Matt Gaetz Accidentally Insults Trump While Bashing a “Dictator”

MAGA Representative Matt Gaetz accidentally threw some shade at former President Donald Trump on Monday while trying to weigh in on Venezuela’s contested presidential election.

Venezuela’s election authority declared Sunday that President Nicolás Maduro had won the country’s presidential election, having secured 51 percent of the popular vote, while his U.S.-backed opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, earned only 44 percent, according to the Associated Press.

The opposition party has disputed the results, claiming that Gonzalez had earned a whopping 70 percent of the vote and that they had the data to back it up. Venezuela’s voting authority delayed the release of the detailed vote tallies Monday as protests broke out across the country, and foreign leaders have been reluctant to recognize a winner. Not Gaetz though—he’s all in.

“Maduro lost the election in Venezuela badly, then simply declared victory anyway. He is an illegitimate dictator,” Gaetz wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Did that description not sound the least bit familiar to the Republican congressman, who has turned into one of Trump’s most devoted sycophants?

“We stand with the people of Venezuela and their diaspora throughout the world in calling for an end to his murderous regime. It is sad but true that a nation can vote its way into socialism, but almost always has to fight its way out,” Gaetz wrote.

A loyal Trump toady, Gaetz has repeatedly downplayed the January 6 insurrection, pushing the conspiracy theory that the FBI was involved in the attack. A year after the deadly riot, Gaetz referred to the rioters as “patriotic Americans … who had no intent of breaking the law and doing violence.”

“We’re ashamed of nothing,” Gaetz said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast in January 2022. “We’re proud of the work we did on January 6 to make legitimate arguments about election integrity,” he added.

Republican Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, fellow Trump stooges, also posted their criticisms of Maduro to X, proving self-awareness is dead.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday shut down Vivek Ramaswamy’s attempt to fire back at the Kamala Harris campaign’s criticisms of Republicans as “weird.”

It started when Ramaswamy posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday night about how “this whole ‘they’re weird’ argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile.”

“This is a presidential election, not a high school prom queen contest. It’s also a tad ironic coming from the party that preaches ‘diversity & inclusion.’ Win on policy if you can, but cut the crap please,” the failed Republican presidential candidate said in his post.

On Tuesday morning, Ocasio-Cortez clapped back, pointing out how Republicans’ actual policies are the weird part.

“It’s an incel platform, dude. It’s SUPER weird. And people need to know,” Ocasio-Cortez posted.

It appears that the criticisms of Vance and Trump are starting to get to Republicans, which signals that they’re working. For the past week, Vance has been heavily mocked, as his campaign speeches fell flat and a false internet rumor circulated about him conducting a sex act with a couch. Old remarks where he compared Democrats to “childless cat ladies” resurfaced and drew criticism from celebrities as well as lawmakers.

Ramaswamy could hardly have expected his post to shut the criticism down. But then again, he’s not known for his powerful language actually working, as those who have heard him try to rap can attest. Tuesday’s post from AOC isn’t even the first time she’s shut him down this month, as she recently destroyed his RNC speech in which he tried to paint Republicans as “cool.” Unfortunately for Ramaswamy, it didn’t work.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has tapped a January 6 conspiracy theory-touting  Republican lawmaker to join a new bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Johnson unveiled his list of picks Monday, which included his fellow Louisiana Republican, MAGA Representative Clay Higgins.

Higgins subscribes to the outlandish far-right theory that “FBI informants” pretending to be Trump supporters descended on the U.S. capital the night before the deadly January 6 insurrection using “ghost buses.”

During a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee in November, Higgins raised this theory to FBI Director Christopher Wray, who “emphatically” denied his claims. As proof, Higgins pointed at a picture of buses parked outside of Union Station in Washington, D.C., the night before the attack, claiming that they were ghost vehicles, or vehicles with the windows painted over to keep their purpose secret.

“These buses are nefarious in nature and were filled with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters, deployed onto our capital on January 6,” Higgins insisted, saying he had “extensive evidence” about the two vehicles. 

When the committee’s Chairman Mark Green pushed Higgins to wrap it up, the Louisiana Republican warned: “Your day is coming, Mr. Wray.”

Higgins released a statement Monday about his new appointment. “I am honored to serve on the bipartisan Task Force on the attempted assassination of President Trump,” he said. “The American people demand answers, and we will use every tool at our disposal to reveal granular detail of what led to the attempted assassination, ensure accountability, and identify security failures. I look forward to working with my bipartisan colleagues to deliver the truth.”

If his previous statements are any indication, Higgins might be vulnerable to believing the far-right conspiracy theories about Trump’s brush with death. In fact, he’s already shared one.

“American Patriots are united behind President Trump,” Higgins wrote in a post on X, shortly after the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “The left will not stop MAGA Nation.”

Donald Trump is getting fed up with Fox News over the network simply doing its job.

“Why is FoxNews putting on Crazy Kamala Harris Rallies?” wrote Trump on Truth Social Monday afternoon.

Amid articles about Ted Cruz “safeguarding” schools from the Chinese Communist Party and Whoopi Goldberg reacting to “drag queens” at the Olympics, Trump couldn’t find enough Fox News articles sucking up to him. Earlier this month, Trump issued a similar complaint that the network wasn’t doing enough to help him, writing “STOP PUTTING ON THE ENEMY!”

In the past, Fox has done plenty to boost Trump, especially around his false claims of 2020 election fraud. That support cost them nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit.

“Why do they allow the perverts at the failed and disgraced Lincoln Project to advertise on FoxNews? Even Mr. Kellyanne Conway, a man so badly hurt and humiliated by his wife (she must have done some really NASTY things to him, because he is CRAZY!), is advertising on FoxNews,” Trump continued Monday, referring to his former adviser Kellyanne Conway’s ex-husband, George Conway.

Trump seems to be playing willfully ignorant that Fox News has been the most-watched news network for more than 20 years, making it desirable for well-funded advertisers, in order to make the point that he’s frustrated about its supposed disloyalty.

It’s more likely that Trump is annoyed that Fox aired a favorability poll over the weekend that showed Harris leading over him in swing states.

“We have to WIN WITHOUT FOX!” wrote Trump.

How do the right-wing respond when they see white men, typically their most reliable supporters, powerfully mobilizing for Kamala Harris? Derogatory name-calling.

When a Harris campaign account announced Monday that registration for a “White Dudes for Kamala” event had surpassed 75,000 people, Donald Trump Jr. just had to weigh in.

“They should give it a more fitting name,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), suggesting instead, “Cucks for Kamala.”

Using a typical insult from alt-right internet trolls, Trump is implying that any man supporting Harris lets another man satisfy their wife in the bedroom.

Trump likely stole this particular joke about “white dudes” for Kamala being “cucks” specifically from far-right commentator Steven Crowder, who posted about the dig on X Monday morning. Crowder himself likely lifted the joke from the controversial website 4chan before that.

Trump’s insults came as a similar group, White Women for Kamala, continues to break fundraising records. The groups are modeling their fundraising efforts after that of Win With Black Women, which hosted a Zoom call last weekend that attracted close to 44,000 attendees and raised more than $1.5 million. By Friday, white women had raised over $8.5 million.

As affinity groups in support of Harris meet, strategize, and raise cash for the campaign, right-wing grifters, including the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, continue to attack the efforts, calling them “racist.”

Perhaps the Republicans are freaking out since Trump is losing the support of white male voters.

Threatened much?

New security footage from the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot have revealed possible new crimes in Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election results.

Former Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro and a Trump campaign staffer, G. Michael Brown, were caught on camera handing fake elector documents from Washington and Michigan to aides of Republican Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania on January 5.

The video corroborates what Chesebro admitted in a text message on January 6: that he dropped off fake elector documents to Kelly’s aides a day prior.

The documents ultimately didn’t get to Vice President Mike Pence, who was in charge of certifying the election results, thanks to the Senate parliamentarian refusing to accept the documents from Kelly’s aides. Bizarrely, after the documents were rejected, the aides wandered the halls on the second floor of the Capitol for a half-hour, waiting for instructions.

It’s bad news for Kelly—and even worse news for Chesebro, who is already in trouble in Michigan for his involvement in the fake elector scheme in that state. Chesebro was charged with felony fraud for his efforts to overturn Wisconsin’s presidential election results in June. He was named as a co-conspirator in Georgia’s fake elector charges, where he is cooperating with the state and has pleaded guilty to planning the scheme there. He is reportedly also cooperating with prosecutors in Michigan and Wisconsin.

This new set of evidence could lead to new charges, as it apparently wasn’t previously uncovered by the House January 6 committee, according to journalist Jamie Dupree. And while Kelly’s role was known, the extent of his involvement in the fake electors plot was not. Aside from that, however, the footage shows how close Trump’s cronies got to overturning two key states’ elections, as only the Senate parliamentarian and Vice President Mike Pence stood in their way.

After President Joe Biden announced his plan to rein in Supreme Court corruption Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson promised to stand in his way.

Johnson accused Biden and other Democrats of trying to “change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the Court’s recent decisions.”

Biden’s plan calls for setting term limits for justices at 18 years and enforcing a binding code of conduct that would require justices “to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest.” Further, Biden also seeks to undo the court’s recent “presidential immunity” decision through a constitutional amendment called the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment.”

Johnson is probably mostly taking issue with the last point, but he is happy to slam Biden on any and all proposed tweaks, considering his repeated attempts to shield Donald Trump from prison. Johnson slammed the reforms as “ongoing efforts to delegitimize the Supreme Court,” claiming they would “tilt the balance of power and erode not only the rule of law, but the American people’s faith in our system of justice.”

Leonard Leo, the co-chairman of the right-wing Federalist Society, was eager to back up Johnson and criticize the Biden administration on the issue of Supreme Court reform.

“No conservative justice has made any decision in any big case that surprised anyone, so let’s stop pretending this is about undue influence,” Leo said. “It’s about Democrats destroying a court they don’t agree with.”

Unfortunately for Johnson’s argument, the damage to the Supreme Court’s legitimacy has already been done. A poll conducted last year by NPR, PBS NewsHour, and the Marist Institute found that nearly two-thirds of Americans lack confidence in the high court, the lowest number since the poll was first conducted in 2018.

Sixty-eight percent of people said they thought the justices should have term limits. These results spanned the political spectrum. So, actually, Biden’s suggested reforms might boost public opinion of the Supreme Court.

While Biden says he looks forward to working with Congress on the plan to “prevent the abuse of Presidential power, restore faith in the Supreme Court, and strengthen the guardrails of democracy,” it seems like the House speaker has no interest in hearing him out.

“This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris Administration is dead on arrival in the House,” promised Johnson.

At least 70 pro–Donald Trump election denialists are working as election officials in key swing states, according to a report published Monday from Rolling Stone and the right-wing extremism research newsletter American Doom.

Officials who had promoted election conspiracy theories were identified in at least 16 counties in six swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. These individuals were identified through scouring coverage of refusals to certify 2020 election results and other denialist behavior, as well as sifting through the social media profiles of election officials in these states.

Across these swing states, Trump loyalists stand ready to disrupt the results of democratically held elections—at least 22 of them have already refused or delayed certification in recent years, indicating likely chaos in November.

Republicans have even begun fighting for the right to refuse to certify elections based on absolutely nothing.

In May, Fulton County election board official Julie Adams launched a lawsuit against the county, hoping to access voting records that she claims she was barred from seeing by Fulton County’s election director, and seeking a court ruling on whether her duty to certify election results is “discretionary, not ministerial, in nature,” according to the suit. Fulton County is a Democratic stronghold.

Adams, a staunch election denier, is backed by the America First Policy Institute, or AFPI, a Trump-supporting think tank. Adams is hoping to upend years of precedent and Georgia state law, according to Protect Democracy, a democratic nonprofit that contends that certifying election results “is a mandatory, ministerial duty, meaning that officials have no discretion to refuse to certify election results.”

While legal experts predict that it’s unlikely a judge will side with Adams, she once again refused to certify the results of a run-off election later in June.

Adams isn’t alone in her state. David Hancock, an election official in Gwinnett County outside of Atlanta, is “working to change” the guidelines around election certification, according to a post on his Facebook page. In March, he refused to certify the results of his county’s presidential primary election, although he has yet to give a real answer as to why.

Georgia has had the highest number of certification refusals since 2020 of anywhere in the country. Its five-person state election board—which American Doom found contained two election-denying conspiracy theorists—has set to work formulating a new rule that would allow election officials to refuse to certify results if a “reasonable inquiry” can be made into claims of election fraud. The Trump-friendly board has been accused of ethics violations after not giving proper notice to its Democratic members about a meeting that it used to advance election rule changes.

All of this is particularly problematic because Republicans believe that refusing to certify the results of an election in and of itself can be used as evidence of election fraud. In a never-issued executive order from December 2020, Trump cited officials in Coffee County, Georgia, refusing to certify the results of the 2020 election as proof that voter fraud had likely occurred, and reason enough to seize voting machines.

Should the refusal to certify results become discretionary, Republicans will have a pile of so-called evidence to point to in November. It’s entirely likely that Republicans will use their own widespread claims of voter fraud, and refusal to certify, to not only stall but ultimately refute election results.

A new report details how Elon Musk went from supporting Biden in 2020 to endorsing Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. The Washington Post reports that the world’s wealthiest man “began privately gathering support for Donald Trump’s second presidency long before” his July 13 endorsement.

An apparent initial inflection point in Musk’s drift away from Biden was the president’s decision not to invite Musk’s Tesla to a 2021 electric vehicle summit. The nonunion automaker Tesla was reportedly snubbed in part because the United Auto Workers union was attending the summit and Biden “wanted to burnish his pro-labor reputation.” At the time, the anti-labor billionaire he is, Musk accused Biden of being “controlled by the unions”—a charge he recently repeated on X.

Since then, Musk has become vocally pro-Trump. One month ago, Musk reportedly advocated for Trump at a Palm Beach congregation of billionaires and political strategists, largely based on anti-immigration sentiment. He expressed that “President Biden would allow millions of additional undocumented immigrants to cross America’s southern border,” creating “a demographic shift that could doom the Republican Party in future elections,” while Trump “would stop the crossings.”

This is consistent with Musk’s history of immigration alarmism. In The New Republic in March, Greg Sargent described how Musk espouses a version of the “great replacement theory” that claims “immigrants are being imported to replace native-born voters.”

The Washington Post report also detailed how Musk’s business interests have influenced his political shift. While under Biden, Musk’s businesses have faced investigations and recalls, sources told the Post that “Trump could ease Tesla’s regulatory path to delivering a fully autonomous personal vehicle … and dial back federal scrutiny of Tesla and X, as well as a National Labor Relations Board investigation into allegations of harassment at SpaceX.”

At the Palm Beach meeting, Musk reportedly acknowledged that the attendees may be hesitant to throw their support behind Trump—some of them “shook their heads and winced” at his pro-Trump statements—so he suggested “giving to an outside group instead.” In May, Musk helped found a super PAC to support Trump’s election bid. He has expressed his intention to donate to the PAC, which has raked in millions from tech giants and others in his circle.

The Summer Olympics are underway in Paris, and the right is getting triggered.

In an interview on the Fox Business Channel Monday morning, Representative Ryan Zinke was asked about new FBI confirmation that Donald Trump was actually struck by a bullet after a gunman in Pennsylvania tried to assassinate him earlier this month. Zinke, for some reason, decided to connect it to conservatives’ grievances over the Olympics.

“Trump is as much of a movement as it is a candidate, because America is not comfortable where we are. We’re not comfortable watching the Olympics. Disgusting display, dishonorable. We’re not comfortable with the woke. We’re not comfortable about getting beat up on foreign shores,” Zinke said.

Zinke was likely referring to Paris’s colorful display during the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday, which was decried by conservatives for its flamboyance and unabashed celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. In particular, right-wing religious figures and politicians claimed that one scene in the ceremony that featured drag queens, a transgender model, and a nearly naked blue man at a table of food was a disrespectful representation of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper, which depicts Jesus Christ’s last meal with his apostles.

Several conservatives criticized the ceremony and scene, including Speaker Mike Johnson, who posted on X (formerly Twitter) that it was “shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world.”

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene called it an “anti-Christian” and “satanic, trans, and occult” opening ceremony.

Despite the right-wing meltdown, art experts pointed out that the scene was an homage to a different painting, The Feast of the Gods, based on Greek mythology. The blue man represented Dionysius, the Greek god of feasting and wine, said the ceremony’s creative director, Thomas Jolly, who flat-out denied any connection to The Last Supper.

“I think it was pretty clear. There’s Dionysus who arrives at the table.… Why is he there? Because he’s the god of feasting, of wine, and the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine,” Jolly told a French TV station. 

It’s one thing to make a religious argument against the Olympic opening ceremony, but it was created and staged by the French and does not reflect U.S. politics, except in how conservatives have reacted to it. Most people have turned their attention to the Olympics’ actual sports now, but conservatives, in all of their weirdness today, still can’t stop obsessing over anything they think is an affront to them.