The Spectator

NBC’s decision to hire former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor has made lots of folks angry. The backlash was so strong, in fact, that days after its parent company brought in McDaniel as a political analyst, MSNBC’s president, Rashida Jones, announced that the former chairwoman won’t be contributing on air to the cable network. McDaniel appeared for her first hit as a contributor on NBC’s long-running Sunday show Meet the Press and was interviewed by anchor Kristen Welker.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene finally followed through on repeated threats to oust Speaker Mike Johnson over the passage of a $1.2 trillion spending bill. Congress now will vote on her measure, likely following a two-week recess, giving her colleagues no shortage of headaches as they head into November’s elections. MTG had been a close ally of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy as Republican rebels led by Matt Gaetz ousted him, but her relationship with Johnson has been far more tenuous.

Last night’s elections saw several narrow wins for candidates endorsed by Donald Trump, along with deep divisions in the Democratic Party over a race to helm one of the highest-profile state’s attorneys offices in the nation.One of the weirdest races of the cycle came to an end fairly quickly last night, with Bernie Moreno, the preferred choice of Donald Trump and much of MAGA world, carrying every county to win just above 50 percent in the Ohio Senate primary. The final days of the election were marred by a bizarre allegation from the Associated Press that Moreno had a male-seeking account on AdultFriendFinder, a website used mostly for casual hookups. Moreno is married to a woman and has children.

Political commentators and mainstream journalists are apoplectic over remarks former president Donald Trump made at a rally in Ohio over the weekend. Speaking to supporters on behalf of Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, Trump warned that if President Joe Biden is reelected in November the auto industry would face a “bloodbath.’”“We’re gonna put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not gonna be able to sell those guys, if I get elected! Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it,” he said. “It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.

Haiti is battling an insurgency, with gangs terrorizing the citizenry and international actors fearing the beginning of a refugee crisis. You could already label the situation a low-scale civil war, but things are set to get worse, as the leading gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier continues to mobilize for regime change. The conflict has gotten so out of control that Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry, who the Biden administration energetically backed following the assassination of former prime minister Jovenel Moïse in 2021, announced early Tuesday that he would resign following the creation of a transitional presidential council.

Attacking special counsels is fine now, apparently. At least, that’s according to the “Forrest Gump of political failure,” Ian Sams.Former special counsel Robert Hur testified to the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that his report on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, contrary to claims from the White House and Democrats — did not “exonerate” or “clear” Biden — and that there was evidence he willfully retained classified documents, that he shared them with others and that his ghostwriter obstructed the investigation. Sams, however, who is the White House’s spokesman on investigative matters, told CNN that Hur was “misleading” in his testimony.

As we look ahead to a Biden-Trump rematch, the map for Senate remains filled with uncertainty, and the Senate Democrats’ super PAC is making major money moves with the “largest ad reservations in Senate history,” according to the group.Senate Majority PAC’s total ad reservations for the fall currently amount to $239 million, as first reported by the Washington Post. It’s a wise move, as the early bird typically gets the cheaper ad buy rate. The ads are booked to run in seven states: Nevada, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Montana. SMP’s president said they will focus on “a woman’s access to abortion, healthcare coverage for preexisting conditions and the preservation and strengthening of Medicare and Social Security.

One of the first things I noticed last night as I arrived on Capitol Hill to cover President Joe Biden’s fourth State of the Union address was the insane amount of security. Multiple blocks of streets surrounding the Capitol were fenced off by police and cop cars with their flashing lights on were ubiquitous. I hadn’t seen anything like it in downtown DC since the Capitol complex was locked down in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot. Except then, staff and press were allowed to enter the gates with a valid ID badge. This time, we all had to make the trek around the massive perimeter in the hopes of finding one open door to get into a congressional building and then snake through the tunnels to the Capitol.