by | Jul 11, 2025 | The Hill
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on Friday hit back at a Democratic candidate running for her seat in Congress, who released an artificial intelligence (AI) generated ad taking aim at the congresswoman’s widely expected bid for New York governor.
Stefanik slammed the deepfake ad as “blatantly sexist” and “deeply offensive to North Country voters,” criticizing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs for their lack of response.
“Their silence to condemn this misogynistic, AI-generated sexist smear is shameful and despicable,” Stefanik’s office said in a statement. “There is no place in politics to artificially create this derogatory degradation which is offensive, belittling, and confusing to voters especially seniors.”
“The Stefanik team calls on Governor Hochul and NY Democrat Party boss Jay Jacobs to publicly condemn this disgraceful ad and call it out for what it is: a bigoted, sexist AI deep fake that is offensive to voters,” it added.
The video, published Thursday on X by Democratic candidate Blake Gendebien, features a song about the speculation surrounding Stefanik’s potential run for governor. At the end, it notes that the ad was generated “in whole or substantially by artificial intelligence.”
“Elise Stefanik is not fooling anyone,” the post accompanying the video reads. “While she ‘considers’ running for Governor, the people of the North Country lack adequate leadership in Congress. It’s time to change that. Send a farmer to Congress.”
The Hill has reached out to Gendebien’s campaign for comment.
Several sources told The Hill late last month that Stefanik was
her campaign for New York governor, suggesting it was “not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”
The New York congresswoman’s likely bid for top office in the Empire State comes after President Trump pulled her nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in March.
As AI continues to rapidly improve, deepfakes have become a growing concern. An imposter
as Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently contacted at least three unidentified foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor, according to a State Department memo obtained by several outlets.
by | Jul 11, 2025 | The Hill
The Senate GOP’s campaign committee swung at Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday after news
that his wife, Angela Paxton, had filed for divorce.
“What Ken Paxton has put his family through is truly repulsive and disgusting,” NRSC spokeswoman Joanna Rodriguez said. “No one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has, and we pray for her as she chooses to stand up for herself and her family during this difficult time.”
The Texas attorney general is looking to topple Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), with one poll in June
him up 22 points over the sitting senator. The NRSC endorsed Cornyn in the 2026 race and generally supports incumbents.
One NRSC staffer
Cornyn’s marriage on X, posting a heart in a reply to a 2022 post from Cornyn celebrating their anniversary.
Angela Paxton wrote on social media Thursday that she was filing for divorce on “biblical grounds” after 38 years of marriage. She
in her divorce filing that Ken Paxton had committed adultery, according to the Texas Tribune, and wrote that the couple had not been living together for over a year.
“I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation,” she wrote on X. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”
“After facing the pressures of countless political attacks and public scrutiny, Angela and I have decided to start a new chapter in our lives,” Ken Paxton
on X. “I ask for your prayers and privacy at this time.”
Ken Paxton was impeached by the Texas state House in 2023 before being acquitted by the state’s Senate in a trial that
aired allegations that he had an extramarital affair. Angela Paxton attended the trial but did not vote.
The Texas attorney general raised $2.9 million in the second quarter of 2025 for the March 2026 primary.
by | Jul 11, 2025 | The Hill
President Trump is challenging his MAGA base on foreign policy, immigration and the truth behind Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide, irking some supporters in the process and highlighting divisions within his movement.
A big portion of MAGA
U.S. involvement in the Ukraine-Russia war, but Trump,
by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has resumed sending weapons to Kyiv. Some in MAGA were also unnerved by Trump’s use of
.
On immigration, Trump is responding to farmers spooked about labor issues by
for efforts to ensure agriculture can employ migrants legally, though he has
The biggest eruption has been on Epstein, where the Department of Justice’s announcement this week that Epstein committed suicide has
and calls of a coverup.
“When you’re president, there is no right decision. There’s only an effective decision. … The difference between campaigning and governing is reality,” said GOP strategist Matt Bartlett, who served in the State Department during Trump’s first term.
“The administration seems to be dealing with reality. You can call it hypocrisy. You can call it backtracking. I think it’s just a reality of the world, where some in the base are just so deeply wed to not just positions, but to conspiracy theories.”
when Trump last week announced a pause in sending some weapons to Ukraine amid its ongoing war against Russia. The president has long
to keep the U.S. out of “forever wars,” and
of Republicans in a March Gallup poll said the U.S. was doing “too much” to help Ukraine.
Just days later, Trump
, saying “we have to” supply the weapons. The move vexed some MAGA voices, especially after military intervention in Iran last month.
“I did not vote for this,” wrote Derrick Evans, a
Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioter who ran unsuccessfully for Congress last year and was
by Trump, in a
Newsmax host Todd Starnes
, also pointing to Trump’s moves on the Epstein case and immigration.
After winning the White House on a hardline immigration stance, including promises of day-one mass deportations, Trump last week
to shield farmers who employ migrants illegally from his major crackdown, acknowledging that “serious radical-right people” may “not be quite as happy” with the move.
“There is no other issue the conservative base feels more passionately about than immigration,” commentator Chralie Kirk warned in
. “We must deliver mass deportations, not amnesty.”
Trump and his Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have since stressed that there will be
for agricultural workers, though the administration will move forward with a work program to help the industry.
With these recent moves, strategists see a president grappling with the realities of the office while trying to live up to lofty campaign promises and please a broad base.
“It’s easier to campaign than it is to lead,” said GOP strategist Ron Bonjean. “Trump has done a good job of keeping his coalition together. At the same time, there are absolutely going to be some disagreements that take place.”
Trump is facing some tough questions on farm workers in particular.
“Even those MAGA voters, some of these businesses do have employees that are undocumented. … Where are you going to draw the line? And right now, if you’re a MAGA supporter, probably the answer is: deport everyone. But Trump’s running into a problem [with] how businesses and farms operate … without those employees,” Bonjean said.
Republican strategist and Trump campaign alum Brian Seitchik said he “certainly” sees concern from MAGA world that support for Ukraine runs counter to Trump’s America First posture, but stressed that the president has to do “what he thinks is in America’s best interest” as new developments unfold abroad.
But the biggest development roiling
lately has been the administration’s moves around
.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and other administration officials are
over a new memo that found no evidence Epstein kept a “client list” or sought to blackmail powerful figures, rebutting conspiracy theories that the disgraced financier was secretly murdered.
Figures in the Trump administration have long
. But now,
like Elon Musk, the Trump ally-turned-foe who has alleged that the president
in the Epstein files, are
the administration of a cover-up.
Trump “led this coalition as a result of lack of faith in institutions,” Bartlett said, and even though he’s back in the Oval Office, it’s “unclear” whether or not that faith can be rebuilt among swaths of the base as the skepticism continues.
All the same, Trump allies downplayed the possibility that his supporters would abandon him or the GOP more broadly over the recent round of disagreements.
“His numbers are stronger than ever before with the Republican base. Republican voters are happier with him now than ever before,” said one source close to the White House.
That source argued that in each case of disagreement, Trump supporters would likely direct their frustrations toward someone other than the president.
Much of the outrage over the Epstein debacle has been aimed at Bondi, for instance. And his supporters blamed “warmongers” in his ear advising him on Iran.
One official who served in Trump’s first administration argued that Trump has the final word on what constitutes “America first” foreign policy, giving the president wide latitude to engage however he sees fit on the world stage.
“He said, ‘I came up with this concept, and I decide what’s in it,’” the former administration official said.
“President Trump is proud of Attorney General Bondi’s efforts to execute his Make America Safe Again agenda, restore the integrity of the Department of Justice, and bring justice to victims of crime,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to The Hill. “The continued fixation on sowing division in President Trump’s Cabinet is baseless and unfounded in reality.”
That was on display as individuals who were initially skeptical of intervention in the Middle East, like Kirk, rallied behind Trump to argue his strikes on Iran were a necessary measure to protect American interests.
“They’re the same influencers who are wholly supportive and going to continue to support President Trump because [of] the overall, big-picture policies. … I don’t think we’ll ever see Charlie Kirk or people like him ever turn on Donald Trump,” said GOP strategist Brian Darling.
“I think that’s the way most of the MAGA movement is going to treat it,” Darling said of the Epstein drama. “They’re not going to like the way this was handled, but I think they’re still going to be very loyal to the president and continue to support him.”
If there is a political impact from the recent divisions, it could potentially manifest in next year’s midterms, when the GOP will be looking to hold onto its majorities in the House and Senate.
“You could argue that the midterms are always tough for the party in power — that’s no secret — and that potentially you’re alienating some of these Republicans who may not turn out in a midterm election,” Seitchik said.
Conservative influencer Liz Wheeler called out
of a reporter’s Epstein question,
that “Trump is massively misreading his base on this one” and “it could cost him the midterms.”
“A lot of these issues are marginal issues, maybe even fringe issues,” Bartlett said. “Let’s remember that a lot of our elections, whether they’re House or maybe even president, are determined on the margins.”
Brett Samuels contributed.
