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Good afternoon. Four days after losing both chambers of Congress, Donald Trump has found his response: prosecute the people trying to hold him accountable. On Saturday, Trump said he ordered the Justice Department to investigate Democrats for “extortion,” which is how he describes their promise to issue subpoenas, hold hearings and investigate misconduct. “The imprisonment should be against these EXTORTIONISTS,” he wrote, urging Republicans to report the so-called “threats” directly to him. This comes a day after he handed the West Wing to Stephen Miller, the aide who reportedly backed arresting journalists to force them to reveal their sources. Meanwhile, the walls keep closing in. A former RFK Jr. adviser is accusing Susie Wiles of trading Americans’ health for campaign cash, House Republicans are openly revolting against Miller, and a federal judge has tapped a former Trump prosecutor to investigate whether administration lawyers lied to her. The pattern is clear: when this White House is held accountable, it doesn’t change course. It goes after whoever is doing the holding. Today the targets are Democratic lawmakers. But when a president turns the Justice Department on anyone who promises oversight, and his new chief of staff reportedly thinks reporters should be arrested, independent journalists like me are next in line. I don’t have a corporate legal team or a network behind me. I have you. Your subscription is what lets me keep asking hard questions, keep reporting what they want buried, and keep refusing to back down. If you believe accountability isn’t a crime, please stand with independent journalism today
Here’s the news: Democrat Cindy Holscher is projected to WIN the Kansas governor’s race, defeating Republican Ty Masterson, according to VoteHub. Another major victory for Democrats as the party holds the Kansas governor’s mansion.
Trump Orders the DOJ After Democrats, Miller Pledges “Total Devotion” and Dana White Gets the Podium Trump says he has ordered the Justice Department to investigate Democrats for promising oversight, and he wants people imprisoned. On Saturday, Trump said he directed the DOJ to look into what he called “threats” by Democrats against Republican donors and administration officials, and he said those responsible should be imprisoned. “The imprisonment should be against these EXTORTIONISTS, and Republicans should get smart, fast!” he wrote on Truth Social, adding, “By copy of this statement, I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act, immediately!” He accused Democrats of threatening Attorney General Todd Blanche and others with impeachment “even though they admit they have no reason to do so,” and called it “extortion at the highest level.” In a second post, he urged Republicans to report the “threats” to him personally as well as to the DOJ. Trump didn’t name the Democrats he was accusing, and the DOJ didn’t respond to Politico’s questions about how it plans to act. Just four days after voters handed Democrats control of Congress, the president is directing his Justice Department at the opposition party for promising to do its constitutional job of oversight.
What Democrats have actually said is far from “extortion.” Politico reports that Trump’s claim misrepresents what Democratic lawmakers have said. Democrats have said they plan to use subpoenas and hearings to investigate misconduct by administration officials, which is standard congressional oversight. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s recent letters to White House ballroom donors, for example, asked for records about their contributions and warned of possible subpoenas if they didn’t comply, not imprisonment. Democratic leaders haven’t ruled out impeachment, but they have emphasized investigations over moving straight to impeachment proceedings. Trump also singled out Sen. Elissa Slotkin, claiming she wants to “go after all young people that believe in Republican Values,” apparently referring to her October remarks that the prospect of accountability could deter young people from joining the administration. Slotkin has said she was talking about lawbreaking, not political affiliation, and this isn’t the first time Trump has targeted her: last year he called a video in which she and other Democrats urged troops to refuse illegal orders “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Stephen Miller pledged “total devotion” to Trump and claimed he saved the Republican Party, days after its historic defeat. In his first public remarks since being named chief of staff, Miller pledged “my absolute loyalty, my unwavering commitment, and my total devotion” to Trump at an event Friday night. “If it wasn’t for President Trump the United States of America would not exist right now,” Miller said, adding, “This man saved America.” He even claimed Trump “saved the Republican party from the ash heap of history” and made it “stronger, more popular and more resilient than ever before,” just days after Republicans lost seven Senate seats, 42 House seats and five governor’s races, according to The Guardian. Roger Stone and GOP operative Caroline Wren called Miller Trump’s “wartime consigliere,” undercutting Trump’s earlier hints that he might work with Democrats. Not every Republican is on board: Rep. Marlin Stutzman called the pick a “horrible decision,” and outgoing Rep. Don Bacon said Miller “cost us seats in Texas and Arizona by alienating many Hispanic voters who voted for Trump in 2024.” Last month, Trump said there was “zero chance” he would replace Susie Wiles. Trump offered UFC chief Dana White the job of White House press secretary. On Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!” He said the offer also extends to White’s assistants, “even though some are not from our Country,” adding, “We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left.” White then posted a photo on Instagram of himself behind the press secretary’s lectern with the caption “On to the next chapter,” though it’s unclear whether he has accepted or was joking. The job has been open since October, when Katie Zacharia left just five days after replacing Karoline Leavitt. Trump said he suggested Zacharia quit after her first and only briefing, a six-minute session in which she took questions from just three conservative outlets. White is a longtime Trump friend whose UFC staged a fight on the White House South Lawn for Trump’s 80th birthday in June, and he could now become the face of a White House preparing for war with Congress and the press.
House Republicans Erupt as Trump Hands the West Wing to Stephen Miller House Republicans are fuming over Miller’s promotion, and some wanted him fired. “Horrible decision,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana told Fox News Digital after Trump announced the move, while another GOP lawmaker said they were in “utter disbelief.” Fox reports that multiple House Republicans said Miller should be fired, in conversations just moments before Trump promoted him. When one of them was later asked about the promotion, they replied with nothing but a facepalm emoji. Another GOP lawmaker called Miller “a megalomaniac who should have never been given the keys to the Ferrari,” though they added that “no one knows who Stephen Miller is in our districts” and that he isn’t the only reason Republicans lost. The backlash comes as Democrats are on pace to win more than 250 House seats and at least 54 in the Senate. Republicans say Miller ignored their warnings that his immigration crackdown was backfiring. One GOP lawmaker told Fox that members repeatedly warned Miller in group meetings that “your immigration enforcement policies are backfiring back home, our people are mad, our businesses are mad, even in deep red districts.” “But it looked to me like Stephen Miller was only after numbers … he would not listen to us,” the lawmaker said. “Because of his immigration positions, I just think we ruined a lot of our goodwill with Latino voters,” Stutzman added. Retiring Rep. Don Bacon said Miller “took an immigration policy that favored the president 2:1 in the public, over-reached and made it 2:1 unfavorable,” and told CNN that Miller “cost us seats in Texas and Arizona.” Battleground Republicans had pushed Trump to limit deportations to immigrants who committed crimes, and voter analyses show that while the Iran war and tariffs did the most damage, immigration drove away Latino voters in places like Texas. “Many Republicans don’t like him,” Bacon said. Miller and the White House aren’t backing down, and Trump’s inner circle is blaming the candidates instead. At an event Friday night, Miller claimed Trump “saved the Republican party from the ash heap of history” and made it “stronger, more popular and more resilient than ever before,” days after the party lost 42 House seats and seven Senate seats, according to The Guardian. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said Miller “has been a key player in delivering on President Trump’s America First agenda since day one” and “will continue to deliver historic successes.” JD Vance called Miller “an amazing patriot” and congratulated him on “a well deserved promotion,” even though The Guardian reports Vance has blamed the losses on the Iran war and tariffs. Roger Stone and GOP operative Caroline Wren called Miller Trump’s “wartime consigliere,” a sign the White House is preparing for confrontation, not cooperation. Rather than look at their own policies, Trump and his orbit have blamed “candidate quality,” arguing that Trump campaigned harder for many Republicans than they did for themselves. Just last month, Trump said there was “zero chance” he would replace Susie Wiles.
Former RFK Jr. Adviser Accuses Susie Wiles of Trading Americans’ Health for Campaign Cash A top MAHA adviser accuses Susie Wiles of blocking healthy-food policies to protect donor money. In a two-hour interview with Joe Rogan that aired Friday, Calley Means, who resigned as a senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month, accused Wiles of bowing to “unrelenting” pressure from industry lobbyists. “Susie said to me many times: ‘We need money for the midterms, Calley. We need money for the midterms,’” Means said, adding that when he pushed a policy on sugar in children’s diets, Wiles told him, “I need the sugar industry money.” According to The New York Times, Means also said her team pushed for approvals of flavored e-cigarettes, a top priority for tobacco companies that gave at least $20 million to Republicans this year, and gave in to lobbying from the kratom industry, whose products are often called “gas station heroin.” He claimed that any company that hired Wiles’ daughter Katie, a partner at the lobbying firm Continental Strategy, “was getting a high priority,” saying, “You pay Susie’s daughter, and it was openly discussed when they had a client.” Wiles was not available for comment, and the White House did not respond to questions about Means’ specific claims.
 Means says the White House cut RFK Jr. out of decisions that helped the maker of Roundup. Means said Kennedy, who spent decades suing pesticide companies, wasn’t consulted when the White House issued an executive order supporting production of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, or when it backed Bayer at the Supreme Court in its bid for immunity from cancer lawsuits. He said one of Wiles’ deputies dropped the order on a table and called it nonnegotiable, and that Wiles then called Kennedy’s office and said, “We’re not discussing this.” “I read it, I said, ‘This is a political disaster,’” Means recalled, and the Supreme Court ultimately sided with Bayer, infuriating many MAHA supporters. He also accused Heidi Overton, a White House health aide now nominated to lead the FDA, of helping the Justice Department build the legal case for Bayer and of writing a policy to loosen standards on fruit-flavored vapes after former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary refused to. A White House official disputed that, saying Overton “was not involved in drafting the brief” and only suggested minor changes in “tone.” Overton’s confirmation now depends on whether Senate Republicans can push her through in the lame-duck session before Democrats take over in January.
 The White House is pushing back, but Means’ claims hand Democrats a ready-made investigation. James Blair, Trump’s top political strategist, said Means is “literally just making shit up for media attention,” calling the interview “a pathetic attempt at a political knifing.” The White House said Trump has “made incredible strides to Make America Healthy Again,” pointing to new dietary guidelines and efforts to remove artificial ingredients from food. Kennedy avoided taking sides, posting that he stands “firmly behind President Trump” and that “draining the swamp is a mandate.” Means largely spared Trump and Kennedy, but he blamed Trump’s staff for the midterm losses, saying, “it’s why we lost the midterms,” and urged Trump to “clear his house.” His claims land as Sen. Ron Wyden, the incoming chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has already announced an investigation into Kennedy’s role in what he calls “corruption favoring” the tobacco and kratom industries. “Americans need to understand that if they are getting whipped up and excited about policy promises through our existing structure, they are being duped and gaslighted and lied to,” Means said.
The Judge Who Says the Trump Administration Lied to Her Is Now Investigating Its Lawyers Judge Ana Reyes plans to appoint a former Trump-appointed prosecutor to investigate whether administration lawyers misled her. Reyes said Saturday she intends to name Jessie Liu, a former U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., as a special master “to investigate whether Department of Justice or Department of the Interior counsel have committed ethical violations” in the lawsuit over Trump’s plan to overhaul East Potomac Golf Links. Liu ran the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office from 2017 to 2020, and Trump nominated her in 2019 to be the Justice Department’s No. 3 official before the nomination was withdrawn over opposition from Senate conservatives. One of her law partners, Jonathan Kravis, resigned from the DOJ in protest of how it handled the case against Trump adviser Roger Stone. Liu will examine whether government lawyers acted in “bad faith” by denying there was any plan to close the course while other officials were drafting a renovation proposal. Both sides have until Friday to object, and the DOJ’s current No. 3 official, Stanley Woodward, has called a special master “unnecessary and inappropriate.” Because Liu was once appointed by Trump, it will be harder for the administration to dismiss the probe as partisan.
Reyes says the question is whether the government lied to her, and the timeline doesn’t look good for the administration. In October, Woodward assured Reyes there was no current plan to close the course on Nov. 15, and less than two weeks later Trump announced on social media that the course and much of East Potomac Park would close that very day. The administration also removed more than 400 trees from the park with less than a day’s notice to the court, claiming the work was unrelated to the renovation, which Reyes said she is “skeptical” of. “The question goes to whether or not I have been lied to, whether I have been lied to in declarations about the plans, whether I have been lied to about the timing of things,” Reyes said at a hearing, adding that the government had lost all credibility in her view and that its lawyers could face sanctions. The administration still plans to close the course by next Sunday, and the D.C. Preservation League has asked Reyes to block the closure, with a hearing set for Friday. The government has already tried, and failed, to get Reyes removed from the case, which is one of several in which the administration has defied or delayed complying with court orders. The same judge blasted the administration for planning to deport Iranians back to Iran in the middle of a war. A newly unsealed transcript shows a DOJ lawyer told Reyes in an Oct. 15 hearing that the government is planning to deport Iranian nationals to Iran through third countries. “We are going to remove people in our custody to a country with which we are at war?” Reyes asked, warning that they would face “at a minimum a serious threat of certain death.” The transcript shows U.S. officials have been coordinating with representatives of the Iranian government, who were sent to detention centers in California and Arizona to meet with detainees, though the detainees refused. The case was brought by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, which alleges the government is sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with Tehran. Reyes ordered at least five days’ notice before anyone is put on a plane or vehicle for removal and warned she would start contempt proceedings against “every single person” who violates her orders. “It is like saying we have individuals in 1942 in this country that we are going to send back to Nazi Germany,” she said.
Other news: A gunman killed six people in Kraków’s main square, and officials say he was influenced by far-right ideology. A 25-year-old Polish man opened fire at random as he drove into the Main Market Square, one of the city’s busiest tourist spots, killing four women and two men. Sixteen people were hospitalized, including five foreign nationals, and one of the dead was also a foreigner, according to Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski. “Everything points to the fact that the shooter was influenced by far-right ideology,” Kierwinski said, adding that this will be part of the investigation. Police say the gunman used an AR-15 rifle and had a firearms license, and he was shot and wounded in a confrontation with officers, two of whom were injured, one seriously. Prime Minister Donald Tusk praised the “heroic police officers” and urged “politicians of all stripes: do not exploit this tragedy.” Kraków’s mayor declared a period of mourning through Wednesday. Israel’s president chose Netanyahu’s strongest rival to try to form a new government. President Isaac Herzog said he will task Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, with forming a government, with a formal ceremony set for Sunday in Jerusalem. Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition lost its majority in the Oct. 27 election, winning 53 of 120 seats, while Eisenkot’s opposition bloc won 48, leaving neither side with a majority. Both Arab-majority parties endorsed Eisenkot and could play kingmaker after unprecedented gains, but it’s unclear whether his bloc would accept their support. Eisenkot, the military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers, calling recent attacks “Jewish terror” enabled by Netanyahu’s government. He is no dove, though: he opposes a Palestinian state, has vowed to destroy Hamas’ military wing, and devised the “Dahiya doctrine” of massive force against civilian infrastructure in Hezbollah-controlled areas. If he succeeds, he would replace Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. Leaked documents show Cisco scrambled to save its Israeli military intelligence business during the Gaza war. Internal documents obtained by The Guardian show that repeated outages in Cisco systems used by Israeli military intelligence led the client to threaten to cancel, and the company went into crisis mode to save what it called a “critical” account. Cisco mobilized multiple teams for months and sent staff on site visits “under extreme security due to ongoing war” to a secretive Israeli intelligence unit, then billed the effort internally as a “customer success story.” Israel’s military intelligence contracts alone brought in about $67 million over three years, and the documents show Cisco’s Splunk subsidiary also pitched to join Project Nimbus, the controversial Israeli government cloud contract with Google and Amazon. A group of current and former Cisco workers called the company “an instrument of genocide” and said it was “no different to an arms company that is supplying the bombs and fighter jets.” Earlier this year, the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe Cisco allowed a hostile work environment for Palestinian, Arab and Muslim employees, which Cisco disputes. Cisco did not respond to The Guardian, and shareholders will vote this month on whether to require an independent human rights review of its Israeli military business. New Zealand’s election is too close to call, and the final result won’t be known until late November. On preliminary results, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s National party and its partners Act and New Zealand First have 67 seats, a razor-thin majority with the left bloc just three seats behind. National edged out Labour by just 0.02% in the party vote. Special votes, including overseas ballots, made up 21% of the total in 2023 and tend to favor the left, and the official results won’t come out until Nov. 27. The centrist newcomer Opportunity won 5.9%, making it the first new party to clear the threshold for parliament since New Zealand adopted its current system in 1996. Because of overhang seats, the next parliament could have a record 130 members, and four of National’s most senior ministers, including Nicola Willis, won’t return. “New Zealand has spoken, but it may take a bit longer to work out what they’ve said,” Labour leader Chris Hipkins joked. The FAA switched on the first digital air traffic control towers in the U.S. The systems are now running at Bartow Executive Airport in Florida and Kenai Municipal Airport in Alaska, and five more regional airports are next. The towers use camera systems and digital displays to give controllers a continuous 360-degree view of runways, taxiways and the surrounding airspace. The FAA says the technology isn’t meant to replace human controllers, with Administrator Bryan Bedford saying it gives them “greater visibility of airport activity and more information to make critical decisions.” The push is part of a $12.5 billion modernization effort to replace outdated equipment like copper phone lines, floppy disks and paper flight strips, and the administration is asking Congress for another $30 billion. Concerns are growing about new technology in air traffic control, including an AI tool the FAA rolled out in September. Scrutiny of air safety has been intense since the 2025 midair collision near Washington that killed 67 people, which authorities later called “100% preventable.” Russia knocked out power and water in Kyiv just days before U.S.-brokered peace talks. Russia launched 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles overnight, hitting substations in five regions, including one connecting two nuclear power plants to Kyiv, and damaging the city’s Northern Bridge. Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of trying to “plunge Kyiv and the entire country into a blackout,” and five people were injured, including a 14-year-old girl. Ukrainian officials say the Kremlin’s goal is to freeze civilians into submission over the winter, which would be a war crime. The attack came ahead of talks between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Zelenskyy called Jared Kushner’s latest plan “Yalta 2.0.” Russia has sharply increased its air attacks as its frontline progress has stalled, and Kyiv says Russia lost 54,000 troops, killed or wounded, last month, the highest monthly toll of the war. Zelenskyy appealed directly to the newly Democratic Congress, saying “Ukraine must not be left alone.” Italy blamed pro-Russian hackers for leaking the foreign minister’s personal data on the dark web. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said cybercriminals have spent days spreading his personal data on the dark web, exposing him and his family to “threats and intimidation.” He said the hackers “are prepared to pay for other details on me and my loved ones,” suggesting the threat is ongoing. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blamed pro-Russian hackers and called attempts to sell confidential information about officials “a matter of grave concern.” The leak follows a wave of hoax bomb threats across Europe, along with threats against broadcasters, attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems and drone incursions. Tajani didn’t say what information was exposed, but he reaffirmed Italy’s support for Ukraine. “I will not allow myself to be intimidated in any way,” he said. A former NYPD officer working as a school aide has been charged with murder in the random stabbing of a Brooklyn jogger. Sayed Mohassib, 27, was arrested Saturday and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Katie Suarez, 28, who was stabbed at least twice in the neck on the Belt Parkway bike path on Oct. 30. Police say Mohassib told investigators he had been walking on the path with a knife, and law enforcement sources say he claimed he blacked out and came to covered in blood. Surveillance video helped identify him, and cameras also caught him dumping bags of garbage near his home that night. A law enforcement source said Mohassib spent about a month with the NYPD in 2022, was later removed from the military over mental health issues, and was taken to Bellevue’s psychiatric ward in 2023 when he tried to get his NYPD job back. He most recently worked as a paraprofessional at a Brooklyn elementary school and kept reporting to work after the stabbing, and the Department of Education has suspended him. Suarez had been on her way to meet her parents, and her father found her after she never arrived. A South Carolina father was arrested for leaving his sleeping 6-year-old outside a Target to hold his spot in a Pokémon card line. Police say John-Michael Dooley, 35, gave his daughter a pillow and blanket and left her asleep in line outside a Charleston Target sometime after 1 a.m. on Friday. He was waiting for the release of a new Pokémon trading card set, and police said he admitted he went home and left her alone so he wouldn’t lose his place. After about an hour, concerned customers called police, and officers found the girl alone around 2:30 a.m. When Dooley came back, witnesses identified him and he was arrested. The child was unharmed and placed in emergency protective custody with the state Department of Social Services. Dooley was charged with unlawful conduct toward a child and is being held at the Al Cannon Detention Center.
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