'Absolutely!' CNN panel slams Trump commerce secretary's 'conflict of interest'

03/20/25 5:31 PM

CNN's Inside Politics' panel slammed Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Thursday for blatantly promoting Tesla stock in an effort to help owner Elon Musk. Tesla has seen its stocks slump since Musk's affiliation with President Donald Trump and stewardship of the vastly unpopular Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), that has slashed whole departments and thousands of government jobs. Well-publicized recalls of Tesla vehicles, including Cybertrucks that had their parts fall off, have not helped the situation. According to Business Insider, Tesla shares have "plummeted 53% from record highs reached in mid-December.""Apparently there's a push to buy Tesla stock from the commerce secretary," Manu Raju said to introduce a clip of Fox News, where Lutnick told Jesse Watters about the benefits of buying Tesla stock.As Lutnick gave a full-throated endorsement of Tesla, vehicles were seen smoldering, set ablaze by Musk protesters throwing Molotov cocktails in Las Vegas.ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs"I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla!" Lutnick told host Jesse Watters. "It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It will never be this cheap again. When people understand the things he's building, the robots he's building, the technology he's building, people are going to be dreaming of today and Jesse Watters, and thinking, 'Gosh, I should have bought Elon Musk's stock. I mean, who wouldn't invest in Elon Musk?" After the clip ended, Raju interjected, "I mean, this is the commerce secretary telling people to buy Tesla stock. And this is after Trump tried to sell Teslas on the White House lawn!" "Yeah, nice to have friends in high places, right, for your business?" quipped Leigh Ann Caldwell, chief Washington correspondent for Puck. She continued, "This is absolutely a conflict of interest! You know, the Federal Election Commission, I'm sure is not really going to do anything about it. But, I mean, yeah, it's untoward. It's not what's supposed to happen. And we obviously see what the political and personal benefit is for Donald Trump and Elon Musk."She added that Musk "is funding Republican candidates around the country, too.""And he will continue to do that, and I suspect they'll continue to push from the White House and administration to help Tesla," Raju said. Watch the CNN clip below or click the link.

'Admissions': Judges reportedly using Trump's own words to smash lawyer's arguments

03/20/25 7:23 PM

Donald Trump's brashness may have helped win him the presidency, but his words are being used against him as his administration fights a growing number of lawsuits against efforts to enact his agenda, according to reporting by The Associated Press."Nowhere has this been clearer than in cases involving his adviser Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency," wrote reporters Chris Megerian and Lindsay Whitehurst. They cited a recent case revolving around whether Musk overstepped his authority when tearing down USAID, the agency that provides financial assistance "to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms."Justice Department attorneys argued that Musk was "merely a presidential adviser, not the actual leader of DOGE."ALSO READ: 'The Hard Reset': Here's how the U.S. is exporting terrorism around the world"But Trump has said otherwise — in speeches, interviews and public remarks — and [U.S. District Judge Theodore] Chuang quoted him extensively in his decision," the article read. Chuang ultimately ruled that as head of DOGE, Musk likely violated the Constitution.Attorney Norm Eisen, who represented USAID employees in the lawsuit, told the AP, “Trump’s words were essential, central and indispensable. His admissions took what would have been a tough case and made it into a straightforward one.”"The looseness with words is a shift from predecessors like Democratic President Barack Obama, who used to say that he was careful because anything he said could send troops marching or markets tumbling," Megerian and Whitehurst wrote, adding, "Trump has no such feeling of restraint, and neither do other members of his Republican administration such as Musk."They also cited Anthony Coley, head of public affairs at the Justice Department during the Biden administration, who told them, "Statements involving civil litigation were always coordinated between his office and the West Wing."Coley described Trump's penchant for saying exactly what's on his mind whenever he likes as a "ready-fire-aim approach of doing business,” that's not expected to change anytime soon.Read The Associated Press article here.

'Angry base is motivated base': Analyst says 'livid' Dems may have gotten kick they needed

03/18/25 7:04 PM

Democrats are angry that their leadership is failing to show any substantive pushback to President Donald Trump's first two months of devastation, which might be exactly what the party needs to get moving in the right direction, argues a new piece from MSNBC.The tipping point came when Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) aligned himself with Republicans to vote for the recent funding bill to keep the government open. Backlash has been swift, leading Schumer to cancel his book tour due to security concerns over unruly protesters."It’s undoubtedly embarrassing for Democrats that their leader in the Senate is ducking scenes of being called a coward by voters in his own party," wrote author Paul Waldman. "But that the very fact that the party’s base is so livid at its leadership could be good news. Recent history tells us that that anger may be crucial if the Democrats are to back from their current lowly position."ALSO READ: ‘I miss lynch mobs’: The secretary of retribution's followers are getting impatientThe piece cited recent polls by NBC News and CNN showing the Democratic Party at its lowest approval rating ever recorded, at just 27 percent. Waldman wrote, that "voters in the Democratic base are clearly hungry for representatives who will not only find the most pragmatic ways to counter Trump, but who will oppose him loudly and without embarrassment."He declared, "An angry base is a motivated base, and a base that has decided it can’t rely on leadership will start organizing for itself."Waldman gave examples of how that's starting to play out."Grassroots Democrats are organizing protests. Bernie Sanders is drawing crowds to his 'Stopping Oligarchy' tour. The progressive group Run For Something, which helps liberals run for state and local offices, says it has signed up almost as many prospective candidates just since Trump’s inauguration as it did in all of 2017 and 2018. And activists are advocating primary challenges against Democratic leaders, just as tea partiers did to Republican leaders a decade ago."Read the MSNBC article here.