Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America.
Raw America White House reporter Brian Karem was on the ground in Austin today as Texas Senate candidate James Talarico demanded Attorney General Ken Paxton release the so-called “Hoffman Files.” Trump’s Justice Department is now threatening a blue state’s top election official with criminal charges over totally baseless claims about non-citizen voting. Rumors about Mitch McConnell’s health are picking up once again after a mystery man was caught checking on his home while his wife is still MIA. And Pope Leo XIV is once again drawing the ire of Trump officials, this time reportedly getting threatened by a Pentagon official over leaks about a hostile Vatican meeting.
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Raw America Talks to James Talarico
Our very own Brian Karem was in Austin, Texas today for a press conference where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico drilled his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, at his own office.
Talarico is calling on Paxton to release what he’s calling the “Hoffman Files.” The case involves Adam Hoffman, a convicted pedophile who served less than a month in jail after molesting a young boy. Hoffman didn’t even have to register as a sex offender.
Talarico is calling it an “Epstein-style sweetheart deal.”
Raw America asked Talarico directly what it says that Democrat Graham Platner dropped out of Maine’s U.S. Senate race over an accusation, while a Republican candidate in the Lone Star state is protecting someone who was actually convicted of a sex crime.
“Most Texans, regardless of their political affiliations, are tired of seeing crimes against children covered up by powerful politicians,” Talarico said. He pointed to the Epstein case as proof that voters across the political spectrum want answers when children are victimized and powerful people look the other way. He added that Americans “don’t need any more pedophile protectors in our government.”
Karem also asked Talarico about President Trump’s newest attack on Democrats, in which he calls them “communists.” Talarico brushed off the label.
“This is the kind of politics we have these days, where corny nicknames and cheap accusations are hurled at each other,” the Texas Democrat said. He added that Texans care more about lowering costs and fixing the economy than name-calling.
When Karem asked point-blank if he was a communist, Talarico laughed it off.
“That’s not the only thing they’re accusing me of,” he said, adding that nothing about his focus on improving the lives of working people “looks like communism” to him.
Watch the video of the exchange between Raw America and James Talarico below:
Trump’s DOJ Threatens Criminal Charges Against Maryland’s Top Election Official
The Trump White House is escalating its intimidation of election officials. this time it’s targeting Maryland’s Jared DeMarinis by threatening to file criminal charges.
A recent letter from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which is led by MAGA loyalist Harmeet Dhillon, cited baseless concerns about non-citizens voting in Maryland elections. DeMarinis dismissed it as “a nice love letter from the Department of Justice threatening my arrest.”
The letter came just a day after DOJ attorneys said they’d appeal a case where a federal judge already rejected their attempt to compel Maryland to hand over sensitive voter data. DeMarinis says his office is standing solid legal ground and expects to win the appeal as well.
Nikki Tyree of the League of Women Voters of Maryland told States Newsroom the letter was “extremely disturbing.” She said the real goal wasn’t to clean voter rolls, but rather to convince enough people to not trust elections so the Trump regime can “cry foul” if it doesn’t like the results.
Polling shows that strategy is already bearing fruit. A March survey by PBS, NPR and Marist University found confidence in elections has dropped a full ten points since the 2024 election, driven mostly by Democrats and independents losing trust.
This isn’t just happening in Maryland. Trump has signed multiple executive orders on elections, all of which have been blocked by courts. Kash Patel’s FBI agents have raided the offices of a pro-democracy group in Ohio and seized ballots in Georgia. DeMarinis now has five days to respond or face unspecified consequences.
McConnell Reignites Health Rumors After Mystery Visitor Seen ‘Checking On’ His House
Speculation about 84 year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) health escalated further this week, after independent journalists Nicholas Ballasy and Desirée Townsend spotted a man leaving the former Senate majority leader’s D.C. home.
The man said he’d been sent to “check on the house” but wasn’t a family member or staffer. He also said he didn’t know anything about the whereabouts of former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao — who is McConnell’s wife — and that he hadn’t seen her at all.
McConnell was hospitalized on June 14 after being found unconscious. A 911 call obtained by Townsend described CPR in progress due to cardiac arrest, though paramedics didn’t say McConnell’s name. His office has continued to push out a statement maintaining McConnell has been seeing “continued improvement” ever since he was rushed to the hospital.
Chao has been almost entirely MIA since the episode, except for a trip to Beijing where she met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng just days after her husband collapsed. She finally broke her silence this week, telling the Daily Beast she was in China to discuss her family’s philanthropy, and that her husband’s health “did not warrant an immediate return.”
Chao’s spokesperson still didn’t answer basic questions, like when exactly she came back to the U.S. or who actually found her husband the day he was hospitalized.
Trump Pentagon Official Reportedly Threatened Pope Leo XIV
Trump officials are apparently hunting for whoever leaked details of a contentious meeting between the Pentagon and the Vatican back in January, one that reportedly happened days after Pope Leo XIV criticized Trump’s war in Iran.
Brian Burch, who is Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, told the New York Times the meeting was “grossly mischaracterized” and that he’d personally called a Vatican cardinal demanding an apology. He even called the leak “an attack on the United States,” though the Pentagon still denies threatening the Holy See.
The American-born pontiff has repeatedly clashed with the Trump administration over its foreign policy. Pope Leo XIV hasn’t held back in criticizing bombings of small boats in the Caribbean, the abduction of Venezuela’s president, and Iran war, which he said in June wasn’t a “just war.”
Trump took the criticism harshly, and told radio host Hugh Hewitt in May that the pope was “endangering a lot of Catholics” by pushing for peace in the Middle East.
Keep in mind, Trump’s own record on Iran is spotty. Iran had no weapons-grade uranium in 2018, three years after the Obama-era nuclear deal locked down its stockpile. Trump pulled out of that deal later that year. By 2025, Iran had amassed eleven tons of enriched uranium, which the International Atomic Energy Agency says is enough to make ten bombs.
Trump said at this week’s NATO summit in Turkey that he’s done negotiating with Iran altogether, calling its leaders “scum.” U.S. Central Command has resumed attacks in the region, and oil prices have spiked in anticipation of more issues with the Strat of Hormuz.
That’s your Thursday evening rundown. Republicans’ U.S. Senate candidate in Texas is being called out for protecting a convicted pedophile. Trump’s Justice Department is threatening to arrest an election official for simply doing his job. A top Republican senator’s health is being actively hidden from the public while his wife meets with Chinese leaders in Beijing. And the head of the Catholic Church is being threatened for encouraging peace. This is what happens when power runs amok and is accountable to no one.
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Thanks for watching. I’m British Chris, with Raw America. We’ll see you tomorrow.
Here are a few stories you may have missed:
ICE Pressuring Witnesses of Fatal Shooting in Houston to Self-Deport. When federal agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas on Tuesday, three passengers witnessed the shooting. Now, a representative for the families is telling the New Republic’s Greg Sargent that the Department of Homeland Security is trying to intimidate them into silence. The three men are currently in ICE custody and are apparently being told to sign self-deportation forms. ICE maintains that Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle,” but new video shows it was actually ICE that rammed their vehicle into his.
How to Avoid Getting a New Passport with Trump’s Photo. Some U.S. citizens renewing their passports in Washington D.C. were horrified to open their passport books to see Donald Trump’s face on the inside cover. The State Department is releasing commemorative passports with Trump’s image in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. However, travel experts say D.C. residents can obtain passports without Trump’s photo if they ask for additional pages, since the Trump-branded editions are only in the 28-page version.
Trump Claims ‘Islamic Republic of Japan’ Fired Missiles at U.S. Ship. President Donald Trump claimed this week that the “Islamic Republic of Japan” recently fired 111 missiles at the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, which were all intercepted. Trump appears to have confused Japan with Iran, since the former is not led by an Islamic government and is a longtime ally of the U.S. with no formal military.
