U.S. senator ATTACKED — by Guess Who

Ken Paxton just knocked out four-term Senator John Cornyn in the Texas Republican Senate runoff, and the implications are already rippling outward. Trump got his revenge candidate, but it very well may backfire spectacularly.

That’s because he just handed Democrats their best Senate pickup opportunity in a generation.

Paxton arrives dragging impeachment baggage, a corruption record, and a scandal-soaked campaign that leaned hard into anti-Muslim ads. Democratic nominee James Talarico now faces a general election against the most beatable Republican in the state, and wasted no time coming for his opponent. Meanwhile, "MAGA Mayes" Middleton crushed Chip Roy in the AG race, and a Democrat won TX-35 despite GOP meddling. Texas is moving.

Federal ICE agents pepper-sprayed Democratic Senator Andy Kim while he was protesting conditions at the Delaney Hall detention facility in New Jersey. Kim reported seeing chaos, hunger strikes, and inhumane conditions inside. DHS immediately tried to flip the blame onto Kim himself.

This is the footage that will circulate everywhere today: a sitting U.S. senator, at a detention center, getting chemical agents in his face from federal law enforcement. If you needed an image to explain what this administration is, here it is.

Two separate wins against the Republican map-rigging campaign landed Tuesday. In Alabama, a federal panel of three judges — including Trump appointees — temporarily blocked the state's new congressional map, ruling it was drawn to intentionally discriminate against Black voters. The decision is a significant win for the Voting Rights Act, which has been under sustained assault.

Meanwhile in South Carolina, 12 Republican state senators broke ranks at the last minute to block Trump's rapid redistricting push in Jim Clyburn's district. MAGA is melting down over what it's calling a "RINO mutiny." The Congressional Black Caucus has also begun pressing major corporations to formally oppose the redistricting push.

The gerrymandering blitz is hitting unexpected friction — from courts, from within the GOP itself, and now from corporate pressure. It is not over, but it is not the easy sweep Republicans expected.

While Iranian negotiators were literally sitting in Qatar talking peace, U.S. Central Command launched fresh strikes on Iranian missile sites and mine-laying vessels. Iran called it bad faith but hasn't walked away from talks — yet. Trump then summoned his entire cabinet to Camp David as the deal he promised appears to be disintegrating in real time. Rubio told reporters a deal could come "in days" while simultaneously saying the Strait of Hormuz must be open "one way or the other.”

John Bolton — who has no reason to be charitable to Iran and some reason to want this war to continue — went on record saying Trump is "palpably desperate" to make a deal and that Tehran is simply buying time, exploiting the president's need for a win. When the hawkiest hawk in the room is saying you're getting played, that's a signal.

Trump went to Walter Reed for what's being called his "annual" physical — his third such visit in 13 months, a schedule that is not annual by any definition. He emerged and, of course, posted a claim of perfect health.

The White House had a "full-blown meltdown" over media coverage of the visit. A CNN medical analyst flagged a "lack of candor." A top cardiologist noted an "interesting" change to the traditional examination schedule. Mental health questions remain entirely unaddressed in any public report — notable given the president's increasingly incoherent public rambling and violent social media posts.

The 25th Amendment is not a fringe topic when a president who appeared to fall asleep at a Memorial Day event is the same person with his finger on the button in an active war.