Kathleen Culliton

President Donald Trump took to his social media site late Tuesday night to bombard his followers with insults, what appeared to be AI slop and one alarming boast.

Before launching into a tirade against critics of the SAVE America Act — a proposed crackdown on non-citizen voting that bipartisan experts warn is already outlawed and exceedingly rare — and repeated words of support for problematic pillow salesman-turned-candidate Mike Lindell, he wrote this:

"These are the real facts. REPORT THEM!"

The facts — for which he provides no source or context — compare how many American lives have been lost in wars under "other presidents" versus Trump.

Wars in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan are shown by length in years and how many people they left "DEAD."

While Trump does not state explicitly that he's only counting U.S. service members, it becomes clear when he tallies the number of lives lost in Iran at 18.

This is the official number, as Washington Post reporting shows, but many more lives have been lost.

Operation Epic Fury began with “double tap” strikes on an girls’ elementary school, which killed at least 156 people, 120 of them children, reports show.

Trump initially blamed Iran for the strikes before it became clear that a U.S.-made Tomahawk missile was used in the attack.

The U.S. military is reportedly investigating the incident, but several former Pentagon and national security officials have “expressed doubt” to the Guardian that the results will ever be made public.

Trump shrugged off the children's deaths at the G7 Summit in France in June — less than four months after the children were killed.

"It's such a strange question to be asked at this date," Trump said. "We're talking about a long time ago."

A sitting Republican congressman tried to shut down his own party’s agenda after a White House insider described him to a former Fox News pundit as "creepy" and "fat" — spurring one columnist to argue "Donald Trump’s unofficial MAGA court" is out of control.

Salon senior political writer Sophia Tesfaye on Sunday drew her readers' attention to the feud between unofficial Trump administration insider Alex Bruesewitz and the Republican congressman determined to have him ousted.

"Alex Bruesewitz is not a Cabinet official and holds no Senate-confirmed position," Tesfaye wrote. "Yet a sitting Republican congressman spent this week threatening to gum up the GOP’s agenda in the House until Bruesewitz is removed from the president’s orbit."

As Tesfaye tells it, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) refused to move on a procedural rule tied to Trump's precious SAVE America Act, a bill experts warn would disenfranchise voters to solve a problem that does not exist.

"The strange part is that Fine had spent months publicly begging Senate Republicans to attach the SAVE America Act to exactly this kind of must-pass legislation," wrote Tesfaye. "So, when House leadership finally gave him what he’d demanded, he voted no anyway, telling reporters only that he was working out 'disputes inside the family.'"

According to Tesfaye, "The real family dispute has nothing to do with voter identification."

The real problem is that Fine plans to block every rule that reaches the House floor until Bruesewitz is fired, she wrote.

"The feud apparently traces back to Bruesewitz’s appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, where Carlson, discussing Trump’s own endorsement of Fine, described the congressman on air as 'that creepy fat guy from Florida who endorsed genocide'" she wrote.

"The Florida congressman retaliated on X, accusing Bruesewitz, Carlson and Candace Owens of spreading a 'mind virus' that seeks to 'pit Jews and Christians against each other.'"

Fine's refusal is more than bad news for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who needs near unanimity to get anything done, it's bad for the whole MAGA movement, the Salon writer concluded.

"When clout brokers can provoke lawmakers into obstructing their own party’s agenda, the White House is no longer directing the coalition — it is being dragged around by it," she concluded.

"It’s clear that Donald Trump’s unofficial MAGA court is becoming a liability."

The New York Times stunned Americans Sunday when it revealed a new FBI directive regarding ICE agents — and people who accuse them of violence.

Federal agents across the nation received instructions last week not to investigate confrontations with immigration agents, sources told Times reporters Hamed Aleaziz and Devlin Barrett.

"F.B.I. managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday...The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts," Aleaziz and Barrett wrote.

"If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers."

The directive arrived after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford —and as protests mount nationwide in North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, and of course, Texas and Maine.

One Maine protesters' sign read "a man was lynched here."

The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security denied the policy change in a joint statement to the Times.

“The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed," the statement said. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The Trump administration was met with a wave of criticism as the Times report began to spread.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, professed himself stunned.

"WOW," he wrote. "The Trump admin just barred the FBI from investigating cases where DHS officers get into confrontations with immigrants or citizens. ICE HSI will lead all investigations, yet HSI has no jurisdiction to investigate civil rights violations. The fox is guarding the henhouse."

Jim Roberts, editor of nonprofit news site the 74, called it "an utterly lawless administration."

But Andrew Alvarez, a conservative political commentator and self-described MAGA supporter, took a different view.

"Finally getting the feds out of the way so ICE can do their job without constant harassment," he wrote.

David Brouillette, the ICE agent who fatally shot Guerrero in Maine, has been accused of harassment himself, by two former wives, reports show. His ex-wife Ashley Brouillette told CBS News she was stunned he gained employment with ICE.

"I don't understand how he keeps getting these jobs where there are firearms involved," she said. "He's a danger to people and to himself...And I just don't understand how he keeps getting away with it."

Meanwhile, as the New York Times report whipped across the internet, FBI director Kash Patel took a moment to share with the public, not a response, but a photograph of himself with the team assigned to the FIFA World Cup.

"So proud of this FBI and all our partners," he wrote.

President Donald Trump could be headed for public humiliation Sunday afternoon as he sets out to hand out the World Cup trophy, according to a new report.

Trump could face a crowd of red-card waving dissenters at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey if a coalition of artists and activists has its way, the Daily Beast was first to report.

The message the cards send — via the activists' website, is this: “After review, for political corruption and abuse of the presidency—the decision is RED CARD!”

Activists have already handed out hundreds of red cards to soccer fans headed to the World Cup, the Daily Beast reported.

The cards are stamped with a website that instructs dissenters to wave their cards when Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino take the stage to present the winning team in the Argentina-Spain match with a trophy.

Marianne Downes, of the Northeast Queens Indivisible Group, handed cards to fans heading to the stadium from Penn Station, the Daily Beast reported.

“I’m protesting because we need to maintain some freedoms and democracy in this nation, and they are being eroded every single day,” Downes said.

Downes told the Daily Beast she had no problem giving away her cards, dolling out about 250 in 40 minutes.

The activists' website includes a lengthy condemnation of the Trump over reports his net worth has nearly tripled to $6.2 billion and accusations his administration slow-walked the release of files on Jeffrey Epstein.

"Trump is the most corrupt president in American history," it states. "No one deserves a ‘Red Card’ more than President Trump."

Laughter erupted on CNN Sunday morning as a joyful Manu Raju delved into the "fresh hill headache" President Donald Trump has created for Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The problem? Trump insisted on prime-time television that Congress pass the SAVE America Act, Raju reported with a smile.

"President Trump is making demands that Republicans simply cannot fulfill," the CNN host said. "Trump's obsession over the issue has effectively derailed the GOP agenda."

The SAVE America Act — a bill to crack down on a pattern of non-citizen voting experts say does not exist — has split leadership in the House and Senate, Raju argued.

He characterized Trump's demand as foolish as it exposed "sharp divides" in Republican leadership, including between Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

"Typically in an election year, you put together bills that you can divide the other party and get your vulnerable members to vote on so they can go back and tout these issues," said Raju.

Journalist Nia-Malika Henderson shouted back, "But that's a hoax!"

Laughter erupted. It wouldn't be the last time.

Raju argued Trump had made things "so difficult for Republicans" by refusing to accept that his plan "won't pass muster."

"Trump just will not accept no for an answer, even though it's very clear," said Raju. He then quoted Thune's questioning of Johnson's plans to support it; "Is the juice worth the squeeze?"

Once again, there were cackles of laughter.

"I know," replied Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim. "Speaker Mike Johnson kind of goes for that instant gratification, he really tries to appeal to Trump."

Raju then fact-checked Johnson's claim that most Republican voters joined Trump in wanting the SAVE America Act to be passed, citing a recent Gallup poll as proof.

"[It's] the economy, of course!" said Raju. "No surprise there."

President Donald Trump's Sunday morning demand that Republicans "add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill" after two U.S. service members were killed in Jordan has fueled outrage and the spread of conspiracy theories online.

Trump's Truth Social comment on the fatal war in Iran referenced death only in his reliance on the name of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

"Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "That’s what Lindsey wanted to do."

This comment appears to be a correction of one Trump made earlier in the week — saying Graham would have wanted the Senate to pass the Clarity Act — that reportedly made one ally "wince."

“The most obvious and logical way [to honor Graham] would be the sanctions bill, because it’s his bill,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told Politico. “You’re not making anything up."

The bi-partisan bill would slap sanctions on buyers of Russian oil and gas, according to Politico, in a report describing Graham as a "one of the chamber’s fiercest Russia hawks."

"The problem is, the sanctions bill still faces serious doubts among some Republicans," Politico reported. "Graham at multiple points over the past year believed he had talked Trump into backing the measure, only for it to be put on ice as Trump tried to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin."

On Sunday, Trump's oft-reported praise of Putin spurred Garry Kasparov, an anti-authoritarian activist, to suggest the Truth Social post foreshadowed a new change to the legislation.

"Soon, Trump will be saying that Graham really only wanted Iran to be on the sanctions bill and not Russia at all, and that in fact, in private, he thought Putin was a strong leader they could work with," Kasparov wrote.

Meidas Touch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski called out Trump for having lifted the sanctions in June.

"Seems like only yesterday the Trump Admin was lifting sanctions on Iran and declaring victory," he wrote.

Activist podcaster Amy Siskind responded by citing recent Wall Street Journal reporting that Iran pocketed up to $6 billion from oil shipments after those sanctions were lifted.

"Now Iran is is using that money to target and kill US troops, likely with the help of intelligence from China and Russia," Siskind wrote. "What a full-fledged disaster of foreign policy!"

But conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer celebrated Trump's comment and used it as an excuse to recirculate her baseless theory that Graham's "sudden death" had been orchestrated by Russian and Iranian operatives — despite his office confirming cardiovascular disease was the root cause.

"President Trump just called for Republicans to add Iran to the Russian sanctions bill," Loomer wrote. "Great idea. And then the DOJ needs to arrest every single American Woke Reich influencer who is colluding with Russia and Iran and attending their state sponsored propaganda tours. Their assets should be frozen."

Former President Joe Bidens' Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg has revealed why he feels Americans "can always rely on Stephen Miller."

Buttigieg appeared on MS NOW Sunday morning to condemn what he described as President Donald Trump's administration's determination to crack down on dissenters.

"What our officials doing?" he asked. "Are they trying to lead a country where people have different values and different political opinions and the whole point is that we live together as one country?"

Buttigieg answered his own question with another question: "Or are they trying to demonize, dehumanize and harm fellow Americans?"

The Indiana Democrat posed these questions as Trump's White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy mounts what MS NOW described as a "sweeping attack against 'leftists.'"

Miller launched that attack at the “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism" event Thursday in which he railed against "left-wing terrorism" he vowed to "disrupt, identify, defund, debank, arrest, and prosecute."

Political experts warn Miller, serving as Trump's "shadow president," has broadly expanding the Trump administration’s definition of terrorism to crack down on political dissenters.

“Miller has always dreamed of crushing the left,” Zeteo’s Andrew Perez wrote Friday. “Now, he’s getting to use the full force of the federal government to lead an all-out war on liberals, progressives, and leftists – and he’s throwing it in all our faces with his characteristically apocalyptic and authoritarian rhetoric.”

On Sunday, Buttigieg said this move should come as no surprise to Americans.

"To spout ideological gibberish at every opportunity," said Buttigieg, "you can always rely on Stephen Miller."

President Donald Trump's brief response to the death of two service members in the Iran conflict has spurred outraged calls that he stand before Congress and explain himself.

Frustration mounted after news broke Saturday that two service members had been killed by direct Iranian fire and, as tensions mounted, the president was playing golf.

On Sunday, former White House correspondent John Harwood took to X on Sunday to share with his 500,000 followers an Atlantic editorial from staff writer Tom Nichols.

"Nichols asks Trump to do what a sane, decent president would do," wrote Harwood, "explain clearly and sensibly why he continues to send US troops into harm's way against Iran. [I]f only Trump were sane and decent."

Nichols' editorial goes further in condemning both the war and Trump's passing comment to a right-wing NewsNation reporter that the deaths were "very sad."

"Trump does not seem to comprehend that Iran has a higher pain tolerance than America," wrote Nichols. "Two more deaths are not, as Trump calls them, merely a “very sad thing.”

In his editorial, Nichols argued the 16 young Americans who lost their lives in the war deserved a better from Trump. Specifically, the writer called for a better explanation of why their lives were sacrificed.

"The Iranian mullahs are among the world’s worst tyrants, and Trump could have made the case for ridding the planet of their rule over a nation of more than 90 million people," Nichols wrote.

"But the president has not seen fit, in all this time, to give one address to the American people or to Congress about why he plunged the United States into war, the global economy into chaos, and young Americans into danger."

Nichols predicted Trump will escalate the war before he gives a thorough, detailed explanation to the American public, then made a final demand.

"Before one more member of the U.S. military is killed," wrote Nichols, "he should return to the airwaves—and stand before Congress—to explain what he’s doing in Iran and how many more lives he’s willing to risk."

Elon Musk's notorious Department of Government Efficiency is alive and well and hiding inside a Trump administration outfit producing some of his bigger duds, according to a new Washington Post report.

DOGE allies have remained within the National Design Studio, the outfit designed by the White House to pump out government websites and "brand initiatives," inside sources told the Post.

"Two people close to DOGE, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said the design outfit, led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, serves as the spiritual successor to its work," the Post reported Saturday.

"With about 100 people and weekly meetings focused on efforts such as TrumpRx and the design of the new food pyramid, they represent an evolution of the DOGE mission, but a significant culling of its mandate."

The National Design Studio's mandate mirrors that of DOGE, which promised tech upgrades that would provide better services at lower costs, the Post notes.

But just this week TrumpRX was subjected to a scathing takedown as analysts revealed it had failed in its promise to lower costs by offering fewer than 12% of the more than 800 brand-name drugs made by participating pharmaceutical companies.

"Most of these companies are doing this for a small number of products and in a limited setting," Dr. Ben Rome, a health policy researcher, told NPR. "They're not engaging to do this on a large scale."

And, late last year, experts warned the National Design Studio was creating government websites that could leave gaping security holes despite their sleek appearance.

“The sites coming out of the National Design Studio might look slick at first glance — if not to everyone’s taste — but if the office’s early projects are a tell, pushing this aesthetic at a large scale could risk breaking federal disability laws and compromising the security of Americans’ personal data,” experts told NOTUS in December.

The Washington Post also reports the scaled down DOGE hasn't been able to meet its own deadlines on the redesign of the federal retirement online portal.

"Although the young technologists had hoped to be done with the project in a few months, it took them longer than expected," the Post reported.

Their work represents "a far cry from Musk’s chainsaw-wielding approach" with Gebbia pitching President Donald Trump on “design" and "aesthetics," according to the report.

Outside the studio, DOGE also maintains a presence.

"There 'are still an exceptional number that remain today and are more quietly operating behind the scenes,' said one staffer at the Transportation Department, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution," the Post reported.

"At the General Services Administration, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who at one point led Technology Transformation Services, has not left, even though he no longer appears to have any official job at the agency and is listed as a special government employee, according to a GSA employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter."

News that two service members had been killed by direct Iranian fire rocked the nation on Saturday.

U.S. Central Command announced the two service member's death, a third's disappearance and four medical evacuations one day after a base was attacked in Jordon.

"Out of respect for the families, CENTCOM will withhold additional information, including the identities of the fallen warriors, until 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified," the statement read.

Sixteen U.S. service members have been killed and more than 430 wounded since the war began, the Associated Press reported.

"The battle over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the essential waterway that previously carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil," the Associated Press reported.

"The strikes threaten civilians and infrastructure, including desalination plants for drinking water, while the global economy again is on alert."

Americans responded to the news with words of outrage and despair.

"Really awful, dark, foreboding developments in the Middle East over the last 24 hours," wrote MS NOW analyst Sam Stein. "Hard to see how you deescalate from here."

Political strategist Mike Nellis condemned President Donald Trump for mounting an attack on Iran without approval from Congress.

"I will ask again: for what?" Nellis wrote. "Trump has no plan, no clear mission, and he’s getting our sons and daughters killed for his own vanity."

Nellis later added, "I’ll tell you what: if Barack Obama had launched an illegal war, 16 U.S. service members were dead, and another was missing in action, the MAGA media machine would be frothing at the mouth. Right now? Quiet as a church mouse. F---ing cowards."

Political podcaster Shaykh Sulaiman said simply, "Due to Trump’s illegal war."

A scandal-plagued MAGA candidate fighting to preserve his party's majority in the Senate got caught lying about one of President Donald Trump's favorite topics: crowd size.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — whose political foibles include alleged election law violations and a London jaunt on the Fourth of July with a woman who is not his wife — has been caught in a boast that hundreds of people attended a campaign event, local and national reports show.

"Paxton...held his rally at the University Draft House Tuesday evening," myRGV reported. "It drew a modest audience, topping off at 100 attendees. However, his campaign team claimed 700 people attended."

As proof, the local outlet noted the venue can hold a maximum capacity of 200 people. It described the guests as "predominantly older, with a few youthful exceptions."

Trump — recently caught in inflating his own crowd sizes — endorsed Paxton to replace Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in May.

Texas Democrats were quick to jump on the report and shower Paxton in ridicule, the Daily Beast reported Saturday.

“Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America and a pathological liar, and apparently that extends to describing his crowd size, too,” Texas Democratic Party spokesperson Ryan Martin said in a statement to the Daily Beast. “A very Low-T move by the Paxton campaign.”

Online commenters were no less blunt.

"Did you miss a decimal point?" X user Laurence Hayden replied to Paxton's video post. "There’s about 50 people there you disingenuous clown."

"How many times did you double count the same person?" asked X user Jessica Renae.

"MAGA has always been bad at counting," quipped Michael Farley.

JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Paxton's Democratic challenger Rep. James Talarico, shared the story with his 2,815 followers with the caption "lying about crowd size."

Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. picked a fight with actors Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page and this weekend, they lost big time, an MS NOW analyst argued Saturday.

Media critic Brian Lowry ridiculed the two "anti-'woke'" crusaders' attacks as predictions rolled in Christopher Nolan's summer blockbuster hit "The Odyssey" — in which both stars are featured — would pull in $200 million worldwide its opening weekend.

"Musk and others sought to transform [Nolan's casting] into something nefarious, bizarrely arguing that the diverse casting represented some kind of cynical ploy," wrote Lowry.

"Nolan’s film merely makes those conservative provocateurs sound foolish."

In the weeks before Nolan's interpretation of the Homeric epic debuted, Musk and Trump Jr. took to social media to share their outrage that a Black actor had been cast to play Helen of Troy and a trans actor to play a Greek soldier.

"Shame on Chris Nolan for desecrating Homer! " wrote Musk in May. "He will never live it down."

"Maybe one of theses days Hollywood will least to stop pushing this c--- on us," Trump Jr. wrote in an Instagram post, replete included anti-trans rhetoric, the following day.

It is worth noting that Lowry argues the person who suffered "slings and arrows" was Nolan — not the two actors he cast — and survived because of the short amount of time those actors were allotted on screen.

"At a run time of almost three hours, 'The Odyssey' continues the 'Oppenheimer' director’s personal war on moviegoers’ bladders," wrote Lowry. "But despite the advance obsession over Nyong’o’s and Page’s characters, the two actors each occupy no more than a few minutes of screen time."

Lowry argued Nolan's focus on the film's white, non-trans stars — Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway — represents a talent for drawing talent.

"The beauty of being Nolan, at this point, is that his reputation and track record enable him to attract identifiable talent — a la Zendaya, rapper Travis Scott and horror queen Mia Goth — for even smallish roles," he wrote, "a clever means of broadening the film’s appeal."

Lowry also praised Nolan for not rising to Musk and Trump Jr.'s bait with an angry response.

"Nolan himself has diplomatically dismissed the right-wing naysaying when asked about it, even as he basks in a torrent of critical praise for the film," Lowry wrote. "In an interview with The Telegraph, Nolan politely said such criticism 'comes with the territory,' calling it 'irrelevant.'"

And ultimately, Nolan's success disproves conservative claims that to “go woke" is to "go broke,” Lowry concluded.

"Projections are that 'The Odyssey,' tailor-made to premium large-screen formats, will earn roughly $200 million worldwide its opening weekend," he reported.

"Whatever the final tally, it should go a long way toward erasing the prospect of a 'go broke' scenario for Universal Pictures, the studio releasing the film."

President Donald Trump's public address Thursday night revealed a problem that not even a warehouse of testosterone earmarked for the military can solve, a New York Times columnist quipped Saturday.

Maureen Dowd argued in her scathing takedown of his "batty stew of whiny complaints" that Trump had little or no effect on those whose anger he meant to arouse — and the problem was the one his Defense secretary claims plagues the military.

"Trump seemed very low-T," wrote Dowd. "I’m surprised that Pete Hegseth...didn’t rush over to shoot up the flaccid 80-year-old commander in chief with the elixir of manhood needed, as he put it, to give America 'the leading edge of lethality.'"

As proof of Trump's "manhood" problem, Dowd ticked of the list of usual suspects who should have responded to Trump's rallying cry with outrage.

First came Trump's political party.

"There was barely a peep from Republicans on Capitol Hill about the speech," she wrote. "No organized effort to polish his tirade. You could almost hear the fervent wish of Republican lawmakers watching the president: Please, Donald, move on!"

Then there were the television networks Trump called out during his speech:

"He seemed impotent, raving about nonsense, threatening to punish ABC and NBC for not taking his weird rant live," Dowd wrote. "He struggled to wield his superpower: creating a fake alternate universe for his supporters."

And then, Dowd highlighted the surprising response from the conservative network that oftentimes echos his claims — but not on Thursday night.

"Even Fox News acted more skittish than sycophantish for a change, not wanting to relive its $787.5 million debacle as part of its settlement with Dominion Voting Systems after claiming its machines switched votes from Trump to Joe Biden," wrote Dowd.

"The next morning, Mediaite reported, 'Fox & Friends' did not mention the address once in its three-hour show."

Dowd quipped that if Trump wants to continue his campaign against U.S. elections, he may need a chemical boost to get "high-T." There's just one problem, she concluded: "Can that hormone be prescribed to babies?

Anti-authoritarianism activist and former Georgia Rep. Stacey Abrams warned Saturday that a MAGA-aligned senator just made a disturbing on-air confession in regards to his pending gubernatorial campaign.

Abrams appeared on MS NOW to discuss President Donald Trump's baseless allegations of nationwide voter fraud and the loyalists who have lined up to echo his claims — Sen. Tommy Tuberville in particular.

"They don't care about the public," said Abrams. "They don't care about the republic. They don't care about America. They care about being adjacent to power."

Abrams was responding to Tuberville's comments made to Newsmax Thursday claiming he'd "seen the evidence" that a system was in place to "put the screws" into Trump.

"You know, there's no doubt," Tuberville said. "We probably have four or five senators that didn't legally win."

Tuberville was referencing reports circulated that Trump would declare Georgia's two Democratic U.S. senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, illegitimate amid his push to find voter fraud in the state, experts noted at the time.

MS NOW The Weekend co-host Eugene Daniels was quick to provide the context — then pivoted to a question.

"That rumor ended up not being reported," said Daniels. "But what does it say that all of the levers of power that Republicans have seem to be pointed toward the same thing, which is making people believe that they can't trust our elections, and then, more importantly, act on that belief and do things to make shenanigans within the election process?"

That's when Abrams argued Tuberville had made a serious slip in regards to his mounting gubernatorial campaign.

"His illegitimacy argument is a confession," said Abrams. "He doesn't live in Alabama, and he's being challenged for that inadequacy."

According to the Alabama Reflector, two plaintiffs have claimed the U.S. Senator does not meet the Alabama Constitution’s seven-year residency requirement to serve as governor and have filed an appeal to challenge a lower court's dismissal of their case.

Abrams argued Tuberville's echoing MAGA talking points stood as proof to that legal challenge by showcasing his desperation to stay close to Trump.

She then called on voters to act.

"What we do about it is make certain that someone like Tommy Tuberville doesn't move from the Senate to becoming the governor of Alabama," she said. "We cannot let them steal from us our confidence in our democracy."

Rapper Boosie Badazz' demand for a $600,000 refund from MAGA operatives he thought could secure him a Trump administration pardon spurred roars of laughter at Talking Points Memo Saturday morning.

Writers Allegra Kirkland and Emine Yücel reveled in the news that two "wannabe lobbyist goofballs" — Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman — are now in arbitration over the rap artist's gun charge and the pardon President Donald Trump did not provide.

"You can’t blame Boosie for trying." the pair wrote. "Under the second Trump administration, the 'pardon economy' is booming."

Their analysis notes that pardons have been dolled out to 1,600 individuals involved with the Jan. 6 riots and a slew of other questionable and notable power brokers convicted of crimes.

"Trump has been handing pardons out like candy to people convicted of federal crimes who he claims were victims of retaliation by the Biden administration," they wrote.

"Trump installed his all-purpose lout Ed Martin as U.S. pardon attorney and largely abandoned the traditional pardon process, which requires the filing of official petitions, demonstration of good conduct and remorse, and other key guardrails."

Talking Points Memo's Derick Dirmaier told the pair that the Trump administration had effectively created "a new genre and economy type," and argued, "that’s something.”

This was all the prompting Kirkland and Yücel needed to lambast what they described as "the most absurd pardons of Trump II.

Among those to receive pardons were Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, Chanpeng Zhao, co-founder and former CEO of Binance, Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), which Trump admitted to regretting.

Why? According to Trump, Cuellar showed “Such a lack of LOYALTY."

Quipped Kirkland and Yücel, "Guess you can’t bat 1,000 when you’re trying to curry favor via sweeping pardons."

Read their full take-down here.