Weekend Quotables
WHITE HOUSE DENIES INTERNAL SPLIT OVER THE WAR
I’ve been a fan of Abdul El-Sayed since his run for governor in Michigan back in 2018. He seems to have the best chance to carry on the progressive electoral revolt following last week’s progressive sweep.
MAGA SPATS
Is there an internal split over the war between Vance and Rubio, or is Trump just blame-shifting and playing both of them against each other?
Before taking office last year, Vance frequently criticized foreign wars as a waste of lives and money. Rubio made a name for himself as a “hawk” in the Senate, where he pushed for a more aggressive stance towards Iran, Russia and especially Cuba.
There is internal disagreement about the Iran MoU — but not necessarily between just Vance vs Rubio
A senior official told Fox News there was a “split” inside the administration over the MoU, but did not specify which officials opposed it. That suggests the divide may involve intelligence officials (e.g., Ratcliffe) or other hawks (Hegseth), rather than a strictly Vance–Rubio binary. (Fox)
Why it matters:
Both Vance and Rubio are positioning for a presidential run in ‘28. If the war goes badly, Trump will assign blame. If the wars in Iran–Lebanon are still burning out of control, Trump will not take responsibility. He will blame Vance for “bad advice”, blame Rubio for “hawkish pressure”, and claim he was misled. Whoever gets tagged with the failure becomes damaged goods heading into 2028.
Quotables
JD Vance
“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” — Al Jazeera
Michael Lange
On Tuesday night, The Left in New York City did not just win — they ran the table. — The Narrative Wars
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen
On why he’s backing progressive Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, breaking with party leadership and intensifying a battle over the party’s direction in one of the most important Senate races of 2026.
Van Hollen said he believed El-Sayed was the “strongest” candidate who can win in November, and “the candidate who’s willing to take on the status quo.”
“When I say the status quo, I mean not just the lawless Trump administration, but take on the Democratic establishment that has not fought hard enough for working people,” said Van Hollen. — AP
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Cali
“Abdul’s election to the Senate is the most important election in this country,” Khanna said. “If you send (someone) to the United States Senate who had the courage to call out the genocide in Gaza from the beginning, and if you do it from a swing state, the party establishment may just start to listen.” — Michigan Daily
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
“Today, this Court undoes centuries of political practice and concludes that all three branches of Government have been acting in open defiance of the Constitution all this time. Its conclusion is wrong.”
Sotomayor wasn’t warning about an obscure doctrinal shift. She was telling the country that the Court just rewrote the legal meaning of arrival so narrowly that asylum seekers standing in sight of the border can be treated as if they don’t exist. — Dissenting from the bench
My grandparents were immigrants from Germany 9n the 1860s, not turned away, but welcomed at that time. To think that our government is turning away immigrants who face difficulties in their countries is a crime against humanity.