With almost all votes counted, Demuth was more than 45,000 votes ahead of Lindell, who had the backing of Donald Trump, beating him by 43.4% to 32.5%.

Businessman Kendall Qualls, backed by the Republican state party, was trailing in third.

Told by a reporter on his own streaming channel, LindellTV, that the AP had declared the race over, Lindell dismissed the wire service outright. Asked why he wouldn’t accept the call, he questioned the AP’s authority to determine the outcome and insisted hundreds of thousands of votes remained uncounted.

“I’m not going to give up this race until the votes are counted,” Lindell said. “That’s nonsense.”

Late last week, federal authorities issued a stern warning saying “malicious cyber actors” were targeting water and wastewater facilities in at least seven states across the US. Minnesota appeared to be the hardest hit with 30 of its water systems hit by cyber-attacks, leading to disruptions in the state’s water supply.

The problems ranged from low-pressure water flow in people’s homes to some utilities announcing boil-water notices. But there have been no reports of drinking water contamination.

“These threat actors are targeting water entities of all sizes,” the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) said in a statement last Thursday.

The agency highlighted the fact that critical infrastructure systems can be especially vulnerable to cyber-attacks in the digital age. Much of the problem stemmed from water facilities’ connection to the internet, which made it possible for hackers to infiltrate, change passwords and lock out operators. To mitigate continued disturbances, the agency advised utilities to take their systems offline and switch to manual mode.

The culprit of the coordinated attack is suspected to be Iran, according to officials across the government who have spoken anonymously to various news outlets. Tehran has reportedly stepped up its cyber-attacks on the US since the war began nearly six months ago, but so far has only had nominal success. While the FBI announced that it opened an investigation into the hack, it stopped short of putting the responsibility on Iran.

Donald Trump, however, has said the attack is Minnesota’s fault.

“I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly incompetent,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting last Friday at Camp David in Maryland, without providing evidence to support his claims. “I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota … Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota.”

The U.S. economy shed jobs in July, yet the unemployment rate improved — an unusual pairing that points to a worrying story unfolding behind the numbers for some economists.

That’s because even as the U.S. economy lost jobs, American workers left the labor market faster.

Mom’s basement might be the answer.

After commenting on her expressions, Trump attempted to deliver a roast-style joke that was met with silence from the crowd, comparing her to trans actress Dylan Mulvaney in a three-year-old ad campaign.

“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship,” he said, “but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.”

Mulvaney, now 29, briefly collaborated with Bud Light in 2023, posting a short video to her social media during March Madness that featured cans of the light beer. The innocuous brand partnership was quickly amplified by far-right figures, and Trump ally Kid Rock helped lead a boycott of Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch, for working with a trans person at a time when Republican politicians had been making anti-trans attacks a major part of the party’s platform.

Backlash from conservatives over Bud Light’s perceived “wokeness” led to a significant decline in sales for the beer brand, which is still recovering from the financial fallout years later. As of early 2024, Anheuser-Busch had lost $27 billion in market value.

President Donald Trump did not take kindly to being asked whether he believed bombing civilian power plants and bridges would constitute war crimes after he threatened to do just that in Iran.

The president, 80, was taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office when he was asked about his threat this week on Truth Social.

“You’re talking about blowing up civilian power plants and bridges. Much of the civilized world would consider that a war crime. Do you?” the reporter asked Trump point blank.

The president paused for a moment before deciding it was probably best not to answer the question at all, which had clearly annoyed him.

“Uhhh, I won’t respond to that question,” Trump said before demanding to know which outlet the reporter worked for.

“The New York Times,” the reporter responded.

“I figured so; the failing New York Times,” Trump said before turning away.

HE ordered the targeting of civilians (remember the girls school?) and civilian infrastructure. War criminals are held to account. If you don’t wanna be a war criminal held to account, stop doing war crimes.

Heritage Foundation staffer was stopped from entering a Senate office building after authorities say they found ammunition and suspected drugs in his briefcase.

Matthew Christopher Wingate was detained by Capitol Police on July 14 after allegedly attempting to pass through security at the Russell Senate Office Building.

According to court records obtained by NOTUS, an X-ray scan of his bag revealed what appeared to be a pistol magazine, prompting officers to carry out a further search.

Hunter Biden (someone holding no office or officia position) might have drugs? The media loses their mind. But, a MAGAt gets found with drugs and ammo in the Capitol? Hardly a whisper

During last fall’s government shutdown, the Trump administration started cutting energy grants to states, but the only states that were seriously affected were ones Donald Trump lost in the 2024 election. At the time, officials in the affected states accused the White House of “mafioso tactics” and brazenly abusing its powers by politicizing grant decisions that are supposed to be based on merit.

Team Trump was initially dismissive of the claims. Russell Vought, the White House budget director who terminated hundreds of grants, insisted that he was simply paring back Biden-era federal grants that the White House considered wasteful because as Vought put it, they were part of a “Green New Scam” — whatever that was supposed to mean.

It wasn’t long, however, before that posture started evolving.

In December, for example, the Republican administration’s lawyers made no real effort to deny the underlying allegations, instead arguing in a court filing that it’s “constitutionally permissible” to consider partisan politics when distributing (or canceling) federal funds.

This week, Team Trump gave up the game, effectively admitting in a legal filing that the “mafioso tactics” claims were correct all along.

Officials became convinced by FDA’s findings, and gave the agency the green light to make them public

Representatives for produce giant Taylor Farms contacted the White House with an urgent plea: the company wanted to delay announcing a recall tied to one of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks in U.S. history.

The call, during which the company asked for more proof and more time before being linked to the outbreak, illustrates how one of the country’s largest produce suppliers sought to limit its exposure to a public-relations nightmare, while grappling with a costly and complicated recall. Over the past several weeks, health officials have been scrambling to contain the outbreak of cyclospora, which can cause explosive diarrhea. Some current and former government officials have criticized the handling of the outbreak, both by the administration and Taylor Farms.

Donald Trump has announced he will run for president in 2028 during a rambling speech to the Washington press corps.

Trump was speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner when he appeared to make the announcement.

I won three times, now I’m gonna do it again,” he said, while putting on a cap that read “Trump 2028″.

“I’m gonna do it again. It should be easy.”

He went on to add that he won in 2020 but the election was rigged.

The 80-year-old was met with a smattering of applause, but even he did not seem excited by the moment.

Over the dead body of every patriot that stands for the Constitution, which reads in pertinent part:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice

-22nd Amendment

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville called for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to be arrested and sent to the infamous American torture prison at Guantanamo Bay. Mamdani’s crime? Calling indicted alleged war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu an “architect of genocide,” responsible for a series of atrocities in the ongoing war on Gaza.

“Sooner or later,” Mamdani will “do something more stupid than what he’s done, where we will finally say enough is enough, go put the handcuffs on him … and send him to Gitmo,” Tuberville, a Republican, said, calling Mamdani a “thug.”