Weekend Report: What's going on?

Ohio MAGA Senate candidate linked to gay sex ad. Mike Pence will not endorse Trump. South Dakota gov under fire for doing infomercial video for cosmetic dentistry, facing lawsuit.

With Tuesday's Republican Senate primary in Ohio just days away, the Trump-backed candidate, Bernie Moreno—who shifted from being supportive of the gay community to being an anti-LGBTQ MAGA warrior—is denying a detailed report that implicates him in creating a profile in years past seeking "Men for 1-on-1 sex.” Moreno’s lawyer claims an “intern” did it as a “prank”, and the former intern, now a friend and donor to Moreno’s campaign, also publicly took responsibility for it. But looking at the evidence, none of this adds up.

It shouldn’t be that surprising that former vice president Mike Pence announced he’s not endorsing Donald Trump—Trump’s supporters at the insurrection did, after all, call for hanging him—but Pence has been loyal to Trump and rarely challenged him during the campaign, just completely groveling often. So it was a bit of a shock that he said he wasn't endorsing Trump in November. And even though Pence doesn’t have a lot of supporters in the GOP—his presidential candidacy having flamed out—it comes at an interesting time, as we’re seeing Trump’s weaknesses.

And lawmakers in South Dakota are calling for an investigation of MAGA GOP Governor Kristi Noem after she posted a video about cosmetic dental work she had done, promoting the dentist that did it in what looked like a paid testimonial. She is now facing a lawsuit as well, and apparently has been promoting local businesses on her social media feeds for a while.