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Today, Raw America has an exclusive report from White House correspondent Brian Karem about how Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the midterms has grown decidedly darker, alarming multiple members of his own party. The Justice Department is apparently planning to charge former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson over her damning January 6 testimony. House Speaker Mike Johnson is contemplating the idea of leaving Congress entirely if Republicans lose the House in next month’s midterms. And ICE has launched a new California crackdown in which officers have reportedly been instructed to “go after anybody.”
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President Donald Trump is apparently panicking as the clock ticks down to the midterms and members of his own administration are becoming increasingly worried about his rhetoric, Raw America can reveal.
According to an email Trump sent to MAGA supporters and obtained by Raw America White House reporter Brian Karem, Trump said Tuesday, “One seat slips, then another, and the gavel changes hands like a throat being cut in silence. The other side does not need a landslide. They need the dark to do their work for them. A tired voter. An empty chair. A man who tells himself the night will pass if he stays indoors.”
An unnamed Trump staffer told Karem that Trump “clearly didn’t write that,” but added “it’s very dark.”
The president’s niece, psychologist and author Mary Trump, pointed to a recent review from Reuters delving into the 62 most competitive House and Senate races. She noted that roughly two-thirds of Republican candidates in those races are “treating [President Trump] like a liability rather than an asset.”
“In 41 of those races, Republican candidates are creating distance from Donald,” Mary Trump said. “They’re breaking with him on policy. They’re downplaying their ties to him. They’re avoiding photos.”
Apparently there are many on Capitol Hill who are scrambling to keep the president at arm’s length, according to retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Tillis said Wednesday that there are as many as 30 Republican senators who privately oppose Trump. However, the North Carolina Republican noted that those same senators fear speaking up, as it means the president may decide to name them as targets for retribution.
One unnamed Republican senator admitted to Karem they and their colleagues “certainly aren’t brave publicly.”
Eric Schmeltzer, a Democratic strategist in California, countered that “a little public bravery might be applauded” right now. Schmeltzer told Raw America he believes Democrats could have a majority of 15 to 20 House seats after November 3, and that in his view, Trump wants to hold onto the Senate “out of fear he’ll be impeached again.” If Democrats have a 51-seat majority, they would need 16 of those 30 supposedly Trump-fatigued GOP senators to cross the aisle in order to convict the president in an unprecedented third impeachment trial.
Trump’s October 6 email to supporters notably made no mention of trying to maintain control of the House of Representatives. Rather, the president seems exclusively focused on not losing the Senate, which Republicans currently control by a 53-47 margin. His email struck a particularly ominous tone.
“Night has settled on the midterms, and it is not a gentle night,” the email read. “The lamps in the Oval Office burn low. Outside, something keeps tapping at the glass, patient as a verdict. We may hold the Senate. We may not.”
“I will not lie to you and call the dark a dawn,” Trump continued. “I have walked the halls in the White House when the majority felt solid underfoot. It does not feel solid now.”
The president has so far focused his campaigning in states previously viewed as solid GOP strongholds. He’s spoken at a high school gym in Ohio, a similarly sized venue in Nebraska and at two venues in Texas, where Attorney General Ken Paxton is floundering in the latest polls against Democratic state representative James Talarico.
Schmeltzer observed that Trump hasn’t yet campaigned for Republican North Carolina Senate candidate Michael Whatley because, in his view, “he knows he’s toast there.” The Democratic strategist added the president’s path to holding onto the Senate now relies on keeping Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio and Texas in Republican hands. Democrats in those states are all either leading in polls or within the margin of error.
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters has championed the president as “the best messenger in the history of our party” and that he’ll help bring out the Republican base to keep the Senate majority. Trump keeps urging supporters to vote as if “I’m on the ballot.” But Schmeltzer said the president’s visibility in the remaining few weeks of the campaign cycle is “the exact trouble for Republicans.”
There’s been concern that the Trump administration, should the Republicans lose control of the House or Senate, would ▶seize ballot boxes in November. But Schmeltzer pointed out that local precinct workers from both parties have received detailed instruction in how to react to any attempted seizure. He went on to observe that elections are clearly “the responsibility of the states and local jurisdictions, not the federal government.”
After reaching out to 25 different state election officials in the last three days, Raw America can report that every state and county contacted has made preparations for potential federal interference and believe their volunteer staffs are adequately trained.
In a 2021 report, the Brennan Center for Justice wrote that “state legislatures have taken steps to strip election officials of the power to run and certify elections, consolidating power in their own hands over processes intended to be free of partisan or political interference,” causing concerns about the safety of elections.
Now, just weeks before the midterms, the Brennan Center is warning that “the Trump administration is trying to undermine the electoral process itself.”
“Add in AI-boosted cybersecurity threats and misinformation, and it makes for an unprecedented challenge,” the Brennan Center wrote. “But state and local election officials, the courts, and others are pushing back to ensure that voters have the final say.”
Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland — who would chair the House Judiciary Committee if Democrats take back the House — told reporters this week that the president’s efforts to weaken democracy will be studied in future government classes. He added that he wants to preserve Trump’s attempts to undermine the elections to “ensure it never happens again.”
“I’m introducing legislation to ensure that the Smithsonian preserves the propaganda tools that the Trump Administration is using to warp and censor American history in the president’s own authoritarian self-image,” Raskin tweeted Wednesday. “My bill will allow future generations to learn about the president who wielded his powers like a tyrant-king and the Americans who fought back for democracy and freedom.”
During an episode of his SiriusXM show on Wednesday, Dean Obeidallah told Karem he fears the president will become increasingly erratic in the coming weeks. He also expressed fears that the administration — with the cooperation of the Republican party — could effectively shut down the federal government in December if they lose their House and Senate majorities in November.
“Funding runs out in December. Why would he care if it gets funded or comes back?” Obeidallah said. “He’d be like a King dissolving parliament.”
Former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson may be the next name on Donald Trump’s enemies list to get slapped with federal charges.
One unnamed source confided to the Guardian that prosecutors in the Justice Department’s civil rights division are aiming to charge Hutchinson — who was once an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — with lying to Congress.
Hutchinson gave an explosive testimony to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. She said under oath that one top White House official told her the president didn’t want to return to the White House that day, and that he’d apparently tried to grab the steering wheel of his SUV in an effort to join his supporters who were marching on the U.S. Capitol. Republicans have disputed Hutchinson’s account of events for years.
The New York Times reported in April that the DOJ’s civil rights division had been given Hutchinson’s case. That was considered unusual as a case like this is normally normally handled by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, which is currently led by former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. The DOJ has only said it won’t confirm or deny ongoing investigations.
If true, this would fall squarely within the pattern of Trump’s vindictive prosecutions. Last year, Trump’s DOJ indicted former FBI director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress, and New York Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly committing mortgage fraud. Both cases were thrown out after a judge ruled that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully appointed as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The department proceeded to indict Comey once again over a photo of seashells that spelled out “8647,” with “86” being restaurant slang for getting rid of a menu item, and “47” referring to Trump being the 47th president.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson is starting to hint that he sees the writing on the wall and will soon have to give up his gavel.
In a Thursday interview with Fox News, Johnson suggested he may leave office completely if Democrats take back the majority in the House of Representatives, saying: “Heaven forbid, if we lose this majority or whatever, I don’t know what my next chapter of life is.” The speaker even contemplated going back to his hometown of Shreveport to “start a lawn business.” That’s a significant shift for third most powerful man in the country who has typically refused to even entertain the possibility of a loss.
Trump’s approval ratings continue to sink to historic lows. Most political analysts and election forecasters say because of the president’s sagging polls, Democrats are virtually a lock to take back the House. The Senate is still in play, with Democrats eeding to flip four Republican-held seats while holding onto swing states like Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire.
If Johnson does indeed walk away, Republicans could face another ugly leadership fight. Neither Johnson nor Senate Republican Leader John Thune are likely thrilled about the prospect of being confronted by an angry Donald Trump if Republicans fall short in November.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has quietly launched a 45-day crackdown in California ahead of the midterm election. Two internal sources told the Washington Examiner that the operation, which is apparently called “Operation Safe California,” has been ongoing for multiple days without any formal announcement from the Department of Homeland Security.
According to one source, ICE agents were told they can “go after anybody” and “pick up anybody” they want. Of course, ICE has never really been very discerning to begin with. When agents first swept through the Los Angeles area in June of last year, seven in 10 of the estimated hundreds of people who were rounded up and detained had no criminal convictions.
The timing is critical here. Early voting is already underway in California, and voting rights groups have noted that there’s an ICE detention in Santa Maria in the same part of town voters have to pass through in order to reach a ballot drop box. When federal agents are seen in the vicinity of voting sites, it’s hard difficult to interpret that as an effort to scare certain people away from exercising their constitutional rights.
Another source told the Examiner that “management wants numbers.” That could be a reference to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s order last year for ICE agents to make 3,000 arrests every day. Miller’s quota has overwhelmed the agency, led to inhumane detention conditions and forced DHS to move needed resources away from ongoing investigations to focus on immigration enforcement. Trump and Miller aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.
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