Mediaite: ‘You Have No Timeline?!’ Senator Gobsmacked by FBI Director Kash Patel Showing Up at Budget Hearing Without a Budget

One of Trump’s least competent sycophants pays Congress a visit:

During a Senate hearing to review the FBI’s FY2026 budget request, Director Kash Patel was forced to admit that, despite the law requiring it, he had no such request ready to review.

This surprising development came during an awkward back-and-forth with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking Democrat and Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees and approves budget requests.

Senator Murray reminded the FBI Director that the budget request was legally required “last week,” and after the director responded, she surprisedly added, “And your answer is you just understand you’re not going to follow the law?”

“I am following the law, and I’m working with my interagency partners to do this and get you the budget that you are required to have,” Patel explained. Then the discussion went from bad to worse, culminating in Senator Murray calling Patel’s preparation for the budget hearing, without a budget, “insufficient and deeply disturbing.”

Doh!

Fox News: JB Pritzker rips Trump as ‘authoritarian,’ responds to president calling out his weight

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, D-Ill., a possible 2028 White House candidate, took aim at President Donald Trump on Thursday in a late-night appearance, calling him an “authoritarian” leader and mocking his weight.

Pritzker made the comments during an interview on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Egged on by the anti-Trump late-night host, the governor argued Trump was a major threat to the American people.

“I think everybody understands that, at this point, we’ve got an authoritarian in office. He’s essentially tearing apart the things that really matter to working families across the United States, and nobody’s stopping him,” he told Kimmel.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jb-pritzker-rips-trump-as-authoritarian-responds-to-president-calling-out-his-weight/ar-AA1E6hn3

MSNBC: Trump-appointed judge calls Trump’s Alien Enemies Act invocation ‘unlawful’

President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act has faced intense preliminary litigation in courts around the country, leading to rulings such as the Supreme Court’s insistence that people potentially subject to the act must receive due process. But a new and significant ruling from a Trump-appointed judge Thursday gets to the heart of the matter, deeming the president’s invocation itself “unlawful.”

But U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. said that Trump’s invocation “exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful.” The judge said the administration therefore can’t use the act to detain Venezuelans, transfer them within the U.S. or remove them from the country. The ruling applies to a class of plaintiffs in the Southern District of Texas.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-appointed-judge-calls-trump-s-alien-enemies-act-invocation-unlawful/ar-AA1E0Asw

Raw Story: ‘Pay for Trump’s golf trips’: Observers call out ‘Orwellian language’ in Republican budget

“The GOP budget has $0 for FEMA’s emergency management funding, yet provides $300M to pay for Trump’s golf trips,” complained Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.). “Extreme weather doesn’t discriminate between red and blue districts. The GOP is choosing Trump’s golf over the safety and security of their constituents.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pay-for-trump-s-golf-trips-observers-call-out-orwellian-language-in-republican-budget/ar-AA1E42tw

Minneapolis Star Tribune: MPR and TPT brace for future after Trump seeks to end federal funding for PBS and NPR

Public media’s future has been threatened before. But Congress has always agreed to keep allocating money to the CPB, as much as $535 million last year in taxpayer funds.

This time around, Trump is trying to terminate the relationship without congressional approval. It’s unclear whether he can do that. CPB, established in 1967, is a private entity designed to be protected from government interference. Trump and his supporters have justified the order by claiming NPR and PBS engage in biased reporting.

“The difference this time around is that we really don’t know what rules we are playing by,” said Pagliarini, who retired in 2020 and now lives in Reno, Nev.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mpr-and-tpt-brace-for-future-after-trump-seeks-to-end-federal-funding-for-pbs-and-npr/ar-AA1E4QrZ

The i Paper: Democrats waited for Trump to crumble. Now they’re starting to fight back

Democrats are suffering because most of their supporters deem the party’s response to Trump insufficient, and not commensurate with the threat he poses to the country’s future. After spending the best part of 2024 insisting that “democracy is on the ballot”, and that the US system of government could not survive a second Trump administration, for the most part Democrats have licked their wounds and sat on their hands in the months since the President’s victory.

That is partly deliberate, with many Democrats heeding the advice of veteran party strategist James Carville. In February, he urged the party to engage in what he conceded was “the most daring political manoeuvre” in its history. Writing in the New York Times, he advised Democrats to “roll over and play dead. Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us”.

The dangers of heeding that advice are now plain to see. A growing number of voters tell pollsters that the party is failing in its civic duty to identify a path out of Trump’s America, to corral public protests, and to demonstrably lead the way.

https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/other/democrats-waited-for-trump-to-crumble-now-they-re-starting-to-fight-back/ar-AA1E5Awb

Daily Digest: Most Americans think Trump is a dangerous dictator

A majority of Americans see President Donald Trump as a dangerous dictator according to a new poll from the non-partisan and non-profit organization Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). 

According to the findings, 52% of those polled agreed with the statement “President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”

https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/other/most-americans-think-trump-is-a-dangerous-dictator/ss-AA1E1ZBI

Irish Star: Donald Trump’s chilling four-word attack on Harvard as he rips apart 110-year-old rule

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he will yank Harvard University‘s exemption status as tension between the esteemed university and the president has reached a boiling point. Trump’s pulling of the status brings an end to a 110-year-old rule that allowed schools to a tax break.

In a chilling post on his Truth Social media website, Trump stated, “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” The post comes after the university received several orders from the Trump administration and refused to implement them. Trump was previously branded the ‘dumbest president ever’ following a shocking 6-word geography comment.

The president’s orders also demanded that Harvard reform its admissions process for international students and screen for students who are “supportive of terrorism and anti-Semitism.” The demands also call on Harvard to report any international students to federal authorities should they break the University’s conduct policies.

“Supportive of terrorism and anti-Semitism?” As in supportive of the Palestinian (Gaza) victims of Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing? Screw you, King Donald!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/donald-trump-s-chilling-four-word-attack-on-harvard-as-he-rips-apart-110-year-old-rule/ar-AA1E31Tk

Raw Story: Pam Bondi fires ‘warning shot’ at free press with ‘most chilling’ guidelines yet: report

“Attorney General Pam Bondi fired a warning shot at the free press last Friday,” according to the Editorial Board of the Washington Post.

They are concerned with the removal of a Justice Department regulation, which limited the government’s ability to see the phone or email records of journalists.

Bondi replaced this guideline with ones they call “most chilling.”

This is because Bondi is allowing investigators to go after members of the media who obtain “privileged and other sensitive information,” not just classified material, “that undermine President [Donald] Trump’s policies.”

The regulations Bondi removed were put in place by Attorney General Garland.

Additionally, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to codify the regulation, which was known as the Press Act (Protect Reporters and Exploitative State Spying Act) last year.

But Trump called on Senate Republicans to kill the bill after his election.

“The effort had bipartisan support because both parties have an interest in exposing wrongdoing inside government, especially when they are in the opposition,” according to the Post.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pam-bondi-fires-warning-shot-at-free-press-with-most-chilling-guidelines-yet-report/ar-AA1E3UXc

Law & Crime: In legal turnabout, Trump admin to settle wrongful death lawsuit brought by husband of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt

The Trump administration is planning on settling a multimillion dollar wrongful death lawsuit filed by Aaron Babbitt, the husband of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed while storming the Capitol during the Jan. 6, riot.

Aaron Babbitt’s lawyer and attorneys with the Justice Department’s Civil Division confirmed that they had reached an agreement in principle to settle the case over Ashli Babbitt’s death during a hearing on Friday in Washington, D.C., according to a report from Washington, D.C., CBS affiliate WUSA.

Payola for the criminals! Thank you, King Donald! Wrong does pay!

Perhaps if the family of the poor marksman that shot off King Donald’s ear were to sue, they too could get a nice multi-million dollar settlement at taxpayer expense?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/in-legal-turnabout-trump-admin-to-settle-wrongful-death-lawsuit-brought-by-husband-of-capitol-rioter-ashli-babbitt/ar-AA1E4ieK

More here:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-administration-agrees-to-settlement-with-family-of-jan-6-rioter-ashli-babbitt/ar-AA1E4yH5