'A disgraceful display of political arrogance': Editorial buries GOP over new speaker

'A disgraceful display of political arrogance': Editorial buries GOP over new speaker
(CSPAN screenshot)

The editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dropped the hammer on House Republicans for making Rep. Michael Johnson (R-LA) the new speaker, pointing out that his attempts to help Donald Trump subvert the 2020 presidential election should disqualify him from public office.

In a biting editorial published on Friday, the board pointed to a post-speaker election press availability when a raucous assemblage of far-right House colleagues shouted down a reporter's question about Johnson's part in trying to undercut the will of the voters and keep Donald Trump in office.

As the editors noted, they disagree with Johnson's stand on just about everything — but that shouldn't be disqualifying.

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What is disqualifying, they wrote, was his attempt to undermine democracy by taking the lead in the House in a plot to steal the election.

Calling the press conference where Rep. Virginia Fox (R-NC) repeatedly shouted "shut up" at the reporter "a disgraceful display of political arrogance," the editors added it was "a reminder that most of the GOP House majority still doesn’t get it."

"The entire attempt to overturn the 2020 election was an illegitimate, arguably criminal, demonstrably dangerous attack on Americans’ fundamental right to have their votes counted. Any involvement in it at all should be politically disqualifying. Instead, one of democracy’s assailants now has one of America’s biggest gavels," they accused.

"True conservatives, who traditionally care about rule of law and fealty to the Constitution, should consider that the House is now led by a man who assertively attempted to disenfranchise millions of voters at the behest of a president determined to hold onto power despite having been voted out of office," they continued before concluding, "That is not conservative at all. And it should give pause to anyone, of any party or political philosophy, who values democracy."

You can watch a clip of the "disgraceful' press conference below.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) tells reporter to 'shut up' youtu.be

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President Donald Trump's disgraced former attorney general, Pam Bondi, is coming back to the Trump administration — only this time, she's working in a very different role.

According to Axios, "Bondi, whom Trump ousted as AG last month, will be on the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The panel is chaired by former White House AI adviser David Sacks and White House science adviser Michael Kratsios. It also includes more than a dozen tech executives, including Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison."

Per the report, Bondi's role on the panel will be to mediate between the White House and the tech billionaires serving on it.

Announcing the move, Vice President JD Vance proclaimed, "Pam has been an enormously valuable asset to the president's team, and I'm thrilled for her and for all of us that she's going to remain involved in confronting some of the most important issues the administration faces."

This comes despite the fact that Bondi was unceremoniously fired by Trump earlier this year.

Sources at the time indicated Trump had a long list of frustrations with Bondi, including her failure to manage the public furor over the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking case files, and the fact that under her watch, several politically-motivated prosecutions of Trump's enemies ended in failure and sometimes even the removal of prosecutors.

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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faces a malpractice lawsuit filed by twins Adam and Daniel Kaplan, alleging he forged their signatures on an engagement letter and dramatically over-billed them.

The Kaplans hired Blanche at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in 2022 for financial fraud defense, expecting discounted rates. Instead, the firm's first bill totaled $677,925, and by November 2022 they had paid $1.65 million with additional bills pending.

Blanche allegedly billed approximately 2,475 hours at roughly $1,000 per hour —far exceeding promised discounts— before suspending work over unpaid bills.

A handwriting expert backed up the signature forgery allegations.

The Kaplans also claim Blanche withheld evidence aiding their defense.

Blanche and Cadwalader denied all allegations and countersued for $1.2 million in unpaid bills.

Both twins were subsequently indicted on money laundering and wire fraud charges, with one convicted and imprisoned.

Watch the video below.


Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has lost his primary to state Attorney General Ken Paxton, capping off a weekslong runoff that saw two giants of Texas politics square off against each other.

The race was called shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday evening by CNN and the Associated Press.

Cornyn, a longtime Republican powerhouse known for his prodigious fundraising skills, has faced fury from Texas GOP activists for years, many of whom believe him to be insufficiently committed to the Trump agenda despite his near-perfect voting record for the president's policies.

He trailed Paxton, a firebrand culture warrior with a long history of corruption scandals, in the polls for months, amid a primary that got intense and bruising. At the last minute, Trump, who had largely stayed out of the contest and was even considering an endorsement for Cornyn earlier on, backed Paxton.

Paxton will go on to face the Democratic nominee, state lawmaker and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico, who has been fighting to define his two potential opponents for weeks ahead of the general election showdown.

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