Comment on The Latest Senate Forecasts

Yesterday, Senator Tammy Duckworth told CNN's Dana Bash that she felt Tulsi Gabbard was compromised and could not pass a background check. Duckworth also noted that Russian media refer to her as a Russian asset. That had several Trump flunkies in the Senate hopping mad, with Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri calling such charges "ridiculous," and Sen.

Nothing illustrates Trump's desire to fuck things up like his jaw-dropping nominations -- like Seb Gorka, who was fired after being denied a security clearance in his last administration, as senior director for counterterrorism. Ha ha! What a genius, 12-dimensional chess move! Cry, liberals! Via the Washington Post: “Almost universally, the entire team considers Gorka a clown,” said a person close to the national security transition team.

In an effort to save Trump's disgraceful pick to be Secretary of Defense, Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin told CNN that the police report exonerated Pete Hegseth after rape allegations filed by Jane Doe became public. This is a lie. Danielle Paquette and Jonathan O'Connell write, "The papers do not say how police assessed the woman’s allegations and do not address the veracity of either side’s claims." Mullin said multiple times during the interview that he read the complete police report, but in his rant against Jane Doe forgot to mention the reason why no charges were filed against Hegseth.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he opposed President-elect Donald Trump's plan to place tariffs on imported goods because it would be "a tax on the consumer." The Republican lawmaker came out against the proposal during a Sunday interview on CBS after host Margaret Brennan asked if he supported billionaire hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent to be Treasury secretary. Paul said he was "leaning" towards supporting Bessent but had reservations because Trump vowed to use tariffs on imported products. "I don't like tariffs," the Republican senator explained.

To be sure, the media isn’t entirely responsible for the sad state of our representative republic, but their contribution to our current tribulations is enormous and destructive.

Truly, we live in interesting times.