Featured

Trump: Iran asked me to be Supreme Leader, but I said no thanks

Trump’s “Iran asked me to be Supreme Leader” joke at an NRCC fundraiser uses a real, deadly leadership crisis in Iran to normalize assassination-as-policy and blur what’s confirmed about the war and succession.

Mar 26, 2026

Featured

‘Men need to be perp-walked’ after Epstein files release, Massie tells BBC

A GOP lawmaker says the Epstein document releases are still falling short—because redactions and withheld material may be blocking accountability and survivor-centered justice.

Mar 25, 2026

Buried.News

The stories buried under the noise

Primary focus

Trump fires Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary

A Cabinet secretary was forced out amid contracting and oversight scrutiny, signaling that executive control—not transparent accountability—can dictate leadership of the agency driving mass detention and deportation.

Mar 5, 2026

Featured

The Trump gold coin is not normal : Consider This from NPR

A federal design panel OK’d a Trump portrait for a commemorative gold coin, but the key question is whether Treasury can legally bypass long-standing limits meant to keep living politicians off U.S. money.

Mar 23, 2026

Featured

White House Confronted Over Huge Bets Made Minutes Before Trump’s Big War Move

A $580 million burst of oil-futures selling minutes before Trump’s Iran “talks” post raises a basic public-interest question: did anyone trade on advance knowledge of a market-moving national security decision?

Mar 24, 2026

Democratic rising star extends ‘love’ after Hegseth pastor prays for his death

A Texas Democratic Senate candidate answered a pastor’s “imprecatory” rhetoric with forgiveness, but the bigger story is how violent-sounding political theology is being laundered as “just metaphor.”

Elections

Mar 25, 2026

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/25/james-talarico-pete-hegseth-pastor

Summary

Texas state rep and U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico responded after Brooks Potteiger, described as Pete Hegseth’s close spiritual adviser, agreed on a podcast that they want Talarico “crucified with Christ,” following remarks about praying that “God kills him.” The Guardian frames this as a “pray for his death” controversy but only partly resolves the key ambiguity: whether listeners are meant to take the language as spiritual-metaphorical, political incitement, or both. It matters because public figures and adjacent influencers increasingly use religious language that sounds like violence while retaining plausible deniability when challenged.

Reality Check

The core dispute is not whether the words were said—they were—but what audience meaning they carried. Potteiger’s “crucified with Christ” defense is a real, common Christian metaphor for conversion, and Haymes explicitly added that he meant “killing his heart,” not necessarily literal death. At the same time, the segment also used unmistakably punitive language (“destroy them,” “make them as dung on the ground”), which predictably reads as a political “death wish” to many listeners—especially when aimed at a named candidate in an ongoing campaign.

Media

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Detail

On or about Tuesday, March 24, 2026, Talarico posted on X: “Jesus loves. Christian Nationalism kills… You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you.” The remarks Talarico was responding to came from a “Christian nationalist” podcast, Reformation Red Pill, hosted by Joshua Haymes, in a discussion with pastor Brooks Potteiger. On the show, Haymes used imprecatory-psalm language (“God, destroy them”) and said: “I pray that God kills him,” then added that he meant “killing his heart” and raising him to new life in Christ. Potteiger agreed during the exchange, saying: “We want him crucified with Christ.” Afterward, Potteiger issued a clarification saying he was not praying for literal death but for “conversion,” describing “crucified with Christ” as Pauline language. The Guardian piece ties the podcast world to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by describing Potteiger as his closest spiritual adviser and noting Hegseth has appeared on the podcast multiple times (though the story does not claim Hegseth participated in this specific episode). Talarico recently won the Texas Democratic Senate primary and is aiming to challenge Sen. John Cornyn in November 2026, with some reporting noting the GOP side may still be headed to a Cornyn–Paxton runoff.

Norms Impact

Sen. John Cornyn flips on the filibuster to pass SAVE America Act as Trump weighs endorsement

A senior senator is willing to rewrite Senate rules to force through a federal election overhaul, treating the filibuster’s consensus guardrail as disposable political leverage.

Congress

Mar 11, 2026