After Democrats win the midterms and take a majority in the Senate, their "number one" mission will be to keep MAGA in check long term, according to a political commentator.
Allison Gill, the progressive podcaster who runs Mueller, She Wrote, said during an interview that the "most important" task at hand for Democrats will be blocking Trump's nominees for the Supreme Court.
"One of the most important things is we have to block Supreme Court nominees in the next two years," Gill said, referring to the time left that Trump has in office for his second term.
She added that killing the filibuster and adding four seats to the Supreme Court should be a priority for the next Democratic president.
"Then we can have nice things again," Gill said. "But until that day, the number one thing we have to do is stop Supreme Court nominees from being confirmed, and we can only do that once we win the Senate."
The TRUMP CURSE Strikes Again + World Cup Racism + Maine Race by Allison Gill
A recording from Allison Gill and THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali's live video
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner sank deeper into hot water as his wife revealed that she found sexually explicit texts on his phone, per reporting by the Wall Street Journal.
Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, told his Senate campaign about the texts with several different women, insider sources told the WSJ. Gertner discovered the texts in spring 2025, and in August, she told an aide whom she considered a friend, while the campaign was doing opposition research on Platner, the WSJ reported.
Campaign aides told Gertner that they didn't expect the messages to be a problem as it was a "private matter," according to the WSJ, which mentioned that the couple had been undergoing counseling.
"We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren't easy," Gertner said in a statement provided to the WSJ by Platner's campaign. "Our marriage today is stronger than ever before."
Platner, who's hoping to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), is already dealing with controversy surrounding his Nazi-linked tattoo, past remarks about sexual assault victims, and posts from his deleted Reddit account, which included "lenient views on infidelity," the WSJ report noted.
Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson described how a social post knocked down one of President Donald Trump's longest and closest advisers — and sent MAGA into a rage this week.
The co-founder of the anti-Trump group, The Lincoln Project, revealed in a Substack post Thursday that, after Miller delivered a bigoted attack on Democratic Texas Senate hopeful Rep. James Talarico, the Democrats swung back.
The moment stung for Trump's MAGA coalition — and Miller — becoming a "hard punch in the mouth that that soft-handed sadist Stephen Miller has obviously needed since middle school."
"The official Democratic Party account looked at Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, the architect of ICE thugs murdering American citizens in our streets, the Grima Wormtongue of the Trump White House immigration policy, the majordomo of white nat modern apartheid fantasies, and told him, in five tidy words: 'shut up, you ugly ----,'" Wilson wrote.
"That’s it. That’s the tweet. Five words. No policy. No nuance. No 14-part thread with a land acknowledgment quote bolted onto the front, nothing soft or nurturing or politically correct," Wilson wrote.
He called the Democrat's clapback moment "the sight of a man who built an entire political religion around the public performance of cruelty to others discovering through the glorious avenue of social media that cruelty has a return address."
"And reader, I want you to enjoy the rich, full-bodied irony of what happened next, because it is a clarifying moment in American politics, one on par with the invention of the hot mic," Wilson added. "Stephen Miller’s feelings got hurt."
Miller might be used to just firing off insults or brutal comments, Wilson said, but this time it was different.
"For once, the Democrats brought a gun to the gunfight," Wilson wrote.
Vice President JD Vance snubbed Democratic state attorneys general in a White House invite for an upcoming meeting for his fraud task force, according to a Politico report on Monday.
President Donald Trump named Vance "the face of the administration’s efforts to combat fraud" in March and the vice president has a meeting slated for Tuesday to continue the conversations with states as part of the new initiative to combat fraud.
But what's happened behind-the-scenes was strategic, according to four administration insiders who spoke with Politico.
"Invitations for the hourlong meeting, set for Tuesday afternoon, were sent to Democratic attorneys general on Friday with a deadline to RSVP by Saturday, according to one of the people, who like others in this report, was granted anonymity to discuss nonpublic details," Politico reported. "Republican attorneys general were invited to the event about a week prior, the person said."
The event was originally scheduled to only host Republican attorneys generals — but Vance reportedly later pushed back on that, one source told Politico.
"About 15 Republican attorneys general — including Derek Brown of Utah, Marty Jackley of South Dakota, Raúl Labrador of Idaho, Gentner Drummond of Oklahoma and Todd Rokita of Indiana — are expected to attend, one of the people said," Politico reported. "Democrats are largely expected to skip the meeting, two people said, although some offices are expected to send other staffers, according to a third person."
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers responded on Friday to reports that Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), who has been missing from Congress for more than 78 days, had broken his silence.
Kean spoke publicly for the first time on Thursday, telling David Wildstein, editor of The New Jersey Globe, that he was "nearing a return to work and intends to discuss publicly the health issue that has sidelined him since March."
The Republican is running for re-election in a highly contested swing seat and has confirmed he plans to continue in the race for a third term. Since he disappeared from the public eye, Kean has missed dozens of votes amid speculation about his whereabouts, while social media posts have continued to be published on his X account.
In exclusive interviews with Raw Story, several lawmakers reacted to news that Kean had gone missing — and what they thought of his absence.
"I couldn't tell you who he was if he was standing in front of me," said Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), laughing. "He's not one of the ones that I work with."
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) said he hasn't seen or heard from Kean in months.
"I've just been told that he's been under the weather and thank God he's getting better and will be back soon. I've heard nothing," Fleischmann said. "I don't know — we've just heard absolutely nothing. It's amazing because usually when somebody has a malady, it's out there. I feel for him — I just don't know."
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) said he didn't know who Kean was.
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) asked if something had happened to Kean, adding that he had no idea what happened.
CNN anchor Kasie Hunt was stunned on Thursday as the Democratic Party's long-awaited report appeared to withhold a serious detail.
In her opening, Hunt questioned the Democrats' autopsy of the 2024 election and what prompted President Donald Trump to win and defeat Vice President Kamala Harris, when she raised a revelation that hadn't been mentioned before.
"Or was it because Kamala Harris then declined to sit for an interview with one of the country's biggest media figures?" Hunt asked, sharing a clip from Joe Rogan's popular podcast.
In the clip, Rogan claimed he had invited Harris to Texas to sit down with him for an interview.
"I literally gave them an open invitation. I said, 'Any time, I'll do it at nine in the morning, I'll do it at 10 p.m., I'll do it at midnight. She's up,'" Rogan said.
But Hunt pointed out that there was still unknown information.
"So even though a version of the Democratic National Committee's 2024 so-called autopsy report, an autopsy saying why something happened the way it did, it was released today, a year and a half after the election. We still don't really know the answer to any of those questions," Hunt said. "Because the 192-page report, which was meant to be, which was sold as an honest evaluation of what went wrong for Democrats and which the DNC had withheld for months, did it address any of those things? No, no, it did not."
Democratic political strategist James Carville said that now is the time for Democrats to launch an "aggressive party-switching operation" that could crack the solidly Republican South.
"I'm calling for a new Democratic Southern strategy," Carville said on the latest episode of his Politicon podcast. "Southern Democrats, particularly in places like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, probably Texas, should go after party switchers."
Carville said the latest polling numbers he had seen estimate that between 15 and 20 percent of Republicans oppose Trump, and about 95 percent of Democrats do.
Democrats should have an easy sales pitch because "20 percent of Republicans in the deep south are Republicans of convenience. They don't seem really into it that much," Carville said.
"You go find a highly competent DA ... pick out a guy or her or whatever, and say, 'Look, if you're in the Republican Party, you're never going to have a chance to get anything,'" Carville laid out. "'You'll be lucky if you get to run for state registrar of lands after you're sixty years old.'"
Once Democrats spell out the doom facing them in the GOP, Carville said that they should offer to build around these potential ex-Republicans.
He said Democrats should tell them, "'You come in now, we're going to give you the keys to the car. You're going to have a base vote of 45 percent. You're going to be able to rebuild it in your name. We're going to raise money for you."
Democrats can promise to "give you a lot more than Republicans can give you right now," Carville said. "We got to start doing what they did back in the '70s, '80s, and we need to start going after party switchers."
He's already hearing from "a lot of people" who "will tell me, even Republicans in Louisiana, 'I don't like this sh—, James. If I don't run as a Republican, I'm doomed,'" Carville said. "Well, start changing that part."
Joe Rogan thinks the GOP's Iran war could blow up in their faces — and hand Democrats the White House in 2028.
The popular podcaster — and longtime pal of President Donald Trump — floated the prediction Tuesday during a sprawling conversation with venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who had spent much of the episode raging against proposed wealth tax measures in California and at the federal level.
"People look at what's going on right now with the Republicans. The Iran war, which is extremely unpopular, very unpopular," Rogan said. "I mean, what is it polling at now? It's something like low 30% of people that think it's a good idea."
Then came the kicker.
"So the Democrats come along, you know, and they win in 2028," Rogan continued. "And then you have these ideas pushed forward because people want something different than what you have now."
Andreessen agreed, warning, "And then it just opens the door to this stuff."
Rogan's numbers track closely with recent surveys. A Pew Research Center poll conducted in March found roughly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the conflict, while just 37% approve. Pew also found that Democrats overwhelmingly believe the U.S. made the wrong decision to use military force in Iran.
Emerson College polling from the same month showed that 47% of likely voters opposed U.S. military action in Iran, while only 40% supported it. The same survey found Trump's overall approval underwater at 42%, and Democrats holding a 7-point edge on the generic 2026 congressional ballot.
A Data For Progress survey released through the IMEU Policy Project went further, finding 53% of voters disapprove of Trump's strikes against Iran — what the group called "the lowest approval at the start of a US war in decades." That poll also concluded voters are less likely to back Republicans in November as a direct consequence of the war.
The Rogan prediction is particularly notable given the podcaster's role as one of Trump's most influential boosters in the 2024 election. Rogan hosted Trump for a marathon three-hour interview just days before the vote and formally endorsed him in its closing stretch — a moment widely credited with helping the GOP nominee lock down young male voters.
The 2028 conversation veered into focus after Andreessen unloaded on a California ballot measure that would impose a wealth tax — and on Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) proposal for a 6% annual federal tax on unrealized gains. Andreessen claimed the Biden administration had tried to push through a similar federal asset tax twice and would have done so again in 2025 had Kamala Harris won.
"This is the single most activating thing I've seen happen in politics that has people in the valley cranked up," Andreessen said, warning that Silicon Valley figures are fleeing California for Nevada, Texas and Florida.
But Rogan's point ran counter to the billionaire's optimism: if Trump's Iran war keeps cratering, voters may not care what Silicon Valley wants.
"There's something in the water that's pushing in this direction," Andreessen conceded, pointing to similar leftward political shifts unfolding in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
A former Republican strategist admitted that a GOP mayoral candidate and former reality TV star might not win his election, but the "AI-generated Gotham-grade dystopia" he's created has "changed the game" for future political ads.
Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Trump organization The Lincoln Project, described in his Substack on Friday how Spencer Pratt's decision to specifically message around crime during his Los Angeles mayoral campaign is something Democrats should pay attention to.
"Pratt’s message, delivered with a comic, postmodern AI flourish, is…and I cannot believe I’m typing this about a Hills alum…quite frankly very well done. It’s not an endorsement; it’s an observation," Wilson wrote.
"For a man who has no business being in a close second place, Pratt is doing something politically that Democrats should learn from once they’re done pretending that campaigns will stay the same, forever," Wilson explained.
Pratt, who announced his candidacy for Los Angeles mayor in 2026 as a political newcomer, has sought to bring attention to homelessness and other city issues. His campaign has garnered significant media attention due to his celebrity status and reality television past, though he faced skepticism from political observers regarding his lack of prior political experience and specific policy proposals.
"What’s the message? Crime makes the city unlivable. Filth makes the city unlivable. Bureaucracy makes the city unlivable. Kids are unsafe. You are unsafe. Decline is a choice. The ads themselves are the campaign. There is no campaign apart from the ads," Wilson added.
Two more Republicans sided with Democrats and broke ranks on Thursday to back the House's Iran war powers vote and challenge President Donald Trump's military operation in the Middle East ahead of midterms, according to reports.
It was the third failure for the resolution to end the war in Iran with a 212-212 vote, The Hill reported. Three Republicans joined Democrats to vote for the measure in the lower chamber, where a tie means the resolution failed. Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) split from his own party with a "no" vote.
For the first time, Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) rebuked President Donald Trump's military operation, Congressional reporter for Politico Meredith Lee Hill wrote on X. Trump foe Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) also voted yes for the resolution.
"Barrett, an Army veteran, is in an incredibly competitive race in his Lansing-area seat against a retired Navy SEAL, who has been hammering him over the war," Lee Hill wrote.
On Wednesday, new signs of strain were bubbling up among Senate Republicans after three GOP lawmakers sided with Democrats on a vote to end the Iran war. The 49-50 vote was the closest the Senate has come to having a war powers vote as the Trump administration has missed the legal deadline to tamp down its military operation, "which several Republicans have signaled would be a turning point for their support."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) supported the resolution, joining Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) broke with Democrats again to oppose the vote.
