The Dispatch

Twenty-five years later, and Donald Trump is still lying about September 11th. This week, standing in front of actual 9/11 first responders, Trump claimed firefighters had to drag him out from under a collapsing building — and that he "worked long and hard" at Ground Zero. Neither happened. There's no evidence, no witnesses, no records — just another new version of a story he's been changing for over two decades.
Michelle Kinney and Mayday Military Analyst Lt. Col. Jaclyn Urso (Ret.) will go through the receipts. Michelle has called New York City home for 22 of the last 25 years, lived downtown during the 00s, and watched this city carry that day ever since. Lt. Col. Urso (Ret.) joined the Marine Corps because of the events of September 11.
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Senator John Fetterman showed up in a prerecorded video to cheer on Donald Trump's first-ever midterm convention, praising Senator Dave McCormick and claiming credit for saving Pennsylvania steel jobs — a claim the numbers don't really back up. Julie Roginsky and Michelle Kinney dig into how Fetterman hoodwinked the Democrats who elected him, why he's doing this now, and whether there's something bigger at play — including the growing speculation that he's laying the groundwork to leave the party altogether.
00:00 – Cold open00:10 – Show open: tonight's topics, Fetterman at the RNC00:35 – Internet provider update01:07 – Julie's confession: a drink on air01:36 – Julie's day off, family stuff02:06 – Julie's Tom Llamas story at NBC03:14 – The teaser: "breaking news, John Fetterman"03:46 – Fetterman's "Trump brought back steel" claim04:12 – Bethlehem, PA and the Billy Joel "Allentown" story04:56 – Bethlehem Steel's history05:44 – "I'll tell you what's not there — the steel industry"06:07 – What Bethlehem actually became: healthcare, not steel07:58 – "John Fetterman is full of shit"08:22 – Watching Fetterman's RNC video09:43 – Why Republicans want Fetterman to stay a Democrat10:52 – "J.D. Vance, the laziest man in America"11:12 – Fetterman's own "51st vote" pledge, read aloud11:27 – The Conor Lamb promise: not a Manchin, not a Sinema13:22 – The cosplay problem, not the hoodie13:34 – "I never supported John Fetterman"15:12 – Michelle's receipts: Carl Fetterman's insurance business, the $1 loft16:31 – The health timeline: stroke, Walter Reed, the Jentleson letter17:23 – Going public, staff fallout, the WSJ report18:18 – "Not a fan" — Julie's take19:43 – The Shapiro VP story: "not a team player"20:56 – Dave McCormick, Goldman Sachs, and actual "team players"22:49 – Will Fetterman really leave the party?23:24 – Rep. Madeleine Dean's statement, played in full25:09 – Reacting to Dean: "livid" constituents26:19 – The polling: underwater with his own party27:04 – Could Fetterman actually win as a Republican?27:37 – The Jeff Van Drew comparison29:00 – Arlen Specter, the last defector who lost29:33 – The squash center story31:06 – Convention background: Don Jr., RFK Jr.31:56 – What makes this convention historically unusual32:44 – Empty seats, low viewership33:09 – Grindr crashes at the RNC33:44 – The tarmac blow-up slide incident34:19 – Trump vs. the ABC reporter35:33 – Strom Thurmond stories from the Senate37:01 – Jesse Helms and the "little scooters"37:41 – Charlie Kirk's one-year anniversary38:05 – "Nice is different than good": Mitch McConnell39:55 – The "funniest guy in the world" bit — and why it doesn't matter40:24 – George Bush, Al Gore, and sliding doors of history42:18 – Preview: tomorrow's 9/11 programming43:37 – Tim Scott's WWE-style RNC speech45:09 – Anna Paulina Luna and the HUD secretary46:46 – "Do you ever stop and think what's going on?"47:19 – The AG's hypocrisy on political violence49:29 – Natalie Harp's $45,000 bonus50:07 – Trump's closing speech: renaming the Strait of Hormuz51:15 – "New America," Lake Ontario, and the AP's pushback52:08 – Trump's obsession with Ken Paxton's clothes52:53 – "Trump might be gay" — the Grindr bit53:23 – Hasan Piker's thirst-trap moment on the big screen54:57 – The Matt and Mercy Schlapp block story56:36 – The $5,000 "dividend" promise, explained58:16 – Bret Baier presses J.D. Vance on the math59:56 – Vance's tariff word salad1:01:03 – Gas prices, food recalls, and economic reality1:02:52 – Alaska's $26-a-gallon gas1:03:38 – Old Fox Business bets, still unpaid1:07:15 – Maria Bartiromo: "nice is different than good"1:07:33 – Sign-off
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Trump signed an executive order today renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" — because apparently that was the crisis America needed solved. Meanwhile, people can't afford gas, electricity, or groceries, World War 3 feels like it's on the brink, and an Oregon Trail-worthy lineup of old-timey diseases is making a comeback. Priorities. Michelle grew up on that lake, so this one's personal, and she's joined by Lt. Col. Jaclyn Urso, Ret. to break down just how dumb, and how telling, this all is.
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Also streaming now: The Illegals — The Americans Rewatch Podcast. Watch with our expert panel here: 🎬 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgsO7fbBme9Hjq7PBtjcdbI34Z9cbRU2

Julie Roginsky and Michelle Kinney unpack the Trump family's billions from Saudi Arabia and the nuclear deal quietly attached to it, letting the kingdom enrich uranium with two secret side letters Congress can't see. Then it's the infighting tearing at the Democratic Party from the inside, before Julie and Michelle wind down with Vegas plans, The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere, and a call for the best celebrity-encounter stories ahead of their next Substack AMA.
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Senator Jon Ossoff was cool as a cucumber. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth… was not. As 2028 presidential chatter builds around Ossoff, he calmly dismantled Hegseth on Iran while the Defense Secretary, visibly sweating through his orange makeup, could not answer any of the questions put in front of him. Calm, collected, and devastatingly (handsome!) effective — this is what command looks like next to what doesn’t. We will break down the humiliating moment for Julie’s former coworker. Follow The Mayday Network for more reporting, analysis, and rapid response — new content every day.
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Also streaming now: The Illegals — The Americans Rewatch Podcast. Watch with our expert panel here: 🎬 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgsO7fbBme9Hjq7PBtjcdbI34Z9cbRU2

Trump Declares "Election Was Stolen" — We Fact-Checked Him LIVE ABC, NBC, and CNN all refused to air Donald Trump's primetime address tonight. We didn't look away — we fact-checked him in real time, line by line, while he did it.
Trump used the speech to "declassify" intelligence he claims proves China stole the 2020 election for Biden — despite the actual intelligence community assessment showing no evidence any foreign power altered a single vote, and despite Trump himself calling Xi Jinping "a great leader" and "a friend" as recently as last month.
We break down what the documents actually say, why he's really doing this (hint: the SAVE America Act, a bill that would make it dramatically harder for women, young voters, and voters of color to register), and why he's using "treason" accusations as cover to strip ABC and NBC of their broadcast licenses. We also get into: the FBI files on Michigan voter registration fraud he conveniently left out of context, the DHS non-citizen voter claims, John Ratcliffe's awkward position as both the CIA director now and the DNI he's accusing of a "cover-up" then, and why Trump's own approval ratings — not foreign interference — are what's actually going to sink Republicans this November.
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Also streaming now: The Illegals — The Americans Rewatch Podcast. Watch with our expert panel here: 🎬 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgsO7fbBme9Hjq7PBtjcdbI34Z9cbRU2

January 6 never ended. Trump is scheduled to address (see: lie to) the nation Thursday evening at 9PM ET. Julie and Michelle break down reports of White House plan to provide false evidence to “prove” the 2020 election was “rigged.”
 
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Also streaming now: The Illegals — The Americans Rewatch Podcast. Watch with our expert panel here:🎬 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgsO7fbBme9Hjq7PBtjcdbI34Z9cbRU2

Julie Roginsky, Michelle Kinney, and Dana DuBois hop on an impromptu live to talk through why the allegations against Senate candidate Graham Platner have been such a gut punch — not just because of what he's accused of, but because of who rushed to defend him.
Recorded live Wednesday July 8, 2026
The conversation centers on Lindsey Fifield, a Republican former girlfriend of Platner's, who told the Washington Post he repeatedly removed his condom without her consent, an act legally recognized in some states as sexual assault and known as "stealthing." They unpack why her account was dismissed by some as politically motivated, why Mika Brzezinski's on-air questioning of the claims felt like such a betrayal, and why progressive leaders like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Ro Khanna were so slow to act. Dana shares her own essay on stealthing and the years it can take to name what happened to you. Julie shares what it was like returning to Fox News the day after filing her lawsuit against Roger Ailes.
They also introduce DARVO — Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender — the pattern used again and again to discredit women, from Anita Hill to Christine Blasey Ford to now.
Not a happy episode. But an important one.
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Also streaming now: The Illegals — The Americans Rewatch Podcast. Watch with our expert panel here:🎬 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgsO7fbBme9Hjq7PBtjcdbI34Z9cbRU2
 
 
 
 

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990 with support from both parties. Thirty-five years later, it's under direct attack. Julie talks with disabled veteran and advocate Nick Paro about a DOJ memo issued June 18, 2025 that threatens to unravel the 1999 Olmstead decision — the ruling that ended forced institutionalization and protects disabled Americans' right to live and receive care in their communities.
Recorded live Wednesday July 8, 2026
Nick lays out "Crip Crow" — a term drawn from the Black disability community evoking Jim Crow-era segregation — and the organizing effort he's leading with Naida Green and the Disability Community for Democracy to stop it. The conversation ranges from America's long history of labeling dissent as mental illness, to the veteran suicide crisis and Nick's own experience seeking PTSD treatment, to the stigma that still surrounds mental health care, to why criminalizing homelessness only deepens the crisis.
This one hits close to home for a huge share of the country: disability, broadly defined, touches more than half of Americans directly or through someone they love.
Follow The Mayday Network for more reporting, analysis, and rapid response — new content every day.🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/the-mayday-network/id6754000270📰 Substack: https://substack.com/@themaydaynetwork🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaydayNetwork📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheMaydayNetwork🧵 Threads: https://www.threads.net/@TheMaydayNetwork🦋 Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/themaydaynetwork.com🌐 Website: https://www.themaydaynetwork.com
Also streaming now: The Illegals — The Americans Rewatch Podcast. Watch with our expert panel here:🎬 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgsO7fbBme9Hjq7PBtjcdbI34Z9cbRU2

Graham Platner "dropped out" of the Maine Senate race exactly like he ran his campaign: dishonest, selfish, blaming everyone but himself. Julie and Michelle unpack his self-pitying withdrawal video — full of vague grievances about unnamed forces "doing this to him" — (who tf is "they"?!) and why he refused to center it on Susan Collins, the woman he was supposedly running to beat. 
Recorded live Wednesday July 8, 2026
They walk through how Platner got here in the first place: recruited by DSA-aligned operatives who wanted a "white working-class hero" to run against establishment Democrats, and defended by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ro Khanna long after his history of racist, misogynist, and antisemitic posts came to light. Julie argues this was never really about defeating Susan Collins — it was about a bid for control of the Senate Democratic caucus.
They also get into why the actual backbone of the Democratic Party — Black women, Latino voters, and a Jewish community that's rapidly souring on the party — keeps getting ignored in favor of chasing a mythical disaffected white male voter, and why AIPAC discourse plays well with the chronically online but has nothing to do with what voters in Lewiston or Augusta actually care about.
Follow The Mayday Network for more reporting, analysis, and rapid response — new content every day.🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/the-mayday-network/id6754000270📰 Substack: https://substack.com/@themaydaynetwork🐦 X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaydayNetwork📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheMaydayNetwork🧵 Threads: https://www.threads.net/@TheMaydayNetwork🦋 Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/themaydaynetwork.com🌐 Website: https://www.themaydaynetwork.com
Also streaming now: The Illegals — The Americans Rewatch Podcast. Watch with our expert panel here:🎬 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgsO7fbBme9Hjq7PBtjcdbI34Z9cbRU2