How a J.D. Vance Event May Have Broken Michigan Law

J.D. Vance may have gotten himself and some local allies in hot water over a so-called press conference he held outside of the police station in Shelby Township, Michigan.

Earlier this month, Vance looked out over the station’s mostly empty parking lot as he hostilely answered—or refused to answer—questions from the press. The event was billed as remarks, rather than a rally, and he used his time on the podium to push his ironic “stolen valor” attacks against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. During the speech, Vance was flanked by police officers and officials showing their support for the candidate.

Last week, the Detroit Metro Times questioned the legality of such an event, alleging that the police department may have broken the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, which forbids the use of public resources to support a political candidate. Any violators could be jailed for 93 days.

Within two days, Shelby Township resident Melissa Arab filed a formal complaint.

“I feel like we can get the attention on it, and if they can spank these police departments right now or put someone in jail for 93 days, it will stop in the rest of the state and country,” Arab told the Metro Times. “You can’t have him doing this across the country.”

Arab explained that she was unnerved by the display at her local police department, and the possible misuse of taxpayer dollars.

“It’s very intimidating to see the police officers lined up behind Trump and Vance,” Arab said. “It’s very scary.”

The Michigan Bureau of Elections has agreed to investigate Arab’s complaint.

Meanwhile, a Donald Trump event held about 45 miles west of Shelby Township, in Howell, Michigan, has run into similar trouble. Trump delivered a low-energy speech from the Livingston County Sheriff’s office’s shiny white garage, standing in front of officers and police SUVs, flanked by large signs that said “Michigan is Trump Country.” The Michigan Bureau of Elections is now reviewing two complaints against the sheriff’s office for allegedly violating state campaign finance law.

In an interview in Tucker Carlson’s fake-log cabin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he’s not simply endorsing Donald Trump, he is a part of the Trump team.

Kennedy announced on Monday that he is officially “working with the campaign,” not only to get Trump elected. “We are working on policy issues together.”

“I’ve been asked to go on to the transition team,” Kennedy added, “to help pick the people who will be running the government” in a potential second Trump term.

As Kennedy announced Friday that he will formally suspend his campaign (but will, confusingly, still appear on the ballot in “non-battleground states”), he appeared to be vying for the position of health secretary on Trump’s team. He even went so far as to coin his own Trumpian phrase, “Make America Healthy Again.”

Trump has already appointed donors Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick as co-chairs of his transition team, as well as his adult sons as honorary chairs. Trump on Monday confirmed the news of RFK Jr.’s appointment to his transition team, alongside another notorious conspiracy theorist, Tulsi Gabbard. The news could be seen as a snub to Project 2025 and other Trump loyalists, who have worked tirelessly to prepare for Trump’s first year in office, especially given Kennedy’s previous comments about the former president.

This story has been updated.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s crusade against supposed voter fraud appears to be targeting the state’s Democrats.

Last week, Paxton’s office announced raids and undercover actions against organizations in Texas it accuses of illegally registering noncitizens to vote. In practice, though, the raids have taken place against members of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the U.S., as well as several prominent Democrats in south Texas. 

According to LULAC officials, the group’s members had their cell phones and laptops confiscated by law enforcement officials carrying out search warrants.

“Attorney General Paxton is using his position of authority to harass and intimidate Latino non-profit organizations like LULAC, Latino Leaders and LULAC members,” Juan Proaño, LULAC’s CEO, told CBS News. “It is evident through his pattern of lawsuits, raids, searches, and seizures that he is trying to keep Latinos from voting.”

One of the activists targeted was 87-year-old Lidia Martinez of San Antonio, a LULAC member for more that 35 years who works to expand voter registration for seniors and veterans. Last Tuesday, she said nine officers in tactical gear knocked on her door, presented a warrant, and questioned her for more than three hours. They took her phone, calendar, computer, blank voter registration forms, and her certificate to conduct voter registration.

“This is a free country, this is not Russia,” Martinez said in a press conference denouncing the raid.

Paxton does not appear to have been dissuaded by the backlash to his office’s raids, claiming that there was “sufficient evidence to obtain the search warrants” based on the results of a two-year investigation.

“My office is investigating every credible report we receive regarding potential criminal activity that could compromise the integrity of our elections,” Paxton said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris Administration has intentionally flooded our country with illegal aliens, and without proper safeguards, foreign nationals can illegally influence elections at the local, state, and national level.”

The allegations would carry more weight, except for the fact that Republicans and conservatives have been repeating the claim of noncitizens illegally voting ad nauseam, with little, if any proof. Last week, Fox News presenter Maria Bartiromo repeated an allegation of “massive lines of illegals” for nearly a week on national television, with only a “friend of mine’s wife” as her source. House Speaker Mike Johnson has pledged to take on the nonexistent problem by sponsoring the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, even though the information he’s citing is bogus. Elon Musk has also been taken in by right-wing propaganda on the issue, urging new laws to be passed to tackle something that’s already illegal.

Paxton himself has little, if any, credibility for any of the allegations he makes. He has piggybacked on the right-wing anti-trans panic by calling gender-affirming health care “child abuse.” His raids against Texas Democrats follow punitive measures even against Republican critics. And then there’s the fact that his own party tried to impeach him last year. If anything, Paxton taking up the “Democrats are getting noncitizens to vote” myth gives it even less credibility.

Jesse Watters made a comment about Vice President Kamala Harris so gross that all his Fox News co-hosts had to call it out.

If elected, Harris is “going to get paralyzed in the situation room while the generals have their way with her,” said Watters during Monday’s episode of Fox’s The Five.

His co-hosts, including Jeanine Pirro and Dana Perino, immediately turned against him and reprimanded Watters by his full name.

“I don’t like that,” said Pirro, “take it back.”

Instead, Watters doubled down that he wasn’t saying anything weird. “Have their way with her, control her—not in a sexual way,” said Watters with a smirk.

Later, the Fox host went on to preempt any criticism of the odd picture he painted, while also tearing his mom down. “I’m sure my mother [would] probably go on MSNBC tonight and say my son, Jesse Watters, made a joke about Kamala Harris being manhandled by generals in the situation room.”

Perhaps Watters should in fact consider listening to his mother before making another unnecessarily gross comment about Harris.

Donald Trump doesn’t like Elon Musk very much, even though the billionaire technocrat is pulling out all the stops to get the former president back into the White House.

Since formally endorsing Trump in July, Musk has raised millions for Trump’s campaign through his America PAC, which has poured $16 million into outreach in the last two weeks alone. Due to an FEC rule passed in March, Musk’s super PAC is able to coordinate directly with the Trump campaign—forming what could be an essential part of Trump’s otherwise flimsy ground game.

Last month, Musk held a glitchy, train-wreck interview with Trump on X that got them both in legal trouble, and the X owner promptly started placing ads for the Republican nominee all over his social media site. Trump went on to mention Musk at several sleepy rallies and chaotic press events, and posted really, really strange stuff to tout their new friendship—but apparently their alliance is purely transactional. In reality, Trump thinks his new ally is … well …

Trump “thinks he’s weird,” one source close to the former president told Rolling Stone. “Sorry to use a word used a lot by Democrats now.” The source had spoken to Trump about Musk as recently as July.

Another source who had been in the room several times while Trump had spoken to Musk told Rolling Stone that the former president had complained about the Tesla CEO a few times, calling him “boring” and describing him as tiresome and moody.

Musk’s pro-Trump PAC has already landed in hot water in Michigan and North Carolina for allegedly collecting personal information under the guise of voter registration, although lawyers for the PAC wrote letters assuring state investigators that “America PAC is utilizing the data it collects to register voters and encourage them to vote.” It doesn’t seem like either state will take immediate action against Musk’s PAC, but both said that they will continue to monitor the group.