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‘Open Rebellion’: Mike Johnson, Mitch McConnell and Ronna McDaniel Under MAGA Fire
In a presidential election year where their likely nominee often leads in the polls, it is close to unheard of that the leaders of that party would be under direct and very public attack from the base and their own elected leaders, yet Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel are facing increasing dissatisfaction – and even some calls for their ouster.
After two critical and “embarrassing” losses Tuesday night – one on the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the other on aid to Israel, some House Republicans and staffers have called into question the “decision-making abilities” of Speaker Mike Johnson, according to Punchbowl News.
“Tuesday’s debacle — failing to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and then choosing to lose a vote on $17 billion in aid to Israel — is truly one of the most embarrassing days in recent House GOP history,” Punchbowl News reported. “Inside Johnson’s leadership circle, there are plenty who doubt his decision-making capability while being forced to begrudgingly execute his questionable strategies. And among rank-and-file House GOP lawmakers, there are a lot of people scratching their heads about where he’s leading them.”
READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene Mocked After Fiery Denials of ‘Insurrection’
Late Wednesday morning, Speaker Johnson defended those failures, telling reporters “democracy is messy,” while blaming Democrats for bringing one of their members who had been in the hospital in to vote.
“Last night was a setback, but democracy is messy … We have a razor-thin margin here … People show up when they’re not expected to be in the building, it changes the equation … We will pass those articles of impeachment.”
— Speaker Mike Johnson on failed Mayorkas impeachment pic.twitter.com/4ukTmq3rud
— The Recount (@therecount) February 7, 2024
When confronted with remarks attacking him from Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, that ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy “was an ‘unmitigated disaster’ for your party,” Johnson tried to turn the tables.
“Well, look, it was a mess, what happened here, but we’re cleaning it up. And Massie is one of my dear friends and colleagues and I don’t think that this is a reflection on the leader. It’s a reflection on the body itself.”
On the other side of Congress, Politico reports, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is “under open attack from the right for even trying to work with Democrats on the border.”
McConnell’s “far-right critics are speaking out more loudly: Several held a press conference Tuesday where they denounced his handling of the border talks, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calling on McConnell to step down.”
RELATED: ‘Mutiny’: Far Right GOP Senators Start to Give McConnell the McCarthy Treatment
McConnell put U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-OK) a hardcore conservative, on drafting the border bill that includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. McConnell supported Lankford and endorsed the legislation, before walking away and throwing Lankford, as Mother Jones’ David Corn noted, “under the bus.”
Politico adds that “Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted a fundraising link asking donors to ‘kill this border bill’ in the middle of a closed-door GOP meeting on Monday and demanded ‘new leadership,’ while Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) memed McConnell as Charlie Brown whiffing on an attempt to kick a football held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.).”
“’I’ve been super unhappy since this started,’ Johnson said in an interview. ‘Leader McConnell completely blew this.’”
Over at the RNC, various reports state that Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has either already quit, is “expected to leave amid pressure from Donald Trump,” or offered to resign, possibly after the South Carolina primary.
The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports, “RNC chair Ronna McDaniel discussed with Trump stepping down after South Carolina primary, per person familiar. NYT reported she told Trump she’s planning to step down. Trump met with her at Mar-a-Lago yesterday where Trump didn’t ask her to quit but told Newsmax she needed to go.”
A quick NCRM review found only one other time in the U.S. when the chair of a major national political party stepped down just months before a presidential election: the DNC’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz, after emails were leaked in 2016. Donald Trump, the Republican, went on to win that election.
Watch the video above or at this link.
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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
