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Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Danielle Villasana\/Getty Images and Stewart F. House\/Getty Images.<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Surge<\/a>, the newsletter that covers the most important political nonsense of the week, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.<\/p>\n Welcome to this week\u2019s edition of the Surge, a newsletter that sees the cage-match construction<\/a> at the White House and wonders how long it will be before President Donald Trump announces the America 250 pole-dancing contest on the Washington Monument.<\/p>\n This week, we\u2019ve got a lot of Texas, where the filthy tricks and locker-room slurs have only just begun. Markwayne Mullin has a brilliantly dumb idea he\u2019s workshopping. The DOJ is reportedly going after a woman who sought legal recourse against Trump years ago. So that\u2019s cooool \u2026<\/p>\n First: Trump\u2019s sicko takedown of a senator who once looked at him funny.<\/p>\n \n 1.\n <\/p>\n John Cornyn<\/p>\n A dirty deed.<\/p>\n The Texas senator, who only 18 months ago fell a handful of votes short of becoming Senate Republican leader, was officially put out to pasture in the Texas Senate runoff this week. Ken Paxton, the state\u2019s attorney general and personification of the shit-eating grin, defeated John Cornyn 64\u201336 after receiving Trump\u2019s endorsement the previous week. A few weeks ago, no incumbent senator, period, had lost a primary since Alabama\u2019s Luther Strange (who was kind of a fake senator<\/a> anyway) in 2017. Now two\u2014Cornyn and Louisiana\u2019s Bill Cassidy\u2014have lost theirs.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s treatment of Cornyn was crueler than that of Cassidy. At least Trump had a reason to seek revenge against Cassidy, over his impeachment conviction vote in 2021. He didn\u2019t have much reason to despise Cornyn, beyond a stray comment<\/a> here or there. Cornyn had been a conservative soldier in the Senate: raising gobs of money from his Texas network; never once voting against Trump\u2019s or leaders\u2019 wishes. He wasn\u2019t naturally MAGA, sure, and, as do most of the old-guard GOP senators, maybe thought Trump was completely and incurably insane. But he kept this to himself. Cornyn was caught in the crossfire of an ongoing feud between Trump and Senate leaders for the latter\u2019s lack of interest in tossing aside the filibuster, firing the meddlesome parliamentarian, or giving the president his ballroom money. Senate Republicans were forgetting, in Trump\u2019s view, that their role is to serve as his doormat. And so he reminded them.<\/p>\n \n 2.\n <\/p>\n James Talarico<\/p>\n Republicans\u2019 attack plan: Call him a girl.<\/p>\n Well! At least Texas Republicans now have a nominee and can pivot toward the necessary work of othering the Democratic nominee, James Talarico. They were hot out of the gate this week, playing the most cringeworthy\u2014at least if you\u2019re trying to win the political middle in Texas\u2014hits of Talarico\u2019s career, while also making up a few. Talarico did, for example<\/a>, call God \u201cnonbinary,\u201d he did say that there are six biological sexes, he did say that \u201cwhite skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus\u201d of racism. But he is not a vegan, as Republicans all week have been claiming he is. He did, however, recently order potato-egg-and-cheese breakfast tacos\u2014no meat, and no side order of calf blood for dippin\u2019 either.<\/p>\n You\u2019re going to hear a lot of nicknames for Talarico from the Republican side, with hundreds of millions of dollars put behind them in advertisements. Paxton, in his victory speech Tuesday night, called him \u201cSix-Gender Jimmy,\u201d \u201cLow-T Talarico,\u201d \u201cTofu Talarico,\u201d and \u201cJames Tala-freako.\u201d (From a pure nickname-construction standpoint, Six-Gender Jimmy flows best.) All the jabs run to the same delta, though, and it\u2019s an old classic: They\u2019re basically calling Talarico gay, or possibly even a literal girl. Read any post about him from a major account on X, and you may well see hundreds of comments from MAGA accounts saying, in some form or fashion, that Talarico is gay. (Talarico has a girlfriend.) White House aide Stephen Miller, meanwhile<\/a>, is straightforwardly calling him \u201ctransgender.\u201d<\/p>\n Talarico has responded<\/a> that Paxton is \u201cintentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.\u201d There\u2019s no doubt about that. Paxton is a scandal-o-matic blend of private deceit and public corruption. That\u2019s rightly going to be the focal point of Talarico\u2019s campaign. But this race is going to be the sort of toxic mud match in which the candidate who is most unfairly attacked will also likely lose. Talarico might as well throw some weird made-up insinuations at Paxton to keep up.<\/p>\n \n 3.\n <\/p>\n E. Jean Carroll<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s latest errand for the Justice Department.<\/p>\n According to a statement from the DOJ, which we have no reason to believe is ever telling the truth, the department \u201chas not opened\u2014and has never opened\u2014a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll,\u201d who sued Trump years ago for defamation and sexual abuse to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. But CNN reported this week<\/a> that the DOJ has indeed launched a criminal investigation into Carroll and whether she committed perjury in a deposition by saying she had not taken outside funding for her lawsuit\u2014when it was later revealed that tech billionaire (and major Democratic donor) Reid Hoffman had contributed to her case.<\/p>\n Whether the target would be Carroll, Hoffman, or anyone else adjacent to this case who lightened Trump\u2019s wallet, it wouldn\u2019t be good! It would once again be a case of federal prosecutors shaking down people who have been mean to their client, the president. Same old, same old. Unfortunately!<\/p>\n \n 4.\n <\/p>\n Maureen Galindo<\/p>\n A sleaze operation repelled.<\/p>\n Democrats have engaged in plenty of mischief<\/a> to prop up bad Republican candidates in recent election cycles, so they can\u2019t really complain. But hot dog! Republicans are running some sleazy operations in the field this year. A mysterious PAC called Lead Left, which covers its tracks relatively well but still reveals GOP ties<\/a> in its metadata, has been spending money to boost lousy or extremist Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Texas. The lousy, extremist Democratic candidate who has garnered the most national attention<\/a> is Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist running against the party\u2019s preferred candidate, Johnny Garcia, in Texas\u2019 red-leaning but flippable 35th District. Galindo had very little money of her own, but Lead Left spent nearly $1 million to boost her.<\/p>\n Galindo\u2019s campaign blew up after she posted on Instagram<\/a> earlier this month that she would turn an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center into \u201ca prison for American Zionists,\u201d adding, \u201cIt will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists.\u201d This led to a wave of shocked, shocked Republicans calling on Democrats to condemn Galindo; Democrats did so and encouraged<\/a> Republicans to stop paying for her campaign. Anyhoo, Galindo lost her runoff<\/a> this week 64\u201336. Lead Left, which registered its address to a Staples in Florida, will simply have to lick its wounds, get up, and fight harder for the idyllic progressive future it dreams of.<\/p>\n \n 5.\n <\/p>\n Markwayne Mullin<\/p>\n An impressively bad new idea.<\/p>\n The new Homeland Security secretary, irritated about protests outside ICE facilities<\/a> in blue states, has a fresh idea<\/a>: cutting or stopping the processing of international travelers in \u201csanctuary\u201d jurisdictions, i.e., localities that restrict cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Markwayne Mullin said this week<\/a> that although no decision has yet been made, he is \u201cdrawing up plans\u201d to this effect. \u201cThese sanctuary cities where the local radical-left Democrats aren\u2019t allowing us to do our jobs and enforce federal laws,\u201d he said on Fox News, means \u201cwe shouldn\u2019t be processing international flights into their cities either.\u201d<\/p>\n Say the Trump administration canceled international flights into Chicago, New York, Newark, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco\u2014for starters. That would not mean that the international routes would all start going through Dallas and Oklahoma City. It would just mean that most international travel into the United States would be canceled, which would\u2014what\u2019s the right phrase here?\u2014fuck up everything everywhere. The public, rather than blaming Democratic cities for their immigration policies, would probably blame the administration that chose to cancel all the flights for all of the flights being canceled.<\/p>\n Mullin may be out on a limb with this, with CNN reporting<\/a> that the \u201cpush is seen internally as more of a personal desire of Mullin\u2019s than one coming from inside the West Wing.\u201d Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy directly rebutted the idea in a congressional hearing last week, saying, \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t shut down air travel in a state that doesn\u2019t agree with our politics.\u201d So while the idea seems unlikely to be implemented, you never know what self-destructive change of heart Trump could have.<\/p>\n \n 6.\n <\/p>\n Debbie Wasserman Schultz<\/p>\n A delicate district selection.<\/p>\n Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 latest gerrymander of his state cracked the district of longtime Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the empress of Broward County, five different ways. That left her shopping for a new district. She had to choose between a safe Democratic district and a Republican-leaning one that would nevertheless be winnable in a good environment. She chose the safe one, even though she doesn\u2019t presently reside in it.<\/p>\n Her decision is making for some uncomfortable home-state politics. The district she selected, Florida\u2019s new 20th, is a plurality-Black<\/a> and majority-minority district. Plurality- and majority-Black districts are rapidly becoming fewer and farther between since the Supreme Court eliminated protections for them in Louisiana v. Callais, and Wasserman Schultz is getting an earful<\/a> from Black Democratic leaders in the state. Members of Florida\u2019s Democratic National Committee\u2014an organization that Wasserman Schultz, memorably<\/a>, used to chair\u2014wrote this week, \u201cOur party cannot credibly denounce the dismantling of Black political power by Republicans while treating one of Florida\u2019s few remaining majority-Black districts as a political opportunity for an incumbent seeking a safer seat.\u201d Wasserman Schultz\u2019s argument is that she has the ability to do the most for the district as the No. 2 Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Expect more of these awkward collisions as the effects of Callais play out across the country.<\/p>\n \n 7.\n <\/p>\n Jake Auchincloss<\/p>\n Did he miss the news that Janet Mills dropped out, or what?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trump Is Mocking What\u2019s Happening in New Jersey. I Saw It for Myself. Something\u2019s Changing. <\/p>\n Ketanji Brown Jackson Stands Firm\u2014and Alone\u2014on Compassionate Release Pockets within the Democratic Party apparatus remain hesitant to endorse Graham Platner in Maine in his Senate bid against incumbent Susan Collins. Even knowing that, though, the comments of Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts this week were unusually black-and-white. In a CNN interview, Auchincloss said that he finds \u201cthat tattoo and his commentary about it to be personally disqualifying.\u201d He added, \u201cI hope Maine voters agree with me,\u201d because<\/a> \u201cit would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner\u2019s brand of the Democratic Party is what wins us durable majorities throughout this country.\u201d<\/p>\n So if Platner is the presumptive Democratic nominee in the state \u2026 and Auchincloss thinks Platner\u2019s (since-removed) Totenkopf tattoo is \u201cpersonally disqualifying\u201d \u2026 and that he hopes \u201cMaine voters agree with him\u201d \u2026 is Auchincloss saying he hopes Collins beats Platner? No, dingus! How dare you reach a conclusion based on his words! \u201cSusan Collins is a rubber stamp for the worst admin in history,\u201d Auchincloss said<\/a> in a cleanup post. \u201cClaims that I would endorse her, implicitly or otherwise, ignore my track record supporting Democrats to take back both chambers.\u201d He added, \u201cIf it were me I\u2019d vote for someone else in the Maine Democratic primary.\u201d But there\u2019s only token opposition<\/a> in the Democratic primary, not serious competition to Platner. We\u2019re frankly confused how Auchincloss cornered himself into this one. Did he just have a brain fart and forget that Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the primary?<\/p>\n
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