MAGA Republicans stooped to new lows this week with their extremism, hypocrisy, chaos, and — as President Biden would call it — malarkey. In case you missed it: Donald Trump and JD Vance have refused to condemn Mark Robinson’s hateful, extreme behavior; Vance is set to campaign this weekend with far-right Christian nationalist and extreme election denier Lance Wallnau; Trump once again praised authoritarianism; Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts said he and his extreme allies “are waiting for the policymaking season” and are “never going to stop”; an unearthed interview revealed that Project 2025 director Paul Dans promised “one to one mirroring” between Project 2025 and Trump’s agenda as new polling shows Project 2025’s overwhelming unpopularity; Vance is preparing for next week’s VP debate with a Project 2025 contributor; Vance fundraised in Texas with Project 2025 leader Brooke Rollins; Vance also fundraised with a who’s who of anti-choice extremists in Florida; Senate Republicans blocked a vote that would protect access to emergency abortion care; and MAGA Mike Johnson refused to commit to accepting and certifying this November’s election results.

Despite being given multiple opportunities, Donald Trump and JD Vance have STILL refused to condemn Mark Robinson’s hateful, extreme behavior.

Libbey Dean, NewsNation: “Are you going to pull your endorsement of Mark Robinson?”

Trump: “I don’t know the situation.”

The Hill: “Trump dodges on pulling Robinson endorsement”

WBTV: “Trump campaign avoids taking position on Robinson scandal amid North Carolina visit”

Newsweek: “Donald Trump Ignores the Elephant in the Room at North Carolina Rally”

Reporter: “Senator Vance, do you have any reaction to the Mark Robinson news?”

Vance: *rushes into other room*

Vance: “My comment on Mark Robinson is that Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote on the Inflation Explosion Act and  because of that a lot of Americans can’t afford groceries”

NBC News: “Vance says allegations against Mark Robinson ‘aren’t necessarily reality’”

Lauren Mayk, NBC 10 Philadelphia: “Some news I wanted to talk about out of North Carolina with Mark Robinson. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. Governor Walz is also in this area, he just mentioned it at a rally this afternoon. I don’t know that you’ve gotten a chance to talk about it, so I wanted to ask you, are you comfortable with Mark Robinson as the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina?”

JD Vance: “Well, look, the allegations are pretty far out there of course, but I know that allegations aren’t necessarily reality, and what I’d say is, it’s ultimately up to Mark Robinson and North Carolina whether he’s going to be their governor and whether he wants to stay in the race. I’ll let them make that decision.”

Mayk: “Do you believe him that those were not his posts?”

Vance: “I don’t not believe him, I don’t believe him. I just think that you have to let these things sometimes play out in the court of public opinion. He’s going to make whatever arguments he wants to make.”

Vance is set to campaign this weekend with far-right Christian nationalist Lance Wallnau, an election denier who was at the Capitol on January 6 and continues to spout unhinged conspiracy theories and anti-choice extremism. 

Rolling Stone: “Vance Links Up With Christian Extremist Who Called Harris a ‘Jezebel’ Practicing ‘Witchcraft’”

“Fresh off an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s extremist election tour, Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance is set to sit for a Pennsylvania town hall hosted by far-right Christian nationalist Lance Wallnau. 

“Wallnau, who will host the town hall, was a major figure driving evangelical support for the 2020 ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, and promoted the deification of Trump as a figure akin to the biblical King Cyrus. […]

“Disdain for women is just one shared position between Wallnau and Vance, who has sparked intense criticism for a series of comments maligning women without children as something he finds ‘disturbing and ‘disorienting.’ […]

“In December, Wallnau expressed frustration with the fact that the overturning of Roe v. Wade had allowed some states to enshrine reproductive rights into state law. ‘For those Christians like myself who thought we had a victory regarding abortion at the Supreme Court, we need to face the fact. The Court merely sent abortion policy back to the states — where referendum after referendum has been approving wildly liberal abortion laws,’ he said. ‘Republicans at the RNC have no messaging campaign for Life. We better come up with one on our own or our pro-life victory will be a pro-abortion victory for 2024 and the White House is in the balance.’”

NBC News: “Vance to attend event with evangelist who said Harris used ‘witchcraft’”

Trump once again fawned over a foreign authoritarian government, envious of how “they can do whatever they want.” 

Trump: “So, listen to how good it is, it’s so easy. It’s so easy. China’s used it for years, but we have a better plan than them. But they’ve used it for years. They can do whatever they want. You know, we have to go through certain, certain hurdles. But not much.”

PBS News, 2018: “Chinese President Xi Jinping recently consolidated power. Trump told the gathering: ‘He’s now president for life. President for life. And he’s great.’ Trump added, ‘I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.’”

Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts said the MAGA extremists behind the dangerous, severely unpopular blueprint “are waiting for the policymaking season” and are “never going to stop doing presidential transition projects,” while saying that Project 2025 “is the conservative movement.”

Kevin Roberts: “They exist in a policy in a political lane and a political season, and we exist in a policy lane and are waiting for the policymaking season. […] We’re never going to stop doing presidential transition projects at Heritage…” 

David Gelles, New York Times: “… Did you do a disservice to the conservative movement by putting the wish list out there?”

Roberts: “No, the project is the conservative movement. We’ve got 111 conservative organizations that are part of it.”

New polling showed how extremely unpopular Project 2025 is, while an unearthed interview revealed that Project 2025 director Paul Dans promised “one to one mirroring” between Project 2025 and Trump’s policy agenda.

NBC News: “Poll: Project 2025 is broadly known and severely unpopular with voters”

Paul Dans: “Many of our ideas, you’ll see one to one mirroring.”

Politico: “Many of the authors of the blueprint are former Trump officials, and the Heritage Foundation has spent the past year-plus recruiting people to implement the plans within the administration, Scott said.”

Despite claiming that he doesn’t “have to prepare that much” for next week’s VP debate, Vance is getting prepped… by a Project 2025 contributor.

CNN: “Vance says he doesn’t have to prepare very much for VP debate and feels confident in Trump’s policies”

HuffPost: “JD Vance Taps Project 2025 Contributor To Help With His VP Debate Prep”

“Vance will reportedly participate in a mock debate later this week, with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) playing the role of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and Monica Crowley playing the role of a moderator. Crowley, who previously served as Trump’s assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department, is a contributor to Project 2025.

“In fact, Crowley gets a special shout-out in the Heritage Foundation’s 920-page policy road map, which bills itself as ‘the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative Administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025.’”

Vance fundraised in Texas with Project 2025 leader Brooke Rollins – whose organization is “helping to implement” the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion nationwide.

Newsweek: “JD Vance Fundraises With Woman Tied to Project 2025 as Trump Distances Self”

“Rollins, who previously worked as Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Chief Strategist under Trump, recently told Politico that the ideals laid out by her organization were about more than for just 2025, but the next four administrations after that.

“The Democratic Party seized on the meeting between Vance and Rollins, alleging that, by attending, Vance was confirming that the Trump campaign was taking policy advice from the architects of Project 2025.

“‘JD Vance is continuing to embrace a dangerous, anti-choice agenda today at a fundraiser in Texas with a Project 2025 architect whose organization is ‘helping to implement’ the Project 2025 agenda that includes a national abortion ban, with or without Congress,’ DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross said in a statement.

“‘While women’s lives are on the line in Texas as a result of MAGA Republicans’ extreme ban, the Trump-Vance ticket is showing the American people that, if given the chance, they’ll put our basic rights at risk and rip away our reproductive freedom.’”

Vance also fundraised in Florida with numerous anti-choice extremists, including Wilton Simpson, who helped pass Florida’s abortion ban; Jimmy Patronis, who celebrated the end of Roe v. Wade; and several of Trump’s anti-choice MAGA minions in Congress.

Click Orlando: “According to the invitation, the host list for the fundraiser included several state Republican leaders, including Florida Agricultural Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, and U.S. Reps. Kat Cammack and Michael Waltz who represent Central Florida, including parts of Marion County.”

Tallahassee Democrat: “Florida lawmakers on Thursday voted to approve a 15-week abortion ban that shortens by more than two months the current window available to legally terminate a pregnancy…

“‘I think it’s a great day,’ Senate President Wilton Simpson said about lawmakers approving Florida’s most restrictive abortion regulations (HB 5) since the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision established abortion as a constitutional right in 1973.”

Jimmy Patronis: “Roe V. Wade was a travesty, both morally and constitutionally. Overturn it!”

Kat Cammack: “As we all know abortion is not health care.”

Michael Waltz: “The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was based on outdated science and a flawed constitutional interpretation.”

Senate Republicans blocked a vote that would protect access to emergency abortion care, despite recent reporting that Trump’s abortion bans led to preventable deaths — and Vance didn’t bother to show up.

Oklahoma Voice: “Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford blocks resolution stating right to emergency care includes abortion”

“Senate Democrats attempted to pass a resolution Tuesday addressing abortion access in emergency medical situations, but Republicans blocked it from moving forward.

“The floor action followed months of unsuccessful attempts by congressional Democrats to approve legislation on various reproductive rights, including access to birth control and in vitro fertilization.”

ProPublica: “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.”

“Since abortion was banned or restricted in 22 states over the past two years, women in serious danger have been turned away from emergency rooms and told that they needed to be in more peril before doctors could help. Some have been forced to continue high-risk pregnancies that threatened their lives. Those whose pregnancies weren’t even viable have been told they could return when they were ‘crashing.’”

NBC News: “A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban”

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson refused to commit to accepting and certifying this November’s election results.

Pablo Manríquez, Vanity Fair: “Mr. Speaker, do you commit to observing regular order in the certification process of the 2024 election, even if Harris beats Trump?”

Johnson: “Well of course – if we have a free, fair, and safe election, we’re gonna follow the Constitution.”

MSNBC: “On certifying election results, Speaker Johnson offers a big ‘if’”

Mediaite: “Mike Johnson Gives Conditional Answer When Asked If He’d Certify Kamala Harris Victory Over Trump”