It’s safe to say there have been dozens of October surprises in this election—including the non-surprise that the late Lindsey Graham allegedly paid male hustlers for sex, one of whom says he was underage at the time—but the one that jarred many this week was the latest Department of Justice lawsuit. On Donald Trump’s orders, the DOJ filed a lawsuit to stop the certification of the Alaska Senate race should GOP Senator Dan Sullivan lose. The premise is that there’s another Dan Sullivan on the ballot, and that has caused confusion. For several reasons, legal experts think this is dead in the water in federal court. But the Justice Department, ordered by the White House, likely had other reasons to file the case now…
We are finally seeing the Epstein files, and Trump’s refusal to release them all, being used by Democrats in campaigns against Republicans, particularly in ads. And beyond Epstein, other cases of sexual abuse or enabling it are being used by Democrats against their opponents. It’s caught the GOP off guard as Republicans struggle to stay afloat, at a moment when stories like the Cornell gang rape allegations are in the media, and as Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has come under fire for a brutal ad attacking Democrat Amy Acton in the close governor’s race over her account of her childhood, including allegations of sexual abuse…
A new intelligence memo suggests Iran is in the advanced stages of plots to kill Americans overseas. It’s chilling to think about, and it’s not a surprise to see more ramifications of the Iran war. At the same time, we’ve seen reports that Trump has been planning to resume bombing Iran after the midterms. It’s hard to know if the memo is trying to provide a rationale for that—or is depicting Iran’s response to the reports of further bombing of Iran—as we cannot trust our own government…