Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who likes to position himself as a ‘normal’ Republican, attacked the Department of Justice during an interview on CNN over the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Crenshaw resorted to spreading lies and disinformation about the search during the revealing segment, which showed Crenshaw would rather support Donald Trump than our national security. Texas Paul tears into the Texas Republican.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is spending part of his congressional recess on a luxury yacht in Italy with his family after criticizing President Biden for vacationing in Delaware, Axios has learned.
Why it matters:Scott is the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, whose job is to win back a GOP majority in the upper chamber. Republicans’ prospects for winning back the Senate have been worsening over the course of the summer, according to polling and analysis.
Scott is already under fire for his management of the committee.
Vacationing in Europe while Republicans face cash problems and rough headlines about their midterm chances could further hurt his standing with his GOP colleagues.
The big picture: Scott has been taking heat from Republican detractors who have criticized his job of recruiting strong candidates and managing the committee’s spending this cycle.
Republican candidates are underperforming across the Senate landscape. Trump-endorsed nominees are trailing in must-win states like Pennsylvania and Arizona. A top Republican super PAC was forced to spend $28 million backing author J.D. Vance’s campaign in GOP-friendly Ohio.
What they’re saying: NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline did not respond to requests for comment on Monday night after Axios spoke with three sources familiar with aspects of Scott’s itinerary.
Upon learning of Axios’ plans to publish, he said: “Sen. Scott took a couple days to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife and family – a trip that was planned more than a year ago.”
Driving the news:Scott mocked President Biden on Monday for vacationing in Delaware instead of working at the White House.
Another week of President Biden vacationing in Delaware vs. working at the White House.
If he loves to travel so much, I've got some suggestions as to where he should go next ⬇️
Between the lines:Scott has made unconventional decisions running the committee. The NRSC spent over $40 million early in the cycle, in part because many candidates have struggled to pay for television ads without help from outside organizations, draining the party of resources for the home stretch.
The committee canceled bookings in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Wisconsin last week, according to the Washington Post, forfeiting the cheaper rates that came from booking early.
Several of the key battlegrounds Republicans need to spend in — Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Philadelphia — are top media markets and expensive for ad buys.
The NRSC said the move was a result of the campaign seeking to stretch its money as far as possible, including by shifting funds around to do more “hybrid ads” — joint ads paid for by the candidate and the Senate GOP campaign arm.
That decision reduces the party’s advertising rates, but it also restricts the type of messages the ads can feature.
Scott has taken a hands-off approach to Republican primaries, not favoring any candidates in open contests.
Both Scott and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell were unable to recruit two popular governors — Arizona’s Doug Ducey and New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu — who would have faced better odds of flipping Democratic-held seats.
By the numbers:At the end of July, the NRSC reported just $23.2 million cash-on-hand. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reported $54.1 million in its account, more than double the GOP amount.
“We’ve spent more than $40 million on TV while the DSCC has spent $2 million dollars. If you spend money, you have less of it,” Hartline told Axios.
Zoom out: If House Republicans coast to victory while Senate Republicans fail to pick up the one seat necessary to win a majority, Scott is poised to be the GOP’s fall guy. It would be a rare setback for the Florida politician, who has beaten long odds before and boasts an undefeated record in his own campaigns.
Randy left this incredible grand tweet in a comment on a post. It is so grand I felt more people needed to see it. Thanks again brother. Hugs
Hi Scottie; I’ve come to the point that I no longer find myself at all surprised what the repukes do. I did find this interesting tweet, thought I’d share it below. Hope you are moving better from your voting. It says just how much you believe in… well, just how much you walk the walk, and not just talk the talk. Hugs!
A history teacher of 40 years explains the difference between conservatives and liberals in the simplest way he knows how pic.twitter.com/5W1RNrhRDE
On August 22, OAN host Kara McKinney defended a right-wing push to ban LGBTQ books from schools, using a photograph of a Nazi book burning in her commentary.
“I think banning pornographic books from school libraries is not only justifiable – it’s the only moral option,” McKinney said. “It’s our duty, in fact, to purge our schools of such filth.”
Before the Nazis took power in Germany, the “Institute for Sexual Science” was a global pioneer in studying homosexuality and transgender identity, and its founder, Magnus Hirschfeld, was a known advocate for LGBTQ equality.
After taking power, the Nazis labeled the institute “offensive for public morals,” shut it down, and burned its contents on May 6, 1933.
The National Archives found more than 700 pages of classified material — including “special access program materials,” some of the most highly classified secrets in government — in 15 boxes recovered from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in January, according to correspondence between the National Archivist and his legal team.
The May 10 letter — posted late Monday on the website of John Solomon, a conservative journalist and one of Trump’s authorized liaisons to the National Archives to review papers from his presidency — showed that NARA and federal investigators had grown increasingly alarmed about potential damage to national security caused by the warehousing of these documents at Mar-a-Lago, as well as by Trump’s resistance to sharing them with the FBI.
These records included 700 pages of classified material, according to the letter, sent by National Archivist Debra Wall to Trump’s attorney, Evan Corcoran, and it doesn’t include records recovered by the Justice Department and FBI during a June meeting and the Aug. 11 search of the Mar-a-Lago premises.
Wall’s letter describes earlier correspondence in which Trump’s team objected to disclosing the contents of the 15 boxes to the FBI.
“As you are no doubt aware, NARA had ongoing communications with the former President’s representatives throughout 2021 about what appeared to be missing Presidential records, which resulted in the transfer of 15 boxes of records to NARA in January 2022,” Wall wrote. “In its initial review of materials within those boxes, NARA identified items marked as classified national security information, up to the level of Top Secret and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Program materials.”
NARA aides did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter, and Corcoran could not immediately be reached.
The correspondence shows that even though NARA retrieved the 15 boxes in January, Justice Department and FBI investigators didn’t see their contents until May, after extended negotiations with Trump’s representatives. The letter also shows that in the interim, DOJ asked President Joe Biden to authorize NARA to provide the records to investigators despite an effort by Trump to claim executive privilege over the records. Wall indicated she had rejected Trump’s claim because of the significance of the documents to national security.
“NARA informed the Department of Justice about that discovery, which prompted the Department to ask the President to request that NARA provide the FBI with access to the boxes at issue so that the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community could examine them,” Wall wrote.
Biden, according to Wall, then delegated the privilege decision to her, in consultation with the Justice Department.
Wall noted that typical restrictions on access to presidential records carve out an exception for incumbent administrations. And she described an April 29 letter from DOJ’s National Security Division describing their pursuit of these documents: “There are important national security interests in the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community getting access to these materials.”
“Access to the materials is not only necessary for purposes of our ongoing criminal investigation, but the Executive Branch must also conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps,” according to the DOJ letter. “Accordingly, we are seeking immediate access to these materials so as to facilitate the necessary assessments that need to be conducted within the Executive Branch.”
Wall indicated that Archives had notified Trump on April 12 of the FBI’s “urgency” to review the documents but delayed transmitting them at the behest of Trump’s team.
“It has now been four weeks since we first informed you of our intent to provide the FBI access to the boxes so that it and others in the Intelligence Community can conduct their reviews,” Wall wrote. “ Notwithstanding the urgency conveyed by the Department of Justice and the reasonable extension afforded to the former President, your April 29 letter asks for additional time for you to review the materials in the boxes ‘in order to ascertain whether any specific document is subject to privilege,’ and then to consult with the former President “so that he may personally make any decision to assert a claim of constitutionally based privilege.’”
Wall said she consulted with the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel and had decided not honor that request.
“The question in this case is not a close one,” she wrote.
“The Executive Branch here is seeking access to records belonging to, and in the custody of, the Federal Government itself, not only in order to investigate whether those records were handled in an unlawful manner but also, as the National Security Division explained, to ‘conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps.’”
Tucker Carlson sounded just like his good pal and right-wing conspiracy nut Alex Jones on Monday, at one point commenting about chemicals in milk that “turn kids trans.”
The Fox host expressed sympathy during his show for an Amish farmer named Amos Miller who has run into legal trouble over food safety issues identified by the Food and Drug Administration dating back to 2016.
“Maybe if he promises to put more chemicals in the milk that turn kids trans, they’ll lay off,” blurted out Carlson, who has targeted transgender people before. His comment was reminiscent of Jones’ loony theory that the government is “putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay.”
Here's the full segment. The line about chemicals in the milk was totally unrelated. Tucker just threw it out there completely unprompted. pic.twitter.com/xJBjpBJfQW
What Carlson said is stupid. He knows it’s a lie but he also knows he can say whatever he likes without consequence, and that saying nutty things keeps his name in the news, so that’s what he does.
Wait, so it’s not Drag Queen Story Hours turning kids trans, it’s chemicals? Quick, someone needs to make a Kickstarter for a special dip stick concerned parents can put in the milk and other goods to indicate if it detects the super scary “turn kids trans” chemical. Possibly with a stretch goal of one that can detect “turn adults trans” chemical?
Since there doesn’t appear to be any science behind any chemical that turns anyone trans, a simple stick that does nothing would not technically be fraud.
Photo: Anna Rose Layden/Getty Image
Scottie's Playtime 
Hi Scottie;
I’ve come to the point that I no longer find myself at all surprised what the repukes do. I did find this interesting tweet, thought I’d share it below.
Hope you are moving better from your voting. It says just how much you believe in… well, just how much you walk the walk, and not just talk the talk.
Hugs!