Punchbowl had a scathing newsletter Monday:
Why MTG's missive rang true for House GOP
MTG’s four-page note was stinging for House Republicans. Why? Because the message rang true to so many in the House GOP.
In fact, a few other GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they, too, are considering retiring in the middle of the term.
Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican:
“This entire White House team has treated ALL members like garbage. ALL. And Mike Johnson has let it happen because he wanted it to happen. That is the sentiment of nearly all — appropriators, authorizers, hawks, doves, rank and file. The arrogance of this White House team is off putting to members who are run roughshod and threatened. They don’t even allow little wins like announcing small grants or even responding from agencies. Not even the high profile, the regular rank and file random members are more upset than ever. Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms.
“More explosive early resignations are coming. It’s a tinder box. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out.”
Of course, Johnson’s team points out they have impossibly small margins and believe they are doing what they can with the hand they were dealt.
But the idea that Republicans could lose their majority this Congress is no longer far-fetched.
Many blame Trump, at least privately, but everyone blames Mike Johnson, some publicly. Truth is they are all correct.
That doesn’t mean what’s laid out will come to pass, but it does confirm that Johnson is a weak and disrespected functionary.
Axios:
The worst good-paying job in America
Death threats and infighting are spurring House Republicans to contemplate whether they want to stay in Congress — or even leave early.
Why it matters: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) scathing resignation has rattled her colleagues. Some are questioning whether the job is still worth it when the work is drowned out by censures, violent threats and loyalty tests to President Trump.
- 41 members have already announced they plan to call it quits at the end of their term, with more expected to follow. Most House lawmakers make $174,000 a year.
What they're saying: Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who is retiring in 2027, told Axios he was "so angry" at the Trump administration's proposed 28-point Russia-Ukraine peace plan last week that he "thought about" resigning early.
- The White House did not reply to a request for comment on Bacon's comments.
- Another House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Axios that while they are not likely to resign, "the thought has crossed my mind" and "I know I'm not the only one."
State of play: Since July, House members have spent only a handful of days in Washington. They returned from a seven-week recess to a schedule dominated by punitive resolutions targeting their own colleagues.
The thing to remember about the gossip sheets (Punchbowl, Axios) is that they have good GOP sources, e.g. often reporting on conference meetings live.
NPR:
New poll shows Latino support for Trump is slipping after gains in 2024
No Republican presidential candidate in history did better with Latinos than Donald Trump did in 2024.
But there are lots of signs that support has evaporated. Democrats won big victories earlier this month in elections across the country – with large margins among Latinos. Poll after poll has shown Hispanics declining in support for Trump since he was sworn in for a second term.
And a new, major Pew poll of more than 5,000 Latinos across two surveys underscores this point.
Kim Wehle/The Bulwark:
An Ignominious End to a Lawless Prosecution
The collapse of the malicious, incompetent case against James Comey.
MONDAY’S DISMISSAL of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James—two critics of President Donald Trump whom he targeted in his campaign of political retribution—is a victory, or at least a mini-victory, for the rule of law. But it’s likely to prove short-lived.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie’s reasons for tossing out the indictments were, on the one hand, procedural. He found that the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who secured the indictments, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed and had no authority to do what she did, so the results of her efforts are categorically invalid. Halligan is a Trump flunky, one of his many former personal lawyers whom he brought into the government. She has no prosecutorial experience. She was evidently installed for the precise purpose of indicting Comey just days before the statute of limitations expired. Her well-respected predecessor refused and so was forced out.
On the other hand, as Judge Currie observed, Halligan’s botched appointment strikes at the very heart of the Constitution’s separation of powers. It was not only procedurally flawed. It was unconstitutional. Which is why it should matter to every American who cares about our floundering democracy.
Short-lived because Trump is likely to try again because he’s petty, mean and vindictive. That’s just a recitation of facts.
POLITICO:
Lindsey Halligan is disqualified — but there are major questions about what comes next
Here’s a look at the most pertinent questions following the dismissal of the cases against James Comey and Letitia James — and what might come next.
A grand jury indicted Comey in September on charges that he lied to Congress in 2020 when discussing media leaks related to the FBI’s investigation of President Donald Trump and his links to Russia. James, who sued Trump in a massive civil fraud case in 2022, was indicted two weeks later on mortgage fraud charges. Both claimed they were targeted by Halligan — Trump’s former personal lawyer — to carry out Trump’s personal vendetta against them.
Judges in each case were weighing those “vindictive prosecution” concerns before Currie shut down the cases Monday over Halligan’s legitimacy.
But Currie also left a window for prosecutors to try again. And Comey made clear in a video that he expects to be targeted anew by Trump and his allies at DOJ.
Here’s a look at the most pertinent questions following the dismissal of the two politically charged cases and what might come next.
Pascal Sabino/Bolts:
Black Residents in West Tennessee Just Won Fairer Districts. Now Comes SCOTUS.
The Supreme Court may further erode the Voting Rights Act in an upcoming decision. Beyond affecting Congress, that would reverberate across local governments nationwide.
The make-up of the Fayette County board is by design. The county in 2021 drew a map with no majority-Black district, even after the board’s own counsel advised that the plan illegally diluted the power of Black voters, who make up roughly a quarter of the population.
Black residents won a reprieve this year, after Woods and other residents joined with the local NAACP to sue Fayette County, claiming the map violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Under the threat of their lawsuit, which followed another complaint filed by the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden, county officials relented in July and adopted a revised map for the 2026 elections that includes three majority Black districts.
The new map could significantly boost Black representation in Fayette County next year, but those gains already feel fragile. The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to deliver a ruling in the coming months that could gut the VRA, threatening this county’s new districts and undermining similar challenges elsewhere.
Harry Enten makes the case for the Democrats winning the shutdown.
David Shuster/Blue Amp:
A President Who Wants Political Enemies Dead
Trump’s Truth Social outburst demanding death for six Democrats shows the authoritarian threat is no longer theoretical — it’s here.
The lawmakers were not fomenting violence; they were reminding Americans in uniform of their highest duty: fidelity to the Constitution.
What does Trump do? He melts down on Truth Social, shrieking that their statement is “seditious behavior at the highest level” and that “an example MUST BE SET.” Then Trump escalates by sharing posts calling for the lawmakers to be punished by hanging.
Since the beginning of this great American experiment and continuing through this day, countless cynics have described our democracy as a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. By that measure, Trump’s rise and power are a grim joke.
But the most recent Trump declarations are not humor. They are a threat. They are not just the rantings of a madman. They are the manifesto of a man who seeks to be an authoritarian strongman.
