Trump endorses mysteriously absent ‘ghost’ congressman: ‘Never seen anything like this’

Republican House Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey thanked President Donald Trump on Monday for his endorsement ahead of the GOP primary election on Tuesday, but critics – including his Democratic opponent – were quick to remind the lawmaker that he’s not been seen on the House floor for nearly 90 days.

“Kean hasn’t voted in the House or appeared in public in months, yet he’s being endorsed for re-election by Trump,” wrote John Bresnahan, co-founder of Punchbowl News, in a social media post on X Monday night.

Kean’s most recent appearance on the House floor was on March 5, and in the months since, his extended absence has become a growing “concern” for GOP leaders given the competitiveness of the district he represents. Kean has said his absence was due to a “personal medical issue” without providing further detail, with Time labeling Kean as a “ghost” in its report last week.

Trump’s endorsement of Kean was issued on Monday via a statement on social media, in which the president claimed Kean was “working tirelessly” to support his agenda. Rebecca Bennett, Kean’s Democratic opponent in the race, flagged Trump’s endorsement of a lawmaker who’s been absent for nearly three months in her pitch to voters ahead of Tuesday's primary election.

“Here’s the difference between us: I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Kean swore an oath of loyalty to Trump and his MAGA allies in DC,” Bennett wrote in a social media post on X. “This November, we’ll send him packing and start holding the Trump Administration accountable.”

Paul Kane, a longtime Capitol Hill reporter, said he’d “never seen anything like this,” particularly given Kean’s district being among the most competitive districts this election cycle.

“Kean was last seen March 5. Today was the 88th [day] since his disappearance,” Kane wrote in a social media post on X. “He’s in a critical swing seat that [Republicans] desperately need to hold. Never seen anything like this.”

Just after 1 a.m. EST, Donald Trump took to his Truth Social account to demand that his civil and criminal case court losses in New York be tossed based on comments made by his former lawyer during a Monday podcast.

During an appearance on Michael Smerconish’s podcast, so-called Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen, who was the middleman in paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels and subsequently served time in jail, complained about being “cancelled by both the far-right and the far-left."

He also added that, in the Daniels hush money investigation, he was “coerced and pressured” to testify against his former boss.

That led Trump, after a long night of posting endorsements of GOP candidates, to pounce and attempt to use Cohen’s off-hand comments as a legal cudgel to get his convictions overturned.

Referring to Cohen as a “Star Witness,” Trump wrote, “When a Star Witness totally recants, and in every way reveals that he was pressured and coerced to give testimony, and when the Prosecutor admits that this Witness was the single reason that the case was brought, there was no other, how can that Case not be immediately dismissed? That is exactly what happened in the Democrat New York Attorney General and Manhattan District Attorney’s Hoaxes against me. Michael Cohen has come out and unequivocally stated that the Radical Left Prosecutors, Tish James and Alvin Bragg, pressured and coerced him to testify against your favorite President, ME, when they made him the key player in their Political Witch Hunts.”

Incorrectly asserting, “Now that his testimony is wiped away,” he added, “and the unAmerican, Political Charade ‘Cases’ are even further discredited, they should be put out of their misery, and dismissed, once and for all. Our Constitution, and the Rule of Law, demand immediate and swift dismissal, as well as for the Perpetrators of the Radical Left Lawfare and Weaponization to be held criminally responsible for their terrible misdeeds. We have to restore Confidence and Honor in our Justice System. I am an innocent man who has been horribly treated. Hopefully the Courts will do what everyone knows should be done. Thank you! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

- YouTube youtu.be

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It’s so weird how Donald Trump just can’t stop defaming the one woman who’s ever held him legally accountable for his sexual violence.

Trump just can’t be told “no,” so he keeps appealing the case that writer E. Jean Carroll famously won against him after enduring years of his well-documented defamation, both online and off, after she accused him of sexually abusing her — which a jury later found him civilly liable for.

Even though he keeps losing the appeals, he’s never stopped defaming her for daring to tell the truth about him.

I keep a screenshot on my phone of a Washington Post headline: "Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll," because far too many of the MAGA trolls who gleefully continue to blame and shame all of Trump’s victims don’t understand what a court ruling means

Yeah, they don’t like this one because Trump said he didn’t do it. It’s that simple for them. The truth messes with their cult ideal of Dear Leader, as well as their self-identities; they just couldn’t have been wrong about him all along.

They hate it when you remind them about this L from last year — his bid to overturn the $83 million damages awarded to Carroll was lost in September, then an appeals court refused to rehear the case in April this year.

So, here we go again.

The pesky thing about the truth is that it’s always true, whether a cult wants to believe it or not. If they were capable of reading anything longer than a Truth Social post full of the lies they feed on, they could actually (GASP) learn truthful things. I know the truth actually doesn’t matter to them, and there are a lot of things they don’t know about Trump because no one’s ever told them.

For example, Carroll shares previously unreleased details about the trial in her excellent memoir, Not My Type, the title of which co-opts Trump’s most infamous claims of his innocence, as if a woman’s physical attractiveness is the deciding factor when it comes to committing physical violence against them.

Aside from cataloguing the amazing outfits she wore to court, Carroll takes the reader through the entire process, from voir dire to the jury’s unanimous decision to award her $83.3 million in damages.

One of my favorite details from the book that MAGA doesn’t know is that one of the jurors had revealed during voir dire that he got his news exclusively from MAGA podcaster Tim Pool. Carroll's lawyer, the unbreakable Robbie Kaplan, tried to have him dismissed, but Trump’s lawyers argued for his inclusion to keep the jury “fair and balanced.” When questioned by Judge Lewis Kaplan (no relation to Robbie), the juror testified under oath that he’d only listened to Pool's podcast “three or four times” in the preceding six months. He testified that he considered the show "balanced," had never heard of Carroll before the trial, and was confident he could remain fair and impartial.

And then he voted with the other jurors to award Carroll her big money, which she’s still waiting for as Trump’s legal team repeatedly keep appealing the ruling at his behest.

MAGA still can’t cope with the decision and continues to parrot Trump’s disparaging remarks about her credibility, from bagging on her looks to pointing out that she named one of her cats after female anatomy. I guess because they think that word is worse than what Trump did to her in a Bergdorf dressing room.

They love to blame all of Trump’s victims of sexual violence, from Carroll to any potential connections in the Epstein Files, because they just can’t allow themselves to consider that they might have been wrong about Trump. They still believe Bill and Hillary did the unspeakable things with Epstein, and yet they have no answers when I ask them why Trump hasn’t testified like the Clintons did. Innocent people have no problem showing up to testify about their innocence.

Trump is now weaponizing his Department of Justice against Carroll, forcing it to launch a manufactured criminal investigation into the trial. He’s never once even threatened to sue anyone who’s accused him of being in the Epstein Files, or demanding the arrest of anyone named in them. He’s not using his DOJ to get a do-over for his 34 felony fraud convictions.

Nope, he’s fully fixated on this one blemish on his spotty record, thanks to this one woman.

And right before this new investigation was announced, Trump rewarded his disgraced former Attorney General, Pam Bondi, with a new job in the White House, right before she was called to testify about the Epstein Files again.

Weird timing, huh?

This is the kind of “witch hunt” Trump whines about the Democrats launching against him any time anyone dares to call him out. This goes deeper than “Trump can’t be wrong” about anything; it’s yet another confession that he covers up with accusations. Trump is also siccing his DOJ on anyone who supported Carroll, like LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

MAGA has been more than happy to resume this narrative to move the goalposts away from the unpopular war in Iran, the Epstein Files, and the clear implosion of the GOP as Trump’s health is rapidly declining. He’s also facing the embarrassment from the failing “America 250” concert that all but two of the artists have dropped out of because they don’t want to perform for Epstein’s Bestie and his cult.

Trump will fail at this new attack on Carroll like he’s failed at all of his previous attempts. His scapegoating never works for very long because both he and MAGA have short attention spans. They’ll always be able to gin up a new outrage distraction when Trump lets them down, because just like him, they can’t stand to be seen as the losers they know they are.

Meanwhile, Team Carroll is already reassembled and ready to go another round against the biggest loser this country has ever produced.

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Gregory Bovino, the former leader of President Donald Trump's Customs and Border Protection force, lashed out at a MAGA Trump official on Monday after he received a stinging rebuke.

Earlier in the day, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was asked about Bovino's recent criticisms of how he's managing the department, amid protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in New Jersey. Mullin claimed he didn't know who Bovino was and, even if he did, his comments were "irrelevant."

Bovino was asked about Mullin's comments during an interview on Newsmax.

"He's made reference to me before; he certainly knows me," Bovino said. "If that's what he wants to say, then terrific."

He then launched into one of his rehearsed lines.

"Look, I'm for the American people. I'm for mass deportations. And if that is irrelevant, then I'm guilty," Bovino said.

Bovino's comments came at a time when protests outside of Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey had reached the end of their second week. Protesters have been speaking out against conditions inside the facility, and some Democratic lawmakers have called for the facility to be shut down.

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