Politics

Please support PoliticusUSA by considering becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now Republicans in the House and Senate are so desperate to do Donald Trump’s bidding before they potentially lose power next November, that they are now violating the rules of their bodies to please Donald Trump As Senate Democrats walked out of the Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Emil Bove to the federal bench, ranking member Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said behind to deliver a statement before he too left. Booker said: Why are you doing this? This is outrageous. This is a kangaroo court. That’s all we have here. Mr. Chairman, to violate your own rules without going by the mandates of the parliamentarian. This is unbelievable. There’s a way to do this if you want to force this through. If you want to ram this through, there’s a way to do it in accordance to the rules as spelled out by the parliamentarian. It is simple. It is clear there’s a pathway to achieve what you’re trying to achieve. It shows that you do not want to simply hear from your colleagues. This is absolutely wrong. And, sir, this is this is, to me, one of those moments where we are not showing common respect for each other on both sides. I have sat here when we were in the majority and listened to my colleagues arguments, listen to their passionate statements, and then we voted. This is not that. This is us simply trying to rush through one of the most controversial nominees we’ve had under this presidential administration, sir. God bless America. You are a good man. You are a decent man. Why are you doing this? What is Donald Trump saying to you that are making you do something which is violating the decorum of this committee, the rules of this committee, the decency and the respect that we have each other to at least hear each other out? PoliticusUSA is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I’ve sat through so many long speeches of my colleagues, heard their objections. Listened with sincerity to try to see what their arguments are. But we are not doing that, sir. This is wrong, and you know it. There are some people on this committee who are the least firebrand people, and they’ve walked out some of the least controversial people in the Senate, some of the people that worked the hardest to find bipartisan common ground have just walked out of this committee, and you don’t even seem to care. But I know you do. I know your heart, Senator Grassley. This is wrong. I know the kind of person you are, and you know this is wrong. There’s no this is not necessary. What is another half an hour to allow senators to be heard? It’s what the Constitution mandates. It’s the ideals of the United States Senate. The world’s most deliberative body should take a decent amount of time to deliberate. But here, we’re not doing that here. We are jamming this through with some sense of false urgency. It’s one thing not to hear from whistleblowers. It’s another thing not to hold another hearing. But to not even allow my colleagues to have their moment to speak against this justice. It’s just wrong. And I know you know this. I know you know this. The only time this rule has ever been overturned by both parties was done when one minority was trying to pull some stunt to stop the committee from hearing this is not that. This is not the two-hour rule. This is a basic element of the ideals of this committee, sir. It is the basic understanding of having debate and deliberation. It’s a basic understanding of we can listen to each other, even if we disagree, that we should have time and space and a forum to listen. Sir, this is just wrong in every way. It is wrong in every single way. This is an abuse of power. It’s an undermining of the well-being and the integrity of this, this senate and this committee that I have for so long. I’ve been so honored to be a part of. This is wrong, sir. And I joined with my colleagues and leaving. This is a sham vote. This is wrong. Committee Republicans violated the committee rules that require at least two members of the minority party be present before a vote can be held. Chairman Chuck Grassley held the vote on the nomination with zero Democrats present. Republicans took these extreme steps to silence a whistleblower whose claims suggest that Bove is completely unfit and unqualified for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. What was more important than the Democratic walkout was Cory Booker explaining exactly why they were walking out. The American people need to understand that the disease of lawlessness has infected more than the White House. It has also consumed the Republican majorities in Congress. Republicans are abusing their power, and it is up to Democrats to expose them. What do you think of the Democratic walkout and Republican abuse of power? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Leave a comment

Senate Republicans voted in the wee hours of Thursday morning to cut $9 billion worth of congressionally appropriated funds to NPR, PBS, and foreign aid—yet another move that hurts the rural communities that back Republicans at the ballot box. The funding cuts—which were made using a rarely used budget maneuver called a recissions package that is not subject to filibuster rules—passed by a vote of 51-48. Two Republicans—Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—voted no alongside Democrats. The package now goes back to the House, which is expected to quickly pass it before the Friday deadline that would require the Trump administration to spend the funds. The $9 billion in cuts make permanent some of the funding reductions former co-President Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency wanted to make. “Warning Siren” by Mike Luckovich Cutting public radio and television funding will hurt rural communities, which rely on public media for extreme weather warnings. It will also hurt rural farming communities, which took in billions of foreign aid dollars to grow the food that was shipped abroad to help end hunger in poor countries. But President Donald Trump, who would rather line the pockets of his billionaire buddies than help the poor, didn’t want to spend funds helping end world hunger. He also loathes public media, which accurately covers his corrupt behavior—unlike the right-wing propaganda networks like Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN that fawn all over him and feed lies to viewers to scare them into voting for the GOP. “Republicans are gutting PBS and NPR because Trump hates the truth,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) said in a post on X. “Millions rely on public broadcasting for free, local, even lifesaving news. I’ll vote NO against any cuts—and hold the line against censorship.” Even some Republicans were wary of voting for the recissions package, saying the Trump administration was not clear enough on what exact programs would be cut, or how it would impact the rural communities they represent. But since Republicans do whatever Trump tells them to, they ultimately went along with undermining their own power of the purse to give Trump what he wanted. “Let’s not consider this a precedent,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) told Politico, adding that he voted for the bill “with reservation.” Passing the recissions package could have other long-term negative consequences for the GOP. Because Republicans showed Democrats that any deals they make during a government funding negotiation are meaningless, as the GOP will renege on those agreements in future recissions packages, it will make passing a government funding bill this fall more challenging. “There’s little reason for the minority party in Congress to agree to a deal when the Administration and the majority party can strip away funding they don’t like in a purely partisan way, or if the Administration may attempt unilaterally—and illegally—not to implement it at all, with no pushback from the majority party in Congress,” the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said in a piece warning Republicans not to pass the recissions package. “As a result, it would be far more difficult to reach the bipartisan agreements necessary to fund the government on time and with the resources required to serve the country’s needs.” Democrats said as much ahead of the vote. “What they’re doing is cutting out of the budget all the things that DOGE targeted. With this recissions bill they are going after all the foreign aid funding that DOGE hates, and they’re going after PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They’re literally going to take Sesame Street off the air,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in a video posted on X. “Why would Democrats ever again negotiate a bipartisan budget with Republicans if Republicans two months later can just pass a partisan bill that keeps the spending that Republicans like and cuts the spending that Democrats supported in the bipartisan process? So this isn’t just really bad policy, this is just another way that Republicans are corroding the rule of law, the institutional norms that have held together our democracy for decades.”

President Donald Trump wants Coca-Cola to taste like it used to, even if it means shaking up a key part of the American economy to do it. On Wednesday, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he’s pushing soda giant Coca-Cola to replace high-fructose corn syrup with cane sugar in its flagship product. And in true Trump fashion, he claimed victory before anything had actually changed. “I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” the president posted. “This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” Coke fans have long praised Mexican Coke, which is made with cane sugar and, according to enthusiasts, tastes crisper and less syrupy than the U.S. version. But within hours of Trump’s post, Coca-Cola issued a carefully worded statement that did not confirm any sweeping change, saying only that it would have “more details on new innovative offerings” coming soon. Still, Trump’s pressure campaign was enough to unsettle the corn industry—and send markets into a spin. A farmer uses a corn combine to harvest his crop in October 2022, in Johnson, Nebraska. “Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar doesn’t make sense,” said John Bode, president and CEO of the Corn Refiners Association, a large trade group. “President Trump stands for American manufacturing jobs, American farmers, and reducing the trade deficit. Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit.” Wall Street appeared to agree. According to Axios, shares of Archer Daniels Midland, a top corn processor, dropped nearly 6% in pre-market trading on Thursday—a loss of about $1.5 billion in value. Ingredion, another major corn refiner, fell almost 7%. Coca-Cola has used high-fructose corn syrup in U.S. products since the 1980s. Cane sugar remains more common in countries like Mexico and India, and the Mexican version of Coke is sold in even some American stores. A full switch to cane sugar, however, would likely hurt Midwestern states like Iowa—America’s top corn producer—while benefiting sugar-producing states, like Florida. That’s not lost on political observers, nor is the fact that Trump’s announcement comes at a time when his relationship with American farmers is already strained. In Iowa, soybean farmers are still recovering from Trump’s revived trade war with China. The New York Times reported in May that exports have plummeted and prices are falling as China turns to other suppliers. Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has abandoned earlier commitments to protect undocumented agricultural workers, instead pursuing mass deportations that threaten farm labor pipelines. And now, with his Coke campaign, Trump is aligning himself with another culture-war figure. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized high-fructose corn syrup as “just a formula for making you obese and diabetic,” is leading a broader push to eliminate artificial dyes and additives from food. A recent report from his “Make America Healthy Again” commission flagged high-fructose corn syrup as a driver of obesity and metabolic disease, despite minimal scientific consensus that cane sugar is significantly better. So sure, Trump may be trying to Make Coke Great Again. But if he gets his way, he might devastate corn country—and alienate the very voters who helped send him to the White House.

The Justice Department on Wednesday fired Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor who successfully prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The firing comes as President Donald Trump is under fire from all sides for his handling of the Epstein scandal and his administration’s failure to release information connected to the infamous case. Comey led the court case where Maxwell was convicted for her role in sex trafficking minors alongside Epstein. She worked as his recruiter and transported underaged girls. Comey also led the recent successful prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Comes for prostitution-related crimes, though he was acquitted in the same trial of other alleged crimes. She is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump infamously fired in 2017 for investigating Trump’s alleged ties to Russian election interference. Conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim bigot Laura Loomer, a close ally of Trump, pushed for Maurene Comey’s dismissal. The firing is yet another recent instance of Trump apparently following Loomer’s demands. Conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer stands outside the courthouse where the hush-money trial of Donald Trump is underway, in April 2024, in New York. Trump was a longtime friend of Epstein, and his decision to fire Comey, along with his administration’s stonewalling on the Epstein issue, has raised new questions about his potential involvement in the deceased sex offender’s crimes. While campaigning for office, Trump often invoked the Epstein case as a cudgel against his Democratic political opponents, and his decision to now cover up details of the case has created a scandal within his administration. Trump’s MAGA base has been up in arms over Trump’s mishandling of the Epstein issue, demanding that the information they were long promised be released. Trump has lashed out, falsely claiming that the Epstein case was manufactured by Democrats. “It’s a hoax, I know it’s a hoax,” Trump complained to reporters on Wednesday. Trump has often claimed that real things, such as climate change and his loss in the 2020 election, are hoaxes or fraudulent. Trump also said that Republicans pushing the issue are “stupid” and “foolish.” Democrats have been on the attack, mocking congressional Republicans for voting against Democratic-led attempts to force the government to release Epstein-related information. The public is not with Trump on this issue. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday showed that 69% of Americans, including nearly two-thirds of Republicans, believe the government is hiding Epstein’s alleged client list. Only 17% of Americans approve of how Trump has handled the scandal. Firing a prosecutor connected to the Epstein case is likely to only feed the fire of the controversy Trump finds himself in.

A cartoon by Clay Jones. Related | Trump really, really wants to tank the economy

In the nearly six months since the Trump administration has had control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the bureau’s leadership has focused almost exclusively on rolling back any punishments, fines and penalties made against companies during the Biden administration. Related | Employees at the nation’s consumer financial watchdog say it’s become toothless under Trump In some cases, companies that were supposed to refund their customers or pay a penalty for unfair or deceptive practices are no longer bound to make their customers whole. Other companies facing charges of fraud of deceptive practices saw their lawsuits dropped in the early days of the Trump administration. A security officer works inside of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 10. Here are some of the Trump administration’s rollbacks: Navy Federal Credit Union The CFPB accused Navy Federal Credit Union, the nation’s largest credit union, of having unfair and deceptive overdraft fee practices. NFCU settled with the bureau and agreed to refund its members $80 million in overdraft fees. However, when the new administration took over, NFCU asked to have the order dismissed, which the CFPB agreed to do without giving a reason. Navy Federal has not said whether it would refund their members, which are mostly service men and women, families and veterans. Reduced overdraft fees The CFPB proposed new regulations that would have reduced overdraft fees to $5 from their industry average of $27. The regulations focused on a bureau analysis on what it actually cost banks to make short-term loans to customers to cover those purchases when a customer’s account went negative. The banking industry stood to lose billions of dollars in overdraft revenue, although banks have been weening themselves off overdraft fee revenue for years. The regulations were overturned by the Republican-controlled Congress in April. Capital One In the last days of the Biden administration, the CFPB sued banking giant Capital One for allegedly cheating its customers out of $2 billion in interest payments on their savings accounts. The case involved a product that Capital One sold known as 360 Savings, which the bank advertised as having the best savings rate in the country. Capital One failed to tell some customers that it had another product with a higher savings rate. The case was dropped within days of the Trump administration taking over the bureau. Walmart The CFPB filed a lawsuit in December against Walmart and workforce company Branch Messenger, accusing the companies of deceptively steering delivery drivers to open accounts with Branch, in order for those employees to get instant access to their wages. However, the CFPB said these Branch accounts came with high fees and deceptive marketing, and said Walmart and Branch should return $10 million to harmed drivers. Both Walmart and Branch denied the accusations. The lawsuit was dropped by the CFPB in the first weeks of the Trump administration. Zelle The parent company of Zelle, the peer-to-peer payment system, as well as some of the nation’s largest banks, were sued by the CFPB late last year over accusations they failed to protect hundreds of thousands of consumers from rampant fraud on Zelle, in violation of consumer financial laws. The CFPB’s lawsuit claimed hundreds of thousands of customers lost approximately $870 million in funds to fraud over the seven years that Zelle had been in existence. That lawsuit was dropped by the CFPB in March.

If you ever wondered what the next career move might be after “chief of staff for an election denier,” wonder no more.  Jeff Small, former chief of staff for GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, is now an elections consultant. Of course, his “consulting” looks a lot more like harassing elections officials based on President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories, so much so that even fellow Republicans in the state are pushing back.  It likely goes without saying that Small has no background whatsoever in elections or election security, but he does have a resume that includes work for not just Boebert, but also Big Lie luminaries like former GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado and current GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, who keeps busy being extremely antisemitic when not pushing election conspiracies.  GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado Regardless of his lack of relevant experience, Small has been contacting Colorado county clerks to let them know that he’s working with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. What does he want? Nothing big, really. Just to let an unnamed third party or perhaps the federal government muck around in their election equipment.  Both the DOJ and the White House declined to comment about Small’s involvement.  However, after Small told Steve Schleiker, the Republican clerk for El Paso County, Colorado, that he was working with the DOJ and DHS to “team up” with county clerks, Schleiker received a call from a DHS official.  “We would like to test the voting equipment to see if there’s any gaps,” they said.  Schleiker responded by saying that the federal government does not have the authority to “try to infiltrate a state’s or a county’s election equipment.”  Other Republican county clerks also refused, saying things like, “Nobody gets access to my voting equipment, for security reasons,” and, “To me, it felt like they were wanting to intervene before 2026.” The Trump administration seems to have overestimated the desire of Republican elections officials to participate in its project of undermining voter confidence. People who run elections are fanatical about election security, following detailed rules that ensure, for example, that no one is ever alone with voting equipment. There is, by design, no federal agency that has broad authority to access state or local election systems—because elections are run by states.  Colorado is being specifically targeted because of Tina Peters, former Mesa County clerk, who was convicted in state court after letting an election denier access voting machines to prove  that there was voter fraud in 2020. Peters is a right-wing cause célèbre, viewed as being imprisoned for her beliefs, rather than illegally letting randos root around in voting equipment.  Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Trump has ordered the DOJ to try to find a way to free Peters, even though her conviction was in state court and the DOJ has no authority.  The DOJ is continuing to harass other states as well, though not as vociferously as Colorado. A letter to Minnesota about the state’s compliance with the Help America Vote Act was actually a demand for information about noncitizens and a complete voter list, including inactive voters.  The letter came from the acting chief of the voting section, Maureen Riordan, who made the same demand of Minnesota in her previous gig with the voter-suppression group Public Interest Legal Foundation.  Not content with harassment or civil threats, the DOJ is also exploring whether it would criminally charge elections officials who it determines haven’t properly safeguarded their election systems. You know what’s not safe? Letting conspiracy theorists—even ones who work for the government—dig around in voting machines to rewrite the 2020 election results.  And surprise, surprise—the states the DOJ is most concerned about just happen to be swing states like Wisconsin and North Carolina.  The Trump administration isn’t interested in election safety or even in the integrity of voter rolls. It’s purely interested in figuring out a way to make state and local elections officials complicit in Trump’s efforts. And what’s more effective than the threat of prosecution?

A few weeks ago, I told you that Donald Trump’s Department of Justice had launched an action against Daily Kos. I couldn’t say much then—and I still can’t. As part of the resolution, we’re required to keep the nature of the action confidential for one year.  But here’s what I can say now: The DOJ has backed off. They’ve withdrawn. We stood our ground, and we won. This victory didn’t happen by accident. We didn’t cozy up to Trump for special treatment. We didn’t flinch. And most importantly, you didn’t flinch either. It’s easy to say “fight fight fight.” It’s something else entirely when doing so costs real money—especially while running an independent publication in a brutal media and political environment. But because this community stepped up when we asked, we were able to hire a top-notch legal team and face this challenge with confidence. Without your support, this could’ve ended very differently. And let’s be honest—this win feels even better because of how overwhelming things have felt lately. Under Trump, the courts and federal agencies have been warped into tools of political revenge. The news is a daily avalanche of chaos and cruelty. Tuning out is tempting. So yes, in the grand scheme of things, this may be a small win. But for us, it’s huge. A real threat is off our back. And more importantly, it proves something powerful: Even in this darkness, we can fight back and win. Now, for the first time in weeks, I can fully focus on something exciting: our future. On Tuesday, we officially launched the capital campaign to build the next version of Daily Kos—a faster, stronger, more secure platform built to last for decades to come. It’s the most important project we’ve undertaken in years, and it’s the key to making sure we’re ready for whatever comes next. If you haven’t yet, please contribute to that exciting effort!   Frankly? It’s a lot more energizing to talk about building the future than fending off fascists. Thank you for standing with us when it mattered most. I promise, we wouldn’t have won without you. And we certainly wouldn’t be here without you. And on May 6, 2026, I’ll be able—and happy—to tell the full story.

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The country, and that includes some MAGA faithfuls, aren’t letting go of the White House’s attempt to brush off the unreleased Jeffrey Epstein files and President Donald Trump is seemingly starting to squirm under the spotlight.  “It’s a hoax, I know it’s a hoax,” he said to reporters from the Oval Office on Wednesday. And if you ask Trump, he’ll tell you that it’s time to move on because Epstein is “dead and gone.”  YouTube Video Where many were left disappointed when it was announced that Epstein, a convicted sex offender charged with trafficking minors, did not have an infamous black book containing a high-profile list, Trump seems to be ready to move on. And not only is the president pushing the idea that the client list is fake, but he’s now saying that it’s all purported by the pesky Democrats.  “It was started by Democrats, it’s been run by the Democrats for four years,” he added. “Some stupid Republicans, some foolish Republicans have fallen into the net and so they try to do the Democrat’s work.” YouTube Video While Democrats currently may be the ones trying to get the files released, it wasn’t too long ago that the GOP and Trump himself ran on the platform of revealing the truth and exposing the evils behind Epstein’s work.  Even the White House held a spoof Epstein file release meeting with right-leaning influencers—which, not unlike the current day, gave the public virtually no new information.  MAGA and the conspiracy theorists following the Epstein story have long awaited Trump’s promised release of the files to finally expose who was also involved in the traumatic sexual dealings of the disgraced millionaire. However, when the time came for Attorney General Pam Bondi to do her job, she released a lackluster report saying that, all along, there was actually nothing there but smoke and mirrors.  Even Epstein’s rumored suicide was reduced to a hoax as well, with the department releasing footage from the prison from the night of his death. It didn’t take long for eagle-eyed viewers to not only notice almost three missing minutes, or more, of footage, but for journalists to note the doctored metadata from the file sent by the White House.  Known conspiracist and far-right mouthpiece Alex Jones was one to call Trump and the White House’s dismissal “beyond fu@ked up.”   Even election denying, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is fuming over the lack of findings as he leads MAGA’s furor.  “The fact that the U.S. government, the one that I voted for, refused to take my question seriously and instead said, ‘Case closed, shut up, conspiracy theorist,’ was too much for me,” he said during a Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Friday.   But as Trump’s more faithful turn away from him, he is making his stance clear.  “They’re stupid people,” he told reporters. “All it is is the Republicans, certain Republicans, got duped by the Democrats and they’re following a Democrat playbook.”