Ohio Sen. J. D. Vance reminded the public on Monday that the judge overseeing the Manhattan lawfare case against former President Donald Trump has a daughter who is a Democrat political operative. It’s an entirely true statement, yet it’s one Trump is prohibited from making himself thanks to a gag order from partisan Judge Juan Merchan — which is why congressional Republicans must show up daily to serve as a voice for the former president and 2024 front-runner.

“The thing that the president is prevented from saying, which is a disgrace, is that every single person involved in this prosecution is practically a Democratic political operative. The judge inside, his daughter is making millions of dollars running against Donald Trump, raising money for Donald Trump’s political opponents,” Vance said outside the courthouse. Notably, Judge Merchan himself donated to Biden’s campaign.

Vance’s comments echoed those of Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who joined Trump last week when pornographer Stormy Daniels took the stand. Scott also noted that the daughter of the judge overseeing the case “is a political operative and raises money for Democrats.”

Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is reportedly president of the Chicago-based political consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, whose clients include Russia hoaxer Adam Schiff and the Senate Majority PAC. Both Schiff and the Senate Majority PAC have used the Manhattan-based indictment against Trump to fundraise, according to the New York Post. Loren Merchan also worked for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

Judge Merchan has refused to recuse

If you think firing poorly performing federal employees is too hard, you are not alone. Most federal employees agree. Now President Biden has made this problem worse. New regulations will make dismissals of poor-performing and subversive employees even more difficult. The rule reinforces removal restrictions and prohibits the reclassification of federal bureaucrats. This broad regulatory change was built specifically to block the reinstatement of Trump-era reforms. The deep state will soon become even less accountable.

The federal employee dismissal process is broken. Agencies take six months to a year to remove poor performers, followed by lengthy appeals that often result in reinstatement with back pay. If the employee wins, agencies must typically cover their attorney fees — at rates of $400 to $1,000 per hour. This makes removing employees for even the worst offenses expensive and uncertain.

For example, the Department of Justice suspended two prosecutors who withheld exculpatory evidence from a U.S. senator’s defense team. The federal judge overseeing the case said he had “never seen such mishandling or misconduct.” Nonetheless, the prosecutors appealed and got the suspensions overturned on a technicality. The government restored two months of back wages and paid out $643,000 in attorney fees.

This dysfunction is all too common. Removing problematic employees is difficult in every federal agency. Just one-half of 1 percent of tenured federal employees were fired in 2023 for poor performance or misconduct.

Surveys show that federal employees themselves object to this system. Half report chronic poor performance in their unit, and

The Republican National Committee (RNC) appears to have little to no on-the-ground operations in key battleground states despite former President Donald Trump narrowly leading President Joe Biden, local GOP and conservative group leaders tell The Federalist. They expressed optimism, however, that the RNC will step up its efforts and suggested it’s “typical” for the RNC not to have its ground game going until about now.

Grassroots organizations are targeting key states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Texas to improve “election processes at the administrative level well before Election Day,” director Josh Findlay of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Elections Protection Project told The Federalist. 

Findlay touted the groups’ “huge successes” throughout battleground states with regard to drop box security, absentee ballot procedures, observer access and absentee processing centers. But despite all the work being done on the ground to elect Republicans, the RNC doesn’t seem too involved – though grassroots leaders are hopeful that won’t be the case for long. 

Findlay said he believes RNC Chairman Michael Whatley “will get the proper infrastructure in place to secure the upcoming election.”

“I have worked with Chairman Michael Whatley extensively in the past, and he knows the weight that party bears in making sure elections run smoothly,” Findlay said, adding that while grassroots “excel at identifying local election integrity issues and fighting for solutions to those issues,” it’s the political parties that have the most resources to “recruit, train, and shift the large numbers of poll workers and poll watchers