BREAKING: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Cloture Vote Passes 63-33
The Senate just passed cloture on the standalone bill to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by a vote of 63-33. Six Republican Senators joined all but one Democratic Senator in voting yes. The final vote on the bill will be today at 3:00 PM.
This is a developing story and may be updated throughout the day.
After two House votes, two Senate votes, seventeen years of forced lies and witchhunts, over 13,000 discharges, twenty-three military studies — the most recent costing $4.5 million — untold hours and millions of dollars worth of of lobbying and debate, Congress has, albeit reluctantly, come closer to repealing a law already ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge months ago, one that many Americans felt was never a good idea from the start, and now 78% of Americans agree must end.
In what has to be seen as the most-egregious dereliction of their fiduciary duty, Senate Republicans yesterday, in a last-ditch effort and in a continuation of their no-holds-barred hostage-taking and extortion, threatened to defeat the START treaty to regulate and inspect nuclear weapons that exist around the world, potentially putting the very existence of the country at stake.
Republican Senators up until the last minute invoked false concepts, claiming, as Senator John McCain, the leading advocate against repeal, said, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal will cause “great damage” and “harm the battle effectiveness.” McCain actually, falsely, said, as did General Amos earlier in the week, that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal would actually cost limbs and lives.
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), upset about the perfectly legal procedure the Senate used, called “Rule XIV,” threatened, “this game can be played by both sides…next year we’re going to insist on it.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, commenting about the upset of Republican Senators about procedure, said their comments “bring a big yawn to the American people,” who know the obstruction the Republicans have been practicing all year, and said, “to suggest that there hasn’t been hearing after hearing on this is just nonsensical.”
It’s important for all to remember that with this historic vote, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a law and policy is closer to coming to an end, but the military and the Commander in Chief would still have to “certify” when — and if — the military is ready to allow openly-gay and lesbian service members to serve.
Justin Elzie, the first U.S. Marine discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” wrote to me about today’s vote. He says,
“I feel hopeful that this vote for cloture today and the final vote in the next day or two will finally get rid of this egregious policy. People need to know that this is an important first step, but this is not over until after a 60 day waiting period, a certification by the President, Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and an implementation plan started by the Pentagon that needs to be rolled out. Most importantly the discharges need to stop and that doesn’t happen yet with today’s vote. This is not over until all of that happens. This vote is happening today thanks to the tireless efforts of many veterans and activists from groups like Servicemembers United to GetEqual. Let’s celebrate after today’s vote but realize we will need to roll up our sleeves and get the discharges stopped and an implementation plan finished before this is over.â€
Lt. Dan Choi, the posterboy for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” who is reportedly now in a Veterans’ Administration facility after suffering from PTSD which he attributes in part to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” fight, released a statement via Twitter as this morning’s debate was taking place. “‘No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.’ Victor Hugo #DreamAct #DADT”
Not voting today were Senators Bunning (R-KY), Gregg (R-NH), Manchin (D-WV) and Hatch (R-UT). The six Republicans voting to move the bill forward were Brown, Snowe, Collins, Murkowski, Voinovich, and Kirk.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
