Peter

[Peter @_Peter_Taylor]

@RonDeSantis Explain how you do that and what the differences are between each state and the way counts are tabulated

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: A lawyer active in lawsuits seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, and later represented the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, is the latest attorney to be hired by DOJ’s Voting Section. https://t.co/eJlU2JZObc

[Miles Taylor @MilesTaylorUSA]

Yesterday Donald Trump tripled the size of his personal political army inside the government. Illegally. And almost no one noticed.

Here's what happened:

He signed an order converting ~8,000 of the most senior career officials in government into employees he can fire for any reason, or no reason at all.

These aren't rando's. They're the directors, chiefs of staff, and the people who write the rules or decide who gets federal money, i.e. the lieutenants right below his political appointees.

Until yesterday, they answered to the law. Now they answer to him.

A president normally gets ~4,000 political appointees. People he can bring into government and fire at will. I was one of them at DHS. You serve at his pleasure, full stop -- so if you're gonna speak truth to power, you're prepared to quit (or get fired if he doesn't like it).

The rest of the federal government is PROTECTED from firing if they tell the truth.

But Trump just stripped those protections. Adding 8,000 more people to his personal army. Overnight. Without asking Congress.

With the stroke of a pen, those people now serve at the pleasure of the president. They're "his" people, whether they like it or not.

And the chilling effect is real. An official who can be fired this afternoon for "subversion of presidential directives" (the order's own words) doesn't need to be hand-picked to know what's expected of him or her.

The threat does all the work.

By the way, this order is illegal. The law only lets Trump reclassify jobs when "necessary" in exceptional circumstances. And this blows an 8,000-person hole in the merit hiring / firing system created by Congress.

Without permission, Trump has created a whole new category of stormtroopers inside the Executive Branch.

If this doesn't get challenged in court, you're going to see the U.S. government become a very different place.

Here's the full story: https://t.co/mJzrvzhxGR

[Peter @_Peter_Taylor]

@RapidResponse47 @SBA_Kelly Isn’t this similar to the 87,000 IRS agents hired to go after tax fraud that MAGA railed against cause they thought it was targeting hard working Americans? What’s the difference?

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

The Kennedy Center ordered employees to remove President Trump’s name from the performing arts venue, strip all references from signs, brochures, the website and other materials — and to update email signatures and letterhead immediately. https://t.co/1J2FEPH33q

[Peter @_Peter_Taylor]

@MollyJongFast Because science doesn’t matter to these idiots in the admin

[Peter @_Peter_Taylor]

Ohhh

[Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney]

Bondi told House oversight that Ghislaine Maxwell should die in prison. https://t.co/8JORBrxG8h

[Peter @_Peter_Taylor]

@washingtonpost It’s a pay to play admin… CLEARLY!

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

More than half of the publicly identified donors to President Trump’s White House ballroom project have won new or expanded federal contracts worth more than $50 billion, according to a report from a government watchdog group. https://t.co/wEAqxMA7AG

[Peter @_Peter_Taylor]

@FurkanGozukara It’ll be challenged in court. It’s illegal

[Congressman Robert Garcia @RepRobertGarcia]

The transcript of Pam Bondi’s interview is now out. That day I said: “She continues to push all of the investigation and the blame on Acting AG Todd Blanche."

Bondi said I was lying.

Well, the transcript is out. And it’s clear that Bondi placed all responsibility on Blanche.

[Miles Taylor @MilesTaylorUSA]

This isn’t a “plea deal.” It’s a tornado siren for democracy.

John Bolton’s diaries were private & contained no classified docs.

Yet he might go to prison.

Trump stole actual classified docs, lied to investigators, and reportedly hid them.

Yet he’s in the Oval Office.

[Peter @_Peter_Taylor]

@BenMullin @MollyJongFast Words… it’ll be the actions that count

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: In an incredible moment, Congressman Brendan Boyle just silenced Scott Bessent for trying to blame Joe Biden for today's inflation. The American people aren't having MAGA's BS anymore.

[NEXTA @nexta_tv]

💥 Aftermath of a Ukrainian drone strike on the corvette Boiky in Kronstadt

Close-range footage.

[Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney]

Sen. Cassidy says the anti-weaponization fund "presents an immediate and dire threat to our constitutional order" in part because it "is designed to compensate ... insurrectionists." https://t.co/t8ddwTzghu

[Molly Ploofkins @Mollyploofkins]

Rep. Angie Craig admonishes Brooke Rollins: "Joe Biden is no longer the president. Mr. Trump is. Your party controls Congress. You own these numbers at this point. I'm sick of hearing you blame an administration from a year and half ago. You own every single bit of this."

[Ben Rhodes @brhodes]

Some guy named Nick Bilton serving an audience of 1 (Bari) service an audience of 1 (Ellison) serving an audience of 1 (Trump). This is how oligarch-authoritarian takeover of media happens

[Miami Herald @MiamiHerald]

Michael Reiter is one of the most important figures in the Jeffrey Epstein case who you’ve probably never heard of.

The former Palm Beach police chief rarely talks about the Epstein case, even though it is the defining case of his 40-year career. 🧵

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: John Bolton, a national security adviser to President Trump in his first term, has reached a tentative deal to plead guilty to mishandling classified information when he compiled notes for a book that was harshly critical of the president. https://t.co/LH3KoDWZAR