Tuberville Proves Again He’s Dumbest Senator With Election Fraud Claim

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville thinks that Democratic Senate wins in battleground states are suspicious. 

On Tuesday, Tuberville was on The Sean Spicer Show, a podcast hosted by Donald Trump’s former White House press secretary and communications director. Spicer asked Tuberville how he’d fulfill his promise to be a “legislative sledgehammer for President Trump.”

“One of the things I really want to do is straighten this dang voting up across our country,” Tuberville said. 

“We didn’t get killed downballot, but let me tell you something: Donald Trump pulled out more people to vote for him” than Harris, the Alabama senator added. “And how in the world can some of these senators … receive more votes—the Democrats—than President Trump? It doesn’t add up to how this all went about.”

Trump won the battleground states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona in the presidential election, but Democrats won the Senate races in the latter four states. Though he didn’t come out and declare fraud, Tuberville still hinted that something was off with those results. 

“We need to get this straight: voter ID,” he said. “You know, Kamala Harris won every state that was no voter ID. She did not win one that wasn’t voter ID. So think about that.” (This claim has already been disproven, as Harris did in fact win some states with voter ID laws and Trump won states without them.)  

Tuberville’s claims seem to be sour grapes in an election where Republicans have taken the presidency as well as the Senate, and are close to retaining control of the House of Representatives. Like losing Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde in Wisconsin, Tuberville doesn’t seem to understand split-ticket voting.

Elon Musk has made himself right at home by Donald Trump’s side, much to the chagrin of everyone else in Mar-a-Lago.

The New York Times has reported that the world’s richest man and the president-elect have been absolutely inseparable since the latter’s election night victory. Musk has joined Trump for every meal, interview, golf hole, and political meeting at Mar-a-Lago over the past week, often with his 4-year-old son in tow.

Musk’s role has been bigger than some Trump aides anticipated. He chatted with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey alongside Trump, and plans on meeting with President Javier Milei of Argentina at Mar-a-Lago later this week. The billionaire attended “at least” one national security meeting with Trump and aide Stephen Miller, as well as another meeting on Wednesday between Trump and House Republicans. He’s even helping the Trump transition team vet potential Cabinet nominees.

That’s in addition to his plans to head the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, with Vivek Ramaswamy, which Trump proudly announced Tuesday evening.

Musks’s growing role in the Trump transition coincides with reports that those who actually worked in the Trump campaign have grown tired of Musk’s constant presence. Tech journalist Kara Swisher said that Trump’s inner circle views Musk as the “guest that wouldn’t leave.”

“He definitely inserts himself all the time, that’s his style,” Swisher told CNN on Monday. “I’ve heard from Trump people, calling me saying, ‘Oh, wow. This is odd.’ And it is.”

Politico also reported that those closest to Trump are beginning to see Musk’s presence as a “comical distraction” at Mar-a-Lago. “Elon is getting a little big for his britches,” an insider told the outlet.

Yet as Trump’s largest funder this election cycle, Musk will continue to receive this uninhibited access, even as MAGA loyalists grumble behind the scenes. Only Trump can change that.

Another judge has ruled against a January 6 defendant attempting to have his sentence delayed until Donald Trump is sworn in as president.

On Wednesday, Judge Jia Cobb denied a motion to delay Antonio Lamotta’s sentence. The 2021 insurrection participant was sentenced in September to six months in prison, 24 months in supervised release, and $2,000 in restitution, after being found guilty of a felony and two misdemeanor offenses of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. Citing the possibility of a presidential pardon from Trump after his election victory, Lamotta hoped Cobb would delay his sentence, but the judge said that wasn’t a valid reason, citing legal precedent.

“Defendant has pointed to no authority supporting his request to delay a valid sentence on the grounds that he may receive a presidential pardon in the future,” Cobb wrote in her ruling.

Another D.C. federal judge, Amy Berman Jackson, also denied a January 6 participant’s case on Tuesday, ruling, “The Court is not inclined to postpone the conclusion of this matter based on events that may or may not transpire with respect to some or all of the January 6 defendants at some unspecified date in the future.”

Several January 6 defendants have attempted to delay their trials and sentencing, claiming that Trump will just pardon them anyway after he is sworn in on January 20 next year. Some have even cited Trump’s statements during his campaign in their legal motions. But the D.C. Circuit Court judges in their cases seem unconvinced. On Monday, a Trump-appointed judge, Trevor McFadden, also denied a January 6 defendant’s request to have their trial extended.

There have been over 1,500 federal criminal cases in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, with about 950 defendants pleading guilty and 200 being found guilty at trial. Several cases are still pending, and some may not begin proceedings between now and Trump’s inauguration. If Trump follows through on his promise to pardon some rioters, many of their cases may never see the inside of a courtroom.

Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Donald Trump’s secretary of defense has left many scratching their heads, trying to figure out what on earth qualifies the Fox & Friends host to lead the Pentagon and command 1.3 million active-duty troops.

While Hegseth does have military experience, previously serving as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, he has nowhere near the expertise traditionally required for the role of Defense Department head.

For example, current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin served in the military for 41 years, holding several high-ranking positions as commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq, the army’s vice chief of staff, and commander of U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for all military operations in the Middle East.

Hegseth’s lack of experience isn’t the only reason he would be considered unsuitable for the position. He recently claimed that his orders to guard Joe Biden’s inauguration were revoked after he was “deemed an extremist” due to a tattoo of a Jerusalem Cross on his chest.

Hegseth failed to mention that he also has a corresponding “Deus Volt” tattoo on his arm, a Latin phrase that means “God Wills It” and a white supremacist slogan. Twelve national guard members were reportedly removed from Biden’s inauguration detail after making extremist statements, and according to Hegseth’s own admission, he was one of them.

So it’s not surprising his appointment seems to have left many across the political spectrum unimpressed.

Former Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson seemed simply confused by her former colleague’s appointment.

“From silly diner interviews on Weekend Fox and Friends to Secretary of Defense? I never thought I’d say I’m stunned about any pick after the election but nominating Pete Hegseth for this incredibly important role? Yes he’s a veteran … and?” she wrote Tuesday in a post on X.

Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren also aired her frustration with the appointment. “A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense,” she wrote on X. “I lead the Senate military personnel panel. All three of my brothers served in uniform. I respect every one of our servicemembers. Donald Trump’s pick will make us less safe and must be rejected.”

Former Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger put it bluntly. “Wow. Trump picking Pete Hegseth is the most hilariously predictably stupid thing,” he wrote on X.

Alyssa Farrah Griffin, a former Trump White House aide and current co-host on The View posted that she wasn’t concerned by his lack of military experience but his “lack of policy experience & a lack of Pentagon experience.”

“I’m for a disrupter at the Pentagon but you can’t disrupt an agency you’re not familiar with the inner workings of. The most likely outcome is he’ll be outmaneuvered at every turn by top Pentagon brass,” Griffin added in a separate post.

Upon hearing that Hegseth had been appointed, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, simply said, “Wow.”

In the end, it seems like the president-elect appointed Hegseth because he is a faithful Trump acolyte, and well, he’s on Trump’s favorite television network.

Eric Edelman, who previously served as the Pentagon’s top policy official under George Bush, told Politico that Trump “puts the highest value on loyalty.”

“It appears that one of the main criteria that’s being used is, how well do people defend Donald Trump on television?” Edelman said.

Kinzinger agreed. “Obviously it’s weird, and there’s only one reason he’s doing it, because he’s on Fox News, and you know, that’s what Donald Trump picks based on,” Kinzinger said on CNN Tuesday.

South Dakota Senator John Thune will replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as the chamber’s Republican caucus leader.

Thune won by a margin of five points, securing 25 votes to helm the party. Thune is, in many ways, a natural successor for the role. He has served as the Senate Republican whip since 2019, and has practically managed the Senate floor since McConnell suffered a concussion in 2023.

“I am extremely honored to have earned the support of my colleagues to lead the Senate in the 119th Congress, and I am beyond proud of the work we have done to secure our majority and the White House,” Thune said in a statement after the vote. “This Republican team is united behind President Trump’s agenda, and our work starts today.”

Thune was also the popular choice among Senate Republicans, with colleagues describing him as affable, well liked, and humble, according to The Hill.

But regardless of the plain logistics of Thune’s win, his ascension to the top of Senate GOP leadership serves as an interesting start to Donald Trump’s second term, marking the possibility that the upper chamber will remain an independent entity separate from the president-elect’s whims. Thune is an establishment conservative and longtime McConnell ally who has not always seen eye to eye with Trump. Thune won in two rounds of voting, despite an aggressive lobbying campaign by some of Trump’s key allies, including Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and Charlie Kirk, who claimed Florida Senator Rick Scott would be a better alternative for the MAGA administration.

“Without Rick Scott, the entire Trump reform agenda wobbly,” Kennedy Jr. posted on X last week, responding to a rant by Carlson in which he claimed that Thune and the other man in the race, Texas Senator John Cornyn, “hate Trump and what he ran on.”

Ultimately, the Scott campaign rubbed some Republicans the wrong way, driving a deeper intraparty rift between neoconservatives and Trump’s far-right base. But the secret ballot vote ensured total privacy for a group of senators, many of whom are unthreatened by reelection odds until 2028 or later, to side for or against Trump’s candidate.

Still, Thune passed a Trumpian litmus test Sunday night, quickly bending the knee to the chief Republican’s unusual demand that whoever won the position unequivocally agree to recess appointments and thwart the appointment of Democratic judges.

This story has been updated.