Hello, it’s the weekend. This is the weekend ☕️
On Tuesday, we published a long look at the Proud Boys, which included details about encrypted apps with one of their most extreme leaders suggesting some of his citizens have joined President Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. This is one of the first indications that people affiliated with far-right groups have responded to Trump’s Department of Homeland Security’s mass deportation recruitment campaign, which has included nods to white supremacist memes and other racially charged topics.
One example of this happened this week when X’s accounts are blatantly anti-Semitic He began by sharing a promotional video on Facebook from the U.S. Border Patrol that was audio-recorded with a controversial A 1996 song by Michael Jackson includes the slur “Kiki”. As news of the video spread — and was embraced by extremists — on Wednesday, the Border Patrol deleted the clip from the Internet.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin provided a statement to TPM on Friday saying the situation is not a problem.
“We’ve deleted the post and will update it with different music. End of story,” McLaughlin said.
But clearly there is a story here. And it’s about more than just Proud Boys and DHS online content. On Tuesday, there was another situation that revealed how Nazi themes and ideas have become increasingly present in more mainstream Republican circles. POLITICO Posted a story Based on a set of leaked Telegram conversations from a national network of Republican youth group leaders. The conversations included jokes about gas chambers, racist comments about black people, and a particularly explicit message: “I love Hitler.”
That bombshell wasn’t the only story related to the Republican Party and Nazism to come out this week. On Wednesday, User X shared the photos From a Zoom call With a worker in the office of Rep. Dave Taylor (R-Ohio) showing an American flag decorated with a swastika hanging behind him. Taylor and other members of the Republican Party later claimed that the situation was part of it “trick” The group pretended to be conservative and was distributed differently “optical illusion” Flags to multiple republican offices.
Even if this situation is really some kind of elaborate prank, there are issues with Republican Party staffers who have engaged in neo-Nazism. More generally, between the Department of Homeland Security apparently attracting “Proud Boys,” anti-Semites who revel in insults in Border Patrol videos, and young Republicans making Hitler jokes, it is increasingly clear that a more open embrace of extremism is a real trait of the Republican Party in the era of Trump.
In the past, reporters and others had a saying when people sympathetic to extremists accidentally exposed them. It was called “saying the quiet part out loud.” Now, with the Proud Boys growing more daring and government agencies sharing memes that looked like they were taken from 4chan, there’s really no quiet part anymore. It’s all very clear: White nationalist extremism is at the heart of the Republican Party and the current administration.
One person who seems to agree with this is webcaster and unabashed Hitler fan, Nick Fuentes. On Tuesday, Fuentes He claimed on his show and that his followers, known as Gruypers, were present “throughout the government.”
“There are arrogant people in government,” Fuentes said. “There are workers in every department, in every agency, okay?”
-Hunter Walker
Here’s what else TPM has available:
- A bipartisan group of senators is seeking a vote that would prevent the government from launching ground strikes on Venezuela.
- The former Democratic governor of Maine who is challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the midterms made a disappointing announcement to progressives Thursday that she supports keeping the filibuster in place if elected.
- Some Democrats are pushing to ensure that laid-off federal workers are rehired if Democrats help Republicans reopen the government.
- House Democratic leadership is looking for more ways to offset the effects of President Trump’s power grab, as he successfully forced Republican state legislatures across the country to engage in mid-cycle gerrymandering so that the GOP could retain the House in 2026.
✨TPM turns 25 years old✨
Join us at the Metrograph Theater in Manhattan on Thursday 11/6 for a live recording of Josh Marshall’s podcast featuring Kate Rega and an oral history of TPM with some of our esteemed alumni, moderated by me, Nicole LaFond, your weekend curator 🙂
Weekend subscribers can get 33% off ticket prices by using discount code WEEKENDER at This link.
Please come! I would love to meet you in person!
– Nicole Lafond
3 Senator War Powers Vote on Venezuela
A bipartisan group of senators is seeking a vote that would prevent the government from launching ground strikes on Venezuela.
This week saw a further escalation in the US military buildup near Venezuela. President Trump said he allowed the CIA to conduct operations in the country. The Air Force flew B-52s off the coast while the Special Forces It is said Hovering nearby in helicopters. The administration blew up another boat, this time with two survivors who were reportedly held by the army.
Now, Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are introducing a war powers resolution that would prevent an attack on ground sites in Venezuela. A broader resolution that would have blocked further action failed after the GOP withheld support earlier this month. It is not clear where this will go, but it is evidence of the urgency of the situation.
– Josh Kovinsky
Mills fails the most important litmus test
Janet Mills, former Maine governor and Democratic leadership favorite to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), would support keeping the filibuster if elected. According to the Bangor Daily News.
No (reasonable) person would question the Democratic nominee for this seat based on some issues; There’s a reason why a Republican has such staying power in a state that routinely votes for Democratic presidential candidates by wide margins. But supporting the filibuster does not simply mean being more supportive of gun rights or border protection than a typical Democrat.
If Democrats win the trifecta again, they will have to pass a major overhaul, by today’s standards, to ensure that no one else can look like Trump and thus weaponize the federal government. This might include neutralizing the Supreme Court, turning Washington, D.C. into a state, and devising a new way to protect civil servants from being fired at will. These would be the kind of reforms that have right-wing and mainstream media screaming about the excesses of extremists, and the kind that today’s mainstream Democrats can never afford. Eliminating the filibuster is the least of these, and a nominee who cannot even commit to eliminating a fairly new and artificial obstacle to majority rule that overwhelmingly benefits Republicans is ill-equipped for the task ahead.
-Kate Rega
Some Democrats want to ensure Fed employees are rehired if they help end the shutdown
It’s been three weeks since the government shutdown — 18 days to be exact — with no signs of change in sight. Democrats have not backed down on their health care demands, including their request to extend Affordable Care Act benefits that are set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans continue to say they will not negotiate.
But amid the White House and Office of Management and Budget’s attempt to undertake mass layoffs of federal workers, there may be a new Democratic demand looming on the horizon: a commitment to rehire employees subject to cutbacks in place, also known as RIFs, before Democrats agree to give Republicans the votes they need.
“It would be highly unreasonable to open the matter and still endure those thousands and thousands of firings,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). For politics.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also said that eliminating RIFs “should certainly be on the table.”
Of course, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) condemned the regional investment trusts, but he did not say whether he thought rolling back layoffs should be part of a deal to reopen the government.
Hoyer added that he believes the courts will overturn it as well.
A federal judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order, preventing the Trump administration from laying off nearly 4,000 federal workers during the government shutdown, though that is no guarantee of a victory for unions suing the government over rural infrastructure. Meanwhile, Office of Management and Budget Director Ross Vought continues to insist that the initial regional organizational structures were merely a “snapshot” of what was to come.
– Emine Yücel
Democrats are looking to Maryland and Illinois to balance out the GOP’s redistricting campaign
As Republicans give in to President Trump’s pressure campaign to engage in mid-decade redistricting efforts, Democrats are looking toward Maryland and Illinois to draw new district maps to offset Trump’s power grab, according to reports from nbc and POLITICO.
The Trump administration is openly pressuring GOP-controlled legislatures to redraw congressional maps to help Republicans keep the US House of Representatives in the midterm elections. The Democrats’ counter efforts are ongoing in Californiain which voters are asked to weigh in on a ballot measure to temporarily approve new House districts that would favor their party, is under discussion in other blue states as well.
Earlier this week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, Per NBCHe met with Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore, as well as members of Illinois’ congressional delegation, about potential redistricting plans in the state.
Jeffries has too It is said He has been in contact with Illinois Democrats to discuss redistricting efforts. Although no revised maps were presented during these talks, some possible revised boundaries were presented, according to POLITICO.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker previously admitted in an interview with NPR Redistricting is something he might consider.
“None of us want to do that. None of us want to go through the redistricting process. But if we had to, it’s something we would consider doing,” he said.
– Khia Himmelman