WASHINGTON — Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) finally settled weeks of speculation on Monday by announcing her candidacy for U.S. Senate — but for the time being, at least, Texas' two Republican senators do not feel threatened by her.
Asked for comment by Raw Story, Sen. John Cornyn, the senator currently seeking reelection, said, "I welcome her to the race."
Cornyn, who faces a serious threat in his own primary by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, added that he doesn't consider her a substantive candidate.
"No, are you kidding? Has she actually passed anything?" said Cornyn. "I think that's where the Democratic Party is today. Getting a guy like Colin Allred to bow out because he's afraid of losing the primary is all you really need to see."
Sen. Ted Cruz had a similar assessment of his colleague's competition.
"The Democrat Party has decided to be the party of crazy, and I can't think of a better frontman for the job," Cruz told Raw Story. "I don't think Texas is terribly eager to be represented by a hard-left radical. And [Zohran] Mamdani may be elected in Manhattan, but I don't think that Texas is going down the same road."
Crockett, one of President Donald Trump's most outspoken detractors in Congress, has said she wants to focus on driving Democratic base voter enthusiasm, but has also speculated in a recent interview she could compete for some lower-propensity Trump voters: "We are going to be able to get people that potentially have voted for Trump, even though I obviously am one of his loudest opponents, because at the end of the day, they vote for who they believe is fighting for them. It's about moving people, and I've got a track record of doing that."
With former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) bowing out of the Senate race to run for a congressional district in Dallas, Crockett's main primary opponent will be James Talarico, an Austin-area state representative and Presbyterian seminarian.
Growing up in an ultraconservative Mormon family, Jennie Gage said, she was primed to become a Christian nationalist and supporter of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement — or MAGA.
But about two years ago, at 49, Gage had a reckoning, realizing she had been “literally a white supremacist from birth,” based on teachings from the Book of Mormon.
Gage said she came to see Mormonism as “the OG Christian nationalist church.”
So, she flipped her life upside down, leaving organized religion and the Republican party.
“I would have never said, ‘I'm white supremacist. I'm Christian nationalist,’” Gage told Raw Story. “I would have just said, ‘I'm traditional, and I'm conservative because I believe in church and family and America.’”
But when Trump ran for president in 2016, Gage embraced MAGA.
“I will never forget him on my big-screen TV, saying the words, ‘Make America Great Again,” Gage said.
“The first time I heard that, I literally started crying … and I pictured Norman Rockwell.”
What came to mind was the painter’s “Freedom from Want” — ”The grandma putting the turkey on the table, the Thanksgiving dinner, the beautiful home and just that American traditional family and conservatism," she said.
"Freedom from Want" by Norman Rockwell (Wikimedia Commons)
“Obviously, I hated brown people. I hated all the illegal immigrants. I hated that our country was being overrun with lesbians and feminists, women who worked instead of being in their proper place in the home, gay people — they are like the biggest sinners in Mormonism — and baby killers, all of that,” Gage said.
“When [Trump] said, ‘Make America Great Again,’ what I pictured was this businessman not only is going to save our economy, but he's also going to get rid of all of that stuff that people are doing that's destroying our country, and we're going to return to the 1950s where life was great and everything was simple, and he's going to make America great again.”
‘God’s president’
Gage’s family, she said, took Mormonism to “next-level insanity,” as much of her childhood revolved around The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It is a cult without walls,” Gage said.
She attended Brigham Young University, the flagship Mormon college, for two years, taking classes including early childhood development, as well as dating and marriage.
“Even going to Mormon college, I was just indoctrinated also,” Gage said.
As treasurer of the BYU Young Republicans, she canvassed for President George H.W. Bush when he ran against Bill Clinton in 1992.
“It was devastating to see this evil Democrat Bill Clinton get elected,” she said.
As Gage had children, she became less politically involved. Her interest revived when Mitt Romney ran for president.
Jennie Gage with her children when she said she was still a "Mormon trad wifey" (Photo provided by Jennie Gage)
She remembered thinking, “‘We're gonna have a Mormon boy,’ and then that's probably gonna usher in the Millennium, so it's gonna be Mitt Romney and then Jesus.”
Gage began watching Fox News, listening to conservative commentators and reading books by Republican politicians. When Trump announced his run, Gage was familiar with his reality TV show, The Apprentice, and his books, The Art of the Deal and The Art of theComeback.
“The Apprentice was actually my pipeline into MAGA. It was just really interesting, as we had a business and were really wealthy,” Gage said.
“That sucked me into … completely buying into it because NBC, The Apprentice and his ghost-written books, they showcased him as this really savvy entrepreneur, and that spoke to me because I was this conservative Christian wife of an entrepreneur.”
Gage said she liked the idea of a “businessman” running America, instead of “slimy politicians.”
She became more active on social media and engaged in arguments defending Trump. She recalls one verbal fight with her 10-year-old nephew.
She told him, “Donald Trump to America is going to be what Napoleon was to France. He is going to free us, and generations to come are going to thank God that Donald Trump was voted in office.”
When Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Gage thought: “President Trump is God's president.”
‘A major shift’
Gage began to upend her life in October 2018. One day at church, she “literally stopped believing.”
“I Googled my own religion for the first time,” she said. “I had never researched Mormonism outside of books that I would go to the Mormon bookstore and read. And so I resigned from the church.”
The church’s history of polygamy pushed her away. Simultaneously, she said, she ended her 24-year marriage, due to infidelity.
She “plunged pretty headlong into Christianity, and in a way, that kind of kept me stuck in that traditional conservative Americana,” she said.
But she continued “deconstructing” her beliefs, and by the time of the 2020 election had seen “a major shift” in her values.
She was prepared to vote for Trump, but on the way to the voting booth, Gage said, “my MAGA started to crack.
“I remember sitting there in the car, and I just felt sick thinking about Donald Trump because some of the debates that year, he started to seem a little bit unhinged, and the MAGA crowd was just no longer aligning with me.”
Gage and her partner decided not to vote for either Trump or Joe Biden.
Gage returned to her computer, to research political issues.
“I’m like ‘Oh s—. There's not one f—- thing that the Republicans are doing that I support. Not one. I'm a Democrat,” Gage said.
“I literally support everything that most of the Democratic leaders are currently doing, and the entire Democratic platform speaks to me so much.”
Gage said she began “really stepping into my true, authentic self.”
While it was “extremely unsettling” and “terrifying” to change her beliefs,” her life in Tucson, Ariz., now looks far different than her life in MAGA.
She has a diverse group of friends, is an atheist feminist, and calls herself an “anarchist” and “white apologist,” for her ancestors’ roles in massacres of Native Americans.
“I am moving farther and farther away from everything that originally made me lean into MAGA,” she said.
‘American Gestapo’
To Gage, Trump is now “f— reprehensible” and “so hateful.”
“Donald Trump is the president of only the people he gives a f— about,” Gage said.
“Everybody else is just out. He's more of a mob boss, and he is a president, and that's not the way that America is supposed to work.”
During the 2024 election, Trump accused Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, of eating cats and dogs. Gage called that the “a straw that broke the camel's back.”
“I wouldn't want him to be in charge of our PTA. I wouldn't vote for him for the president of our homeowners’ association,” Gage said.
“Listening to the debates and the hatred in some of the rallies, I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience, and it made me panic because I'm like, ‘Oh, now what? I hate Donald Trump, and the whole entire MAGA movement no longer aligns with who I am.’”
Gage now calls Trump administration immigration enforcement agents an “American Gestapo.”
“The whole point of the Gestapo was to be this police force out there terrorizing people,” Gage said.
“Sure, deport illegals if they're a threat, but to drag people down the street, the masks, the fear-mongering, the scare tactics, is absolutely reprehensible.”
‘It’s going to re-brand’
Gage is starkly concerned about Trump and the GOP’s quickening push toward Christian nationalism.
“I wasn't just Christian nationalist for logistical reasons,” she said. “It was part of my religion.
“I believed Jesus had written the Constitution and that the American government was just the interim government until Jesus came back, and then Jesus was going to rule America, and the rest of the world from America.
“The Charlie Kirk people … or Christian nationalists, honey, they ain't got nothing on the Mormons. We took Christian nationalism next-level. I believed all of that 100 percent.”
A college student wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap looks on at a Turning Point USA event, held at University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida on Nov. 13. REUTERS/Octavio Jones
Gage likens Christian nationalism to “a virus,” particularly as it gains a platform with Turning Point USA, the youth nonprofit founded by Kirk, who was killed in September.
“My worry is that these religious institutions and these political movements … are targeting the people that they need to target in a way that's effective enough that they are always going to be 10 steps ahead of us, and they're specifically targeting those emerging young adults,” Gage said.
“I'm afraid that conservative Christian nationalism will not die out, that just like a very smart virus, it's going to adapt. It's going to re-brand. It's going to emerge on the other side, maybe a little bit different than the 2020 MAGA movement, but it has a vested interest in protecting itself.
“They have the money, they have the power. They don't want to let that go, so they're going to fight to the death.”
While awaiting sentencing in a county jail in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a 36-year-old woman described as a leader of a “transnational terrorist group” has “continued to coordinate” with members of her group “and other white supremacist attackers via letters, phone calls and video calls,” the U.S. government says.
Dallas Erin Humber, who led Terrorgram Collective alongside codefendant Matthew Robert Allison from July 2022 until her arrest in September 2024, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Sacramento, Calif. on Dec. 17.
Humber pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including conspiracy, solicitation to murder federal officials, and distribution of information relating to explosives and destructive devices.
The U.S. Department of Justice accuses the 36-year-old of seeking to establish a white ethnostate by igniting a race war and “accelerating” the collapse of the federal government.
Humber, the DOJ says, aimed to achieve her goals by “targeting and radicalizing vulnerable teenagers; by grooming them to commit hate crimes; terrorist attacks on infrastructure, and assassinations; and by providing them technical, inspirational, and operational guidance to plan, prepare for, and successfully carry out those attacks.”
Humber describes herself as a “ruthless neo-Nazi terrorist” and “accelerationist martyr and icon,” according to a sealed presentence report cited in the government’s sentencing memorandum.
The report says that 15 months in pretrial detention “has only served to validate, reinforce and galvanize” Humber’s commitment to white supremacist accelerationism.
Citing the report, the government claims Humber is “proud of her ‘legacy’ of death and destruction, and her only regret is not personally murdering anyone before her arrest.”
Based on Humber’s personal history, the severity of her crimes, the need to protect the public and provide adequate deterrence, the report found that a 40-year sentence would be appropriate.
The government and Humber reached a plea agreement for a range of 25 to 30 years.
‘Ongoing security risk’
Federal prosecutors argue the court should accept the plea agreement to hasten Humber’s transfer to a federal facility where her ability to coordinate with fellow terrorists will be more constrained.
“Given the defendant’s history of radicalizing others and grooming them to commit attacks on her behalf, her continued pretrial detention at a county-run facility without adequate rules and resources to prevent her from doing so poses an ongoing security risk,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum last week.
“This is another reason this court should accept the plea agreement and sentence the defendant: so she can be transferred to a secure [Bureau of Prisons] facility with restrictions in place to prevent her from continuing to engage in the same conduct that landed her there in the first place.”
Humber’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Since May, Humber has been a housing unit orderly at Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Nevada City, Calif. The role involves cleaning microwaves, bathrooms and showers, vacuuming the day room, and occasionally cleaning up vomit and feces from other inmates’ cells.
In a letter submitted to the court, Jail Commander Bob Jakobs described Humber “as having a good attitude, being dependable, respectful, helpful,” and “one of the most reliable orderlies.”
“I appreciate Ms. Humber’s willingness to help my staff keep our facility clean and to take on tasks that other inmates aren’t always willing to do,” Jakobs said.
The government’s sentencing memorandum credits Humber’s “early and full acceptance of responsibility for her crimes,” and says her guilty pleas “allowed the government to focus its limited time and resources on bringing to justice other members of the Terrorgram Collective domestically and abroad.”
But Matt Kriner, executive director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism, told Raw Storyhe wasn’t surprised the government would be concerned about Humber coordinating with Terrorgram members.
Although the group is “dormant,” Kriner said, “The threat is only paused while the government goes through its criminal process against the leaders.”
‘Struggled with self-hate’
Humber’s lawyer is arguing for a sentence of 25 years, to account for her experience of “extreme physical, emotional, and verbal abuse.”
“Ms. Humber was groomed from a young age to get attention from men in a way that she has clung to throughout her life,” her sentencing memorandum reads.
“She has struggled with self-hate in myriad forms, including drug addiction, anorexia, suicide attempts and remaining in violent relationships.”
At 14, Humber operated a LiveJournal account presented as a forum for “the personal insights of a fascist dictator in training,” according to an exposé by Left Coast Right Watch in March 2023, 18 months before her arrest.
The government claims seven attacks or plots were “inspired or guided by” Humber’s leadership of Terrorgram.
An online relationship between Humber and a 19-year-old Slovak, Juraj Krajčík, is at the heart of the government’s case.
Krajčík was mentored by Pavol Beňadik, a prominent Terrorgram member known as “Slovakbro.”
Following Beňadik’s arrest in Slovakia in May 2022, the U.S. government alleges that Humber and Allison “continued to guide” Krajčík “down ‘the path of sainthood’” — a reference to efforts to sanctify white supremacist mass murder.
‘Dead targets or I don’t care’
Humber promised Krajčík that if he “became a saint,” she would narrate his manifesto, according to the government.
“That’s the cost of admission, so to speak,” Humber reportedly told Krajčík. “Dead targets or I don’t care.”
Humber’s sentencing memorandum indicates she disputes the claim that she “groomed” Krajčík.
On Oct. 12, 2022, outside an LGBTQ+ bar in Bratislava, Krajčík shot three people, killing two and injuring one. He fled, then killed himself.
The government also alleges Humber communicated directly with a Brazilian high-schooler, Gabriel Castiglioni, before he carried out a mass shooting in Aracruz in November 2022, the most lethal Terrorgram-inspired attack, with four students killed.
Humber created “saint cards” to “celebrate and commemorate the mass shootings committed by” Krajčík and Castiglioni, whom she considered “symbolically [her] kids,” the government says, adding that the evidence will be filed under seal for review by the court.
Other attacks or plots the U.S. government claims were “inspired and guided by” Humber’s leadership include:
A stabbing injuring five outside a mosque in Eskisehir, Turkey in August 2024.
Plots to attack electrical substations in New Jersey and Tennessee, disrupted by the FBI in July 2024 and November 2024.
A plot to assassinate an Australian lawmaker, disrupted in June 2024.
A double murder in Wisconsin in February 2025 by a 17-year-old boy against his mother and stepfather, allegedly motivated by his quest for financial resources and personal autonomy to pursue a plot to assassinate President Donald Trump.
Despite the arrests of its leaders more than a year ago, Terrorgram continues to inspire violence, Kriner told Raw Story.
“There’s always going to be individuals who retain influence or keep their adherence to the Terrorgram approach to accelerationism, or mobilize in part through the consumption of the Terrorgram propaganda and publications,” he said, “because they remain persistently available through various online ecosystems.”
WASHINGTON — To end the longest government shutdown in American history, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators came together and agreed to kick the can.
The can seems to have hit a brick wall.
Unless Congress acts, massive spikes in health-care premiums are coming in the New Year for millions of Americans — the reason Democrats refused to fund the government this fall.
“This whole year we've been moving backwards on health-care because of this administration,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) told Raw Story just off the Senate floor.
While President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have yet to offer a policy solution, this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a measure to stave off premium spikes by extending COVID-era health insurance subsidies for three years.
As part of the deal that ended the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised to bring Democrats’ proposal up for a formal vote. That is now scheduled for next Thursday.
But the measure’s fate is all but sealed. Many Republicans say they could stomach a one- or two-year extension but not three, which is why many in the GOP dismiss Schumer’s bill as a show vote aimed at next year’s midterm elections.
“No, not to the people in Nevada. They don't think that's a show vote. They need it,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) told Raw Story as she walked through the basement of the U.S. Capitol.
“They need us to extend those subsidies if they're going to be able to afford health care. That's what we should be doing.”
‘We got a health-care crisis’
No one in Washington was really discussing health-care until the shutdown. Now it’s the talk of the town. Cortez Masto says that’s because, unlike in 2024, Democrats are now listening to voters.
“If you just are talking to the American public, we got a health-care crisis,” Cortez Masto said. “Too costly, too high — prices are too high. People can't afford medicine when they need it, so we do need reform.”
For most of the shutdown, the mood was so bitter on Capitol Hill, party leaders refused to talk to each other. But as the shutdown stretched to a record-breaking seven weeks, rank-and-file lawmakers reported productive bipartisan talks on health reform, just way off our screens.
“I had been somewhat hopeful during the shutdown,” Kim, who served in the House until he was sworn in as a Senator in January, said. “I was engaged with a number of House Republicans that were expressing a similar sentiment of wanting to make progress, but Speaker [Mike] Johnson successfully silenced them during the shutdown.”
“Has their tune changed since the government reopened?” Raw Story inquired.
“They're still pissed,” Kim said. “… but I think that they're feeling like … Johnson's just continuing to be obstructionist.”
Kim’s not too optimistic ahead of next week’s vote to extend Obamacare subsidies, in part because the Republican whose opinion matters most has been MIA.
“We’ll see. I'm still engaged with my colleagues on both sides right now,” Kim said. “But right now, what we need to have to actually move this is for Trump to weigh in and get engaged. And so far, he's been not only unwilling but often being obstructionist as well.”
The New Jersey Democrat wonders what happened to Trump’s populist appeal, let alone heart.
“It just boggles my mind. I mean like, the majority of people that are going to be hurt by these tax credits expiring live in states that he won,” Kim said.
“And it just makes no sense. Even if they have thoughts about reforms that they could be doing, none of that can get implemented in the next month, so, like, why not extend this work to try to get some type of reform going forward? It just makes no sense to me. We're just pulling out the rug on these people.”
While the current debate centers around extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, Democrats say that’s just the start.
“That's the first step. There's more that needs to be done,” Cortez Masto said. “We've been fighting this battle against big pharma, against health companies, against PBMs [Pharmacy Benefit Managers].”
Most all small bipartisan efforts, even as health-care remains a bipartisan wedge issue, political leaders love to use to fearmonger and fundraise.
‘The people would reward us’
Many Republicans are itching to rally behind a GOP plan — most any GOP plan to “replace” Obamacare will do, as they didn’t campaign on specifics.
But they need Trump-sized cover and gold spraypainted salesmanship — they need President Trump. Otherwise, Republicans on Capitol Hill aren’t going to walk the legislative plank alone.
“The White House clearly believes that we need to have a solution,” retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told congressional reporters. “That would be very helpful for them to weigh in.”
After refusing to engage with Democrats on health-care subsidies during the shutdown, a growing number of Republicans now say the party should take the lead on health-care reform.
“It's an opportunity. Health-care really hasn't been addressed for years, for decades,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) told a gaggle of reporters on the Capitol steps.
Nehls is retiring at the end of his term — his twin brother running to replace him — but he says the GOP will be rewarded by voters if they take the lead.
They just need an actual proposal first.
“This is an opportunity for us to do it and address it, because we have a unified government. So everybody gather around President Trump. He's got smart people, very smart people around him. Come up with a good plan,” Nehls said.
“Let's get it done and then get this done in 2026. I think it'd be great. And forget about the 2026 election, it's just good for the American people. It's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do, and I then believe that the American people would reward us.”
As with all things policy, the devil is the details. And thus far, the GOP’s all over the map.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) speaks on Capitol Hill. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Like many on the right, freshman Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) says Democrats are just calling for a band-aid to keep health insurance premiums from spiking by extending COVID tax credits — aka “five-year subsidies,” because they were passed in 2021 with a sunset at the end of 2025 — instead of addressing cost savings.
Like many in the GOP, Moreno’s touting tax-free health savings accounts. He also wants to end free, $0.00 premium plans offered to qualifying low-income families through Medicare or Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
“We have to fix that eventually. The Democrats are talking about this very hyper-specific five-year subsidy, but I think we can go along with extending it for those two reforms,” Moreno told reporters. “I would like to see the money go into household accounts."
Demands like those have Democrats wary.
‘It really is a mess’
A part of the reason health-care politics have heated up is, the GOP already raided Medicaid to the tune of $1 trillion as a part of their GOP-only Budget Reconciliation Act — aka the One Big Beautiful Bill.
“It really is a mess,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) told Raw Story as he rode an elevator up to the House floor during a vote this week.
That’s why many Democrats, especially in the House, aren’t expecting any help from the other side of the aisle.
Rather, they think the issue paints a stark contrast between the parties ahead of next year’s winner-take-all midterms.
“That's our view, because even if they fix the ACA tax credit, you still got the $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid,” Ivey said.
“And so if they just extend the ACA tax credits, that's a big step in the right direction, helps millions of people, but the Medicaid cuts are putting even more people at risk. And then you're also putting medical institutions at risk, hospitals — especially in rural and urban areas, that sort of thing.”
Then there’s “repeal and replace” — the GOP’s repeated promise to eradicate Obamacare.
“They just want to kill it. They want to repeal but not replace,” Ivey said. “Going back to, like, when pregnancy was a pre-existing condition? I just can't see folks being okay with that. Or your kid, you know, not being able to stay on your insurance until he turns 26?
WASHINGTON — Democratic veterans on Capitol Hill say there’s a dangerous throughline to Pete Hegseth’s dueling scandals, over the use of an unsecured messaging app and boat bombings in the Caribbean and Pacific: The Pentagon chief is endangering US troops.
A new report from the Pentagon inspector general finds Hegseth — a former Army officer who was a Fox News weekend host before he entered government — put troops in danger this spring when he shared Yemen war plans on the commercial messaging app Signal.
"He shared information he shouldn't have in a way that he shouldn't have, and the consequences are that our military could be compromised and the safety of our men and women in uniform could be compromised,” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) told Raw Story. “That's what we know.”
“Is that the kind of person that we want to be the Secretary of Defense?" Houlahan — an Air Force veteran and member of both the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees — said.
"No one should be using Signal in that way. Nobody should be communicating that information at all. It's just not nobody, it's the Secretary of Defense."
Details from the inspector general report on Hegseth’s use of commercial messaging app Signal — including how the then national security adviser, Mike Waltz, came to add Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat ahead of strikes in Yemen — are damning to many in Congress.
But that issue pales in comparison to allegations Hegseth signed off on unlawful military strikes in the Caribbean.
To veterans in Congress, it’s unconscionable that Secretary of Defense Hegseth and President Donald Trump, the commander-in-chief, are seemingly letting their underlings take the blame for the military strikes.
“It is incredibly offensive. And it sends a message to the troops that this President, this SecDef, is willing to throw you under the bus,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) — an Army veteran who lost her legs in Iraq — told Raw Story.
“One of the first things you learn as an Army officer, which, you know, [Hegseth] supposedly was, is that you can always delegate authority, but you never delegate responsibility. The responsibility rests with him.”
Hegseth doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo.
‘No leader worth their salt’
On Monday, the Defense Secretary took to social media to seemingly shift the blame.
“Lets make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100 percent support,” Hegseth wrote on X.
“I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on this September 2 mission and all others since.”
That was the mission when, the Washington Post first reported, an order was given to carry out a second strike on a boat in the Caribbean, the first having left survivors clinging to wreckage.
The Post said Hegseth ordered the second strike, which most analysts say would constitute a war crime. He denies it.
To Duckworth and many other veterans on Capitol Hill, Hegseth passing the buck is scandalous.
“I've always known that he's not qualified for the job,” Duckworth said. “I worry about the service members being put into jeopardy by this, right? We’re violating international laws of armed conflict, we are putting service members in legal jeopardy.
“My focus right now is what are we doing to our service members? We're putting them in real jeopardy, both legally and also personally. I mean, you know, if we're going to do this in international waters, what's to keep some other country from saying, ‘Hey, we're going to do this to the US’?”
Other senior members of the Armed Services Committees agreed.
"No leader worth their salt pushes responsibility off on a subordinate,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told Raw Story.
“And if Hegseth gave a ‘kill everybody’ order — and we have to determine whether, in fact, that's true — that's a clear violation of law, whether or not he gave it before the second strike. A kill everybody order just in and of itself is a violation of the laws of war.”
Kaine says Hegseth has a bad habit of passing the buck.
"The opening salvo of ‘It's all a lie’ and ‘It's journalists who are spinning a fake narrative’ to now, ‘Well, yeah, it's true but you know, it was Adm. Bradley's call, not mine’ — I mean, you know, no,” Kaine said.
‘Legal risk’
Kaine and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) are renewing their calls for Congress to pass an AUMF — or
Authorization for Use of Military Force — before the Pentagon carries out more air strikes off the coast of Venezuela.
"We're seeing realized a lot of the fears members had that this unauthorized campaign would result in blowback to the country, to our troops," Schiff told Raw Story.
"One of the concerns I've had all along has been that we risk putting service members in physical danger, but we also risk putting them at legal risk and that's exactly what's happened."
Hegseth’s Democratic critics say it's the same with “Signalgate.”
"Secretary Hegseth has been a liability to the administration from the moment he was confirmed,” Houlahan of Pennsylvania said. “At what point does the President recognize that and ask for his resignation?"
WASHINGTON — A pair of top Democrats in the House of Representatives slammed President Donald Trump's "deranged obsession" with attacking Somali-Americans on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Trump said he does not want Somalis in the United States because "they contribute nothing," the AP reported. His most recent attack follows a report by the conservative outlet City Journal that accused Somali Americans of committing fraud in Minnesota, the report added.
"He's a bigoted fool," Omar said. "There's nothing surprising about the president using racist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic rhetoric to attack an entire community."
Omar added that Trump's comments make him look weak to the Somali community she represents.
"They're all mockingly wondering if he's ok, and so am I," she said. "Even the reporters were asking, 'Why are you bringing them up?' It just seems like he has a very deranged and creepy obsession with me and, by extension, the Somali Americans, and it's really off-putting. It puts his mental decline on display in a way that I don't think he's smart enough to recognize."
The Trump administration has since stepped up its immigration enforcement activities against Somali-Americans since the president made his remarks, officials told the AP.
Ocasio-Cortez said the immigration raids show Trump is not aware of the legal complexities of his actions. She warned that his actions could leave him vulnerable to legal action.
"There are so many legal exemptions, from libel laws to slander, that, as an elected official, there are very few protections," she said.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a conservative Democratic congressman facing bribery, money laundering and conspiracy charges, out of disinterested concern for the politicization of the Department of Justice under Joe Biden, Republican senator Ted Cruz claimed on Wednesday.
“The Constitution gives the pardon power exclusively to the President,” Cruz told Raw Story at the Capitol, when asked about the Cuellar pardon, which Trump announced on social media. “It's his decision how to exercise it.”
Raw Story asked if Cruz was worried, given the seriousness of the charges against Cuellar, that the Trump White House was nonetheless setting “a bad example for politicians writ large?”
“The Biden Department of Justice, sadly, was weaponized and politicized,” Cruz said. “And I think President Trump is rightly concerned about the politicization of the Department of Justice.”
Trump made the same claim in his statement announcing the Cuellar pardon.
In reality, Trump has been widely criticized for politicizing the Department of Justice himself, not least through direct public orders to Attorney General Pam Bondi to indict political enemies such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump's use of the pardon power has also been widely criticized, from issuing pardons and other acts of clemency to more than 1,500 people charged in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Congress to rewarding domestic and international allies — this week including a former president of Honduras convicted of drug trafficking, which Trump also claimed was a case of victimization under Joe Biden.
Cuellar has been in Congress since 2005. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston in May 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
According to the DoJ, Cuellar and his wife Imelda Cuellar “allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City.”
The DoJ alleged that the bribes were “laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar,” while “Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan …and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank.”
Earlier this year it was widely reported that the DoJ had decided to move forward with the case, despite Trump indicating support for the Cuellars.
On Wednesday, announcing the pardon on Truth Social, Trump said he pardoned Cuellar because he had been victimized for “bravely [speaking] out against” the Biden administration on immigration policy.
After a rambling complaint about supposed Democratic bias at the Department of Justice during the Biden administration, Trump said: “Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!”
Before the Cuellar pardon became public, Michael Wolff, a leading Trump biographer, described how even the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein worried about how Trump would use the pardon power.
"Jeffrey Epstein had a kind of riff about this,” Wolff told the Daily Beast, “because even before Trump became president, [Epstein] would talk about, 'If Donald became president and he had the pardon power ... Trump … often … talked about this in a kind of wide-eyed incredulity. 'I can pardon anyone. No one can do anything about it. If I pardon them. I have absolute power.'
"Epstein had focused on this and said … he loves showing the power that he has, and he said he would do it in a childlike way.”
Trump's relationship with Epstein remains the subject of a broiling Capitol Hill scandal, concerning the release of files related to Epstein's arrest and death in 2019.
At the Capitol on Wednesday, Raw Story also caught up with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
“What do you make of this full unconditional pardon of your colleague, Mr. Cuellar?” Raw Story asked.
“It's entirely within the President's prerogative and Congress doesn't have a role,” Cornyn said.
All presidential pardons are political.
Cornyn pointed to political realities, saying: “I've known Henry a long time and had a very productive working relationship. He's I guess one of the last of the 'Blue Dogs' that are quickly becoming extinct, Democrats that actually will work with Republicans.”
“What do you make of the charges against him?” Raw Story asked, listing bribery, money laundering and conspiracy.
“That's the Department of Justice,” Cornyn said. “I don't have anything to do with that.”
George Retes, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen and Army veteran, isn’t staying quiet — five months after he says he was assaulted and detained by immigration agents on his commute to work as a security contractor outside Los Angeles.
“Your voice matters,” Retes told Raw Story. “Calling your representatives, calling your people in charge, letting your voice be heard: it matters.”
Retes is the face of a new $250,000 ad campaign from Home of the Brave, a nonprofit focused on portraying what it calls the “catastrophic harm” of President Donald Trump’s second administration.
In the one-minute ad, “The Veteran Who ICE Abducted — and Is Fighting Back,” Retes recounts how he was stopped by a line of “hostile” ICE agents who shattered his car window, pepper sprayed him in the face and threw him to the ground before detaining him over a weekend.
Meant as a direct response to recruitment and self-deportation ads from the Department of Homeland Security, the Home of the Brave ads will air on streaming services where DHS ads have appeared.
“It's important to tell my story now because of everything that's still going on,” Retes said.
“Even though everyone doesn't see it every day, doesn't mean it's not happening.”
Close to 200 U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE since Trump returned to power in January, ProPublica reported.
Retes, who served a tour in Iraq, said DHS has continually called him a “liar.”
In response to an op-ed he wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, DHS accused Retes via an X post of being violent and refusing to comply with law enforcement, leading to arrest for assault.
As CBP and ICE agents were executing criminal search warrants on July 10 at the marijuana sites in Camarillo, CA, George Retes—a U.S. citizen—became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement. He challenged agents and blocked their route by refusing to move his vehicle… pic.twitter.com/aKS2voKU3j — Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 17, 2025
Two weeks later, a DHS press release again claimed Retes was arrested for assault.
Retes said he “100 percent” rejects claims that he was violent and he was never charged with any such crimes during the interaction with immigration agents.
“Something that the current administration is refusing to do is just take accountability,” Retes said
“Lying on my name, lying on people. It's terrible.”
The new ad proves it, he said — by showing footage of his vehicle being swarmed by a line of immigration agents and then him being pinned to the ground.
“I take it with a grain of salt when they come out with these Tweets,” Retes said. “The proof is all there. If now you want to make stories, the court’s right there.”
‘F-----g do your job’
In an extended three-minute version of the video, Retes further explains how he was tear-gassed and how immigration agents zip-tied him and knelt on his back and neck while he was on his way to work security at a state-legal cannabis farm that ICE raided.
Retes is also working with a nonprofit public interest law firm, Institute for Justice, to sue the Trump administration under the Federal Tort Claims Act for the treatment he endured at the hands of federal immigration officers.
“It's all out there, the footage, and they're just imposing their version of reality,” Anya Bidwell, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, told Raw Story.
While in detention, Retes was put on suicide watch.
But “the most upsetting” part of the ordeal, he said, was that he missed his daughter’s third birthday celebration.
He told Raw Story he slept on a concrete bed in a room with a “tiny window” and lights switched on “24/7.”
He wasn’t allowed a shower, despite his “body essentially being on fire,” Bidwell said.
George Retes, a U.S. citizen, says he was detained by ICE on his way to work (Photo provided by Institute for Justice)
Retes said he was naked but for a hospital gown and “wasn't able to flush the toilet on my own.”
“It was just an overall terrible experience, and it was something I would never want to relive, and I hope no one ever goes through,” Retes said.
Retes said he was suspended from his job with Securitas, a national security guard contractor, for three weeks following his detention.
“They basically said I had to prove I was innocent before I could go back to work,” Retes said.
The experience left “a bad taste in my mouth,” Retes said, so he quit the Securitas job and is looking for new employment while sharing his story.
Retes said his message to Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other government leaders was simple: “F—–g do your job.”
“Make this country better … right now,” Retes said, lamenting “prices going crazy. People are divided. Agents just doing whatever they want, violating rights.”
Holding out hope for Trump to stop “constantly trying to divide the country” is “scary,” Retes said.
A Texas judge who announced his candidacy in a high-profile U.S. House race Tuesday isn’t likely to face repercussions despite attracting a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission , experts told Raw Story.
Tano Tijerina, a Democrat-turned-Republican judge in Webb County, Texas, has long been eyeing a campaign against Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX).
Cuellar has held the 28th congressional district seat since 2005, now a prime GOP target in recent redistricting attempts and in light of bribery charges against Cuellar.
On Nov. 21, Cecilia Martinez, an ethics professor from San Antonio, filed an FEC complaint, alleging Tijerina used an exploratory committee to circumvent state resign-to-run laws, which require officeholders to step down from an elected job upon deciding to campaign for another, if there’s more than a year and 30 days left in the term.
Tijerina’s term as a county judge ends Dec. 31, 2026. But, he launched an exploratory committee for a challenge to Cuellar in June, gaining national attention.
Martinez’s allegation that Tijerina violated federal law has also attracted coverage.
She alleges Tijerina made up his mind to run for Congress long before launching his exploratory committee, citing interviews with local TV and radio stations where the judge acknowledged needing to wait until after Dec. 1 to announce a potential candidacy, in order to keep his job.
The complaint also references a social media post, shared by Tijerina, from a Webb County employee who said she was excited to see her “boss” head to Congress.
The FEC says a candidate is considered to be campaigning rather than “testing the waters” if they advertise or make statements as candidates, inform the media of a planned date to announce their candidacy, or raise more money than “reasonably needed to test the waters.”
The complaint says: “Judge Tijerina’s congressional campaign remains under the guise of an exploratory committee not because he is legitimately testing the waters, but because he does not want to face the state-law consequences of declaring his candidacy.”
Tijerina’s exploratory committee called the complaint a “political sham.”
Below is the Tano Tijerina Exploratory Committee's response to the Laredo Morning Times sloppy hit piece:
The Laredo Morning Times has earned itself the Ambush Journalism Award after firing off a press request at 7:51 AM on a Saturday while the entire County government was busy… — Judge Tano Tijerina (@JudgeTano) November 23, 2025
“Judge Tano Tijerina is following every federal and state rule governing exploratory activity, and has not crossed a single legal line,” said the committee in an X post shared by Tijerina on Nov. 23.
“This is a coordinated smear campaign by far-left operatives terrified that even the possibility of Judge Tijerina exploring a run jeopardizes their grip on TX-28.
“Instead of finding an alternative for their own ethically compromised incumbent, they dug up an ‘online’ professor to rubber-stamp a flimsy accusation that falls apart the moment you read it.”
Bradley A. Smith, a professor at Capital University Law School who served on the FEC from 2000-05, including a year as chair, told Raw Story: “These are very hard cases to try to claim, ‘Oh, no, he's actually a candidate and needs to start filing reports as a candidate.
“You basically are asking the FEC, or eventually a court, to sort of mind read what the person was really planning to do.”
‘They game laws all the time’
Once an individual decides to become a candidate, they are required to register with the FEC within 15 days of raising or spending $5,000.
The Tijerina complaint points out that he is working with a political consultancy, Lilly and Company, and hosted a fundraiser in October, soliciting donations between $500 and $7,000.
But fundraising for an exploratory committee is allowed even if it exceeds $5,000, the FEC says. Only once the individual decides to be a candidate does the $5,000 threshold come into play.
Smith said: “The whole idea is to test the water. You’re telling people, ‘Yeah, I'm thinking about running for Congress. I'm thinking really seriously about it. I'm raising money for it,’ because, remember, you can raise this money, and then if you declare, then the money all has to be reported.”
Activities considered to be testing the waters include polling, traveling and making calls.
“By definition, you are doing campaign stuff, and you can very specifically do things like public polling, see how you might do, and that sort of thing,” Smith said.
“So, it's pretty easy for a candidate in this position, especially once the complaint is filed … to just say, ‘Well, yeah, I'm considering it, there's no doubt about that … that's why I set up an exploratory committee, but I haven't made a final decision.’”
While “all the money he's raising is in accordance with the rules,” Smith said Tijerina could be in “technical violation.”
“Is he gaming the Texas state law? Yeah, probably, but they game laws all the time in this kind of thing,” Smith said.
Randall Erben, an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said it’d be up to a court to determine if Tijerina was a candidate prior to 13 months before the end of his term.
Erben said Texas courts “like eligibility, and they like people staying in office. That’s the public policy of the state.”
However, the framers of the resign-to-run provisions wanted “public office holders to pay attention to what they were doing.
“They were elected to a full term on a county or district office or city office. They wanted them to focus 100 percent on the duties for which they were elected, and not be spending a lot of time seeking other office.
“It's pretty simple public policy, and especially in this day and age where campaigning is 24/7, 365, I think the public policy is probably even more valid now than it was when they added it in the 1950s.”
‘Cost of doing business’
The FEC would not confirm receipt of the Tijerina complaint, due to confidentiality requirements. Any complaint resolutions are published 30 days after a vote to close the matter, said spokesperson Myles Martin.
Smith said: “As a practical matter, I don't think the FEC has ever been very rigorous in trying to say, ‘You've gone too far.’”
With President Donald Trump firing one commissioner and others resigning, the agency has for months lacked a quorum, meaning it “can't act on anything” anyway, Smith said.
“If we think about this for the midterms … it's quite likely that if the fine were assessed [against Tijerina], it wouldn't be until, quite possibly, after the 2026 election.
“A lot of campaigns say, ‘Well, cost of doing business,’ at that point.”
Federal prosecutors will argue that “adherence” to “violent and extremist Antifa ideology” shores up material-support-for-terrorists charges against protesters who shot fireworks, destroyed a surveillance camera, and vandalized vehicles and a guard shed at a Texas ICE facility on July 4.
Donald Trump’s Department of Justice also intends to cite previous cases involving jihadist and white supremacist defendants.
One leading expert told Raw Story “characterizing ‘Antifa ideology’ as necessarily violent,” like such established extremist threats, indicated the weakness of the government’s case.
The 12-count superseding indictment returned earlier this month in the Northern District of Texas is against nine defendants but alleges only one, Benjamin Song, opened fire on federal and local law enforcement.
Four defendants are charged with aiding and abetting Song, named as the “principal,” in the attempted murder of two federal officers and a local police officer.
Song is alleged to have shot an Alvarado police officer in the neck area.
All but one of the defendants are charged with providing material support to terrorists.
Prosecutors telegraphed in a recent filing that they intend to lean into arguments about the defendants’ alleged antifascist beliefs to establish intent and motive.
The government accuses Autumn Hill of being part of an “Antifa Cell” that shot fireworks at the Prairieland ICE facility in Alvarado, and accuses Zachary Evetts and another defendant of destroying a surveillance camera and vandalizing vehicles and a guard shed.
As a “militant enterprise” prosecution, the government’s case holds many defendants responsible for Song’s alleged actions.
“The daytime reconnaissance of security measures at the facility, the use of black bloc, the presence of assault rifles, body armor, and combat-style first aid kits, as well as the flight from the scene after the shooting are inconsistent with a peaceful protest and instead support that the defendants were aware that they were involved in an attack in which the use of deadly force was reasonably foreseeable,” prosecutors wrote.
Alluding to a detention hearing in September, prosecutors signaled the government’s intent to cite defendants’ alleged antifascist beliefs, writing that “intent and motive can be inferred from each individual’s adherence to an extremist ideology that holds that violent force is justified to resist and overthrow the United States government.”
The filing contests an argument by Evetts that the government hasn’t explained how it will prove he “intended or knew that his conduct would support terrorists.”
Beyond the facts of the attack, including Evetts’ attendance at a “gear check,” and his involvement in a reconnaissance mission, prosecutors said they will “rely on Evetts’ adherence to a violent and extremist Antifa ideology for purposes of motive and intent.
“This is common and proper in material-support-for-terrorism cases, regardless of whether ideology is that of Antifa, white supremacy, or Islamic jihad,” the filing continues.
Attorneys for Evetts and Hill could not be reached for comment.
‘Weakness in the argument’
The filing cites appellate rulings in cases concerning Islamic jihadists and white supremacists.
The jihadist cases concerned Ahmed Abu Khattallah, a Libyan extremist said to have directed the 2012 attack on the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, and Betim Kaziu, convicted of terrorism-related charges after allegedly traveling to Kosovo with the intention of killing fellow Americans.
In the other case cited by the government, an appellate court ruled that a defendant’s white supremacist beliefs and associations, including a photo of her giving a Nazi salute and an article she wrote about “white power,” were “highly relevant” to charges related to a bomb-making plot targeting “a Holocaust or Black history” event.
Thomas Brzozowski, a former Department of Justice counsel for domestic terrorism, told Raw Story “the government can use ideology to prove specific intent,” and that the cases cited do support its position in the Texas antifa case.
“But the weakness in the government’s argument concerns their characterization of ‘Antifa ideology’ as necessarily violent,” Brzozowski said.
Brzozowski said the government will likely turn to a box of photocopied booklets described as “insurrection planning, anti-law enforcement, anti-government, and anti-immigration enforcement documents and propaganda” and seized by law enforcement.
One publication, War in the Streets, describes a “series of situated and intelligent reflections on black blocs, street clashes and related tactics of confrontation,” intended as a practical guide for refining tactics relating “to the larger insurrectional process.”
The 12-count superseding indictment separately charges Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada and Maricela Rueda with conspiracy to conceal documents related to an allegation that Sanchez moved the box from a residence in an effort to prevent the government from using it as evidence.
The significance of the literature to the government’s case is highlighted when the indictment names three defendants — Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto and Savanna Batten — as “part of a group that created and distributed insurrectionary materials called ‘zines.’”
The indictment presents the group as being part of an “Antifa Cell” at the center of the government’s militant enterprise case.
‘4th of July Party!’
The indictment also includes references to planning chats that provide a mixed picture as to whether the defendants went to Alvarado expecting a firefight or a rowdy protest.
The government cites a “4th of July Party!” chat with six members. In one exchange, Rueda allegedly commented that “rifles might make the situation more hot.”
“Cops are not trained or equipped for more than one rifle so it tends to make them back off,” Song reportedly replied.
During the July 3 “gear check,” Hill allegedly asked Song if they would be bringing guns.
“Song replied that they would because he would not be going to jail,” the indictment reads.
“Song repeated words to this effect multiple times throughout the evening, putting everyone there on notice of his intent to shoot at police rather than be arrested.”
But the government’s depiction of a larger chat suggests participants expected a different kind of confrontation.
“Throughout the large chat, Ines Soto and Rueda attempted to downplay concerns about law enforcement, urging action and referring to noise demonstrations as ‘low risk,’” the indictment reads.
WASHINGTON — A move by Senate Republicans to allow members of their caucus whose phone records were swept up in the Jan. 6, 2021 investigation to sue the government they are a part of “stinks like sh––”, a prominent Democrat told Raw Story.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are appalled and vow to follow the House and swiftly nix the measure.
The controversial provision directed by Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was included in the bill to reopen the government after the recent record-breaking shutdown.
“It stinks like sh––. It's just stinky,” Sen. Luján told Raw Story: “It's why people across the country hate politicians.
“Because, you know, under the guise of opening up the government and [with] Republicans saying they would not allow food programs to go forward … they sneak in more than a $500,000 payoff.”
Under the Senate measure passed on Nov. 10, senators who had their phone records collected during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol could qualify for hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation.
At the time, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), one of the senators investigated over his links to Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, said: “Leader Thune inserted that in the bill to provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators.”
Cruz also bemoaned what he called “the abuse of power from the Biden Justice Department … the worst single instance of politicization our country has ever seen,” telling Politico: “I think it is Joe Biden’s Watergate, and the statutory prohibition needs to have real teeth and real consequences.”
But the move caused widespread outcry. Last week, the House, which is controlled by Republicans, voted unanimously to repeal the provision.
“It's $500,000 per instance, so it's arguably millions of dollars for arguably eight senators,” Sen. Lujan told Raw Story at the Capitol, ahead of lawmakers’ Thanksgiving recess.
“It's stinky. There's a reason why the House Republicans said this was garbage and they acted so quickly. So kudos to them for moving so quickly, and kudos to Sen. [Martin] Heinrich (D-NM) for offering a piece of legislation that says, ‘Take it out.’”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) was among other Democrats who told Raw Story they expected the Senate to remove the compensation measure, “probably in one of the one of the must-passes [budgetary bills] at the end of the year.”
‘What the hell are they up to?’
Lujan did accept Republican concerns about senators’ phone records being obtained by Smith and his team.
“Whether it's Democrats or Republicans, I mean, what the hell are they up to?” Lujan asked. “Why are they doing it? Arguably, it's against the law.”
But he also demanded to know why Republican senators needed a “payout” on the issue when they “left out” of their legislation “my Republican colleague out of Pennsylvania that was also in the damn report” — a reference to either Mike Kelly or Scott Perry, the only two Key Stone State lawmakers mentioned.
“It's stupid, and it's broken all around,” Lujan said.
‘We’ll talk about it’
Republican senators are reportedly split over how to amend their measure after its rejection by the House.
At the Capitol, Sen. Cruz dodged Raw Story’s question, saying he had a call to attend to.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said her party would be “discussing it.”
She also said she had not known about Thune’s provision when the government funding bill passed.
“I think the leaders even said, you know, maybe the process of doing it was not the best,” Capito said. “The substance of it, I don't argue with, being able to keep the separation of powers, but we'll talk about it next week.”
Democrats want to make it as uncomfortable as possible.
“It's outrageous that people would put into the bill essentially a check for themselves for up to $500,000,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told Raw Story.
“Are you guys pressuring?” Raw Story asked.
“Oh, we're working very hard to overturn it,” Van Hollen promised.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s surprise retirement announcement seems to have House Republicans breathing sighs of relief.
Before the far-right Georgia representative shocked the political world and announced her plan to retire on the eve of the next Jan. 6 anniversary, her fellow Republicans wanted nothing to do with her ongoing digital brawl with the president over the Epstein files.
Greene herself didn’t want to talk about the spat she started with Trump.
“Are you getting a divorce from Trump?” Raw Story asked last Friday morning, as Greene and her mini-entourage headed to the House floor for members’ last vote ahead of their weeklong Thanksgiving recess.
The usually talkative congresswoman just shook her head no.
“She’s not taking questions today,” her MAGA-media boyfriend, Brian Glenn of Real America’s Voice, answered for her.
Greene wasn’t the only Republican avoiding the topic of Greene.
‘No comment’
While no one outside Greene’s small circle of confidants saw her retirement coming, the MAGA darling had alienated many fellow Republicans in recent weeks.
“What have you thought of this dustup between MTG and Trump?” Raw Story asked Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), like Greene a hard-line controversy magnet on the right of the party.
“Above my pay grade on that,” said Gosar, who in 2024 was one of only 10 Republicans to join Greene’s attempt to oust Speaker Mike Johnson.
Other Republicans, especially those seeking a new office, were close-lipped too.
"That's between them, not me," Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who’s running for governor back home, told Raw Story.
"Look, I just do my deal, so I haven't really thought much about it, to be frank with you."
Awkward.
“I don’t have any thoughts,” Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) — who served in the House alongside MTG until moving to the Senate in January — told Raw Story.
“I'm glad to be a senator.”
Even members of Greene’s Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee refused to come to the congresswoman’s aid in her clash with Trump.
"No comment there," Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) told Raw Story Friday morning.
"It's uncomfortable, right?" Raw Story pressed.
"My fire is focused on the Democrats," Gill said. “I'll put it that way."
‘All in with the boss’
If there was any doubt lingering about who controls the GOP, doubt no more: Trump won, again.
Greene’s decision to step down rather than duke it out with a primary opponent next year reveals the power of this presidency — because Greene’s one of the most prolific fundraisers on Capitol Hill.
Since her first win in 2020, the congresswoman’s raised a staggering $26.1 million. But even she withered at the thought of taking on her former MAGA-ally-in-chief.
“Biggest mistake of her life,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) told Raw Story outside the Capitol Friday morning.
“I don't know why you get into altercations with Donald Trump, the greatest president," Nehls added. "I mean, the guy, he's done a hell of a job, why would you do it?”
While Greene has not discussed her decision, on Capitol Hill there’s been lots of chatter about her failing to garner Trump’s blessing for a Senate run.
“You hear the reports, some are saying she wanted to run for Senate and the numbers didn't look good,” Nehls said.
“A lot of people up here think they deserve to get promoted or, you know, all this other stuff. I don't know, but it's not healthy. It's not healthy.”
Just hours before Greene made her retirement announcement, Nehls predicted her downfall.
“I don’t see how Marjorie can win this battle. I just don't,” Nehls said.
“And MAGA’s MAGA. MAGA’s not moving off," he added. "The boss has his supporters and they're not leaving him. The boss is the boss, and I support the boss. I'm all in with the boss.”
’Tis the season?
Politically speaking, Thanksgiving promises to be a lonely day for Greene.
“None of you guys want to talk about her fight with Trump,” Raw Story told Arizona Congressman Gosar. “It feels like an uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner.”
“Probably, yeah,” Gosar said, smirking. “It might be a Christmas dinner.”
“Do you think they'll heal it eventually?” Raw Story asked. “Because members of your party have already found out what happens when you cross Trump.”
“She’d be wise to” heal the breach with the president, Gosar said Friday morning, ahead of the retirement announcement.
“It's nice to see spirit, but not unless it comes with temperament. I've learned that from my family.”
In 2018, six of Gosar’s siblings disavowed him politically and cut an ad for his opponent. Seven years on, as Congress left town for the recess, it was unclear who Gosar — or MTG — would be spending Thanksgiving with.
WASHINGTON — A rash of censure votes in the U.S. House of Representatives “has to stop,” a prominent California Democrat told Raw Story, recommending a bipartisan effort to make such moves rarer and thereby cool an increasingly heated tit-for-tat exchange.
“It has to stop because all it is is inviting revenge actions, one upon the other,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) said, walking in the Capitol prior to the Thanksgiving recess, after a recent run of such votes.
“We could all find behaviors that we find objectionable in people on the other side,” Chu said.
“So there has to be a higher threshold. I totally agree with this bipartisan attempt to increase the threshold.”
'Broad power'
“The censure process in the House is broken – all of us know it,” Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA) and Don Bacon (R-NE) said, while introducing their measure last week.
“These cycles of censure and punishment impair our ability to work together for the American people, pull our focus away from problems besetting the country, and inflict lasting damage on this institution.”
The chamber has “broad power to discipline its members for acts that range from criminal misconduct to violations of internal House rules, as defined by the House itself.
“Over the decades, several forms of discipline have evolved in the House. The most severe type of punishment by the House is expulsion, which is followed by censure, and finally reprimand.”
The same source defines censure as a way to “register the House’s deep disapproval of member misconduct that, nevertheless, does not meet the threshold for expulsion.
“Once the House approves the sanction by majority vote, the censured member must stand in the well of the House … while the Speaker or presiding officer reads aloud the censure resolution and its preamble as a form of public rebuke.”
Until recently, such rebukes were extremely rare.
Between 1832 and 2021 there were just 23, with none at all between 1983 (when a Republican and a Democrat were censured for “sexual misconduct with a House page”) and December 2010, when the Democrat Charles Rangel was censured for a range of corrupt actions.
There followed another 11-year run without a successful censure.
But since 2021, in the age of Donald Trump’s Republican Party and ever-spiralling partisan warfare, there have been five successful censures and numerous unsuccessful attempts.
One Republican, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and four Democrats — Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Al Green (D-TX), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), the latter two having moved on, Schiff to the Senate, Bowman defeated at the polls — have been formally censured.
This month, Chu voted no on a move to censure the controversial Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) and remove him from the Armed Services Committee, a matter that was then referred to the House Ethics panel — the traditional venue for allegations about members’ conduct.
The Mills censure was proposed by a member of his own party, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
Other recent censure efforts have been traditionally, and typically, partisan.
On Nov. 18, Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) beat a censure vote brought by Republicans, regarding her revealed email contact with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was her constituent.
Chu voted no.
Also on Nov. 18, the House voted to disapprove (short of censure) the conduct of Rep. Chuy García (D-IL), after he announced his retirement in a manner that cleared the way for his chief of staff to succeed him without having to endure a Democratic primary in his Chicago seat.
Chu voted no, though 23 Democrats joined Republicans in voting yes.
On Sept. 17, before the long House recess during the government shutdown, Chu voted with all other Democrats and several Republicans to defeat an attempt to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a leading progressive voice.
That motion, also brought by Mace, concerned Omar’s reaction to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
‘Not normal at all’
Speaking to Chu, Raw Story said: “You've been here longer than many of your colleagues — this [rash of censure votes] is not normal.”
“No,” Chu said, “not normal at all. The censures that I remember were few and far between. I remember Charlie Rangel. But yeah, to do it all day, almost every hour?”
“Are all these members just crying wolf and fundraising off these attacks?” Raw Story asked.
“Some could be trying to gain national attention,” Chu said — a description that would certainly fit Mace, a notably publicity hungry Republican now running to be governor of South Carolina.
“But I also think there is a revenge motive, because if one side of the aisle is going to do it, then the other side of the aisle is going to do it.”
"Freedom from Want" by Norman Rockwell (Wikimedia Commons)
Jennie Gage with her children when she said she was still a "Mormon trad wifey" (Photo provided by Jennie Gage)
A college student wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap looks on at a Turning Point USA event, held at University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida on Nov. 13. REUTERS/Octavio Jones
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) speaks on Capitol Hill. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein 
George Retes, a U.S. citizen, says he was detained by ICE on his way to work (Photo provided by Institute for Justice)