Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., criticized Democratic strategist James Carville and defended his position on Israel in an interview with Politico. When asked about former President Trump’s lead over President Biden in multiple polls, Fetterman said he wasn’t concerned, unlike some in his party.
“But that doesn’t really matter,” Fetterman said of the polls in an interview published Wednesday. “There’s a whole lifetime in politics between now and next November as well. I’m not worried about that. And I’m very vocal about this, too, while there are Democrats that are being very critical about the president… I’ll use this [as] another opportunity to tell James Carville to shut the f— up.”
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., right, bashed Democratic strategist James Carville and defended his position on Israel in an interview with Politico. (HBO screenshot | Getty Images)
“Like I said,” Fetterman continued, “my man hasn’t been relevant since grunge was a thing. And I don’t know why he believes it’s helpful to say these kinds of things about an incredibly difficult circumstance with an incredibly strong and decent and excellent president. I’ll never understand that.”
Carville has argued in recent months that Democrats should be concerned about Biden’s waning popularity with voters and especially with the president’s age. At 81 years old, Biden is the oldest serving president in American history.
“The idea that this should not be aired out and should be discussed in hushed tones is ludicrous,” Carville has said of Biden’s poll numbers. “This needs to be discussed.”
In his conversation with Politico, Fetterman also responded to criticism from the left over the Israel-Hamas war.
In light of increased criticism from Democrats, Fetterman has stated that he no longer considers himself a “progressive,” especially when considering his support for Israel and a secure border. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“I grieve, and it’s awful, the incredible civilian deaths and the suffering,” the Pennsylvania senator said of the war, which began after the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7. “It’s awful. War is hell, as they say.”
“But only one side has used civilians as human shields,” Fetterman continued. “Only one side has broken the ceasefires. Only one side will systematically rape, torture and mutilate Israeli women and girls in the most unspeakable, awful ways… Without destroying Hamas, there will be no enduring peace and a stable, two-state solution.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also calling for the destruction of Hamas as a prerequisite to peace. In an op-ed published Monday in The Wall Street Journal, Netanyahu declared that “Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized, and Palestinian society must be deradicalized” in order for there to be a lasting peace in the region.
Fetterman’s office and Carville did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
Jeffrey Clark is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. He has previously served as a speechwriter for a cabinet secretary and as a Fulbright teacher in South Korea. Jeffrey graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a degree in English and History.
As 2024 and the presidential elections come into view, the nation braces for a Black Swan (unexpected national event) event as the current regime lashes out with everything they’ve got to stop Trump and the America First populist movement. By current regime we mean Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Suzanne Rice and their handlers in the World Economic Forum, George Soros-backed think tanks and the global billionaire class personified by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, et al…. READ MORE…
New Poll Finds Most People Believe Liberal Media Bias is Worse Than Ever
The media has always been biased against conservatives in favor of Democrats but most people think the problem is worse than ever, according to new polling from Rasmussen. The Trump era has broken a lot of people but it is especially evident in the media. They don’t even really try to hide it anymore.
They openly advocate for Biden and Democrats while parroting the talking point that Trump is threat to democracy. A 2021 international poll found the US ranked last among 46 countries in trust in media.The media has really damaged itself. Millions of Americans no longer… READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to decide whether a man involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol assault can be charged with obstructing an official proceeding, a case with potential implications for the prosecution of Donald Trump.
The man is one of at least 325 people facing that charge for their alleged roles in the attack, which has also been brought against the Republican former president in the federal case charging him with trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat by Democrat President Joe Biden.
The justices said nothing about the Trump prosecution in agreeing to take up the case, but legal experts said Trump’s lawyers could argue that the court’s move should delay the start of his Washington trial on election subversion charges, currently due to begin in March.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination to challenge Biden, is facing four concurrent criminal prosecutions. But the Washington case brought by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith is scheduled to begin first and is seen as the likeliest to be resolved before the Nov. 5 election.
The case taken up Wednesday by the justices involves defendant Joseph Fischer, who was indicted on seven charges following the Jan. 6 riot. Among his charges is one count under a provision of federal criminal law for anyone who “corruptly … obstructs, influences and impedes any official proceeding.”
The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the case in the coming months and issue a ruling by the end of June.
It was not immediately clear how the Supreme Court’s action on Wednesday might affect Trump’s case. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Typically, the Supreme Court agreeing to review an issue in one case would not be a basis for pausing a separate case that raises the same issue, said Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and former top federal prosecutor appointed by then-President Barack Obama. Still, McQuade said she expects Trump’s legal team to make the argument because delay “has been his strategy throughout all of these cases.”
LIMITED FOCUS FOR CHARGE?
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, granted Fischer’s pretrial motion to dismiss his obstruction charges, ruling that the statute applied only in cases in which a defendant had taken “some action with respect to a document, record or other object.”
Federal prosecutors appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A divided three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit in April reversed Nichols’ ruling, saying the statute was not limited to documents and records, but instead “applies to all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding.”
The charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison with a conviction.
Fischer is awaiting trial on his other criminal charges, including one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers and one count of civil disorder, among other charges.
After the election, Trump and his allies made claims that it had been stolen from him through widespread voting fraud. On Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress met to certify Biden’s victory, protesters stormed the Capitol, broke through barricades, attacked police officers, and vandalized the building, prompting lawmakers and others to flee for safety.
In federal charges brought by Special Counsel Smith, Trump faces four counts related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; and conspiracy to deprive citizens of their voting rights.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to his election-related charges, as well as charges stemming from three other ongoing state or federal criminal prosecutions.
Former President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that he “wanted to testify” in his civil fraud trial in New York on Monday, but said he couldn’t because of the limited gag order from Judge Arthur Engoron.
“I wanted to testify on Monday, despite the fact that I already testified successfully, answering all questions having to do with the Fake, No Victims, No Jury lawsuit, thrown at me by the Corrupt Racist A.G., Letitia James, and presided over by a Trump hating judge who suffers from a massive case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and is a puppet for the CROOKED A.G.,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social page.
Trump added that Engoron “put a GAG ORDER on me, even when I testify, totally taking away my constitutional right to defend myself,” and said his side is appealing. “How would you like to be a witness and not be allowed free and honest speech. THE TRIAL IS RIGGED. I DID NOTHING WRONG!!!”
Trump on Sunday said he wouldn’t testify, saying that the evidence in his case is strong.
In a statement to ABC News on Monday, Trump attorney Chris Kise said he also partially blamed the limited gag order for Trump’s decision against taking the stand.
“There is really nothing more to say to a Judge who has imposed an unconstitutional gag order and thus far appears to have ignored President Trump’s testimony and that of everyone else involved in the complex financial transactions at issue in the case,” Kise said.
Meanwhile, Engoron said Tuesday that he will allow James to call two witnesses during the state’s rebuttal after the Trump team rests its case, and Kise argued that the “government has held these witnesses back. “
State Attorney Kevin Wallace said the rebuttal witnesses — former Trump Organization executive Kevin Sneddon and Cornell professor Eric Lewis — will only discuss arguments made in court, but Kise said they’ll be “filling a hole” left by the defense team’s lack of evidence.
Engoron, though, said he saw “no reason not to allow these two purported experts to testify.” Trump attorneys said they may present an additional witness after the state’s rebuttal.
Minneapolis Police department is hiring because it is way understaffed but would want a job with low pay and low rewards and at the risk of going to jail or prison for just doing your job.
Attorneys threaten more legal action against Minneapolis for failing to hire police
The UMLC demanded that Minneapolis take “concrete measures” to meet the minimum staffing requirement of 731 police officers.
The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) sent a letter Monday to the City of Minneapolis demanding that the city fulfill its obligation to fund, employ, and retain a minimum of 731 police officers.
In its letter, the UMLC, a public interest law firm that specializes in constitutional violations, called out Minneapolis for failing to abide by Minnesota Supreme Court case Spann v. Minneapolis CityCouncil…. READ MORE
Cartoon – The Authoritarian left trying to silence and jail their political opponents are accusing Trump of being an Authoritarian Dictator.
It is becoming evident that the accusations against Trump stem from political motivations rather than a genuine concern for democratic values. The Corporate Media, Soros Prosecutors, and the Democrats, in collaboration with elements within the DOJ and FBI, seek to undermine Trump’s campaign by painting him as an authoritarian figure. This strategy was employed to delegitimize his administration(Russia Hoax), hinder his policy agenda, and now destroy his 2024 campaign.
The allegation that Trump is an authoritarian dictator, as espoused by the Left, DOJ, FBI, and the Democratic Party, is viewed skeptically by many because their accusations are politically motivated and reflect a paradox wherein those making the claims are themselves exhibiting authoritarian tendencies. This underscores the importance of maintaining a robust and unbiased justice system to ensure the protection of our judicial, constitutional, and American values, regardless of political affiliations.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Sometimes, former President Donald Trump’s political opponents tell you what they want to hear rather than what is actually said, all the while embracing the vice they seek to level upon him.
Speaking to supporters at Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Dec. 2, Trump accused his opponents of waging a war on democracy, stating, “From that day on our opponents, and we had a lot of opponents, but we’ve been waging an all-out war in American democracy. You look at what they’ve been doing, and becoming more and more extreme and repressive. They have just waged an all-out war with each passing day.”
Taking that rather clear statement about his opponents’ campaign to see him jailed, Salon.com’s Kelly McClure misquoted him in a Dec. 3 piece “Trump’s ‘war on democracy’ fumble sparks backlash” claiming he “said the quiet part out loud…” READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
The biggest loser of Thursday night’s debate between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom was us, the voters. For far too long party officials have had a stranglehold on how candidates are vetted, presented, and nominated. If the “Red vs. Blue State” debate was successful, it could have been the jumping-off point for other networks, third-party candidates, or donors to sponsor and create better opportunities for voters to see candidates in more diverse settings and formats. Sadly, it was unsuccessful for everyone involved.
Kudos to Sean Hannity for making it happen and kudos to Newsom for showing up to a forum he knew would be tilted toward DeSantis. Despite his actual performance, Newsom is the only person in his party that would have agreed to debate in that environment in the first place. Could you even imagine Vice President Kamala Harris in place of Newsom last night? It might have ended her political career. The reality is we know the White House would have never, ever allowed her to appear.
It’s hard to be critical of Hannity’s handling of the debate chaos because, short of cutting their mics off, there wasn’t much he could do besides appeal to both men several times to stop behaving like toddlers. It is unbecoming of governors, let alone presidential candidates, to talk over one another, and keep repeating the same statistic or practiced line. Still, Hannity deserves credit for pulling it off despite the fact that Trump and those around him aren’t thrilled he gave DeSantis the prime-time opportunity. Hannity has spoken openly about his personal relationship with Trump and his family, but he gave DeSantis airtime and a unique venue anyway.
Wearing the Hat vs. the Jersey
If you watch sports or attend games in person, you know the difference between a fan who is wearing a hat and the one who is wearing a jersey. A hat doesn’t have your favorite player’s name on it, just the team. A jersey has a specific player’s number and (with few exceptions) their last name. Fight in the stands? Most likely between fans who have jerseys on, not hats. In primary season, political pundits, donors, and early supporters have jerseys on, but regular voters who are living their lives mostly have hats on, or are willing to switch jerseys when the primary dust settles. How you think this debate went for DeSantis largely depends on whether you are wearing a DeSantis jersey or a GOP hat.
If you are wearing the DeSantis jersey, you think he crushed Newsom and embarrassed him with several references to the French Laundry incident and Newsom’s kids going to in-person private school while the rest of his state’s children were at home. You thought it was a nice touch when he talked about San Francisco police officers approaching him and thanking him for his support of law enforcement because they don’t get that in California. You were giddy when he pulled out both his paper props from his suit jacket to shame Newsom over the graphic nature of a book and a print-out of a San Francisco human feces map. If you have a DeSantis jersey on, it was a good event, even if all he got was major screen time without Nikki Haley zinging bad one-liners at him all night.
If you are wearing the GOP hat, maybe you didn’t see it the same way. You saw a presidential candidate that had some shades of Marco Rubio circa 2016 getting wrecked by Chris Christie. The repetitive talking points and stats in the face of a full-on frontal assault by Newsom is troublesome. You saw a guy who practiced all the stories he was going to tell last night (father-in-law, French Laundry, Newsom kids in person at private school) and still couldn’t tell them well.
You were thinking: if Trump told these exact same stories they would have landed with such force that Gavin’s White House dreams might have died on that stage last night. You also might be thinking that if Nikki Haley told those same stories she would have raised millions more dollars for her campaign. You saw a guy with a friendly moderator not be able to shift on the fly and bury Newsom when everything (data, history, and truth) was on his side. You also know that Donald Trump wouldn’t need to pull out crumpled paper to embarrass Newsom. He could have told those exact two stories without the props just as effectively.
A friend of mine who wears a GOP hat, not a jersey, texted me, “I don’t think he is good on his feet” during the debate, and he isn’t alone in that assessment. GOP hat-wearers are very perceptive and watched DeSantis Thursday night wondering if he has the stand-up skills to go to metaphorical war with whomever is occupying the other podium.
I am not sure last night moved the needle for DeSantis but how it’s perceived is very different by those wearing DeSantis jerseys versus those wearing GOP hats. It was a wasted opportunity for some much-needed change of the political process and for both participants.
Aaron DeCorte has worked in sales and marketing for more than 25 years. His wife is a 9-1-1 operator for their local police department.
Millions of Twitter accounts that interacted with former President Donald Trump’s online profile appear to be under the purview of special counsel Jack Smith’s search warrant from January of this year, according to a government transparency suit.
The court-authorized warrant on Twitter, which the tech company fought and even attempted to warn Trump about, sought “all information from … the [Trump] account, including all lists of Twitter users who have favorited or retweeted tweets posted by the account, as well as all tweets that include the username associated with the account (i.e. ‘mentions’ or ‘replies’).” The highly specific request potentially implicates millions of users on the platform, now known as X, just because they liked or retweeted a Trump post.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
It is hard not to see the difference between Thanksgiving in 2019 with low inflation, cheap gas, no new wars, low food costs, and an excellent overall economy compared to Thanksgiving 2023. Trump’s Horn-of-Plenty vs. Biden’s Horn of Disaster.
This Thanksgiving, I’m giving thanks that Trump has a good chance of being elected back into the White House to clean up Biden and the Democrats’ mess they have perpetrated on the American people. But, having pointed out the obvious, I hope we can ignore the Biden/Democrat disaster for one day and focus on what’s really important: God, Family, and Friends.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Cartoon on the documentary that features more than a dozen interviews with the people directly involved, including exclusive interviews with former officers Derek Chauvin and Alexander Kueng who spoke to Liz Collin from prison.
The film is based on Liz Collin’s Amazon bestseller, “They’re Lying: The Media, The Left, and The Death of George Floyd,” which exposes the holes in the prevailing narrative surrounding George Floyd’s death, the trial of Derek Chauvin, and the fallout the city of Minneapolis has suffered ever since.
The documentary features more than a dozen interviews with the people directly involved, including exclusive interviews with former officers Derek Chauvin and Alexander Kueng who spoke to Liz Collin from prison. The families of Chauvin and Kueng also speak out publicly for the first time.
The film also features current and former Minneapolis police officers who tell their harrowing stories from the riots, recount the planned surrender of the Third Precinct, and explain why so many of them left the job. READ MORE….
Barbara Streisand is among the many celebrities who claim they are leaving America if Donald Tromp is elected again. May I recommend they move to the GAZA strip war zone that her party, the Democrats, helped to create with all the money sent to the number one State sponsor of terrorism, Iran, by Obama and Biden?
It shows how little those celebrities care about the middle-class everyday folks whose life was much better under Trump with low fuel prices, lower food cost, cost of living, inflation, and no new wars. Some experts say that a dollar under Trump is now worth less than .85 cents under Biden exercising Democrat policies. But rich celebrities could care less about that; they rather bitterly cling to their fantasy land politics to the detriment of the rest of us Americans.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Hillary and the left are calling Trump Hitler, saying that he is going to arrest his opponents if elected President again like the dictator, (although he could have done this while he was president but didn’t). You know, just exactly what they are doing to him right now, using law-fare to try and keep him off the 2024 ballot. The left are being anti-democratic while claiming to save democracy. This is a prime example of the left accusing their opposition of exactly what they are doing, right out of the Saul Alinsky/Stalin/Mao handbook.
Trump is the one who has been working within and abiding by the legal system under the Constitution while they weaponize the legal system and disregard all reasonable legal protocols to destroy him.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Will the choice in the 2024 election be Tick(Biden) or Treat(Trump)? This is just a thought that came to me this Halloween season after all the damage that Obama 2.0 has done to our country under Biden.
This disaster isn’t just Obama/Biden policies. This is Democrat policy, and unless we get Trump in Office along with taking over the Senate and the House, we will have no hope to save this country. Illegal immigrants Hordes of thousands are coming across our border every day. This is going to destroy our Republic as it was founded based on freedom and justice under the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Governor Gavin Newsom, in an effort to look presidential, takes a trip to Communist China to lick their boots and kiss their ring while ignoring their human rights atrocities and the genocidal slave labor treatment of the Uyghurs.
Governor Newscom is running a covert not-so-stealthy campaign for president, smelling blood in the water with Joe Biden’s failing poll numbers and cognitive decline. Still, he’s not fooling anyone but possibly the mainstream media and a few sycophant followers.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday added his name to the list of people congratulating newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who secured the gavel through a unanimous party-line vote, ending the weekslong impasse to pick a new speaker after the ouster earlier this month of Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the seat.
“Congratulations to Rep. Mike Johnson,” Trump posted on his Truth Social page, shortly after the House vote. “He will be a GREAT “SPEAKER.” MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
“My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!” Trump wrote in a post.
Johnson’s nomination came Tuesday, marking the fourth person to be nominated for the leadership seat. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., was nominated earlier in the day but dropped his bid, leaving the candidacy open for Johnson.
Trump, though, said he would not make an endorsement in the speakership race after offering his congratulations to other candidates, including “Reps. Byron Donalds (Florida), Charles J. ‘Chuck’ Fleischmann (Tennessee), Mark Green (Tennessee), & Roger Williams (Texas), & the ultimate winner of yesterday’s vote, by a significant margin, Mike Johnson (Louisiana).”
He said all of them had supported him “in both mind and spirit, from the very beginning of our GREAT 2016 Victory and commented that “In 2024, we will have an even bigger, & more important, WIN!”
Biden’s open-border policies have allowed innumerable criminals and terrorists into our country, leaving many Americans feeling fearful. Add to that Hamas’ barbaric invasion of Israel and pro-Palestine rallies on American turf, and citizens want to know how our leadership plans to keep the American people safe from terrorism.
Luckily, Donald Trump has a plan, and according to Pat Gray, it’s “brilliant.”
The plan is called “Agenda 47,” and it will “reinstate and expand Trump travel bans on entry from terror-plagued countries, territories, and places,” reports Pat.
“Let’s back off allowing Saudis into our country, Yemenis into our country, people from Kuwait – you don’t know what their intent is,” says Pat.
Jeffy agrees and adds that “all the other countries surrounding Israel and Gaza” are certainly “[not] opening up their gates for the Palestinians.”
“There’s a reason for that,” responds Pat, adding, “They don’t trust them either.”
The second part of Agenda 47 involves “[reimplementing] a full suspension of State Department Refugee resettlement that would include Gaza,” as well as “[implementing] strong ideological screening for all immigrants to the United States – sympathy for jihadists, Hamas, or Hamas ideology will be automatically disqualifying.”
“That just makes sense,” says Pat.
Thirdly, Agenda 47 will aim to “aggressively deport resident aliens with jihadist sympathies” and “revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners at colleges and universities.”
Trump’s plan will also “proactively send ICE to pro-jihadist demonstrations to enforce our immigration laws and remove the violators from our country, continue and expand denaturalization of criminals, terrorists, and immigration cheats … and finally invoke the Alien Enemies Act to accelerate domestic deportations.”
Agenda 47 “doesn’t seem radical to me; it just seems like common sense,” says Pat.
To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Republicans chose Rep. Jim Jordan as their new nominee for House speaker on Friday during internal voting, putting the gavel within reach of the staunch ally of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. Jordan, of Ohio, will now try to unite colleagues from the deeply divided House GOP majority around his bid ahead of a floor vote, which could push to next week.
Frustrated House Republicans have been fighting bitterly over whom they should elect to replace the speaker they ousted, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and the future direction of their party. The stalemate, now in its second week, has thrown the House into chaos, grinding all other business to a halt.
“I think Jordan would do a great job,” McCarthy said ahead of the vote. “We got to get this back on track.”
Attention swiftly turned to Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman and founder of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, as the next potential candidate after Majority Leader Steve Scalise abruptly ended his bid when it became clear holdouts would refuse to back him.
But not all Republicans want to see Jordan as speaker, second in line to the presidency. Overwhelmed and exhausted, anxious GOP lawmakers worry their House majority is being frittered away to countless rounds of infighting and some don’t want to reward Jordan’s wing, which sparked the turmoil.
“If we’re going to be the majority party, we have to act like the majority party,” said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., who posed a last-ditch challenge to Jordan.
While the firebrand Jordan has a long list of detractors who started making their opposition known, Jordan’s supporters said voting against the Trump ally during a public vote on the House floor would be tougher since he is so popular and well known among more conservative GOP voters.
Heading into a morning meeting, Jordan said, “I feel real good.”
Other potential speaker choices were also being floated. Some Republicans proposed simply giving Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who was appointed interim speaker pro tempore, greater authority to lead the House for some time.
The House, without a speaker, is essentially unable to function during a time of turmoil in the U.S. and wars overseas. The political pressure increasingly is on Republicans to reverse course, reassert majority control and govern in Congress.
With the House narrowly split 221-212, with two vacancies, any nominee can lose just a few Republicans before they fail to reach the 217 majority needed in the face of opposition from Democrats, who will most certainly back their own leader, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
Absences heading into the weekend could lower the majority threshold needed, and Republicans said they were down about a dozen lawmakers as of midday Friday. No floor votes were scheduled as attendance thinned before the weekend.
In announcing his decision to withdraw from the nomination, Scalise said late Thursday the Republican majority still has to come together and “open up the House again. But clearly not everybody is there.”
Asked if he would throw his support behind Jordan, Scalise said, “It’s got to be people that aren’t doing it for themselves and their own personal interest.”
But Jordan’s allies swung into high gear at a chance for the hard-right leader to seize the gavel.
“Make him the speaker. Do it tonight,” said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. “He’s the only one who can unite our party.”
Jordan also received an important nod Friday from the Republican party’s campaign chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who made an attempt to unify the fighting factions.
“Removing Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a mistake,” Hudson wrote on social media, saying the party found itself at a crossroads also blocking Scalise. “We must unite around one leader.”
Earlier in the week, Jordan had nominally dropped out of the race he initially lost to Scalise, 113-99, during internal balloting.
Scalise had been laboring to peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed Jordan. But many hard-liners taking their cues from Trump have dug in for a prolonged fight to replace McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job.
The holdouts argued that as majority leader, Scalise was no better choice, that he should be focusing on his health as he battles cancer and that he was not the leader they would support.
Handfuls of Republicans announced they were sticking with Jordan, McCarthy or someone other than Scalise — including Trump, the former president. The position as House speaker does not need to go to a member of Congress.
Trump, the early front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, repeatedly discussed Scalise’s health during a radio interview that aired Thursday.
Scalise has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and is being treated, but he has also said he was definitely up for the speaker’s job.
On Friday, another California Republican, Rep. Tom McClintock, had introduced a motion to reinstate McCarthy during the morning meeting, but it was shelved.
“I just told them, no, let’s not do that,” McCarthy said afterward. “Let’s walk through this and have an election.”
The situation is not fully different from the start of the year, when McCarthy faced a similar backlash from a different group of far-right holdouts who ultimately gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.
But the math this time is even more daunting, and the problematic political dynamic is only worsening.
Exasperated Democrats, who have been waiting for the Republican majority to recover from McCarthy’s ouster, urged them to figure it out.
“The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” Jeffries said, including doing away with the rule that allows a single lawmaker to force a vote against the speaker. “But we need traditional Republicans to break from the extremists and partner with us.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Trump shares clip of AG Letitia James calling him an ‘illegitimate president’
Former President Donald Trump lobbed a series of attacks againt New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, sharing clips of her vowing to challenge and sue him.
Former President Donald Trump lobbed a series of attacks againt New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, sharing clips of her vowing to challenge and sue him.
Trump has argued throughout the week that James is targeting him over political animus, labeling her “corrupt” and an “operative” for President Biden’s re-election effort. He shared footage of James on the campaign trail in 2018 in which she denounces him as an “illegitimate president” and vows to sue him if elected.
“America is in uncharted territory. We are angrier and more divided than we have ever been at any point in our history since the Civil War,” James says in the 2018 video. “At the eye of the storm is Donald Trump, ripping families apart, threatening women’s most basic rights. I’m running for attorney general because I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president.”
“He should be charged with obstructing justice. I believe that the president of these United States can be indicted for criminal offenses. We would join law enforcement and other attorneys general across this nation in removing this president from office,” she continues.
Trump later shared another compilation of her campaign appearances in which she repeatedly vows to sue him.
“THIS IS FROM 2018—WITCH HUNT!!” he captioned the post.
Court adjourns after 4th day of Trump civil fraud trial
Court is now adjourned after the fourth day of former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York City.
Trump, who, along with his co-defendants, is accused of overvaluing his assets, is expected to move for a stay of the trial pending appeal of Judge Arthur Ergoron’s decision last week that he committed fraud while building his real estate empire.
His legal team will likely submit the filing Friday morning.
The day closes after Trump also filed motions to dismiss two of his other pending cases: The election interference case in Washington, D.C., and the hush money case involving Stormy Daniels also in New York.
Trump files motion to dismiss separate 2020 election case in DC court
Former President Donald Trump has filed a motion to have his separate 2020 election subversion case in Washington, D.C. thrown out.
In the Thursday filing, Trump cites presidential immunity as grounds for dismissal of the case, which involves four federal charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
In November 2021, Judge Tanya Chutkan refused Trump’s assertion of executive privilege to block the release of documents to the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 committee investigating his actions following the 2020 presidential election.
Judge Engoron issues order placing Trump’s business assets under monitor
Judge Arthur Engoron issued an order prohibiting former President Donald Trump from transfering his assets without informing a court monitor on Thursday.
Judge Arthur Engoron issued an order prohibiting former President Donald Trump from transfering his assets without informing a court monitor on Thursday.
Engoron’s supplemental order states that Trump and the other defendants must disclose all of the entities they own and declare in advance “any anticipated transfer of assets or liabilities to any other entities.”
In addition to Trump, the order applies to Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, and Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney. The group has until OCtober 26 to hand over the information to former federal judge Barbara Jones, the monitor who is already overseeing the Trump Organization’s finances.
The order is the second Engoron has issued since the trial began on Monday. He also issued a partial gag order on Trump, prohibiting him from discussing court staff on social media.
That order came in reaction to Trump publicly criticizing one of Engoron’s law clerks on social media.
Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announced on Wednesday evening that it raked in a whopping $45.5 million during the July-September third quarter of 2023 fundraising.
The former president’s political team also reported over $37.5 million in their campaign coffers as of the end of last month. The campaign reported large fundraising boosts following each of the four indictments that peppered Trump earlier this year.
Trump made a spectacle of the first three days of the Manhattan trial this week, repeatedly talking to the press outside the courtroom and complaining of political bias.
Trump argues that the lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James is baseless and that she is only targeting him due to “corruption.” Trump’s team has pointed to comments James made during her 2018 election campaign promising to “get Trump” if she gained office.
Trump’s fundraising the past three months is up from the roughly $35 million he brought in during the April-June second quarter of fundraising, which nearly doubled his haul from the first quarter of the year.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Trump skips out on day 4 of civil fraud trial in Manhattan
Former President Donald Trump did not arrive with his team of lawyers to the Manhattan courthouse where he is facing the fourth day of his ongoing civil fraud trial.
Trump is not required to attend the proceedings, but he nevertheless came for the first three days of the trial. He took several opportunities to complain to the press outside the courtroom throughout the week.
Trump’s attorneys arrived shortly after New York Attorney General Letitia James and her prosecutors. Judge Engoron took the bench at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
The trial has been a major source of frustration for Trump, who has railed at a “rats nest of New York Democrat corruption.” He argues James is politically biased agaisnt him and vowed during her 2019 campaign that she would “get Trump” if elected.
While Trump is not voluntarily present at Thursday’s proceedings, he has said he will take the stand to testify if necessary.
AG Letitia James claims Trump’s trial conduct is ‘dangerous and racist’
New York Attorney General Letitia James lashed out at former President Donald Trump for his comments surrounding his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York City late Wednesday.
New York Attorney General Letitia James lashed out at former President Donald Trump for his comments surrounding his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York City late Wednesday.
James called Trump’s comments “dangerous and racist,” and defended her case agains the former president. Trump has repeatedly complained that he is not allowed a jury in the trial, and he has argued that James only sued him due to political animus.
“Dangerous and racist comments will not deter me. The laws of this great state and nation apply equally to everyone, even Donald Trump,” James added. “And it is my duty and my responsibility to ensure that the law is enforced and upheld. And I refuse to back down or to be bullied.”
She went on to call arguments from Trump’s defense team “baseless” and insisted that the trial is not a “witch hunt.”
It is unclear what comments she was referring to as “racist,” and she did not list any examples.
James has criticized Trump for making a spectical of the trial as he has spoken repeatedly to the media outside the courtroom. She also pointed out that he is not required to be in attendance.
Trump rages against ‘rats nest’ of ‘Democrat corruption’ ahead of trial day 4
Former President Donald Trump raged against Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron on social media Thursday morning.
Trump claimed that he is the victim of a “rats nest of New York Democrat corruption,” and called Engoron a “Trump hating judge.” Turmp has maintained asteady stream of criticism for both Engoron and James throughout the prior three days of his trial.
“I’m in a rat’s nest of NEW YORK DEMOCRAT CORRUPTION, a reason so many companies are leaving New York, our Racist Attorney General filled a lawsuit whose facts and VALUATIONS are wrong, like $18,000,000 for Mar-a-Lago, when it is worth, perhaps, 100 times that amount, and numerous other properties, likewise, that this case is a political SHAM that should never have been brought. I DON’T EVEN GET A JURY – Therefore, a Radical Left Judge, who came up through Democrat Club System, will decide. It is not possible that he can be fair,” Trump wrote.
“Every decision he makes has been a horror show. It is why I do the set asides with the media – To explain the case, and what is going on. Our CORRUPT, RACIST, & INCOMPETENT A.G., Letitia “Peekaboo” James, considered the WORST ATTORNEY GENERAL IN THE UNITED STATES, refused to bring this case under the respected “Commercial Division,” where judges understand Valuations and Real Estate. This Trump Hating Judge doesn’t. The Appellant Division must intercede, NOW!” he added.
Trump attended the first three days of his trial, but it is unclear whether he will arrive to the courthouse for day four.
Trump team calls on Manhattan judge to dismiss hush money payment charges amid fraud trial
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump called on a New York City judge to dismiss charges against him relating to alleged hush money payments to pornography star Stormy Daniels late Wednesday.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed the charges against Trump in the case earlier this year. Trump’s defense team argues Bragg has only brought the charges because Trump is a political opponent.
“The indictment was filed six years after the conduct at issue, more than four-and-a-half years after DANY began to investigate it, and more than three years after DANY started presenting evidence to a grand jury,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “The delay has prejudiced President Trump, interfered with his ongoing presidential campaign, and violated his due process rights.”
Trump has leveled similar bias accusations against New York Attorney General Letitia James, labeling her “corrupt” and an “operative.”
Trump lawyers push to delay classified documents trial as he handles NY fraud case
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked a judge to postpone his classified documents trial until after next year’s presidential election, even as he faces day four of his civil fraud trial in New York City.
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked a judge to postpone his classified documents trial until after next year’s presidential election, even as he faces day four of his civil fraud trial in New York City.
Lawyers argued they have yet to receive all the records they need to review to effectively make Trump’s defense.The case is one of four indictments against Trump. The former president is already dealing with business charges in New York City, but he also faces charges stemming from Georgia and Washington, D.C.
Trump’s lawyers have pushed to delay trials across the board as Trump attempts to manage a 2024 presidential campaign as well as his many legal troubles.
Trump attended the first three days of his trial in Manhattan, where New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused him and his business partners of fraud.
The classified documents trial relates to Trump’s possession of documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and his subsequent refusal to turn them over to authorities.
New York AG Letitia James declares ‘the Donald Trump show is over’ ahead of trial day 4
New York Attorney General Letitia James had strong words for former President Donald Trump ahead of the fourth day of his fraud trial in New York City.
New York Attorney General Letitia James had strong words for former President Donald Trump ahead of the fourth day of his fraud trial in New York City.
James spoke with the press outside the Manhattan courtroom after proceedings ended Wednesday. She declared that she “will not be bullied,” and pushed back agaisnt claims from Trump’s team that she is poltically biased.
“This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals have engaged in a pattern and practice of fraud, and I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law,” James said. “And lastly, I will not be bullied. So Mr. Trump is no longer here. The Donald Trump show is over.”
Trump attacked James as “corrupt” on Wednesday, citing her promises on the 2018 campaign trail that she would “get Trump” once elected.
Lawyers for Donald Trump asked a judge Thursday to dismiss the Washington federal election subversion case against him, arguing the Republican is immune from prosecution for actions they say were taken in his official role as president. The motion amounts to the most pointed attack yet by defense lawyers on the federal case charging Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
In it, they argue that the actions that form the basis of the indictment, including urging the Justice Department to investigate claims of voter fraud and pressing state officials on the administration of elections, cut to the core of Trump’s responsibilities as commander in chief.
“Breaking 234 years of precedent, the incumbent administration has charged President Trump for acts that lie not just within the ‘outer perimeter,’ but at the heart of his official responsibilities as President,” the defense motion states. “In doing so, the prosecution does not, and cannot, argue that President Trump’s efforts to ensure election integrity, and to advocate for the same, were outside the scope of his duties.”
The presidential immunity argument had been foreshadowed for weeks by defense lawyers as one of multiple challenges they intend to bring against the indictment, among the four criminal cases Trump is facing.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team had appeared to anticipate the argument as well, saying in the indictment that though political candidates are permitted to challenge their election losses, Trump’s actions strayed far beyond what is legally permissible.
Prosecutors are expected to contest the motion.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Former President Donald Trump ripped into the judge presiding over his $250 million civil case on Monday, saying the judge is “an operative” who should be disbarred.
Appearing on the steps of the courthouse during a lunch break after the morning session on the first day of the trial, Trump chided Judge Arthur Engoron.
“This is a judge that should be disbarred. This is a judge that should be out of office,” Trump said. “This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he’s doing. He’s interfering with an election, and it’s a disgrace.”
Trump also directed his ire toward New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the fraud trial against him, saying she should be focused on violent crime.
James is a “disgrace to our country. Take a look at Jack Smith. Take a look at these people,” Trump said, also tearing into Smith, the special counsel in two of Trump’s criminal trials. Smith has no part in this civil trial.
“We’re going to be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind. It’s ridiculous,” Trump said. “They waste their time with this, with banks that were very happy that got all their money back. They weren’t defrauded. I’ve been defrauded.”
Trump was referring to Engoron’s summary ruling last week, when the judge sided with James that Trump had committed fraud.
In Monday morning’s opening statements, the attorney general ‘s office accused Trump and his adult sons of deceiving banks, insurers, and others by habitually misstating his wealth in financial statements.
“No matter how powerful you are, and no matter how much money you think you have, no one is above the law,” James said on her way into the courthouse.
Engoron will also decide on six claims in the lawsuit brought by James, who is seeking $250 million in penalties and a ban on Trump doing business in New York. It’s a nonjury trial because, as Engoron pointed out, Trump’s legal team failed to check a box that it preferred a jury trial.
Trump also took aim at a clerk in Engoron’s courtroom.
“This guy’s getting away with murder. And his clerk should not be allowed to be in his ear with every single question. You should take a look at her. She hates Trump even more than he does,” Trump said.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Now that Chuck Schumer has dumbed down the Senate dress code to accommodate the slovenly habits of the privileged Pennsylvania senator who cosplays as a representative of the working class, hoodies like Sen. John Fetterman’s signature Carhartt are welcome on the Senate floor.
It’s an ugly visual of the decay of an American institution. But you know what, fine — if that’s the way it’s going to be, Republicans might as well play along. If they want something comfier but just as effective as Susan Collins’s suggested ensemble, they should show up wearing hoodies emblazoned with one (or several!) of these reminders.
1. ‘Impeach Biden’
As my colleague David Harsanyi has pointed out, there exists “more than enough evidence” of Biden corruption for an impeachment probe.
Joe Biden has publicly bragged about bullying Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, an energy firm that paid his son Hunter Biden millions to sit on its board and reportedly hired him to access the protection his father’s political power could provide. We also know that Joe Biden spoke with Hunter’s associates dozens, if not hundreds, of times and that the Bidens received millions from foreign oligarchs.
2. ‘Boys and Girls Are Different’
It’s an indisputable fact that there are two sexes and we are not the same but stating that obvious truth often causes the brains of Democrats who push transgender mania to combust.
3. ‘Democrats Support Abortion Up to Birth’
They don’t like to admit it, but Democrats in Congress overwhelmingly voted for a bill that would ensure abortions throughout all nine months of a woman’s pregnancy as long as she could find a provider to say it was important for her emotional health. Democrat-led states like Colorado have explicitly enacted laws permitting abortion up to birth, and Democrats in Washington have opposed protections for babies born alive in botched abortions.
4. ‘Hunter Biden Takes Bribes’
It’s no secret that Hunter Biden peddled access to his powerful father among his well-heeled foreign clients. In return, Hunter was rewarded with everything from shrouded bank transfers to a car with a six-figure price tag to a three-carat diamond.
Sen. Bob Menendez, who was recently indicted by Hunter’s dad’s DOJ for his own shady dealings, might consider a riff on this slogan, such as “Hunter Biden’s Bribery Scandal Is Worse Than Mine!”
5. ‘Biden Jails His Political Opponents’
Biden’s Department of Justice is prosecuting his 2020 presidential rival and likely 2024 opponent in multiple jurisdictions, threatening him with years of jail time. Not only has the DOJ gone after Trump, it’s targeted peaceful pro-lifers and parents at school board meetings, while throwing the book at Trump supporters like a nonviolent grandma with cancer for being at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
6. ‘Trump Won’
Yes, we’re aware that Biden won the 2020 election in a very literal sense, had more votes recorded for him, and was inaugurated as our 46th president. On the other hand, it clearly wasn’t our “most secure election ever” — it was rigged, or “fortified,” in numerous ways that were damaging to the integrity of our elections.
But you don’t have to get into the nuances of that to exercise your First Amendment rights by wearing a hoodie and enjoy the reactions it inspires.
7. ‘Defund The FBI’
Until the FBI stops interfering in our elections — as they did by falsely labeling the bombshell Biden corruption story sourced from Hunter Biden’s laptop as “disinformation” in 2020 and by furthering the Trump-Russia collusion hoax in 2016 — congressional Republicans should refuse to keep paying its bills.
8. ‘Unborn Lives Matter’
This shouldn’t be controversial, right?
9. ‘Keep Porn Out of Schools’
This one shouldn’t be controversial either. But left-leaning school boards are working hard to fill school libraries with pornographic books promoting their LGBT agenda. They want you to think this is an issue of backwater Republicans “banning” harmless books like To Kill A Mockingbird, but when parents try to read the contents of the books in question at public meetings, it’s deemed too explicit for the ears of the adults in the room.
10. ‘Who Killed JFK?’
Why are parts of more than 15,000 records relating to the Kennedy assassination still being kept from the public after Biden delayed their release? What convinced Kennedy’s nephew that the CIA was involved in what he calls a “60-year coverup”?
11. ‘Save Girls’ Sports’
Allowing boys and men with gender dysphoria to enter girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports teams is neither safe nor fair to women, but Democrats want to do it anyway.
12. Trump’s Mugshot
OK, it’s not a slogan, but we’d still love to see Senate Republicans show up wearing this.
Elle Purnell is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. Follow her work on Twitter @_etreynolds.
A New York state judge on Wednesday denied Donald Trump’s request to delay the start of a scheduled Oct. 2 trial in Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud lawsuit accusing the former president, his family, and the Trump Organization of inflating the value of his assets.
Trump’s lawyers late Tuesday asked Justice Arthur F. Engoron to “briefly” delay the trial until three weeks after he ruled on both sides’ requests for summary judgments, which seek victory on various legal issues without the need for a trial.
“A trial of this magnitude should not begin in chaos,” his attorneys wrote. “The court and the defendants are entitled to know the claims and issues to be tried sufficiently in advance to prepare adequately for trial.”
Engoron called Trump’s arguments for a delay “completely without merit.”
Earlier this year he said the trial date would not change “come hell or high water.”
In a separate filing, Trump also asked that James withdraw what he called her “frivolous” motion to sanction the defendants and their lawyers $20,000 for continuing to raise arguments that Engoron has rejected.
James is seeking at least $250 million, and to bar Trump and his sons from leading their family business.
The defendants have denied wrongdoing, and Trump has called James’ case part of a partisan “witch hunt.”
In another legal development on Wednesday, a federal judge found Trump liable for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll by denying in 2019 that he had raped her, and said jurors will decide only how much Trump owes in damages.
Trump has separately pleaded not guilty to charges in four separate federal and state criminal indictments, including two indictments for attempting to reverse his 2020 election loss.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Aug. 24, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
After Georgia’s indictment of Donald Trump, our new national poll show he not only beats Biden, but he would defeat the current president in an electoral landslide. The McLaughlin national survey finds Trump leads Biden 47% to 43% — up 2 points this month alone. Even more remarkable, with our voter model for this poll we assigned 4 more points of Biden 2020 voters than Trump 2020 voters. This means looking to 2024 there is an 8-point turnaround in favor of Trump from the 2020 election. Biden voters are switching to Trump.
But here’s the really big news. In the key battleground states Trump leads Biden 49% to 41%. If the election was today, Trump would defeat Biden in an electoral landslide.
Our poll – and other national surveys are confirming a huge turnaround for Trump. Remember, Donald Trump never won the popular vote in the 2016 and 2020 national popular vote, and almost all polls had him losing the popular vote in both elections.
But now our poll and others show him leading. We believe this is the real reason Joe Biden is desperate to keep Trump off the ballot and, if he can, put him in jail. Trump appears to be the only Republican candidate who can solidly defeat Joe Biden.
There are two fundamental trends which are evident in our most recent national poll that are projecting Donald Trump towards victory in 2024. Our recent national poll was completed after the announcement of the Fulton County indictment of President Trump and right before the Republican debate. This national poll of 1,000 likely voters (+/-3.1% at the 95% confidence interval), was completed between August 15th and 23rd. Despite the indictments, Donald Trump remains the overwhelming frontrunner for the Republican nomination and leads his nemesis Joe Biden.
First, Donald Trump is smartly running a campaign that is focused on defeating Joe Biden, whom he has branded as “the single worst president in American history.”
Public opinion agrees with President Trump:
Joe Biden’s job approval remains decidedly negative: approve 43%, disapprove 55%. And 72% of undecided voters disapprove the job Biden is doing. Most of the undecided vote is a hidden vote for Trump.
Under Biden, 67% of all voters believe the country is on the wrong track. Only 25% say it’s headed in the right direction. And 83% of the undecided presidential voters say it’s on the wrong track.
A solid majority of 64% of the voters say that the economy is getting worse and only 32% believe it is getting better.
A large 83% of the voters say that they have been negatively affected by inflation, among whom 45% are struggling to keep up, and afford basic necessities.
Only 37% of the voters are favorable to Vice President Kamala Harris. 54% are unfavorable. She remains Joe Biden’s impeachment insurance policy: “remove me and look what you get.”
Bidenomics is a poor brand name with only 22% of the voters being favorable and 46% unfavorable. Maybe it’s too like Bidinflation? Seems that Bud Light would be more popular brand these days. Only 36% of the voters say that Bidenomics has been good for the economy. A solid 49% say it’s been bad for the economy.
Trump is winning on the issues that matter most to the voters. Economics/inflation are the top concern among 45% of the voters and these voters prefer Trump over Biden 57% to 33%.
Social issues like Medicare/Social Security, healthcare, climate and education matter most to only 27% of the voters and they vote for Biden 60% to 31%.
Security issues like the border, crime and national defense matter most to 14% of the voters who prefer Trump over Biden 55% to 37%.
As pundits speculate about Joe Biden’s health and actuarial outcomes, Donald Trump’s position strengthens over Kamala Harris as he leads her 50% to 40%. Democrats do not have a winning option with her. Instead, they are doubling down on the Biden corruption and failure.
With Trump beating Biden, Republicans lead in the generic congressional ballot 48% to 42%.
The race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is no longer close. Trump is clearly leading. It’s still early, but Trump has pulled off a stunning turnaround since the 2020 election.
John McLaughlin has worked professionally as a strategic consultant and pollster for over 40 years. Jim McLaughlin is a nationally recognized public opinion expert, strategic consultant and political strategist who has helped to elect a U.S. president, prime ministers, a Senate majority leader, and a speaker of the House. Read John and Jim McLaughlin’s Reports — More Here.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Let me address a very important and timely matter that, as best as I can tell, has not been addressed by the legal commentariat or, for that matter, defense counsel in the wide-ranging charges against President Donald Trump and his co-defendants.
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution states, in pertinent part, that “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury …” Is that what happened when Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Biden Department of Justice used the Washington, D.C., grand jury to charge former President Trump for alleged crimes that occurred in Florida in the so-called documents case, clearly using the wrong venue in violation of specific DOJ policy, and then hastily moved the case to a grand jury in Florida?
The protection afforded by a fair grand jury proceeding dates back many centuries to the Magna Carta and was prominently implemented by British and American courts applying Blackstone’s legal doctrines. The notion that any grand jury would indict a ham sandwich refers to the usual adoption by grand juries of evidence presented by a prosecutor. It should not eradicate a right that was deemed important enough to be included in the Bill of Rights. The public and the courts must realize that these are accusations crafted and made by the individual prosecutors and not the result of deliberations and subsequent decisions by a group of ordinary citizens.
Since the Florida grand jurors did not hear the testimony presented to the D.C. grand jury, exactly what did they hear or see to charge the former president and the other defendants? Was the D.C. testimony read to them? What were they instructed about the D.C. testimony? Were they asked whether they had any questions for the witnesses who testified? Were they instructed on the need to find probable cause as to each of the defendants? Were they instructed on the law?
The customary procedure in cases of obvious crimes is just to submit an indictment drafted by the prosecutor to the grand jurors and ask them to vote up or down. When the charges are not about an obvious crime and are instead much more complex, such as in the so-called documents case, the constitutional right to be indicted by a grand jury must require more than that. Indeed, the D.C. grand jury met for many months, heard from many scores of witnesses, and was presumably provided with an enormous amount of “evidence” presented to it by the government.
We already know from the subsequent public record in the court proceedings in Florida that what the government has turned over to the defendants consists of over 1 million documents and nine months of videotape, which will be used in whole or part during the trial.
From that, plus the complexity of the law in this matter, the fact that it is a case of first impression, and there are numerous legal and constitutional issues associated with using the Espionage Act against a former president, the Florida grand jury, not having the benefit of seeing and hearing first-hand any of the witnesses, etc., the government would have been required to ensure that, in fact, the Florida grand jury, and not the government, indicted the former president based on probable cause, a requisite for each of the nearly 40 counts.
Although the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (Rule 6) impose a secrecy requirement on federal grand jurors, the judge should, now that the indictment has been returned, permit defense counsel to interview the grand jurors and release them from any secrecy obligation. That is the only way to discover, before the defendants are forced to a trial, whether the Fifth Amendment’s obligation has been satisfied. And, again, given how Smith used the D.C. venue and a D.C. grand jury to conduct his very extensive investigation on matters related almost exclusively to events in Florida, this is an especially important issue.
In all four cases involving the indictment of President Trump, the media have repeatedly reported that Trump has “been indicted by a grand jury.” The real question is whether the grand juries truly deliberated or simply went through the motions at the direction of the prosecution. Did a majority vote to accuse Trump and all his co-defendants of the complex crimes alleged in the indictments or was this window dressing for what happened in these secret proceedings?
Another obvious example is the case in Georgia. The indictment is 98 pages in length and involves over 40 charges. Moreover, in addition to the individual charges, an umbrella charge of a grand conspiracy, that is a so-called RICO charge, is alleged, involving up to 19 co-conspirators, including the former president.
This is an extraordinarily complicated factual and legal indictment, putting aside the obvious substantive weaknesses of the case. And in this case, like the federal documents case, the prosecution has much to answer for. Recall that on the day the grand jury was to meet to vote on whether to indict, the actual indictment was published by the court clerk on the official website – before the grand jury had even met or voted.
Later that day, D.A. Fani Willis held a press conference playing up the fact that the 19 defendants who were accused had been charged by named ordinary citizens of the grand jury, although under Georgia law she could have filed the charges without a grand jury endorsing them. Since she claimed the indictment was the work of the grand jury, the question is whether, in fact, it was.
From the moment the indictment was posted on the clerk’s official website that morning, Willis moved at a frenzied pace to get an indictment that night.
Exactly what happened in the grand jury room? What kind of deliberations occurred? Again, the issue is probable cause and whether the defendants’ due process rights were abridged.
In Georgia, the grand jurors are free to publicly speak. We saw that earlier when, in a prior investigative grand jury, the foreman went on television after its proceedings concluded and would not stop talking about what had occurred among grand jurors, and she did so gleefully. It should not be difficult for defense counsel to get to the bottom of what occurred.
In the Manhattan case, when D.A. Alvin Bragg officially filed his indictment, he accompanied it with a prosecutor’s statement that the media accepted as part of “the grand jury indictment.” It was certainly presented that way. The question is whether the grand jurors actually voted on it.
New York imposes a secrecy requirement on grand jurors, but that requirement makes sense while the grand jury is considering criminal charges. Should it apply to prevent disclosure of how the prosecutor instructed the grand jury on the law and to discover whether the grand jurors did, in fact, consider whether there was probable cause to make the criminal allegations? And was Bragg’s accompanied statement part of the proceedings?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Finally, in the second federal case supposedly involving Jan. 6, President Trump is not charged with insurrection or sedition, yet when the special counsel, Jack Smith, made his remarks announcing the indictment, nearly half of his statement had no relevance to the charges brought by the grand jury. He said, in part:
The indictment was issued by a grand jury of citizens here in the District of Columbia and sets forth the crimes charged in detail. I encourage everyone to read it in full. The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election. The men and women of law enforcement who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 are heroes. They’re patriots, and they are the very best of us. They did not just defend a building or the people sheltering in it. They put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and as a people. They defended the very institutions and principles that define the United States.
Again, this is a wide-ranging public condemnation of the former president, in which Smith all but accuses the former president of insurrection and sedition, for which he was not charged. Indeed, the charges are based on the 1871 Ku Klux Klan law, the post-Enron statute, and a financial fraud law that is used mostly in cases where contractors and others swindle the federal government.
Exactly what information was presented to the grand jury and what did Smith tell the grand jurors when they were urged to charge the former president? Did Smith use arguments about insurrection and sedition to persuade the grand jurors to vote for these other charges? This is a critical point. It appears that Smith played fast and loose with the law and the facts, which does not meet the requirements for bringing charges that meet the probable cause standard.
The grand jury process is intended to protect an individual’s due process rights. Indictments are to be brought by ordinary citizens sitting as jurors. The government is to provide the jurors with witnesses, information and an explanation of the relevant law, so that the citizen jurors are making their decisions based on a true, accurate and honest presentment. When this process is violated by politically motivated prosecutors, as with Bragg and Willis, or a prosecutor with a long record of abusing the criminal justice system, as with Smith, it is especially important that the Fifth Amendment not be abused and violated, and used not to protect an individual but as a cudgel by the government intended to imprison their targets.
It is relevant to note that all three prosecutors had the grand juries vote smack in the middle of a presidential election, and all have demanded trials within months of the indictments – that is, for maximum political damage to candidate Trump, and maximum political benefit to candidate Biden.
The use of these grand juries, where there is obvious evidence of chicanery by these prosecutors, must be scrutinized at the front end of these various cases. Thus, the question I have is: Where the heck are the attorneys representing President Trump and the other defendants? Why do they seem so passive in the face of potential grand jury abuses and, frankly, other government misconduct?
This juncture of the process is highly significant. In fact, the Supreme Court has held that the defendant loses any right to challenge the grand jury process, at least at the federal level, once a trial is held on the indictment.
Mark Levin is host of FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Life, Liberty & Levin (Sundays, 10-11 PM/ET). He joined the network in November 2017.
The campaign for former President Donald Trump went on the offensive against Fox News on Friday, trolling the network over its “anemic debate ratings” while Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson — which aired the same night — surpassed 250 million views.
According to Nielsen, an estimated 12.8 million people watched Wednesday’s Republican debate on Fox, a decline of almost 50% from August 2015 when Trump appeared in his first presidential debate.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign touted the 100 million views garnered by Trump-Carlson in the first four hours of its release and the 255 million views overall.
“Fox News is in crisis mode after revealing embarrassing ratings from their GOP debate coverage on Wednesday night,” Trump’s campaign said. “The anemic ratings clearly show that viewers couldn’t have cared less to tune in to the undercard debate, instead joining the ranks of hundreds of millions in watching President Trump’s blockbuster interview with Tucker Carlson.”
The campaign’s blast to supporters comes the day after Trump was arrested at the Fulton County, Georgia, jail over his alleged involvement in trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. Trump was booked on the 13 counts against him and had a mug shot taken. Trump told Newsmax late Thursday night it was a “terrible experience.”
Trump said he boycotted the Republican debate this week for a number of reasons, including his large lead over other GOP rivals in the polls. As of Friday, Trump was polling at 52.4% among GOP candidates, according to FiveThirtyEight’s aggregate score. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was a distant second at 14.4%.
The person who most enjoyed the first Republican debate was undoubtedly former President Donald Trump. By not participating in the forum, he stayed above the fray, and what a fray it was. The night was full of acrimony and sloppiness; verbal punches were thrown but few landed. Humor and humility took the night off. The eight candidates who gathered in Milwaukee have in common that they are massively trailing the former president; nothing that took place on the debate stage will turn that around.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy had substantial momentum coming into the GOP debate in Milwaukee. In just two hours, he blew that advantage, and — most probably — any chance he might have had of securing the nomination. He appeared smart-alecky and disrespectful of his fellow contestants; he interrupted constantly and displayed none of the sobriety and substance so needed by a 38-year-old eager to convince voters he belongs in the Oval Office.
Ramaswamy on several occasions boasted of being the only political novice on the stage, derisively describing his fellow candidates as PAC-puppets; he also insulted the group by describing them as “bought and paid for.” The lack of civility was shocking, at odds with Ramaswamy’s trademark sunniness. During the first break, he must have heard his attacks were not resonating with the audience, since he subsequently toned down the hubris, but the damage was done.
Nikki Haley, as expected, went after Ramaswamy on numerous fronts and especially on foreign policy. On the contest with Ukraine and on other issues too, the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor summoned facts and experience to lend her credibility.
She was passionate but not emotional — a difficult balance for female candidates. Similarly, she stood her ground but did not come across as harsh — another challenging dynamic for women in politics.
If Ramaswamy was the biggest loser of the night, Haley was the biggest winner. Tough on national security and securing the border, smart about education, she was also the only candidate to stake out a winning position on abortion.
If Ramaswamy was the biggest loser of the night, Haley was the biggest winner.
Though she declares herself proudly pro-life, she also acknowledges that Republicans must respect the deeply personal nature of the issue and find a middle path. Haley laid out an approach that includes making contraception universally available, encouraging adoption, banning late-term abortions and stopping the demonization of the issue.
It was an important night for the Haley campaign, which has failed to gain traction in recent months; it could prove a turning point.
Chris Christie also turned in a solid performance, despite being loudly booed by the audience for disparaging former President Trump. Of all the contestants, he seemed the most relaxed and drew on substantial personal achievements while serving as a federal prosecutor and as governor of New Jersey to make his case.
Christie’s finest moment came during his final remarks when he reminded the audience of how hard — and rare — it is to unseat an incumbent Democrat, a feat he accomplished when he defeated Jon Corzine to become governor of New Jersey in 2009. As he recalled, the last Republican to beat an incumbent Democrat president was a governor of a blue state; that, of course, was Ronald Reagan, who beat Jimmy Carter in 1980. Still, the odds of Christie advancing in the race are slim. The vast majority of Republicans still support Trump, and Christie has made it clear that he is bitterly opposed to the former president’s re-election.
Indeed, with Trump now commanding a 40-point lead in the primary race, and enjoying widespread loyalty among Republicans, all candidates needed to break through and give voters a reason to choose them over the former president. No one achieved that kind of success on Wednesday night.
The candidate who most needed a leap forward was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose campaign has been in free fall for weeks. Though the Florida governor made no drastic missteps, he looked awkward and uncomfortable. He failed to answer most of the questions directed to him, instead doggedly inserting pre-prepared sound-bites that rarely met the moment.
The worst moment for DeSantis came when the moderators asked the candidates to indicate whether they would support Trump for president, should he win the nomination. Everyone but Christie and Asa Hutchinson signaled support for the former president; DeSantis raised his hand only after seeming to look left and right for reassurance. Viewers took note.
Tim Scott was unexpectedly subdued during the debate, which was unfortunate. His normal good cheer and faith in our country is a tonic in these bitter political times.
Others on the stage included North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who had torn his Achilles tendon that morning playing basketball with his staff. Considering his recent visit to the emergency room, he can be excused for having failed to excite the crowd. Like former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Burgum is unlikely to go far.
The other major player was former Vice President Mike Pence, who, contrasted especially with Ramaswamy, was the grown-up in the room. He had a decent night and doubtless appealed to conservatives who applaud his hard line on abortion and on national security issues, but his religiosity limits his reach.
Viewers hoping to find a candidate capable of pushing Donald Trump out of the race were likely disappointed. Perhaps the evening will convince Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin to throw his hat in the ring. Without a doubt, there is an opening.
Liz Peek is a Fox News contributor and former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. A former columnist for the Fiscal Times, she writes for The Hill and contributes frequently to Fox News, the New York Sun and other publications. For more visit LizPeek.com. Follow her on Twitter @LizPeek.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted in Georgia for violation of the state’s version of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Pictured: Trump delivers remarks during the Georgia GOP convention on June 10, 2023, in Columbus, Georgia. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
This week, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched a 98-page missile directly into the heart of American politics. That missile was a 41-count indictment charging former President Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators with violation of the Georgia version of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act—acts in furtherance of a conspiracy to commit a criminal act. In this case, the criminal act, according to the indictment, was “knowingly and willfully [joining] a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
Whether this amounts to a crime comes down to the question of whether Trump himself knew that he had lost the election; if he believed that he had won, then all the other accusations about him fall away. After all, it is not a crime to pursue a spurious legal strategy in furtherance of a delusion.
But by charging RICO, Willis extends the case to people who may have admitted that Trump lost the election. This accomplishes two purposes.
First, it puts these alleged co-conspirators in serious legal jeopardy, giving them reason to flip on Trump himself.
Second, it may allow Willis to charge Trump as part of a criminal conspiracy even if he personally believed he won the election—after all, case law suggests that co-conspirators can be charged under RICO even if they didn’t agree on every aspect of the conspiracy, so long as they knew the “general nature of the enterprise.”
The Georgia case also presents unique danger to Trump because it is a state case.
The Manhattan case against Trump rooted in campaign finance allegations is incredibly weak and is an obvious stretch; the Florida and D.C. cases against Trump are federal, which means that if elected president, he could theoretically pardon himself.
The Georgia case is both wide-ranging and state-based: If convicted, Trump would go to state prison, and would have no ability to pardon himself. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp does not have unilateral pardon power, either: In Georgia, pardons work through an appointed board. So, the very real prospect exists that even were Trump elected, he’d start his term from a state prison.
But even that discussion is premature: The Georgia case, along with all the other indictments against Trump, are going to lock him into courthouses for the rest of the election cycle. What’s more, every waking moment for the media will be coverage of those court cases. That will make it impossible for Trump—even if he were so inclined, which he has shown no evidence of being—to talk about President Joe Biden rather than his legal peril. And there has yet to be a single piece of data suggesting that Americans are driven to vote for Trump because of his legal troubles.
To pardon yourself, you have to be elected president. But spending your entire presidential race in the dock makes that a radically uphill battle.
All of this is quite terrible for the country. No matter what you think of Trump’s various legal imbroglios—from mishandling classified documents to paying off porn stars to calling up the Georgia secretary of state in an attempt to “find” votes—the glass has now been broken over and over and over again: Political opponents can be targeted by legal enemies. It will not be unbroken.
If you think that only Democratic district attorneys will play this game, you have another think coming. Prepare for a future in which running for office carries the legal risk of going to jail—on all sides. Which means that only the worst and the most shameless will run for office.
Ben Shapiro is host of “The Ben Shapiro Show” and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire. A graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, he is a New York Times bestselling author whose latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump
Democrats’ crusade to weaponize the criminal justice system to put their chief political opponent in jail escalated again Monday night, with the release of an indictment pursued by Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis against former President Donald Trump. The indictment, targeting not just Trump but 18 of his lawyers and advisers, is a clear message that if you’re a Republican, challenging election results — something Democrats have done after every GOP presidential victory this century — is now a criminal offense.
Here are five straight minutes of Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams denying the results of her 2018 election loss pic.twitter.com/oRYMeZR6vQ
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is tripping over itself to insulate Biden and his son from scrutiny or criminal consequences for their apparent scheme to get rich off of peddling American political influence abroad.
The hacks at DOJ, by the way, also indicted Trump over a classified documents dispute, after raiding his house and rifling through his wife’s closet. Soon after, Biden was found to have classified documents lying around in his garage, but in his case, the feds are content to play nice. Oh, and Hillary Clinton also had a classified records scandal — in which her team destroyed emails and devices with BleachBit and literal hammers — but enjoyed the protection of then-FBI Director James Comey.
Speaking of Hillary, her campaign shopped a fake dossier full of lies about Trump to the FBI, which media and intelligence agencies used to smear Trump as a Russian stooge during and after the 2016 election. FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, the one person handed criminal punishment for the operation, got 12 months probation. Oh, and Hillary was one of many, many Democrats who screeched for Donald Trump’s entire presidency that the 2016 election was stolen and Trump’s win was illegitimate.
Lest you should think Trump is the only example of the double standard, remember that the DOJ raided the home of a pro-life pastor for pushing a threatening pro-abortion agitator away from his young son, while militant abortion activists firebombed Christian pregnancy clinics. Recall how they charged a man with homicide for defending subway riders from a threatening vagrant, but do nothing to stop criminals who terrorize law-abiding citizens. Think about the ongoing campaign to imprison anyone adjacent to a Republican protest that turned into a mob at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, after letting left-wing protests descend into fiery riots across the country for an entire summer. Excuse me, fiery but mostly peaceful riots.
The message couldn’t be clearer: Republicans can do nothing right in the eyes of the justice system, and Democrats can do nothing wrong. We have a two-tiered justice system, and 4 in 5 Americans know it.
Problems of hypocrisy are another day’s work in politics. The use of the criminal justice system — the leveler on which the basic functions of a society depend — to turn that hypocrisy into arrest warrants is something else entirely.
A functioning justice system is a citizen’s best peaceful defense of his liberty, assuring him that his lawful exercise of freedoms will be protected. There’s a reason four of the 10 original amendments the founders affixed to their newly minted Constitution regard the rights attendant to a fair trial. When the justice system forfeits citizens’ trust, trust in the integrity of the republic itself goes with it.
We don’t have real elections if candidates are jailed — or chilled by the threat of jail — to keep them from running. We don’t have real legal recourse if DAs indict lawyers until other lawyers become afraid to defend an ostracized client. For all Democrats’ pontificating about the rule of law, it doesn’t exist if it’s only applied and misapplied to half the country. If we no longer uphold equal justice under the law, we still have a country, but not the one we thought we had.
As my colleague Joy Pullmann wrote a year ago, “A country that harshly prosecutes people or lets them off Scot-free based on their political affiliation is a banana republic. A two-tier justice system is not a justice system. … Its purpose is not justice but population control.”
A fair justice system isn’t the first thing to crumble in a dying republic — there are plenty of warning signs — but it might be the hardest loss to come back from. After all, the law is supposed to be the authority to which Americans appeal when their rights are abused and trampled. What are they supposed to do when the law and its enforcers are doling out the abuse?
Elle Purnell is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. Follow her work on Twitter @_etreynolds.
The indictments against former President Donald Trump are “clearly politicized” and come as the Biden family “continues to dodge accountability” on the accusations that have been made about them, Rep. Ashley Hinson said on Newsmax Tuesday.
“It seems every single time there’s an indictment that comes down, it’s right after we’ve heard yet another damaging report about the Biden family,” the Iowa Republican said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “I can tell you what I’m hearing from Iowans, and it’s that they are sick and tired of this two-tier justice system. It’s rules for thee and not for me, whether it’s the Manhattan DA or the Fulton County, Ga., DA.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues “using the weaponized Department of Justice to be able to go after their political opponents,” said Hinson.
This is why Republicans “need to do everything we can to fire Joe Biden, restore faith in our justice system, and make sure that these people who are designed to enforce the law are doing so with equal application of justice,” she said.
Trump, along with several co-defendants including ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, was indicted in GeorgiaMonday night for allegedly meddling in the results of the 2020 election in the state, where he lost to Joe Biden. The grand jury brought 13 felony charges against the former president, including violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, and violating his oath of office.
Hinson said the indictments also mean Republicans have their work cut out for them, and she’s glad for Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and his work in leading the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Biden family.
“We’re doing as much as we can through the appropriations process as well to put pressure on all of these departments to make sure they’re actually following the law and giving us as members of Congress the documents we need to make sure we’re holding the right people accountable,” said Hinson.
Meanwhile, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has called for the Georgia trial to be held in six months, or just after the Iowa caucuses in January and as other states move into their primary seasons.
“It’s important that we vet these presidential candidates because who we have in the White House in 2024 is going to be really, really important to making sure we can again restore justice here,” said Hinson. “When we keep hearing about these stretches that are being used for political purposes, that is not what everyday Americans are concerned that they’re going to be next. That’s what I think everybody’s worried about, and we need to make sure that we are refocusing it on that. Jan. 15 is Iowa’s caucus day and can’t come soon enough.”
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Sandy Fitzgerald is a writer for Newsmax. She has more than 35 years of experience in the news industry including editing, reporting, writing, and page design for newspapers, magazines, and websites. She has been with Newsmax since 2011.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at “crooked Joe Biden’s” Department of Justice for secretly attacking his Twitter account and “making it a point not to let me know about this major ‘hit’ on my civil rights.”
“My Political Opponent is going CRAZY trying to infringe on my Campaign for President,” Trump said in a Truth Social post hours after court documents revealed that special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed and obtained a search warrant related to Trump’s account on Twitter, which is now known as X.
A federal judge ordered Twitter to turn over the documents and also fined the company, owned by Elon Musk, $350,000 for a three-day delay in complying with a court order regarding the records.
“The district court found that there were ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump ‘would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation’ by giving him ‘an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates,'” the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. noted in its ruling.
Trump bashed the move.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before. Does the First Amendment still exist? Did Deranged Jack Smith tell the Unselects to DESTROY & DELETE all evidence? These are DARK DAYS IN AMERICA!”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Alina Habba, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, told Newsmax he has every right to question the results of the 2020 election. Habba made her comments on “National Report,” Friday.
“Trump has every right to question the integrity of the election,” she said. “He had every right to do so at the time, I think millions and millions of Americans still to this day also share that sentiment that there may have been issues in the 2020 election.”
“We’ve seen documentaries come out on it. We’ve seen a lot of facts that result in this continual belief that things were not done exactly appropriately, and the president did what he wanted to do and what he needed to do in the way that he was advised by some …
“But imagine any politician who feels that that somebody has lied or that there’s been a fraud, not being able to challenge that fraud and what that means for our country. That’s their job, and he was the sole person in the executive branch who had the power to do so.”
As for reports that said Trump was irked at his arraignment when the magistrate referred to him as “Mr.” Trump as opposed to “President” Trump, Habba said: “To be honest, if President Trump got upset every time somebody disrespected him, I think he wouldn’t be able to wake up every morning.
“So you know he didn’t mention it to me directly, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I think it’s incredibly disrespectful.”
She said she favors moving the trial outside the Democrat-dominated Washington, D.C.
“So, I do think that should be done,” she said. “I think that would be the smart thing strategically to do.”
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A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
The double standard in the Department of Justice’s handling of cases against former President Donald Trump and Hunter Biden is “unbelievable,” political consultant Dick Morris said on Newsmax.
“They blocked the IRS agents from interviewing Hunter, they leaked the time and the place of the search … so they could make sure everything was nice and neat for them and it’s just outrageous what’s going on,” Morris said Wednesday during an appearance on “John Bachman Now” ahead of IRS whistleblower testimony before the House Oversight Committee about alleged meddling in the DOJ probe of Biden.
“But there’s a larger point that I want to focus on with you,” Morris added. “This new indictment of Trump, if it comes through, is totally different from the others because it accuses him essentially of waging an insurrection against the government and it characterizes Trump’s objections to the 2020 election as acts of sedition and that’s clearly an attempt to invoke the 14th amendment that says that if anybody was in sedition or rebellion of the U.S. government they can’t hold public office and that’s clearly what they’re trying to do.
“And if he’s found guilty of this by a D.C. grand jury, which would be of course all Democrats, he literally could be barred from appearing on the ballot and you may find Democratic secretaries of state around the country who refuse to put them on the ballot.
“So, this is a direct assault on our right to choose the next president and I believe what we need to do is that Congress needs to say they will not vote any more money, the house, for the government, they will close it down if they have to rather than let the Justice Department proceed.
“I think they should demand that the administration and the DOJ announce they will not go against any person who is a candidate for president during the campaign. He can do it afterwards but during the campaign, it’s clear election interference.”
Trump on Tuesday said he received a letter informing that he is the target of the DOJ’s probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, an indication he could soon be charged by U.S. prosecutors.
New federal charges, on top of existing state and federal counts in New York and Florida and a separate election-interference investigation nearing conclusion in Georgia, would add to the list of legal problems for Trump as he pursues the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Despite President Joe Biden’s campaign against the idea of a border wall, his administration is filling in small gaps along the southern wall, the Washington Examiner reported.
Workers are halfway through filling in 129 gaps in border wall projects, the Examiner said. Gaps have been filled in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, where more than 450 miles of 18-and 30-foot steel wall was put up by former President Donald Trump’s administration.
But despite such efforts, much of the 2,000-mile boundary is wide open. According to the Examiner the work to fill in the gaps has been done without any fanfare.
When Biden took office, he immediately signed an executive order halting all border wall construction, but his administration has approved projects at multiple locations along the border, the Daily Mail reported in July, 2022.
“To date, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has authorized the completion of multiple life, safety, environmental and other remediation activities which include, among other activities, the closure of 129 gates and gaps across the southwest border,” CBP [Customs and Border Protection] said. “Of the 129 approved gates and gaps, 68 have been completed to date with an additional 50 anticipated for completion by Sept. 30, 2023. The remaining 11 are anticipated to be completed in fiscal year 2024.”
And Ken Oliver, director of Right on Immigration at the Texas Public Policy Foundation said: “There never was any legitimate justification for waiting nearly 2 1/2 years to get around to doing construction that should have never stopped and that should have been completed by now.
“It was a highly irresponsible and unlawful action by the Biden administration to halt construction of duly appropriated border-wall funding in the first place.”
The Examiner noted that filling in the gaps is being funded with leftover money from the Trump wall projects. The Biden administration has not disclosed how many miles the gap projects total. One gap in Deming, New Mexico, was no wider than 20 feet, but had been left open for 2 1/2 years. It was finally closed up in the last two weeks, according to landowner and fourth-generation rancher Russell Johnson.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who visited the border city of Yuma in June, said the gaps are being closed.
“Significant progress has been made on construction for all the gaps, with two nearly finished and all four expected to be complete within two months,” a spokesperson for Kelly said in a statement to the Examiner. “This remains a priority for him, and he will continue pushing to have the construction finished as soon as possible.”
The news outlet pointed out that instead of installing the same type of dark steel slatted beams, CBP in Yuma constructed 30-foot-tall wire mesh panels in some of the gaps. The sections included doors that open to allow police to come and go.
Special counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor behind the indictment of former President Donald Trump and the investigation into sensitive national security documents being kept at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, has spent more than $9 million since taking on the assignment late last year, according to Department of Justice figures released Friday.
Smith has spent about $5.4 million on personnel, rent, and other costs from his own budget and brought about another $3.8 million in spending by other DOJ agencies in the four months after he was picked last November to lead the investigation and other probes involving alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, reports Politico.
The report only accounts for Smith’s spending through March and does not include the period leading up to Trump’s indictment in June or the increased activity in the election investigation, as the special counsel started the process for a second Florida grand jury.
Part of the $3.8 million includes the cost for Smith’s security detail in the high-profile investigations, the report said.
When Smith was brought on, the investigations involving Trump had already been underway. He kept most of the staff that was already involved but added more prosecutors in recent months.
The report doesn’t include how much the DOJ had already spent on the probes before bringing on Smith.
The special counsel, who had headed the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, left his job in Europe, where he was prosecuting war crimes, and returned to Washington to take over the investigations on Trump.
Meanwhile, special counsel Robert Hur, who was appointed in January to examine President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents spent $615,000 through March, with the DOJ incurring another $572,000 in expenses, according to another report.
John Durham, the special counsel appointed to examine the origins of the Russian conspiracy probe involving Trump’s first election campaign spent $1.11 million in the six months before March 31 while wrapping up his investigation of the FBI, with the DOJ adding in another $59,000.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., in a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requested the Department of Justice preserve and produce all records pertaining to the office of special counsel Jack Smith, calling Smith’s investigation of former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified information “highly irregular and of extraordinary public concern.”
“This information is not only of public interest in the abstract but is highly critical to the ongoing oversight work of the federal Congress,” Gaetz wrote. “While there are innumerable valid legislative purposes for this request, it should be obvious that doing due diligence in vetting an office that has apparently done no vetting of its own personnel, or worse, might affirmatively be seeking to staff with sanctioned lawyers and partisan hatchet-men (and women), is an entirely appropriate purpose and one small reason I am requesting this information.”
Trump was indicted last week on 37 felony charges of willfully retaining classified documents and obstructing justice. Smith framed the indictment as an important step for protecting democracy.
“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” Smith said Friday. “Adhering to and applying the laws is what determines the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Gaetz in the letter claimed that Karen Gilbert, one of the prosecutors on Smith’s team, resigned in 2009 as head of the narcotics section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida after misconduct “which DOJ stated it ‘deeply regrets’ and which cost the American taxpayer over $600,000 in a settlement.”
Gaetz added: “This misconduct was both referred to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility and the Florida Bar. Furthermore, Federal Election Commission records indicate that Ms. Gilbert has made thousands of dollars in donations to ‘Biden for President,’ ‘Obama for America,’ the ‘DNC Victory Fund,’ ‘Obama Victory Fund 2012,’ and associated partisan organizations.”
Gaetz also said the request should be met considering “at least 27 devices used in the Mueller probe were unlawfully wiped clean of records.”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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