Mike Barnett

U.S. President Donald Trump: If you kept it the way it is, I think China is going to be okay with that - but we're not looking to have somebody say, "let's go independent because the United States is backing us."

@johngramlich @dwallacewells It would be interesting to know if this is more pronounced in Texas and could have some outsized impacts on the diluted districts.

Trump's job approval rating has declined 14 percentage points among US Latinos since early last year. And it's declined nearly twice as much (-27 points) among the Latinos who voted for him in 2024. pewresearch.org/short-reads/20…

@jmhorp There seem to be two thing that seem to cause special concern: (1) tax incentives but no long term jobs; and (2) a belief they don’t have to pay utility fees and use all the water/electricity. I have no idea how industry is charged for utilities or if data centers differ.

So far as I can tell, every major complaint about data centers would apply equally to any heavy industrial or manufacturing facility. They use land. There is noise. They use water and electricity. There are some environmental effects. But there are rarely widespread protests.

NEW: President Donald Trump bought and sold millions of dollars worth of stock in tech companies and government contractors including Nvidia and Palantir. Some of those trades overlapped with regulatory decisions that were favorable to these companies. notus.org/money/donald-t…

@RichLowry @baseballcrank Leaving aside the constitutional questions, do you think unmitigated political gerrymandering is good such that congressmen do not represent any cohesive or identifiable group?

It continues to amaze how Democrats think that a colorblind Constitution is what, say, Alexander Stephens believed in, while, on the other hand, blatant racialism is the foremost American ideal associated with everything that’s good and true in our history x.com/repjeffries/st…

@Dmac_1125 @greggnunziata Conceivably, in a close vote, one race-based legislator would be enough, but that’s why it’s hard to imagine how there’s anything left of the VRA in practice unless lower courts create a practical standard to assess.

@Mike_Barnett @greggnunziata And what would that even look like. How many legislators would have to vote for a bill on racist reasons to prove discriminatory intent? 10% of the ayes? 35%? Congress specifically implemented the disparate impact standard because proving intent is too difficult.

The drawing of districts based on the skin color of voters, to engineer a representative of a certain skin color, was always a questionable practice on legal, moral, and pragmatic grounds. Defend it if you like, but don't act lika Callais is some shocking bolt out of the blue.

NEWS -- President Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, sources tell me @PCCharalambous @alex_mallin abcnews.com/US/trump-poise…

@Dmac_1125 @greggnunziata Alternatively stated: it is actionable if there is sufficient evidence of racial motivation.

@Mike_Barnett @greggnunziata Cracking isn't actionable under Callais, as you would have to prove it was done for racial reasons and not partisan ones. That's the whole point.

@Sylvie1110 @greggnunziata Callais does not dictate that it is not sufficient. This pattern of conduct was not part of the record in that case.

@Mike_Barnett @greggnunziata You would think republicans erasing all the black districts in several states would be enough proof.

@Sylvie1110 @greggnunziata This is my point: those changes have a clear disparate impact on black voters in Memphis, but Callais’ more controversial positions is that the impact alone is insufficient and actual evidence is required. It feels like form over substance—though SC reps may be close.

@greggnunziata If race didn’t matter Tennessee wouldn’t have chopped Memphis in 3 parts.

@BigFacedHundred @joshgerstein I’d love this, but on what constitutional basis could a decision like this rest?

@joshgerstein SCOTUS could end a lot of this redistricting nonsense by setting real national guardrails against mid-decade partisan map-rigging. But we all know they won’t. They’ll treat blatant power grabs as “state process” unless someone can fit the claim into a racial-discrimination box.

JUST IN: VA GOP officials urge #SCOTUS not to disturb VA Supreme Court ruling voiding redistricting referendum. Doc: documentcloud.org/documents/2812…

@B_Evan_Ford @Anna_Giaritelli I don’t think you know what false means.

@Mike_Barnett @Anna_Giaritelli If you have no named source, it IS false.

EXCLUSIVE — The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to engage in sex with prostitutes, according to six current and former Border Patrol employees who spoke with the Washington Examiner. Banks “bragged” to colleagues while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling in Colombia and Thailand over the course of a decade. Banks’ behavior was said to have been investigated by Customs and Border Protection officials twice, including last year, but the investigation ended abruptly while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in office, leading to more questions. washingtonexaminer.com/news/investiga…

@AndrewSolender @axios @MarcACaputo Mandatory retirement age, please.

NEW: Despite a long absence from the Hill & rumors about retirement, 83yo Rep. Frederica Wilson is telling ppl she will run for reelection, @axios has learned She's recovering from eye surgery but told Jeffries she'll be back next week w/ @MarcACaputo axios.com/2026/05/14/fre…

@B_Evan_Ford @Anna_Giaritelli It would have to be false…

@Anna_Giaritelli Name your sources or it's slander.

Cuba says it has completely run out of the diesel and fuel oil it needs to keep its power plants running, with civil unrest starting to break out. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

@micsolana @RepRoKhanna Intentionally diluting black votes is equally unconstitutional.

@RepRoKhanna “if you don’t let us do race-based gerrymandering we will dissolve the courts” this is nazi shit

The Supreme Court has engaged in an ugly recidivism that has marked the fastest rollback of Black political rights since Reconstruction. 18 year terms limits on Justices now. Expand the court from 9 to 13 Justices now.

@RepRoKhanna You want Trump to pick more justices?

@TheTNHoller It’s somehow not considering race to intentionally dilute black voters ability to sway elections.

MADDOW: “Williamson County still has a Confederate flag on their county seal — but they’ll have JUST the right size of a slice of Black voters in MEMPHIS to make sure they can never elect a member of Congress of their choosing again… this really is Jim Crow 2.0.”

@GregTSargent But it has nothing to do with race.

Republican leader of the South Carolina State Senate warns against letting Trump bully them into gerrymandering the state's House map, arguing that it could backfire by costing the GOP a seat: nytimes.com/2026/05/13/us/…