Commentary Culture Investigations

Recalling 2022, I’m not convinced that this election will be much of anything.

On Sunday, the political landscape of the Michigan Senate race was rocked, as MI Democrat Congresswoman Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers, over the man she lost to in the Democrat Senate primary, Abdul El-Sayed, and as has been prevuously documented, the media lost their minds over it. Over on CNN, accusations flew against Stevens, whose motives were questioned, and who was labeled a sore loser and irrelevant, among other things.The endorsement comes on the heels of a change of plans for Stevens, who was supposed to campaign with El-Sayed on Sunday, but was asked to stay away by El-Sayed, after she demanded he denounce an anti-Israel ad put out by Rebellion PAC, founded by Cenk Uygur, the uncle of his campaign surrogate and streamer Hasan Piker.Immediately following live coverage of the Rogers/Stevens press conference, CNN’s Newsroom took over and host Fredricka Whitfield gave some background, and then brought on their political analyst and Bloomberg columnist Nia-Malika Henderson, who immediately sought to downplay the significance of what had just happened. 

HENDERSON: In the end, I don’t actually think this will matter very much. What I’m hearing is that Haley Stevens sort of approach to this is actually backfiring, right? It’s actually making people question her, question her commitment to a Democratic senate question, her commitment to Democratic party values.She then tried to turn the issue of hate against Stevens and Rogers, while making El-Sayed a victim, something Whitfield would reinforce.

HENDERSON: And you had Mike Rogers there also talking about the hate that’s being spread. Well, Mike Rogers, what about the President spreading Islamophobia and suggesting that that El-Sayed is a dangerous figure.WHITFIELD: And that question was asked to Haley Stevens. Wait a minute. I mean, El-Sayed has has had the incoming of Islamophobia. And, you know, here you are talking about ending the hate.She then painted Stevens as bitter, over not be allowed to campaign with El-Sayed, and set Henderson up with a softball toss to back up her theory.WHITFIELD: Does this not come across more as, well I’m disappointed that I’m not on the stage or part of the campaigning, and so I’m getting back at you. I’m no longer happy, you know, with with supporting you. And this is like revenge. I mean, am I, am I truncating it down to, you know, just minuscule, you know, matters here or is that significant?HENDERSON: Oh that’s significant. The phrase sore loser comes to mind. And Henderson was just getting warmed up, about to hit Stevens in as many ways as she could.HENDERSON: You know, watching the press conference, it just seemed like sort of sudden rash and emotional, right? That’s so, so very reactive to, to everything that was happening. You know, I don’t think she’s thinking very clearly about her future in the Democratic party. Maybe she doesn’t have a future in the Democratic party at this point, but Democratic leaders have been talking to her, saying sort of stand down from this. It’s a very lonely road that she’s on. And I don’t think it makes much sense outside of the context that you just mentioned, right? That it was a tough contest, that she basically is having problems dealing with the reality that she lost that primary and that she is not going to be a senator, that possibly somebody else who challenged her is going to be a senator in all likelihood. And then Henderson attempted to go out with a left wing bang.HENDERSON: And again, I just don’t think average voters are going to say, oh, look at what Haley Stevens is doing, and now they’re going to do the same thing. She, I think, is always imagined herself as being able to sort of deliver and represent a bloc of voters, Jewish voters, as well as black voters. I don’t think she represents those bloc of voters as much as she thinks that she does. I think in so many ways, Haley Stevens is irrelevant. She just doesn’t quite know it yet.Despite the fact that Stevens received over 727,000 votes in the Senate primary, and lost to El-Sayed by about only one percent, Whitfield gladly accepted Henderson’s baseless opinion, managing a pathetic response of, “Mmm, oh, okay.” She should have added, this is CNN!

CNN via SnapStream

On Monday, CNN This Morning struggled to reconcile competing accounts surrounding the growing controversy surrounding Alaska’s Senate race. This comes after a New York Times article that detailed an alleged Democratic effort to recruit a candidate who could swipe votes away from Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan to benefit Democratic challenger Mary Peltola.OnMessage Public Strategies executive vice president Abigail Jackson was adamant that claims of Democrat scheming in the Alaska race was not fueled by Republican speculation, but the facts. Jackson pointed out that Democrats’, “framing of ‘are Alaska voters smarter enough to determine the difference between Dan Sullivan’ is a bit disingenuous because that’s what Democrats were banking on when they got involved and recruited this other Dan Sullivan to arrive.” INSANE: CNN liberal “V. Spehar” — a “nonbinary lesbian” who uses they/them pronouns — claims there’s still zero evidence Democrats recruited Dan J. Sullivan to run in the Alaska Senate race against incumbent Dan S. Sullivan to help Democrat Mary Peltola. Has this lady not read The New York Times article?!?!— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 2, 2026 Rather than engage with The Times’ reporting, digital journalist and creator of Under the Desk News V. Spehar insisted there was no proof Democrats recruited Dan J. Sullivan, the retired school teacher whose name closely resembles that of the incumbent.“Who says that they actually — there’s no proof that Democrats definitely recruited Dan J. Sullivan,” said Spehar. Her evidence? Peltola claiming she had nothing to do with it.When Jackson attempted to explain that evidence against Peltola had emerged, Spehar again pushed back, claiming that it was “…A false statement.”Jackson went on to reference the findings from The Times article, which reported that Democratic operatives and people connected to Peltola’s campaign received orders and worked to recruit candidates who could syphon away votes from Sullivan:There is no proof, but let’s let The New York Times report it out a little bit more because it seems like there was some level of coordination that previously they denied they had any involvement. And now drip, drip, drip, a little bit more information is coming out and it’s — It sure seems like Mary Peltola’s campaign was involved and aware of this situation. Instead of addressing the new details in The Times’ report like a prepared journalist, Spehar attempted to distance Peltola from the allegations by pointing to her public statements denying involvement.“It doesn’t seem like that because she said very clearly, she hasn’t. I’ll tell you, Mary Peltola — didn’t even work with any influencers or anyone. The whole thing she said the entire time was, I’m going to win for and with Alaskans. Stay out of my election,” Spehar claimed.Jackson quickly countered, arguing that Peltola’s “campaign manager said something else.”Spehar’s argument on Peltola’s public messaging sidestepped the central issue raised by The Times’ article, and completely ignored whether people connected to Peltola’s campaign and other Democrats coordinated an effort to recruit another Dan Sullivan into the race.For Spehar, the discussion appeared to be more about defending Peltola’s denials than grappling with what The Times had uncovered.The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:CNN’s CNN This MorningNovember 2, 202605:39:55 a.m. Eastern(…)ABIGAIL JACKSON, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, ONMESSAGE PUBLIC STRATEGIES: I think the framing of “are Alaska voters smarter enough to determine the difference between Dan Sullivan” is a bit disingenuous because that’s what Democrats were banking on when they got involved and recruited this other Dan Sullivan to arrive.V. SPEHAR, DIGITAL JOURNALIST AND CREATOR, UNDER THE DESK NEWS: Who says that they actually — there’s no proof that Democrats definitely recruited Dan J. Sullivan. JACKSON: I mean, there is no — there is no –SPEHAR: That’s a false statement.JACKSON: — proof, but let’s let The New York Times report it out a little bit more because it seems like there was some level of coordination that previously they denied they had any involvement. And now drip, drip, drip, a little bit more information is coming out and it’s –SPEHAR: (INAUDIBLE) so when you say Democrats, do you mean Mary Peltola’s campaign because that’s not true. Do you mean, like, the DNC? Do you think Chuck Schumer did it? I don’t think so.JACKSON: It sure seems like Mary Peltola’s campaign was involved and aware of this situation. SPEHAR: It doesn’t seem like that because she said very clearly, she hasn’t. I’ll tell you, Mary Peltola –JACKSON: And her campaign manager said something else.SPEHAR: — didn’t even work with any influencers or anyone. The whole thing she said the entire time was, I’m going to win for and with Alaskans. Stay out of my election.AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Right. This is explosive reporting for The New York Times specifically because they were trying to prove in their reporting that there was some kind of coordination. So, that’s how this has escaped to be as big as it has. The question is, does it have reverberations past Election Day? (…)

“Dem Party Bullies,” editorial cartoon by Tom Stiglich for The American Spectator on Nov. 2, 2026.

The attack on refrigeration was a reminder to ponder the vulnerability of equipment bought from manufacturers based in unfriendly countries.

Much of the press coverage of Kagan’s interview exaggerates how much hostility she displayed toward her conservative colleagues.

‘You can’t blame Haley Stevens for failing to keep the coalition together. It was not her job to do that.’

Americans are urged to contact the Justice Department if they see any violation of the nation’s election laws in Tuesday’s midterms, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Monday.In a social media post, AG Blanche provided both a hot line phone number and a website that Americans can use to report election violations, such as non-citizen voting:“Election Day is tomorrow. The Department of Justice expects all federal election laws to be followed. If you have a tip on illegal conduct—including but not limited to noncitizens voting, double voting, and ballot-box stuffing—contact the FBI: 1-800-Call-FBI or http://tips.fbi.gov”“Violators will be found and prosecuted,” the attorney general promised.To use the website http://tips.fbi.gov:Click on the generic “Submit a tip.” Option.Click on the “Federal Election Crime” box.Choose “Voter/Ballot Fraud.”From there, follow the prompts to provide “information relating to” one or more of the following:Voting more than once.Corrupt election official.Changing a ballot tally.False voter registration.Providing a voter with something of to vote for a specific candidate.The FBI national tipline provided by Blanche can be accessed by dialing 1-800-225-5324.