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Mike Johnson Makes Patently False Claim About Government Shutdown

The man who sent everyone home insists they’re working “around the clock.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson gestures while speaking at a podium
Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

How can House Speaker Mike Johnson say this with a straight face?

Speaking at a press conference Monday, Johnson claimed that Democrats had created a “red herring” by choosing to “pick a fight” over health care.

“Let me look right into the camera and tell you very clearly: Republicans are the ones concerned about health care,” the Louisiana Republican said. “Republicans are the party working around the clock everyday to fix health care. We’re not, this is not talking points for us: We’ve done it.”

Johnson claimed that a “big part” of President Donald Trump’s behemoth budget bill, which passed in July, would “fix health care.”

“The quality of care needs to rise. We need more access for more people, and we have lots of ideas to do that. But that issue is for debate in the next three months, it always was. We have members working on that,” Johnson said.

Last week, the federal government came to a partial standstill over a Democratic proposal to extend tax credits for the Affordable Care Act that were set to expire at the end of the year. An estimated 5.1 million Americans will lose their insurance by 2034 if ACA funding expires at the end 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Johnson and other Republicans have run themselves ragged claiming that extending the subsidies would grant undocumented immigrants access to federal funds—which they are not eligible for, and never have been.

In reality, the Republican plan to “fix health care” would leave millions of Americans without it. The GOP-crafted spending bill passed in July is projected to cut $1.1 trillion from the Medicaid and ACA marketplace by 2034, as well as impose higher work requirements for able-bodied adults to receive Medicaid, increase the rate of Medicaid redeterminations, and eliminate eligibility for lawfully present immigrants such as asylum seekers and refugees. The CBO predicted that Trump’s “big beautiful bill” will leave an estimated 10 million more people without health insurance in 2034.

Last week, Johnson struggled to downplay just how much glee Trump was taking in preparing sweeping cuts to the federal workforce amid the government shutdown.

Read more about the shutdown:

Stephen Miller’s Own Cousin Calls Him the “Face of Evil”

Alisa Kasmer says Stephen Miller has betrayed all of their family values.

Stephen Miller in the White House
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Stephen Miller’s own cousin called the White House deputy chief of staff “evil” and a disgrace to his family.

“I am living with the deep pain of watching someone I once loved become the face of evil,” Alisa Kasmer, Miller’s cousin, wrote in a July Facebook post that resurfaced over the weekend.

Written in the weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement received a slush fund in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending plan—and as ICE raids ramped up against immigrants in Los Angeles, where Kasmer lives—her post lamented how the United States under Trump has directed its vast resources against “the hardest workers, the most vulnerable, the ones who carry this country on their backs.”

“This is not by accident,” Kasmer wrote, “but by design. Your design, Stephen.”

Kasmer, who used to babysit Miller, described now being estranged from her cousin, as she refuses to “knowingly let evil into my life.”

Immigrant communities in the entire country are “terrorized by the cruelty you have brought upon us all,” she told her cousin.

People “always” ask “what happened” to Miller, Kasmer noted. “I can only surmise it was a perfect storm of ego, fear, hate, and ambition.”

Kasmer also expressed regret for having not intervened in her cousin’s political development. She and her sister would have done so, she said, if they had seen the “horrific videos of [Miller] in high school,” she wrote. (Clips from Miller’s high school days show him telling classmates that “torture is a celebration of life and human dignity,” and decrying “being told to pick up my trash when we have janitors.”)

Miller, Kasmer added, is guilty of betraying his background—both because “immigrants were a part of your upbringing” and because “we were raised Jewish.”

“We celebrated holidays each year with the reminder to stand up and say ‘never again,’” she wrote, referencing the lessons of the Holocaust. “But what you are doing breaks that sacred promise. It breaks everything we were taught. How can you do to others what has been done to us? How can you wake up each day and repeat the cruelty that our people barely escaped from?”

This isn’t the first time one of Miller’s family members has renounced him. During the first Trump administration, in which Miller spearheaded the president’s “Muslim ban” and family separations, his uncle David Glosser penned an editorial for Politico, recounting their family’s immigration history and describing how Miller had “become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country.”

“Dozens of family members “encouraged me to push forward with this,” Glosser said.

Illinois Sues Trump Over Blatantly Unconstitutional Troop Deployment

Americans should not live under threat of military occupation, Illinois says in its lawsuit.

JB Pritzker holds a press conference with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and other political leaders.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago sued the Trump administration on Monday over its decision to send hundreds of National Guardsmen into the streets of Chicago.

“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor. To guard against this, foundational principles of American law limit the president’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs. Those bedrock principles are in peril,” the suit reads.

The lawsuit—filed against President Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Homeland Security Secretary Kritsi Noem—comes just two days after Trump announced he authorized 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to deploy to Chicago, a move Illinois Governor JB Pritzker likened to an “invasion.” An Oregon judge on Sunday blocked Trump’s National Guard deployment to Portland.

The Illinois lawsuit will be overseen by Judge April Perry, a Biden appointee.

“Trump and Noem have sent a surge of SWAT-tactic trained federal agents to Illinois to use unprecedented, brute force tactics for civil immigration enforcement; federal agents have repeatedly shot chemical munitions at groups that included media and legal observers outside the Broadview facility; and dozens of masked, armed federal agents have paraded through downtown Chicago in a show of force and control,” the suit reads. “There is no legal or factual justification for Defendants’ Federalization Order.”

Trump himself has promised to use American cities as “training grounds” for the military. These legal challenges from governors may be the strongest anti-authoritarian tactic Democrats have right now, as both California and Oregon have put forth similar lawsuits.

This story has been updated.

Supreme Court Tells Laura Loomer to Shut Up Already

The Supreme Court refused to hear the far-right commentator’s censorship case.

Laura Loomer holds up her phone
John Lamparski/Getty Images

The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a lawsuit from President Donald Trump’s favorite far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alleging a coordinated effort to knock her off of social media platforms.
In her lawsuit, Loomer alleged that multiple social media platforms had engaged in an organized campaign to keep her off of social media, after she was banned from Twitter (now called X) in 2018 for “hateful” conduct. In 2019 Facebook removed her for being a “dangerous individual” and in 2020 they allegedly blocked her political advertisements.
Loomer alleged that so-called censorship by social media platforms had undermined her failed congressional campaigns in 2020 and 2022 in Florida’s 12th and 11th districts. “Loomer had no social media for any of her campaigns due to social media bans,” her lawyers wrote in their petition.
Defendants included X, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Meta, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Procter & Gamble, and dozens of federal employees. She alleged the defendants conspired “with Google, YouTube, and Instagram, to unlawfully censor conservative political speech, specifically targeting Loomer’s campaign communications to influence U.S. congressional elections.”
She alleged that Procter & Gamble told Meta to ban a list of individuals, including Loomer, unless they “publicly disavowed affiliation with the Proud Boys,” the violent white nationalist hate group. Loomer also claimed that federal officials had made efforts to “suppress conservative content,” specifically naming the 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was temporarily demoted on Facebook while fact-checkers worked to assess the validity of the story.
Lower courts were less than convinced that the companies and individuals Loomer named had violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. A federal judge dismissed her suit, and an appeals court agreed, ruling that Loomer “simply alleges that there was a RICO enterprise because the Defendants had the ‘common goals of making money, acquiring influence over other enterprises and entities, and other pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests.’”
In July, she took her Supreme Court to hear her case, and on Monday, the high court denied her petition. The Supreme Court order Monday also made clear that “Justice Alito took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.”
Trump’s self-appointed “loyalty enforcer” currently enjoys sweeping powers from the safety of her X account, which was reinstated after Elon Musk bought the platform. An analysis by The Daily Beast found that at least 16 individuals were fired from the federal government after Loomer singled them out as covert Democratic agents.
This story has been updated.

Dem Senator Slams Van Jones Over Vile “Dead Gaza Baby” Joke

At least one politician is brave enough to call out Van Jones after his sick comments.

Van Jones attends "The Morning Show" premiere and smiles for the camera while adjusting his glasses.
John Nacion/WireImage

Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen called out political commentator Van Jones for his grotesque “dead Gaza baby” joke on Real Time with Bill Maher.

“This is not about critical race theory on college campuses, this is about Iran,” Jones said while claiming that information about Israel’s genocide of Palestinians is all just Iranian propaganda. “Iran and Qatar have come up with a disinformation campaign that they are running through TikTok and Instagram that is massive. If you are a young person, you open up your phone and all you see is ‘dead Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby—Diddy—dead Gaza baby, dead Gaza baby.... That’s not DEI, that is a geopolitical adversary that is deliberately trying to divide the West against itself.”

The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.

Jones was widely rebuked, perhaps most pointedly by Van Hollen.

“I’m glad Van Jones apologized for his sick joking about dead kids in Gaza. But the problem goes deeper: he spread Netanyahu propaganda that the mass killings of civilians in Gaza—including 20K+ kids—is Iranian fake news,” he wrote on X. “It’s not the students and young people who are fooled. It’s Van Jones.”

Calling Palestinians using social media to broadcast their own genocide a disinformation campaign is stupid and disgusting, especially given how hard it is to share that information in the first place. Jones later offered a half-hearted apology, but the damage was done.

“I’ve watched hundreds of hours of Gaza videos in the last 2 years, including content filmed by our brave teams inside the strip, and can confirm that the ‘dead Gaza baby’ images are quite real, not the product of a ‘disinformation campaign’ and that there is nothing funny about them,” NBC News’s Hala Gorani said.

“Turning ‘dead Gaza baby’ into a punchline is such an evil choice that I’m struggling to even engage with the outrageous lie that we only care about Gazan deaths because of an Iranian social media campaign,” Briahna Joy Gray chimed in. ​​

Others pointed to Jones’s history of leftist performance—making a 2003 pro-Palestinian rap album, starting a Maoist, Marxist-Leninist collective in San Francisco in the 90s—to show how spineless his current rhetoric is.

As for Van Hollen, his condemnation of Jones is unfortunately one of very few instances of U.S. leadership on either side showing any ounce of courage in speaking up against Israel’s genocide. And while words won’t make Israel’s bombs stop dropping on Gaza, Van Hollen shows that the bright line on fealty to Israel is deteriorating.

Trump Tells the Navy to View Half the Country as the Enemy

Donald Trump is determined to turn the military against the American people.

Donald Trump speaks at a podium during an event for the Navy's 250th anniversary
Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images

President Donald Trump lashed out at Democrats during a wildly political speech that made the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary all about him.

Speaking to a massive crowd at the Norfolk Naval base Sunday, Trump seemed to forget he wasn’t on the campaign trail anymore and veered off into attacks against his opposition.

Trump warned that, “We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats.”

“They want to give all of our money to illegal aliens that pour into the country. And you know, I have a bigger heart than they do, but the problem is when you do that, they come in by the millions. Everybody wants that, so you can’t do it,” Trump said, before bragging about how much money he’d poured into the armed forces.

It almost goes without saying, but Trump’s highly political comments are out of step with the U.S. military’s tradition of nonpartisanship. And for the second time in a week, the president seemed intent on turning his armed forces against half of the country.

Last week, when speaking to a gathering of top U.S. military brass, Trump delivered a diatribe against the Democrats, which was met mostly by silence. He ranted that the United States was “under invasion from within.”

Now, calling the Democrats a “gnat” to be swatted away is just the latest in a long line of dehumanizing rhetoric from the president. He’s also called his opponents “vermin,” and “the enemy within,” and recently referred to Democrats as “The Party Of Hate, Evil, And Satan.” All while blaming the rhetoric of the left for a spate of political violence.

Supreme Court Kills Ghislaine Maxwell’s Desperate Appeal

The Supreme Court is not interested in saving Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice.

Supreme Court justices
Alex Wong/Getty Images

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, who was hoping the court would reverse her convictions for her role in helping the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein abuse young girls.

Maxwell’s convictions and 20-year criminal sentence remain in place, after the Supreme Court declined certiorari, meaning fewer than four of the nine justices voted for the Supreme Court to review her case. The decision came with no dissent or explanation.

Maxwell and her legal team had argued that she should have been protected from federal prosecution because a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in Florida shielded his “potential co-conspirators” from charges.

“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” said Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus. “But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”

In July, Markus requested that Maxwell receive clemency from President Donald Trump.

This story has been updated.

Judge Who Ruled Against Trump Finds Her Home Burned to the Ground

The judge had also received multiple death threats in the days leading up to the fire.

Smoke billows from a burning house by the water.
Screenshot/X

A South Carolina Judge who recently ruled against the Trump administration had her house go up in a massive cloud of flames on Sunday. 

Judge Diane Goodstein’s home can be seen in a video engulfed in a gargantuan cloud of smoke and fire. Three people were injured, including Goodstein’s son as well her husband, former state Senator Arnold Goodstein, who had to jump out of the window while fleeing to safety. The judge herself was not in the home at the time of the incident. Authorities have yet to determine what the cause of the fire was, and there is currently no evidence of foul play. 

However, the timing of this accident is rather peculiar. Goodstein recently blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to access South Carolina’s voter registration database in their effort to exert greater control over elections. Goodstein’s decision was later overturned, and she was called out directly on X by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.   

Goodstein also received death threats for weeks before the fire, according to Time magazine. And just days ago, Trump adviser Stephen Miller wrote that there is “a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country” that is “shielded by far-left Democrat judges.” 

Even as police continue to investigate, it’s hard to ignore that this judge’s home burned down in the midst of an executive effort to publicly shame and isolate judges the administration disagrees with. Many judges have made it clear that they feel a ruling against Trump, no matter how principled, makes them a target.     

Stephen Miller Loses It After Judge Blocks Portland Troop Deployment

The Trump adviser can’t stand judicial independence, apparently.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller talks to reporters.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is decrying the notion that the president sending troops into American cities is subject to judicial review.

Over the weekend, U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut temporarily blocked the administration from deploying National Guard troops to Oregon.

The Trump-appointed judge—whom the president has mistakenly referred to as a man—first blocked the deployment of Oregon’s National Guard, before blocking that of all states’ National Guards for two weeks. Oregon, Immergut said, would “suffer an injury to its sovereignty” once “the federalized National Guard deploys to Portland.”

An enraged Miller took to X just after midnight on Monday to post a screed against the ruling.

The president, Miller claimed, has “undisputed authority” to “deploy troops, stationed in any state, to defend a federal facility” from what he called “domestic terrorism or violent assault.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Miller added, is facing a “violent armed resistance designed to incapacitate the essential operations of the duly-elected federal government, by force.”

“A district court judge has no conceivable authority, whatsoever, to restrict the President and Commander-in-Chief from dispatching members of the U.S. military to defend federal lives and property,” Miller wrote, calling the ruling an “egregious and thunderous” violation of “constitutional order” and an attempt to “nullify the 2024 election by fiat.”

The statement was consistent with Miller’s habit of referring to political activity he doesn’t like in hysterical terms, perhaps to establish a pretext to crack down on Republicans’ political opponents.

Notably, the federal judge that drew Miller’s ire dismantled his and the Trump administration’s alarmist descriptions of Portland as a war-torn hellscape.

While the president has said Portland is so “war-ravaged” as to require the National Guard, Immergut said this was “simply untethered to the facts.” Protests at an ICE building in Portland—which Miller said are akin to “violent armed resistance”—have actually been “small and uneventful” on the whole, the judge noted, and nothing that “the regular forces” such as Federal Protective Services can’t handle.

Immigration Agents Handcuff Democratic Lawmaker at Hospital E.R.

Federal agents handcuffed Chicago Alderman Jessie Fuentes as she stood in the emergency room, not resisting.

Alderman of Chicago's 26th Ward Jessie Fuentes speaks on a microphone while at a rally.
Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for One Fair Wage

A progressive member of the Chicago City Council was detained Friday after pressing federal agents about the due process rights of a detainee being held in a hospital within her ward.

Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes told reporters she had gone to Humboldt Park Hospital upon hearing that a roughly 37-year-old man—who was being chased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an operation in the neighborhood—had fallen, broken his leg, and was taken to the hospital by the agents.

The agents, whom she identified as ICE, were not letting the man speak with lawyers, Fuentes said. A video of the incident, which begins amid a back-and-forth between the elected official and two agents, was shared on Fuentes’s Facebook page.

The footage begins with Fuentes stressing that the detained man has constitutional rights, to which one agent replied, “No. No.” The alderperson asked whether the agents had a signed judicial warrant for him.

“You need to leave,” the agent answered, threatening to arrest her. The other agent, a masked man, told Fuentes, “You are going to be placed under arrest—”

Before he could finish, his partner violently yanked Fuentes’s arm with both hands, turned her around, and placed her in handcuffs. A woman behind the camera can be heard saying, “This is an alderperson who is being [placed] under arrest!”

While being handcuffed, Fuentes inquired repeatedly about a warrant for the injured man, and seemingly told the men the handcuffs were hurting her. She emphasized that she had not touched the agents, and the man who handcuffed her said she was “under arrest for impeding.”

“That man has constitutional rights,” Fuentes repeated, before the masked agent brought her to the exit door. “I did not touch you. It is a public space. I am not trespassing. I am asking you: Do you have a signed judicial warrant?”

The masked agent eventually replied that he did not need a warrant.

At a press conference, Fuentes said she was ultimately brought outside, where Border Patrol agents were going to put her into a vehicle. However, she was released from her handcuffs, she said, upon asking, “What law did I break, outside of exercising my constitutional right to ask if they had a signed judicial warrant?”

According to Block Club Chicago, a local news site, Fuentes was told she would be arrested if she reentered the building.

Fuentes told the press that this is “not the first incident” of its kind, but “common practice,” as “ICE has been taking individuals into hospital rooms, into emergency rooms, because people are harmed while ICE is trying to detain people in the city of Chicago.”

“What ICE is doing is exercising violence,” she said, “physical violence on the people of Chicago.”