Thursday, June 04, 2026

The Snapshot

Thursday, June 4, 2026.  Donald Chump continues the war against Iran and continues losing the war, he's gearing up to nominate Todd Blanche to be Attorney General, even four Republicans rebuke him in the House, in the Senate his ballroom doesn't get a vote, and much more.


Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) breaks down the latest on Chump's Iranian war. 
 





Four Republican lawmakers broke party lines Wednesday to pass a resolution curbing Donald Trump’s war powers in his military campaign in Iran.

The four Republicans who joined Democrats were Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Tom Barrett of Michigan, and Warren Davidson of Ohio.

The measure to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities with Iran passed in the House 215–208.

As a concurrent resolution, the measure must be passed by both chambers of Congress. Democratic Senator John Fetterman, a staunch supporter of Israel, has single-handedly prevented previous versions of the measure from passing in the Senate, despite defections from three Republican senators.


Claudia Grisales (NPR) reminds, "The resolution had originally been set for a vote two weeks ago, but Republican leaders sent House members home early for a May recess when it appeared the largely Democratic-backed measure had enough Republican votes for passage. However, the extended break didn't shift GOP support to kill the measure."  Robert Jimison (NEW YORK TIMES) notes, "The measure they supported does not require a presidential signature but still faces long odds of being enacted — and even if it were, it would likely be challenged by the administration. But its adoption, along with a similar measure advancing in the Senate in recent weeks, was a clear repudiation of Mr. Trump’s handling of the war in Iran."  Miranda Jeyaretnam (TIME) quotes US House Rep Gregory Meeks stating, "I am thrilled that we;ve had the opportunity to have some members from the Republican side stand up. I'm really thrilled and proud of my Democratic colleagues, because every Democrat, every single one voted for this.  We're going to continue to do our constitutional responsibilities, that's what we're doing. We're going to continue and be a check and a balance when the administration doesn't follow the Constitution."  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) notes:


President Donald Trump raged at the four "bad Republicans" who voted with the Democratic minority to end his war against Iran.

The 79-year-old president lashed out Wednesday morning after the Iran war powers resolution passed 215-208 in the GOP-led House after Republicans Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Thomas Massie of Kentucky joined Democrats in the vote.


As Chump throws his tantrum, Sarah K. Burris notes:


President Donald Trump is panicking, The Atlantic's Vivian Salama, Jonathan Lemire and Nancy Youssef wrote on Wednesday.

According to the report, talks between the U.S. and Iran are on hold while Trump tries to build up to a kind of war "grand finale."

Trump decided that he wanted to combine the Iran deal with the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries to normalize relations.

Trump wanted "those countries that hadn’t yet joined the Abraham Accords [to] get on board." The various leaders gave him a "less than lukewarm response."

One U.S. official told the reporters that a leader spoke up, calling the idea interesting, but then there was silence. During the 90-minute call, there were several times that Trump asked, “Hello? Hello? Anyone there?”

The story explains why there have been so many reports of an agreement with Iran, only for nothing to come to light. Trump reportedly became "irritated" about those comparing his deal to the one established under former President Barack Obama. Trump's was being mocked as "weaker." He wanted to find a way to make his agreement better than Obama's.



Let's note this from Senator Patty Murray's office about Secretary of State Marco Rubio appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday and be asked about the war:

***WATCH: Senator Murray’s full questioning***

Washington, D.C. — Today—at a Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee hearing on the FY27 budget request for the Department of State—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pressed Secretary Marco Rubio on whether he advised Trump to go to war with Iran, and she slammed Trump’s proposal to blow $1.5 trillion on his war budget instead of helping families afford groceries, gas, housing, health care, and child care.

[IRAN WAR]

Senator Murray questioned Secretary Rubio on his role in advising the president on matters of national security and what his opinion was on engaging in war with Iran.

MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, you are not only the Secretary of State—you are also the president’s National Security Advisor. Those are both full-time jobs when we’re at peace, let alone as we have troops deployed in multiple conflicts around the world and the president is threatening to invade Cuba. 

So, I want to just ask you specifically about Iran. You were one of just a handful of top aides with a seat at the table when the president ultimately did decide to launch the Iran war.

Did you advise the president against the war?

RUBIO: I’ll never tell anybody what I advised the president privately, but I will tell you that the president had before him all the information that he needed. I agree with the decision that he made, if that’s what you’re asking, because the President of the United States saw a threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon behind a conventional shield that, in about a year, would have been impenetrable, and we could not allow them to develop that immunity, and then they could break out to a weapon.

MURRAY: So, you won’t tell us. you know, this is a question that millions of Americans are asking, how on earth did we get here? So, I wanted to know what did you advise the president? Were you for or against this war, or did you—the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor—have no opinion?

RUBIO: No, I just told you I support the president’s decision. I think he made the right decision, but I cannot tell you, and will never do. And you have to understand, nobody in my role has ever done is to go to you and say, “oh, I was in a meeting and I told the president this,” I just can’t do that, I won’t do that, it’s unwise to do that, and it’s unfair. But I am telling you, the president made the right decision, that’s my view, I believe in it strongly.

MURRAY: You do now, okay. Let me just—

RUBIO: I always have, I mean, in terms of my view of the challenge that it poses.

MURRAY: Okay, well back in March, you said this war would end in: “weeks, not months.” And here we are four months, hundreds of troops injured or killed, and billions of dollars later.

Trump promised everybody he was going to lower prices and no new wars. Now we have higher prices and a new war. Trump promised the American people this war would be fast and decisive. It has been slow, and secret, and endless.

And the majority of Americans do oppose this conflict. What my constituents are telling me is they want child care, they want health care to be more affordable, they don’t want Trump to have 1.5 trillion dollars for a defense budget to start wars around the globe. I hear that constantly from so many people.

[VALUE OF INVESTING IN DIPLOMACY & ASSISTANCE]

MURRAY: You know Secretary Rubio, let me just say this: diplomacy and development tools help keep us safe here at home by mitigating conflict, by mitigating disease, other global threats. But the budget that you are here to defend—which would slash this work to the bone, while sending war spending through the roof—makes clear that diplomacy is Trump’s last priority.

And by the way it’s not just the budget, or the unhinged rants attacking allies like Greenland and Canada, or threatening to “end civilizations,” or Trump treating war like a game—the White House posting literal video game edits as if he weren’t getting American soldiers injured.

It’s also the actions that you have taken over the past year to gut the State Department—deeply concerning, dismantle foreign aid, abdicate American leadership. Under your leadership, it is deeply concerning that State left 500 tons of food aid to rot in ports, and it had to be incinerated. Or pushing out thousands upon thousands of dedicated public servants—including families who put country first here, and left their home to serve around the world only to be sacked with no rhyme, no reason. I’ve heard from them.

Meanwhile, you are planning to put Trump’s face on U.S. passports. As if that is going to help our image when all that’s happening. And the hack-and-slash job that you have done to foreign assistance, and you’re asking for in this budget, has not only shattered America’s global leadership, it has led to millions of preventable deaths. Programs have been frozen, grants have been cancelled, lifesaving work utterly turned upside down.

I want to talk about global health—the stakes of life and death are here under global health. PEPFAR-supported testing reach[ed] nearly five million fewer people than the year before. In Zambia, babies born to HIV-positive moms used to be tested within hours of birth, and treatment started immediately for positive cases. Now babies are not being even tested until they’re six weeks old.

So you are not just cutting resources that I just reference—you are actually cutting the United States out of the conversation on global health threats and leaving all of us less prepared. We are in the middle of a deadly Ebola epidemic, we are seeing a worrisome hantavirus outbreak, this administration has halted funding to the World Health Organization. And you are currently withholding nearly two billion dollars in FY 25 Global Health funding that was appropriated with bipartisan support here, signed into law by President Trump, and expires in less than four months.

Now, I know that Ebola funding somehow miraculously started moving when we were seeing bad headlines—but what is moving right now Mr. Secretary is less than two percent of what is available. So my point is that the delay in mobilizing those resources has cost us valuable time and let this disease kill more people. And the fact is, we already had these support systems in place, they were in place, until this Administration destroyed them.

And even as we stare down a crisis caused by this administration’s incompetence in my opinion, you are here today to defend a budget that doubles down on that—that is what is really disturbing to me—with a 40% cut to Global Health Programs in this budget. So to my point of view, this budget doesn’t make America great again, it makes the world sicker and less safe.

And that I’m just talking about the cuts that you’re proposing with this budget, because we cannot ignore the biggest line item in the president’s overall budget that’s in front of us—which is war. 1.5 trillion dollars for war.

Not a cent [more] for child care. Not a cent to make health care more affordable. That is the budget that you are here today to defend, and it spends $1.5 trillion on war and slashes your Department to ribbons.

So that is what is concerning to me, as you come before our committee today to back this request up. It just seems to me we are cutting diplomacy and paying defense contractors, and I just believe from my point of view, and I know you disagree with me, but I just think this is the wrong way for our country to go. A budget is a statement of values. I’ve said it many, many times, and I think it is in big question where the values are in this budget. So that’s where I am.

RUBIO: Mr. Chair, Senator Boozman, can I respond? Because she touched a lot of topics. I don’t know if I can get all of them, you know, but, but I’m going to get to most of them.

CHAIR: Sure.

RUBIO: Because I strongly disagree with almost everything you’ve said,

MURRAY: I figured you would.

RUBIO: A couple points. First, let’s talk about the State Department. The State Department was actually one of the least impacted of all the agencies in government.

MURRAY: I’m not talking about least impacted. You heard—

RUBIO: No, no, no, no. But let’s be frank, we didn’t—not a single, for example, overseas employee was RIF’d from the State Department. The vast majority of the reduction in forces came from the career civil service, not the foreign service, and that’s because we got rid of the functional bureaus and put all the power under the regional bureaus. It’s one of the best things we’ve ever done, and I think it’s going to prove to be very wise. And we already see the impacts of it.

Let’s walk through some of the programs you’ve pointed to. So, for example, our disaster response today around the world, because we combine those accounts, is faster than it’s ever been, and more effective than it’s ever been. These are not theories, it is the reality. We responded to hurricanes in the Caribbean, Jamaica, and Cuba, by the way, $3 million in aid to Cuba, faster at a record pace than ever before. We’ve responded to two typhoons in the Indo-Pacific faster than we’ve ever responded, because we combined and consolidated those accounts, and we’re able to move very, very quickly in that regard.

Beyond that, you mentioned the PEPFAR. The reality of it is, first of all, you have to combine it with all these other programs that we’re involved in, but if you look at the numbers for the last, well in the third quarter of 2026, 2025, the exact number of people that were receiving medications were receiving medications during that period of time. The exact number, and it’s going to even improve, because we’re adding innovation to it. There have been recent innovations in AIDS treatment, HIV treatments that are even more effective than some of the legacy programs that are available.

MURRAY: Mr. Secretary it is very clear why you are the secretary, because you’re very good at words.

RUBIO: No, but I’m giving you, I don’t know how else can I answer you other than words?

MURRAY: I will stand by my statement against yours. I just will.  

RUBIO: What was that?

MURRAY: I will stand by all of the facts that I gave.

RUBIO: Okay, but I get a chance to respond, right?

MURRAY: Well, my times out, it’s up to the chair.

CHAIR: You can respond.

RUBIO: Okay. So, on the other things you’re not talking about, those I think are very valuable to this, are these global health compacts that we’re entering with 32 countries, 27 of them in Africa. In which we’re basically going to the country to say, “okay, we used to give money for clinics, we used to give money for health care, we used to give money for maternal care,” and we used to have it in a bucket, and it was maternal care globally, and then we went out and dished out contracts for people to go into individual countries.

Now we’re entering into contracts, compacts, agreements with the country, and we’re saying to them, “okay, what are your needs?” And we’re doing this through the embassies. “What are your specific needs in this country?” And entering into a compact, not just to provide them aid for these things that they need, but to help them strengthen their national health care systems, so that long term they will be self-sustaining. Now, in some countries, it may take 10 years to get to that point, some it may take less. But for the first time, we are not just having these buckets that then are distributed broadly around the world. It is targeted at the highest needs of those countries based on their own domestic strategies and allowing us to become a value added to their strategy and to build their capacity. That’s something that hasn’t been talked about.

You look at what we’ve done with OCHA [United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], we’ve signed the first humanitarian reset agreement in Geneva, and along with our anchor pledge of 2 billion in support for the 18 country-based crisis level pool funds. This is going to allow us to respond in a more effective way. With the Global Fund, we’ve entered into agreement with the Global Fund. They’ve put out repeated statements thanking the United States for the role that we are playing with the Global Fund, and we’re prepared to do more if donors match what we are providing, we’re prepared to do even more in that regard.

The list goes on and on. The point is, this is not about, first of all, this is not about denying and being punitive towards the world. This is about delivering aid, but delivering it in a more effective and concise and consolidated way that actually gets more aid to more people faster, that is the goal. And I think we’re well on our way to achieving it.

Now, as far as the budget is concerned, you know we operate under an OMB guidance that tells us, “this is how much you have, tell us what you would do if this is what you get.” We present this to you, having served here for a long period of time, I said this before you walked in, so perhaps you missed this point, is we always understand that there’s going to be a congressional process in which you’re going to look at our request and generally ignore it, but in many cases add to it or reframe it, and we’re prepared to work with you as we did last year in the passage of an appropriations bill, which we would like to see passed, because when you pass appropriations bills, it gives us the structure that we need in order to carry out these reforms.

MURRAY: Mr. Secretary, I just will tell you, I appreciate that you have words to explain everything from your point of view. I’m talking from reality on the ground, and from what I am seeing and hearing, and I fear deeply that we are losing our place and our value globally. So, you and I have a disagreement. Thank you.

###





Chump can't make a deal.  Not a good one.  He's the failure his father always told him he was.  But this time?  Daddy's not around to bail him out.  He's exposed as the fraud he is.  With the entire world watching.  And registering.  THE DAILY DIGEST notes:

This war started on February 28, 2026, and those few days have turned into months; the general feeling is that time, money (a lot of money) have been lost, and above all, world leadership has been lost.
[. . .]
The latest polls of American citizens show that the public is tired of a war that was unpopular from the start.
But now, four months later, they doubt that the dispute's resolution will have any positive impact on their country.
Basically, Americans don't have much faith that Donald Trump can win anything in a conflict that he himself started.
Moreover, according to CNN, some of the most hawkish members of the Republican Party claim that the agreement being worked on by both sides could even leave Iran in a more powerful position than before the conflict.


Chump's destroyed the economy with tariffs and the Iran War and he's got more he's plotting.   Paul Farrell (INDEPENDENT) notes:

The Trump administration is proposing tariffs of 10 percent or more on products from dozens of major trading partners, following a probe into imports allegedly made with forced labor.

A report released early Wednesday by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) stated that Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and other countries would face 10 percent additional tariffs for allegedly failing to enforce a forced-labor import ban.
A 12.5 percent additional tariff would be imposed on China, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil, Switzerland, and dozens of other countries.

The United Kingdom?  

Chump and his never ending lies.

Daniel Dale (CNN) fact checked Chump's interview for Miranda Devine's podcast:

Another softball interview. Another series of obvious lies from the president.

President Donald Trump’s conversation with conservative New York Post columnist and podcaster Miranda Devine, released on Wednesday morning, featured some of Trump’s longest-debunked false claims about elections, the economy and immigration. As with his inaccurate comments in a Fox News interview that aired on Saturday, which was conducted by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, these assertions went unchallenged.

Here is a fact check of some of his remarks in the Post interview. This is not intended as a comprehensive list.
Elections 

Mail-in ballots: Trump falsely claimed, as he has on numerous previous occasions, “We’re the only country in the world that has mail-in ballots. No other country does it anymore.”

In fact, dozens of countries  -- including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Switzerland  -- allow some or all voters to vote by mail, though the specifics of their policies vary.

The 2020 election: Trump repeatedly uttered his familiar lie that the 2020 election was “rigged,” this time adding that “it’s been proven to be rigged.” Trump lost fair and square to Joe Biden, the election wasn’t “rigged,” and – five-and-a-half years later — there is no proof for Trump’s assertion.

Trump also said of Biden: “Should have never been president. He lost the election in a landslide.” Biden actually won the election 306 to 232 in the Electoral College, and he earned more than 7 million more votes than Trump did.

Trump’s election performance: Trump lied of his election performance: “I won it three times.” Trump won the 2016 and 2024 elections and lost the 2020 election.

The 2024 election: Trump described the 2024 election he won as “a great election,” but then said, “They had a lot of rigging going on there too,” adding, “There were areas that were just rigged. I could see it. In other words, rigged against me.” There is no basis for these claims, either; Trump won the election legitimately but lost some communities and states legitimately.
Democrats and elections: Trump repeated his lie that Democrats “couldn’t win” without cheating, also saying, “If they didn’t cheat, they could not win because their policies are so bad” and that “if they didn’t cheat you wouldn’t have them in.” This is simply baseless; Democrats, like Republicans, win elections legitimately.
Ballots in California: Reprising a false claim he made in May, Trump said, “You know, in California, they mail out 38 — I think 38 million ballots.” He added, “And some people get three, four, five ballots. Republicans get, oftentimes, none.” Both of these claims are incorrect. California had about 22.6 million voters registered as of about two weeks prior to the last presidential election and about 23.2 million voters registered as of about two weeks prior to Tuesday’s primaries; there is no basis for any suggestion that some 15 million excess ballots are distributed in any California election. And every active registered voter in the state, no matter their party affiliation, is sent a mail-in ballot; there are occasional administrative errors by counties or the postal service, but there is no basis for Trump’s suggestion that there is some sort of general anti-Republican bias in distributing the ballots.

He can't stop lying.  It's a character defect.  He lies about everything.  He lies about himself and he lies about others.  He lies about the economy.  He lies about things people can see with their own eyes. 

He's a Convicted Felon and he loves to hire other convicts even though their convictions should prevent them from a job interview, let alone a position.  Tara Copp and Salvador Rizzo (WASHINGTON POST) report:

A convicted Jan. 6 rioter who later said that he regretted his participation in the U.S. Capitol attack has been hired by the Trump administration to work inside a Pentagon office that manages highly classified military operations, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The appointment of Elias Irizarry, who was 19 at the time of the riot in 2021, to a post in the Defense Department’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office has raised alarm internally among staff who question how anyone convicted in the assault on American democracy could be trusted for such a sensitive role in the U.S. government, these people said. All spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a fear of retaliation.

Irizarry is assigned to the office’s irregular warfare and counterterrorism section, the people familiar with the matter said. The team comprises about 40 people, and its portfolio includes operations such as embassy security, personnel recovery and hostage rescue.

Two people characterized the work as among the most delicate that the Pentagon performs. All positions, they said, require a top-secret security clearance.

MS NOW covered this story yesterday.




President Donald Trump’s approval rating among independents has slipped to an all-time low, a new poll from YouGov/The Economist released on Tuesday shows.

Shifts in approval and disapproval ratings could signal broader erosion and complicate the Republican Party’s midterm strategies this year, especially as multiple trackers show Trump significantly underwater nationally. Independents often determine close elections.
According to the poll, Trump’s overall approval rating was 35 percent versus a 61 percent disapproval rating, for a net of -26. Among independents, his approval was 21 percent versus a 71 percent disapproval, a net -50.

YouGov’s Allen Houston, in an emailed release to Newsweek on Tuesday, said in part: “That’s a record-low among Independents for either term. At this point in Trump’s first term, he had a -3 net job approval among Independents.
“Trump’s job approval among Independents has fallen so low that the closest first-term comparison isn’t to Independents, whose net approval of Trump in his first term never fell below -30. Rather, Trump’s approval among Independents is close to how Democrats viewed Trump at the start of his first term, when he had a -54 net approval among Democrats [13 percent approve and 67 percent disapprove].”

And this as MSN notes, "Pope Leo XIV’s +37 net favorability in the Economist/YouGov poll far exceeds Trump’s -17, creating a 54-point difference."

Popularity?  Chump no longer has any.  Pope Leo is beloved.  Chump is despised.  He can slap his name on everything he wants, it won't stop his name from being a joke.  He's a con man and the world has caught on.  David Kurtz (TALKING POINTS MEMO) points out:

A confusing mishmash of reporting Monday afternoon inadvertently revealed that Donald Trump can still play Congress and the press like fools.

The flurry of reporting, mostly from Capitol Hill, was about whether the political heat around the corrupt “Anti-Weaponization Fund” had become too much to stomach, especially for GOP senators. The vague news, largely attributed to unnamed White House sources, was that Trump was signaling he “plans to drop,” “pause,” “retreat,” “backtrack,” and “back off” from the slush fund.
Adding an absurdist twist to the afternoon, the Trump DOJ put out a meaningless statement that it would abide by a court order blocking the slush fund.

Note that all the uproar yesterday only dealt with the slush fund — and only with the political furor over the slush fund. That represents only part of the corrupt scheme to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, which has three main elements:

the slush fund;
the IRS’ release of Trump et al. from any tax claims that predate the settlement (I should note there’s also an argument that the loose language of the settlement releases Trump et al. from any civil and criminal claims by the U.S. government prior to the settlement date);
the fraud on the court for some combination of bringing a frivolous claim, collusively settling it, and using the court to launder public funds for Trump’s slush fund.
Despite all the talk on the Hill about the politics of the slush fund, it’s never been clear exactly what Republicans in Congress were going to do about the slush fund and whether it would be sufficient. My understanding is that Trump wanted to include authorization for the slush fund in the reconciliation package (still no publicly available language on any such provision), and Senate Republicans were considering putting some guardrails to prevent payouts to people who assaulted police on Jan. 6, a noble enough but limited goal and hardly the only corrupt aspect of the $1.776 billion slush fund.

[. . .]

Even if the Republican Congress stands up to Trump on the slush fund, it doesn’t appear to be preparing to scrutinize, let alone unwind (if it’s possible) the corrupt release of the IRS’ claims against Trump and fam. It’s a huge giveaway — $100 million, by some estimates — under extraordinarily corrupt circumstances. The improper leaking of Trump tax returns by an IRS contractor isn’t a proper justification for dropping all of the IRS claims against Trump, let alone other civil and criminal claims the government may have had against him or his family members.

 

 
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who signed the one-page agreement that blocks the federal government from investigating potential tax claims against the president, told members of Congress this week that “nothing has changed” about the plan.
It might not be up to him, however. The judge overseeing the president’s lawsuit against the IRS could sanction the parties if the court finds that Trump filed a “frivolous lawsuit for the sole purpose of forcing a settlement” that bails out his family members and their businesses, all on taxpayers’ dime.
Congress could also step in. Lawmakers and watchdog groups want the deal thrown out and legislation that would permanently dissolve any agreements that shield Trump from future audits.



Chump is said to be planning to announce that he's nominating Blanche for Attorney General.  Blanche is currently acting Attorney General.  






Chump's a con man minus a ballroom currently.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

Senate Republicans removed funding for security upgrades to President Trump's White House ballroom from their immigration package after the provision threatened the entire legislative effort, according to revised text released Wednesday

The Senate parliamentarian had determined the ballroom language violated specific budgetary requirements, which would have allowed Democrats to filibuster the bill and block $70 billion in ICE and border patrol funding, and Senate GOP leaders acknowledged the provision was procedurally problematic and politically risky, reported CNN.
Some Republican senators also expressed concern that allocating funds for the ballroom while Americans faced cost-of-living pressures ahead of midterm elections would project an out-of-touch image.

That's not a concern for Chump.  Ever.  He thrives on looking out of touch.  And on being out of touch.  

And he's got another US attorney who is not qualified for the job and who will not step aside but instead breaks the law.   Thomas Kika reports:


Sigal Chattah is an Israeli-born lawyer and a former RNC operative, who currently serves as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada. According to a lengthy and scathing report published by Ben Penn for Bloomberg on Wednesday, during her tenure in the role, she has bucked numerous ethical norms, and "pushed to launch investigations at the behest of former clients and friends while repeatedly bypassing Justice Department orders recusing her from cases," according to several sources close to the matter.
"Chattah, a former Republican party official who took over the US attorney’s office in Nevada 14 months ago, also opened a probe targeting her past political foe, the three individuals said," Penn reported. "It is one of many circumstances in which she’s leveraged her role to advance personal interests."

He added: "The first-time prosecutor frequently sought status updates on cases despite warnings that she was disregarding recusals signed by the deputy attorney general’s office in Washington that barred her involvement in matters where she had conflicts of interest, said several individuals. Chattah also took calls from outside attorney acquaintances and intervened in their pending matters opposite her office — seeking favorable outcomes for their clients."

“It’s charitable to call it chaos,” Rick Pocker, who served as Nevada U.S. attorney under George H. W. Bush, told Bloomberg. “I don’t think she quite understands how you’re not supposed to use that office for personal or political purposes.”

Citing "interviews with two dozen Nevada lawyers and former law enforcement officials," Penn noted that Chattah's conduct in the role has "departed from longstanding department policies and traditions, unsettling her staff, law enforcement partners, and defense attorneys." Her appointment as acting U.S. Attorney is also among a few that have been deemed "invalid" in court, though she remains in office while she attempts to appeal the ruling.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Alex Padilla's office:

Building on their newly announced Election Protection Task Force, Senate Democrats met with election experts to safeguard voting rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee which oversees federal elections, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), members of the Senate Democrats’ Election Protection Task Force, met with key election experts to stress-test responses to several threats to the 2026 midterms, including foreign interference and misinformation, the deployment of federal agents to polling places, and law enforcement agents seizing ballots from local election officials. The meeting was the second convening of the Election Protection Task Force since its April launch. Participants included former Attorney General Eric Holder, Marc Elias of the Elias Law Group, Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy, Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward, and election law expert Norm Eisen. 

“As millions of Americans exercised their right to vote yesterday, Donald Trump and his MAGA allies were working overtime — not to make life better for families who are struggling to make ends meet, but scheming to silence the voices of countless voters across the country. They have already moved to seize ballots, purge eligible voters from the rolls, dismantle the core protections of the Voting Rights Act, and now handed control of America’s most sensitive national security apparatus to a Trump loyalist whose only qualification is his willingness to do Trump’s bidding, including election interference. Between now and the November midterms, we expect these attacks will only intensify. That is exactly why this task force exists. We will fight back in the Senate, in the courts, and in the states, and we will ensure that Donald Trump can’t ‘takeover’ our elections. Our democracy is not his to take,” said Senator Padilla.

“Donald Trump and his enablers are not hiding their intention to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections — indeed they are already working to suppress the vote — and our Task Force is preparing for all the contingencies. In the specific scenario that I proposed for today, we confronted how this administration’s weaponization of federal law enforcement — including ICE or CBP — could be used to intimidate voters and depress turnout. This and the other scenarios we workshopped today will help ensure readiness across the country to confront these threats, combat attacks on our elections, and identify any gaps in our democracy’s defenses,” said Senator Schiff.

“Trump and Republicans are hellbent on rigging our elections and undermining our democracy. Democrats won’t let that happen,” said Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.“ Our Election Protection Task Force, the most expansive effort to date to protect the 2026 midterms, is readying for the threats we know are coming – and today we gamed out how we can thwart them before Republicans can undermine our free and fair elections. Democrats will be ready with lawyers and response teams to respond the moment Trump or his allies try to interfere with our elections. Democracy is on the line. Democrats are going to fight like hell to make sure our elections belong to the voters – not Donald Trump.”

As their agenda grows more unpopular due to a worsening affordability crisis and mounting corruption scandals, the Trump Administration has worked to disrupt free and fair elections and tip the scales toward Republicans ahead of the midterms. Trump has said he’ll deploy an “election integrity army” to polling places across the country and is making it harder to vote-by-mail. His Justice Department sought to seize state voter rolls. FBI agents and the Director of National Intelligence raided election offices in Georgia. Republicans pressed election officials in Arizona to turn over documents. Poll workers are being threatened nationwide.

Over the coming weeks and months, the Senators’ Task Force will continue to announce additional steps in the fight to safeguard the right to vote and ensure that every American has fair access to the ballot box this November.

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