Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America. If you’re watching this on Substack, take a few seconds to tap the ❤️ and restack this newsletter so we can reach the most news feeds.
Today, Trump announced his newest White House press secretary, who is now under scrutiny for hyping a baseless conspiracy linking a widely used abortion pill to Nazi concentration camps. The president is reportedly setting aside millions of dollars from his super PAC money to pay for his family’s legal expenses, expecting that a new Democratic majority will drag them before Congress. An embattled Republican senator has been accused of running his campaign with the help of taxpayer dollars. And a new poll shows that even president’s adopted home state of Florida could potentially flip to Democratic control in November.
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In case you missed it, watch our interview today with Human Rights Campaign Kelley Robinson by clicking here.
Trump’s New White House Press Secretary Under Fire for Unhinged Conspiracy Theory
The Trump White House announced 42 year-old far-right commentator Katie Zacharia will be the administration’s next press secretary. Zacharia and has been the senior communications adviser at Trump Media & Technology Group, which is Truth Social’s parent company. She’s also been a regular on-air contributor at Fox News, Newsmax and CNN.
Here’s where it gets weird: Last fall, Zacharia posted to her X account that the abortion bill mifepristone “is connected to the manufacturer of the deadly gas Zyklon B, used in the World War II concentration camps.” She then expounded on that in a lengthy post about I.G. Farben, the German chemical company that made the deadly gas used in the Nazi regime’s camps.
In actuality, mifepristone was developed by a French scientist, and the drug wasn’t approved there until the 1980s. Zacharia apparently tried to draw a tenuous connection over transfers of corporate ownership, given that pharmaceutical giant Sanofi ended up owning both the company tied to Zyklon B and mifepristone manufacturer Roussel Uclaf after decades of mergers.
Earlier this year, Zacharia spent a stint of several months as a spokesperson for the Department Homeland Security spokesperson under Kristi Noem. During her time at the agency, Zacharia accused Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut of spreading “fear-mongering lies” about ICE agents at airports. Her career track is quite astonishing given that she handled fundraising and communications for the group Compassion for Migrant Children, a nonprofit helping the kids of immigrant workers, after she left Pepperdine law school in Malibu.
Zacharia will officially replaces Karoline Leavitt, who just took a job at Fox News in August. Zacharia also has her work cut out for her, as she’ll have to regularly defend a White House mired in scandal. This includes reports from this week of top Trump administration officials helping pro-Russia governments. She’ll also be expected to explain an $810 million so-called “pocket rescission” of congressionally approved money that violates both federal law and Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.
Trump Quietly Squirreling Away PAC Money for Family’s Legal Defense Fund
Trump is also now apparently bracing for a Democratic House of Representatives, including setting aside money to defend his family from congressional investigations.
The Daily Mail reported today that the president is “angry” but “not surprised” that Democrats may open new investigations into his family. According to the outlet, the president is already setting aside millions from the roughly $400 million in his MAGA Inc. super PAC to pay for lawyers to defend First Lady Melania Trump and his college-age son, Barron. Republicans were hoping that the president would spend some of that money helping them keep their majorities in November.
It’s no secret that Democrats aim to use their potential new majorities to investigate alleged corruption in the First Family. Democrat Robert Garcia of California — who would chair the House Oversight Committee if Democrats retake committee gavels — told Politico he wanted to hear from the president, his sons and the First Family, along with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner. Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said there’s “enough Trump family corruption to go around.”
The potential investigation into Barron Trump may focus on the family’s cryptocurrency firm, World Liberty Financial, which he co-founded along with Don Jr. and Eric Trump. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also wants to know whether Amazon’s $40 million Melania documentary was a “box office gamble or bribe.” Don Jr.’s wedding on a private island in May was also partially bankrolled by a Russian oligarch with ties to Vladimir Putin. And Democrats have also said they want answers about Kushner’s private equity firm getting $2 billion from a fund tied to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
Republicans established the precedent for these kinds of investigations when they used the full weight of their committees to go after Hunter Biden. But now that Democrats are up by approximately nine points on the generic ballot, Trump may be staring down the barrel of a lame-duck presidency, a historic third impeachment and a wave of new investigations.
GOP Senator Accused of Using Taxpayer Money for His Own Campaign
Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas is now facing serious questions about whether he used public money to bolster his 2020 Senate campaign.
The Kansas Reflector and MS NOW conducted a joint investigation into audio, video, calendars and hundreds of text messages. Several experts told the outlets those records show evidence of both Marshall and chief of staff Brent Robertson using congressional staff and taxpayer-funded travel to do campaign work.
In one exchange, Robertson booked an official meeting in Chicago, but then told staff the entire campaign trip would be labeled “Official” so they could use taxpayer money to pay for the flights. In a text message, Robertson brazenly wrote that the “primary purpose is what we say it is.” He also told a staffer he could spend whatever he wanted on a $170 dinner for two in Dodge City, despite the cap being $55 a day.
When employees raised objections about using public money on Marshall’s campaign, a former staffer said Robertson said they were free to blame him if they were ever put under oath. Craig Holman of the anti-corruption group Public Citizen said the evidence was both “breathtaking” and “very damning.” Marshall’s campaign lawyer blamed it all on a “disgruntled employee.” The senator’s reelection race against Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton is within the margin of error. Kansas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932.
New Data Shows Trump’s Home State in Danger of Flipping to Democrats
Finally, Democrats now have a legitimate shot of winning the marquee races in Trump’s adopted home state of Florida.
A new St. Pete Polls survey shows Republican Congressman Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly — a former Republican congressman from the Tampa Bay area who left the GOP during Trump’s first term — tied at 45 percent in the Florida gubernatorial race. For context, Trump carried the Sunshine State by roughly 13 points just two years ago.
The key reason for Jolly’s October surge is due to support from independents, who overwhelmingly back him by a margin of 49 -33. Younger voters are also trending in Jolly’s favor by a whopping 62-17 margin. And even though Hispanic voters swung hard right in 2024, they now prefer Jolly 54-38 according to the poll. Donalds is still comfortably leading among voters aged 70 and up, who are usually a reliable voting bloc in midterm elections.
In the Senate race, Republican Ashley Moody is only leading Democrat Angie Nixon — who Raw America interviewed in August — by just 47 to 45, putting Nixon well within the margin of error. Nixon is currently leading with independent voters by a 13-point margin.
Democrats are still remaining cautious for now, as Florida polls tend to underestimate Republican turnout. Additionally, the GOP holds a significant voter registration edge of more than 1.5 million voters, and Donalds has a fundraising haul approximately eight times larger than that of the Jolly campaign. But despite their disadvantages, Democrats still managed to flip a Florida statehouse seat that includes Mar-a-Lago earlier this spring, in a district Trump won by a double-digit margin. Early voting in Florida starts by October 24, and Election Day is November 3. Raw America will be interviewing Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried next Wednesday at 3:30 PM ET to learn the latest about Democrats’ chances in the Sunshine State.
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