Patrick Dempsey, Heather Cox Richardson Say They Won't Run For Senate In Maine
Actor Patrick Dempsey said Wednesday he will not throw his name into the ring to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, writing in an op-ed he preferred to keep focusing on his work to help cancer patients in the state.
"The Dempsey Center has shown me what’s possible when people put aside differences and focus on helping one another. I’ve watched volunteers, healthcare professionals, small businesses, major corporations, donors and neighbors come together for one purpose: caring for people during some of the hardest moments of their lives," the former "Grey's Anatomy" star wrote in the Portland Press-Herald, referring to a cost-free supportive cancer care center he founded in his home state.
"No one asks who you voted for before offering support," he wrote. "That’s the America I know. That’s what I want to see in the leader we send to the Senate."
A lesser-known sort of celebrity, Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson, also ruled out a run. Richardson, who writes the most popular political Substack newsletter in the country and has a large fan base of older liberals, said in a video posted to her Instagram a run was "not going to happen."
"I am not a good candidate for the Senate race in Maine," she said.
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No-Bid Contracts To Trump Donor’s Firm Have Cost Taxpayers Millions: WaPo
Greenwater Services received a $1.7 million, no-bid government contract to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in time for the America 250 celebrations. In April, the company drained the pool, added a new coating painted “American flag blue,” and refilled it.
A week after the renovation, which ended up costing $14 million, an algae outbreak turned the pool swampy, sludge-green and pieces of the paint began floating to the surface.
J.J. Cafaro Investment owns Greenwater Services. Cafaro, who is buddies with Donald Trump, not only donated about $350,000 to Trump-related PACs, he also owns a mansion near the president’s Mar-a-Lago property.
But the Reflecting Pool gig wasn’t the only no-bid contract Greenwater Services received from the Trump administration, The Washington Post reported. The company was also hired to clean trash and sewage from the Tijuana River.
The project did not go well.
Read more in The Washington Post:
DOGE Cuts May Have Killed 700,000, Ex-USAID Administrator Estimates: New Yorker
Atul Gawande, the former assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, theorized that Elon Musk's DOGE, which set out to make the government more efficient, has led to about 700,000 deaths due to reduced life-saving aid.
"The precision of the numbers is a question, but it’s clear that it’s, at minimum, tens of thousands in 2025, and very likely hundreds of thousands," Gawande told The New Yorker.
Read more at The New Yorker:
Lindsey Graham's Cause Of Death Revealed
Lindsey Graham died of aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to a preliminary exam, his office announced Sunday evening.
An aortic dissection happens when there is a tear in the inner layer of the body's main artery, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Trump Claims Lindsey Graham Didn't Want Ukraine's War With Russia To End
President Donald Trump threw Lindsey Graham under the bus one last time, telling CNN host Jake Tapper that the late senator wanted to keep the war between Ukraine and Russia going.
"I wanted to see the war with Ukraine end very quickly. I think he was more into keeping it going, frankly," Trump said Sunday on "State of the Union." "He was very, very militant having to do with that. But I was from the standpoint of 25,000 people dying every month; I didn't like that. And he was a very strong military person. So am I. But I think we used it a little bit differently. We probably had a little bit of a different attitude."
Trump and Graham grew close, but before that, the two didn't like each other. During a political rally in 2015, Trump read Graham's phone number aloud to a crowd of hundreds.
Just before his death, Graham visited Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about strengthening the country's air defense and a Russia sanctions bill.
Kash Patel Says The FBI Is Helping Local Authorities In Lindsey Graham's Death
FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI is assisting local authorities in Sen. Lindsey Graham's death.
"Senator Lindsey Graham was a devoted public servant, a fierce defender of our nation, and a true patriot who dedicated his life to the people of South Carolina and the United States," Patel wrote Sunday on X. "Our prayers are with his family, loved ones, colleagues, and all those who knew him during this devastating time. The FBI is assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available."
It's unclear why the FBI would be involved with Graham's death.
"The FBI is assisting local law enforcement," an FBI spokesperson told HuffPost. The agency declined to comment further.
Graham, 71, died Saturday night from a “brief and sudden illness,” his office said.
GOP Strategist Vehemently Attacks Lindsey Graham: 'Lonely And Unprincipled Man'
GOP strategist Steve Schmidt didn't hold back when reflecting on Lindsey Graham's life, calling him a "lonely and unprincipled man who betrayed his country for power and his decency for attention."
Schmidt, who co-founded the Lincoln Project, an organization made up of conservatives who oppose Donald Trump, ripped into Graham, writing Sunday on Substack that Graham chose Trump over America and supported the president's lies.
"Let it be known for all time that he knew exactly what Donald Trump was from the very beginning, and chose him over his country," Schmidt wrote. "Lindsey Graham was a pathetic man, a true cynic and a faithless servant of the Constitution. He was a simple man to understand and a tragic one. He lacked a moral core and any sense of right and wrong. The great empty spaces of his life were filled with an insatiable need for 'relevance.' He found it as a cast member in the most malignant reality show ever made."
Read more on Substack:
Lindsey Graham's Democratic Opponent Offers Her Gratitude To The Late Senator
Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee who was set to run against Lindsey Graham for the South Carolina Senate seat in November, offered her condolences to Graham's family.
"From his small-town South Carolina roots to the halls of the U.S. Senate, he was a man of great faith who proudly served our nation as a JAG officer and Air Force colonel," Andrews said in a statement. "I hope that South Carolinians will join me in setting partisanship aside and offering gratitude to Senator Lindsey Graham for his service to the great state of South Carolina."
With his death, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) will appoint someone to fill Graham's seat until his term ends in January 2027.
Jan. 6 Police Officer Rips Into Lindsey Graham: 'Rest In Piss' 'Worthless Scumbag'
Michael Fanone, a former D.C. police officer who was attacked by rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, didn't hold back when remembering Lindsey Graham, calling him a "worthless scumbag."
"Lindsey Graham is dead," Fanone wrote Sunday on Substack. "I will always remember my first and only encounter with him when he looked the grieving mother of a dead police officer in the face and barked that he wasn’t going to listen to her blame Trump for January 6th. When I showed him my body cam footage from that day he turned away and looked at his phone. Rest in Piss you fucking worthless scumbag. If there is a hell I hope you're in it."
Graham reportedly threatened to end a meeting with the mother of a police officer killed in the Jan. 6 attack if she continued to speak badly about Donald Trump.