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Buttigieg Praises Harris’s Focus on ‘People’s Families’ – Slams Vance’s ‘Childless’ Attack

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Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg took aim at Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate JD Vance, destroying his attack on “childless” Democrats, which he had described as the “future” of the Democratic Party.

In a wide-ranging CNN interview Tuesday night (videos below), Buttigieg criticized Vance’s “obvious interest in power,” highlighting his switch from being extremely anti-Trump to joining the convicted felon’s run for the White House. He also mocked Trump’s apparent attempt to withdraw from an ABC News debate now that Kamala Harris is the Democrats’ de-facto presidential nominee.

CNN host Kaitlan Collins played a 2021 clip in which now-Senator Vance had told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “It’s just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC. The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

Collins noted that Buttigieg now has kids and Vice President Harris is a step-mother.

“The really sad thing is, he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey,” Secretary Buttigieg responded, referring to his husband with whom he is now raising twins. “He couldn’t have known that but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.”

RELATED: Harris Defines Campaign in Roaring Wisconsin Rally: ‘People First’ vs. ‘America First’

“And it’s not about his kids, or my kids, or the vice president’s family,” Buttigieg continued. “It’s about your family, people’s families, whose well-being will depend on whether we go into a future led by somebody like Kamala Harris, who is focused on expanding the prosperity, the freedom, the well-being of our families. And by the way, especially if you have kids and you’re worried about climate, choosing between a party that has a plan on climate that creates jobs, and a party that still calls it a hoax even as we went through the hottest day in world history. Or do you want your children to grow up in a country defined by a return to the chaos and recrimination and cruelty that was the hallmark of the Trump era?”

Buttigieg also called Donald Trump’s decision to add the Ohio Republican Senator to the ticket “regrettable,” while mocking Vance’s flip flop from anti-Trump to Trump running mate.

He told Collins, “the choice of JD Vance is a regrettable choice, because he’s somebody who was at his most convincing and effective when he talked about how unfit for office Donald Trump is, and he has not explained any reason other than, of course, his obvious interest in power.”

Buttigieg said Vance’s “whole identity is that he is connected to Appalachia, a place that is being hurt so profoundly by the opioid crisis. So the fact that he didn’t just refer to Donald Trump as an idiot, though he did, didn’t just say all kinds of things about how he was terrible, but compared Donald Trump to opioids – that is literally the darkest, most negative thing someone connected to Appalachia could possibly say about a politician. And that was in public, right? In private, he was comparing him to Hitler, reportedly. He has yet to explain why his opinion would be any different other than his own search for power.”

READ MORE: Eight Years Ago JD Vance Wondered How Many Americans Donald Trump Had ‘Sexually Assaulted’

Collins, noting Trump has claimed he will debate Harris, but not in the previously-agreed ABC News setting, also asked Buttigieg if he thinks Trump is “scared” to debate Vice President Harris.

As she acknowledged Trump agreed to debate Harris, possibly more than once, Buttigieg interjected, saying: “only after backing out of the debate he already agreed to, though, right?”

“I think the interesting thing about this is, what changed,” Buttigieg asked, “from when he said he was ready to do an ABC debate and when he now says he’s not? ABC didn’t change. Donald Trump didn’t change. But there’s a new candidate and clearly he hesitates to debate her on the exact same terms that he thought to be okay.”

Asked why he thinks Trump is “scared” to debate Harris, Buttigieg replied, “I think she is going to be so effective.”

“And she’s going to lay bare his inability to talk about anything but himself and his past. I think what you’ll see is two things that I’m ready for, excited for Americans to see. Yes, the contrast, the way as she laid out very powerfully, she as a prosecutor who has defended people from people like Donald Trump, [she’s] gonna remind everybody about that record, but also a contrast in governing records.”

“She’s going to be I think, very effective in reminding Americans that on issue after issue, they already agree with us, they already agree with her and Democrats. Americans agree with Democrats and disagree with Donald Trump, on taxes and his agenda of tax cuts for the rich. They agree with Kamala Harris, Democrats, and disagree with Donald Trump on his removal of the right to choose in this country. And gun violence, marriage, you can go on down the list. I think she’s very well-positioned to remind Americans of that fact.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Harris Super PAC Picks Up $7 Million Donation From Megadonor Who Demanded Biden’s Exit

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Why a Democratic Senate Takeover Has Become a ‘Real Possibility’: NYT

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April 20, 2026

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There’s little question the House of Representatives is in play, but up until now, experts weren’t as optimistic about Democratic control of the Senate. That’s changing — with the possibility of Democrats taking the Senate now a “real possibility.”

“In today’s polarized era, Democrats would need everything to break their way” to take control of the upper chamber, The New York Times reports. “So far, everything is breaking the Democrats’ way.”

A multitude of variables are lining up in Democrats’ favor for a congressional “Democratic tsunami,” the Times says.

President Donald Trump’s popularity is at his second-term all-time low. Inflation is up, some experts are warning about unemployment, and consumer sentiment just hit a historic low. Trump’s coalition, some critics say, is in danger, his war in Iran, despite his protestations, does not appear to be going well, and some voters are worried a protracted military incursion may be a possibility.

Democrats appear to have done the groundwork necessary to retake control of the Senate.

READ MORE: Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

Citing “strong candidate recruitment” as a top reason Democrats could retake the Senate, the Times reports that “Democrats are tied or ahead in four Republican-held seats, polls show.” Democrats only need to hold on to their current number of seats and flip four more to win the majority.

The Times points to several candidates who could help create a blue Senate: James Talarico in Texas, Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Mary Peltola in Alaska, and Graham Platner in Maine.

“A blue wave is not guaranteed, of course, and Democrats would not be assured to flip two reliably Republican states even if it were. But a feasible path for the party to win the Senate is coming into focus.”

The Times notes that in four GOP-controlled Senate races, Democrats are tied or ahead in the polls. In Maine and North Carolina, the likely Democratic nominees are ahead. In Ohio and Alaska, Democrats have recruited strong candidates, and there are “signs” Republicans could be in danger in both Iowa and Texas.

“Even if Mr. Trump successfully negotiates a quick end to the war in Iran, it will be hard for his standing to improve much by November,” the Times acknowledges. “His ratings have been in steady decline for about a year, and the war has only added to the weight of persistent inflation. If the conflict isn’t resolved quickly, the risks are enormous: Historically, quagmire abroad and rising prices at home are the ingredients of a failed presidency.”

Democrats have an “enormous advantage” among voters who turn out in the midterm elections. In short, if “a blue wave materializes, Democrats have a chance to ride it to Senate control.”

READ MORE: Trump Axes Catholic Charities Funding for Migrant Kids Amid Pope Feud: Report

 

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‘Cashing in’: Backlash as Trump Eyes Settling His $10B Lawsuit Against IRS

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April 17, 2026

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President Donald Trump is now in “discussions” with his own government to settle his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency he exercises limited influence over, after a contractor released 15 years of his tax returns in 2019, which were published by The New York Times two months before the 2020 election.

“The president’s lawyers asked a judge Friday to extend key deadlines on the multibillion lawsuit against his presidential administration, but hidden within the pages of the legal filing was a profound detail: that the president has been in talks with his own government staffers to ‘avoid protracted litigation,'” The New Republic reports.

“Good cause exists to grant an extension in this matter while the Parties engage in discussions designed to resolve this matter and to avoid protracted litigation,” Trump’s lawyers argued, TNR notes. “This limited pause will neither prejudice the Parties nor delay ultimate resolution. Rather, the extension will promote judicial economy and allow the Parties to explore avenues that could narrow or resolve the issues efficiently.”

TNR also repots that legal experts “have questioned whether a president can sue his own administration to pocket taxpayer money, and have expressed doubts about whether Trump’s Justice Department can appropriately defend the financial institutions.”

Critics allege a conflict of interest in the case.

READ MORE: ‘Incurable Conflict of Interest’: Kushner Under Sweeping Investigation by House Democrats

“Right out in the open, Donald Trump is suing his own IRS to try to steal $10 BILLION taxpayer dollars,” charged U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who notes she has introduced legislation to prevent “this theft.”

Political scientist Brendan Nyhan described the situation as Trump “Negotiating with himself to loot the US Treasury.”

“Nothing beats reaching into the taxpayers’ pocket and helping oneself to $10 billion,” wrote Richard Field, the Director of the Institute for Financial Transparency.

“Trump is suing the federal government and cashing in. Who approves these settlements? HE DOES of course. There is no bottom to his shamelessness. Meanwhile American families suffer,” wrote U.S. Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL).

“Trump is just stealing $10 billion from taxpayers! That’s very MAGA,” charged Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

READ MORE: Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

 

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Trump’s MAGA Humiliation Playbook Is ‘Proof of Loyalty’: GOP Ex-Congressman

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3 days ago

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April 17, 2026

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MAGA has made a deal with Donald Trump, and the deal is that “the humiliation is the point,” argues Republican former U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger. In short, he says, “humiliating the MAGA faithful only binds them more tightly to Trump.”

Kinzinger, a never-Trump Republican who acknowledged last year that his politics are now probably closer to the Democrats, says that to “understand what Trump is doing, you have to stop thinking about each outrage as a separate event and start seeing them as a sequence.”

He walks through a timeline of humiliations.

Trump asked MAGA to believe the 2020 election was stolen, so they did, “including many who knew better.”

Trump asked MAGA to excuse the January 6 attack on the Capitol as a mere tourist visit, and they did.

“He asked them to accept that his 91 criminal indictments were a political witch hunt — and they did, turning his mugshot into a fundraising image,” he writes. “Each ask was larger than the last. Each capitulation required more of them — more willingness to contradict their own eyes, their own values, their own stated beliefs.”

READ MORE: ‘Incurable Conflict of Interest’: Kushner Under Sweeping Investigation by House Democrats

Kinzinger reveals the psychology of what he believes is actually happening here.

“Every time MAGA accepts something they previously would have considered unacceptable, Trump’s hold on them gets stronger, not weaker. Because now they’ve paid a price. They’ve told their neighbors, their families, their coworkers, that they believe this. Walking it back would mean admitting they were wrong. And the movement doesn’t allow that.”

What does this mean for the future?

“Don’t expect a wholesale collapse in Trump’s support,” he predicts. “Some will leave, others have tied their conscience to his success. Those will double down, again and again.”

Kinzinger expects that MAGA is not breaking apart. “I don’t think there’s some dramatic rupture coming where the movement looks in the mirror and decides enough is enough. That’s not how this works,” he writes. Because Trump has trained his movement to accept humiliation as “proof of loyalty.”

“The more outrageous the thing he asks them to believe, the more committed they become,” he explains, “because disbelief now would mean admitting everything they’ve already accepted was wrong. It’s a trap that gets harder to escape the longer you’re in it.”

But, he says, “the humiliation ritual works until the day it doesn’t.”

“Until the day enough people decide that the price of belonging is higher than the price of leaving. We’re not there yet,” he explains. “But we’re closer than Trump wants you to think.”

READ MORE: Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

 

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