Mike Davis of the pro-MAGA Article III project agreed.
"I think Joe Biden tested positive for dementia, right?" he remarked. "And if they don't want him on the stage... Maybe he'll have to sit on the stage too long. He doesn't have diapers to last that long."
Openly gay disgraced former New York Congressman George Santos says executives at the popular gay dating app Grindr are calling the Republican National Convention the “Grindr Superbowl” amid reported spikes in outages of the app.
Santos, who was expelled from Congress in 2023 after allegations he had fabricated much of his biography,
took to X Wednesday to share his thoughts on the dating app’s alleged popularity at the conservative conference.
“Grindr executives are calling the RNC convention the Grindr Superbowl,” Santos said in
a post on X.
Representatives from Grindr did not immediately return requests for comment to confirm whether the outages were in the Milwaukee area or in any way related to the RNC.
Another video posted to X appeared to show a Grindr user at the convention swiping through scores of prospective matches.
“Let me tell ya’ something: just come out of the closet boys. Come on, it's fun. You can be gay and conservative,” Santos said on X. “But look Grindr is already outing you anyway based on the hits and guess who is in town? It's all you conservatives.”
CNN's Kaitlan Collins cornered former President Donald Trump's attorney Todd Blanche on special counsel Jack Smith's appeal to reverse Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case — something that legal experts stressed flew completely in the face of decades of precedent and understanding of how the special counsel regulations are written, and many hope will lead to Cannon being thrown off the case entirely when it restarts.
Blanche tried to argue that Cannon was right to find the case unconstitutional under the Appointments Clause because federal prosecutors are always Senate-confirmed — then when Collins pointed out that tons of them are not, he immediately shifted the goalposts.
"I think it's going to stand on appeal for sure," said Blanche. "I mean, the 11th Circuit ... there's no case that's ever appeared in front of them consistent with this. And Judge Cannon's opinion, 93 pages, consistent with the law, consistent with the legislative history. It's a really beautifully accurate, well-written decision. We have no fear in front of the 11th Circuit." (Notably, the 11th Circuit has already overruled Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge who has faced accusations of partisan bias, for other improper decisions around the classified documents investigation.)
"When Donald Trump was in office, when he was president, the 11th Circuit did face a case like this with Robert Mueller as special counsel and they upheld his appointment," said Collins. "So why do you think that they'll rule differently now?"
"Well that was the D.C. Circuit," said Blanche. "Judge Cannon is not bound by the D.C. Circuit and the 11th Circuit is not bound by the D.C. Circuit ... we're very confident that the 11th Circuit is going to affirm, and if it goes to the Supreme Court, that the Supreme Court will affirm as well."
"But there are a lot of U.S. attorneys that are not Senate-confirmed," said Collins. "So I think some people may look at this and say, well, why does the special counsel have to be?"
"Well, that's not true," said Blanche. "There aren't a lot of U.S. attorneys who are not—"
"There are multiple U.S. attorneys who are not Senate-confirmed," Collins pressed him.
"That's not true," he insisted. "There's a process that happens when there's a U.S. attorney vacancy, and you can be acting for awhile, and then the judges of that district actually make you the U.S. attorney. It's nothing like what Jack Smith — it's not a situation where the attorney general just says, hey, you're a private citizen and you can come and you can sign indictments and you can prosecute people, and you can take away somebody's liberty, you can take away the President of the United States' liberty."
A Republican lawmaker steamrolled a CNN anchor on live television Wednesday only to be subjected to a brutal fact-check from infuriated viewers online.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw opened his interview by forcing anchor Boris Sanchez to apologize for a quote he claimed had been misrepresented, then continued to assert former President Donald Trump had been a strong supporter of Ukraine.
"Earlier this year," Sanchez told Crenshaw, "you said that Republicans torpedoing the bipartisan Senate border bill was, I'm quoting you, 'the height of stupidity."
"You're misquoting me, I didn't say that," Crenshaw replied. "I said the height of stupidity is having an opinion on something that you haven't read yet. That's very different."
Crenshaw was in fact slamming Republicans' response to a bipartisan border bill — which subsequently died in the Senate — which they had not read.
Rather than make that point, however, Sanchez replied, "I must have misread it. I appreciate the correction."
The conversation then turned to Ukraine as Sanchez noted Trump's chosen running mate Sen. J. D. Vance has openly admitted he doesn't "really care" what happens to the war-torn ally combatting a Russian invasion led by President Vladimir Putin.
Crenshaw replied he didn't really care about any of Vance's views.
"Trump has always been pretty good about supporting Ukraine," Crenshaw said. "So I'm not as worried about about the Trump presidency."
This comment caught the attention of journalist Aaron Rupar, who rushed to issue on X the fact-check Sanchez did not deliver on television.
"Trump was impeached for trying to blackmail the Ukrainian president," Rupar wrote.
Trump was accused in 2019 of illegally pressuring Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to support his re-election campaign by investigating now-President Joe Biden, but was ultimately cleared in a Senate trial two months later.
At the heart of the case was a phone call during which Trump demanded the investigation after alluding to military aid to Ukraine he had blocked.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) lashed out at her own political party for "misogyny" in a recent interview.
While speaking to conspiracy theorist Russell Brand on Wednesday, Greene suggested that "the patriarchy" was misunderstood.
"I was actually thinking about the patriarchy and how the patriarchy has been framed for many, you know, millions and millions of young women and teenage girls," she said. "And I was thinking, you know, the patriarchy is actually something truly different than how it's been framed and how these young women think."
"But the whole term, f--k the patriarchy, which is freeing to be able to say, needs to be redefined," she continued. "I think the patriarchy is so much different than how they've been taught."
But Greene noted that she had also been a victim of the patriarchy in the Republican Party.
"There's misogyny, not just coming from the media, perhaps, or the Democrats," she observed. "It's in our Republican Party, too."
"A lot of these guys, they want to control the power, and they really probably don't want women up there telling them what to do, or taking charge, or being in the lead," the lawmaker asserted.
Speaking to Forbes at the Republican National Convention Monday, Trump's son said, "Well, it's been a pretty somber mood, right? I mean, my father got shot at. Somebody took off half of his ear."
Posting on social media Saturday night, the elder Trump said a bullet had "pierced" the upper part of his ear.
Even Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), who served as Trump's White House doctor, told The New York Times that "the bullet took a little bit off the top of his ear in an area that, just by nature, bleeds like crazy."
A very aggressive Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) cut off CNN's Dana Bash as she attempted to fact check her by pointing out that Republicans have continually derailed much-needed immigration reform during an interview at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday.
After letting the GOP lawmaker ramble on about the support Trump has been receiving at the convention, things went sideways when Salazar bashed the Biden administration on border policy and the CNN host corrected her.
"The Dems had, during [Barack] Obama and during Biden, the possibility to pass immigration reform law and give dignity to our people and they didn't" Salazar asserted.
"Well, I mean, I was there, I was in the hallways. This was blown up in large part because the Republican base didn't want it," Bash replied. "They were so close so many times."
Leaning in, Salazar interrupted, "During Obama, we were at this interview when he told us in 2008, that in the first 100 days of his presidency, he was going to sign an immigration reform law. And he invested that political capital in Obamacare. That was a lie! Now let's move forward: 2020, President Biden, he said, I'm going to give an immigration reform law to everyone who votes for me in our community within the first 100 days."
"And it was blown up by Donald Trump, who told —," Bash countered only to have Salazar speak over her and claim, "Not really," as Bash was talked over.
"The Dems had, under Nancy Pelosi, the Dems had Congress and they had Senate and they had, ah — everything passed," Salazar insisted. "BBB was considered and the infrastructure, the $1.9 trillion immigration. Unfortunately, immigration is not a top priority, even though they say it, it's also, I mean, it is impossible when it comes to these issues in Congress right now, which is Dems could have done."
"Again I was covering Congress then they tried and it fell apart for lots of reasons primarily because —," Bash attempted as Salazar interrupted again and blamed it on Nancy Pelosi.
A South Florida dive bar has been hit by backlash after displaying a joke about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on its large outdoor sign.
“How do you miss a head that’s that inflated?” was arranged in large letters on the marquee outside Harry’s Banana Farm in Lake Worth Beach Monday, Miami News Times reports.
The sign was taken down within 24 hours following public outcry, mostly from supporters of the former president and current GOP nominee to return to the White House.
Trump was injured and a spectator was killed Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when a 20-year-old shooter climbed a roof and fired off several shots before being killed by Secret Service members.
Harry’s Banana Farm manager Lou De Stout told WPTV News he has a penchant for crafting snarky signage outside the bar.
"I thought it was just another humorous sign but apparently it struck a nerve,” De Stout told WPTV.
Soon after the sign went up, Trump supporters gathered outside the restaurant Monday in protest and flocked to the business's online Yelp page, spamming it with negative reviews.
The following day, the bar had a new message on the marquee.
"Yeah for Trump. So happy for him. You crazy b-----ds happy?"
During an appearance on CNN with host Jim Acosta, a former colleague of Nikki Haley, who served with her in the South Carolina House of Representatives, claimed he was not surprised in the least that she would set aside her principles and endorse Donald Trump.
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, was given a key spot in the Republican National Convention on Tuesday where she endorsed the former president, whom she has previously labeled "unhinged" while claiming re-electing him would be equivalent to "suicide."
On Wednesday CNN contributor Bakari Sellars, a former South Carolina lawmaker, smirked when the topic came up and noted her history of being an opportunist with no fixed beliefs.
"I can tell you is that this surprises no one who knows Nikki Haley," he began. "She has the backbone of an octopus and so politically, when you have somebody who floats with the wind, this is not a surprise."
"I mean, I think this is one of the larger issues that Donald Trump actually had with Nikki Haley; the fact that she can do one thing in your face, then behind your back, do something totally different so that's kind of what we're seeing amongst the people around Donald Trump," he added.
"It's fascinating to see the Lindsey Grahams, the Marco Rubios, the Ted Cruzes, the Nikki Haleys who he [Trump] talks about like dogs," Sellars continued. "He talks about their wives. He called her 'birdbrain,' sent literal bird foods to her room. She says this and that, and then they kind of just crumble and it's missed and so the Republican Party that we're seeing on display is a Republican Party that is not like any Republican party before."
"I would venture to say, doesn't stand for much," he added, to which host Acosta added, "Yeah, he collects these critics turned converts like baseball cards."
Walking out beneath a banner that read "Make America Safe Once Again," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continued the GOP's attacks on LGBTQ Americans into Tuesday night at day two of the Republican National Convention, despite the party's presidential nominee, Donald Trump, vow to unite the nation.
Parading his far-right social agenda, DeSantis, who ended his 2024 presidential bid in January, angrily attacked President Joe Biden and American principles of equality.
"Let's be honest here. Biden is just a figurehead. He's a tool for imposing a leftist agenda on the American people. They support open borders, allowing millions and millions of illegal aliens to pour into our country and divert in our communities. But just don't send any to Martha's Vineyard then they get really upset," the two-term Florida GOP governor mockingly declared, reminding Republicans that he spent state tax dollars to pick up 48 Venezuelan asylum seekers, including children, in Texas, and transport them to the tiny island town in Massachusetts, where they discovered, one said, they had been "tricked."
"They have unleashed progressive prosecutors across our nation who care more about coddling criminals than about protecting their own communities," DeSantis continued at the convention where Donald Trump, a convicted felon, was officially chosen as the party's presidential nominee just 24 hours earlier.
"They use the unelected bureaucracy to impose their will on us without our consent," DeSantis added, although it was unclear if he was referring to the nation's justice system. "And they weaponize political power to target their political opponents like they've done to our own nominee."
"They want to ban gas automobiles, eliminate Second Amendment rights and impose gender ideology on everyone from our infantry men to kindergarteners. They stand for DEI, which really means 'division, exclusion and indoctrination' and it is wrong."
"They mandated that you show proof of a COVID vaccine to go to a restaurant, but they oppose requiring proof of citizenship to cast the vote," he claimed before adding, "They can't even define what a woman is."
DeSantis originally had not been scheduled to speak at the convention, despite having endorsed Donald Trump when he ended his presidential campaign. On Tuesday it was announced both DeSantis, and Trump's other top rival for the nomination, his former Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, would both speak to the delegates.
As DeSantis praised Trump, the nominee was in the audience, standing next to his son Eric, his new vice presidential running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance, and U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
CNBC reported Tuesday the second day of the Republican National Convention saw Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz "bend the knee."
"The primary campaign is a distant memory now," Florida Politics noted.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article failed to note that the 2024 Republican National Convention ratings were up slightly from 2020, despite being down markedly from 2016. It also attributed a claim to Biden's campaign that was actually made by Biden supporters.
Notorious critics of former President Donald Trump Lawrence O'Donnell and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC sniped at the Republican National Convention's first day ratings Tuesday, though their claims were misleading if not false.
In the RNC's first day ratings, "Fox News led the pack by far with 6.9 million viewers at 10 p.m. Next was ABC with 2.3 million viewers, NBC with 2.2 million, CBS with 1.8 million, MSNBC with 1.3 million and CNN with 1.1 million," Variety reported.
This was about 1 million viewers more than in 2020, when the first day of the convention saw 17 million viewers.
The first night was the first time that Donald Trump was seen publicly after the assassination attempt. It was also the first appearance of Trump with his newly selected vice-presidential running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH).
Known Biden supporter and MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell called the event a “very low-rated convention” for Trump. O'Donnell cited ratings numbers from 2016, which belied the fact that 2020's ratings were lower and thus meant 2024's ratings were slightly higher.
“I think it’s one of the reasons why he went there,” on Monday, O’Donnell continued. “And I think even if he hadn’t been attacked, there’s a possibility he would have gone to try to pump up his ratings. He did everything he could to pump up Monday night’s ratings that are lower than the Monday night ratings of his 2016 convention.”
“So that’s six million ardent Trump supporters is the most they can get,” O’Donnell also said. “Less than 10 percent of ardent Trump voters decided, ‘I’m going to watch this thing last night.'”
Liberal colleague Rachel Maddow mocked, “That’s really not that much of a bump for Fox."
While true that the RNC's first night ratings were down 21% from 2016, according to Nielsen, they were up one million viewers from 2020.
In addition to his critics on MSNBC, an online community of Biden (now Kamala Harris) supporters on X also poked fun at Trump, noting that his recent nation press conference garnered 6 million more viewers than the first night of the 2024 RNC. This claim was accurate.
Reacting to the conviction of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) on corruption charges Tuesday, one of his former Democratic colleagues in the Senate unleashed a harsh tirade on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" — and lamented she couldn't use profanity to describe him.
Speaking with the MSNBC hosts, ex-Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) stated by blurting out, "Yeah, I don't even know where to start with this guy" after it was noted he plans to appeal his conviction.
"I mean, who does this? she asked co-host Willie Geist. "Who is [previously] put on trial for criminal acts as a United States senator and it's a hung jury — he's not acquitted. Then he comes back and takes cars, gold bars and cash stuffed in jackets and then he stands up in the courthouse and acts like he's a victim?"
'The most selfish act possible is for Bob Menendez not to look in the mirror and realize for the good of his country — if he cares about his country he needs to get out of town," she continued. "By the way, what jerk blames his new wife at the trial? Who does that?"
"A cancer-stricken wife we should add," Geist interjected.
"I would use a word right now they would not like me to use in the control room. He is just a word that starts with an an 'a' and ends with an 'e,'" she continued. "I think they should call the vote next week and let the Republicans stew in the fact that they prosecuted a Democratic politician and they maybe want to protect him?"
"What kind of hypocrisy would that be? Let's call the vote and kick his amount a-- out!" she demanded.
Comcast, which owns NBC News, triggered an internal revolt when they moved to take "Morning Joe" off the air after former President Donald Trump faced an assassination attempt on Saturday — and they're now scrambling to contain the mess, CNN's Reliable Sources reported.
This comes, wrote Oliver Darcy, as Joe Scarborough, after returning to the air, "offered viewers a peek behind the curtain into the conspicuous decision-making process that transpired over the weekend. Scarborough said that the 'Morning Joe' team had been informed Sunday evening that all of MSNBC’s opinion-oriented dayside lineup would be pre-empted for a single NBC News feed covering the attempt on Trump's life" — and yet this turned out to be a lie, with all other opinion programming continuing.
The on-air rebuke is a humiliation for the higher-ups, in particular NBCUniversal chairman Cesar Conde and Comcast chairman Brian Roberts, who now have the controversy out in public to deal with — and it's only the latest case of growing discontent with his leadership, and the pressure he's under from Trump himself.
This comes as "Trump's allies leveled attacks against MSNBC, accusing the network in bad faith of radicalizing Trump's critics and, thus, creating an environment that led to the shooting," noted the report — although there is no motive yet known for the shooter, and he appears if anything to be affiliated with Republicans.
"Suffice to say, Roberts and the Comcast team ... probably do not wish to find themselves on Trump's enemies list," because if he wins the election, Comcast, which will have to have the Justice Department approve any merger and acquisition deals under antitrust law, notes Darcy.
When Trump was last in the White House, he made a habit of using antitrust lawsuits to punish companies he was angry at for various reasons. For example, he sued to block the AT&T/Time Warner merger because Time Warner owned CNN, whose coverage of the administration enraged him. While many of his most political antitrust actions were blocked by judges, it still carried enormous legal costs for the affected companies.
The Morning Joe controversy will likely be smoothed over soon. But as long as this tension remains, wrote Darcy, and in the absence of trust between staff and leadership, "it's hard to imagine that such eruptions from talent will miraculously come to a halt. If anything, the staff at 30 Rock might feel more empowered to speak out against network brass after the events of the last few months. And that can't bode well for Conde, who must be standing on thinning ice as it becomes more evident he is struggling to manage the increasingly vocal personalities who, at least on paper, report to him."
