Latest news with #RepublicanInNameOnly
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kinzinger talks Trump and his own future in Chicago speech
CHICAGO (WGN) — Adam Kinzinger has been out of Congress for two years now, but his final term continues to define him and his mission. 'This is not normal,' Kinzinger said of President Donald Trump's first four months back in the White House. 'Regardless of your opinion of him, people can obviously look at this and say: This isn't how politics used to be. This kind of anger, this division is not sustainable.' Kinzinger spoke with WGN ahead of a speech Wednesday evening in Chicago. Since leaving office, he has traveled the nation for his 'Country First' political action committee, telling the story of being one of only two republicans to serve on the Jan. 6 Committee. Despite having a conservative voting record, Trump supporters branded him a 'RINO,' which stands for 'Republican In Name Only.' GOP's Kinzinger explains his appearance at Democratic National Convention 'Democracy is still worth preserving,' Kinzinger said. Kinzinger encouraged Republicans and Democrats not to tune out the daily drumbeat of headlines. 'You have the daily clown show or the daily controversies. Some of it is so outrageous, you have to pay attention. Some of it is corruption,' Kinzinger said. 'In the meantime, the stuff that really matters – did DOGE save $160 billion? It did not. By the way, they promised $2 trillion. The 'Big Beautiful Bill' will actually cut Medicare and Medicaid and explode the debt. So people are talking about that, and then we hear about the Qatar jet. So, how do you kind of juggle all those balls and stay engaged? That's the big key.' Kinzinger doesn't sound like a man content to stay on the sidelines of government, but he has yet to announce his next move. In the meantime, he'll continue to try to reach new audiences through social media, a regular column on Substack, YouTube videos, and commentary on CNN. 'I want the younger generation to recognize: This doesn't have to be this way,' Kinzinger said. In 2022, WGN profiled Kinzinger as a politician without a party. WGN Investigates: Investigating public corruption, crime & fraud In 2024, Republican Kinzinger accepted a prime-time speaking role at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 'I look at the Democrats and say, sure, there's a lot I disagree with, but there's actually a lot I agree with that my party has abandoned, like foreign policy. I mean, standing with Ukraine in a fight against Russia, if you had told me 10 years ago that my party would've abandoned that fight, I wouldn't have believed you,' Kinzinger told WGN at the time. 'When they call me a RINO, there's not much about me that's changed from what I used to be. The whole Republican party has changed.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Scoop: New anti-Cornyn ad has audience of 1 — Trump
A group backing Texas Sen. John Cornyn's 2026 primary opponent is out with its first TV ad — but it's not airing in Texas. Instead, it's airing in Palm Beach, Fla., where it's aimed at an audience of one: President Trump. Why it matters: The strategy behind the ad shows the battle for Trump's coveted endorsement has already begun between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Cornyn. It's expected to be one of most expensive and bitterly contested Senate races next year, and has led Senate GOP leaders to close ranks behind Cornyn, a prolific fundraiser. Zoom in: Preserving Texas, the group backing Paxton, will air the ad over the weekend on Trump-friendly Fox News, Newsmax and the Golf Channel in Palm Beach, home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. The ad assails Cornyn for backing a bipartisan gun safety bill i n June 2022, and highlights Trump's ensuing criticism of Cornyn as a "RINO," or Republican In Name Only. "As usual, President Trump was right," the ad says. Preserving Texas is spending about $60,000 to air the ad over two days, according to a person familiar with the buy. Zoom out: Cornyn, 73, is a four-term senator and former Texas Supreme Court justice whom Trump has criticized for not going along with Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. But recently Cornyn has taken steps to show he's aligned with Trump's MAGA movement — including by posting a picture of himself reading Trump's "The Art of the Deal." Those close to the senator say he has smoothed over past tensions with Trump. Paxton, 62, is a longtime Trump ally and MAGA loyalist. He worked to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss and attended Trump's 2024 hush money trial in New York to show solidarity with him. Paxton is a controversial figure in Texas politics. He was indicted in 2015 on security fraud charges, which were dropped later. He also was impeached by the state House of Representatives in 2023 on bribery and corruption charges, but was acquitted by the state Senate. The intrigue: Trump is a cable news junkie, and Republican candidates and interest groups are known to run ads in South Florida with an eye toward influencing him. In 2020, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie aired a commercial in Palm Beach in which he called his primary opponent a "Trump hater." The other side: "Corrupt Ken Paxton ordered up another mediocre campaign video that predictably lies about Senator Cornyn's long career of strongly supporting Second Amendment Rights," a Cornyn spokesperson told Axios.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump's new FTC chair is MAGA in name only
The term RINO or 'Republican In Name Only' has been deployed to great effect ever since President Trump's ride down the golden escalator. But when it comes to Trump's new Federal Trade Commission chair, perhaps 'MAGA In Name Only' is more appropriate. The new chairman of the FTC has brought the social-political wars right into the heart of the agency. What the chairman has not done, however, is change the targets of the FTC's antitrust cases, or its Javerian pursuit of Big Tech. The former might be cover for the latter. In an interview on Fox Business Network last month, the new FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson supported President Trump's request that FTC decisions be shared with the White House in advance for the president's possible input. That is a concession to presidential involvement in a supposedly independent agency that no previous FTC chair has ever allowed. In a published statement, Ferguson also announced that he viewed himself as an 'officer of the United States,' and thus bound by President Trump's order to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion at the supposedly independent agency. Finding the 'cozy' relationship between the FTC and the American Bar Association to have favored left-wing policies, he also ordered all political appointees at the FTC to disassociate itself from the ABA — including resigning membership in the organization, let alone holding leadership positions or participating in ABA activities. An appearance by the FTC chair is traditionally a highlight of the annual spring meeting of the ABA Antitrust Section. Evidently, this will happen no more. These might be the easy favors to grant, however. Other statements from the interview illustrate that, on the substance, the new Trump FTC will look a lot like the old Biden FTC. Ferguson stated that the antitrust guidelines issued by the Biden FTC will not be subject to wholesale review. He recites how earlier Republican-led FTCs chose to keep merger guidelines formulated by Democratic-led FTCs that preceded them, and he intended to do the same. Curiously, he ignored all of the instances where Democratic-led FTCs took an axe to what Republicans had done. So, quite unlike the wholesale review going on at other independent agencies, like the FCC, the FTC will be supine on antitrust substance. The 'sizzle' is Trumpian revisionist, but the 'steak' isn't. Here are some examples. Ferguson was originally appointed to the FTC by President Biden and voted to approve the Biden era policies, most importantly the 2023 guidelines that signaled much greater hostility to mergers in the U.S., even when the mergers enhanced efficiency of companies' operations. Ferguson was also part of Biden's antitrust enforcers' overt hostility to Big Tech. In the interview, he said: 'I think all of Big Tech is going to remain under the microscope. I can at least speak for the Federal Trade Commission. We've got cases involving Amazon and Meta, I care deeply about these cases. They're very important. I intend to continue prosecuting them to continue holding Big Tech's feet to the fire.' Biden's FTC reached back 10 and 12 years to try to undo Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and What's App. That is the case against Meta to which Ferguson specifically referred. Not just Big Tech, but many who speak for American commerce more broadly, objected to the FTC opposing a merger more than a decade after the FTC had allowed it to go ahead. Ferguson defended his decision not to redo the Biden FTC merger guidelines because doing so would sow uncertainty in American business circles. Far greater uncertainty, however, results from the lesson that there is no time limit to the FTC's ability to undo a merger that it had previously approved. Try working out long-run plans to integrate an acquisition with the sword of a break-up perpetually hanging over your head. Consider another example of Biden's antitrust aggressiveness. The Bush II administration promulgated guidelines that govern companies in a vertical supply chain relationship like a cable company purchasing a library of television shows. The Bush II FTC held these arrangements were generally benign. The Biden FTC, however, repealed that guidance and the Justice Department sued to stop AT&T from acquiring Time Warner. The challenge was thrown out of federal court. Now, it seems, Ferguson will let stand the Biden administration's 2021 rescission of the vertical guidance and look with suspicion on vertical relationships that deliver a product more efficiently. The Amazon case Ferguson proudly referenced does precisely that. Ferguson is trying to appear loyal to President Trump in everything but substance. It seems he might be trying to buy White House patience for his contrary direction on antitrust policy. 'MINO' might not have the same ring to it as 'RINO,' but in the case of the FTC, Ferguson leans Biden more than MAGA might think. Tom Campbell was the director of the Bureau of Competition, the antitrust arm of the Federal Trade Commission, during the Reagan administration. He served five terms as a U.S. congressman from Silicon Valley and is an antitrust advisor to NetChoice, a trade association focused on promoting free expression and free enterprise, that includes Amazon and Meta. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
07-03-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Trump's new FTC chair is MAGA in name only
The term RINO or 'Republican In Name Only' has been deployed to great effect ever since President Trump's ride down the golden escalator. But when it comes to Trump's new Federal Trade Commission chair, perhaps 'MAGA In Name Only' is more appropriate. The new chairman of the FTC has brought the social-political wars right into the heart of the agency. What the chairman has not done, however, is change the targets of the FTC's antitrust cases, or its Javerian pursuit of Big Tech. The former might be cover for the latter. In an interview on Fox Business Network last month, the new FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson supported President Trump's request that FTC decisions be shared with the White House in advance for the president's possible input. That is a concession to presidential involvement in a supposedly independent agency that no previous FTC chair has ever allowed. In a published statement, Ferguson also announced that he viewed himself as an 'officer of the United States,' and thus bound by President Trump's order to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion at the supposedly independent agency. Finding the 'cozy' relationship between the FTC and the American Bar Association to have favored left-wing policies, he also ordered all political appointees at the FTC to disassociate itself from the ABA — including resigning membership in the organization, let alone holding leadership positions or participating in ABA activities. An appearance by the FTC chair is traditionally a highlight of the annual spring meeting of the ABA Antitrust Section. Evidently, this will happen no more. These might be the easy favors to grant, however. Other statements from the interview illustrate that, on the substance, the new Trump FTC will look a lot like the old Biden FTC. Ferguson stated that the antitrust guidelines issued by the Biden FTC will not be subject to wholesale review. He recites how earlier Republican-led FTCs chose to keep merger guidelines formulated by Democratic-led FTCs that preceded them, and he intended to do the same. Curiously, he ignored all of the instances where Democratic-led FTCs took an axe to what Republicans had done. So, quite unlike the wholesale review going on at other independent agencies, like the FCC, the FTC will be supine on antitrust substance. The 'sizzle' is Trumpian revisionist, but the 'steak' isn't. Here are some examples. Ferguson was originally appointed to the FTC by President Biden and voted to approve the Biden era policies, most importantly the 2023 guidelines that signaled much greater hostility to mergers in the U.S., even when the mergers enhanced efficiency of companies' operations. Ferguson was also part of Biden's antitrust enforcers' overt hostility to Big Tech. In the interview, he said: 'I think all of Big Tech is going to remain under the microscope. I can at least speak for the Federal Trade Commission. We've got cases involving Amazon and Meta, I care deeply about these cases. They're very important. I intend to continue prosecuting them to continue holding Big Tech's feet to the fire.' Biden's FTC reached back 10 and 12 years to try to undo Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and What's App. That is the case against Meta to which Ferguson specifically referred. Not just Big Tech, but many who speak for American commerce more broadly, objected to the FTC opposing a merger more than a decade after the FTC had allowed it to go ahead. Ferguson defended his decision not to redo the Biden FTC merger guidelines because doing so would sow uncertainty in American business circles. Far greater uncertainty, however, results from the lesson that there is no time limit to the FTC's ability to undo a merger that it had previously approved. Try working out long-run plans to integrate an acquisition with the sword of a break-up perpetually hanging over your head. Consider another example of Biden's antitrust aggressiveness. The Bush II administration promulgated guidelines that govern companies in a vertical supply chain relationship like a cable company purchasing a library of television shows. The Bush II FTC held these arrangements were generally benign. The Biden FTC, however, repealed that guidance and the Justice Department sued to stop AT&T from acquiring Time Warner. The challenge was thrown out of federal court. Now, it seems, Ferguson will let stand the Biden administration's 2021 rescission of the vertical guidance and look with suspicion on vertical relationships that deliver a product more efficiently. The Amazon case Ferguson proudly referenced does precisely that. Ferguson is trying to appear loyal to President Trump in everything but substance. It seems he might be trying to buy White House patience for his contrary direction on antitrust policy. 'MINO' might not have the same ring to it as 'RINO,' but in the case of the FTC, Ferguson leans Biden more than MAGA might think. Tom Campbell was the director of the Bureau of Competition, the antitrust arm of the Federal Trade Commission, during the Reagan administration. He served five terms as a U.S. congressman from Silicon Valley and is an antitrust advisor to NetChoice, a trade association focused on promoting free expression and free enterprise, that includes Amazon and Meta.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lindsey Graham Draws MAGA Fury After Mildly Criticizing Donald Trump
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) this weekend drew ire from Donald Trump's MAGA base after he dared to criticize the president's blanket pardoning of the Jan. 6 rioters — including those who had engaged in acts of violence. NBC's 'Meet The Press' host Kristen Welker asked Graham if he thought Trump had been 'wrong' with his widespread granting of clemency. 'Number one, he had the legal authority to do it,' Graham pointed out. 'But I fear that you will get more violence. Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer, violently, I think, was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that's an OK thing to do.' Graham made similar comments to CNN's Dana Bash, saying the pardons 'sent the wrong signal.' Members of Trump's loyal base flipped out over Graham's mild chiding of the returned POTUS. They slammed the senator as a 'snake' and a 'RINO,' or Republican In Name Only. Graham was a fierce critic of Trump before the latter's 2016 election victory over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The lawmaker went on to become one of Trump's most loyal defenders, breaking with him slightly over the Jan. 6 riot, before resorting to his supportive ways. Conservatives Flip Out Over 1 Of JD Vance's First Moves As VP Wall Street Journal Shreds Trump's Most Recent 'Vindictive Whim' As A 'New Low' Jesse Watters' Hot Take On Men And Shopping Goes Spectacularly Awry
