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Today, a Republican group accidentally spent $25,000 on ads for Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins ads in the wrong Portland, on the complete other side of the country. Donald Trump is apparently planning to fire Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece amid an embarrassing corruption scandal. A Republican senator from Ohio wants Trump’s FCC to investigate a news outlet for reporting on Trump’s sons winning Pentagon contracts. And Christian leaders across the country are condemning the Trump administration’s plan to livestream a firing squad execution.
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Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine is in one of the tightest races of her 30-year career, and the people trying to keep her in office just mistakenly reserved $25,000 worth of ads on the wrong side of the country.
Republican super PAC Defending Main Street, had its media vendor place digital ads for Collins in the Portland, Oregon, market, rather than in Portland, Maine.
NBC News initially reported on the error after a Portland, Oregon, resident posted on social media that she’d seen five different ads attacking Collins’ Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, in one day. According to Google’s Ads Transparency Center, the ads ran for four days across Oregon zip codes and were shown more than a million times before anyone noticed.
Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership, told NBC she was “absolutely furious” about the error and would never run an ad for Collins in Portland, Oregon, “for Christ’s sake.” The ad buyer, Cross Screen Media, called it “100% our mistake” and refunded the super PAC $25,909.61.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Collins, who’s seeking a sixth term. She and Jackson, the former president of Maine’s state Senate, debated last week over how Trump’s tariffs on Canada are hurting Mainers. Decision Desk HQ now gives Jackson a 54 percent chance of flipping the seat.
Former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle’s days as U.S. ambassador to Greece look numbered. Guilfoyle, who was once engaged to the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is facing allegations of corruption and of using her ambassadorship to fund her luxurious European lifestyle.
Sources told the New York Post she’s on “very thin ice” with the president, and one said senior administration officials are “pissed off” and looking to replace her. The Associated Press reported that Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have discussed firing her, and the State Department has opened a probe into her conduct.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Guilfoyle asked Kentucky businessman Eric Deters for $100,000 to pay off her American Express bill before her confirmation hearing. Deters was seeking help with tax and legal problems at the time, though he says he really wanted her help bringing back a doctor who’d fled to Pakistan so he could pursue a malpractice suit.
Deters never paid, telling Guilfoyle it would end his marriage. He’s since called her a “wicked, evil person” who operates on “quid pro quo.” On top of all that, embassy staff in Athens have accused Guilfoyle of running a toxic workplace and using her “Trump card” to intimidate anyone who questions her.
Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio is now asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate ABC News over a story about Trump’s sons winning a lucrative Pentagon contract.
ABC’s initial report on October 7 found that companies backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had won more than $6 billion in government contracts, and that Trump Jr.’s venture firm, 1789 Capital, held a major stake in the firm Anduril Industries.
ABC pulled the story and republished a revised version on October 9 with a new headline and an editor’s note acknowledging errors involving certain investments, contracts and timelines. The updated piece says 1789 Capital put $50 million into Anduril as part of a $2.5 billion funding round, a fairly small stake in a company valued at over $60 billion.
In a Saturday letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Moreno said the story was personal to Ohio because Anduril is building a factory worth more than $900 million in Pickaway County. He compared ABC’s correction to a “comically botched cover-up” you’d expect in Soviet Russia and called the editor’s note “buried,” even though it sits right above the first paragraph.
The FCC’s own website says its authority over news accuracy is narrow, that it’s barred by law from censorship, and that online outlets fall outside its news distortion policy. Honest mistakes aren’t actionable, either. Still, Carr’s FCC has repeatedly gone after broadcasters since 2025, and ABC’s parent company Disney is now suing the agency over what it calls an unconstitutional review of its broadcast licenses.
Finally, faith leaders are loudly condemning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009. Trump is reportedly asking advisers whether he should go along with the broadcast.
Rev. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church Dallas, a longtime informal Trump adviser, backs the livestream and argues that capital punishment is “God’s command.” He told The Dallas Morning News the more people who watch, the better, and Trump reposted those comments on Truth Social. Franklin Graham declined to condemn the idea and instead took a shot at Hollywood’s “culture of death.”
Plenty of other religious leaders disagree. Archbishop Paul Coakley, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the plan a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.” Walter Kim of the National Association of Evangelicals warned it risks turning a solemn state duty into a public spectacle. Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy of the Catholic Mobilizing Network compared it to the horrors of lynching in the Deep South and to public executions in authoritarian countries.
Hasan’s execution is scheduled for December 3, which would make it the military’s first execution by firing squad since 1945. Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation says six soldiers are already seeking religious exemptions to keep them off the firing squad, and he expects as many as 180 could file. Vice President JD Vance said he wouldn’t watch a livestream, while Trump told reporters he doesn’t care how Hasan dies “as long as he goes.”
Raw America’s people-powered newsroom is one of a small few remaining in the country that’s both willing and able to tell the truth about the people in power. Pro-Trump billionaires like David Ellison and Jeff Bezos want to be the sole deciders of what you get to know, while tech oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are using their platforms to suppress stories like these from reaching a mainstream audience.
I’m John Byrne, in for British Chris. Thank you again for reading and for supporting independent media. If you haven’t already, please hit the ❤️ and click restack so we can break through and reach the people who really need these stories.
