Putin freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old Michigan teacher, and Trump told the reporter who asked what it cost, "Are you a stupid person?" The night before, stepping off his plane, Trump had answered the question himself: "everyone thinks I did the right thing because we're able to get a great person back." The sanctions he lifted last week were the ones Lindsey Graham wrote.
The Young Turks and a group called Swamp Watch put three men on camera, first names only, who say Graham paid them in 2001, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Kelvin says he was 17. The receipts are train tickets, a Lyft, a roll call and a newspaper: they put Kelvin, Jesse, Cory and Graham in the same cities and never in the same room. No outlet has confirmed a word. The Graham family did not answer. His sister, Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, said she would not entertain the question, 12 days before her election.
Graham's last bill punished the countries that buy Russian oil. Trump signed it, waived it so Russian diesel could move, then asked Putin by phone to free Hubbard. On the plane he said the sanctions got Hubbard out. By morning the reporter was stupid. Russia got the world's oil market back for one retired teacher, and Nordone, in her brother's seat, said nothing.
Steve Witkoff said it in the room: "You are a humanitarian also, sir. And I salute that." Russian troops took Hubbard in Izium, in Ukraine, and gave him nearly seven years as a mercenary. Hours after the salute, Russia hit Kyiv with missiles and 210 drones. No American government has dropped sanctions on a country mid-war for one prisoner. Witkoff, Kushner and the Trump family stand to be paid when the sanctions go, and Ukraine is the chip.
Todd Blanche, asked whether the Justice Department would ever try to stop a state certifying its election: "Yes, of course, there's scenarios that we could all come up with hypothetically, some doomsday scenario." Asked about independence from the White House: "I work for President Trump." The suppression is in the courts now. The day itself comes next, then the lawsuits that keep results unsettled while the Iran strike planned for after Nov. 3 gives the country something else to watch.
A Kremlin crew posted a fake video on Tuesday accusing James Talarico of abusing a student: a stolen name, a month's wait, a talking face, 15 bots, half a million views. Graphika says with high confidence that Storm-1516, the crew that ran the same story against Tim Walz in 2024, made it. Elon Musk put $158 million into the Senate GOP fund, most of it bound for Paxton. Narativ reported Musk's line to Putin in 2024, and the Times has caught up. Russia is not threatening this election. It is in it.