WASHINGTON — Republican U.S. senators look ready to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, even as many privately admit Sen. Rand Paul’s "vicious" dissection of their colleague during his confirmation hearing wasn't wrong.
While Republican senators are prepared to approve Mullin’s nomination, that doesn’t mean they want to discuss the spat publicly.
"It was pretty vicious, but I'll tell you what I saw was Rand kept his cool," a senior Republican told Raw Story on background because he was afraid to share his actual thoughts publicly. "I'm not going to comment at all.”
Still, the public brawl reverberated through the U.S. Capitol after Homeland Security Committee Chair Paul highlighted Mullin calling him a “freaking snake” after Paul’s neighbor attacked him, breaking his ribs in 2017.
"In my time in Congress, rarely have I seen such an intense exchange between two members of the same party, especially in the United States Senate. Clearly, both of them are very strong-willed, very confident in their point of view and perspective and their memory," Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), one of six of Mullin’s home state colleagues in Congress, told Raw Story. "It was just fascinating."
Fascinating to some, awkward for many.
That got awkward
Rand Paul is the Senate’s libertarian-leaning gadfly, effectively a caucus of one who regularly votes against his own Republican Party leaders on issues like deficit spending and foreign military operations.
Many Republicans were surprised to hear the attack from Paul’s neighbor left him in excruciating pain from broken ribs, but, more so, that political attacks from Republicans like Mullin continue to sting Kentucky’s junior senator.
“I wasn't aware of that personal history,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Raw Story. “So yeah, personal things, it's pretty ugly. It's the first I've heard of it. I try to stay out of those personal things.”
Most other Republicans have been trying to stay away from the tiff since it boiled into public view Wednesday morning, too.
“What's your take on Rand?” Raw Story asked Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS).
“Well, I'm reminded of what my mom would say, 'if you don't have something good to say about somebody, don't say it.' And you know, those rules we learned in kindergarten still apply up here as well,” Marshall told Raw Story. “So obviously it's a conversation at the emotional level, and it's very important."
“Do you get along with Rand Paul?” Raw Story pressed.
“Absolutely. He's a doctor, I'm a doc, and, yeah, he's a good friend,” Marshall said. "I respect him, and he's very consistent. And he's true to his cause. He really believes what he says and does."
With President Donald Trump having nominated Mullin, most Republican senators appear ready to swiftly approve him to replace Noem.
Many even say the heated hearing showed Mullin being the Mullin they want heading the nation’s Homeland Security Department.
“Showed the human side, showed what kind of person he is, showed the kind of relationships he's had with Republicans and Democrats alike,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story.
“What’d you make of Rand Paul?” Raw Story pressed.
“Well, they're obviously not BFFs, are they?” Johnson said.
“What about Rand Paul's critique, though?” Raw Story pushed. “This is a guy who can't apologize?”
“That's a personal situation,” Johnson said. “I'm not going to get involved in that.”
Johnson’s far from alone.
When asked about the public spat unbecoming of what was formerly hailed as the most deliberative body in the world, many Republicans joined Mullin in shrugging it off.
“It's clear the two of them don't like each other,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Raw Story. “There's no ambiguity on that.”
“It's just a process,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Raw Story. “I mean, just going through the process.”
On the other side of the Capitol, Republicans who don’t get to vote on Mullin’s nomination say they can see it both ways.
"I know from having served with Markwayne in the House — I suspect the case in the United States Senate is the same — members have an insight into the nature of each other that no one on the outside can have. I never impugn the opinions of my colleagues," Rep. Lucas of Mullin’s home state of Oklahoma told Raw Story. "So maybe there was a little bit of truth in what they both had to say."
The battle royale on C-SPAN seems to have also rendered Mullin mute.
“Is Rand Paul a jack--?” Raw Story asked the nominee after the hearing.
WASHINGTON — A frustrated Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) took a page out of President Donald Trump's book on Wednesday and lashed out at reporters asking him tough questions about the Iran war and Sen. Markwayne Mullin's nomination to head up the Department of Homeland Security.
Fetterman has faced fierce criticism in recent months from many even within his own party over his seeming cozying up to Trump, including his support of strikes on Iran and of efforts to suppress voters in the name of baseless widespread voter fraud allegations.
Among the entities that have hammered Fetterman: Drop Site News, which has hit the senator multiple times, especially over foreign policy and immigration.
In January 2025, the outlet accused Fetterman, "whose wife was famously undocumented," of "pushing to deport people like her," with his support of the GOP-backed Laken Riley Act.
"The Democratic capitulation accelerated on Wednesday morning when freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego, from the border state of Arizona, announced on X that he would join Democrat John Fetterman as a co-sponsor. Fetterman, famously, has celebrated the fact that his wife came to the country as an undocumented immigrant," the site wrote at the time.
"Fetterman’s support broke a promise he made to the immigrant rights community, namely that during his first two years in the Senate he would avoid supporting legislation that harms Dreamers, beneficiaries of what’s known as DACA," the report added.
The criticism from Drop Site predates this week's confrontation — last month, reporter Julian Andreone caught up with Fetterman in the hallway to press him on the Iran war, and whether he'd vote "no" on the War Powers Resolution.
"How exactly would strikes on Iran benefit the American people, like on the ground? In Pennsylvania for example?" Andreone asked in a clip shared on social media.
As Fetterman insisted, "it absolutely does," and makes the Middle East safer, Andreone refused to let him off the hook.
"But in Pennsylvania?" he inquired. "How so? Like how does it benefit them? Does it put more money in their pockets?"
"I'm voting it no," the senator replied.
Talking with reporters again this week, Fetterman apparently didn't forget the past confrontations. As a Drop Site News reporter started asking him a question, Fetterman cut her off.
"The president has indicated that his timeline for ending the war, he decided was kind of based on — " the reporter began.
But Fetterman wasn't having any of it.
"Oh, are you Drop Site?" he interjected.
"Yes," she replied.
Fetterman unloaded after confirming her employer.
"Yes? Ok. I celebrate all those Iranian leadership killed. I want you to run that, ok? You're part of this very anti group, so I absolutely celebrate that they keep wasting all those Iranian regime leaders. I'm not sure how you guys feel about that. But following me with the phone, it's just like, find a new way," the senator attacked.
Fetterman doubled down that he remains very supportive of [Operation] Epic Fury, and lashed out at what he called "gotcha" journalism.
"These weird gotcha in the hall things..." he trailed off.
As the reporter tried to ask another question, a Fetterman staffer jumped in and shut her down.
A neo-Nazi who embraces terrorism has been ordered held in pre-trial detention as a danger to the community by a federal magistrate judge following his arrest for illegally possessing a firearm.
Mathew David Bair, a leader of the neo-Nazi accelerationist group Injekt Division, was arrested in Pennsylvania by the FBI last week.
A former Marine who was court-martialed out of the service for larceny and sale of classified materials, Bair joined the riot at the U.S. Capitol as a member of First Capitol Proud Boys, as Trump supporters attempted to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6.
From his time as a Proud Boy, Bair increasingly gravitated to a violent brand of white supremacist extremism. He toldRaw Storyin 2024 that “the fascist pipeline is very real,” and that he had been “in a direct pipeline chapter.”
Bair’s radicalization led him to Injekt Division, a neo-Nazi accelerationist group whose former leader was arrested in May 2021 for allegedly plotting to carry out a mass shooting at a Texas Walmart.
“I would say they’re very much in line with the Terrorgram milieu,” Hannah Gais, a senior researcher and journalist at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Raw Story. “I think obviously given their origin, they have clear ties to violence.”
Terrorgram Collective is a global network that has encouraged mass shootings, political assassinations and infrastructure attacks through online propaganda, which inspired a deadly school shooting spree in Brazil, a fatal mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ bar in Slovakia and a mass stabbing in Turkey, as well as assassination attempts and thwarted attacks on electrical substations. Dallas Humber, one of the group’s leaders, is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to soliciting hate crimes and murder.
In 2023, Bair posted a video depicting a flyer reading, “Shoot your local judge.” Asked about the flyer by Raw Story, Bair brought up an incident in which an extremist went to the home of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas and fatally shot her son. Salas has frequently spoken out against threats directed at judges who cross President Trump over the past year.
Extremist researchers and antifascist activists have closely monitored Bair due, in part, to his provocative online presence. They include a Telegram message showing members posing in tactical gear and skull masks outside what appears to be a power plant while displaying firearms and their group flag.
Another Telegram message linked to Bair shows a ballistic vest, flags and pistols draped over a car seat accompanied by text indicating the author was traveling to Washington, DC on Jan. 24, 2025, a date that coincides with the March for Life. The annual event typically draws both far-right extremists and left-wing counterprotesters. Carrying firearms is prohibited in Washington, D.C., with a few exceptions that include law enforcement.
An indictment returned on March 4 alleges that Bair possessed an Aero Precision rifle and Ruger pistol while knowing that he had been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than a year. Bair pleaded not guilty following his arrest on March 11.
A magistrate judge in Harrisburg, Pa. ordered Bair to be held in pre-trial detention, partly on the basis that his release poses serious danger to a person or the community. The magistrate also cited Bair’s prior criminal history, prior parole violations, prior failures to appear in court, and the strength of evidence supporting the gun charge.
Dawn Clark, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, declined to comment in response to questions about why the government argued that Bair is a danger to a person or the community, or whether the government is concerned that Bair has attempted to intimidate judges.
Beatrice Diehl, an assistant federal public defender assigned to represent Bair, also declined to comment.
An undated photo of Mathew Bair from an Injekt Division Telegram chatVia Telegram
While becoming increasingly immersed in violent neo-Nazi activity, Bair remained committed to Trump. In July 2024, shortly after Trump accepted the nomination at the Republican National Convention, an Injekt Division Telegram channel linked to Bair posted video of a rally in Michigan in which neo-Nazis chanted, “We love Hitler, we love Trump.”
In late 2023, Bair joined 2119, a teenage neo-Nazi gang, after four of its members, ages 15 to 18, were arrested in Pensacola, Fla. for a hate-fueled vandalism spree that included brick attacks on two synagogues. 2-1-19 is an alphanumeric code that stands for Blood and Soil, with 2 representing B for “Blood,” 1 representing A for “And” and 19 representing “S.” for “Soil.” Blood and Soil is the English translation for Blut und Boden, a popular phrase during the Third Reich that suggests a mystical bond between a racialized ideal and the land of Germany.
The group previously went by the moniker Revolutionary White Brotherhood, or RWB.
Then 34, Bair was by far the oldest member of 2119, which was the focus of a February 2024 investigation by Raw Story. Bair posted a photo on the social media platform Telegram that showed his 4-year-old son posing next to 2119 graffiti.
In March 2024, the [2119] Sons of Pennsylvania Telegram channel, likely operated by Bair, posted a video of two men driving a pickup truck to the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in York, and depositing a brick inscribed with the letters R-W-B at the front door, declaring as they departed: “White f------ power.”
2119 went into decline following the Raw Story investigation. By mid-2014, the group had disbanded as its leader lowered his profile and members found themselves caught in the middle of intra-movement rivalries between larger white nationalist organizations. Injekt Division likely contributed to 2119’s demise by doxxing a leader of 2119’s California chapter after he admitted to “snitch[ing] on” another member.
Bair is not the only associate of 2119 who has faced arrest in recent months.
Aiden Cuevas, an Alabama neo-Nazi who enthusiastically promoted 2119, was indicted alongside Andrew Nary for conspiracy to traffic firearms after allegedly buying machine guns from an undercover FBI employee while planning to start a paramilitary and requesting training to “take out” so-called “high-value targets.
Cuevas and Nary both entered not guilty pleas before a federal magistrate judge in Huntsville, Ala. last week.
Last month, David William Fair, a probationary member of the racist skinhead group Vinlanders Social Club, was indicted in North Carolina for felony soliciting gang activity and contributing the delinquency of a minor.
Fair had administered a Telegram chat that Bair joined in 2023. That same year, following the Pensacola arrests, Fair counseled Cuevas in another Telegram chat that 2119 should exercise more discretion to avoid criminal prosecution.
The story previously stated that Bair and a second man deposited a brick outside the York Police Department. The story has been corrected to reflect that they deposited the brick outside a Pennsylvania State Police barracks in York.
WASHINGTON — One of President Donald Trump's allies in Congress speared Attorney General Pam Bondi in an interview with Raw Story on Tuesday.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who leads the House Oversight Committee, told Raw Story that the committee has "a lot of questions" for Bondi about her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the Justice Department's efforts to prosecute Trump's political enemies. Comer made the comments just hours after his committee voted to subpoena Bondi and force her to appear for a deposition.
"There are a couple of things, and I wonder why we haven't gotten them," Comer said about Bondi's handling of the Epstein files.
Bondi is scheduled to appear for a closed-door briefing before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, CNNreported. The hearing was scheduled pursuant to the Epstein Transparency Act, which requires the Department of Justice to release all of the Epstein files in its possession.
So far, the DOJ has released about 2% of the files it has, according to reports.
Comer also questioned the DOJ's decision to redact certain information about potential co-conspirators from the Epstein files, and the way the department has treated some of Epstein's accusers.
"We have a lot of questions," Comer said.
A spokesperson for the DOJ told CNN that the subpoena is "completely unnecessary."
Mar-a-Lago — President Donald Trump’s luxury “winter White House” private club and residence — sits in a narrowly drawn Florida state house district hugging the Palm Beach coast.
That strip represents one of the target districts where Democrats are hoping to send their latest message to Republicans and Trump, who faces a tanked approval rating, through a small business owner they hope can flip the seat in Florida House District 87.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) boasts 28 state-level flips so far – and none for Republicans — since Trump was elected.
“This is a stark reminder that Democrats are not just winning in blue states or even in competitive districts. We are winning in red communities, and we're putting up a fight right in the president's backyard,” Heather Williams, DLCC president, told Raw Story.
“There's some groundswell opportunity there. This is also in the kind of district that we've been winning. We have been marching into Republican territory. We've been flipping seats, and we're leaving no stone unturned when it comes to that.”
The March 24 special election squares off Democrat Emily Gregory, a public health expert and Fit4Mom Palm Beach owner, against Jon Maples, a financial adviser and former All-American college athlete endorsed by Trump.
Emily Gregory (Photo courtesy of Emily Gregory for Florida)
“When people are given the option of a very extreme, far right-wing option or a pragmatic Democrat, I think they will choose the pragmatic Democrat,” Gregory told Raw Story.
“When we will win, it will send an incredibly powerful message to Democrats statewide and nationally.”
Maples and the Republican State Leadership Committee did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.
'Outcry and outrage'
After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Mike Caruso, the incumbent Republican state representative for the district, to serve as Palm Beach County Clerk in August 2025, he failed to call a special election for months until after Gregory filed a lawsuit alleging the governor did not follow state law.
Without representation for an entire legislative session, “people are really understandably outraged,” Gregory said.
Gregory said she’s campaigning on “pragmatic solutions” to address the affordability crisis and state housing issues.
When she knocks on doors, Gregory said voters talk about skyrocketing property insurance rates, access to affordable health care and funding public schools.
“More recently, we've really been hearing this outcry and outrage at democracy in peril,” Gregory said.
Residents in the district are concerned about the Trump administration’s aggressive handling of immigration enforcement that left protesters dead when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent thousands of federal agents to Minnesota.
“No one is okay with armed thugs being out in the streets, shooting American citizens,” Gregory said.
“No one is okay with the unregulated militia that is ICE.”
Emily Gregory (Photo courtesy of Emily Gregory for Florida)
State legislators are in charge of the drawing of congressional maps, and at least one-third of states have proposed redrawing maps since Republicans started a mid-decade gerrymandering war at the urging of Trump.
The winner of the Florida House District 87 race will participate in Florida’s April special session on congressional redistricting, said Gregory, who is against mid-decade redistricting.
“There's a lot to be fearful of in this power grab,” Gregory said.
“We have to maintain our civic duty and our decade pattern, and I think trying to do it halfway through the decade just shows how desperate the current administration is, and the implications of losing those congressional seats would be profound.”
Democrats hope their successes at the state-level are a bellwether for the November midterm elections when they look to take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives and even possibly the U.S. Senate.
The major super PAC for Senate Republicans skyrocketed their dark money contributions in order to protect their GOP majority, Raw Story first reported.
“If I were Republicans, I'd be deeply concerned about this. They benefited from this kind of environment in 2010, and we're knocking on the same door, only in the opposite direction this time, where we've got this incredible opportunity and we are ready to show up and meet the needs of voters across the country,” Williams said.
“Regardless of what the national narrative is like, Democrats can win elections, and we can win elections when we meet voters where they are and with a D behind our name.
“I think that's incredibly important as we think about officially now, transitioning into primary season, and how we think about winning up and down the ballot.”
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans aren't keen on using a talking filibuster to jam through President Donald Trump’s SAVE America Act, which doesn't have the votes to pass the chamber.
Trump and allies, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), have pushed Republicans to force a marathon talking filibuster to try to break Democratic resistance and pass the legislation, which has faced fierce criticism, as it would block large numbers of eligible citizens from voting to address a virtually nonexistent problem. The bill would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register or re‑register to vote in federal elections and impose a nationwide voter ID requirement with strict documentation rules.
Trump‑aligned conservatives want to force Democrats into an old‑school, around‑the‑clock talking filibuster if they want to block the bill, rather than letting them quietly sustain a 60‑vote blockade.
But in candid hallway remarks this week, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) dismissed the prospect of weaponizing the talking filibuster as logistically unworkable. She told reporters she'd "talk till the cows come home" if her conference demanded it, but conceded it would "chew up the rest of the year" and produce few results.
"The practicality of doing it just is not apparent to me," she said.
When asked about a Thursday vote in which the Senate again failed to secure enough votes to advance a Homeland Security funding bill, Lummis lamented, "Everything for the last month has been C-SPAN theater."
While she heard that Trump sent an offer to Democrats to fund DHS, her party hasn't seen it.
"They're not showing it to Republicans," she insisted.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said the Senate may drag out floor time next week.
Meanwhile, Democrats are pointing fingers back at Republicans over the shutdown of DHS, which includes TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) said Republicans blocked unanimous consent to fund those agencies on two separate occasions last week and this week, calling GOP claims that Democrats are obstructing the process "baloney."
Lujan said Trump admitted "out loud" what the SAVE Act is really about.
"Republicans believe the SAVE Act wins them the midterms," he said. "This is not about fraud or this one thing or another. They wanna cheat and steal these elections in November because they see what's really happening.
Luján added that the bill would be "devastating" to Native American communities and tribal elders.
"It would throw them off the rolls. They take away their rights. It's just ridiculous," he said.
Lawyers for a Black man serving life in prison in Alabama are seeking to overturn his conviction for the murder of a white woman, citing evidence his state-provided attorney was active in the Ku Klux Klan.
“Was he well positioned to represent a Black man?” one investigator asked.
“I think the answer is no.”
‘Enough questions’
Robin “Rocky” Myers, who has an intellectual disability,was convicted of stabbing to death Ludie Mae Tucker, 69, at her home in Decatur in 1991. Now 64, Myers has always claimed to be innocent.
Sentenced to death in 1994, Myers spent more than 30 years on death row. He was due to be executed using nitrogen gas before, last March, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commuted the sentence to life, observing that the case was “riddled with conflicting evidence from seemingly everyone involved.”
Robin Myers.
Saying she “had enough questions about Mr. Myers’ guilt that I cannot move forward with executing him,” the Republican governor also noted that the jury in Myers’ case recommended a life sentence only to be overridden by the judge, a step allowed under Alabama law until 2017.
Incredibly, it was known in 1994 that John E. Mays, the lawyer who represented Myers during his trial in Decatur, was a lawyer for United Klans of America.
Mays’ public work for the Klan included representing Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton in a civil lawsuit brought by the mother of Michael Donald, a Black teenager who was strangled and stabbed to death by three UKA members in Mobile, his body hung from a tree.
But what was not known about Mays until now — having been unearthed thanks to newspaper archive research by the legal team seeking to overturn Myers’ conviction — is that the lawyer was actively involved in the United Klans of America, giving speeches at rallies in six states and counseling parents on how to resist public school desegregation.
Mays even received credit as a contributor to the Klan newspaper, The Fiery Cross.
‘Exhorted Caucasians to band together’
According to a new filing, last July, Mays told investigators for Myers’ legal team Shelton asked him to write an article “about the risks of the Klan being infiltrated by the FBI.”
But the filing by Myers' legal team also cites contemporaneous reporting alleging that Mays traveled with Shelton to Lakeland, Fla. in 1977, “to teach parents who opposed desegregation how to file habeas suits on behalf of their children.”
According to a Virginia newspaper, meanwhile, Mays stood alongside Shelton at a 1977 Klan rally in Richmond, Va, and said: “You hear a lot about civil rights of n-----s and civil rights of murderers and every kind of pervert known to humanity.
“But what about the civil rights of the decent law-abiding white man or the law-abiding Black man, for that matter.”
Following Donald’s murder in Mobile, a Tennessee newspaper reported that at a 1981 Klan rally, Mays “exhorted Caucasians to band together in the face of an oncoming race war.”
Mays could not be reached for comment. But investigators for Myers’ legal team said that when they met Mays last year, he denied ever being a member of the Klan.
Leah Nelson, one of the investigators, told Raw Storyshe was confident that Mays “aligned with Klan goals” when he represented Myers.
“I believe the contemporaneous newspaper accounts over what he says now,” she said. “I think you really have to look at his actions, and ask: ‘Was he well positioned to represent a Black man?’
“I think the answer is, no.”
‘Unwaivable conflict of interest’
Myers’ motion requesting that the court vacate his conviction argues that no forensic evidence tied him to the crime. At least one witness for the state has recanted, saying he falsely implicated Myers in exchange for a police detective not charging him with auto theft.
The motion also argues that Myers’ conviction should be overturned on the basis of his lawyer’s failure to provide effective assistance.
Mays, the motion argues, “acted under an unwaivable conflict of interest: his racism, which ran so deep that there is no plausible way it did not impact his representation of Mr. Myers, a poor Black man.”
During his opening statement in 1994, Mays described the place where Myers lived as “the very pit of hell” while characterizing his client as a “transiate” [sic] despite the fact that he lived with his wife and family.
In a response filed late on Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Courtney Schellack asked the court to dismiss Myers' petition, arguing that it is "wholly without merit" and denying "any material allegation" in the filing.
Myers' legal team will have the opportunity to file a reply before a judge decides whether to grant the motion to vacate his sentence.
Schellack's response waved aside revelations about Mays' involvement with the Klan.
The only new information in the affidavit filed to support Myers' claim "is that Mr. Mays said he wrote an article at some point for the Klan publication," Schellack said, adding: "Mr. Mays specifically denied being a member of the Klan or attending Klan rallies."
The archived newspaper articles cannot be considered "newly discovered" information, Schellack said.
‘A certificate or trophy’
Nelson told Raw Story the extent to which other members of the legal community in Morgan County were aware of Mays’ involvement in the Klan in the 1970s and 1980s remains unclear.
Noting that Mays’ speaking engagements took place at rallies outside Alabama, Nelson said he may have taken care to reduce his visibility in his own community.
But one clue suggests Mays’ colleagues in the legal profession may have known more than they let on.
Based on a tip, J. Mitchell McGuire, Myers’ lawyer, filed an emergency motion last month expressing the belief that a “material artifact such as a certificate or trophy commending attorney Mays for his service to the Ku Klux Klan” is stashed in the evidence room or basement of the Morgan County Courthouse.
McGuire signaled that he intends to request discovery of May’s alleged Klan activity, and expressed concern that potential evidence could be misplaced or destroyed during renovations at the courthouse, which began in mid-February.
Judge Charles B. Elliot denied the motion — without explanation.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's triumphant declaration that America has "won" the war in Iran is drawing swift and scathing pushback from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with even Republicans privately expressing doubt about the premature victory lap.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. has “won” or “already won” in its war with Iran. That includes at a rally in Hebron, Kentucky, when he said: “You never like to say too early you won. We won. In the first hour, it was over.”
Democrats and Republicans were split on that messaging, with Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a combat veteran and Army helicopter pilot, aghast at Trump's "cavalier" attitude and apparent surprise that the conflict would spread throughout the Middle East, hurt everyday Americans and send oil prices soaring.
"He's been very cavalier about the whole thing," she told Raw Story on Thursday.
She also unloaded on Pete Hegseth, calling him flatly "incompetent" and "not qualified to do his job," after the Pentagon chief called rules of engagement "stupid."
"Maybe he slept through his officer's basics course when he was there," she said. "Every operational order ends with an end state. What's the end state? They can't decide."
Duckworth expressed bewilderment that the Trump administration failed to coordinate with Spain to use its airfields.
"The fact that Spain denied us the right to use two of their airfields, this should've been coordinated well in advance," she said. "Very cavalier."
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) was equally blistering, accusing Trump and his team of acting "like cowboys lassoing cattle" with no grasp of war's "gravity," calling it a "horrific mess."
"He's given many versions of this, and yet we are at war. We are still bombing. We still don't know if he's going to put troops in to secure Kharg Island or troops to secure nuclear material," Merkley told Raw Story.
He also pointed to the bombing of an Iranian school that killed 150 girls as evidence of catastrophic planning failures, and called the conflict an "illegal and unconstitutional war."
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas couldn't fully sell the victory narrative.
When asked if the GOP was having "flashbacks" of George W. Bush's famed "Mission Accomplished" boast in Iraq, Cornyn said the U.S. "put a world of hurt" on Iran's nuclear program and "reduced them as a threat." But when pressed specifically on Trump's messaging that the U.S. had won, he deflected.
"I think you need to ask the president," he told Raw Story.
Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) was fully on board with the "we won" framing, calling the military show of force "incredible."
"Seems pretty good to me," he insisted, asserting the country's nuclear program has been destroyed due to the U.S. military's "overwhelming" success.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) defended Trump's rhetoric, comparing him to a "coach" who says it's "time to put our foot on the throat."
"It sure looks like we're winning right now," he said.
WASHINGTON — A Republican U.S. senator used insulting and sexist language to demand European countries join America and Israel’s war against Iran, saying NATO allies should “take their skirts off, maybe put some boots on and help the rest of the world out.”
“I gave up on Europe helping us years ago,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) told reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.
“They're all talking,” Marshall continued, citing President Donald Trump’s long-held grievance over defense spending levels among the NATO alliance.
“They told us they would get to 2 percent of GDP, and they never did. Half of them never did. Now they're probably 5 percent. They're all talk.”
While the U.S. clearly contributes most, analysts contest claims that NATO countries don’t pay their fair share, especially after most European nations increased spending since Trump threatened the fate of NATO at the start of his second term in the White House.
Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran late last month, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and leaders of other traditional U.S. allies have grappled with how to deal with the Trump administration's demands that they support a war that remains unpopular across the globe.
On Thursday, Sen. Marshall reached back into 20th-century history to dismiss the Marshall Plan under which U.S. aid helped revive and rebuild Europe in the aftermath of World War Two.
“You know, World War II is over with,” Marshall said. “The Marshall Plan is over with.
“It's time for Europe to put some jeans on, take their skirts off, maybe put some boots on and help the rest of the world out.”
Marshall’s committee assignments do not include roles on panels dealing with foreign or military affairs.
His official Senate website highlights the seven years he served in the Army Reserves, while also painting him as a traditional conservative family man, “a physician, devoted father, [and] grandfather” and OB/GYN who “delivered more than 5,000 babies.”
'I was wrong'
Marshall already made news this week over errant Iran comments.
Appearing on CNN on Tuesday, the senator was asked whether, with seven Americans dead and 140 wounded, and a climbing death toll in Iran, he stood by comments to Fox News last June about U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
“I think it will take them years to restart their nuclear program,” Marshall said then.
“I think that they can’t control their airspace; they don’t have the will to do it. From what I’ve seen, I’m in shock and awe. You know, it’s just, it’s shocking how much damage we did to their facilities.”
Back then, Trump claimed Iran’s nuclear program had been obliterated, even as he says new strikes were necessary to stop work on nuclear weapons.
Asked if he had seen intelligence to back up the president’s change of tune, Marshall told CNN: “Look, I was wrong. They were restarting their nuclear program.”
Marshall also said, “I hate war,” and saluted U.S. service members killed or injured.
Pressed on why he had changed his view about the effect of last summer’s strikes, the senator said: “I believe that we obliterated those particular nuclear facilities, but now they were starting nuclear programs in other places.
“And just their willingness to do that was just thumbing their nose at us.”
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s threat to derail his party’s agenda until Republicans ram through new voting restrictions in an expanded SAVE America Act has some key GOP lawmakers scratching their heads.
“It's his priority. I don't know how many others share it,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told Raw Story at the Capitol. “It's hard to see it being a top 10 issue for people. It almost never comes up, and I talk to thousands of North Dakotans.”
Even so, the president’s far-right allies are all-in on his new calls to expand the SAVE Act beyond requiring proof of citizenship and an ID to vote federally.
With the midterms approaching, Trump is demanding that the measure also include ruby red cultural issues, like restricting gender-affirming care for children and outlawing transgender women from participating in female sports, along with a federal ban on mail-in-voting.
“Oh, it's over if we don't get the SAVE Act passed, you know, for people running right now, because we're getting the blame for everything,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story.
“It's all the things the Democrats don't believe in, so you might as well get all of 'em at the same time so we don't have to walk over here and get it voted down four or five times, you know?”
But with Trump calling to federalize elections, Democrats are braced for battle.
“He is adamant about controlling our elections and steering them to the benefit of himself and his party,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) told Raw Story. “That's a concern.”
‘A hard enough lift’
Last month, the House passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — aka the SAVE America Act — along party lines, with just one Democrat supporting it.
Since then, the SAVE Act has, like most House-passed measures, sat untouched in the Senate. That’s angered Trump, who’s pressured Republican leaders to blow up the 60-vote filibuster, so Democrats would have to physically take to the Senate floor to derail bills they oppose.
While rank-and-file Republicans have felt the White House-induced pressure, GOP leaders — from Senate Majority Leader John Thune down — say there just aren’t the votes to overhaul the rules and institute a talking filibuster, let alone to heed the president’s new call to lard the SAVE Act with Republican red meat.
“This is a hard enough lift, to be honest,” Cramer told Raw Story. “I support every single policy that's in the SAVE America Act. I think some of it's unnecessary, and almost all of it's going to be difficult to pass, to say the least.”
Like many Republicans, Cramer’s ready to back a talking filibuster but questions the gains, if any, of the gambit.
“If somebody wants to do a talking filibuster, I'm ready to lock myself up for a few months,” Cramer said. “So we do a talking filibuster, you hand the floor over to the Democrats for as long as they want to hold it. It just doesn't seem like a high priority.
“And furthermore, for me, I look at the 2024 election and think, ‘I don't know if it gets much better than this.’”
Cramer questions Trump’s new call to eradicate most mail-in voting.
“At least half of North Dakota's counties are mail-in counties. That's how they vote. It's not an exception, it's what they do — it's what we do,” Cramer said. “I've never loved mail-in-voting. I think a ban on mail-in-voting altogether is probably not passable, particularly in rural America, which is Trump country.”
While Cramer’s a reliable Trump ally, he’s also worried about expanding the federal government’s role in local elections.
“I'm not crazy about so much federal oversight of our elections at all,” Cramer said.
“But I, again, I support all those same principles. I supported them in the state legislature, I'll support them in this, but I just think, as the pragmatic person that I am, it seems like it's a lot of time being burned up. And the most valuable commodity we have is our time.”
The last remaining moderates in the GOP fear time is dwindling as Election Day approaches.
‘Far-flung places’
Other Republicans agree with Cramer that mail-in-voting is just a part of life for their voters.
“We have a huge military population that, you know, is scattered all over, and we have people in far-flung places where you never know what's going to happen on Election Day,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told Raw Story.
Upending mail-in ballots would punish the president’s base in parts of Murkowski’s state. In the 2024 general election, 51,212 Alaskans voted by mail — a whopping 23 percent of the vote — while 9,504 mail-in ballots were cast in the primary, according to the Alaska Division of Elections.
“So what happens with early voting, what happens with voting by mail, this is how we have allowed for access to voting,” Murkowski said.
“So no, I am not good with the SAVE Act as is currently written, because implementation in a rural state like Alaska is pretty close to impossible for some people, and I'm not willing to disenfranchise those folks.”
Moreso, when it comes to Trump’s calls for filibuster reform, Murkowski says the 60-vote threshold is a vital backstop for tiny, if expansive, land-wise states like hers.
“We've heard bluster about the filibuster, and he's going to keep it up,” Murkowski said. “But there are certain institutional safeguards in this body that I'm going to stand firm on.”
‘Expect him to abuse his power’
Internal Senate politics aside, Democrats say Trump’s demand to expand the SAVE Act to ban mail-in-voting is part of a troubling trend.
“It is him attempting in various ways and opportunities to control our future elections,” Sen. Cortez Masto of Nevada told Raw Story.
Catherine Cortez Masto. Picture: Shutterstock
Coupled with recent FBI raids on election offices in battleground states that Cortez Masto said were “looking for records from the 2020 election that we know the courts have all said was not stolen,” there’s a full court press from Trump to manipulate this year’s midterms.
Cortez Masto fears the administration is readying to deploy federal assets — whether the National Guard or Immigration and Customs Enforcement — to local voting precincts.
“My other biggest concern is, he's got now a police force that is a deportation force, but I can see him sending in that same police force around the elections to try to do something,” Cortez Masto said.
“It is a concern, and people should be aware he is trying to control our future elections to his benefit.”
Cortez Masto is far from alone in such fears.
“The president tried to cling to power last time he lost an election, and we would be naive not to expect him to abuse his power to try to foil the will of the people this time,” Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) told Raw Story.
Ossoff’s up for reelection in Georgia, where the last U.S. Senate contest, in 2022, saw upwards of $515 million in campaign spending.
He’s banking on Trump’s ploy backfiring this time around.
“In Georgia, with the history of voting rights struggle, attacks on voting rights only galvanize the will of the people to make their voices heard,” Ossoff said.
“I hear serious concerns about attacks on elections and determination to answer them with unprecedented mobilization and turnout.”
The Republican candidate for governor of New York was scheduled to speak at an event headlined by far-right extremists and rioters convicted over the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a Raw Storyinvestigation.
Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive running against incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, was featured on promotional materials for a January event associated with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser.
🇺🇸 Stay Awake America National Tour THIS WEEKEND 🇺🇸 Mission: Unite, engage, activate local action for national impact!
Join 17+ nationally recognized experts in health, civics, faith, education, and more, including Bruce Blakeman, Treniss Evans, Dr. Judy Mikovits, Amir… pic.twitter.com/M4thJBBUjy — The America First Warehouse (@americafirstwh) January 7, 2026
The Stay Awake America event took place at the Trump-themed America First Warehouse in Ronkonkoma on Long Island from Jan. 10-11, though ultimately Blakeman did not attend, said Teresa Helfrich, director of operations for the America First Warehouse.
“He didn't end up showing up,” Helfrich said.
“Apparently, he was really busy, but unfortunately, he did not come, and people were a bit disappointed, but we tried our best.”
Helfrich said she was under the impression Blakeman was unable to attend because he was preparing for his inauguration the following day, for his second term as county executive.
In a statement to Raw Story, Blakeman attempted to distance himself from the event.
“Kathy Hochul told 5.4 million Republicans to leave New York,” Blakeman said through a campaign spokesperson, referring to 2022 remarks in which the governor named GOP figures including Trump, rather than every Republican in the state.
“Now she’s inventing distractions about events I never attended and people I’ve never spoken to because she can’t defend her tax hikes and soaring utility bills. She’s so bothered by her record she’s becoming delusional. I’m trying to make New York affordable.”
A poster for the event circulated by the America First Warehouse and Stay Awake America organizer prominently featured Blakeman as a speaker.
Flynn shared an X post promoting the event, which referenced Blakeman.
Long Island will be the focus on January 10–11 as the Stay Awake America Tour comes to the America First Warehouse in Ronkonkoma. This two-day gathering brings together powerful speakers, live music from the Caspar McCloud Band, and a special tribute honoring Tina Peters. It is a… pic.twitter.com/aRkvt5D0Cw — General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) January 2, 2026
Also featured were Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers militia leader whose 18-year sentence for sedition was commuted by President Trump; Treniss Jewell Evans III, who pleaded guilty to entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; and Ivan Raiklin, a Flynn associate who campaigns to punish Trump’s enemies.
The event was advertised as a tribute to Tina Peters, a Colorado county clerk sentenced to nine years in prison for her role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. Trump is pressuring Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to grant Peters clemency.
Blakeman did recently speak at the Queens Village Republican Club’s Lincoln Dinner, on March 1. That event honored John Eastman, a now-disbarred attorney who advised Trump and played a central role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, Politico reported.
In a statement, Blakeman denied knowing “who John Eastman is or what he stands for.”
Jacob Neiheisel, an associate professor of political science at the University of Buffalo, told Raw Story “association means a lot in politics,” and candidates make calculations about the costs and benefits of being linked with individuals or groups.
“You can distance yourself quite a bit. Trump's been effective at it,” Neiheisel said.
“It works for Trump. It can work for other people.”
Amy Young, director and organizer of Stay Awake America, did not respond to requests for comment.
The January event at which he was advertised to speak promised more than 17 “nationally known expert speakers in health, civics, faith, education, threat of Islam in America and child sex trafficking.”
Being associated with far-right figures doesn’t help Blakeman’s chances of winning in the blue state, Neiheisel said, adding that Republican gubernatorial candidates in New York “have to at least outwardly appear centrist to the bulk of voters, but that's not where the energy in the party is. The energy is typically on the far right.”
But such associations do “make you viable for other positions elsewhere, and put you on the radar of other people in the party, particularly if MAGA is able to continue beyond Trump,” Neiheisel said.
“I think that this also might be a play [by Blakeman] to stay relevant and stay in some of those circles even after he loses.”
Trump endorsed Blakeman in December after Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), dropped out of the Republican primary.
Larry Levy, a former political journalist and associate vice president and executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said “at some point, Blakeman will have to pivot to the middle — there just aren’t enough Republican voters in the state for him to win without a goodly number of moderate independents and soft Democrats — and Gen. Flynn certainly wouldn’t help him build bridges to them."
Flynn was briefly national security adviser to Trump in his first term before being fired for lying about contacts with Russian officials.
The Stay Awake America Tour is inspired and endorsed by Flynn and grew out of an earlier roadshow, the ReAwaken America Tour, that prominently featured his work as a far-right campaigner and promoted conspiracy theories and Christian nationalism.
On a recent podcast, Young said the tour came about as a result of a conversation between Flynn and Caspar McCloud, an English musician who performs at the events, about the need to mobilize support for Trump.
‘Secretary of Retribution’
Rhodes, whose name was originally listed at the bottom of the January event poster but whose photo is the first featured for a Stay Awake America event on March 20, founded the Oath Keepers, an anti-government group that recruited military veterans and retired law enforcement during the Obama administration.
The Oath Keepers, alongside the Proud Boys, provided the engine for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Rhodes was freed from prison after Trump’s second inauguration but did not receive a pardon.
Raiklin, then an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, promoted the so-called “Pence Card” argument, holding that Vice President Mike Pence possessed the authority to set aside the results of the 2020 election.
The expectation that Pence would comply inflamed Trump’s supporters and helped fuel the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, when the former vice president refused to bend to pressure.
As Trump mounted his 2024 election bid, Raiklin launched a campaign as self-appointed “secretary of retribution,” featuring veiled threats of violence against perceived enemies.
Retired Lt. Col. Ivan Raiklin and self-styled "secretary of retribution" Ivan Raiklin at the Republican National Convention (Jordan Green/Raw Story)
Evans pleaded guilty to entering the Capitol and drinking Fireball whisky in a congressional conference room.
During the 2024 campaign, he joined Raiklin for a press conference, calling for “live-streamed swatting raids” against Trump’s enemies.
Raiklin met with law enforcement officials in Texas to detail his plans for recruiting sheriffs to arrest Trump’s enemies, Raw Story reported.
As Nassau county executive, Blakeman has hired armed citizens as special deputy sheriffs — what critics have called an unlawful personal militia, the New York Timesreported.
In January, Rhodes and Raiklin held a press conference at the White House calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop Democrats winning the 2026 midterm elections and retaking Congress.
Raiklin has worked closely with Flynn, serving on the board of America’s Future, an organization led by Flynn and his sister. Raiklin took part in a 2024 tour to promote a documentary about Flynn.
Trump supporters storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS
Helfrich told Raw Story the America First Warehouse supports those who participated in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and she said she believes “the real insurrection happened on November 3 of 2020 when the deep state and the powers that be tried to overthrow a US presidential election.”
“We are 100 percent behind our fellow Patriot brothers and sisters who took a First Amendment stand that day to let Congress know that they didn't want a stolen election to be certified,” she said.
“We are extremely supportive advocates of the J6 community, and we do not see them as felons. We see them as politically persecuted patriots.”
Conspiracy theories
Stay Awake America’s “sizzle reel” to promote upcoming events features Cathy O’Brien, a conspiracy theorist who claims to be the victim of government mind control, and Judy Mikovits, a controversial virologist who equates vaccination with "extermination and sterilization.”
Mikovits was billed on the event where Blakeman was scheduled to appear.
Flynn appeared in the promotional video encouraging people to participate in the Stay Awake America movement.
Helfrich told Raw Story, “We love the people at the Stay Awake American tour,” and the warehouse has “the same mission.”
“The reason why we love their work is because we do believe that there's a lot that America is facing right now,” Helfrich said.
“Obviously, all of us are big President Trump supporters, and we love what he's doing, but he's only in office for another three years, and we do believe, a lot of us, that the country needs to stay awake and keep fighting beyond this term.”
Young’s X posts promoting the Stay Awake America tour frequently include the phrase “blitz 2026 midterms.”
Young frequently reshares posts from X accounts that promote the QAnon conspiracy theory, including one that in January revived the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely claimed that Democrats ran a child sex trafficking operation in the basement of a DC pizzeria.
Q the Plan video 2018 then Out of Shadows film & Fall of the Cabal series exposed everything. This was & is the wake up call. 🎥🎞️☎️ Stay Awake America ⚔️🇺🇸 the battles have just begun. Unite, Engage and activate local action for national impact. This is how we Take Back our… https://t.co/PvLG8jgyHd — 4everYoung (@4everAYoung17) February 2, 2026
Young shares QAnon beliefs with staff at the America First Warehouse, the Trump-themed event space in Ronkonkoma.
Speaking in January on the podcast she co-hosts at the America First Warehouse, Helfrich said she decided to go to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 after a friend admonished her: “Where we go one, we go all.” Helfrich said she and her co-host, “Angie the Patriette,” have that QAnon slogan “tattooed on our bodies.”
Young has also re-shared posts on X that promote election denialism, celebrate Russian President Vladimir Putin, and push Islamophobia and antisemitism.
One post from QAnon promoter Liz Crokin that Young re-shared less than a week before the Ronkonkoma event insinuates that illegal tunnels discovered underneath the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn link Jews to child exploitation.
The tunnels were reportedly built by a radical offshoot of the Hasidic Jewish movement seeking to expand the site. There is no evidence of human trafficking at the site.
The main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans saw a “huge spike” in dark money contributions in 2025, a sign of the massive arsenal the GOP is building to protect its hold on Congress in November’s midterm elections, according to a new report from political reform group Issue One first reported by Raw Story.
As Democrats aim to capitalize on the growing unpopularity of President Donald Trump and his Republican party and regain control of Congress, the Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund skyrocketed dark money contributions by 581 percent in 2025 compared to 2023.
Michael Beckel, money in politics reform director at Issue One, said: “When you see an infusion of money like this, that usually means that these big money groups want to make sure that they have all of the resources they can muster to defend seats, to defend candidates, to defend their majority.”
At the same time, Senate Democrats saw a drop in dark money donations, Issue One said.
According to Issue One's analysis of campaign finance reports, in 2025 the Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund super PAC brought in $35 million from its affiliated dark money group, One Nation, representing $1 out of every $3 raised.
In 2023, that number was $5.18 million, Beckel said.
Four major super PACs increased 2025 dark money contributions by 65 percent, according to a new report. Graphic: Issue One)
This indicates “just a surge of dark money coming into the main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans at a time when, clearly, there's a lot of political winds blowing that say Democrats have a fighting chance to win the U.S. House of Representatives and maybe even pick up seats in the Senate,” Beckel said.
The four main super PACs focused on electing Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate raised a combined $71 million from dark money sources in 2025: up 65 percent on the same point in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles, Issue One said.
“Both sides see this as an arms race where they don't want to put down any weapon, and when you see just huge sums of money coming in to influence elections from unknown donors, that raises serious questions about who's trying to buy access and influence in Washington,” Beckel said.
Republican and Democratic super PACs focused on the House maintained steady growth in dark money contributions, while the Senate Majority PAC, benefitting Democrats, received fewer dark money contributions in 2025, according to the report.
For every $4 raised for the Republican-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund, nearly $1 came from dark money group American Action Network, which totaled $17 million in 2025, according to Issue One.
On the Democratic side, about $1 of every $6 raised by the House Majority PAC and about $1 out of every $7 raised for Senate Majority PAC came from dark money group Majority Forward, totaling $11 million and $8 million in 2025.
“We continue to see this escalating arms race, and it's deeply concerning when you've got so much money from unknown donors coming in on both sides of the aisle,” Beckel said.
All four super PACs did not respond to Raw Story’s interview requests or declined to comment.
‘Massive war chest’
Beckel said he anticipates seeing significant amounts of dark money continuing to flow into these super PACs, especially around Senate races.
“There's going to be a huge battle over control of not just the House but the Senate, and wealthy donors who are evading the spotlight are helping Senate Republicans raise a massive war chest through their super PAC to defend those seats,” Beckel said.
Super PACs received massive dark money contributions ahead of 2024 election. Graphic: Issue One.
Among Senate seats not up for re-election this year, Democrats hold 34 and Republicans 31.
Two Democratic seats, held by Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia and in Michigan by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, and two Republican seats, held by Sen. Susan Collins in Maine and the North Carolina seat held by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, are true toss-ups, according to the Cook Political Report.
Democrats’ narrow path to regain the Senate majority would require picking up seats in Alaska, North Carolina, Ohio and Maine, according to Cook.
During the 2023-24 election cycle, the four super PACs raised about $1 of every $5 from dark money groups. Dark money accounted for 21 percent of contributions to both parties’ Senate-focused PACs for the 2024 election, according to Issue One.
Issue One supports the DISCLOSE Act, legislation focused on increasing transparency and curbing the influence of dark money, which House and Senate Democrats reintroduced on Wednesday.
But with such a deeply divided Congress, Beckel said Issue One is focused on state-level reforms to reel in unlimited spending on elections by corporations and outside groups enabled by Citizens United.
“The warning here is that money from anonymous sources continues to play a major role in our elections, and I think voters all across the political spectrum are … deeply concerned and fed up about the amount of dark money that they're seeing in elections,” Beckel said.
WASHINGTON — Republicans are happy to criticize President Donald Trump’s war on Iran behind closed doors but “willing to give up congressional power” when given chances to actually rein him in, a prominent Democrat charged, shortly before the House of Representatives rejected a bipartisan attempt to assert its constitutional powers.
“There is an incredible sense in the Congress in the last year that so many Republicans have been willing to give up congressional power,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) told Raw Story at the Capitol.
Republicans, Balint said, “all tell you behind closed doors a whole variety of things they don't like about what's happening.
“If you pick your head up and all of a sudden your power is gone, don't whine about it because you gave it away.”
In reality, presidents have long ignored such strictures.
Balint was speaking shortly before the House considered a war powers resolution that would have forced the Trump administration to pause strikes on Iran.
“I'm not stupid,” Balint, a member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, said.
“I can count. I don't think we're going to have the votes, but I think in every opportunity we have to assert our Article I powers, we have to keep doing these actions that show that we understand that every time we don't stand up to [Trump], legislative powers are slipping away.”
Another Democrat, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), said such votes were important, to “get people on the record.”
The record for the ensuing vote showed the resolution was rejected 219-212, with Republican Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Warren Davidson (R-OH) voting yes, while four Democrats voted no.
Massie co-sponsored the resolution with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), his partner in pressuring the Trump administration over the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his links to powerful figures, prominently including the president himself.
Davidson, a former military officer, is usually a loyal supporter of the Republican line.
On the floor of the House, he said, “Make no mistake, Iran is an enemy of the United States. As our military engages them, they do so justly. Unfortunately, they are not yet doing so constitutionally.
“For some, this debate will be about whether we should even be fighting in Iran. For me, the debate is more fundamental: is the president of the United States, regardless of the person holding the office, empowered to do whatever he wants?
“That’s not what our constitution says.”
‘Whatever it takes to win’
Amid continued confusion over Trump’s aims in attacking Iran — currently by air and at sea and at the cost of six American lives and more than 1,000 Iranians killed — it was reported on Thursday that strikes could extend until September.
Raw Story asked one senior Republican if that bothered him.
“Not worried at all,”Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) replied “Trump knows what he’s doing.”
Raw Story pressed: Was Norman really saying he would be okay with such a lengthy campaign, with all its attendant dangers for wider conflict through the Middle East and the world?
“Whatever it takes to win,” Norman said.
'Spiraling out of control'
Balint considered another pressing issue: Republicans’ reluctance to even say Trump has taken America to war, despite the president’s own use of the word.
“You can't call it a ‘military action,’ that it has a very short timeline, when this is the chatter,” Balint said, of the reports of a possible September end date.
“We knew that it's spiraling out of control … and again, like, where's the opposition within his own party?”
An undated photo of Mathew Bair from an Injekt Division Telegram chatVia Telegram
Emily Gregory (Photo courtesy of Emily Gregory for Florida)
Emily Gregory (Photo courtesy of Emily Gregory for Florida)
Robin Myers. 
Catherine Cortez Masto. Picture: Shutterstock 
Retired Lt. Col. Ivan Raiklin and self-styled "secretary of retribution" Ivan Raiklin at the Republican National Convention (Jordan Green/Raw Story) 
Trump supporters storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS 
Four major super PACs increased 2025 dark money contributions by 65 percent, according to a new report. Graphic: Issue One)
Super PACs received massive dark money contributions ahead of 2024 election. Graphic: Issue One.