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Epstein survivors accuse 'condescending' Todd Blanche of gaslighting in meeting held as part of his AG bid

(The Independent) A survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation said that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche behaved in a “condescending” manner during his meeting with her and other survivors. The meeting came as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) made meeting with Epstein survivors a prerequisite for his vote to confirm Blanche, the deputy attorney general and President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney. Lara Blume McGee described the meeting to The Independent in a text message on Thursday evening. “Today, Epstein survivors confronted Todd Blanche — and he treated it like a perfunctory audition for votes, not accountability,” Blume McGee said.

In primetime speech, Trump doesn't provide evidence for illegal voting

(NPR) President Trump, who for years has sowed doubt about the security of American elections, raised claims on Thursday that the country's voting systems are vulnerable to being "rigged and stolen," without providing new evidence of a single fraudulent vote cast in any election. In a 25-minute primetime address from the White House's East Room that included many baseless claims, Trump said he was declassifying intelligence documents that he said reveal "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure." However, many of the documents the White House posted online during the speech did not appear to fully support sweeping claims the president made.

Trump's Election Security Speech: A Good Night for Putin

(Mother Jones/David Corn) On Thursday night, after days of buildup, Donald Trump delivered a speech on election security in which he suggested US elections were threatened by China. As Trump assailed US elections as totally rigged and lacking credibility—without offering any evidence of this—he fixated on Beijing. But he provided no proof of Chinese interference with US elections or of any voter fraud. And, perhaps more significantly, he left out a big piece of the picture: Russia. In 2020 the major culprit in terms of election meddling was not China, but Moscow. Who says so? Trump’s own intelligence community.

Speaker Johnson suffers humiliating political defeat, yanks veterans benefits bill

(CNN) Speaker Mike Johnson suffered another humiliating political defeat at the hands of his own party on Thursday when he was forced to abandon plans to pass a veterans benefits bill designed to be one of the GOP’s big legislative wins before the midterms. Just minutes before the bill was slated to come to the floor, Johnson and his team were forced to pull it from the schedule as more than a half-dozen holdouts refused to back the measure.

Friday's Condensed News Cartoons & Memes

Bombshell Poll Reveals Trump’s MAGA Base Crumbling as Midterms Loom

(Daily Beast) President Donald Trump’s approval rating is plummeting, even among his most loyal bloc. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll spells trouble for the party ahead of the midterms, showing Trump is stuck at 37 percent. Even more damning, though, is that a growing share of his own Republican base is losing enthusiasm for him. A new low of just 15 percent of Americans say they “approve strongly” of Trump, down from 19 percent in February, while 22 percent “approve somewhat.” It marks the first Post-Ipsos poll in which a majority of Trump’s approvers back him only “somewhat” rather than strongly, a sharp reversal from his first term, when roughly two-thirds of his supporters approved strongly.

A Must Read and Truly Horrifying Story

(TPM/Josh Marshall) The AP has just posted a detailed investigation into the background of David Brouillette, the recently hired ICE agent who shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. It’s genuinely horrifying on more levels than are easy to describe. Brouillette was hired during ICE’s recent hiring spree, as the agency attempted to rapidly staff up to manage a program of mass deportation. Brouillette has a long history of severe mental illness, a lengthy history of violence against at least two wives as well as his children, stalking, a seemingly endless list of restraining orders, violent threats against other family members and more.

Outrage after ICE agents tackle man at Las Vegas airport

(AP) Video footage of two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tackling a man at the airport in Las Vegas drew public outrage and criticism from elected officials. One video posted on social media showed a man yelling and crying on the ground in Terminal 3 at Harry Reid International Airport on Monday when a man and a masked woman, both in plainclothes, tried to control, handcuff and detain him. When the pair realized they were being filmed, they walked away, leaving the man with a handcuff attached to one arm.

Pete Hegseth wants to measure your manhood

(Salon) Pete Hegseth has once again decided to humiliate the American military, this time by claiming the troops need more testosterone. But the defense secretary, armed with his perfectly coiffed hair and alleged makeup studio, is ready to restore their manhood. In a video released Wednesday, Hegseth discovered spoke of how “the modern battlefield is brutal and unrelenting” and “demands maximum psychological and mental readiness.” His solution? “High-T,” as he put it.

Andy Burnham is declared leader of Britain's Labour Party, will become prime minister on Monday

(AP) Andy Burnham was officially declared leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party on Friday, clearing his final hurdle to taking office as prime minister next week. The center-left party announced the result of a leadership contest to replace departing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in which Burnham was the only contender. The announcement was a forgone conclusion after he secured nominations from 379 of the 403 Labour lawmakers in the House of Commons as of Thursday night.