Yahoo News Trump ‘dictator’ boast sparks uproar as Nevada fake electors charged: Live
Donald Trump bizarrely compared himself to Al Capone when saying he would act like a dictator if re-elected president, but “just for day one”.
At a Fox News town hall event on Tuesday evening with Sean Hannity, the twice-impeached former president was repeatedly asked about potentially abusing his presidential powers to go after his perceived enemies — something his allies have said he will do.
Meanwhile, Eric Trump’s second appearance in the witness stand of the Trump Organization’s New York fraud trial did not go ahead on Wednesday, supposedly at the behest of his father. Mr Trump is scheduled to testify on Monday and will still be under a gag order after a judge denied an attempt to fast-track an appeal.
Elsewhere, as 10 pro-Trump fake electors in Wisconsin settle a civil case against them for their part in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in that state in favour of Mr Trump, a grand jury in Nevada has indicted six Republicans for a similar scheme.
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, known as the architect of the plot to throw the election to the former president is cooperating with authorities there after his guilty plea in Georgia.
Key Points
Trump says he will be a dictator ‘on day one’ if elected
Six Republicans in Nevada charged in fake elector scheme to overturn Trump’s loss
Judge denies Trump’s attempt for quick appeal on gag order
Trump’s ‘co-opted’ GOP should lose House majority, says Cheney
Faced with new gag order covering court staff, Trump attacks judge’s wife
Why didn’t Eric Trump testify at the New York fraud trial as scheduled?
06:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Trump suggests ‘vicious’ people will bring Biden down
Jack Smith wants to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial
04:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Federal prosecutors have given notice that they plan to introduce evidence of former president Donald Trump’s embrace of and support for charged and convicted January 6 rioters as a way to demonstrate what he intended to happen when a riotous mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent certification of his 2020 election loss.
In a court document filed on Tuesday, prosecutors working under special counsel Jack Smith said that some of the evidence they intend to present is from before or after the criminal conspiracy in which the ex-president is charged with participating, but stressed that the evidence is admissible under rules allowing the government to use it to “establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge, absence of mistake, and common plan”.
In particular, prosecutors say they will use evidence that predates the alleged conspiracy at issue to demonstrate Mr Trump’s “encouragement of violence,” including his now-infamous exhortation to the extremist group known as the Proud Boys that they should “stand back and stand by” during his 29 September 2020 debate with now-president Joe Biden.
Read more...
Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial
Biden says he’s ‘note sure’ he’d run if Trump wasn’t running
03:30 , Oliver O'Connell
President Joe Biden has told a group of Democratic donors on Tuesday that he might not have decided to stand for re-election at 81 years of age if former president Donald Trump wasn’t seeking to reclaim the presidency in next year’s general election.
Mr Biden, the oldest person to ever serve as America’s chief executive, is looking to be elected to serve another four-year term in the White House, which would end when he is 86 years old. He announced his candidacy for re-election in April, approximately six months after Mr Trump launched his campaign for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination against the man he lost to three years ago.
The 46th president’s advanced age has led a small number of Democrats to call for him to stand aside in favour of a younger, presumably more vigorous candidate who, in his critics’ telling, would easily best Mr Trump.
But while speaking at a fundraiser outside Boston on Tuesday, Mr Biden said Mr Trump’s persistence on the political scene is why he is not stepping aside in favour of a new generation.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running. But we cannot let him win,” he said.
Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC.
Speaker Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges
02:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to admit that he is protecting people who breached the halls of Congress on January 6 from potential prosecution from the US Department of Justice.
Mr Johnson has pledged the release of thousands of hours of raw footage from the attack on the US Capitol, fulfilling a promise to far-right members of his party who have downplayed the riots and accused federal law enforcement of selectively prosecuting political opponents who stormed the halls of Congress.
“We have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other, you know, concerns and problems,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination
01:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Far-right Florida Rep Matt Gaetz has claimed that the press is “green-lighting” the assassination of former President Donald Trump by reporting on what a second Trump term would look like.
On Monday, Mr Gaetz tweeted “They’re obviously green-lighting assassination” and included a screenshot from a Washington Post op-ed by Post Opinions contributing editor Robert Kagan bearing the headline “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending”.
Responding to Mr Gaetz, Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski noted that “There is nothing you can say or do to confront Maga gaslighting that won’t be met with more MAGA gaslighting”.
“They’ll say anything to make themselves the victim and hero in everything. And there is nothing you can say to do anything about it. That is the MAGA gaslighting paradox,” he added.
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
Matt Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination
Poll: Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter
00:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Ahead of the fourth GOP debate in Alabama, Donald Trump is in his most comfortable polling position yet.
The ex-president remains atop the GOP field in a major way, having consolidated support from six in 10 Republican voters nationally according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released on Monday. Though Mr Trump will not appear this Wednesday for the debate held by NewsNation alongside his GOP fellows, his decision to skip the 2023-24 debate cycle appears to not have hurt his chances in the slightest.
Indeed, the poll shows few pieces of good news for his opponents. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are statistically tied, at 11 and 10 per cent respectively, while the former president’s base of support appears to trust him more on the most important issues to voters this year, including the economy.
John Bowden has the details.
Poll shows Donald Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter
Alarm as Trump calls on supporters to ‘go into’ cities and ‘watch’ elections
Wednesday 6 December 2023 23:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump’s call to his supporters to “guard” and “watch” ballot counting in cities with large Black populations has raised alarms among elections officials and voting rights advocates bracing for more threats to elections fuelled by his bogus narrative of widespread fraud.
During a rally in Ankeny, Iowa on Saturday, the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president justified his demands to “go into” cities with the same baseless allegations that surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
He falsely claimed that “they cheated like hell, they know it, and you’ll never find out all the ways but we don’t need all the ways,” adding that the “most important part of what’s coming up is to guard the vote.”
“The most important part of what’s coming up is to guard the vote, and you should go into Detroit, and you should go into Philadelphia, and you should go into some of these places – Atlanta – and you should go into some of these places, and we gotta watch those votes when they come in,” he said.
Read more...
Trump’s call to ‘go into’ cities and ‘watch’ elections sounds alarms
What have Trump’s Republican rivals said about him?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell
The field of Republican candidates has winnowed significantly since the beginning of the campaign, going from eight hopefuls appearing on the stage during the first primary debate to just four in the fourth showdown.
The frontrunner by a wide margin is former President Donald Trump, who has declined to appear at any of the debates so far, but his reticence to argue his case hasn’t had any impact on his strong primary poll numbers.
The four top remaining challengers have all used different tactics to take on Mr Trump.
Biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke author Vivek Ramaswamy has been mimicking him while at times struggling to explain why he’s running against a man he has called “the best president of the 21st century”.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been creative in finding different ways to call Mr Trump a wildly incompetent and dangerous criminal.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has argued that he would be a more competent, and most importantly, younger, version of the ex-president who would be able to run again in 2028.
Former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley initially instituted the “pro-having it and pro-eating it” cake policy of disgraced former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson when it came to Mr Trump, attempting to remain on the fence and not annoy either Republicans supportive or critical of the former president. More recently, she has become slightly more outspoken in her criticism.
Here’s a rundown of what each of them have said about Mr Trump
Analysis: Nikki Haley’s star is rising. But can she catch up to Trump?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 22:15 , Oliver O'Connell
Nikki Haley is known for a lot of firsts — the first Asian American woman to serve as governor in US history, the first Indian American member of a presidential Cabinet, the first woman of colour to run for the GOP nomination — but will she become the first woman to serve as US president?
Few think so.
On paper, Ms Haley is arguably the ideal GOP candidate. She boasts impressive foreign policy experience amid the bloody conflict in Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas. She is the only woman in the race, giving her a sophisticated position to discuss reproductive rights as Republicans struggle to appeal to voters following the demise of Roe v Wade. Still, the 51-year-old can’t seem to catch up to Mr Trump. Ms Haley’s candidacy demonstrates a larger problem with the 2024 Republican race — no one can touch him.
However, some have argued that her path to the White House isn’t as far-reaching as it once was, as her star has risen in recent weeks.
Kelly Rissman reports.
Nikki Haley’s star is rising. But can she catch up to Trump?
Democrat megadonor donates to Haley to help thwart Trump
Wednesday 6 December 2023 22:00 , Oliver O'Connell
Just a week after JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon urged even liberal Democrats to help Nikki Haley’s campaign to give Republicans an alternative to Donald Trump, one Democrat megadonor has done just that.
Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting the former UN ambassador’s 2024 campaign to be the GOP nominee in 2024.
The New York Times confirmed the donation had been made with Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to Mr Hoffman.
Mr Mehlhorn told the outlet that the pro-Haley super PAC SFA Fund Inc was specifically asked if it would take money from a Democrat who actively supports President Joe Biden, and they said yes.
Read more...
Democrat megadonor gives to Nikki Haley super PAC to help thwart Trump
Full story: Trump fake electors in Wisconsin settle lawsuit and agree Biden won in 2020
Wednesday 6 December 2023 21:45 , Oliver O'Connell
A group of 10 Republicans who acted as “fake electors” in the 2020 presidential election and signed official-looking paperwork claiming Donald Trump won Wisconsin have settled a lawsuit against them.
They have agreed to withdraw their inaccurate filings, acknowledge Joe Biden won the presidency and not serve as presidential electors in 2024 or in any election where Trump is on the ballot.
The 10 fake electors will send a statement to the government offices that received the Electoral College votes saying that their actions were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results”.
Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome.
This is the first time that pro-Trump fake electors have agreed to such a deal. Republicans in two other states — Michigan and Georgia — face criminal charges for similar actions and investigations are underway in three more states — Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico.
Continue reading the full article
Wednesday 6 December 2023 21:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump claims his bizarre gaffes are sarcastic
Analysis: Republicans know January 6 is a political loser. So they’re trying to rewrite history
Wednesday 6 December 2023 21:00 , Oliver O'Connell
Eric Garcia writes:
Nearly three years since the violence, Republicans are seeking to rewrite the narratives around January 6 to frame it either as a normal peaceful protest in part of the American tradition or as a set-up by federal law enforcement. It also comes as the de facto leader of the party, Mr Trump, has said if he is re-elected, he would pardon inmates, even as he faces a federal investigation for his role in the riot and efforts to overturn the election.
Read more...
Republicans know January 6 is a political loser. So they’re trying to rewrite history
Full story: Six Republicans in Nevada charged in fake elector scheme to overturn Trump’s loss
Wednesday 6 December 2023 20:35 , Oliver O'Connell
A grand jury in Nevada has voted to indict six Republicans, including the party’s state chair, after they falsely pledged the state’s electoral votes to Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Nevada’s Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford announced felony charges on Wednesday, marking another round of state-level criminal charges against participants in a so-called “fake elector” plot that sought to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, a scheme central to federal and state charges against the former president.
“When the efforts to undermine faith in our democracy began after the 2020 election, I made it clear that I would do everything in my power to defend the institutions of our nation and our state,” Mr Ford said in a statement.
“We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged,” he added. “Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”
Alex Woodward is following this developing story for The Independent.
Six Republicans in Nevada charged in fake elector scheme to overturn Trump’s loss
Why didn’t Eric Trump testify in New York today?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 20:33 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump’s attorneys are set to wrap up the case for the defence in his civil fraud trial in New York next week, with the former president set to be the final witness, giving testimony for the second time at the trial.
His son Eric Trump was also set to take the stand again on Wednesday (6 December) in his capacity as executive vice president of the Trump Organization overseeing the management and operation of the global real estate empire.
Unexpectedly on Tuesday though, Trump family attorney Clifford Robert told the court that the defence “has decided not to call” Eric Trump to the stand. He offered no explanation.
It was not until Tuesday evening that former president Trump stepped forward with an explanation as to why Eric would not be appearing in court again.
Nevada grand jury indicts six in 2020 ‘fake electors’ plot
Wednesday 6 December 2023 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Developing story...
The six Nevadans were signatories of documents in which they posed as the duly qualified electors for the state of Nevada in an effort to disrupt the results of a free and fair presidential election.
— NV Attorney General (@NevadaAG) December 6, 2023
Wednesday 6 December 2023 20:10 , Oliver O'Connell
Trump suggests ‘vicious’ people will bring Biden down
Jack Smith wants to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial
Wednesday 6 December 2023 19:50 , Oliver O'Connell
Federal prosecutors have given notice that they plan to introduce evidence of former president Donald Trump’s embrace of and support for charged and convicted January 6 rioters as a way to demonstrate what he intended to happen when a riotous mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent certification of his 2020 election loss.
In a court document filed on Tuesday, prosecutors working under special counsel Jack Smith said that some of the evidence they intend to present is from before or after the criminal conspiracy in which the ex-president is charged with participating, but stressed that the evidence is admissible under rules allowing the government to use it to “establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge, absence of mistake, and common plan”.
In particular, prosecutors say they will use evidence that predates the alleged conspiracy at issue to demonstrate Mr Trump’s “encouragement of violence,” including his now-infamous exhortation to the extremist group known as the Proud Boys that they should “stand back and stand by” during his 29 September 2020 debate with now-president Joe Biden.
Andrew Feinberg has the full story.
Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial
‘We cannot let him win’ says Biden as he tells donors he’s not sure he’d run if Trump wasn’t
Wednesday 6 December 2023 19:30 , Oliver O'Connell
President Joe Biden has told a group of Democratic donors on Tuesday that he might not have decided to stand for re-election at 81 years of age if former president Donald Trump wasn’t seeking to reclaim the presidency in next year’s general election.
Mr Biden, the oldest person to ever serve as America’s chief executive, is looking to be elected to serve another four-year term in the White House, which would end when he is 86 years old. He announced his candidacy for re-election in April, approximately six months after Mr Trump launched his campaign for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination against the man he lost to three years ago.
The 46th president’s advanced age has led a small number of Democrats to call for him to stand aside in favour of a younger, presumably more vigorous candidate who, in his critics’ telling, would easily best Mr Trump.
But while speaking at a fundraiser outside Boston on Tuesday, Mr Biden said Mr Trump’s persistence on the political scene is why he is not stepping aside in favour of a new generation.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running. But we cannot let him win,” he said.
Continue reading the full article
Poll: Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter
Wednesday 6 December 2023 19:10 , Oliver O'Connell
Ahead of the fourth GOP debate in Alabama, Donald Trump is in his most comfortable polling position yet.
The ex-president remains atop the GOP field in a major way, having consolidated support from six in 10 Republican voters nationally according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released on Monday. Though Mr Trump will not appear this Wednesday for the debate held by NewsNation alongside his GOP fellows, his decision to skip the 2023-24 debate cycle appears to not have hurt his chances in the slightest.
Indeed, the poll shows few pieces of good news for his opponents. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are statistically tied, at 11 and 10 per cent respectively, while the former president’s base of support appears to trust him more on the most important issues to voters this year, including the economy.
John Bowden reports.
Poll shows Donald Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter
Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination
Wednesday 6 December 2023 18:50 , Oliver O'Connell
Far-right Florida Rep Matt Gaetz has claimed that the press is “green-lighting” the assassination of former President Donald Trump by reporting on what a second Trump term would look like.
On Monday, Mr Gaetz tweeted “They’re obviously green-lighting assassination” and included a screenshot from a Washington Post op-ed by Post Opinions contributing editor Robert Kagan bearing the headline “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending”.
Responding to Mr Gaetz, Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski noted that “There is nothing you can say or do to confront Maga gaslighting that won’t be met with more MAGA gaslighting”.
“They’ll say anything to make themselves the victim and hero in everything. And there is nothing you can say to do anything about it. That is the MAGA gaslighting paradox,” he added.
Read on...
Matt Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination
Has Trump deflecting from Hannity’s dictator questions opened the door for GOP rivals to attack?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell
During his Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Donald Trump twice appeared to duck questions as to whether he would become a dictator if he were to win the White House again in 2024, before saying he would be a dictator “just for one day” on entering office.
Has this created an opening for his primary rivals at tonight’s Republican debate? Will they take the bait?
Politico reports that tonight the moderators plan to force the candidates to face up to the fact they are running against Donald Trump even if he isn’t there.
“I think in one of the first debates they took an hour for anybody to even say his name, which is ridiculous. He’s the person they all have to beat. You’re not running against Joe Biden right now, candidates, you’re running against Donald Trump,” NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas told Politico.
“Because otherwise, up there just criticizing Joe Biden, you’re basically all surrogates for Donald Trump,” she added.
“His pronouncements of late about mass deportations or removing Obamacare — there are a lot of things that he has said that are ripe for dissection and discussion and debate,” Vargas said.
Vargas is moderating alongside talk radio host Megyn Kelly and Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson.
Answering their questions are four candidates — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
‘All he needs’ say Trump allies as they defence his ‘day one’ dictatorship comment
Wednesday 6 December 2023 18:20 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump was offered a chance to shut down warnings about his increasingly violent and authoritarian vision for his potential administration. Instead, he embraced it.
During an event on Fox News billed as a town hall on Tuesday, host Sean Hannity gave him a chance to clarify that “under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody.”
“Except for day one,” Mr Trump replied.
His supporters and campaign have framed his comments as a joke to attack his critics, a defence that has tried to rewrite and undermine his own words and actions over the last several months, including his explicit promises of a campaign of retribution and political vengeance against his rivals.
Alex Woodward reports.
Trump allies defend his ‘day one’ dictatorship: ‘All he needs’
As fourth debate looms, here’s what the GOP candidates have said about Trump
Wednesday 6 December 2023 18:10 , Gustaf Kilander
The field of Republican candidates has winnowed significantly since the beginning of the campaign, going from eight hopefuls appearing on the stage during the first primary debate to just four in the fourth showdown.
The frontrunner by a wide margin is former President Donald Trump, who has declined to appear at any of the debates so far, but his reticence to argue his case hasn’t had any impact on his strong primary poll numbers.
The four top remaining challengers have all used different tactics to take on Mr Trump.
Biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke author Vivek Ramaswamy has been mimicking him while at times struggling to explain why he’s running against a man he has called “the best president of the 21st century”.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been creative in finding different ways to call Mr Trump a wildly incompetent and dangerous criminal.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has argued that he would be a more competent, and most importantly, younger, version of the ex-president who would be able to run again in 2028.
Former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley initially instituted the “pro-having it and pro-eating it” cake policy of disgraced former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson when it came to Mr Trump, attempting to remain on the fence and not annoy either Republicans supportive or critical of the former president. More recently, she has become slightly more outspoken in her criticism.
Here’s a rundown of what each of them have said about Mr Trump:
Where the Republican candidates stand on Donald Trump
Voices: Trump is telling us exactly what he’ll do and we should believe him
Wednesday 6 December 2023 17:57 , Oliver O'Connell
Ahmed Baba writes:
In a conversation with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, Donald Trump made an autocratic admission.
Hannity asked Trump, “To be clear, do you, in any way, have any plans whatsoever if re-elected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people…”
Trump cut Hannity off, interjecting with, “You mean like they’re using right now.” This is an Orwellian tactic Trump has been using, falsely projecting his own behavior onto his opponents. Trump notably didn’t deny he would do what Hannity asked; instead, he obfuscated for minutes before making a revelatory comment.
Hannity asked again, trying to throw Trump an alley oop. “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”
Trump replied: “Except for day one.” The audience chuckled.
Trump is telling us exactly what he’ll do and we should believe him
Hunter Biden still pushing for public testimony
Wednesday 6 December 2023 17:45 , Oliver O'Connell
President Biden’s son Hunter Biden is again pushing to give evidence before the House Oversight Committee in a public hearing to avoid having his testimony selectively leaked or misrepresented by Republican committee members.
In a letter to the panel’s chair, Representative James Comer, Mr Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said Mr Comer, who last week claimed that witnesses before his committee did not have a choice to give public testimony during a first appearance, had actually offered Mr Biden the choice of an open hearing during a 31 October appearance on a podcast hosted by right-wing personality Benny Johnson.
Andrew Feinberg reports.
Hunter Biden still pushing for public testimony as House subpoena deadline looms
Full story: Kevin McCarthy to retire weeks after being ousted as House speaker
Wednesday 6 December 2023 17:25 , Oliver O'Connell
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy has announced his retirement from Congress after his ouster from the top job in the House of Representatives just a few weeks ago.
“I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Beginning the piece by calling himself an “optimist” Mr McCarthy went on to note that he’s a the “son of a firefighter” and that he spent 17 years representing the same congressional seat where he once was “denied an internship”.
Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, DC.
Kevin McCarthy to retire weeks after being ousted as House speaker
Trump allies threaten to come after media if he is re-elected
Wednesday 6 December 2023 17:05 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump’s campaign of retribution and political prosecution is not merely “rhetoric” but a “dead serious” threat to his opponents and the media, according to his own allies.
On his War Room podcast on Tuesday, former White House adviser and far-right activist Steve Bannon asked Trump loyalist Kash Patel whether he can “deliver the goods” and “get rolling on prosecutions” should Mr Trump win election in 2024.
“And I want the Morning Joe producers that watch us and all the producers to watch us – this is not just rhetoric. We’re absolutely dead serious,” Bannon said.
Alex Woodward has the full story.
Trump allies threaten criminal charges against media if elected
Watch: Kevin McCarthy announces he is leaving Congress
Wednesday 6 December 2023 16:46 , Oliver O'Connell
As the son of a firefighter from Bakersfield, my story is the story of America. For me, every moment came with a great deal of devotion and responsibility.
Serving you in Congress and as the 55th Speaker of the House has been my greatest honor. pic.twitter.com/jNnYQ8UO4k— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) December 6, 2023
Wednesday 6 December 2023 16:44 , Oliver O'Connell
...and Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene is not happy about it.
Well..
Now in 2024, we will have a 1 seat majority in the House of Representatives.
Congratulations Freedom Caucus for one and 105 Rep who expel our own for the other.
I can assure you Republican voters didn’t give us the majority to crash the ship.
Hopefully no one dies.— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 6, 2023
Rep Matt Gaetz was similarly fretting about the Republican majority at the weekend.
Matt Gaetz frets about precarious Republican majority after George Santos exit
Kevin McCarthy is leaving the House of Representatives
Wednesday 6 December 2023 16:27 , Oliver O'Connell
After reaching his goal of becoming Speaker of the House at the start of the year before being ousted from the role by members of his own party in October, California Republican Rep Kevin McCarthy is leaving Congress.
“I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways. I know my work is only getting started.”
Mr McCarthy made the announcement in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
Wisconsin’s Trump fake electors settle lawsuit and agree Biden won in 2020
Wednesday 6 December 2023 16:16 , Oliver O'Connell
A group of 10 Republicans who acted as “fake electors” in the 2020 presidential election and signed official-looking paperwork claiming Donald Trump won Wisconsin have settled a lawsuit against them.
The Washington Post reports that they have agreed to withdraw their inaccurate filings, acknowledge Joe Biden won the presidency and not serve as presidential electors in 2024 or in any election where Trump is on the ballot.
This is the first time that pro-Trump fake electors have agreed to such a deal. Republicans in two other states (Michigan and Georgia) face criminal charges for similar actions and investigations are underway in three more states (Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico).
The lawsuit was filed by two of the state’s rightful electors who sought up to $200,000 from each of the fake Trump electors. There is no financial component to the settlement.
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, the so-called architect of the “fake electors” scheme to keep Donald Trump in power, reached a plea deal in Georgia and is now cooperating with authorities in Nevada.
The Biden electors in Wisconsin are continuing their lawsuit against two attorneys who assisted the Wisconsin Republicans — Mr Chesebro and Jim Troupis, a former Dane County judge who led Trump’s recount efforts in the state.
Trump doubles down on claim his gaffess are ‘sarcastic'
Wednesday 6 December 2023 16:00 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump has once again argued that his increasing number of gaffes is simply an expression of sarcasm.
The former president has repeatedly raged at the suggestion that he, at the age of 77, is not as sharp as he used to be.
During a Fox News town hall on Tuesday night, Mr Trump said: “I’ll say our real president is Barack Hussein Obama – they’ll say ‘he doesn’t know who the president is, he thinks it’s Barack Hussein’ – no, I’m being sarcastic.”
Just last week, Mr Trump claimed that he deliberately mixes up Joe Biden and Barack Obama’s names as he angrily denied that he is “cognitively impaired”.
Read more...
Trump doubles down on claim that his gaffes are sarcastic
Mitt Romney responds to Trump’s dictator-for-a-day comment
Wednesday 6 December 2023 15:35 , Oliver O'Connell
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah was asked to respond to Donald Trump’s “dictator-for-a-day” comment during his Fox News town hall on Tuesday night.
“Donald Trump has said so many absurd things that I don’t even know how you respond to them, so I laugh and just think he’s trying to entertain his base. It’s a dangerous course to go down, but that’s what he does on a regular basis.”
Watch the senator’s remarks here:
Sen Mitt Romney (R-UT) about Trump’s dictator-for-a-day comment, “It’s a dangerous course to go down” pic.twitter.com/sE7X7jk70n
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) December 6, 2023
Speaker Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges
Wednesday 6 December 2023 15:00 , Oliver O'Connell
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to admit that he is protecting people who breached the halls of Congress on January 6 from potential prosecution from the US Department of Justice.
Mr Johnson has pledged the release of thousands of hours of raw footage from the attack on the US Capitol, fulfilling a promise to far-right members of his party who have downplayed the riots and accused federal law enforcement of selectively prosecuting political opponents who stormed the halls of Congress.
“We have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other, you know, concerns and problems,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Presumably, they’re not Antifa or FBI agents then?
Mike Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges
Donald Trump claims his bizarre gaffes are sarcastic
Wednesday 6 December 2023 14:40 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump has claimed that his verbal errors are him being sarcastic while speaking at a Town Hall event in Iowa.
The former President referenced mix-ups he made with current President Joe Biden with former President Barack Obama.
“I’ll say our real president is Barack Hussein Obama. They’ll say ‘he doesn’t know who the president is, he thinks it’s Barack Hussein,’ no I’m being sarcastic,” Trump told the crowd.
Watch here.
Donald Trump claims his bizarre gaffes are sarcastic
Has Trump deflecting from Hannity’s dictator questions opened the door for GOP rivals to attack?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 14:30 , Oliver O'Connell
During his Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Donald Trump twice appeared to duck questions as to whether he would become a dictator if he were to win the White House again in 2024, before saying he would be a dictator “just for one day” on entering office.
Has this created an opening for his primary rivals at tonight’s Republican debate? Will they take the bait?
Politico reports that tonight the moderators plan to force the candidates to face up to the fact they are running against Donald Trump even if he isn’t there.
“I think in one of the first debates they took an hour for anybody to even say his name, which is ridiculous. He’s the person they all have to beat. You’re not running against Joe Biden right now, candidates, you’re running against Donald Trump,” NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas told Politico.
“Because otherwise, up there just criticizing Joe Biden, you’re basically all surrogates for Donald Trump,” she added.
“His pronouncements of late about mass deportations or removing Obamacare — there are a lot of things that he has said that are ripe for dissection and discussion and debate,” Vargas said.
Vargas is moderating alongside talk radio host Megyn Kelly and Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson.
Answering their questions are four candidates — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
House judiciary committee wants Fani Willis to turn over communications with House Jan 6 probe
Wednesday 6 December 2023 14:20 , Oliver O'Connell
Rep Jim Jordan, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, has written to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis requesting that she turn over any communications between her office and the House January 6 select committee.
Mr Jordan wrote:
The Committee on the Judiciary continues to conduct oversight of politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials. Although we were aware that your office had coordinated its politically motivated prosecutions with the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, we recently learned that your office also coordinated its investigative actions with the partisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol (“January 6 Select Committee”). Accordingly, we write to request documents relating to the investigative coordination between your office and the partisan January 6 Select Committee.
Further, he continued:
Although it is not clear what records, if any, you obtained from your coordination with the partisan January 6 Select Committee, this new information raises additional questions relevant to the Committee’s oversight of your politically motivated prosecution of a former President of the United States and several former senior federal officials. The partisan January 6 Select Committee had a troubling track record of procedural abuses and due process violations. It only solicited evidence from a select set of relevant individuals, ignored exculpatory evidence, and did not pursue witnesses with evidence that would not advance its partisan narrative.
‘We cannot let him win’: Biden ‘not sure’ he’d run for re-election if Trump wasn’t running
Wednesday 6 December 2023 14:00 , Oliver O'Connell
President Joe Biden has told a group of Democratic donors on Tuesday that he might not have decided to stand for re-election at 81 years of age if former president Donald Trump wasn’t seeking to reclaim the presidency in next year’s general election.
Mr Biden, the oldest person to ever serve as America’s chief executive, is looking to be elected to serve another four-year term in the White House, which would end when he is 86 years old. He announced his candidacy for re-election in April, approximately six months after Mr Trump launched his campaign for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination against the man he lost to three years ago.
The 46th president’s advanced age has led a small number of Democrats to call for him to stand aside in favour of a younger, presumably more vigorous candidate who, in his critics’ telling, would easily best Mr Trump.
But while speaking at a fundraiser outside Boston on Tuesday, Mr Biden said Mr Trump’s persistence on the political scene is why he is not stepping aside in favour of a new generation.
Andrew Feinberg reports.
Biden ‘not sure’ he’d run in 2024 if Trump wasn’t running: ‘We cannot let him win’
Why isn’t Eric Trump testifying again in New York fraud trial?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 13:50 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump’s attorneys are set to wrap up the case for the defence in his civil fraud trial in New York next week, with the former president set to be the final witness, giving testimony for the second time at the trial.
His son Eric Trump was also set to take the stand again on Wednesday (6 December) in his capacity as executive vice president of the Trump Organization overseeing the management and operation of the global real estate empire.
Unexpectedly on Tuesday though, Trump family attorney Clifford Robert told the court that the defence “has decided not to call” Eric Trump to the stand. He offered no explanation.
It was not until Tuesday evening that former president Trump stepped forward with an explanation as to why Eric would not be appearing in court again.
Read on for the full explanation.
Pence added to the witness list for Trump’s Georgia election trial
Wednesday 6 December 2023 13:37 , Oliver O'Connell
Former Vice President Mike Pence has been added to the witness list for former President Donald Trump’s election interference trial in Georgia.
Prosecutors added Mr Pence to the list of those who could be called to testify at trial, CNN reported citing sources with knowledge of filings still under seal.
Gustaf Kilander is following this developing story.
Mike Pence added to witness list for Trump’s Georgia election trial
Wednesday 6 December 2023 13:20 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump predicts he will get 150 million votes in 2024 US presidential election
Trump suggests ‘vicious’ people will bring Biden down
Wednesday 6 December 2023 13:00 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Donald Trump has predicted that ‘vicious people’ around President Joe Biden will bring him down.
“There are people in that Oval Office who are evil people, bad people, smart people. Young, vicious. They’re communists,” Mr Trump told Sean Hannity at a Town Hall in Iowa on Fox News on 5 December.
The former president mocked president Biden’s frailty, drawing laughter from the audience.
Watch here.
Trump suggests ‘vicious’ people will bring Biden down
Was the DeSantis campaign doomed from the start?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 12:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Ron DeSantis entered the Republican primary this spring as the preeminent challenger to former President Donald Trump and as the heir apparent taking on the old guard.
The Florida governor was “Trump without the baggage,” a far-right fighter ready to rumble with the “radical left” and govern more productively than the chaotic reality TV star, blustering real estate mogul and grievance-filled showman.
In a race against the oldest president in US history, being born in the late 1970s instead of the mid-1940s would also be helpful. Part of the thinking was that Mr DeSantis could win the White House by simply standing next to President Joe Biden on the debate stage and not looking old.
But was his floundering campaign always inevitable? Was Mr DeSantis always too awkward to be president?
Gustaf Kilander investigates.
Was Ron DeSantis lacklustre campaign doomed from the start?
Trump repeatedly says ‘we shouldn’t be worried about global warming
Wednesday 6 December 2023 12:15 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Donald Trump once again denied climate science and reiterated that the world shouldn’t be worried about global warming.
The former president said at a Fox News town hall: “The only global warming we should be thinking about and worrying about because it is gonna happen tomorrow, is nuclear global warming not global warming.”
He had previously said that scientists rebranded global warming as climate change.
“You know they don’t call it global warming so much now, they call it climate change because it wasn’t working… Global warming wasn’t working when it was cooling. So now they call it climate change, that takes care of everything,” he said.
Maroosha Muzaffar has more.
Trump denies climate science and says ‘we shouldn’t be worried about global warming’
Jack Smith details evidence he’ll introduce at Trump’s federal election conspiracy trial
Wednesday 6 December 2023 11:45 , Oliver O'Connell
In a nine-page court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith has laid out some of the evidence the prosecution intends to deploy in its federal election interference case against Donald Trump.
“Evidence of the defendant’s post-conspiracy embrace of particularly violent and notorious rioters is admissible to establish the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6 — that he sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification,” Smith says.
“At trial, the Government will introduce a number of public statements by the defendant in advance of the charged conspiracies, claiming that there would be fraud in the 2020 presidential election,” laying the “foundation for the defendant’s criminal efforts.”
The government will also argue that the former president had a history of election denialism and conspiracies, citing statements he made in 2012 and ahead of the 2016 election — that he won.
One of the more alarming passages in the filing relates to an individual who sought “to cause a riot to disrupt the count” of votes in Detroit after the 2020 presidential election. The person is an unindicted co-conspirator and is only identified as a “campaign employee”.
“On November 4, 2020, the Campaign Employee exchanged a series of text messages with an attorney supporting the Campaign’s election day operations at the TCF Center in Detroit, where votes were being counted,” the filing says. “[I]n the messages, the Campaign Employee encouraged rioting and other methods of obstruction when he learned that the vote count was trending in favor of the defendant’s opponent.”
“An election official at the TCF Center observed that as Biden began to take the lead, a large number of untrained individuals flooded the TCF Center and began making illegitimate and aggressive challenges to the vote count,” prosecutors said.
“Thereafter, Trump made repeated false claims regarding election activities at the TCF Center, when in truth his agent was seeking to cause a riot to disrupt the count.”
Trump says he will be a dictator and abuse power ‘on day one’ if elected
Wednesday 6 December 2023 11:10 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Donald Trump has said he will be a dictator “just for day one” of his presidency if he is re-elected amid a spate of grim warnings over consequences if the twice-impeached president wins the 2024 elections.
Mr Trump appeared to duck the question twice during a Fox News townhall on Tuesday when Sean Hannity categorically asked him to say that he will not abuse presidential powers if he wins the elections.
“Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever, if re-elected president, to abuse power?” Hannity asked. “To break the law? To use the government to go after people?”
“You mean like they’re using right now?” Mr Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination said, deflecting the questions.
Shweta Sharma reports.
Trump says he will be a dictator ‘on day one’ if elected president again
Democrat megadonor donates to Haley super PAC to help thwart Trump
Wednesday 6 December 2023 10:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Just a week after JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon urged even liberal Democrats to help Nikki Haley’s campaign to give Republicans an alternative to Donald Trump, one Democrat megadonor has done just that.
Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting the former UN ambassador’s 2024 campaign to be the GOP nominee in 2024.
The New York Times confirmed the donation had been made with Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to Mr Hoffman.
Mr Mehlhorn told the outlet that the pro-Haley super PAC SFA Fund Inc was specifically asked if it would take money from a Democrat who actively supports President Joe Biden, and they said yes.
Read on...
Democrat megadonor gives to Nikki Haley super PAC to help thwart Trump
Full story: Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial
Wednesday 6 December 2023 09:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Federal prosecutors have given notice that they plan to introduce evidence of former president Donald Trump’s embrace of and support for charged and convicted January 6 rioters as a way to demonstrate what he intended to happen when a riotous mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent certification of his 2020 election loss.
In a court document filed on Tuesday, prosecutors working under Special Counsel Jack Smith said that some of the evidence they intend to present is from before or after the criminal conspiracy in which the ex-president is charged with participating, but stressed that the evidence is admissible under rules allowing the government to use it to “establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge, absence of mistake, and common plan”.
Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC.
Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial
Trump makes alarming call to supporter to ‘go into’ cities and ‘watch’ election
Wednesday 6 December 2023 08:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump’s call to his supporters to “guard” and “watch” ballot counting in cities with large Black populations has raised alarms among elections officials and voting rights advocates bracing for more threats to elections fuelled by his bogus narrative of widespread fraud.
During a rally in Ankeny, Iowa on Saturday, the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president justified his demands to “go into” cities with the same baseless allegations that surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
He falsely claimed that “they cheated like hell, they know it, and you’ll never find out all the ways but we don’t need all the ways,” adding that the “most important part of what’s coming up is to guard the vote.”
“The most important part of what’s coming up is to guard the vote, and you should go into Detroit, and you should go into Philadelphia, and you should go into some of these places – Atlanta – and you should go into some of these places, and we gotta watch those votes when they come in,” he said.
After another courtroom loss, Trump will face gag order during fraud trial testimony
Wednesday 6 December 2023 06:45 , Oliver O'Connell
An appeals court judge has rejected Donald Trump’s request for a fast-tracked appeal of his gag order in his New York fraud trial, days before he is scheduled to return to the witness stand before his attorneys bring their case to a close.
On Monday, the former president’s legal team asked a state appeals court for a fast-tracked appeal process to challenge last week’s decision that keeps the gag order in place. A judge denied the request, and his lawyers will instead have to make their case before a full panel of judges next week.
The decision effectively guarantees that Mr Trump will remain under a gag order through the final days of his defence team’s presentations in a civil trial that could imperil the family’s vast real estate empire.
Last week, another appeals court allowed the gag order to stand after court filings revealed the wave of abusive messages and credible death threats to the judge overseeing the trial and members of his staff.
Moments later, Mr Trump attacked the judge’s wife on his Truth Social.
Alex Woodward has the full story.
Trump loses latest attempt to block his fraud trial gag order
Can Megyn Kelly shine at a debate without Trump?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 04:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Megyn Kelly made headlines in 2015 when she confronted Donald Trump at a presidential debate. Now as the fourth GOP primary debate approaches, she could have another starpower moment as moderator — but it will have to be without the former president.
Kelly, a lawyer-turned-journalist, was moderating her first presidential debate when Mr Trump, a real-estate-mogul-turned-politician, was competing in his first GOP primary debate. In this potent interaction, their paths changed forever.
The exchange made her into something of a cultural icon and boosted her career, at least temporarily, while it set the tone for his soon-to-be successful campaign.
She is a lawyer, he’s in legal trouble. He was accused of sexual misconduct, while she was allegedly the victim of someone else’s. At almost every intersection, they are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum, but have each, separately, carved out a niche rightwing audience.
And when they come together, no one can turn away.
Kelly Rissman reports.
Megyn Kelly’s career rose after high-profile Trump feud. Can she still break through?
Poll: Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter
Wednesday 6 December 2023 03:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Ahead of the fourth GOP debate in Alabama, Donald Trump is in his most comfortable polling position yet.
The ex-president remains atop the GOP field in a major way, having consolidated support from six in 10 Republican voters nationally according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released on Monday. Though Mr Trump will not appear this Wednesday for the debate held by NewsNation alongside his GOP fellows, his decision to skip the 2023-24 debate cycle appears to not have hurt his chances in the slightest.
Indeed, the poll shows few pieces of good news for his opponents. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are statistically tied, at 11 and 10 per cent respectively, while the former president’s base of support appears to trust him more on the most important issues to voters this year, including the economy.
John Bowden reports.
Poll shows Donald Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter
Donald Trump claims his bizarre gaffes are sarcastic
Wednesday 6 December 2023 11:16 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Donald Trump has claimed that his verbal errors are him being sarcastic while speaking at a Town Hall event in Iowa.
The former president referenced mix-ups he made with current president Joe Biden with former president Barack Obama.
“I’ll say our real president is Barack Hussein Obama. They’ll say ‘he doesn’t know who the president is, he thinks it’s Barack Hussein,’ no I’m being sarcastic,” Mr Trump told the crowd.
Watch here.
Donald Trump claims his bizarre gaffes are sarcastic
Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination
Wednesday 6 December 2023 02:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Far-right Florida Rep Matt Gaetz has claimed that the press is “green-lighting” the assassination of former President Donald Trump by reporting on what a second Trump term would look like.
On Monday, Mr Gaetz tweeted “They’re obviously green-lighting assassination” and included a screenshot from a Washington Post op-ed by Post Opinions contributing editor Robert Kagan bearing the headline “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending”.
Responding to Mr Gaetz, Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski noted that “There is nothing you can say or do to confront Maga gaslighting that won’t be met with more MAGA gaslighting”.
“They’ll say anything to make themselves the victim and hero in everything. And there is nothing you can say to do anything about it. That is the MAGA gaslighting paradox,” he added.
Trump kicks off town hall with indictment comments
Wednesday 6 December 2023 02:27 , Megan Sheets
Donald Trump is currently appearing at a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Hannity took the lead by asking Trump to be “very clear” about “any plans” to “abuse power” if he is elected president in 2024.
Trump referenced the many indictments against him as he replied: “You mean like they’re using right now?”
After raucous applause faded, he continued: “What has happened to us, again, has never happened before...”
Hannity asks Trump if he has any plans to abuse power or break the law if re-elected.
Trump talks about his indictments pic.twitter.com/VPLDqcj1gG— Acyn (@Acyn) December 6, 2023
Trump allies threaten criminal charges against media if elected
Wednesday 6 December 2023 02:15 , Mike Bedigan
Kash Patel and Steve Bannon plan to “come after” journalists in unmoored Trump administration, Alex Woodward writes:
Trump allies threaten criminal charges against media if elected
Nikki Haley’s star is rising. But can she catch up to Trump?
Wednesday 6 December 2023 01:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Nikki Haley is known for a lot of firsts — the first Asian American woman to serve as governor in US history, the first Indian American member of a presidential Cabinet, the first woman of colour to run for the GOP nomination — but will she become the first woman to serve as US president?
Few think so.
On paper, Ms Haley is arguably the ideal GOP candidate. She boasts impressive foreign policy experience amid the bloody conflict in Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas. She is the only woman in the race, giving her a sophisticated position to discuss reproductive rights as Republicans struggle to appeal to voters following the demise of Roe v Wade. Still, the 51-year-old can’t seem to catch up to Mr Trump. Ms Haley’s candidacy demonstrates a larger problem with the 2024 Republican race — no one can touch him.
However, some have argued that her path to the White House isn’t as far-reaching as it once was, as her star has risen in recent weeks. As of the beginning of November, she is tied with rival candidate Florida Gov Ron DeSantis for the spot trailing the prominent frontrunner.
Nikki Haley’s star is rising. But can she catch up to Trump?
Vivek Ramaswamy: Highly principled libertarian or ruthlessly ambitious kook
Wednesday 6 December 2023 00:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Vivek Ramaswamy’s 10 principles to become Trump’s successor
Haley’s approach to abortion is rooted in her earliest days in politics
Tuesday 5 December 2023 23:45 , AP
As a state representative running a longshot campaign for South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley would often explain her opposition to abortion with a story about her family.
“I’m strongly pro-life, very pro-life, and not because my party tells me to be, but my husband was adopted, and so every day I know the blessings of having him there,” she said in 2010.
She won that race and was reelected as governor before serving as former President Donald Trump‘s United Nations ambassador. She’s now competing against Trump as the only woman seeking the Republican presidential nomination. And in a primary race animated by questions over the future of abortion access in the U.S., Haley is reviving the personal anecdote she would give in South Carolina — almost verbatim.
Tuberville ends Senate blockade on military promotions
Tuesday 5 December 2023 22:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville announced on Tuesday that he would end his blockade on more than 400 military promotions as he continues to battle the Department of Defense over abortion policy.
The Republican senator had spent months earning his colleagues’ ire with the hold, which had prevented military promotions from being confirmed via voice vote in the Senate, per tradition. Such promotions have never been politicised before, and Senate leaders had vehemently opposed Mr Tuberville using them as a bargaining chip.
Now, he will only continue his hold for four-star generals and above, meaning that only top military brass will be directly affected by his blockade.
John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.
Tommy Tuberville ends Senate blockade on 400+ military promotions
‘We cannot let him win’: Biden ‘not sure’ he’d run for re-election if Trump wasn’t running
Tuesday 5 December 2023 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell
President Joe Biden has told a group of Democratic donors on Tuesday that he might not have decided to stand for re-election at 81 years of age if former president Donald Trump wasn’t seeking to reclaim the presidency in next year’s general election.
Mr Biden, the oldest person to ever serve as America’s chief executive, is looking to be elected to serve another four-year term in the White House, which would end when he is 86 years old. He announced his candidacy for re-election in April, approximately six months after Mr Trump launched his campaign for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination against the man he lost to three years ago.
The 46th president’s advanced age has led a small number of Democrats to call for him to stand aside in favour of a younger, presumably more vigorous candidate who, in his critics’ telling, would easily best Mr Trump.
But while speaking at a fundraiser outside Boston on Tuesday, Mr Biden said Mr Trump’s persistence on the political scene is why he is not stepping aside in favour of a new generation.
Andrew Feinberg reports.
Biden ‘not sure’ he’d run in 2024 if Trump wasn’t running: ‘We cannot let him win’
Speaker Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges
Tuesday 5 December 2023 22:15 , Oliver O'Connell
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to admit that he is protecting people who breached the halls of Congress on January 6 from potential prosecution from the US Department of Justice.
Mr Johnson has pledged the release of thousands of hours of raw footage from the attack on the US Capitol, fulfilling a promise to far-right members of his party who have downplayed the riots and accused federal law enforcement of selectively prosecuting political opponents who stormed the halls of Congress.
“We have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other, you know, concerns and problems,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Alex Woodward reports.
Mike Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges
Full story: Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial
Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:55 , Oliver O'Connell
Federal prosecutors have given notice that they plan to introduce evidence of former president Donald Trump’s embrace of and support for charged and convicted January 6 rioters as a way to demonstrate what he intended to happen when a riotous mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent certification of his 2020 election loss.
In a court document filed on Tuesday, prosecutors working under Special Counsel Jack Smith said that some of the evidence they intend to present is from before or after the criminal conspiracy in which the ex-president is charged with participating, but stressed that the evidence is admissible under rules allowing the government to use it to “establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge, absence of mistake, and common plan”.
Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC.
Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial
NY fraud trial: Trump unloads on judge as court adjourns until Thursday
Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:45 , Oliver O'Connell
With Eric Trump no longer taking the stand tomorrow, Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial has adjourned until Thursday. To keep us entertained, the former president has again turned to Truth Social to vent about the case against him.
It’s the same argument he’s been posting throughout the trial...
We have totally proven our Case against the Corrupt, Racist, New York Attorney General, Letitia “Peekaboo” James. The Banks, Insurance Companies, virtually everybody said we were “GREAT,” PERFECT LOANS, NO VICTIMS! Their sole Witness has been completely discredited, and admitted he lied about everything. He was the only Witness they had, and should be prosecuted for his lies. The Judge and the A.G. falsified the value of Mar-a-Lago and other Assets to make me look as bad as possible, and got caught. For anyone else, what they did would be considered FRAUD, and they would be thrown off the “bench” and out of office….
….The Banks didn’t even know why they were there, said we were a great Customer, and that I did nothing wrong! Additionally, we have a 100% Disclaimer Clause (on Page One), with respect to the EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE Financial Statements (the exact opposite of what they said), which state, do your own due diligence and analysis—DO NOT RELY ON THESE STATEMENTS. Any Judge other than Engoron would have ended this Litigation years ago. It is a Rigged Case, WHERE A JURY WAS NOT ALLOWED. Judge Engoron is a Corrupt Puppet for Letitia James. It is all about ELECTION INTERFERENCE!
But wait, there’s more:
Judge Engoron has totally ignored a major decision on the Statute of Limitations in the New York Attorney General’s Witch Hunt Case against me. He said that he doesn’t care what the Appellate Court ruled, and that he won’t abide by the Ruling, which essentially would end most of this Highly Political Case against me. Judge Engoron should be sanctioned for his actions. Nobody has ever seen anything like what is happening in his Courtroom. It is Judicial and Prosecutorial Misconduct. Letitia James should be impeached. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!
Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:30 , Oliver O'Connell
But Trump, in his own testimony last month, said that he believes he retains the right to re-designate the property as a home. And Miami-based real estate attorney John Shubin testified Tuesday that “there is absolutely no prohibition on the use of Mar-a-Lago as a single-family residence.”
He noted that the property is simultaneously a club and Trump’s residence. Shubin also noted that a 1993 agreement between Trump and the town of Palm Beach said that Mar-a-Lago was to be used as a private social club but would revert to private residential use if the club were “abandoned.”
Trump’s lawyers argue that that means there was no problem with valuing the property the way that his financial statements did: as if it could be sold as an individual residence.
“Anybody who buys it … would just step into the shoes of President Trump,” defence attorney Christopher Kise said.
Some Palm Beach luxury real estate agents have told The Associated Press that the property would sell for $300 million to $600 million, and possibly $1 billion or more if it sparked a bidding war among uber-wealthy contenders.
Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:25 , Oliver O'Connell
The Palm Beach County tax assessment that the judge mentioned was based on Mar-a-Lago’s annual net operating income as a club, not on its resale value as a home or on its reconstruction cost. The operating-income method is the county’s standard way of valuing social clubs, and the outcome carries tax benefits for Trump — a $602,000 property tax bill this year, compared to about approximately $18 million if Mar-a-Lago were assessed at $1 billion.
Moreover, in a 2002 agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the club and Trump signed over “any and all of their rights to develop the property for any usage other than club usage.”
Yet when pulling information together for Trump’s annual financial statements, his former corporate controller Jeffrey McConney valued Mar-a-Lago club as though the property could be sold as a private home. The statements pegged it as high as $612 million in 2021.
James said that those values ignored the agreement with the National Trust. The attorney general, a Democrat, maintains that Trump should have valued Mar-a-Lago the same way the county does, based on its club income.
Continued...
Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:20 , Oliver O'Connell
Spanning 17 acres (7 hectares) with waterfront on two sides, the estate and social club is Trump’s home, a place where the former president and current Republican 2024 front-runner has conducted high-profile meetings while in and out of office, and the spot where federal special counsel Jack Smith alleges he improperly stashed classified documents, which Trump denies.
Mar-a-Lago also is a key element of the current New York civil case and Trump’s vehement frustration with it.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit claims that the ex-president and his company deceived lenders and others by giving them financial statements that greatly overstated the values of some of his prime assets, including Mar-a-Lago.
Judge Arthur Engoron, in a pretrial ruling declaring that Trump and his company engaged in fraud, found that Trump exaggerated Mar-a-Lago’s worth by as much as 2,300%, compared to the Palm Beach County tax appraiser’s valuations. They ranged from $18 million to $28 million.
Trump denies any wrongdoing, saying that his financial statements actually undervalued his assets and were accompanied by disclaimers that wipe away liability for any mistakes.
His frequent complaints about the case have often spotlighted the claims about Mar-a-Lago. As recently as Friday, Trump vented on his Truth Social platform that the judge “fraudulently reduced the value of Mar-a-Lago.”
Continued...
NY fraud trial: Defence lays out Mar-a-Lago valuation argument
Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:15 , AP
Former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial turned Tuesday to one of the topics that has vexed him most — the value of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Testifying for Trump’s defence, a Florida real estate attorney said the club could be sold as a home, notwithstanding decades-old legal documents in which Trump said he intended to forswear its use as anything but a club. That’s a restriction that is key to New York state lawyers’ claims that the former president fraudulently overhyped the property’s value.
A Palm Beach luxury real estate broker played a glimmering video of the historic estate and testified that he’d value it at over $1 billion as of 2021.
“It’s something breathtaking. It’s something amazing to see,” broker Lawrence Moens said during testimony that took a rare turn when he briefly answered a personal phone call while on the witness stand.
Continued...
Comer reacts to mockery over $4k Biden impeachment ‘bombshell’
Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:05 , Oliver O'Connell
Republican lawmaker James Comer has defended himself from a mocking backlash over his $4,000 Hunter Biden “bombshell”.
The House Oversight Committee Chair – who is leading a controversial impeachment “hearing” into the president – came under fire for touting subpoenaed financial records that he said proved Joe Biden received monthly payments from a business account used by his son.
Lawyers for Hunter Biden have pointed out that the three monthly $1,380 payments were a loan for a truck that he was not able to finance himself – and that it took place during the period between Mr Biden serving as vice president and president.
Mr Comer, a congressman from Kentucky, appeared on Newsmax on Monday night to hit back at his critics and defend the “evidence” he had put forward in his ongoing attempt to impeach Joe Biden.
Graeme Massie reports.
James Comer reacts to mockery over $4k Biden impeachment ‘bombshell’
Jack Smith details evidence he’ll introduce at Trump’s federal election conspiracy trial
Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:55 , Oliver O'Connell
In a nine-page court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith has laid out some of the evidence the prosecution intends to deploy in its federal election interference case against Donald Trump.
“Evidence of the defendant’s post-conspiracy embrace of particularly violent and notorious rioters is admissible to establish the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6 — that he sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification,” Smith says.
“At trial, the Government will introduce a number of public statements by the defendant in advance of the charged conspiracies, claiming that there would be fraud in the 2020 presidential election,” laying the “foundation for the defendant’s criminal efforts.”
The government will also argue that the former president had a history of election denialism and conspiracies, citing statements he made in 2012 and ahead of the 2016 election — that he won.
One of the more alarming passages in the filing relates to an individual who sought “to cause a riot to disrupt the count" of votes in Detroit after the 2020 presidential election. The person is an unindicted co-conspirator and is only identified as a “campaign employee”.
“On November 4, 2020, the Campaign Employee exchanged a series of text messages with an attorney supporting the Campaign’s election day operations at the TCF Center in Detroit, where votes were being counted,” the filing says. “[I]n the messages, the Campaign Employee encouraged rioting and other methods of obstruction when he learned that the vote count was trending in favor of the defendant’s opponent.”
“An election official at the TCF Center observed that as Biden began to take the lead, a large number of untrained individuals flooded the TCF Center and began making illegitimate and aggressive challenges to the vote count,” prosecutors said.
“Thereafter, Trump made repeated false claims regarding election activities at the TCF Center, when in truth his agent was seeking to cause a riot to disrupt the count.”
Watch: Kash Patel claims he will come after media as Trump’s CIA director
Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:40 , Oliver O'Connell
Kash Patel says as Trump’s next CIA Director he will lead “patriots” appointed by Trump in an all-out effort to prosecute and jail people in government and the media: “We will find the conspirators in govt and the media. Yes, we are going to come after the people in the media.” pic.twitter.com/NuLyqOIKWO
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 5, 2023
Voices: Trump continues down path of dominance as GOP rivals scramble for second place
Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell
John Bowden writes:
The fourth Republican debate is set for Wednesday, for whatever that’s worth.
Donald Trump, the race’s frontrunner, will not be in attendance. Having skipped three onstage clashes of candidates so far without any negative consequences whatsoever, the former president will complete his mockery of the nominating contest this month by refusing to attend the final debate before voters head to the polls next month in Iowa and begin the race proper.
There are zero signs that Wednesday’s debate will matter. A poll by NewsNation, the network hosting tomorrow’s event in Alabama, found Mr Trump in control of six in 10 GOP voters nationally this week — a clean 50-point margin over Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, his two closest rivals. Worse for them, only a small fraction of the GOP indicated in the poll that a conviction in any of his four criminal cases would change their views, meaning that short of Mr Trump exiting the race, the minds of most voters are likely made up.
This spells more than one problem for the GOP’s traditionalist-to-neoconservative wing, which never really embraced Donald Trump beyond the vehicle that he presented for the confirmation of conservative justices and the advancement of some conservative economic policy.
Continued...
Trump continues down path of dominance as GOP rivals scramble for second place
Giuliani skips confrontation with Georgia election workers
Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:24 , Oliver O'Connell
Rudy Giuliani failed to appear in court today for a pre-trial hearing in the defamation case against him filed by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Per Politico:
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers who have been tormented by harassment and threats since 2020, were prepared Tuesday to confront the man they view as the chief instigator of their suffering: Rudy Giuliani.
But Giuliani was a no-show at a federal court hearing in the duo’s defamation lawsuit, prompting a lashing for his attorney by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who had ordered Giuliani to be present.
“How could you have missed that?” Howell asked Giuliani’s attorney, Joe Sibley, incredulously, when he took the blame for Giuliani’s absence.
“My mistake,” Sibley replied, prompting Howell to ask whether he was “falling on his sword” for the former mayor. Sibley insisted he wasn’t but rather that he simply had misunderstood Howell’s order requiring Giuliani’s presence at the hearing, the final session before the civil damages case goes before a jury next week.
Here’s the full story of Ms Freeman and Ms Moss’s case against the former New York mayor:
Trump made life hell for two Black women. He will have to answer for it in court
GOP debate: What the candidates have said about the Israel-Hamas conflict
Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:00 , Oliver O'Connell
The onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict was a major theme of the third Republican primary debate on 8 November, with candidates declaring their support for Israel in varying degrees.
Since the war began in early October, there have been disagreements regarding how the US should back Israel as an ally while also trying to protect the innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire.
Candidates were under more pressure this time around because they were given more time to answer thoughtfully thanks to the dwindling number of participants who met the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) stricter criteria.
What the GOP debate candidates have said about the Israel-Hamas conflict
Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:50 , Oliver O'Connell
Alex Woodward reports:
Trump family attorney Clifford Robert told the court that the defence “has decided not to call” Eric Trump to the stand but offered no other explanation, it seems.
The defence only has two other witnesses — an NYU professor who will talk about GAAP and valuations, and Donald Trump — so they can’t move up anything left on the schedule.
Yesterday, Mr Trump lost his attempt to get a fast-tracked appeal hearing on the gag order ruling in the state appeals court, and his attorneys really don’t want him back on the stand under the order.
Lead Trump attorney Christopher Kise made a lengthy request to postpone the former president’s testimony until the appeals court has ruled.
Asked by Justice Arthur Engoron what they thought about the request, attorneys for New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office replied: “Absolutely not.”
To which the judge added: “Absolutely not. No way. No how. It’s a nonstarter.”
Justice Engoron then told Kise, jovially: “You tried."
After a slight pause, the judge added: "And I gave it a deep thought, as well.”— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) December 5, 2023
NY fraud trial: Eric Trump will not testify again as planned
Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:41 , Oliver O'Connell
MSNBC reports that Eric Trump will not testify for a second time at the Trump Organization civil fraud trial in New York as had been expected.
Former president Donald Trump’s second son had already been a witness for the prosecution alongside his brother Donald Trump Jr and his father and had been billed to appear again on Wednesday.
The former president is still expected to testify again on 11 December as the final witness at the trial.
NEW: Eric Trump will not testify in the $250 civil fraud trial tomorrow as planned. pic.twitter.com/JCAVaN2Q9L
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 5, 2023
Trump attacks De Niro as ‘total loser'
Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump has finally responded to an attack by Robert De Niro in an awards speech last week.
The latest row between the long-feuding duo began when Mr De Niro hit out at the former president while presenting a tribute award for Celine Song’s drama Past Lives at the Gotham Awards on 27 November.
As he took to the stage and began reading from a teleprompter, the actor realised that some of his prepared remarks against Mr Trump had been omitted.
“The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out. I didn’t know about it,” he said before pulling out his phone to read the unedited version.
Read what the actor had to say...
Democrat megadonor takes up call to back Haley and thwart Trump
Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:15 , Oliver O'Connell
Just a week after JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon urged even liberal Democrats to help Nikki Haley’s campaign to give Republicans an alternative to Donald Trump, one Democrat megadonor has done just that.
Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting the former UN ambassador’s 2024 campaign to be the GOP nominee in 2024.
The New York Times confirmed the donation had been made with Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to Mr Hoffman.
Mr Mehlhorn told the outlet that the pro-Haley super PAC SFA Fund Inc was specifically asked if it would take money from a Democrat who actively supports President Joe Biden, and they said yes.
Read on...
Democrat megadonor gives to Nikki Haley super PAC to help thwart Trump
Trump denies being depressed after Jan 6 Capitol riot
Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:00 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump is pushing back on claims that he stopped eating in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot – instead saying he was actually eating “too much”.
Last week, an extract from former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney’s new book was released, revealing details of the GOP party’s response to the violent insurrection.
In the memoir Oath and Honor, set to be released this Tuesday, Ms Cheney writes about the moment that she learned then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy had gone to visit Mr Trump at Mar-a-Lago in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.
Rachel Sharp has the story.
Trump denies being depressed after Jan 6 and insists he was eating ‘too much’
Jack Smith gives preview of evidence in Trump’s federal election interference case
Tuesday 5 December 2023 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell
In a new court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith has given a preview of the evidence they will provide in the federal election interference case against Donald Trump.
The document lays out six types of evidence that will be presented at trial, which is scheduled to begin on 4 March 2024.
Historical Evidence of the Defendant’s Consistent Plan of Baselessly Claiming Election Fraud
Historical Evidence of the Defendant’s Common Plan to Refuse to Commit to a Peaceful Transition of Power
Evidence of the Defendant and Co-Conspirators’ Knowledge of the Unfavorable Election Results and Motive and Intent to Subvert Them
Pre- and Post-Conspiracy Evidence That the Defendant and Co-Conspirators Suppressed Proof Their Fraud Claims Were False and Retaliated Against Officials Who Undermined Their Criminal Plans
Pre- and Post-Conspiracy Evidence of the Defendant’s Public Attacks on Individuals, Encouragement of Violence, and Knowledge of the Foreseeable Consequences
Post-Conspiracy Evidence of the Defendant’s Steadfast Support and Endorsement of Rioters
More details to follow...
Speaker Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges
Tuesday 5 December 2023 18:15 , Oliver O'Connell
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to admit that he is protecting people who breached the halls of Congress on January 6 from potential prosecution from the US Department of Justice.
Mr Johnson has pledged the release of thousands of hours of raw footage from the attack on the US Capitol, fulfilling a promise to far-right members of his party who have downplayed the riots and accused federal law enforcement of selectively prosecuting political opponents who stormed the halls of Congress.
“We have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other, you know, concerns and problems,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Mr Johnson played a central effort among House Republicans to reject Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election, a campaign supported by baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that fuelled the Capitol attacks.
Read Alex Woodward’s full report
ICYMI: Trump calls Biden ‘destroyer’ of democracy despite own efforts to overturn 2020 election
Tuesday 5 December 2023 18:00 , AP
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday attempted to turn the tables on his likely rival in November, President Joe Biden, arguing that the man whose election victory Trump tried to overturn is “the destroyer of American democracy.”
Trump’s allegations about Biden, a Democrat, echo the ones that Biden has been making for years against his predecessor. As Trump has dominated the Republican presidential primary and talked about targeting his rivals and the news media if he wins the White House again, Biden has stepped up his own warnings, contending Trump is “ determined to destroy American democracy.”
On Saturday, Trump made his most explicit argument to date on why voters should instead see his rival as the bigger democratic threat. Trump repeated his longstanding contention that the four criminal indictments against him show Biden is misusing the federal justice system against his rival.
Gaetz frets about House GOP’s precarious majority after Santos expulsion
Tuesday 5 December 2023 17:30 , Oliver O'Connell
Florida Rep Matt Gaetz is worried.
The controversial right-wing lawmaker fears that following the expulsion of disgraced former congressman George Santos, the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives is in peril
Specifically, he believes that other GOP lawmakers may also soon exit the lower chamber of Congress.
Speaking on The Charlie Kirk Show, Mr Gaetz, who in October led the ousting of former speaker Kevin McCarthy, said: “Our willingness to self-mutilate on these things really impairs our ability to get the job done.”
He called the expulsion of Mr Santos “tactically stupid” in the context of the narrow majority.
Read on...
Matt Gaetz frets about precarious Republican majority after George Santos exit
In depth: Megyn Kelly’s rise was tied to Trump. Can she shine at a debate without him?
Tuesday 5 December 2023 17:15 , Oliver O'Connell
Kelly Rissman writes:
Megyn Kelly made headlines in 2015 when she confronted Donald Trump at a presidential debate. Now as the fourth GOP primary debate approaches, she could have another starpower moment as moderator — but it will have to be without the former president.
Kelly, a lawyer-turned-journalist, was moderating her first presidential debate when Mr Trump, a real-estate-mogul-turned-politician, was competing in his first GOP primary debate. In this potent interaction, their paths changed forever.
The exchange made her into something of a cultural icon and boosted her career, at least temporarily, while it set the tone for his soon-to-be successful campaign.
She is a lawyer, he’s in legal trouble. He was accused of sexual misconduct, while she was allegedly the victim of someone else’s. At almost every intersection, they are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum, but have each, separately, carved out a niche rightwing audience.
And when they come together, no one can turn away.
On 6 December, the duelling duo could have had a chance to go head-to-head again — but Mr Trump refuses to participate.
Continue reading...
Megyn Kelly’s career rose after high-profile Trump feud. Can she still break through?
As new details emerge, Florida GOP chair denies rape
Tuesday 5 December 2023 17:00 , Oliver O'Connell
The defiant chair of the Florida Republican Party has denied allegations of rape made against him by a woman he and his wife were having a consensual affair with, as disturbing new details have emerged about the alleged attack.
Christian Ziegler, 40, told members of the state GOP that he and wife Bridget Ziegler, co-founder of the far-right Moms for Liberty parent’s rights group, were being unfairly targeted because they are “such loud political voices”.
Bevan Hurley reports.
Florida GOP chair denies rape claims as disturbing new details emerge
Watch: Speaker Johnson says new Jan 6 tapes will blur out faces so rioters won’t be charged
Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:45 , Oliver O'Connell
Pretty extraordinary for a Speaker of the House to openly admit to protecting criminals by hiding their identities. https://t.co/sCGGfEpR2T
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) December 5, 2023
good idea, Mr. Speaker https://t.co/TNgCzZ56WO pic.twitter.com/6vr0TSRONz
— George Conway (gtconway3 on Threads) (@gtconway3d) December 5, 2023
ICYMI: Trump tries to blame DeSantis for Florida State playoffs snub
Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:35 , Oliver O'Connell
The College Football Playoff Committee’s snubbing of Florida State has officially become an issue in the 2024 Republican primary.
On Sunday, the undefeated Seminoles faced a crushing decision from the panel which decides the four teams to compete in the annual championship between two of the biggest college football conferences in the US: the Big Ten, and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The reason for their exclusion, despite their perfect record, was the benching of their star quarterback Jordan Travis due to a season-ending leg injury.
Florida State’s fans and coaches alike were enraged by the decision. Head coach Mike Norvell wrote in a statement: “I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the game.”
He added: “What is the point of playing games?”
John Bowden reports.
Trump tries to blame DeSantis for Florida State Football playoffs snub
First signs of jury selection in Trump’s federal election interference case
Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:28 , Oliver O'Connell
NBC News reports that the first signs of the start of jury selection in the federal election interference case against Donald Trump may have just landed in mailboxes across the District of Columbia. The trial is scheduled to start in three months on 4 March 2024.
Per reporter Jonathan Allen:
Potential jurors in former President Donald Trump's federal election interference trial may know they are in the pool now.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has sent prospective jurors a "pre-screening" form asking about their availability to appear in person Feb. 9 to fill out a written questionnaire for use in the jury selection process for a March 4 trial. A resident in Washington, D.C., who received one of the forms in the mail Monday shared an image of it with NBC News.
Though the form does not name or refer to the defendant directly, the court had earlier set those dates for the questionnaire and the start of Trump's trial. The form advises potential jurors that their trial "may last approximately three months after jury selection is completed," which is consistent with estimates of the timetable for Trump's trial.
Recipients were also notified that the in-person written questionnaire is different from the online version, which is often the only one used in federal trials.
SCOOP: First signs of Trump jury selection may have just landed in D.C. mailboxes
https://t.co/ao2lZfS5Le via @nbcnews w/@katiadoyl pic.twitter.com/cl3utWAv2F— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) December 5, 2023
Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination
Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:20 , Oliver O'Connell
Far-right Florida Rep Matt Gaetz has claimed that the press is “green-lighting” the assassination of former President Donald Trump by reporting on what a second Trump term would look like.
On Monday, Mr Gaetz tweeted “They’re obviously green-lighting assassination” and included a screenshot from a Washington Post op-ed by Post Opinions contributing editor Robert Kagan bearing the headline “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending”.
Responding to Mr Gaetz, Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski noted that “There is nothing you can say or do to confront Maga gaslighting that won’t be met with more MAGA gaslighting”.
“They’ll say anything to make themselves the victim and hero in everything. And there is nothing you can say to do anything about it. That is the MAGA gaslighting paradox,” he added.
The image for the op-ed was a split image with the top being the head of a statue of Roman dictator Julius Ceaser, who was assassinated in 44BC, and the bottom being the face of Mr Trump.
Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, DC:
Matt Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination
Watch: Cheney warns Trump is telling us every single day what he will do if he wins in 2024
Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:10 , Oliver O'Connell
"This isn't us imagining what he would do. It's us saying, take him seriously. He's telling us what he will do. Every single day he does that. [We have to] remind people, they can't think of him as an option when they go into vote in 2024."— @Liz_Cheneyhttps://t.co/zq2PZcJIkg pic.twitter.com/4Mw1WFgt2Y
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 5, 2023
Who will be on the debate stage on Wednesday night?
Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:55 , Oliver O'Connell
Four candidates have so far qualified for the fourth Republican primary debate, set to be hosted by NewsNation on 6 December.
Former Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke author Vivek Ramaswamy have all qualified for the Wednesday night showdown at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
The debate will be moderated by former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, now of SiriusXM, NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas, and Eliana Johnson, the editor of the Washington Free Beacon.
Read on...
Who qualified for the fourth GOP debate?
Watch: Cheney says GOP may not be salvageable and new party may be needed
Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:45 , Oliver O'Connell
.@Liz_Cheney on the future of the GOP: "I don't know if our party can be saved. We may need to build a new party...But I think those issues have to come after this 2024 cycle, because the focus right now has to be on making sure we don't return Donald Trump to the White House." pic.twitter.com/KrgsP04lur
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 5, 2023
Fourth GOP debate key moment for NewsNation cable network
Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:35 , AP
By airing the fourth Republican presidential primary debate scheduled for Wednesday — again, minus Donald Trump — the young NewsNation television network will almost certainly reach the largest audience in its history.
Yet with two of the three debate moderators associated with conservative media and not NewsNation, including podcast star Megyn Kelly, the event threatens to be at odds with the centrist image the network is trying to cultivate.
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity and allows us to have more people fully sample the network and see who we are and what we’re doing,” said Cherie Grzech, NewsNation’s senior vice president of news and politics.
Her advice to those who have doubts about how NewsNation can pull it off: Just watch.
Watch: Cheney delivers warning about Trump second term
Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:29 , Oliver O'Connell
.@Liz_Cheney: "People need to think about what it means when a president won't enforce court rulings he disagrees with. As soon as that happens...we're unraveling the fundamental structures and systems that make us a nation of laws, so there won't be any guardrails to stop him." pic.twitter.com/lRdInRP8zL
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 5, 2023
Trump still dominates GOP field as fourth debate looms
Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:15 , Oliver O'Connell
Ahead of the fourth GOP debate in Alabama, Donald Trump is in his most comfortable polling position yet.
The ex-president remains atop the GOP field in a major way, having consolidated support from six in 10 Republican voters nationally according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released on Monday. Though Mr Trump will not appear this Wednesday for the debate held by NewsNation alongside his GOP fellows, his decision to skip the 2023-24 debate cycle appears to not have hurt his chances in the slightest.
Indeed, the poll shows few pieces of good news for his opponents. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are statistically tied, at 11 and 10 per cent respectively, while the former president’s base of support appears to trust him more on the most important issues to voters this year, including the economy.
John Bowden has the latest from Washington, DC.
Poll shows Donald Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter
Did Paramount block Kelsey Grammer from being asked about Trump support by BBC?
Tuesday 5 December 2023 14:50 , Oliver O'Connell
The BBC has claimed that Kelsey Grammer was prevented from talking about Donald Trump by a Paramount PR person during a radio interview this morning.
Grammer, who plays Frasier Crane in the recently rebooted sitcom, is a Republican and noted Trump supporter, but according to a journalist working for the corporation, the topic of the former president was swiftly shut down during a new interview.
While appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme , the actor was asked if he was still backing Trump. Journalist Justin Webb asked Grammer: “You mentioned Roseanne [Barr] early on who had a great comeback but also was a Trump supporter. You were a Trump supporter, I’m fascinated to know if you still are?”
Jacob Stolworthy reports on what happened next.
BBC claims Frasier PR shut down Kelsey Grammer questions about his support for Trump
Watch the Lincoln Project ad that angered Trump
Tuesday 5 December 2023 14:32 , Oliver O'Connell
*bows*
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) December 5, 2023
Alarm over Trump’s call to supporters to ‘go into’ cities and ‘watch’ elections
Tuesday 5 December 2023 14:24 , Oliver O'Connell
Donald Trump’s call to his supporters to “guard” and “watch” ballot counting in cities with large Black populations has raised alarms among elections officials and voting rights advocates bracing for more threats to elections fuelled by his bogus narrative of widespread fraud.
During a rally in Ankeny, Iowa on Saturday, the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president justified his demands to “go into” cities with the same baseless allegations that surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
He falsely claimed that “they cheated like hell, they know it, and you’ll never find out all the ways but we don’t need all the ways,” adding that the “most important part of what’s coming up is to guard the vote.”
Alex Woodward reports.
Trump’s call to ‘go into’ cities and ‘watch’ elections sounds alarms
Full story: Trump will face gag order during fraud trial testimony after another courtroom loss
Tuesday 5 December 2023 13:00 , Alex Woodward
An appeals court judge has rejected Donald Trump’s request for a fast-tracked appeal of his gag order in his New York fraud trial, days before he is scheduled to return to the witness stand before his attorneys bring their case to a close.
The latest decision effectively guarantees that Trump will remain under a gag order through the final days of his defence team’s presentations in a civil trial that could imperil the family’s vast real estate empire.
Trump loses latest attempt to block his fraud trial gag order
Click here to read the full blog on The Independent's website
