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Post by Webster on Dec 8, 2023 18:59:15 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The 2024 election is months away, but Donald Trump and his allies are already planning on who they might hire for White House jobs, assuming he wins. The Guardian’s Peter Stone takes a look at what we know so far about Trump’s hiring plans: As Donald Trump and his allies start plotting another presidency, an emerging priority is to find hard-right lawyers who display total fealty to Trump, as a way to enhance his power and seek “retribution” against political foes.
Stocking a future administration with more ideological lawyers loyal to Trump in key posts at the justice department, other agencies and the White House is alarming to former DoJ officials and analysts who say such plans endanger the rule of law.
Trump’s former senior adviser Stephen Miller, president of the Maga-allied legal group America First Legal, is playing a key role in seeking lawyers fully in sync with Trump’s radical agenda to expand his power and curb some major agencies. His search is for those with unswerving loyalty to Trump, who could back Trump’s increasingly authoritarian talk about plans to “weaponize” the DoJ against critics, including some he has labeled as “vermin”.
Miller is well known in Maga circles for his loyalty to Trump and the hard-line anti-immigration policies he helped craft for Trump’s presidency. Notably, Trump has vowed to make those policies even more draconian if he is the GOP nominee and wins again. Such an advisory role for Miller squares with Trump’s desire for a tougher brand of lawyer who will not try to obstruct him, as some top administration lawyers did in late 2020 over his false claims about election fraud.
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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:10:51 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Donald Trump is leading Joe Biden in new polls surveying battleground states, the Hill reports. The latest polls by CNN found that Trump had a 10 point lead over Biden in Michigan, with 50% of responders saying they would vote for Trump in the 2024 election versus only 40% for Biden. In Georgia, 49% of responders said they would support Trump compared to only 44% for Biden. Both Biden and Trump are leading their party’s nomination for the general presidential election, with 2024 shaping up to be a rematch of the 2020 election.
The latest polling also showed that potential voters have concerns with both leading nominees. The surveys found that the majority of potential voters in Michigan and Georgia believe that Biden lacks the “sharpness” and “stamina” needed for a president. Voters in both battleground states also believe that Trump did not have the right “temperament” to be president. From the Hill: The surveys also highlighted potential problem areas for each candidate, with 69 percent of Michigan voters and 66 percent of Georgia voters saying Biden does not have the sharpness and stamina they want to see in a president. Fifty-seven percent of Michigan voters and 58 percent of Georgia voters said Trump’s temperament is not what they are looking for in a president.
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Post by Webster on Dec 11, 2023 15:13:44 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The Department of Justice announced today that a 30-year-old New Hampshire man was arrested after threatening to kill attendees at a campaign event for Vivek Ramaswamy. From CBS News’ Shawna Mizelle: A spokesperson for Ramaswamy’s campaign thanked law enforcement for their actions on the matter, and confirmed that there would be extra security at the event, in a statement to CBS. “We are grateful to law enforcement for their swiftness and professionalism in handling this matter and pray for the safety of all Americans,” they said to CBS.
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Post by Webster on Dec 14, 2023 19:35:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) As we wait for the trial to get underway, here is the latest polling update on Rudy Giuliani’s former boss Donald Trump: According to a new Bloomberg poll released on Thursday, Trump is leading Joe Biden in seven swing states. Bloomberg reports: Eleven months before the election, Trump is leading Biden by 5 percentage points among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup across seven swing states. Trump’s lead is inside the margin of error in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, but is larger in Georgia and North Carolina. The poll had a margin of error of 1 percentage point for all seven states combined and between 3 and 5 percentage points for individual states.
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Post by Webster on Dec 14, 2023 20:06:12 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani’s former boss, Donald Trump, is once again claiming that he is part of a “witch hunt.” Posting on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump wrote: “Biden had 150 Suspicious Activity Reports!!! I never had one!!! As the media has reported, my banks were thrilled with me as a customer, yet I get sued by the Racist A.G. of New York State. WITCH HUNT!”Trump has been indicted four times, including on cases surrounding the 2020 federal election interference, the Georgia state election interference, classified documents found at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, and hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Speaking of Donald Trump’s mounting legal issues, his defense in the 2020 federal election interference case may get a boost from the supreme court. The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports: A decision by the US supreme court to take a case linked to the January 6 attack on the Capitol could have consequences altering the trajectory of the criminal case against Donald Trump over his effort to overturn the 2020 election as well as for hundreds of other people prosecuted for the riot.
The nation’s highest court has agreed to consider whether federal prosecutors can charge January 6 riot defendants with a statute that makes it a crime to obstruct an official proceeding of Congress – a charge also filed against Trump in his 2020 election interference case.
The decision by the conservative-dominated court to take up the matter complicates and could delay Trump’s trial in federal district court in Washington, which is currently scheduled for next March.
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Post by Webster on Dec 19, 2023 16:57:20 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jan 2, 2024 12:55:59 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Steve Scalise, the Louisiana congressman who is the second-highest ranking House Republican, has endorsed Donald Trump for president: Scalise, who serves as House majority leader, was briefly the party’s nominee for the speaker after Kevin McCarthy’s removal from the post in October, but ultimately stepped aside, clearing for Mike Johnson’s election as the chamber’s leader. Johnson already endorsed Trump’s campaign for a second term in the White House.
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Post by Webster on Jan 2, 2024 13:44:08 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The Democrats are, unsurprisingly, laying into Republican House majority leader Steve Scalise for his endorsement of Donald Trump today. Even before his endorsement, Scalise was among the many House Republicans who have cast doubt on the validity of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, and supported the Trump campaign’s failed effort to get the supreme court to interfere in the vote result four years ago. Here’s what Democratic National Committee press secretary Sarafina Chitika had to say about Scalise’s latest endorsement of Trump: MAGA House Republicans keep showing America they’ve turned the House into little more than an arm of Donald Trump’s campaign – so it’s no surprise Steve Scalise, who called himself ‘David Duke without the baggage,’ is joining the parade of House extremists backing Trump’s bid. Scalise’s top priority has always been pushing Trump’s unpopular agenda: He voted against certifying the 2020 election, is hellbent on banning abortion nationwide, and worked with Trump to try to rip away Americans’ health care. Scalise’s endorsement is the latest proof that while the House GOP is unable to accomplish anything on behalf of the American people, they are laser-focused on advancing Trump’s MAGA agenda and ripping away freedoms.
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 15:57:38 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump, DeSantis and Haley pledge dramatic, occasionally illegal, changes to border policyOn the campaign trail, the three leading contenders for the GOP’s presidential nomination have all pledged significant and draconian changes to US immigration policy if elected. Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador who is polling at second place in recent surveys, pledged to “close the border”, send special forces to Mexico to fight cartels, and reinstitute a policy to force asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their applications are processed, which had been in effect during Donald Trump’s presidency. Florida governor Ron DeSantis has embraced similar policies, while also calling to end the automatic granting of citizenship to people born in the United States and authorize the summary execution of drug dealers crossing from Mexico, which is illegal: Some of the most alarming rhetoric has come from Trump, the frontrunner for the nomination, who said last month that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”. As president, he instituted policies to separate migrant children from their parents, which many consider a human rights abuse. His latest comment drew widespread condemnation – including from Haley, who called it “harmful and unnecessary,” according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 15:58:33 GMT -5
(The Guardian) As the Guardian’s David Smith reports, Donald Trump’s statement about immigrants are uniquely alarming, because they appear to draw from the words of Adolf Hitler: Donald Trump has the tacit blessing of senior Republican figures as he seeks to put border security front and center of the 2024 election by deploying fascistic language to fire up his support base, political analysts warn.
The frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 has called for a sharp crackdown on immigration and asserted at a weekend rally that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”.
The comment drew on words similar to the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in his autobiography and manifesto Mein Kampf.
But, despite widespread condemnation of Trump’s remarks, some top Republicans have shied away from criticizing the former US president, who is the overwhelming favorite to win the party’s nod to face off against Joe Biden in the race for the White House.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I could care less what language people use as long as we get it right … I think the president has a way of talking sometimes I disagree with. But he actually delivered on the border.” Nicole Malliotakis, a New York congresswoman, told CNN: “He never said ‘immigrants are poisoning’, though … He didn’t say the word ‘immigrants’.”
And this week Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, signed a law that allows police to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally and permits judges to order them to leave the US. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said: “It is very much in line with what many Republicans like to do or tend to do, which is demonise immigrants and also dehumanise immigrants.”
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 16:45:17 GMT -5
(The Guardian) RFK Jr qualifies for Utah presidential ballotRobert F Kennedy Jr has collected enough signatures to qualify for the Utah presidential ballot, making it the first state to give the independent candidate ballot access. State elections director Ryan Cowley said Kennedy has met the 1,000-signature requirement needed to get on the 2024 presidential ballot before a 5 March deadline, according to AP. Kennedy, a prominent conspiracy theorist and vaccination opponent, announced he would run as an independent in October after initially saying he would run against Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. Utah is the first state where Kennedy’s campaign submitted signatures and qualified for ballot access, campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear said.
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Post by Webster on Jan 3, 2024 16:46:43 GMT -5
(The Guardian) As the Guardian’s David Smith reports, the Biden campaign plans to try to convince voters that Donald Trump poses a historic threat to American democracy. Expect to hear much more about this from the president in the months to come: Ailing in opinion polls, Joe Biden will aim to jump-start his re-election campaign in the coming week with events designed to symbolise the fight for democracy and racial justice against Donald Trump.
The Biden-Harris campaign announced the plans in a conference call with reporters that mentioned Trump by name 28 times in just 24 minutes, a sign of its determination to draw a sharp contrast between the US president and his likely Republican challenger.
On Saturday Biden will deliver a major address laying out the stakes of the election at Valley Forge, near Philadelphia, the site of a 1777-1778 winter encampment of the Continental Army led by George Washington during the American revolutionary war.
It was at Valley Forge that a disorganised alliance of colonial militias was transformed into a cohesive coalition united in the battle for democracy, the Biden-Harris campaign told reporters, noting that Washington became president but then relinquished power. “There the president will make the case directly that democracy and freedom – two powerful ideas that united the 13 colonies and that generations throughout our nation’s history have fought and died for a stone’s throw from where he’ll be Saturday – remain central to the fight we’re in today,” said the principal deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks.
Then, on Monday, Biden will speak at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, where in 2015 nine African American worshippers were killed by a white supremacist while they were praying at the end of Bible study.
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Post by Webster on Jan 4, 2024 14:09:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden seeks to wield January 6 against Trump as 2024 campaigning kicks offDonald Trump’s presidency ended with his supporters breaking into the US Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to block the certification by Congress of Joe Biden’s election victory. As the two men gear up for an expected general election rematch in November of this year, the Biden campaign has moved to make sure voters are aware of the now former president’s intimate involvement with the January 6 insurrection. The Biden campaign announced today that its first television advertisement of the year will be narrated by the president and focus on Trump and the threat his “Make America great again” (Maga) philosophy poses to US democracy. Biden will hammer the message home on Friday, with a speech in Pennsylvania marking the third anniversary of the assault that will double as a major campaign speech. The Democrats put concerns over US democracy at the center of their pitch to voters in 2022, when many of their lawmakers and governors won their elections despite historical trends against the president’s party. They seem set to repeat the strategy with Biden on the ballot and struggling with persistently low approval ratings and several opinion polls showing him trailing Trump. We’ll see if the strategy works in the months to come. In campaign ad 'Cause', Biden casts himself as defender of democracyThe Biden campaign’s first television advertisement of 2024 sees the president talk about his defense of democracy, without mentioning Donald Trump’s name. But viewers will notice shots of the January 6 insurrection, as well as the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, which occurred shortly after Trump moved into the White House. There are also plenty of images of the military and global crises that Biden wants voters to believe he is best qualified to handle.
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Post by Webster on Jan 4, 2024 14:17:50 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump's companies received $7.8m from foreign leaders and governments during presidency – Democratic reportDuring his time as president, companies controlled by Donald Trump received $7.8m from foreign governments and leaders, according to a report released today by the House oversight committee’s Democrats. “By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous Commander-in-Chief,” wrote Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the committee. China tops spenders at Trump businesses during presidency – Democratic reportThe country whose officials spent the most on Donald Trump’s businesses during his presidency was China, according to a report from the House oversight committee’s Democratic members. China spent nearly $5.6m at Trump Tower in New York City, and at his two Trump International Hotels in Washington DC and Las Vegas. Saudi Arabia spent the next-greatest sum, with $615,422 channeled to Trump Tower and the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC. Qatar spent $465,744 at Trump World Tower, a New York City apartment building. Other countries named in the report include Afghanistan, Kuwait, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates.
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Post by Webster on Jan 4, 2024 14:18:50 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Report details 'only a fraction' of foreign spending at Trump's businesses while president – top DemocratThe $7.8m spent by foreign governments at Donald Trump’s businesses during his presidency revealed in a report by House Democrats is “only a fraction” of what the former president may have actually received, a top lawmaker says. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democratic member on the House oversight committee, said lawmakers might have learned more if the panel’s Republican chair James Comer had not told Trump’s former accounting firm Mazars that it would no longer have to comply with a subpoena that was sent when Democrats controlled the chamber. “Despite Chairman Comer’s decision to bury further evidence, however, even this small slice of a picture of unknown proportions allows America to glimpse the rampant illegality and corruption of the Trump presidency. It is true that $7.8 million is almost certainly only a fraction of Trump’s harvest of unlawful foreign state money, but this figure in itself is a scandal and a decisive spur to action,” Raskin said. The Maryland lawmaker said he would propose a set of ethics reforms intended to stop presidents from benefiting from foreign spending. “We will develop a package of proposed legislative reforms to ensure that all occupants of the Oval Office abide by the Constitution’s unequivocal language commanding loyalty to the interests of the American people – not the interests of homicidal Saudi monarchs, totalitarian Chinese bureaucratic state capitalists, or other foreign actors looking to obtain policy favors and indulgences by paying off a president or his wholly owned businesses,” Raskin said.
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