The North Carolina Republican Party on Saturday came under fire for a Star Wars-themed post meant to celebrate the "May the Fourth" internet holiday and promote Donald Trump.

The official account of the North Carolina Republican Party on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted an image showing Trump holding a lightsaber. The text says, "May the Fourth Be With You," which is a play on the Star Wars line, "May the force be with you."

The problem, as social media users were quick to point out, is that the ex-president was shown with a red lightsaber. According to Vox, "Sith usually use red-hued" lightsabers, such as the one Darth Vader wields.

National security attorney Bradley Moss wondered if the state GOP outpost was ignorant.

"You gave him... a red lightsaber? Do you know anything?" he asked Saturday.

Democrat Harry Sisson said, "You know the dudes who have the red lightsabers are the bad guys, right? Didn’t watch the movie I guess?"

@Venti__Poet chimed in in response to the post, "At least you know he is on the dark side."

@cj_bria said, "So, he’s a Sith Lord? Sounds about right!"

In context, the Fox host wasn’t suggesting that GOP lawmakers end pointless partisan probes; Bartiromo was instead suggesting that Jordan and his partisan allies start launching more productive partisan probes.

The far-right congressman understood the message — and acted accordingly. The conservative Washington Times reported:

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan accused the Justice Department of coordinating with New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a “politicized” prosecution of former President Donald Trump. Mr. Jordan demanded in a letter recently to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland that Mr. Garland hand over documents and information about Matthew Colangelo, a former senior Justice Department official who now is a lead prosecutor for Mr. Bragg in the Trump hush money case.

Chances are, most of the public has never heard of Matthew Colangelo, though your weird uncle who consumes conservative media all day is very likely aware of him.

As we discussed a couple of years ago, Colangelo served as a former senior Justice Department official with a long history of taking on Donald Trump, including having led the investigation that led to the shutdown of Trump’s fraudulent charitable foundation. When he joined district attorney Alvin Bragg’s team in 2022, it was evidence of an intensifying investigation into the former president’s alleged crimes.....

Days later, Jordan demanded that the attorney general provide his panel with evidence related to the Colangelo conspiracy theory — at which point Bannon was pleased by the “start.”

When Jordan took over as chair of the Judiciary Committee, it stood to reason that far-right voices would help call the shots. I didn’t realize, however, just how easily he'd be bullied into submission.

Many of you probably remember standing in line to get your sugar cube with the polio vaccine on it. I sure do. I also remember have the measles, mumps and chickenpox back in the days before we had vaccines for them. How fortunate we are to have brilliant doctors and scientists who successfully created vaccines that have almost totally eradicated these diseases and many more.
The Republicans and RFK Jr want to make vaccines optional in our schools. Are you okay with bringing diseases we no longer have to suffer with back to our children? I am not! This kind of nonsense will put our children at risk and could start epidemics again. Please for the health and safety of all of us, don’t let the Republicans roll us backwards. They are proving that they don’t care about human being after they are out of the womb. No, vaccines do not cause autism.
And remember that Trump called COVID a hoax while thousands of people died from it. Don’t put dangerous people in the WH.

But as the political world digests the latest instance of a sitting member of Congress getting indicted, it’s also worth pausing to reflect on the bigger picture.

As things currently stand, the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, is:

prosecuting President Joe Biden’s son;

prosecuting an incumbent Democratic senator, New Jersey’s Bob Menendez, during his re-election bid;

prosecuting an incumbent Democratic congressman, Texas’ Cuellar, during his re-election bid;
investigating an incumbent Democratic congresswoman, Missouri’s Cori Bush, during her re-election bid.

For good measure, it’s probably worth mentioning that the Justice Department also appears to be investigating Eric Adams, the high-profile Democratic mayor of New York City.

And yet, despite these developments, one of the animating concepts in contemporary Republican politics is that rascally Democrats have “weaponized” federal law enforcement to punish GOP figures and shield Democrats from accountability. The Justice Department and the FBI, leading Republican voices insist, are little more than political tools for the Biden White House and its fiendish allies......

Indeed, if Biden and his team were trying to weaponize federal law enforcement to benefit Democrats, they’ve proved themselves to be incredibly bad at it.

In advance of the 2018 elections, Donald Trump complained bitterly about federal law enforcement charging two of his congressional allies, and the then-president whined about the Justice Department undermining the Republican Party’s electoral plans.

Six years later, federal law enforcement is prosecuting two Democratic members of Congress, potentially undermine their party’s electoral plans, and Biden is taking a responsible, hands-off approach.