The nominees this week:

Rachel Maddow Celebrates: “This is a Freaking One-Finger Salute” to Trump’s Authoritarianism

“One of the things that happens in Democratic backsliding, and when authoritarians take over Democratic countries, is that they tell you that the vote doesn’t matter. I mean, that’s the whole thing behind claiming voter fraud and claiming that the elections are rigged. It’s to tell people, don’t bother voting. Your vote doesn’t count. Your vote, whatever you intend it to mean. It won’t ever mean that, and this whole system is rigged against you. And it’s to turn people off from voting not only to make them disbelieve the results, but to make them disinterested in participating. And this is a freaking one-finger salute to that idea from the American people tonight.”

Symone Sanders Downplays Byron Donalds’s Historic Win Because He’s a Black Republican: “All Kinfolk, Ain’t Skinfolk”

“Byron Donalds is now the governor of Florida. It is a historic win. It is the first time Florida has elected a black governor. I will say, though, you know, as they, as you say in my community, all kinfolk ain’t skinfolk. And what I say and what I mean by that is Byron Donalds is making history, but he is going to continue the political direction that Ron DeSantis is going to continue in Florida.”

Van Jones: “Cult Leader” Trump Led Republicans to Jonestown Massacre

“If you join a cult, at some point the cult leader takes you to Jonestown and tries to get you to drink the Kool-Aid. This is Jonestown for the Republican Party. They drank the Kool-Aid, and they have candidates that are dropping like flies across the country because they did not stand up to this guy when he was doing things that were wrong, when he was violating the law, when he was running over our system. They didn’t stand up to him and they’re paying the price. It’s Jonestown tonight. You join a cult, at some point, you go to Jonestown. That’s where you are tonight, Republicans.”

Where do we go from here? Where does the President go from here?

What did you think of JD Vance and his reason why Republicans received a shellacking?

Make no mistake: It wasn’t all the war and gas prices. It was business that was not finished: DOGE ended too soon, election reforms were not enacted, abortion rules were not changed, Obama-Biden weaponization was not punished. Despite valiant efforts by Restoration of America and other conservative organizations, conservative Christians did not turn out to vote in significant enough numbers. As Ronald Reagan famously said after his own midterm blowout: “The meaning of the last election will not be found among those who voted. It will be found among those who stayed home—the biggest non-voter bloc in our nation’s history. And why did they stay home? Well, because they said they couldn’t see any difference between the two parties.”

So, history smacked Trump and Republicans in the face. But there’s no time to wallow on the canvas. The counterpunching begins today. The bigger picture is this: The fight to restore America never ends, and the biggest battle is not 2026, but 2028. Republicans cannot lose the White House and save America.

Democrats have already war gamed yesterday’s victory and will be ready to hit the ground running. They will launch investigations and try to prosecute, impeach, and bankrupt Trump and other Republican leaders. They will not approve another Trump appointee.

They will continue to brazenly push abortion-on-demand and mail-order abortions. They will renew their grisly gender mutilation of children and try to reinvigorate their racist DEI policies. They will turn up the heat on corporations to shun conservatives and conservative policies and renew censorship regimes.

They will push to shatter American institutions like the Electoral College and the Supreme Court, and they will try to add Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico as states.

What was your reaction to what JD Vance did; just hours after the results were announced?

From your perspective, how secure, how credible were the results from Tuesday night?

What grade would you award our elections in Tuesday night?

Were there improvements; and if so, what were they?

Again. Florida shined with respect to their election and the reporting and California’s results should be available sometime in January.

Where are we with the battles over voter ID, ballot security, State election laws? Will those battles change in January?

Did I hear right; dogs have voted in California?

Ken, what advice would you offer to those who have lost confidence in our election system?

Ken, what is your appraisal of the Ilhan Omar situation?

Based on your past at DHS, what are you concerned about with border security in Texas?

Recruiting for our military either met its individual branch targets early or exceeded their enlistment targets:

U.S. Army: Met active-duty goals early, signing over 61,500 to 62,050 soldiers.

U.S. Navy: Reached its goal of 45,000 new sailors ahead of schedule.

U.S. Air Force: Met goals early with over 32,750 active-duty airmen enlisted.

U.S. Space Force: Achieved its active-duty target of roughly 730–819 guardians.

U.S. Marine Corps: Met its target of 26,600 enlisted recruits. (Google AI)

How do the threats against Hegseth affect our military?

Compare the styles of Hegseth and Donald Rumsfeld for us.

Are the Dem-coms committed to weakening our military?

Dr. Robbins, what do you think is going to happen, now that the Midterms are over?

Do you see that Trump and Netanyahu have been weakened by their own election defeats?

The taxpayer-funded migrant NGO may have violated the law.

Since 2019, California has granted more than $100 million to a left-wing NGO called the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, or CHIRLA. The group has used those or other resources to fight deportations, address “hate incidents,” and craft what it calls “progressive policies.”

CHIRLA and its political arm, CHIRLA Action, are radical. The nonprofit wants to abolish ICE, expand welfare for illegal migrants, and “roll back immigration enforcement.” Some of its programs, like its “Immigrant Political Power Project,” are explicitly political, targeting “new citizens, Latinos, and English learners” in hopes of creating “a voter base from scratch, with enough power to sway state politics.”

Austen, tell us where this organization came from?

Are they money launderers?

Has anyone from the U.S. Attorney’s Office about your investigation and the evidence you have obtained?

Is this just more of the same from the Peoples Republic of California?

Is the damage to the Republican Party permanent in your opinion?

When the investigations and the subpoenas go out on day-one, when are the Dem-Coms and the DSA’s going to have time to fix affordability?

As a life-long Republican, I have never felt so betrayed and I am not alone.

Is MAGA dead?

What was your reaction to Vance’s going rogue on Wednesday morning?

Ron DeSantis wasted no time in eviscerating his own party!

In 1976, we Republicans knew we had a leader in- waiting: Ronald Reagan. In 2016, Trump was that leader in-waiting. I don’t see a leader in waiting now. What do you think?

How would you grade Mike Johnson and John Thune?

Jeff, do we have any fight left in us? We will not fight back in the streets the way the Dem-Coms did to defend US-Aid and fight back against ICE removals and DOGE. Do you agree?

A record seven Muslims were elected to Congress, six to the House of Representatives and one to the Senate.

At least 97 confirmed American Muslim electoral victories at the federal, state, and local levels across 21 states, including 38 state legislative wins.

The preliminary total sets a new midterm election record in CAIR’s tracking, surpassing the 82 Muslim electoral victories reported in 2022 by 15, an increase of approximately 18 percent.

In total, CAIR and CAIR Action are tracking 168 American Muslim candidates who made it past their primaries and sought local, state, and federal office during the 2026 election cycle.

CAIR and CAIR Action project that more than 100 American Muslims will have won or been reelected once all votes are counted.

Are the candidates and the winners to be sworn in Muslims or Islamists?

If they are sworn in, placing their hand on the Quran, will they then govern by the strict language in the text?

Will those elected govern by the Constitution of the United States of the Quran?

If worship in a church or synagogue is voluntary, worship for Muslims in mandatory.