Republicans Let Archbishop With Horrific History Open the RNC

Conservatives seemingly had no problem tapping someone with a history of covering up sexual abuse scandals to deliver the opening remarks at the Republican National Convention.

During the opening prayer Monday night, Archbishop of Milwaukee Jerome Listecki reminded the conference to pray for the “wisdom” to place the nation “above personal interest” and to “respect justice” and “equality before the law.” But that wasn’t always the spiritual leader’s prerogative.

Fourteen years ago, Listecki was caught in the midst of a cover-up within the church, with local outlets underlining how far he had gone to thwart investigations of priests involved in the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandal, and how he had even permitted some of the accused—and charged—church leaders to remain in leadership positions.

In 2010, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Listecki claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to conduct a church investigation into a La Crosse-area priest who had reportedly been following little boys into water park restrooms—though there was apparently plenty of evidence to criminally investigate that priest, as he was later charged with possession of child pornography.

That same year, Listecki reportedly allowed two retired clergy members who had played prominent roles in the national sex abuse cover-up—Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee and Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati—to lead local liturgies.

When pressed by the Wisconsin Radio Network on why he permitted the members’ continued involvement in the church, Listecki said that Weakland, who had admitted to concealing the rape and molestation of children, should still be celebrated despite being a “lightning rod” within the religious institution.

“Having said that, you know you do talk to some people who talk about some of the good things that he has done,” Listecki told the radio news outlet. “Now, certainly, those good things, a pall is cast upon them because of the direction and leadership he’s given in this area.”

Also in 2010, Listecki took the cover-up a step further, opposing legislation that would have lifted the statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes. He alleged that doing so would bankrupt the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

“This bill will have the effect of doing something that everyone will go out of their way to tell you they don’t want it to do—that is, targeting the Catholic Church,” Listecki said at a public hearing before the state Senate Judiciary Committee that year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A top official with Project 2025 has jumped in on Donald Trump’s effort to look like he’s not at all affiliated with the fascistic blueprint for his potential second term in the White House. Too bad for them, they already said the exact opposite.

Last week, Donald Trump tried desperately to distance himself from Project 2025 after a particularly bloodthirsty comment from Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind the plan. Now it seems that the project is taking its lead from Trump. But it’s less than convincing.

Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, worked overtime Monday to distance his brainchild from the former president it was designed for.

“What Democrats [have] said about Project 2025 is probably the greatest misinformation campaign since, I don’t know, the Russia hoax,” Dans said, claiming that Democrats “move from hoax to hoax,” according to Rolling Stone.

“Somehow that whole squad put all the marbles in vilifying Project 2025, and then making this fake attachment to President Trump,” he said. Dans previously served in the Trump administration as the chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

The so-called “fake attachment” to Trump that Dans is complaining about must’ve at one point seemed real to him, as Dans previously touted the project’s connection to the former president during a radio interview.

On a May 2023 episode of the We the People Convention podcast, Dans boasted about having “great relationships” with Trump and other Republicans, according to Media Matters. Dans explained that Project 2025 focused on a presidential transition team, adding, “So ultimately, yes. I think, you know, President Trump’s very bought in with this.”

While at the time, Dans described the project as being “candidate neutral,” just last month he also called Project 2025 an “instruction manual” for a second Trump presidency. In May, he said he thought Trump would likely “adopt” many of the ideas in the lengthy mandate, which explains how to replace the administrative state with Trump loyalists, among other things.

Trump’s hopes of distancing himself from the plan is about to get a whole lot harder, with the announcement that he’s tapped Ohio Senator J.D. Vance to be his running mate. Not only does Vance have Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation, fawning over him, he’s also said that Project 2025 has “some good ideas in there.” It makes sense, because Vance pitched the same purge of civil servants in 2022, arguing that Trump should defy the law, if necessary, to “deconstruct the administrative state.”

Elon Musk plans to donate $45 million per month to the nascent pro-Trump America PAC, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The super PAC, formed in May, has already received millions in donations from tech giants and Musk orbiters using their fortunes to influence the democratic process in Trump’s favor in 2024. The Wall Street Journal reported that the PAC “had $8.75 million in contributions for the three-month period ending on June 30,” including from former Tesla board member Antonio Gracias, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.

While Musk had not donated to America PAC as of June, he intends to begin the monthly donations in July, according to those familiar with the matter.

In March, Musk wrote on X, “I am not donating money to either candidate for US President.” But Musk’s political beliefs have taken a yearslong turn toward right-wing extremism, and in recent months, he has reportedly grown closer to Trump. Last week, he endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt against him and excoriated The New York Times for daring to run an op-ed critical of the presidential candidate after the shooting.

Musk has denied The Wall Street Journal’s reporting, posting a meme on X deeming the story fake news. Shortly after, however, he responded in the affirmative to a tweet saying, “Elon Musk went from being an Obama voter to pledging $180 million to elect DJT. The woke left really f*cked up. Badly.”

The details of the reporting on Musk and America PAC offer dizzying reminders of the vast power the superwealthy wield in our system of government—and how a party making increasing strides to appear populist of late happily benefits from these elites’ influence. Stressing the dire need for campaign finance reform, Senator Bernie Sanders responded to the story on X, writing, “This is oligarchy: a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires.”

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien praised Donald Trump as an ally for the working class and “one tough SOB,” in a strange speech at the Republican National Convention Monday.

The president of America’s largest and most diverse union  became the first Teamster in its 121-year history to address the RNC—and used that opportunity to elevate the former president.

“I think we all can agree, whether people like him or they don’t like him, in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough SOB,” said the Teamster president, speaking about the assassination attempt on Trump.

O’Brien’s choice to speak at the convention and praise Trump sets him apart from other labor leaders. Nearly all major labor unions have endorsed Joe Biden for the 2024 election, with the AFL-CIO endorsing Biden 17 months before the general election. O’Brien acknowledged the controversy he is stirring in the union movement saying, “I don’t care about getting criticized.”

“I refuse to keep doing the same things my predecessors did,” O’Brien said in a speech that criticized both parties. “Today the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party. We will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition ready to accomplish something real for the American worker.”

Trump, of course, has worked against workers’ interests at every turn—molding the National Labor Relations Board in his image, vetoing the Protect Right to Organizing Act, and restricting overtime pay, wage increases, and health and safety protections. Compare that to Biden, who in 2022 signed the Butch Lewis Act, saving the pensions of nearly 350,000 of O’Brien’s Teamsters membership.

Teamsters’ vice president at large, John Palmer, told Mother Jones last week that members are split when it comes to the 2024 election, with straw polls showing 46 percent supporting Biden and around 37 percent supporting Trump. Palmer has also openly criticized O’Brien’s budding relationship with Trump, writing that speaking at the RNC “only normalizes and makes the most anti-union party and President I’ve seen in my lifetime seem palatable.”

A segment of a phone call between independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump was leaked on social media early Tuesday, revealing just how much the two men support each other, despite Kennedy’s repeated insistence that he wants to offer voters a different option.

In one section, Trump can be heard tying vaccines to autism.

“When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a … you know, 10-pound or 20-pound baby,” Trump said on the call. “And then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically. I’ve seen it too many times. And then you hear that it doesn’t have an impact, right? But you and I talked about that a long time ago.”

Trump appeared to suggest to Kennedy that the two should combine their efforts in some way, telling Kennedy that doing so would be “so good” and “so big” for the independent candidate. At one point, Trump said, “We’re gonna win.”

“Yeah,” Kennedy agreed.

Trump can also be heard describing the moment he was struck by a bullet on Friday at his Pennsylvania rally.

“I just turned my head to show the chart,” Trump said on the call. “And something rapped me. It felt like a giant … like the world’s largest mosquito. And it was. It was a bullet going around. You know, what do they call that, an AR-15 or something? That was a big gun. That was a pretty tough gun, right?”

In a since-deleted post, the apparent originator of the leak—Kennedy’s son, Bobby Kennedy III—wrote that “these sorts of conversations should be had in public.”

“Here’s Trump giving his real opinion to my dad about vaccinating kids—this was the day after the assassination attempt,” the younger Kennedy wrote. “This is not a cheapfake or somebody doing a Trump voice. This is the real deal.”

Kennedy’s campaign has since come out and apologized for the leak, claiming that he had erred by failing to stop a “videographer” from filming him after Trump rang.

“I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately,” Kennedy wrote on X (formerly Twitter.) “I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”

Watch the full clip of the call below: