GOP congressman breaks ranks with Trump on Fox News: 'I hate to depart from my president'

A GOP lawmaker on Tuesday had a different opinion than President Donald Trump when it comes to next steps in the Iran war.

Fox News asked Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) during a live broadcast if Trump was helping Iran by ordering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop attacking Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The ongoing military conflict has now reached the 100-day mark with no end in sight, as talks between the United States and Iran continue.

"I hate to depart from my president, but actually I agree with it," Gimenez said.

"I'm starting to feel like we're Charlie Brown and Iran is Lucy, and every time we go to kick the ball it's taken away," he said.

"'We're close to a deal, we're 2 days from a deal, we're 3 days from a deal,' and it's not happening. If I were in Vegas right now, I'd be betting that in 2 days we'll be right where we are today," Gimenez added. "I think that bad behavior deserves punishment, and unfortunately the Iranians are exhibiting bad behavior and they're not suffering any consequences for that. As you can tell, I'm a little more hawkish than the president would be."

MAGA influencer Nick Shirley recorded himself confronting a woman at her home in a video published online Sunday regarding his baseless claims of voter fraud in California, but on Tuesday, a Democratic strategist bluntly pointed out an apparent flaw in Shirley’s latest probe.

Shirley, the “pro-Trump” YouTuber whose unsubstantiated investigation into alleged fraud in Minnesota perpetrated by Somalians was bolstered by the Trump administration, uploaded a video of himself confronting a woman apparently named “Doris” who he claimed, according to the California Secretary of State’s office, was listed as being 126 years old and having voted in 51 elections.

The video shows Shirley questioning the woman about her age and voting history, which the woman disputed and told Shirley she was in her mid-80s. Shirley is seen in the video trying to show the woman documents, which she refused.

The issue with Shirley’s investigation, Democratic strategist Tom Bonier noted on Tuesday, is that he demonstrated a basic misunderstanding of how California manages its voter registration database, known as VoteCal.

VoteCal was built using Microsoft SQL Server, a database management system. As such, any errors in input data that relate to dates, such as birthdays, may produce the system’s default value of Jan. 1, 1900. As suggested by Bonier, the aforementioned fluke is likely why the woman’s age was allegedly listed as 126.

“This dips--- discovered that SQL server at one point replaced blank date of birth fields with a default of 01/01/1900, so he harassed an 86 year old woman,” Bonier wrote Tuesday in a social media post on X to his more than 110,000 followers.

And yet, despite Bonier pointing out the potential flaw in Shirley’s investigation, the claim was still promoted by a swarm of right-wing influencers, including Tesla CEO and Trump-ally Elon Musk.

The federal prosecutor leading California's election fraud investigations appeared on Glenn Beck's show Monday to announce imminent charges — then pleaded with the public to help him find the evidence to bring them.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the number-two federal prosecutor in the Central District of California, told Beck that election fraud charges are coming — "one to two months, I believe" — before pivoting to ask the conservative host's audience for help.

"What we need right now are witnesses," Essayli said in the interview. "If you've witnessed anything… we wanna know about that."

The announcement fits a pattern. On June 5 — one day after President Donald Trump alleged without evidence that California's primary was being rigged — Essayli announced his office had "multiple" probes underway. He then accused California of blocking a federal audit of its voter rolls, part of an ongoing DOJ lawsuit against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D).

On Monday, Essayli hedged his own timeline even as he announced it.

"I hate to put timelines on things," he told Beck, "but one to two months, I believe. We need some of these results to be certified so we can prove some of the allegations."

Then came the ask.

"I know people have theories and they have ideas," Essayli added. "What we need right now are witnesses."

It's a striking posture for a prosecutor promising imminent charges. Essayli's credibility carries its own baggage: a federal judge previously ruled that he had illegally served as acting U.S. Attorney, having remained in office beyond his interim appointment without congressional approval. He now holds the title of First Assistant U.S. Attorney.

None of that dampened his confidence Monday. Charges are coming, he insisted — just as soon as someone tells him what happened.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired more than two dozen senior military officers since taking office, pushed out two service secretaries, and intervened directly in promotion decisions across multiple branches of the military – but he has refused to explain the dismissals to Congress.

The most high-profile ouster was Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, a Purple Heart recipient with 42 years of service who commanded troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, but CNN reported that Hegseth declined to offer specifics when pressed by lawmakers to explain.

"[It's] very difficult to change the culture of a department that has been destroyed by the wrong perspectives with the same officers that were there," Hegseth told lawmakers, according to CNN.

According to 15 current and former Pentagon officials interviewed by CNN, the firings have less to do with performance than with loyalty — and the perception of it.

Hegseth and close Trump allies had been skeptical of George from the start, partly because he had served as an aide to former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration — an apolitical military assignment that nonetheless marked him as suspect. Sources said there was little to no communication between Hegseth's office and George before Hegseth intervened in Army promotion decisions, blocking four colonels from advancing to one-star general.

George requested an in-person meeting with Hegseth on April 1 to ease tensions and discuss the secretary's priorities, but he was fired the next day.

Navy Secretary John Phelan was abruptly dismissed weeks later, and CNN reported he was still trying to confirm the firing was legitimate when the Pentagon spokesman announced it publicly on X. Sources said Hegseth had grown frustrated with Phelan's pace on shipbuilding initiatives and suspicious of his direct relationship with President Donald Trump.

Pentagon officials told CNN the firings have produced a culture of paralysis inside the building, where survivability depends on avoiding Hegseth's attention. Some troops have been required to sign nondisclosure agreements to learn about operations, and polygraph tests have become routine.

“Everything we did on a daily basis, we were calculating, ‘Is this going to keep the boss employed, or is this going to get him fired?’” a Pentagon official told CNN. “Every single day, every decision that we made, that was a planning factor. … It’s very unusual for that to be considered so heavily.”

That calculation, sources say, has begun affecting military readiness. During the lead-up to the war with Iran, for example, key military planners were kept at arm's length from strategic decision-making, leaving some joint staff members with little visibility into the administration's plans.

“A year-plus later, there is a lack of clear internal processes within the Pentagon … caused by mass paranoia,” the Pentagon official said. “Everything is a case-by-case basis because there’s no delegation, there’s no trust, and if there’s no delegation or trust, policy decisions can’t be made.”

Hegseth has not addressed those concerns publicly, and Trump has shown no inclination to rein him in.

"Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, central casting," Trump said at a recent Cabinet meeting. "He loves war."