Politics

New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that Andrew Cuomo’s alleged coordination with President Donald Trump is “disqualifying,” following a New York Times report that the president has spoken with Cuomo about the race. During an appearance on WNYC, Mamdani accused Trump of attempting to rig the outcome.  Andrew Cuomo announces his run for mayor in an effort to thwart Zohran Mamdani’s campaign. “The fact is that the president has three candidates in this race: one that he’s directly been in touch with, another that he bailed out of legal trouble, and now functionally controls, and the final one literally being a member of the same Republican Party,” he said, referring to Cuomo, current Mayor Eric Adams, and Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa. The comments come as Trump reportedly weighs how to block Mamdani, a democratic socialist whose campaign has gained traction among young and progressive voters. According to the Times, Trump’s pollsters told him that Cuomo—New York’s former governor, who resigned in 2021 following numerous sexual harassment allegations—could still be competitive as an independent. One scenario reportedly under consideration is convincing a lower-polling candidate to drop out to consolidate the anti-Mamdani vote. The Times said that Trump hasn’t made a final decision, but conversations are continuing behind the scenes. YouTube Video On Wednesday evening, Mamdani said he “would be remiss” not to address the report of a possible Trump-Cuomo meeting. “It is Trump billionaires who have been opposing our campaign’s vision for a city that New Yorkers can afford,” Mamdani told reporters. “It is Donald Trump himself who has been directly conspiring with candidates who have decided to give up the people that they are supposed to protect in lieu of securing power through the assistance of that same administration in Washington, D.C.” The Cuomo campaign and Trump both denied the report. “As far as I know, they have not discussed the race,” said Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo’s campaign, though he acknowledged that they have spoken in the past.  A spokesperson for the Times said the paper stands by its reporting. New York City Mayor Eric Adams Trump’s potential meddling wouldn’t just inject chaos into a volatile race, but it would also reinforce a pattern. He has repeatedly tried to sway races where his allies are struggling or where he sees an opportunity to sabotage rising opposition.  Mamdani’s campaign—rooted in rent justice and public investment—has drawn sharp criticism from conservative donors and right-wing media, and he’s made clear that he sees backlash as proof he’s gaining ground. When asked Thursday about his relationship with Trump, Adams offered a more cautious tone. “When I speak with the president, it’s about resources for the city of New York,” he said at an unrelated press conference.  Adams also noted that his administration has sued the federal government more than any other mayor in the country, most recently over the loss of $80 million in FEMA funds. Still, the idea that Trump could throw his weight behind Cuomo or pressure others to drop out is already drawing backlash. Mamdani cast the president’s involvement as just another attempt to rig the rules, accusing all three rivals—Adams, Cuomo, and Sliwa—of aligning themselves with a man openly hostile to the kind of city his campaign is trying to build. “It is time for us to make clear that what this city deserves is a mayor who, when he sees Donald Trump attacking the people of this city, will stand up and fight back against that vision, who will not get on the phone with the architect of that vision,” Mamdani told voters Thursday.  Whether Trump follows through remains to be seen, but his involvement alone shows how much the old guard fears a Mamdani victory.

Alex Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist and superfan of President Donald Trump, is in a state of crisis and confusion over his idol’s ongoing cover-up of information on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Trump promised that he would expose the inner workings of Epstein’s alleged operation in a second term. Instead, the Trump administration has refused to release much of the government’s information on Epstein, including a rumored client list, and Trump has berated his followers for having an interest in the story. The about-face has been annoying Trump’s backers in the MAGA movement for months.   On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that concerns about the Epstein story were “total bullshit,” and lied that the controversy was the creation of the Democratic Party. Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, shown in 2024. That news led Jones to lament in a social media post, writing, “Trump‘s disastrous handling of the Epstein firestorm last month was starting to die down and now he has let the corporate media bait him into re-launching a new Streisand effect.”  Jones’ state of crisis worsened in a video posted on Thursday, showing him visibly confused as he ranted at length and tried to rationalize Trump’s obfuscation. “This is just crazy,” Jones said. He insisted that despite his mishandling of the issue, “Trump is not stupid,” but he also expressed concern that Trump is “caught off guard with a new issue.” “I don’t know what to say at this point. I am actually in a conundrum. I’m god-smacked,” he added. Despite Jones’ conspiracies about 9/11 and the Sandy Hook school shooting, he attained mainstream conservative acceptance around the time of Trump’s first presidential campaign, when Trump sat for an interview with him. Ever since then, Jones has been a Trump cheerleader. However, the Epstein issue seems to be causing Jones to rethink his devotion.  In July, Jones accused Trump of acting cultish about the topic, after Trump complained about being asked about his former friend Epstein. Jones also claimed that month that MAGA influencers were being frozen out from White House access for expressing dissent over Epstein. A photograph of U.S. President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is displayed on the side of a van in Scotland on July 28. Trump’s actions around Epstein are putting his most vocal backers out on a limb. They have carried a lot of water for Trump over the years, excusing his bigotry and racism while amplifying his conspiratorial allegations—only to see him in full retreat over one of the movement’s central narratives. A possible reason for Trump’s stonewalling is that the government’s documents on Epstein’s crimes might implicate Trump, if not in a crime, then at least in misconduct. However, it is currently unclear whether this is true—the information is being hidden from the public, after all—but The Wall Street Journal has reported that Trump was told his name appears numerous times in the government’s Epstein files. For Trump to be on the supposed client list that MAGA supporters see as a Rosetta Stone to so many of their conspiracies would be devastating. They surely cannot handle that possibility, so they, like Jones, are forced into abject confusion by Trump’s ongoing cover-up.

U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro gave her unhinged thoughts on President Donald Trump’s threat to federalize D.C. during a press conference on Thursday. “That is a decision for the president,” the former Fox News host and surly bottled water enthusiast said.  She then went on a rant about how young people should be treated more harshly by the law. “I think that what the president was saying is that we’re seeing far too much crime being committed by young people—14, 15, 16, 17 years old. And I can’t get my hands on ‘em,” Pirro said. “I mean, I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the pictures, but, you know, young people are coddled, and they don’t need to be coddled anymore. They need to be held accountable. They shouldn’t be going to arts and crafts in family court.” YouTube Video Trump’s revived push to take control of the nation’s capital was reignited after reports of an attempted carjacking involving former Department of Government Efficiency bro Edward Coristine—also known as “Big Balls.” The attack prompted Trump to call for a federal takeover of D.C. in an unhinged Truth Social post including a photo of what appeared to be Coristine, shirtless and smeared in blood. “The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14,” he wrote. But the facts don’t support Trump’s and Pirro’s claims. According to Pirro’s own office, violent crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low. And Metropolitan Police Department statistics show a 26% decrease in violent crimes this year compared to 2024. Related | How Trump is exploiting Musk’s ‘Big Balls’ Given Trump’s long and racist history of attacking young people of color, his evidence-free fearmongering is hardly a surprise. In October 2024, the Exonerated Five—5 men who were wrongfully convicted of rape and assault as minors in 1989—filed a lawsuit against Trump for his continued defamatory attacks against them. Despite all 5 men being exonerated by DNA evidence, Trump has never apologized for placing full-page advertisements in various New York City newspapers calling for the death penalty in their case. Since the economy is looking like trash, his polling numbers are down in the dumps, and he has yet to release the Epstein files that reportedly include him, Trump has returned to what the GOP does best: blaming and attacking marginalized youth for their own inability to fix the country’s problems.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been working overtime to restore the U.S. history that fits his—and MAGA’s—agenda.  On Thursday, the former Fox News talking head loudly blasted leftist “lemmings” for tearing down monuments commemorating history linked to the Confederacy and slave owners.  “We recognize our history. We don’t erase it,” he said on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show.” “We don’t follow the woke lemmings off the cliff that want to tear down statues.” YouTube Video And while Hegseth said he and the rest of the Trump administration are “proud of our history” and that they are “done” with “tearing stuff down,” it seems that only applies to history that is white, male, and straight. Hegseth’s most recent restoration push involves two monuments in particular: the Reconciliation Monument and a statue celebrating Confederate Gen. Albert Pike.  Moses Ezekiel’s Reconciliation Monument, which was removed from Arlington Cemetery in 2023, was erected in 1914, nearly 50 years after the Civil War ended, as a way to commemorate the reconciliation between the North and the South. However, critics have found the bronze statue’s carvings depicting slavery less than heartwarming. As for Pike’s statue, it was removed from a Washington park in 2020 after being toppled by protesters but the Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it will be reinstalled. Related | Statues of racist traitors welcomed back in Trump’s America Hegseth has also restored the names of military bases that once glorified Confederate leaders, some of whom were slave owners. Some of the bases include Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Pickett in Virginia, Fort Benning in Georgia, and Fort Hood in Texas. But even as he has worked to restore the names of military bases and controversial statues that critics say make light of slavery, Hegseth is trying to erase history in other ways.  As Daily Kos has previously reported, Hegseth got straight to work after his controversial Senate confirmation to make sure that the U.S. military scrubbed its social media and websites of any traces of diversity, equity, and inclusion.  In turn, years of historical content featuring women and people of color vanished from official records in the name of anti-DEI efforts.  But it wasn’t just recent online content that got the ax. In early March, the administration removed an image of the historical B-29 bomber Enola Gay—just because it included the word “Gay” in the name. The historical plane pictured on the Pentagon’s website dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II. In other words, as Hegseth complains about the left “erasing” history, the Trump administration is busy doing just that.

The youngest daughter of GOP Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mylie Biggs, is reportedly eyeing a run for state Senate, collecting signatures to qualify for Arizona’s 2026 primary ballot. Her decision comes just a year after she shared her thoughts on women running for office. “There are a lot of really good women in office. I’m not trying to hate on anyone. I don’t—I don’t think women should hold office in general. Like, it’s a man’s position. That’s my stance. I think women should, you know, run the home,” she said on “The Matty McCurdy Program” podcast in August 2024. YouTube Video And she didn’t stop there, continuing to criticize modern feminism and share how burned out she felt at 25 years old after working a cushy 9-5 job at right-wing Charlie Kirk’s racist young Republicans organization Turning Point. “It’s just, modern feminism has, like, transformed incredibly in the past few years, starting with women’s right to vote, and went rampant from there,” Mylie said, adding that she sees a lot of women on TikTok express how unhappy they are working 9-5 jobs. “Because, like, you know, like, right now I’m in a 9-5, and it’s like, it’s a really good situation. My 9-5 is probably the best I could, I could, I could ask for. But, like, I hate a 9-5 schedule. Like, I get home, and I’m like, I don’t want to do anything else! Like, women aren’t built for this.”  YouTube Video The Biggs apple clearly does not fall far from the tree, as Mylie’s father has attached himself to the farthest right wing of the MAGA movement, earning himself an ethics probe for his failure to cooperate with investigators of Jan. 6. Biggs is also one of only a dozen dirtbags to vote against honoring Capitol police for defending democracy that day. Mylie also shared her thoughts on President Donald Trump’s close call with an assassination attempt in July 2024, claiming that “they” planned to kill him before his debate with President Joe Biden, and the failed attempt forced Biden to step down. The aspiring state senator also called Vice President Kamala Harris “incredibly dumb,” though you can judge for yourself whether Mylie is qualified to assess others’ intelligence after listening to literally any part of her 90-minute interview.

Isn’t it great to finally be living in a blessed era where genius business CEOs run the government? Finally, some real gains in productivity! Forget your “4-Hour Workweek.” Screw “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Who cares about being “Smarter Faster Better”? The real trick to actuating maximal accelerated successification is to engage in a constant cycle of slashing employee headcounts and divisions, only to then frantically backfill when you realize you’ve ripped out the wrong part of the wiring. Only these days can we see the true miracle of efficiency: trying desperately to hire 450 new people to staff your critical weather-prediction agency after you let the ketamine-addled CEO of a car company and his band of tween groypers fire everyone.  Earlier this year, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency gutted hundreds of staff members at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the government’s weather monitoring, among other tasks. At the time, everyone not in thrall to the death cult that is the Trump administration pointed out that decimating your weather-prediction apparatus, particularly as hurricane season approached, seemed like a bad idea. But that’s only because they are not privy to the keen workings of the CEO mind. You see, it streamlines the whole process if you eliminate extremely necessary things and then try to fix that on the fly later. So it’s perfectly good and normal that the NOAA now has to get an exception to the overall federal hiring freeze so it can hire up to 450 people at the National Weather Service. They need that exception because they lack personnel in critical positions, such as meteorologists and hydrologists. Yeah, seems like a weather service probably needs those.  FILE – This photo shows the National Weather Service monitoring station in Brownville, Texas, May 23, 2014. (David Pike/Valley Morning Star via AP, File) (edit) The administration won’t admit this, but NOAA’s hiring spree would not be happening if not for the deadly Texas floods in early July. While there is plenty of blame to go around, as the rain battered Texas, the San Angelo NWS was short several critical positions, including a senior hydrologist. And the nearby San Antonio office of the NWS was out a warning coordination meteorologist, which normally liaises with state and local public safety officials. Of course, the administration can’t just admit it screwed up, so instead, it’s deploying military jargon to spin this. Yes, these are “mission-critical field positions” as hurricane season arrives, and there needs to be an exception to the hiring freeze so that NWS can “further stabilize frontline operations.” Okay, first: You’re the weather people, not the army. Stop with the frontline-operations stuff. You sound ridiculous. Next, to the extent any frontline operations of the NWS needed additional stabilization, it’s not because there is some unexpected, unforeseeable challenge requiring extraordinary new staffing. It’s because the dumbest people in the world fired the people who were doing these things.  This is not a one-off, either. Heck, it’s not even the first time this agency had to unwind DOGE firings after realizing they’d cut vital people. Seems that cutting the jobs of people who track hurricanes for a living right as you head into hurricane season is bad? Surely, employees love being fired, then told to ignore their firings. They probably really appreciate how efficient it is, right? By now, multiple agencies have a storied history of trying to get workers they treated poorly to return to work, or enticing new ones to join the government, offering them the opportunity to be treated poorly.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have had the pleasure of having two rounds of this nonsense. In March, the agency begged about 180 probationary workers it had recently fired to pretty please return to work. In June, it rehired over 450 employees and reinstated branches it had eliminated entirely, like the National Center for Environmental Health, which oversees a childhood lead-prevention program. These aren’t the situations where a court has ordered an agency to reinstate workers, though that is also happening regularly and destabilizes both employees and agencies alike. This is the administration trying to manage the chaotic nature of its own slash-and-burn efforts and failing.  Unfortunately, it’s the rest of us who will pay the price. 

A cartoon by Mike Luckovich. Related | Watch Mike Johnson try to show he’s totally not scared of the Epstein files

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Trump wants to use racist math to reshape elections For Trump, the goal isn’t accuracy; it’s power. Top Democrat lays out the painful truth about Trump’s new tariffs Fewer jobs and higher prices—it’s the MAGA way! Trump’s ICE goons get even more creative—and heinous—with kidnappings Just when you thought they couldn’t sink any lower … Canada names its top hoser—can you guess who? Definitely didn’t see that coming! Texas redistricting saga takes a shocking turn “Enough is enough—Texans deserve better.” South Park is having a blast dragging the hell out of Team Trump Finally, some levity in all of the lunacy. Cartoon: The new presidential fitness test Making America Healthy Again by cheating one game of golf at a time. Former Superman turns into an ICE supervillain He went from portraying an immigrant to terrorizing them. Prince JD Vance has a river raised for his birthday Sending aid after a deadly river flood? Not possible. Raising a river for the VP’s personal vacation? No problem! Click here to see more cartoons.

PoliticusUSA is independent news that is here for you. To support our work, please subscribe. Subscribe now The Jeffrey Epstein issue refuses to go away, and the Republicans are growing more panicked. After Vice President JD Vance tried to schedule a strategy meeting to work on an Epstein cover-up, only to have to cancel the meeting after the press found out about it and reported on it, Republicans are flailing and looking for a way out of the Epstein scandal. A new UMASS Amherst national poll revealed that Epstein is the one scandal that has broken through on Trump and it is causing a problem: Of all issues surveyed in the latest University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll, one appears to be the greatest drag on Trump’s presidency: Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s handling of the evidence gathered in the federal investigation of the accused sex-trafficker and his long-time friend. “The Epstein scandal remains a serious vulnerability – indeed, quite possibly, the most serious vulnerability – for Trump right now,” Rhodes says. “Fully 70% of Americans believe he has handled this issue ‘not too well’ or ‘not well at all,’ and nearly two-thirds (63%) believe his administration is hiding information about Epstein. The Epstein scandal is also likely undermining public confidence in Trump more broadly. Indeed, we find that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that Trump is corrupt and nearly 70% believe he is dishonest. Critically, these numbers mean that many Republicans and conservatives are disappointed with Trump’s handling of the Epstein situation. Republican frustration with Trump’s handling of the Epstein case could erode enthusiasm for his presidency and for Republicans in 2026.” PoliticusUSA is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Hakeem Jeffries had it right. House Democratic Leader Jeffries believed that the Epstein scandal was deeper and would resonate with people because it reflected Trump’s corruption. According to this poll, one of the reasons why the Epstein scandal has stuck is because the Trump administration’s reversal on the Epstein files confirmed to 65%-70% of voters that Trump is dishonest and corrupt. Trump could release the Epstein files tomorrow, but because of the cover-up, he will not be able to escape the stench of corruption and dishonesty. Corruption and dishonesty were present in Trump’s first term. The difference is that the American people are more sensitive to inequality and are watching their costs go up while taxes are being cut for the wealthy. The poll of voters confirmed what many people suspected. The Epstein scandal isn’t really about Jeffrey Epstein, but what it tells the American people about Donald Trump. What do you think about Epstein dragging down Trump? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Leave a comment

Hey everybody! Katie Miller’s got a podcast! Finally, America gets to hear the authentic, unfettered, honest voice of the woman who married America’s Top Racist, Stephen Miller. Truly the content we all crave.  Miller’s new joint is called the “Katie Miller Podcast,” which is a real “branding is my passion” sort of name. Must have spent literal seconds brainstorming that one. Miller’s very casual launch video, where she oddly sits lotus style, takes place in a room she maybe thinks is real zen but instead gives off Pier 1 in the 1980s sort of vibes. Also, there’s a large television with her podcast logo, because sure, why not.  Katie Miller attends a dinner for Republican senators in the State Dining Room of the White House on July 18. What does Miller offer the women of America that other podcasters do not? “As a mom of three young kids, who eats healthy, goes to the gym, works full time I know there isn’t a podcast for women like myself.” Yes, who could possibly find any existing podcasts about work-life balance for moms or about working moms generally or about parenting and self-growth for moms or moms and fitness? Miller clearly spent as much time on market research as she did on naming the podcast.  Oh wait, sorry, sorry, sorry. Miller’s concern is that the conservative podcast landscape is too much of a sausagefest and there is not “a place for conservative women to gather online.”  Okay, sure, whatever. But even if you take her point as more narrowly about the availability of podcasts for conservamoms, there’s no lack of garbage already available in that arena as well.  Related | Stephen Miller’s legal group wants to make colleges whiter again Perhaps the unique vision Miller brings is that she knows what it is like to juggle the demands of work, family, and self-care while also being the wife of an undead ghoul who has made it his life’s work to torment immigrants. Miller does likely have the best perspective on what it is like to stay connected to your husband when he spends his nights alone in his crypt and is super busy during the day with imposing his vicious brand of white supremacy on the nation.  “Stephen Miller’s not-so-subtle racism” by Brian McFadden If it sounds like Miller got real wobbly there about the demographics of her guests, perhaps it’s because she glanced at her lineup for her first shows. For the inaugural episode of the “Katie Miller Podcast,” to laugh with her lady friends and gossip about what’s going on from a woman’s perspective, and to create a space for working moms, and to definitely not do politics, we got: Vice President JD Vance. Yep, nothing says not-politics like talking to the vice president.  Future episodes will give us former ESPN analyst Sage Steele and former boxer Mike Tyson. Steele is a conservative free speech martyr type because ESPN pulled her off the air for 10 days over her spouting of anti-vaxx talking points, musing about whether it was wrong that former President Barack Obama identified himself as Black on the census because his mother was white, and that female journalists “need to be responsible as well” about how they dress.  This is just the standard conservative politics of grievance, not mom-bonding. And then, Tyson. Yes, bringing a convicted rapist on your podcast straightaway bespeaks your commitment to talking about things that are important to women. But Tyson and President Donald Trump are longtime pals, with Trump having gone to bat for Tyson just three days after his conviction, saying Tyson shouldn’t go to prison but instead could just pay money to the victim and “create a ward” (?) in Indiana for people who were raped. Where’s Stephen in all this, given the mysterious nature of the status of the marriage after Katie departed the White House with Elon Musk, after Musk and Trump fell out? According to Katie, he’s all in and so hyped about the pod that he’s helping book guests. Well, that would explain the first-day lineup.  This podcast also apparently marks the end of Miller’s time doing whatever pretend makework job she was doing for Musk. Now, she’s got plenty of time to help conservative ladies connect about conservative lady lifestyle stuff. And with Stephen Miller booking the guests? This thing is gonna be all killer, no filler.