This is hilarious: In an urgent appeal to wealthy Republicans who had assembled in Milwaukee ahead of the first GOP presidential primary debate, top brass for the super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told donors they needed an injection of $50 million over the next four months, according to leaked audio obtained by CNN. “We just need your help getting $50 million more by the end of the year, and $100 million more by the end of March,” Never Back Down CEO Chris Jankowski told donors hours before DeSantis stepped on the stage Aug. 23, according to the audio. “I’m not worried about the second 50. We need the first 50.” Throughout an hour-long presentation, Jankowski, chief operating officer Kristin Davison and chief strategist Jeff Roe walked donors through their inside view of how DeSantis is faring just five months before the Iowa caucus kicks off primary season. Their frank but upbeat assessments touched on perceived shortcomings in media exposure compared to the Trump campaign, their push to lean more heavily on Florida first lady Casey DeSantis and their goal of getting more than 100,000 Iowans to caucus for DeSantis.
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If you have some time today, take a look at this video from a leading activist in Hungary about the growing ties between Viktor Orbán and the Republican Party. It’s not good: This is the story of how has the far right ruling party of Hungary been building its connections with the Trumpist wing of the American Republicans. In our video, we show that Orbán’s party, the Fidesz, and its publicly funded political machinery have been consciously working for years on developing a network of lobby groups, think tanks and media organizations that creates and nurtures the international comradery between the hardline nationalists of Hungary and America.
Cancun Ted is desperate for a Fox gig The manly man being manly with his manly beard and his manly beer. And yet nobody can stand the guy, not even the people who vote for him.
Axios reports: Each day, former President Trump‘s staff presents him with a stack of mostly supportive letters, op-eds and printouts of tweets. They’re meant to keep him informed — but perhaps just as important, to boost his spirits. Trump, signature black Sharpie in hand, often scrawls responses on them and has his aides text a photo of the comments back to the writers. The Trump-signed hard copies are sent back by U.S. mail. Why it matters: It’s an ego-soothing exercise for Trump that winds up creating a series of viral threads, as recipients of Trump’s comments — some of whom are essentially pen pals with large digital followings — post them on social media. For Trump — whose online rants against critics, prosecutors and judges are escalating as the four felony cases against him proceed — the virality of such personal notes provides a constant chain of support, commiseration and shared anger. Zoom in: Paul Ingrassia, a former Trump White House intern, says he’s received more than a dozen notes from Trump since October in response to supportive articles Ingrassia wrote for conservative outlets.
Whale rescue! Watch the whole thing. It’s beautiful.
I wonder why? This is distressing. It appears that No Labels is going ahead with its plans to sabotage the election in favor of Donald Trump. And they’re taking money from Trump donors to help make it happen: A major Republican donor and one-time financial backer of former President Donald Trump is now a leader in the Florida chapter of No Labels’ third-party presidential bid. Allan Keen, a Florida-based real estate developer and investor who gave more than $137,000 to Trump-related election entities last cycle, has joined the centrist political group in a leadership role with its Florida chapter. “I help when I can help. I believe in the cause,” Keen told POLITICO. After Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, he said he surrendered his Republican voter registration card for one that says, “No Labels Party of Florida.” Keen’s involvement with No Labels is an extension of the work he has done with the group since 2016, including donating to its Problem Solvers PAC. But it is likely to heighten Democratic criticism that the third-party presidential bid will only hurt President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects.
Jan. 6 was just a warm-up Change can be threatening. It can be uncomfortable. What it means to an uncomfortably large number of white men who can’t get over themselves is an occasion for violence, even murder. In Jesus’s name. Spouses, children, and neighbors beware. Behold the righteous Christian soldier (and sometime bounty hunter) preaching death to MAGA enemies: Right Wing Watch elaborates: Stew Peters is a far-right virulently anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his nightly “The Stew Peters Show” program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalists and antisemites and to spread wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and calls for violence. Lately, those calls for violence have become increasingly explicit, as just last week Peters used his program to urge Americans to begin exploring “extra-legal options” to remove “enemy combatants” like Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs from office.
Or just when conservatives find it convenient? Fourteenth Amendment challenges (and counterchallenges) to Donald Trump’s disqualification for any public office in these United States are beginning to multiply. On its face, the post-Civil War constitutional amendment disqualifies Trump from running again for president over his involvement in the Jan. 6 attempted coup. Multiple conservative legal experts agree. Activists have already challenged Trump’s eligibility in North Carolina and Florida. And so? (CNN): New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, said earlier this week that he asked the state’s attorney general to examine the matter and advise him on the “provision’s potential applicability to the upcoming presidential election cycle.” The attorney general’s office said it was “carefully reviewing the legal issues.” In the statement, Scanlan said he wasn’t taking a position on the disqualification question and was not “seeking to take certain action” but was going to study the matter in anticipation of lawsuits.
Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on the former twitter on Wednesday that the Democrats are going to drag the country into a full-scale war to “unite the country behind Biden.” She said it would “be horrific”and would infuriate the country “but make no mistake, they want war.” Donald Trump was so pleased he actually re-posted her comment on his own social media platform Truth Social. Greene trying to portray herself as some sort of peacenik is possibly even more hilarious than Trump doing it but they both l like to position themselves as “anti-war” by calling Joe Biden a warmonger for supporting Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. They claim to be “America First” or at the very least, “non-interventionist” as if they just want to give peace a chance but they don’t seem to realize this just doesn’t scan as their faux pacifism is belied by their extreme bellicosity. Take for example this on from Greene just a few months ago: As you can see, they’ve actually introduced legislation to “declare war” on the Mexican cartels.
Mitch McConnell freezes up again Sen. Mitch McConnell, whatever parts are failing him, is yet another entry into the decline of the Washington, D.C. gerontocracy (Washington Post): Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appeared to freeze for more than 20 seconds Wednesday while taking questions from journalists in an incident that mirrored another occasion when he abruptly stopped speaking in late July. McConnell took questions from reporters in Covington, Ky., after talking with a local group. A reporter asked him about running for reelection in 2026, then repeated the query twice when McConnell said he couldn’t hear, according to video of the incident. McConnell, 81, chuckled and said, “Oh, that’s, uhh —” and stopped speaking. After about seven seconds, an aide approached and asked the senator if he had heard the question. She was covering, clearly, to make it appear his problem was hearing. McConnell stared straight ahead, and the aide asked reporters to give them a minute. Another aide then walked over and spoke to McConnell, who signaled that he was fine.