Senate Republicans Double Down On John Thune’s Failed Leadership
'Holding a rushed election ignores the message our voters sent,' Sen. Ron Johnson said of Thune's hasty installment as leader.'Holding a rushed election ignores the message our voters sent,' Sen. Ron Johnson said of Thune's hasty installment as leader.Republicans leave door open for Hegseth impeachment as vote nears
Since his bruising defeat to Trump-endorsed Ed Gallrein, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has been on a warpath against the administration.
Massie's crusade to impeach War Secretary Pete Hegseth for the Iran conflict, Maduro arrest, and boat strikes on suspected drug smugglers is welcomed by Democrats, including likely incoming Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). It's also finding favor among some Republicans.
'I’m a hard Yes on the Hegseth resolution.'
Massie's resolution draws on Democrat rhetoric regarding President Donald Trump's foreign policy. He accuses Hegseth of "kidnapping" former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, slams him for "failure to provide timely rescue for" alleged drug traffickers amid last year's boat strikes, and concludes that the secretary of war is a general "threat to civilians."
The outgoing anti-Trump Republican ends his impeachment resolution by demanding Hegseth be stripped of office and barred from future office by virtue of alleged "high crimes and misdemeanors."
Democrat leadership is all-in on Massie's effort.
“I’m a hard Yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called Secretary of Defense has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe," Jeffries told ABC on Sunday. "Pete Hegseth has got to go.”
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Some Republicans are hopping aboard the impeachment bandwagon.
"Well, you know, I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president if he’s not getting the job done in leading the Department of War," Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) told CBS on Sunday. "That’s the issue."
Hill won midterm re-election by just 1.74 points, down from a 17.86 point victory in 2024.
Four unnamed House Republicans indicated that the impeachment resolution will pass when brought forward, according to Fox News.
"He's screwed," one anonymous representative said.
Other retiring Republicans are using their last days in office to join the pile-on.
“Hegseth doesn’t have a lot of friends on the Hill," Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told Fox News on Thursday. "I do think we could have more qualified leaders.”
“He needs to go, whether it’s impeachment or the most expedient route — just the president to replace him — would be great," outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said in September.
Tillis also called his vote to confirm Hegseth his "biggest regret" in his memoir, "How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents."
In a Sunday interview with Ross Douthat on "60 Minutes," President Trump defended Hegseth's performance and reaffirmed his confidence in the secretary of war.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Blaze News:
“Secretary Hegseth will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists. The Department of War has followed the law and our secretary will continue to stand and fight every single day to support and defend the Constitution, lead our troops, and protect America."
"We will continue to drive President Trump’s agenda at the Department of War — despite threats of sham witch hunts from Democrats — and Secretary Hegseth is 100% committed to leading the department until the end of President Trump’s term in office," Parnell said.
When reached for comment, Massie's office referred Blaze News to a Monday X post doubling down on his impeachment resolution.
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Hey, John Cornyn: I’m So Glad You’re Going
The departure from the Senate of Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, and John Cornyn is addition by subtraction. Music to the ears.North Carolina extends voting hours in mostly liberal areas, denies extension to some pro-Trump counties
North Carolina’s State Board of Elections extended voting hours for three Democrat-heavy precincts and two that swung for President Donald Trump. The board also denied requests from three other counties, two of which swung hard for Trump in 2024.
The State Board of Elections voted Tuesday to extend voting at five precincts in Columbus, Hertford, Lenoir, and Wilson Counties after what Executive Director Sam Hayes called "technical glitches." No unofficial results will post anywhere in the state until the last site closes at 8:15 p.m., the board said.
'These are not indications of malicious activity, and the processes are in place to respond to each scenario.'
Three of those five precincts that got extra time Tuesday went for Kamala Harris by at least 68% in 2024, according to North Carolina State Board of Elections data.
Tabor City received the longest extension. The computer system at the South Williams precinct in the Tabor City Courthouse crashed temporarily, according to the Columbus County elections director. Workers switched to an emergency backup, and no voters were turned away, the director said. The precinct has been allowed to remain open for 45 extra minutes.
In Kinston, printer problems held up the opening of the K8 precinct at Holloway Recreation Center for "about 45 minutes," Lenoir County Elections Director Kristie Smith told the board, Neuse News reported.
The board of elections eventually gave Lenoir County's affected precinct an extra 30 minutes of voting time.
Hertford County received two extensions for 25 minutes at Como Fire and Rescue and 30 minutes at the Murfree Center in Murfreesboro. Wilson's city recreation building got 15.
Anyone who arrives after 7:30 p.m. at the five sites will cast a provisional ballot, per state law.
Hertford is a left-leaning jurisdiction. The county broke 62.9% for Kamala Harris in 2024.
Harris also won Wilson, albeit by a much thinner margin. Columbus went for Donald Trump by 66.6%, and Lenoir broke for him by around 53%, according to NCSBE results.
At the precinct level, things swing a bit further in Democrats' direction, based on that same 2024 voting data.
Harris won Kinston's K8 precinct by a whopping 94.3% for Harris. The former vice president also won Como's and Murfreesboro's affected precincts by around 70% each.
Trump did win south Williams by 63.5%, however.
The State Board of Elections denied Gates, Watauga, and Wilkes Counties' requests for extended voting times, according to the News & Observer. Trump previously won Wilkes and Gates by 79.3% and 60.3% respectively, while Watauga broke 52% in Harris' favor.
In Gates County, the person with the building key showed up late and delayed the start of voting, according to the Carolina Journal. A computer problem also delayed voting by at least 20 minutes in Wilkes County, and a voter had to be escorted in Watauga, which caused a similar delay, according to the outlet.
Hayes told reporters the issues were routine and nothing to be concerned about.
"During every election, minor disruptions arise such as power outages, tabulator issues, printer jams, longer lines than previously anticipated," Hayes claimed, according to the News & Observer.
"These are not indications of malicious activity, and the processes are in place to respond to each scenario," Hayes said.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
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The difference between red and blue states is a winning message for Republicans
Affordability is consistently rated voters’ number one concern in the midterms, but you don’t hear much about it from Republicans.
There is good reason for this. Messaging on the economy and cost of living is tricky: The administration and this Congress have an impressive record to run on and statistics that show people are better off now than they were two years ago. However, making that case risks alienating voters who are dissatisfied with their own economic circumstances and frustrated by easily observable metrics — like the price of gas and groceries — that suggest the economy is treading water at best.
Blue states show what happens when governments are free to make democratic socialist policies reality.
Yet conservatives should not give up and let Democrats sell their half-baked socialist ideas as the real path to great affordability. The opposite is true. Conservatives know that those policies contributed to the economic misery of the Biden administration and that if they gain power, they will only make economic recovery harder.
That’s why conservatives must first acknowledge that geopolitical energy shocks are eroding good progress on prices and then lean into showing where the cost of living in the United States remains the biggest problem and explain why.
This new ad by Independent Women’s Voice and Unleash Prosperity Now does just that. It zeroes in on a chart built from data from the American Presidential Project and World Population Review, exposing the relationship between high cost of living and areas that voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
What it shows is that the higher the concentration of Harris voters, the higher the cost of living — while red areas that most supported Trump enjoy the greatest levels of affordability.
Voters should recognize that those relationships aren’t an accident: States like California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts have pursued high regulation, high tax, high spending policies, and those Democratic policies make life more expensive.
Of course, Americans generally are frustrated by the price of gas and blame U.S. actions in Iran. Yet federal policy and the international scene don’t explain why gas is $6.28 on average in California and just $3.84 in Texas. Nor does it explain why gas prices under Democrats when there was no war were nearly as high as they are now.
Electricity prices tell a similar story, with California residents paying $27.04 per kilowatt-hour while Texans pay $9.79.
Same with housing: The average California house costs a jaw-dropping $761,538 compared to $296,424 in Texas. Sure, part of that is attributable to California’s unrivaled natural beauty, but it also reflects policy decisions that have made the state uniquely and needlessly expensive.
Blue states embrace restrictionist policies not just on energy, but on housing and business climates that make it more expensive for businesses to operate and citizens to live. Heavy regulations, high minimum wages, and union rules make everything cost more.
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Blue states tax their citizens more and have bloated government bureaucracies that discourage innovation and slow everything down. Blue states have also disproportionately tolerated fraud, crime, and illegal immigration, which burden state governments and taxpayers, as well as diminish the quality of life.
That’s why affordability is such a big problem, particularly in blue states. And it’s those same policies — and worse — that Democrats running for Congress and governorships are proposing today, and which would inevitably send America in the wrong direction.
In contrast, this administration and Congress have advanced policies designed to make life more affordable for everyone. Every taxpayer benefits from the provisions in the Working Families Tax Cuts that enabled people to keep more of what they earn, whether it was tips, overtime shifts, Social Security benefits, or higher child tax credits and lower overall rates. This administration has made herculean efforts to eradicate waste, not just by ending fraud but by ripping out departments, programs, and systems that made waste and fraud systemic.
While Americans are just starting to see the benefits of such efforts, the media works to obscure how these reforms will pay dividends for years to come. But most voters know that these efforts are worthwhile, especially compared to how Democrats who had a choice either chose to turn a blind eye to this waste, or were themselves corrupt or incompetent.
Affordability is a messaging battle the GOP should be fighting now and must continue to fight to prevent Democratic policies based on promised freebies without any sound way to pay for them or any thought to the harms they would trigger. Those promises are a gift-wrapped box filled with poisonous snakes: appealing on the outside, but dangerous once opened.
Blue states show what happens when governments are free to make democratic socialist policies reality — and far from advancing affordability, it’s a road that leads to skyrocketing costs and less livable communities. The GOP should ensure voters recognize this reality.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
Even WaPo forced to admit there's a BIG problem with election polling
The Washington Post has admitted that polling for the midterm elections may suffer from the same inaccuracy issues that plagued that of previous elections.
The outlet said in an article Friday that pollsters made more than 85,000 phone calls for their survey and sent out nearly 50,000 text messages to try to determine the state of the U.S. Senate contest in Kansas.
'Are Republican voters this late in the election cycle feeling so down about their party’s chances that they just don’t want to talk about it?'
Although the Post released the results, WaPo polling director Scott Clement admitted there was evidence once again that Republicans were being undercounted.
"Democrats were far more enthusiastic about taking the poll than Republicans were," he reported. "Registered Democrats were more than twice as likely as registered Republicans to complete the survey after answering an interviewer’s call — 32 percent versus 12 percent — with a similar partisan gap when texting voters to complete the survey online."
He called it a "supersize version" of a concern that has been "vexing" pollsters for a decade.
That same concern was voiced by polling expert and political strategist Frank Luntz in a recent segment with CNN.
"We know that they don't respond to phone calls. We know that in the exit polling back in 2016, and I say this publicly because I want people to hear this," Luntz said about supporters of President Donald Trump.
"I got 2016 wrong. I believed in the exit polls. Trump voters walked away, refused to participate, because they thought that it was against them," he explained.
"They thought that the polls were all biased," Luntz added. "And that's what Republicans are being told right now: 'Don't believe the polls. They're not accurate.' Well, they may be; we're about to find out."
A pollster trying to gauge a state Senate district in Iowa expressed similar problems.
Clement said pollsters took steps in the WaPo/George Mason University poll in Kansas to try to overcome the natural bias against polling among Republican voters.
"But it’s possible those efforts fell short," he added.
The WaPo article noted that historically polling underestimated support for the president in the presidential elections of 2016, 2020, and 2024, by three to five percentage points.
However, polling did not "consistently overestimate" support for Republicans in the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections.
"The partisan enthusiasm gap likely explains the disconnect between Democratic and Republican willingness to respond,” said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, a poll co-sponsor.
"With an unpopular president, inflation, a war that Trump voters never asked for, the lack of GOP enthusiasm is not surprising," he added. "Are Republican voters this late in the election cycle feeling so down about their party’s chances that they just don’t want to talk about it?"
Election Day is just four days away.
Blaze News' Poll Watch shows Democrat Adam Hamilton ahead of incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in the Kansas Senate race by 2.6 points.
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Israel voted and nobody won: Netanyahu keeps power — for now
Neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, won a majority in Israel's election Tuesday.
As of Thursday morning, Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, alongside its religious and nationalist allies, are projected to secure 53 seats. Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar, alongside its anti-Netanyahu allies, won 48 seats.
'If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so.'
With 61 seats needed to govern, neither leader can govern without convincing smaller parties to defect. Both blocs have sworn off cooperation with the Arab-led Ra'am and Joint List, which nabbed 19 seats total.
Arab turnout hit roughly 80%, about 25% higher than 2022, according to Israeli business publication Globes.
Netanyahu released a statement Wednesday accusing the Arab parties of voter fraud.
"The elections in the State of Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries, and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters," Netanyahu said.
Overall turnout reached a 27-year high of 77.7% as of Thursday, according to the Central Elections Committee.
"There hasn't been such a nationwide voter turnout since 1973," committee Director-General Dean Livne said, according to the Times of Israel.
Though active-duty soldiers' and diplomats' ballots are still being counted, it is unlikely that the few remaining ballots will move the needle.
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Anyone hoping to replace Netanyahu "will, in fact, need to turn to us," Arab Joint List Chairman Yousef Jabareen told Israeli radio Oct. 13. His conditions include a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines, JNS reported.
“An Eisenkot government is a government that is controlled in fact by Abbas and the Muslim Brotherhood," one Likud ad warned, according to JNS.
Netanyahu posted advertisements on election day warning that Arab and Muslim turnout could drown the right-wing vote.
Though Israel is the subject of frequent global interest, especially with regard to the Gaza war and associated campaigns, these are not political fault lines in the country itself. Most major parties oppose a Palestinian state and believe the anti-terrorism campaign should continue.
Other controversial subjects dominated campaign season in the Jewish state. Whether the military draft exemption should be continued for the Haredi, also known as Ultra-Orthodox, is a major question on the ballot this election.
More than anything, the election is seen by many Israelis as a referendum on Netanyahu himself, who has served as prime minister on and off for nearly two decades.
President Donald Trump gave Netanyahu his full endorsement leading up to Election Day.
Trump called Netanyahu a "Great Warrior Prime Minister" on Truth Social Oct. 18 and tied future American action against Iran to his re-election.
"If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so," Trump wrote.
Trump promoted Netanyahu again just a week later and two days prior to polls opening.
"Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started!" Trump posted Sunday. Netanyahu personally requested the second endorsement, Axios reported.
Netanyahu pushed for a joint strike on Iran before the vote, but Trump "did not give a green light," CNN reported, citing U.S. and Israeli sources. The prime minister's office called the report "fake news."
Ultimately, Israeli President Isaac Herzog is responsible for selecting a prime minister.
Once results are certified Tuesday, Herzog will choose the candidate he believes has the best chance of forming a government. The Herzog-tapped politico then has 28 days, plus a possible 14-day extension, to form a ruling coalition. If no coalition is formed, Israelis will return to the polls with Netanyahu presiding over a caretaker government.
"I don't think the president of the United States or anybody else can intervene in my discretion," Herzog told MS NOW when asked about Trump’s endorsement..
Netanyahu remains on trial on corruption charges. Herzog "would not currently grant" his pardon request and offered to mediate plea talks instead, the Times of Israel reported in May.
Netanyahu, after 16 years in office, has a contingent of die-hard supporters.
"There's no one who can replace Bibi," said Zohar Hindi, a voter near Maale Levona, according to the Times of Israel.
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Democrat Peltola feeling the heat as Alaska launches CRIMINAL probe into alleged 'Decoy Dan' ballot scheme
Democrat Mary Peltola was trying to stay ahead of her Republican opponent in the U.S. Senate race in Alaska. Now she'll have to stay ahead of a corruption probe.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) has ordered a criminal investigation into a scheme allegedly committed by Peltola's campaign against Republican incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. President Donald Trump, too, has weighed in, calling for Peltola to be removed from the ballot.
'Ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process.'
The Peltola campaign has been credibly accused of engaging in a ballot-stacking campaign — allegedly seeking out individuals with the same name as the Republican senator and recruiting at least one, Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg, to run for the Alaskan Senate seat.
The New York Times blew up the campaign's long-standing denial of wrongdoing with a bombshell report on Wednesday that advanced damning allegations from Peltola's former campaign manager Elisa Rios.
Rios, who retroactively attempted to retract all of the statements she made to the Times, alleged that: Peltola's campaign spearheaded the ballot-stacking scheme; top campaign aides, lowly staffers, campaign lawyers, and aides from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee were involved in the scheme; and Peltola was "definitely aware" of the scheme though not directly involved.
The DSCC has denied involvement with the other Dan Sullivan's campaign, and a spokesperson for the Peltola campaign told Blaze News that "the Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign."
When asked on Wednesday about the damning report from the Times, Peltola suggested it was a "distraction, another diversion" from Sen. Sullivan's votes on the Iran conflict as well as an opportunity "to sell newspapers."
RELATED: NY Times exposes Alaska Democrat's alleged hunt for another Dan Sullivan to run against Republican
Sen. Sullivan isn't buying it.
Nate Adams, a spokesman for Sen. Sullivan, told Blaze News on Wednesday, "Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along. We always knew this was a concerted effort to deceive voters, and Mary Peltola was hoping it would stay hidden until after the election."
Nick Puglia, National Republican Senatorial Committee regional press secretary, said in a statement to Blaze News, "As we have said from the start, Decoy Dan was recruited by Mary Peltola and her Lower 48 cronies to deceive Alaskans. Peltola must be held accountable for her scheme and will be rejected again."
The new revelations about the alleged scheme evidently captured the attention of the Alaskan governor.
Gov. Dunleavy stated, "Today’s New York Times reporting reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes."
"The Alaska Division of Elections investigated these very concerns in June of this year. The new reporting substantially supports the Division’s findings," said Dunleavy.
The Alaska Division of Elections ruled in June that Dan J. Sullivan was ineligible as a candidate and would be removed from the ballot.
Carol Beecher, the elections division director, said in a June 15 letter that J. Sullivan had not filed "an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator," but instead intended "to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality."
Beecher found J. Sullivan's candidacy particularly questionable because he allegedly:
- had never before registered to vote or sought ballot access under the name "Dan Sullivan";
- had never been affiliated with the Republican Party yet filed to run as a Republican;
- had a campaign website using a similar format, color scheme, and overall theme to Sen. Sullivan's campaign website; and
- worked with a political consultant who is "a known longtime supporter of Democratic candidates including the primary Democratic challenger to Senator Sullivan."
Although J. Sullivan was removed from the ballot on June 15, a state Superior Court and finally the Alaska Supreme Court reinstated him.
Gov. Dunleavy said in his statement that he is "directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted."
"Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections," he continued.
"Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable."
Blaze News has reached out to the Peltola, S. Sullivan, and J. Sullivan campaigns for comment. The DSCC did not immediately respond.
President Donald Trump sounded off on the alleged Democratic scheme and called for Peltola to be removed from the ballot.
"It was just determined that the Dumocrats in Alaska, despite their sworn statements to the contrary, put a man named Dan Sullivan on the Ballot in order to confuse the Public with respect to Highly Esteemed Senator Dan Sullivan," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Wednesday evening. "This is Voter Fraud at the Highest Level."
The president said that "the Dumocrat Candidate, who was involved in the scheme, Mary Peltola, should be removed from the Ballot and prosecuted — So should the FAKE Dan Sullivan. Nothing else will do! This behavior in our Elections cannot be allowed to continue."
Peltola is apparently now too radioactive even for anti-Trump Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R).
Murkowski, who endorsed a Democratic candidate in the Alaska gubernatorial race this week and has previously endorsed Peltola, said in a statement on Wednesday, "While some may try to write this off as just how politics works now, ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process."
"Recruiting candidates to manipulate the field and influence voting outcomes is simply wrong," said Murkowski. "Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign — what has been revealed is a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials."
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