In Rough Edges, Mike Rothschild writes about fringe groups, conspiracy theories and how the Internet broke our brains. This column is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.

With a potential midterm wipeout just three months away, Republicans have been recycling past conspiracy theories to an epic extent, mining the greatest hits of a decade of paranoid plots both to please the president and to invoke memories of the “good old days.” 

From the Senate’s contentious hearings that saw Dr. Anthony Fauci grilled with lockdown-era conspiracy theories to President Trump’s continued evocation that the 2020 election was stolen, Republicans are both replaying the past and actively rewriting it, trying to distract their voters from current crises and rally them around Trump’s brand one last time.

It’s impossible to look at the run-up to the 2026 midterms without examining the repackaging and reuse of the conspiracy theories that got us here. The midterms might be the last chance we see some of them used with any real efficacy, and nobody is missing their shot.

Mitch McConnell announced that he was being discharged from the hospital on Thursday, saying that he would “continue his recovery at home.”

“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,” the Kentucky senator shared in a statement.

McConnell was hospitalized in mid-June after being found unconscious in his D.C. home. The lack of information about the senior Republican’s condition, and a dearth of evidence that the 84-year-old was responsive, led commentators in both conservative and progressive spheres to speculate that he was much worse off than was being reported. The statement on Thursday revived those theories, as many wondered why there were no photos of McConnell leaving the rehabilitation center.

“It’s strange. No photos of Mitch McConnell leaving the rehab center,” wrote activist Charlotte Clymer on X. “Just a statement and reporters giving a quick salute.”

MAGA commentator Eric Spracklen called Mitch’s statement “suspicious” and wondered why TMZ’s D.C. bureau wasn’t waiting for McConnell outside of the hospital.

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Author and prolific poster Joyce Carol-Oates questioned whether McConnell was involved in the statement at all. 

“Did McConnell literally SAY these words publicly or is this a press release written by someone else?” she wrote. “No wonder rumors & disinformation spread here like black mold.”

McConnell plans to retire at the end of the year. Since his health scare, he has been facing pressure from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to resign early if he can not prove that he’s fit to serve out the remainder of his term.  

The post “Suspicious”: McConnell hospital discharge revives conspiracy theories appeared first on Salon.com.

In the wake of now-Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow victory over the Democratic establishment-backed candidate Rep. Haley Stevens in Tuesday’s primary, President Trump is back to his old ways, giving a platform to MAGA conspiracy theories about how Detroit runs its elections.

‘Working Very Hard to Protect Them’

The Trump administration has been salivating for something — anything! — that could help feed President Trump’s belief in the myth that noncitizens are illegally voting en masse for Democrats. The unfortunate situation in New Jersey this week, involving a software error at the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission during Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, sadly gives them at least one datapoint rooted in reality to point to to justify Trump’s singular fixation with the otherwise widespread conspiracy theory. And perhaps also offers a new rationale for his attempts to try to jam a voter suppression/documentary proof of citizenship bill through Congress to throw the midterms — and hope of Dems taking back power — into chaos.

His Justice Department was never not going to seize on the moment, especially as the DOJ faces loss after loss after loss in its crusade to try to force states to give their voter rolls to the federal government, supposedly for the purpose of purging noncitizens from the rolls, something that states already do themselves and an occurrence that is vanishingly rare, even in light of the news from New Jersey this week.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) announced Tuesday that her administration had found that a software glitch at the MVC had allowed 6,600 noncitizens to be added to the New Jersey voter rolls. About 400 of them have voted in at least one election since 2023. Sherrill said the people had disclosed they were noncitizens while trying to get a license or ID and were mistakenly registered to vote. The people were removed from the voter rolls, likely had no impact on overall election results in the state, and the state is cutting ties with the software company behind the error. Sherrill placed blame for the issue on her predecessor and said her administration was “working very hard to protect” the people who were placed on the rolls through no fault of their own.

Nonetheless, and of course, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, and Trump’s former personal lawyer, Harmeet Dhillon sent a letter to Sherrill on Tuesday demanding that she hand over the identities of the 6,600 noncitizens who were placed on the voter rolls within five business days. She requested the names, nationalities and residential addresses for each of them, Politico reported.

Dhillon reportedly said that she was interested in the information as part of a DOJ investigation into whether New Jersey was following federal law, but she has since hinted publicly that the DOJ might want to make a big show of deporting or bringing criminal charges against the noncitizens on the rolls.

“The consequences of voting when you’re not allowed to in a federal election can mean removal to your home country and worse — it’s a crime,” Dhillon said during a conversation with far-right influencer Benny Johnson Wednesday. “And you know people need to just stop cold in their tracks and not enable it. And shame on New Jersey for its sloppy and incompetent handling of this issue, or worse.”

Additionally, the DOJ is trying to use the incident to bolster its genuinely unbelievably disastrous campaign to seize voter records from states ahead of the midterms. The DOJ has lost every single case that has made its way through court thus far after suing 44 states and Washington, D.C. to try to obtain these records. In fact, in dismissing the lawsuits, every judge has shot down the DOJ’s legal theory, as TPM has reported. Per Politico:

Separately, the DOJ is also using the disclosure of noncitizen voters to bolster its case in court to obtain New Jersey’s unredacted voter registration files. The Trump administration is suing New Jersey, seeking access to the state’s full voter file which includes nonpublic information like the drivers license ID numbers and partial Social Security numbers of New Jersey voters.

Seems Like Thune’s the One Whose ‘Patience Is Running Out’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) got testy when presented with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s recent remarks — that President Trump’s “patience is running out” with Senate Republicans, who both don’t have the votes to pass the SAVE Act or the interest in nuking the filibuster in order to jam through Trump’s voter suppression bill ahead of the midterms.

“Maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes. Right? It’s 50 around here,” Thune said, when reporters asked him about Leavitt’s remarks.

“Instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats,” he continued. “And if there are Republicans they think are gettable, get on the phone.”

Obviously, Thune is one of the few roadblocks standing in the way of Trump having his delusions fulfilled by fall, but it’s not just Thune and Senate GOP leadership’s disinterest in changing filibuster rules for the sake of disenfranchisement. There are several other Senate Republicans who are not on board with the legislation, one of whom has been very vocal about the fact that it would be impossible to implement Trump’s documentary proof of citizenship and voter ID laws just months out from a major federal election.

Even Fox News Poll Finds Trump’s Approval Rating Won’t Stop Tanking

New stats from a new Fox News poll conducted between July 17-20:

Several findings in the latest Fox News Poll show voters are unhappy and want major change, which bodes well for Democrats in November: President Donald Trump’s job approval remains near a record low, more Democrats are motivated to vote, Republicans join Democrats and independents in rating the economy negatively, and 4 in 10 voters want “dramatic” or “revolutionary” change. Plus, more view the GOP as tied to elites than the Democratic Party.

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In this week’s edition of The Franchise, Khaya Himmelman digs in on election denier wins in Arizona’s Republican primaries this week and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin escalating the admin’s threats against state election officials: Election Deniers’ Grip on the Republican Party Strengthens in Arizona

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