Martin Hyde appears to end congressional campaign after traffic flap
Americans ramped up spending during the holidays despite some financial anxiety and higher costs
Shorter shopping season means a more intense scramble
He apologized to Sarasota Police Officer Julia Beskin as he signaled his campaign’s collapse.
Update: Martin Hyde has since told Fox News he is still running.
Sarasota congressional candidate Martin Hyde appears to have ended his campaign against U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan. The move comes after Hyde received national media attention — and scorn — over a police body cam video of his actions at a traffic stop.
In a letter published by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Hyde apologized for his behavior. But he also made clear he will not be pursuing a seat in the U.S. House at this point.
“I am sorry because in a democracy without congressional term limits, I have taken away the opportunity for people to make changes in a stagnant system that rewards incumbency over innovation and true local representation,” he wrote.
“I was prepared to use my limited resources to mount a congressional campaign based on equity as opposed to elitism — which is the irony of the manner of my demise.”
Further confirming that Hyde would be dropping out of the race is a quote Hyde’s consultant, the notorious Roger Stone, gave to the Herald-Tribune.
“I got a message indirectly from him last night that he had decided to withdraw his candidacy,” said Stone.
Hyde was stopped on Feb. 14 for speeding by Sarasota Police Officer Julia Beskin, and news spread quickly based on her ticket mentioning his behavior.
Florida Politics and other outlets later obtained official body cam footage, and the story drew attention. Since then, Hyde has been flooded with emails, messages, and voicemails berating him.
A two-time Sarasota City Commission candidate, Hyde had previously picked up endorsements from the local Police Benevolent Association. But the image of him berating an officer incited heavy criticism from supporters of police.
The story picked up coverage in national outlets including HuffPost and Newsweek.
Hyde would not comment to Florida Politics following the release of footage. His long-standing Facebook page “Martin Hyde Sarasota Citizen” was taken out of public view on Thursday. Asked at the time if that signaled news about his campaign, he emailed, “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
News broke Friday morning, not in a news article but in a letter published by the Herald-Tribune.
The signature line at the bottom of the piece read: “Martin Hyde is a Sarasota businessman and a former Republican Party candidate for Florida’s 16th Congressional District.”
Hyde later emailed stating: “I remain the only official spokesperson for Martin Hyde or my campaign. If I feel there is something worthy of making a statement about I will do so. For now nothing is official.”
Hyde had largely self-funded his campaign for Congress against Buchanan, an eight-term incumbent Republican. The candidate had loaned his campaign $164,000, and spent much of it on consulting with former Donald Trump associate Stone.
Trump ultimately endorsed Buchanan.
For the moment, Hyde’s federal campaign accounts remain open and his official campaign website remains live.
Of note, he has backtracked from reactions to controversy before.
During his last run for City Commission, Hyde suggested he would drop out of the race after a video went viral showing him berating Puerto Rican teens at the Bath & Racquet Club in Sarasota. He ultimately decided to continue his campaign, which he lost in 2019 to incumbent Commissioner Liz Alpert.
Elon Musk Freaks Out That People Are Bullying Him
Musk continues to insist he’s only doing “productive things.”
Ben Montgomery/Getty Images
https://instaread.co/player?article=elon-musk-freaks-out-that-people-are-bullying-him&publication=newrepublic&pay_wall=false&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewrepublic.com%2Fpost%2F192904%2Felon-musk-freaks-protest-tesla&version=1768277100000
Feeling more paranoid because of the Donald Trump administration? Don’t worry, Elon Musk is feeling it too.
The billionaire bureaucrat stopped by Fox News’s Hannity Tuesday on a victory lap from the successful return of two astronauts in a SpaceX capsule. But Musk got sidetracked whining about his Tesla dealerships being vandalized and alleging that he was the victim of a larger conspiracy—one led by people who wish to see him dead.
“It’s really come as quite a shock to me that there is this level of, really, hatred and violence from the Left,” Musk told Sean Hannity. “I always thought that the left, that Democrats were supposed to be the party of empathy, the party of caring, and yet they’re burning down cars, they’re firebombing dealerships, they’re firing bullets into dealerships, they’re just, you know, smashing up Teslas.
“Tesla is a peaceful company. We’ve never done anything harmful,” Musk said. “I’ve never done anything harmful. I’ve only done productive things.”
Musk claimed that the perpetrators must have a “mental illness thing going on here, because this doesn’t make any sense,” before suddenly claiming that all the acts were connected.
“I think there are larger forces at work as well. Because, I mean, who’s funding and who’s coordinating it? Because this is crazy. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
Hannity surmised that Musk was being wrongly targeted and that his only crime was being aligned with Trump and identifying troves of supposed government waste, fraud, and abuse.
“It turns out when you take away people’s, you know, the money that they’re receiving fraudulently, they get very upset,” Musk said. “And they basically wanna kill me because I’m stopping their fraud and they wanna hurt Tesla, because we’re stopping the terrible waste and corruption in the government. And, well, I guess they’re bad people. Bad people do bad things.”
Unfortunately for Musk, Tesla is not just a “peaceful” company but the customer-facing branch of his corporate takeover of the U.S. government, which has seen essential lifesaving programs slashed and thousands of people out of work. And customer feedback can be harsh. Trump has even called it domestic terrorism.
Musk has managed to insulate himself from any criticism thus far by clinging to his so-called “productivity.” But in many cases, Musk’s productivity isn’t even real. The Department of Government Efficiency’s website claims $115 billion in savings from slashed government spending—but a closer look revealed that only $35.1 billion was actually listed in the itemized cuts, with only $12.6 billion of that being verifiable. Of the scores of federal workers his organization saw terminated, many are currently being reinstated because the way he fired them was illegal.
What Musk also fails to see is that it doesn’t matter how productive you are, if you’re not actually working toward anything good. In any case, Musk’s limp concerns for his personal safety as the grand vizier in the face of an angry mob pales in comparison to those who are actually vulnerable to state violence.Share This Story
Read more about Musk:
Elon Musk Whines That Everyone Is Being Mean to Him
March 19, 2025/5:31 p.m. ETShare This Story
Fox News Host Snaps at Trump Official Defending Tariffs
Maria Bartiromo had enough after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried a new explanation for why tariffs are necessary.
Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
https://instaread.co/player?article=fox-news-host-snaps-at-trump-official-defending-tariffs&publication=newrepublic&pay_wall=false&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewrepublic.com%2Fpost%2F192898%2Ffox-news-host-bartiromo-bessent-trump-tariffs&version=1768277100000
Fox News host Maria Bartiromo grew fed up Tuesday morning with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s feeble attempt to defend Trump’s tariff policies.
“As important as a tariff are some of these non-tariff barriers, where they have domestic content production, where they do testing on … food, our products, that bear no resemblance to safety or anything that we do to their products,” Bessent mentioned.
“See, these are the things that people are really worried about. Because they first thought it was just about trade. Then, they thought it was just about fentanyl. Then, after that we talked about, ‘Well, maybe it’s currency manipulation.’ Now you’re talking about food testing,” Fox News’s Bartiromo pressed. “And when I bring up the issue of clarity, that’s what I’m talking about, and that’s what I’m hearing from corporate America, that we’re not sure where this is going.”
“But of course, we will get resolution on April 2,” Batiromo continued, referring to the date Trump plans to announce yet another set of tariffs.
Trump has continued to portray the economic impacts of his tariffs as temporary, transitional, and even positive. That could not be further from the truth, as Americans in both blue and red states prepare to take a direct hit from the president’s own spite.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=edieocre&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1902006491613446376&lang=en&maxWidth=560px&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fnewrepublic.com%2Fpost%2F192904%2Felon-musk-freaks-protest-tesla&sessionId=f933def67e18ab6fb3d58323625b48f8570f40b3&siteScreenName=newrepublic&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550pxShare This Story
Very related read:
There Is No Method to Trump’s Madness. He’s Simply Insane.
March 19, 2025/4:54 p.m. ETShare This Story
Republican Behind “Trump Derangement Bill” Accused of Soliciting Minor
Republican state Senator Justin Eichorn was arrested hours after he introduced the bill.
Minnesota Senate Republicans/Flickr
https://instaread.co/player?article=republican-behind-trump-derangement-bill-accused-of-soliciting-minor&publication=newrepublic&pay_wall=false&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewrepublic.com%2Fpost%2F192890%2Frepublican-trump-derangement-bill-arrested-soliciting-minor&version=1768277100000
A right-wing Minnesota state senator, who infamously co-sponsored a bill Monday to label “Trump Derangement Syndrome” a mental illness, was arrested hours later for allegedly soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Senator Justin Eichorn was arrested at 6 p.m. Monday in Bloomington, Minnesota, and is being held in the city’s jail after sending messages to and arranging a meetup with a person who he thought was a 16-year-old girl but was actually a Bloomington Police Department detective. After the arrest was made public, his Republican colleagues in the Minnesota Senate, including Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, called for his resignation.
“While he is entitled to due process, we must hold legislators to a higher standard,” Demuth said in a statement.
It’s quite a fall for the 40-year-old Eichorn, who is married with four children and has served in the Minnesota Senate since 2016. His day began with himself and four other Republican senators introducing the bill to declare “Trump Derangement Syndrome” a mental illness, describing it as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump.”
The bill was attacked by state Democrats, who asked that it be withdrawn. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy called it “possibly the worst bill in Minnesota history.”
“If it is meant as a joke, it is a waste of staff time and taxpayer resources that trivializes serious mental health issues,” Murphy said in a statement. “If the authors are serious, it is an affront to free speech and an expression of a dangerous level of loyalty to an authoritarian president.”
This isn’t the first bill Eichorn has sponsored that has verged on the absurd. Last year, he co-sponsored a bill inspired by the discredited “chemtrails” conspiracy theory, which included pseudoscience such as “xenobiotic electromagnetism and fields.” Now, unless he resigns, he’ll have to conduct legislative activity under the suspicion of being a child sex offender.
Share This Story
March 19, 2025/3:52 p.m. ETShare This Story
DOJ Argues Trump Has Power to Fire Every Female Agency Head
Justice Department lawyers are trying to get Donald Trump even more power when it comes to his purge of the federal government.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
https://instaread.co/player?article=doj-argues-trump-has-power-to-fire-every-female-agency-head&publication=newrepublic&pay_wall=false&article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewrepublic.com%2Fpost%2F192887%2Fjustice-department-trump-power-fire-every-woman-agency-head&version=1768277100000
Trump’s Justice Department believes the president has the authority to fire agency heads based on age and gender, according to a report from Talking Points Memo.
The stunning argument came during a testy court hearing Tuesday on Trump’s firing of board members at the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board.
“Could the president decide that he wasn’t going to appoint or allow to remain in office any female heads of agencies or any heads over 40 years old?” Judge Karen Henderson of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals asked Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric McArthur, at one point in the arguments.
“I think that that would be within the president’s constitutional authority under the removal power,” McArthur said. “There would be separate questions about whether that would violate other provisions of the Constitution.”
Lower courts have already ruled against Trump’s firings of the board members, and the panel of three judges on Tuesday appeared skeptical of the Justice Department’s reasoning. But the Trump administration welcomes these challenges so that it can drive its aggressive policies to the nation’s highest court, where they have an overwhelming ideological advantage.
