“When I ran for office, I said he is a chaos candidate and would be a chaos president. Unfortunately, so far chaos organizes the presidency right now.”
— Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), telling the Miami Herald that she isn’t going to vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton for president, but she has no plans to vote for a third party candidate.
Conservatism is temporarily dead. I mean, if you look at it, we have two candidates. Donald Trump is barely a Republican. He’s certainly not a conservative.
Trump, you know, to his credit was very smart at exploiting these kind of opportunities. He’s a master at understanding how the media works – more than anybody I’ve seen in politics. Kudos to him for, you know, kind of creating the environment and then manipulating the environment to his effect. The tragedy of this though, is that there isn’t going to be a wall built. And Mexico’s not going to pay for it. And there’s not going to be a ban on Muslims. None of that is – this is all like an alternative universe that he created. The reality is, that’s not going to happen. And people are going to be deeply frustrated and the divides will grow in our country.
— Jeb Bush, telling NBC News that voters are going to “feel betrayed” by Donald Trump if he wins the election.
It had to be hard for Gov. Rick Scott (GOP-TEA) to ask Pres. Obama to declare a disaster in Orlando worthy of federal funding. After all, Scott’s request for all American taxpayers to cover the bill for the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub flies in the face of everything that tea partyers hold dear. As they say, they are Taxed Enough Already.
“I urge you to declare an emergency under the Stafford Act so that ‘the full resources of the federal government’ can be made available for the individuals, families and communities impacted by this ‘horrific massacre,’” Scott wrote.
Scott has gotten his response. We can save you some time and tell you the answer was, “No.” But reading the full letter from FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate is just too much fun, so here it is.
Jeb Bush came out of Loserland to endorse Toxic Ted Cruz,
And Li’l Marco Rubio just bristled and pouted at the news.
From down in Florida,
South of the I-4 Corridor,
Jeb explained: “I always knew that Marco Rubio would lose.”
Some say it’s totally lacking in plot, action or drama,
Others say it’s a sure-fire cure for chronic insomnia.
Its director’s a cad,
And Donald will be mad,
When no one pays to see his wife’s fake movie, “Melania.“
“Whether you liked Ms. Harris or not, this last election was a choice, a very simple one. You had the choice between the Constitution and the criminal. And this country chose the criminal. You put a criminal at the top of America. A convicted felon.”
— Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura (I), on a podcast.
“I did this to go on offense. And to put them in a position where they’re tap dancing. To put them in a position where they have to own their choices of using a U.S. attorney’s office to come after a senator.”
— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) is refusing to voluntarily comply with a Justice Department investigation into a video she organized urging U.S. military members to resist “illegal orders” — escalating a dispute that President Trump has publicly pushed, the AP reports.
Chasity Verret Martinez (D) won Saturday’s special election for Louisiana State House District 60, defeating Brad Daigle (R), 62% to 38%, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. The Downballot reports it was “a massive 37-point overperformance compared to the 2024 presidential result.”
Employers laid off 108,435 people last month, the highest January number since 2009, according to a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. At the same time, hiring intentions haven’t been lower since then.
A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds 65% of Americans said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “gone too far.” President Trump’s overall approval rating remains low at 39%, with 56% disapproving, and a whopping 51% strongly disapproving. That’s the highest Marist has seen in its polling since it started asking how strongly respondents approve or disapprove of presidents dating back to 2017.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds just 37% of voters approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while 56% disapprove. On Trump’s handling of the economy, just 39% of voters approve, while 56% disapprove. On Trump’s handling of immigration issues, just 38% of voters approve, while 59% disapprove.
Federal lobbying spending hit $5.24 billion in 2025, reaching the highest level ever recorded by a wide margin, Legistorm reports. This was a $768 million increase from 2024 and the largest year-over-year jump on record.