MAGA Begins Hunting People Who Made Trump Assassination Jokes

In recent days, ring-wing social media users have been sniffing out, doxxing, and hounding those who cracked offensive jokes or comments about last week’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Namely, Chaya Raichik, who runs the prominent far-right X account Libs of TikTok, has spent the week doggedly pursuing everyday retail workers, teachers, and public safety personnel who made insensitive remarks in the wake of the incident.

For example, after one social media user posted a video confronting a Home Depot cashier for making a Facebook comment that read, “To bad they weren’t a better shooter!!!!!,” Raichik’s account shared the footage with the caption, “Hi @HomeDepot! Are you aware that you employ people who call for political violence and the ass*ss*nat*on of Presidents? Any comment?” On Tuesday, Home Depot’s official X account announced that the woman “no longer works at” the home improvement store.

Also on Tuesday, after Raichik’s account put the name and workplace of an Oklahoma schoolteacher who made a similar remark on blast, it caught the attention of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction. Walters vowed to investigate and, later that evening, posted, “I will be taking her teaching certificate. She will no longer be teaching in Oklahoma.” (Walters, it should be noted, recently appointed Raichik to a position where she can advise school libraries in Oklahoma.)

On Sunday, a Pennsylvania firefighter found himself in the crosshairs of Libs of TikTok after posting, “Too bad it didn’t hit him square.” The following day, according to NorthcentralPA.com, a bomb threat was made on the fire house where he was captain, which “may have been connected to [the] viral social media post.” On Tuesday, the man announced his resignation in a statement online, writing, “I have been threatened. My family has been threatened. My friends have been threatened. I have never felt so unsafe in my life.”

To think it was once a purported consensus on the right that upending the livelihoods of ordinary people for making unsavory remarks is a vile feature of cancel culture.

Texas’s border battle with the Biden administration is apparently not going to end anytime soon, at least according to its governor.

Speaking at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Governor Greg Abbott bragged about the contentious back-and-forth he had with federal border agents earlier this year. That spat ended with the Supreme Court siding in favor of the Biden administration. In a 5–4 decision, the high court ruled that Texas had overstepped its authority by placing razor wire along the Rio Grande section of the U.S.-Mexico border. It also gave the green light to the federal government to snip and move sections of the wire that had prevented federal border agents from doing their job.

But all of that was in the rearview mirror for Abbott, who insisted Wednesday that not only had he brought the “border crisis” to President Joe Biden but that the job was far from over.

“We have continued busing migrants to sanctuary cities all across the country,” Abbott said, accusing the undocumented immigrants of being “rapists,” “murderers,” and “terrorists” while attendees waved signs calling for “mass deportations now.”

“Those buses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border,” he added.

Before the Supreme Court ruling, Abbott’s signature Operation Lone Star had bused more than 100,000 migrants from Texas detention centers to cities across the country. That included sending more than 37,000 undocumented people to New York, 30,000 people to Chicago, and 12,500 people to Washington, D.C., according to the governor’s office.

But continuing the highly controversial and extraordinarily cruel program could prove to be legally dubious, economically unsound, and possibly ineffective. In a May report, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas found that the state had spent $11 billion on increased border security funding, including the busing program, with the intent to “detect and repel illegal crossings, arrest human smugglers and cartel gang members, and stop the flow of deadly drugs like fentanyl.”

But the massive expenditure doesn’t seem to have paid off. The majority (43 percent) of those caught and arrested were charged with misdemeanors, while less than 3 percent of the individuals arrested actually went before a judge for drug offenses. Even fewer (2 percent) went to court on weapons charges.

“Texas has no business trying to run its own immigration enforcement program,” Sarah Cruz, policy and advocacy strategist for border and immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Texas, told Texas Public Radio at the time. “Governor Abbott and other state politicians conflating immigration with drugs and crime is as false as it is inflammatory and dangerous to our communities.”

To top it off, some political operatives have accused Abbott—and Governor Ron DeSantis, who operated a similar program in Florida—of engaging in human trafficking, while legal experts have roundly criticized the program as unconstitutional.

Four Republican senators went ballistic as they chased Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle out of the Republican National Convention, demanding her resignation if she would not answer their questions about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Senators John Barrasso, Marsha Blackburn, James Lankford, and Kevin Cramer surrounded Cheatle in a suite at the convention Wednesday night. Blackburn posted a video of their furious encounter on X, which Fox News was able to caption.

Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, said he was “very disappointed” after a dual congressional phone briefing earlier that day, during which Cheatle had failed to address all of his questions about the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. “Every one of us have questions that we wanted to ask, we felt we didn’t get any of the responses that were necessary from you,” Barrasso said.

Cheatle reportedly acknowledged that there had been “mistakes and gaffes” that allowed for the attempted assassin to get his shot at the former president, one person familiar with the briefing told Politico. But, it appeared that her responses earlier Wednesday had not satisfied the concerns of these senators.

Barrasso insisted that Cheatle had allowed Trump to take the stage after the Secret Service had already identified the possible threat. “Very disappointed in your leadership,” Barrasso continued, saying that he blamed Cheatle for putting the former president “within less than an inch of his life.”

“So, resignation, or full explanation to us right now,” he said.

Blackburn echoed Barrasso’s demands for answers. “Can you give us an explanation? Why would anyone allow the president to go on stage when you know you’ve got a potential threat and you’ve got snipers that are trained on him?” she asked.

“I don’t think that this is the forum to have this discussion,” Cheatle said, invoking cries of outrage from both senators.

“Oh, yes ma’am, it is the forum!” Blackburn retorted.

“But wait, you hung up on us!” Barrasso cried.

“Let me just say the hospitality suite is actually to thank the partners who have helped secure the Republican National Convention. I would not want to take away from their evening,” Cheatle said. “I am happy to answer questions, we will do it in the appropriate forum.”

Still, Blackburn insisted, “This is appropriate!”

“I’m going to leave because I want these people to be able to enjoy their evening,” Cheatle said.

As she began to walk out of the suite, Barrasso and Blackburn insisted on following her out. “No, no, no, we’re going with you,” they said.

As the group made its way quickly through the hallways of the arena, the senators would not relent in their efforts to shame Cheatle.

“It was an assassination attempt!” Blackburn cried. “Just say it’s an assassination attempt.”

“There’s no shame, no concern,” Barrasso scolded. “You’re supposed to protect the president of the United States.”

Senator Kevin Cramer also piped up. “Do you answer to anyone? I’m going to tell you who you answer to, you answer to us,” he cried.

“Stonewalling! You do nothing,” Barrasso fumed.

As the senators were forced to break into a light jog, they continued to yell angrily at Cheatle. “You cannot run away from your responsibility to the people of the United States,” Barrasso shouted.

“You can keep running, but you can’t hide from us!” Blackburn yelled.

Cheatle has given no indication that she intends to hide, and has agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee next week, after receiving a subpoena from Representative James Comer.

Senator J.D. Vance’s speech at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night thoroughly underwhelmed the viewing audience, including Donald Trump.

The newly anointed vice presidential nominee reportedly bored the convention audience in Milwaukee, with his small fist pumps and stories about rural Appalachia failing to win over a friendly crowd. Trump even appeared to be dozing off at times.

The speech didn’t receive much praise outside of die-hard MAGA Republicans on social media, with the consensus being that it was dull and fell flat.

But that may have been by design, according to one observer, as Trump never likes to be overshadowed or have too much attention taken away from him.

And Trump may not have chosen Vance for his speaking skills but rather for his connections to right-wing Silicon Valley bigwigs like Peter Thiel and David Sacks.

Watch the full speech below to see for yourself.

On Thursday, Axios reported that top Democrats are convinced Biden will soon relent on calls for him to bow out of the 2024 presidential race.

According to several unnamed Democrats, including Biden aides, “the rising pressure of party congressional leaders and close friends will persuade President Biden to decide to drop out of the presidential race, as soon as this weekend,” Axios reported.

The report comes as calls for Biden to drop out have reached a fever pitch. On Wednesday, Representative Adam Schiff publicly urged him to step down, and reporting revealed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have done the same in private conversations with the president. Now those close to Biden are admonishing him that remaining in the race could mar his legacy and deliver a “landslide” victory to Trump and the Republicans in November, Axios reported.

Over the past week, Biden’s intransigence regarding his presidential bid has reportedly softened. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that he was growing “more receptive in the last several days to hearing arguments” against continuing his candidacy, and a senior Democratic adviser told CNN Biden has “gone from saying, ‘Kamala can’t win,’ to ‘Do you think Kamala can win?’”

A friend of Biden told Axios that Biden’s “choice is to be one of history’s heroes, or to be sure of the fact that there’ll never be a Biden presidential library,” adding, “I pray that he does the right thing. He’s headed that way.”