Good morning. Happy Saturday! I’m John Byrne. Before we get going, tap that ❤️ and restack this newsletter. The votes are counted. Now the work of holding them accountable begins, and every share helps.
House Republicans are pissed that Trump promoted Stephen Miller, who they blame in part for losing Congress. A Newsmax host watched Mitch McConnell freeze on camera and shouted that the senator is a vegetable. Democratic wins in Texas, Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina have blown open the presidential map for the first time in a generation. And Ron DeSantis is preparing another White House run, this time against Trumpism.
Quick word before the news: Our subscribers who bet on independent journalism made this blue wave possible. In January, there will finally be subpoenas, and people who’ve spent two years avoiding questions will finally face the cameras. With your support, our White House and Capitol Hill reporters will be in the room where it happens, but we need to reach our subscription goals to ensure we can keep them there. Now that we’ve won, take the next step and subscribe today. I want you to be a part of our growing community. **None of this is possible without you. **
House Republicans had a message for the White House on Friday: fire Stephen Miller. Hours later, Trump promoted him.
Miller is replacing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. But multiple House Republicans told Fox News that Miller should be gone, in interviews conducted just moments before Trump announced the promotion.
“Horrible decision,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) said once the news landed.
Another GOP lawmaker, speaking anonymously, said members were in “utter disbelief.” Asked about the promotion, one simply replied with a facepalm emoji.
The anger has a source. Republicans lost both chambers on Tuesday, with Democrats on pace for more than 250 House seats and likely 56 slots in the Senate. Voter analyses blame the Iran war and tariffs first, but immigration turned away voters in key areas, especially Hispanic and Latino voters in states like Texas.
“Because of his immigration positions, I just think we ruined a lot of our goodwill with Latino voters,” Stutzman said.
The anonymous lawmaker said House Republicans warned Miller over and over that his enforcement push was backfiring even in deep red districts. “He would not listen to us.”
Retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said Miller “greatly hurt the administration and cost us many seats on Tuesday.” Bacon said Trump took an immigration policy that the public favored two to one, and flipped it to two to one against.
Another lawmaker called Miller “a megalomaniac who should have never been given the keys to the Ferrari.”
The White House is thrilled. JD Vance called Miller “an amazing patriot.” Trump called him one of his “most trusted advisors.”
Trump’s party just lost Congress. His first move was to promote the man his own members blame for it.
That’s not a reset. That’s a man who can’t hear anything but the voice in his own head.
Even the propaganda channel can’t pretend anymore.
On Friday night, Newsmax host Carl Higbie played a clip of his correspondent, Kilmeny Dukhat, approaching Mitch McConnell on Capitol Hill. McConnell was in a wheelchair. The chyron read “Mitch McConnell Freezes Again.”
She asked for his reaction to the midterm losses. He didn’t respond. She asked what would change. He had a vacant stare. She asked whether Republicans would get anything done in the lame duck. Silence.
“That can’t be legal!” the Newsmax host shouted when the clip ended. “He’s a vegetable.”
McConnell is 84. He vanished from the Senate for three months this year, and he’s been accused of being led through votes by GOP handlers.
Back in September, conservative commentator Charlie Sykes predicted Republicans would simply wheel McConnell out when they needed his vote. He called it “almost elder abuse.”
For years, Republicans mocked Democrats over Joe Biden’s age. Now their own elder statesman can’t answer a question from a friendly network, and the friendly network is the one saying it out loud.
Do you value a news source that tells the truth 100% of the time? Be proud of your news. Join our community. Step up and subscribe today.
Tuesday’s blue wave didn’t just flip Congress. It redrew the road to 270 electoral votes.
Democratic wins in Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa have opened new paths to the White House in 2028, The Wall Street Journal reports, and the people who run presidential campaigns are stunned.
“The election was a game-changer,” said Jeff Rusnak, an Ohio Democrat who’s worked presidential campaigns since 1988. “It opens up a variety of paths for Democrats.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a possible 2028 candidate himself, called it the “best map for Democrats in decades.”
Here’s why. Democrats won the governor’s office and the Senate race in Iowa, Ohio and Texas on Tuesday. They hadn’t carried Texas since Jimmy Carter in 1976. In Texas, Republicans lost every statewide race. Democrats also took the governorship in all six traditional swing states.
Jim Messina, who ran Obama’s 2012 campaign, said a governor from your own party is “one of the most predictive factors of who wins a battleground state.”
Republicans aren’t arguing. “There are going to be more swing states in 2028 than we have seen in a really, really long time,” said Alex Conant, who ran communications for Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign.
Even DeSantis sees it. “If the Republican Party doesn’t have Texas as an anchor, then we are not going to be viable nationally going forward,” he warned, calling the state “the crown jewel of Republican politics.”
One word of caution. A centrist analyst noted that if Democrats “fail to nominate a moderate, they [could] put all these seats, particularly in stretch-red places, at risk.”
Still, Republicans built a decade of strategy on the assumption that Texas was theirs forever. On Tuesday, voters tore that up.
Ron DeSantis is planning to chase the presidency again in 2028.
The Washington Post reported Friday that the termed-out Florida governor is plotting a fresh run. He’s reportedly reached out to a national consultant, and his super PAC sent a fundraising text this week.
His pitch? Despite the blue wave, Florida was one of the only red states that didn’t crack.
Dan Eberhart, one of DeSantis’ big 2024 donors, said that gives the governor more credibility than almost anyone heading into 2028.
DeSantis rebuked Trump without calling him out by name. He dubbed the midterms “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans” and compared them to a meteor strike that hit blue states, red states and everything in between.
This week, he’s been skulking around Fox News, pitching himself as Republicans’ best hope. Before the election, JD Vance was Trump’s presumed heir. That’s not true anymore.
The question is whether donors, who watched him burn through a fortune in 2024 and quit before New Hampshire, will write the checks again.
But here’s the problem about Florida’s Republican “walls.” Byron Donalds won the governor’s race by just more than a point. If that’s the firewall DeSantis is running on, he’s standing on a crack.
If this morning’s edition told you something the billionaire-owned outlets would rather keep quiet, that’s exactly the point. A president promoting the man his own party blames for its defeat. A Senate leader who can’t speak. A map that just changed under everyone’s feet. And a governor who’s already running against the man he endorsed. Bezos, Murdoch and Ellison don’t fund this reporting. You do. Thank you.
Unlike our competitors, we don’t rely on a billionaire with bottomless pockets or a corporate parent to stay afloat. We answer only to our readers. Facebook has essentially cut off our distribution and Elon Musk is throttling us on X, which matters even more now that Musk is a likely target of the Congress taking office in January.
Here’s what your support pays for next. Our Washington correspondent will hit the ground running when Congress is back in session. When the subpoenas go out and the hearings begin, we have our own reporter in the building instead of reading about it afterward like everyone else. We need more paid subscribers to get across the line, and we’re close.
One more thing before you go: hit the ❤️ and restack this edition. It’s what pushes these stories past the algorithm and into the feeds of people who’d never otherwise see them. Republicans lost. Now comes the part where we make sure they don’t forget why.
I’m John Byrne. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
