Friday, August 8, 2025
spot_imgspot_img
Friday, August 8, 2025

Milwaukee Press Club 'Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism' 2020 & 2021 Award Winners

Trump’s Thrashing of Kleefisch & Her Family Was Disgusting [OPINION]

spot_img

Trump trashed Rebecca Kleefisch’s husband. His great crime? Working to help the disabled.

We found former President Donald Trump’s thrashing of Republican gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Kleefisch and her husband in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Friday to be unnecessary, unhelpful, and, frankly, disgusting.

Leave Kleefisch’s family alone.

If Tim Michels wins the primary, he will need the conservative base to unite. How does this help? Trump treated Rebecca and Joel Kleefisch like they’re screaming liberals; he did everything but give them a nickname. But they’re not. They’re hard-working grassroots conservatives.

Even if you prefer Michels over Kleefisch in Tuesday’s primary, every conservative should be able to see that this was simply wrong. Trump said he didn’t think Kleefisch could beat Evers, even though the only recent poll showed she was closer against Evers than Michels. Either way, he should be saying either one of them could win and that he will help them do so. Way to rally the troops!

What President Trump did tonight was disgusting and inexcusable. Shame on him. He flew into our state to smear Republicans who have worked very hard to advance the conservative cause. And then flew back out. He spent more time on Joel Kleefisch than Tony Evers.

Frankly, Trump would have done either candidate a favor by staying out of the primary. We aren’t Wyoming. We’re a purple state that has trended blue in statewide elections. If Michels wins the primary, his endorsement is going to hurt him in the general election.

We find it interesting that Trump supports Michels, even though Michels didn’t vote for him in the 2016 primary, wouldn’t say in the last debate if he would support his candidacy in 2024, supports manned dropboxes, initially did not want to abolish the Wisconsin Election Commission, and said in the last debate that he would not make decertification a priority.

Meanwhile, Tim Ramthun supporters were forced to either take their Ramthun campaign shirts off or turn them inside out tonight at the rally. But Ramthun is the only candidate campaigning on decertification (we don’t support decertification, but we’re simply pointing out how upside down all of this is).

Kleefisch’s great crime? Being a conservative lieutenant governor for the state’s last Republican governor, a man who was greatly derided by the left over his Act 10 reforms. Her husband’s offense? Working to get pro-life legislation passed to protect Down Syndrome kids.

Maybe this is Kleefisch’s payback for voting for Ted Cruz in the 2016 primary. Well, so did the rest of Wisconsin. At least she voted. You can’t say that about Michels. She also went on a Women for Trump bus rally in 2020.

Meanwhile, Michels and his company have been involved for years in groups that worked aggressively to stop Walker-Kleefisch conservative reforms, like prevailing wage and right-to-work. These groups also fought to raise the gas tax.

It’s fine for Trump to endorse Michels all the same; he clearly likes his outside builder/businessman narrative. And if Michels ends up the nominee, conservatives do need to unite.

However, the broadsides Trump delivered from the stage at the Kleefisches were not OK. We wonder how many other good Republicans Trump has done this to around the country.

Maybe it stands out more here because we know the Kleefisches have been solid conservatives for years here. Michels should repudiate these attacks, but he’s too busy insisting he’s not going negative while running attack ads that push similar untruths.

Yes, Kleefisch has also gone negative against Michels in ads. Yes, some of those ads have been misleading. And he’s gone negative against her in ads. Yes, some of those have been misleading. That’s all bad too.

However, the president has a massive stage. He’s got a big following. He’s the former Leader of the Free World. He should have urged the base to unite against Tony Evers, not divided Republicans more.

What he said was also very unfair.

Trump said Kleefisch’s husband was the “biggest” lobbyist in Madison. In reality, Joel Kleefisch has had a relatively small lobbying practice for four years. Before that he was a Republican legislator. He lobbied for conservative legislation. In addition to the Down Syndrome bill, he pushed for a pro-life bill to force physicians to save the lives of babies born through botched abortions. He lobbied for a pro-gun bill.

The rest of his lobbying was for sportsman groups and hunting causes. We know this because we reviewed each bill. We didn’t find a single non-conservative bill.

For this he is being trashed by the former president of the United States? For pushing pro-life legislation? He lobbied for groups that help the disabled.

Aren’t spouses generally off-limits?

Trump attacked Kleefisch for supposedly being “handpicked candidate of the failed establishment.”

She was second-in-command to Scott Walker. Is Trump really calling Scott Walker the “failed establishment”? Is that really what it’s come to?

Trump trashed her for a trade mission she took to China after touting his own good relationship with China’s leader. He said she was “begging” for business. Actually, she went to China on a trade mission to find new export markets for Wisconsin farmers and cheese producers. For example, Wisconsin ginseng is desired there. How is that bad?

He trashed her for being a “career politician.”

Kleefisch was a television reporter before becoming lieutenant governor. As lieutenant governor, she worked to bring jobs to Wisconsin. She worked hard afterwards recruiting and funding local Republican candidates in things like school board races and even inner city Milwaukee Assembly races. We know this because we covered an event in Milwaukee’s central city where she was doing this. Yes, she worked in government – for a Republican governor.

If having served in office inherently earns you the label “political insider” and “career politician,” then doesn’t that now apply to Trump as well?

Trump said the Wisconsin Election Commission was created during the Walker-Kleefisch administration. That’s true. They wanted the elections board to have open partisanship (3 Democrats and 3 Republicans) because the previous board, the GAB, was part of the John Doe targeting Walker and had a bunch of people on it who pretended to be non-partisan but weren’t.

It made sense at the time. Obviously this model didn’t work either because it had weak Republican appointees and aggressive dominating Democratic trial lawyers.

It was disgraceful.

evers

Gov. Evers’ Veto Blocks More Than 100,000 from Receiving Benefits: State Reps

Senator Julian Bradley (R-New Berlin) and Rep. Alex Dallman (R-Markesan) slammed Governor Tony Evers for "vetoing a bipartisan bill that would have made Wisconsin...
cavalier johnson

Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s Most Ridiculous Moments During His Downtown Violence Presser

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson held a press conference on downtown violence on Aug. 8, but it was filled with ridiculous moments - and a...

DOJ Launches Grand Jury Probe into ‘RussiaGate’

The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly opening a grand jury investigation into an alleged plot by members of the Obama administration accusing President Donald Trump of colluding with Russia during the 2016 election.

The move, scooped by Fox News, marks the latest step by the second Trump administration to expose what it sees as attempts by former President Barack Obama, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and former intelligence officials to undermine Trump’s character and delegitimize his 2016 victory.

Three weeks ago, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard began declassifying documents appearing to show Obama – along with his senior advisors and top intelligence officials – pressured the intelligence community to contrive evidence that Russia tried to manipulate the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor.

Another document showed that the DNI’s 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, which concluded that Moscow “aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances,” appeared not only false but also the result of apparent bad faith.

To reach their conclusion that Putin had attempted to help Trump win, top intelligence officials cherry-picked inconclusive information that supported the narrative, omitted or suppressed information contradicting the narrative, and based their “high confidence” assumptions on untrustworthy and dishonest sources, according to declassified documents.

Gabbard’s most recent bombshell, however, revealed unverified emails between Clinton campaign staffers and the vice president of a George Soros-affiliated group, planning to falsely tie Russia’s cyber interference attempts during election season to Trump.

According to the declassified Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigation, the emails show that Clinton apparently approved of her campaign’s plan to “demonize” Trump by propagating the idea of “Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections.”

The emails also appeared to show that Clinton ally Leonard Bernardo expected the FBI “put more oil on the fire,” as a way to distract from Clinton’s previous email scandal, The Center Square reported.

Despite Trump administration rhetoric that the emails are a “smoking gun,” the declassified investigation noted that OSC never definitively determined “whether the purported Clinton campaign plan [to implicate Trump] was entirely genuine, partially true, a composite pulled from multiple sources, exaggerated in certain respects, or fabricated in its entirety.”

OSC did assess that “it is a logical deduction that [Clinton foreign policy advisor Julianne] Smith was, at a minimum, playing a role in the Clinton campaign’s efforts to tie Trump to Russia,” and that available evidence “supports the notion that the campaign might have wanted or expected the FBI or other agencies to aid the effort” via a formal investigation.

Gabbard nevertheless sent a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi. The DOJ’s grand jury probe is the first step towards securing a potential indictment, which would allow prosecutors to subpoena further evidence and collect testimonies.

Though no charges have yet been filed, unsparing rhetoric by administration officials – including Trump, who flat-out accused Obama and Clinton of “treason” – suggest that some could be formally accused of sedition, conspiracy or other charges.

Given the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last year that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution of official acts taken while in office, Obama will likely escape indictment.

As of Tuesday, the DOJ has not yet confirmed the grand jury investigation.

chief norman

Wisconsin Legislators Suggest Chief Norman, Command Staff Hit Streets on Patrol Amid Staffing Crisis

A group of Wisconsin legislators is suggesting that Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and his command staff consider hitting the streets on patrol amid...
Defund the Police Badger Institute Deer District Shootings Water Street Shooting

Milwaukee Police Have Issued Only 34 Curfew Tickets So Far This Year

The low numbers come despite the chief and mayor promising to step up curfew enforcement in the city and with violence downtown. The Milwaukee Police...

Alderman Declares Milwaukee’s Water Street Anti-Violence Plan ‘Pathetic’

"You lose your downtown, you lose your city" - Milwaukee Ald. Scott Spiker Milwaukee Ald. Bob Bauman did not camouflage his frustration July 30...
Milwaukee Police Detective Bureau

Milwaukee Insults MPD Officers, ‘Betrays’ Them by Stalling Contract, Pay Raises AGAIN: MPA

In a statement, the Milwaukee Police Association called the city's "labor contract tactics" a "betrayal" of Milwaukee police officers. The Milwaukee Police Association is objecting...
U.S.-Canada Border Illegal Border Crossings

Border Patrol Agents Continue to Arrest Iranians, Weapons Traffickers at Northern Border

At the northern border, Border Patrol agents continue to arrest Iranians and weapons traffickers and are helping seize record amounts of fentanyl.

While illegal border crossings are down at the northern border under the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents in the busiest northern border Swanton Sector are continuing to interdict crime. The sector includes all of Vermont, six upstate New York counties, and three New Hampshire counties.

Earlier this month, Border Patrol Agents from the Champlain Station in New York responded to a report of suspicious activity near Mooers Forks, New York. Upon arrival, they located a minivan occupied by five Iranian citizens and two Uzbekistan citizens – all adult men in the country illegally.

Border Patrol agents then determined all seven men “had previously illegally entered the United States at various locations along both the U.S./Mexico border and the U.S./Canada border,” Swanton Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said. They were detained and are being processed for removal.

“Border security is national security and directly correlates to public safety,” Garcia said, adding that “Swanton Sector agents remain vigilant and committed to protecting our borders and enforcing immigration laws.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are also arresting Iranians in the country illegally, including Revolutionary Guard soldiers, after more than 1,500 Iranians illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, with more than 700 released into the U.S., The Center Square exclusively reported.

In another instance, Border Patrol agents notified the New York State Police about a suspected driver of a vehicle allegedly involved in smuggling activity in upstate New York. State troopers responded, located and stopped the vehicle near Albany, Garcia said. A subsequent vehicle search resulted in a seizure of roughly 4.7 pounds of powdered fentanyl, enough to kill more than one million people.

“This seizure is a powerful reminder of why strong partnerships between federal, state, and local law enforcement are vital to our national security and public safety,” Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said.

In another instance, Border Patrol agents helped ATF federal partners apprehend a criminal foreign national wanted for weapons trafficking. Honduran national Yubert Yasiel Lopez-Lopez, 31, was arrested in North Attleboro, Mass., after he illegally reentered the country after he was previously deported.

He was first apprehended in 2014 after illegally entering the U.S. in Hidalgo, Texas, under the Obama administration. A federal immigration judge in Houston ordered his removal, which occurred four years later under the first Trump administration. In 2022, he again illegally entered the country in Yuma, Arizona, under the Biden administration. It took another three years to arrest him, this time in Massachusetts, with authorities learning he was wanted in Honduras on weapons trafficking charges. A federal grand jury indicted him last month in Vermont, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont announced. He faces up to two years in prison if convicted and removal from the U.S. for a third time.

“We continue to enforce federal immigration laws and seek maximum consequences against those who violate them,” Garcia said.

Garcia also regularly thanks members of the public for supporting Border Patrol efforts, sometimes acting as the eyes and ears for agents in rural areas by calling in sightings of illegal border crossers or suspicious activity. He continues to encourage members of the public to report suspicious border activity in the Swanton Sector by calling 1-800-689-3362.

The sector was hit hard under the Biden administration with illegal border crossings from Canada reaching record levels, totaling nearly one million, according to CBP data and gotaway data exclusively reported by The Center Square. The greatest number ever reported in U.S. history in the sector was in fiscal 2024 of nearly 200,000, excluding those who evaded capture, The Center Square reported.

Evers Drew Congressional Maps Eric Wimberger Republican’s Second Tax Cut evers vetoes evers budget

Wisconsin Republicans Introduce Bill to Repeal Evers’ 400-Year Veto

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin state legislators have started circulating a bill to repeal Gov. Tony Evers’ 400-year school funding veto.

Evers’ veto in July 2023, which turned a temporary $325 per student K-12 funding increase – originally slated for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years – into a permanent increase through the year 2425, was recently upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April, The Center Square previously reported.

However, the court’s ruling suggested lawmakers could still draft legislation as a recourse to the governor’s partial veto, and Republicans are seeking to do just that.

“The pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock 402 years before this veto. It is hard to justify locking in a funding increase for just as long into the future,” the bill’s four co-authors said in a cosponsorship memo circulating at the state Capitol, WPR reported.

The bill would effectively reverse Evers’ 400-year veto, eliminating the $325 per pupil adjustment in the school district revenue limit formula beginning with the 2026-27 school year.

“One man locked in a tax-raising mechanism that no one voted for and no one approved,” the cosponsorship memo reads. “Evers’ move bypassed both the elected Legislature and the hard-working people who pay the bills.”

However, if the bill passes both chambers of the Legislature, it would ironically require Evers to not veto it in order to become law.

While the Senate had voted to override Evers’ original veto in September 2023, the Assembly never held a vote on the override, so the effort failed and the veto stood.

Will Flanders, the research director at Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, previously wrote, “The Governor is not a king, even if the state Supreme Court says he is. Given this increase, the legislature should fight hard against any further increases for public schools that are now set up for a boondoggle.”

Governor’s Veto Powers Wisconsin Republicans Parental Bill of Rights Outlaw Child Sex Dolls Embrace Them Both Unemployment Reforms Wisconsin’s Professional Licensing Bail Reform Amendment wisconsin covid-19

Wisconsin Cities, Counties Saw Drop in June Unemployment Rate

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin saw the June unemployment rate go down in 24 of the state’s largest 35 cities over the month while the rates lowered in 63 counties and stayed the same in eight more, according to new numbers from the state’s Department of Workforce Development.

Wisconsin’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went down to 3.2% in June, less than the 4.1% national rate.

Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate went down to 65.1% in June while the national rate decreased slightly to 62.3%.

Wisconsin saw 10 of its largest metropolitan areas show unemployment decreases while three of those areas remained the same. Twelve of the metropolitan areas saw unemployment decreases over the year while the rate in Sheboygan remained the same.

Menominee, meanwhile, was the only county that saw a month over month increase in unemployment rate while the rate increased in just four counties year over year.

Trump Expects Indictment White House Cocaine president trump covid-19

Tulsi Gabbard Releases New Intel Claiming FBI, CIA ‘Knowingly created’ Russia Hoax

Federal officials have released more documents indicating a Democratic-led intelligence community politically targeted President Donald Trump by claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin influenced the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a 2020 House Intelligence Committee report Wednesday that “exposes how the Obama Administration manufactured the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false.”

“The Russia Hoax was a lie that was knowingly created by the Obama Administration to undermine the legitimacy and power of the duly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump,” Gabbard posted on X.

Notably, the report found that the majority of the intelligence community’s judgements on Russia’s confirmed attempts to meddle with the 2016 election were “sound,” including its findings that Putin ordered “conventional and cyber influence operations” to undermine faith in the U.S. democratic process and the legitimacy of an expected Hillary Clinton presidency.

However, further judgments from the intelligence community alleging that Putin “developed a clear preference for candidate Trump” and “aspired to help his chances of victory” were not only false but also the result of apparent bad faith, the oversight investigation reveals.

To reach their conclusion that Putin had attempted to help Trump win, top intelligence officials cherry-picked inconclusive information that supported the narrative, omitted or suppressed information contradicting the narrative, and based their “high confidence” assumptions on untrustworthy and dishonest sources.

The report builds upon other documents that Gabbard declassified over the weekend showing that Obama, along with his senior advisors, reportedly pressured the intelligence community to contrive evidence that Russia intended to manipulate the vote count in Trump’s favor.

The Trump administration believes these efforts amounted to a “coup” meant to delegitimize the results of the 2016 election and cast doubts on Trump’s presidency.

Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., said Wednesday that the “Russia hoax will go down as one of the most troublesome events in U.S. history” that caused the country to become “more polarized than ever before.”

“A President of the United States was falsely accused, and a nation had to endure lies fabricated by rogue personnel within their own Intelligence Community,” Crawford said on X. “There are still Americans who passionately believe the fabricated narrative. That is why releasing this document to the public has been so important.”

eric toney

Eric Toney Named Wisconsin District Attorney of the Year for His ‘Pursuit of Justice for Victims’

The Wisconsin District Attorneys’ Association has named Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney the District Attorney of the Year for 2024, citing...
ron tusler

Governor Caught Playing Politics with Brillion Residents’ Lives & Livelihood [COLUMN]

This is a column by state Rep. Ron Tusler At 1:30 a.m., while most of Wisconsin was asleep, Governor Evers quietly vetoed a project that...
Brown Deer Police

Boy Invites Brown Deer Cops to His Lemonade Stand & Gets His Wish

A boy invited Brown Deer police over to his lemonade stand and got his wish! It's the heartwarming story of the day, and Brown Deer...
jerome powell

Fed Chair Candidates & New York’s Mayoral Race

Before we talk about the candidates for the Fed Chair position, let’s discuss for a moment the problem with Chair Powell’s current thinking. Right...

Q&A with Tommy Clark, Author of The 2020 Portland Riots: A Fight Against Domestic Terrorism

By Chris Mann Read part 1: Chris Mann's review of The 2020 Portland Riots: A Fight Against Domestic Terrorism by Tommy Clark. Tommy Clark and...

Protecting Portland: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished [REVIEW]

By Chris Mann An In-Depth Review of The 2020 Portland Riots: A Fight Against Domestic Terrorism by Tommy Clark. This summary is the second in...
Governor’s Veto Powers Wisconsin Republicans Parental Bill of Rights Outlaw Child Sex Dolls Embrace Them Both Unemployment Reforms Wisconsin’s Professional Licensing Bail Reform Amendment wisconsin covid-19

Conservative Wins in the Wisconsin State Budget Bill That Passed July 3

Wisconsin has a divided government, and, with a Democrat in the governor's mansion, conservatives were not going to get everything they wanted. However, there...

Shorewood Officer Shot; Glendale Pursues Suspect, Who Appears Dead

A Shorewood, Wisconsin, police officer was shot but saved by his bulletproof vest in the early morning hours of July 3. Several hours later, Glendale...
kendall corder

MPD Confirms Sad News That Officer Kendall Corder Has Died; Procession Unfolding

The Milwaukee Police Department has officially confirmed the tragic news that Officer Kendall Corder has died in the line of duty. Earlier in the day,...