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Raw Story
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[l] at 9/23/26 9:57pm
President Donald Trump made an odd facial expression during a military flyover that took place while he welcomed Chinese leader Xi Jinping.On Wednesday, Trump met Xi at Joint Base Andrews, where members of the U.S. military cleaned a red carpet that had been laid out for Xi. The White House had announced in the days leading up to the visit that Trump would greet Xi with pageantry. The ceremony included two B-1 bombers soaring overhead.However, online commentators noticed videos and photos that showed Trump clenching his teeth and scrunching his face during the military flyover, as though the sound seemed to hurt him. His expression stood in stark contrast to Xi's composure.The political news network MeidasTouch posted a video of the moment and described it as, "Trump winces in pain during the loud military flyover as Xi shows no reaction."The response to the video mostly expressed mockery and embarrassment, but others analyzed what it meant about Trump's health. Journalist and political commentator Barry Malone reacted by writing in a post on X, "Wow. A truly god-tier meme has just dropped.""Watch Xi in comparison," pointed out disinformation expert and Kash Patel foe Jim Stewartson. "It's not that loud, but Trump's brain does not filter input correctly anymore due to his worsening frontotemporal dementia. The sound made his nervous system go into full overload—which registers as pain."Trump has no publicly disclosed dementia diagnosis. Stewartson added, "Note the glove," referring to the black glove that Trump wore and was holding to his forehead at the moment. "It is not cold. Sad.""Now you see why Trump got 5 deferments from Vietnam," joked author Don Winslow. "Even just the SOUND of a plane flyover is too much for the fat baby in makeup and a diaper. Look at the President of China. No reaction.""0 Days Since Being a Global Embarrassment," lamented Democratic political strategist and healthcare advocate Melanie D'Arrigo, reacting to a picture of the moment.

[Category: Trump health, Xi jinping, Trump]

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[l] at 9/23/26 9:30pm
Andrew Weissmann broke his silence after a judge tossed a former Trump lawyer's defamation suit against him over a tweet about a January 6 witness.Weissmann, a former Mueller prosecutor, spoke Wednesday on The Bulwark's "The Illegal News" podcast, telling host Sarah Longwell the dismissal was "a very good win."The case stemmed from a years-old tweet Weissmann posted about two attorneys who had represented Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide who became a star witness before the House Jan. 6 committee. The lawyer who sued, Stefan Passantino, served as a deputy White House counsel under Trump and represented Hutchinson before she switched attorneys.Weissmann said Hutchinson, with her new lawyer, recounted under oath "what the instructions were that she had been given from her prior lawyer."His tweet claimed the attorney was "not the first lawyer who had coached her to lie," Weissmann said."To be clear, I didn't say that he had told her to lie, but coached her to do that because there's a difference," he told Longwell.The lawyer then sued him in federal court. According to Weissmann, the judge tossed the case even under "the most favorable standard to the plaintiff, which is that he merely needed to show that I was negligent, not that I was intentional."According to Weissmann, "the court said that looking through the transcript of what Cassidy Hutchinson said, it didn't prove what the plaintiff alleged. It proved what I said."He stressed that the ruling did not settle whether Hutchinson's account was accurate."The court wasn't saying Cassidy Hutchinson was telling the truth or not telling the truth," he said. "What the court was dealing with was, was it fair for me to look at what she said and describe it in that way? And the court said, absolutely."The judge found "no basis to find that he was negligent, which is the lowest possible standard for defamation," Weissmann said.Andrew Weissmann Just Won a BIG Free-Speech Victory by The BulwarkRead on Substack

[Category: Stefan passantino, Cassidy hutchinson, January 6, Andrew weissmann]

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[l] at 9/23/26 8:57pm
President Donald Trump's Justice Department filed court papers contradicting his warning that the Kennedy Center could be demolished without his name on it.The status report by the Department of Justice, filed in federal court on Wednesday, attributed the shuttered venue's closure to a series of safety hazards and indicated the building could reopen once those problems are fixed, The Washington Sun reported.The DOJ's account is far more limited than the picture Trump has painted. The president has tied the landmark's future to whether his name ends up engraved on it, warning the center could be "ripped down" if he isn't recognized on the building.A sworn declaration from Executive Director Matt Floca lays out what he described as "hazard and life-safety concerns," among them falling ceiling panels, water seeping into electrical transformers, and questions about the safety of theater equipment. According to The Sun, nothing in the declaration concludes that the center has to be torn down.Floca said he kept the temporary closure in place for another week "to protect employees, patrons, artists, contractors, and other members of the public while the Center evaluated documented falling-object hazards and other infrastructure conditions and determined what measures would be required for safe occupancy and emergency egress," the report states.Much of the damage described in the filing traces back to the severe storms that hit Washington earlier this month. During these storms, "a large section of ceiling plaster weighing approximately 150 pounds fell from approximately 60 feet to the floor in a public thoroughfare," according to the filing.An inspection Tuesday by WB Engineers+Consultants found that water had apparently reached an electrical transformer vault, along with concrete fragments and other debris on the equipment. Staff also raised concerns about the opera house's lighting supports and counterweight rigging.Floca drew a line between the emergency shutdown and the board's longer-term closure plan. The filing notes that temporary safeguards won't fix the building's underlying deterioration or settle how extensive or lengthy a broader renovation would be.The center's board, stacked with Trump appointees, voted last week to close the venue for $250 million in renovations. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), who sits on the board as an ex officio member, is challenging the closure. She argues it runs afoul of an existing order from U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper and may be cover for a permanent move.After the board's vote, Trump declared the renovations dead unless a court ruled in his favor."The Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place," he wrote on Truth Social.The filing sets no reopening date. Beatty's attorneys did not immediately respond to The Sun's requests for comment.

[Category: Department of justice, Doj, Joyce beatty, Trump, Kennedy center]

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[l] at 9/23/26 8:29pm
Lawyer and journalist Katie Phang tore into President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration a day before her Senate confirmation hearing.Speaking on her "Katie Phang News" YouTube channel on Wednesday, Phang warned viewers about Dr. Heidi Overton, whose confirmation hearing is set for Thursday, and argued that Trump's nominees share a common trait."These people are just going to be parroting whatever he wants, right? There's no independent thought," Phang said. "And if you see the honorific of doctor in front of their names, that also doesn't mean anything."Phang zeroed in on Overton's work at the America First Policy Institute, where she served as chief policy officer and vice chair of the group's Center for a Healthy America."I love how they just have the word salad, but it really just means she was the chief policy officer for Crazy Land," Phang said, calling the think tank an "absolute feeder to the Trump regime."Phang, who described herself as "a true, true believer" that "the government has no business being in our business," said her reaction to the nomination was simple."Yeah, that's not going to work," she said.She then read from a policy brief Overton co-authored during her time at the institute, which declared that "abortion is corrosive to children, women, and society broadly because it devalues and extinguishes innocent human life.""All medical lies, all scientific lies," Phang said.Phang warned that Overton would hold "a lot of power over the things that are super personal to us, not just as women, by the way, but it also includes men." She also cautioned viewers not to assume the nominee would be an ally."Do not be fooled that just because they're women that they're on our side," Phang said.She also took aim at Republican senators she accused of trying to use the FDA's ongoing safety review of the abortion drug mifepristone to restrict access."They are hell-bent on using this FDA safety study as a weapon," Phang said. "They want to weaponize it to justify changing the laws and making sure that women have less access to reproductive freedom than they did before."Phang was joined by board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, who urged senators to press Overton on whether she would be transparent about the review's findings."What do you plan to do if this review actually shows that mifepristone is safe, which is something we know you don't agree with?" Lincoln asked. "Are you going to bury it?"Phang urged viewers to be "armed with the truth so you can debunk the lies that are going to be coming out of this lady's mouth tomorrow."

[Category: Food and drug administration, Fda, Katie phang, Heidi overton]

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[l] at 9/23/26 8:00pm
An energy adviser for President Donald Trump slammed a White House plan to halt diesel exports for 90 days as midterm pressure mounts.According to a Wednesday article by Politico, the Trump administration is moving toward a temporary ban despite divisions within its own ranks and opposition from fuel producers. Five anonymous insiders told Politico about the discussions and internal division.The plan would mark the first limit on U.S. energy exports since the Obama administration ended a decades-long prohibition on oil exports in 2015. "It's a terrible idea," an anonymous Trump energy adviser told Politico, adding, "There's a lot of swirl so it might change."According to the adviser, Energy Secretary Chris Wright phoned energy CEOs on Tuesday night to warn them that a ban would likely come within days. Several executives then called the White House to object, per Politico.Diesel prices have climbed to record levels following the U.S. war on Iran, which began in February, and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, Politico noted. AAA put the national average at $6.52 a gallon on Wednesday, 91 cents higher than a month earlier and $2.83 above last year, per Politico.With fewer than seven weeks until the midterms, Trump is leaning toward announcing a ban by week's end and treating any fallout as "a December problem," according to an oil industry executive who has spoken with senior White House officials."That camp has been swept aside by the political camp, which says, 'dammit, something has to happen,'" the executive said.Wright, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have reportedly objected to a full ban."Bessent is a good soldier," one person with knowledge of the talks said. "He will voice opinions and then march forward."Wright also voiced his opposition publicly at a Climate Week panel in New York on Wednesday."The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn't work because the U.S. exports a lot of diesel," Wright said. "We're the largest diesel exporter in the world, but that same refinery that produces diesel also produces gasoline and jet fuel."A White House official dismissed the reporting, according to Politico, saying, "This is another fake news story from Politico."

[Category: Chris wright, Trump white house, Diesel exports]

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[l] at 9/23/26 7:45pm
Secretive Wyoming billionaire Timothy Mellon, one of the Republican Party's most prolific financial backers, has all but cut off Senate Republicans this election cycle, furious that GOP leadership couldn't muscle through President Trump's sweeping voting restrictions bill.Mellon, grandson of Gilded Age industrialist Andrew Mellon, ranked as the second-largest Republican donor in the country during the 2024 cycle behind only Elon Musk, having steered close to $200 million toward Trump and the broader party.But this year tells a starkly different story, reported The New York Times: Mellon has publicly disclosed just roughly $3 million in donations so far, along with a separate $20 million gift to House Republicans that hasn't yet shown up in official filings. Notably absent entirely is any public money for Senate Republican candidates, a category he'd previously supported with tens of millions of dollars across the last several election cycles.People familiar with the matter say Mellon's team has explicitly linked the freeze to the Senate's failure to pass the SAVE America Act, Trump's push to restrict mail voting, impose nationwide voter ID requirements, and demand proof of citizenship for registration. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) backed the bill but acknowledged the votes simply weren't there to beat a Democratic filibuster, calling it a matter of "math."The final straw, according to someone briefed on the matter, may have been something almost trivial: Mellon was sent a standard fundraising appeal in the mail asking him to help Senate Republicans, the kind of form solicitation typically reserved for smaller donors rather than someone of his financial weight.He reportedly wrote back personally to decline, blaming the party's failure to pass the legislation.Mellon, who has backed anti-vaccine organizations and once proclaimed Black people are "belligerent" and unable to improve their own lives, is widely viewed within Republican fundraising circles as notoriously difficult to reach. Allies of Thune reportedly tried arranging a face-to-face meeting between the two men beginning last year, without success.The financial snub hasn't left Senate Republicans hurting, exactly. Their main super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, still holds roughly an $80 million cash advantage over its Democratic counterpart, thanks in part to other billionaire donors like Miriam Adelson and Stephen Schwarzman stepping in to fill the gap Mellon left behind.
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[l] at 9/23/26 7:28pm
New reporting that Vice President JD Vance was behind one of the stories that the White House used to ban Politico is sparking ridicule.On Wednesday, Status reported that Vance was the "senior administration official" cited in a Politico article about an Iran peace deal. In a letter to Politico, the White House cited the article as one of six stories justifying Trump's media ban and wrote that the information in the article had "threatened national security."When news came out that Vance was the White House's anonymous source, online commentators had their fun and took jabs at the vice president."The call was coming from inside the couch," cracked MeidasTouch, the political news network, referring to an internet joke about Vance's supposed love of furniture."You're doing great, J.D.," former GOP strategist Rick Wilson wryly posted."Hahahahahhahaha!!!" laughed former GOP strategist Tara Setmayer. "Of course it was!""JD is going to go down in such ignominy when the bill comes due," predicted journalist Pedro Gonzalez. "He's going to change his name again just to try to be a little less recognizable, but the stink won't wash out.""This dude..." national opinion columnist Sophia Nelson chided."Lmao," wrote podcaster and journalist Matthew Sitman."JD Vance isn't good at this," suggested political analyst and podcaster Andrew Donaldson.The White House Rapid Response account responded to a post by Natalie Korach, the Status journalist who broke the news, and tried to downplay the revelation."For more context, the White House holds regular press briefings to ensure accurate information is provided — but even then the media lies and peddles misinformation," the account attacked. "That article was included to highlight the White House going to great lengths to provide important access, only to have it distorted and manipulated by the propagandists in the media."

[Category: White house, Trump media ban, Jd vance]

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[l] at 9/23/26 7:17pm
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Chicago area roughed up a U.S. citizen they mistakenly wanted to arrest — then left him injured on the ground. It's the latest incident in an area where ICE has been sporadically terrorizing communities ever since President Donald Trump took office.The incident startled John Sandweg, former acting general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, who broke down the situation on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360.""I want to start with what happened in Illinois," said Cooper, asking him to assess the situation."You know, Anderson, difficult to tell," said Sandweg. For starters, he said, "Who was the individual they were targeting? Who was the guy they mistook here? Is this someone with a violent criminal history? Why did we have such an aggressive response from the officers?"Regardless of the answer to all of these questions, Sandweg continued, the force applied by agents in the encounter seems to be a real problem."This is part of what we've seen across the board, where we've seen this erosion of accountability, where there's a rush to defend these agents," said Sandweg. "And again, case after case after case where we've seen a very aggressive tone taken by the officers. It doesn't always appear justified."The bottom line, he added, is that "this is a variety of factors contributing to this erosion of culture where we're seeing these incidents keep recurring.""It is another troubling circumstance where there are real questions about the use of force," he said. - YouTube youtu.be
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[l] at 9/23/26 7:02pm
A CNN analysis keyed in on the latest bombshell revelation about a White House leaker to tear into President Donald Trump's media ban.On Wednesday, former federal prosecutor and columnist Jeffrey Toobin spoke with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper about the hearing regarding Trump's media ban. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly was still expected to rule on a temporary restraining order sought by lawyers for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, who were kicked out of the White House by the ban.Cooper brought up that the Department of Justice argued to keep the ban in place by citing national security concerns. Toobin said, "It's understandable why the White House is trying this, because the courts are at their most deferential to the executive branch when it comes to national security."However, Toobin tore into the DOJ's and White House's national security argument and noted how they've undercut it themselves. He mentioned reporting that came out shortly after Wednesday's hearing and while Kelly still hadn't ruled on the case.In a letter made public through a court filing on Tuesday, the White House justified banning Politico by citing an article with high-level information about the Iran war and characterized it as a leak that endangered national security. However, Status reported on Wednesday that Vice President JD Vance was responsible for leaking the information in question to Politico.Toobin brought it up as he ripped the DOJ's national security argument, saying, "One of the articles that the White House is complaining about, the source for that was JD Vance, the vice president of the United States."He continued, "So, they're trying to kick Politico out of the White House for a story where the source was JD Vance. I mean, it just shows how preposterous this argument is."The Washington Post noted that the White House also called the information that Politico reported "misinformation," even though it came from Vance.

[Category: Jeffrey toobin, Trump media ban, Jd vance]

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[l] at 9/23/26 6:51pm
Ohio Republicans can't pass GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's gas tax suspension plan on their own, and now find themselves needing Democratic votes to push it through before the election, an unusual bit of leverage for the minority party.According to News 5 Cleveland, Ramaswamy is working with Senate President Rob McColley and House Speaker Matt Huffman to pass a bill pausing Ohio's motor fuel tax, currently 38.5 cents per gallon on gasoline and 47 cents on diesel, for 90 days. Republicans want the measure to take effect immediately rather than after the standard waiting period, a fast-track option available only with a two-thirds majority vote, meaning at least a couple of House Democrats would have to break ranks and join them.Ramaswamy insisted at a Wednesday press conference the plan is more than campaign talk: "This isn't a campaign promise. This is action."But House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn wasn't impressed, noting Republicans hadn't bothered reaching out to Democrats before going public with the plan. "Does anyone still believe anything this guy says? He has not called me. He has not included Democrats in this process at all," Isaacsohn said.Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio said Ramaswamy's Democratic opponent Amy Acton actually floated the gas tax suspension idea first, and indicated she'd likely support it herself as long as road infrastructure funding stays protected. Still, Antonio raised concerns about how directly Ramaswamy's campaign appears to be steering state legislative business, a dynamic she said even seems to be sidelining Gov. Mike DeWine's usual influence over policy."This really smacks in the face of bringing, in a way that I've never seen before, a political campaign actually into the chamber of the Ohio legislature," Antonio said, adding plainly that she doesn't think the arrangement is appropriate.Funding the suspension is already murky. Republicans initially said they'd cover the lost revenue by tapping into the Ohio Department of Transportation's ending cash balance, but state Office of Budget Management official Pete LuPiba said afterward that the fund's roughly $1.6 billion balance is already earmarked for $5 billion in open contracts and has nothing to spare.Ramaswamy has framed the suspension as urgent relief for truckers and farmers dealing with diesel costs, even though farmers are already exempt from the fuel tax. He's declined to use his relationship with President Donald Trump to personally push for an end to the Iran war driving up prices in the first place, saying only that all Americans likely want the conflict to end. DeWine, who has historically opposed suspending the gas tax, says he still wants more details on how Republicans plan to actually pay for it.
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[l] at 9/23/26 6:33pm
As the scandal over Susan Collins’ relationship with Hawaii defense contractor Navatek became the central issue in her hotly contested senate campaign, she and her top aides mustered a defense with a series of incorrect and misleading claims.On Tuesday, ProPublica published an investigation into the senior senator from Maine’s relationship with Martin Kao, the former Navatek CEO and a major donor who told law enforcement he exchanged campaign cash for government contracts. His confession came after his guilty plea for campaign finance and loan fraud.The ProPublica story revealed that the FBI had been circling the senator, her top aides and a pro-Collins super PAC in recent years, asking questions about their relationship with Navatek. Since returning to office, President Donald Trump fired or pushed out most of the federal agents and lawyers investigating high-profile federal corruption matters, including those working on the Kao case. The dismissals ended the corruption review, which was in its early stages.After the story published, Collins and her campaign denied any wrongdoing in numerous media appearances. Some of the statements made by Collins and her representatives are not accurate.Collins: “In 2021, the Biden Justice Department found there was no wrongdoing by anyone on my campaign staff, my office or me.”Collins: “The Biden-led Justice Department and FBI totally cleared my office, my campaign and me five years ago of these seven-year-old allegations.”An FBI spokesperson told ProPublica the agency had investigated claims against Collins years ago “and ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins’ campaign.”But the investigation at the center of ProPublica’s story was based on claims Kao made between 2022 through 2024 — not seven years ago, as Collins states. That investigation did not conclude under President Joe Biden but under Trump, in 2025, after his administration purged the agents and Department of Justice attorneys assigned to the case.Collins is referring to the FBI’s initial investigation of Kao, which started in 2021. No one in Collins’ orbit was charged as a result of that earlier investigation.FBI records reviewed by ProPublica show the agency remained interested in the conduct of Collins and her staff right up until the most recent phase of their investigation was shut down under Trump.The documents show that Kao was still answering agents’ questions as late as September 2024, when he sat for a two-day interview with FBI agents at the U.S. attorney’s office in Honolulu. During that interview, Kao provided them with a 50-page document offering many new allegations about his interactions with elected officials, including Collins.And in early 2025, FBI agents were still examining Kao’s relationship with Collins, her staffers and employees of the super PAC, ProPublica found.Annie Clark, deputy chief of staff to Collins: “The FBI and the Court obviously did not believe Kao.”The judge in Kao’s sentencing ultimately offered him no benefit for his cooperation with federal authorities, sentencing him to 87 months in federal prison. While Kao had credibility issues — as a convicted felon — FBI documents seen by ProPublica show that agents were able to corroborate some of his claims.“Pursuant to a Grand Jury Subpoena issued to Navatek, related to the previous investigation, hundreds of thousands of documents were provided to the FBI,” agents wrote in a December 2024 document.“Several emails and other documents corroborate Kao’s statements made to the FBI.”In addition, people familiar with the investigation told ProPublica that FBI agents found Kao to be credible.Clark: “ProPublica took the word of someone who pled guilty to five counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and making false submissions to the FEC.”ProPublica did not simply take Kao at his word but reviewed a trove of evidence gathered by the FBI. It also examined thousands of pages of legal records and interviewed dozens of people familiar with Navatek, its Washington operations and the FBI inquiry to independently corroborate much of Kao’s account.For instance, Kao said that Scott Reed, the head of the Collins super PAC, promised to make the senator aware that Kao was the person behind a large, anonymous donation to the super PAC made through a shell company.We published emails between Reed and Kao showing that Kao told Reed the name of the shell company he was using to anonymize his $150,000 donation. And we included an email from someone working for Reed to a Navatek representative asking for Kao’s number so Collins could thank him for the donation. These are consistent with Kao’s version of events.Steve Abbott, Collins’ campaign manager, said at a Wednesday press conference, “We have no record of her calling him.” But he added that such a phone call would not be unusual: “We routinely thank people for contributions. … We try to thank everybody.”Reed did not answer detailed questions about the $150,000 donation but said he didn’t speak to Collins about Kao. He added, “I understand Martin Kao is now sitting in federal prison.”
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[l] at 9/23/26 6:29pm
Colorado gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx is adopting an unusual strategy to win the election: rather than persuade voters, simply hold a mass fasting and prayer until God forces his opponents to vote for him.According to Kyle Clark of 9 News, Marx "is calling for 21 days of fasting to cause a shift in 'ideologies' before Election Day," claiming that the election "will all be determined by prayer," and is "a spiritual battle against the forces of wickedness."Marx, a far-right candidate, has become embroiled in a long string of controversies.He has previously claimed, but not provided any evidence, that he was forced to commit a murder as a child, and that he has literally fought with demons and supernatural creatures as part of his missionary work. He has also operated his campaign merchandise store through a shell company to try to get around campaign finance law, which experts have said is illegal.The controversy has been so great that some Republican Party officials in Colorado have stepped down rather than back his campaign.Marx is not the first Republican candidate to try to pray his way to victory. Doug Mastriano attempted a similar strategy in his gubernatorial campaign in Pennsylvania in 2022, with his "40 days of fasting and prayer" in the leadup to Election Day. Mastriano also prayed for MAGA to "seize the power" in a recorded call to action right before January 6.
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[l] at 9/23/26 6:23pm
A former White House official's description of how President Donald Trump feels about the press floored CNN anchor Erin Burnett.On Wednesday, former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham gave an anecdote about press access in dictatorships. She illustrated Trump's feelings about the press by revealing what he said while meeting with leaders of those countries."Speaking of Russia and North Korea and China, I heard him on two different occasions, in a [bilateral discussion] with China and in a [bilateral meeting] with North Korea ... he told them on both occasions, the dictators, 'That is the press. Aren't they animals?'" Grisham said.When Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Grisham said she "actually physically fought those guards to get the press into that room."Trump told leaders of China and North Korea that the press are "animals" and "they're crazy," Grisham continued. "You have the right idea," Trump told leaders of those countries, Grisham said.Chinese leader Xi Jinping is visiting Trump in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, and Trump personally greeted him at Joint Base Andrews, had the military literally roll out a red carpet, and gave him a bouquet of flowers.The visit has drawn criticism about Trump's special welcome for a leader with Xi's record, which includes silencing critics and members of the press. However, it's also drawn comparisons to China's restrictions on the press, as major TV networks were absent from the event. Major networks withdrew from covering it in solidarity with CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which were affected by Trump's media ban.Grisham stressed that Trump telling leaders of China and North Korea that they "have the right idea" about the press reveals he wants to silence the free press like those countries."He absolutely wants to have a presidency more on the side of dictators," Grisham said.Burnett reacted, saying, "That's incredible, wow," and described Grisham's story as "sobering."

[Category: Erin burnett, Xi jinping, Trump media ban, Trump]

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[l] at 9/23/26 6:14pm
Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham offered a startling theory Wednesday about how President Donald Trump could keep three news outlets banned from the White House even if the Supreme Court eventually rules against him.“I’m no lawyer, so let me start there,” Grisham said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”“But I just think that if he takes it to the Supreme Court and they rightfully side with the media, I think he could get to a point where he's like, ‘Nope, let's kick them out, and anybody who kicks him out, I'll just give you a pardon.’”The striking scenario from Grisham, who also served as first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff, came as a federal judge considers a request from CNN, MS NOW and Politico to restore their reporters’ White House access.U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly did not immediately rule Wednesday on the news outlets’ request to restore their White House press passes. They sued after Trump barred them because of coverage he declared was “fake news.”Grisham told Burnett Wednesday that she also recalled hearing Trump disparage American journalists while speaking with authoritarian leaders.“I heard him on two different occasions, in a [bilateral] with China and in a [bilateral] with North Korea,” she said.Grisham said at one point she had “physically fought” North Korean guards to get American reporters into one meeting.“He told them on both occasions — the dictators, that is — that the press, ‘Aren’t they animals? They’re animals. They’re crazy. You have the right idea,” she said. “He absolutely wants to have a presidency more on the side of dictators."“That’s incredible,” Burnett added.
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[l] at 9/23/26 5:58pm
An Iowa court dismissed President Trump's lawsuit against veteran pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register on Wednesday, marking another legal defeat in Trump's ongoing campaign to punish a survey that badly missed his 2024 election margin.The result was reported out in a press release by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the legal advocacy group defending Selzer and the Register.Judge Scott Beattie ruled the lawsuit tried to twist Iowa law far beyond its actual limits, effectively treating constitutionally protected speech as if it were a punishable offense.Selzer's attorney, FIRE Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere, said the outcome vindicated what his team had argued from day one. "We're pleased that the court recognized what we've said all along: This lawsuit was laughable from the beginning and never should have been brought," Corn-Revere said.The suit stemmed from Selzer's final pre-election Iowa poll, which showed Kamala Harris leading by three points, a result that ended up far off from Trump's actual win in the state. Trump's legal team argued the inaccurate poll amounted to consumer fraud under Iowa law, but FIRE countered that commentary on an election is core protected speech, and that "fake news" is a political insult, not a legal claim, while genuine fraud requires proof of intentional deception for financial gain.Notably, Trump filed the suit just hours before a new Iowa anti-SLAPP law took effect, a law designed specifically to shift the cost of baseless litigation onto the person who filed it. A separate, similarly-themed class action against Selzer, which also included Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Trump appointee Brad Zaun as plaintiffs, was already dismissed by a federal court back in November.Selzer has maintained throughout the dispute that she published her full methodology, data crosstabs, and analysis publicly after the election, standing by the transparency of her work even as the results proved embarrassing."Polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome," Selzer said. "I am grateful that Judge Beattie's ruling recognizes these principles and reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference."
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[l] at 9/23/26 5:45pm
A federal election official entertained a pitch from a group tied to President Donald Trump to discredit public comments on making voters prove citizenship.According to a Wednesday article by Democracy Docket, emails showed that Christy McCormick, a former Republican vice chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, kept in regular contact with leaders of the Election Integrity Network during the agency's public comment period on the proof-of-citizenship proposal.The Election Integrity Network is a conservative group founded by Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer and longtime Trump ally. The legal group Democracy Forward obtained the emails between McCormick and leaders of Mitchell's group.At issue was whether the U.S. Election Assistance Commission should require documentary proof of citizenship on the federal voter registration form. Last October, Election Integrity Network deputy director Ned Jones wrote to McCormick claiming many of the comments submitted to the agency were fake or manufactured."One of our data scientists has done a deep analysis of the 134,950 'Posted Comments,' and has found that approximately 40,000 are exact multiple duplicates and approximately 90,000 are unique, many with just a slight change from the duplicates," Jones wrote."At some point, it may be very beneficial to have our data scientist brief the commissioners or even staff with his analysis of the comments," Jones added. "Thanks for all you do for election integrity."McCormick did not turn him down, even though such a briefing could have raised legal problems for the nonpartisan agency, according to Democracy Docket."It's good to know that you have a data scientist analyzing the comments," McCormick replied. "Once we get back to full strength and can have a discussion about it, I will let the others know of your offer."Democracy Docket noted that whether the briefing ever took place remained unclear. Neither the commission nor McCormick responded to Democracy Docket's requests for comment. McCormick was permitted to resign when Trump ousted the agency's leadership in July.The comment period grew out of Trump's March 2025 executive order directing the commission to add the citizenship requirement. After a federal judge blocked the order, a conservative legal group founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller petitioned the agency to pursue the change anyway, according to Democracy Docket.

[Category: Election denier, Cleta mitchell, Elections]

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[l] at 9/23/26 5:29pm
A video of uniformed U.S. personnel on their hands and knees making last-minute adjustments to a red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping sparked outrage Wednesday.The 12-second clip circulating online showed several people hurriedly smoothing and clearing the carpet at Joint Base Andrews as Chinese officials watched from the doorway of Xi’s aircraft."I hate watching Trump use our military to roll out the red carpet for autocrats," wrote retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, a former Senate candidate. "Our men and women in uniform didn’t swear an oath to be props in some authoritarian ego-stroking spectacle. It’s beneath them—and beneath the United States."MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski called the scene “a perfect metaphor for where we are with Trump.”“Our military on their hands and knees wiping off the red carpet for the Chinese,” he told his X followers.“How humiliating for the United States,” the official MeidasTouch account added. Network co-founder Ben Meiselas called it “utterly humiliating.”Sarah Matthews, a former Trump White House deputy press secretary and current Bulwark contributor, contrasted the moment with Republicans’ attacks on Democrats. “The GOP’s entire midterm pitch: Democrats are socialists and communists hellbent on destroying America,” Matthews wrote on social media. “Trump this week: Starts it by praising a socialist and ends it by rolling out the literal red carpet for a communist.”Xi arrived Wednesday for a high-stakes state visit and talks with Trump.“What a complete waste of time and embarrassment,” liberal commentator Lucas Sanders wrote on X.
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[l] at 9/23/26 5:19pm
Vice President JD Vance has been exposed as the source of a story whose supposed leak was used by the White House in court to justify the termination of Politico's access to the press pool, Oliver Darcy reported for Status.In the court battle today, the report said, "The White House singled out six stories published by POLITICO, including a June 2026 article that cited a 'senior administration official' who put the odds of the U.S. striking a deal with Iran to end the war at between 80 and 85 percent." This was characterized as some sort of leak that endangered national security.However, according to Status, that "senior administration official" was Vance, who was "speaking on a background call with reporters authorized by the White House," and had been granted anonymity by the press pool.This revelation throws serious doubt on the idea that Politico's reporting posed a security threat that justified revoking their access.President Donald Trump announced last Friday that he was barring CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, citing what he called their "constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS." The following day, reporters' entry badges for all three outlets were disabled, preventing their journalists from accessing the White House grounds.The banned outlets responded Monday by filing a joint First Amendment lawsuit in federal court, arguing the ban amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and violated their due process rights.The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee who, during Trump's first term, ruled against the administration in a similar 2018 dispute involving then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, whose press credentials were revoked after a heated on-camera exchange with Trump. In today's court hearing, Kelly appeared equally skeptical of the new reporter ban.
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[l] at 9/23/26 5:09pm
The White House defended President Donald Trump's Politico ban in court by citing a story built on quotes from its own official.According to a Wednesday article by The Washington Post, the Trump administration accused Politico of spreading "misinformation" with a report that relied on information that came from a White House official."The spread of misinformation, especially relating to national security, is a threat that undermines the President's ability to safeguard the national security," the White House wrote in a letter to Politico. The letter was then used by the Trump administration on Tuesday to respond to a lawsuit by CNN, MS NOW and Politico seeking to undo Trump's media ban.The letter was one of three the government submitted to justify barring the outlets from the White House grounds. The administration revoked Politico's press passes last week. The letter accused Politico of breaking professional standards, including by relying on unnamed sources and publishing false or classified national security information.Among Politico's six alleged offenses was a June article about the push to end the war with Iran."In June 2026, Politico cited a 'senior administration official...granted anonymity' said the odds of a preliminary deal to end the conflict with Iran were between 80 and 85 percent," the White House letter reads, per The Washington Post."Publication of sensitive security information, and misinformation about national security information, diverts White House resources and those of the national security team in particular," the letter continues.But the official was speaking with the White House's blessing. According to an invitation and a recording reviewed by The Post, the quote came from a press call the Trump administration hosted, where reporters were told to credit a "senior administration official."A White House aide said at the start of the call, "The contents of this call are on background, attributable to a senior administration official. By remaining on the line, you agree to those terms." The Post reported the contents of the call based on a recording.After the aide laid out the ground rules, a senior administration official described the odds that were quoted by Politico."I think the second thing is we do expect to be signing this agreement over the next few days," the official said. "I can't give you an exact date. And if I were to give you a confidence that we were going to be finding this agreement, I maybe would have said 75 percent this morning. It's probably more like 80, 85 percent now, but it's not 100 percent."The forecast held up as the United States and Iran announced an agreement days later, The Post noted. The White House did not respond to The Post's request for comment, nor did Politico.

[Category: Politico, White house, War in iran, Iran, Trump media ban]

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[l] at 9/23/26 5:04pm
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) missed a reception Wednesday where he was billed as the “featured guest,” according to an exclusive Daily Beast report.“The featured guest was not actually featured at the event,” the outlet observed.An agenda obtained by the Daily Beast listed the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican as the final featured guest at the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Washington fly-in. “But McConnell, now in his second week back at work after a 92-day absence, was a no-show,” the Daily Beast reported. “A source tells the Daily Beast that McConnell’s chief of staff, Terry Carmack, who is set to make $226,000 this year, attended in the senator’s place.”A man the source identified as someone often seen pushing McConnell’s wheelchair was also there, according to the report. McConnell’s office did not respond to the outlet’s inquiry about his absence, and a spokesperson did not confirm who attended. McConnell was hospitalized in June and missed 60 votes before returning to Capitol Hill in a wheelchair last week. But his return has only drawn further scrutiny. At a Senate Agriculture Committee meeting last week, McConnell did not respond when his name was called for a vote until Carmack prompted him to vote “aye,” according to the Daily Beast.The reason McConnell missed Wednesday’s reception remains unclear.
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[l] at 9/23/26 4:54pm
Suicide attempts in the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group climbed to eight during its combat deployment, far above what carriers usually see, an official said.Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao disclosed the figure in a letter dated Tuesday to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), according to CNN, which obtained the letter.The outlet said the number had not been previously reported. No sailor died by suicide during the deployment, Cao insisted."Since the beginning of Lincoln's deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group," Cao wrote to Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons.""Eight attempted suicides is incredibly high," a U.S. military official told CNN. "The strain of combat ops is much higher than normal deployments. No port calls, constant alerts, etc."The official said recent carrier strike group deployments have seen one or two attempts a year.CNN reported that between 6,000 and 7,000 sailors served in the strike group across about a half dozen ships. The carrier stayed out of port for more than six months while carrying out combat operations against Iran.The strike group's rate of attempts was roughly in line with the rate for the entire active-duty Navy in 2024, when the service recorded 356 attempts among about 337,000 sailors, according to CNN. The official was comparing the Lincoln with other carrier deployments, not the Navy as a whole."We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship," the Navy said in an earlier statement to CNN."A small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life," Cao said in an August statement, according to the Washington Examiner.CNN had previously reported that two sailors from the strike group jumped overboard in recent months. Both were rescued, U.S. officials said. Cao's count of eight is higher than the two incidents reported earlier in the summer.Cao confirmed in the letter that an air wing sailor went overboard in early August. The CNN report said that the sailor was recovered and treated aboard the carrier."Additionally, one sailor attempted to go overboard in March and was stopped by his shipmates," Cao wrote.At Joint Base Andrews on Aug. 14, a reporter told President Donald Trump that families of Lincoln sailors were concerned about conditions aboard the ship."No, they're not," Trump said. Asked whether the deployment had gone on too long, he answered, "No, no, not nearly long enough.""The Fake News media should STOP exploiting military families!" Pentagon deputy press secretary Jacob Bliss wrote on X that day."It was fake news reporting from CNN," Trump later said of the reports of distress by the families.Gillibrand responded to Cao's letter in a statement to Newsweek."What Trump and Secretary [of Defense Pete] Hegseth dismissed as 'fake news' turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members," Gillibrand said.The Lincoln left the Middle East in August and is expected back in San Diego in the coming weeks.

As of 9/24/26 2:35am. Last new 9/23/26 9:22pm.

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