

"Had it right the first time," said South Dakotan Michael Freeman.

"Talk about a Freudian slip," commented Capitol Hill staffer Sara Guerrero.

"'I'm his lawyer' Todd Blanche says in this hearing. He corrected after to 'WAS his lawyer...' but the slip... ahem TRUTH... came out first," said Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert.

Former CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane commented, "This is being circulated rapidly by aides here on Capitol Hill."

"Todd Blanche admitted the quiet part out loud: he still considers himself to be Donald Trump’s lawyer. The Attorney General should be the people’s lawyer, not the president’s personal attorney," the account for the progressive anti-corruption organization Stand Up America wrote on X.

"I literally gasped," quipped a conductor responding to ex-prosecutor Joyce Vance's shock.

"Todd Blanche just said the quiet part out loud," quipped psychologist and researcher, Dr. Sam Youssef.

Legal commentator Eric Columbus noted that despite his gaffe, Blanche hasn't once mentioned that the Dow is over 50,000. Another attorney, Matt Szafranski responded, "The thing is, I'm not sure what he's said is any better.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Wednesdya cornered President Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general over the "weaponization" slush fund that the Justice Department and White House tried to set up as part of a settlement against the IRS.

Cornyn was defeated in his Republican primary last month by Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, despite Cornyn's strong pro-Trump voting record.

Blanche has maintained for the past several weeks that the fund is "dead" and that would not be created. The problem, Cornyn said, is that the agreement that Blanche and Trump came to about the IRS would still establish the fund.

After Blanche asserted the fund was "moot," Cornyn asked, "Well, would refer you to the settlement agreement. Do you happen to have a copy of that in front of you?"

Cornyn read the language verbatim from page four of the agreement: "This settlement agreement can be modified, may be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties. Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund?"

Blanche said that the fund was not going forward, so there is no modification.

"Well, so the settlement agreement remains as it was originally. But I hear what you're saying is it — is the settlement agreement enforceable as a contract by the parties?" he asked.

Blanche said that it was and would be considered an "enforceable document."

"So, I suppose if President Trump's counsel sought to enforce it, they potentially could," said Blanche.

Cornyn asked if that also meant the weaponization fund provision. Blanche said they could try to enforce it, but that they couldn't force the DOJ to move forward with the fund.

"They could potentially say that, I suppose, that we breached by not moving forward. They haven't done that. And I'm not aware that they're planning on doing that. Like I said, senator — and Senator [Dick] Durbin talked about this — but I have talked extensively with with you and other colleagues about potentially," said Blanche, claiming this had already been questioned.

"But just to be clear, the president of the United States, who was the plaintiff in this lawsuit, has not agreed in writing to delete the weaponization fund. And there's no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might raise that issue by way of a lawsuit and a breach of contract lawsuit in the future?" Cornyn asked.

Blanche said that Trump has "no power over the fund" and that only the "five commissioners" would control it. He said that they could certainly litigate it.

Cornyn then dragged out a large cardboard with the words of the agreement between Trump and the U.S. government. He asked if the agreement would "release parties or people who were not parties to the lawsuit?"

Blanche said "no."

"Well, it says here that claims asserted by defendants or any of the plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals, including, without limitation, family or others filing jointly or parties, including trusts, parent, sister or related companies, affiliates or subsidiaries. They weren't a party to the lawsuit, were they?" Cornyn asked.

"The only parties that were — that had any release, um, as respect to any potential audits, even if they existed, were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit," Blanche replied.

Blanche then said that it wasn't he who spoke with the president about the matter but others in the DOJ. He then followed up, saying that he did speak to the president, but only after there was a lawsuit over the "settlement."

Ultimately, Cornyn didn't buy it.

"Well, I hear what you're saying, but I certainly don't read that in the agreement," he closed.

The recently deceased Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was well-known as a staunch loyalist for President Donald Trump, and according to a bombshell new allegation from the president's one-time biographer, it was all because the senator was afraid of the dirt that Trump had on him.

Michael Wolff is a longtime journalist and author, best known for his extensive coverage of Trump's life, including a series of books about his tumultuous first term in the White House. In the latest edition of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," he revealed his own take on why Graham, who passed away abruptly over the weekend, became such an avowed sycophant for the president, claiming it was due to an aspect of the senator's life which he described as an open secret in Washington.

“I felt that [Graham] understood that he was playing with fire,” Wolff explained. “He understood that Donald Trump was a very volatile presence. Who could — if he was unhappy with you, he would take it out on you. Behind this, there was this thing. So Lindsey Graham was — I don’t think that there’s anybody in Washington at any informed level who was not aware that Lindsey Graham was gay, but Lindsey Graham was also in the closet. This was also a discussion within the Trump circle. So this was very known. And what did that mean to Donald Trump? You know, I’m not sure that it meant anything more to Donald Trump than [that] he had something on Lindsey."

He continued: "Lindsey Graham never said, ‘I’m gay, and if I don’t suck up to Donald Trump, I’m screwed.’ Never. Of course, never anything like that. But again, that sense of Donald Trump as this unknown, a constant variable, ‘What is he going to do?' Even now, I mean, 71 years old, and you haven’t fessed up to this. I think Lindsey Graham obviously also knew the game. This is politics. This is power at a very high level. People will do anything to you. Nothing is off limits in this context.”

Graham, a South Carolina Republican, passed away on Saturday after what his office called a "brief and sudden illness." A medical examiner's report found that his likely cause of death was an aortic rupture caused by stiffened arteries, a type of condition that he was also likely at higher risk of given his close family history of heart disease.

Rumors about Graham's sexuality were common throughout his career in Washington, but were never substantiated to any significant degree, even as they were often spoken of as an open secret in political circles. In the wake of the senator's death, writer Jesse James Rose claimed to have been paid by him for sexual relations while they were in college, prior to undergoing a gender transition, in a social media post that has since gone viral.

“Lindsey Graham was an absolute suck-up,” Wolff added. “I mean, embarrassing suck-up. And people within the Trump circle would joke about this, you know, if you needed somebody to reassure the president, you call Lindsey, Lindsey calls and tells the president, you know, ‘Sir, you’re fantastic.’ Sucking up was not just the basic price of admission. It was the entire thing. That was what you had to do in order to get more access, in order to sustain access, in order for your access to be greater than anyone else’s. It was just a question of how much sucking you were willing to do.”

President Donald Trump is once again spiraling as he tries to end the war engulfing his presidency, but according to a new piece from The i Paper, his efforts continue to fail because everyone now knows his threats are "not to be taken seriously."

After hyping up the "memorandum of understanding" with Iran as a breakthrough in peace negotiations, Trump confirmed in the past week that the ceasefire is "over" as military strikes resumed against the Middle Eastern nation. This has also led to the Strait of Hormuz being closed once again, threatening to send gas prices skyrocketing once more as the global oil supply craters.

Writing for The i Paper on Wednesday, journalist James Ball argued that Trump is flailing when it comes to Iran, as all of his ideas seem to crash and burn immediately, while Iranian leaders have learned that he will never follow through on his most outlandish threats, taking away his preferred method for gaining leverage. Now, all he is left with is his old standby approach: "making extraordinary threats – then chickening out."

"The US President is looking increasingly desperate when it comes to Iran," Ball wrote. "His new ideas fall apart on first contact. Iran’s regime has seen for itself that his threats are not to be taken seriously. Time and again, when the stakes are high, Trump is the first to back down. He has now resorted to threatening to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure including bridges and power plants – a war crime, but one he’s threatened so many times before that by this stage, it’s old news."

He added: "Officials within the Trump administration are reportedly referring to the reignited Iran conflict as Operation Bitch Slap. They may mean that to impress, but to many across the world it will only smack of desperation. Trump seems to have propelled the US back into a conflict that it has no idea how to end."

Ball noted further that this resumption of chaos and violence over Iran comes as there are less than four months left until the midterm elections, which Republicans are expected to lose badly as a result of Trump's toxic reputation with many voters. The war in Iran remains hugely unpopular as it roars back to life, and the gas prices that come with it are sure to be even worse for the GOP's electoral prospects.

"Everyone except Trump seems to know that he needs this war to be over – and yet he seems unable to tear himself away from it," Ball concluded. "Trump seems to be left with just one tactic: desperately lobbing bombs at a Middle Eastern nation and hoping something comes up. He should ask any of his recent predecessors as president how doing that worked out for them."

On Thursday, July 9, the Palm Beach International Airport in South Florida was officially renamed the Donald J. Trump International Airport — a change that delighted MAGA Republicans in the Sunshine State while irritating Democrats and Never Trump conservatives. And according to NOTUS reporter Dave Levinthal, the change is also a source of irritation among frequent flyers.

The airport, Levinthal reports in NOTUS, "tried to placate frequent flyers" with an FAQ page, posting, "While we recognize that the required name change may be received in different ways by our passengers, we're grateful for your continued support through this transition period."

But Levinthal reports that "most airport patrons" in Palm Beach "who expressed their thoughts were neither appeased nor pleased."

One Trump critic wrote, "It's truly entertaining that you had to add a disclaimer to this form explaining the renaming of your airport after our racist, xenophobic, misogynistic 47th president. Hopefully you'll have plenty of airbags to catch the barfs from people as they drive up."

A woman who identified herself as "Dawn" was equally critical of the name change, writing, "I find 'Donald J Trump' getting his name placed on our structures in this country to be appalling and gross. How do we continue to get on our knees for such a narcissistic criminal so-called president?"

A Florida business owner who said he has been using the airport frequently posted that he "will gladly reroute our travelers to other airports around and within Florida" — adding, "Our business will not support your choice."

Another person who has been using the airport a lot and identified herself as "Jan" wrote, "I am writing to assure you that as long as you are calling this airport anything closely related to 'TRUMP' I will NEVER FLY INTO THERE. NEVER! You have 100% lost all my family's business. Despicable move!' she promised."

An airport user identified as a "Canadian visitor" described the airport as a "pleasant, well run facility" but warned, "Once the name is changed, I will never step into it again despite the travel inconvenience."

Another disgruntled airport user posted, "With the name change you people have seen the last tourism cent from this family."

Levinthal explains, "These comments echo dozens of other enraged, exasperated or mildly threatening messages people sent the airport from during the first five days the new name was in effect after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that changed the name to honor the president. They build on other tempestuous tidings flyers sent this spring in the weeks after DeSantis put the name change in motion."