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All in the Family? How Marco Rubio’s Senate Seat Could Go to a DeSantis or a Trump

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President-elect Donald Trump may create an opening in Florida for a U.S. Senate seat, with his expected nomination of Sen. Marco Rubio to become Secretary of State.

READ MORE: Trump Victory Was ‘Slim’ and Not the ‘Historic Mandate’ Republicans Claim, Analysis Shows

In 2008, when Barack Obama became President-elect, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had the responsibility to fill Obama’s Senate seat. Blagojevich, later convicted of corruption, was infamously recorded saying, “I’ve got this thing, and it’s (bleeping) golden… I’m just not giving it up for (bleeping) nothing.” After serving eight years of his 14-year sentence, Blagojevich’s prison term was commuted by President Donald Trump in 2020.

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who ran unsuccessfully, and, critics say, poorly, for the GOP presidential nomination, has some options, which include handing the seat to a Trump—or to a DeSantis.

Senator Rubio won re-election in 2022, and his six-year term does not end until 2028.

Should Rubio be nominated and confirmed, Gov. DeSantis would need to appoint a temporary seat holder who could choose to run in 2026 for the seat. The seat would also be up for election on schedule, in 2028.

In 2010, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin declined to appoint himself to an open Senate seat and appointed his 36-year-old legal adviser instead. Four days later he launched a campaign to run for the seat, and won it that year.

DeSantis’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier, “could act as a caretaker in the Senate role until 2026,” CBS News reports. “This move would give DeSantis the option to run for the Senate seat himself in the 2026 special election, aligning with the end of his gubernatorial term.”

He could also appoint his Lt. Governor, Jeanette Nunez, to the seat.

READ MORE: ‘No Excuse’: Dems Have Just Weeks to Get Dozens of Biden’s Judicial Nominees Confirmed

Or, “DeSantis could work with Nunez to resign as governor, allowing her to ascend to the governorship and appoint him directly to the Senate seat, bypassing the need to wait until 2026.”

“There’s also speculation that DeSantis could appoint his wife, Casey DeSantis to the seat. Casey DeSantis has long been involved in state government and she enjoys wide popularity across the state.”

But there are other options.

U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) “is publicly calling for President-elect Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to be chosen to fill [the] Florida Senate seat — a sign of Trump allies potentially rallying around the pick,” Axios reports.

Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump, was handed another top position recently: co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Before getting involved in politics, she was a producer for TV’s “Inside Edition,” worked on the Trump 2020 campaign, and spoke at Trump’s January 6, 2021 Save America rally that preceded the insurrection. She was also rumored to be interested in running for a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina in 2021.

She has no experience in government.

But Talking Points Memo founder and editor Josh Marshall asks, “how much say does DeSantis even get over a replacement?”

“I think too,” he adds, “people are overlooking the distinct possibility that Rubio’s [appointment] is less about giving him [Secretary of] State than giving someone else his Senate seat.”

READ MORE: ‘What Illegal Corruption Looks Like’: Trump Blasted for ‘Already Breaking the Law’

 

This article has been updated to include Marshall’s remarks.

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Rogan on Epstein Files: ‘Looks Terrible’ for Trump

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Prominent podcaster Joe Rogan warned that the handling of the Epstein files “looks terrible” for President Donald Trump and his administration.

“During Tuesday and Thursday’s episodes, Rogan criticized redactions the Department of Justice made from the files,” The Hill reported.

“Who knows what f — — happens with all this Epstein files s — —,” he said, according to video of his streaming show. “It just keeps getting crazier and crazier and crazier and deeper and deeper.”

“Why would your name be redacted if you’re not a victim?” Rogan also asked. “Like, this is what’s crazy about all this. Like, how come you redact some people and you don’t redact other people?”

READ MORE: Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files

“Like, what is this?” the podcaster continued. “This is not good. None of this is good for this administration. It looks f — — terrible. It looks terrible. It looks terrible for Trump when he was saying that none of this was real. This is all a hoax. This is not a hoax. Like, did you not know?”

“Maybe he didn’t know if you want to be charitable? But this is definitely not a hoax. And if you’ve got redacted people’s names, and these people aren’t victims, you’re not protecting the victim. So what are you doing?”

“And how come all this s — — is not released?” Rogan asked.

 

READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same

 

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Far Right Extremist Leader Puts Trump on Notice Over Epstein Files

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Far-right extremist livestreamer Nick Fuentes — who leads a “Groyper” following of mostly young men and brands himself “America First” — is putting President Donald Trump on notice ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“I won’t even consider voting in the midterms unless the Epstein Files are fully unredacted, mass deportations resume, and we don’t go to war with Iran,” wrote Fuentes, who has 1.2 million followers on the X social media platform.

Some of Trump’s MAGA allies were furious this week as Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected numerous questions in a congressional hearing on that very topic.

Even before Bondi’s widely-criticized performance, Fuentes had called for her impeachment.

READ MORE: Trump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players

“Pam Bondi needs to be impeached,” he said on his February 9 Rumble show, “America First,” as The Daily Beast reported. “You lied about the existence of the files. You lied about unindicted collaborators and accomplices.”

Fuentes has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “white nationalist,” an “admirer of fascists,” and someone who “frequently relies on antisemitic tropes.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, “Fuentes has used his platforms to make numerous antisemitic, racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments,” and spreads “white supremacist propaganda.”

President Trump “has not condemned Fuentes,” and Vice President JD Vance “has only criticized him for attacking his wife,” The Week reported last month. “But Vance also appears keen to avoid alienating young Fuentes supporters, who could help him secure the GOP presidential nomination in 2028.”

READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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Trump’s Pardon ‘Blizzard’ Grows With Clemency for Five Former NFL Players

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President Donald Trump issued another batch of pardons on Thursday, granting clemency to five former NFL players — the latest in what the Cato Institute has labeled a “blizzard” of pardons.

Trump’s pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson praised the move, which covers cases including those involving drug-related offenses and perjury convictions, according to The Guardian,

“Today, the President granted pardons to five former NFL players—Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and the late great Dr. Billy Cannon,” wrote Johnson. “As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation.”

Johnson went on to applaud the president “for his continued commitment to second chances.”

“Mercy changes lives,” she added.

READ MORE: ‘No Going Back’: Report Warns Post-MAGA America Will Never Be the Same

The Cato Institute on Wednesday had said the scope and magnitude of Trump’s “blizzard” of pardons are “unprecedented.”

Before this latest round of pardons, Trump had issued 166 pardons — plus the mass pardons of about 1,500 people convicted on charges in connection with January 6 — since taking office just over one year ago. By comparison, President Joe Biden in four years issued 80 pardons.

“In other words,” Cato’s Dan Greenberg wrote, “even putting aside the rioters’ collective pardon, Trump is now issuing pardons at eight times the rate Biden did.”

READ MORE: ‘Political Stunt’: Trump Admin Rages After NYC Re-Raises Pride Flag at Stonewall

Greenberg put Trump’s pardons into several categories.

He noted that Biden’s pardons eliminated about $680,000 in penalties owed to victims or the federal government, whereas Trump’s pardons have wiped away about $1.5 billion.

Greenberg also said that “Trump has normalized the pardoning of disgraced politicians, such as former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez (who orchestrated a spree of state-sponsored drug trafficking leading to a 45-year prison term),” and others, such as Nevada legislator Michele Fiore, Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins, Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, and Arkansas legislator Jeremy Hutchinson.

Other concerns Greenberg noted are that aspects of some of Trump’s pardons “set off alarm bells for self-corruption—either of the president or of his associates.”

Finally, “Trump has increasingly focused on providing pardons to his campaign supporters who stretched or broke the law, such as John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, and Jenna Ellis.”

READ MORE: ‘Politically Toxic’: Voters Say Biden Was Better Than Trump

 

Image via Reuters 

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