A month into a lackluster congressional campaign, former 8kun administrator Ron Watkins sent a warning to his followers on the messaging platform Telegram.

“I do NOT send direct messages to anybody asking people to buy crypto coins or gift cards,” Watkins wrote last week. “Please do not engage with accounts who claim to be me and ask you to buy gift cards or crypto on their behalf. It is not me.”

At least someone was making money off Watkins’s campaign. Although Watkins, a QAnon-linked figure, does not have to file campaign finance reports until January, early indicators suggest that his bid for Congress has received underwhelming support. Previously, Watkins pledged to raise $1 million and unseat incumbent Rep. Tom O’Halleran in Arizona’s Democratic-leaning 1st congressional district. Instead, more than a month after launching his campaign, Watkins is making Telegram videos acknowledging “funding challenges” and attempting a pivot to Bitcoin fundraising.

“The mainstream media has been putting out articles saying ‘hey Ron, your campaign can’t make any money! What are you doing?’” Watkins said in a front-facing cell phone video uploaded to his Telegram channel on Friday.

Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows went on Newsmax on Wednesday night and agreed with his old boss that his new book is “fake news.”

Ahead of next week’s release of his upcoming memoir, titled The Chief’s Chief, the Guardian reported that the ex-Trump official writes in its page that former President Donald Trump first tested positive for COVID-19 on Sept. 26—three days before his first debate with Joe Biden.

Trump (somewhat) denied Meadows’ account, claiming he “did not have COVID” before or during the debate last year. In response, on Wednesday evening, Meadows sheepishly agreed with Trump’s assessment of the reporting tied to his book.

“I believe the president said it’s fake news. What’s the story here?” Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt asked, prompting Meadows to answer: “Well, the president’s right, it’s fake news.”

House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) announced early Thursday that Congress has reached an agreement on a spending deal to fund the government through mid-February, as lawmakers work to stave off a shutdown on Friday.

DeLauro said in a statement that an agreement has been reached on a continuing resolution (CR) that would temporarily fund the government at the previous year’s levels until a larger bipartisan agreement can be reached on spending or the new year.

On The Money — Powell, Yellen face pressure on inflation
Senate Republicans clash over government shutdown strategy
DeLauro said the legislation “includes virtually no changes to existing funding or policy” in an effort to apply pressure for a larger deal for a spending omnibus in the months ahead.

“However, Democrats prevailed in including $7 billion for Afghanistan evacuees. The end date is February 18. While I wish it were earlier, this agreement allows the appropriations process to move forward toward a final funding agreement which addresses the needs of the American people,” she said.

Katie Curran O’Malley is running for Maryland attorney general, setting the stage for an unprecedented battle between the former first lady and her husband’s lieutenant governor.

O’Malley, a retired judge and the wife of former governor Martin O’Malley, will face U.S. Rep. Anthony G. Brown in the Democratic primary to become the state’s chief law enforcement officer. Brown launched his campaign late last month.

O’Malley, 59, is expected to officially announce her campaign Thursday.

O’Malley’s announcement comes a little more than a month after Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) announced he does not plan to seek reelection next year.

The Ohio Senate race is turning into one of the most brutal contests of next year’s midterm elections — and former President Donald Trump is worried it could hurt him if he waged a 2024 comeback bid.

Trump last month called Club for Growth President David McIntosh to complain about a TV advertising campaign the conservative organization was running targeting Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, and asked McIntosh to take the ads down. The commercials attacked Vance by using footage of him from 2016, when he described himself as a “Never Trump guy” and called Trump an “idiot,” “noxious” and “offensive.” The message was designed to hurt Vance in a Republican primary centered on fealty toward the former president. Vance, like others in the race, has cast himself as a staunch Trump ally.

But according to three people briefed on the call, Trump told McIntosh the commercials could have the effect of driving down his popularity in Ohio, which he won by 8 percentage points in the 2020 election. Prior to the call, Trump had been stewing over the ads and had complained about them to people in his circle.

McIntosh, an informal Trump adviser who frequently talks with the former president about campaigns around the country, responded by saying he would look into the matter, according to one of the people familiar with the conversation. But the Club continued airing the $1 million TV buy — and on Wednesday, the organization escalated the offensive by plowing another $500,000 behind the effort.

As a point of personal privilege, I would like to offer an observation rooted in nothing more than my own biases and inclinations. That is this: Were I being sued for more than $1.3 billion, I would either try very, very hard to find evidence that would allow me to win the lawsuit or I would very, very rapidly try to reach a settlement. But then, I am not Mike Lindell, MyPillow CEO and game-theory enthusiast.

That latter description comes from Lindell’s response to Dominion Voting Systems’s massive defamation suit against him: “Lindell admits he loved game theory.” Lindell also admits that “he’s a numbers guy” and that he is “good at math.” These admissions, such as they are, are part of a point-by-point response from Lindell’s attorneys to Dominion’s February suit (in which they seek the aforementioned $1.3 billion). Dominion cites Lindell as describing himself as a numbers guy and, in his response, Lindell agrees — though he disagrees with most of the assertions Dominion makes that bolster their argument against him.

Dominion’s play is to establish that Lindell knows enough about numbers that his insistences about rampant voter fraud are clearly insincere and that his claims that Dominion allowed the 2020 presidential election to be stolen were, in fact, efforts to gin up attention so that he could sell more pillows.

“Lindell pushed this false narrative even though there was no evidence to support it because he had learned from his knowledge of game theory and prior experience … that lying about Dominion would be good for MyPillow’s bottom line,” the February suit states, “and would lead to other benefits, including, for example, Trump’s anticipated endorsement for Lindell’s run for governor of Minnesota.”

Stacey Abrams launched a campaign for Georgia governor on Wednesday with a pledge to fight for economic equality and expand healthcare access, setting up a potential rematch against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in one of the nation’s most competitive political battlegrounds.

The Democrat announced her campaign with a video that highlighted her work in the state since her narrow 2018 defeat to Kemp, along with a message that “opportunity and success in Georgia shouldn’t be determined by your ZIP code, background or access to power.”

Her decision, long expected by local Democrats, clears the way for what could be a titanic showdown between two longtime political rivals. That is, if Kemp survives a fight for the GOP nomination first.

Abrams lost to Kemp by less than 1.4 percentage points in 2018, the closest Georgia gubernatorial election in decades, and her refusal to concede defeat because of what she called an “erosion” of voting rights made her an icon to many Democrats and a villain to conservatives.