RFK Jr. Apologizes for Super Bowl Ad

“I’m so sorry if the Super Bowl advertisement caused anyone in my family pain.”

— Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apologizing to his cousins of for a Super PAC spot supporting him that repurposed an ad from his uncle John F. Kennedy’s successful 1960 presidential campaign, prompting RFK Jr. to explain he’d had no hand in making the ad — while leaving it pinned to the top of his X feed.

Biden Changing Up Approach to Speaking About Trump

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Brian Beutler: “Much of the speech’s success—what makes it stand out from Biden’s earlier comments—is that he’s shaken off the dated political tic of speaking obliquely or in code or by implication about his opponent. On Friday, instead of naming Donald Trump zero times, he referred to him 44 times by name. … This kind of literalism isn’t just cathartic, it’s how the processes of forgetting and desensitization can be arrested and reversed.”

Trump Announces His Second-Term Cabinet of Deplorables: Tucker, Bannon, Stephen Miller and Others

Trump Cabinet of Deplorables
Clockwise from top left: Stephen Miller, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio; Steve Bannon, Mike Davis, Tucker Carlson and Kash Patel. Photos: Giorgio Viera/AFP, Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg, Brandon Bell, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, via Axios.com

Axios.com:”Former President Trump, if elected, would build a Cabinet and White House staff based mainly on two imperatives: pre-vetted loyalty to him and a commitment to stretch legal and governance boundaries, sources who talk often with the leading GOP presidential candidate tell Axios.”

Trump and his prospective top officials don’t mince words about their plans:

  • They want to target and jail critics, including government officials and journalists; deport undocumented immigrants or put them in detainment camps, and unleash the military to target drug cartels in Mexico, or possibly crack down on criminals or protesters at home.
  • They want to scrap rules that limit their ability to purge government workers deemed disloyal.

DeSantis Is So Bad, He Makes Trump More Electable

“The Florida governor is the political equivalent of a baseball player who cannot throw, catch, or bat. In other words, what does Ron DeSantis bring to the table? Sometimes, good candidates run bad campaigns. Other times, candidates are so lacking in talent that even an incredible strategy executed perfectly is insufficient. Ron DeSantis is a bad candidate running a very bad campaign. In fact, his campaign seems designed in a lab to make Donald Trump more electable.”

Dan Pfeiffer

Guardian: DeSantis Has Stalled

“By almost every measure, the rightwinger has had another lackluster week on the campaign trail, with “clumsy” missteps in New Hampshire, Texas, California and New York. Now, barely one month after his glitch-ridden launch on Twitter, DeSantis finds himself sinking in the polls, closer to the large field of optimists below him than the twice-indicted, twice-impeached former president who retains a stranglehold over the Republican party.”

The Guardian