Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Immigrants Left Out, Local Elections Not Covered, Money Politics Soars

As The Daily Beast explains, Thompson is a relatively unknown pastor who has nonetheless made a name for himself by attacking teachers, school boards and public education, itself. More from The Daily Beast: Thompson already tipped the scales of the Temecula Valley Unified School District in 2022, helping to give three new right-leaning board members a majority.

“Smartmatic alleges that Newsmax has destroyed evidence in the voting machine company’s lawsuit against the right-wing news channel over false claims that Smartmatic helped ‘rig’ the 2020 election,” NBC News reports.

There's a whole new faux outrage going on from the right. What are they mad at now? I'm glad you asked. It all started with a Truth Social post from Lumpy claiming that "Joe Biden's DOJ" authorized the FBI to use deadly force during the raid at Mar-a-Lago. "WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the "Icebox," and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden's DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE," Captain Caps Lock wrote.

“As Arab Americans hold back their support from President Joe Biden until he changes course on the Israel-Gaza war, Donald Trump’s ‘shadow secretary of state’ — Ric Grenell — met with Arab American leaders Tuesday night to try to convince them that the former president is a viable option for their community come November,” NOTUS reports. “It didn’t go well.” “The meeting… featured about 40 Arab American leaders, Grenell, Trump’s son-in-law Michael Boulos, and Boulos’ father, Massad Boulos….

Paul Manafort “has been secretly advising the 2024 re-election effort through his top campaign aides since last summer,” 24sight News reports. “Manafort has quietly been passing strategic advice back to Trump through co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita and longtime Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio… Manafort has been analyzing polling results and advised on the organization of state Republican parties and selecting delegates to the Republican nominating convention — one of his specialties.”

“Special counsel David Weiss plans to introduce Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop as evidence against him at his upcoming trial on felony gun charges,” CNN reports. “The laptop is at the center of a yearslong legal and political saga, dating to the 2020 election. Republican officials and right-wing outlets have seized on the laptop’s embarrassing emails and images to attack Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.