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Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) directly challenged FBI Director Kash Patel during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, citing credible reports of misconduct, including heavy alcohol use and political purges of agents involved in President Donald Trump's investigations.

Van Hollen stated, "Patel's private conduct becomes a public concern if it interferes with job performance, referencing reports of Patel being "so drunk and hungover that your staff had to force entry into your home."

A former federal prosecutor flagged a startling fact on Tuesday that could doom President Donald Trump's high-profile prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whose wrongful deportation to El Salvador became one of the most prominent immigration cases in the country.

Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., said during a new episode of his podcast "Justice Matters" that the Trump administration's prosecution of Abrego Garcia could be doomed because the administration has treated him differently than others in similar situations.

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) played ignorant when Meidas Touch reporter Pablo Manríquez confronted him about President Donald Trump's new comments dismissing the rising cost-of-living crisis.

The remark came after reporters asked him about the latest monthly inflation numbers. "The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon," said the president. "I don't think about Americans' financial situation."

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary stepped down Tuesday following an extended dispute with President Donald Trump over flavored vape nicotine products, making him the fourth high-profile Trump administration departure this year, NBC News reported.

The conflict centered on Trump's frustration with Dr. Makary's pace in approving flavored vapes for retail sale, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The Trump administration sought to expand the availability of flavored vapes earlier this year, but Dr. Makary's office issued a memo blocking the authorization of several flavors.

Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with the British royal family may be much deeper than previously reported, according to one of the royal family's biographers.

Andrew Lownie, who has written two books about the royal family, including a biography of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's relationship with Epstein, revealed during a new episode of the Daily Beast’s "The Royalist Podcast" that another member of the royal family also kept company with Epstein. Lownie said that Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, had dinner with Epstein in the mid-1990s and may have helped give him credibility he didn't deserve.

President Donald Trump has lost his ability to do one of the most important parts of his political formula, Vanity Fair's Molly Jong-Fast argued to MS NOW's Ari Melber on Tuesday's edition of "The Beat" — and it's causing his base to fall to pieces.

"So when he runs on, hey, one thing I'm going to do is lower prices or have no forever wars or release the Epstein files — every last big promise, with the exception, perhaps, of hardline immigration, has been contradicted," said Melber.

President Donald Trump dumbfounded CNN's Erin Burnett on Tuesday after he shrugged off the economic pain Americans are feeling because of his war with Iran.

Burnett played a clip of Trump speaking to reporters outside the White House during the opening segment of her show, "OutFront," where he was asked about what Americans should think of the economic toll the war is taking. The question was asked at a time when the most recent economic data showed inflation spiked 3.8% over the last year, the highest reading in multiple years, driven primarily by energy price increases resulting from the war.

President Donald Trump has found himself in an "unprecedented position of political weakness" as poll after poll shows his policies are dragging the GOP down ahead of the midterms, according to one analyst.

Rick Wilson, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, said in a recent podcast episode that the GOP's efforts to redraw several state election maps are a sign of how weak Trump has become as the 2026 midterms approach. He argued that Trump has effectively erased any positive messaging Republicans can use to attract voters because the war in Iran has caused consumer prices to surge and has eaten away at the gains that Trump's tax cuts would have given voters.

Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) directly challenged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, accusing him of being distracted by culture wars rather than focused on winning the Iran conflict.

Coons expressed concern about what he characterized as a "distracted administration and distracted department," noting President Donald Trump's Iran war created a "rift" with U.S. allies.

The White House is scrambling to change the minds of congressional Republican lawmakers who are turning against the proposed $1 billion funding in the GOP reconciliation package to construct "security" elements of President Donald Trump's ballroom project, Politico reported on Tuesday.

"Secret Service Director Sean Curran lobbied Senate Republicans for the funding Tuesday, explaining that only a subset of the funding would potentially be used on the ballroom, but met a skeptical reception nonetheless," said the report. "Curran and other White House officials are expected to continue making the case in the coming days, saying the money is needed to secure the ballroom project and other venues frequented by the president."