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House Republicans have been previewing their midterm platform and, instead of hailing issues, it’s nothing but a sea of threats aimed at their Democratic colleagues over perceived grievances.

No governing, no solutions. Just promises of retribution for Democrats seeking lawful, constitutional forms of accountability over things like death threats made by GOP members and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made it exceedingly clear on Tuesday that he not only won’t hold his caucus accountable for making violent threats against other members of Congress, but he will actively seek revenge against anyone who insists on the accountability he refuses to provide.   

Indeed, as the House debated censuring GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for publicly fantasizing about murdering a Democratic colleague, McCarthy promised it would be “a new standard to be applied in the future.” As if any House Democrats would be deranged enough to tweet out animated videos of them executing their GOP colleagues.

“It means that under the Pelosi precedent, all of the members I have mentioned will need approval of the majority to keep those positions in the future,” McCarthy said of Gosar ultimately being censured and stripped of his committee assignments on a mostly party-line vote. Only GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois thought Gosar’s portrayal of murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was beyond the pale.

But these GOP threats of retribution are all par for the course now. The party is effectively filled with a bunch of lawless gang members who foment violence, flout the law, and trample the Constitution, and when anyone threatens to rein them in, the GOP’s knee-jerk responses are promises of revenge.

Last week, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio pledged to get even with Democrats after the Justice Department indicted Trump henchman Steve Bannon on Friday.

“There are a lot of Republicans eager to hear testimony from Ron Klain and Jake Sullivan when we take back the House,” Jordan tweeted, claiming that President Joe Biden had “eviscerated” executive privilege. Just a guess that Ron Klain, White House chief of staff, and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, would show up for questioning if they were subpoenaed. Bannon didn’t even bother.  

But per usual, reality isn’t really at issue for Republicans. The game is all about training their voters to believe they have been slighted and disrespected, that Democrats have committed an unforgivable abuse of power, and that Republicans will make them pay for it. That is the GOP platform, and Republicans keep running that play over and over again because their low-information voters aren’t capable of seeing past it. In fact, the GOP’s politics of revenge are exactly what the base craves—it’s among their main reasons for living, breathing, and voting.

And it’s not just House Republicans, as The Washington Post‘s Aaron Blake points out. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been practicing the dark arts of the double standard for over a decade.

As talk began earlier this year of Senate Democrats eliminating the 60-vote procedural hurdle for passing legislation, McConnell promised such a move would invite a “scorched-earth” approach to governing moving forward.

“Let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues: Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin—can even begin to imagine—what a completely scorched earth Senate would look like,” McConnell said in a Senate speech.

Of course, McConnell never thought twice about nuking the filibuster for approving Supreme Court justices when he began packing the high court with conservative ideologues back in 2017. And he won’t think twice about nuking it the next time he lacks the 60 votes for any particular thing he’s intent on doing.

Republican threats also aren’t confined to their Democratic colleagues in Congress. In August, McCarthy, increasingly emboldened by GOP prospects for retaking the majority, promised his caucus would never forget if telecommunications companies complied with lawfully issued subpoenas from the select committee investigating Jan. 6.

“If these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States,” McCarthy charged in a mind-bending inversion of what’s actually true. In fact, the companies were compelled to comply with the congressional subpoenas. Nevertheless, McCarthy persisted, “If companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law.”

This is classic Trumpism, right? Picking winners and losers based entirely on GOP loyalty tests with no regard whatsoever for the rule of law. McCarthy wasn’t standing up for Americans, he was running scared over an investigation that could well implicate multiple members of his caucus.

But this is the kind of punitive and twisted leadership Republicans are promising as they eye a potential takeover of Congress next year. They are putting forward no policy solutions for the American people or aspirational bills they hope to enact. Instead what they’re offering is plain and simple: It is the politics of revenge.

And that is very clearly exactly what GOP base voters want.  

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Being lucky enough to live in a progressive city and work with (and for) fellow progressives, I sometimes trick myself into forgetting just how deeply I, as an openly queer person, am hated by some folks. Here in the United States, these people are largely (though certainly not always) Republicans. LGBTQ+ people are so maligned, apparently, that plenty of people don’t even want to risk being perceived as trying to get our vote. And this is how we end up in a head-scratching situation where Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel is stumbling over herself to reassure her committee of more than 150 conservatives that she wasn’t really trying to create a safe space for LGBTQ+ people in the party… while launching an initiative aimed at recruiting LGBTQ+ voters.

What? Exactly. On Nov. 6, McDaniel appeared at an event held at Mar-A-Lago (of course) and announced the launch of the RNC Pride Coalition, which in partnership with Log Cabin (a group for conservative LGBTQ+ people) would work on outreach for queer voters, as reported by Metro Weekly. The goal was that these LGBTQ+ voters would switch from voting Democratic to Republican, ideally in time for the midterms, and for things like canvassing and organizing for Republican candidates. You (literally) couldn’t pay many queer people—including me—to help the Republican party, so it’s largely moot, but that didn’t stop far-right branches of the party from melting down over the potential of being remotely inclusive to LGBTQ+ voters.

QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, lost her mind on Twitter, arguing that rainbows are actually “God’s sign” and that trying to be inclusive to LGBTQ+ people is just “identity politics.” And according to Greene, identity politics is for Democrats, not Republicans—because she would never see being straight, cisgender, and white as an identity, mind you.

Here’s that tweet. (And yes, of course, she shared a link to The Daily Wire.)

In addition to our QAnon Congresswoman, Republicans were really, really upset that McDaniel allegedly didn’t clear this initiative with the entire committee. People immediately worried they might be perceived as remotely inclusive, and some went as far as to call for McDaniel’s resignation.

Within a few hours, according to Metro Weekly, McDaniel emailed to follow up and reassure those concerned that the Republican party is remaining just as archaic as ever. McDaniel stressed that, among other shameful attributes, the Republican party is still committed to its harmful stances on immigration, same-sex marriage, and religious exemptions for discrimination protections. Lovely!

“We are actively committed to fighting the radical left on culture issues,” McDaniel reportedly wrote, noting that this includes advocating for “religious liberty,” the ever-dubious “family values” and “Republicans of faith.”

“We would never, ever organize or communicate with organizations that undermine our values,” she continued. “You have my word on that. The goal of this new outreach is simply to get more voters to vote Republican in 2022. That’s it.” McDaniel noted that the Trump campaign included LGBTQ+ outreach, and this is merely a continuation of that effort, claiming that the party is also trying to reach more evangelicals, Jewish people, and Catholics, as well as more young voters and veterans. 

If these people didn’t hold positions of enormous power and privilege, their loathing of LGBTQ+ people would almost be funny—almost. 

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In late July, Fort Lee in Virginia became the first U.S. military base to shelter refugees evacuated from Afghanistan as part of Operation Allies Rescue. In a statement, President Biden called this first group’s arrival “an important milestone.” Seven additional U.S. bases have since sheltered tens of thousands of refugees as they wait for continued processing and resettlement.

The Biden administration has now said that Fort Lee will be the first of these shelters to close, following the departure of final remaining families this week. “We’ve reached a big milestone—the last group of Afghan refugee families living at Fort Lee have been successfully resettled,” tweeted Sen. Mark Warner. “I’m grateful for the hard work of everyone in Virginia who helped to safely welcome our Afghan allies.”

CBS News reported that 45,000 refugees continued to be sheltered at seven bases throughout the U.S., while 2,000 were still on U.S. bases overseas as of Nov. 8. More than 25,000 have departed bases like Fort Lee for their new homes all over the U.S.

“Nine national refugee resettlement groups and their 200 local affiliates have been working to resettle Afghan families who depart the military sites, helping them secure affordable housing, jobs, basic necessities, and government benefits.” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President of the refugee resettlement agency Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), tweeted about one northern Virginia job fair for newly-arrived refugees. The Biden administration just announced plans to waive fees for documentation like work permits so refugees can work legally.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that by waiving application fees, “we will open doors of opportunity for our Afghan allies and help them begin to rebuild their lives in communities across our country more quickly. These actions demonstrate our ongoing commitment to Afghan nationals who provided valuable assistance to the United States over the past two decades as well as other Afghans at risk.”

“We’ve seen housing challenges, so our concern is making sure that they don’t get moved off the military bases and end up homeless,” O’Mara Vignarajah told CBS News. “We’re equally concerned that the families have warm shelter if they are remaining on the military bases.”

Resettlement agencies have described difficulties securing housing for Afghan families. “Doing it during a pandemic, during a housing boom, during a housing shortage for large families who tend to be concentrated in cities that are not inexpensive to live in—that’s a challenging constellation,” Mark Hetfield, president of resettlement agency HIAS, told CNN last month. Since that time, the Biden administration has announced a program to let groups of qualified individuals sponsor families.

“The United States evacuated more than 120,000 people before the withdrawal of U.S. troops in August and the staggeringly quick takeover by the Taliban,” The Los Angeles Times reports. 

But U.S. families and advocates have continued to fear for loved ones who weren’t evacuated at that time. “The majority of flights out, though, are now handled through American allies such as Qatar, and nonprofit and aid agencies that charter their own planes, create their own manifests, and work to gather the necessary governmental clearances both through the U.S. and the new regime in Afghanistan. It is a slow and disjointed process.”

Non-profit No One Left Behind volunteer Ismail Khan told The Times that even as someone involved in evacuation work, he has no quick resolution for his own loved ones remaining in Afghanistan. “There is not a follow-up,” he said in the report. “You can’t get an answer from anyone that will tell you, ‘Hey, it’s going to happen in a month or two months or a year,’ or, ‘It’s not going to happen.’” His family has already been targeted by Taliban, when his little brother was kidnapped. He was freed after the family paid a ransom.

“Even though the U.S. withdrew, there are still innumerable vulnerable Afghans desperate for a way out,” Refugee Council USA tweeted.

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In a case filled with reactive, caustic moments, Thursday’s decision by Judge Bruce Schroeder to ban “MSNBC News” from the courthouse during the rest of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial came as an almost predictable move given his clear sympathies for more right-leaning talking points. Jury deliberations entered their third day with jurors being whisked to the Kenosha County courthouse by a bus that has its windows essentially blacked out. This measure is meant to prevent jurors from seeing any outside signs or demonstrations related to the case.

According to Schroeder, someone with either NBC News or MSNBC was instructed to follow that bus for the network. Yesterday, that reporter was given a ticket for running a red light while doing so. The reporter appears to have been working on behalf of NBC News under the guidance of booking producer Irene Byon and not MSNBC. Nonetheless, Schroeder was scandalized by their actions and took the somewhat puzzling move of banning “MSNBC News” from the courthouse.

“I have instructed that no one from MSNBC News will be permitted into this building for the duration of this trial,” Schroeder said. “This is a very serious matter and I don’t know what the ultimate truth of it is.”

According to Schroeder, the case of a journalist following a bus filled with jurors on their way to decide a high-profile case is still under investigation. He made it seem as if he’d speak no further on the matter to media. So why name a journalist who, by the looks of it, may not even be employed by NBC Universal? And why drag a booking producer’s name through the mud who has nothing to do with the network Schroeder actually singled out? MSNBC and NBC News are two different entities, yet it appears as if Schroeder can’t tell the difference.

I’ve reached out to NBC News for clarification and will update if and when they get back to me.

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Build Back Better is on the House floor Thursday, and might even get a final vote before the day is done. This was supposed to be the day the House recessed for the Thanksgiving week off, with a 3 PM departure pencilled in. That deadline won’t be met, but it’s just possible that it does happen before midnight. But it looks like Pelosi’s early-week threat to cancel Thanksgiving might have done the trick to get her whole caucus primed to just get this done.

“Debate on the legislation began today at 10:15 a.m.,” Pelosi informed her members Thursday morning. “In preparation for the vote on the Floor, we have received most of the information that we need from the Senate parliamentarian on the privilege scrub. As soon as we receive the final [Congressional Budget Office] estimates for Member review, we can then proceed to votes on the revised Rule with the Manager’s Amendment and final passage.”

Democrats will pass the bill, Rep. Dan Kildee told CNN Thursday, just as soon as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates come in. Originally, that CBO score had everyone on edge, because it was the contingency the conservatives insisted on inserting into the deal they made with the Congressional Progressive Caucus in order to get a vote on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed earlier this month. Since then, the White House has been hard at work getting the message through that the CBO score would very likely underestimate how much revenue the bill is going to raise. They even got regular crank Larry Summers to write an op-ed for The Washington Post saying as much.

That’s been enough for the deficit peacock Democrats. Even if the CBO finds the bill will increase the deficit, “We anticipated that,” one of them told TNR. That’s Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader, one of the five conservatives who signed on to the deal. He said he spoke to director of the CBO, Phillip Swagel: “Even he admitted there’s just a different interpretation [of] how the consumer is going to react,” Schrader said. “I think it’s OK. That would not dissuade me at this point.”

There’s no barrier as of yet to passing the bill in the House. As a reminder, the package includes (as of the passage of the hard infrastructure bill): four weeks paid family and medical leave for everyone; universal pre-K and child care funding; child and earned income tax credits; increased Pell Grants; expanded home- and community-based care for elderly and disabled people in the Medicaid program; boosted Affordable Care Act subsidies; $150 billion for affordable housing; and $90 billion for “equity and other investments” in maternal health, public health, pandemic preparedness, community violence intervention, and other community-based programs. It would allow Medicare to negotiate prices on a narrow set of drugs, and provide Medicare coverage for hearing aids.

The biggest single chunk of funding is $550 billion for climate initiatives, with clean energy tax credits. It contains new polluters fees; coastal resiliency programs; investments in combating drought and wildfire; and incentives for residential weatherization and green electrification. It also includes crucial projects and jobs programs like the Civilian Climate Corps (modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps from the New Deal) and the Clean Electricity Payment Program, which provides incentives and payments to electric utilities that increase the amount of renewable energy and other forms of clean power.

Once all this passes in the House, however, it faces the Senate. The House will make adjustments based on what the Senate parliamentarian says, but there’s a lot more to deal with over there, much of it down to taxes and Sen. Joe Manchin. Finance Chair Bernie Sanders opposes the state and local tax deduction change that conservative House Democrats insisted on, arguing that it gives too much to the highest earners. Sanders also wants to get vision and dental care into Medicare.

And there’s Manchin. He’s fighting American workers and betraying Democratic colleagues by opposing a tax credit boost for union-made electric vehicles. Manchin has called this tax credit “wrong” and “not American.” Manchin, by the way, drives a Maserati, manufactured in Italy and costing enough to pay for year’s worth of groceries for about a dozen West Virginia families.

Speaking of families, Manchin is also flat-out opposed to paid leave being included in the bill. His veto will likely stick, so Senate Democrats and the White House are trying to come up with an alternative plan that includes working with Republicans, because Manchin has also vetoed ending the filibuster so Democrats can pass it on their own.

There’s hope that the bill passing the House will create enough momentum to sweep it through the Senate and back to the House for final passage before Christmas, as Schumer has promised. At this point, Manchin pretty much stands alone as a barrier to passage; Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is seemingly pacified. Whether Manchin will further isolate himself by exercising his veto is not at all clear.

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The month-long John Deere strike is over, with the 10,000 workers going back on the job after voting to ratify a new six-year contract on Wednesday.

The workers had rejected two prior proposed contracts before accepting the third offer their union leaders brought them. The new contract includes only “modest modifications” to the second offer, but that was enough to move from 55% against on the second offer to 61% in favor of the third offer, with 39% opposed. (The first contract offer was rejected by 90% of workers, kicking off the strike.)

According to the UAW, the new contract “includes an $8,500 signing bonus; 20% increase in wages over the lifetime of the contract with 10% this year; return of Cost of Living adjustments; three 3% lump sum payments; enhanced options for retirement and enhanced CIPP performance benefits. Healthcare remains the same for the life of the agreement.”

”UAW John Deere members did not just unite themselves. They seemed to unite the nation in a struggle for fairness in the workplace. We could not be more proud of these UAW members and their families,” the union’s president, Ray Curry, said in a statement.

And about that. Recent months have seen struggles for worker power and workplace fairness gaining widespread attention. Although the behind-the-scenes entertainment workers of IATSE very narrowly approved their own contract after a threatened strike and another possible strike of nearly 30,000 Kaiser health care workers was called off after a last-minute deal, workers have been showing their willingness to hold out for a good contract even if it means going on strike or coming to the brink. 

Those Kaiser workers didn’t go on strike over their own contract—but more than 40,000 Kaiser nurses were planning to walk out in a two-day sympathy strike to show support for around 600 operating engineers at Kaiser who have been on strike for two months.

Around 1,400 Kellogg’s cereal workers have been on strike since October 5, fighting the company’s demands for concessions and seeking to eliminate a two-tier system in which more recent employees don’t get the same health or retirement benefits.

Graduate students at Harvard University are voting on a proposed contract just as they were beginning a strike, which would have been their second this fall following a three-day October strike. Dozens of school bus drivers in Maryland are staging a sick-out as they fight for higher pay. Reporters at a small Massachusetts newspaper are on a byline strike.

Those are just some of the worker actions happening. And the John Deere workers, by holding out for a better contract not just once, but twice, showed the power of solidarity and sent a warning to companies that when workers say what they need to agree to a contract, they mean it.

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The trial of three white men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery began on Thursday with the cross-examination of defendant Travis McMichael, who testified a day earlier that he shot Arbery.  Travis; his father, Gregory McMichael; and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan (who recorded the moments leading up to Arbery’s death) were indicted on charges of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, attempt to commit a felony, and false imprisonment.

Before the jury was seated, the defense attempted to ban the prosecution from asking if Travis called Arbery a “f—king n—-r,” a statement only Bryan heard. The issue is Bryan is not expected to testify. Judge Timothy Walmsley said he would not render a decision at the start of trial proceedings, but would decide before the end of testimony. 

Updates will be added as the trial continues. Jump below the fold for more information on the trial to date.

Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, continued what has become a tradition of his in filing motions to ban high-profile Black pastors from attending the trial—a request the judge has denied time and time again. It didn’t hold up court proceedings for long on Thursday, and prosecutor Linda Dunikoski was able to continue her cross-examination of Travis.

He admitted that he “assumed” Arbery was the same man who had recently caused trouble in the Satilla Shores neighborhood, including breaking into Travis’ truck and walking through a home under construction in the community.

Travis repeated statements he made during the defense’s questioning on Wednesday. He said that when he encountered Arbery on Feb. 23, 2020, the day of his death, Travis only wanted to question him and stop him for police. Dunikoski pointed out that Travis grabbed his shotgun before asking his father if he had called the police.

She also asked Travis if it was correct that Arbery indicated three times by running that he didn’t want to talk to Travis, and the defendant said that was true. She also asked if Arbery threatened Travis, and he testified that Arbery did not.

RELATED: Travis McMichael tells story after story about using guns to de-escalate, until Arbery: ‘I shot him’

RELATED: Jurors see heartbreaking footage of moments leading up to Ahmaud Arbery’s death

RELATED: Defense attorney sees Al Sharpton in court and allows racism to slip out

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Emotions are running high today, as Julius Jones is scheduled to be executed at 4 PM CT unless Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt grants him final clemency.

Robert Dunham, executive director of the nonpartisan organization Death Penalty Information Center, told Daily Kos clemency sometimes does get granted in exceptional cases, and “Jones’ case is certainly exceptional,” he says. 

In a 3-1 vote on Nov. 1, the Oklahoma State Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency for Jones, 41, who’s been on death row for over 20 years. If Stitt steps in, Jones’ sentence will revert to life with the possibility of parole. 

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When the House voted to censure Rep. Paul Gosar and remove him from committees for posting an edited video showing himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden, more Republicans physically stood with Gosar than voted to censure him. Let that sink in.

About a dozen Republicans literally stood beside Gosar to show their support. Just two—Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both reliable opponents of Republican use of violence—voted to censure him, while one other voted present. 

Several of the Republicans who spoke in Gosar’s defense during debate on the censure resolution pointed out that he had taken the video down. So, apparently, no harm, no foul. But it took him two days to do so—and following the censure resolution, he retweeted someone else’s tweet of the very same video before taking that down.

Gosar’s own sister has called him a sociopath on national television, and six of his siblings have participated in heartfelt ads against him. But Gosar being one individual sociopath is not the problem with the Republican Party right now. The 12 House Republicans who put their bodies beside him to show support are part of the problem. The fact that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy not only opposed the censure of one of his members for blasting out a depiction, however fictional, of himself murdering a coworker and attacking the president of the United States, but threatened retribution against Democrats if and when Republicans take the majority in the House, shows the extent of the problem.

McCarthy wasn’t just voting against the censure of his member—he was saying that the censure was so illegitimate as to justify him in planning, well ahead of time, to exact retribution against Democrats. “You censured our guy and removed him from committees for the murder-fantasy video, so we’re going to do the same to your members for … whatever.”

This is, to say the least, a departure from past practice. The last time the House censured one of its members, it was Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel. Rangel was censured for ethics violations including soliciting corporate donations for a center named after him at City College of New York, leaving income and assets off his financial disclosure forms, and not paying taxes on a villa in the Dominican Republic. Rangel was censured in 2010, by a Democratic House, with a large majority of Democrats voting to censure him. Democrats provided the majority of votes for censure. Eleven years later, only two Republicans were willing to vote to censure one of their own, and those two are already effectively excommunicated from the party.

Less than three years ago, Republicans stripped then-Rep. Steve King of committee assignments after he said: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive?” They did that themselves. Now, they support Gosar in posting an incitement to violence against a fellow member of Congress and the president of the United States in an identifiably white nationalist context, and one of the people whose expressions of support Gosar quote-tweeted was … Steve King. For a long time, the media reliably portrayed King as a fringe member of the Republican caucus. Now it’s clear that Gosar is in the ascendant wing of the party.

This should be a turning point for people—including many in the traditional media—who have not yet realized that Republican leadership is not going to turn back to following norms and reliably opposing political violence. Republicans have gone from shattering norms nonviolently by doing things like holding a Supreme Court seat open for nearly a year and then filling another Supreme Court seat in a matter of weeks to having integrated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol into their core identity. They have for years been a party ruthlessly committed to building political power by any means at their disposal. They now understand that violence is one of those means.

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Donald Trump’s first order of business after escaping his second impeachment conviction (with the blessing of Senate Republicans) was to get revenge on the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. His message was clear: Hold Trump accountable and you’ll pay for it.

Back then, what qualified as an affront to Trump seemed directly related to taking an action that immediately harmed him, such as supporting his ouster from office.

Now Trump is widening his list of offenses to include any action that might benefit one of his political enemies, such as helping President Joe Biden enact a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. In other words: The friend of my enemy is my enemy.

That’s the new bar Trump is demanding GOP lawmakers factor in as they tip-toe around him and his exceedingly fragile ego. And if it prevents a Republican lawmaker from giving their constituents what they want, too bad.

Trump’s new standard became apparent this week when he chose sides in a West Virginia House race that is now pitting two sitting GOP members against each other after redistricting merged their districts into one.

Rep. David McKinley voted for the infrastructure bill; Rep. Alex Mooney voted against it. Guess who Trump endorsed: Mooney, who traveled down to Mar-a-Lago last Friday in the wake of his “no” vote on the bipartisan measure, according to CNN.

McKinley told CNN that he gave the voters and local officials what they had been craving for years: new roads and bridges.

“They’ve wanted infrastructure,” McKinley said.

Trump injecting himself into a West Virginia primary between two GOP incumbents is just a continuation of the war that has erupted within the Republican Party over the Biden infrastructure win that Trump wasn’t skilled enough to pull off. Trump’s personal insertion into the drama also guarantees the rift will never heal—just one more way for Trump to turn Republicans against each other as the party further disintegrates.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appears to be having the time of his life.

“Seventy-five percent of the American people support infrastructure,” McConnell said Tuesday. “From a Kentucky point of view, it was extremely good for our state. I’m proud of my vote.”

Go ahead and yuck it up, McConnell. By the time Trump finishes with GOP voters, two-thirds of them will believe it was treasonous for any Republican to vote in favor of the infrastructure measure. In Trump’s GOP, no one is allowed to have nice things unless he’s the biggest beneficiary.