Eric Swalwell Expertly Skewers Republicans’ “Cult” of Trump

Representative Eric Swalwell slammed GOP lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, arguing that the blatant hypocrisy in their devoted defense of a freshly convicted Donald Trump was nothing less than cultish. 

“Guys, I’m starting to think you guys are in a cult,” Swalwell said. “That is your right, but it’s not your responsibility. I promise you, that’s not what your constituents would want.”

“So if you believe in states’ rights except when a jury in that state convicts your nominee for president: You might be in a cult. If you claim you back the blue but want to defund the police when the police go to your nominee’s house to retrieve national security secrets: You might be in a cult. If you’re supporting a guy whose felony convictions prevent him from getting security clearance: You might be in a cult,” Swalwell continued.

“And if the guy you’re supporting for president has felony convictions that prevent him from going to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic …”  

As he spoke, one lawmaker demanded that the California Democrat’s words be taken down. Swalwell continued in an alphabetized list of all the countries to which Trump can no longer travel.

“Egypt, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel …” Swalwell continued, well after his time had expired. “You might be in a cult.” 

Swalwell is no stranger to openly mocking his Republican colleagues. He’s also keeping a running timer on how long it’s been since House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan refused to comply with a subpoena to testify on his involvement in the January 6 insurrection. The counter is currently at 754 days. 

A state panel has smacked down New York Republican Representative Elise Stefanik’s ethics complaint against the judge in Donald Trump’s bank fraud case, a likely fatal blow to her soft campaign to be his vice presidential nominee.  

Stefanik eagerly declared in November that she had filed a complaint against New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron and his law clerk Allison Greenfield, by posting her letter in its apparent entirety to X (formerly Twitter). 

The Republican attacked Engoron and Greenfield for making donations to Democratic political campaigns, alleged that Engoron had “illegally” placed a gag order on Trump, and argued that the judge demonstrated “inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance.” Her decision to post about the complaint was an obvious, if not desperate, stunt to signal to Trump that she is the ideal sycophant to join him in office, if he is elected.

Too bad for Stefanik, because her theatrics appear to have been in vain. According to a document obtained by The Daily Beast, her complaint was quietly rejected by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct in March.  

“The commission dismissed the complaint, having found no basis on the facts presented to commence an investigation,” wrote Robert H. Tembeckjian, the commission’s administrator and counsel, in the panel’s decision.

The Beast reported that it was unclear whether Stefanik was even aware that her ploy had failed. When asked, she reportedly demanded to know how the Beast could assert the complaint had been dismissed. 

In a statement to the outlet, Stefanik’s executive director, Alex DeGrasse, said, “New York’s court system is partisan, corrupt, and rigged. Chairwoman Elise Stefanik and House Republicans will continue to expose the blatant illegal lawfare and weaponization of the government and courts against President Trump.”

While Stefanik’s antics may have fallen flat, and her political aspirations been injured, she is only one small part of the GOP-backed barrage on the judicial system that seeks to hold Donald Trump accountable for his crimes.

President Biden’s executive order to shut down asylum is already drawing criticism—from within the Democratic Party.

Biden issued an executive order Tuesday that will shut down the southern U.S. border if the average number of border encounters exceeds 2,500, which it already has, and only resume them once the number drops to below 1,500. That means the order could go into effect immediately.

Several Democrats have already slammed the plan, which they say ignores established law requiring the granting of asylum to people with a credible fear in their home countries. A lack of legal paths to immigration has led to more people requesting asylum, and to some Democrats, the new restrictions seem similar to Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

“I’m disappointed that this is a direction that the president has decided to take,” Representative Nanette Barragán, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said Tuesday morning.

“We should be distinguishing ourselves from Donald Trump on immigration,” Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told The Washington Post. “We should be offering the contrast.”

Some saw Biden’s order as more tough talk about the border that wouldn’t solve the underlying issues.

“I do not think that shutting down the border, quote unquote, is a remedy that will get us to where we need to be on immigration reform,” said Representative Sylvia Garcia.

Even Democrats in swing districts vulnerable to Republican attacks on immigration aren’t happy with the plan.

“I understand that the Biden administration feels like they need to do something,” said Representative Hillary Scholten, an immigration lawyer in Michigan. “It’s heart-wrenching to see that this is the something that they are choosing, knowing full well that this is not going to come close to solving the problem that we are experiencing.”

Biden has drawn fire for his immigration policies as president, drawing accusations that he has done little to reverse Donald Trump’s widely criticized actions. With Republicans opposing just about anything Biden enacts, he’ll need support from his own party for any plan to hold up. To Representative Alex Padilla, Biden should include more humanitarian provisions, as opposed to tough talk to win over Democrats and the wider public.

“While some people point to how well an orderly and secure border polls, what polls even better is support for dreamers and farmworkers and other essential workers who happen to be undocumented,” said Padilla. “What polls the best is a combination of the policies taken together.”

After years of legal back-and-forths with Donald Trump, porn actress Stormy Daniels has one final message for his (supposedly) better half: Get out while you still can.

In an interview with the U.K.’s Daily Mirror published Monday, Daniels began rattling off reasons that Melania Trump should leave her husband of 19 years.

“He’s a convicted felon,” she began.

“He’s proven to be abusive. He was found liable for assault,” Daniels continued, referring to the outcome of his case with writer E. Jean Carroll.

But Daniels also questioned if she will be “done” with Trump now that the trial has ended, describing him as a “scarlet letter but worse.”

“That’s an orange stain that’s going to be on me for a very long time,” she said.

Still, Daniels is feeling celebratory about the outcome of the trial, adding that Trump had been “unchecked until now, but checkmate, motherfucker.”

A jury found Trump guilty Thursday on 34 counts of falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime in relation to hush-money payments dished out to Daniels in an effort to hide information during the 2016 presidential election.

It marked the first time in U.S. history that a former president had been convicted of a felony. Trump will be sentenced on July 11 at 10 a.m., mere days before the Republican National Convention will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Kenneth Chesebro got smacked with a felony fraud charge by Wisconsin prosecutors on Tuesday. Largely considered the architect of the fake electors plot to flip the 2020 election to Trump, Chesebro was charged alongside Michael Roman, head of Trump’s 2020 Election Day operations, and fellow Trump lawyer James Troupis. All were charged with one count of forgery in the case brought by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Paul, according to court records.

The statute listed for the Trump trio’s charges, “forgery-uttering,” is a Class H felony in Wisconsin, essentially defined as touting bogus official statements or fake legal documents or public records as true while knowing they’re fraudulent.

Chesebro, as part of the fake elector scheme, attempted to send fake certified elector documents—which falsely claimed Wisconsin and Michigan electors chose Trump—to Washington, D.C., ahead of 2020’s presidential electoral certification process. The plot was spoiled when the documents infamously got stuck in the mail, leading to a last-minute scramble by the schemers to get the phony paperwork into the hands of then–Vice President Mike Pence in time to certify election results on January 6, 2021.

Chesebro is also named as a co-conspirator in Georgia’s fake elector charges, where he is cooperating with the state and has pleaded guilty to planning the goofily villainous scheme. Chesebro is reportedly also cooperating with prosecutors in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Tuesday’s charges are a first for Troupis and Roman, who join the vaunted ranks of at least a dozen other Trump lawyers and toadies who conspired to submit fake electors to certify the 2020 election for Trump. Troupis and Chesebro are also being sued by Biden electors in Wisconsin for the plot, where 10 other Republican electors settled a lawsuit in December 2023 forcing them to admit Biden won the 2020 election.