Tom Boggioni

Tom Boggioni is a writer, born, raised and living in San Diego — where he attended San Diego State University. Prior to writing for Raw Story, he wrote for FireDogLake, blogged as TBogg, and worked in banking, marketing and construction.

'As odd as it sounded': Kristi Noem's 'weird' accusations fall apart under scrutiny

Comments made by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a so-called antifa roundtable on Wednesday seemed not only questionable but divorced from reality, according to one MSNBC analyst.

In an effort to bolster the Donald Trump administration’s contention that there is a vast left-wing conspiracy planning to instigate an insurrection in the U.S., the president and Attorney General Pam Bondi took part in the hearing where the controversial Noem was asked to weigh in on the supposed threat from within.

With low-key protests happening in Chicago and Portland, Trump told attendees, “It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country. Radicals associated with the domestic terror group antifa that you’ve heard a lot about lately, and I’ve heard a lot about them for 10 years.”

As MSNBC analyst Steve Benen wrote, things took a “weird” turn when it came time for Noem to make her case.

According to the DHS head, the government has a girlfriend of one of antifa’s founders in custody and she is being grilled to hand over “more and more information” on the organization's finances, membership and structure.

That led the MSNBC analyst to point out, “Antifa (to the extent that it exists) is made up of loosely affiliated anti-fascist activists. There is no budget. There is no membership list. There are no offices or headquarters. There are no staffers, leaders or board members. There is no hierarchy for prosecutors to pursue.”

Noem also equated antifa with ISIS, Hezbollah and Hamas, to which Benen added "was every bit as odd as it sounded, given that those radical groups are actually in operation abroad.”

He added that Noem then went on to claim the Democratic mayors and governors are covering up for domestic terrorism.

According to the transcripts from the conference, Noem told Trump, “I was in Portland yesterday and had the chance to visit with the governor of Oregon and also the mayor there in town, and they are absolutely covering up the terrorism that is hitting their streets. These leaders in these local cities, along with [Gov JD] Pritzker and [Chicago Mayor Brandon] Johnson, ignore what’s going on, or, sir, they’re helping antifa cover it up.”

Benen sarcastically noted, “Ah, I see. So antifa is committing acts of terrorism, but people don’t know that, because Democratic governors and mayors are somehow in league with the criminals, 'covering up' the anti-fascist activists’ violent misdeeds.”

Pointing out that it defies credulity for elected officials to provide cover for domestic terrorism, the MSNBC analyst asked, “Why would they do this? How would they do this? Noem didn’t say, and Trump didn’t ask.“

You can read more here.

'Not even close': Conservative WSJ hammers Elon Musk's DOGE over cost-cutting flop

After all the hoopla and bragging about the massive amount of federal spending that would cease after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took a chainsaw to it, the Wall Street Journal is reporting spending actually went up.

As the Journal’s Richard Rubin and Anthony DeBarros reported on Thursday, when billionaire Elon Musk pitched the idea of the new, but unofficial, government agency he boasted that there was $2 trillion in savings to be made and he had a plan to make it happen.

That was at the beginning of January and, according to the Journal, the spending numbers today tell a different story.

Regarding that $2 trillion target, they wrote: “Not even close.”

The Journal is reporting, “DOGE did claw back some grants and fire some probationary employees. And some savings will show up later as federal workers who accepted deferred resignation drop off government payrolls in fiscal 2026. But that hasn’t changed the big picture much so far. Total spending excluding interest rose $220 billion, or 4%, for the entire fiscal year.”

The total would have been worse but Donald Trump’s administration took an early write-off of $131 billion in non-cash spending reduction still to come.

The report added, “Excluding that, non-interest spending would have risen by $351 billion for the entire year and total spending would have risen by $55 billion in September compared with a year earlier.”

You can read more here.

'Dear leader will be dead sooner than you imagine': Conservative puts MAGA on notice

The day before Donald Trump is scheduled to have a “routine yearly check-up” at Walter Reed Hospital, just five months after his last one, former GOP campaign strategist Rick Wilson reminded the president’s most rabid followers that he won’t always be around to protect and support them.

In his Substack column focused on the president and adviser Stephen Miller, itching to provoke citizens to the point where the president can invoke the Insurrection Act, Wilson claimed that there will come a time when the people doing Trump ‘s dirty work will also face the type of retribution Trump is currently putting his perceived enemies through.

With reports of Trump having increasing health issues, to say nothing of observations about possible dementia, Wilson wrote, “Let this be a clear warning to those who would enable an assault on 250 years of American liberty. You will not reign forever. Your Dear Leader will be dead sooner than you imagine, given his failing health and corroded mind.”

Having previously asserted, “Donald Trump and his claque of pissant authoritarians have switched from wanna-be to gonna-be, itching to turn the United States military into their personal palace guard, their political police force, their Praetorian Guard for the Thousand Year Trumpreich,” Wilson warned, “The lawful power of the people will be used to deliver decisive, agonizing consequences. Legal, political, economic, and social punishments are the only warning that will work.”

Singling out “Those who betrayed this nation” in the service of Trump, he added they “will be tried and handed punishments so severe that generations to come will remember that America is, by its very DNA, engineered to destroy tyranny.”

“I mean this for everyone, from Donald Trump and Stephen Miller down to the masked ICE goons violating the rights of American citizens. They can live their remaining days in an 8x8 cell or take a blindfold, a cigarette, and a wall; it makes no difference to me at this point,” he continued and then added, “Trump wants an insurrection. And he’s sure as hell going to get one.”

You can read more here.

'As basic as they come': Legal expert mocks 'slow death' of the James Comey prosecution

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance was more than amused at how badly the prosecution of FBI Director James Comey began on Wednesday, saying prosecutors were thrust into an unwinnable position and did not help themselves by professing ignorance before the judge.

In her column on Substack, Vance, now a University of Alabama School of Law professor, noted that prosecutors Gabriel J. Diaz and Nathaniel Tyler Lemons were recruited from their jobs in North Carolina because newly appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan could not convince anyone in her Virginia office to present the case.

As she explained, the case now faces a “slow death” in a court known for speed.

“The prosecutors who are taking over the case from Trump’s never-before-prosecuted-a-case U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia were dropped in from the Eastern District of North Carolina, and it’s not clear they understood they had landed in the Eastern District of Virginia’s notorious ‘rocket docket,’” she wrote before pointing out they immediately asked for an extension to delay discovery since they were unprepared.

Asserting that Department of Justice doesn’t want a speedy trial, Vance wrote, Halligan’s team “tried to explain to the judge, telling him that the case is complicated.”

“It’s not,” Vance wrote.

“A false statements case is about as basic as they come,” she elaborated. “Prosecutors must prove the statement was made by the defendant, that it was false and the defendant knew it was false, and that it was material or important to the outcome of the government proceeding in which it was made.”

District Judge Michael Nachmanoff also made that clear to the DOJ’s team by telling them, “This does not appear to me to be an overly complicated case.”

“Everything is building towards the two motions the defense said it expected to file, one to dismiss the cases because Halligan, the only prosecutor to sign the indictment, wasn’t properly appointed to office, so the indictment is fatally flawed,” she wrote before adding, “A second motion will charge some species of selective and/or vindictive prosecution. That latter motion in particular keeps looking better and better.”

Writing, “The defense has a strong argument that the president’s personal dislike of Comey led to the prosecution, especially after longtime prosecutors rejected it because they didn’t have evidence,” she concluded, “The case is going to be a challenge for prosecutors at trial if the case manages to get that far.”

You can read more here.

Trump's 'naked hunger' for Nobel prize may be his undoing: report

Donald Trump’s obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and his inability to stop talking about it, is likely dragging down his chances despite getting multiple nominations, according to new reporting.

According to a report from the Washington Post, this year's prize will be announced on Friday, and betting markets are against the 79-year-old American president despite his best efforts to lobby for himself.

As the Post’s Michael Birnbaum and Dan Diamond dryly wrote, “Trump maintains he is not politicking for the prize, which he has mentioned publicly every few weeks since reclaiming the Oval Office — a habit people familiar with the award warned could hurt his chances.”

Noting that Trump recently stated that, if he doesn’t win, “it’ll be a big insult to our country, I will tell you that,” there was a feeling that the president was pressuring negotiators to wrap up the ceasefire agreement in Gaza because he felt it would help his chances, despite the Nobel committee traditionally using an end of January deadline for nominations.

With the Post describing Trump’s attempt to sway the Nobel Committee as “naked hunger” for more accolades, observers described his desperation for the honor as unusual and unseemly.

"Trump’s not-a-campaign campaign has little precedent in the subdued world of Nobel peace picks, where five Norwegians appointed by their country’s parliament meet in conclave for months of studious deliberation. Winners almost never campaign publicly — and few lobby privately, according to people familiar with Nobel history. His public interest in the award could backfire, according to a person familiar with the operations of the prize,” the Post is reporting.

According to one insider, “The pressure from Trump is rather extraordinary and comes across not least as remarkably self-centered. That rhetoric and his whole approach must be said to collide quite dramatically with the traditions of the prize, even if that in itself may not be disqualifying.”

Nina Graeger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, which compiles a short list for the prize, admitted the American president did not make the cut, and noted Trump’s pressure and called it, “unprecedented, and it’s very unusual.”

Graeger did concede that, if Trump’s last-minute success in Gaza sticks he would receive consideration; however, she added, “They would also, however, look at whatever else he’s doing in the world, but at least they would have to consider him.”

You can read more here.

Pete Hegseth's purge of powerful official heightens Pentagon's 'culture of fear': report

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s firing of a high-ranking and once-powerful Pentagon official has reignited another paroxysm of fear that another purge may be in the offing.

Coming on the heels of Hegseth’s controversial rah-rah speech in Quantico last week, where he delivered a warning to the attending generals and admirals, the firing of Jon Harrison, the Navy chief of staff, without Hegseth notifying Navy Secretary John Phelan beforehand, has created a “culture of fear,” reports Politico’s Paul McLeary and Daniel Lippman.

According to the report, Harrison’s dismissal was the result of pressure from new Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao, a MAGA loyalist, who had been sharpening his knife and aiming to oust Harrison.

Politico is reporting Harrison had been ”seeking to curb the role of the service’s No. 2 civilian leader even before he arrived at the Pentagon,” with one Pentagon insider confiding, “Cao was keeping track of all this while waiting for his confirmation vote. And he moved fast” after his confirmation.

The firing sent shock waves through the Pentagon.

“The sudden dismissal last week of Jon Harrison, the Navy chief of staff, has only added to concerns about Hegseth’s objectives, according to five current and former defense officials. Most of his moves have come without public explanation, and led to a deepening sense of uncertainty throughout the department — one that risks silencing pushback on critical decisions that affect how the U.S. military interacts with the world,” Politico is reporting.

One Pentagon official remarked there is a “culture of fear; there’s a culture of intimidation and retaliation. It’s better just to keep your head down and not necessarily try to do anything to the advantage of the organization, because it’s very much run from the top down.”

More alarming to insiders is that there seemed to be no rationale for Hegseth move other than at Cao’s urging.

“It adds to the climate of fear when randomly, people are just suddenly done,” one former defense official told Politico.

'We don’t control what he’s going to do': GOP's Thune regrets support for Russ Vought

Republican lawmakers who were happy to see controversial DOGE godfather Elon Musk walk away from the White House are now having to contend with Office of Management and Budget head Russell Vought making their lives miserable with his job-cutting ways, according to a new report.

According to the New Republic’s Alex Shephard, as much as GOP lawmakers want to cut back government services, they also don’t want to have to deal with constituents who can’t get calls answered or see services they depended upon curtail.

Those problems initially arose when Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hacked away at departments, notably in the Social Security Administration, among others, that had Republicans back on their heels and avoiding town halls.

To that end, when Musk was on his way out the door, many of them hoped that Vought would step into the breach and order cutbacks in a more sensible manner.

According to Shephard, they are now regretting getting the change.

Writing, “the administration is already overplaying its hand, and moreover it’s repeating mistakes that it made just a few months ago when it gave free rein to a different nihilist—Elon Musk—to take a hammer to the government,” he suggested the government shutdown has only exacerbated the problem.

”The president and his White House minions probably don’t believe—or don’t care—that the public blames the GOP more than Democrats for the shutdown,” the analyst observed before reporting, “There are suggestions that Republicans in the Senate—where the shutdown is currently stuck—are particularly frustrated.”

With Trump making waves by stating that furloughed government workers may not receive back pay after consultation with Vought, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told reporters, “I’m not an attorney but I think it’s pretty bad strategy to even say that sort of stuff.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) who had applauded Vought stepping in as the face of cost-cutting is openly having a change of heart.

“It must feel like déjà vu for some Republican senators. Thune, who back in March had urged Musk to hand off DOGE’s work to the Senate-confirmed ‘leaders’ in Trump’s Cabinet, now appears equally frustrated with the Cabinet member to whom this work has been handed off. 'We don’t control what he’s going to do,’" he said. "This is the risk of shutting down the government and handing the keys to Russ Vought.’”

You can read more here.

Ex-US attorney buries 'ridiculous' prosecution of Comey by Trump's 'preschool' lawyers

At the same time that former FBI Director James Comey was entering a not guilty plea in a Virginia courtroom, former judge and U.S. Attorney Carol Lam was on MSNBC saying Donald Trump’s DOJ was setting itself up for a major defeat.

Speaking with host Anna Cabrera, the legal expert zeroed in on the fact that not one prosecutor from the Eastern District of Virginia’s U.S. Attorney's office would agree to be in court to present the charges.

Instead, Pam Bondi’s DOJ recruited Nathaniel Tyler Lemons and Gabriel Diaz from North Carolina to assist former insurance lawyer Lindsey Halligan, who stumbled through her grand jury presentation.

Asked about the proceedings at the Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse on Wednesday, Lam claimed bringing in outside prosecutors with no familiarity with the case is a disaster in the making.

“This is very concerning, Anna, because, you know, by the time we get to federal court, you like to think that there's some maturity going on,” she told the host. “What's going on now? Really sounds like a preschool or kindergarten — you've got a government team that has not worked together, not worked in that district, not appeared before that judge, not worked with the FBI agents who are investigating the case and that's a big concern.”

Adding, “That's like having a surgical team that has never worked together before,” she elaborated, “The fact that Pat Fitzgerald, who is Jim Comey's defense attorney, has not seen not only not seen the evidence in the case, but can't even figure out from the indictment what the charges are is very concerning.”

“I'm not I'm not given to hyperbole, but this is ridiculous,” she complained. “The whole purpose of an indictment is to give notice to the defendant about what the charges against him or her is — the fact is that somebody as experienced as Pat, and even as experienced as Jim cannot figure out what the charges are.”

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MSNBC host unleashes foul-mouthed rant on GOP after Trump calls for Dem's arrest

Donald Trump’s Wednesday morning decision to post on social media that he wants Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J.D. Pritzker put in jail for opposing his sending in the National Guard to support ICE agents set MSNBC host Joe Scarborough off on an epic rant aimed at the president and his party.

After co-host Jonathan Lemire read the president’s post on-air, the “Morning Joe” co-host was off and running and used the contentious appearance by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday as part of his rant.

According to Scarborough, a former Republican member of the House representing Florida, none of this “will end well” for the GOP.

After pointing out that Trump’s appointees and Republicans are “running around acting like they're little, kings or little princes or little princesses,” he added, “Now, we don't have like a monarchy for the attorney general to not answer any questions, but to literally come with canned insults, because there are a lot of questions that need to be asked, did you ever speak to the president of the United States about arresting his political enemies? Because we all saw on social media that the president said, ‘You need to arrest my political enemies,’ so you need to arrest my political enemies very quickly.”

“So it seems to me in any Congress, in any year since this constitutional republic was founded, this is a question that members of Congress would ask members of the administration yesterday -- and not a single answer.”

Gaining steam, he later stated, “This is not hard. This is not hard. At what point do Republicans gain control of their senses to tell people, stop! Stop! You're setting precedents that will be used against Republicans in the years to come. Stop! But no, they want to go. ‘Oh, but look what Joe Biden did. Oh, Joe Biden, what Joe Biden did.”

“Let's just get the running tally, if we will, about what the Justice Department did under [former AG] Merrick Garland, who, by the way, was constantly attacked by progressives for not weaponizing the Justice Department constantly.”

“And here they [Republicans] are now. It's like, you know, it's like a different person every day that he's going to arrest,” he stated.

‘It’s just an embarrassing, it was embarrassing,” he exclaimed. “That's the thing; they want to shock us or something They want to shock us. Let me just say, we are not shocked. You look stupid as s---. We are not shocked that you look dumb. You look like an idiot. We are not shocked by what you're doing. We're worried about the precedents re being set for the future; when they come after republicans, when they come after independents, when they come after everyone because they go, ‘Well, look at the precedent that was going on when Republicans were just sitting there keeping their mouth shut.'"

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'She is choosing not to': Fuming reporter hammers Pam Bondi over Tom Homan bribery evasion

An obviously angry Ken Dilanian of MSNBC lashed out at Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday morning over her refusal to answer questions about border czar Tom Homan being filmed taking a $50,000 bribe that was part of an FBI influence peddling investigation.

Dilanian, along with colleague Carol Leonnig, broke the story about Homan in late September, where they reported, an associate of Homan’s “suggested to undercover FBI agents that Homan could facilitate future government contracts in exchange for big money,” which reportedly led to a meeting where he was videoed being handed the cash in a Cava bag.

On Tuesday, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bondi was pressed by multiple Democrats about the video, whether Homan returned the cash and if he should report it as taxable income.

For her part, Bondi either refused to answer the questions, stated they should ask FBI director Kash Patel, or launched a sneering personal attack on whichever Democrat was grilling her.

Wednesday morning, a fuming Dilanian hammered the Donald Trump appointee who has also been accused of being swayed by cash.

Pointing out the attorney general was gifted with an “utter lack of Republican skeptical questions as she thumbs her nose at senators and reads from oppo research and doesn't answer a single question,” he added, “And just because we broke the Homan story here at MSNBC, I'll just say that of all the questions that she didn't answer, that for me was the most frustrating because, you know, she can't credibly say ‘I'm not going to discuss my conversations with the president,’ or ‘I'm not going to discuss a pending criminal investigation' — this is closed.”

“There's nothing, there's no reason she can't talk about the Homan matter,” he accused. “There's no reason she can't say whether he took the $50,000. What happened to it? Did he keep it? Did he pay taxes on it? Why was the investigation closed?”

“She could answer those questions, but she is choosing not to,” he insisted. “And I think the reasons are obvious to all of us.”

“And in fact, when she was asked by Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii in detail about that $50,000 bag allegedly given to Tom Homan, she said, ‘Are you a member of antifa?’ was her comeback,” co-host Willie Geist contributed. “She cited some rally where Senator Hirono had been, so she's not only not answering the question, but just turning to whatever her prepared attack was.”

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MTG and Trump gifted Democrats a 'great day' by plunging GOP into new chaos: analyst

During an appearance on MSNBC on Wednesday morning, Politico’s Jonathan Martin claimed that Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) inadvertently handed Democrats a big win on Tuesday by putting Republicans on the defensive once again.

Speaking with the hosts of “Morning Joe,” Martin singled out Greene siding with Democrats on the need for Affordable Care Act subsidies in the disputed budget bill that has brought the government to a screeching halt, and Trump suggesting an estimated 750,000 furloughed government employees don’t deserve to be paid.

All in all, he claimed Democrats had a "great day."

As Martin noted, Greene’s breaking with the party line and Trump’s unforced error were a blessing for Democrats.

"I do think they [Republicans] want to fix the issue of Obamacare premiums, they don't want to do it, though, in a way that is seen as sort of caving to Democratic demands,” he explained. “So this there's this standoff, but it's a lot of theater.”

“I think when the government does come back, there's going to be some kind of fix on those premiums previously Mika [Brzezinski] for the reasons that you laid out on the screen, because all those states that are the hardest hit are all red America and all have GOP senators,” he explained. ”But what MTG did there was hand the Democrats a gift yesterday.”

He then explained, “Also, don't forget Trump yesterday saying we're not sure if folks are going to get back pay after all, which is devastating to federal employees who are counting on that back pay.. which is totally off-message here.”

“Yesterday was, to date, one of the best political days for Democrats during the shutdown since the shutdown because you have MTG breaking ranks on health care and then Trump doing his Trump thing.”

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GOP leadership has 'lost the plot' as Trump makes their lives harder: report

Donald Trump’s continuous off-the-cuff remarks about the budget showdown, which has led to the government coming to a standstill, are creating headaches for the GOP leadership as they try to turn voters against the Democrats.

According to report from Politico’s Dasha Burns and Jordain Carney, Republicans are not facing the reality that they have “lost the plot,” because the president keeps giving wildly divergent answers about negotiations, thereby plunging GOP messaging into disarray.

Case in point, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) made themselves available to the press where they blamed Democrats for the impasse, claiming they refuse to negotiate, while Trump was telling reporters he was open to sitting down with them.

After hearing from the leadership, Trump was hustled out to walk back his comments on Truth Social where he wrote “I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open.”

According to Politico, Trump’s refusal to stay on message is creating “tension” in the Republican Party.

“Tensions surfaced again Tuesday after a White House budget office memo raised questions about a federal law guaranteeing back pay for furloughed federal workers — one that Johnson and Thune both voted for in 2019,” the report continued before adding, “These episodes are among many where the White House and Hill Republicans have been crosswise on strategy and seemingly not communicating in advance about their key moves.”

Politico is reporting that the confusion on messaging has handed Democrats a gift while leaving the ever-available Johnson and Thune “flat-footed” when confronted with the presidents remarks.

“In contrast to the GOP divisions, Democrats have been largely successful so far in their effort to focus attention on health care: — in particular, on Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that expire at the end of the year. They are pushing Republicans to engage now while Johnson and Thune insist the problem can be dealt with later, after the government reopens,” the report notes before adding that Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) needled her GOP counterparts with, “I think they are absolutely struggling to figure out how they are going to get out of this.”

You can read more here.

'Apologize!' Pam Bondi explodes at senator in fiery hearing

In what turned out to be the most contentious exchange between Pam Bondi and a Democrat at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Adam Schiff used his time to provoke the attorney general to the point where she lashed out and demanded that the California Democrat apologize to President Donald Trump.

With Bondi shaking her head and sneering as Schiff began his questioning, she eventually launched personal attacks at Schiff, at one point asking whether the Harvard Law graduate had a law degree.

Things got ugly as Schiff repeatedly asked about reports that border czar Tom Homan accepted a $50,000 bribe in an influence peddling sting, and after he criticized White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's truthfulness.

After asking if she would agree to the release of the reported tape of Homan accepting the money in a bag, Bondi snapped at him with “Don’t tell me what is my decision!”

As she continued to talk over him, he stated, “So I'm asking you, will you support a request so that the committee or indeed, I believe the American people, should be able to see that video or audio tape, will you support that request?”

“Will you apologize to Donald Trump?" she blurted.

“I guess I have the answer is you won't support that request,” he replied.

She continued, "You know that Joe Biden tried to cover up Hunter Biden's involvement with Ukraine,” as Schiff tried to regain control of the questioning.

Towards the end of the questioning, she used Trump again and demanded the senator apologize to Trump for “personal slander.“

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MSNBC cuts off Josh Hawley to fact-check rant about phone tapping

MSNBC cut away from the grilling of Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) went on a manic tirade that his phone had been “tapped” by special counsel Jack Smith as part of the Jan. 6th insurrection investigation.

As MSNBC legal analyst Catherine Christian noted during the break, nothing Hawley said was close to the truth.

Given a chance to ask Bondi questions, the Missouri Republican instead used his opening minutes to rant about a new report that the FBI “tapped” the phones of eight sitting U.S. senators during the investigation of Donald Trump.

As Hawley told Bondi, “This isn't hypothetical. This isn't maybe. What will you do in the future? This isn't ‘Oh, gee, can you imagine a situation?’ This happened. This happened and this happened. The targeting of Catholics in this country, because Joe Biden and his FBI didn't like Catholics,” MSNBC host Anna Cabrera cut in.

“Okay, we're just going to pull out for a quick second to do a fact check, because Senator Hawley keeps on bringing up this idea that the FBI tapped their phones related to the Jack Smith investigation into January 6th and 2020 election interference,” she began.

“What we have learned, and the facts of the matter are, that the FBI did request phone logs or data related to a number of senators, GOP senators who had communications on that day on January 6th.”

“And what they asked for was not any information related to a phone tap,” she reported. “It wasn't listening into any content of conversations that they had. In fact, this is according to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), also a Republican, as he was among those revealing what they had learned. He said that the information was who was called, date, time, length of call; so again, it was not a phone tap.”

Christian agreed and added, “It's probably political posturing.”

“It makes sense that the special counsel would want to know who these particular senators called and who called them during January 4th to January 7th, 2021. And Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) used those dates because that was part of the now dismissed indictment of obstructing that congressional proceeding, the certification of the election. So they were investigating who did president, then-President Trump, speak to.”

She added, “Tap means listening to phone conversations. That's not what happened here.”

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Senator hits Bondi for ducking Homan bribe with 'irrelevant far-right talking points'

During her appearance at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, an abrasive Attorney General Pam Bondi was called out by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for responding with insults instead of answers.

Donald Trump’s appointee refused to answer multiple questions, either telling Whitehouse she couldn’t discuss it with him or flatly saying she would answer his questions followed by a personal attack.

When pressed repeatedly to explain what happened to the $50,000 in cash given to Trump’s border czar Tom Homan as part of an influence peddling investigation conducted by the FBI, Bondi kept blowing off the questions by saying the investigation was closed, before finally snapping at the Democratic senator.

“Did you know whether or not in that investigation they looked at whether the $50,000 payment to Mr. Homan was declared by him on his tax returns,” Whitehouse asked.

“Senator, I would be more concerned if I were you, when you talk about corruption and money, that you pushed for legislation that would subsidize your wife's company,” she replied.

“The questions here are actually pretty specific.” Whitehouse admonished her. “So having you respond with completely irrelevant, far-right internet talking points really is not very helpful here.”

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