13 Senate Democrats Vote to Advance Trump Nominee During Shutdown

Thirteen Senate Democrats voted alongside Republicans Tuesday to instate a conservative judge to the Northern District of Alabama.

The Senate voted 66–32 in favor of confirming Harold “Hal” Mooty III as a U.S. district judge. Donald Trump nominated Mooty last month, and his confirmation needed a simple majority in the Senate.

The Democrats that voted in favor include:

• Senators Chris Coons (Delaware)
• Dick Durbin (Illinois)
• John Fetterman (Pennsylvania)
• Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire)
• Martin Heinrich (New Mexico)
• Tim Kaine (Virginia)
• Mark Kelly (Arizona)
• Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota)
• Jack Reed (Rhode Island)
• Adam Schiff (California)
• Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
• Peter Welch (Vermont)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island)

Maine Senator Angus King, a political independent, also voted to confirm Mooty. Senators Tammy Duckworth and Thom Tillis, a Republican, did not vote.

It’s the first serious order of business that the upper chamber has conducted since the government shutdown 21 days ago.

Mooty will join a growing faction of federal judges who have symbolically pledged their allegiance to Trump. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September, Mooty made his ideological stances known by refusing to provide a direct answer as to who won the 2020 election.

“Our system of government determines who won an election to the office of president of the United States by who is certified as the winner based on the Electoral College vote,” Mooty said at the time, when pressed on the issue. “This process resulted in Joe Biden serving as the forty-sixth president of the United States.”

He similarly skirted answering questions pertaining to the Capitol riots on January 6, repeatedly claiming that it “would not be appropriate” to answer such inquiries as a judicial nominee.” However, his response wavered on the perspective of January 6 in the national recollection.

“I denounce any and all acts of violence against law enforcement and government officials; however, the characterization of the events of January 6 is subject to ongoing political debate,” Mooty said.

Mooty’s queried understanding of the Twenty-Second Amendment—and its power limiting a president to just two terms—was similarly concerning.

“As written, the Twenty-Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution currently limits any president to two terms in office,” Mooty said in September.

Three more roll-call votes are scheduled for Tuesday, including motions to invoke cloture on the appointment of Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe to be U.S. district judge for the Middle District of Florida and William W. Mercer to be U.S. district judge for the District of Montana.

If cloture is invoked, the Senate will proceed to a vote to confirm Gaylord Moe at 5:30 p.m. E.T., according to Senate Republican cloakroom staff.

President Donald Trump is facing backlash from American ranching groups after he said Sunday that the United States may “buy some beef from Argentina” in order to “bring our beef prices down.”

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins confirmed Tuesday that Trump is “in discussions with Argentina”—with more details to come—though she claimed that not “very much” beef would be imported, in part due to a “foot-and-mouth disease issue” facing Argentina.

Or perhaps she made the addendum because of the outrage the Trump administration has been facing.

Trump’s proposal to take in Argentine beef has stoked fears about depressed domestic beef prices among cattle ranchers and industry groups. And it’s salt in a fresh wound, as farmers are already displeased with the administration’s multibillion-dollar lifeline to Argentina under Trump ally President Javier Milei—a move that benefited a major agricultural competitor as American farmers suffer under Trump’s trade policies.

Farm Action, an agricultural watchdog group, called the plan “a betrayal of the American rancher,” lamenting that, “after crashing the soybean market and gifting Argentina our largest export buyer, [Trump is] now poised to do the same to the cattle market.”

The National Farmers Union similarly observed that Trump “recently bailed out Argentina with $40 billion in U.S. taxpayer-backed aid, and Argentina’s response was to strike new deals selling soybeans to China—deals that hurt American crop farmers. The last thing we need is to reward them by importing more of their beef.”

“Increasing imports under current rules ultimately benefits foreign suppliers and multinational packers, while putting U.S. ranchers on the losing end and depriving American consumers of honest transparency at the meat counter,” said the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association in a statement, which went on to warn that Trump’s approach “weakens our industry’s foundation and undermines rural America.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation urged Trump “to carefully consider the damage importing more beef and cattle from other countries will have as cattle farmers decide whether to invest in rebuilding America’s herds.”

“This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices,” said the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which called on Trump “to let the market work, rather than intervening in ways that do nothing but harm rural America.”

When asked by a reporter on Sunday to address U.S. farmers who feel they are being stiffed, Trump grew testy and condescending. “Argentina is fighting for its life, young lady,” he told the journalist. “You don’t know anything about it.” Having aggrieved major ag groups, the president will need a more convincing answer.

House Speaker Mike Johnson won’t stop lying through his teeth about Arizona Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva—and Democrats are calling him out.

New York Representative Pat Ryan slammed Johnson Monday for using him as an excuse for delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in, and accused him of attempting to block a House vote to release the government’s files on alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

During a press conference earlier Monday, Johnson claimed he was simply following the precedent set by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had waited 21 days to swear in Ryan in 2023—but unlike Grijalva, Ryan had requested that date specifically.

“Hey Mike—if you’re gonna keep invoking my name, at least get the facts right,” Ryan wrote on X. “No one CANCELLED scheduled votes to delay my swearing-in. You’re deliberately cancelling votes to protect pedophiles and take away health care from the American people.”

Notably, the Louisiana Republican swore in special election winners during pro forma sessions in April, but he has refused to do so with Grijalva, who is poised to provide the deciding signature on a bipartisan petition for a vote to release the Epstein files in full.

Ryan wasn’t the only Democratic lawmaker to pull apart Johnson’s lies.

Speaking on CNN last week, Johnson snidely suggested that Grijalva should stop posting political “stunt” videos about him and get to work. “She should be taking constituent calls, she should be directing and helping them navigate the crisis her colleagues have created for her constituents,” he said.

But Minnesota Representative Kelly Morrison pointed out Monday that by not swearing her in, Johnson was preventing her from doing just that.

“Unlike Mike Johnson, I actually spoke to Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva this week,” she wrote on X. “She does not have access to an official website for constituents to receive updates, an office phone number for constituents to call, or a Congressional email to receive news like the rest of Congress.

“Why? Because until Johnson swears her in, she is not a member of Congress,” she wrote.

Before Russell Vought became the director of the Office of Management and Budget, he was Donald Trump’s side project.

In the background of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, the Republican presidential candidate and the Project 2025 architect shared regular calls, though the topic wasn’t always politics. Instead, Trump was fixated on getting the recently divorced Vought laid, reported Zeteo’s Swin Suebsaeng on Tuesday.

Vought’s ex-wife, Mary Vought (of the Heritage Foundation), had left him in 2023. Trump, in turn, appointed himself as Vought’s wingman.

“Trump spoke to Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist who’s now one of the president’s most hardline enforcers, about the ‘gorgeous’ and ‘beautiful ladies’ who roam Trump’s club, Mar-a-Lago, so often that it ‘weirded out’ some of his advisers,” sources told Zeteo.

“And Trump spoke crudely of all the ‘pussy’ that Vought would surely get as the president’s favorite ‘bachelor.’”

The report is a crass and unsurprising illustration of the president, who famously boasted on a hot mic that he grabs women “by the pussy” before millions of Americans voted him into the nation’s highest and most powerful political office for the first time.

But Trump’s gross language doesn’t bode well as his administration continues to bungle the release of the Epstein files.

Prior to his death, pedophilic sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein described himself as one of Trump’s “closest friends.” The socialites were named and photographed together on several occasions and were caught partying with underage girls in New Jersey casinos. Epstein was invited to attend Trump’s wedding to Marla Maples in 1993, and in 2002, Trump told New York magazine that Epstein was a “terrific guy.”

“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump told the magazine.

But Trump also has a terrible track record with how he treats women all on his own. The current president was found liable by a jury two years ago for sexually abusing Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, and was convicted as a felon for crimes relating to his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.

Three police officers in Fairhope, Alabama, took down and arrested a 61-year-old woman at the local No Kings protest for wearing a giant penis costume. 

In a statement posted on Facebook on Monday, Fairhope police said they responded to a complaint Saturday about the penis costume, stating that they “observed an individual in a phallic costume near the Baldwin Square Shopping Center.” They approached Jeana Renea Gamble and told her to take the costume off because it was “deemed obscene in a public setting.”  When she refused, she was tackled to the ground and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. 

A video of the arrest posted on Bluesky captures bystanders yelling at police that she posed no threat.

Indivisible Baldwin County, which was involved in organizing the local No Kings protest, condemned Gamble’s arrest. 

“Ms. Gamble was peacefully expressing her point of view on Saturday. Her violent arrest for expressing herself in ways the police found rude is indefensible, morally and legally,” they said in a statement. “Public officials must take seriously their duty to uphold the First Amendment. Their complete failure to do so in this situation runs against the free expression values that created the city of Fairhope and against the liberty guarantees enshrined in Alabama law and the United States Constitution.”

Gamble is scheduled to appear in court on November 5.