GOP Candidates Prep to Accuse Black Rival of—Yep—Being Soft on Crime

As presidential hopeful Tim Scott slowly edges up in the polls, his 2024 opponents are gearing up to attack one of the only Black candidates for being soft on crime.

Republicans have increasingly insisted the United States is falling into a state of lawlessness, with violent crime on the rise and Democratic leaders unable or unwilling to do anything about it. (Violent crime has actually gone down in the past six months.) Many GOP candidates at all levels of governance are promising to be “tough on crime.”

Scott has actually been a big champion in Congress for police and criminal justice reform, making him a prime target for accusations of being soft on crime. He co-sponsored the First Step Act in 2018, which reduced some mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related charges and also allowed some people already incarcerated to request shorter sentences.

The South Carolina senator also pushed for police reform in 2020, after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer who was arresting him. Scott introduced the JUSTICE Act, which would withhold federal funding from local police departments until they changed their operating policies. (The bill went nowhere.)

Still, his little action on police reform seems like it will become fodder for his Republican rivals. Some Republican presidential candidates are already attacking the First Step Act. Ron DeSantis said in May he would want to repeal the law, while Mike Pence tried to be cute and said he wanted to “take a step back from the First Step Act.”

Except … DeSantis voted for an early version of the act in 2018, when he was still a Florida representative in Congress. Pence also championed the legislation while serving as vice president. And current Republican front-runner Donald Trump signed the act into law. So if this is the point they’re going to use to try to take down Scott, they all may want to look in the mirror.

Meanwhile, Scott may actually have sabotaged a bipartisan police reform measure so he could seem tough on crime during his presidential campaign. Excerpts released in June from Washington Post writer Ben Terris’s book The Big Break reveal that Scott worked with Democratic Senator Cory Booker to craft legislation in 2021. Shortly after Booker’s staff gave Scott a copy of the bill, it was leaked to the National Sheriffs’ Association.

“With the Sheriffs’ Association as a shield, Scott rejected the offer,” Terris wrote. “Even though the bill would have added millions of dollars to police department budgets, he accused Democrats of wanting to ‘defund the police,’ something that almost no one in Congress had been saying for months.”

As Donald Trump awaits his third and potentially fourth indictment, he seems to be making threats about what’ll happen if he actually faces legal repercussions.

Early Monday morning, the former president reshared a meme of himself on TruthSocial with the caption, “Nothing can stop what is coming. Nothing.”

“‘Nothing can stop what is coming’’ is a popular phrase linked to QAnon, the far-right conspiracy and movement, which Trump has often amplified and whose followers were a big part of the January 6 attack on the Capitol. This isn’t his first time endorsing this phrase. A couple months after the failed insurrection, and at the beginning stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump shared a meme with the same caption over an image of him playing the fiddle.

The ominous threat—and callout to his followers—is a sign of how much pressure Trump is under.

Trump could be indicted for the third time any day now. Last week, special counsel Jack Smith informed Trump that he is a target in the investigation into the January 6 attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Georgia prosecutors, meanwhile, are reportedly preparing racketeering charges against Trump for his role in attempting to overthrow the election.

Last week, a date was set for his trial on stealing and hoarding classified documents: May 20, 2024, smack in the middle of the Republican primary.

Ron DeSantis shocked everyone earlier this month when his campaign shared a deeply bigoted ad attacking LGBTQ people.

The video appeared to come from a conservative group made in support of the Florida governor. But it turns out that the video was actually made in-house and planted in the fan account.

The attack ad attempted to portray Donald Trump as pro-LGBTQ and cast DeSantis as a hypermasculine anti-LGBTQ crusader.  But instead, it came across as terrifyingly homophobic and oddly homoerotic.

The video (since taken down due to copyright issues) was originally posted on a pro-DeSantis Twitter account, which was then shared by DeSantis’s campaign. But in reality, a campaign aide made the video, The New York Times reported Sunday, and then sent it to an outside supporter to post first in order to make it look like the ad was made independently.

The ad features DeSantis shooting lasers out of his eyes, as well as clips from films and television shows such as American Psycho, Troy, and Peaky Blinders—all of which one would think are more of a lesson against the oppressive, militaristic approach to governance that DeSantis has been touting.

The poorly thought-out ad was part of a larger attempt to reinvigorate DeSantis’s struggling campaign. His bid for president has yet to take off, concerning both his team and his donors. In most polls, he is second to Trump, but the gap between them is large. DeSantis’s campaign has also been bleeding cash, to the tune of more than $212,000 per day on average, according to the Times.

Analysts say that there is still time for DeSantis to turn things around, but if the disastrous ad has shown anything, it’s that the Florida governor is struggling to find a message. DeSantis has focused on promising to fight “wokeness” but has failed to produce any actual policy ideas or a clear reason why people should vote for him over Trump. Attempts to portray himself as tougher or more ideologically right of Trump have backfired spectacularly.

Republican politicians are rushing to defend ultraconservative country singer Jason Aldean, whose new song openly calls for violence against Black people.

Aldean released the song “Try That in a Small Town” in May, and the incredibly alarming music video just last week. The song’s lyrics are rife with threats to outsiders, particularly people from the city. The words encourage listeners to resort to vigilantism and gun violence against outsiders.

But the music video is more explicit about whom it considers an outsider. The video includes clips of riots, vandalism, and police encounters. Some of the images come from Fox News’s coverage of Black Lives Matter protests, but some are stock footage, including of demonstrations from other countries. The intended effect is to encourage violence against  people protesting racial injustice.

Those clips are spliced alongside shots of Aldean singing outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. The building is the site of a racist attack in 1927, when a white mob lynched an 18-year-old Black teenager by pulling him out of a jail cell and dragging him through the city behind a car. The courthouse was also the site of a race riot in 1946.

The video sparked widespread pushback, and Country Music Television said Thursday it will no longer air the music video. Conservatives have pushed back against the (very understandable) outcry by accusing people of infringing on Aldean’s freedom of speech.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said on Twitter she was “shocked by what I’m seeing in this country with people attempting to cancel this song and cancel Jason and his beliefs.”

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn warned that “cancel culture is the enemy of freedom of expression,” while Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused Democrats of being “more concerned about @Jason_Aldean’s song calling out looters and criminals than they are about stopping looters and criminals.”

Presidential hopefuls have also weighed in. “Jason Aldean is a fantastic guy who just came out with a great new song. Support Jason all the way. MAGA!!!” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley actually played the song at their campaign stops. Ramaswamy said Aldean was being “sacrificed at the altar of censorship & cancellation,” while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suggested that “when the media attacks you, you’re doing something right.”

This is not Aldean’s first foray into politics. He is openly anti-vaccine and has dressed his children in anti–Joe Biden clothing. His wife and sister have a conservative clothing line dedicated to mocking liberals, and Aldean wore blackface for a costume in 2015. He has also gone golfing with Trump and gave an impromptu performance at Mar-a-Lago.

You have to wonder where Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will go when Thanksgiving rolls around this time.

On Friday, Jack Schlossberg—President John F. Kennedy’s only grandson—denounced RFK Jr., calling his candidacy “an embarrassment” and a “vanity project.”

“President John F. Kennedy is my grandfather. And his legacy is important. It’s about a lot more than Camelot and conspiracy theories. It’s about public service and courage,” Schlossberg began.

“It’s about civil rights, the Cuban missile crisis, and landing a man on the moon. Joe Biden shares my grandfather’s vision for America, that we do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. And he is in the middle of becoming the greatest progressive president we’ve ever had,” he continued.

“Under Biden, we’ve added 13 million jobs. Unemployment is at its lowest in 60 years. Biden passed the largest investment in infrastructure since the New Deal, and the largest investment in green energy ever. He’s appointed more federal judges than any president since my grandfather. He ended our longest war. He ended the Covid pandemic, and he ended Donald Trump.”

And on RFK Jr., he didn’t mince his words.

“I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president,” Schlossberg said about his cousin. “What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment. Let’s not be distracted again by somebody’s vanity project. I am excited to vote for Joe Biden in my state’s primary and again in the general election, and I hope you will too.”

Schlossberg’s comments follow a string of other family members expressing their discontent with the anti-vax candidate seemingly supported by more Republicans than Democrats. The denunciations came after Kennedy’s remarks that Covid-19 was “targeted” to spare people who are “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

“I STRONGLY condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting,” said Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, earlier this week. “His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stands for, with our 50+ year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination,” added the president of the RFK Human Rights advocacy organization.

“My uncle’s comments were hurtful and wrong. I unequivocally condemn what he said,” said former Representative Joe Kennnedy III.

After passing an unequivocal pledge of fealty to Israel, Republicans still are not satisfied. On Thursday, three Republicans introduced a resolution censuring Representative Pramila Jayapal for calling Israel a racist state.

Republicans Andy Ogles, Randy Weber, and Jeff Duncan filed the lengthy resolution claiming Jayapal “has promoted antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment through her congressional career.” Not once in their resolution did the Republicans name an instance of Jayapal saying anything negative about Jewish people, effectively conflating criticisms of Israel with criticisms of Jewish people (which is antisemitic).

Note too, this comes from the party that has not taken any similar action toward one of its own, George Santos—a serial liar, a man who made up a fake charity for a veteran’s dying dog only to then steal all the money, and someone who has pretended to be Jewish. Nor has this party taken any action about its leading presidential candidate of eight years dining with one of the most vicious and loud antisemites in the country.

The resolution follows an ongoing drama displaying the American government’s resolute support for a state committing massive human rights violations, and its instinctive hostility toward anyone who questions it.

Last week, Jayapal called Israel—a state that has committed decades of human rights abuses, engaged in land dispossession and home demolition, upheld separate systems of law, and maintained a militarized police state against Palestinians—a “racist state.”

She made the comments at the progressive Netroots Nation conference in Chicago, ahead of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress on Wednesday. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Raul Grijalva, and Nydia Velasquez all boycotted said address—in similar fashion to members boycotting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States for his record on minority rights.

Republicans went on a full-throated offensive against Jayapal and her progressive colleagues, while ignoring actual vile antisemitism among their ranks. But Democrats too (including Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, Pete Aguilar, and Ted Lieu) jumped in on attacking one of their own for echoing what an array of human rights organizations have already said.

All the tone-policing of Jayapal’s comments—and the continued little to no concern for Palestinians—led to the House this week voting overwhelmingly in support of a resolution that declared, “The State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state” and assured, “The United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel.”

While Jayapal later walked back her comments—even before the House resolution—she still maintained her position that Israel has an “extreme right-wing government” that “has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies.” Organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have come to a similar conclusion, describing Israel’s actions as racist, abusive, and part of an apartheid system.

Republicans’ resolution to punish Jayapal cites Israel’s “unwavering willingness to work in good faith.”

Just days after Congress laid out the red carpet for Israel’s president—who once called Jewish intermarriage “a plague”—Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian boy, bringing the 2023 Palestinian death count to over 150.

Such good faith.

Hunter Biden has hit back at Marjorie Taylor Greene for showing everyone his nude photos, as his lawyer filed an ethics complaint against the Georgia Republican on Friday.

The House Oversight Committee heard testimony on Wednesday from two IRS agents who say the Department of Justice dragged its feet on investigating the younger Biden for tax fraud. The hearing produced zero actual evidence, so instead, Greene tried to claim that Biden engaged in sex trafficking and listed payments to sex workers as a tax write-off. To support her argument, she held up poster-size prints of Biden’s nude photos, which she later also shared on her email newsletter.

Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell sent a letter to the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics asking that Greene be investigated and penalized for her “outrageous, undignified conduct.”

“None of her actions or statements could possibly be deemed to be part of any legitimate legislative activity, as is clear from both the content of her statements and her conduct and the forums she uses to spew her unhinged rhetoric,” Lowell wrote.

“Rather than evaluate the credibility of the IRS agents’ testimony or review our tax laws, Ms. Greene sought to use the power of her office to generate some clicks online, fundraise, and provide sensationalist clips for Fox News at the expense of harassing and embarrassing Mr. Biden.”

Lowell previously urged the OCE to take action on Greene in April, accusing her of defaming Biden, spreading false allegations and conspiracy theories about him, and publishing his private photos and data. “If the OCE takes its responsibilities seriously, it will promptly and decisively condemn and discipline Ms. Greene for her latest actions,” he said in Friday’s letter.

The OCE is an independent agency that reviews allegations of misconduct against lawmakers and their staff. If necessary, the OCE will refer matters to the Ethics Committee—which is where Greene’s case could end up (and where investigations into George Santos still continue, nearly two months after he was federally indicted).

This isn’t the first time Republicans have shared Hunter’s nudes, but blowing them up on a poster for a congressional hearing is a new low. Not only was Greene’s decision to wave Biden’s nudes around wildly inappropriate—Oversight Chair James Comer did not reprimand her, though—but she may also have violated D.C. revenge porn law. City law prohibits knowingly disclosing one or more sexual images of an identified or identifiable person when the person in the photo did not consent to the image being shared.

What’s more, Greene may have sent the nudes to minors when she included them in her email newsletter. There is no screening for age when signing up for her newsletter, so any minors who subscribe have now received nudes from their congresswoman. If that is the case, then Greene could have broken federal laws banning the distribution of obscene material to minors.

The Barbie movie opened Friday, and it’s already breaking box office records—despite conservatives’ best efforts to bad-mouth the film as woke propaganda.

Barbie stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, who leave Barbie Land to explore the real world. The film has already made $22.3 million at the domestic box office from Thursday previews, the biggest preview haul this summer, blowing the previous record of $17.5 million (made by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May) out of the water.

Barbie is anticipated to make as much as $140 million in its opening weekend alone, largely due to its incessant and ingenious marketing campaign. And people on the right have not stopped complaining about it.

Conservatives keep coming up with stupid reasons to hate the movie. They say that the movie is too “woke” for casting Hari Nef, a transgender actress, as Doctor Barbie. They have also blasted Simu Liu, who plays a Ken, for saying the film put “the final nail in the coffin of that very heteronormative idea of what gender is.”

Men have taken to Twitter to insist that Robbie is ugly with no makeup on and they would never deign to have sex with her. Representative Matt Gaetz and his wife went to the movie premiere, after which Ginger Gaetz declared the film highly skippable because it “neglects to address any notion of faith or family” and features “disappointingly low [testosterone] from Ken.” Other film critics have branded Barbie “anti-man.”

Other Republican lawmakers also waded into the fray by insisting the movie is Chinese Communist propaganda. In one scene in Barbie Land, a rough, hand-drawn map of the world can be seen in the background. The map includes the so-called nine-dash line, a much-disputed division of territory in the South China Sea.

China has used the nine-dash line to mark its controversial territorial claims in the South China Sea. Over the years, Beijing has tried to claim sovereignty over 90 percent of the region. Even though The Hague ruled in 2016 that China has no legal basis for its claims, the country has pressed on, building military installations on otherwise uninhabited islands in the sea.

Republicans insisted that the shot was a clear indication that Hollywood is in the Chinese Communist Party’s pocket and Barbie is just Communist propaganda. For those wondering, this is the shot in question:

Vietnam has banned the movie over the map, but the Philippines has decided to show it because the “cartoonish map” actually only shows a “make-believe journey” in Barbie Land (half of Asia is missing!).

Michael Cohen is settling his three-year-old lawsuit against the Trump Organization, avoiding yet another trial on the former president’s docket that was set to commence Monday.

Cohen is a former personal attorney and longtime fixer for the twice-impeached, twice-indicted, and liable-for-sexual-abuse former president (apparently not much fixing was done). He filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization in 2019, alleging that the company reneged on agreements that it would pay for any attorney fees and costs arising from his work on its behalf. Cohen argues that the organization refused to meet its end of the deal after he turned on Trump. He alleged that he is owed some $1.3 million in unpaid legal fees.

The exact terms of the settlement have not yet been announced, but the Monday trial is indeed off.

Meanwhile, Trump still has an active lawsuit against Cohen in a Florida federal court, while Cohen is expected to be a key witness against Trump in New York State Court next year on the former president making hush-money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

“As far as Cohen is concerned, he’s convicted. He’s a liar. He’s defrauded at a high level. He’s got a lot of problems,” Trump said in 2019, after Cohen testified to Congress about his experience working for the former president.

Trump also faces a likely third and fourth indictment—one from the Justice Department for his role in the January 6 riots and efforts to overturn the 2020 election and another in Georgia, also for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which includes charges of racketeering.

This story has been updated.

Fox News host Jesse Watters accidentally made a great case for abortion rights while trying to humiliate one of his co-hosts over vaccines.

Watters and his co-hosts of The Five on Thursday discussed Robert Kennedy Jr.’s congressional testimony from earlier in the day. Republicans had invited Kennedy to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on censorship and free speech—a move that Democrats slammed as wildly irresponsible.

During the show, host Jessica Tarlov (rightly) warned that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine and conspiracy-theorist stances were “dangerous,” which set Watters off.

“If he believes certain vaccines are dangerous, so what, Jessica? So what?” Watters demanded, before admitting that he vaccinated his own children on the advice of his pediatrician.

“It’s actually kind of weird that you’re so upset about what one Democrat thinks about vaccines!” Watters continued. “You can do whatever you want with your body; you can do whatever you want with your kid’s body; your doctor can decide with you what to do with your body. What does it have to do with RFK Jr.?”

“Thanks for advocating for Roe!” Tarlov replied.

Tarlov was of course referring to Roe v. Wade, the seminal Supreme Court decision that legalized the nationwide right to abortion—and that the newly conservative high court rolled back last year. Since then, Republicans across the country have rushed to restrict access to the procedure, shredding bodily autonomy for millions of people.

Watters’s rant perfectly encapsulates the right wing’s approach to individual rights. It’s your body, your choice, until you try to do something they disagree with, such as get an abortion or give a transgender person gender-affirming care.