Resistance HQ Bulletin 9, 11/20/24

… Trump is reportedly set to appoint Ross Vought as his Budget Director. So his Border Czar wrote the section on Project 2025 on the border, his FCC nominee wrote the section on Project 2025 on the FCC, and his Budget Director wrote the section on Project 2025 about the budget. But Trump said in the campaign he has no connection to Project 2025 and doesn’t know any of the people involved.

… Surprising criticism from Rand Paul on Trump’s announced plan to declare a national emergency in order to use the military to round up and deport migrants. “I think it’s a terrible image. That’s not what we use our military for. We never have. I will not support an emergency to put the Army into our cities.”

… The updated popular vote count according to Cook Political is now Trump - 49.89%, Harris - 48.24%. Trump’s lead continues to shrink.

… JD Vance said today that the Senate just needs to confirm every Trump nominee with no questions asked since Trump “just won a major electoral victory.”

… Thom Tillis said that Republicans citing recess appointments of previous presidents like Obama is a much different situation than what Trump wants to do because none of those were Cabinet-level positions: “Not for a Cabinet-level position. That should be absolutely off the table. And quite honestly, any serious candidate .. I would have to really wonder if they would want it or be willing to accept that under a recess appointment.”

… Tommy Tuberville suggested to Steve Bannon though that they are cooking up some kind of plan to ram Trump appointments through after the new Senate is sworn in early Jan and before Trump takes office. Unclear how this would happen if a few Republican Senators refuse to vote to adjourn, but we know that Trump and his henchmen are constantly searching for ways to justify ignoring the Constitution and all established norms.

… Trump raged on Truth Social that his amazing nominees are being criticized: “This is what the Radical Left Lunatics do to people. They dirty them up, they destroy them, and then they spit them out.”

… ABC has obtained Venmo and PayPal records showing payments of $10,000 from Matt Gaetz to two women he allegedly paid for sex. One was a minor at the time. Maybe he was just donating to their tuition out of the kindness of his heart.

… Tim Burchett responded to the House Ethics report on Gaetz getting hacked: “Can someone hack the Epstein files for American to see?” Careful what you wish for.

… Lindsey Graham met with Gaetz today in his office. Lindsey told CNN: “I fear the process surrounding the Gaetz nomination is turning into an angry mob, and unverified allegations are being treated as if they are true. I urge my Senate colleagues not to join the lynch mob.”

… Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez was asked if Gaetz would make a good AG: “It doesn't matter what I think, the president-elect of the United States thinks that he'll make a good AG. I’m not a fan of Matt Gaetz. I wasn’t a fan of his when he was here. I think he was a disruptive force when he was in the House. But Trump has faith in him.” Hell of a ringing endorsement.

… Democratic Rep. Sean Casten introduced a privileged resolution to release the Ethics Report on Gaetz to force Republican House members to vote on whether to keep it concealed, per Punchbowl news. They only need a few Republican votes.

… Meanwhile, the Senate made a formal request for the House Ethics report on Gaetz to be turned over to them so they can do their job properly.

… But the Ethics Committee voted along party lines with Republicans voting to keep the Gaetz report secret and Democrats voting to release it. After Republican Chair Michael Guest told the press that the full committee “agreed” not to release the report, Dem Rep Susan Wild flamed him, saying that was a complete lie, they all agreed not to discuss the vote, but since Guest lied about what happened she felt compelled to disclose it was a straight party-line vote.

… But GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden told CNN after that he would vote to release the Gaetz report if it was brought to the floor for a vote. So that’s one.

… Trump rolled out a new product line today - Trump Guitars. He is selling an electric Trump Guitar on his website for $1,500 and an acoustic Trump Guitar for $1,250. They have an American flag with Trump’s face on them. He is also offering signed guitars for $10,000 and promises that they will arrive before Christmas if you order now.

… The website for the Trump guitars does NOT say where they are made, so you know what that means.

… Nikki Haley trashed Tulsi Gabbard today: “She said that Trump turned the US into Saudi Arabia’s prostitute. This is going to be the future head of our National Intelligence? She tried to cut our annual defense budget. Tulsi Gabbard defended Iran. She went to Syria for a photo op with Assad while he was massacring his own people. She said she was skeptical he was behind it. This is disgusting. Everything she said about it was Russian talking points. Every bit of it. That was Russian propaganda.”

… More from Haley: “After Russia invaded Ukraine, she blamed NATO. The Russians and the Chinese played her talking points on Russian and Chinese TV. She’s defended Russia, Syria, Iran and China. DNI is not a place for a Russian-Chinese-Iranian-Syrian sympathizer.”

… Attorneys for former GA elections workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss filed a motion today in court seeking to have Rudy Giuliani held in contempt of court for continuing to repeat the same false statements about them in recent media interviews that he was found liable for.

… Comcast announced it will create a separate spinoff media company that will package MSNBC, Bravo, CNBC, SyFy, and USA Network together under the new umbrella. Most industry analysts are saying they are doing this with the intent to sell them.

… WaPo reported losing $77 million this year, and that was before 250,000 people canceled their subscriptions after Jeff Bezos pulled the plug on the planned Harris endorsement.

… Alex Jones has filed a lawsuit against the Sandy Hook families and The Onion, alleging that the sale and acquisition in the bankruptcy proceeding violated acceptable rules and practices for blind bidding. The Onion’s offer was reportedly $7 million.

… SecDef Lloyd Austin was asked about Trump nominee Pete Hegseth’s opposition to women serving in combat roles: “They do impact readiness. They make us better. They make us stronger. What I’ve seen from our women is quite incredible. This is not hyperbole, this is fact. As the years have gone by, our women are getting better and stronger.”

… Rep Summer Lee on Hegseth: “When Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was up for confirmation or when VP Harris was added to the ticket, they called them DEI hires. They want you to believe that a Harvard graduate with over 20 years of experience is