Trump Unveils New Brand of Racism With Chuck Schumer Insult

Trump raised an oddly bigoted insult to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday, claiming the strongly pro-Israel politician has become “like a Palestinian.”

“They don’t have the backing,” said Trump, referring to Israel and its devastation of Gaza. “Even Schumer, he’s become like a Palestinian. Chuck Schumer. Jewish. Always strong for Israel. He’s become like a Palestinian.”

Schumer, who is Jewish, has been an ardent supporter of Israel and has regularly warned about rising antisemitism in response to Israel’s violence. In March, Schumer spoke out against Israel’s far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a major obstacle to peace who has “lost his way.” Schumer’s rebuke came while calling for new elections in Israel in response to Netanyahu’s refusal to accept cease-fire negotiations or to intervene against settler extremists blocking desperately needed aid to displaced and starving Palestinians.

“The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7th,” Schumer said at the time. “The world has changed—radically—since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.”

Schumer’s comments reflected the same calls that have been coming from Jews in Israel for months: Polls conducted in November 2023—just weeks after the Hamas attack—found nearly 60 percent of Israelis support a cease-fire. In January, only 15 percent of Israelis supported Netanyahu remaining prime minister after Israel concludes its destruction of Gaza. According to polling in April, 58 percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign immediately. In Israel, hundreds of thousands of Israelis—including family members of those still held captive by Hamas—have protested in favor of a cease-fire and bilateral hostage deal, with anti-government protests breaking out across Israel against Netanyahu and his extremist bloc after they rejected a recent cease-fire deal.

Meanwhile, Trump has promised to deport student protesters in the United States and spoken favorably of Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza, saying Israel should “finish the problem” while griping that Israel is “losing the P.R. war.”

House Republicans are pushing for a bill that would allow a current or former president to lift any state case against them and plop it right into a federal court—a clear response to Donald Trump’s most recent New York conviction.

Several House GOP sources told Axios that Republican lawmakers are prodding House Speaker Mike Johnson to call for a floor vote on the bill.

It should surprise no one that the person behind this latest scheme is none other than Donald Trump. Last month, Rolling Stone reported that Trump held “several” meetings with Republican lawmakers and lawyers, asking them to pursue legislation that would permanently shield him from prosecution outside of a federal court.

Attempts to advance this proposed legislation is only the latest desperate effort from Trump’s allies to somehow undo the former president’s guilty verdict, as opposed to simply waiting for an appeal. The bill has reportedly already passed the House Judiciary committee.

At the moment, the floor vote seems unlikely, according to sources close to Johnson, because it’s a little unpopular among some Republicans. Not to mention, it doesn’t stand a chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

If it were miraculously passed into law, the proposed legislation could help Trump clear his record should he be elected in November. While presidents are able to pardon federal convictions, they cannot pardon state ones.

Trump is still facing state-level charges in Georgia for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 elections in that state.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday killed legislation that would have protected access to contraception and codified access to birth control into federal law. The Right to Contraception Act failed the Senate by a vote of 51–39, after failing to reach the minimum 60 votes needed to pass. All of the opposition came from Republicans, with the exception of Senator Chuck Schumer who changed his vote from “yes” to “no” in a procedural move in order to bring the vote again in the future.

The only two Republican senators to vote for the bill were Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Seven Republican senators were not present for the vote.

The bill was first introduced after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It made its way back through Congress on Tuesday as conservative attacks on bodily autonomy deepen ahead of the November election. Trump recently stated he’s exploring policies to restrict access to birth control, which would impact an estimated 46.9 million people in the United States. It’s not clear that the measure would pass the House, but the roll call is nonetheless a good record of where Republican senators stand on the issue.

Here’s a list of every Republican who voted against the measure:

• John Barrasso—Wyoming
• Marsha Blackburn—Tennessee
• John Boozman—Arkansas
• Ted Budd—North Carolina
• Shelley Moore Capito—West Virginia
• Bill Cassidy—Louisiana
• John Cornyn—Texas
• Tom Cotton—Arkansas
• Kevin Cramer—North Dakota
• Mike Crapo—Idaho
• Ted Cruz—Texas
• Steve Daines—Montana
• Joni Ernst—Iowa
• Deb Fischer—Nebraska
• Chuck Grassley—Iowa
• Josh Hawley—Missouri
• John Hoeven—North Dakota
• Cindy Hyde-Smith—Mississippi
• Ron Johnson—Wisconsin
• James Lankford—Oklahoma
• Mike Lee—Utah
• Cynthia Lummis—Wyoming
• Roger Marshall—Kansas
• Mitch McConnell—Kentucky
• Markwayne Mullin—Oklahoma
• Rand Paul—Kentucky
• Pete Ricketts—Nebraska
• James E. Risch—Idaho
• Mike Rounds—South Dakota
• Marco Rubio—Florida
• Eric Schmitt—Missouri
• Rick Scott—Florida
• Tim Scott—South Carolina
• John Thune—South Dakota
• Thom Tillis—North Carolina
• Tommy Tuberville—Alabama
• Roger Wicker—Mississippi
• Todd Young—Indiana

One former Trump White House staffer says that if The Wall Street Journal wants a story about cognitive decline in the White House, it should talk to people who worked under Donald Trump.

The Wall Street Journal published a story Tuesday evening about President Biden’s supposed mental decline that drew a lot of criticism, particularly from Democrats. Olivia Troye, a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, called out the newspaper on X (formerly Twitter), saying she was “happy to discuss Trump’s mental acuity & fitness for office.”

While right-wing media outlets like the WSJ aren’t likely to take Troye up on her offer, she has a point. Questions about Biden’s age and mental state have been pushed by Republicans for months, even after he made an energetic speech at the State of the Union in March. But Trump has demonstrated issues of his own.

When Trump was president, there were numerous stories about his mental state, calling attention to supposed psychological defects and lack of intelligence. It stands to reason that there are more details from his presidency that are known to those who worked for him but still not known to the general public. What people have seen since then from the Republican presidential nominee and convicted felon are still more examples of possible cognitive decline, ranging from wild rants in press conferences to bragging about putting his pants on. In March, Democrats put together a brutal montage of some of Trump’s many gaffes.

In February, Biden’s doctor said that there were “no new concerns” after the president’s annual physical, saying that he was “fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.” Meanwhile, Trump continues to brag about passing a cognitive test but changes the details every time he relates the story.

In November, voters will have to decide whether any of this matters over something more pressing: the fate of American democracy.