Andrew McCabe, other deep state mascots want Mike Rogers for FBI director — but Trump adviser says 'it's not happening'



Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director who shut down investigations into the Clinton Foundation in 2016 then undermined the Trump presidency with Crossfire Hurricane, told CNN Thursday that former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers would be a "totally reasonable, logical selection" for President-elect Donald Trump's FBI director.

McCabe said that Rogers' "strongest qualification ... is the respect and awareness and knowledge that he has for the intelligence community, for the work they do, for the seriousness of that work, for how those secrets and that sensitive information needs to be protected."

To the likely displeasure of McCabe and other exponents of the Washington security establishment, Trump has apparently joined Michigan voters in rejecting Rogers.

Trump adviser Dan Scavino indicated Friday morning — shortly after Fox News' Brian Kilmeade sung Rogers' praises — that where FBI Director Christopher Wray's replacement is concerned, Rogers is "not happening."

Scavino quoted President-elect Donald Trump as saying, "I have never even given it a thought."

This came as great news to those alternatively keen to see former National Security Council official Kash Patel named Wray's successor.

"Winning," tweeted Donald Trump Jr.

"Boom," wrote Revolver News editor Darren Beattie.

Rumors that Trump was considering Rogers for the position began to circulate last week after the former congressman met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

The prospect of a defense lobbyist associated with censorious groups antagonistic to Trump and historically supportive of mass surveillance programs running the FBI rankled Trump loyalists and other critics of the dysfunctional administrative state, particularly those keen to see Patel nominated.

Mike Benz, the executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, told former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon that Rogers' involvement with the Atlantic Council — "probably the number-one apex predator in the entire censorship industry" — and his help advancing Russiagate were disqualifying.

'There is a lot of damage someone like Kash Patel could do.'

Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted, "There's literally no worse appointment possible than choosing Mike Rogers for FBI Director, or for any government position. He's the single most devoted loyalist to the US Security State and all of its multi-faceted abuses. It doesn't get worse than Mike Rogers."

Wikileaks highlighted that Rogers, favored by Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and John Cornyn (Texas), not only pushed for the suppression of a Republican memo critical of the FBI's spying on the Trump campaign but was involved with the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy initiative and its Hamilton 68 Dashboard. Wikileaks noted that the dashboard's "true purpose appeared to be casting suspicion on Trump supporters and reinforcing claims that his presidency was illegitimate."

McCabe — whom Trump fired in March 2018 after the Justice Department's inspector general concluded McCabe had authorized an information leak to a liberal reporter then lied about it — expressed horror Thursday at the prospect of Patel taking power.

"It's inconceivable to me that an outsider with no experience in the organization, no knowledge of the work and the scope of authority that’s involved there could perform adequately," he told CNN. "If you enter into that position with nothing more than a desire to disrupt and destroy the organization, there is a lot of damage someone like Kash Patel could do."

McCabe is hardly the only establishmentarian fearful of Patel taking over the bureau.

'I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day One.'

Former FBI Special Agent Daniel Brunner told CNN's Jessica Dean on Sunday, "Putting someone like Kash Patel in the position of director of the FBI is, I believe, extremely, extremely dangerous."

"He has clearly stated that he wants to exact revenge upon those that have investigated President Trump and those who have investigated those that are around him. He will conduct a massive amount of damage to the interior of the FBI," added Brunner.

The leftist blog New Republic called Patel an "intellectual lightweight" and warned that "if Trump installs Patel at the FBI, it would certainly further Trump and his MAGA allies' goal of purging the federal workforce of disloyal employees."

Patel wrote in his book "Government Gangsters" that "government tyranny" within the FBI must be eliminated and called for the removal of anyone who "in any way abused their authority for political ends."

"The FBI has become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken," wrote Patel.

Patel recently told "The Shawn Ryan Show," "I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day One and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state."

Blaze News previously reported that despite his characterization as inexperienced, Patel has served as chief of staff to former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller; as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council; principal deputy to the acting director of national intelligence; as national security adviser for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; as a terrorism prosecutor at the Department of Justice; as a public defender; and as a hockey coach.

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Trump's potential pick for FBI director haunted by Russiagate, 'security state' loyalties



FBI Director Christopher Wray's 10-year term does not expire until 2027. President-elect Donald Trump is, however, expected to replace him upon taking office. While Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Trump said is "a very talented guy," might be in contention, the two men whose names keep popping up in discussions of a potential successor are former National Security Council official Kash Patel and former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers.

Establishmentarians have piled on Patel, characterizing him as inexperienced, revenge-driven, and "dangerous."

While Rogers, who specialized in organized crime as a special agent at the FBI's Chicago office, has so far avoided similar abuse, Trump loyalists and critics of the American intelligence community have expressed concerns about his past associations with individuals and censorious groups antagonistic to Trump; his historic support for surveillance programs; and the role he apparently played in pushing Russiagate.

Former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon asked Mike Benz, the executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, this week why the "MAGA right" would be "particularly upset about a guy like Mike Rogers, who in normal times would be looked at as a fine, center-right candidate put up by a Romney-type Republican administration?"

'You can't really have a compromised candidate.'

Benz, keen to see Patel nominated, suggested that Rogers' involvement with the Atlantic Council — "probably the number-one apex predator in the entire censorship industry" — and his help advancing Russiagate were disqualifying.

"The relationship between the Justice Department and the FBI is the same relationship that's shared between the U.S. State Department and the CIA. They need to be constantly in sync," said Benz.

"You can't really have a compromised candidate where one person supports the president and the other person is looking to put a knife in the president's back. That is simply untenable when you're dealing with the kind of special, compartmentalized operations that happen at the FBI level."

The Daily Caller reported that Rogers is not only a member of the Aspen Cybersecurity Institute, a left-leaning think tank, but also served as an adviser to the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy initiative, spearheaded by a former foreign policy adviser to failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and aimed at tackling supposed Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The ASD launched the Hamilton 68 Dashboard in 2017 to monitor hundreds of then-Twitter accounts allegedly linked to Russian influence efforts online — a project likened by investigative reporter Matt Taibbi to "digital McCarthyism that was repeatedly used by establishment media publications as a source to push the Russian influence and interference narratives that Democrats, in turn, exploited during Trump's first term."

According to Taibbi, when Twitter executives attempted to recreate the group's list of accounts, they determined that the accounts were "neither strongly Russia nor strongly bots," and indicated that "there is no evidence to support their statements that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops."

When pressed for comment, Rogers' spokesman Chris Gustafon said in a statement to the Caller, "President-elect Trump is once again assembling a fantastic administration to help the American people and Make America Great Again."

Wikileaks, which has been highly critical of Rogers as an FBI director aspirant, suggested that the ASD was a "central player in efforts to tie President Donald Trump and his supporters to Russian interference in the 2016 election" and that the Hamilton 68 Dashboard's "true purpose appeared to be casting suspicion on Trump supporters and reinforcing claims that his presidency was illegitimate."

Wikileaks also highlighted how in 2018, Rogers advocated for the suppression of a Republican memo critical of the FBI's spying on the Trump campaign.

Rogers told NPR at the time the memo should not be released because

you're only going to get a small part of the picture. And so what they're purportedly alleging is going to come out in the memo today is that there was some misconduct on behalf of FBI agents and some DOJ officials, lawyers at the Department of Justice, in the application for something called the FISA, which is the secret court that does counterintelligence, espionage cases, terrorism cases, where it needs to be in a classified setting.

Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald, responding to a video of Rogers apparently joking with Hunter Biden "intel" letter signatory Michael Hayden about having Edward Snowden assassinated, tweeted, "There's literally no worse appointment possible than choosing Mike Rogers for FBI Director, or for any government position. He's the single most devoted loyalist to the US Security State and all of its multi-faceted abuses. It doesn't get worse than Mike Rogers."

While Rogers' past remarks and associations may serve as red flags for the president-elect, Trump endorsed him in March for his unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan — months after the former congressman and defense lobbyist criticized the Biden Justice Department's "war" against Trump.

Patel endorsed Rogers for Senate in April, saying he would "hold the FBI and DOJ accountable."

"I am a big fan of Mike Rogers, and should there be an opening [for FBI director], he would be my choice," said Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R).

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, "Mike Rogers is a terrific guy. I don't know Kash Patel."

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Matt Gaetz brings the fight, but can he beat the Senate swamp?



The Epoch Times on Thursday interviewed me about my views on Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks. The only nominee I expressed reservations about was Matt Gaetz, Trump’s choice for attorney general. But the reason I offered was not quoted fully. I said that while I would certainly vote for Gaetz if I were a U.S. senator, I do not believe he is confirmable. Republican senators like Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska would likely oppose his nomination, alongside all Senate Democrats, who will likely vote as a bloc against most of Trump’s nominees.

Gaetz is a troublesome choice for several reasons, starting with allegations of sexual involvement with a 17-year-old girl. The House Ethics Committee has investigated the charge, but its findings have not yet been released. I recognize the double standard at play here. Legacy media defended individuals like Bill Clinton and concealed the appalling misconduct of Democratic donors such as Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein for as long as possible.

The weaponization of federal agencies like the Justice Department and Secret Service against political dissenters will no longer be tolerated.

I also acknowledge that Biden’s administration resembled an intersectional exhibitionist show, featuring figures like Admiral Levine, Sam Brinton, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg. These appointments seemed to cater to the Democrats’ identitarian agenda. Notably, many “centrist” Republicans now criticizing Gaetz’s nomination had no problem voting for Biden’s ideologically driven Cabinet selections.

But we are not dealing here with a level playing field, and even conventional Republican outlets like National Review and the Wall Street Journal are railing against Gaetz’s nomination. I’m not sure that I see any way forward for the former Florida congressman. His sexual scandal, his effort to overthrow a Republican speaker of the House, and his flamboyant rhetoric will all be held against him if the confirmation process goes forward.

Let me clarify that, unlike the RINOs and neocons, I do not oppose Gaetz’s nomination because I want an attorney general the left will find inoffensive — someone modeled after Trump’s attorneys general during his first term. I recently heard Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal lament the absence of a nominee with Bill Barr’s moderating influence.

This time, however, Trump appears to want someone in the role who will support him unequivocally. He is not looking for an attorney general who will flaunt nonpartisanship by distancing himself from a president despised by the legacy media. Joe Biden and Barack Obama appointed attorneys general who loyally served their interests and advanced their ideological agendas. Trump has every right to seek an attorney general who will do the same — while demonstrating a greater commitment to justice than those Democratic appointees showed.

Any of the three candidates previously on Trump’s short list would likely be more confirmable as attorney general than Gaetz. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, or former Deputy Attorney General Matthew Whitaker could effectively perform the duties assigned to Gaetz while generating less controversy as nominees.

Let me stress that my reason for opposing Gaetz’s nomination is most definitely not the one probably driving the Bushies and neocon Republicans. I don’t want a “bipartisan” attorney general who will try to get along with with the opposition as we pursue an aggressively liberal internationalist foreign policy. I am hopeful that anyone who becomes attorney general will actively investigate and prosecute those bad actors who abused their positions under the Obama-Biden-Garland administrations.

The D.C. swamp must be drained, and those “public servants” who have gone after the political opposition without just cause and who have threatened religious and social traditionalists should be treated accordingly. They should not only be dismissed from their positions but also prosecuted.

It is crucial to send a clear message to public administrators and Democratic Party leaders: The weaponization of federal agencies like the Justice Department and Secret Service against political dissenters and culturally traditional Americans will no longer be tolerated. Simply turning the page to focus on foreign policy or fiscal issues will not achieve the same impact. Least of all should we pretend that the systematic weaponization of administrative agencies, which has been ongoing since Obama’s presidency, never occurred. Ignoring this history will only embolden the Democrats to resume such practices as soon as they regain power.

This is why any prospective attorney general must not only be up to this task but also be confirmable. Unfortunately, Gaetz does not meet this criterion, which is why his nomination was ill advised. While it is commendable that he has vigorously defended President Trump against baseless, malicious accusations, that alone will not secure his confirmation.

FBI covertly changes its crime stats for 2022, revealing Trump was right all along



President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that crime is far worse than government officials care to admit, particularly in Democrat-run cities.

Democratic operatives and the liberal media have claimed the reverse is true, citing incomplete FBI data indicating a drop in violent crime in the first two years of the Biden-Harris administration.

It appears that Trump was correct when he told Time magazine that the "FBI fudged the numbers" and possibly also when he suggested during the second presidential debate that the FBI data "was a fraud" — just as he appears to have been correct about U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' bogus jobs numbers.

The Crime Prevention Research Center recently reported that the FBI stealthily changed its crime data for 2022 — a year in which cities like Phoenix, New York City, and Los Angeles failed to submit crime data.

Whereas the bureau originally claimed that violent crime fell by 2.1% that year — a claim USA Today and other publications have made ample use of for Democrat officials' benefit — the FBI subsequently adjusted its statistics to reflect that violent crime actually spiked by at least 4.5%.

'Now we know the truth.'

The FBI did not bother highlighting this narrative-destroying change in its Sept. 23 press release concerning national crime statistics.

RealClearInvestigations noted that the change was only cryptically referred to in a footnote in the September Uniform Crime Reporting Program report on crime in 2023, which stated, "The 2022 violent crime rate has been updated for inclusion in CIUS, 2023."

According to the CPRC, with the adjustments, "there is a net increase of 80,029 more violent crimes, 1,699 more murders, 7,780 more rapes, 33,459 more robberies, and 37,091 more aggravated assaults."

"There you go," responded Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.).

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) responded to the FBI's quiet correction, "You'll never believe it. FBI reporting was wrong and violent crime did not in fact go down."

"This is why the regime wants to censor 'disinformation and misinformation,'" tweeted Auron MacIntyre, podcast host and columnist at Blaze Media. "Our institutions now lie to us regularly for political gain."

Elon Musk's America PAC wrote, "They want to give you the illusion that cities are safe, but now we know the truth."

"I have checked the data on total violent crime from 2004 to 2022," Carl Moody, professor of economics at the College of William and Mary and research director at the CPRC, told RealClearInvestigations. "There were no revisions from 2004 to 2015, and from 2016 to 2020, there were small changes of less than one percentage point. The huge changes in 2021 and 2022, especially without an explanation, make it difficult to trust the FBI data."

RealClearInvestigations indicated the FBI did not respond to "repeated requests" for comment.

By other measures, it appears things are actually far worse than the FBI and media have let on — again, comporting with Trump's sense of how thing have deteriorated.

John Lott Jr., president of the CPRC, told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck last month, "There are two measures that we have of crime, and the media just seems to only be looking at one of these measures and not realizing what it's measuring."

"So the two measures are the FBI's measure of crimes reported to police," continued Lott. "And then there's the Bureau of Justice Statistics measure, called the National Crime Victimization data, which gets a measure of total crime, both reported and unreported. Prior to 2020, these two sets of numbers generally went up and down together. But since 2020, they have been going at opposite directions."

Lott noted that in 2022, for instance, when the FBI originally claimed violent crime dropped by just over 2%, the National Crime Victimization Survey reflected a massive spike in the violent victimization rate — from 16.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons in 2021 to 23.5 per 1,000 in 2022.

Lott said that was the "largest percentage increase that we've ever seen."

— (@)

While the FBI contends violent crime has fallen under the Biden-Harris administration, the NCVS, which doesn't measure murder, reportedly indicated violent crime jumped 55% between 2020 and 2023.

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Hundreds of former Deep State officials and nominal Republicans endorse Harris



Kamala Harris continues to collect endorsements from establishmentarians with links to the military-industrial complex and security state.

On Sunday, several hundred former officials who served in the George W. Bush, Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations joined a handful of nominal Republicans in signing a letter of support for Harris.

Their letter, advanced by the advocacy group National Security Leaders for America, contains the kind of rhetoric that set the stage for two attempts on President Donald Trump's life and appears to have left nearly 3 in 10 Democrats polled wishing Trump had been killed.

It states, "This election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism."

The letter, signed by some architects of disastrous foreign entanglements, including what was for private contractors an extremely lucrative war in Iraq, stated, "We are trained to make sober, rational decisions. That is how we know Vice President Harris would make an excellent Commander-in-Chief, while Mr. Trump has proven he is not up to the job."

The letter further alleges that Harris "has proven she is an effective leader able to advance American national security interests" and that she is "prepared and strategic."

'You need a president that's not going to be taking you into war.'

The signatories were evidently content to overlook Harris' hand in the current Democratic administration's deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, her ostensible abandonment of Americans in Haiti during its latest collapse, her failure as border czar to stem the flood of tens of millions of illegal aliens into the country, and the glaring fact that Russia invaded Ukraine during the Biden-Harris and Obama administrations, not Trump's.

It's clear that the former security and military officials figure Trump — the first president since Richard Nixon not to kick off a new war or military conflict while in office — will make good on his promise of peace and relative non-interventionism.

After all, their letter bemoans the Republican's decision to withdraw from what he called another "endless war" in Syria, his criticism of allies — a likely allusion to Trump's pointed demands that NATO members meet their spending obligations — and his supposed ceding of "influence in the Middle East to Russia, Iran, and China."

During a town hall interview earlier this month with Sean Hannity in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Trump said, "You need a president that's not going to be taking you into war. We won't have World War III when I'm elected, but with these clowns that you have in there now, you're going to end up having World War III."

'They get rich when America's sons and daughters go off to die.'

Among the signatories of the letter are several partisan ambassadors as well as

  • John Kerry, Biden's former special presidential envoy for climate;
  • former Biden domestic policy adviser and Obama national security adviser Susan Rice;
  • Clinton adviser Nancy Soderberg;
  • Obama speechwriter and national security adviser Ben Rhodes;
  • Obama adviser Caroline Atkinson;
  • Clinton national security adviser Anthony Lake;
  • Janet Ann Napolitano, the Obama Homeland Security secretary who concern-mongered about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans returning from war as right-wing extremists; and
  • Rt. Brigadier Gen. John Wade Douglass, a failed Democratic congressional candidate and former CEO of the Douglass Aerospace Group.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Axios in a statement that the letter's signatories "are the same people who got our country into endless foreign wars and profited off of them while the American people suffered."

This latest endorsement by establishmentarians comes just weeks after former Jan. 6 committee member Liz Cheney endorsed Harris "because of the danger that Donald Trump poses."

Cheney, who was overwhelmingly rejected by Republican voters in Wyoming in 2022, previously called Harris "a radical liberal who wants to raise your taxes, take away your guns and your health insurance, explode the size of our federal government and give it control over every aspect of our lives."

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said of Cheney's endorsement, "Kamala Harris and Liz Cheney make very, very interesting partners. They get rich when America's sons and daughters go off to die. They get rich when America loses wars instead of winning wars. And they get rich when America gets weaker in the world."

In August, scores of Republican staffers who served under President George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), and failed presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) threw their support behind Harris, claiming another four years of Trump would alternatively "hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions."

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McCain, Romney, and Bush staffers who backed Biden to avoid 'disaster' now siding with Kamala Harris



Having ostensibly grown tired of relative international stability, of waiting for a new American military adventure, of unleashed domestic energy, and of rolled-back regulations, scores of Republican staffers who served under President George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), and failed presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) threw their support behind Joe Biden in 2020.

They suggested that the country lost its "moral compass" under President Donald Trump, citing the continued existence of the previously uncriticized, Obama-era detention facilities for undocumented minors, as well as Trump's occasional "vulgarity." The former staffers determined that the U.S. needed "an adult back in the room."

On Monday — the three-year anniversary of the Biden-Harris administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Abbey Gate bombing that claimed the lives of 13 American service members — the same nominal Republicans doubled down, throwing in their lot with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The small army of relative unknowns' corresponding endorsement letter, first obtained by USA Today, stated, "Four years ago, President George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain, and then-Gov. Mitt Romney alumni came together to warn fellow Republicans that re-electing President Trump would be a disaster for our nation. In those declarations we stated the plain truth, each predicting that another four years of a Trump presidency would irreparably damage our beloved democracy."

The letter reveals its author(s) and the signers may be further left than their former Republican affiliation might suggest.

The letter noted further that the signers' previous soothsaying did not account for the subsequent Jan. 6 protests or claims of a stolen election.

"We reunite today, joined by new George H.W. Bush alumni, to reinforce our 2020 statements and, for the first time, jointly declare that we're voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz this November," continued the letter.

The letter acknowledges that the signatories have some "ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz," but does not specify how they are in any way ideologically distinct.

It is unclear, therefore, whether the signatories are worried about Harris and Walz's support for radical gender ideology and the corresponding medicalization of confused children; Harris' stated desire to once again enshrine the right to kill the unborn nationally; or their preferred candidate's support for granting 11 million illegal aliens amnesty.

In its regurgitation of a false Democratic talking point about Project 2025, the letter reveals its author(s) and the signers may actually be fellow travelers.

"At home, another four years of Donald Trump's chaotic leadership, this time focused on advancing the dangerous goals of Project 2025, will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions," says the letter.

The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 is the product of a collaboration between hundreds of conservative groups, policy wonks, and scholars, all keen to "take down the Deep State and return the government to the people."

Blaze News previously reported that Project 2025 has made numerous policy recommendations that recent polling indicates are popular with Americans, such as increase oversight of the Department of Justice and FBI; unfetter American energy production to drive down prices and boost the economy; oust obstructionist partisans in the federal bureaucracy; secure the border and oust illegals aliens; and ban men from participating in women's sports.

Although the project's recommendations appear to resonate with potential voters, President Trump has disavowed it.

After suggesting mainstream conservative views are "dangerous," the letter asserts that Harris and Walz "will strive for consensus, not chaos," and "make our country and our children proud."

The letter has 238 signatures from former staffers who majoritively held positions of little consequence — particularly those who worked on the McCain and Romney presidential campaigns. There are, however, slightly bigger names among the signatories.

'Nobody knows who these people are.'

Among them: Reed Galen, an original co-founder of the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump group that staged a fake white supremacist rally in 2021 to smear then-candidate Glenn Youngkin ahead of the Virginia gubernatorial election and whose co-founder John Weaver reportedly had a habit of sexually harassing young men online.

Galen runs the Home Front Substack, where he speaks glowingly about Democratic personalities and criticizes Trump and the Republicans who would dare support him.

Micah Spangler, who Politico previously indicated led the effort among Romney acolytes in 2020, is also now backing Harris. Just months before the border crisis would unfold under his preferred candidate, Spangler stressed that the country "desperately" needed someone like Biden in office.

"We need an adult in the room," said Spangler.

Olivia Troye, a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, is another signatory. Troye recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention, joining former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger in begging Republicans not to vote Republican in November. Troye said, "You aren't voting for a Democrat; you're voting for democracy."

George H.W. Bush chief of staff Jean Becker, George W. Bush senior energy under secretary David Garman, former McCain legislative director Joe Donoghue, McCain 2008 campaign press secretary Jennifer Lux, and various special assistants and interns also signed the letter.

The Trump campaign isn't taking the letter seriously, largely because the signatories lack star power.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the Washington Examiner Monday, "It's hilarious because nobody knows who these people are."

"They would rather see the country burn down than to see President Trump successfully return to the White House to make America great again," added Cheung.

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Tucker Carlson explains precisely why JD Vance was the right VP pick



President Donald Trump named Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) Monday as his running mate, emphasizing that as "Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."

Vance noted in response, "What an honor it is to run alongside President Donald J. Trump. He delivered peace and prosperity once, and with your help, he'll do it again. Onward to victory!"

Tucker Carlson, who joined Trump and Vance at the Republican National Convention following the announcement, made clear earlier in the day precisely why Vance was the right pick.

Addressing a crowd Monday at the Heritage Foundation's Policy Fest, Carlson prefaced with a condemnation of the political class and the type of people he regards as its predominant constituents.

"I spent the whole day dealing with politics — this day, starting at 5 a.m. — and I ... forgot how repulsive a process it is, and how feline and ruthless the players are. It was a reminder why I don't like politicians," said Carlson, who later suggested that "deception is at the core, actually, of who they are."

'Every bad person I've ever met in a lifetime in Washington was aligned against JD Vance.'

Carlson suggested that whereas those he regularly speaks to on both sides of the spectrum are invested in their causes and mean what they say, politicians alternatively tend to be opportunists who traffic in empty rhetoric in pursuit of power. According to Carlson, the efforts by various personalities to lock down one job in particular — that of Trump's running mate — helped illustrate this point.

"There's this job. One person makes the decision, and whoever gets the job immediately has a lot of power. And it really is like waving a flank steak over an alligator," said Carlson.

While disgusted by the process and some of the prospects vying for the steak in question, Carlson intimated that Vance stood apart from the others.

"Now JD Vance is the VP pick, and I think every person who pays close attention has gotta be thrilled by that," continued Carlson. "And if you don't know much about JD Vance, I'm not even going to make a case for JD Vance. I'm going to tell you what I just saw, which is that every bad person I've ever met in a lifetime in Washington was aligned against JD Vance."

While various deep-pocketed Republican donors were actively demeaning the Appalachian populist, Rupert Murdoch reportedly launched a massive lobbying campaign to dissuade Trump from picking Vance. A source in the Trump camp apparently told NOTUS that Murdoch had been calling Trump multiple times a day to instead choose North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for his running mate — the would-be VP pick Republican strategist Karl Rove also tried to boost over Vance.

Murdoch's personal campaign against Vance spread to two of his publications, namely the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, which both ran multiple editorials hammering Vance.

As the desperation grew and the choice neared, the campaign against Vance among establishmentarians became increasingly desperate and aggressive.

Blaze News previously reported that former Obama adviser and Democratic strategist David Axelrod said Vance should be disqualified for suggesting that Biden's inflammatory rhetoric set the stage for the attempted assassination on Trump.

Vance wrote shortly after Trump was nearly murdered by a would-be assassin, "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Axelrod wrote, "If @JDVance1 is on the short list for VP, this Tweet, sent an hour after the assassination attempt in PA, ought to disqualify him in the eyes of the Trump campaign. Wrong vibe in that moment."

"Trump probably doesn't want a shoot-from-the-hip VP," added Axelrod.

Adam Kinzinger, a former member of the House Jan. 6 committee, joined the Democratic strategist in suggesting Vance's remark was disqualifying.

Failed Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh responded to Vance on X, writing, "What a sick, disgusting tweet. Donald Trump IS an authoritarian fascist. The Biden campaign is correct to say that. And to connect the millions of Americans who believe that to this shooting is utterly irresponsible. You’ll make a perfect Trump VP. Shame on you."

Trump's decision to ignore such statements and to ultimately pick Vance enraged Bill Kristol and his fellow travelers.

"Having turned the Republican Party into the Trump Party, [Trump is] now turning a Trumpist party into a Trumpist movement. Indeed, the selection of Vance marks the completion of the transformation of a conservative political party into an authoritarian movement," wrote Kristol. "Vance has been more consistently and fervently America First in foreign policy than Trump. He's more committed to ethno-nationalism and anti-'elite' populism than Trump. He's been more committed to destroying any non-political civil service than Trump. He's more contemptuous of the norms, institutions, and mores of liberal democracy than Trump."

Republican strategist Karl Rove called the selection a "missed opportunity" in a Fox News op-ed.

Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney also melted down over Vance's selection, writing, "JD Vance has pledged he would do what Mike Pence wouldn't — overturn an election and illegally seize power. He says the president can ignore the rulings of our courts. He would capitulate to Russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in Ukraine. The Trump GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan or the Constitution."

Carlson emphasized that the nature and disposition of Vance's detractors spoke volumes about the former Marine.

'They thought he would be harder to manipulate and slightly less enthusiastic about killing people.'

"It's not like I think ... God's always on my side. Sometimes I'm not on God's side," said Carlson. "But I definitely know who's representing the other side."

"It's a lot easier to tell who the people who are only in it because they like, I don't know, killing other people in pointless wars," continued Carlson. "I know who those people are, and their odor is so powerful that I can smell one when he walks in the room. And every single one of those people, in a line that would extend from Milwaukee to Chicago, was lined up last week to knife JD Vance."

According to Carlson, this enmity toward Vance was not because of who he is as a person, noting he is a nice guy and one of the few in Washington with a happy marriage. Instead, the attacks were launched because "they thought he would be harder to manipulate and slightly less enthusiastic about killing people. That's it — that he would be an impediment to their exercising power and, boy, they went after him in a way I've just kind of never seen."

Carlson went on to note that the attacks on Vance and the assassination attempt on Saturday have underscored for him that the battles underway are not simply political but spiritual.

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Justice Clarence Thomas gives damning assessment of Washington and 'nastiness' of his critics



Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued his verdict Friday at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference in Point Clear, Alabama: The nation's capital is "a hideous place" oriented both toward character assassination and away from the truth.

During his hour-long appearance at the conference Friday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle asked Justice Thomas about working in a mean-spirited world, reported the Associated Press.

Justice Thomas explained to Mizelle as well as to the other judges, attorneys, and others with business in the federal appeals court who had gathered for the conference, "We're in a world and we — certainly my wife and I the last two or three years, it's been — just the nastiness and the lies, it's just incredible."

'I think what you are going to find, and especially in Washington, people pride themselves on being awful.'

"But you have some choices," continued Thomas. "You don't get to prevent people from doing horrible things or saying horrible things. But one you have to understand and accept the fact that they can't change you unless you permit that."

Democrats and other radicals have long attacked Thomas and his wife, Ginni Thomas. These attacks appear historically to have been most pronounced around the time of consequential Supreme Court decisions where his vote could spell trouble for leftist designs, such as as the court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization or the court's 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore.

The latest attack campaign grew out of a coordinated reaction to a ProPublica report last year, which indicated that Thomas legally accepted three rides and vacations from Republican donor Harlan Crow.

While turning a blind eye to the questionable actions of liberal justices, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) joined the chorus of Democrats condemning Thomas, writing, "Justice Thomas has brought shame upon himself and the United States Supreme Court with his acceptance of massive, repeated and undisclosed gifts. No government official, elected or unelected, could ethically or legally accept gifts of that scale. He should resign immediately."

Anti-Israeli activist Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) similarly demanded last year that Thomas resign.

While Democrats frequently attempt to anchor their antipathy toward Thomas in a perceived scandal, sometimes they don't bother pretending it's about anything besides partisan politics. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), for instance, has repeatedly called Thomas an "Uncle Tom" on account of his constitutionalist views on affirmative action and other issues.

The liberal media has taken part in this long-standing campaign to vilify Thomas and to pressure him to resign.

The now-defunct magazine Emerge ran an issue with an illustration of Thomas shining the late Justice Antonin Scalia's shoes, reported Newsweek.

Instead of offensive cartoons, alleged comedian John Oliver tried a bribe on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight." Oliver pledged to pay Justice Thomas $1 million annually and buy him a $2.4 million Prevost luxury motor coach if he resigned.

Justice Thomas indicated Friday that there are "reckless" people who lurk about the city keen to "bomb your reputation."

"They don't bomb you necessarily, but they bomb your reputation or your good name or your honor," said Thomas. "And that's not a crime. But they can do as much harm that way."

Justice Thomas also told Mizelle, "I think what you are going to find, and especially in Washington, people pride themselves on being awful. It is a hideous place as far as I'm concerned."

Justice Thomas indicated that he and his wife have taken to RVing to avoid the kind of personalities that predominate in Washington.

"You get to be around regular people who don't pride themselves in doing harmful things, merely because they have the capacity to do it or because they disagree," said the Supreme Court justice.

Christopher Bedford, senior editor for politics and Washington correspondent for Blaze Media, indicated Justice Thomas' statements ring true.

"In Clarence Thomas' long and distinguished career in Washington, D.C., he was greeted by terrible people who treated him terribly. That's continued throughout his entire tenure — from then-Senator Joe Biden lecturing him on legal theories that Biden, by the way, had no idea about, to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture washing him out of black history, to the indignities and political attacks that his wife has had to endure," Bedford told Blaze News. "There's no reason at all for Clarence Thomas to like this city one bit."

"It's really a great benefit to us that he makes the sacrifice of staying here as opposed to just hitting the road and driving across the country, which is what he likes to spend his off time doing," added Bedford.

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The People vs. the Swamp: LIVE Election 2024 Focus Group with Glenn Beck | Glenn TV | Ep 352

The People vs. the Swamp: LIVE Election 2024 Focus Group with Glenn Beck | Glenn TV | Ep 352

Nikki Haley Wins Her First 2024 Primary In Her True Constituency, The D.C. Swamp

Her D.C. conquest was the first win for the former South Carolina governor, and the victory couldn’t have come in a more fitting place.