Good afternoon,
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is facing a new sexual assault allegation and says he is weighing the future of his campaign. Laura Loomer says Mitch McConnell is “braindead” and he has not been seen in public in weeks, while his wife turns up in Beijing. Senate Republicans are privately warning each other that the midterms are shaping up to be a bloodbath. Trump admits he personally called FIFA to get a World Cup red card overturned. And a new report says Trump’s crypto ventures have cost his own supporters seven billion dollars while he pocketed three billion. Let’s get into it.
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Platner Faces New Sexual Assault Allegation, Weighs Campaign’s Future
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is facing the most serious allegation yet in a campaign already rocked by controversy. Politico reported Monday that Jenny Racicot, a woman who dated Platner on and off from 2019 to 2021, says he showed up at her home intoxicated and forced her to have sex with him in 2021 despite her repeated objections. Platner denied the allegation as “categorically untrue,” calling it “troubling, serious, and false.” His campaign said the accusation was “very serious” while also alleging it was “coached and coordinated by out of state establishment operatives.”
Minutes after the story broke, Platner posted a video saying he and his team are “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward,” stopping short of ending his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins but notably referring to the campaign at points in the past tense. The allegation follows weeks of other controversies, including a New York Times report in which three former girlfriends described his behavior as at times demeaning and, in one case, physically threatening, as well as a Wall Street Journal report that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with multiple women early in his marriage. Old deleted Reddit posts have also resurfaced showing Platner making disparaging comments about Black and LGBTQ+ people and sexual assault victims. Democrats had been counting on Platner to give them a real shot at flipping Collins’s seat, and the timing could not be worse for a party already fighting for every seat it can get.
Where Is Mitch McConnell? Trump Confidante Says ‘Braindead’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has reportedly not been seen in public since mid May, and the questions around his health are only growing stranger. McConnell, 84, was hospitalized after suffering a heart attack, with an emergency dispatch call revealing he needed CPR. His office says he “continues to improve” and is “working closely with his staff,” but colleagues have largely declined to give any real update on his condition, and it remains unclear whether he is conscious or how his office is functioning in his absence.
Meanwhile, Trump confidante Laura Loomer said the following just an hour ago on X: “NEW: High level source close to the White House tells me “Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.”
McConnells wife, Elaine Chao, who served as transportation secretary in Trump’s first term, turned up in Beijing just three days after McConnell’s hospitalization, where she was photographed meeting with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng to discuss strengthening ties between the two countries. A spokesperson for Chao described the trip as long planned and philanthropic in nature. Kentucky Democrat Charles Booker, who hopes to replace McConnell, said he is concerned about the senator’s health and understands “the fear and uncertainty” families feel during a medical emergency. Given how little McConnell’s own office is willing to say, that uncertainty is not going away anytime soon.
GOP Insiders Warn of a Midterm Bloodbath
Senate Republican leaders are delivering grim new warnings to their own colleagues, and the picture is worse than previously understood. An anti incumbent wave is building nationwide, hitting Republicans at their most vulnerable moment, and GOP leadership is now privately admitting just how bad things have gotten, according to The Hill.
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott reportedly warned colleagues about how badly Republican polling has slipped and how much ground Trump is losing across nearly every demographic group. Things got even more dire at a recent Senate Republican lunch, where Conference Chair Tom Cotton presented polling showing independents fleeing the party in significant numbers and moving toward Democrats. Attendees reportedly left “visibly shaken.”
Republican pollster Whit Ayres explained that a president’s approval rating strongly predicts how many House seats his party loses in a midterm. Above 50 percent approval, the average loss is 14 seats. Below 50 percent, it jumps to 32. Almost nobody at this point is predicting Democrats will fail to gain seats. A recent Fox News poll found just 23 percent of voters approve of how Trump is handling gas prices, and only 31 percent approve of his economic management overall. Democratic strategist Tad Devine put it plainly, saying Republicans could lose the House and possibly the Senate, with Democrats gaining ground in governors’ races and state legislatures as well.
Trump Admits He Personally Called FIFA to Reverse a Red Card
Trump confirmed Monday that he personally reached out to FIFA president Gianni Infantino to get a red card overturned for USA striker Folarin Balogun, insisting he only asked for a “review” and did not pressure FIFA into anything. Sources told the Guardian that Trump made three separate calls to FIFA starting last Wednesday. FIFA had suspended Balogun’s automatic one match ban on Sunday, despite previously saying the sanction could not be appealed under its own disciplinary code.
The intervention has set off a firestorm. UEFA accused FIFA of crossing “a red line” and called the decision “incomprehensible and unjustifiable.” Belgium, who face the US for a quarterfinal spot, expressed their own “astonishment,” and their appeal was rejected on the grounds they were not a party to the case. Germany’s football federation openly questioned whether political interference was at play, and former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who resigned in disgrace after FBI raids on FIFA headquarters, wrote that “red cards are not overturned by political phone calls.” Infantino insists FIFA’s disciplinary bodies remain independent, but neither he nor Trump has explained the legal basis for lifting the suspension.
Report: Trump’s Crypto Ventures Cost Investors Seven Billion, Made Trump Three Billion
A new Forbes investigation found that Trump’s various media and crypto ventures have left investors seven billion dollars in the hole, while Trump himself pocketed roughly three billion. Since launching Truth Social, World Liberty Financial, his own memecoin, Melania Trump’s memecoin, and American Bitcoin, ordinary people who bet on Trump have watched their savings evaporate. Trump Media stock has cratered 89 percent from its peak. World Liberty tokens are down 82 percent. Trump’s memecoin has lost 98 percent of its value, Melania’s token 99 percent, and American Bitcoin shares have fallen 95 percent.
The human cost is staggering. A truck driver who saved for years put his life savings into a Trump Media SPAC and watched it collapse from 205,000 dollars to 30,000. A 26 year old content creator invested nearly half a million dollars into Trump’s memecoin, scored an invite to a special investor dinner where he says he was not even offered soda, and walked away roughly a quarter million dollars poorer. A military spouse who put almost 100,000 dollars into American Bitcoin says it is now worth about 9,000. “We’re just poor cattle to them,” one investor told Forbes. “He doesn’t care about anyone.”
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Stay Strong. Stay Vigilant. Keep Fighting.
British Chris
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