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'People don’t care': Popular internet sleuths deny NYPD’s request to track down CEO shooter

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is crowd-sourcing their investigation into the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to the general public after two days with no positive ID on the shooter. But they may not get much help from the internet, according to multiple popular TikTok sleuths.

NBC News reported that law enforcement is banking on the American public helping them identify the man seen in new photos released this week, which show the alleged assassin lowering his mask while flirting with a hostel concierge. Those are currently the only photos of the alleged killer in which his mask isn't concealing his face, and law enforcement veterans have called them a "turning point" in the investigation.

But Savannah Sparks — who has 1.3 million TikTok followers and is known for helping track down perpetrators of racist and hateful attacks — was unequivocal in her refusal to help find Thompson's murderer. Thompson told NBC she was "pretty apathetic" about the ongoing manhunt, and that her impression of the online sleuthing community's current mood was: "[C]oncepts of thoughts and prayers."

"It’s, you know, claim denied on my prayers there," Sparks said, with a tongue-in-cheek reference to health insurance industry lingo.

According to NBC, Sparks (who holds a doctorate of pharmacy and works in the healthcare industry as a lactation consultant) has been called on by law enforcement in the past to assist with training officers on how to track down suspects online. But she said that in this particular case, she has zero interest in helping the NYPD.

"Absolutely the f— not," she said.

Michael McWhorter, who is "TizzyEnt" on TikTok and has more than 6.7 million followers, observed that he hadn't seen the same drumbeat from the public to find Thompson's killer that he's seen in past cases involving "blatant violence." He opined that investigators may be underestimating "how much people don’t care." And Swarthmore College assistant professor of computer science Sukrit Venkatagiri said it's possible that some internet sleuths "don’t really empathize with who the victim is in this scenario."

"People are less motivated, from an altruistic perspective, to help this victim in this specific case," he said, noting that the victim in question was the multimillion-dollar CEO of a Fortune 500 health insurance company.

One person who helped police was software engineer Riley Walz, who obtained data from the Citibike station used by the alleged shooter after the murder. Some social media users called him a "snitch," according to NBC. McWhorter said those who help police being ganged up on could discourage others from helping to identify the shooter. But he said it's possible that apathy could play a larger role.

"There’s this weird thing, this vibe of like, I don’t see a bunch of people just feeling an urgency," he said.

Click here to read NBC's report in its entirety.

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'Quickly get into problems': These 3 obstacles could slow down Trump’s mass deportations

Stephen Miller, who is the top immigration advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, has pledged that the incoming administration will begin its promised mass deportation campaign at "light speed" shortly after Trump's inauguration. But there are several significant legal impediments that could frustrate those deportations.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will have some difficulty deporting at least of the roughly 1.4 million undocumented immigrants currently in the deportation queue next year. This includes those immigrants' home countries refusing to take them, immigrants serving prison terms and other immigrants getting reprieves from judges due to medical conditions or other factors.

Those obstacles could be just the beginning of the second Trump administration's headaches in enacting its deportation agenda, as other unforeseen logistical barriers could tie up ICE agents in myriad other ways. One example is the military planes that ICE would rely on to fly migrants out of the country being unavailable due to aircraft already being committed elsewhere.

“If you start using those planes for deportations, you quickly get into problems with military force readiness," an unnamed retired ICE official told the Post. “It’s the same contractors who are flying our service members to the Middle East or to Germany.”

Tom Homan, who the president-elect has tapped as his incoming border czar, is tasked with heading up his deportation agenda. He's promised that any undocumented immigrant that an immigration judge has cleared for deportation should be deported, regardless of whether they've committed a crime.

“If those orders aren’t executed or carried out, then what the hell are we doing?” Homan said in November. “Nothing in immigration law says you need to commit a very serious criminal offense to be removed from the country.”

Should Trump succeed in his stated goal of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, it could inadvertently create a new financial headache for taxpayers. Journalist David Cay Johnston pointed out last month that any undocumented immigrant who has had a child since arriving in the United States would be separated from their children if deported, as their children are U.S. citizens. He then observed that foster care systems in multiple states could be overwhelmed, leading to significant property tax increases down the road.

Click here to read the Post's full report (subscription required).

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'The volume’s getting turned up': J6 defendants expecting Trump pardons get unruly in court

Participants in the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 have reportedly become emboldened since the 2024 election given their expectations of being pardoned by President-elect Donald Trump.

According to a Friday article in Politico, several defendants being prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have been acting out in court proceedings during the lame-duck period between outgoing President Joe Biden's administration and Trump's inauguration. One of those defendants is Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who brought a gun to the insurrection. Politico's Kyle Cheney reported that Reffitt criticized Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, claiming his treatment was "bulls—."

Reffitt said he had been "in [his] feelings" since 2021, when he was first imprisoned in the Washington, D.C. jail. He added that now that Trump is about to enter the White House, he's "out of my feelings." Friedrich, who re-sentenced Reffitt to seven years, responded: “No one has a problem with your feelings. It’s the actions you took with your feelings.”

Other judges are also contending with the rowdiness of January 6 rioters. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, said during a sentencing hearing for a member of the Proud Boys gang that breaking past Capitol Police barricades “at the direction of a disappointed candidate” was “the definition of tyranny and authoritarianism.”

"The volume’s getting turned up," Jackson said on Friday.

Trump has previously referred to January 6 defendants as "hostages," which is a label Judge Jackson has pushed back against, though simultaneously doing so carefully and not mentioning the incoming president by name. Many of the defendants Trump has called for pardoning are in jail for assaulting police officers — including both defendants who were convicted by a jury, and defendants who pleaded guilty of their own volition.

Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn called Trump's proposed pardons a "slap in the face" last month, given that hundreds of officers were injured defending the Capitol with others, like Officer Brian Sicknick, dying in the days following the attack. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said during a Friday sentencing hearing that he fears Americans have "largely shunted aside" the actions that law enforcement took to protect the Capitol.

Click here to read Politico's report in full.

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House GOP faces 'fate worse than death' because of its own 'incompetence': analysis

Republicans in the House of Representatives have a highly ambitious agenda that they want to pass even though they have a razor-thin majority that leaves them with no room for error.

The American Prospect's David Dayen took a look at the daunting timeline Republicans face and has concluded that they really could fail to deliver on their vow to extend the tax-cut package they passed seven years ago.

First, he notes that Republicans are currently split on how to handle an ambitious budget reconciliation package, as they are debating over whether to cut their agenda into one or two packages.

Although the House GOP favors doing everything in one fell swoop, Dayen argues that path is still fraught with peril.

"Throwing everything into one bill just complicates the enormous number of issues that must be addressed," he writes. "As my colleague Bob Kuttner has laid out, Trump has made as much as $7 trillion in tax cut promises, and there isn’t much around in the way of obvious offsets to fill that gap, even though many in the caucus want the package to not increase the deficit. That much actual savings would require cutting deep into broadly popular programs."

Added to this, Dayen has found that there will be major divides between Republicans about what should and should not be concluded in the package.

"On the details, some Republicans want to keep parts of the IRA intact and some don’t," he notes. "Some want to raise tariffs legislatively as an offset and some don’t. Some are demanding a repeal of the cap on state and local tax deductions and some see that as too expensive. Some want to deal with health care in that tax bill and some don’t. Some want to cut Medicaid and food stamps and some don’t."

With all these balls in the air, Dayen concludes that not extending the Trump tax cuts, which he describes as "a fate worse than death" to Republicans, could really happen due to their own "incompetence."

Read the full analysis here.

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'Sympathy for dictators': Ex-NatSec officials warn on Gabbard, want closed door hearings

Dozens of the nation’s former national security officials say they are “alarmed” about President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the top official overseeing the entire U.S. Intelligence Community. They are calling for closed-door sessions during the confirmation process so senators can “consider all information available to the U.S. government” regarding the former member of Congress.

The ex-officials cite what they say is Gabbard’s lack of experience and her “sympathy for dictators,” which “raises questions about her judgment and fitness.”

“As the Director of National Intelligence, Ms. Gabbard would be entrusted with oversight of 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the identification and protection of human sources working in the most dangerous settings around the world to defend our national security, and the protection of our most sensitive sources and methods of gathering intelligence,” the officials write.

“In light of this extraordinary responsibility,” they say in the letter published by Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio (below), “Senators must carefully scrutinize her qualifications as an intelligence professional and her record, including her uncoordinated trip to Syria in 2017 to meet with President Bashar al-Assad. Several of Ms. Gabbard’s past actions call into question her ability to deliver unbiased intelligence briefings to the President, Congress, and to the entire national security apparatus.”

The national security experts, nearly 100, warn of Gabbard’s “sympathy for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Assad” and say it “raises questions about her judgment and fitness.”

In their letter, they suggest America’s intelligence partners may be unwilling to continue to share valuable information and assets if Gabbard is confirmed. They also suggest she is not qualified.

“Ms. Gabbard, if confirmed, would be the least experienced Director of National Intelligence since the position was created. Prior directors had executive branch experience working on intelligence matters or served on a congressional intelligence committee. Most have also had significant management experience. The Senate must carefully evaluate whether Ms. Gabbard is equipped to effectively oversee an organizational structure as unique and large as the National Intelligence Program and also the effect of her holding this position on the willingness of our closest allies to share intelligence with the U.S.”

The officials also “ask that the Senate fully exercise its constitutional advice and consent role with respect to this and other nominees, including through appropriate vetting, hearings, and regular order. In particular, Senate committees should consider in closed sessions all information available to the U.S. government when considering Ms. Gabbard’s qualifications to manage our country’s intelligence agencies, and more importantly, the protection of our intelligence sources and methods.”

In 2017, during his first few months in office and just after firing then-FBI Director Jim Comey, Trump threatened America’s relationship with its intelligence partners around the world by handing highly classified information to Russian officials during a closed-door Oval Office meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. No other Americans were in the room, but a Russian photographer was, and Russian media published his photos.

The letter from the former national security officials is dated Thursday. It is addressed to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and his incoming Republican successor, Senator John Thune.

Some of the more well-known officials whose names appear on the letter include Wendy Sherman, former Deputy Secretary of State; Anthony Lake, a former National Security Advisor and Executive Director of UNICEF, Tom Malinowski, a former Member of Congress and Assistant Secretary of State; Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel; Rose Gottemoeller, a former Deputy Secretary General of NATO; and John Tien, a former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.

“The DNI has access to every single secret that the United States has, every single bit of information that we know,” It’s the keys to the intelligence community kingdom,” said U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), The Hill reported last month. A former CIA officer, Congresswoman Spanberger sits on the House Intelligence Committee. She said she was “appalled” by the selection of Gabbard for DNI.

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'Total mess': White House reporters express 'annoyance, frustration' over Trump Briefing Room shakeup

President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his contempt for the mainstream media, which he has repeatedly described as "the enemy of the people" and providers of "fake news."

Moreover, far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist Kash Patel — Trump's pick to replace Christopher Wray as FBI director — has even said that journalists who rejected claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump should face criminal prosecution.

Trump, after losing to now-President Joe four years ago, falsely claimed that he was the real winner — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked. And Patel, during a 2023 interview with "War Room" host Steven Bannon, threatened, "Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice.”

According to The Hill's Dominick Mastrangelo, Trump and his allies are planning to "dramatically change" the White House's James Brady Briefing Room by favoring "podcasters, internet personalities and media deemed more friendly to him" over traditional mainstream outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post. The overtly pro-Trump media, Mastrangelo reports, would be placed near the front — while the Times and the Post wouldn't.

In an article published on December 4, Mastrangelo explains, "Reporters covering The White House, in conversations with The Hill this week, described a feeling of annoyance, frustration and dread at such an idea."

Mastrangelo notes that traditionally, NBC, CBS, ABC, The Associated Press, CNN, and Reuters have "occupied the first row of the James Brady Briefing Room" while "other larger outlets like The Wall Street Journal, CBS News Radio, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Bloomberg have seats in the second row."

Reporters for The Hill, according to Mastrangelo, have been placed in the fourth row during Biden's presidency.

A White House reporter, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told The Hill, "It would be a total mess. I would expect people would probably boycott the briefings, though that would put certain outlets in a tough spot deciding if they want to go along with what the Trump people are trying to pull."

Veteran White House reporter Julie Mason told The Hill, "If they think they're going to end White House reporting by throwing everyone out or clearing out the first three rows, good luck, because that's not how that works. They would really beclown themselves if they put three rows of Gateway Pundit clones in the briefing room."

Mason continued, "This administration wants to be taken seriously.… By doing this you make a joke of the briefing. It just makes the whole thing look ridiculous."

Read Dominick Mastrangelo's full report for The Hill at this link.

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Here's what Justice Scalia had to say about Trump’s 'recess appointments' scheme

With President-elect Donald Trump having made some highly controversial picks for his incoming cabinet — among them, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) for U.S. attorney general, anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for nationalist intelligence director — many reporters are raising questions about their ability to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate

Some of Trump's more controversial picks may encounter resistance from not only Democratic senators, but GOP senators as well.

Trump, in response, has threatened to use the process known as "recess appointments" if Senate Republicans refuse to get on board those picks. By forcing the U.S. Senate into recess, critics warn, Trump might try bypass the Senate and ram them through regardless of what senators think.

But according to ABC News' Terry Moran, a major figure on the right — the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia — offered an argument against the approach that Trump is threatening to resort to.

Moran, in a November 20 post on X, formerly Twitter, writes, "This is fun. Listen to Justice Antonin Scalia explain why Trump cannot use a brief recess in the Senate to appoint his most controversial cabinet nominees, in an opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito."

Moran makes his point by linking to what Scalia had to say in a June 2014 ruling.

"As Justice Breyer has just said," Scalia wrote, "I have an opinion in which the Chief Justice, Justice Thomas and Justice Alito joined, we agreed that the appointment at issue here violated the Constitution, but we disagree with the majority's interpretation of the President's unilateral power to make recess appointments."

Scalia continued, "Most Americans probably did not study the Recess Appointments Clause in grade school, but most of us did learn that the Constitution created a system of checks and balances among the three branches of Government. Those checks and balances are every bit as important as the Bill of Rights. Indeed, they may be more important because without them, Bills of Rights are false guarantees that can be ignored by the one person or the one party in charge you. One important check on the President is the general rule that when he appoints officers, he must do so with the advice and consent of the Senate."

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Ex-Republican rep predicts women will 'crawl over broken glass' to elect Harris

A former Republican member of Congress believes women voters will prove to be the "silent majority" in November that pushes Vice President Kamala Harris over the finish line: Particularly Republican women.

The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Virginia), who is now actively campaigning for Harris, believes the key for her to defeat former President Donald Trump in November is the galvanization of women across the country. Comstock said that even though she's never voted for a Democrat in her life, she's eager to cast a ballot for Harris — and expects other Republican women to quietly revolt against Trump as well.

"I think there’s a silent group of women who will crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump and who will quietly vote for Harris,” Comstock said.

Comstock isn't just a former Republican elected official: In the 1990s, she was a congressional aide who worked hard at digging up dirt to harm then-President Bill Clinton. Her opposition research efforts ultimately led to Clinton becoming the first president to be impeached by the House of Representatives since Andrew Johnson in 1868.

The 65 year-old is one of several former GOP members of Congress to back Harris' bid for the White House, along with former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois). Comstock said she was particularly disgusted with Trump's enabling of Russian President Vladimir Putin both during and after his administration.

"Putin is the one person Trump never criticizes,” Comstock told the Beast. “He will attack every man, woman and child in the Republican Party but he won’t attack Putin."

Now, the Virginia Republican is in Pennsylvania, working to keep the Keystone State in Democratic hands. She and other members of the GOP are hosting a "Republicans for Harris" event on Wednesday, in which the Democratic nominee's campaign aims to demonstrate that Trump has alienated his own party with his rhetoric and policies. Comstock even took a jab at conservative media in its downplaying of the January 6 insurrection, suggesting more members of the GOP would be with her were it not for far-right disinformation efforts.

"People haven’t even heard of ‘Hang Mike Pence!’ because they watch Fox News," she said.

The Beast reported that Comstock — who opposed Trump in both 2016 and 2020 — wrote in other names on her presidential ballot in the last two campaign cycles. However, she said she's voting for the Democratic ticket with her four granddaughters at the top of her mind.

"I cannot have a rapist in the Oval Office," Comstock said. “I was offended by Clinton. But, oh, that was nothing compared to this.”

Click here to read the Beast's report in full (subscription required).

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'Whiz-bang political chess move': AOC mocks JD Vance after he calls Harris 'trash'

During a MAGA rally in Atlanta on Monday afternoon, November 4, Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), angrily railed against Vice President Kamala Harris. Vance told the crowd, "In two days, we're going to take out the trash, and the trash's name is Kamala Harris."

In a November 4 post on X, formerly Twitter, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) responded to Vance's rhetoric with biting mockery.

AOC posted, "Not too sure that Republicans going from calling Puerto Ricans garbage to calling a woman garbage is the whiz-bang political chess move they think it is."

The Bronx/Queens congresswoman was referring to a MAGA rally at New York City's Madison Square Garden in which one of the speakers, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, made a racist joke attacking Puerto Rico.

Hinchcliffe described Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage," and the backlash came quickly. Some major Puerto Rican celebrities — including Jennifer López, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony and reggaetón star Bad Bunny — responded by endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

Another well-known Puerto Rican, actress Rosie Pérez, told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace that Hingecliff's comments made her all the more supportive of Harris' campaign.

Pérez declared, "They picked on the wrong people."

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Busted: Armed man arrested at rally tied to Trump's 'secretary of retribution'

The man arrested with guns outside Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, Calif. on Oct. 12 had spoken about assassination attempts against the former president less than two weeks earlier with a retired Army lieutenant colonel who calls himself Trump’s “secretary of retribution.”

Vem Miller, a 49-year-old former music video director who now produces conspiracy-driven documentary films, interviewed retired Lt. Col. Ivan Raiklin, known for circulating a “Deep State target list” against Trump’s political enemies. The interview was produced for the America Happens Network, a company co-founded by Miller that describes itself as “the anti-thesis of what the mockingbird media has to offer.”

“You know, you inspire me,” Miller told Raiklin during the interview, which was posted on the video platform Rumble on Oct. 1. “This episode’s actually going to be called, ‘What are we going to do once they steal the election,’ because that’s certain, 100 percent certainty that they’re going to steal this. And we need to be prepared.”

“I already have a plan,” Raiklin responded. “I have the counter-strategy. I’ve already war-gamed basically their next 15 moves. I got 30 moves ahead of it. I’m doing worse-case [sic] scenario. And if worse-case [sic] scenario doesn’t happen, we win, right? But I’m always planning for the worse case [sic] scenario that they can do, both within their law, legal authority, and beyond of what they’re capable of.

“So, the categories of what they’re gonna do is they’re gonna continue to try to assassinate Trump,” Raiklin continued. “I already got a plan in response to that and what should take place.”

“Tell me that,” Miller interrupted. “Say it.”

“No, no, no,” Raiklin responded. “I don’t need to put it out. Because if I put it out, people are going to think I’m trying to advocate for that to take place. I’m not. But you always have to have someone planning out worst case already in advance that has already thought through it, so that immediate action takes place. I’ve already thought through that deliberately. I got a response for that. It’s going to be worse for them if that takes place.”

Vem Miller (right) speaks with Ivan Raiklin during a taping of his show "Blood Money," which was posted to Rumble on Oct. 1.(Screengrab / America Happens Network)

Raiklin added that he had already explained his thinking during an appearance on InfoWars with conspiracy trafficker Alex Jones in February 2024.

During that exchange, Raiklin told Jones: “This is a message directly to every single person on the Deep State target list. My assessment — Ivan Raiklin’s assessment that if you assassinate any political presidential candidate, whether it’s RFK, whether it’s Trump, guess what? America will do the following: Immediately, they will respond in kind.

“If they do that, option 2 behind Trump is going to be so much better for us, and so much worse for them,” Raiklin continued.

“I was about to say, if they kill him that’s best-case scenario,” Jones agreed. “From a sick level, from a sick level medium, oh, please kill him. It’s so good after that.”

Raiklin added: “It’s going to be the best cleansing and the fastest cleansing that we’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I assess with almost certainty, with the highest level of confidence, that if they assassinate Trump, it is so game over for them.”

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, himself a fervent Trump supporter, told reporters during a press conference that a deputy arrested Miller when he stopped his vehicle at the inner perimeter of the rally. Miller had been allowed to drive through the outer perimeter, Bianco said, because it appeared that he was either a VIP or press.

But at a checkpoint for the inner perimeter, the sheriff said the deputy noticed that the “interior of the vehicle was in quite disarray.” The deputy also noticed a homemade license plate that led him to conclude that the driver was a sovereign citizen. Bianco said the deputy found multiple driver’s licenses and passports with different names. Eventually, the deputy also found a loaded handgun and a shotgun, the sheriff said.

The arrest took place before Trump arrived at the rally. Bianco said Miller was arrested for illegal firearms.

"If you're asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt," Bianco said.

Miller denied that he had any intent to assassinate Trump, calling himself “100 percent a Trump supporter” in an interview with Fox News. He also denied that he is a sovereign citizen or that he was carrying fake documents.

Mindy Robinson, one of Miller’s partners at the America Happens Network, angrily posted on X that Miller’s arrest was retribution from the “Deep State.” Miller and Robinson released a six-hour documentary, which opens with an apocalyptic assessment of current events centered on the first assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pa. before moving to its main subject: the armed standoff in 2014 that pitted the Bundy family and their supporters against the FBI.

“Vem just exposed a huge Deep State coverup involving the feds and the Bundy ranch scandal,” Robinson wrote on X on Sunday. “So, I firmly believe this is 100% some kind of setup in retribution for exposing it. That, or Trump’s security team is a bunch of dips---s trying to make up for how badly they failed in Pennsylvania with any kind of ‘win’ they can get, fake or not.

“There isn’t a universe his intention was to kill Trump,” Robinson continued. “He’s worked too hard in this movement to expose the Deep State and all the people against him. If he had guns in his car that were illegal, whooptie-f---ing do As a pro-2A advocate, ask me if I give a s--- about a good guy with a gun in an unsafe s---hole like California. It doesn’t even make sense why his passes would be fake either when we’re both usually invited as media to these things.”

Raiklin’s response to the news of his associate’s arrest was uncharacteristically muted.

“My hunch is there will be lots of retractions,” he posted on X on Sunday. “And the sheriff will have egg on his face as his stunt will be the end of his gubernatorial run before it even started.”

Vem Miller (right) speaks with Ivan Raiklin about assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms

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'Do you see how scared he is of Trump?' GOP candidate blasted over MAGA about-face

Mike Rogers, a Republican candidate for Senate in Michigan, has built a close relationship with Donald Trump four years after condemning the former president's "responsibility for" January 6, according to a Sunday CNN report.

"Well, I didn’t say he was clearly responsible" for January 6,' the former GOP congressman "told CNN last week at a diner in his old House district northwest of Detroit."

He added, "Listen, even Donald Trump said I was tough, but fair. I’ll take that all day long."

CNN reports that after the attack on the Capitol, Rogers "blamed" the 2024 GOP nominee's "'chaotic leadership style' for costing his party two critical Senate seats in Georgia."

Insisting that Trump "'clearly' provoked" the insurrection, Rogers emphasized, "Well, you’re damn right you had responsibility for this."

Now, the senate hopeful chalked up his criticism of the former president to "differences amongst our party," CNN reports.

Rogers' Democratic opponent, Elyse Slotkin slammed the Republican, saying, "Do you see how scared he is of Donald Trump to even split with him on defending the biggest city in your state? It’s sad."

CNN notes that "Rogers’ evolution on Trump underscores both the former president’s enduring grip on the party and the calculation down-ticket Republicans have made in navigating the polarizing presence atop their ticket. Virtually all of them are aligning themselves with Trump, believing his sway with the GOP base overcomes his baggage with suburban and women voters – and that backing Trump could potentially let them ride his coattails into office."

CNN's full report is available at this link.

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Trump raged at billionaire donors during private dinner and called Harris a slur: report

Former President Donald Trump recently had dinner with several high-profile billionaire Republican donors in his Trump Tower penthouse, and spent virtually the entire event complaining about how they're not doing enough to help him.

That's according to the New York Times, which reported that Trump is "frustrated" about consistently losing the money race to Vice President Kamala Harris. In addition to lashing out at his wealthy benefactors, the ex-president also reportedly called Harris "retarded," which the Special Olympics has described as "a form of hate speech."

The Times' Maggie Haberman, Shane Goldmacher and Jonathan Swan reported that Trump "tore through a bitter list of grievances" he had with the donors, saying they "needed to do more, appreciate him more and help him more." He also attempted to ingratiate himself by reminding his guests that he lowered their taxes when he was in office.

The former president also complained about Jewish Americans still preferring Harris over him, saying they needed to "have their heads examined" for voting for the Democratic ticket given Trump's record on Israel (71% of Jewish voters in the seven swing states likely to decide the election favor Harris). The American Jewish Committee has said previously that "dual loyalty" — that Jewish Americans all have an allegiance to Israel as well as the U.S. — is an anti-Semitic trope.

"The rant, described by seven people with knowledge of the meal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, underscored a reality three weeks before Election Day: Mr. Trump’s often cantankerous mood in the final stretch," the Times reported. "And one of the reasons for his frustration is money. He’s trailing his Democratic rival in the race for cash and has had to hustle to keep raising it."

Since she became the last-minute Democratic presidential nominee in July, Harris has been a fundraising juggernaut. Her campaign out-raised Trump's in July, August and September, and has been consistently shattering campaign finance records. In just her short time as a presidential candidate, Harris raised more than $1 billion, which is more than Trump has raised the entire year.

Some of the guests at the dinner included hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, who has been a reliable donor to Republican campaigns and pro-Israel causes, along with Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts and his son Todd. Billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens was also present at the dinner, as well as former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — who notably resigned from her post after the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Despite Trump's tone, there was little indication the donors would stop backing him.

“President Trump was in good form,” Todd Ricketts told the Times. “It was a great dinner and we left more emphatic than ever to help get him back into the White House.”

Trump has had to rely more on billionaires like the ones at the Trump Tower dinner, given the sluggish pace of his small-dollar fundraising operations. Earlier this week, Newsweek reported that small donations to Trump — characterized as $200 per contribution or less — are drying up, while Harris is still amassing significant sums from small donors.

"I am sick of them asking for money," retired Republican Susan Brito told the Associated Press (AP), who has given roughly $70 to Republicans via their WinRed platform. "I am disabled, you are sending me text, after text, after text."

Click here to read the Times' report in full (subscription required).

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'Just thirsty for a change': This deep-red state is poised to oust its 2-term GOP senator

Control of the U.S. Senate will likely come down to just a handful of states out of the more than 30 states with Senate races in November. But one reliably Republican state has a much closer contest than expected.

TIME Magazine reported that Democrats are becoming increasingly bullish on ousting Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska). The two-term Republican was thought to be a lock for reelection, as Nebraska has voted for Republican presidential candidates in every election cycle since 1968 (Lyndon Johnson was the last Democrat to win in Nebraska in 1964). But in the final weeks of the 2024 election, Fischer is on the ropes.

Her opponent, Dan Osborn, is a labor union leader running as an independent, and there is no Democrat in the contest. Osborn has also promised to not caucus with either party if elected, which breaks with other independents who caucus with Democrats like Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia), Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona).

Fischer was at first comfortably ahead of Osborn, leading him by a whopping 26 points in a July survey. But the latest polls show Osborn within the margin of error, and in some cases even ahead of Fischer by as much as five percentage points according to polling data compiled by FiveThirtyEight. This is a stark contrast from how Vice President Kamala Harris is performing in the Cornhusker State, where she trails former President Donald Trump by 20 points.

“People are just thirsty for a change, on both sides of the aisle,” Osborn said in an interview with the Washington Post.

Osborn has no prior experience as an elected official, but he led a strike at the Kellogg's cereal factory in Omaha in 2021. Roughly 1,400 workers staged an 11-week work stoppage between October and December of that year, and successfully secured a new five-year contract. The union's main sticking point was a two-tiered pay system between so-called "legacy" employees and new hires. Their new contract eliminated the two-tier system, with Kellogg's agreeing to no plant closures until at least 2026.

However, the company announced in August that it would be closing in 2026. Osborn said the Omaha plant was one of Kellogg's most profitable operations, and suggested the closure was retaliation for the strike. The Nebraska Examiner reported that the company posted profits of $19 billion before the Covid-19 pandemic and $21 billion after.

“We need to be angry about this,” Osborn said in response to the closure.“These are hard-working people... This is a clear attack on the middle class that is constantly dwindling in this country.”

The Senate, which is currently in Democratic control with a 51-seat majority, could flip in favor of the GOP with just two Democratic incumbents losing races. And because Manchin is no longer seeking another term in ruby-red West Virginia, Republicans are virtually guaranteed a pickup. That could happen if either Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) or Sen. Jon Tester (R-Montana) lose their races in their reliably red states. But Fischer losing could complicate Republicans' hopes of regaining control of the upper chamber of Congress.

Additionally, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is battling for his political future as Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) is spending large sums in a competitive race. And Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) is also facing a tough challenge from former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Florida) in the Sunshine State, with Democrats unleashing a torrent of new spending on her behalf.

Click here to read TIME's report in full.

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'Serious conflict of interest': GOP Senate candidate funneled millions to his firm as governor

One candidate in a high-profile U.S. Senate race is now being accused of corrupt behavior by awarding millions of dollars in development contracts to his real estate firm.

On Thursday, TIME Magazine reported that Larry Hogan — the former two-term Republican governor of Maryland now running for Senate — helped steer almost 40% of all affordable housing contracts to clients of the company he refused to divest from during his eight-year tenure. The ex-governor's firm, HOGAN, which TIME described as a "multi-purpose real estate brokerage firm based in Annapolis," had no such success during his predecessor's time in office.

In its report, TIME noted that HOGAN clients were awarded 0% and 30% of affordable housing contracts in the Old Line State in 2011 and 2012, respectively. But after he took office, his company became much more successful at winning development deals. In 2020, for example, HOGAN's clientele got $40 million in state funds and federal tax credits on 18 different projects.

As governor, Hogan sat on the three-member Board of Public Works, which votes on awarding development contracts. The Maryland Republican personally voted in favor of awards between $600,000 and $1.8 million worth of contracts to four different HOGAN clients during his first three years in office. And as Maryland's governor, Hogan signed off on transportation infrastructure projects that were a short distance away from his company's properties in Brandywine and Hyattsville, making them more valuable as a result.

HOGAN's success in securing affordable housing contracts for its clients may have translated to a lucrative payday for Hogan, dwarfing his $165,000 to $180,000 annual salary as governor. Financial disclosure forms filed ahead of his second gubernatorial campaign showed that he made $2.4 million during his first term — notably the first time in Maryland history a governor made millions of dollars. TIME pointed out that in a recent financial disclosure form as a senate candidate, Hogan's net worth ranged from $12.3 million to $35 million.

When he was elected governor, Hogan didn't put his wealth in a blind trust, but rather put his brother in charge of the company and had multiple meetings with both his brother and company trustees during his first three years in the governor's mansion. According to former George W. Bush administration ethics official Richard Painter, Hogan committed "a serious conflict of interest" by participating in the contract award process without fully divesting from his firm.

Bart Harvey, who is a former Fannie Mae director and a former affordable housing developer in Maryland, told TIME that Hogan's hands-on approach to his real estate firm was likely enticing for potential clients doing business with the company, and gave HOGAN an inherent advantage.

“The state has a large role to play in this because they actually allocate the credits. Hogan, as governor, was in charge of that,” Harvey said. “Developers, knowing that, may on their own go to his entity because they think they get a step up in the very competitive tax credit allocation process.”

Hogan is running against Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland's U.S. Senate race. While he has positioned himself as a more moderate candidate and distanced himself from former President Donald Trump in an attempt to appeal to voters in the deep blue state, that may be more difficult given Trump's endorsement of his candidacy in June.

"Yeah, I'd like to see him win. I think he has a good chance to win," the former president told Fox Business. "We gotta take the majority."

Click here to read TIME's report in its entirety.

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Rudy Giuliani accidentally texted details of fake elector plot to wrong number: Jack Smith

The so-called "fake electors" plot didn't succeed after the 2020 election. And according to Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's recently unsealed dossier, one reason may have been the incompetence of former President Donald Trump's then-personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Following his loss in the 2020 election, Trump put Giuliani in charge of his campaign's legal team. The former New York City mayor and ex-U.S. attorney then sought to have Republican officials in swing states Trump narrowly lost to President Joe Biden submit alternate slates of presidential electors in an effort to overturn election results. This included the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In a Thursday article on Smith's dossier, the Guardian reported that Giuliani's plot to subvert election results was complicated by him apparently texting the details of the plot to the wrong number. While the identity of the intended recipient is unknown, Giuliani appeared to have intended to send instructions to a Republican lawmaker in Michigan on how to disrupt the awarding of the Mitten State's Electoral College votes to Biden.

“So I need you to pass a joint resolution from the legislature that states the election is in dispute, there’s an ongoing investigation by the legislature, and the Electors sent by Governor Whitmer are not the official electors of the state of Michigan and do not fall within the Safe Harbor deadline under Michigan law,” Giuliani texted.

In his recounting of the event, Smith's team of prosecutors wrote in the 165-page dossier that Giuliani ultimately never got in touch with the presumed Michigan lawmaker because "he put the wrong number into his phone." While the former New York mayor's name is redacted in the dossier, context from the document reveals that the person Smith identified as "CC1" [co-conspirator one] is Giuliani. Earlier this year, Michigan investigators confirmed that Trump, Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were all "unindicted co-conspirators" in the fake elector probe.

Giuliani's role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election resulted in him being disbarred both in New York and more recently in Washington, D.C. While his D.C. bar status had been at least temporarily revoked since 2021, the 2001 TIME Person of the Year officially lost his law license after losing his final appeal in September. The D.C. bar specifically mentioned his work attempting to overturn the election — which resulted in felony charges in Arizona — as a primary reason to strip him of the ability to practice law.

The office of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) officially served Giuliani with a felony indictment while he was celebrating his 80th birthday party. According to the New York Post, "partygoers started screaming" when one of the guests — who was revealed to be a process server who had tracked down Giuliani in Palm Beach, Florida — handed the former New York City mayor the indictment paperwork shortly after guests sang "happy birthday" to him.

Giuliani — along with more than a dozen other defendants — was charged with conspiracy, fraudulent schemes and artifices and fraudulent schemes and practices. Each charge is a felony. Defendants were also charged with felony forgery for their alleged submission of fake elector paperwork. A trial date has not yet been scheduled for the Arizona case.

The details of Giuliani's involvement in the plot were revealed to the public after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed Smith's dossier on Wednesday night. Smith submitted the document in order to justify his continued prosecution of Trump despite the Supreme Court's Trump v. United States ruling in July. In that decision, the six conservative justices on the Court agreed that presidents have absolute broad immunity from criminal prosecution for "official acts."

However, the Court left it up to lower court judges like Chutkan to determine what actually constitutes an "official act." Smith is arguing that Trump acted in his personal capacity as a candidate — and not as the president — in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Click here to read the Guardian's report in full.

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'Not capable': Ex-Trump press secretary explains how his media strategy can 'come back to bite him'

According to polling analysis from the Cook Political Report, Vice President Kamala Harris' performance has continued to improve in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Many polls released in mid-August have found Harris with small single-digit leads over GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, and Cook finds that Harris and Trump are now tied in Georgia — another important battleground state.

The Hills' Brett Samuels' reports that Trump's response to Harris' performance in polls is to hold more press conferences and make more media appearances. And one of his talking points is that while he is out talking to reporters and answering questions, Harris isn't doing interviews.

"Trump will hold a press conference Thursday at his Bedminster, NJ, property, three days after he called in for a two-hour conversation with Tesla founder Elon Musk on the social platform X," Samuels notes. "Last week, Trump held a press conference in Florida and phoned into 'Fox & Friends' to respond to news of the day. He is holding rallies this week in North Carolina and Pennsylvania."

Samuels adds, "The former president's omnipresence makes him the sole driver of his campaign's message at a time when his allies have pleaded with him to be more disciplined and hone his attacks on Harris."

According to former Trump press aide Sarah Matthews — a conservative Republican who isn't supporting him in this year's presidential election — Trump's lack of self-discipline could harm his media strategy.

Matthews told The Hill, "They're going to frame it as a juxtaposition with Vice President Harris, because she hasn't been as available to the media. While that is true.… I also think that Trump is out there trying to get headlines, because this seems to be the first race where he seems to be kind of competing for media attention."

Matthews continued, "He thinks he's his own best messenger, which can be true at times. But it can come back to bite him in the a** a bit. He's not capable of staying on message."

Read The Hill's full article at this link.

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Project 2025 head forced out: report

Two years ago The Heritage Foundation began Project 2025, which has been described as a far-right, draconian, authoritarian playbook to turn the country into a Christian nationalist nation. From the start, Paul Dans was its chief. He has now reportedly been forced out after a “power rift” with the Trump campaign over control of the multi-million dollar enterprise that would entirely remake the federal government under a Republican president.

“Project 2025 director Paul Dans has stepped down at Heritage Foundation after pressure from Trump campaign leadership, ongoing power rift over staffing control for potential second Trump admin, per internal email,” writes The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger, who first reported the news. “This suggests Project 2025 will likely shut down.”

But this massive enterprise which reportedly includes over 1000 individuals, at least 140 of whom have ties to the Trump administration, is likely not going to just disappear.

“To be clear,” Sollenberger adds, “this isn’t ideological & doesn’t mean Project 2025’s goals & policies are rejected—years of work led by former Trump admin officials. There’s a long-running rivalry over controlling a next admin. Senior Trump adviser Chris LaCivita led the charge against Dans.”

But Politico says Dans departing, “does not mean the project, which has been repeatedly criticized by Democrats as well as Donald Trump, is shutting down.”

Sollenberger goes on to say, “Top Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita ‘put the screws’ to Project 2025 director Paul Dans, per source familiar, forcing him out amid popular backlash to the politically toxic right-wing policy manifesto.”

In his new reporting at The Daily Beast, Sollenberger adds, “There’s just one glaring problem with the Trump camp’s attempt to distance itself from Project 2025: J.D. Vance’s fingerprints are all over the right-wing project.”

The Brookings Institution’s Norm Eisen, a CNN legal analyst responded to the news, saying, “The firing of Project 2025 head Paul Dans was an admission of guilt! Dans told the truth about the hoped-for autocracy.”

“That’s a crime in Trump world. We have the receipts,” he added, pointing to Just Security’s “American Autocracy Threat Tracker,” which “comprehensively catalogs all of Trump’s and his allies’ Project 2025 and other specific plans and promises.”

Project 2025 is backed by over 100 groups, including Southern Poverty Law Center-listed hate groups, and its public 920-page blueprint, authored by top Trump acolytes and advisors, is still readily available online.

Trump has claimed he knows nothing about Project 2025, but The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, reporting on Dans’ exit, noted, “Trump has privately expressed annoyance that Project 2025 has received so much attention, and he resents the notion that the group is ghostwriting his policies and choosing candidates to fill the top ranks of his administration, according to associates.”

Just weeks ago The Daily Beast reported, “Donald Trump is going to great lengths on the campaign trail to distance himself from Project 2025, the controversial blueprint for his second administration—but he can’t seem to outrun his past praise for the people behind it, or their past claims that he is fully on board with their plans.”

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Trump’s dark mental state is growing even 'worse' as election draws closer: historian

Having survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, Donald Trump vowed to push a message of "unity" at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

But that "unity" messaging didn't last.

Trump, in post-convention speeches, has attacked presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as a "bum." During a late July speech, Trump acknowledge, "No, I haven't changed. Maybe I've gotten worse." And at a late July 27 rally, Trump promised Christian nationalists that they "won't have to vote anymore" if they help him win the 2024 election.

New York University historian and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat, during an appearance on The New Republic's podcast, cited those comments as an example of how troubling Trump's rhetoric will be between now and the election in November.

Ben-Ghiat told host Greg Sargent, "Trump is really making very clear his intentions, in my view, of telling people that they need to get him into office — and then, there will be no more need for elections. And the way he phrases it is as though it's a bother, it's a burden to have to vote. And this is obviously disturbing from so many points of view."

The historian/author continued, "But the authoritarian, from Mussolini onward, has always presented himself as not just the savior of the nation, but the person who will take care of things and lighten the burden of the people."

Sargent noted that Trump is presenting himself as the "one true savior" for a "minority faction": evangelical Christian fundamentalists.

Ben-Ghiat told Sargent, "Authoritarians traffic in nostalgia — making America great again…. But just as important, they traffic in eutopia. The idea of a state of perfection. For Hitler, of course, that was an engineered racial utopia…. You can enjoy the state of perfection that I will provide for you."

Greg Sargent's full interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat for The New Republic is available at this link or here.

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Legal expert schools MTG and Cotton on what real 'coup' looks like

When President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, some supporters of GOP nominee Donald Trump — including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) and Fox News' Jesse Watters — accused Democrats of attempting a "coup."

Meanwhile, far-right radio host Erick Erickson even equated Biden's decision with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies retaliating against political enemies.

Erickson tweeted, "Y'all can argue over the word coup, but Biden stepping aside is the American equivalent of all those people accidentally falling out of windows in Russia."

But attorney Dean Obeidallah, in a biting opinion column published by MSNBC's website on July 25, argues that anyone calling Harris' presidential campaign a "coup" attempt are misusing the word "coup" badly.

"Almost four years after supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election," Obeidallah argues, "Republicans have finally become comfortable using the word 'coup.' However, consistent with their upside-down view of the world, Republicans are not using 'coup' to characterize what Trump and his supporters attempted between his losing the election and January 6, 2021."

Obeidallah continues, "They're using it to mischaracterize Democrats convincing President Joe Biden to step aside to give Democrats a stronger chance of defeating Trump."

Obeidallah observes that while "a president dropping out only a little more than 100 days from the election was jarring and historic," it was hardly an "attempted coup" — unlike the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building and Republicans in Congress refusing to certify Biden's victory over Trump that day.

"By characterizing the Democrats' changing of the guard as a coup," Obeidallah explains, "the GOP's goal was apparently to divide Democrats with a narrative that Biden was unjustly forced out. As the off-the-charts excitement and enthusiasm for Harris confirms, that's not working."

The attorney adds, "But using the word could definitely work for Democrats. They shouldn't let voters forget that Republicans have nominated for president a man who fought against leaving when voters told him to."

Dean Obeidallah's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

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Border Patrol records fewest monthly migrant apprehensions since 2021 on southern border

The number of migrants apprehended by federal authorities after illegally crossing the border into Texas decreased roughly 32% in June — a sharp drop seen across the entire U.S.-Mexico border, according to federal statistics released this week.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Texas apprehended 30,771 migrants between ports of entry in June, down from 45,139 in May. Border Patrol agents apprehended 83,536 migrants in June across the southern border, down from 117,901 in May. That marked the fewest monthly apprehensions since January 2021, the month President Joe Biden took office, according to CBP figures released Monday.

The new statistics are among the first released since Biden’s executive order that widely stopped granting asylum to migrants went into effect June 5.

“Recent border security measures have made a meaningful impact on our ability to impose consequences for those crossing unlawfully,” acting CBP Commissioner Troy A. Miller said in a statement. “We are continuing to work with international partners to go after transnational criminal organizations that traffic in chaos and prioritize profit over human lives.”

The number of migrants entering the country illegally was already decreasing when Biden issued his order, which excludes unaccompanied minors as well as asylum-seekers who secure an appointment with U.S. officials through a phone application.

Apprehensions so far this year in Texas peaked in March at 54,172 and have dropped each month since. Across the southern border, apprehensions this year peaked in February at 140,638, according to the latest data — a large drop from the record-high 249,785 apprehensions recorded by Border Patrol in December.

The decrease suggests migrants have adopted a “wait and see” approach in response to Biden’s order, which accelerated a slowdown that began in January, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, a Washington, D.C., a group that advocates for immigrants.

It also highlights the efforts of the Mexican government to help the U.S. clamp down on immigration, Reichlin-Melnick said. He noted the number of unaccompanied minors, who are not included in Biden’s asylum restrictions, continued decreasing in June.

“It’s a sign that a lot of this is down to Mexico’s actions in preventing migrants from getting to the border in the first place,” he said.

In Texas, the number of migrants entering the country illegally has been decreasing for most of CBP’s fiscal year that began in October. The state shares roughly 1,250 miles of border with Mexico.

During the 2023 fiscal year, Texas on average accounted for roughly 59% of migrant encounters along the southwest border. During the first half of the 2024 fiscal year, Texas had on average accounted for 43% of migrant encounters.

Gov. Greg Abbott has credited the state’s multibillion-dollar border mission, Operation Lone Star, for the recent decline. The initiative began in March 2021. But immigration and foreign policy analysts say many variables — from poverty to violence to smuggling routes chosen by drug cartels that now control much of the human smuggling business on the border — affect migration patterns and can change quickly.

“The most important thing to understand is the unpredictability of all of this,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “A lot of the times, things that seem to work on paper or that do work for a few months begin breaking down due to resource constraints, diplomatic limitations or simply the fact that we live in a changing world.”

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Student loan payments paused for millions amid court fight over relief plan

The Biden administration responded to an appellate court temporarily blocking one of its student debt relief programs by pausing payments for the 8 million borrowers already enrolled—a move welcomed by advocates, even as some called for further action.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona acknowledged in a statement that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling against President Joe Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan "could have devastating consequences for millions of student loan borrowers crushed by unaffordable monthly payments if it remains in effect."

"It's shameful that politically motivated lawsuits waged by Republican elected officials are once again standing in the way of lower payments for millions of borrowers," Cardona continued. "Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan will be placed in an interest-free forbearance while our administration continues to vigorously defend the SAVE plan in court. The department will be providing regular updates to borrowers affected by these rulings in the coming days."

The appellate court's Thursday ruling was just the latest in a series of legal decisions endangering one of the administration's surviving policies to help Americans with burdensome student loans. Biden's attempt to roll out a broader debt cancellation program last year was thwarted by the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing justices.

Despite that setback, the Democratic president has continued to pursue relief programs while seeking reelection in November. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are preparing to face former Republican President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). Analyses have warned that Trump's return to the White House would worsen the U.S. student debt crisis.

"It wasn't so long ago that a million borrowers defaulted on their student loans every single year, mainly because they couldn't afford the payments," Cardona noted Friday. "The SAVE plan is a bold and urgently needed effort to fix what's broken in our student loan system and make financing a higher education more affordable in this country. The Biden-Harris administration remains committed to delivering as much relief as possible for as many borrowers as possible."

"Already, we've approved an unprecedented $169 billion in relief for nearly 4.8 million Americans, including teachers, veterans, and other public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, borrowers with disabilities, and more," he added. "And from larger Pell Grants to free community college, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and I continue to believe that college affordability is a cause worth fighting for—and we're not giving up."

The Student Borrower Protection Center, which had advocated for a payment pause after Thursday's ruling, thanked Cardona "for taking swift action to protect the millions of borrowers enrolled in SAVE."

"Opponents of SAVE have inflicted mass confusion and chaos across the entire student loan system—all borrowers are at risk," the group added. "Halt student loan payments and protect borrowers ASAP!"

— (@)

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten put out a statement on Friday praising the administration's action "to stave off this reckless attack from extremist politicians and judges."

"But we shouldn't even be in this situation," she stressed. "These borrowers are on a roller coaster that's being forced off the rails by far-right politicians who will do anything in their power to hurt them, rather than help them get the relief they deserve."

"We are grateful that the Biden-Harris administration will continue to push for affordable monthly payments as bad faith actors continue to throw up roadblock after roadblock," she added. "In the end, broad-based debt cancellation is the only solution—and we will continue to advocate for it through every avenue available."

While also welcoming the pause as the court battle continues, the Debt Collective said Friday: "But no need to stop there—pause everyone's payments. Unburden them from what has been."

Recalling when student debt payments were halted because of the Covid-19 pandemic, initially under Trump and then Biden, the group also said that the president "never should have restarted student loan payments," calling it "an unforced error."

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