The panel on CNN's "The Lead" broke out laughing on Wednesday as one of President Donald Trump's loyalists in the Department of Justice made his life much harder.
Trump has been trying to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell from his post for months over Powell's insistence that interest rates remain elevated to combat inflation. At one point, the president accused Powell of causing more than $500 million in cost overruns on the Federal Reserve headquarters renovation project, a figure Powell has publicly described as "inflated."
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has taken the baton to investigate Powell, but that investigation is currently holding up the nomination process for Kevin Warsh, whom Trump has nominated to succeed Powell when his term ends on May 15.
CNN host Phil Mattingly joked about Pirro's investigation on "The Lead."
"What's another result is having Kevin Warsh as Fed chair on May 16th, which they could get if they dropped the prosecution," Mattingly said, laughing. "I feel like I keep saying this, but someone has to be connecting these dots here."
In a new headache for New York Republicans, a legal challenge has been filed that could result in the party fielding no candidate for the 18th Congressional District.
According to The Highlands Current, the complication started with the GOP's nominee for the district, currently represented by combat veteran and former Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, dropping out of the race. Sharanjit “Sunny” Thind, a Manhattan businessman and former Nassau County human rights commissioner, abandoned his campaign and endorsed a new candidate to replace him on the ballot.
"Jackie Mary Auringer, 29, who grew up in Kingston, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on April 10," said the report. "According to her campaign website, she earned a marketing degree from Florida Gulf Coast University and is a project manager and accountant for her family-run construction business. While living in Florida, she founded Palm Beach Conservatives and served as an officer of the Palm Beach Federated Republican Women, according to The New York Post."
The problem, said the report, is that Thind may have been ineligible for the ballot in the first place — and because the deadline for nominating petitions has already passed, the GOP can only use Thind's paperwork to get Auringer on the ballot.
But that could be a problem, the report continued, because "on Monday, the Ulster County clerk, Taylor Bruck, said in a news release that he had filed a challenge with the state Board of Elections to Thind’s nominating petitions. Bruck, a Democrat, alleged that Thind falsely claimed to live at an address in Lagrangeville and that his petitions did not include line numbers for each signer, which 'prevents proper review of signatures and undermines the ability of election officials to evaluate the petition.'"
If the challenge is successful, it would mean Republicans could not field a candidate in the 18th District at all, giving Ryan, who represents a fairly competitive district that only voted for Democrats by 3 points at the presidential level, a glide path to re-election.
All of this comes after Republicans' efforts to mount serious opposition to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul fell apart, with Rep. Elise Stefanik's hotly anticipated gubernatorial campaign collapsing early, despite direct pleas from President Donald Trump to stay in.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) unloaded on the Trump administration's attempts to investigate the Federal Reserve for allegedly mismanaging the headquarters renovation project in a new interview on Wednesday.
Tillis spoke to a reporter from The Associated Press on Wednesday, where he described the investigation as “bogus, ill-timed, ill-informed."
Tillis added that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is making matters worse for the Trump administration by pursuing the investigation, as it will ultimately extend the time Powell serves in his role. Tillis described Pirro and her team as being "asleep at the switch."
Tillis also suggested that Pirro's investigation blindsided the Trump White House.
“They should have consulted with the White House, because I’m sure if they would have, (the White House) would have said, ‘no, we can wait,’” Tillis told the AP.
Tillis's comments came just a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Pirro's prosecutors attempted to secretly enter the Federal Reserve renovation site and were turned away by security guards. They were attempting to enter the site as part of the DOJ's investigation into whether Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell caused cost overruns exceeding $500 million on the project.
Last year, Trump claimed the total cost of the renovation project had been inflated from $2.7 billion to $3.3 billion. Powell fact-checked those claims on live TV, claiming that Trump had added the costs of a completely separate project to inflate his figures.
The investigation has also stalled the nomination of Kevin Warsh, who Trump has tapped to lead the central bank when Powell is scheduled to depart in May. Powell has said he will stay on as acting Chairman until his successor is appointed, setting the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve on yet another collision course.
President Donald Trump has used the word "loser" to describe plenty of his enemies, but now that insult might be coming back to haunt him, an analyst said on Wednesday.
The New Republic's Matt Ford discussed how Trump's Iran war has suspended trade through the Strait of Hormuz, effectively "the geopolitical equivalent of stabbing the global economy’s femoral artery." Iran has taken control of the channel, and although Trump has argued that the United States has won the conflict, the world does not see it as he does.
"This is what happens when losers are elected to lead the world’s only superpower," Ford wrote.
Trump has surrounded himself with people, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who have openly expressed a similar sentiment — "whose worldview is driven by personal grievances against the world."
"Fascism and loserdom go hand in hand because fascism is predicated on the notion that the fascist has been unjustly cheated and robbed, and that only through force can they restore and revitalize themselves," Ford wrote. "Fascists idolize losers because no fascist society has ever flourished and because they see themselves reflected in other people’s failures. It is fitting that Trump and his allies have lavished praise and public statuary upon Robert E. Lee, a Virginia-born colonel who is best known for leading a failed rebellion against the United States on behalf of a slaver aristocracy in the South."
"The goal of Trumpism, it could be said, is to create losers of us all," Ford added. "The political and economic project’s goal is not to materially improve its adherents’ lives. Instead, it is to create a sense of social order for some people that offers an aesthetic sense of improvement, even as one’s standard of living declines in real terms."
Far-right Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) put out a cryptic post on X Tuesday suggesting that there are "allegations" against an unspecified senator, and demanding that Senate Majority Leader John Thune investigate.
"It’s seems like the Senate has its own trash to take out," said Luna. "@LeaderJohnThune You need to look into the allegations against one of your Senators, it’s very disturbing. My chief will be contacting your chief."
Luna did not elaborate on who the senator in question was.
This comes after Luna was one of the most strident voices in the Republican Party for a bipartisan expulsion vote on four members of Congress, three of whom were accused of sexual misconduct, and one of whom was accused of embezzling disaster relief funds.
Two of the members in question, Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX), responded to the expulsion threats by putting in their resignations this week.
SantaCon founder Stefan Pildes was mocked to his face after the FBI arrested him on wire fraud charges.
Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York alleged on Wednesday that Pildes diverted more than $2.7 million raised for charity to his personal expenses.
"As alleged, Stefan Pildes promoted SantaCon as an event grounded in charitable giving, but instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, he ran his own con game," U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. "He took advantage of New Yorkers' generous holiday spirit to finance his lifestyle through personal expenses, big and small. No matter how you dress it up, fraud is fraud. We are committed to protecting New Yorkers from those who exploit their enthusiasm and generosity."
Following his release on $300,000 bail, reporters mobbed Pildes outside the New York courthouse.
"Would you like to comment on these charges against you?" one reporter asked.
"Do you think you're getting a lump of coal for Christmas?" another reporter said.
A reporter noted that nearly $3 million was missing from SantaCon, but Pildes continued walking without responding.
"The FBI says you stole Christmas," one correspondent pointed out.
"Our station has covered this for years," another said, "and we just wanted to know if there's any comment, anything you have to say to these people, anything to the allegations at all?"
Last month, Meenu Batra, 53, who has lived in the South Texas border colonia of Laguna Heights since 2002, was on her way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to work another case. She’s been a court interpreter for over 20 years, the only one licensed in Texas for Hindi, Punjabi, or Urdu. Her language skills are requested nationwide, where she’s contracted to help people making their way through the immigration court system, just as she did for herself 35 years ago when she immigrated from India to New Jersey before settling in Texas.
She planned to meet with her adult children in Austin after the Wisconsin trip, the only difference she foresaw in an otherwise typical trip. Her routine for years included flying from either Harlingen or Brownsville to far-flung parts of the country where South Asian immigrants needed language access. For this trip, the flight was out of Harlingen.
But, around 5 p.m. on March 17, Batra was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after passing through security at Harlingen International Airport. In a sworn deposition that was filed as part of a petition for habeas corpus—a legal request to be released on the grounds that the detention is unlawful—Batra said the people who arrested her did not have visible badges nor were they wearing uniforms. One of those agents had asked Batra if she knew she was in the country illegally and that she had a deportation order. She replied that her work authorization status, which she applied for regularly after being granted a legal status called withholding of removal by a New Jersey immigration judge decades ago, was good for another four years.
“That doesn’t mean you can be here forever,” the agent replied. Two more plainclothes agents would join the two that detained her, bringing her down the escalator and to the front of the airport.
“Having watched and read enough news, I know that the moment you say something, they accuse you of evading arrest or whatever other things,” Batra told the Texas Observer. “So, being mindful of all that, mindful of the whole line and being embarrassed in front of everybody, I just complied.”
Batra’s attorneys say the agents were targeting her. “This is someone who maybe had one speeding ticket in the last 30 years and [is] being treated like a notorious criminal,” Deepak Ahluwalia, a California and Texas-based immigration attorney representing Batra, told the Observer.
People who are granted withholding of removal are typically immigrants who face persecution in their home countries, like those who receive asylum. Batra, who is Sikh, left India after her parents were murdered during a state pogrom against Sikhs in the 1980s. But, unlike asylum, withholding of removal does not come with a path to a green card.
Though people with Batra’s protection still have deportation orders, they cannot be removed to where they came from. If they are deported, the United States must send them to a “third country” that will accept them. The United States has agreements with at least 27 nations, a list the Trump administration has grown, that it’s paid up to $1 million a person to accept deportees. Many of these deportation flights leave from the Harlingen airport where Batra was detained.
ICE has not said where it plans to send Batra, according to her habeas filing.
After placing her in handcuffs, she said, two of those four agents at the airport drove Batra to ICE’s field office in Harlingen in an unmarked van. She had been there many times over the years to renew her work permit and to help attorneys with translation. Office staff recognized her as she was being processed. Agents posed for photos with her handcuffed, which they said was for “social media,” according to the habeas filing.
Batra was moved through various holding cells for 24 hours without food or water, first in Harlingen then in the El Valle Detention Center outside of Raymondville, in neighboring Willacy County. As of mid-April, she remains there without access to the consistent medical care she needs following surgeries she had in December. Within days of being in the facility, she caught a respiratory illness and lost her voice. She was supposed to see her doctor, in Harlingen, the week she was detained.
“I think it’s a real example of what the administration is doing in terms of its mass deportation plan and who it’s targeting,” Edna Yang, the co-executive director of American Gateways, an Austin-based legal services nonprofit, told the Observer. “It’s not targeting criminals, it’s not targeting dangerous people, it’s targeting individuals who are members of our community, who have a lot to offer and continue to offer a lot of positive things for our entire country and our society.”
Batra’s habeas petition included dozens of letters from people in her community and beyond asking for her to be released from detention. Cameron County Precinct 1 Constable Norman Esquivel, a Republican elected official and fixture in Laguna Madre-area politics, and several judges across the country are among those who authored a letter.
Batra’s attorneys argue that in the decades she’s had her legal protection the U.S. government never told her that it was planning to deport her, and that her detention violated her right to due process. One of Batra’s children recently enlisted in the military and filed a parole application for her. If granted, Batra could remain in the country in one-year increments. Her attorneys have also filed a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent ICE from moving her to another detention center.
In response to an Observer request for comment, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson noted that Batra had “a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 2000” and said “She will remain in ICE custody pending removal and will receive full due process.”
The spokesperson continued: “Employment authorization does NOT confer any type of legal status in the United States,” adding that the department is encouraging all “illegal aliens” to “self-deport.”
Nationwide, Texas is leading in habeas petitions from people detained by ICE. Most federal judges are siding with detained people, ordering them to be released or to receive a bond hearing before an immigration judge.
Batra, who has spent nearly half her life working in immigration courts, stopped working for the government’s side in immigration proceedings—instead helping only the immigrants seeking status—after seeing the conditions in detention facilities and how detained people were treated. Now, on the other side herself, she’s seeing people at the Raymondville facility who don’t speak English or Spanish, who are without the same knowledge and connections she has after so many years of helping people like them through the same system.
“I am grateful also, because something bad has to happen in life for you to truly appreciate what you have,” Batra said. “But I am getting this experience, and I’m watching the other women and just realizing how much help they need. At least I have awareness. I know my rights.”
DHS has until April 21 to respond to Batra’s habeas petition, according to court filings.
Political analysts and observers thrashed a MAGA Republican on Wednesday after he told Pope Leo XIV to "stay out of politics."
Speaking to a reporter from the Meidas Network, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) said the Pope needs to "keep his business in leading his flock" and "stay out of the political arena." Nehls' comments came after President Donald Trump attacked the Pope on social media, calling him "weak" on crime and "terrible on foreign policy." Trump has also said that the Pope should not criticize the U.S. president or his policies.
"He doesn't need to be getting involved in the political arena," Nehls said. "Go lead your church, but stay out of the politics. We didn't elect the Pope to be our president, or to be anything else. So, just keep his nose in the church's business and stay out of the political arena."
Nehls' comments sparked backlash on social media.
"Siri, show me a cultist thug unfit for public office or public life," Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, posted on X.
"[Expletive] you, pedophile protector," Susanna Lopez, a retired opinion columnist, posted on X.
"This is the same anti-Catholicism that drove the second KKK, which had 5 million members," economist Tony Annett posted on X.
"It’ll probably blow over but tensions between conservative Catholics and evangelical Protestants within the Republican Party are always right under the surface. Trump attacking Pope Leo (who is more popular w/ Catholic [conservatives] than Francis was) will exacerbate that," attorney Blake Allen posted on X.
President Donald Trump has had an uneasy but reliable alliance with the Christian Right for over a decade, MS NOW's McKay Coppins said on Wednesday's edition of "Katy Tur Reports" — and now, after Trump has made clear he doesn't even care to go through the motions of behaving like a Christian, they are running out of excuses to keep going.
"I mean, it's like something that they were sort of used to and that they would not hold him to the same standard that they have," said Lincoln Project adviser Stuart Stevens. And I think all of that's gotten very old. And at a certain point, you do want to look at the White House and feel aspirational. When Bush ran in 2000, that was his number one message that worked well. People want to look at the White House and feel good about it, and I think now forgetting, you know, your own political sense, what is there to feel good about?"
"Yeah," agreed Tur. "I wonder, McKay, do you hear that anymore? Because I mean, we talked about this for a long time, and especially in Utah and the Mormon community, wanting somebody who's going to lead by example. Mitt Romney was so popular, certainly, there. Are you still hearing that or is that coming back among the Mormon community specifically?"
"Yeah, I'm actually in Salt Lake City right now, and I can't tell you how many conservative Latter-Day Saints I have spoken to who are just like, they're trying, you know, some of the really, you know, partisan conservative Republicans have tried for a decade now to make peace with the Trump-era GOP," said Coppins. "And they have fundamental disagreements, but they also can't bring themselves to vote for a Democrat. And they're trying to get on board with him."
"And then when he does something like this, when he starts a feud with the pope, when he, you know, when he posts a meme of himself as Jesus Christ, like, it just it makes it so hard for them to really feel at home in this Republican Party," said Coppins.
Ultimately, he said, "they're all just basically praying and hoping for, you know, a post-Trump revitalization or rediscovery of the importance of character and integrity in our leaders. But that gets harder and harder with every passing week when we see the leaders of the Republican Party making excuses for what's happening. Because every time this happens, you basically reduce the market value of integrity in public life, and it makes it that much harder for you to find new leaders who will rise up after Trump, who will steer the party back to what they want it to be."
The Maryland Democrat, who served as lead House manager in Trump's Jan. 6 impeachment trial, told Raw Story on Wednesday that he is introducing legislation to establish a permanent body under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which has never been used in American history.
"I am for the body called for by the 25th Amendment as a standing permanent body for every president — Democrat, Republican, Independent," Raskin said. "The Republicans refuse to deal with this as a serious constitutional question, and that's sad."
Republicans confronted by Raw Story in the Capitol hallways were unmoved.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) dismissed the effort as "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and suggested Democrats suffer from "widespread mental illness." Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) called Trump "better than sliced bread."
"Listen, everybody's going to find a way to poke holes at Donald Trump right now, and I think it's sad, but that's just the way the Democrat Party plays," said Nehls.
Nehls scoffed at Raskin's 25th Amendment commission and waved off any notion that Trump has made "erratic decisions," despite soaring energy prices and the president taking aim at Pope Leo XIV.
"25th? Oh, come on. He's gotta talk about something, I guess. It's just absolutely ridiculous," said Nehls.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) called questions about Trump's mental acuity "absurd," while Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) fired back, "We should've done that during Biden's term."
Raskin noted the irony that his Republican colleagues on the Oversight Committee had already set the precedent by demanding President Joe Biden's physician testify about his mental fitness.
In a sharp coda, Raskin also weighed in on the resignations of Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) over sexual misconduct allegations, drawing a pointed contrast between the parties.
"I'm proud of the Democrats who take an emphatic stand against sexual harassment and for the rights of women across the board," Raskin said. "We don't see the same thing on the other side."
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche got defensive and backpedaled on his previous statements with a reporter on Wednesday when he was pushed to answer a question about the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Blanche was speaking with Semafor's White House correspondent Shelby Talcott during the Semafor World Economy summit when she brought up how last week first lady Melania Trump denied she had any ties to the late financier and convicted child sex offender. Talcott asked if Blanche and the Department of Justice would support giving Epstein survivors a chance to testify before Congress, something Trump had suggested in her statement.
"Of course, the DOJ has said that from the beginning," Blanche said. "We have said, repeatedly, from day one, that if there's any victim that wants to come forward and talk about what they know, whether it's something that happened by Mr. Epstein, who's dead, or another individual or individuals. That's what the FBI does. And we arrested 1,700 defendants last year for abusing women in some way, shape or form. That's the essence of what we do. Whether that victim testifies in front of Congress, if asked, whether that victim comes to the FBI, we have never, ever said that we would say 'No, that's OK. We don't want to hear from you.' Director Patel has said that repeatedly, Attorney General Bondi has said that repeatedly, I have said that repeatedly, and we have no issues with that and of course, that is what we'd want."
Blanche denied having mixed messaging for the survivors and public about the investigation.
"I've never said that we should move past it. If somebody has that, I'd love to see it," Blanche said, defending the DOJ's investigation.
Earlier this month, Blanche had told Fox News the following:
"I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward."
Earlier this month, Blanche told Fox News: “I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not… pic.twitter.com/mR95vgNQaM — Semafor (@semafor) April 15, 2026
President Donald Trump's own supporters are starting to realize his mental health is diminished and his behavior reckless after his repeated slights against the Christian faith, MS NOW's Katy Tur argued on Wednesday.
This comes as even House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) says he was "taken aback" by Trump's public attack on Pope Leo XIV for criticizing war in Iran.
"Now, as you well know, Donald Trump has never operated under the fear of angering anyone," said Tur. "And he's even gone after the pope before. He did it in 2016, calling Pope Francis 'disgraceful' after he said building a wall wasn't Christian. Trump did not lose that election, and he did not lose support from Christians or Catholics."
"So why is this new fight with this new pope any different?" said Tur. "Because it does feel different, doesn't it? Is it because he followed it up with his image of himself as Jesus? Is it because he launched a war Americans didn't want? Is it because prices haven't fallen, inflation isn't down? It's not like any of this is exactly new or all that different from the past when he could do anything and maintain support."
With that being the case, she said, "Could it be something larger, something on top of all of this that's making even his supporters uncomfortable? Perhaps it is a pervasive feeling that the president might not be well. Polling has shown this, that he's a nearly 80-year-old man who is staying up all night to post wildly erratic messages on his social media feed, that he appears more obsessed now than ever with putting his face or name on things, that he's making even less sense when he speaks than he used to. That he also seems to be falling asleep in important meetings, even when cameras are on him."
Regardless, said Tur, "there is something different about this fight with this pope, along with the Jesus image. His supporters are calling it disgusting, blasphemous, offensive and shameful. And now some are even starting to compare him or wonder if he's the Antichrist."
Two white narcotics officers with the New York City Police Department were caught on video beating a Black man in a liquor store.
A video shared on Instagram showed the two officers as they grabbed the man for unknown reasons. The officers quickly began punching the suspect. At one point, the man's head is slammed into a shelf full of glass bottles.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned what he saw on the video.
"The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable. Officers should never treat a person this way," Mamdani wrote on Wednesday on X. "The NYPD is conducting a full investigation into this incident."
A police source told the New York Daily News that the man matched the description of someone who allegedly just made a drug purchase. The suspect, however, was said to have no drugs on him when he was arrested.
"It is upsetting to view," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch noted. "I believe that the two officers have been or are being modified at this time."
The officers were reportedly placed on modified duty while the investigation was conducted.
