Good morning. I’m Thom Hartmann.
Israel publicly humiliated Donald Trump and bombed Iran hours after he begged Benjamin Netanyahu to stand down. Fired 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley is accusing CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of ordering him to lie on the air. Ken Paxton’s own impeachment defense lawyer is now backing Democrat James Talarico in the Texas Senate race. And alarm bells are ringing inside the MAGA coalition as young women who helped deliver Trump the White House in 2024 are now turning on him.
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Netanyahu Humiliates Trump Over Iran
On Sunday, Donald Trump told reporters he was going to personally call Benjamin Netanyahu and tell him not to retaliate against Iran’s missile strikes. Within hours, the Israeli military bombed Iran anyway.
It’s virtually unprecedented for a sitting American president to be publicly ignored by the leader of a country the United States arms, funds, and shields at the United Nations. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut stated bluntly that the Iran war “has been humiliating for Trump and American power generally.” He added: “When Trump announces he is going to call Netanyahu and tell him not to retaliate, and within hours Netanyahu retaliates, the humiliation just compounds.”
To be clear, Iran’s missile strikes on Israel over the weekend were retaliatory. They came in response to Israel bombing southern Beirut, as well as what Iran’s Foreign Ministry described as Israel and the U.S. military coordinating attacks on Iranian ships and targets in southern Iran over the previous two weeks. Iran called the strikes defensive action under the U.N. Charter.
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson made clear that no one in the region buys the idea that Israel acts independently of Washington, saying: “Whatever happens in the region, the direct responsibility of the United States is clear.”
Trump insisted to the Financial Times he still thinks a diplomatic deal is possible, saying he “calls all the shots” and not Netanyahu. But here’s the problem: Iran wants proof that Trump can actually control Netanyahu before they sign anything. And this weekend proved that Netanyahu is leading Trump by the nose.
This is what an illegal war of choice looks like when it starts to unravel.
James Madison warned us in his 1795 Political Observations that of all the enemies to public liberty, war is the most to be dreaded, because it’s the nursery of executive power and the surest road to one-man rule. The Constitution put the decision to commit this nation to war in Article One, in the hands of Congress and the people, so when a president can be marched into a war of choice by a foreign prime minister he claims to command, that constitutional design has already broken down right in front of us.
Scott Pelley Reveals Bari Weiss Told Him to Lie About Renee Good’s Killing
Scott Pelley, the veteran 60 Minutes anchor who was fired last week after accusing CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the show, sat down with the New York Times over the weekend. And he pulled the curtain back to reveal something truly shocking about how far CBS’ pro-Trump billionaire owners are willing to go to advance their narrative.
Pelley said CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss — who was installed in her role by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison — emailed his supervisor shortly before a segment aired on the killing of Minneapolis protester Renee Good, who was shot in the head by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in January. According to Pelley, Weiss requested the segment make the protesters look “more violent,” and describe Good as driving her car toward the officer.
But the video of the shooting doesn’t support that description. As Pelley explained, the video clearly shows Good’s wheels turned completely away from Ross when he shot her. The officer also called her a profane slur on camera. None of that fits the narrative Weiss wanted to push.
CBS News responded by saying Weiss’s email had “no political motivation” and was only meant to make the segment stronger, fairer, and more accurate. They added that not everything she raised made it into the final piece.
Pelley doesn’t buy it. He told the Times Weiss wanted Good described as driving toward the officer specifically because that echoes what Donald Trump said about the shooting. CBS insisted there was “no credible argument” for the claim that Weiss was putting her thumb on the scale for the Trump administration. Pelley was fired shortly after a staff meeting where he confronted Weiss directly.
This is all unfolding against a backdrop of serious instability at 60 Minutes. The longtime executive producer was replaced. Multiple correspondents and producers have walked out over questions of editorial independence. Weiss came to CBS News with no television experience and no background running a large news organization, which Pelley called a red flag from day one.
This is the same CBS where Edward R. Murrow faced down Joe McCarthy in 1954, and where in his 1958 address to the nation’s news directors he warned that television would become nothing but wires and lights in a box if its owners chose to flatter power instead of confront it. A free press that quietly reshapes the truth to fit a president’s preferred story has stopped being the watchdog the First Amendment was written to protect, and a self-governing people can’t stay free in the dark.
This is exactly why billionaire ownership of media outlets is so destructive, and why we created Raw America. We’ll never take billionaire money, because we believe you deserve the unvarnished truth without it being filtered through a MAGA oligarch’s lackeys. If that matters to you, become a paying supporter of Raw America right now.
Ken Paxton’s Impeachment Lawyer Endorses James Talarico
Dan Cogdell, the Houston-based attorney who represented Ken Paxton during his 2023 impeachment trial and in a long-running securities fraud case, has officially endorsed Democrat James Talarico in the Texas Senate race.
Cogdell told NOTUS that Paxton “has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas.” He went further, saying he believes Talarico knows how to bring together not just Democrats but independents and Republicans, and that’s what Texas needs right now.
This is a major flip, as Cogdell isn’t a casual supporter. He donated $6,500 to Paxton’s campaign just last year. He then gave Talarico $1,000 in March. Though it may have something to do with Trump’s recent endorsement of Paxton, as he previously called the president “the greatest threat to democracy our country’s ever seen.”
The Republican Senatorial Committee apparently found that quote useful enough to use in an attack ad against Paxton during the primary before quietly deleting it.
Paxton beat out longtime incumbent Senator John Cornyn in a primary runoff last month, with Trump’s endorsement delivering the win. But that primary fight exposed real fractures in the Texas GOP. Cornyn’s allies had been warning for months that Paxton’s history of criminal charges and personal scandals made him a liability in the general election, potentially forcing the party to spend well over $100 million just to hold a longtime Republican seat.
Talarico has seized the opportunity, saying: “If you voted for John Cornyn, you have a place in this campaign.” After Cogdell’s endorsement, he added: “Even if you’re Ken Paxton’s impeachment lawyer.”
In his 1796 Farewell Address, George Washington warned that runaway party spirit would let cunning and unprincipled men put loyalty to one leader above loyalty to the public trust. When even Ken Paxton’s own impeachment lawyer says he’s lost sight of representing the people of Texas, that’s the founders’ oldest fear coming to life, a party putting one man’s endorsement ahead of the republic it’s sworn to serve.
Young MAGA Women Are Now Turning on Trump
Finally, here are some numbers that have to be making Republican strategists very nervous. Trump won young women ages 18 to 29 at a rate of 40 percent in 2024, up from 33 percent in 2020. That support from young women was one of the reasons he won. But that support is now eroding fast.
Politico talked to prominent conservative female influencers at Turning Point USA’s Women’s Leadership Summit in Texas over the weekend. The message was consistent: Trump made promises he hasn’t kept, and the women who moved toward him aren’t happy.
Savanna Faith Stone, a right-wing Christian influencer with a significant following, said Trump made several “prominent promises” that he has since abandoned.” This includes lower gas prices, an end to foreign wars, and a better economy.
The numbers back that up. Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 38 percent. His economic numbers are especially bad. The Strait of Hormuz — which roughly one fifth of the global oil supply — has been effectively closed since he launched the Iran war in late February. Gas prices have climbed to around $4.19 a gallon nationally, up from $2.98 before the war started.
Conservative influencer Alex Clark didn’t hold back either, telling Politico. “I cannot express to you the level of alarm bells that should be ringing for the GOP.” She said she’s directly told the White House that people want the 2024 version of Trump. Not, as she put it, “ballroom Trump” who’s obsessed with a $400 million addition to the White House grounds while everything else is on fire.
With the midterms coming up and a seat like Texas suddenly in play, that kind of sentiment from within the base suggests a deep structural problem in the Republican Party that won’t be easily fixed.
The founders built the House of Representatives to stand before the voters every two years for exactly this reason, and Madison explained in Federalist 52 that the House had to keep an immediate dependence on the people so consent could be revoked the moment it’s betrayed. When the very voters a leader courted with promises he never kept start walking away, that’s not just bad polling, it’s the consent of the governed being withdrawn the way the Constitution always intended it to be.
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I’m Thom Hartmann. The fight is here. Thank you for being in it.
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