Two Democratic representatives on Thursday called for independent investigations into television ads funded by taxpayer money featuring US President Donald Trump, shortly before the congressional elections scheduled for November.
Representatives Jamie Raskin, the Democratic leader on the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative George Whitesides asked the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Special Counsel to determine whether the use of government funds was illegal.
Democratic lawmakers said earlier this week that the White House had diverted $20 million in Department of Homeland Security funds to air these ads, including one that closely resembled an ad for Trump's 2024 campaign.
Experts in government ethics and lawmakers from both parties criticized the three ads, which were broadcast nationwide and celebrated a “golden age for America” and were shown five weeks before the midterm elections.
“These ads constitute an illegal use of taxpayer dollars,” Raskin and Whitesides wrote in a letter seen by Reuters, describing the ads as “desperate pre-election propaganda.” Perhaps the best evidence of this is that they are almost identical to those used by Donald Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign, and in fact use the same footage and the same inappropriate messages.”
Trump defended the ads on Wednesday.
“I am not running for office,” he said. If anyone says it's a mistake, I'll gladly pay the money back. But these are advertisements for the country... I am not promoting a candidate. “And I’m not promoting myself, because I’m not running for office.”
Lawmakers have questioned whether public funds are being used to promote Trump politically, while other critics say the ads may violate long-standing restrictions on government advertising and political activity.
Public Citizen filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, saying the ads should not be produced or distributed with taxpayer resources.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican appointed by Trump, said on Wednesday that the ads were appropriate.
In one ad, Trump appears saying that “America will never become a communist country,” while a chorus repeats the words “Love me.” Another ad combines images of Mount Rushmore with footage of Trump praising “a golden age for America.”
A third ad describes the “final battle” against the “deep state,” and closely resembles one of Trump’s 2024 campaign ads.
The ads end with a statement explaining that they are paid for by the US government.
A helicopter designated for medical evacuations crashed off the coast of Los Angeles in the US state of California on Wednesday, killing two people, injuring two others, and leaving a fifth missing, according to what local authorities and American media reported.
Los Angeles County official Janice Hahn said, “A helicopter designated for medical evacuations crashed shortly after taking off from Catalina Island,” according to what was reported by “Agence France-Presse.”
Han continued, in a post on the “X” platform: “Search and rescue operations are continuing. My prayers are with everyone on board.”
Santa Catalina Island, a tourist destination, is located off the southern coast of California, about 35 kilometers from the area that includes the Port of Los Angeles.
Jonathan Torres, an engineer with the county's fire department, told the local KTLA television channel that the fire department and other local authorities "responded to a report about the downing of a helicopter that had left Catalina Island and was heading toward land," at approximately 19:53 (02:53 GMT) Thursday.
He added: “Four out of five people on board were found, while one person is still missing. Two people were transferred to local hospitals, and their condition is stable, while two people were confirmed dead at the scene of the accident,” stressing that search operations are continuing.
REACH Air Medical Services told local news station KABC that the helicopter belonged to it.
In October 2025, a medical evacuation helicopter belonging to the same company crashed on a California highway, seriously injuring its three passengers, including a woman who was later declared dead from her injuries.
In a shocking dramatic turn that changed the balance of the most controversial case in the United States of America, American prisoner Christa Gayle Pike (50 years old) was transferred to the hospital, today (Thursday), following the “failure” of the authorities in the American state of Tennessee to implement the death sentence issued against her.
The fortified glass room in the high-security Riverbend prison in Nashville witnessed harsh scenes that took the breath away of those present, as eyewitnesses who witnessed the critical moments reported that Pike continued to breathe, snore, and tremble clearly even after she was injected with two full doses of lethal substances, which forced the doctors and supervisors to suddenly stop the operation and transfer her under heavy guard to intensive care.
A nightmare in the glass room... and the shock of witnesses
This rare incident wide-opened the file of “execution protocols followed” in the American states, as Pike’s defense team described, in an urgent statement, what happened as “brutal torture and a miserable failure of the penal system in the state.”
According to preliminary reports from the execution hall, the medical team faced extreme difficulties in dealing with the prisoner’s veins, something that the lawyers had previously warned about in their constitutional appeals, given that she suffered from blood disorders and narrowing of the vessels.
Witnesses confirmed that Pike's vital signs did not stop after the first dose, but rather entered a state of violent physical disorder and successive, audible breathing after the second dose, which made the judicial and humanitarian position inside the room unsustainable.
A renewed constitutional battle over “harsh punishment”
This medical and legal failure opens the door to a massive legal battle before the federal courts and the US Supreme Court, as Pike’s lawyers are expected to argue that attempting to execute her again would constitute a flagrant violation of the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, which strictly prohibits the imposition of “cruel and unusual punishments.”
Legal experts believe that Pike's survival after being injected with toxic substances gives the defense a strong legal basis to demand that the sentence be reduced to life imprisonment, based on American judicial precedents that considered repeating an execution attempt as psychological and physical torture beyond human endurance.
Societal backlash and division over the fate of the “Prisoner of the Century”
The news from Nashville sparked a huge wave of mixed reactions on the American street, as international human rights organizations and anti-execution activists considered that what happened to Pike, who is the first woman to face this fate in Tennessee in more than 200 years, is conclusive evidence of the inhumanity and randomness of the lethal injection mechanism.
On the other hand, shock and shame descended on the family of the victim, Colin Slimer, who had been waiting for the curtain to close on a case that had been going on since 1995, only to find themselves facing a new chapter of “deferred justice” and complex medical and legal anticipation of what the coming hours would result in the state’s government hospital.
Shadows of a horrific crime 3 decades old
This case, whose chapters date back to 1995, preoccupied American public opinion for a long time due to the rugged details and the young age of the perpetrators and the victim, as Christa Pike was an 18-year-old teenager studying at a vocational training center in the city of Knoxville.
Motivated by intense jealousy and personal differences, Pike, with the help of her friend, lured her colleague Colleen Slimer (19 years old) to an isolated area on the University of Tennessee campus. There, they carried out a brutal attack that included torturing the victim for half an hour and engraving strange symbols on her body, before Pike killed her with fatal blows to the head. She even kept a piece of the victim’s skull as a “souvenir.” She was sentenced to death in 1996, making her the youngest woman awaiting execution in the country, and the only one on death row in Tennessee.
Despite Pike's early admission of guilt, her defense team waged a fierce legal battle that extended for decades, based on the fact that the ruling issued in 1996 neglected to review the tragic history of Pike, who suffered a harsh childhood that included repeated physical and sexual assaults, in addition to suffering from severe psychological and mental disorders that were not treated at the time of the crime. The lawyers argued that the brain at the age of 18 is not fully developed, and that the remorseful 50-year-old Pike today is completely different from the broken teenager who committed the crime three decades ago.
