Percentage of Republican voters nationwide who prefer Mitt Romney as their presidential nominee again, followed by Jeb Bush at 11% and Chris Christie and Ben Carson at 8% each, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. No other Republican tops 6%. With Romney out of the race, Jeb Bush leads with 14%, followed by Christie at 11%, Carson at 9% and Sen. Rand Paul at 8%.
Unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them… We took their mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem — health care reform.
— Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), asserting that Democrats made a mistake by passing President Obama’s health-care law in 2010 instead of focusing more directly on helping the middle class, Bloomberg reports.
Of American voters agree that the president should issue an executive order on his own to address the immigration issue while 48% disagree, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Meanwhile, President Obama’s approval rating is a negative 39% to 54%, close to his lowest-ever.
Rate at which the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, grew in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The agency had previously estimated the third quarter’s growth rate at 3.5%. “The economy expanded at its fastest pace in more than a decade during the spring and summer, showing the U.S. sits on a solid foundation despite increasing global uncertainty,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Why come out and vote for the Democratic Party? There was no message to say: Here’s what we’ve done. I wish the party or whoever had done a national media campaign and say, here’s what you get when you elect Democrats. But there was no — what was the message out of ’14? I’m asking you rhetorically — do you know? No. What was it?
— Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), quoted by Politico.
Pres. Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a ceremony upon the arrival of the bodies of Benghazi victims, Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen A. Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods, in September 2012
It was a classic Friday night news dump, and then some. Last Friday, which happened to be the Friday before the Thanksgiving holiday week, the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee released the findings of its investigation into the 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. This was the seventh congressional investigation into the Benghazi attacks, by most counts — there have also been investigations by the FBI, the State Department and others. There is an eighth investigation underway in the House, and there will likely be more to come as Republicans take control of the Senate next year.
The Republicans’ motive for suppressing news coverage of the report is that, like the previous reports, it exonerates Pres. Obama and his administration, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, of anything remotely criminal — which is to say actionable or, more to the point, impeachable:
Pundits say that Trump’s $5,000 midterm bribe was an overreach,
And they agree that if lies were a crime, he’d be impeached.
Despite all the dividend promises he’s made,
The fact is, not one has ever been paid,
So even before the midterms, he already owes us $8,000* each.
*$5000 stimulus checks via “DOGE dividend”; $2000 stimulus checks via a “tariff dividend”; $1000-plus checks via “savings” from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
“The man is afraid of the voice of the people and that the people understand and know what he’s doing. He’s trying to stifle the ability of journalists to let the people of America know what’s really going on with their government.”
— “Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘absolutely abhorrent,’” The Wrap reports.
“Not one of them is trained in technical skills. Not one research PhD, as opposed to China, where half the cabinet is science and technology PhDs. We’re led by grifters and fools.”
— Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, on X, on President Trump’s 35-person cabinet.
“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far… The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
— Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), breaking with President Trump in a direct-to-camera video.
“Donald Trump made over a thousand stock sales and purchases worth between $79m and $270m in July,” The Guardian reports. “His two largest sales were of Amazon and Microsoft stock, selling between $5m and $25m each on 20 July. That same day, he also sold up to $5m worth of Oracle and Costco stock, $500,000 to $1m in Nvidia, and bought up to $5m worth of shares in Intuit and Salesforce, among dozens of other transactions.”
“The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study,” the Associated Press reports.
A new Fox News Poll finds 71% of voters think the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the Iran War, including 95% of Democrats, 83% of independents, and 43% of Republicans. Sixty percent say U.S. military action against Iran was the wrong decision, while just 37% say it was right.
“The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog,” CNN reports.
Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.
