Happy Wednesday and thanks for being here. Thirteen days to go, and I woke up in a fighting mood. The stories I have for you in this edition are why.
Before you read on, hit the ❤️ like button, then restack. Students in North Carolina walked 45 minutes in the heat to cast their ballots. A few taps from you put their story and more in front of people who would never see it otherwise.
I’ve been fighting Trump since 2016, so I’m taking nothing for granted over these next 13 days. We will continue to fight MAGA propaganda on social media in ways that most can’t, delivering the truth to millions every single day. Our pressure campaigns on Congress are running stronger than ever. And on top of our daily great news briefs, we’re digging through thousands of pages of GOP Senate campaign finance reports, with more exclusive investigations coming before Election Day.
Paid readers allow us to do this work—independent of billionaires, advertisers, and boardrooms. Today they also get my breakdown of why Republicans just walked away from their own incumbents. You’ll also unlock access to my election night war room—a safe place for our members where I’ll be reporting the results seat by seat. Join us as a paid subscriber here:
Americans Overruled Pete Hegseth
Earlier this month, Pete Hegseth announced that the military execution of Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, would be broadcast live. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” he said. No American execution has ever been streamed to the public. Our Secretary of Defense wanted his to be the first.
The backlash was swift. America’s Catholic bishops objected. So did the United Nations. Then last Thursday morning, an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found eight in 10 Americans didn’t want it streamed.
That same morning, Trump folded. “This event will not be streamed,” he posted, while grumbling that a livestream “might have been a strong deterrent.” He didn’t find a conscience overnight. I think he saw that poll. On Tuesday, Hegseth said he fully supports Trump’s decision to drop the idea.
After Trump backed down, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania called the episode “as clear an illustration as any that Hegseth is dangerously unqualified.” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said Hegseth “deserves to be admonished for his lack of judgment.”
Hegseth bet that we’d all gone numb. He lost that bet to the people saying no, all at once.
New York City Beat Trump In Court
The DOJ sued the city of New York last year over their limits on helping ICE.
After taking office, Zohran Mamdani was forced to take it on. And just last Thursday, he won it. Judge Ramón Reyes threw the whole case out, writing that the regime’s arguments were “nothing more than a backdoor around the Tenth Amendment.” Translation—Washington can’t make a city do ICE’s job for it.
I read the entire ruling, and my favorite part is buried in the footnotes. Reyes listed 11 other cases like this one—Trump had lost all of them. His lawyers also brought two federal laws into court to help their case. Reyes ruled both of them unconstitutional.
Mamdani called the ruling “a rebuke to ICE’s deportation agenda.” Trump keeps picking the same fight—and he keeps losing it.
He Fought Back. At Least 50 Went Home.
On July 30, Border Patrol agents arrested Jesus Verde Hernandez in Lewistown, Montana, with no warrant. According to his lawyers, agents were looking for someone who looked like him. They kept him in custody for 30 hours, pressuring him to sign papers agreeing to self-deport. He has lived in Montana for ten years with his partner, and they have three young children.
A Helena nonprofit, Upper Seven Law, took his case. On August 7, Chief District Judge Brian Morris ordered him released. Then he expanded the case to everyone arrested that way in Montana since late July and declared those arrests illegal.
The regime didn’t fall in line. In Morris’ words, the government “declined to abide by the Court’s declaratory judgment and continued to hold wrongfully detained class members.” So he had every person’s case brought to him one at a time and ordered the government to answer for at least five every business day.
Upper Seven says at least 50 people have been freed so far. “We will not stand down,” the firm said. The Trump regime assumed no one in Montana would push back. They were wrong.
The Students Republicans Couldn’t Keep From Voting
In 2024, students at North Carolina A&T—the largest historically Black university in the country—could vote early right on campus. This year, election officials left it off the early voting map, along with UNC Greensboro’s site. When A&T students attended a state elections board meeting in January to fight for one, Republican chairman Francis De Luca threatened to call the police if they didn’t leave.
So last Thursday, on the first day of early voting, they marched. More than 100 students from A&T and UNC Greensboro walked around 45 minutes in the heat to the nearest early voting site. Bennett College students joined along the way. The line ran out the door.
“You turned out when they took your voting site away,” Robert Reives, the top Democrat in the state House, said. He then challenged them to get every student who hasn’t voted yet to show up.
More than 201,000 North Carolinians voted in person on day one, up roughly 47% from 2022. Through Tuesday, about 877,000 had voted in person, and registered Democrats had cast about twice as many ballots as Republicans.
I remember exactly what it felt like 715 days ago when Trump won the presidential race. Before it was even called—no joke—I immediately got to work on what we could do to fight back. I never imagined how much we’d be able to pull off since then, but we all knew exactly how Trump would be.
I also remember standing next to President Obama 6,483 days ago after he was sworn in. I remember being in front of soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi 2,906 days ago when Democrats won back the House in 2018. And I watched the fireworks reflecting off President Biden as he emerged from the White House balcony on inauguration night exactly 2,100 days ago.
Now, we have just 13 days left to turn Trump into a lame duck, which would be the beginning of the end of his tyranny. Thank you for joining me for this journey, and for having my back through it all. Whether you’ve been supportive for decades or days, I truly appreciate it.
We will not stop, or take any days off. We work through every holiday, rain or shine, sleet or snow, as we have for years. We are full speed ahead. And there are no brakes.
Help us keep up the momentum by joining us as a paid subscriber today:
Before you go, hit the ❤️ like button and restack this. Someone you know needs to be reminded that this regime can be beaten. You can be the one who delivers that message.
Onward!
Scott
Do you think GOP schemes to cut polling places will backfire?
Is there a House race you are watching closely?
Greensboro students walked 45 minutes in the heat to vote. Thirteen days left, and these take about a minute each:
Impeach Pete Hegseth: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-pete-hegseth/
Back impeachment of Trump: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-begin-drafting-articles-of-impeachment-against-trump/
Release all of the Epstein files now: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-demand-acting-ag-blanche-release-all-of-the-epstein-files-now/
Stop Trump’s illegal plan to destroy the U.S. Forest Service: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trumps-illegal-plan-to-destroy-the-us-forest-service/
Tell me below which ones you sent.
I keep thinking about those students who just walked. That’s the energy. Thirteen days. Stay with it.