Ken Paxton Flees Press Conference When Asked About His Scandals

Texas Attorney General and Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton was given an opportunity to address two major scandals that stand to derail his chances against Democrat James Talarico in November. Instead of acknowledging them, he ended the press conference and left the room.

“General, I wanted to give you a chance to respond to state Representative Talarico and his campaign,” a reporter asked Paxton while flanked by over a dozen law officers in cowboy hats during a Tuesday press conference. “They’ve made a lot about the reports that have come out, one in The New York Times about you acquiring properties worth—”

“So Jack, can we keep this to law enforcement today?” Paxton interrupted.

“Well, I’m giving you the opportunity to answer the question.”

“We’re here with the sheriffs, I’d like to keep today to law enforcement, so that’s what I’m gonna answer, questions about law enforcement,” Paxton replied.

Paxton was then pressed on a separate scandal just seconds after.

“Will you answer a question about why you voted in Collin County? Clear that up?” the reporter asked, only to be shut down by a staffer immediately while Paxton began to leave, looking visibly uncomfortable.

Paxton refused to answer the questions even as he spoke at a podium with Talarico’s face plastered on it, alongside the caption “Talarico: Handcuffed to his record.”

A Times report last week detailed how Paxton—who has been Texas attorney general since 2015—has acquired 15 properties worth $9 million in states like Utah, Hawaii, Florida, and Oklahoma, all on a government salary while in the midst of both a Senate run and a divorce.

Another ProPublica report from earlier this month found that Paxton, who has echoed Trump’s concern with voter fraud, voted using an address he didn’t reside at in six elections in two years. Paxton didn’t really address those allegations at the time of those reports, and he certainly didn’t do so on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s advisers aren’t so sure that another round of tariffs is a good idea.

According to a report Tuesday by the Financial Times, Trump is preparing to let loose a “barrage” of fresh tariffs on dozens of countries this week, just before his temporary 10 percent global tariff expires on Friday. More tariffs, on top of energy prices already skyrocketing in response to the Iran war, risk “inflaming voter frustration over the high cost of living,” the Times reports.

Trump’s seemingly endless tariff campaign is unpopular with voters across the political spectrum. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll puts Trump’s overall approval rating at just 37 percent, dragged down by his handling of the economy and the war in Iran. Two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of how Trump is handling affordability. Republicans, staring down the fast-approaching midterm elections in November, are shaking in their boots.

Trump, on the other hand, either hasn’t noticed or doesn’t care—just Monday, he announced new 50 percent tariffs against Canada. These tariffs are potentially retaliation for the wildfire smoke that drifted across America’s northern border last week.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein,” the president wrote on Truth Social Friday. “This is Willful Negligence … which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying.” A senior administration official has since denied any relation between the wildfires and the new tariffs.

Even if Trump can’t see it, White House insiders know that another round of tariffs is a bad look.

“Behind the scenes, senior officials have been counseling the president to maintain stability with trading partners and honor the deals that Washington struck with them to reduce their tariffs … according to two people familiar with the matter,” the Financial Times reports.

“If candidates are not talking about the economy, if candidates are not talking about affordability, if they’re not talking about how they’re going to make people’s lives at home cheaper and less expensive, then they’re not talking about the issues that voters care about,” Paul Shumaker, a veteran Republican strategist told The Washington Post Monday.

Republicans know that resurrecting Trump’s trade war, not only with Canada but with the rest of the world, is a recipe for disaster. The question is: Do they have the guts to stop it?

Right-wing, Islamophobic conspiracy theorist and commentator Laura Loomer is on a P.R. tour of Ukraine in a complete departure from her historically pro-Russian, anti-Ukranian rhetoric.

Loomer touched down in Ukraine on Monday, posting herself eating McDonald’s near a destroyed building and heaping praise and defense on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Loomer acknowledged that she previously fell for Russian propaganda. In another post on X Monday, she wrote:

I did say these things about Ukraine and Zelensky and I am not deleting my posts because I’ve realized, I was wrong. I was living in a media echo chamber and I was propagandized by Russian media on social media to believe those things. So I came to Ukraine to see the country for myself. I am going to try to find evidence for the propaganda I’ve been fed, and if I don’t find it, I will let everyone know so they too can come to see the light. On day one, I’ve already seen photos of dead priests in Bucha murdered by Russia and I saw the mass grave where the bodies of murdered Christians were placed after Russia sent forces from Chechnya to massacre innocent people. I spoke with officials who rescue POWs and they showed me photos of Ukrainian POWs who had swastikas engraved into their forehead by Russians.

She noted that she had been lied to about who the real Nazis were. (There are real Nazis everywhere, including in Ukraine, for what it’s worth.)

“Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is everyday for every Ukrainian,” Loomer said in another post Tuesday. “I feel like such an asshole for minimizing the struggle of Ukrainians for the last 5 years. I often said I don’t care. Looking back, that wasn’t very nice of me to say. There are people in Ukraine who have to run to a bomb shelter everyday and some of us had the audacity to say Russia wasn’t wrong because we believed the lie that Ukraine is a country full of Nazi sympathizers. We have been so propagandized by Russia and we don’t even realize it.”

Zelenskiy welcomed Loomer’s visit. “It is really important that [LauraLoomer] is in Ukraine and sees things with her own eyes as they are,” his office wrote on X. “There is no better way to get informed opinion than through personal experience which allows to deal with Russian propaganda.”

This is a radical departure for Loomer, who has spent years attacking Ukraine, and even wrote a few columns for the Kremlin-sponsored Russia Today.

“Zelensky shaking hands with an Islamic terrorist who has murderer US soldiers is another reason to have disdain for [Zelenskiy]. I don’t want any more of my tax dollars going to Ukraine. Ukraine is a country full of Nazi apologists and now it’s clearly a country led by a Jihadi apologist,” Loomer said in a post last year following Zelenskiy’s meeting with Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa, whom she referred to by his nom de guerre, Julani. “Julani is a cold blooded killer. He was wanted by the US for $10 million up until May. He’s a very bad guy who wants a global Islamic caliphate. This is going to backfire spectacularly on everyone who is shaking hands with Julani.”

In another post from 2023, Loomer accused former President Joe Biden of “funding Nazi death squads in Ukraine with US taxpayer dollars.”

“Look forward to your balanced coverage from ‘Kyiv,’” RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan wrote Monday. “To Ms Loomer’s credit, we did enjoy her columns for RT back in the day.”

It’s unclear why Loomer has changed her tune so suddenly, but as an influencer who unfortunately has a direct line of communication to Trump, this may have wider ramifications.

The Trump administration announced that it’s pausing $1 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, accusing the states of widespread fraud. 

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz made the announcement in a press conference Tuesday, accusing recipients of the programs in the two states of “suspected fraud and noncompliance.” 

“If those ​states want that money they need to provide ​documentation that these payments are legitimate,” Kennedy said. 

But as Reuters reported, neither Kennedy nor Oz offered new evidence of fraud. 

President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and multiple administration officials have attacked Democratic-run states in the last few months, accusing them of engaging in widespread fraud when it comes to public services. In May, the White House blocked $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements for California, claiming that the state was not tackling fraud in its home and hospice health agencies. 

Last month, Trump reportedly directed federal agencies to look into how they could block funding for the state of California, and the Federal Emergency Management Association was caught holding up disaster aid to blue states earlier this year. Less than a week ago, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened not only to block federal grants but also to jail state officials in Democratic states that refuse to hand over voter registration to the Trump administration. 

In the past, states have appealed these cuts in court and won. Minnesota and California will likely sue to get their funding back, and they’ll have plenty of evidence that the White House is targeting them for vindictive reasons.  

Within days of pledging that Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund was dead, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has changed his mind.

In written answers provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee following his congressional hearing, Trump’s former personal attorney refused to rule out the possibility that taxpayer funds could, at some point, be redirected as a form of reparations to Trump’s aggrieved political allies.

“Will you issue a memorandum directing DOJ not to enter into any settlement that would result in paying money or issuing an apology to any person convicted of assaulting law-enforcement officers during the January 6 attack on the Capitol?” prompted one question.

“Every claim submitted pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act is reviewed on the merits and addressed by the Torts Branch of the Civil Division,” responded Blanche. “The compromise and/or settlement of any claim is made only in the best interest of the United States.”

But what Blanche chose not to answer on the Senate’s “Questions for the Record” was just as remarkable.

In one exchange, Blanche refused to expound on whether Justice Department officials had discussed potential payouts with convicted January 6ers. Blanche also refused to answer a point-blank question on whether it was “appropriate” to grant Trump and his family criminal immunity. He similarly declined to answer whether he or the Justice Department had pressured officials at the IRS to sign a settlement agreement with the president.

Of course, Blanche’s opinion doesn’t supersede that of a federal judge who found the whole enterprise wildly unlawful. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams nixed the settlement underlying Trump’s slush fund, ruling that the settlement parties—Trump’s IRS and Trump’s attorneys—were never actually at odds when they opted to forgo the president’s $10 billion lawsuit in favor of a massive, taxpayer-funded honeypot.

“The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law,” Williams wrote.