In case you missed it, Tuesday night, the Democratic congressional candidate, Aftyn Benn, for TN-7 lost, but, importantly, she overperformed in a heavily Republican district, in what appears to be a thirteen point swing from the 2024 Trump margin of victory in the district. As you might imagine, the Trump White House and Republican leaders are soberly reviewing their current policies to understand how to better reach the American electorate.

HAH! WE MAKE THE FUNNY! Yesterday, Trump did this instead (boldface mine):

President Trump announced Wednesday that he is pardoning Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who was indicted last year on more than a dozen federal charges related to bribery allegations.

Mr. Trump announced the pardon for Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, on Truth Social, claiming their prosecution was the result of weaponization by the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden.

“Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!” the president wrote, alleging that Cuellar’s opposition to Biden’s immigration policies was the reason he was indicted.

The president wrote that the Texas Democrat “bravely spoke out against Open Borders and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe'” and accused Biden of deliberately targeting the congressman and his wife “simply for speaking the TRUTH.”

Keep in mind, the bribery investigation began during the Biden administration.

This is a preemptive pardon, as Cuellar has been indicted, but not convicted. Clearly, Trump is terrified of Democrats retaking the House and is so desperate, he is de facto bribing Cuellar (who is a bad Democrat; there was a good challenger–guess which one the party leadership backed!). Every vote might count, so having a Democrat who might take a dive on things like corruption is a boon for Trump.

It’s worth noting that, in the Federalist Papers, the authors who opposed a presidential pardon power anticipated that a corrupt president would use the pardon power to gain political favor. Seems even enslavers got things right once in a while…

In fairness to Cuellar, NOTUS reports:

NRCC Chair Richard Hudson told NOTUS that the pardon “surprised” him. He learned about it like the rest of us: online. “He’s definitely a more formidable opponent without the legal cloud hanging over him,” Hudson said of Cuellar.

Whoops! A Republican strategist close to the White House told Jasmine that some inside the Office of Legislative Affairs believed Cuellar was open to switching parties. When the strategist learned that Cuellar had filed to run for reelection as a Democrat, they responded, “Wow.”

It remains to be seen if Cuellar believes he owes Trump anything (a downside of bailing out shitty people is they often don’t return the favor…).