Panicking Lindsey Graham Scrambles to Distance Trump and Mark Robinson

Representative Lindsey Graham flailed while trying to help Donald Trump distance himself from North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson.

Within 24 hours of the bombshell report last week alleging Robinson had left inflammatory and explicit comments on a pornography website’s message board, the Democratic National Committee launched a series of digital and billboard ads linking Trump to the North Carolina lieutenant governor.

Graham appeared on Fox News Monday night to try to separate the two and to bail out Trump’s slowly sinking campaign in the Tar Heel State.

“That’s literally their campaign in North Carolina, is trying to make people believe that Donald Trump somehow is involved with Mar—uh with the Robinson guy,” Graham said. He stumbled slightly, appearing to avoid saying Robinson’s first name.

“Donald Trump knew nothing about this. I knew nothing about it. They’re trying to guilt by association,” Graham whined. “If you’re Republican, you own Mark Robinson.”

Later, Graham tried to shame Democrats for going so low as to link Trump to a candidate he has openly endorsed and fawned over for more than a year. (In June 2023, Trump called Robinson “one of the great stars of the party, one of the great stars in politics.”)

“This is really a hit job, it’s unconscionable. And if we did this to them, it would be blowing up the entire mainstream media,” Graham said.

Unfortunately for Graham, Trump’s statements about Robinson are well documented, and that’s exactly what the advertisements are about. The billboard design will feature a photograph of Trump and Robinson standing together, with comments the former president has made about Robinson, according to NBC News.

The former president called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids” during a rally they both attended in Greensboro, North Carolina, in March—a particularly strange comment made even weirder by the fact that Robinson has allegedly called himself a “black NAZI.” During a rally as recently as August, Trump said that Robinson was “a very good man.” Trump has also called Robinson “outstanding” and an “incredible gentleman,” and said things like, “We have to cherish Mark.”

Now it seems that Graham, and by extension Trump, wants to sweep their whole relationship under the rug—but the Democrats aren’t willing to let anyone forget. Meanwhile, Robinson’s staffers are ditching him left and right, and Robinson, who has maintained that he is innocent, is strangely turning down offers from I.T. specialists to help him exonerate himself.

One of the architects of Project 2025, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, apparently killed a neighborhood dog with a shovel because its loud barking was bothering his family.

The Guardian reports that about two decades ago, Roberts was a history professor at New Mexico State University, and told his colleagues and dinner guests that he killed a pit bull belonging to one of his neighbors in 2004.

“My recollection of his account was that he was discussing in the hallway with various members of the faculty, including me, that a neighbor’s dog had been barking pretty relentlessly and was, you know, keeping the baby and probably the parents awake and that he kind of lost it and took a shovel and killed the dog. End of problem,” said Kenneth Hammond, who was chair of the university’s history department at the time.

Two other people who attended a dinner at Roberts’s home, a professor and her spouse, remember hearing a similar story, and three other professors told The Guardian that they remember hearing it from colleagues who heard it from Roberts. All of these people said they didn’t remember Roberts ever saying that the dog was directly threatening him or his family.

Roberts denied killing a dog with a shovel in a statement to the publication, and didn’t respond to questions as to why people said that he had.

“This is a patently untrue and baseless story backed by zero evidence. In 2004, a neighbor’s chained pit bull attempted to jump a fence into my backyard as I was gardening with my young daughter,” Roberts said. “Thankfully, the owner arrived in time to restrain the animal before it could get loose and attack us.”

At the time, the people who heard the story didn’t ask Roberts for any details, finding the story disturbing.

“I think that probably people were not eager to engage with him over this. It sounded like a pretty crazy thing to do and people didn’t want to get into it at that point,” Hammond said.

As the president of the Heritage Foundation, a giant in the conservative world, Roberts has been a major figure behind the Project 2025 manifesto, which provides a right-wing blueprint for a future Republican president. The project has become very unpopular, thanks to its recommended restrictions on the LGBTQ community, reproductive rights, and other conservative policy priorities.

Trump has tried in vain to distance himself from the project but has been unsuccessful thanks to the extensive ties between himself and the Heritage Foundation, especially Roberts. This canine revelation isn’t the first time something damaging has come about the foundation’s president: A disturbing book written by Roberts, Dawn’s Early Light, was delayed because of how bad it could be for Trump, particularly since his running mate, J.D. Vance, wrote its foreword. Roberts was also a member of Opus Dei, a secretive, ultraconservative Catholic organization.

Roberts is scheduled to speak at the New York Times Climate Forward event on Wednesday, where it’s possible that he’ll face questions about his thoughts on loud dogs in addition to Project 2025’s ideas on weakening environmental laws. Trump and Vance hope that their presidential campaign won’t come up.

Donald Trump has a new promise for America’s women. It’s not safeguarding against extreme abortion and reproductive health restrictions but instead a creepy, vague vow to be their “protector.”

“I am your protector, I want to be your protector. As president I have to be your protector,” Trump declared at a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, speaking to women voters on Monday. “I hope you don’t make too much of it,” he added, after perhaps hearing how strange he sounded.

There is a large gender divide in the polls, with Harris leading women voters by a net 21 percentage points, according to an NBC poll released Sunday. Still, Trump pushed back against claims from the “fake news media” that he has an issue getting half of the population to like him. “I always thought women liked me, I never thought I had a problem,” Trump said, as he promised to assure women they would “no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared” and urged them not to worry about abortion rights.

On Saturday, in a post on Truth Social, the former president and convicted rapist posted a similar sentiment. “WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE! YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES.”

Women, themselves, were less impressed.

“Seeing that line ‘I am your protector’ makes me think about the fact that he was found liable for sexual assault,” said Alecia Johnson, senior adviser to Joe Biden’s campaign, on CNN. “The tone was very patronizing to women, and I think there are a lot of women who will see right through it.”

Others on X echoed her sentiment.

It’s no surprise that the man who has dozens of sexual harassment allegations against him, and who called the #MeToo movement “a very scary time for young men in America,” can’t read the room.

Donald Trump pledged to unleash federal law enforcement on “failing” U.S. cities, after promising to end all sanctuary cities in a state where there actually are none.

During a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Sunday, Trump promised to invade American cities with federal forces.

“Today I am announcing a new plan to end all sanctuary cities in North Carolina, and all across our country,” said Trump. “No more sanctuary cities.”

“As soon as I take office, we will immediately surge federal law enforcement to every city that is failing, which is a lot of them,” he continued. “To turn over criminal aliens, and we will hunt down, capture every single gang member, drug dealer, rapist, murderer, and migrant criminal that is being illegally harbored.

“I will ask Congress to pass a law outlawing sanctuary cities nationwide, and we demand the full weight of the federal government on any jurisdiction that refuses to cooperate with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” Trump added.

In sanctuary cities, there are policies in place that limit coordination and information sharing with federal immigration authorities about noncitizens. This allows noncitizens to be able to report crimes, acquire homes and jobs, and participate in society without fear of being deported.

ICE officials are still able to arrest undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities, and if undocumented immigrants commit crimes, they are processed by local law enforcement similarly to how anyone else would be.

Trump has repeatedly and vastly overstated the threat of sanctuary cities. Case in point: North Carolina doesn’t have any sanctuary cities for Trump to get rid of, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative, anti-immigrant think tank. There are a few county-level institutions that have been deemed noncooperative with ICE, but no actual cities.

Trump has previously vowed to militarize U.S. law enforcement to “restore law and order to our cities,” which he claimed have become “cesspools of bloodshed and crime” under President Joe Biden. Trump has argued that additional federal funding and forces would help supplement supposedly defunded police departments—but that the extra help would only go to cities that complied with ICE.

Project 2025 would see Trump take over sanctuary cities and rebuild them to his liking by withholding FEMA funding from states and cities that refuse to cooperate with federal law and immigration enforcement.

Trump’s promise to end sanctuary cities is made even more chilling by his plan to round up and mass-deport noncitizens based on their “serial numbers.”

Donald Trump is demanding the FBI and the Justice Department turn over their investigation into the September assassination attempt at a golf course in Florida to local authorities—namely, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

“The Kamala Harris/Joe Biden Department of Justice and FBI are mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July,” Trump said in an official campaign statement Monday. “The charges brought against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist. It’s no wonder, since the DOJ and FBI have been coming after me nonstop with Weaponized Lawfare since I announced my first Historic Campaign for the Presidency.”

Trump has worked to loop both agencies into a conspiracy, baselessly claiming that they haven’t taken the recent attempts on his life seriously. Meanwhile, at a court hearing on Monday, Justice Department Mark Dispoto told a federal judge that he has plans to bring more aggressive charges against Ryan Wesley Routh, the man who allegedly attempted to take Trump’s life earlier this month, including attempted assassination charges that could land Routh in prison for life.

“The TRUTH would be followed, wherever it leads,” Trump continued. “OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT AND DISCREDITED, especially as it pertains to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. LET FLORIDA HANDLE THE CASE!”

Last week, DeSantis signed an executive order announcing the appointment of a statewide prosecutor to investigate the alleged attempt on Trump’s life. In a statement decrying Routh’s actions as “domestic terrorism,” DeSantis’s office tasked myriad state agencies to expedite their investigation into the attempted attack.

“This deranged would-be assassin broke Florida law, and we will not wait on the federal government to act,” said Attorney General Ashley Moody. “Florida is launching its own investigation, and I have directed my statewide prosecutors to assist FDLE and FHP, as we work quickly to uncover the facts behind this latest attempt on President Trump’s life and provide trust and transparency to the American people.”

North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson rejected multiple offers to connect him with I.T. specialists who could investigate a string of racist and disturbing messages posted on a porn website reportedly under his alias.

The rejection—which allegedly followed another denial for legal assistance—sowed seeds of doubt among his staffers, WRAL reported Monday. The mass exodus from Robinson’s campaign over the weekend, which included the exit of his campaign manager and finance director, could be related to Robinson’s decision to try to cover things up.

On Thursday, a bombshell CNN report revealed that Robinson had written on a pornography website’s message board about his desire to own slaves, peeping in womens’ locker rooms, and enjoying transgender porn.

The comments were made long before Robinson entered electoral politics. CNN connected the account to Robinson via a “litany” of common biographical details and a shared email address. He also used his full name on his site account.

In a meet-and-greet with voters in Wilkes County on Monday, Robinson warned that he’s considered “everything up to legal counsel to take CNN to task for what they have done to us.”

“We are going after them,” he said. “We are not gonna let CNN throw us off of our mission. Our mission is to win this race.”

Some of the former staffers on Robinson’s campaign doubted the veracity of the Hitler-quoting politico’s threat, according to WRAL. But Robinson’s campaign doubled down, insisting that the beleaguered North Carolinian would definitely follow through on suing the news media behemoth.

“That is entirely false,” Mike Lonergan, a spokesperson for the Robinson campaign, told WRAL. “Lieutenant Governor Robinson is in the process of retaining aggressive legal counsel to investigate who did this and how; we will leave no stone unturned, and will use every legal means to hold CNN and whomever else is involved accountable.”

On Friday, Senator Thom Tillis had urged Robinson to follow through on the legal action, fearing that political fallout over the investigative report could hurt Donald Trump’s chances in the battleground state.

“If the reporting on Mark Robinson is a total media fabrication, he needs to take immediate legal action,” Tillis posted on X. “If the reporting is true, he owes it to President Trump and every Republican to take accountability for his actions and put the future of NC & our party before himself.”

Melania Trump got a big check to speak at a political event—but whoever paid it isn’t known to the public.

CNN reported Monday that the former first lady received $237,500 to speak at an April event for the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBTQ group, according to her husband Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure form. But the president of the group, Charles Moran, told the network that the Log Cabin Republicans didn’t pay her.

Melania Trump has rarely appeared publicly during her husband’s 2024 presidential campaign, but has spoken at two political fundraisers held by the Log Cabin Republicans. The other fundraiser was held in July, and an unnamed source told CNN that a request was made to a political donor about another payment. It’s not clear if Trump was paid for that appearance, and the former president has not released a financial disclosure covering that time frame.

Former ambassador to Germany and Trump ally Ric Grenell reportedly made the request on behalf of the former first lady, and has helped her with other business ventures in the past. This kind of payment to a presidential candidate’s spouse to appear at political events is not normal and ethically questionable. If the money came from somewhere other than where the disclosure form states, the former president may be in legal trouble.

The former first lady was paid $250,000 by the Log Cabin Republicans for an event in December 2022, one of three such payments she received that month for speaking appearances. Donald Trump’s disclosure forms show that she made $330,000 in the past year for a licensing agreement for NFT trading cards, and her book, Melania, is due to be released next month.

It seems that Melania isn’t missing any opportunities to make money, similar to her husband. The former president has also sold NFT trading cards, as well as his own branded Bibles and assassination-themed sneakers, and engaged in a cryptocurrency scam. Maybe the first lady wants to make sure she’s financially covered regardless of whether her husband returns to the White House. The question is how ethically questionable the source of her latest benefactor must be for it to be kept a secret.

Donald Trump’s attempt to grab another electoral vote and complicate Kamala Harris’s efforts to win the presidential election may have just hit a wall.

A conservative effort to change how Nebraska awards its Electoral College votes was shot down Monday by Republican state Senator Mike McDonnell, who said he won’t support any changes to the state’s unique system. In a statement, McDonnell said, “After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”

Nebraska is one of two states (the other is Maine) that award one Electoral College vote to the winner in each congressional district and two more votes to the winner of the state’s popular vote. Republicans sought to make Nebraska’s Electoral College votes a winner-take-all system, in an effort spearheaded by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Last week, Graham met with Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen and more than a dozen Republican state lawmakers, including McDonnell, to push a bill that would change the state’s vote allocation system in the Electoral College. Much of Nebraska leans Republican, with the exception of its 2nd congressional district, which includes the Democratic-leaning city of Omaha, represented by McDonnell.

It appears that McDonnell’s opposition will doom the effort, which would have taken away a critical Electoral College vote for Harris and the Democrats. Nebraska’s legislature has 33 Republicans, 15 Democrats, and one progressive, registered nonpartisan. So far, 17 legislators have pledged to vote “no” on changes to the electoral law, including McDonnell, according to the Nebraska Democratic Party. In Nebraska, 33 votes are required to overcome a filibuster.

If Nebraska would’ve changed its electoral vote allocation, it would have pushed Maine to try and do the same to make up for the loss, since it delivered one vote to Donald Trump and three to Joe Biden in 2020. But Maine’s laws prevent any such changes so close to Election Day. It seems that yet another of Trump’s election schemes has been foiled.

Kamala Harris’s campaign doesn’t intend to let Donald Trump simply walk away from his second debate with the vice president. They plan to humiliate him over it. 

The Democratic National Committee has planned a series of static and mobile billboards to follow Trump around the country that attack him for his cowardly behavior, NBC News reported Monday. The billboards depict the former president in a chicken suit beside the words, “There’s no debate: Donald Trump’s a chicken.”

The first billboard is set to appear outside of Trump’s rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Monday. A pro-Harris study group at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where Trump is scheduled to speak, will send inflatable chickens, according to NBC News.  

The DNC’s foray into psychological warfare comes after Harris accepted CNN’s invitation to  appear in another presidential debate on October 23. Trump claimed on Saturday that it was “too late” for another presidential debate because early voting had already begun in some states. 

At a Democratic fundraiser in Manhattan on Sunday, where Harris raised $27 million according to her campaign, the Democratic nominee taunted Trump for avoiding another face-off. 

“My opponent seems to be looking for an excuse to avoid when he should accept,” said Harris. “I feel very strongly that we owe it to the American people and to the voters to meet once more before Election Day and continue the conversation.”

According to polling from the The Washington Post, Harris saw a slight improvement compared to Trump following the debate on September 10. 

In an 2023 interview with The New Republic, George Conway suggested that this kind of localized ad campaign would be the perfect way to make Trump go crazy. “The more he gets attacked the more he will talk about things he shouldn’t be talking about,” Conway said. “I think you could even get him thrown into jail, by running the right ad.”

Donald Trump’s cozy relations with Middle Eastern leaders are causing him to bleed support.

The backlash began after the Republican presidential nominee took to Truth Social Sunday to share some of the details of his recent caucus with foreign heads of state at Mar-a-Lago, reported RawStory.

“It was great seeing my friends His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of Qatar and His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” Trump wrote.

“The Amir has proven to be a great and powerful leader of his country, advancing on all levels at record speed,” he continued. “He is someone also who strongly wants peace in the Middle East, and all over the world. We had a great relationship during my years in the White House, and it will be even stronger this time around!”

But Trump’s MAGA followers weren’t appreciative of his buddy-buddy relations with the Middle Eastern rulers, whom some critics pinned as antisemitic for their country’s positions against Israel.

“Come on President Trump. We luv ya, but I don’t think the hostages and families are thrilled about Qatar hosting the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist freaks!” wrote one user who identified as a “constitutional conservative.”

Other users questioned why Trump would be spending one-on-one time with supposed opponents to the Jewish state when there were still hostages in Gaza. Qatar has been hosting the unsuccessful negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire in Gaza.

“Qatar? Are funding and housing Hamas leaders, WTF are you doing,” wrote another Truth Social user. “You can meet with the devil, but you don’t bargain with him in your home!”

But other users saw the far-right revelation as an early predictor for November, suggesting that such relationships could cost Trump the race.

“Hey Don. You should really start watching your mouth. It’s going to cost you the presidency,” wrote another user on Sunday.