Top Stories Daily Listen Now
RawStory

Video

Republicans might 'exert collective power' on Trump under one condition: GOP strategist

One political expert said that the more anger seen at town halls and from voters, the more pressure is placed on U.S. House and Senate members. She further suggests this might force Republicans to use their power on President Donald Trump.

Lindsey Drath, a former regional finance director for Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-UT) campaign, told MSNBC host José Díaz-Balart that the kind of town halls lawmakers are facing back home could ultimately have an impact.

Keep reading... Show less

Steve Bannon pushes Trump to escalate trade war with 'total embargo' on China

MAGA influencer Steve Bannon urged President Donald Trump to escalate his trade war by placing a "total embargo" on all trade with China.

Bannon's call for a cessation of trade came after China cut off the supply of rare earth exports, and Trump retaliated by banning the sale of technology needed for artificial intelligence.

Keep reading... Show less

Trump has been warned 'he's alienating his allies on the Supreme Court right now': MSNBC

The decision, so far, by Donald Trump's administration to ignore the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison to his family has the president on a path for a showdown with the nation's highest court where he may come out on the losing end.

That is the opinion of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough who pointed out the president has had every opportunity to back down and put out the firestorm he has created, but has chosen not to.

Speaking with his panel on Wednesday morning, he compared the controversy to what he called "Signalgate," where Trump administration officials used an unsecure chatroom to discuss an upcoming military attack in Yemen.

ALSO READ: 'Retribution or bust’: 'Secretary of Retribution' joins J6 leaders to demand mass arrests

"Just admit you made a mistake. It will be better for you in the long run and they wouldn't admit that they made a mistake," he suggested before adding, "And the White House will tell you that that was the first big bump in the road for them politically."

"It didn't have to happen that way," he advised. "Same thing here: say we made a mistake, alright? They've already said that they can bring him back to the United States, they can, they can go through deportation process and then work with the courts to figure out where to deport him, where he can go safely and that's something, again, they win, he gets deported if he's here illegally and he doesn't get the sort of blow back."

"But this isn't an issue that's going to go away and they need to figure that out," he explained. "And when they figure that out, you know, the things –– well, again, we'll get to it –– but things will get worse for them. "

"As the Wall Street Journal has said, as other constitutional scholars have said, he's alienating his allies on the Supreme Court right now, and they need to quit while they're behind," he concluded.

Keep reading... Show less

CNN's Kate Bolduan pushes back against GOP congressman's smears of protesters

CNN's Kate Bolduan pushed back on a Republican congressman's claims about paid protesters showing up to town halls.

GOP lawmakers have faced down angry protesters lashing out over president Donald Trump's agenda and Elon Musk's cuts to the federal workforce, and Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) blamed the media for inciting the confrontations and agreed with Republican leadership that the demonstrations were staged.

Keep reading... Show less

'The president is in a hell of a pickle right now' with little way out: Axios founder

During a break from discussing the Donald Trump administration's growing battle with the judiciary, Axios founder Jim VandeHei reminded the panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the president has a lot on his plate right now with problems of his own making.

According to the Washington insider, Trump's tariff war has done what appears to be irreparable damage to the reputation of the U.S. and he has put himself into a box he can't escape from to get the economy back on track.

Noting Trump has been facing an extraordinary amount of push back from Wall Street, VandeHei explained, "I think the president blinked in a pretty substantial way last week because of this pressure," he began. "It's pressure from CEOs. It's pressure from investors."

ALSO READ: 'All hands on deck': Democrats unleash new strategy to derail Trump

Keep reading... Show less

'Definitely coming back': Analyst predicts 'forceful' Supreme Court response to Trump

The U.S. Supreme Court might have a stronger response to the Trump administration if a case reaches them again involving a man who was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison, according to CNN's Joan Biskupic.

A federal judge has ordered testimony from administration officials about efforts to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, which the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 they must facilitate, and CNN's court analyst broke down what might come next in the high-stakes saga.

Keep reading... Show less

'Uppity' J.D. Vance flattened for new screed defying the Supreme Court

Vice President J.D. Vance was raked over the coals on Wednesday morning for a series of social media posts on X on Tuesday where he continued to defend the Donald Trump administration for wrongfully shipping a Maryland man to El Salvador despite an admonition from the Supreme Court.

With the battle over the deportation and imprisonment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia at a notorious Salvadoran prison camp reaching the point where even the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board is stepping in and deploring the lack of due process, Vance has doubled down and blown off concerns.

Keep reading... Show less

'Driving people crazy': GOP ex-lawmaker says Trump using 'deflection' to avoid big issue

A former Republican congressman speculated that president Donald Trump was fighting the courts to keep a Maryland man imprisoned in El Salvador as a distraction from an even more unpopular move.

U.S. District judge Paula Xinis ordered sworn testimony from Trump administration officials to determine whether they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a notorious high-security prison overseas, and former GOP congressman Charlie Dent told "CNN This Morning" why he thinks the president was picking that fight.

Keep reading... Show less

'No interest': CNN analyst torches Trump admin. for 'weakest facilitation in history'

The Trump administration’s refusal to follow a court order and make any efforts to return the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador sent CNN legal analyst Elie Honig into a fiery rebuke of the MAGAfied government.

Honig, a former federal prosecutor, built the case Tuesday against the administration’s inaction in returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States during an appearance on CNN’s “NewsNight.”

Keep reading... Show less

'Never thought I'd see the day!' CNN analyst floored by GOP's eye-popping reversal

The Republican Party under President Donald Trump has gone from a largely expansionist, neoconservative foreign policy to old-school isolationism, to the point that they repudiate their own party's previous military leadership, CNN data analyst Harry Enten told host Kate Bolduan with a degree of astonishment.

A key demonstration of this is Vice President JD Vance proclaiming it is not in anyone's interest "for Europe to be a permanent security vassal of the United States," as an argument against taking leadership in NATO affairs.

Keep reading... Show less

Ex-Pentagon official flags 'most important' pieces of judge's admonishment of Trump DOJ

The federal judge presiding over the effort to return wrongly-deported Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an infamous Salvadoran megaprison laid down the law for the Trump administration in a highly revealing way, former Pentagon special counsel and federal prosecutor Ryan Goodman explained to CNN's Kate Bolduan on Tuesday.

The judge, Paula Xinis, was thoroughly unsatisfied with Trump's boasts earlier this week in a White House meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele that he had no power to return Garcia, who has never been convicted of any crime, is married to a U.S. citizen, and had a special protective order that barred his deportation to El Salvador — all after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the majority of Xinis' order.

Keep reading... Show less

'Any vague idea?' CNN's Tapper presses lawmaker on failure to ban Congressional trading

A Democratic lawmaker found himself on the defense over his party’s failure to impose a full ban on members of Congress trading stock when they had a House majority – a point that wasn’t lost on CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Tapper on Tuesday repeatedly pressed Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) on why Democrats didn't see pass a congressional trading ban, which the lawmaker said is now gaining steam in the House, including with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

Keep reading... Show less

‘Bye!’ MTG's town hall devolves into chaos as protesters thrown out and Tased

Several protesters at Marjorie Taylor Greene's town hall were forcibly removed by law enforcement on Tuesday, including a man whom police zapped with a stun gun as the MAGA lawmaker scolded Democrats.

The first outburst happened just seconds after Greene took the stage, which prompted at least five police officers to surround and physically escort the man out of the large event center in Cobb County, Georgia.

Keep reading... Show less