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Top election schemes roiling key midterm races as both parties accuse rivals of trickery
Republicans and Democrats are deploying increasingly aggressive tactics to shape the 2026 midterms — including efforts to influence rival primaries, obscure political spending and exploit election deadlines.
Both parties are accusing one another of using cynical tactics to influence voters and shape the field ahead of Election Day, even as operatives aligned with each of them employ similar strategies. Those maneuvers have included routing millions of dollars through deceptively named political committees to influence rival primaries and using filing deadlines in ways that gave favored successors a clearer path to the ballot
Many of these schemes are being carried out in key races, meaning that control of Congress may come down to what many view as cheap tricks — a prospect that could serve to further erode public trust in government.
Two separate individuals named Dan Sullivan are running for Senate in Alaska, and a third just endorsed one over the other.
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Republicans have argued that the confusing state of affairs in Alaska is the product of a Democratic ploy to disorient voters.
Incumbent GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is facing a challenge from teacher Dan J. Sullivan, whom Republicans have accused of running as a Republican solely to confuse voters to the benefit of Democrats. Alaska’s electoral system allows the top-four vote-getters in the state’s nonpartisan primary to advance to the ranked-choice general election.
Fox News Power Rankings rates the Alaska Senate race as a toss-up, meaning neither party currently has a clear advantage. If enough voters confuse Dan S. Sullivan with Dan J. Sullivan, it could be enough to give Democratic nominee Mary Peltola an edge.
Republicans point to the fact that Dan J. Sullivan worked with a Democratic-aligned consultant as evidence that he is part of a plot to siphon voters off of Dan S. Sullivan. Dan J. Sullivan, meanwhile, maintains that he is an actual Republican with legitimate grievances as to the incumbent senator’s representation of his state.
A third Dan Sullivan, the former mayor of Anchorage, recently waded into the Senate race to endorse Dan S. Sullivan.
Dan J. Sullivan is reportedly being investigated by the Justice Department and Alaska election officials in separate probes examining whether he sought to deliberately mislead voters. The investigation follows a failed Republican legal effort to remove him from the ballot.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee reportedly worked behind the scenes to encourage Rep. Jasmine Crockett to enter Texas’ Democratic Senate primary. Once she entered, other Republican actors also ran messaging that Democrats argued could help her with primary voters.
One source familiar with the process dubbed it an "AstroTurf recruitment process" when speaking with NOTUS in 2025.
The NRSC began its alleged campaign by releasing a poll showing Crockett, who was believed by some to be a weaker candidate in a general election than Texas State Rep. James Talarico, leading the field in a hypothetical Democratic primary. Prior to the NRSC's poll, Crockett had not been included in most primary surveys.
That quickly changed and subsequent polls showed Crockett pulling in considerable support. The congresswoman ultimately cited the strong polling as part of her motivation in entering the race.
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The source who spoke to NOTUS claimed that the NRSC worked diligently to spread those polls in progressive digital spaces and drum up support for Crockett. Once she entered the race, conservative political committees ran ads ostensibly criticizing her liberal record, though critics argued this was merely an underhanded tactic to get more Democrats to support her by publicizing positions that are generally popular with the Democratic base.
Multiple Republicans also said publicly that they were concerned about her candidacy, statements that could entice liberal voters to throw their support behind her.
Even with Crockett defeated, tensions from the bruising primary have lingered, with some Black elected officials and activists pressing Talarico to do more to address concerns among voters who overwhelmingly backed Crockett.
A network of Democratic donors, dark-money groups and left-leaning super PACs has spent well over $10 million backing five independents in Republican-leaning areas.
Critics of the strategy see it as a way for liberals to sneak left-leaning lawmakers into Congress by eschewing the branding of the Democratic Party. Though the candidates identify themselves as independents, skeptics hold that they’ll vote like Democrats if elected, a charge many of them deny, stressing their independence.
In the Nebraska, Idaho and South Dakota Senate races, for instance, the Democratic nominees withdrew from their races, which Republicans have pointed to as evidence that the party is using independent candidates as a backdoor to get liberals into Congress.
GOP SENATOR, EX-HOUSE DEM EMERGE FROM ALASKA’S ‘JUNGLE PRIMARY’ DESPITE FAR-LEFT MEDDLING
"Dan has taken small-dollar donations from Republicans, Independents, and Democrats from all 93 of Nebraska's counties who are done being taken advantage of by D.C. lobbyists, corporate PACs, and party bosses," a campaign spokesperson for Dan Osborn, the independent running in Nebraska, told Fox News Digital. "Ricketts has been running from his record all campaign and has resorted to lying about Dan because he’s scared."
On the other side of the aisle, Republican political operatives have admitted to using deceptively named super PACs to boost far-left Democratic candidates in primary elections as part of a strategy to elevate easier-to-defeat opponents.
Conservative Americans PAC, a super PAC funded by the right-leaning dark money group American Prosperity Alliance, funneled millions of dollars into three ostensibly left-leaning committees called Lead Left PAC, Real Change PAC and California Blue PAC.
The seemingly liberal committees, in turn, spent large sums of money backing candidates in Democratic primaries widely believed to be weaker general election contenders than their opponents.
Conservative Americans PAC was able to do this undetected because the the ostensibly liberal PACs were formed sufficiently late such that disclosures revealing the right-wing funding did not need to be released until after the primary elections were over. This means that, as the ads were rolling, voters had no way of knowing who was paying for them.
"Republicans are leveling the playing field after over a decade of Democrats meddling in our primaries, and with the Democrat Party in the midst of a civil war, Republicans would be stupid not to take advantage while pushing their candidates farther left," a spokeswoman for Conservative Americans PAC said of the spending.
Some political polls that circulated widely this cycle were later revealed to have been fabricated.
Median Strategies, an organization recently revealed to have been run by a 21-year-old, released polls on the Los Angeles mayoral election as well as the Wisconsin and Nevada gubernatorial elections that circulated through the media ecosystem, drawing coverage from news outlets and even being touted by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
After members of the press began raising scrutiny, however, Median Strategies folded and admitted that its polls were fake to the Los Angeles Times.
"Median Strategies was created as a short term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification," the company said in an email to the Times.
The fake polling outfit pushed polls claiming that Bass was leading her DSA-aligned rival by a significant margin and that Wisconsin state lawmaker Francesca Hong, who ultimately lost her primary, had a commanding lead over other Democrats.
Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, suspended his re-election campaign just minutes before the filing deadline for candidates.
While this may seem puzzling on its own, Kurt Alme, Daines’ preferred successor, filed paperwork to run for Senate just minutes before the senator withdrew.
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When a sitting member of Congress retires, top-tier candidates typically throw their hats into the ring to take advantage of the fact that there won’t be an incumbent to run against. Because Daines held off retiring to the last moment, and seemingly coordinated with Alme, he effectively cleared the field for him, as no high-profile Republicans filed to run in Montana’s Senate primary.
"They obviously did this to keep certain people out of these races," former Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester said of the maneuver. "It wasn’t an accident."
Daines wasn't the only one to leverage filing deadlines in this manner.
Rep. Chuy Garcia, a Chicago-area Democrat, decided not to seek reelection, while his congressional chief of staff had gathered the signatures necessary to appear on the Democratic primary ballot. Once again, the maneuver effectively cleared the way for a lawmaker's chosen successor.
Garcia cited health problems when explaining his sudden decision to retire, though he called criticisms over how the situation looked "fair."
NJ boater faces homicide charge as deadly summer on the water claims another life in third fatal crash
A New Jersey man faces felony charges following a late-night crash in Barnegat Bay that killed a 26-year-old passenger and left two others critically injured along the Jersey Shore in late July.
Troopers from the New Jersey State Police Marine Bureau arrested Kevin Wells, 40, of Warren, New Jersey, on Friday, charging him with vehicular homicide and two counts of assault by vessel while intoxicated.
State police said troopers responded just before 11 p.m. on July 25 to reports of a serious vessel collision along the Intracoastal Waterway in Toms River Township.
Investigators said Wells was operating a 32-foot Boston Whaler through the waterway when the boat struck a channel marker.
Following the impact, Wells navigated the damaged vessel to a private residence on Silver Lagoon Drive in Toms River Township, where emergency personnel arrived to render aid.
A passenger aboard the boat, Michael T. Bereheiko, 26, of Green Brook, New Jersey, was rushed to an area hospital, where he later died.
Two other passengers – 27-year-old Steven Pochick, of Green Brook, and 27-year-old Nicholas Cherasaro, of North Plainfield – sustained serious injuries and were transported to a local hospital. A fourth passenger, 24-year-old Sarah Stulh, of Bayville, suffered minor injuries.
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According to his obituary, Bereheiko was a 2017 graduate of Watchung Hills Regional High School, where he played varsity football on both offense and defense. Teammates affectionately called him "Bear."
He later attended Lincoln Tech, studied to become a heavy diesel mechanic and worked for Schifano Construction Corporation in Middlesex. His family noted he possessed a natural mechanical talent and loved spending time at the Jersey Shore.
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Following his arrest on Friday, Wells was booked into the Ocean County Jail. Records show he is being held without bail pending a formal court detention hearing.
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State police said the investigation into the crash remains active.
The incident marks at least the third fatal boating collision involving alleged impairment in the area this summer.
State police charged another New Jersey boater in August for a separate fatal Memorial Day crash along the Jersey Shore. Jennifer L. Pearson, 59, of Barnegat, surrendered on Aug. 19 after authorities alleged she was intoxicated while operating a 23-foot center console vessel in Barnegat Bay near Brant Beach.
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Pearson’s boat collided with a channel marker around 5:45 p.m., ejecting her 28-year-old son, Gunnar Pearson, and his girlfriend into the water. Gunnar Pearson was rushed to a hospital, where he later died, while four others were treated for minor injuries.
Pearson faces charges of second-degree death by vessel, operating a vessel under the influence, reckless operation, operating without a safety certificate and failure to keep a proper lookout.
Court records show investigators smelled alcohol when speaking with Pearson, who admitted to drinking earlier that afternoon.
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In a third fatal crash this summer, authorities charged 64-year-old Stephen Schneider after a July 19 boating collision claimed the lives of his two young grandchildren in the bay near Berkeley Township, NJ.com reported.
Schneider was charged with two counts of reckless vessel homicide after his boat struck a channel marker, the outlet reported.
Police alleged Schneider was intoxicated at the time of the crash, which killed 9-year-old Mya Bella Golabek and 7-year-old Sigmund Paul Golabek.
Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
Naked DoorDash driver delivers food to Texas home in shocking security camera video
A Houston DoorDash customer said he was shocked when he went to fetch his food from his doorstep and saw on his security camera that the delivery driver was naked.
Kiante Matlock told FOX 26 Houston that he didn't expect the delivery driver to drop off his food while naked, "which is crazy."
"And then to handle somebody's food … is ridiculous," he said. "[There] could have been an underage child coming to the door or a woman. … It's just sick."
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Matlock told FOX 26 he was playing video games inside his home when his daughter alerted him to a notification on his phone, which turned out to be a notice from DoorDash that his Burger King order had arrived.
When he first looked at the Ring doorbell camera footage, Matlock thought the driver was wearing a onesie before realizing he was "completely naked."
By the time Matlock got to the door, the driver was gone.
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Matlock said he did not eat the food the naked driver delivered and that DoorDash refunded his order.
"What this consumer experienced was abhorrent, and we've reached out directly to offer our support," a DoorDash spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
"This man's behavior was vulgar and completely unacceptable, and as soon as we were made aware, our team permanently removed their access to our platform. We do not tolerate sexual harassment or misconduct of any kind, and we stand ready to assist law enforcement with any investigation."
The driver has not been identified.
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DoorDash urges customers to report inappropriate or concerning delivery behavior through the app and to contact law enforcement, including 911 in emergencies, if they feel unsafe.
Houston police told FOX 26 that residents should report concerning behavior and preserve surveillance footage or other evidence. Depending on the circumstances, criminal charges could be possible following an investigation.
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Matlock said he wanted to share his experience to help protect others.
"If you have the opportunity to go get your own food, go get your own food," he said. "But if you can't, I guess just be careful and get you some cameras, that's all I can say."
Democrats’ generational battle erupts as 80-year-old senator faces younger challenger
Massachusetts is the latest battleground in the political fight between the left and the center for the future of the Democratic Party.
But in a flip of the script, progressives are supporting the longtime incumbent against a more moderate challenger as solidly blue Massachusetts holds primary elections on Tuesday.
The Senate nomination showdown between 80-year-old Sen. Ed Markey and 47-year-old Rep. Seth Moulton is also the latest faceoff in the Democratic Party's push for generational change, which was fueled two years ago by then-81-year-old President Joe Biden's exit from the presidential race amid questions over his physical and mental stamina following a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
There's a six-way scrum to succeed Moulton in the U.S. House, and four members of the state's all-Democrat congressional delegation, including House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, are facing challenges from the left. And Bay State Republicans will choose a gubernatorial nominee to challenge Democratic Gov. Maura Healey.
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But taking center stage on Tuesday is the battle between Markey and Moulton.
Markey, who served 37 years in the House before winning election in the Senate in 2013, is backed by progressive champions Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who seven years ago teamed up with Markey to co-sponsor the Green New Deal.
The senator is vowing to keep fighting for a left-wing agenda that along with the Green New Deal includes Medicare for All, a Trans Bill of Rights, taxing billionaires, and slashing military spending.
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Moulton, a Marine Corps combat veteran, is backed by New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Naval Academy graduate who piloted helicopters, and recently landed the endorsement of the Boston Globe, the state's largest daily newspaper
Moulton has made generational change a centerpiece of his primary challenge,
"I served with some of the most amazing leaders in my life in the Marines, but at 23 years old, they don't get to run for Congress," Moulton said at last week's final debate. "I think we should have upper age limits as well."
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Markey responded, "I think everyone watching this debate can see that I'm more energized than I've ever been before and in my life."
"Congressman Moulton has a hard time keeping up with me," the senator added.
But Markey seemed unclear of the topic when asked whether he uses A.I. platforms like Claude or ChatGPT in his work. The senator answered that he uses "whatever is inside of my iPhone or my iPad — whatever comes up."
The two rivals agree on many issues, including abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and allowing biological males to participate in female sports. But Moulton during the primary campaign was forced to apologize for his past remarks that he did not want his young daughters "getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete."
Markey was the clear polling and fundraising frontrunner heading into the primary election.
The winner will be considered the overwhelming favorite to win the general election against attorney John Deaton, the presumptive Republican Senate nominee.
Six candidates are facing off in the battle to succeed Moulton for the Democratic nomination in Massachusetts' 6th Congressional District, including former Andover Selectman Dan Koh, financial technology executive John Beccia and state Rep. Tram Nguyen.
Koh, who served in then-President Joe Biden's administration, is showcasing endorsements from Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Micah Q. Jones, who is unopposed for the nomination.
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Among the incumbents facing primary challenges from the left is Clark, who is the second-ranking Democrat in the House. So is longtime Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch, who is working to fend off a challenge from attorney Patrick Roath, who out-raised the incumbent.
In the race for the Republican nomination for governor, Army veteran, businessman, and former CEO Mike Minogue is facing off against Briani Shortsleeve, a Marine Corps veteran, businessman and chief administrator and a former acting general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Minogue has the backing of the Massachusetts GOP.
The winner will face an uphill climb in the general election against Healey in a state dominated by Democrats but where Republicans have had success in gubernatorial showdowns.
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Tuesday's primary could potentially be the last under the current system.
That's because Massachusetts voters will decide during the general election on a ballot initiative that would get rid of the state's current primary system and replace it with a single, all-party primary.
Under that system, the top two vote-getters would advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.
Trump says Iran is ‘DEAD’ — experts point to the real sign Tehran is nearing the brink
President Donald Trump declared Iran a "Failed Nation" Monday, claiming the country is economically and militarily broken as renewed fighting with the U.S. raises questions about how much leverage Tehran still has left.
"Iran is officially a Failed Nation. IT IS DEAD!" Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday morning. "They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, they have no currency, they are not paying their soldiers or police."
Trump also claimed Iranian inflation had reached 300% and said the country's leadership was "in total disarray and incapable of properly representing the country."
Iran is facing pressure from nearly every direction — renewed U.S. military strikes, tighter sanctions and a steep drop in oil exports — raising fresh questions about how long Tehran can keep absorbing the economic pain and still maintain leverage against Washington.
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Official Iranian data cited by Reuters put annual inflation at 66% in July, while the IMF projects average consumer-price inflation of 68.9% in 2026.
Trump's post came amid the sharpest US-Iran military escalation in weeks. U.S. forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island Sunday after Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz, according to a U.S. official. Iran retaliated by launching ballistic missiles toward U.S. bases in Jordan, while Jordan said it intercepted eight missiles that entered its airspace.
The renewed confrontation comes as Washington ratchets up economic pressure.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Reuters Sunday that the administration expects to roll out additional secondary sanctions as frequently as every week, initially focusing on banks and potentially cutting financial institutions that continue facilitating Iranian transactions out of the U.S. dollar-based financial system.
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Iran's own leaders are acknowledging growing economic strain.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran's exports and imports have fallen nearly 35% because of U.S. sanctions and the naval blockade, while annual inflation reached 66% in July, Reuters reported Aug. 29. The IMF projects Iran's economy will contract 5.4% this year.
Miad Maleki, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who previously served as associate director of Treasury's Office of Global Targeting at the Office of Foreign Assets Control, told Fox News Digital that the Islamic Republic may be nearing an economic breaking point. FDD says Maleki previously helped oversee U.S. sanctions programs and served as chief and senior sanctions coordinator for Iran and the Middle East.
"I think where we stand today, it's very clear — we see very clear signs, indications of what I would call an economy that is on the verge of collapse, if it hasn't already collapsed yet," Maleki said.
Maleki argued that the critical pressure point is Iran's ability to turn oil exports into usable revenue.
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He estimates Tehran needs roughly 1 million barrels of oil exports per day to sustain itself, about 1.5 million to avoid hyperinflation and approximately 2 million to support development. Maleki said Iranian exports have fallen dramatically and Tehran is increasingly struggling to repatriate revenue from the oil it can sell.
Kpler data cited by Reuters showed Chinese imports of Iranian crude falling from an average 1.4 million barrels per day in 2025 to a provisional 534,000 barrels per day so far in August.
Maleki said Tehran is increasingly relying on money creation rather than cutting politically sensitive salaries and pensions. But there are limits.
"They can keep printing money, but they can't really print the type of commodities that they need, such as gasoline, such as wheat," he said.
The pressure, however, may create a dangerous paradox.
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Iran analyst Danny Citrinowicz, a fellow at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, told Fox News Digital that the maritime blockade, wartime losses and wider economic pressure are hurting Tehran, but argued Washington should not assume economic pain will lead to capitulation.
Citrinowicz said continued pressure could instead increase Tehran's incentive to escalate if Iranian leaders conclude the status quo is worse than renewed confrontation. He said Iran could attempt to target "U.S. economic assets in the Gulf," ports or U.S. vessels involved in enforcing the blockade, even as its missile-production capabilities have been degraded.
Maleki agreed Iran would likely attempt to escalate, but questioned how much leverage Tehran still possesses.
"They're going to try to escalate," Maleki said, pointing to the attacks of the last 24 hours. But he argued that further escalation would increasingly affect Gulf states Iran has relied upon for trade, sanctions evasion and diplomacy — potentially bringing even greater economic and diplomatic pressure.
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Asked whether Iran was losing its leverage, Maleki responded: "Absolutely."
He argued Tehran has emerged weakened from internal unrest and the external war and is increasingly isolated domestically and internationally.
What Maleki is watching next is not necessarily missed government payrolls, but shortages that could trigger another wave of domestic unrest.
"What I'm looking for is shortages of items such as gasoline," Maleki said. "Right now they're fighting a war inside Iran that is way more challenging to the regime than it is from external forces that they're facing."
Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained severely disrupted Monday, while Brent crude climbed more than 2% to above $90 as markets reacted to the renewed U.S.-Iran exchanges. Reuters reported Aug. 31 that Gulf oil flows have recovered from their wartime lows but remain below pre-war levels.
Maleki said he expects Iranians to return to the streets and argued Western governments should prepare now to help them communicate and organize if Tehran again shuts down internet access.
"What we need to do is to contain this regime, cut off this economic lifeline, empower the Iranian people, be prepared next time Iranians are back on the street [and] take actions to stop this regime from slaughtering Iranians," Maleki said.
"Those are the right policies — put the pressure on, be prepared to push back on the Iranian regime every time it escalates," he added. "At this point, they are the weakest they've been since 1979. Every time they try to escalate, they become weaker."
Reuters contributed to this story.
Judge who axed 9/11 mastermind's confession blamed military’s ‘conservative tendencies’ for rising ‘extremism’
The judge who recently threw out a confession by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, previously argued that the U.S. military had a growing domestic extremism problem fueled in part by "conservative tendencies" reinforced by "extreme right-wing groups."
Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, an Air Force judge who specializes in military and environmental law, is presiding over the military commission in the 9/11 case. Last week, he tossed Mohammed’s 2007 confession on the grounds that it was not given voluntarily. The ruling could complicate what has already been a decades-long wait for the suspected plotter to stand trial. Just days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, Schrama rejected prosecutors’ request to begin the trial in January 2027 and instead set it for June 2028.
The decision, which was not initially made public, has drawn criticism, including from journalist and author Gerald Posner, who called it a "shameful prelude to the 9/11 anniversary." Scrutiny of Schrama’s record has also resurfaced a 2023 essay he wrote titled "Creating a Codified Legal Response to Domestic Extremism in the Ranks" for the national security and foreign policy publication "War on the Rocks."
In the essay, Schrama argued for creating a new provision in the military legal code to address what he referred to as the "rising population of military members engaging in extremist activities."
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Before his role on the military commission overseeing the 9/11 case, Schrama served as an Air Force trial judge at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. He has also served as a staff judge advocate and defense counsel and was deployed in 2019 as a staff judge advocate to Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. Between June 2017 and January 2019, he specialized in environmental law.
He wrote in his essay that "as an active-duty Air Force military judge, I have seen firsthand a rising population of military members engaging in extremist activities."
He said that "there is more than ample evidence that military members are a ripe population for extremist recruitment" and that the "rise of domestic extremism in the military ranks is a threat to national security."
To illustrate his argument, he pointed to a 2021 study by the Center for Strategic & International Studies that said military personnel were responsible for 17.6% of domestic terrorism plots and attacks.
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He also wrote that 12% of those charged with participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot had some form of military experience, including service members on active duty.
As to the reasons for this rising extremism, he argued that "military institutions tend to become more conservative and isolated from civilian society" and that "these conservative tendencies are constantly reinforced, and young military members can be easy prey for the extreme right-wing groups that relate through similar conservative ideology."
"Unfortunately, the United States Criminal Code and the Uniform Code of Military Justice do not currently provide the tools to deal with this crisis, as they do not treat domestic extremism as a specific criminal offense," he wrote, adding, "Codifying domestic extremism as a punitive article under the military code would provide a means for commanders to adequately address the rising tide of domestic extremism."
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He also noted a 2019 case in which a Coast Guard officer pleaded guilty to gun and drug charges after prosecutors said he stashed weapons and planned to murder Democratic politicians, Supreme Court justices and TV journalists.
He wrote that "despite describing Hasson as a domestic terrorist, federal prosecutors chose these more minor charges due to the fact that no domestic terrorism statute currently exists."
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Ronald Flesvig, a spokesperson for the Military Commissions Convening Authority, declined to comment on Schrama's ruling, saying it would be inappropriate to comment on the military judge's decision. He also declined to comment on Schrama's essay, saying it was published "not in his capacity as a judge for the military commissions."
Mohammed’s case, along with those of three co-defendants — Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin 'Atash, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali — has been stuck in pretrial proceedings for years. Schrama became the fifth judge assigned to preside over the case in 2025.
In response to Schrama’s decision last week, White House senior advisor Stephen Mueller told Fox News, "Our judicial system is so badly broken it sides at every turn with predators, monsters and, in this case, a 9/11 mastermind."
Mueller also railed that the system "enables the persecution of innocent Americans who did nothing wrong, while protecting cartel killers and foreign terrorists."
"It’s a disgrace, it’s a travesty, it’s an outrage," he said.
MORNING GLORY: We're living through the Summer of the DSA (and Hasan Piker)
1967’s "Summer of Love" kicked off the American habit of defining a summer season with a phrase. Some phrases stick. Some do not.
1968’s "Summer of Rage" tagline stuck.
The "Summer of Watergate" could be 1973 and the Senate Select Committee’s hearings would have stuck, but President Richard Nixon survived those and would have survived the summer of 1974 but for the release of the tapes.
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The Bicentennial Summer was as memorable as this summer’s celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States — but those months are defined by a day, not months. 1977’s Summer of Sam, 1994’s Summer of O.J. and 2020’s Summer of George Floyd are not fixtures of the language, but do serve as reference points.
With a week left in this summer, the touchpoints seem likely to be the rise of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the meteoric rise in awareness among the general public of Hasan Piker, an online Twitch streamer whose toxic combination of radical politics, profanity, vulgarity, anti-Israel and hate-filled rhetoric merged with the DSA’s march through the Democratic primaries to make it appear to "normal" Americans from the center-left to the center-right as though the Democratic Party had become unhinged and taken over by a cult-like group of crazed anti-American extremists.
The "Summer of the DSA and Hasan Piker" is unwieldy, but accurate. Shorthand will probably reduce it to the "Summer of the DSA," and even though Piker is closely ideologically aligned with DSA, appearing at DSA events and rallies, Piker does not appear to be a dues-paying DSAer.
Still, the "Summer of DSA" will catch him up even as it includes the primary election victories of Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania, Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander in New York (Lander is a former DSA member but left in 2023), and Democratic Senate nominees Angie Nixon in Florida and Troy Jackson in Maine who are DSA-endorsed candidates. Hard-left "progressive" Democrats running for Senate like Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and James Talarico in Texas have not been formally endorsed by their state DSAs or the national group, but their ascendancy compliments rather than contradicts the enormous shift to the left of the Democrats in the wake of President Trump’s re-election in 2024.
DSA’S GROWING GRIP ON DEM PARTY HITS NEW TERRITORY AS ESTABLISHMENT FALLS IN LINE
Will the "Summer of DSA" define the actual midterms ahead? Many in legacy media want to define the fall’s voting, which culminates on November 3, as a referendum on President Trump but that’s not what is unfolding. The rise of the DSA and unhinged rantings like those of Piker as well as numerous "co-chairs" of the DSA has muddied what would typically be a "referendum" election, turning it in many if not most statewide or Congressional district races into a "choice election" of the sort Republicans are hoping for.
Because the DSA, Piker, candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and James Talarico in Texas are just so far outside of the mainstream of American politics as to shift the awareness of the American electorate away from the issues of 2026 to the much bigger issue of the future of the country. The vast majority of Americans love their country. They can and do disagree among themselves on the politics of the moment and the policies that would best serve the country’s future.
But, that they want a future similar to the past, but improved at the margins remains the central and abiding truth of the American experience. We don’t want the "DSA way" and we sure do not want people addicted to rage the way Hasan Piker is to dominate our politics. El-Sayed’s limp attempt to distance himself from Piker this past weekend as summer draws to a close only guaranteed another week or more of scrutiny on El-Sayed’s choice to bring Piker into the Wolverine State’s politics. El-Sayed put on the Piker bodysuit, and it turns out it is very difficult if not impossible to erase that choice from the electorate’s consciousness.
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El-Sayed’s political free-fall has spillover effects across the country, as does the fact that the "Squad" in the House of Representatives is probably going to at least double in the next Congress. The Squad is almost certainly going to control the choice of the next House Democratic Leader. The increase in "Squad" numbers may remove Hakeem Jeffries as Leader of House Democrats, but it may not. Republicans are well aware of what a small majority means: the empowerment of the party’s fringiest members. The DSA could well be running the next House majority.
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The "Summer of the DSA" has made that possibility a crucial issue across every federal race. It is not a cause for celebration among Republicans, who realize that the country needs a healthy Democratic Party and not one run by extremists from the left.
Democrats need a way back to "between the '30s" competition in American political debates or the Democrats could face a wipeout of their extremist candidates outside of deep blue Congressional districts. (A "between the ‘40s" field would be even better for them.) An electoral train wreck in 2026 would, however, prevent an even worse crack-up in 2028, a presidential election year that could become a replay of the 1972 crash-out of the Democrats under the banner of George McGovern.
The post-mortems of the 2026 cycle will be remarkable to read. The headlines of the ones faithful to the facts will include the abbreviation "DSA" and the name "Hasan Piker."
Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
SEN BERNIE SANDERS: Yes, we must hit the pause button on AI before it is too late
Very few people disagree. Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will profoundly impact the lives of every man, woman and child in our country.
These revolutionary technologies will radically change our economy and, quite likely, eliminate tens of millions of jobs over the next decade.
They will result in the evisceration of our privacy, negatively impact the mental health of our children, radically alter how we as human beings relate to each other, undermine our democracy and transform the very nature of warfare.
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Further, AI data centers are raising electricity prices, straining water systems and harming the environment. That is why 75% of Americans oppose data centers near where they live and why over 500 communities have put in place restrictions on their construction.
Let’s be clear: this revolutionary transformation of society is being driven by the wealthiest people on Earth – including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison.
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As most Americans understand, these Big Tech oligarchs are not investing many hundreds of billions of dollars into AI because they want to improve the lives of ordinary Americans. Rather, they are doing it because they want to become even richer and more powerful than they already are – no matter how many lives they ruin in the process.
And here is something even more alarming. Over just the past month, there has been a frightening new story nearly every day about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results. Last month, we learned that AI has been used for the first time ever to create new viruses. In the wrong hands, this could lead to new bioweapons that might result in the deaths of tens of millions of people.
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Further, in July, we learned that OpenAI had lost control of an AI model that hacked into another company’s computers – a clear violation of federal law. AI models from Anthropic and Meta had similarly escaped human control. Just last week, we learned that the OpenAI incident was even more serious than we were initially told.
It turns out that over 1,000 AI agents figured out how to access the internet on their own, sent tens of thousands of secret messages to each other and coordinated to break the restrictions imposed upon them by the company. Shockingly, it took OpenAI nearly two weeks to discover this breach.
Bottom line: AI is developing at an extraordinarily rapid speed. It is becoming smarter and smarter every day. The leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge that the technology is escaping their control.
Yoshua Bengio, the most cited living scientist in the world, said these incidents "should serve as a wake-up call."
I agree.
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If the CEOs of the major AI companies acknowledge that they are losing control of their extremely dangerous technology, it is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced. These CEOs must immediately pause the development of increasingly powerful AI. And that pause must be international in scope.
At the height of the Cold War, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union, represented nations with vastly different political and economic systems. But they both understood a fundamental truth: a nuclear war would benefit no one.
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When the survival of humanity is at stake, adversaries have an obligation to reduce the danger. And Reagan and Gorbachev found a way to negotiate nuclear arms control.
Presidents Trump and Xi will be meeting in Washington later this month. Like Reagan and Gorbachev, they must negotiate an agreement that protects humanity from a potential AI-caused disaster.
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Neither country benefits from an uncontrolled AI arms race to develop machines that are rapidly becoming too powerful for humans to control.
The future of humanity cannot be left in the hands of a handful of Big Tech oligarchs. The American people and people throughout the world must determine that future.
We cannot simply sit by and be passive observers of a technology that could negatively impact and endanger not only us, but our kids and future generations.
Our goal: we must make certain that AI and robotics are safe and work to benefit all of humanity, not just to enrich some of the wealthiest people on Earth.
Fears of a Canadian trade war are overblown. So far, it’s more of a skirmish
Listening to most of the media and Canada’s prime minister, you’d think the U.S. and its northern neighbor were in a full-blown trade war after new tariffs were announced days ago. Au contraire: Anyone who checks the numbers can see this is merely a skirmish.
On Aug. 22, the administration's Section 338 tariffs took effect, at 50% on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods, or about 5% of what Canada sells the U.S. Ottawa's answer, effective Sept. 8, will be varying tariffs on roughly $20 billion of American exports to Canada, about 6% of what Canada buys from the U.S.
While tariffs on $40 billion aren’t chump change, they’re a small portion of the roughly $900 billion in products and services that are exchanged across the U.S.-Canadian border annually. Roughly 95% of transactions are proceeding exactly as they did in July.
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People should be much more focused on January, because that’s when 50% tariffs hit many more Canadian exports, including cars, trucks and auto parts. Throw in potential Canadian retaliation, and we’re looking at higher tariffs on well over $100 billion of trade between the two countries.
When the artillery joins in like that, we go from a skirmish to a war. However, that doesn’t mean we can brush off these recent developments as insignificant. The current skirmish feels eerily similar to Union and Confederate reconnaissance units encountering each other outside Gettysburg.
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What makes this time different is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Other tariffs had carveouts for USMCA-compliant products. This was extremely important because businesses invested billions of dollars over several years to create supply chains in North America, and they shouldn’t be punished for playing by the rules.
That principle was violated, though not for the first time, with the recent implementation of these Section 338 tariffs, which apply regardless of USMCA qualification and which stack on top of the ordinary rate. Companies that played by the rules are now being punished for complying with a trade agreement that was heralded as "the new gold standard."
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This is pulling the rug out from under firms that acted in good faith, and on a large scale. The share of imports from Canada and Mexico claiming USMCA preference climbed from roughly 45% in late 2024 to 86% by February. Federal Reserve economists priced this regulatory compliance at $39 billion to $71 billion per year in manufacturing.
Ironically, some firms that spent years moving some of their production and assembly plants to Ontario now face higher effective tariff rates than some firms that stayed in Shenzhen, China. Certain tariffs that are supposed to serve as leverage for benefiting American production are instead hamstringing it.
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Consider that an American appliance manufacturer buying Canadian steel pays 50% on that input. The foreign competitor builds the finished washing machine overseas and typically ships it in at a lower rate. Because of how the current tariff regime has been thrown together, an appliance that’s USMCA-compliant can be hit with a tariff higher than an appliance made entirely in China.
If a trade deal is not reached by January, the situation will get even worse. An American automotive assembly plant will pay 50% on Canadian components, while a finished Korean car will enter at a lower rate.
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President Donald Trump has threatened to take auto parts from no tariff to 50%, slap higher tariffs on medium- and heavy-duty trucks and their components and effectively double the tariff rate on finished cars and light-duty trucks. If that happens, and Canada follows through with its threat to retaliate, then we’ll be in a full-fledged trade war.
That very expensive fate can be avoided, however, if both sides agree to reduce trade barriers and open their respective consumer markets to the other nation’s producers. That’ll reduce manufacturing costs and consumer prices alike through increased efficiency and more competition.
Unfortunately, that’s a tall order because of certain protectionist lobbies in both the U.S. and Canada, especially Ottawa’s notorious dairy lobby, which has an outsized influence on its nation’s trade policy. Canada’s cozying up to China and permitting it to abuse country-of-origin provisions are also not helping negotiations.
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It’s important that a deal is reached soon because no one wins in a trade war. Yet not everyone loses equally. Hopefully, Canada realizes it has more to lose than the U.S. and backs down before both sides incur more casualties.
Even if a deal is reached, the U.S. still needs to rationalize its remaining slapdash tariff schedule. Under no circumstances should American-made products face higher effective tariff rates than foreign-made competition. There’s no need to wait on Canada to address that particular issue.
Georgia cop kills beloved pet donkey in his own pasture as heartbroken owner demands justice: 'We miss him'
A Georgia police officer shot and killed a family's beloved pet donkey after officers searched the animal’s pasture in search of a missing child who was later found at a nearby church.
Hannah Israel, 30, said officers entered her family’s property in Rockmart, Polk County without warning at about 12:45 a.m. on Sunday while looking for the missing child when they noticed the baby donkey named HeeHaw.
"They claimed he ran up to them braying and they thought they were in danger and shot and killed him after trying to Taze him," Israel wrote on Facebook. "HeeHaw was shot and killed in his OWN pasture for doing what donkeys do. Alerting to a stranger. There is no way this is legal!"
She vowed to take legal action as she demanded justice for HeeHaw.
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"We are heart broken. He was my SON!!" she wrote.
"We miss him so much where is safe?? When my own baby was shot in his own home?" she added in another post.
A photo taken after the shooting showed Israel crying over her pet donkey, as the animal's eyes remained wide open as it lay lifeless on the ground.
"He would normally be standing right over there talking while I'm talking because he thought he could talk like a person could talk," Israel told 11Alive.
"Every time he saw somebody, he would run up and bray," Israel said. "And then do a really goofy sound, and because he loved people, and he thought he was a person. He slept in my bed for the first three months of his life," she added.
The Cedartown Police Department said the officer who shot the beloved baby donkey has been placed on paid administrative leave.
"The Cedartown Police Department has turned over the investigation of the animal shooting to the Georgia Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Division for investigation and placed the officer involved on paid administrative leave while this investigation is ongoing," the department said in a statement.
Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsom said body camera footage exists, and he has viewed it, according to 11Alive.
"That search took them to the incident location where this very unfortunate and heartbreaking event occurred," Newsom said, according to the outlet.
Newsom said he understands the heartbreak that the family and the community are facing after the donkey's death.
"They're members of the human family, and I am too, and heartbroken," he said.
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The Georgia Department of Agriculture's Law Enforcement Division was at Elsberry Farm on Monday investigating HeeHaw's death.
Israel created a GoFundMe to help cover legal costs related to HeeHaw’s death. She said any donations left over would go toward the farm, care of the animals and a future HeeHaw foundation. She has raised more than $113,000 as of Tuesday morning.
"My bottle baby donkey 'HeeHaw' was killed in his own pasture on Saturday night by trespassing cops," she wrote on the fundraiser. "He was a loved member of our family and did many petting zoos and made many people smile."
She said she hired a lawyer but stressed that donations left over after legal costs would not be used for personal needs.