The Latest Way Kicking Kevin McCarthy Out Has Backfired on Republicans

The GOP hasn’t been able to regain its financial footing since it lost its key fundraiser: former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

According to federal campaign finance records reviewed by The Daily Beast, McCarthy’s successor, Mike Johnson, still has a long way to go before he’s shoring up the same amount of dough. That poses a major risk to vulnerable House Republicans—17 of whom will find themselves running for reelection come November in districts that swung toward Joe Biden in 2020.

While Johnson’s fundraising constitutes a fraction of what McCarthy raised for the caucus, the starkest difference can be seen by examining fundraising numbers for members of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Patriot Program, which was designed to help the most vulnerable incumbents, according to the Beast. Funds for Arizona Representative Juan Ciscomani, for example, have taken a huge nosedive. In the first three quarters of 2023, Ciscomani received approximately $145,000 per quarter as directed by McCarthy, before he was given the boot. But in the last two quarters, under Johnson’s leadership, the freshman lawmaker has received an average of just under $14,000.

And with all the House seats up for reelection in November, this is arguably the worst time for the coffers to be running dry. Part of the reason for the lackluster numbers, however, may be outside of Johnson’s control. According to one GOP donor who spoke with the outlet, vacating McCarthy made a lot of conservative donors with open wallets “really, really angry”—which they ended up taking out on his successor.

While describing McCarthy as a “money machine,” GOP donor Eric Levine told the Beast that donors were going to take out his downfall “on whoever was next.”

Johnson, meanwhile, has openly acknowledged the predicament.

“Since October, Speaker Johnson has built a team from the ground up, traveled to 25 states, and contributed millions directly to Republican campaign accounts across the country,” a spokesman for Johnson’s campaign told the outlet. “His most recent quarter with over $20 million raised demonstrates the Speaker’s success and commitment to growing the majority.”

McCarthy, on the other hand, is still plying those fundraising skills—for revenge. One of his close allies is trying to recruit primary challengers to the eight Republican representatives who voted to oust him in October. And McCarthy is more than ready to mobilize his donor network to fund those challenges.

Judge Aileen Cannon has handed another reprieve to Donald Trump in his Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

The case was expected to be one of Trump’s first criminal trials to go to court, but any trial date now appears to be up in the air after Cannon on Monday ordered a stay on Trump’s legal requirement to give the government advance notice of which classified materials will be discussed. But the stay—which is described as temporary—also has no set expiration date.

Legal analysts have worried that a strategy of continual delays could be the Trump-appointed judge’s way of surreptitiously dismissing the trial altogether.

“This case was set for trial on May 20, which obviously won’t happen,” wrote MSNBC legal analyst and former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance. “It should have been ready to try by the end of last year. Extending the 5(a) deadlines indefinitely is the same thing as giving Trump an indefinite trial delay.”

In March, Trump tried twice to get the case dismissed, arguing in separate motions that it wasn’t clear when he took the sensitive material whether doing so was illegal and that the classified documents could be considered “personal materials” rather than presidential ones under the Presidential Records Act. The latter defense was roundly rejected by special counsel Jack Smith’s office, which pointed to a transcript of Trump’s own words in which the former president acknowledged the records definitely were not personal.

Meanwhile, Trump has practically confessed that he took the sensitive records. In an interview on Newsmax, Trump claimed point blank that he actually did take the classified documents, describing the process of shamelessly packing them away while leaving office.

“I took ’em very legally,” Trump said. “And I wasn’t hiding them.”

Ultimately, Cannon’s extended time allowance for the GOP presidential nominee just presents another roadblock to actually trying the former president for any of his alleged misconduct. The Supreme Court is still deliberating Trump’s presidential immunity claim, which leaped out of the former president’s election interference trial and challenges whether Trump could be charged at all for alleged crimes he committed while in office. The high court is expected to issue its opinion sometime between late June and early July.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who is at the center of the allegations against Donald Trump in his hush-money trial, is the next witness on the stand Tuesday

Trump started his day early Tuesday morning with an angry post on Truth Social fuming that he only just learned which witness would be called next, only to quickly delete the post, possibly afraid of violating his gag order and facing prison time.

Trump was warned Monday by Judge Juan Merchan that any further violations of his gag order would result in prison time. The former president has already been found guilty of violating the order 10 times, resulting in a total of $10,000 in fines: $1,000 for every instance.

The case centers around hush-money payments made to Daniels from Trump to cover up an affair prior to the 2016 election through his former fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen. Daniels’s testimony will mark a change from earlier witnesses, who have mostly spoken about payments and communications taking place in 2016 and 2017. Daniels has previously spoken about receiving threats over the payments, remarking that she accepted them because she feared for her life. Her testimony could elaborate on this as well as other salacious details, which could be very damaging to Trump.

Trump is facing 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime in his payoff of Daniels. He has pleaded not guilty.

A former accountant in the Trump Organization dropped a bombshell during her testimony at Donald Trump’s hush-money trial Monday. According to witness Deborah Tarasoff, Trump “personally signed” the checks to his former fixer and attorney Michael Cohen.

The prosecution asked Tarasoff about numerous business documents showing payments to Cohen, who coordinated the payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels that are the core of the hush-money case.

Pictures of voided checks were shown to the court, including one $70,000 check signed by the ex-Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and Donald’s son Eric Trump.

According to The Guardian, Tasaroff told the court that prior to 2017, these kinds of payments came from the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, but after that, they came personally from the then–newly elected president.

In one instance, Tasaroff confirmed that Cohen was paid $35,000 from Trump’s personal account for one month’s invoice, like the earlier trust-based payments. Afterward, she was asked about a $35,000 check to Cohen from June 2017 and confirmed that the signature came from the former president. She did the same with a check from the following month.

Tasaroff also testified that after 2015, Trump or one of his adult sons had to sign off on every invoice over $10,000. When Tasaroff created the checks, Trump would either personally sign the check or write “void.”

“If he didn’t want to sign it, he didn’t sign it,” she said, according to CNN.

Earlier on Monday, the court heard testimony from Jeffrey McConney, the former corporate controller at the Trump Organization, confirming handwritten notes about payments to Cohen coming from discussions with Weisselberg. Those payments seemed to provide damning proof of tax fraud in the Trump Organization’s reimbursement of Trump’s ex-lawyer and fixer.

All Monday’s testimony goes to show, prosecutors hope, that Trump had direct involvement in repayments to Cohen, even after being elected president, and thus made payments to Daniels to cover up his affair with her prior to the 2017 election. Trump faces 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. He has pleaded not guilty, and the court has yet to hear testimony from Daniels or Cohen.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just got a random—and possibly unwelcome—endorsement in the presidential election from Kevin Spacey.

Kennedy’s presidential campaign has been wracked with controversy as of late. In desperate need of a boost six months out from the 2024 election, he is no doubt looking for high-profile backers to rebut criticism from all corners, including his own family. Spacey, however, was probably not high on his list.

That didn’t stop Spacey from tweeting his support for Kennedy on Monday.

“There’s a lot I can learn from this man. When the world turned its back on me, Bobby leaned in. He’s a formidable fighter for justice and a loyal friend that’s not afraid to stand up for what he believes,” the disgraced actor wrote in response to a 30-minute mini-documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson, which Kennedy posted on Saturday.

The endorsement comes as Spacey faces new sexual misconduct allegations, soon to be made public in a Channel 4 documentary. He has previously been accused of sexual assault and battery in 2017, which he has denied. Most recently, Spacey resurfaced to commiserate with Tucker Carlson on the former Fox News host’s interview show on X (formerly Twitter), where he brought back his Frank Underwood character from House of Cards.

Kennedy, despite running well behind Joe Biden, has called on the president to drop out of the presidential race. Spacey’s endorsement isn’t likely to move the needle there.