Getting charged with election fraud while fueling bogus allegations of election fraud — that’s the MAGA way.
In the Trump era, it’s not uncommon for Republicans to be charged or even convicted of voter fraud while their conservative movement pushes false — and fundamentally racist — claims of election chicanery. My colleague Steve Benen has covered this trend for years.
We, of course, can’t forget the insurrectionists pardoned by Donald Trump after they fueled a riot at the Capitol premised on lies about voter fraud. Or the Trump allies who agreed to pay up in 2024 after concocting a fraudulent voter suppression scheme.
And earlier this year, I wrote about the former official at Turning Point Action who comported himself as a champion of election integrity before pleading guilty to election fraud.
Certified hypocrites abound.
And now, Minnesota Public Radio is reporting that scandal-plagued conservative activist James O’Keefe and pro-MAGA content creator Cam Higby have been charged with various crimes over an alleged plot involving fake identities presented to election workers in an effort to sow doubt about the integrity of next week’s midterms.
Hennepin County prosecutors on Wednesday said they charged conservative provocateur James O’Keefe and another man with felonies for unlawful voting and identity theft for filming themselves misrepresenting their identities to election judges during the Minnesota Aug. 11 primary.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said they were alerted by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office that James O’Keefe, Cameron Higby and others were trying to undermine the state’s vouching system.
Videos posted by O’Keefe’s operation show them wearing burkas outside precincts during the primary. Moriarty said the voter names they used included some residents who were dead and at least one who voted.
Here’s the way O’Keefe’s operation recently defended the effort:
In a press release in August, O’Keefe’s group, which calls itself the “Justice League,” said the people in the video “did not cast ballots. The investigation was intended to test the limits of Minnesota’s vouching law and document how election workers apply it on Election Day.”
On Monday, he claimed that the “only way” Republican candidate Michele Tafoya can lose her Senate race in Minnesota is if liberals “cheat.” That’s the context for O’Keefe and Higby’s alleged scheme, which Media Matters recently described in more detail:
In August, O’Keefe and other right-wing content creators affiliated with his Citizen Justice League descended on Minnesota to attack the state’s voter voucher system, claiming to be registered voters in various precincts and asking poll workers if they would be able to vouch for several unregistered individuals who lacked photo ID.
Videos of the stunts, produced by Higby, O’Keefe, and Rubin, make the broad claim that Minnesota’s voucher system, which allows for a registered voter to “vouch” for the identities of up to eight unregistered individuals living in the same precinct, is a natural source for fraud.
Media Matters noted that some of the footage has been promoted by the Trump administration and conservative media. And the racism involved was unsubtle:
In the videos from O’Keefe and Higby, the pair dressed in what O’Keefe described as “full traditional Muslim attire” and adopted fake accents to impersonate registered voters and ask if they could vouch for several friends or family members.
But intimidation appears to be the primary intent here. O’Keefe is known for launching bogus sting operations that conservatives can use to peddle MAGA propaganda, potentially placing their targets in various kinds of danger. In 2024, I wrote about how one such operation apparently fueled violent threats toward staff at a shelter for immigrants in Arizona.
Now, Republicans are attempting to conjure up voter fraud claims to gin up backlash over a crucial Senate race in which polling has consistently shown the Democrat with an edge. And Minnesota’s Hennepin County apparently isn’t standing for it.
Taylor, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump, is running in a House district that white Tennessee Republicans — acting on the president’s behest — gerrymandered in ways that carved up the state’s only majority-Black district, seemingly ensuring that the district would be represented by a white Republican.
And when all is said and done, Taylor may indeed cruise to victory over his well-known progressive opponent, fellow state Sen. Justin Pearson. But Taylor’s acknowledged history of sending unsolicited nudes has thrown a wrench into his campaign.
Taylor faced mockery and fierce rebuke this week for responding to an exposé by describing the nude photos — some of which he apparently sent in his 50s — as “youthful indiscretions.” According to the Nashville Scene:
Multiple sources say they had received or seen nude photos from Taylor, who is running for U.S. Congress in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. Taylor acknowledged to the Scene that he had sent nude photos in the past but dismissed them as mistakes that have since been forgiven by his wife Kimberly.
“As I near 60 years old, the expiration date has come and gone on any of my youthful indiscretions,” Taylor tells the Scene when asked about a history of texting nude pictures. “Whatever story you think you’ve got, my wife is well aware of and we’ve worked through it a long time ago. My god and my wife have forgiven me, and I would consider everyone else doing the same.”
As the outlet noted, these were hardly “youthful indiscretions”:
One individual — who requested anonymity, citing fear of retaliation — says they received an unsolicited nude picture from Taylor as recently as 2021, before he was elected to the state Senate. A second eyewitness source independently confirmed the nude photos sent by Taylor. At that time, Taylor was 53.
I'm disturbed to learn of Brent Taylor’s pattern of sending unsolicited nude photos to multiple women.
The fact that he would dismiss his behavior as “youthful indiscretions" despite it happening recently, in his fifties, & while he held government office is ridiculous.
To reiterate, Taylor is still headed into Election Day with the advantage manufactured for him through gerrymandering. But his campaign is providing yet more fodder to point out the hypocrisy of a MAGA movement that claims to promote Christian values but celebrates and enables men known for sex predation, such as Trump.
The Tennessee Republican has given liberals a gift this election season: “My opponent was sending unsolicited nudes while on the doorstep of qualifying for the Denny’s senior menu” is one hell of a closing argument against someone who shouldn’t be anywhere near a congressional seat.
This is the Oct. 28, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
“You can even come to Mar-a-Lago … The problem is that for $5,000, the most you’ll be able to buy is a hamburger and maybe a small dessert. I’m not even sure you could buy that.”
— President Donald Trump joking at a political rally in Texas yesterday that U.S. adults could not afford to eat at his Florida estate
One week. That’s all that stands between James Talarico and one of the biggest political upsets in modern Texas history.
As he barnstorms the Lone Star State in the final stretch, the political athlete is clinging to a narrow lead over Attorney General Ken Paxton. MS NOW’s data polling partner FiftyPlusOne found Talarico at 49% to Paxton’s 46.2%, and a Fox News poll put him ahead, 51% to 49%. Those are small margins, but they point toward the possibility of a remarkable result. A Democrat hasn’t won a U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1988.
What makes Talarico’s position even more impressive is what he’s up against. Paxton has Donald Trump’s machine behind him, along with Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar checkbook. The world’s richest man has already poured almost $190 million into the contest, routed through a Senate GOP super PAC. That’s pushed combined ad spending past $500 million, putting the race on pace to be the most expensive in Senate history.
But Talarico hasn’t flinched. He’s called out the billionaire money flooding the airwaves and hammered away at Trump, Musk, and the issues that matter most to Texans. As I said months ago, the top three issues in this campaign will be costs, costs, and costs. Talarico leads Paxton on that key issue and is crushing the impeached attorney general with independents, 60% to 32%.
The Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball both call Texas a toss-up. Dan Rather might say the race is “tight as a tick.” And Texas Republicans maintain a big structural advantage. But Talarico is turning the campaign’s final corner and heading into the homestretch with momentum, a winning message, and a lead.
With Election Day less than a week away, his campaign is kicking into overdrive. If the past is prologue in this race, expect Talarico to take it to the limit one more time. And this time, it’s for the win.
CHARTS OF THE DAY
Source: Gallup poll of 1,200 U.S. adults conducted Oct. 1-19, 2026. Margin of error: ±4 percentage points
WHAT THEY SAID
Jonathan Lemire on Trump campaigning
“Those who work for Donald Trump in his second term are true believers. But the president’s been in a bubble, and his crowds, who keep laughing at all his jokes, are much smaller than they used to be. It’s working for that small group of die-hard, dedicated supporters, but it is not playing outside those rooms — and it’s not going to help Republicans next week.”
John Heilemann on DOJ vs. Alaska
“This is so far over the bright line into authoritarian regime territory. The Department of Justice is saying that if the Republican wins, they won’t challenge this case. But if anybody else wins, the result is invalid and should not be certified. That is truly remarkable, dangerous, and astonishing, all rolled into one.”
Sam Stein on Mike Johnson’s loyalty test
“Mike Johnson is going to play a critical role in whether or not we have a peaceful transfer of congressional power. If Trump believes that the elections are contested and they shouldn’t be seated, will Mike Johnson acquiesce? I’m genuinely happy there are layers of protection here, but also dismayed that it’s even got to this point.”
2026 is showing us the future of American politics.
Tuesday could mark the end of the Trump era. That was Nate Silver’s read on Ezra Klein’s podcast.
“He’ll still be president for two more years,” Silver said. “But the minute the election, the votes, are counted … the 2028 election campaign begins, and if Trump has a bad night, as polls show, then he’s a super-lame duck.”
Silver compared the political landscape to the George W. Bush administration after 2006.
Trump will “still be president for two more years,” Silver said. “But the minute the election, the votes, are counted … the 2028 election campaign begins, and if Trump has a bad night, as polls show, then he’s a super-lame duck.”
Nate Silver
The map already looks like “a different regime,” Silver said. “Kansas is competitive, Texas is competitive.” Charlie Cook called it “a unicorn election,” unlike any of the 22 he’s covered, per the Cook Political Report. The swing group isn’t suburban independents but “normally reliable Republicans,” many in farm country, who think Trump made “colossally bad decisions” on Iran and trade.
This cycle has also rewritten some of the rules for 2028.
For one, district maps are now redrawn mid-decade. President Donald Trump pushed Republican legislatures to redraw, and after the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling, the South did just that.
The next redistricting round is already on the line Tuesday. Democrats could win a majority of governorships for the first time since 2010, and Cook noted that states like Georgia, Ohio, Nevada and Iowa “could be critical when it comes to upcoming redistricting fights and battles over election integrity in 2028.”
Democrats have moved on Israel. A dozen Biden-era officials who resigned over Gaza released a pledge Wednesday morning asking 2028 candidates to reject both Joe Biden’s and Trump’s Israel policies and not to hire the officials behind them, per The Washington Sun. Roughly half of Democrats now say Israel committed genocide in Gaza. One Democratic fundraising source told the Sun that 2028 campaigns were “waiting to see if [Democratic nominee] Abdul [El-Sayed] wins” in Michigan before deciding how much Biden’s Gaza record matters.
The attention economy has come to dominate politics. “Politics is the alchemy of turning attention into power,” El-Sayed said, per The New York Times. Vice President JD Vance, a MAGA standard-bearer in 2028, played the same game.
In a press gaggle Tuesday, Vance called El-Sayed “a bit of a psychopath” with “a lot of weird friends” and would not say whether he’s a jihadist, per CBS News. Basically, the thinking is that conflict gets attention, and attention gets power. Not everyone is playing, though. The Times split Democrats into two camps: “electric” and “normal,” and the normies are doing fine. “When was the last time you saw a viral clip from Roy Cooper?” the outlet asked. (Cooper is cruising in North Carolina.)
Heterodoxy is back for Democrats. Wins by Democrat James Talarico in Texas or Mary Peltola in Alaska would put pro-oil Democrats from red states back in the Senate, where the current number is “a caucus of zero,” per Politico.
“All of the above is back, baby,” one Democratic strategist said.
Iowa’s Rob Sand, who is running for governor, “eschews Democratic norms,” opening town halls with a prayer and a rendition of “America the Beautiful.” He leads by 7 percentage points, according to FifityPlusOne polling averages. In Washington state, the party is wide enough to include both Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — a former Congressional Progressive Caucus chief and a Blue Dog Coalition co-chair, respectively — who, despite very different records on transgender issues, have united to oppose a ballot measure forcing girls “to prove their sex to the state every year,” as Gluesenkamp Perez put it, per MS NOW’s Julianne McShane.
Politics could be headed for a nationalists versus democratic socialists divide, à la Europe. On the left, Democratic Socialists of America insurgents won high-profile primaries throughout the country, driven by youth enthusiasm, general anger at the Democratic establishment and a sense that these are outsider candidates with normal, non-politico backgrounds.
The economic case is populist: A plurality of battleground voters say the biggest corruption problem is “greedy billionaires and corporations using their influence to rig the rules,” per Cook.
On the right, the closing message is about belonging.
“America belongs to those who love it,” Trump said in Lubbock, Texas, per the Times.
“Michigan belongs to those who love it, not those who hate it,” Vance said in Howell, Michigan, per WDIV.
Vance also accused El-Sayed of “explicitly anti-white racial hatred,” and at the rally said he “allegedly came from Egypt.” (El-Sayed was, in fact, born in Oakland County, Michigan, where Mitt Romney grew up.)
Politics is increasingly nationalized. Trump’s gravity pulls every race toward him.
“Just close your eyes and pretend I’m on the ballot,” he has told crowds, per The Associated Press.
Even Republican Sen. Susan Collins called this the hardest race of her career. And the lack of local media outlets (213 counties have no local news source left, and 1,524 more have only one, per Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism) means that more and more, politics is presented and consumed through a national prism. (Which is another reason it’s important that pols compete in the attention economy.)
Artificial intelligence is disrupting everything.AI-manipulated videos, likely from the Russian network Storm-1516, are spreading fake allegations about Ohio Democratic Senate nominee Sherrod Brown and Talarico.
And a Princeton researcher used roughly $20 in AI credits to reconstruct the order of nearly all in-person ballots in the Georgia counties he studied, and he could match some voters to their ballots. Data centers have become a closing message from Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District to the Kansas and Texas governor’s races. Silver thinks AI “could be the biggest issue of 2028.”
One week before the midterms, President Donald Trump has a new offer for anyone who can help him prove what he has been insisting for years.
“Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1,000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud!” Trump posted Monday.
The White House didn’t say where the money would come from, and Congress hasn’t authorized any such fund, according to The Washington Sun. The offer appears designed to generate headlines. Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor and one of the country’s foremost election law experts, called it “part of a larger project … to generate distrust of the election system.”
It’s tempting to dismiss this as old news. “Trump cries fraud” has been a familiar headline for a decade. But that misses how much groundwork has already been laid. Trump’s “stolen election” narrative for these midterms is prewritten.
The president and his allies have spent the final weeks of the campaign “showering his supporters with a relentless stream of doubt about the legitimacy of the election, priming them to question results if Republicans lose,” according to a Washington Post analysis published Tuesday. Nearly 600 high-profile right-wing accounts, podcasts and outlets have published more than 7,000 statements this year questioning the election’s integrity, per the Post. Claims about noncitizen voting and mail ballots are twice as common as they were in the 2024 cycle. Trump himself has made nearly 300 such statements in his second term.
The message is landing. Just 45% of Republican voters are confident noncitizens will be kept from voting, compared with 90% of Democrats, a Pew Research Center survey found. Only 28% of Americans are confident Trump will accept the results if Republicans lose, according to a Washington Post/ABC/Ipsos poll.
To see how this works, rewind to June. Who would have imagined it would take Spencer Pratt losing the Los Angeles mayor’s race to show it?
‘Not possible’
Then-Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt speaks to the media outside of an election night party at Don Antonio’s Mexican restaurant on June 2, 2026, in Los Angeles.Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
By the morning after the June 2 primary, Pratt, the former reality TV star running as a Republican, was comfortably in second place. He had about 30% of the vote to Councilmember Nithya Raman’s 22%, and he was on track for a November runoff against Mayor Karen Bass.
Then Los Angeles kept counting. Five days later, Raman passed him.
In itself, that was not surprising. Democrats make up a supermajority of the city’s electorate. Bass is a Democrat, and Raman ran to her left. Los Angeles also counts slowly, checking signatures and examining ballots by hand.
None of that takes fraud to explain. And yet.
“Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!”
Swap out Pratt’s name for a Republican House candidate in Orange County, suburban Detroit or South Texas, and it’s easy to see how this could work.
Trump hasn’t stopped previewing. On Monday, he said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s comeback win “looked like another rigged election.”
You may reasonably ask: How is this new? Trump has sown distrust about elections for years, after all. What’s different this time?
What’s different is that Trump has help. In 2020, he had the “fraud” narrative but not a federal government willing to act on it. Now he has both.
‘I work for President Trump’
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Todd Blanche during a roundtable at the White House on Oct. 21, 2026.Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
The institutions that pushed back last time have been rebuilt around Trump’s wishes.
Start with the Department of Justice. Bill Barr, Trump’s attorney general in 2020, stood up to him, saying publicly that the department hadn’t seen fraud on a scale that could have changed the outcome of that year’s presidential election. Would Todd Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer and now his attorney general, do the same?
The next day, reporters asked whether there was any scenario in which the Justice Department would try to block states from certifying their results. Blanche said the department had no intention of improperly interfering, but invoked a hypothetical “doomsday scenario” and wouldn’t rule it out. “To say that there’s no circumstances that we would ever do that, of course, I’m not going to say that,” he said.
Blanche isn’t alone in leaving the door open. Consider Jay Clayton. In June, while he was still the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Clayton went on CNBC and declined to endorse or rule out widespread fraud, saying “the opportunity for fraud” exists. At his confirmation hearing to become director of national intelligence, he wouldn’t directly acknowledge who won the 2020 election. The Senate confirmed him in July.
And there’s Bill Essayli, the hard-charging Trump appointee who runs the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. After Pratt’s loss, Essayli announced he had “multiple election fraud investigations underway.” (To his credit, he also knocked down at least one of the false claims about the race, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.)
Now Essayli is out front on the administration’s push to get California to set aside mail ballots from voters it says are noncitizens. “We believe it’s at a minimum of 20,000,” he told Fox News Digital. The Justice Department has said its list came from purchased voter data analyzed by third parties. California officials say an initial review of a sample found that 1 in 4 people on the list were born in the U.S.
On Monday, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined, 2-1, to rule on the department’s request. A Trump appointee on the panel wrote that the administration appeared to lack the constitutional power to demand it.
None of that has slowed the spin. “BOMBSHELL: Trump exposed that 20,000 noncitizens flagged on California’s rolls are just ONE batch!” Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier posted to his 1.2 million followers.
Trump’s Justice Department files a suit, influencers tout it as a “BOMBSHELL” and the base gets more convinced the system is rigged, making the next claim easier to sell. The courts may keep saying no, but the new filings keep feeding the story.
The DOJ is already promising a postelection fight. Its observers “will be eyes and ears for any violations, and may take legal action afterwards. Stay tuned!” Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, posted Friday on X. Ben Hovland, whom Trump fired from the Election Assistance Commission, expects the department to act as “the administration’s personal law firm,” according to The Washington Post.
Back in June, the risk was that the Justice Department had gone from a guardrail against baseless election fraud claims to a participant in fanning them. A week from Election Day, that’s no longer hypothetical.
‘Something is wrong here’
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson during a news conference outside the Capitol on May 8, 2024, where he introduced the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The bellowing isn’t just coming from Trump.
It’s coming from Congress. “Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it is impossible to prove,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said about the elections in California after Pratt’s loss. “Everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here.”
It’s coming from governors. “California keeps dumping votes,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted in June as Pratt’s odds of making the runoff dropped. “Count until you get the result you want?” DeSantis, notably, never explicitly endorsed the “stolen election” rhetoric in 2020.
In today’s Republican Party, suggesting election fraud is the price of admission, and nobody has to produce evidence to pay it. Every time a speaker or governor makes such a claim without evidence, the Overton window shifts, making the claim sound a little more “reasonable.”
Johnson was a relatively obscure member of Congress in 2020 when he led an amicus brief supporting Texas’ bid to invalidate the election results in several swing states. Now he’s House speaker, which puts him within arm’s reach of a little-noticed step in the transfer of power. The House clerk assembles the roll of members-elect, the official list of those who will be sworn in when the new Congress convenes in January. If Johnson moved to fire the clerk, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., told The Washington Post, it would be “a ‘break glass’ scenario.”
Democrats aren’t assuming the best. “We’re making the presumption that the president will not accept the results,” Himes said.
‘As steadily as a metronome’
Election workers sort ballots during early voting at City Hall in San Francisco on Oct. 21, 2026.David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images
California shows why there’s no winning this argument.
Perhaps no state takes longer to count its votes. And California is poised to matter enormously again. In 2024, nearly a week after Election Day, nine of the 16 uncalled House races that would decide control of the chamber were in California, the Times reported. This year, the state’s newly drawn districts include several of the most contested races in the country.
In June, a Democratic consultant told the Times that the most effective way to speed up California’s count would be to eliminate security measures such as signature verification and provisional ballot checks. The “fix” for the problem Trump described would require gutting the safeguards he says are missing.
So a slow count that ends in Democratic gains becomes evidence of fraud. A fast count that would require stripping out protections becomes evidence of fraud. A steady count doesn’t help, either. In a filing Sunday, the DOJ complained that California’s counties “continue to process tens of thousands of ballots as steadily as a metronome, willfully indifferent to the fact that upwards of 20,000 of those ballots may have been cast by noncitizens.” There is no outcome that doesn’t feed the narrative.
Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, voters will choose between Bass and Raman on Tuesday. Pratt won’t be on the ballot.
Then-Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt speaks to the media outside of a election night party at Don Antonio's Mexican restaurant on June 2, 2026, in Los Angeles
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Todd Blanche during a round table at the White House on Oct. 21, 2026.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson during a news conference outside the Capitol on May 8, 2024, where he introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
Election workers sort ballots during early voting at City Hall in San Francisco on Oct. 21, 2026.
Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories from the intersection of technology and politics.
Dems want damning surveillance report
A pair of Democratic senators are accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of hiding a report that “details serious abuses of Americans’ rights under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.” Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., are trying to pry loose a report they say the administration is legally required to make public after a FISA court opinion detailed abuses of the program in March.
Since retaking office, Trump has expanded the federal government’s arsenal of creepy surveillance tools en route to building what appears to be an unprecedented spy machine that can track Americans. It’s in that context that Democrats — with some GOP help — tanked a vote in June that would have extended the controversial FISA powers that give the government broad latitude to sweep up data, including information belonging to Americans.
In a letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Attorney General Todd Blanche, the two Senate Democrats said the damning FISA report from on alleged surveillance abuses should have been released already — and demanded that it be released now so lawmakers can consider whether to extend FISA powers next year.
The administration has now had over seven months to declassify and release this opinion. It is time to stop violating the law and finally release this opinion. And if this administration won’t follow this simple statutory directive, it is unclear why Congress or the American people should trust this administration to follow any of the other legal limits to Section 702.
Artificial intelligence bots are increasingly gaining unauthorized access to people’s bank accounts, according to new reporting from Axios. The report homes in on concerns among bank officials about security in the age of AI.
A judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after the company lost a lawsuit alleging that the company broke New Mexico’s consumer protection laws and jeopardized its users after the Cambridge Analytica scandal nearly a decade ago. Meta has vowed to appeal the ruling.
After Mississippi’s Republican attorney general issued legal threats last week, the state’s Democratic Senate nominee, Scott Colom, deleted an ad using AI tools to mock his Republican opponent, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. I wrote about how it seems like Republicans are fretting over this race in a deep-red state.
Samuel Sey, a popular right-wing influencer known for supporting Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown, reportedly has been detained by immigration officials and is now facing deportation after allegedly overstaying a temporary visa.
The good news is the Pentagon apparently has some guidelines around the development of AI tools to avoid the risk of escalating wars or harming civilians and troops. The bad news? Defense officials aren’t always adhering to these rules, according to a congressional report.
Anthropic says its AI tool accessed Georgia voting data typically only available to people who pay for it. The company and Georgia’s secretary of state said no individual voter records were accessed, but the intrusion marks yet another disturbing security breach involving AI. A new report explains why “the company’s statements about what its bot accessed raise more questions.”
An investigation from The New York Times suggests that Alpha School, the network of AI-fueled private schools that have been backed by the Trump administration and vow to offer a superior learning experience, is failing to live up to its promises.
Several MAGA influencers have recently been in Brazil and Serbia, hoping to sway elections in both countries — but the pro-authoritarian candidates they supported flamed out over the weekend. Now, especially when it comes to Brazil, Trump and a bunch of extremely online conservatives are pushing lies about the election being rigged, as my colleague Brandy Zydrozny explained.
This is the Oct. 27, 2026 edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Hello, “Morning Joe” family!
We love hearing from you. Here’s what was on your mind this week. As always, you can write to us anytime.
CALLING THE MORNING JOE FAMILY: MIDTERMS MAILBAG
On Election Day, the “Morning Joe” family will answer reader questions about the midterms in the newsletter. Do you have a question to ask? Send it to us here.
LETTERS FROM OUR READERS
I don’t have a question, just a comment. I enjoy watching “Morning Joe” when I get the chance. I have been experiencing some health issues. The Morning Tea gives me a chance to catch up. I’m not always able to get to my computer, so that is why I fall behind. Oh one more thing … Go Brewers!!
—Joe W., Weston, Wis.
No question — just thanks for the wonderful interview with Amy Acton and recap in The Tea. Ad was as low as it could go — a disgrace … I hope Amy succeeds.
— Georgie H., N.J.
I see a lot of similarities between Trump brushing aside the notion that the ad against Amy Acton crosses a line and the seemingly callous way in which Michael Dukakis answered the debate question about why he would still be against the death penalty even if his wife were brutally raped. Not to say those things are on par, but do you think the complete lack of empathy for a child rape victim will stick to Trump and become a major part of his legacy the way the debate response sunk Dukakis?
— Wendy B., Fort Wayne, Ind.
I don’t generally agree with judging people by what group they identify with, but it’s hard not to judge the Republican Party as more corrupt, lying, and hateful than I’ve seen in my life and I’m an old man. Can we the people sue these politicians for lying about us in these ridiculous campaign ads and then doubling down when proved wrong? Are we so far gone in this country that defamation lies can never be prosecuted? Of course even if prosecuted they will bankrupt us through the process and that may even be their plan … all of course with impunity.
— Keith M., Stamford, Conn.
My daughter who is a senior in college asked me yesterday: Why isn’t Election Day a national holiday? Wouldn’t that make it more likely for more people to vote? They could even make it a holiday every other year; midterms and presidential election years. Could alternate that day off with Columbus Day, almost make it a floating holiday. Israel has it this way, where everyone is off that day.
— Matt R., Arlington Heights, Ill.
One week to Election Day. Wow. I’m finding I’m getting more and more excited with each day that passes. I feel I should be feeling more and more anxious, but I’m not.
— Scott, an MS NOW Member
Not a question honestly, but a huge thank you for all of your insight and knowledge. It is what gets me through this nightmare. I so enjoy you ALL! Thank you!
This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 24 episode of “Connect with Jacob Soboroff.”
With just days until Election Day, the truism “all politics is local” feels especially relevant this year. Some of voters’ most consequential choices will be the bubbles they fill in for statewide ballot measures and local races. These contests will have a direct effect on their communities — like in Montana, where a highly consequential race has been flying somewhat under the radar.
On Nov. 3, voters there will choose a justice for their state Supreme Court. Two district judges are running: Amy Eddy and Dan Wilson. While the race is officially nonpartisan, Eddy is generally viewed as liberal-leaning, backed by labor unions and conservation groups. Wilson is generally viewed as conservative-leaning, backed by the Montana Republican Party.
The Associated Press says the fight over this court “ranks among the most intense” of the nearly two dozen states also electing justices this fall. Millions of dollars are being spent to win this one seat.
Montanans are trying to fight dark money in politics once again.
Montana’s Supreme Court currently leans liberal, 4-3, but if Wilson wins, that majority flips. In just the past several years, Montana’s Supreme Court has issued major rulings protecting legislation around climate, reproductive rights and democracy.
On climate, the court ruled 6-1 in 2023 in favor of 16 young people who sued the state, arguing that its promotion of fossil fuels violated their right to a clean and healthful environment under the Montana Constitution. It was the first ruling of its kind in the country.
On abortion, Montana’s Supreme Court responded to the Dobbs decision by turning to its own state constitution to expand abortion access. That’s the power of state courts: They can protect certain rights even when the federal courts no longer guarantee them.
On voting, in 2024 a 4-3 ruling from the court struck down four voter suppression laws, including one that would have ended Election Day registration. The court held that those laws impermissibly interfered with the right to vote. It noted, “The record shows that more than 70,000 Montanans have utilized election day registration to vote since 2005 and that many electors would be disenfranchised without the availability of election day registration.”
Republicans in the state didn’t love those decisions, which is probably why there’s so much attention and money going into this race.
To be clear, the money flows from both sides. According to the Brennan Center, two political action committees — Montanans for Freedom and Responsibility and Justice Watch — have spent a combined $1.8 million on ads against Wilson. And the PAC More Jobs, Less Government has spent about $460,000 on television ads against Eddy.
According to the Google Ads Transparency Center, another PAC targeting Eddy is the First Principles PAC, which is linked to none other than Leonard Leo. At least one anti-Eddy ad funded by First Principles PAC can be found on YouTube.
Leo, a right-wing money man and longtime Federalist Society chairman, is the same man who helped handpick the conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Leo’s network has been involved in state court races across the country.
Now, you may be asking: Why is this particular state race so important to Leo, who doesn’t live anywhere near Montana?
Just consider those decisions noted above. Montana is the fifth-largest coal-producing state in the country, and its court handed down the nation’s first constitutional climate ruling. On abortion, Montana’s state constitution continues to protect access after Dobbs. Meanwhile, Leo’s network has poured millions into anti-abortion groups pushing for bans all over the country.
If this story feels like déjà vu, it’s because we’ve seen a version of it. In Wisconsin last year, more than $100 million from both sides of the aisle was spent on a single state Supreme Court seat, a national record. Elon Musk spent at least $20 million on the candidate backed by Republicans. He tried to promise $1 million checks to those who voted. The liberal candidate won anyway, by about 10 points.
But here’s some fun history: Montana has, in fact, lived through this before. In the early 1900s, wealthy industrialists known as the Copper Kings bought legislators, judges and even a U.S. Senate seat.
In 1912, Montana voters fought back through a ballot initiative, banning corporate spending in elections outright. That law stood for a century until 2012, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down, citing Citizens United.
Now Montanans are trying to fight dark money in politics once again. On the ballot this year is a measure that would bar corporations, unions and dark money nonprofits from spending on elections in the state, which President Donald Trump won by almost 20 points.
The Montana Chamber of Commerce sued to keep the measure off the ballot and lost. The state Republican Party, of course, opposes it. But former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot supports it, calling the measure a “brilliant idea.” He added, “If we get this done, it’s going to spill over and be an example for every other state in the nation.”
Here’s where we come full circle. The ballot measure would target exactly the kind of money that funds most PACs: anonymous dollars routed through nonprofits. And if the measure passes, expect a legal fight, one that could land before the Montana Supreme Court — the very court Leo’s PAC is spending money to flip.
This November, Montana voters will answer two consequential questions on a single ballot: who sits on their highest court and whether corporations get to keep spending money to influence their elections.
That’s why you should never overlook these downballot races. The billionaires writing those checks in back rooms aren’t just trying to shape outcomes in Washington, D.C., they’re working to extend their influence all the way down to your state government and local communities.
Donald Trump’s seemingly endless quest to isolate the U.S. on the world stage continued last week when his secretary of state openly promoted the CIA as a tool for destabilizing foreign governments.
To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba – now is the time.
The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA.
That sure sounds like “Come work with the CIA to help us topple your government,” which explains why the negative replies were replete with Bay of Pigs references and other “coup” talk.
It’s not exactly a secret that the CIA has been used by U.S. governments to undermine foreign governments and activist groups. But there’s a kind of brazen idiocy in thinking it was a good idea to offer such partnerships in such a public fashion.
Think about it: Even Cubans who might be open to such an offer would be wise to question the judgment of an administration that would so willingly broadcast it for all to see on Elon Musk’s pornography- and racism-filled platform.
And anyone not legally in the U.S. who agrees to help the administration topple Cuba’s government will need to acknowledge the harsh reality that aiding Trump’s CIA wouldn’t necessarily stop the president’s immigration officials from targeting them down the line.
And as former U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul noted, Trump’s support for authoritarian figures elsewhere should give pause to any Cubans considering Rubio’s offer.
Your decision to back autocrats and oligarchs in Venezuela instead of democracy should give pause to anyone hoping you are committed to democracy in Cuba.
No better way to inspire Cuban democrats than to support democracy in Venezuela. https://t.co/zATr8OAVqa
Trump does not care about upholding democratic principles in the Western Hemisphere, or anywhere for that matter. His administration has aligned itself with authoritarian-style leaders across Central America and South America. Now, it’s eyeing regime change in Cuba — and looking to draft confederates in one of the most glaring ways possible.
Mississippi Republicans’ newfound objection to AI-generated ads is the latest sign that MAGA world is fretting over the state’s U.S. Senate race.
The Democratic candidate, Scott Colom, said late last week that his campaign would delete an ad created with the help of artificial intelligence tools that depicted his Republican opponent, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, hurrying away from reporters, as she has done before. The ad has been online for weeks, but Mississippi’s Republican attorney general demanded that Colom’s campaign take it down.
Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch said Friday that Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, likely violated state law with a digital ad that featured an artificial intelligence-generated depiction of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith running away from reporters.
Colom told Mississippi Today he would delete the post because he didn’t want Fitch to launch litigation with taxpayer money. That came after Fitch sent Colom a complaint letter demanding that he remove that ad from his social media accounts. If he did not, the complaint said, the attorney general’s office could file an injunction against him.
“As violations of this election integrity law can carry criminal penalties, Attorney General Fitch has also asked Scott Colom and his campaign to preserve all records related to this matter so as not to obstruct justice,” the statement reads.
The article quotes Colom as saying Hyde-Smith is “clearly desperate” and that her allies are attempting to “weaponize the justice system to distract from the real issues, which is that she has sold out our farmers, sold out our small businesses, and sold out our families.”
You can judge for yourself whether you believe the Mississippi GOP truly cares about the scourge of AI-generated political ads, but the party’s fierce support for President Donald Trump — whose social media feeds have become cesspools of political AI slop — raises doubt in my mind.
What seems more likely to me is that Mississippi Republicans are trying to undercut Colom’s campaign, which has already garnered laughter for another ad targeting Hyde-Smith — in a midterm race the GOP didn’t think would be competitive.
Short of a victory, one could argue that Colom improving on Democratic Senate nominee Mike Espy’s 2020 election numbers would be a remarkable feat for liberal activists in Mississippi, which boasts the largest percentage of Black eligible voters out of any state in the country but has — with help from decades of racist voter suppression — remained almost exclusively under control of white conservatives.
Colom is looking to change that. His ads prove that his campaign has the GOP’s attention — and help support Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s argument that Democrats need to invest more heavily in Southern states.
Sixteen days before Election Day, Abdul El-Sayed is sitting at the dinette of a bus that has his face plastered all over it.
I had just played him a clip on my iPad. It was of Tashawna Gill, a Detroit organizer he knows well and who was one of his earliest supporters, describing an alarming trend in what she and her canvassers were hearing from Black voters in the city’s retirement communities.
“They’re skipping that part of the ballot,” Gill said. “We do the senior home tour, and they’re not interested. They skipped that on the ballot. They have returned their absentees, and some of them have shared that they’ve returned their absentees without checking the box for anything for the Senate race.”
In the tight space on the bus, the clip finishes, and El-Sayed says: “I hope more folks will fill out that part of the ballot. This one’s for all the marbles.”
El-Sayed watches a video on his campaign busMS NOW
How did it feel, I asked? Hearing that his story, his message isn’t landing with people in a community he has long served, people he needs if he wants to become Michigan’s next senator?
El-Sayed has a reputation of being pretty sure of himself. Unflappable, quick on his feet, someone who leans into the “don’t let ’em see you sweat” brand of politics.
For a second, that drops.
”Obviously, it’s heartbreaking. I’ve spent most of my career serving exactly those communities,” he says. “But I also get that campaigns are complicated.”
He blames the tens of millions of dollars in PAC money for the tepidness within the Black community toward his attempt to hold Michigan’s open Senate seat for Democrats, and for “destroying trust” he built with the Black community in his time as a public health official in Detroit.
“Rebuilding it takes a long time, so I’ve got work to do to rebuild trust, but I’ve been serving those communities for a long time,” he said. “I’m confident in the work I have done and confident in the work that I will do. And I hope I get the opportunity to do it.”
He notes that he’s not sure, either, just how widespread the sentiment Gill related is among his would-be constituents.
And just like that, the self-assuredness is back.
It’s clear, though, that he’s hurt that the work he has done in Detroit is being misconstrued or discounted, or that folks just don’t know about it. And he’s running out of time to spread the word.
Empty yards
Greenview Avenue in the North Rosedale Park neighborhood of DetroitMS NOW
The clip that I had El-Sayed respond to was from a walk I took with Gill on a quiet street back in Detroit.
She wanted me to see the lawns on Greenview Avenue in North Rosedale Park. It’s a neighborhood of brick houses on Detroit’s northwest side that she calls one of the most educated, highest-turnout precincts in the city. And she would know — her office is one block over.
Gill is a well-known organizer who chairs the Michigan Democratic Party’s Grassroots caucus, founded the African American Leadership Institute, helped get Gretchen Whitmer elected governor and was an early endorser of El-Sayed’s Senate campaign when most of the party establishment — including Whitmer — was behind U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. Every day, Gill’s office sends out about 70 canvassers across Wayne County.
Tashawna Gill, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party’s Grassroots caucusMS NOW
She knows of what she speaks, especially when it comes to Black voters.
“If you look down here, do you see any yard signs? Look left and right,” she says. I do, and it’s … empty. “It doesn’t even look like it’s an election going on anywhere,” she said.
Typically, Gill said, the streets are pretty lined with them. That they aren’t now, so close to the election, “is scary to me.”
Yard signs are not votes, but they are a sign of enthusiasm and of a campaign that is working hard to get those signs stuck in lawns.
Detroit is 75% Black, according to census data, the largest majority-Black big city in the country. And the Democratic playbook for winning statewide has not changed in a lifetime: run up the score in Wayne and Genesee counties, then hang on everywhere else.
When Detroit doesn’t turn out, Democrats lose. Two years ago, when Elissa Slotkin narrowly held Michigan’s other Senate seat, she won 86% of the Black vote compared with Republican Mike Rogers’ 12%. Recent polling shows El-Sayed hovering below 80% of the Black vote.
The concerns aren’t new. Back in the primary in August, El-Sayed eked out a 1-point win against Stevens. He won the college towns and progressive strongholds. He lost Detroit by 28 points.
El-Sayed seems well aware that the tepidness exists. The campaign says it and party entities have spent nearly $14.3 million in paid media specifically for the Detroit and Flint markets.
They’ve invited the equivalent of the Black political Avengers to endorse and campaign with him in the state, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Former President Barack Obama is stumping with El-Sayed in Detroit this weekend.
The campaign says it has been to 45 Black churches and had more than 125 meetings and roundtables with Black elected officials, faith leaders and community organizations.
It’s not something that’s been lost on his opponent either; they see an opening. The Rogers campaign opened a storefront office on Livernois Avenue in Detroit while we were there, and a group calling itself Democrats for Mike Rogers has been campaigning for him. A recent ad features Black voters saying they felt El-Sayed cared more about Palestine than Detroit.
“If you’re from Detroit, you know no Republican will be going through Detroit like they’re going through Detroit. They are in places a Republican would never be,” Gill said. “So I’m scared that a slice of that, just a little bit, will go to them.”
A Rogers campaign spokesperson touted their outreach, saying they are the first Republican to open a Detroit office, have visited a dozen Black churches and visited Flint and Pontiac “multiple times.” And multiple Democrats in Michigan have told me that Rogers is showing up in places in Detroit that haven’t seen a statewide GOP candidate in years.
Nearly every person I talked to on the ground in Detroit pointed to three reasons why El-Sayed is underperforming with Black voters.
Community conflict
The first one is uncomfortable to talk about: historic tensions between Black and Arab Michiganders. Dearborn sits right on the edge of Detroit, and today Arab Americans are estimated to make up the majority of that city’s 105,000 residents. Older Black voters know the long, violent history between the two communities. In 1980 an Iraqi immigrant store owner shot a Black customer he suspected of stealing soda. In 2023 a clerk at a gas station locked customers inside with an armed man after a card used to purchase less than $4 was declined. One of them was killed. A crash this fall reignited the fight.
Gill puts it in plain terms: “African Americans, especially seniors, feel like they were treated disrespectful, targeted, kicked out of the stores in Dearborn. So our seniors and our parents, when they see Abdul, they blame him for all of that.”
He wasn’t there, I point out. She knows that but says that trauma is unfairly being taken out on his candidacy.
Former Obama administration official Portia Roberson is CEO of Focus: HOPE, a civil rights organization in Detroit founded in 1968. She put those tensions this way:
Portia Roberson, CEO of Focus: HOPEMS NOW
“It has seemingly been that Arab people have been able to move to Detroit in this area and find ways to be successful, whether that is owning gas stations, whether that is owning party stores, and that Blacks who have been here have been locked out of those places,” she said.
I asked El-Sayed about the tension.
“I’ll be honest with you, I understand. I’ve worked in the city of Detroit. You walk into one of these party stores, you walk into a gas station and you’ve got somebody that looks like me behind bulletproof glass, and you look at the way that they’re treating customers. The number of times that people have been denied a bathroom or their kid gets sold a loosie cigarette out of the back or they’re catcalling a woman in the community. That’s deeply inappropriate. It’s wrong and I’ve never been one of those guys,” he said, “even if I look like one of those guys.”
While he was health director in Wayne County, he said, he led a conversation with “those guys” about why that behavior was inappropriate, adding, “You can’t just take money out and not invest in the local community. You can’t just deny local contractors opportunities to service your business and think that’s OK.”
A fateful stance
That second reason? The Uncommitted movement in 2024. In February of that year, more than 101,000 Michigan Democrats, about 13%, voted “uncommitted” in the presidential primary to protest President Joe Biden’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza. El-Sayed publicly announced that he was one of them. Nine months later, Harris lost the state as Black voters watched a party they had carried for decades fail to show up for the first Black woman at the top of the presidential ticket.
When it comes to the Black community, El-Sayed leans hard on his track record. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s mandate to him when he hired him back in 2015 to run a health department that had been gutted: “rebuild it.” In his first year, the department restarted lead screenings for children and helped pay for them in Detroit schools. The department also partnered with a nonprofit to offer free eye exams and glasses to thousands of students. After his failed run for governor in 2018, El-Sayed became director of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services.
His stance on Uncommitted is overshadowing all of that.
Roberson has voted consistently her entire adult life, and that movement still stings.
“As a Black woman, I’ve never had the luxury of voting on one issue. I’ve never had that luxury. I’ve never been able to walk into a polling booth and say, this is my one issue and if it doesn’t correlate with my one issue, I’m willing to throw the rest of it away,” she said. “We knew all of the things that have now happened to us, and you still decided to be uncommitted because of your issue.”
El-Sayed endorsed Harris the day after she became the nominee; Uncommitted largely was about the primary for him. And Harris came to Detroit just last month to endorse and campaign with El-Sayed. She has gotten over his criticism of the Biden-Harris policies.
“But a lot of folks haven’t,” Roberson said, laying out the very kind of single-issue objections she had just disavowed. “And I have friends who are very politically astute, and they have said, ‘I will never forgive that.’ It got so big so quickly that they couldn’t pull it back when it was time to coalesce around Kamala Harris, and now we are here.”
At the doors Gill’s team knocks on, the version that seniors are sharing is harsher than what actually happened and full of wrong information, she said.
They tell her teams, “‘He didn’t vote for Kamala. He didn’t help her get in.’ That’s the No. 1 thing,” she said. So the message from his campaign to set the record straight “needs to be louder.”
Democrats’ dilemma
The third reason is largely ideology, and in some ways reflects the maneuvering between progressives and mainstream Democrats within the larger party. Older Black voters in Detroit are more likely to be politically moderate. El-Sayed is running on Medicare for All, and Rogers has spent the fall telling anyone who will listen that Detroit is about to elect a socialist. For the record, El-Sayed says he is a capitalist.
The campaign’s answer to older Black voters has largely been to head to the Black church, the Old Faithful of politics. His team says he has been to 45 Black churches during this election season.
Last Sunday he visited two churches in Flint. His message was, yes, political and full of references to a shared God between his Muslim and their Christian faith. But one of his biggest applause lines was his promise to be back as Sen. El-Sayed.
Abdul El-Sayed speaks to a crowd in Flint, Michigan on Oct. 18, 2026MS NOW
“This is not my first time in communities like these,” he said from the front of the stage. “I’ve been showing up to do this work for the better part of a decade, and I hope that I can show up for you in the United States Senate. If you give me that honor, I promise you this will not be the last time you see me, and the next time I come, God willing, I’m bringing resources and I’m taking your pain and your purpose with me to the halls of power.”
The bridge he’s trying to build is a difficult one. A 2024 poll from AARP found that among Black Michaganders, only 29% called themselves “liberal.”
El-Sayed’s bet is that a different Black voter can come and make up the difference. “There’s a generational divide, and even if there are some seniors who might say, ‘You know what, we’re going to leave this blank because we’ve seen all the ads,’ there are a lot of young Black voters who are like, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever voted,’” he said.
The candidate isn’t blind to the tensions. On the contrary, he seems very aware of them and how hard they may be to overcome. But he’s also running out of time.
I asked Roberson if she thinks he has done enough in the short period he has been the nominee to get the Black vote where it really needs to be.
“That’s tough. Probably not,” she said. “I think there’s more he could have done. And listen, I’m giving grace to the fact that he had a contentious primary. But I do think there were more voters out there, and there are still more voters out there that he could be talking to.”
Her larger point is that it’s less about effort and more about translation. That in a lot of his ads, his platform sound great to the voters who follow politics closely, and who maybe aren’t affected by those three points of tension.
She’s also pretty hopeful. That when Detroit’s most reliable voters wake up on Election Day, they will do what they’ve always done.
”We know what we’re going to get if he doesn’t win,” she said. “So what are we so afraid of that we’re going to get if he does win?”
Nobody on Greenview Avenue has answered that yet. The lawns are still empty.
“Detroit just needs to be waking up. It needs to be waking up because it is asleep,” Gill said. “That is my fear, that Detroit has not woken up.”
El-Sayed says he’ll keep coming back either way.
“At the end of the day, whether folks vote for me or they don’t vote for me, I intend to serve in the same way that I showed up to serve back in 2015 when I came to Detroit to rebuild the health department.”
MS NOW producer Alexander Trowbridge contributed to this report.
MS NOW’s Michael Steele slammed Donald Trump’s “11th-hour move” ahead of the midterm election, as the Department of Justice sued Alaska, seeking to delay certification of the state’s Senate election in the event the Republican incumbent loses.
On Thursday, the department asked a federal court to block certification of the results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses by fewer votes than another candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan, receives. Alaska courts have allowed the other Sullivan to remain on the ballot. The Justice Department is arguing that voters could confuse the two candidates, and that such confusion could potentially affect the outcome of what is expected to be a close race against Democratic nominee Mary Peltola.
“Every step this administration is taking, all the lies that they have told the American people about their sense of making sure elections are fair and free, have just all led to this,” Steele said Friday, shortly after the lawsuit became public.
“The Weeknight” co-host called Attorney General Todd Blanche “the worst of the worst” and said the Justice Department was doing the president’s bidding. Steele argued that the Constitution leaves election administration to the states and that “the federal government and the Department of Justice have absolutely zero role here.”
Trump has previously criticized Alaska’s “crazy voting system.” The state uses a ranked-choice system, in which voters list their candidates in order of preference. If no one wins a majority of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and those votes go to voters’ next choices until one candidate wins.
Steele said the lawsuit shows that Republicans are “afraid” because they have “done jack to give the voters a reason to vote for them.”
“So now, in the 11th hour, they’re going to go and try to manipulate an outcome that’s already foretold by the voters who started early voting, who are already in the game,” he added.
Steele predicted that voters would see through Republican efforts and that the party would get “their you-know-what’s handed to them” on Election Day.
“They have sown and built mistrust in the system that’s coming back to bite them, because we do not trust them. We do not trust their word. We know you’re lying to us,” he said. “And now you’re going to have to reap what you sowed.”
You can watch Steele’s comments in the clip at the top of the page.
The CEO of Turning Point USA’s independent offshoot in the United Kingdom is facing scrutiny after he was recorded discussing murder-for-hire abilities.
According to a new report from Al Jazeera, part of an investigation called “Contract Killers and the Far Right,” Ross was shown on camera discussing his ability to coordinate paid acts of violence with a right-wing extremist named Allan Nesbitt.
Ross made clear that he and Nesbitt had a long history together. Ross was filmed by our undercover reporter agreeing to pay Nesbitt thousands of pounds to stage a fake political rally designed to show support for the lifting of UK sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Ross also told Al Jazeera’s undercover operative that for “a certain amount,” Nesbitt and his contacts could arrange physical attacks, saying they could “kick the f*** out of someone. They can start cutting people’s faces up. That’s another amount. They can stab someone,” Ross said. “They can shoot someone. They could kill someone.”
Al Jazeera reported that Ross “denied our findings ‘completely,’ telling us that everything he said to our undercover reporter was not meant seriously.” Turning Point UK, which was launched by Kirk and operates independently of its U.S. affiliate, and TPUSA didn’t immediately respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment.
Despite the “I was just joking about murder” defense, Ross has already been suspended from the U.K.’s Conservative Party. And according to The Guardian, police in Scotland are looking into the matter.
The silence from Republicans on this is telling. It almost goes without saying that if the CEO for an offshoot of, say, the NAACP or the activist group Indivisible were recorded discussing paid opportunities for murder and other violence, conservatives would be airing the footage constantly.
Yet it seems this macabre story is of little interest to MAGA world. The hypocrisy here is clear as day.
This is the Oct. 23, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Eleven days.
In 11 days, Americans vote.
People can’t afford their lives right now, whether it’s buying groceries, paying for healthcare, or gassing up the truck. Despite workers struggling more every day, Republicans have picked quite a closing argument for this year’s race.
We expect distractions and October surprises in the final days of a campaign. But I never expected Republican leaders to openly flaunt their status as the party of pedophile protectors.
This week, Republicans smeared Amy Acton — a woman who survived child rape — and Donald Trump called it “pay dirt.” He praised Acton’s mother, the rapist’s wife, for showing “a lot of courage.”
Some courage.
Acton’s mother fled the state with the man charged with raping her 12-year-old daughter. She abandoned her children and never saw them again. But the Republican Party defines that as “courage.”
In Texas, a man sexually abused a young boy, and Attorney General Ken Paxton tried to hand him an Epstein-style sweetheart deal. One day in jail.
James Talarico now calls Paxton a “pedophile protector.” And this week, from Ohio to Texas to the White House, Republicans sided with rapists, pedophiles, and their protectors over the young victims they tortured.
Covering for pedophiles seems to have become a nasty habit for Trump’s Republican Party.
Voters swept them into power partly on their promise to release all of the Epstein files. But the president and Republicans broke that promise and buried the files instead. Congress voted almost unanimously to release them all, but the administration still sits on millions of them — including damning accusations against President Donald Trump himself.
Epstein’s survivors kept begging for the truth to come out. Congress went home.
For years, right-wing conspiracy theorists accused Democrats and Hollywood stars of sex trafficking and pedophilia. Then a jury found their beloved cult leader liable for sexual abuse in a New York courtroom. Then this week, Trump attacked a rape victim, proving again John Heilemann’s rule that most of what the president says is either confession or projection.
Eleven days. Voters are watching.
***
Tonight in Milwaukee, the Brewers and the Rays open a World Series that will crown a first-time champion. The last time that happened was 1980, when Tug McGraw struck out Willie Wilson to end the Phillies’ 97-year wait. Before that, it was 1920, the year Cleveland’s Bill Wambsganss turned the only unassisted triple play in Series history. The Brewers’ own broadcaster is recommending Maalox to make it through.
Here’s what else is going on this weekend:
In Washington tonight, the National Zoo hosts Night of the Living Zoo, a 21-and-over Halloween party. Expect open bars, animal-inspired tarot readings, and after-hours visits with the great cats and reptiles. Tomorrow, the Smithsonian’s Air and Scare brings trick-or-treating, Star Wars characters, and a costume runway show to the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport.
In Boston on Saturday, the Doggone Halloween Pet Parade turns Downtown Crossing into a catwalk (so to speak!) for costumed canines. By 3 p.m., expect to congratulate — and pet — the winners in categories ranging from Scariest Costume to Best Dog and Child Duo.
In Brooklyn tomorrow, the Botanic Garden’s Fall Harvest Festival offers peak foliage, live music, pumpkin carvers, a cider garden, and an afternoon costume parade. Dress code: your best flannel.
Philadelphia celebrates Filipino American History Month this weekend with Taste of the Philippines, a free rain-or-shine festival of food, music, and shopping at Cherry Street Pier. Afterward, head to Oaks for the Pennsylvania Chocolate and Coffee Festival and a (bitter)sweet finish.
In Miami, haunted houses have competition. On Saturday night, the Friends of Cape Florida transform a trail at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne into a Haunted Hike, complete with staged scares, costumed performers, and a carnival for the faint of heart.
Just outside Chicago, the village of Forest Park — where the dead outnumber the living — hosts its 14th annual Casket Races (!). Teams push helmeted riders in coffins on wheels down a 585-foot course, vying for speed, style, and, for the least ambitious, a trophy for “dead last.”
In Los Angeles tomorrow, Hollywood Forever Cemetery hosts its 27th annual Día de los Muertos celebration, with elaborate altars, Aztec and folklórico dancers, and festivities from noon to midnight. ¡Que vivan los muertos!
And in Austin, Formula One rolls into the Circuit of the Americas for the United States Grand Prix. Max Verstappen arrives fresh off a long-awaited Singapore win, but all eyes are on Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who leads the standings by 102 points and could clinch his first championship on Sunday.
LETTERS FROM OUR READERS
Joe, thank you for your brief essay on the history of Western civilization. In a handful of paragraphs, you nicely crystallized the key concepts behind what has led to the successful rise and spread of democracy. Unfortunately, you didn’t have room to expound on the concomitant fragility of the process, the dedication, patience, and constant vigilance necessary to assure its survival. Lately, we have taken our eyes off the ball, and we are now paying the price. Rebuilding will be costly in both financial and human terms, and will require principled rededication to the ideals of democracy. I just hope we still have the fortitude within us to accomplish that!
— Peter H., Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Peter, Hillary Clinton told Mika last week at the Forbes-Know Your Value 30/50 Summit that this republic can be saved, but we’ve got to start turning things around now.
I believe we will. And I know we have much hard work in front of us. But we Americans will do it!
My mother and three older sisters brought me up to respect women. Who in God’s name instilled the disgusting responses supporting Vivek Ramaswamy’s video ad about the abuse of Amy Acton during her childhood? Trump and JD Vance are the ringleaders, and anyone else who is not condemning this ad are all guilty of moral turpitude and of violating the acceptable standards of any society.
— Michael P., Sarasota, Fla.
These Republican leaders have spent the past decade undermining the most basic rules of human decency. What they are doing in Ohio this week is a new low.
I have confidence American voters will show Republicans in 11 days that they have had enough, and will turn back to voting for candidates who hold those traditional values that made America great.
Is there any reliable data that proves that all the hateful political ads we are bombarded with for MONTHS actually work? I know they don’t work for my family, and I think most Americans are smart enough to see through them for what they are — partisan attacks that have nothing to do with how a candidate will perform or what a candidate believes. Listening to political strategists justify these ads as a “story arc” makes me sick — the ads tell us nothing positive about any candidate and honestly make me question the ethics and morals of any candidate that would allow these ads to be run on their behalf.
— Anonymous
We will find out in 11 days.
For the sake of our country, let us pray these hateful attacks, funded by trillionaires and billionaires, do not prove to be more powerful than the good people who volunteer for candidates, knock on doors, and build the framework of successful campaigns.
As I have been listening or reading about the current news, I have become so demoralized with how the Republicans are accepting the same demeanor of vulgarity, falsehoods, and vile comments Trump has stated within the last week. As Mika stated, “Whether it’s in Ohio in the governor’s race or in our foreign policy, we’re seeing moral depravity play out in real time.” How did a good portion of this country become so mean and hateful?
— Peggy R., Santa Fe, N.M.
Peggy, that is a question historians will be asking themselves for generations to come.
With Trump openly siding with Putin and Russia re: Ukraine, why is it not considered aiding and abetting of the enemy, considering we know that Russia is supplying Iran with weapons/info that have killed/injured our troops? It’s mind-boggling that few are talking about his aiding a known hostile country of the U.S. in these terms.
— Sandra S., Lagunitas, Calif.
Earlier this week, I said that if any other president or political aide had said about Vladimir Putin what Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff said this week, they would be considered traitors to America. It is hard to believe that my former party devolved from being champions of Western civilization and democratic freedom to being apologists for the worst tyrants and dictators on the globe. But they have. I believe there will be a political reckoning in 11 days.
I am so disheartened about Ukraine. I believe that Americans would care if someone with money and power could see a video speaking to regular Ukrainians about their daily lives. It needs to be brought home to Americans how inhumane Russia is to Ukraine. Many do not realize that Putin and China’s leader are helping Iran against our troops and our president is coordinating with our enemies. I wish there was a quick way this could be shown to all Americans. I believe that most Americans would understand the crisis. It is a war that is far away and has to be made real by interviews and getting to know the real story. It doesn’t matter what side of politics you are on. Seeing the tragedy in a way that connects would help Ukraine. It would also show that the president does not have our interest at heart, but is working with our enemies.
— Kate K.
Completely agree, Kate!
It seems that throughout this midterm election cycle, we have forgotten that Senate control is vital, at least because many judicial appointments and Supreme Court confirmations may occur in the last two years of the current presidential term. This issue alone underscores the need to vote in the next election.
— Anonymous
I could not agree with you more. While most are predicting the House of Representatives will have Democratic leadership next year, the Senate will remain up for grabs until election night.
Democrats will win Georgia and North Carolina, but need to also do well in Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Alaska, and Maine. We will probably be up late on Nov. 3 to see how many of those races break.
Polls are always misleading. Yes, they show facts as of today but the actual poll is when the voter goes behind the curtain and votes. All other polls before are meaningless. Still 35% are backing the Republicans. When breaking it down, 35% are voting for Trump as most of those up for re-election back the president. So the real poll results will be Nov. 4, when all votes are counted.
— Bruce M., Moncton, New Brunswick
As Tom Brokaw always said, stop looking at polls and let the voters have their say. Then report on what Americans tell you on Election Day!
And in a lawsuit filed Thursday, a shareholder of Circle Internet Group — a competitor of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto company — accuses the Trump business of “corruptly profiting” off crypto deals and says the president has violated the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause. (A spokesperson for Circle said the company “did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing.”)
The lawsuit specifically cites the sale of a major stake in World Liberty to an entity involving the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser — also known as the “Spy Sheikh” — four days before Trump’s inauguration. The suit also details how a UAE-backed firm led by that same official used World Liberty cryptocurrency to make a $2 billion investment in the crypto firm Binance.
The lawsuit comes as some crypto enthusiasts turn on Trump over his profiting off the industry while in office. The president and his representatives have always said his crypto investments are above board, with a White House spokesperson calling the new lawsuit “frivolous” and adding, “There are no conflicts of interest.” A World Liberty spokesperson called the lawsuit “without merit” and has previously said Trump had no role in the company.
Such claims are disputed by people like Protect Democracy’s executive director, Ian Bassin, who has argued that Trump’s crypto dealings are blatantly unconstitutional. And Matt Pelikan, a lawyer whose firm filed the lawsuit, said in a statement:
President Trump has turned his office into a source of private profit on a scale without precedent in American history. The President’s business dealings are not only corrupt, they are illegal.
This lawsuit only stands to fuel voters’ anger over government corruption: A recent Fox News poll showed nearly 9 in 10 voters as extremely or very concerned about corruption. So, with the midterms less than two weeks away, anything that stands to remind the public about Trump’s terrible track record on this issue seems like a threat to Republicans’ electoral hopes.
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