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With Texas Dems on the Run, Vance Urges GOP Gerrymandering in Indiana
"We're in a knife fight for our democracy here in Indiana," said Democratic state lawmakers. "Trump is trying to bully the Indiana GOP into tearing apart our democracy."
Aug 07, 2025
Amid the specter of federal agents hunting down absconding Democratic state lawmakers resisting a Republican bid to gerrymander Texas' congressional map, U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday traveled to Indiana, where his pitch for rigging that state's House districts was met with raucous opposition.
Vance met with Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, who was reportedly "noncommittal" about redrawing the state's congressional map. In a Thursday interview on Fox News, Braun said that Indiana has "become more Republican over time, and these maps probably need to be looked at"—even as he admitted that a mid-decade redraw not linked to the decennial census would be "unusual."
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a Republican, took to social media to thank Vance for his visit and voice support for redistricting.
"Redistricting isn't just politics—it's about ensuring the voice of We the People is heard loud and clear," Beckwith said. "Indiana is proud to play a key role in shaping a stronger, freer future for our nation and as lieutenant governor I fully support this effort!"
According to the Indianapolis Star, protestors organized by the nonprofit group MADVoters booed for more than a minute after learning that Vance was in the State House. Opponents of gerrymandering, led by Democratic state lawmakers, staged an hourslong sit-in protest.
"This is clearly a power grab," state Rep. Cherrish Pryor (D-94) told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. "This is simply an attempt by the president to stay in power forever."
Julia Vaughn, executive director of the advocacy group Common Cause Indiana, said Republicans should be prepared for a legal fight over any redistricting.
"We will see you in court, Gov. Braun," she said. "Leave our congressional maps alone!"
More than 100 demonstrators also rallied outside the Indiana Governor's Mansion to protest Republican gerrymandering machinations.
Via IndyStar:Close to 100 people have gathered outside of the Indiana Governor’s Mansion to protest the state government, who floated the idea of redistricting the state in favor of Republican candidates.Indiana GOP already hold 7 of the state's 9 US. House seats. #indianapolis #hoosiersky
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— Noe Padilla (@noepadilla.bsky.social) August 7, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Republicans already occupy seven of Indiana's nine House seats. Any redistricting would likely target the state's 1st District, which is represented by Congressman Frank Mrvan, a Democrat.
"The Trump administration has recognized that their harmful policies to benefit wealthy elites at the expense of working families are wildly unpopular. They know that their only hope to maintain control is to pressure the Indiana General Assembly to violate the Indiana Constitution and redistrict U.S. House of Representative seats mid-decade," Mrvan said in a statement.
"My mission throughout my career as a public servant and as a member of the U.S. House is to advocate for the most vulnerable in our communities," Mrvan added. "Any attempt to redistrict now is simply an attempt to silence those very voices."
Indiana's other Democratic congressman, André Carson of the 7th District, said: "Redistricting attempts in Indiana are a power grab. It's unethical and the move of a dictator."
"We won't accept our democracy turning into a dictatorship," Carson added. "Attempts to silence our vote exist right now. We want our Republican friends to do the right thing."
Democrats in the Indiana House of Representatives also issued a statement, saying that "we're in a knife fight for our democracy here in Indiana."
"We're getting the word out that President [Donald] Trump is trying to bully the Indiana GOP into tearing apart our democracy—but we're not letting this happen without a big, public fight," the Democrats added.
Responding to the vice president's gerrymandering pitch, Brett Edkins, managing director for policy and political affairs at the pro-democracy group Stand Up America, said in a statement that "Vance didn't visit Indiana for a friendly chat—he was there on marching orders from Donald Trump to strong-arm and intimidate state leaders into rigging the electoral maps in his favor so that congressional Republicans can avoid accountability from the voters in next year's midterm elections."
"Hoosiers deserve leaders who listen to them—not bullies from Washington, D.C. doing Trump's bidding behind closed doors," Edkins added. "Gov. Braun and Indiana's leaders should reject any effort to redraw Indiana's political maps for partisan ends."
Republicans are weighing plans for congressional redistricting in other states, including Florida, Missouri, and Ohio, ahead of next year's midterm elections. Governors and lawmakers in some Democrat-controlled states have vowed to respond in kind, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul saying earlier this week that members of her party should "fight fire with fire."
Vance's Indiana visit came amid an escalating standoff between Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in a bid to stymie a vote on a GOP-grerrymandered congressional map and Republican officials who ordered their arrest and enlisted the FBI to help track them down and force them back to Austin.
"Let's call this what it is: a clear attempt to rig federal elections and cheat the American people out of a voice," National Democratic Redistricting Committee president John Bisognano said Thursday of the GOP gerrymandering push in Indiana and other states.
"Republicans in the Hoosier State have a choice," he added. "They can stand up against the authoritarian regime in Washington and help stop this attempt to steal an election—just as Republicans in Georgia and Arizona did in 2020—or they can roll over to Donald Trump, sacrificing the rights and freedoms of all Americans, and see the wall of resistance Texas Republicans are seeing right now."
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Trump Officials' Gaza Tour Slammed as 'Blatant Theatrical Display'
"The goal is clear—to erase the truth, discredit thousands of recorded videos, and wash away the blood," said one Palestinian photojournalist.
Aug 01, 2025
Palestinians and international humanitarian groups were among those who denounced Friday's highly orchestrated tour of a Gaza aid distribution center run by a U.S.-backed group condemned for its role in Israeli forces' massacres of desperate people seeking food and other lifesaving aid.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff visited one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) distribution sites near Rafah in southern Gaza, where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials presented a sanitized version of a reality normally characterized by near-daily massacres of desperate, starving Palestinians clamoring for food and other aid.
"The purpose of the visit was to give [President Donald Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza," Witkoff wrote on the social media site X.
In recent days, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have acknowledged that Palestinians are starving, with Vance lamenting that "little kids... are clearly starving to death"—a direct contradiction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's lie that "there is no starvation in Gaza."
However, unconditional U.S. support for Israel continues unabated and practically unchallenged, save for another failed bid led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to suspend some arms transfers.
Palestinian photojournalist Osama Abu Rabee described Friday's visit as "a blatant theatrical display."
"Everything appears organized and civilized: no repression, no pepper spray, no gunfire or casualties, not even crowd stampedes," Abu Rabee wrote on social media. "The goal is clear—to erase the truth, discredit thousands of recorded videos, and wash away the blood of nearly 1,000 starving martyrs and hundreds of wounded victims trapped in humiliation."
"To perfect the staged scene, aid distribution was restricted to the families of mercenaries loyal to Yasser Abu Shabab's forces," he added, referring to the Israel-backed anti-Hamas alleged drug trafficker known for looting humanitarian shipments. "Snipers and tanks were withdrawn, and the deception ceremony was prepared—one that Trump's envoy arrived to witness and rubber-stamp as 'reality.'"
Huckabee—who during his ill-fated 2008 presidential campaign denied the very existence of the Palestinian people—claimed on social media that GHF has served more than 100 million meals in two months, a dubious assertion emblazoned on banners around the site he visited.
"Gaza has 2 million people. If that number were true, every person in Gaza should have received 50 meals by now," Gaza teacher and activist Alaa Radwan wrote on the social media site X. "But I know for a fact that my family didn't get a single one. Neither did my friends."
"One hundred million meals. And yet famine is tearing through people's bodies," Radwan continued. "One hundred million meals. And my mother, my father, and my siblings have lost nearly half their body weight. What kind of lie is this? What kind of cruelty does it take to put out a number so outrageous, so disconnected from reality, while the world watches children collapse from hunger?"
"If they insist on lying, they could at least try to make it believable," she added. "But even that seems too much to ask."
Shortly after Huckabee and Witkoff left Gaza, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the IDF killings of aid-seekers at GHF sites are "war crimes" and urged the abandonment of the "U.S.-backed death trap scheme."
"U.S.-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths," HRW noted.
1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food, most by the Israeli military, between May 27 and July 21 in Gaza.Israeli forces routinely opening fire on starving Palestinians amount to war crimes.Learn more: bit.ly/46yFXlj
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— Human Rights Watch (@hrw.org) August 1, 2025 at 6:50 AM
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of GHF sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys."
IDF whistleblowers including officers and soldiers have said they were ordered to open fire on civilians seeking aid at GHF sites with live bullets and artillery shells.
Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. special forces colonel who worked as a security subcontractor at GHF sites before resigning, described Israeli troops and American mercenaries indiscriminately shooting at starving Palestinian aid-seekers.
"What I saw on the sites, around the sites, to and from the sites, can be described as nothing but war crimes, crimes against humanity, violations of international law," Aguilar told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman earlier this week. "This is not hyperbole. This is not platitudes or drama. This is the truth... The sites were designed to lure, bait aid, and kill."
HRW added that "the dire humanitarian situation is a direct result of Israel's use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war—a war crime—as well as Israel's continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, which amounts to the crime against humanity of extermination, and acts of genocide."
The International Court of Justice, where Israel is facing an ongoing genocide case brought by South Africa and supported by dozens of nations, has repeatedly ordered Israel to avoid genocidal acts in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the strip, where more than 60,200 Palestinians have been killed and over 146,800 others wounded since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
However, Israel has ignored these orders. Last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who ordered the "complete siege" of Gaza that has fueled deadly mass starvation and disease—for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including mass starvation and murder.
Responding to Huckabee and Witkoff's visit, Oxfam America director of peace and security Scott Paul called on the U.S. government "to use its full influence to put an end to this catastrophe before we pass the point of no return."
"We do not have time for symbolic measures—a few more trucks, airdrops, and humanitarian pauses may be better than nothing—but in reality, they are far more effective in grabbing headlines than they are at saving lives," he said.
"Without urgent, meaningful action, these numbers are going to spiral out of control in the coming days," Paul added, "and the growing death toll will be an indelible stain on this administration."
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The Epstein Conspiracy Flames That Trump Fanned Are Now Blowing Back on Him
In 2019, then first-term President Donald Trump jumped aboard the Epstein conspiracy bandwagon. Six years later, he’s now trying desperately to stop it.
Jul 29, 2025
On August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein—accused of sex trafficking in minor girls—committed suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial, and a new conspiracy theory was born: Powerful forces silenced him. Releasing the Justice Department’s files on Epstein would reveal a “client list” of high-profile individuals, including prominent Democrats, who had a motive to kill him.
Then-President Donald Trump jumped aboard the conspiracy bandwagon. Six years later, he’s now trying desperately to stop it.
Setting the Stage
Hours after Epstein’s death, Trump retweeted a post alleging that former U.S. President Bill Clinton was connected to Epstein’s death. Trump’s supporters dutifully followed his lead:
- When he was a Senate candidate in 2021, JD Vance posted on Twitter: “Remember when we learned that our wealthiest and most powerful people were connected to a guy who ran a literal child sex trafficking ring? And then that guy died mysteriously in a jail? And now we just don’t talk about it.”
- In 2023, before Dan Bongino became Trump’s deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), he told his podcast audience, “Listen, that Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal. Please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on this... [W]hat the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?”—without specifying who “they” were. Shortly before joining the Trump administration, he added, “Who’s on those tapes? Who’s in those black books? Why have they been hiding it?”
- In December 2023, a right-wing podcaster asked Kash Patel—a fierce Trump loyalist who is now FBI director—why the government was blocking the Epstein client list. Patel answered, “Simple, because of who’s on that list—Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are.”
- During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said that he would declassify the Epstein files: “It’d be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn’t happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I’d go a long way toward that one.”
- On a podcast during the 2024 campaign, Vice-Presidential candidate Vance asserted, "We need to release the Epstein list."
- In February 2025, Fox News reporter John Roberts asked Attorney General Pam Bondi whether the Justice Department would release Epstein’s list of clients: “Will that really happen?” Bondi responded: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump. I’m reviewing that.”
- During a podcast in June 2025, Patel said repeatedly that the administration would be forthcoming in its review of documents related to Epstein: “I’ve said it, Bongino has said it. We’ve reviewed all the information, and the American public is going to get as much as we can release… We’re going to give you every single thing we have and can.”
Trump set the stage. With his loyalists now running the FBI and the Justice Department, the public would finally see the Epstein files.
Oops–Nothing to See Here
The conspiracy flames that Trump fanned are now blowing back on him:
- On July 7, the FBI released an unsigned, two-page memo stating that its “systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list’,” “investigators concluded that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell,” and “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
- Bondi now says that when she said that the client list was sitting on her desk, she wasn’t actually referring to a client list.
- Vance has assumed his familiar role—reversing a fervently held position to defend anything Trump does.
The Blowback
Some of Trump’s most dedicated allies were outraged at Trump’s stonewalling. He lashed out with diversions, distractions, and attacks. He accused former President Barack Obama of treason. He derided followers who “bought into this ‘bullshit’” as “PAST supporters.” And he blamed Democrats for starting the conspiracy theory in the first place:
“It was a hoax. It’s all been a big hoax. It’s perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try and do the Democrats work. The Democrats are good for nothing other than these hoaxes.”
But then:
- July 17: The Wall Street Journal published Trump’s alleged birthday note to Epstein that included his sketch of a naked woman. Trump sued the paper and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for defamation. He asserted that he doesn’t draw pictures, but copies of his earlier sketches soon swamped the internet. Some were auctioned for charity.
- Later that evening, Trump tried to quell the continuing uproar by ordering Bondi to seek the release of grand jury testimony related to Epstein. But that was a head fake toward transparency because: 1) grand jury materials are a tiny slice of the Justice Department’s files on Epstein; and 2) the courts might not agree to release anything. In fact, on July 23 a federal judge in Florida denied the DOJ’s request. Another request is pending in New York.
- July 22: To avoid a House vote on a resolution urging the release of the Epstein files, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent lawmakers home early for the August recess.
- July 23: In a surprise show of defiance against Speaker Johnson, a Republican-controlled House Oversight subcommittee voted 8-to-2 to subpoena the Justice Department’s Epstein files.
The Unraveling
- Also on July 23: The New York Times reported that in May, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche informed Trump that his name appeared in the Epstein files. The bureau had gone through more than 100,000 pages of materials four times—including once to flag any references to Trump and other prominent figures.
- July 24: Blanche—who was Trump’s personal lawyer in the Stormy Daniels “hush money” trial that culminated in his conviction on 34 felony counts—began a mission that was extraordinary for the Justice Department’s number two official. He went to Tallahassee and interviewed Ghislane Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking as Epstein’s procurer.
- July 25: After questioning Maxwell for two days, Blanche declared that the federal criminal investigation into targets beyond Maxwell and Epstein remained closed.
If the investigation into targets was closed, why was Blanche interviewing Maxwell?
The Next Act
On his way to Europe on July 25, a reporter asked Trump whether he would consider pardoning Maxwell. Trump responded, “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about.”
After landing in Scotland, he denied that Bondi had briefed him on the Epstein matter in May: “No, I was never, never briefed, no.” He added, “I’m focused on making deals. I’m not focused on conspiracy theories.”
Ghislane Maxwell is focused on making a deal too. Trump is her ticket out of prison. The question is what she can offer that will prompt him to punch it.
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