You Can Watch Stuart Smalley Become A Real Senator

Former president Donald Trump and his GOP supporters are hoping to rely on a tactic that's common in Russia to return him to the White House in 2024, according to one prominent expert on authoritarianism.

"As someone who follows contemporary Russia, there is a Russian phrase that comes to mind, which is the 'administrative resource,'" author and Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder told MSNBC on Friday. "What the administrative resource means in Russian is that sure, you have an election, but the people who are running the election are going to determine how the election turns out. What the Republicans are going for is precisely that thing, the administrative resource."

On Friday, Al.com reported that John Merrill, the Republican Secretary of State of Alabama, is slapping down continued allegations from MyPillow CEO and election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell that voting machines fraudulently switched votes in the state.

"The thing we have maintained is that we didn't have any issues, any irregularities, any inconsistences, any probing, any concerns that was introduced at any level to us," said Merrill, according to William Thornton.

A new police warrant claims that Alec Baldwin was handed a fully loaded gun by an unwitting assistant director ahead of a fatal shooting that occurred during the filming of the movie "Rust," reports the Associated Press's Zeke Miller.

According to NBC News, Baldwin was assured that the gun was safe to use shortly before he accidentally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in the chest.