Ted Cruz Mocked for Fawning Response to Trump’s Visit

Lawrence O’Donnell tore into Senator Ted Cruz for submissively applauding Donald Trump, who famously hates him, even after the presumptive GOP nominee had walked out of his meeting with Senate Republicans.

During his show on MSNBC Thursday night, O’Donnell reminded viewers that during Trump’s first run for president, he made several depraved comments about Cruz. Trump had made the wild assertion that Cruz’s father killed President John F. Kennedy. He also attacked Cruz’s wife’s appearance, threatening to “spill the beans” on her. Cruz tossed a few volleys of his own, calling Trump a “pathological liar,” a “sniveling coward,” and a “serial philanderer.”

O’Donnell reminded viewers that, “There was real suspense then going into the 2016 Republican Convention about whether or not the deeply offended Senator Cruz would even endorse Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president. But Senator Cruz looked into his heart and found … nothing,” O’Donnell said.

“Nothing that would prevent him from endorsing the presidential candidate who attacked and lied about his father and attacked and lied about his wife. And there was Senator Cruz today in that lineup of utterly egoless Republican men craving their moment with Donald Trump, craving a possible handshake, or a possible pat on the back, or a wink or a smile, a glance, anything from Donald Trump.”

When it became apparent that Trump would seize the nomination in 2016, the Texas senator put the bad blood aside, and has since repeatedly sold his soul for a ticket on the Trump train. In January, Cruz announced he was “enthusiastically” endorsing him for president.

O’Donnell highlighted how Cruz’s spinelessness was once again on display during Trump’s meeting with Republican senators Thursday. In footage from the event, Trump can be seen moving down a line of senators hoping for a handshake. He stopped in front of his fanboy, Cruz, for a moment, before swiftly moving down the line. As Trump made his way out the door, Cruz kept clapping—and continued applauding even after Trump was out of the room.

“He kept clapping after Donald Trump left the room, after the door was closed,” O’Donnell scoffed. “Did he think Donald Trump could see through the door?”

Another day, another manufactured ragebait: Conservative media is circulating a video of Joe Biden apparently wandering off during a G7 summit gathering in southern Italy with claims that fascist Italian Prime Minister Meloni had to “pull him back to focus.” The incident caused a stir among right-wing outlets—and was totally doctored.

The clip that circulated among tabloids at home and abroad, including the New York Post, Sky News, and Times of India—was first blown up by right-wing account “RNC Research,” an account managed by Trump’s campaign team and the Republican National Convention and that claims to be “exposing the lies, hypocrisy, and failed far-left policies of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party.”

RNC Research’s post conveniently cropped out a skydiver repacking his parachute that Biden turned to talk to before another skydiver began addressing the group of global leaders. After the New York Post shared the video of the incident on X, it was quickly met with a Community Note debunking the claim. While the New York Post’s article admits Biden was speaking with a skydiver, the headline and included video are nonetheless deceptive, provoking criticism of the Post’s coverage of the non-incident incident.

In the full video, world leaders are informally gathered around each other, talking and looking around as Biden moves to chat with a skydiver repacking his parachute. While he’s speaking to the skydiver, another skydiver begins talking to the group, at which point the gaggle of world leaders begin to shuffle and adjust to listen to the skydiver. It’s at that point Meloni taps Biden to notify him that another skydiver is speaking to them behind him.

Wisconsin Democrats have not been as forgiving as their conservative counterparts to Donald Trump’s closed-door insult against their home state, instead opting to torch the former president for calling Milwaukee a “horrible city” with a terrible crime rate.

Speaking to MSNBC on Thursday, Representative Gwen Moore turned the script back on Trump, joking that—because he’s a convicted felon—Milwaukee’s crime rate will actually go through the roof when he arrives for the Republican National Convention in July.

“I don’t know many people in Milwaukee who have 34 felony counts against them,” Moore said, adding through a laugh that “our crime rate sure is going to go up when he joins us.”

Trump’s wild explanation that he was referring to the city’s crime rate—and its recent decision to indict participants in his 2020 fake elector scheme—arrived hours after the open-ended insult, and after his Republican allies had had their chance at individually trying to explain away the comment. Some rushed to provide justifications that included whining about the city’s delay in answering the former president’s request to expand the security perimeter around the Republican National Convention in an effort to keep protesters even further out of vision. But others bizarrely jumped to claim that Trump never made the comments at all.

And speaking to Fox News’s Aishah Hasnie about whether or not his pick for vice president was in the meeting of House Republicans early Thursday, Trump doubled down that he wasn’t looking forward to trekking to Milwaukee for the convention.

“I don’t want to go, but I think [it] will probably get announced during the convention,” Trump told Hasnie.

Ultimately, Trump’s claim that the city’s crime numbers are “terrible” was actually just plain wrong. In reality, crime in Milwaukee is way down, with homicides in the city decreasing by 42 percent when compared to 2022, according to data from the Milwaukee Police Department. Crimes such as rape, aggravated assault, theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson have also dropped off drastically in the Brew City.

“A few weeks ago I had a meeting with our police chief, and you know crime has gone down all over America, and we are really proud of the fact that crimes like murder and rape have gone down in double digits and one of the biggest problems we have in Milwaukee right now, it is reckless driving,” Moore told MSNBC.

Wisconsin is shaping up to be a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election. Only time will tell if they remember the flub come November.

Donald Trump is already doing damage control for his upcoming debate with President Joe Biden.

The former president laid out a few different excuses, attempting to explain away why Biden might perform well on the stage in two weeks, during an interview Thursday night on the far-right news network Real America’s Voice.

“I don’t know, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can say this. If he does make it through, which I think he will, they’re gonna feed him a lot of stuff,” said Trump. “And we should do a drug test, I’d love to do a drug test before.”

Trump, who rarely casts an accusation that is not also a projection, previously suggested that Biden was “higher than a kite,” during his State of the Union address.

The presumptive Republican nominee also joked Thursday that he might decide to throw the event, but his reasoning made little to no sense. Trump explained that his polling suggests that Biden is more popular than any of the Democrats that the party might tap to replace him, should they somehow choose to pull the plug on his campaign after the debate.

“This guy does better than the Democrats that you’re talking about, including [Gretchen] Whitmer,” Trump said, referring to the governor of Michigan. “He does better than them, I don’t quite understand that. I’m a little surprised. But, he actually polls better than all the people you’re talking about, and so, they don’t want to take him off, it depends.”

“Maybe I’m better off losing the debate, I’ll make sure he stays. I’ll lose the debate on purpose, maybe I’ll do something like that,” Trump added.

It’s less likely that Trump wants to keep his opponent, who is by his own admission popular among Democrats, in the race, and more likely that Trump wants to create a sort of safety rail in case he flubs his performance. Trump’s game plan is simple: if he does poorly, it was on purpose, and if Biden does great, it’s because he was on drugs.

CNN will host the first Biden-Trump debate on June 27.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is bringing back a dangerous idea to crack down on pro-Palestine protests: a mask ban to rat out protesters.

Speaking with CNN’s Laura Coates in a softball interview Wednesday night, Hochul disseminated debunked disinformation about two recent pro-Palestine protests and floated a return to the state’s mask ban ordinance. The ban was previously enforced to quash the Ku Klux Klan and repealed in 2020 to accommodate protections against the Covid-19 pandemic. Hochul claimed the presence of masks—not antisemitic rhetoric or actions themselves, just people wearing masks—was “frightening.”

“There was a ban on masks before the pandemic, that you couldn’t have face coverings that didn’t serve a purpose. For example, a surgical mask for someone who is elderly or ill—the pandemic removed that from our state law. It was repealed at the time, but I absolutely will go back and take a look at this and see whether it can be restored because it is frightening to people,” said Hochul.

More frightening, many noted, is becoming sick with a highly contagious disease just so your local lawmakers can score political points. Hochul’s comment was met with immediate fury by disability rights advocates.

“Does that mean it will have a STRONG MEDICAL EXEMPTION? Or would it be a half-assed partial health exemption like NC republicans did? VERY UNCLEAR,” epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Other proponents for masking as a public health tool also spoke out, with calls to flood Hochul’s contact lines to advocate against the prospective policy circulating widely as of Thursday afternoon.

Hochul’s interest in reinstating the state’s mask ban has followed other states working to repress pro-Palestine protests—where people frequently obscure their faces to protect against chronic harassment, not to embolden criminality.

It turns out Clarence Thomas has failed to disclose even more free trips from conservative billionaire Harlan Crow, a Senate Judiciary Committee investigation uncovered.

At least three times, Crow provided trips on his private jet to the Supreme Court justice to destinations including a March 2019 trip to Thomas’s Georgia hometown, a May 2017 trip to Montana near Glacier National Park with a return flight to Dallas two days later, and a June 2021 roundtrip flight between San Jose, California, and Washington, D.C. The revelations were provided to the committee from Crow’s lawyer.

The purpose of the trips was not mentioned in the report, and Thomas has not reported them in his financial disclosures, even though some legal experts say it violates the law.

It may be the first of more revelations to come, according to Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, who said that a full investigative report from Democrats on the committee would be released later in the summer.

“As a result of our investigation and subpoena authorization, we are providing the American public greater clarity on the extent of ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices,” Durbin said in a statement. The revelations make it “crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct,” he added.

Last year, a ProPublica investigation found that Thomas received free luxury vacations from Crow nearly every year, which the Supreme Court justice failed to report until just last week. The publication also reported that Crow funded the renovation of the home where Thomas’s mother lives, as well as the private school tuition of Mark Martin, the grandson of Thomas’s sister Emma Mae Martin. Thomas and his wife, Ginni Thomas, were Martin’s legal guardians from age 6 to 19 but have since cut ties with Martin, whom Thomas once said he was raising as a “son,” Martin revealed in a recent interview. 

On Thursday on the House floor, Representative Adam Schiff sought to drive home the point of Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions in his hush-money trial.

“Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty,” Schiff said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Trump’s hush-money scheme prior to the 2016 presidential election. “This was what the jury pronounced, unanimously on every count.”

The California representative and Senate candidate pointed out that Republicans haven’t contested Trump’s guilt, but are basically demonstrating that they have discarded any moral convictions.

“What they’re really saying is they are more than comfortable nominating and electing as the president of the United States someone making hush-money payments to a porn star,” Schiff added, referring to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. 

Republicans have engaged in all kinds of conspiracy theories since Trump was found guilty, ranging from attacking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, as was the purpose of Thursday’s hearing, to attacking the political activities of Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter as proof of a partisan motive in Trump’s prosecution. During the trial, Trump himself made the accusation on his Truth Social account, only to be slapped with a gag order.

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in the trial on July 11, and reportedly begged Speaker Mike Johnson to try to overturn the guilty verdict, in an expletive-laden tirade in the days following his conviction. While Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo have agreed to testify before the committee, that may be all that House Republicans can do to intervene in a state criminal case. Of course, Trump may be trying to enlist their help in advance of his plan to win in November and give himself a permanent get out of jail free card.

Republicans were quick to spin Donald Trump’s decision to call Milwaukee a “horrible city” after his private meeting with House GOP lawmakers Thursday, offering a confused array of cover-up possibilities. And Trump’s own explanation seemed to make the least sense out of the bunch.

GOP representatives rushed to provide justifications that included whining about the city’s delay in answering the former president’s request to expand the security perimeter around the Republican National Convention to keep protesters further at bay. Several loyal allies even claimed that Trump never made the comments at all. Trump took a different route altogether.

“It was very clear what I meant,” Trump told Fox News’s Aishah Hasnie. “I said, we’re very concerned with crime. I love Milwaukee, I have great friends in Milwaukee, but it’s, as you know, the crime numbers are terrible. We have to be very careful.”

But that wasn’t all. Instead, Trump seems to feel it was obvious that he meant multiple things by the short insult.

“I was referring to, also, the election, the ballots, the way it went down, it was very bad in Milwaukee. Very, very bad,” Trump continued. “And the people understand that and they agree with me. Everybody agrees. No, that was a fake story that came out.”

“Yeah. Milwaukee has a problem with crime, as do most Democrat-run cities,” he said. “Most Democrat-run cities, almost all of them have problems. But they also have a problem with votes. And election integrity. And that’s what we want to make sure we get straight.”

Trump may still be reeling after a trio of his allies were hit with felony charges by Wisconsin prosecutors last week for their involvement in the 2020 fake elector scheme, including Kenneth Chesebro, who allegedly designed the national plot that aimed to frame Trump as the winner of the presidential election.

And, as for Trump’s claim that the city’s crime numbers “are terrible”—in reality, they’re way down, with homicides in the city decreasing by 42 percent when compared to 2022, according to data from the Milwaukee Police Department. Crimes such as rape, aggravated assault, theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson have also dropped off drastically in the Brew City.

Baselessly insulting the city where you’ll be nominated for U.S. president in a handful of weeks is certainly a choice, but here’s hoping that Milwaulkee still knows how to give Trump a warm welcome when he arrives.

Donald Trump’s comment trashing Milwaukee, the site of this year’s Republican National Convention, has understandably not gone over well in the city.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson, asked about Trump calling Milwaukee a “horrible city” in a closed-door meeting with House Republicans on Thursday, clapped back at the former president.

“If Donald Trump wants to talk about things that he thinks are horrible, all of us lived through his presidency, so right back at you, buddy,” Johnson said.

“Look, obviously Donald Trump is wrong about something, yet again,” he continued. “I find it kind of perplexing, I find it kind of strange that he would insult the largest city in Wisconsin because he’s running for president, he obviously wants to win Wisconsin, win the election, and so to insult the state that’s hosting your convention, I think it’s kind of bizarre, actually, kind of unhinged, in a way.”

Johnson wasn’t the only Wisconsin politician to get in a few jabs at Trump. “Milwaukee makes the greatest beer, brats, and motorcycles in the world. It’s home to some of our most vibrant communities, hardest workers, and is a part of what makes Wisconsin the best state in the nation. Donald Trump wouldn’t understand even if a jury told him so,” Senator Tammy Baldwin tweeted, referring to Trump’s recent hush-money conviction.

Representative Gwen Moore of Wisconsin’s 4th district, which includes Milwaukee, also chimed in. “Once he’s settled in with his parole officer, I am certain he will discover that Milwaukee is a wonderful, vibrant and welcoming city full of diverse neighborhoods and a thriving business community,” she posted.

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked legislation to protect in vitro fertilization, a reproductive rights procedure that has gained popularity in recent years to help people have families.

Senate Democrats sought to codify federal protections for IVF as anti-abortion extremists sharpen their knives to severely restrict the procedure while advocating for a national abortion ban. The vote failed, with 48 votes in favor and 47 opposed. The bill needed 60 votes to pass. Only two Republicans voted with Democrats to protect the procedure: Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Here are all the other Senate Republicans who, after signing a GOP-led statement in support of IVF Thursday morning, actually voted against the Right to IVF Act:

• John Barrasso—Wyoming
• Marsha Blackburn—Tennessee
• John Boozman—Arkansas
• Mike Braun—Indiana
• Katie Britt—Alabama
• Ted Budd—North Carolina
• Shelley Moore Capito—West Virginia
• Bill Cassidy—Louisiana
• John Cornyn—Texas
• Tom Cotton—Arkansas
• Kevin Cramer—North Dakota
• Mike Crapo—Idaho
• Ted Cruz—Texas
• Steve Daines—Montana
• Joni Ernst—Iowa
• Deb Fischer—Nebraska
• Lindsey Graham—South Carolina
• Chuck Grassley—Iowa
• Bill Hagerty—Tennessee
• Josh Hawley—Missouri
• John Hoeven—North Dakota
• Cindy Hyde-Smith—Mississippi
• Ron Johnson—Wisconsin
• John Neely Kennedy—Louisiana
• James Lankford—Oklahoma
• Mike Lee—Utah
• Cynthia Lummis—Wyoming
• Roger Marshall—Kansas
• Mitch McConnell—Kentucky
• Jerry Moran—Kansas
• Markwayne Mullin—Oklahoma
• Rand Paul—Kentucky
• Pete Ricketts—Nebraska
• James E. Risch—Idaho
• Mitt Romney—Utah
• Mike Rounds—South Dakota
• Marco Rubio—Florida
• Rick Scott—Florida
• Tim Scott—South Carolina
• Dan Sullivan—Alaska
• John Thune—South Dakota
• Thom Tillis—North Carolina
• Tommy Tuberville—Alabama
• J.D. Vance—Ohio
• Roger Wicker—Mississippi
• Todd Young—Indiana

This article has been updated.