Social Security Admin Canceled Maine Contracts As Political Revenge For Trump

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, obtained private emails that show the acting commissioner of Social Security purposely canceled contracts the Social Security Administration holds with the state of Maine as some sort of political payback against Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.

Connolly outlined the correspondence in a letter, which appears to have been originally obtained by HuffPost. The emails reportedly show that acting commissioner Leland Dudek asked Social Security staff to provide him with information on what contracts the state of Maine holds with the SSA. He made the request about one week after President Trump got into a public fight with Mills over his at the time new executive order banning trans women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.

Social Security staff reportedly told Dudek that Maine, like all states, has a contract with the Social Security Administration that allows infants to be assigned Social Security numbers at birth. The contract also aides in state death verifications.

Per HuffPost:

According to emails obtained by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Social Security staff informed Dudek that canceling the contracts “would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft.”

Dudek told his staff to go for it.

“Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child,” Dudek wrote, referring to Mills.

Canceling the vital records contracts would make it more difficult for the federal government to track births and deaths in Maine, hampering efforts to prevent fraud across government agencies, all of which use Social Security records to prevent improper payments.

Dudek, you may recall, was forced to restore the contracts less than a day later, following immediate pushback when Maine announced it couldn’t assign parents Social Security numbers for their newborns at hospitals in the state due to the cancelation. At the time he said it was unintentional.

Connolly called on Dudek to resign in a letter on Tuesday.

“The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration should serve the American people, not create waste, fraud, and abuse on the taxpayer’s dime,” Connolly wrote.

‘He Repels People’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) continued his feud with newly elected Rep. Randy Fine (R) on Wednesday, even after the Republican state senator won the special election for national security adviser Mike Waltz’s seat. DeSantis has been publicly going after Fine for weeks after it became clear that Fine was being significantly out-raised by his Democratic opponent in a district that DeSantis himself used to represent in Congress, and one that Trump won by 30 points in November.

The two’s feud apparently dates back to 2023, when DeSantis was still running against Trump for the Republican nomination. Fine initially endorsed DeSantis for president and then flipped for Trump.

“Just the way he conducts himself is somebody — he repels people,” DeSantis said of Fine on Wednesday. More from Politico.

Warnock: Booker Beat The Segregationist

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) gave the longest speech in the history of the U.S. Senate this week. The 25 hours and 5 minutes speech was in protest to the Trump administration and its relentlessly lawless actions.

On Wednesday, less than a day after the record breaking speech, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) reflected on what Booker’s protest meant to him in a discussion with reporters in the Senate basement.

Warnock detailed that while making history, Booker also created change. Now, the senator from Georgia said, when they ask about the longest speech that took place in this body, people won’t have to point to a segregationist who tried and failed to stop the Civil Rights Act. They will instead talk about Booker and his legacy.

“I prayed for his strength, both physically and spiritually,” Warnock said, reflecting on the more than a day-long speech. “I prayed that his words would be informed of godly wisdom and grace and that the nation would hear — not only his voice but sense the call to rise to the ideals of justice and compassion … to struggling people who are being crushed in this moment.”

When asked about how Democrats can build from this, Warnock said, “no one moment does all the work.”

“We have to keep building on that work,” he added. “But I’ll tell you that I looked around, talked to my colleagues and it put a fire under some folks, and people … just felt inspired.”

— Emine Yücel

Unanimous SCOTUS Sides With FDA Against Flavored Vapes

The Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, finding that the FDA legitimately rejected applications from flavored vape companies.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the unanimous majority, pointed out that these products, with flavors including “mother’s milk and cookies,” pose a specific risk to young people.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a concurrence pushing back on the implication that the agency had been inconsistent in its demands.

“In light of the statutory text and the well-documented and serious risks flavored e-cigarette products pose to youth, it should have come as no surprise that applicants would need to submit rigorous scientific evidence showing that the benefits of their products would outweigh those risks,” she wrote.

The case will head back to the 5th Circuit for further review.

— Kate Riga