Systemic Error Podcast

What happened Hundreds of residents and University of South Alabama students protested President Donald Trump’s Friday appearance at the school’s Mitchell Center, according to AlterNet’s account of AL.com reporting. The protest challenged both Trump and the university’s decision to welcome him; supporters and demonstrators traded angry shouts as protesters marched across campus. The headline’s “co...

What happened RawStory reports that a late-September and early-October 2026 New York Times/Siena poll put Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa four points ahead of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott had led by six points in June, making Texas the largest of several Democratic shifts across five Republican-leaning states. The same comparison showed Democrats improving in Alaska’s Senate race, Iowa’s gub...

What happened RawStory reports that the Supreme Court was set to hear a petition by Suncor and ExxonMobil seeking to stop Colorado state-law claims brought by Boulder County and the City of Boulder. The local governments sued in 2018, seeking compensation for climate-related damage; in May 2025, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that federal law did not preempt their claims. According to the report...

What happened RawStory reports that Federal Election Commission staff sent three letters to U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt’s campaign committee seeking corrections or explanations for apparent campaign-finance reporting problems. Thirteen out-of-state donors appeared nearly 5,700 times in Schmitt’s reports, producing a net $85,672 in contributions; reported totals for each donor ranged from just over the...

What happened RawStory argues that Republicans may be damaging their own midterm prospects, but it provides no evidence of a coordinated plot to lose. Its case rests on two reported decisions shortly before the elections: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley called former special counsel Jack Smith to testify, reviving attention to January 6, while the Trump administration canceled a...

What happened RawStory reports that MS NOW host Jen Psaki argued Donald Trump’s support was fading because his Friday rally in Mobile, Alabama, appeared to leave more than half of a 10,000-seat venue empty. Psaki called the turnout a visual sign of political decline and contrasted it with Trump’s much larger rally in Mobile during his 2015 campaign. The article provides no official attendance figu...

What happened RawStory reports that former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones said President Donald Trump’s rally in deep-red Alabama was not primarily about the midterms. Jones argued that its timing—on the day of a major bridge project’s groundbreaking—showed Trump was campaigning to have the bridge named after him. Jones, now the Democratic nominee for Alabama governor, told Jen Psaki that Trump had “virt...

What happened RawStory reports that biographer Michael Wolff alleged Donald Trump’s team threatened unspecified action against the University of Pennsylvania during the 2016 presidential campaign if it did not keep Trump’s academic transcripts private. Wolff made the claim on a Saturday episode of his podcast, but the article supplies no response from Trump’s representatives or the university and...

What happened At a Thursday rally in Durant, Oklahoma, President Donald Trump called White House communications adviser Margo Martin onto the stage, praised the 31-year-old aide as “beautiful” and attributed her appearance to her parents through what he called the “racehorse theory,” according to RawStory. Another aide, Natalie Harp, was also present. Daily Beast podcasters framed the moment again...

What happened RawStory reports that President Donald Trump attacked Sen. Tom Cotton after the Arkansas Republican refused to support the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent. Cotton reaffirmed his opposition Saturday after Trump had singled him out Friday. Trump then used a 369-word Truth Social post to mock Cotton’s electoral standing, accuse him of ego, and de...

What happened The supplied AlterNet text does not establish that any member of Congress supplemented a $174,000 salary with public money. Beyond the headline, it provides no reported transaction, payment, program, date, location, evidence, or response. The body consists only of disconnected names and phrases. It does not identify the congressman teased by the headline, explain what “on your dime”...

What happened RawStory reports that President Donald Trump promised “nearly $100” checks to more than 20 million seniors to help cover Medicare Part B premiums. The Friday-night announcement provoked backlash from some Trump supporters on Truth Social, who called the amount inadequate, insulting, or a political bribe. Trump also tied a proposed $5,000-per-citizen “Trump Dividend” to Republicans wi...

What happened RawStory, citing a New York Times report based on 12 people familiar with the matter, says President Donald Trump personally directed Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to find government money for television ads featuring and praising Trump. On September 19, OMB transferred $20 million in Customs and Border Protection funds into a category labeled “One Big Beautifu...

What happened RawStory reports that Nevada Republican congressional candidate David Flippo blamed unnamed campaign staffers for falsely claiming he earned a Bronze Star with a valor distinction—an honor he acknowledges he did not receive. That explanation was undermined by photographs, cited from Mother Jones, showing Flippo wearing a cap marked with V-shaped symbols associated with combat-valor c...

What happened RawStory reports that a Republican super PAC aired a 30-second ad featuring Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, the estranged wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as he campaigns against James Talarico for a Senate seat. The ad, funded by an affiliate of Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s Senate Leadership Fund, asks voters to support the Republican ticket without naming Ken Paxto...

What happened RawStory reports that voting-rights journalist Ari Berman believes the likeliest opportunity for Trump administration interference in the midterm elections would come after voting ends, during ballot counting and certification, when close margins could make targeted federal action more consequential. Appearing on the debut episode of the “Stress Test” podcast, Berman said the Justice...

What happened According to RawStory, Wesley Britt ended a posting silence dating to August 2023 after a reaction shot of his wife, Republican Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, became a meme. He captioned the image as her watching him sleepwalk and eat leftovers; she reposted it with “Nailed it.” The image came from a Tuesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt accused former s...

What happened AlterNet reports that Republicans face unexpectedly weak Senate prospects in five Republican-leaning states. Citing New York Times/Siena polling, it says Donald Trump’s approval across those states stood at 40 percent, with 57 percent viewing him unfavorably—a five-point decline since comparable June polling in four of them. The Times attributed the broader deterioration partly to ri...

What happened AlterNet reports that the Trump administration placed personality-driven videos praising Donald Trump on national television, including Fox News and CBS. One video pairs repeated images of Trump with the refrain “Love me”; another revives a 2024 campaign message promising a “final battle” against political enemies. CNN reportedly said Trump helped select the material himself. Citing...

What happened RawStory reports that Vice President JD Vance and Sen. Ted Cruz publicly accused each other of positioning for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. After Vance told NBC News that Cruz was “obviously” already running, Cruz told Politico on Saturday that political attacks often come from people who feel “insecure.” Both men claimed their immediate priority was electing Republic...

What happened RawStory reports that Donald Trump’s Justice Department is reviewing claims that Watergate prosecutors committed misconduct, though the department told The Wall Street Journal that no formal investigation is underway. The review followed a two-hour Justice Department presentation by former Nixon aide Geoff Shepard, who alleged that special prosecutors secretly met with judges and wit...

What happened AlterNet reports that a Senate hearing intended to discredit former special counsel Jack Smith instead exposed Republican senators’ factual sloppiness and fixation on defending Donald Trump. Senator Eric Schmitt accused Smith of lying about attending an Atlanta Hawks game in February 2024, but the messages Schmitt displayed reportedly placed Smith in College Park, Maryland, for an Io...

What happened AlterNet, citing Adrian Carrasquillo’s reporting for The Bulwark, says intensified federal immigration enforcement has emptied restaurants and damaged commerce in Doral, Florida, a heavily Venezuelan community that Donald Trump carried by 23 points in the 2024 election. A worker at El Arepazo estimated business was down 80 percent. The owner of Central Park Food Station reported a 40...

What happened Former South Carolina congressman Bakari Sellers laughed at Republican commentator Scott Jennings on CNN after Jennings blamed weak job growth and declining consumer sentiment largely on economic conditions President Donald Trump inherited from former President Joe Biden. Jennings argued that inflation had mostly normalized but that earlier price increases still shaped voters’ percep...

What happened AlterNet reports that AL.com fact-checked remarks President Donald Trump made Friday night in Mobile, Alabama, and found numerous claims false, exaggerated, contradictory, or unsupported. Among them, Trump linked an Interstate 10 bridge groundbreaking to “$3 billion” in administration funding, although AL.com reported that no single grant or appropriation of that size existed. The pr...