Republican Governor Orders National Guard Deployed to No Kings Protest

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott joined his party’s fearmongering about upcoming nationwide “No Kings” protests, promising to use the National Guard to crack down on hypothetical violence at the peaceful demonstration planned for Austin.

“Today, I directed the Dept. of Public Safety and National Guard to surge forces into Austin ahead of an Antifa-linked protest,” Abbott wrote on X Thursday, referring to the No Kings event scheduled for Saturday. “Texas will NOT tolerate chaos.”

“DPS law enforcement personnel, including state troopers, Special Agents, and Texas Rangers, along with Texas National Guard soldiers, will be surged to the Austin area to maintain law and order,” the governor specified in a statement. “This is in addition to the thousands of DPS troopers already stationed throughout the state. These law enforcement officers and soldiers will be supported by aircraft and other tactical assets.”

Abbott also said the homeland security division of the public safety department will be “actively monitoring” the protest and will “investigate any links to known terrorist organizations.”

Texas Democrats have condemned Abbott’s escalation against a demonstration that, notably, names “peaceful, lawful action” as its “core principle.”

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder accused Abbott of “suck[ing] up to Donald Trump,” saying, “We do not need an unnecessary display of force at the expense of taxpayers on a peaceful protest.” Texas House of Representatives Minority Leader Gene Wu said Abbott’s plan to send “armed soldiers to suppress peaceful protests is what kings and dictators do.”

In response—and stark contrast—to the governor’s announcement, Sophia Mirto, one of the No Kings organizers, told a local news outlet: “We hope that any additional law enforcement agencies deployed by the governor will enjoy our event, live music from local Austin artists, and the hard-working Americans who are joining together in solidarity, celebration and to discover more than 50 organizations working together to make Texas a better place to live.

“We are disappointed that the governor is choosing to spend Texans’ tax money on deploying additional resources to police a nonviolent, First Amendment event,” Mirto continued, “when there are so many Texans in need of housing, transportation, health care, quality education and there are still victims of the devastating July 4 flood right here in Central Texas that need the governor to sign an executive order providing aid.”

After the previous No Kings demonstration in Austin in June, which was circus-themed, the mayor applauded its peaceful nature, saying participants “made their voices heard—and did it in the right way.” The Austin Police Department said it was “largely peaceful,” despite a “small number of agitators”—the most noteworthy incident seemingly being a threat of violence made against lawmakers who participated in the protest.

Ahead of the June event, Abbott also deployed state troopers and Texas National Guardsmen “across the state.” But this time, his actions and rhetoric reflect a broader, preposterous GOP campaign to demonize the benign protests as a dangerous antifa- and terrorist-linked rally.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is not only dragging out Democratic Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva’s long awaited swearing-in ceremony—he’s also treating it as entertainment value.

Republican leadership has refused to swear in Grijalva until Congress returns to its regular session, despite the fact the party swore in a pair of Florida Republicans during a pro forma session just earlier this year.

Johnson brushed off concern about the ongoing delays during an interview with CNBC Thursday, accusing Arizona’s elected officials of simply seeking attention as they fight to instate Grijalva and obtain constitutionally required representation for the Grand Canyon state’s 7th congressional district.

“I’m shocked that another Democrat politician from Arizona is seeking publicity right now,” Johnson snarked to CNBC. “Now the state [attorney general] is involved and she’s going to sue me.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes warned Johnson Tuesday that he was leaving her with “no other choice” than to take him to court for refusing to swear in Grijalva.

“It’s all a farce,” Johnson continued. “Let me tell you what’s happening here. Rep-elect Grijalva was elected after the House went out of session. So I have said this repeatedly: I am delighted to administer the oath to her, as soon as we get back to legislative session.”

The Louisiana Republican then attempted to extort Grijalva’s seat, claiming that the representative-elect could assume her duty as soon as Arizona’s two Democratic senators vote to reopen the government.

“If [Senators Ruben] Gallegos and [Mark] Kelly would vote to reopen the government, we’ll get this thing done quickly,” Johnson said, mispronouncing Gallego’s name.

Grijalva became the first Latina that Arizona has sent to Congress when she won an election to determine the replacement for her late father, Raul Grijalva. She’s also the last signature that the House needs on a petition to force a vote on releasing government documents related to the investigation of deceased pedophilic sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Grijalva’s swearing-in appears to be background noise for Republican House leadership, which is floundering to muster solutions to a gridlock over continuous funding for Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget and its seismic cuts to Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid.

But there’s plenty of precedent for Grijalva to be sworn in even in such complicated circumstances. For instance, the entire House was sworn in during a shutdown in 2019, during Trump’s first term.

Grijalva has already vowed to sign the bipartisan petition advancing the immediate release of the Epstein files. Just four Republicans have penned their signatures on the petition, demanding more transparency from the Trump administration regarding the investigation into Epstein and his potential associates. Those conservative lawmakers include Representatives Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell tripped and fell in the Senate building Thursday, adding another worrying incident to his long list of public health issues.

McConnell, with the help of an aide, can be seen on video walking through the Senate halls while a woman asks him about ICE. 

“Do you support ICE taking working people off the streets and kidnapping them?” the woman asks. Then McConnell abruptly falls to the ground as if he tripped over something. His aide and a police officer help him to his feet, as he turns and waves sheepishly to the woman while saying something inaudible. He then walks away. 

McConnell’s age has long been a catalyst for conversations about gerontocracy and congressional term limits in the U.S. In 2023, he had his infamous freezing moment during a press conference, and colleagues have long noted that he often appears checked out and hard of hearing. 

McConnell is not the first active politician to experience symptoms of age publicly. The late Senator Dianne Feinstein had issues with memory and processing while she was still in office. Senator John Kennedy had a McConnell-like freeze-up just this summer. And of course, former President Joe Biden had countless moments of mental incapacity. That is what happens when you age. But the issue is that all of these folks refused to admit it, and hold onto power for far too long.  

In justifying U.S. escalations against Venezuela and describing its regime as “illegitimate,” a top Trump diplomat on Thursday—in the height of irony—cited a New York criminal case against the country’s president.

Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s U.N. ambassador, was asked Thursday on Fox News about the administration’s plans for Venezuela. Trump recently authorized covert CIA operations against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and has publicly considered conducting land strikes on the country.

Waltz told Fox News that Maduro is an “illegitimate leader, convicted in the Southern District of New York,” adding that the U.S. will “do whatever it takes” to dismantle Venezuelan “terrorist gangs.”

Notably, Maduro was not convicted, but rather charged with narcoterrorism and other offenses, in New York’s Southern District in 2020. He has not been apprehended nor stood trial, and the Trump administration has a $50 million bounty out on information leading to his arrest. (Venezuela’s foreign minister at the time called the charges against Maduro “miserable, vulgar, and unfounded,” and consistent with a U.S. “policy of forced regime change in Venezuela.”)

And of course, if a conviction in New York is such a stigma, as Waltz suggests, then Trump is in deep trouble. Trump became the first felonious president in May 2024, convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by a New York State Supreme Court jury—whose verdict he is appealing.

Waltz, a congressman at the time, cried election interference.

The Arizona Young Republicans clearly don’t understand what was wrong with its members’ frolicsome participation in a racist, Nazi-loving text chain exposed in a gangbusters report by Politico.

The local chapter released a statement Wednesday night in which the organization firmly rejected “any involvement in the ongoing political witch hunt targeting fellow Young Republican members” over the Telegram group chat reported on Wednesday, which was filled to the brim with racism, antisemitism, rape jokes, and other filth.

The statement said that their organization would not stand for “mob-style condemnation driven by political opportunism or personal agendas.”

But it seems members of the Arizona chapter were prolific in the infamous group chat. Luke Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, appears multiple times in the texts. In July, he suggested linking a political opponent to white supremacist groups, by “releasing Nazi edits with her” and “pro Nazi” propaganda.

Rachel Hope, the events chair for the Arizona Young Republicans, replied: “Omg I love this plan.”

“The only problem is we will lose the Kansas delegation,” Mosiman wrote, to which Hope and the two other Kansas Young Republicans laugh-reacted.

Mosiman also made racist jokes, saying that the “Spanish came to America and had sex with every single woman,” and later added, “Sex? It was rape.”

In the statement Wednesday, the group accused critics of “selective outrage” over their leaders’ horrific remarks.

“It is disheartening to see the double standard applied by so many critics,” the statement said, “While certain voices within our own movement have been quick to condemn, many of these same individuals have overlooked or ignored deeply concerning rhetoric and actions on the political left.”

The Arizona Young Republicans seemed particularly pissed that they’d been hung out to dry by the Young Republicans National Federation, which had released a statement “without so much as a single call” to their Arizonan membership. “This lack of communication reflects a troubling disregard for unity and due process, and raises serious concerns about loyalty and leadership within our movement,” the statement said.

In that Wednesday statement, the Young Republicans National Federation called the language “vile and inexcusable,” and said that the behavior of group chat members was “disgraceful, unbecoming of any Republican.”

“Those involved must immediately resign from all positions within their state and local Young Republican organizations,” the statement said.

But this wasn’t the beginning of beef between Arizona and national leadership—and the group chat provided receipts. In June, Mosiman jokingly called for the Young Republicans Federation Chair Hayden Padgett to be raped. Ah, well: nevertheless.

CBS News’s head of standards and practices, Claudia Milne, announced her departure from the network Thursday morning, marking the first exit of a major executive since Bari Weiss became editor in chief.

Milne did not specify her reason for leaving, but said in a farewell message to colleagues that her exit came amid “complicated times” for the company, the industry, and the country.

“I believe our role as journalists is to hold the powerful to account,” Milne said in a copy of the note obtained by Variety. “We are here to question and challenge our political leaders on behalf of our audiences, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative … we must interrogate the social media companies that want to control our attention, the businesses that manage our healthcare and the institutions that shape our education system … and So. Much. More.”

Milne joined the company in 2019 as a managing editor of CBS This Morning, but climbed CBS’s ranks by taking on leadership responsibilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, she was tasked with overseeing a unit focused on deepfakes and misinformation.

Weiss’s takeover at the network has been met with widespread criticism. The anti-woke, pro-Israel grifter was announced as the newsroom’s newest chief earlier this month, despite lacking any experience as a news reporter, working in broadcast news, or running a major news operation.

Her appointment is the just the latest in a string of chaos at CBS. Over the past year, the company has undermined itself by settling multimillion dollar lawsuits with Donald Trump over its fair and accurate coverage, in an apparent bid to butter up the administration for its multibillion dollar merger. That resulted in the loss of two storied showrunners, including 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens and CBS News chief Wendy McMahon, who rejected Paramount’s approach to handling the groundless lawsuit.

The network climate somehow managed to get even hairier last month when Paramount tapped a former Trump adviser, Kenneth Weinstein, to serve as CBS’s ombudsman.

But Weiss’s whopping promotion—and Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of her blog The Free Press—mark the beginning of a radical new era for the historically middle-of-the-road news conglomerate, which once served as the home of some of journalism’s most venerable names, including Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. Weiss is expected to continue the right-wing lurch that’s been ongoing at CBS under the ownership of Trump ally David Ellison.

Senator John Fetterman may be primaried in 2028, and he’s apparently quite butthurt about it.

As Axios reported Thursday, possible contenders are emerging to take on the Pennsylvania Democrat. Elected in 2022, Fetterman flipped a long-held red seat after embracing a progressive image. But while in office, he has turned his back on—and even began lashing out at—the left.

Possible 2028 Democratic challengers, per Axios, include Representative Brendan Boyle and former Representative Conor Lamb, who have both been openly critical of the senator, as well as Representative Chris DeLuzio, who has made a name for himself as a progressive economic populist.

The response from Fetterman, a man known for his volatile temperament, was bitter.

“Enjoy your clickbait!” Fetterman texted Axios. When prompted for a follow-up, he cut off communication, telling the publication, “Please do not contact,” before later sending an article with statistics that he claimed evidenced his anti-Trump bona fides. “ACTUAL NUMBERS,” Fetterman wrote, “less clicks.”

Fetterman’s rightward shift came as he took an increasingly hard-line, almost monomaniacal pro-Israel stance, which, along with an adoption of a more Trump-friendly posture on issues like immigration, seemingly spurred a mass exodus of his staffers.

One ex-staffer is quoted in Mother Jones as calling the senator “Trump’s favorite Democrat.” He has lived up to that label lately in siding with MAGA on the U.S. military’s extrajudicial strikes in the Caribbean sans congressional approval, blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown, and even on whether Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.

House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted Thursday that he has absolutely no clue how to end the government shutdown.

During another daily press conference, Johnson pretended that Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House, had absolutely no say in the fate of the federal government.

“So, many of you have asked all of us, ‘How does it end?’ We have no idea. It’s up to the Democrats, and they have to decide it,” Johnson said. “And judging by their outrageous behavior, the Democrats appear perfectly happy to keep the political theater going while real people suffer.”

But Johnson seemed all too eager to wash his hands of doing the actual work of governance.

Johnson fumed that Democrats had refused an offer from Senate Majority Leader John Thune to get the chamber to vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies, with some reforms, in exchange for reopening the government. But Thune couldn’t guarantee the vote would pass.

“And [Chuck] Schumer said no,” Johnson said, laughing. “That happened. Ask Leader Thune about it. Because they wanted a guaranteed outcome.”

Johnson raged that Republican leaders couldn’t guarantee an outcome, because it was “not possible” for Republicans to build consensus to pass the ACA subsidies until the government was back in session. It was not immediately clear what would be so difficult about that, except that the speaker had sent all members of his own party back to their districts.

Johnson claimed Democrats were holding the American people “hostage” by continuing the shutdown. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has proceeded to gut essential programs, including projects that would create thousands of jobs, and has executed unprecedented layoffs of federal workers.

The speaker ended his address in a huff. “I don’t like being mad Mike, I wanna be happy Mike, I want to be the happy warrior, But I am so upset about this,” he said. “God bless America, we’re done.”

If the ACA tax credits expire at the end of the year, they could knock an estimated 5.1 million Americans off their insurance by 2034.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune—who said he believed that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would “help restore some of the trust in our public health agencies” when he voted to confirm him—now thinks that women should not trust RFK Jr. for medical advice.

MSNBC host Ali Vitali asked Thune on Thursday about the lack of “dissent” within GOP leadership, as the party simply seems to fall in line with everything President Trump decides.

“Is that a healthy party?” she asked of the GOP.

“No, and I don’t think that’s true. I would argue, and I’ve dissented a number of times, just in the last few weeks,” Thune said.

“For example on what?”

“Tylenol, for example. FCC.… Go back and check the record.”

“Do you feel the way RFK Jr. is talking about that is dangerous?”

“Well, I’ve said that I think that if I were a woman I’d be talking to my doctor, and not taking advice from RFK, or any other government bureaucrat for that matter.”

So for the record, the Senate majority leader does not think that American women should be listening to the highest-ranking health official in the country, even though he voted to confirm him on grounds that he would “Make America Healthy Again.” Now, as RFK Jr. sets backward policy on vaccines, destroys the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and tells pregnant women that taking Tylenol will give their babies autism, all Thune can do is shrug and tell them to look elsewhere.

The White House promised to bail out American farmers, but they’re almost out of time.

Donald Trump’s tariffs have devastated the American farming industry from both ends, hurting both supply and demand by raising costs on equipment and fertilizer while nixing key international markets such as China. And now time is running out on how the government could help.

“Farmers are hurting financially,” Kansas Senator Jerry Moran told Politico Thursday. “They’re very troubled, there’s some expectation for help. Emotionally, it would be great for something to happen soon. But financially, they need to be able to go to their bankers and say that help is on the way.”

Last month, Trump said he intended to use the country’s supposedly surplus tariff money to subsidize American soybean farmers, though his concept of how much cash could be infused to America’s food producers was not coherent. Speaking with reporters, Trump mixed up “billions” and “millions,” apparently confused on the specifics of what government funds could amount to actual aid.

And the picture has not gotten any clearer, despite the fact that agriculture industry experts say that the industry needs a commitment in the next few weeks as they figure out how to afford the next planting season. Administration officials have still not finalized an amount to provide in the first wave of agriculture aid, according to Politico. Officials also don’t know how they’d pay for it, or how to deploy it.

“It’s easier to talk about than it is to do,” one official close to Trump told the publication.

The White House has so far blamed the government shutdown for a lack of action, steadily pointing the finger at Democrats (despite laws preventing the executive branch from disseminating that type of partisan rhetoric). But industry experts say that even if the shutdown ended tomorrow, it would still take months to get aid to the farmers who need it most. Failing to meet the moment could cause serious problems for the rest of America, spiking food prices and even challenging production.

“We’re starting to reach that precarious zone of not allowing farmers the tools, the commitments that they need to plan—it’s upon us already, to be honest,” Oscar Gonzales, a top aide to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during multiple presidential administrations, told Politico. “Farmers are going to need something.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is moving forward with a plan to send $40 billion in aid to Argentina.