Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming is setting her sights on higher office as the 2026 primaries continue to take shape.
Hageman has served her district as an ally to President Donald Trump after kicking off a political career in the nation's capital by ousting former Rep. Liz Cheney in the 2022 Republican primary. Cheney was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 melee, resulting in a landslide defeat the following election cycle.
'We must keep up this fight.'
Hageman is now pursuing the U.S. Senate after Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming announced her retirement on Friday.
"Wyoming is a beautiful state, but our people matter the most," Hageman said in her campaign announcement. "Our faith, our family, our community, and our county. That's what we care about. That's what we fight for."
RELATED: Republican senator announces retirement, citing exhaustion: 'I feel like a sprinter in a marathon'
Hageman pointed to the massive energy contributions Wyoming has made to the country, fueling the exponential improvement in technology and quality of life for Americans across the country. Hageman vowed to protect the energy industry and the working class, touting Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act she helped pass in Congress.
"We must keep up this fight, and that's why today, I'm announcing my campaign for United States Senate," Hageman said. "This fight is about making sure the next century sees the advancements of the last while protecting our culture and our way of life."
RELATED: 'Unnecessary and protracted': Elise Stefanik drops out of New York governor's race
"We must dedicate ourselves to ensuring that the next 100 years is the next great American century. Wyoming is critical for achieving that goal."
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In a sense, this is old news. In December 2021, CNN reported that the House’s January 6 committee had subpoenaed phone records of more than 100 people.
But that was mostly Trump officials, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. No surprise there. After all, the January 6 Select Committee was empaneled for the specific purpose of turning President Donald Trump into a criminal for supposedly aiding and abetting the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol.
It is well past time for the Republican Congress to fulfill its promise to hold accountable those who weaponized the federal government against Trump and his allies.
But when this story resurfaced earlier this month, there was something new, too. For one thing, the scope of the investigation was almost unbelievable — it turns out those subpoenaed phone records consisted of a staggering 30 million lines of phone data.
And when the select committee’s investigation went nowhere, one of the members — GOP malcontent and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) — informed the FBI about the phone data in Dec. 2023 when it was becoming apparent that Trump was the favorite to win the Republican nomination in 2024.
More revelatory than the numbers of the phone records hauled in by the J6 committee was the news that the FBI had gone after these same records — and possibly more — in an effort to target Trump and his conservative allies. Not only did the agency have its eyes on Trump, it also went after nine Republican members of Congress — eight senators and a stray congressman, in an obvious effort to sweep up accomplices in the coup that never was.
Whether the FBI obtained the same phone records as the J6 committee is unclear. Kinzinger’s tip may have been moot, because an FBI memo released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) shows that by September 2023, the agency had already “conducted preliminary … analysis” on the call data of several members of Congress, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
According to CNN, “The FBI, as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation, used court orders in 2023 to obtain the phone records of nine GOP lawmakers.” These were not actual phone calls or text messages, but rather information about who called or texted whom and when.
Grassley posted the memo to his X account, with the message:
This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into "election conspiracy." Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith's elector case against Trump.
He concluded, in all caps: “BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE.”
Which raises the question: Why did the story turn out to be a one-day wonder? Here we have the discovery of a partisan investigation seeking to uncover dirt on fellow members of Congress (if the records did indeed start with the J6 committee), or at the very least a rogue element of the executive branch targeting political enemies in the legislative branch.
As Johnson said:
They’re casting this net, this fishing expedition against members of the Senate and the House. There is no predicate. There’s no reason for this other than a fishing expedition, which, again, should outrage and shock every American.
Once again, a member of Congress implied that we are witness to a political scandal (one of many in the Biden administration) that is among the worst in our history. Yet when you do a Google search for stories related to phone toll records being subpoenaed by either the J6 committee or the FBI, virtually nothing comes up beyond Oct. 7, the day after Grassley released the memo.
A few news outlets reported in the following days that FBI Director Kash Patel had fired agents involved in the Arctic Frost investigation. In addition, scattered reports surfaced on Hagerty questioning why Verizon released his phone records without informing him.
Verizon told Fox News Digital:
Federal law requires companies like Verizon to respond to grand jury subpoenas. We received a valid subpoena and a court order to keep it confidential. We weren't told why the information was requested or what the investigation was about.
Grassley and Johnson followed up with their own letter to Verizon and three other telecommunication companies demanding to be supplied with the same data that was provided to the FBI or special counsel Jack Smith. In addition, the senators expressed their belief that the records should have been privileged because they concerned the official constitutional duties of certifying the 2020 presidential election.
It seems like a real story — one that deserves the full attention of the press — but where are the special investigation teams at the New York Times and the Washington Post? What have you heard about this story on CBS, NBC, and ABC newscasts? Very little if anything. Certainly nothing in comparison to the coverage provided to Watergate.
Most recently, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Smith demanding a transcribed interview and documents along with communications related to his investigation of Trump. Well and good, but that interview will be conducted in secret, as were the interviews of Smith’s subordinates — one of whom, according to Jordan, “invoked the Fifth Amendment approximately 75 times.”
It is well past time for the Republican Congress to fulfill its promise to hold accountable those who weaponized the federal government against Trump and his allies. Press releases and secret interviews won’t do the job. We need public televised hearings, with witnesses ranging from members of the J6 committee, including Kinzinger, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), and now-Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), to former FBI Director Christopher Wray and Jack Smith.
Would the legacy media networks cover it? Probably not, because as we all know by now, those outfits are still after Trump’s scalp, and they will only seek to discredit Jordan and the other congressional investigators who want to know the truth. That doesn’t mean Republicans should give up.
Watergate started as a one-day story about a botched break-in. But even without Woodward and Bernstein, the famous team of reporters from the Washington Post, the story would never have been kept quiet unless Senate Democrats and congressmen didn’t do their job.
Now it’s time for Jordan, Grassley, and Patel to do theirs.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
With the NFL Draft set for Thursday, it’s the perfect time to ask: What if we drafted politicians instead of players? Let’s go!
Welcome to the 2025 U.S. Politician Draft, where Republicans and Democrats roll into the arena hoping to rebuild for seasons to come.
Some are calling this the most lopsided deal since the Colts traded John Elway for a bag of footballs and a guy named Bob.
A big thank you to tonight’s sponsors: Tunnels to Towers, Balance of Nature, and My Pillow — three great companies that, unlike Congress, deliver results.
With the first overall pick, the GOP selects Donald J. Trump.
After a few seasons off the field — and away from Twitter — Trump returns to the draft in miraculous shape. His personal physician called him “the healthiest player in the history of modern sport.” No drug test necessary.
Trump remains the only player in the league who audibles before the snap, calls a completely different play mid-huddle, and still somehow scores — while the defense tears itself apart yelling at each other on MSNBC.
Financial upside? Huge. If the team goes bankrupt, Trump just buys it. He’s also promised to play for free, though some say the locker room minibar may take a hit.
Critics say he’s not coachable. Trump disagrees: “I know the playbook better than the coaches. Frankly, I wrote the playbook. I am the playbook.”
He guarantees four straight championships — plus a fifth if the league lets him contest the fourth.
With pick number two, they select Gavin Newsom.
He looks the part. Photogenic, polished, and press-conference-ready — even when his team loses by 40, he convinces fans that the scoreboard was hacked.
Newsom’s draft stock rose after he pledged to donate his signing bonus so fans could get free concessions and merch. But analysts warn he’s a high-risk pick. Late-game drives? He panics. Crisis management? He disappears. His turf demands? “I’ll only play on artificial grass — I don’t like getting dirty.”
Originally drafted as a quarterback, Newsom has struggled. Scouts note he throws everything to the far left — often out of bounds. If he can’t adjust, the team will switch him to punter, where he already excels at kicking responsibility downfield.
With pick 199, the GOP selects JD Vance, hoping for a Tom Brady-style miracle.
Vance enters the league late. He didn’t even start playing until recently. But he brings grit, a lunch pail, and a dramatic pivot to the Trump playbook that showed elite flexibility. He once tackled Trump in print — now he blocks for him in prime time. And he didn’t even pull a hamstring during the flip.
Republicans say he’ll back up Trump for four years, unless he gets traded to Fox News first.
In a shocking move, the GOP trades aging locker-room distractions Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney to the Democrats in exchange for Elon Musk and Tulsi Gabbard. Some are calling it the most lopsided deal since the Colts traded John Elway for a bag of footballs and a guy named Bob.
As a bonus, the Democrats throw in RFK Jr.’s free-agent rights, though insiders suspect that was more of a liability dump.
With the last selection, the Democrats take Tim Walz — a high school assistant football coach turned political long shot. Walz hyped himself as the toughest guy in the draft, but fell hard after investigators revealed he exaggerated his college stats and padded his practice reps.
He claims he's ready to lead, but even his huddle thinks he’s more clipboard than quarterback.
One name, however, never gets called.
Pete Buttigieg, who expected his middle-school junior varsity experience to carry him through the draft, watched the board in disbelief. His old coach didn’t help, saying, “Pete took off half the season — and no one noticed.”
As it turns out, “transportation” isn’t a position.President Donald Trump declared early Monday morning that Joe Biden's pardons are "VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT," suggesting that the former president did not sign them or "know anything about them."
While the potential voidance of Biden's pardons could spell trouble for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, and others with troubled pasts, Trump indicated that former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee — including Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) — are his favorites to reap the whirlwind.
"Those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level," Trump noted on Truth Social.
Earlier this month, the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project revealed that Biden's signature on numerous executive orders, pardons, and other documents of national consequence was apparently machine-generated. The watchdog group indicated that with the exception of Biden's announcement concerning his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, "every document" researchers could find "used the same autopen signature."
'If in fact this has been occurring, then all those orders are void.'
"The prolific use of autopen by the Biden White House was an instrument to hide the truth from the American people as to who was running the government," Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell told Blaze News at the time.
Biden's cognitive decline alone may have been enough to doubt the legal legitimacy of many of the official documents issued in his name and bearing his signature. Suspicions were, however, compounded by reports of staffers and family members making decisions on his behalf; Biden's alleged admission to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) that he did not remember signing a consequential January 2024 order to pause decisions on exports of liquefied natural gas; and evidence that Biden's signature appeared on documents while he was absent — and in one instance, while on vacation.
In a recent letter demanding that the Department of Justice investigate whether "President Biden's cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval," Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey noted, "It is black-letter law that a document is void, ab initio, when the person signing it lacks mental capacity."
Bailey added, "Staffers and the Vice President cannot constitutionally evade accountability by laundering far-left orders through a man who does not know what he is signing. If in fact this has been occurring, then all those orders are void."
'He had no idea what the hell he was doing.'
After further analysis, the Oversight Project confirmed that "the same exact Biden autopen signature" was used on the pardons for Fauci, Milley, and members of the Jan. 6 committee, as well as on the pardons for several members of Biden's family who were apparently involved in dodgy foreign deals with the former president and his felonious son Hunter Biden, and for Gerald Lundergan, the former head of the Kentucky state Democratic Party, who served as state chair for Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential campaign and was convicted in 2019 of making illegal campaign contributions.
— (@)
In the wake of the Oversight Project's damning reports, a former Biden aide told the New York Post that a key staffer, who was not named, was suspected of unilaterally making decisions to sign documents as the former president's mental faculties declined. According to the aide, others in the Biden administration questioned the staffer's routine use of the autopen but refrained from speaking up.
"I feared no one as much as I feared that [staffer]. To me, [the staffer] basically was the president," said the aide. "No one ever questioned [the staffer]. Period."
Trump raised the issue of the autopen in his Friday address to the Department of Justice, calling it a "big deal."
"You don't use the autopen," said the president. "Number one, it's disrespectful to the office. Number two, maybe it's not even valid because who's getting [Biden] to sign? He had no idea what the hell he was doing."
Trump evidently became convinced of the illegitimacy of Biden's autopen-signed orders and pardons over the weekend, declaring early Monday morning, "The 'Pardons' that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!"
"The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime," continued Trump.
Trump suggested further that in the case of the Jan. 6 committee members, the pardonees were "likely responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!"
The president subsequently shared an image of three presidential portraits. The first and third framed images were of Trump, with the plaques below indicating his duration in office. The second image was of an autopen machine writing Biden's signature with the dates 2021-2025 marked below.
— (@)
Despite his declaration of voidance, Trump reportedly told reporters Sunday evening, "It's not my decision; that'll be up to a court."
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Democrat Rep. Bennie Thompson used an AI-generated image of Alex Pretti’s death in which a federal immigration agent is missing his head during a Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday. Thompson is the same man who chaired the Jan. 6 Committee, which was also caught fabricating “evidence.” While Thompson was chiding Department of Homeland Security […]
The threat of homicide is more sobering considering Trump was nearly assassinated twice last year.
Apparently, the propaganda press has rediscovered its outrage over presidential pardons — now that President Donald Trump is issuing them. After watching then-President Joe Biden hand out pardons, clemency, and commutations like they were candy, the left-wing media have finally found their missing pearls to clutch. Trump pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, […]
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