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Post by Webster on Aug 10, 2023 14:19:06 GMT -5
(The Guardian) If Donald Trump does decide to attend the first GOP presidential debate on 23 August, here are the candidates he will likely share the stage with: -Florida governor Ron DeSantis -South Carolina Tim Scott -Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley -Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie -Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy -North Dakota governor Doug Burgum -Former vice president Mike Pence To qualify for the debate, candidates need to satisfy polling and donor requirements set by the Republican national committee: at least 1% in three high-quality national polls or a mix of national and early-state polls, between 1 July and 21 August, and a minimum of 40,000 donors, with 200 in 20 or more states.
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Post by Webster on Aug 15, 2023 11:19:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd called on the Republican party to “move beyond dealing with the former president’s baggage” in a statement this morning. “Another day, another indictment, and another example of how the former president’s baggage will hand Joe Biden reelection if Trump is the nominee,” Hurd said. This is further evidence that Trump knew he lost the 2020 election and was ready to do anything it took to cling to power. He will use the latest indictment as another opportunity to manipulate Americans into paying his legal bills.
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Post by Webster on Aug 15, 2023 11:22:19 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Among Republicans aiming to take Donald Trump down – the other candidates in the presidential primary field – many were slower to respond. But the biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has polled surprisingly strongly, said: I’d volunteer to write the amicus brief to the court myself: prosecutors should not be deciding US presidential elections, and if they’re so overzealous that they commit constitutional violations, then the cases should be thrown out and they should be held accountable.Ramaswamy also echoed the Trump campaign in seizing on a mistake in which a version of the indictment was posted on a court website on Monday afternoon and then swiftly deleted, all while grand jury testimony continued. “Since the four prosecutions against Trump are using novel and untested legal theories,” Ramaswamy said, “it’s fair game for him to do the same in defence: immediately file a motion to dismiss for a constitutional due process violation for publicly issuing an indictment before the grand jury had actually signed one. -- He should make a strong argument on these grounds and it would send a powerful message to the ever-expansive prosecutorial police state.Among the few candidates who have set themselves firmly against Trump, the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson said: Over a year ago, I said that Donald Trump’s actions disqualified him from ever serving as president again. Those words are more true today than ever before.The former congressman Will Hurd, like Hutchinson a vanishingly small presence in polling, called the Georgia indictment “another example of how the former president’s baggage will hand Joe Biden reelection if Trump is the nominee”. Bemoaning “further evidence that Trump knew he lost the 2020 election and was ready to do anything it took to cling to power”, Hurd said the former president would “use this latest indictment as another opportunity to manipulate Americans into paying his legal bills”.
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Post by Webster on Aug 15, 2023 11:26:36 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Ron DeSantis has lost his grip on second place in the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire, a new poll said on Tuesday. Donald Trump enjoyed a 40-point lead in the survey, from Emerson College Polling. That was broadly in line with the 91-times indicted former president’s leads in most national and early voting state polls. But in New Hampshire, according to Emerson at least, the former president and potential future felon has a new closest challenger. Chris Christie, a former New Jersey governor and former Trump friend and ally, was second with 9% support, a point ahead of DeSantis, the Florida governor whose campaign is widely seen to be tanking. Christie endorsed Trump in 2016, took a role planning his transition and stayed supportive throughout the chaotic presidency that followed. Finally splitting from Trump over his election subversion and incitement of the January 6 attack on Congress, the former governor has built his second presidential campaign on taking on Trump, using his blunt and hard-nosed style to slam the former president while demanding the party move on. New Hampshire offers Christie his best chance to make an impact on the primary, staging its vote second on the calendar, after Iowa. The first debate of the Republican primary, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a little more than a week away. Christie has qualified to appear, promising fireworks, although it remains unclear if Trump will show up to take part.
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Post by Webster on Aug 15, 2023 14:22:13 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 15, 2023 14:29:33 GMT -5
(The Guardian) US president Joe Biden just stepped up to the podium to speak in Milwaukee. Union leaders and members are there and so are some of Wisconsin’s senior Democrats, the state governor Tony Evers, US Senator Tammy Baldwin and congresswoman Gwen Moore. After hailing his fellow Democrats, Biden is now lamenting the disastrous wildfires that have decimated parts of Maui in Hawaii. Biden said he wants to go there as soon as it’s feasible – “as soon as I can” – but isn’t rushing there immediately so as not to “get in the way”, as a presidential visit is always a huge project for any locality.
Joe Biden is talking in Milwaukee at an Ingeteam factory, a company built on the drive for clean energy that manufactures onshore wind turbine generators. The US president is in the vital swing state of Wisconsin to talk about his “Bidenomics” policies to boost the embattled US middle class and US industries such as manufacturing, construction and semiconductor technology, especially those with strong union membership. He’s in Wisconsin on the eve of the anniversary of his signing into law a major bipartisan legislative plank, the healthcare, climate and tax package called the Inflation Reduction Act. The scene of Biden talking to crowds of union members cheering his touting of a “made in America” policy and green energy that he said has the potential to cheaper to power the US than fossil fuels provides a sharp contrast to his chief Republican rival for the White House, Donald Trump after the 2024 candidate hoping to return to the presidency was handed his fourth criminal indictment last night, in Georgia. Next week, the first Republican primary season debate will be held in Milwaukee.
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Post by Webster on Aug 15, 2023 14:30:11 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation has been “disappointing” and failed to deliver protections to car industry workers confronted by the transition to electric vehicles, according to the head of the US’s leading autoworkers union, which has pointedly withheld is endorsement of the president for next year’s election. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed by Biden a year ago this week, has bestowed huge incentives to car companies to manufacture electric vehicles without any accompanying guarantees over worker pay and conditions, Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), told the Guardian. “So far it’s been disappointing. If the IRA continues to bring sweatshops and a continued race to the bottom it will be a tragedy,” Fain said. -- This is our generation’s defining moment with electric vehicles. The government should invest in US manufacturing but money can’t go to companies with no strings attached. Labor needs a seat at the table. There should be labor standards built in, this is the future of the car industry at stake.The UAW, which is based in the car-making heartland of Detroit and has around 400,000 members, has so far refused to endorse Biden for next year’s presidential election, a major political headache for a president who has called himself a “union guy” and counts upon organized labor as a key part of his base, particularly in crucial midwest states such as Michigan. The ire of unions has been a thorny problem in the Biden administration’s attempts to speed the proliferation of electric vehicles and cut planet-heating emissions from transportation, the largest source of US carbon pollution.
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Post by Webster on Aug 15, 2023 14:31:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Florida governor and Donald Trump’s leading rival for the GOP presidential nomination in most polls, Ron DeSantis, was critical of the Georgia indictment. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, DeSantis said the indictment was “an example of this criminalization of politics. I don’t think that this is something that’s good for the country”. He also accused Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis of using an “inordinate amount of resources” on the Trump case while failing to tackle crime.
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Post by Webster on Aug 16, 2023 12:24:28 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden marks first anniversary of clean energy law, stays silent on Trump's latest Georgia indictmentA year ago today, Joe Biden signed into law the most significant piece of climate policy in US history. And on Wednesday, the president will spend the day leading a campaign to better explain to Americans what, exactly, it does. The Inflation Reduction Act, sometimes referred to as the IRA, directs hundreds of billions of dollars to speed the transition away from fossil fuels, helping to push consumers into buying electric vehicles and companies into producing renewable energy. But many Americans, even those who support Biden, don’t know much about it, according to Reuters. The president is scheduled to deliver remarks at the White House this afternoon, but he will almost certainly maintain his silence about the latest indictment against his predecessor, Donald Trump, involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Given that Trump is his chief rival in the 2024 presidential race, Biden has issued explicit orders to both administration and campaign officials not to discuss the criminal investigations into Trump. Meanwhile, the first GOP primary debate is a week away and all eyes are on the four-time-indicted Republican frontrunner. The former president hasn’t committed to attending the 23 August debate in Milwaukee, but he hasn’t completely ruled it out either.
Twelve months after the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, it is drawing mixed reviews, according to a Reuters report. Wall Street analysts have said the legislation has shown early signs of its economic power and predicted it will eventually lead to billions of dollars in new investments and thousands of new jobs. More than 270 new clean energy projects have been announced since it was passed 12 months ago, with investments totaling some $132bn, according to a Bank of America analyst report. Roughly half of those investment dollars are going to electric vehicles and batteries, with the rest going to renewable energy like solar, wind and nuclear. A report from Moody’s on Tuesday said: Over the past year, there have been signs that the legislation is contributing to a surge in clean energy manufacturing and related industries such as semiconductors, and factoring into companies’ investment decisions, including in the auto, utilities and oil and gas sectors.
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Post by Webster on Aug 16, 2023 12:25:54 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump’s free-speech defense in January 6 case is danger to democracy, experts sayDonald Trump’s dubious defense that he was exercising his free-speech rights in response to a four-count federal criminal indictment charging him with pushing illegal schemes to overturn his 2020 election loss is prompting ex-Department of Justice officials and scholars to criticize such claims as bogus and as threats to the rule of law. Despite special counsel Jack Smith’s detailed 45-page, four-count indictment of Trump for promoting several illegal schemes including organizing slates of fake electors in seven states to thwart Joe Biden’s victory, Trump and some top Republican allies have repeatedly portrayed his multi-pronged drive to stay in power as a free speech matter. But former justice department officials, scholars and ex-Republican House members say Trump’s actions and schemes went far beyond free speech, and that Trump and his allies are weakening the justice system and could breed new conspiracy theories by making a first amendment defense. Critics say Trump allies embracing his free-speech claims seem to be trying to cover themselves with the party’s base and to rationalize sticking with Trump, despite the indictment’s sizable body of damning evidence revealing Trump’s active role in unprecedented and illegal ploys to overturn the 2020 result.
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Post by Webster on Aug 16, 2023 12:26:47 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The justice department filed a four-count grand jury indictment against Donald Trump on 1 August that charged him with mounting several illegal efforts to stay in office – with help from six unnamed co-conspirators who were not charged – despite his loss to Joe Biden by 7m votes and no evidence of massive fraud, as Trump has falsely and repeatedly claimed. After pleading not guilty, Trump used one of his Truth Social posts on 3 August to charge that “the Radical Left wants to Criminalize Free Speech!” and cited comments from Republican allies echoing his claims. Trump’s lawyer John Lauro told CNN on 1 August that the charges against Trump are “an attack on free speech, and [on] political advocacy”. Justice department veterans say such claims are factually wrong and threaten the integrity of the legal system. “Trump is deliberately distorting the critical difference between just saying things and actively doing things that have criminal consequences,” said Donald Ayer, a deputy attorney general during George HW Bush’s administration. -- Obviously, he didn’t just talk about the idea that he won the election. The indictment lists several areas of conduct where he conspired and acted repeatedly to alter the outcome of the legitimate voting process that occurred. For Trump or others to now be claiming there is no difference between the two is to once again undermine the very idea that our society is governed by rules that people are required to follow.Similarly, ex-federal prosecutors say Trump is playing fast and loose with the facts, and mounting a dangerous defense. “The indictment highlights how Trump and his co-conspirators relied on speech not just to speak their truth or rally their adherents, but to push hard, behind the scenes, to pressure others into assisting the charged fraud,” said Columbia law professor and former federal prosecutor Daniel Richman, adding: Trump’s supporters likely know all this, but find it politically useful to wave the first amendment banner. It’s more for the crowds than for a courtroom. But the effect is simply to advance the theme of political victimhood, and undermine trust in the judicial process.
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Post by Webster on Aug 16, 2023 12:27:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden to visit Hawaii on Monday after deadly wildfiresPresident Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Maui on Monday to survey damage from the deadly wildfires that ravaged the resort town of Lahaina last week. The Bidens will meet with survivors of the fires, as well as first responders and other government officials, the White House said in a statement. They will “see firsthand the impacts of the wildfires and the devastating loss of life and land that has occurred on the island, as well as discuss the next steps in the recovery effort”, it said.
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Post by Webster on Aug 16, 2023 12:52:22 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Georgia election 'was not stolen', says Mike PenceFormer vice president Mike Pence said the Georgia election was not stolen in 2020 and that “no one is above the law” after Donald Trump was indicted in the state’s election subversion case. Pence, at the National Conference of State Legislatures legislative summit in Indianapolis today, said: Despite what the former president and his allies have said, for now more than two and a half years, and continue to insist to this very hour, the Georgia election was not stolen and I had no right to overturn the election on January 6.Pence’s remarks were his first since the indictment was handed down on Monday, and mark a new full-court press in recent days surrounding his certification of the 2020 election results, Politico reported. The former vice-president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate added: No one is above (the) law. And the president and all those implicated are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
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Post by Webster on Aug 16, 2023 17:11:43 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden says IRA has taken on special interests and is winningPresident Joe Biden has started his speech marking the first anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, which he described as “one of the most significant laws … of taking on a special interest and winning”. Biden begins thanking Vice-President Kamala Harris and members of Congress who played a “pivotal” role in getting the bill passed. “Everyone was telling us there’s no possibility with the divided Congress the way it was,” he said.
Biden says more jobs have been created in the two years since he took office than any administration has in a single four-year term. The US has more jobs than before the pandemic, he says, and workers are finding better, higher-paying and higher-satisfaction jobs. Meanwhile, unemployment and inflation are down, he says. He attributes inflation falling to “corporate profits coming back down to earth”.
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Post by Webster on Aug 16, 2023 17:16:19 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden says the Inflation Reduction Act is bringing jobs back to the US. -- We’re leaving nobody behind. We’re investing in all of America, in the heartland and coast to coast.
Biden says his administration is also boosting the nation’s energy security after years in which China dominated the clean energy supply chains. He says the time is over in which the answer has been to find the cheapest labor, and then to import the product from abroad. “Not any more,” he says. “We are building it here and sending the product over here.” The Inflation Reduction Act is projected to help triple wind power and increase solar power eightfold by 2030, he says.
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