‘A Slap in the Face to Moms and Dads’: GOP Blocks Attempt to Stop Trump From Raising Childcare Costs

“If Trump had simply done nothing... some of these families would have ended up saving as much as $15,000 a year,” said Sen. Patty Murray


US Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) speaks to reporters after a weekly Senate Democratic Policy luncheon at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 29, 2026.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Jul 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

In what Democratic Sen. Patty Murray described as a “slap in the face to moms and dads,” Republicans have blocked her proposed resolution to restore a rule that could have saved low-income parents thousands of dollars per year on childcare before the Trump administration axed it.

Under a rule that went into effect earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rescinded a Biden-era rule that capped families’ copayments at 7% of their household income for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which helps about 994,000 low-income families pay for childcare so parents can work, attend school, or participate in job training.


‘Grotesque and Indefensible’: At Least 1.5 Million Kids Have Lost Food Aid Under GOP Budget Law

The program is administered at the state level, and under the abandoned rule that was enacted in 2024, all states were required to begin phasing in the 7% cap, which is considered a federal affordability benchmark.

Under the Trump policy change, states will not be required to cap parents’ copayments as long as they continue to use a sliding scale based on income level and don’t present a “barrier” to receiving assistance, though it’s not specified what that means.

As of March 2026, 19 states had not lowered their maximum copayment to 7%.

An April analysis by the Center for American Progress found that, by eliminating the federal cap, families in 10 states that have not enacted it would lose between $450 and more than $15,000 in potential annual savings, depending on how high their state sets the threshold.

In Ohio, which caps copayments at 27% of household income, families could lose up to $15,482 in annual savings under the maximum copayment. In Vermont, which caps copayments at 14.9% of household income, families could lose up to $11,712.


(Graphic from the Center for American Progress)



Murray (D-Wash), the former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), introduced a resolution last month under the Congressional Review Act, which would have nullified the administration’s elimination of the 7% cap.

It also would have restored other Biden-era requirements that were reversed under the same rule, including requirements that states pay childcare providers based on enrollment rather than attendance, pay them in advance, and use grants and contracts to fund childcare for infants, children with disabilities, and those in underserved communities.

In a speech on the Senate floor before the resolution came to a procedural vote on Thursday, she told her colleagues bluntly, “You are either voting to lower childcare costs or to increase them.”

She challenged the senators who planned to vote against the resolution to “go home and tell the parents in your state you voted to raise their childcare bill,” adding that “you cannot call yourself pro-family while voting to make it more expensive to raise one.”

In a party-line vote on Friday, the bill was blocked from advancing by a margin of 52-47, with every Republican voting against it except for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is absent after being hospitalized in June.

After the vote failed, Murray described it as an example of Republicans taking money away from American families struggling to afford the basics of life while pushing for lavish spending on war and tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

“How about instead of a $1.5 trillion war budget, we make sure every working family in America can afford childcare?” Murray said. “If Trump had simply done nothing, and left the 7% cap in place, some of these families would have ended up saving as much as $15,000 a year for their family.”

According to a Century Foundation analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, childcare costs increased by 5% from August 2024 to August 2025 and now average more than $13,000 per child per year across age groups.

Trump has been surprisingly open about the fact that, under his control, and in direct contrast with his campaign promises, the federal government is prioritizing spending on his war in Iran instead of providing government subsidies for Americans’ basic needs, including daycare.

“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare,” he said during a speech in April. “You gotta let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.”

“Trump says we can’t afford childcare. But he is wrong,” said Murray, who has co-introduced legislation to expand federal childcare subsidies and cover nearly all costs for low-income families. “The truth is we can’t afford to ignore childcare.”

Spain Must Put Human Rights at Center of Migration Response as Dozens Killed Crossing Into Ceuta: Amnesty

“Under international law, the principle of non-refoulement is absolute and collective expulsions are prohibited in all cases,” said Esteban Beltrán of Amnesty International Spain.


Police check migrants arriving on Tarajal Beach after crossing the border between Spain and Morocco on July 31, 2026 in Ceuta, Spain.
(Photo by Adri Salido/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jul 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

The director of Amnesty International Spain on Friday said both Spanish and Moroccan officials must “put their human rights obligations at the center of their response” to an influx of about 60,000 migrants over 24 hours into the self-governing Spanish city of Ceuta, an exclave in North Africa that borders Morocco.

As the vast majority of people had reportedly returned to Morocco after facing aggression from Spanish police and armed forces who had been deployed to the territory, where a humanitarian crisis quickly unfolded following the migrants’ arrival, the director of the group, Esteban Beltrán, issued a reminder of international law pertaining to migration.

“The large number of people arriving in Ceuta and the circumstances of crossings must not distract from the fact that under international law, the principle of non-refoulement is absolute and collective expulsions are prohibited in all cases,” said Beltrán.

At least 57 people were killed while trying to cross into Ceuta, The Associated Press reported, with some drowning and others killed in a stampede as many of the migrants tried to cross a barrier near a border checkpoint.

“Spanish authorities must also ensure that adequate healthcare and social care resources are deployed to respond to the needs of the people, including to cater for the needs of children and others at increased risk of human rights violations,” Beltrán said.

On Friday, even after about 48,000 people were reported to have crossed back over the border, reports still indicated that thousands of migrants were sleeping on the streets of Ceuta, with many reporting they had crossed into the territory in search of work.

“You ask why everyone came—because there’s no work in Morocco,” Ajoub el-Arrot, a 24-year-old Moroccan migrant, told The New York Times.

Abdulah Buji, 21, told the Times that he would “have to work 12-hour shifts for a meager wage.”

“But I haven’t found any opportunities here either, so I have to go back,” said Buji.

Italian and French authorities said they would tighten controls at their borders with Spain in light of the surge.

The arrival of the migrants drew the attention of the far right in Europe and the US, where conservatives have been critical of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s migration policy.

Earlier this year, contrasting with President Donald Trump’s aggressive and violent crackdown on immigrants and mass deportation campaign in the US, Sánchez moved to grant up to 500,000 undocumented immigrants legal status in the country, with those who had arrived before January 2026 and had authorization to work made eligible.

Conservative Spanish politician Isabel Díaz Ayuso said Sánchez had allowed Spain “to be invaded through Ceuta,” while the US State Department said the sudden influx of migrants was “the direct result of the Spanish government’s deliberate efforts to enable and facilitate mass illegal migration into Europe.”

Sánchez’s government countered that the situation in Ceuta had “nothing to do with the regularization of migrants,” and the prime minister said human traffickers had misinterpreted a recent Spanish Supreme Court ruling which said that people who arrive in the country by sea could not be summarily deported.

Claims that people could easily cross from Morocco into Ceuta “spread like wildfire over the past few hours through the networks of human trafficking organizations,” Sánchez said.

Another Spanish self-governing city on the North African coast, Melilla, also saw migrants attempting to cross from Morocco on Friday. Many Moroccans consider both Ceuta and Melilla to be occupied Moroccan territory.

While many of the migrants said they had been hoping to find work, they also told reporters that Moroccan authorities had urged the massive group to attempt to cross into Ceuta, according to the Times.

“They just kept saying, ‘Go that way, go that way,’” Youssef Alaoui, 26, said of Moroccan police officers near the border.

Some analysts suggested Morocco could be trying to pressure Spain out of strengthening ties with Algeria, a rival nation. The Spanish foreign minister made a recent trip to Algeria and spoke about importing more gas from the country, and Sánchez also recently visited.

“It is impossible for nearly 50,000 people to cross the border between Morocco and Spain in a single day without Morocco having a hand in it,” Lorenzo Gabrielli, a senior researcher at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, told the Times.

Meanwhile, Portuguese author and former Secretary of State for European Affairs Bruno Maçães pointed to calls made by pro-Israel think tanks in April for Israel to “help Morocco take over Ceuta in order to punish Spain” for its pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli positions.

“Spain’s refusal to allow the United States access to its Rota and Morón military bases during the Iran campaign, its consistent failure to meet NATO defense spending targets, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s confrontational posture toward the Trump administration have collectively generated something rare in North African affairs: a genuine crack in Spain’s strategic armor over Ceuta and Melilla,” wrote Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum in April. “Into that crack, Morocco’s most consequential new partner, Israel, is uniquely positioned to press.”

Ayoub continued:
Israel can advance Morocco’s cause through three distinct channels. First, through direct diplomatic signaling. Israeli acknowledgment that Spain’s continued occupation of African territory undermines the post-colonial credibility that normalization frameworks require would reframe Ceuta and Melilla as a regional governance issue, not merely a bilateral spat. Second, through Washington corridors where Israel’s influence is considerable, Israeli officials can amplify the case that Morocco’s strategic contribution, anchoring the western Mediterranean, controlling the southern approach to the Strait of Gibraltar, and serving as America’s longest-standing treaty partner, warrants concrete American support on its most persistent territorial demand. Third, Israel can expose Spain’s glaring hypocrisy. Madrid has been among the loudest European voices condemning Israeli territorial policies and settlements. Spain recognized a Palestinian state in 2024 while simultaneously maintaining European enclaves on African soil that predate modern Israel by four centuries.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday that Spain “never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel.”

“Maybe before it continues lecturing us,” he said, “it’s time it explained to the world why it still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa.”

Maçães said it was unclear whether Israel had pushed to “advance Morocco’s cause,” as Ayoub wrote, but he added, “whether or not the US and Israel were involved before the fact, they were deeply involved and intensely active after the fact, especially trying to use [the crisis in Ceuta] against the current Spanish government.”

‘Keep Bribing Him Forever’: Critics Appalled at New Details of Trump’s Corporate Shakedowns

“I am trying to see how this operation differs from a classic organized crime protection racket. I see little distinction.”


US President Donald Trump shakes hands with CEO of Apple Tim Cook during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday August 6, 2025.
(Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)


Brad Reed
Jul 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

A Thursday report in The Wall Street Journal revealed new details on President Donald Trump’s attempts to shake down major corporate donors to fund his assorted vanity projects, including the construction of his luxury White House ballroom and his presidential library.

According to the Journal, Trump employs a fundraiser named Meredith O’Rourke whose job is to hound corporations into sending money to the president’s projects.

O’Rourke’s work is so important to the president, the Journal added, that he asks her for updates on her progress in raking in corporate cash almost nightly.

“Trump asks O’Rourke which companies and donors have cut checks and which haven’t, and for how much,” the Journal reported. “He often asks her to make much larger financial requests than she was planning—for some donors the ask is $5 million, for others it is $50 million. And the president gives her names to call, often including people who have recently met with him, according to people with knowledge of the calls.”

The Journal estimated that Trump has raised more than $800 million from corporate donors throughout his second term, and the newspaper found that it appeared to be entirely legal.

“No laws prohibit presidents from raising unlimited sums of money for nonprofits, like the ones used for the ballroom and his presidential library, his super PAC, or political issue committees,” the Journal explained. “For most of these types of transactions, public disclosure of donors isn’t required and reporting on spending is infrequent.”

Regardless of technical legality, many critics called the president’s actions deeply corrupt, especially since many of the companies being shaken down for cash have business before the federal government.

“ Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in our nation’s history,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in reaction to the Journal’s report.

Adam Serwer, staff writer at The Atlantic, joked that Trump technically “can’t be bought” because “he is subscription based.”

“You have to keep bribing him forever,” Serwer quipped.

Eric Rauchway, historian at the University of California, Davis, noted the Journal’s reporting that O’Rourke will sometimes try to persuade corporate donors by telling them that “the boss wants this money,” which he likened to a mafia extortion scheme.

“Guys, ‘the boss wants this money’ is not ‘fundraising,’” wrote Rauchway, “it’s a Piranha Brothers operation.”

Scott Horton, contributing editor at Harper’s, made a similar analogy.

“I am trying to see how this operation differs from a classic organized crime protection racket,” Horton wrote. “I see little distinction.”

Amanda Carpenter, writer and editor at Protect Democracy, argued that Trump wasn’t the only party meriting criticism here, as the corporations who give in to his demands deserve blame as well.

“If a politician is selling access and favors, CEOs aren’t off the hook,” she observed. “They don’t get to just pay to play. It’s not a free pass to bribe and extort and corrupt our economy. There are many legal tools to track that on the private side and hold them account for their end of these dirty deals.”

Anthropic Discloses Hacking Incidents Amid Alarm Over OpenAI Autonomous Cyberattacks

“This is only going to get worse as the models get smarter,” warned one expert.

Anthropic workers have signed a petition calling for the government to find ways to slow the breakneck development of AI technology.

The Claude by Anthropic app logo appears on the screen of a smartphone’s app store in this 2024 photo.
(Photo by Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Jul 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Days after revelations that an OpenAI artificial intelligence model autonomously broke into two outside companies, rival firm Anthropic on Thursday disclosed that three of its own frontier models gained unauthorized access to unspecified organizations during internal testing, deepening concerns that increasingly capable AI systems are outpacing the safeguards designed to contain them.

San Francisco-based Anthropic said that it is investigating “three real-world incidents” uncovered during a broad review of more than 141,000 cybersecurity evaluations launched after OpenAI publicly disclosed its own containment failures.

According to Anthropic, three models—Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5, and an unspecified internal research system—accessed three separate organizations after a testing environment was inadvertently connected to the internet. Anthropic did not identify which organizations were breached.

“In all three incidents, Claude had been tasked with a capture-the-flag challenge, one of the ways we assess a model’s cyber capabilities,” Anthropic explained. “The model is given a fictional scenario and told that a piece of secret information (the ‘flag’) has been hidden on a different machine on the network, and its objective is to break in and retrieve it. The challenge is left open-ended, and no particular method is prescribed.”



“In all cases, Anthropic’s evaluation prompt specified to Claude that its environment was a simulation and that it had no internet access,” the company continued. “Due to a misunderstanding between us and our evaluation partner, this was not the case, and internet access was available. Because of this, when Claude’s search led it to real systems on the open internet, it treated them as part of the exercise.”

“Operating under the false belief that all accessible entities were intended to be in-scope for the exercise, Claude compromised the impacted organizations’ infrastructure using basic techniques, such as exploiting weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints,” Anthropic said.

“In none of these situations did Claude exfiltrate itself or deliberately attempt to escape its test environment,” the company stressed.



Unlike the OpenAI incident, which involved an autonomous agent exploiting vulnerabilities, Anthropic characterized its cases as a failure caused by a testing misconfiguration rather than by models independently escaping containment. Still, Anthropic’s disclosure underscores the troubling reality that frontier AI models are increasingly capable of carrying out real cyber operations when given the opportunity.

“Safety testing happens before a model is released precisely because we don’t yet know what it is capable of,” Anthropic said. “Evaluation environments increasingly need to be held to the same security standard as any other system our models run in.”

Last August, Anthropic revealed that Claude had been “weaponized” by human hackers in order to commit ransomware crimes, “including a large-scale extortion operation using Claude Code, a fraudulent employment scheme from North Korea, and the sale of AI-generated ransomware by a cybercriminal with only basic coding skills.”

Less than three months later, Anthropic disclosed that it had thwarted what it described as “the first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention.” The company said that it believed there was a high likelihood that a Chinese state-sponsored group was behind the incident, which targeted “large tech companies, financial institutions, chemical manufacturing companies, and government agencies.”

Kok Tin Gan, co-founder and CEO of the cybersecurity company NyxLab, told The Associated Press on Thursday that there are likely to be more incidents like the Anthropic and OpenAI hacks as artificial intelligence capabilities advance.

“It is increasingly about governing what agents are available to the AI, what authorities they possess, which actions require approval, and how we ensure they remain within scope,” he said. “If we simply give the AI a goal and allow it to decide how to achieve it, we should not be surprised when it takes actions that technically satisfy the objective, but fall outside our intended scope or expectations.”

Jeffrey Ladish, executive director of Palisade Research—which analyzes the autonomous offensive capabilities of AI systems—told Reuters on Thursday that he believes other companies have experienced similar incidents that they have not publicly disclosed.

“This is only going to get worse as the models get smarter,” he said. “They’re going to be better at cheating. They’re going to be better at lying.”

Elon Musk, CEO of the artificial intelligence company xAI, also responded to Anthropic’s disclosure by saying that such incidents “will happen frequently ⁠as AI becomes smarter and more agentic,” a reference to systems’ ability to independently act toward accomplishing specific goals without meaningful human control.

Experts say the autonomous hacks underscore the problem of AI alignment. As AI advances to the point where it will likely outsmart humans one day, the challenge of ensuring that advanced systems reliably pursue goals that match what humans actually want becomes increasingly difficult—and dangerous.

In the foreseeable future, a misaligned, superintelligent AI could take uncontrolled autonomous actions at massive scale to achieve its goals, potentially causing an existential catastrophe like the subjugation of humanity or even its extinction—a prospect that has had numerous pioneers in the field sounding the alarm in recent years.

However, the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress have rejected meaningful guardrails on AI development while pushing for self-regulation and voluntary benchmarks and arguing—as the US did during the Cold War nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union—that any slowdown would give adversaries like China an edge.

On Wednesday, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) said that “Congress should immediately hold public hearings with the CEOs of big AI companies” in the wake of the OpenAI breaches.

Anthropic is among the more than 1,000 companies and workers at AI firms that have signed a petition calling for the government to find ways to slow the breakneck development of AI technology.

“AI could help create a dramatically better future, but that outcome is not guaranteed,” the petition states. “The world’s leading AI companies believe they could be close to automating AI research. It is hard to predict exactly how much this will accelerate AI progress, but there is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems.”

“To realize AI’s potential, industry, government, and society at large may need the option to buy time to address emerging risks, develop security measures, and strengthen oversight,” the document continues. “But each company—and country—is under intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow that acceleration. And today, the world lacks the technical and governance tools to deliberately pace frontier-wide progress.”

“We request that the US government support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development,” the petition adds.

IDF Closes Investigation Into Brutal 2023 West Bank Settler Attack on Palestinians Without Charges

As The Times of Israel described, “Israel has largely failed to crack down on such attacks, with arrests rare, indictments even rarer, and convictions almost unheard of.”

Objects are scattered more than a week after Jewish settlers attacked the occupied West Bank village of Wadi al Seeq on October 24, 2023.
(Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Jul 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

As the Israeli government faces increasing scrutiny for its enabling of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces has reportedly closed an investigation into one of the most brutal assaults documented in recent memory. Nobody has been charged.

Haaretz reported on Friday that the Military Advocate General’s Office has closed its investigation into an incident from October 12, 2023, in which about two dozen armed settlers attacked the village of Wadi as-Seeq, about 10 miles east of Ramallah, where most residents had been driven out by violence by a nearby Israeli outpost.

Three Palestinian men who’d remained in the village to help evacuate the local Bedouin community were detained by the gang of Israelis, who they said tortured them for hours, stripping them naked, beating them, urinating on them, burning them with cigarettes, and sexually abusing them.

Several Israeli peace activists also said they were attacked during the incident and corroborated much of the testimony of the Palestinian victims.

A photo of the three men stripped, bound, and blindfolded quickly made international headlines and drew condemnation from human rights organizations and even some pro-Israel groups like the US-based Israel Policy Forum, which called the reports “sickening and inexcusable.”



The military prosecutor’s office apparently found it very excusable. According to Haaretz:
The Military Advocate General’s Office decided that the evidence collected did not establish the involvement of specific soldiers to the standard required for criminal prosecution.

The decision was made even though, following the initial publication, several soldiers who were present at the scene—including the unit’s commander—were dismissed.

The soldiers were from the IDF Desert Frontier unit, a unit that recruits “hilltop youth,” radical and often violent settler youths from illegal West Bank outposts. Some of the victims said that settlers also took part in the assault alongside the soldiers.

The dismissal of the case comes amid what the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) described as “an unprecedented surge in settler-related violence” this year, particularly this summer. June saw a record 460 settler-related attacks, and the trend has continued into July, with 360 documented incidents between July 1-24.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Wednesday that settler violence was at an “all-time high,” noting that 18 Palestinians have been killed so far this year in incidents linked to settler attacks, more than the 17 who were killed all of last year.

The Israeli government, meanwhile, approved over $430 million to establish 34 new settlements in the West Bank earlier this year.



“The increase is part of a broader upward trend in settler violence that has been developing since 2023 but has accelerated significantly in 2026,” said Nasser Khdour, Middle East Assistant Research Manager at ACLED. “Recorded incidents include attacks on Palestinians and their property, land seizures, looting activities, uprooting trees, grazing on Palestinian land, and clashes with Palestinians.”

As The Times of Israel noted on Friday: “Israel has largely failed to crack down on such attacks, with arrests rare, indictments even rarer, and convictions almost unheard of. The current government has been accused of turning a blind eye to the phenomenon or even tacitly supporting it.”



Members of the IDF have often been documented either directly participating in the violence or providing protection to settlers who are.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed during a CNN interview that his government was working hard to bring violent settlers to justice and conducting “real investigations.”

But he also minimized the problem of settler violence that has become rampant, boiling it down to about “150 or so juvenile delinquents” causing mayhem while stating that they don’t represent the broader settler community.

There have been no reported charges coming from this month’s deadly attacks, which have resulted in the deaths of at least eight Palestinians and many more injuries, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A Guardian analysis on July 21 found that Israel has not once prosecuted any of its citizens for killing a Palestinian in the West Bank at any point this decade.

Vivek Ramaswamy viciously booed off stage after speaking 'truth' to conservative youth

Nicole Charky-Chami
July 30, 2026

RAW STORY


Vivek Ramaswamy (Photo by Marco Bello for Reuters)


MAGA Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy fled a speaking event on Thursday after an audience started booing him over his comments.

Ramaswamy was speaking at the 2026 National YAL Conference in Cleveland when the crowd grew angry with him.

"The truth of the matter is, people in my generation have already made it. We're gonna be fine," Ramaswamy said.

The crowd broke out into booing and yelling at the Republican candidate. Video capturing the moment showed Ramaswamy quickly moving off stage and away from the group.

"You're a political creep and you need to get the f--- out of here!" one person in the crowd yelled out.

MAGA pastor who thinks Satanic forces run 'Austin swamp' handed major election role

Matthew Chapman
July 31, 2026

RAW STORY


Texas flag. (Photo credit: Svet foto / Shutterstock)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sparked alarm with his appointment of a far-right Christian nationalist to advise him on election integrity.

Abbott tapped Nate Schatzline, a two-term Texas House member and Fort Worth pastor, for a senior advisory role overseeing election policy, reported Texas Monthly. Schatzline resigned his House seat for the $275,000-a-year gig, where personnel records show he's tasked with "providing policy and strategic direction related to legislative and electoral matters."

Schatzline is a Christian nationalist, a fringe belief that America was founded as a nation for Christians and all human law, including the Constitution, is subservient to Biblical law.

He believes, among other things, that politics, and in particular defeating the Democratic Party, is a spiritual battle against Satanic forces, telling a reporter in 2025, “We really believe this is a spiritual battle. There are powers of darkness that I really believe control the Austin swamp, and I believe that those powers are at work today ... We’re talking about spiritual forces. We’re not talking about flesh and blood. We’re talking about principalities.”

Additionally, Schatzline has spent years pushing debunked "Stop the Steal" claims about the 2020 election and previously proposed bills that would have further restricted voting access in Texas.

Schatzline's ties run through Mercy Culture Church, a politically active Fort Worth congregation connected to the New Apostolic Reformation, a charismatic religious movement whose preachers played roles in mobilizing crowds ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He also spent months as senior director for pastoral engagement at the National Faith Advisory Board, a group founded by televangelist and Trump spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain that connects the White House with conservative Christian leaders.

Texas faces some marquee elections in the 2026 midterms. In addition to the battle over a congressional map Texas lawmakers aggressively redrew to try to add extra Republican seats, Abbott himself faces re-election, while state Attorney General Ken Paxton faces off against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico for the Senate seat.

MAGA Texas governor taunted as Fox News poll paints dire midterm picture

Alexander Willis
July 31, 2026

RAW STORY

U.S. President Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott participate in a roundtable with first responders and local officials, at Hill Country Youth Center, in Kerrville, Texas, U.S., July 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

A recent Fox News poll showed Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa within the margin of error of defeating Gov. Greg Abbott, and critics wasted little time taunting the MAGA governor over his potential election loss.

Despite President Donald Trump winning Texas in 2024 by close to 14 percentage points, Abbott – a fierce Trump ally – is favored to win his re-election bid by just 1 percentage point over his Democratic opponent, well within the margin of error. Conducted between July 23-27, the poll also found that Texas voters indicated they were “falling behind financially” by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

Sara McGee, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ 132nd Congressional District, predicted the new polling data would force Abbott’s hand in adjusting his campaign strategy over the next 95 days.

“Republicans will say this poll is fake only for Greg Abbott to turn around and flip on data centers, and then roll out a ‘healthcare plan’ after refusing federal Medicaid expansion dollars for the last 12 years,” McGee wrote Friday in a social media post on X. “He’s seen the numbers. November is coming.”

In 2024, Trump performed strongly with several key demographics in Texas, securing more support from independent and Hispanic voters than his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris. According to the new poll, however, Hinojosa leads Abbott with both groups by 27 and 16 points, respectively.

Abbott has served as governor since 2015 and is seeking a fourth term that would make him the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He enters the race with a massive financial edge, reporting nearly $90 million in campaign cash on hand.

He’s also demonstrated a strong loyalty to Trump, calling a special session last year at Trump’s request to help enact the White House’s nationwide redistricting push to update congressional district maps in a manner more favorable to Republicans for the midterms.

Kasie Hunt backs Jim Jordan into a corner with his own words: 'Why does that not apply?'

Nicole Charky-Chami
July 30, 2026 
RAW STORY


CNN anchor Kasie Hunt asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to respond to domestic abuse allegations surrounding a Republican lawmaker, using his previous comments about Democratic Senate Graham Platner when he pushed back on responding to the questions. (CNN/Screenshot)

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was backed into a corner on Thursday during a CNN interview when anchor Kasie Hunt asked him to respond to domestic abuse allegations involving a fellow GOP lawmaker from Jordan's home state.

Hunt asked Jordan to comment on Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) after reports that Miller, who was married to Sen. Bernie Moreno's daughter Emily Moreno, had allegedly scalded her with hot water and held a gun to her head.

Jordan initially responded to Hunt's question and said "this is a family matter."

"I know Max is a good man," Jordan said. "I was up campaigning for him. I hope he wins reelection. He's done a good job as a member of Congress, and we should all pray for his family. These are difficult times that they're going through."

But then Hunt pointed to his comments about former Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. She played a Newsmax interview, showing what Jordan had said when allegations of sexual misconduct against Platner had surfaced.

"I want to play for you what you said when you were asked about Graham Platner, who faced allegations of abuse," Hunt said.

CNN cut to the interview with Jordan — with Hunt urging the Republican to comment on the difference between the two situations.

"That's always been the case with Democrats," Jordan said. "It's all about maintaining power. They will take any crazy position as long as it furthers their ability to, to win elections and get power and frankly, to go against anyone that goes against President Trump."

Hunt pushed back.

"Why does that not apply here, to Republicans who want to keep power in the seat?" Hunt asked.

Jordan tried to dodge the question, claiming he didn't remember the context of the question he was asked.

"I think I was dealing with just who he was as a candidate, and the crazy, antisemitic, anti-Israel, pro-Nazi positions that he has taken," Jordan said. "I think, is evidenced by the fact that he had a what, a Nazi tattoo on his chest."

'I see how Hitler happened!' Devastating supercut shows MAGA rejecting Trump

Matthew Chapman
July 31, 2026

RAW STORY



Donald Trump gestures to reporters from the roof of the White House. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Trump's longtime die-hard supporters in the right-wing ecosphere are starting to abandon him, MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace revealed with a humiliating supercut on Friday evening.

The reasons for the mutiny are diverse, ranging from frustration over the Iran war to the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking case files — and it comes amid a general traffic collapse for right-wing media.

"I do want to show you some of the contortions that Trump has forced some of his most rabid followers to make, in their own words," said Wallace to her panel, playing the cut.

"We've got to support Trump or civilization will collapse. Those are quotes. And it's true," said conspiracy theorist webcaster Alex Jones. More recently, he said of Trump, "I'm calling for it right now. 25th Amendment, impeachment, whatever needs to happen to get this front and center to get control of our country."

"I've been very open to the fact that I will be supporting Trump," said former Navy SEAL and podcaster Shawn Ryan. Then, in a more recent clip, he said, "I'm completely embarrassed that I supported Trump in the past because of, you know, the fact that he completely flipped on his entire base."

"You guys ever meet Trump? You talk to him? No, you meet him and he's actually a solid guy," said MMA fighter Sean Strickland. In a more contemporary interview, he said of Trump, "When you're at a Trump rally, you're like, oh, I could definitely see how Hitler happened. Like, I'm not even — I'm not joking, dude."

Wallace turned to her guest, political analyst Rick Stengel, who had a lot to say on the matter.

"Some of it is the proverbial rats deserting the sinking ship, but they're deserting the ship for different reasons," said Stengel. "I mean, all of the folks we just saw, feel betrayed by Trump in one way or another. They realized that he has no ideology at all except get attention and get money."