July 3, 2025 at 5:29 PM EDT
'Just wait and see': Former GOP gov says Republicans' political headache is just beginning

A former Republican governor believes the GOP committed multiple grave errors in passing President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that will come back to haunt them in next year's midterm elections. During a Thursday segment on MSNBC, former Ohio Governor John Kasich lamented that he hated to "rain on this parade" after having been a Republican member of Congress, arguing that Democrats now have plenty of ammunition with which to use on Republicans over the next year and a half. He observed that even before the bill was passed, Democrats succeeded in convincing broad majorities of Americans to oppose the legislation.

July 3, 2025 at 5:05 PM EDT
'Betrayed': GOP rep torched after hospital in his district shuts down due to Medicaid cuts

A rural clinic in Nebraska is shutting its doors after more than 30 years due to mounting financial pressures and looming federal funding cuts tied to Medicaid, ABC affiliate KLKN reported Wednesday. According to the report, Troy Bruntz, president and CEO of the hospital, noted that while the clinic "has been a vital part of our mission to deliver quality healthcare close to home... the current financial environment, driven by anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid, has made it impossible for us to continue operating all of our services, many of which have faced significant financial challenges for years."

July 3, 2025 at 4:21 PM EDT
These 8 Republicans who publicly trashed Trump's bill 'cowed under the pressure': report

Eight Republican lawmakers buckled under mounting pressure and ultimately supported President Donald Trump's sweeping reconciliation package -- despite previously voicing sharp criticism of its content, according to a report. Among those who initially opposed the bill -- Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), as well as Reps. Keith Self (R-Texas), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) -- ultimately voted in favor of its passage.

July 3, 2025 at 4:12 PM EDT
'Culture of fear': Trump admin punishes 140 federal workers for opposing his agenda

Roughly 140 Environmental Protection Agency employees have been placed on administrative leave after signing a letter warning of political interference in the agency's work""prompting critics to accuse the Trump administration of ignoring their First Amendment rights. Calling the letter "a remarkable rebuke of the agency's political leadership," The New York Times reported on Monday that more than 270 EPA employees had signed the public letter "denouncing what they described as the Trump administration's efforts to politicize, dismantle and sideline the main federal agency tasked with protecting the environment and public health."

July 3, 2025 at 3:32 PM EDT
'Heartless friends of the rich': Expert says it will be 'very easy' for Dems to pummel GOP

The Senate's version of President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill Act" passed the House of Representatives Thursday on a 218-214 vote Thursday, and Trump is expected to sign it into law on Friday at 5 PM Eastern Time. But one expert says Republicans' political headache has just begun. One of the most notable items in the bill is its cutting of federal support for Medicaid (the program that provides health insurance for low-income and disabled Americans) by more than $1 trillion over 10 years, in order to pay for a 10-year extension of tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill could throw nearly 12 million people off of their health insurance over the next decade. The bill also cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), which millions of low-income Americans rely on to afford groceries.

July 3, 2025 at 11:07 AM EDT
GOP insiders 'worried' about Trump's 'physical and mental health' -- but afraid to say it publicly

During Joe Biden's four years in the White House, MAGA Republicans repeatedly questioned his physical and mental fitness. Donald Trump often described Biden as "Sleepy Joe," insisting that unlike the then-president, he was in excellent health and had a very high IQ. Yet Trump isn't known for having a healthy lifestyle. In April, Newsweek reported that he weighed 224 pounds, and he is known for heavy consumption of fast food (including McDonalds and KFC) and Diet Coke.

July 3, 2025 at 10:28 AM EDT
Democratic strategist warns Trump could try to impose martial law before 2026 midterms

Well-known veteran Democratic strategist James Carville is out with a second dire warning about President Donald Trump and the 2026 midterm elections. Earlier this week, Carville, a political consultant and strategist since the 1970s and now a political commentator, warned that Trump might try to rig the 2026 elections in one way or another""including, he suggested, by possibly trying to cancel them.

July 3, 2025 at 10:03 AM EDT
'Utterly deplorable': This MAGA tactic against political rivals 'sends a chill down the spine'

Donald Trump is far from the first U.S. president to have an aggressive deportations policy. During former President Barack Obama's eight years in the White House, some of his Spanish-speaking critics on the left called him "El Rey de las Deportaciones" ("The King of Deportations") or "El Jefe de Deportaciones " ("The Boss of Deportations") during their appearances on Univision and Telemundo. Yet Trump, during his second presidency, favors some immigration tactics that previous presidents, both Democrat and Republican, never considered -- from calling for an end to birthright citizenship (which is protected by the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment) to calling for some naturalized U.S. citizens to be denaturalized and stripped of their citizenship.

July 3, 2025 at 9:31 AM EDT
Legal scholars detail SCOTUS' failures as justices endorse Trump's behavior without 'explanation'

Georgetown University Law Professor Steven Vladeck accused the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority of failing to explain itself while it worked to "kick things down the road and avoid unnecessary confrontations" with President Donald Trump. "I certainly have been unsparing in some of my criticisms of the court. But I guess that betrays my worldview as thinking that these are unprecedented times," Vladeck said.

July 3, 2025 at 9:06 AM EDT
GOP rep who railed against bill offered to 'drop his opposition' if Trump 'stops attacking him'

Early Thursday morning, July 3 -- as House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) was laying out one reason after another why he considers President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" a terrible piece of legislation -- MSNBC reported that the megabill would soon be coming up for a full House vote and that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had secured enough votes to get it passed. After the bill narrowly passed in the U.S. Senate, 51-50, Trump did everything he could to pressure House Republicans into voting "yes" as well. And according to Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis, reporters for The Hill, that included a phone conversation in the wee hours with GOP lawmakers who were holdouts.

July 2, 2025 at 9:53 PM EDT
'Morally and fiscally bankrupt': House Republican scorches Trump's bill ahead of vote

The House of Representatives is poised to vote soon on H.R. 1 -- President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," or BBB -- and one Republican member is indicating that he aims to defeat it. In a post to his official X account, Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) blasted the Senate's version of H.R. 1, and included an infographic detailing the differences between the version the House passed by a 215-214 vote (which Self supported) and the version the GOP-controlled Senate narrowly passed with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance. Self's post suggests that he would not support the Senate bill as-is, meaning that a bill with new amendments would then have to go back to the Senate before it can reach Trump's desk.

July 2, 2025 at 9:19 PM EDT
'I believe that was you sir': CNN host debunks Republican congressman's claim to his face

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), once a vocal advocate for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) transparency, reversed course, calling the agency "very partisan" during a CNN interview Wednesday. He dismissed its latest estimates on President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill," even as host Briana Keilar reminded him of his own January 2024 effort to require mandatory House readings of CBO projections.