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At the same time that government workers were affixing Donald Trump’s name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a former House Republican expressed his disgust with the power play and said it will hurt the party.

Appearing with MS NOW host Ana Cabrera, ex-Rep Charlie Dent (R-PA) said the naming change will face an uphill battle because it will require Senate approval for the permanent change and that is not a war Republicans need as the party is struggling.

A crowd at Turning Point USA's AmFest event booed slain Hollywood director Rob Reiner after MAGA influencer Steve Bannon said liberals believed he had a larger impact on culture than Charlie Kirk.

"Just I want to say one thing," Bannon told the AmFest crowd on Friday. "You know, the Rob Reiner — The situation is obviously a tragedy. The president's given you his unique take on things about that situation."

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) warned Attorney General Pam Bondi that she could face prosecution if all files concerning sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were not released by Friday.

"We will see thousands of documents that we should have seen decades ago," Khanna said in a video posted on Thursday. "Let me be very clear. We need a full release. Anyone who tampers with these documents or conceals documents or engages in excessive redaction will be prosecuted because of obstruction of justice."

Conservative journalist Brian Glenn erupted Friday over the ongoing MAGA civil war that was on full display Thursday during a Turning Point USA event in Arizona, warning that the escalating intraparty fights may hurt Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.

“When it comes down to it, is your life better right now than it was a year ago?” Glenn said, speaking on right-wing news network Real America’s Voice.

Despite a law requiring the release of the Epstein files by Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted that the Department of Justice would not release "several hundred thousand" of the documents.

"So today is the 30 days when I expect that we're going to release several hundred thousand documents today," Blanche told Fox News on Friday. "And just so everybody appreciates, President Trump has said, for years, that he wants full transparency, and he wants the Department of Justice to release everything that we can with respect to this investigation in cases."

CNN's Audie Cornish remarked on the reaction of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse survivors to a question about the Department of Justice's pending release of investigative files about the late sex offender.

Congress passed a law last month mandating DOJ to publicize redacted files by Friday, and CNN's MJ Lee asked a group of Epstein survivors whether they had faith the department would release everything in its possession – and they all shook their heads no and even burst into laughter.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was raked over the coals on MS NOW on Friday morning over her braying announcement that Donald Trump’s name was being added to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Thursday afternoon, Leavitt took to X to let the public know that Trump’s hand-picked board overseeing the venerable institution had voted unanimously, which turned out to not be true, to rebrand the center with Trump’s name listed first.

CNN's Audie Cornish challenged a conservative panelist after he praised an athletic competition announced by President Donald Trump that has sparked comparisons to the dystopian "Hunger Games" novels and films.

The 79-year-old president announced the White House will host the “Patriot Games,” where one teenage boy and girl from each state and territory will compete, as part of the celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary next year, and "CNN This Morning" producers rolled a clip of Trump's comments interspersed with similar dialogue from the "Hunger Games" films.

Reacting to Donald Trump’s administration’s late night announcement of two more unprovoked attacks on alleged drug boats that followed the president renewed threats against Venezuela, longtime Washington Post columnist David Ignatius claimed he sees a pattern of conquest and domination emanating from the White House.

During an appearance on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Ignatius, an expert on foreign affairs, claimed the president appears dead set on taking over Latin America.

The former chief aide to ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) contends that the GOP caucus under current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is demoralized and angry as members head home for the holidays, facing the prospect of losing House control in 2026.

During an appearance on MS NOW's "Way Too Early" with host Ali Vitali, Brendan Buck noted that while internal fractures have existed within the Republican majority, conditions have deteriorated significantly under Johnson's leadership. The Speaker faces an escalating revolt from his own members.