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President Donald Trump may think he’s found a Trojan horse to seize the midterms, but security expert Miles Taylor says that horse isn’t riding off anytime soon.

Trump fired all three remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, abruptly disabling the only federal agency devoted to election administration at a moment when the president is working to warp federal voting rules. And Taylor said a captured EAC could conceivably begin Trump’s dirty work under the direction of anti-democratic loyalists the White House plans to parachute into the commission.

“What’s more, they could rewrite state-specific instructions on the voter forms to create registration traps and onerous requirements, confusing instructions, translation issues, and on and on,” Taylor reasoned. “Surely, the sycophants in Trump’s orbit are thinking of other evil ways to manipulate the EAC’s powers to steer the elections in Trump’s favor.”

“[But] here’s where I get to tell you why their plan is doomed,” Taylor added. “And it isn’t because I’m a cock-eyed optimist. It’s because a lot of very good lawyers out there are prepared to tear Trump’s plan to shreds.”

Taylor, who worked in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security in his first administration before becoming a whistleblower to the administration abuse, said Trump must get the replacements confirmed by the Senate or install legally dubious “acting” appointments. And lawsuits are waiting for him as soon as he tries to circumvent requirements.

Furthermore, whatever changes Trump makes to the EAC doesn’t mean they can just start tampering with voter registration forms because the forms are protected by law. When former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach attempted to force citizenship documents onto the form a decade ago, Taylor said the Tenth Circuit shut him down, and the Supreme Court backed that decision up.

“Third, agencies can’t just flip on a dime,” said Taylor. “Under the Administrative Procedure Act, an abrupt reversal of decades of an agency’s position — especially with no clear evidence of the ‘voter fraud’ it purports to solve — is the textbook definition of ‘arbitrary and capricious. Courts have thrown out far less blatant reversals.”

Courts have already rejected Trump’s other bids to unilaterally implement new restrictions. A federal judge in Washington permanently blocked Trump’s 2025 executive order and its proof-of-citizenship mandate. And just two weeks ago, another federal court destroyed it in a suit brought by nineteen states. The judiciary, said Taylor, isn’t “rolling over to let Trump hijack voting in America.”

“Also, for what it’s worth, the plaintiffs are ready,” said Taylor. “I suspect lawsuits are being drafted as I write this. … groups … are probably preparing legal briefs this very morning. I know state attorneys general are gearing up, too. When I say that we’re better prepared for these types of anti-democratic shenanigans than we were the last time, this is what I mean.”

“Trump may think he found a Trojan horse. What he actually found is a trap of his own making. Every action he tries to take to abuse the EAC will be met with resistance and tie him up in litigation as the clock ticks to November,” Taylor added.

“Several days later and I can’t help it. It’s too funny,” said comedian John Fugelsang of white supremacist militia group, the "Patriot Front," marching through the streets of Capitol Hill on the 250th birthday of the United States. Videos showed that a few hundred men showed up with face coverings, waving Confederate flags along with American flags, including some that were inverted.

But Fugelsang couldn’t get over other aspects of their appearance, calling them the “Dockers Reich; aka March of the Masked Mediocrities; aka The League of Extraordinary Virgins.”

“Did you catch it? Day of the Living Incels?” asked Fugelsang on his substack. “A quarter-millennium after the US declared that all men are created equal, a few hundred masked white nationalists decided the best way to celebrate was to march through Washington, D.C., hiding their faces and waving Confederate flags. And what could be more MAGA than celebrating America’s birthday with participation trophies from the losing side of the Civil War, while dressing like you’re all headed to the same outlet mall. All of them in Khakis, all of them wearing masks.”

“These guys always say, ‘We’re defending Western civilization.’ Yeah, Skip? Then why do y’all always look like you’re trying to avoid being recognized by your manager at Best Buy?” Fugelsang demanded. “It’s hard to square ‘take our country back’ with ‘please don’t tag me in the photos.’”

The comedian acknowledged that he’s supposed to be shaking his head in anguish about the normalization of racism and the “big victory goose-step” after all the cultural erasure and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. But the scenery was just too funny. “Instead, beautifully, it was more of a White Supremacy Cowardice flash mob; sponsored by Dockers and parental disappointment,” said the host of progressive talk show "Tell Me Everything.”

“Let’s briefly discuss the Klan Bake wardrobe choices: All khakis, all blue shirts. It’s the world’s most aggressively beige fascist movement,” he said. “Every single one of these tough guy patriots looked like they were headed to an assistant manager orientation at Kohl’s. I mean, I know they’re the Fourth Reich and all, but I kept expecting them to ask pedestrians if they’d ever considered opening a store credit card.”

"The John Fugelsang Podcast" host also blasted the absurdity of a group claiming to be “patriots” while carrying flags of the Confederacy, which literally tried to destroy America.

“The Confederacy only lasted four years, bros. Costco memberships last longer,” said Fugelsang. “You’re still the only team in history whose fans get more enthusiastic every century after losing.”

But that’s what you get from a group of folks dressed like they’re “robbing a Hobby Lobby” despite being proud of their beliefs.

“If your movement is destined to save America, it’s curious that nobody in it wants their boss to know they attended,” Fugelsang chided. “… Imagine believing you’re the superior race, while literally covering up your face more than Batman.”

Only Batman was worried about crooks hurting his loved ones,” he added. These guys are afraid of “an email” identifying them to their boss.

The movement calls itself “patriotic heritage enthusiasts,” but Fugelsang said they’re just “unmanly racist twits.”

“You’re Nazis; with better graphic designers and pleats in your chinos,” Fugelsang howled. “Patriot Front is a racist pyramid scheme, wrapped in Old Navy. But calling themselves ‘America’s Masked Chickens—— Ethnostate Appreciation Society’ apparently tested poorly with focus groups.”

Former George Bush speechwriter and GOP insider Tim Miller is quick to say how thoroughly Senate and House Republicans have surrendered Congressional power to President Donald Trump and the White House since his return to office more than a year ago.

In fact, Miller says the only way the party has actually managed to stymie Trump since his return to office more than a year ago was by accident.

Speaking to MS NOW anchor Jackie Alemany Miller said he found it hilarious that Trump’s enabling GOP onle recently threw Trump entirely by accident over recent legislation.

“The funny thing about this for … my old people, the more mainstream kind of the old guard Republicans. Oftentimes over the years, they've said, ‘hey, we can't buck Trump on this stuff. We can't vote against tariffs. We can't vote for Ukraine funding because Trump's too powerful. You know, we don't want to lose our seat,’ like it's a political imperative that you stick around with Trump because Trump is so powerful,” said Miller. “But I find it very funny and ironic that by accident on this Housing bill, they bucked Trump because they didn't know that he was going to have this temper tantrum over the SAVE Act, and look at what happened. This thing is now going to go into effect at midnight because Trump's not going to veto it. There's a bipartisan veto proof majority. All Trump's going to do is whine about it on social media.”

Earlier Friday, Trump “boiled over” in a lengthy Truth Social rant, declaring that he would not sign a bipartisan housing bill “in PROTEST” of Republicans’ unwillingness to pass his election overhaul legislation.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent the bill, passed with bipartisan support, to the president’s desk, despite Trump blindsiding GOP leaders on the day of the signing ceremony by canceling the event at the last minute.

Still, sending the housing bill to the president’s desk started the inevitable countdown to the legislation becoming law without a successful presidential veto.

Frustrated, Trump blasted a rambling signature refusal, posting, “I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,

But despite this betrayal, none of these Republicans are going to lose their jobs over it, said Miller.

“Like, we've spent ten years being told that they can't have a backbone. They can't demonstrate any courage because they're worried that they'll lose their seat if they do. And here we see on the housing bill that actually, this whole time they could have. Like, Trump’s not as strong as we think.”

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Critics on social media had a meltdown over images of a contractor leaving Sen. Mitch McConnell’s house with carpet and tile samples.

“Our intrepid TMZ DC producer Charlie Cotton paid a visit to the Senator's home Friday to see if he could get any answers on Mitch's health ... and he saw something interesting leaving the house,” reported TMZ.

Mitch has been hospitalized since June 14 after paramedics responded to a report of an unconscious person in his Washington, D.C. home. Footage obtained by CNN shows paramedics piling the stricken Kentucky senator.

TMZ reports paramedics appeared to be “showing absolutely no sense of urgency” — suggesting the senator was about as stable as dead can get.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene told us Mitch is a vegetable and his "Communist Chinese spy" wife is meeting with Chinese leaders instead of rushing home to be by his bedside,” TMZ added. “Meanwhile, Scott Jennings says the 84-year-old politician was lucid enough to have a conversation for ‘just shy of 20 minutes’ about current events.

But critics on X exploded at the images of carpet samples.

“Ah yeah … you know when your husband is in hospital, it’s the perfect time to book that contractor to come sell carpet samples,” said professor Adam Cochran on X. “This is all so weird.”

“He’s so dead,” quipped another critic.

“Hollywood will make a movie about this someday,” announced another X heckler. “Just watch.

Other online comedians quickly hopped on the suggestion of post-mortem floor stains.

“Blood is hard to get out of carpets,” said one X user.

“Does he have burgundy?” asked another.

TMZ reports even President Trump has "no idea" how Sen. Mitch McConnell is doing, at least as of a couple of days ago.

“Whatever Mitch's status is, seems new flooring are a top priority,” TMZ reports.

Should Mitch McConnell's health be made transparent to the public?

Rumors and speculation about the condition of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has even McConnell’s voters wondering if they’re being represented by an empty seat — or worse, a coffin.

“I think that he should release a picture of himself or one of his aides should release a picture. We have the right to know that he's even conscious,” said one McConnell voter speaking with an MS NOW voter on Friday.

The woman added that claims by Republican pundits and Republican lawmakers to have personally spoken with the senator were doing nothing to convince her he was alive or conscious.

“Some of these phone conversations people are claiming to have, like Scott Jennings on CNN, I question that. I — it doesn't … it's not ringing true for me.”

“We've been talking to Republican, Democrats, independents and all of the Kentuckians we've been speaking to have been demanding transparency from Senator Mcconnell,” MS NOW reporter Alex Tabet told anchor Katy Tur. “I want you to hear from a couple of McConnell voters about how they're processing this moment.”

“I feel sorry for him and his family, [but] I would like to see a little more information disseminated to the public,” said another voter. “As a long time public figure, I get the privacy thing. But come on, you know you're a senator.”

“I’ve liked Mitch,” the voter added, while making a point to put his statement in past tense. “I think he's done great things for Kentucky. You know, he's probably been our greatest politician ever. But I don't really know what to say beyond that. I'd like to hear something else. You know, I don't know how much time you’re [supposed] to give him.”

“And Katy, we've been asking dozens of voters the question that you guys were just talking about earlier: Do you want age limits? Do you want term limits? Do you want a potential cognitive test for the representatives in congress? Every single person that we have asked has said, ‘Yes, those are things we want,’” Tabet said. “That also matches public opinion. Poll after poll shows that the American people want these sorts of limits. So that begs the question if the American people want it, why don't we have it?”

“Lots of Americans are going to the ballot box and they're showing how much they want it by ousting the incumbents and bringing in a new generation,” noted Tur. “We'll see what happens up there.”

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Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist Bill Torpy says the U.S District Court who smacked down President Donald Trump’s attempt to “assuage his maniacal ego and excuse the embarrassing ‘L’" on his record, is a conservative farm boy at heart.

“The judge knows politics, as well as taking a tough stand. Billy Ray grew up on a Middle Georgia farm and his family was in the political game: One uncle was a state rep, another was a congressman. Ray once headed Gwinnett’s GOP,” said Torpy, a veteran Georgia reporter. “ … Now, Ray is no radical, left-wing whacko, or whatever Trump calls those who rule against him. He’s a former tough-on-crime GOP state senator nominated to the bench by Trump in 2017.”

“That was when Trump still picked normal, reasonable Republicans,” Torpy added.

That’s probably why Judge William M. Ray II – or “Billy Ray — blocked a grand jury subpoena for information about 2020 election workers in Georgia, delivering a hard rebuff to the Justice Department’s investigation into how the election was handled in the Atlanta-area.

Torpy called the whole endeavor an “overtime-sucking boondoggle” by DOJ “sychophants … to find something, anything, that President Donald Trump can use to continue spouting his lie that he unfairly lost the 2020 election.”

Worse, if he’d been successful, Trump could have fomented enough question about election integrity in Georgia’s biggest and bluest territory election denier lawmakers could declare future election results uncertain due to questions of fraud or irregularities -- or for any other justification, frankly -- and the House or Senate could simply decide who to seat, according to veteran Atlanta election attorney David Walbert.

“And there is no doubt who today’s House and Senate would seat if there is any dispute,” Walbert told Torpy.

But thankfully Ray called the DOJ request to pore through piles of Fulton County election records an “arbitrary fishing expedition.”

In his ruling, Torpy said Judge Ray “sprinkled in a little civics lesson — with a warning.”

“Everyone, whether you support the president or you do not, or whether you believe the 2020 election was fair or believe that it was not, should be concerned about the DOJ’s ability to utilize the power of the grand jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose,” wrote Ray.

Ray, added Torpy, once “walked out on a limb in 2001” and was one of only six Senate Republicans who voted to remove the Confederate symbol from Georgia’s state flag.

“That move helped cost Gov. Roy Barnes his job. But Ray never found out if it would have deep-sixed him. He was appointed as a Gwinnett County judge before he had to run again,” said Torpy. I figure he was once a pol, came from a political family and can smell political dung a barnyard away.”

“Hopefully, there are more out there like him,” Torpy added.

Former governor and ex-Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has given up on his brief dream of becoming president, acknowledging that his brain is shrinking.

The right-leaning Deseret News podcast spoke with Romney in an extensive interview that ended with a question about his 2028 intentions.

The site, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Romney is a member, spoke with the Donald Trump foe, as the Republican Party enters a kind of identity crisis about life after the MAGA founder.

McKay Coppins asked Romney about a possible campaign as a joke, promising, "just kidding," but it was something Romney wanted to talk about. The often reserved ex-politician issued quite the attack on Trump, without even mentioning his name.

"I'm glad you've raised that," Romney said with a wry smile. "I wanted to announce that I am running one more time."

After they both laughed, Romney explained, "The truth is the truth is, you know, I remember talking to my dad about this. And, you know, in his 80s, he said, 'Oh, I would love to do it again.' And the reality is, sure, I would love to do it again. And this time I might get it right, you know, third time's a charm."

Coppins cracked that "80 isn't what it used to be."

But Romney cited Bill Bryson's book The Body: "He points out that the human brain shrinks by 20 percent by the time you're 80 years of age. Twenty percent smaller, just the size of the brain itself. So I basically think people who are 80 and above really should not be running the world or running the country."

Coppins agreed it was "probably some good wisdom."

Trump, who just turned 80 years old, became the oldest person elected to the presidency in 2024. In the first year of his second term, his gaffes have prompted questions about his mental acuity, forgetfulness and exhaustion.

Despite the tumultuous time in politics and for the Republican Party, Romney confessed he's a pessimist by nature, but his optimism about the U.S. on its 250th birthday comes from his faith in the American people.

Trump's name wasn't mentioned, but he loomed as Romney addressed specific policies he has concerns about, like China, artificial intelligence, and the proliferation of wealth for those who now have the power to buy an election.

"The decay of many of our institutions — that's a challenge," Romney added. "I'm I'm concerned about the amount of money a few people are getting. I mean, the idea that Elon Musk is going to be a trillionaire. What does that mean? We're talking about a thousand billions. And that means, you know, he could drop a couple of billion in a political campaign to support someone who would give him even more power. Uh and he's not just the only one. I shouldn't just pick on him, but there are others are going to [have] hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth [who] they will influence our political system."

Romney also gave a list of some of his favorite recipes he has started cooking in his retirement, including turkey meatballs and ham and beans, a historic soup available in the Senate for the past 100 years.

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President Donald Trump is a consummate liar, says Intelligencer writer Ed Kilgore, so you can tell how much something bothers him by the magnitude of lies he unloads to bury it.

Such is the case with the sheer magnitude of whoppers he’s been dumping on the internet to counter his hideous poll numbers.

“… [E]lection denialism isn’t an isolated vice in MAGA-land,” said Kilgore. “Trump has championed poll denialism, too. … Occasionally Trump is able to cherry-pick outlier polls that show wide public approbation of his performance as president. Here he is at a February 2025 CPAC conference bragging about his numbers”

“Our approval rating is now the highest ever across all demographics. Rasmussen just came out at 56 percent; InsiderAdvantage, 56; RMG Research, 57 percent. And we have many polls in the mid-60s. One at 71 percent—we like that, 71,” Trump told the crowd with a ghastly talent for denying historic unpopularity.

But the exaggeration was far more egregious in November 2025, when Trump made this claim at Truth Social:

“I HAVE JUST GOTTEN THE HIGHEST POLL NUMBERS OF MY “POLITICAL CAREER.” While my great work on the Economy has not yet been fully appreciated, it will be! Things are really Rockin’. Stopping WARS and Foreign Relations seems to be a strong suit. Also great, The Border and Stopping Crime. I predict that the Economy, with the already HIGHEST STOCK MARKET, EVER, and prices coming sharply down from the Biden disaster, will soon be at the top of the list. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump howled.

Of course, the president didn’t bother to offer any documentation, notes Kilgore, because that would’ve been problematic. His job-approval numbers were actually plunging at that point, wth Silver Bulletin reporting his disapproval at 55 percent. But the worse it gets the bigger lies keep coming.

“Highest Poll Numbers Ever. Even Higher than Election Day, November 5th. This despite the fact that, IRAN WILL NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” Trump posted on June 29. But he was actually at 39.5 percent per Silver Bulletin.

However, Trump’s colossal lies are bigger than just a failing president desperately self-soothing his pain, said Kilgore. This is an act of paving the way for new election denialism.

“… [R]elentlessly misstating his popularity conditions his followers to believe any adverse election results must be fake,” said Kilgore. “How could a man this popular lose? How could his party lose? The Democrats — or ‘Dumocrats,’ as he’s taken to calling them — must be cheating again!”

But this is what you can expect from a guy who’s already engaged in heavy election denialism, said Kilgore.

“Trump [even] got into the habit of election denialism on behalf of other losing Republican candidates. By 2024, his obsessive focus on the evils of immigration led him to embrace the basics of the Great Replacement Theory, which claims Democrats deliberately herd millions of illegal immigrants to the polls to steal elections at every level. And so now Trump sees fraud behind every Republican defeat in states like California, and shows every indication that he likely won’t accept a Democratic victory in the 2026 midterms. The effect on rank-and-file Republicans’ faith in free and fair elections is predictably dire.”