Marco Rubio Is Pissed He Can’t Fire One of His Own Staffers

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was reportedly furious after a rogue aide got himself out of trouble by calling someone high up in President Donald Trump’s team, The Daily Mail reported Thursday.

In late July, Gavin Wax, the chief of staff to the undersecretary of public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department, was reportedly placed on leave after he hosted a group of pro-Kremlin Serbian politicians in an executive dining room. Wax was previously placed under investigation for allegedly assaulting someone inside an elevator at the State Department offices.

In order to save his job, Wax made a Hail Mary call to Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s senior personal counsel, one source told the Mail. The president’s top lawyer stepped in to prevent Wax from being fired, five senior administration officials told the publication.

Rubio was infuriated that he couldn’t fire Wax, and has since made it clear that Wax is not welcome in his department, according to three senior administration sources.

“It signals to everyone else in the department that if you have the ear of someone close to the president, you are untouchable no matter what you do,” one State Department official told the Mail. Wax also has reportedly been able to use Natalie Harp to make inroads with Trump.

President Trump led his fans in a bizarre pledge at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas Thursday night.

“Please raise your right hand. I pledge, to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can’t even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m gonna try and cheat like hell like they do, there’s never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care. I am gonna go out and I’m going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3rd, or we are going to vote before that!” Trump had the whole crowd repeat after him,

It was blatant, cultlike behavior, and Trump’s MAGA base seemed to eat it up. The “cheat like hell” line proves that Trump’s rants about election fraud have always been self-serving, as he doesn’t care about any laws as long as he wins.

The Republican midterm convention got off to a poor start Wednesday, with rows of empty seats at the American Airlines Center outside of Dallas. Trump attempted to make news by pledging to give $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans hold on to Congress after November’s elections, an apparent bribe to get people to vote for him. But that might not be enough, as even some of his most ardent supporters aren’t buying it.

The midterm convention was mocked online as a “Trumpalooza,” with Republicans forced to desperately fill seats at the last minute. It’s a sign that all Trump has left is his small cultlike base, and that may not be enough to save the GOP’s political fortunes in November.

President Trump got in the face of ABC’s Rachel Scott after she asked him a question about the rationale behind his national midterm voter bribe.

“Mr. President, on the checks: The U.S. is still $40 trillion in debt. If your economic policies are working, why do you need an incentive for people to turn out to vote?” she asked Thursday night.

“I didn’t do it for turning out the vote, I did it as a reward for people having to put up with five years and four years of a horrible situation caused by Biden,” Trump replied. “You look at the border, you look at the crime.... It’s almost a reward for the people having to put up with Biden’s policies.”

“But you also offered checks through—”

“Not you. Not you!” Trump snapped, leaning in threateningly close to Scott. “Hey, not you,” he said again with a snarl. “Your network … you’re the worst.”

This is not the first time Trump has crashed out after being asked a tough question by a woman. In April, he yelled “Quiet, quiet, quiet!” at CNN’s Kristen Holmes, calling her disrespectful for asking a pertinent question about U.S. relations with North Korea. He’s lobbed transphobic attacks at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, and last year told Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey, “Quiet, Piggy!” He’s also lashed out at Scott before, calling her “stupid” after she dared ask about gas prices.

His angry response to Scott yet again displays his disdain for female journalists and his lack of preparedness for even the most straightforward questions.

While giving remarks at the National Medal of Honor Museum in Texas Thursday, President Trump complained to a room full of medal recipients that he can’t have one.

“The thing I really want is I want for myself a Congressional Medal of Honor, and I’ve studied it and I will give it to myself. I have no problem, but I’m not allowed to. Can you believe it? The one thing I’m not allowed to do,” Trump said to laughter from the audience, which included 15 of the 65 living recipients of the honor. “I would give myself, so it would make it instead of 15, we’d have 16.”

After making jabs at the “fake news media” for always taking his sarcastic remarks and claiming that he actually wants a medal, Trump quipped “I’m only kidding” before adding, “Actually, I’m not kidding, I would like to.... I can think of no other thing.”

It’s a crass statement to make to recipients of the highest honor in the U.S. military, given to troops “who distinguish themselves through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.” Trump has never served in the military, dodging the Vietnam draft with a mysterious medical exemption for bone spurs. He later remarked that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases while dating around was like “being in Vietnam.”

But the president has never seen a trophy or award that he didn’t want, regardless of whether he deserved it. At a 2016 rally in Virginia, he accepted a (possibly fake) Purple Heart, given to soldiers wounded in combat, from a veteran. “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart,” he said while showing off the medal to the crowd. “This was much easier.”

Despite his desire for these kinds of awards, Trump has repeatedly disrespected wounded or deceased veterans and their families. He infamously insulted Khizer and Ghazala Khan, who lost their son in Iraq in 2004, and in 2015 attacked Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, saying, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

In his first term as president, Trump referred to U.S. soldiers who died in World War I as “suckers” and “losers,” and wanted soldiers who had lost limbs in their service hidden from public view during a proposed military parade. His recent treatment of soldiers serving in his war with Iran, with long deployments, supply disruptions, and other poor conditions only adds to the evidence that he doesn’t really care about military service members, and wants their honors without any effort or sacrifice.

The city of Denver—along with multiple Latino civil rights groups—on Thursday sued Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the Trump administration to stop them from allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to serve immigration warrants at polling sites.

While Mullin has denied that ICE would be monitoring voting booths this election, he was concrete about agents having the right to be there if there was a “threat to that polling place” or “we’re serving a warrant.” Denver argues that even that violates 18 U.S. Code § 592, a Civil War-era law which blocks armed forces from patrolling polling locations.

“The right to vote, and to do so without fear of intimidation, is fundamental to our democracy and to being an American,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in a press release. “Stationing ICE agents near polling places is only meant to scare people and suppress votes. We’ll fight tooth and nail to prevent it.”

Federal agents have already been reported at polling places in New York, California, and Texas, as Trump continues his attempt to use baseless claims of widespread voter fraud as a means of fully controlling—or postponing—the midterm elections.

“The presence of federal force at the polls interferes with the smooth administration of elections at the local level,” the lawsuit reads. “It disrupts voting and makes it more difficult for state and local election officials and law enforcement to do their jobs by making polling places spaces of confrontation.”

Other parties in the lawsuit noted that the presence of federal agents would have a chilling effect on Latino voters, potentially stopping many from showing up at all.

“Sending armed ICE officers to polling places is not immigration enforcement — it is voter suppression, plain and simple,” UnidosUS President & CEO Janet Murguía said. “All Americans—including Latino voters—have a constitutional right to cast their ballot without fear of interrogation, detention, or family separation. This case is about protecting voters, preserving confidence in our elections, and ensuring that every eligible voter can participate free from intimidation.”