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Post by Webster on Aug 24, 2023 16:41:07 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie appeared on Morning Joe following Wednesday evening’s debate during which he refused to raise his hand when the presidential candidates were asked whether they would support Donald Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee. Christie spoke about the other candidates who raised their hands, saying: “I can only assume it’s because they’re auditioning for what they’re praying to be a future vice-president nomination or cabinet bid in a Trump administration.” -- The problem for them is that Donald Trump is never going to be president of the United States again … When someone says they’re willing to suspend the constitution, that they took an oath to preserve, protect and defend. That’s just wrong …… It’s not a hard answer for them either, but they’re playing a political game.
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Post by Webster on Aug 24, 2023 21:02:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) For all the spectacle the arrest of Donald Trump and his co-defendants provided in Georgia, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports that it is unlikely to change the basic dynamics of next year’s presidential election: One by one this week, they’ve made their way to 901 Rice Street, the address of the notorious Fulton county jail. Lawyers, government officials, a former state party chair and others have all surrendered to authorities after being charged as part of an alleged criminal effort to overturn the 2020 election.
On Thursday, the head of that enterprise, Donald Trump, himself surrendered, marking another historic moment for a president who has reshaped the rules of American politics. This is the closest that Trump has been to a jail cell to date and serves as a blunt reminder that no American or former president is above the law.
Like nearly everything Trump does, his surrender was orchestrated to be a spectacle. He deliberately timed his surrender, 7.30pm, to maximize cable news coverage. Reporters camped outside the jail all day on Thursday as temperatures reached mid-90F and Trump supporters gathered for a demonstration. There was wall-to-wall news coverage of Trump’s motorcade and arrival at the jail. While politicians typically try and shift attention away from their criminal legal troubles, Trump has embraced it, feeding into the circuit by advertising his surrender time.
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Post by Webster on Aug 25, 2023 12:56:09 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 25, 2023 12:57:24 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Vivek Ramaswamy raised $450,000 in first hours after GOP debateVivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur and GOP presidential hopeful, took in $450,000 in the hours after his appearance at the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday. Ramaswamy, a political newcomer whose bid for the GOP nomination has been hit by recent scandals over remarks that suggested sympathy for conspiracy theories around the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the January 6 assault on the Capitol, took in an average donation of $38, campaign spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told AP on Thursday. Ramaswamy has largely been self-funding his campaign. On Wednesday night, he repeatedly said all the other presidential candidates onstage in Milwaukee were “bought and paid for” by donors. Revealed: Vivek Ramaswamy’s deep ties to rightwing kingpinsVivek Ramaswamy has described himself as an “outsider”, accusing rivals for the Republican presidential nomination of being “bought and paid for” by donors and special interests. But the 38-year-old Ohio-based venture capitalist, whose sharp-elbowed and angry display stood out in the first Republican debate this week, has his own close ties to influential figures from both sides of the political aisle. Prominent among such connections are Peter Thiel, the co-founder of tech giants PayPal and Palantir and a rightwing megadonor, and Leonard Leo, the activist who has marshaled unprecedented sums in his push to stock federal courts with conservative judges. Ramaswamy is a Yale Law School friend of JD Vance, the author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy who enjoyed success in finance before entering politics. At Yale, Vance and Ramaswamy attended what the New Yorker called an “intimate lunch seminar for select students” that was hosted by Thiel. Last year, backed by Thiel and espousing hard-right Trumpist views, Vance won a US Senate seat in Ohio. Thiel has since said he has stepped back from political donations. But he has backed Ramaswamy’s business career, supporting what the New Yorker called “a venture helping senior citizens access Medicare” and, last year, backing Strive Asset Management, a fund launched by Ramaswamy to attack environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies among corporate investors. Vance was also a backer. Ramaswamy’s primary vehicle to success has been Roivant, an investment company focused on the pharmaceuticals industry founded in 2014. The Roivant advisory board includes figures from both the Republican and Democratic establishments: Kathleen Sebelius, US health secretary under Barack Obama; Tom Daschle of South Dakota, formerly Democratic leader in the US Senate; and Olympia Snowe, formerly a Republican senator from Maine.
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Post by Webster on Aug 25, 2023 13:29:58 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Polls of Republican primary voters have generally shown Donald Trump swamping his competitors, and a NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom survey released earlier this week was no different. It showed 42% of voters in Iowa, the first state to vote in the Republican nomination process, naming Trump as their top choice. Florida governor Ron DeSantis comes in second place with 19% support, and all the other contenders ending up with mere single-digit support. But, polls in Iowa have sometimes overstated a candidate’s position, such as in 1996, when Republican senator Bob Dole appeared to be leading in the state by a huge margin, only to win it barely when the caucuses were actually held. (He eventually won the GOP presidential nomination, only to lose the general election to incumbent Bill Clinton.) Could such a dynamic repeat itself on 15 January of next year, when the GOP caucuses will be held? In an analysis, NBC News reports there’s no indication of that happening, at least not yet – the survey’s data shows Trump is in an even better position in the Hawkeye state than Dole was: But a look one level deeper than the horse-race numbers uncovers some key differences between the two situations. The first is that Dole’s initial support was clearly soft. In that 1995 Register poll, only 28% of Dole’s supporters said their minds were made up to vote for him; 67% said they were open to backing someone else.
The numbers for Trump in the 2023 poll are exactly reversed: 67% of his current supporters say their minds are made up, and they are not open to the idea of supporting other candidates. Plus, 72% of respondents overall in that 1995 poll said their minds weren’t yet made up, compared with 52% in 2023. That means the atmosphere was more volatile and the potential for Dole to lose significant ground was apparent from the start. To compare the polls is to recognize that Trump may have already locked down more support than Dole ended up receiving in the actual caucuses.
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Post by Webster on Aug 28, 2023 11:35:43 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump ally fears trials will derail campaigningCourt cases are unpredictable, but with Donald Trump facing four different criminal indictments spread over three states and Washington DC, it seems likely he’ll be spending at least some of his time in courtrooms next year. The graphic above outlines what we know of his trials’ schedule so far. All that court time could conflict with his campaign to win back the White House in next year’s election. Over the weekend, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports that one of his allies said as much, and even went so far as to accuse prosecutors of conspiring to keep him away from his presidential run: Donald Trump’s legal spokesperson has predicted that forthcoming early trial dates in the former president’s four criminal cases will not hold, and that his multiple cases could clash with the final stages of the 2024 presidential election campaign and voting.
Alina Habba told the Fox News Sunday show that prosecutors’ plans for fast turnarounds in Trump’s two federal criminal cases and the state indictments in New York and Georgia amounted to “unrealistic theatrics”. She said that each of the trials would last from four to six weeks, raising the threat of overlapping schedules. “No judge is going to say you can be in two trials in two different states, because a lot of these overlap. They are going to have to go into October, November of next year,” she said.
Habba, who acts as general counsel for the Trump-supporting political fundraising group Save America PAC, claimed that the possibility of extending the trials right up to election day, 5 November, next year, was “by design”.
She claimed, without providing evidence, that Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county in Georgia who is leading the prosecution of Trump over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia, and Jack Smith, the special counsel who has spearheaded the two federal indictments, were engaged in a “coordinated effort” with partisan motive. “We know this is intentional – it’s to tie [Trump] up, it’s definitely political,” Habba said.
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Post by Webster on Aug 28, 2023 17:20:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Donald Trump saw a slight drop in support among Republican primary voters after skipping the first GOP debate last week, according to a new poll. The poll by Emerson College, which was conducted 25-26 August, found that 50% of GOP primary voters said they plan to vote for the former president, down from 56% in a pre-debate survey. Trump still maintains a huge 38% lead over his closest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley had the biggest post-debate gain, jumping from 2% to 7%. DeSantis gained two points to 12%. Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement: While Trump saw a slight dip in support, the question from this poll is whether this is a blip for Trump or if the other Republican candidates will be able to rally enough support to be competitive for the caucus and primary season.
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Post by Webster on Aug 28, 2023 17:21:23 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Florida governor Ron DeSantis has announced $1m for heightened security at a historically Black college, a day after he was booed at a memorial gathering for victims of a deadly racist shooting in his state. DeSantis said his administration would give $1m to Edward Waters University to enhance its security after the gunman in this weekend’s racist killings at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville tried to enter the historically Black college but was denied entry. DeSantis said that an additional $100,000 would be given to a charity for the victims’ families. “As I’ve said for the last couple of days, we are not going to allow our HBCUs to be targeted by these people,” DeSantis said. “We’re going to provide security help with them.” DeSantis’s funding measure comes as he faces criticism for limiting Black history education in Florida, a move that many have condemned as racist. DeSantis has also come under renewed scrutiny for his support of expanded gun access in his state. The Florida governor signed legislation in April that allows resident to carry concealed guns without a permit.
On Sunday, Ron DeSantis was jeered while speaking at a memorial that drew a crowd of nearly 200 to remember the victims of the Dollar General shooting. “He don’t care,” an attendee shouted as DeSantis was being introduced, the Hill reported. At one point, a council member came to DeSantis’s defense and attempted to quiet the crowd, but the booing continued. “It ain’t about parties today,” said Jacksonville city councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman. “A bullet don’t know a party.” DeSantis referred to the shooter as a “major-league scumbag” in his remarks, adding that Florida opposed racist violence. “What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “We are not going to let people be targeted based on their race.”
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Post by Webster on Aug 30, 2023 8:26:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden to speak about Hurricane Idalia todayPresident Joe Biden is expected to give a speech this afternoon laying out his administration’s response to Hurricane Idalia. Biden will “deliver remarks on the whole-of-government response and recovery efforts on Maui, Hawaii and the ongoing response from the federal government to Hurricane Idalia”, CNN quoted a White House official as saying. The speech is scheduled to take place at 1.45pm eastern time (6.45pm BST).
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Post by Webster on Aug 31, 2023 16:30:30 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Sept 1, 2023 15:14:38 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republican politicians have a long record of claiming to be the party that supports the police, but as NBC News reports, a man who told officers to “go hang yourself” on January 6 is currently working for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. “If you are a police officer and are going to abide by unconstitutional bulls---, I want you to do me a favor right now and go hang yourself, because you’re a piece of s---,” said Dylan Quattrucci, the deputy state director of Trump’s campaign in New Hampshire, in a video he recorded on January 6 near the Capitol. “Go f--- yourself.” Quattrucci’s position makes him the number-two figure in Trump’s campaign in the state, which is the second to vote in the GOP’s nominating process. Trump is currently the frontrunner is most polls of Republican primary voters, both nationwide and in New Hampshire. The video was first posted on Twitter by “Sedition Hunters”, an online group focused on tracking down participants in the January 6 attack. NBC News reports there’s no evidence Quattrucci entered the Capitol itself, though on his Twitter account, he does have a picture of himself posing with Trump at a New Hampshire campaign office.
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Post by Webster on Sept 4, 2023 14:25:21 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Sept 5, 2023 13:26:25 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Jill Biden contracts Covid-19, president tests negativeYesterday, the White House announced that first lady Jill Biden had tested positive for Covid-19, but the president appears to have avoided the virus. “This evening, the first lady tested positive for Covid-19. She is currently experiencing only mild symptoms. She will remain at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware,” her communications director Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement. “Following the first lady’s positive test for Covid-19, President Biden was administered a Covid test this evening. The president tested negative. The President will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said minutes later. Both Joe and Jill Biden came down with Covid-19 in the summer of 2022, and recovered without side effects.
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Post by Webster on Sept 5, 2023 13:36:56 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Donald Trump is facing four different criminal indictments, and as the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports, could soon be the subject of a supreme court case that will determine whether he can continue as a presidential candidate: The US supreme court is likely to soon determine whether Donald Trump is eligible to run for president in 2024, the well-respected former federal judge Michael Luttig said on Sunday.
Some legal experts believe Trump could be disqualified under section 3 of the 14th amendment. The measure bars someone from holding federal office if they have “previously taken an oath … to support the constitution” and subsequently “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same”. Interpreting that language, Luttig and some other prominent conservative scholars have concluded Trump’s actions on January 6 and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election bar him from running for president.
Other scholars have been more skeptical of a disqualification claim, questioning whether Trump’s conduct actually amounted to insurrection.
The provision has never been enforced and it is unclear what the exact mechanism for doing so would be. Secretaries of state, who are charged with overseeing candidate eligibility requirements, are studying how the process will probably play out. “This is one of the most fundamental questions that could ever be decided under our constitution,” Luttig said on Sunday during an appearance on MSNBC’s Velshi. “And it will be decided by the supreme court of the United States sooner rather than later, and most likely before the first primaries.”
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Post by Webster on Sept 6, 2023 13:19:01 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Let 'the facts take it where it may' in January 6 cases, Harris saysIn an interview with the Associated Press, Kamala Harris broke the White House’s relative silence on the prosecutions of Donald Trump and others for trying to overturn the 2020 election, and said those responsible for the campaign should be held accountable. “Let the evidence, the facts, take it where it may,” the vice-president in an interview held during a trip to Indonesia, where she is attending a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “I spent the majority of my career as a prosecutor,” said Harris, a former attorney general of California. “I believe that people should be held accountable under the law. And when they break the law, there should be accountability.” Biden and other top White House officials have generally stayed mum as prosecutors have indicted Trump for the Mar-a-Lago documents and his campaign to overturn the 2020 election. Two of the cases Trump is facing were brought by Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, whom Biden nominated for the job. -Read more: apnews.com/article/harris-2024-election-vice-president-7ecabc8d9f0117edad8e83a0c37c9134
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