* And what a way to kick it off…
“Hunter Biden convicted of all 3 charges in federal gun trial.”
* Turns out the “laptop from hell” wasn’t Russian disinformation after all. Of course, we all knew from the get-go. But the liberal media’s election interference knows no bounds.
* Happy to see the chickens finally come home to roost on this…though four years too late.
* On to Nevada…
* Really only one big development for voters who waited for Election Day to vote in this year’s primary: Donald Trump’s endorsement of Sam Brown in the Nevada U.S. Senate race.
* Brown played his cards right after losing in the 2022 GOP primary for Senate against Adam Laxalt. He immediately endorsed Laxalt, campaigned for him, and ingratiated himself to the party’s powers-the-be in Washington, DC – including Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
* Despite running a lackluster, cookie-cutter primary campaign – including refusal to debate his opponents – he has a 99% chance to win the GOP nomination tonight.
* Indeed, the lead he built was so wide that even if Trump had endorsed former Ambassador Jeff Gunter on Sunday, it likely would have been too little, too late.
For his part, Dr. Gunter “is not taking the snub lying down.” Here’s a report by Politico on what transpired over the past couple of days…
* * *
DRAMA IN THE DESERT — Nevada’s Republican voters make their choice today for who will take on Democratic incumbent JACKY ROSEN to claim a crucial swing-state Senate seat. But the drama surrounding the primary race — and DONALD TRUMP’s late-breaking endorsement Sunday — threatens to echo for some time to come.
To recap: The primary pits Army veteran and Purple Heart awardee SAM BROWN, a favorite of the NRSC and national party operatives, against JEFF GUNTER, a MAGA-minded businessman who served as Trump’s ambassador to Iceland.
Trump has been under pressure from the NRSC chair, Sen. STEVE DAINES (R-Mont.), and other party poo-bahs to back Brown over Gunter as the more electable candidate. And, finally, late Sunday night, Trump delivered the nod on Truth Social (after curiously deciding not to endorse Brown at a Las Vegas rally hours earlier).
Gunter is not taking the snub lying down. In fact, he is now waging a scorched-earth effort to attack the endorsement decision as being part of a pay-to-play scheme inside the NRSC and Trump world.
He first insinuated foul play in an X posting yesterday, and he went even further in a call to Playbook last night where he accused Daines and the NRSC of sabotaging his campaign from the beginning by threatening consultants who worked with him.
It’s a shocking and rare instance of a Republican candidate pushing back on a Trump endorsement, the all-important, make-or-break currency of big-time Republican politics today — and an episode that peels back the curtain on the high-stakes jockeying that frequently takes place behind the scenes before those endorsements are made.
Gunter was careful not to blame Trump himself. But, he said, “I do think that he’s surrounded by handlers who, you know, probably have other vested interests in other candidates.”
Both the Trump campaign and the NRSC are fiercely rejecting Gunter’s allegations.
“Numerous reputable vendors met with Jeff Gunter and decided he was not a serious candidate, with no path to victory,” NRSC Spokesman MIKE BERG told Playbook. “His insane rant proves their judgment was correct.”
“He’s mad because he didn’t earn the endorsement of President Trump — I understand that, but that doesn’t give him the right … to cast aspersions or to make up bullshit attacking President Trump and his campaign,” Trump campaign senior adviser CHRIS LaCIVITA added.
In the account he shared with Playbook, Gunter ticked off a series of snubs he said were orchestrated to sideline him, starting with his early talks with The Strategy Group, a GOP consulting firm he had spoken with about his campaign. That firm, he alleges, backed out after the NRSC threatened to blackball it from general-election work unless they dropped him.
A person at The Strategy Group denied Gunter’s accusation, saying they cut ties with Gunter out of concern about his ability to win. Gunter, in turn, shared emails with Playbook showing they were indeed in advanced talks about a contract, to the point that they had started coordinating a video shoot for his campaign launch.
The company, Gunter said, set up a sit down with Daines early on. In Gunter’s account of that meeting, Daines tried to “intimidate” him out of running by saying he’s very close with Trump. In a competing account, from a person familiar with what happened, it was Gunter who boasted about his close relationship with Trump and his ability to secure immediate endorsements from the ex-president and Nevada Gov. JOE LOMBARDO.
Gunter called the allegation “sociopathic” and part of a “pattern of behavior that Steve Daines did to bad-mouth me” in the eyes of Trump world. “You don’t do that with the president,” he added, recognizing that predicting Trump’s decisions or putting words in his president’s mouth is “the kiss of death.”
Meanwhile, Gunter said, he’d gotten other signals that he was being pushed to the margins — including inside the Republican Jewish Coalition, a group he’d been active in for nearly two decades. That, he said, prompted him to self-fund his race to the tune of $3 million-plus and seek his own Trump world allies, such as Nevada GOP Chair MICHAEL McDONALD and Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.).
With rumors of an impending Brown endorsement swirling, Gunter said he had a long conversation with Trump Saturday night, just before the rally, where Trump didn’t indicate what he’d do and commented positively on his campaign: “It really doesn’t seem to me like you’re losing,” he said, according to Gunter.
Others were imploring Trump around the same time not to endorse Brown at the rally, according to people close with Gunter. Trump then skips the nod when he appears before the crowd; only later, on Trump Social, does the endorsement come through.
What happens in between? Without evidence, Gunter tweeted that the NRSC “freaks out” and that a “big check comes in from the swamp” to secure the nod for Brown.
That allegation is prompting some different scorched-earth reactions: “Gunter’s insane rant made him sound like ADAM SCHIFF on a witch hunt, which makes sense, because Gunter is also a California Democrat,” Berg said.
LaCivita added that Gunther “should be very mindful about poking the bear one too many times, because I will promise you, you’ll get your ass bit.”
* * *
* Ain’t politics fun?!!
* Also on Sunday in Las Vegas, Trump trumped Biden’s student loan forgiveness campaign ploy with this announcement at his Sunset Park rally…
“When I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips, people making tips. You do a great job of service. You take care of people. And I think it’s going to be something that really is deserved. So those people that have jobs in restaurants, whatever the job may be, a tipping job, we’re not going after for taxes anymore.”
* Stroke of political brilliance. And the local Culinary Union knows it.
* In a statement following Trump’s announcement, the union’s boss wailed that “Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and wild campaign promises from a convicted felon.”
* When they have to throw the ol’ “convicted felon” in the mix, you know they’re on shaky ground. Democrats are already overplaying that hand. It’s going to be even far less effective by November.
* Two other points…
* First, it’s not just Culinary Union members who would benefit from Trump’s proposal. Most service workers do NOT belong to a union. Many work for little mom-and-pop operations and will be voting for their own personal financial interests – not just in Las Vegas, but all across the country.
* Secondly, union members are smart enough to know Trump will put more money in their pockets…period. Not just on the tip issue, but the economy overall.
* Sure, they’ll give lip service to the union’s talking points publicly, but in the privacy of the voting booth many will cast their ballot for the “convicted felon” over the “unconvicted felon” who’s the father of a convicted felon.
* Maybe enough to swing a close election. And the union bosses know it. You can tell by the panicked histrionics. The smell of fear. It’s a wonderful thing.
* Now, from the Department of Dirty Tricks…
* Trump-endorsed Republican congressional candidate John Lee filed a lawsuit yesterday against his GOP primary opponent, David Flippo, over an attack website that houses an audio recording of a phone conservation Lee purportedly had with a woman he found on Craig’s List.
* I heard the recording. Doesn’t sound like Lee at all. It was probably produced using artificial intelligence (AI) technology or a pair of actors.
* This is what candidates face in the world of dirty politics. No wonder so many good people decide not to run.
* Flippo and his campaign consultant, Rory McShane, of course deny involvement. And if you believe that, I have some lush farmland in Death Valley to sell you.
* They may not have had any direct involvement in producing the recording or setting up the website, but that “plausible deniability” just doesn’t fly.
* I expect Lee to win the nomination tonight running away despite this last-minute gasp of gutter-level desperation.
* Ladies and gentlemen, cast your ballots!
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Every man with a pair of testicles is voting for Donald Trump in 2024. Every woman with a pair of testicles is voting for Joe Biden in 2024.” – Meme seen on Twitter/X
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views and blogs at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.
