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President Donald Trump apparently does not appear to be following his conservative friend’s guidance in dealing with the plague of scandals heading his way now that Democrats are in control of Congress and willing to hold the Trump family accountable for alleged self-enrichment and other crimes.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper remarked Wednesday night that conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly appears to be telling his old friend Trump that he needs to get out ahead of congressional investigators by “coming clean.”

“Get out in front of the Trump family enriching itself because this is going to come hard and it's going to come fast,” said O’Reilly. “All right? Get out in front of it. Explain what is going on. … Now, if there's some kind of illegality or something like that. But it needs to be explained by president Trump, or they're going to go wild on him.”

But so far, it looks like Trump is not taking that advice, according to a report by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who said Trump is instead planning to obstruct Democrats’ investigations, no matter how badly it looks. Trump over the weekend was already accusing Democrats of trying to extort administration officials by warning they could get ensnared in investigations and probes and that they do not have Trump’s Supreme Court-granted immunity.

“But this has kind of been building over the last few days because the president was so angry last week,” said Collins. “He got angrier, by the day, after the midterms, watching the coverage, not just of the historic Republican losses, but seeing all these Democrats come out and say, ‘yes, we're taking power … and we're also going to hold the Trump administration accountable and launch all of these investigations.”

Over the weekend, attorney general Todd Blanche parroted Trump’s rebelliousness on cable television, and Blanche followed that up with a letter to incoming House Oversight Chair, Robert Garcia.

“Basically, it's a signal of how the administration plans to handle this come January. They are going to fight these subpoenas,” said Collins, adding that this brand of obstruction surpasses Trump’s obstruction in his first term when they ignored or defy subpoenas. “They're signaling this is going to be a very combative white house with this democratic majority here in Washington.”

Democrats’ plan to get around White House obstruction is unclear as Congress and Trump trade barbs in court, arguing over executive privilege.

“And that is a game plan that the White House is familiar with,” said Collins. “They've lived this story before. A lot of these Democrats were not in power when Trump was in office the last time. And so, this is a new, new ballgame for them, essentially.”

Later that night, Garcia told Collins that the fight against obstinate White House officials can carry down to state courts, if necessary — and that Trump and his people will be out of D.C. in two years and extremely vulnerable to prosecution.

“Either answer questions now or face them in the future,” Garcia warned.

President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters have long desired to stack America's courts with right-wing judges, an agenda that exists somewhat uncomfortably next to Trump's repeated alienation of those same judges. Now a conservative publication is arguing that Trump failed to realize the potential for a drastic Republican reshaping of the judiciary.

"On judges as on so much else, Mr. Trump is his own worst enemy," wrote The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board on Wednesday. The publication observed that "one disappointment of President Trump’s second term is the relatively fewer judicial confirmations. With his nominees about to hit a brick wall next year, Republicans can make up some of the lost time by moving as many judges as possible in the lame-duck session."

They added, "Since January 2025, the Senate has confirmed 56 judicial nominees, including 10 for circuit courts, 45 for district courts and one to the Court of International Trade. In the same period in Mr. Trump’s first term, the Senate confirmed 84 judges, including 29 circuit judges, 53 district judges and Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Senate Democrats confirmed 84 judges in Joe Biden’s corresponding time frame."

The publication concluded, "The judiciary is a major part of any President’s legacy, and the shame is that the GOP rout last week will cut short Mr. Trump’s opportunity. Only nominees who pass ideological approval by Democrats will be confirmed for the next two years. Mark it down as another result of the many White House mistakes that cost GOP control of the Senate."

In August, Judge John J. McConnell Jr., the Chief Justice of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace that Trump's attacks on the judiciary have negatively impacted the judges.

“It's not an easy thing for any of us to come forward and talk about the personal threats," McConnell told Wallace. "It's also not an easy thing for us to come forward as judges, because you all work on[.] There is an unprecedented amount of personal attacks against judges — not just me, but all across the country. It's systematic, it's growing, it's severe. There are sustained efforts.”

He added, “There are, in my opinion, results of sustained efforts by high-level members of the executive branch who have called judges rogue, insurrectionists, radicals, haters, moneyed, lunatics, corrupt, vicious. And this constant personal attack on my fellow district judges and myself and our families is the beginning of the attack on equal justice under the law, according to the rule of law.”

He continued, “My story is not unique — it's disturbing, but it's not unique. I received six or seven credible death threats. My daughter was doxxed by Laura Loomer and by Elon Musk. I have a picture of myself on a wanted poster made by a congressman. Ethics complaints were filed against me, and some of the attacks were against my wife — certainly not a public figure. And so that level of personally attacking judges by a co-equal branch of government is detrimental to our democracy as we know it.”

A comedian mocked Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), who recently lost the Mississippi Senate election in a race in which she dismissed concerns about rising beef prices by advising voters to "pick another protein" — prompting her victorious opponent, District Attorney Scott Colom, to urge Mississippians in a viral ad to instead "pick another senator."

"You guys hear the news?" Masterson said while walking into a Hyde-Smith office. "They called it."

Later adding that "Cindy lost," Masterson joked with the workers in the office by adding "Thank y’all. So they did pick another... What protein is that? There you go."

At another point he continued, "They picked a new senator. Good job, Scott."

Shooting from outside the office building, Masterson joked that "it’s even funnier to know that we filmed this video two days before the race was called." One of his colleagues added, "We lied and now they’re all scrambling to check the news. We’re posting it as we won. Just gotta give him a little pre-heart attack."

Hyde-Smith on Wednesday conceded to Colom after his win became a mathematical certainty.

"With the vast majority of Election Day ballots reported, the margin is measured in just dozens of votes," Hyde-Smith's team wrote during the counting process. "We have thousands of outstanding ballots, including affidavit and absentee ballots, which still must be processed and verified under Mississippi law."

Hyde-Smith's representatives continued, "Our campaign is closely monitoring the remaining count. We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith."

Some Democratic critics accused Hyde-Smith of delaying accepting the result as an intimidation tactic.

"I don’t know Cindy Hyde-Smith and how she may react to this personally, whether she understands the math and whether she’s being stubborn or recalcitrant or truly trying to get every vote counted, which would be fine and, I know, a part of the process when the race is very, very close," Democratic strategist Dan Kanninen told MS NOW on Wednesday. "I do think in the South in particular, there is just this history of using tactics to intimidate voters into not participating. And we talked about this the other day with the affidavit ballots, where they use Experian credit data to put people on an inactive list. With the idea being that when you show up and you’re a Black voter, you think you’re active, you’re on the wrong list, then maybe you go home because it seems not worth it to do an affidavit ballot."

He continued, "And everything from [Attorney General] Todd Blanche’s saber-rattling to, I think, the elongation of this kind of long, drawn-out process when it’s [clear who] the winner is, is part of at least the instinct about the strategy: to put up barriers, cast doubt on the validity of elections and ultimately keep folks at home and not participate in these elections."

Jewish civilization professor and MS NOW writer Jacques Berlinerblau says he doesn’t understand why MAGA is suddenly in flames over a cruel joke at Charlie Kirk’s expense. They seem cool with cruel jokes at everybody else, he said.

In a leaked clip from a recent Madison Square Garden performance, comedian Dave Chappelle said: “Ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered — and I shouldn’t say this publicly — but … I feel better.”

Nobody knows the context of the piecemeal quip in the smuggled recording, but right-wing activists are burning down the internet over it.

“The joke, if we can even call it that, was abhorrent considering Kirk was brutally publicly assassinated,” said Berlinerblau. “Yet Chappelle makes many abhorrent jokes about many different people. MAGA’s response to this one in particular reminds us of two things: They have woefully misunderstood Chapelle’s true brand, and many of them behave as if the First Amendment contains a Charlie Kirk carve-out.”

Vicious quips about the LGBTQ community, Black people, Jews, Asian Americans or people with disabilities are merely “thought-provoking, healthy and constitutionally protected forms of expressive liberty, if you ask your average MAGA enthusiast,” argued Berlinerblau. “… But any invidious reference to the assassinated Kirk is beyond the pale, dangerous and potentially punishable by jail time or the revocation of one’s visa.”

Elon Musk once demanded the firing of a ‘disgusting and cruel’ WSJ reporter who uncovered a DOGE employee Marko Elez’ racist tweets “Normalize Indian hate,” on X.

But now that Kirk is the source of a comedian’s joke Musk posts, “Dave Chappelle is cruel.”

“Far-right commentator Matt Walsh called Chappelle ‘a soulless goblin,’ ‘a monstrosity,’ ‘a maggot eaten corpse,’ a ‘morally disfigured beast’ and on his podcast seemingly seriously suggested he be arrested and deported,” said Berlinerblau — despite Chappelle clearly being a U.S. citizen born in Washington D.C.

Comedian Rob Schneider’s own career took a tumble after he upset a hospital foundation audience with “transphobic, misogynistic and anti-vax” jokes. And he once got kicked off a GOP stage after driving away former senator Cindy Hyde Smith (R-Miss.) with raunchy material.

At the time, Schneider defended his jokes, saying: 'I’m not changing my material or apologizing for my jokes to anybody. Enough with this woke bulls——. America’s sick of it."

Nevertheless, Schneider was quick to rebuke Chappelle this week: “Dave, you are now a champion of senseless violence who embodies the base ugliness of our body politic. Nobody deserves to die for engaging in conversation,” said Schneider. “And no one should ‘feel better’ after the violent murder of a husband, a father, a son and a friend. No human being deserves that.”

If MAGA wants to argue that it’s ethics dictate never to make jokes about recently murdered people, good luck said Berlinerblau. Manosphere comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked during the Netflix Kevin Hart roast, “Right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all, laughing so hard that he can’t breathe.”

The Trump administration’s celebration of Veteran’s Day got a loud interruption when the guard holding vigil over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier had to shout down the group following Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — which had erupted into giggles and laughter against strict Tomb protocols.

“All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect! At all times!” raged the sentinel in a powerful baritone.

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier is one of the most sacred war memorials in the U.S., marking the final resting place of an unknown soldier killed in World War One. Since 1948, a soldier has been assigned to guard the tomb, rain or shine, in all circumstances, 24 hours a day. A guard has remained vigilant even during a recent hurricane that blasted through the area.

But Hegseth’s crew caught the worst of the sentinel’s rancor, who publicly shamed the defense secretary and his group as they made their way up the tomb steps.

Vietnam Veteran Michale Lemmon bashed Hegseth and company on CNN Wednesday night, complaining that the Sec. of Defense’s entourage reflected the “Animal House” mentality that Hegseth slung over the defense department.

“My first reaction was, God bless that soldier for doing his duty. My second reaction was this is emblematic of — how do I put it? — the ‘Animal House’ type of secretary of defense and Pentagon that we seem to have now,” said Lemmon, who is suing the Pentagon over the construction of the Trump Arch.

“You’d think that they would know better, that you have to be solemn and quiet and respectful at that tomb in particular,” continued Lemmon, “but at Arlington National Cemetery in general. I think this is emblematic of, shall we say, the very shallow appreciation that senior levels seem to have of the symbolic emotional, fundamental importance of Arlington National Cemetery and its sensitivity. It is sacred ground.”

Unlike President Donald Trump’s other “vanity projects,” like the East wing ballroom or the East Potomac golf course, Lemmons told CNN anchor Erin Burnett that the cemetery symbolizes an “unwritten, compact between veterans and their government.”

Burnett replayed for Lemmon Hegseth’s recent monologue extolling the image he plans for the military, namely: “We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. No fanny, no fatties, no trannies, no beards, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors. Just tough, ready committed troops.”

“He is degrading not just the physical capabilities of our beloved military, but the morale,” said Lemmon, “I've got lots of friends who are still serving, as well as many retired. And the rot — you know, a fish rots from the head on down, and the rot is beginning to spread. What [Hegseth] has done to some of our finest generals and admirals and senior officials in the Pentagon is incredible. This is like a juvenile finally, with power and not being able to restrain himself.”

The American South has a long history of intimidating non-white voters, and that history may be in effect right now as Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) refuses to concede her Senate race to the Democrat who defeated her, District Attorney Scott Colom.

"I don’t know Cindy Hyde-Smith and how she may react to this personally, whether she understands the math and whether she’s being stubborn or recalcitrant or truly trying to get every vote counted, which would be fine and, I know, a part of the process when the race is very, very close," Democratic strategist Dan Kanninen told MS NOW on Wednesday. "I do think in the South in particular, there is just this history of using tactics to intimidate voters into not participating. And we talked about this the other day with the affidavit ballots, where they use Experian credit data to put people on an inactive list. With the idea being that when you show up and you’re a Black voter, you think you’re active, you’re on the wrong list, then maybe you go home because it seems not worth it to do an affidavit ballot."

He added, "And everything from [Attorney General] Todd Blanche’s saber-rattling to, I think, the elongation of this kind of long, drawn-out process when it’s [clear who] the winner is, is part of at least the instinct about the strategy: to put up barriers, cast doubt on the validity of elections and ultimately keep folks at home and not participate in these elections."

Republican strategist Stuart Stevens also commented on Wednesday that Sen. Hyde-Smith is behaving poorly by refusing to concede to Colom.

"Look, Ole Miss played Georgia Saturday night, and they were 42 to 7 behind with two minutes to go, and they had a better chance than Cindy Hyde-Smith to win. This thing is done," Stevens, who is from Jackson, told CNN. "It should be called. It's a disservice to the state not to call it, because he needs to be up in Washington doing all the briefings and orientation that senators do."

"If she were to win 90 percent of the ballots outstanding, she still would lose," he added, pointing out that "something remarkable has happened here. I think it's interesting to me that Scott's family hasn't gotten enough attention. You know, his grandmother was a civil rights worker in Ripley, Mississippi, and now her grandson is going to be the first African American [senator] since Reconstruction. His father was a Reagan guy who ran for state treasurer as a Republican in Mississippi in the 1980s, which is when I first met him."

Writing for AlterNet prior to Colom's victory, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich argued that Colom had figuratively won if he did not literally win before the official result was declared.

"Democrat Scott Colom hasn’t yet won Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race," Reich wrote. "The state is still tallying ballots that could make Colom the first Black senator from Mississippi since …1881."

He added, "We’ll probably know by Friday. It will depend on a process playing out in election offices across Mississippi’s 82 counties, where local officials are receiving and examining absentee and provisional ballots. As of Monday morning, Colom’s lead over Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith had grown to nearly 2,600 votes."

Ultimately, Reich noted, "Colom and his Black supporters have not ignored the significance of his candidacy as a Black man. He ended his campaign with an ad set at the Jackson home of Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader who was gunned down in 1963 in his own driveway, dying in front of his wife and children."

Colom's quote was, “It’s a powerful reminder of the sacrifice to gain the ballot. What was important to me about that ad is we didn’t ask people to vote for me. We just talked about the sacrifice, talked about the story. We just wanted that to be the closing ad because I wanted that to be the last message that the people of Mississippi heard.”

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Axios reported Wednesday afternoon that one Cabinet official in President Donald Trump's administration is the reason there hasn't been an espionage investigation into the CEO of Nvidia, who was in a relationship with a woman that U.S. intelligence believed to be a spy.

It was reported this week that members of Trump's Cabinet were briefed on the spy that chip maker Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitted to having an extramarital affair with. Now, New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman reports that the president also received a briefing on the matter. Trump previously denied he knew anything about it.

Huang and Trump have built a close relationship as Trump continues to take advantage of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. There's now a fear about whether Huang's relationship with Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), resulted in intelligence being obtained for China.

Alice Huang is a businesswoman for Megaspeed whom U.S. intelligence officials long suspected of spying for China, and her relationship with Jensen Huang could have resulted in an effort to get restricted AI chips to China. Nvidia has worked to persuade Washington to loosen restrictions on exports of its advanced chips to China.

Last week, Trump authorized a crackdown on companies suspected of diverting advanced AI chips to China, including Nvidia's.

One official has been standing in the way: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

"This standoff illustrates a breakdown in efforts to keep American technology out of China's hands as the world wonders why the Trump administration has not taken action against the company at the center of suspected chip smuggling — and an espionage scandal," Axios said in the Wednesday report.

Lutnick was forced into a Situation Room meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the report said. There, Bessent hammered Lutnick on why his department hasn't wanted to implement export controls on Alice Huang's Megaspeed. Lutnick was standing on an island over the tech giants, and the other Cabinet officials wanted to know why.

Lutnick finally relented, but then mumbled, "I need to check with the president."

But that comment "raised concerns" for the other Cabinet members, sources told Axios. Officials have waited for the Commerce Department to impose the export controls, but they never have.

"He's stalling it out," one official told Axios. He'd previously met with Trump about it and managed to change his mind on the export limit.

"This is an ongoing concern with Howard and this issue," another official said.

One person in the meeting with the Cabinet members called Lutnick's bluff, announcing, "Great. Why don't we do it today?"

So, they headed to the Oval Office to inform the president.

Trump even had Elon Musk approve the move. Lutnick reportedly complained that it would "start a trade war with China."

"Everyone argued back that China is already doing to us what Lutnick warned would happen," a source told Axios.

Suddenly, Lutnick came up with a new delay tactic, saying he would "develop some options and come back."

"Everyone was like: 'No, no, the decision's been made. Go f—— execute,'" said a source. "Well, it still hasn't happened."

Former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh on Wednesday warned the Republican Party is making a mistake with its new minority leader Jim Jordan.

“I know Jim Jordan. I know Jim Jordan well. I served with Jim Jordan,” said Walsh, speaking on his Wednesday “Social Contract” podcast. “There was a time when Jim Jordan and I were very, very good friends. Let me tell you about Jim Jordan and MAGA: The 2020 election was stolen; We got to keep brown and Black people out of America; this is a white Christian country; Democrats are evil. That's where Jim Jordan is. That's who Jim Jordan is. Jim Jordan is as extreme as you can want in the Republican caucus in the House.”

Jordan is also not about reaching across the aisle with the new House majority or working with independents, warned Walsh. Jordan is about doubling down and preserving the MAGA base, over all else. “The reason we lost, Jim Jordan thinks, is we just weren't ugly enough. We weren't cruel enough. We weren't angry enough,” he said.

Oddly, Jordan did not originally support Trump when the Trump first came on the scene around 2015. Jordan is a Christian man, said Walsh, who professes to believe in what's right and wrong, good and bad, decent and cruel, the truth and a lie. So, he did not like Trump out of the gate.

But once it became clear Trump was nabbing the 2016 nomination Jordan jumped on Team Trump “like nobody else,” said Walsh.

“Once, just very briefly, I said to him, Jim, Trump's a bad guy. He's a horrible guy,” said Walsh. “He lies every time he opens his mouth. He's like a big government authoritarian. Jim — fellow Tea Party guy, Jim — Donald Trump is the very antithesis of what you and me and the Tea Party said we supported. And I'll never forget Jordan's answer to me. He said, ‘yeah, Joe, yeah, Joe, yeah, Joe, Trump's not perfect, but the Democrats are evil.’"

And “that's how Jordan sees the world,” said Walsh. “The other side is bad. The other side is evil. So nothing more matters than defeating the other side. … House Republicans yesterday put someone to be their leader, chose someone. Who believes Democrats are evil.”

Worse, Jordan in charge means the GOP will “double down” on all the mistakes that got the part routed during the midterms, said Walsh.

“All they're going to be about is opposing Democrats and calling them evil and communists,” lamented Walsh. “They're gonna double down on what they said and did that caused them to lose. They've learned nothing. Jim Jordan, either doesn't understand or will never admit that the American people last week said to the Republican Party, ‘you're too extreme. You're too cruel. You don't give a flying f—— about the issues we care about. You are utterly beholden to Donald Trump and you're letting him break any law and be as corrupt as he wants to be.’ That's what the American people told the Republican Party, and that's why the American people spanked the Republican Party so hard last week.”

But Walsh, who repeats that he “knows Jordan” well, said Jordan “sat in his office a day or two after the election, a day or two after this … whooping, and he said, ‘Look, we're right. We're on the right side. We're good. They're evil.’”

Early in his second term, President Donald Trump would reportedly play a game in which he'd talk about whether Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio should be his successor. At that time, the Republican presidential nomination in 2028 seemed like a prize very much worth having. With the 2026 midterm elections setting back Republicans so severely that that year's nominee now seems like a surefire loser, it appears that at least one of those prospective candidates, Rubio, is quietly stepping away from the political limelight.

"Several lawmakers said they’ve spoken to people close to Rubio who have suggested he isn’t interested in pursuing a 2028 bid, even after Tuesday’s results," reported Politico's Meredith Lee Hill and Mia McCarthy on Wednesday. "Rubio himself this week has stood by Trump’s decision to go to war against Iran and told reporters Monday he was 'just not going to talk about 2028 anymore.'"

The journalists added, "Rubio’s supporters say that he’s not as closely associated with the 2026 GOP wipeout as Vance, but he could face his own obstacles. Rubio, unlike Vance, has continued to show strong support for the war in Iran, a conflict he’s tied to as the country’s top diplomat. Some GOP lawmakers have also grown frustrated with the amount of information the Trump administration, including Rubio at times, has been willing to share about the ongoing conflict."

They continued, "Rubio also has his failed 2016 presidential run to contend with, including an infamous debate performance where he awkwardly repeated the same rehearsed line multiple times."

Politico is not the first outlet to report on the possibility that Rubio will distance himself from the Trump administration. Going one step further, Bloomberg reported shortly after the election results came in that the Secretary of State is thinking of resigning.

"Secretary of State Marco Rubio is weighing whether to leave the Trump administration, people familiar with the matter said, as he considers his next moves following Republicans’ midterm elections wipeout this week," Bloomberg's Alan Wickham posted on X at the time. "Rubio and his advisers are going over options for his future, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. He hasn’t made a decision about whether to quit his posts as top US diplomat and national security adviser, and there is no timetable on a possible departure."

Speaking to AlterNet earlier in November, Beauregard Patterson — Election and Voting Rights Counsel at Democracy Defenders Fund — argued that Trump had planned on stealing the 2026 midterm elections but found the pro-Democratic vote and sprawling nature of the contest made it impossible for him to do so.

"One of the challenges here is that, in order to actually overturn this election, the Trump administration would have had to successfully overturn the results in several states simultaneously," Patterson explained to AlterNet. "And look at the past year and a half of litigation efforts to challenge election procedures and to federalize elections, particularly, if you’ll recall, the attempt to use USPS as a federal mechanism for whether ballots are rejected or accepted. Because of the failure of all those dozens of legal challenges and attempts at subversion by the Trump administration, they were left with few tools at this point to meaningfully try to take over and overturn the election results."