With all of Trump’s madness, I’m glad you’re here. I have a great edition for you today. We have another investigation to lay out—this one into Ken Paxton’s campaign. You’ll see what I found in a minute.
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Paxton’s Dubai Donor Faces A Judge
On New Year’s Eve 2024, Texas AG Ken Paxton watched fireworks over Dubai’s Burj Khalifa with his mistress, Tracy Duhon. Six months later, his wife filed for divorce on “biblical grounds.” Also at the party were two men indicted back home that July, accused of stealing more than $15 million from a small hospital on Chicago’s West Side. One of them was Anosh Ahmed.
The Wall Street Journal published video from the party this week. So we dug into the court records and Texas filings ourselves. Ahmed gave Paxton’s campaign $190,000, every dollar after the FBI subpoenaed his company’s COVID testing records in June 2022. Look at when the big checks came in:
Dec. 2023: The government seized about $10 million from one of Ahmed’s accounts. Less than two weeks later, Paxton’s campaign banked $50,000 from him.
May 2024: A federal prosecutor named Ahmed as a co-conspirator in open court. Fifteen days later, Paxton’s campaign took another $50,000.
July 2024: A judge signed the warrant for Ahmed’s arrest. Three days later, another $25,000 came in.
We found no refunds to Ahmed in the Texas campaign finance records. But we did find Paxton’s old deputy Aaron Reitz receiving contributions for his campaign as well. Just five days after a Texas political site called Ahmed a “Fugitive Paxton Donor,” Reitz’s campaign for attorney general logged $99,894.26 from him, listed at an address in Dubai.
As Trump weighed endorsing Paxton, the Journal reports, he was told damaging revelations were likely to surface, but he was dismissive. Paxton’s senior adviser Nick Maddux told the Journal: “Like President Trump, Ken Paxton has been politically persecuted for years.” Trump has gotten away with it so far, so why wouldn’t Paxton?
On Tuesday, the day after the video went public, Ahmed stood in a federal courtroom and pleaded not guilty. The man Paxton toasted is now answering to a judge.
Paxton’s opponent James Talarico slammed him: “A party with multiple fugitives and Ken Paxton is still the sketchiest guy in the room.”
Two new polls out Wednesday, from Marist and the University of Texas, both have Talarico ahead, and that makes four this month. It’s still close, and no Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994. But in 19 days, that streak can end.
Trump’s Own Judge Just Overruled His Media Ban
On September 18, Trump posted that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were banned from the White House. No notice, no warning, 78 reporters locked out, and the reason given was: “fake news.”
The outlets sued, and on Tuesday, Trump-appointed Judge Timothy Kelly ruled. Kelly granted a preliminary injunction, which keeps the ban blocked for as long as the case lasts. The White House gave no warning, he wrote, “to put it mildly.” He said the ban “threatens to cut off all Plaintiffs’ access to the White House press area.”
Only after the ban was in place did the regime’s lawyers claim it was about national security. Kelly found nothing to back it up, and refused to pause his ruling so the regime could appeal.
Trump wanted to decide who gets to ask him questions. A judge he picked just told him he can’t. Trump keeps losing in court, and once again he lost to his own appointee.
Mike Collins Had No Answer For Jon Ossoff
On Tuesday night during the final Georgia Senate debate, a panelist asked Trump’s handpicked Senate candidate—Rep. Mike Collins—if he still believes Trump beat Joe Biden in 2020. You’d think after six years a grown man could answer that. “There was a lot of doubt in that election,” Collins said.
Sen. Jon Ossoff didn’t let it sit there: “Here’s your third chance. Did Donald Trump really win the 2020 election? You want to answer, Mike?” Collins still didn’t answer. Trump would destroy him if he did.
Four years ago, in a House debate, Collins called himself “100% pro-life, period, no exceptions.” On Tuesday, Ossoff told viewers what to expect: “Let’s see if he tries to change his position tonight.” Sure enough, with the whole state watching, Collins said he never meant a total ban on abortion.
Then a moderator asked Collins, flat out, whether he’s a white nationalist. The reason why? His son-in-law has shared nazi imagery and antisemitic material online, along with the fact that one of his former staffers posted swastika and Klan pictures.
Collins said he condemns hate “of any kind” and blamed Ossoff’s rhetoric for threats against his family. But Ossoff didn’t give Collins an inch: “How weak a person do you have to be to be unable to stop someone under your own roof from disseminating neo-nazi propaganda while you run for the Senate?”
That’s what a fearless Democrat looks like.
Georgians started voting Tuesday, Ossoff leads by 8 in the polling average, and Trump’s flying into Dalton on Friday to prop up his guy. If Ossoff holds this seat, Trump’s rubber-stamp Senate majority gets a whole lot harder to keep.
The Paralympic Champion Who Could Flip Iowa
Josh Turek won two Paralympic gold medals in wheelchair basketball, and he never let an announcer leave out his hometown: Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Now he’s the Democrat running to represent all of Iowa in the Senate. On Tuesday night, he faced Trump’s pick, GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson, in their final debate.
Turek went hard at Hinson over Trump’s war with Iran: “We are in this situation because of this unnecessary war in Iran that Ashley Hinson voted in favor of continuing seven times.” If you farm in Iowa, you don’t need that explained. Diesel hit a record this fall, right in the middle of harvest, and fertilizer is up.
Then Turek turned to Social Security. Hinson said in 2020 she was open to raising the retirement age. Just last week she still wouldn’t rule it out, saying for a 20-year-old “it’s a very different conversation.”
On the campaign trail, Turek has hammered her for cheering Trump’s DOGE cuts as “exactly what the federal government needs” while the Social Security office in Decorah sat empty for six months. He’s also hit her for voting against capping insulin at $35 a month. And at the debate he made this promise: “I give my pledge I will support and protect Social Security and Medicare to every single one of our seniors. It’s an earned benefit.”
The race is a toss-up, early voting started Wednesday, and Iowa hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in 18 years. If the kid from Council Bluffs breaks that streak, Trump almost certainly loses the Senate with it.
A lot of you folks have been with me since way before the 2024 election, some as far back as 2016 when I first started fighting Trump. It’s been a long road, so there is no way we will slow down now.
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Onward!
Scott
If someone you know said their vote doesn’t matter, what would you tell them to get them to the polls?
Early voting just opened in Georgia and Iowa. While you’re making your plan to vote, take a minute to make some noise in Congress too:
Impeach Pete Hegseth: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-pete-hegseth/
Release all of the Epstein files now: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-demand-acting-ag-blanche-release-all-of-the-epstein-files-now/
Ban Flock’s mass surveillance cameras: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-ban-flock-mass-surveillance-cameras/
Pass the ban on AI we can’t control: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-pass-the-ban-on-ai-we-cant-control/
Each one goes straight to your members of Congress. Tell me below which ones you sent.
Nineteen days. That's all. Thank you to every person who's reading, sharing, organizing, volunteering, donating, voting, and refusing to check out. The reason we've come this far is because millions of people decided democracy was worth the effort. Let's finish this thing together.