Daily Archives
86 posts · Thursday
Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 191
Blue Wave Update
Punchbowl News: “Elon Musk donated $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund in the third quarter, the vast majority of the Senate GOP super PAC’s $273 million quarter. Musk made two contributions: $75 million on Sept. 9 and $83 million on Sept. 23.”
“SLF then transferred identical amounts to Texas PAC, the super PAC backing Ken Paxton. So the mystery is over – if it was ever a mystery to begin with: Musk is behind the Republican money bomb in Texas.”
“Mayor Zohran Mamdani bashed Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman in a video released Thursday in support of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s re-election campaign as he ramps up his vocal support of Hochul in the last stretch of the race,” the New York Daily News reports.
“The video was the first substantial move the mayor — who boosted his own profile during last year’s mayoral campaign with playful, grabby short-form social media content — has made for Hochul’s re-election bid.”
“A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday demanded an investigation into disruptions to critical satellite communications and intelligence-sharing systems in Ukraine that they warned had undermined the country’s defenses against Russian attacks and endangered U.S. military and diplomatic personnel,” the New York Times reports.
“President Donald Trump on Thursday said Texas’ incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn and conservative commentator Karl Rove should be blamed if GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton loses to Democrat James Talarico in the Lone Star State,” CNBC reports.
“Trump, who endorsed Paxton over Cornyn in the state’s Republican primary, accused the incumbent senator and Rove of ‘doing everything possible to make it hard’ for Paxton to succeed in the race, where numerous polls show him trailing Talarico.”
Said Trump: “If Ken Paxton loses, it will be because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl Rove, who have ineffectively opposed me for my entire political career.”
“U.S. health officials are moving ahead with a plan to allow specialty pharmacies to produce certain peptides, a class of largely unregulated injections that have become popular among followers of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other wellness influencers,” Stat reports.
“For such an obscure spot on the globe, little Republika Srpska has managed to enlist a host of people with close ties to the upper reaches of the Trump administration in the past few months,” the New York Times reports.
“When the pro-Russian government of the Balkan territory wanted help this summer on an energy project, it turned to a Washington lobbying firm with ties to President Trump.”
“That firm, Continental Strategy, was ready to assist. Continental counts among its partners several former Trump campaign and administration officials as well as Katie Wiles, the daughter of Mr. Trump’s chief of staff.”
“Midterm ad spending continues to soar toward record highs with less than three weeks until the elections,” NewsNation reports.
“Republican control of Congress is at stake this year, and both parties are flooding the airwaves with ads promoting their candidates. AdImpact announced Wednesday that total ad spending and future reservations topped $10 billion so far this cycle, putting it ahead of the final spending numbers for the entire 2020 and 2022 election cycles.”
“The Department of Justice on Thursday sued the top election officials in California and Los Angeles County, claiming they were planning to count ballots from more than 20,000 alleged noncitizens in next month’s midterm elections,” the Washington Post reports.
“For 86 years, Missouri has held on to a nonpartisan system of selecting its top judges. But after the state Supreme Court overruled the GOP’s redistricting push, some Republican lawmakers are calling for the system to be overturned,” ProPublica reports.
“We should have term limits for politicians. Also, age limits, anybody?”
— Iowa gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand (D), quoted by The Bulwark.
“President Donald Trump on Thursday linked Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood amid scrutiny over his alleged family ties to the Islamist organization,” Fox News reports.
Said Trump: “He’s a Muslim Brotherhood guy, 100%. He’s a Muslim Brotherhood guy. How about having him be on the Senate Intelligence Committee? How about that? The guy’s 100% Muslim Brotherhood.”
“Eric Deters, the Republican donor who accused Kimberly Guilfoyle of asking him to wire her $100,000 to pay her American Express bill in exchange for her help with the Trump administration ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Guilfoyle and her legal team,” CBS News reports.
“Guilfoyle was pushed out of her ambassadorship to Greece earlier this week, announcing her resignation Tuesday. Guilfoyle’s team publicly disputed the authenticity of text messages Deters shared with multiple news outlets.”
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) “was heard telling a woman ‘you are rude’ after she started laughing while he was speaking during a debate,” Fox News reports.
Said Harris: “Ma’am, I gotta tell you. This is the problem, you all say you believe there is a First Amendment, but only if you agree with you. You should let me finish the sentence, ma’am. You are rude. You’re rude, OK?”
“Nine former FBI employees sued the bureau on Thursday, saying they were unlawfully terminated merely for working on former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s retention of classified records after his first term in the White House,” CBS News reports.
“The former special agents, intelligence analysts and staff operation specialists worked on counterintelligence investigations and were fired over the course of two days in February 2026 — just as the United States and Israel were set to begin military strikes against Iran.”
“Key Democrats on Thursday unveiled legislation that would force federal regulators to disclose financial records related Jeffrey Epstein and his associates,” Bloomberg reports.
“The measure also would require regulators to investigate banks and their executives for potential related legal violations.”
“Since her first appearance behind the podium this week, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia’s past has become murkier by the day,” Wired reports.
“A review of deleted social media and professional networking profiles has helped clear up at least one mystery. Zacharia’s online resume shows a gap extending from 2013 to late 2023. For part of that time, she worked as an affiliate of Beachbody, a fitness company that ran a multilevel marketing operation she describes as ‘sort of a pyramid scheme.'”
“Right now we are defending U.S. assets there, so there is no war as we speak.”
— Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA), quoted by the HuffPost, on Iran.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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