Trump D.C. trial drops off court’s March calendar, clearing way for N.Y. case
The change did not appear on the official criminal case docket before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who has made clear since Trump filed his appeal on Dec. 7 that all trial deadlines would be suspended while he challenges the case. On appeal, Trump is arguing that the government does not have authority under the Constitution to bring charges against him for actions he took while president after the 2020 election through the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, when he attempted to prevent Congress from confirming Joe Biden’s election victory.1`
Schumer Plans Vote Next Week on Border and Ukraine Deal, but Prospects Are in Doubt
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said on Thursday that he would set up a test vote next week on a measure pairing an immigration crackdown with tens of billions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine and Israel, but the package is facing a rough road with Republican resistance in both chambers.
Mr. Schumer’s promise came as a small group of Republican and Democratic senators rushed to finalize a plan to clamp down on migration across the U.S. border with Mexico, which Republicans had demanded be paired with any further aid to Kyiv for its war against Russian aggression.
Trump’s Former Finance Chief in Negotiations to Plead Guilty to Perjury
Allen H. Weisselberg, a longtime lieutenant to Donald J. Trump, is negotiating a deal with Manhattan prosecutors that would require him to plead guilty to perjury, people with knowledge of the matter said.
As part of the potential agreement with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Mr. Weisselberg would have to admit that he lied on the witness stand in Mr. Trump’s recent civil fraud trial, the people said.
Mr. Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer at Mr. Trump’s family business, also would have to say that he lied under oath during in an interview with the New York attorney general’s office, which brought the civil fraud case.
FBI Agents Reportedly Missed ‘Hidden Room’ While Searching Mar-a-Lago for Government Documents
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team questioned multiple witnesses about a closet and a “hidden room” that FBI agents did not enter while executing a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, according to ABC News.
Smith is prosecuting Trump over his retention of government documents after leaving the White House. The indictment alleges that upon leaving office, Trump took classified documents and willfully obstructed the federal government’s efforts to retrieve them. Trump has been charged in federal court in Florida on more than three dozen counts, including 30 violations of the Espionage Act. The former president pleaded not guilty on all counts.
Biden holds early cash edge, Trump’s legal bills mount and other takeaways from new campaign finance reports
President Joe Biden entered the election year with an early financial edge over Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, new filings show – a bright spot for an incumbent with low approval ratings who is girding for a bruising general election rematch with his 2020 foe.
Biden had nearly $46 million in cash on hand, compared with $33 million amassed by Trump, who is still working to dispatch his lone, remaining major rival for the GOP nomination, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
But the reports underscore the challenges ahead for the president: Despite facing no real threats to his nomination, Biden has not built the cash reserves that would allow him to swamp Trump’s campaign, even as the former president faces mounting legal woes and Haley’s staying power in the race.
FBI director warns that Chinese hackers are preparing to ‘wreak havoc’ on US critical infrastructure
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday warned that Chinese hackersare preparing to “wreak havoc and cause real-world harm” to the US.
“China’s hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if or when China decides the time has come to strike,” Wray told the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Though cyber officials have long sounded the alarm about China’s offensive cyber capabilities, Wray’s dramatic public warning underlines the huge level of concern at the top of the US government about the threat Chinese hackers pose to critical infrastructure nationwide. The head of the National Security Agency and other senior US officials also testified on Chinese cyber activity in front of the panel Wednesday.
Chuck Grassley Signals Opposition to Bill Because It ‘Makes the President Look Good’
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) indicated he may oppose a bipartisan tax bill because he said it would make President Joe Biden “look good” in an election year.
The $78 billion package includes an enhanced child tax credit for low-income families and the extension of some tax benefits for businesses that were enacted in 2017. Additionally, the legislation contains funding for people affected by natural and manmade disasters.
“Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good — mailing out checks before the election — means he could be re-elected, and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts,” Grassley told reporters on Wednesday, according to NBC News.
Mark Zuckerberg apologizes to parents at online child safety hearing
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized Wednesday to parents in the audience of a Senate online child safety hearing who say Instagram contributed to their children’s suicides or exploitation.
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through,” Zuckerberg said after Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pressed him about whether he would apologize to the parents directly. “It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”
Lawmakers grilled Zuckerberg and the CEOs of TikTok, Discord, X and Snap at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing called “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.”
Dem Lawmaker Rips GOP Reps To Their Faces: ‘You Bend The Knee To The Orange Jesus’
A Democratic lawmaker slammed his Republican colleagues over their fealty to Donald Trump on Tuesday night during a marathon 15-hour session on impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over border security issues.
Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) said the House Homeland Security Committee has held 17 hearings on the border, but zero full committee hearings on other issues within its jurisdiction such as emergency preparedness, cyber threats, infrastructure protection and more.
“We have not lived up to our oversight obligation here on this committee because you all are obsessed with the border,” he said. “Because you bend the knee to the ‘Orange Jesus’ as you refer to him across the aisle.”
Trump lawyer Alina Habba makes, then backs off, ‘conflict’ allegation against E. Jean Carroll judge
Former President Donald Trump’s attorney Alina Habba on Tuesday backed off of a conflict of interest claim against the judge who presided over the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial after Carroll’s lawyer threatened to pursue sanctions.
Habba on Monday filed a letter with the court citing a New York Post story that said U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan and Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan, who are not related, had worked at the major law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in the 1990s. An unidentified former partner at the firm, which employs around 1,000 lawyers, told the Post that Lewis Kaplan had been “like her mentor.”
Habba told the New York Post that the situation was “insane and so incestuous.”
House Republicans hold hearing on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas
Members of the House Homeland Security Committee are meeting Tuesday to discuss the Republican-led impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
House Republicans accuse Mayorkas and the Biden administration of disregarding federal laws on immigration and seek to make Mayorkas the second Cabinet official to be impeached in U.S. history. Tuesday’s hearing is another step toward a formal vote to impeach Mayorkas in the full House, which will come next week, according to Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.
Mayorkas and Democrats have pushed back, arguing that the impeachment effort is political.
Biden says he has decided on response to deaths of U.S. soldiers in Jordan
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he has made a decision on how to respond to the drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers and injured dozens of others at a base in northeast Jordan.
As Biden departed the White House on Tuesday morning, a reporter asked him whether he had made a decision in response to the attack by Iran-backed militants Sunday. He replied, “Yes.”
Biden vowed Sunday to retaliate and “hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing” for the deadly attack, which injured more than 30 soldiers.
Malcolm Nance: A Lethal Attack in Jordan… Time to Punish Iran
Since the start of the Israeli counteroffensive operation, Swords of Iron, Iranian-backed guerilla groups in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq have been peppering US forces in the Middle East with Shahid–136 drones and ballistic missiles. US forces have defended themselves from over 160 drone and cruise missile attacks but over 100 soldiers were wounded. Today it became lethal.
Iranian-backed aggression culminated in an attack on a small special operations forces (SOF) base in Jordan known as Tower-22. This base is juxtaposed in the tri-border areas of Jordan, Iraq, and Syria. T-22 has been in operation for well over a decade as a hidden entry and exit point for US long-range, special forces missions into Syria.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his substack…
E. Jean Carroll on jury’s $83 million Trump ruling: “They said ‘enough'”
E. Jean Carroll, a writer who accused former President Donald Trump of sexual assault and was awarded $83.3 million in damages on Friday for defamatory statements, says she believes the jury was sending a message with their verdict.
“I think they said ‘enough,'” Carroll said in an interview on “CBS Mornings” on Monday. “Enough saying horrible, slimy, terrible things about me.”
Trump has vowed to appeal the decision by a federal jury in New York, which awarded Carroll $65 million in punitive damages and $18.3 million in compensatory damages for defamatory statements made after Carroll accused Trump in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room decades earlier. When Trump denied the allegations, calling her a “whack job ” and claiming they had never met, Carroll sued him.
Enemy drone that hit US base in Jordan possibly confused with American drone
An enemy drone was probably able to slip past defenses at a U.S. base in Jordan because American personnel mistook the enemy drone for one of their own returning from a surveillance mission, two U.S. officials confirmed Monday.
The officials say that the explosive-laden attack drone approached the base at a low altitude and hit a housing area at the remote Tower 22 base in the Jordanian desert near the border with Syria and Iraq.
The attack on Sunday by Iran-backed militants killed three American service members and wounded at least 40 others, U.S. officials said, with President Joe Biden warning that the strike will be met with American retaliation as Iran denied involvement.
‘This is truly a joke’: Trump lawyer blasts independent monitor’s report ahead of fraud trial ruling
Trump attorney Clifford Robert on Monday blasted a report issued last week by the former judge appointed to monitor the Trump Organization as an inaccurate depiction of the firm’s finances intended to justify the continued oversight of the company.
Robert criticized the report in a scathing letter to the judge overseeing Trump’s civil fraud trial, in which Trump is accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of inflating his net worth in order to get more favorable loan terms. Trump has denied all wrongdoing, and a ruling in the case is expected at any time.
In a statement to ABC News, Trump attorney Chris Kise accused the report by independent monitor Barbara Jones of exaggerating immaterial issues in the Trump Organization’s finances to “fill the gaping hole in the Attorney General’s case” and justify the $2.6 million in fees collected by Jones.
Republicans Who Screamed About A Crisis On The Border Now Oppose A Plan To Fix It
For months, Republicans have shouted from the rooftops about a migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and how President Joe Biden needs to act to address it, insisting the flow of migrants is an urgent national security threat.
Now many on the right are urging their party to reject the very same things they said were needed to fix the problem, including tougher enforcement measures and a proposal to automatically shut down border crossings when it is overwhelmed. Instead, they appear set on impeaching the top Cabinet official in charge of the border, even though there is no evidence of a crime.
The GOP’s contortions aren’t just grating for Democrats but also on some conservative Republicans who have been deeply involved in crafting bipartisan legislation, which is expected to be unveiled soon, that would overhaul how migrants are processed at the border.
Charlie Pierce: Could There Be a More Cursed Phrase Than ‘President Joe Manchin’?
As we know, a dream is a wish your heart makes. “President Joe Manchin” is a dream that makes your heart throw up. From CNN:
Privately, the West Virginia Democrat has told people that a Joe Biden health scare or a Donald Trump conviction could give him an opening to run as an independent this year. In public, during stops in states such as New Hampshire, South Carolina and Georgia, Manchin says he believes there’s a role for him as a national icon in the “fiscally responsible and socially compassionate” middle, comparable with the role Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders plays for the progressive left.
And who the hell is this guy when he’s at home?
Dean Obeidallah: Jon Stewart returning to The Daily Show will help us win in 2024—No joke!
Jon Stewart is back! At least every Monday night that is, as Stewart returns to host Comedy Central’s The Daily Show starting Feb 12. However, Stewart will also serve as the executive producer of the show for all episodes, meaning his comedic fingerprints will be everywhere. That is great for us—and bad for Donald Trump.
Many of us—including myself—were truly disappointed when Stewart stepped down from hosting The Daily Show in the summer of 2015, just a short time after Trump announced his run for President. And after Hillary Clinton lost, many—again, including myself—had wondered if the election results would’ve been different if Stewart had hosted throughout the 2016 campaign.
Read the rest of Dean Obeidallah’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack here!
The Rude Pundit: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Border Bullsh** Depends on Federal Funding
Many things gall the fuck out of me about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who always looks like he’s smiling in satisfaction because a migrant child is drowning in front of him, and his completely dickish border politics to ramp up anger at President Biden and the Democrats. It’s not just his abuse of power in forcing the Texas National Guard to confront Customs and Border Control Agents at the southern border with Mexico. It’s not just the absolute assholishness and hysteria in the communications he and his Attorney General, the odious, sleazy scumfucker Ken Paxton (who looks like someone who masturbates to those kids Abbott’s smiling at), have had with Biden and his administration. And it’s not just that Abbott is defying the U.S. Supreme Court in his bizarre desire to slice up migrants who try to cross the Rio Grande. Or to drown them at Eagle Pass.
Chiefs, 49ers in 2024 Super Bowl after Lions, Ravens losses
Christian McCaffrey scored two touchdowns and Brock Purdy threw for another score as the San Francisco 49ers rallied to a 34-31 victory over the Detroit Lions in the NFC title game Sunday, earning a Super Bowl date with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Earlier in the day, defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City went to Baltimore and came away with a 17-10 victory over the top-seeded Ravens.
The Niners and the Chiefs met in the 2020 title game, with Kansas City coming away with a come-from-behind 31-20 victory.
Jury Orders Trump to Pay Carroll $83.3 Million After Years of Insults
Former President Donald J. Trump was ordered by a Manhattan jury on Friday to pay $83.3 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of a decades-old rape, attacks he continued in social media posts, at news conferences and even in the midst of the trial itself.
Ms. Carroll’s lawyers had argued that a large award was necessary to stop Mr. Trump from continuing to attack her. After less than three hours of deliberation, the jury responded by awarding Ms. Carroll $65 million in punitive damages, finding that Mr. Trump had acted with malice. On one recent day, he made more than 40 derisive posts about Ms. Carroll on his Truth Social website.
Joe Biden Pokes ‘Loser’ Donald Trump’s Sore Spot In Fiery Campaign Speech
President Joe Biden on Saturday slammed former President Donald Trump as a “loser” as he called out his predecessor’s derogatory comments about America’s war dead.
Biden, during his address at South Carolina’s First in the Nation Dinner, ripped Trump over reports that during his presidency he referred to American service members who died in World War I as “losers” and “suckers.”
“How dare he say that. How dare you talk about my son and all those lost like that,” said Biden. “Look, I call them patriots and heroes. The only loser I see is Donald Trump.”
Biden Says 3 Americans Killed, ‘Many’ Wounded In Drone Attack In Jordan
Three American service members were killed and “many” were wounded in a drone strike in Jordan, President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday. He attributed the attack to Iran-backed militia groups.
They were the first U.S. fatalities in months of strikes against American forces across the Middle East by Iranian-backed militias amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, increasing the risk of escalation.
Biden said the United States “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing.”
Alabama inmate Kenneth Smith put to death in first U.S. nitrogen gas execution
An Alabama man was put to death using nitrogen gas Thursday evening in a first-of-its-kind execution that could influence states in pursuit of a viable alternative to lethal injection.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was executed by nitrogen hypoxia, in which he was strapped to a gurney and made to breathe nitrogen gas through a mask apparatus, depriving him of oxygen, prison officials at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore said. The execution started at 7:53 p.m. local time, and Smith’s time of death was 8:25 p.m., according to corrections officials, who added that the nitrogen was flowing for about 15 minutes.
‘Immoral’: Some Republicans rebuke efforts to kill immigration deal to help Trump
Tempers flared Thursday as Republicans battled among themselves over whether to accept or reject a deal for tougher immigration laws, with some pushing back on colleagues who want to bow to former President Donald Trump’s wishes and kill it.
“The border is a very important issue for Donald Trump. And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and Congress people that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem — because he wants to blame Biden for it — is really appalling,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters.
Nikki Haley ramps up attacks on Trump ahead of South Carolina showdown
Nikki Haley has ramped up her criticism of Donald Trump over the course of the 2024 presidential campaign. But she’s taking the attacks and the back-and-forth to a new level as she digs into a month of campaigning in South Carolina before the state’s Feb. 24 primary.
She was greeted in her home state by about a dozen Trump supporters protesting outside her Wednesday-night rally here. And Haley gave back as good as she was getting, dispensing with her usual stump speech introduction to go directly after the former president at the top of her own remarks on Wednesday.
“Bring it, Donald,” she said, as she challenged the former president to a debate.
Trump briefly testifies in E. Jean Carroll damages trial, clashes with judge
Former President Donald Trump took the witness stand in a federal courthouse Thursday in New York City, where he testified for just under five minutes after he clashed with the judge in the damages trial in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him.
Trump, who returned to court after his victory in Tuesday’s GOP presidential primary in New Hampshire, was limited in what he could say, but he still called Carroll’s accusation “false” — a claim that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered stricken from the record.
House Ethics Probe into Matt Gaetz Heats Up as Committee Requests Info from DOJ Investigation
An ethics investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and his alleged involvement with a teenage girl appeared to be ramping up, according to CNN reporter Paula Reid.
Reid told Jake Tapper Wednesday, “We’ve learned that the House Ethics Committee investigating Congressman Gaetz has done a new round of outreach to potential witnesses, including a woman who was 17 years old when she allegedly had sexual contact with Congressman Gaetz.”
Donald Trump Has Midnight Meltdown Over E. Jean Carroll As Trial Resumes
Donald Trump repeatedly attacked his accuser E. Jean Carroll on his Truth Social platformovernight Wednesday, just hours before the writer’s second defamation trial against him was set to resume in a New York courtroom.
Trump shared a mix of 37 videos, tweets, news articles and rants over two hours. It followed a similar pattern to previous online rampages by the four-times-indicted ex-POTUS.
The former president was last year ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages after a jury found him liable for sexual abuse.
Nikki Haley Taunts Trump Over ‘Temper Tantrum’ After He Won New Hampshire
GOP presidential candidate and second-place finisher in New Hampshire’s primary Nikki Haley blasted former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying his anger over her performance reflected his insecurity with her own strength in the Republican nominating contest.
Trump handily won the New Hampshire race on Tuesday, bolstering his bid for the Republican nomination and prompting fellow GOPers to flock to endorse him. But Haley did better than some polls anticipated, and she has vowed to remain in the contest. That decision prompted fury and indignation from Trump.
“So we got out there and we did our thing and we said what we had to say, and Donald Trump got out there and just threw a temper tantrum, he pitched a fit,” Haley told supporters in her native South Carolina on Wednesday, which will hold the next competitive race in the GOP primary season. “He was insulting, he was doing what he does.”
Trump Privately Pressuring GOP Senators To ‘Kill’ Border Deal To Deny Biden A Win
Donald Trump on Wednesday privately pressured Senate Republicans to “kill” a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S. border because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to chalk up a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to a source familiar with the tenuous negotiations on the package.
Trump directly reached out to several GOP senators on Wednesday to tell them to reject any deal, said this source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. The GOP presidential frontrunner also personally reached out to some Senate Republicans over the weekend, the source told HuffPost.
“Trump wants them to kill it because he doesn’t want Biden to have a victory,” said the source. “He told them he will fix the border when he is president… He said he only wants the perfect deal.”
Malcolm Nance: Mission Middle East… What May Be Israel in Your Head, Is Likely Not Israel in Real Life.
Over the last 40 years, I have visited Israel numerous times. My first visit came in the middle of September 1983. The ship I was on had just finished taking part in a massive bombardment of the Lebanese Chouf mountains in support of the fledgling Lebanese army offensive against the the Walid Jumblatt-run PFP, the Progressive Socialist Party Druze militia. This combat operation involved several US warships firing hundreds of 5-inch gun rounds into the mountainous regions south of Beirut.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack
Most shocking snubs and surprises from Oscar nominations
Oscar has spoken, doling out its golden-ticket nominations this morning, not ignoring the Barbenheimer phenom that ignited the box office, though skimping on the “Barbie” side of the equation.
“Barbie” garnered eight nominations to a field-leading 13 for “Oppenheimer.”
Once again giving the short end of the stick to comedy.
But, hey, snubs and surprises are always the big story on Oscar nomination day, and there are plenty of shockers to go around.
Biden Wins New Hampshire Primary Without Being On The Ballot
President Joe Biden won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday, securing a symbolic victory in spite of his absence from the ballot and the state’s irrelevance to the official nominating process.
Enough New Hampshirites wrote in Biden’s name on the ballot for him to triumph over U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), self-help author Marianne Williamson, and 19 other contenders who took advantage of the ease with which candidates can qualify for the presidential ballot in the Granite State.
The outcome meets the marker set by Biden’s allies in the state, who mounted both a grassroots campaign to write him in, and ran a super PAC to advertise the effort to voters.
Donald Trump Fumes At Nikki Haley: ‘I Don’t Get Too Angry, I Get Even’
Ex-President Donald Trump fumed at former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday despite his victory in the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary.
Delivering remarks at his election victory party in Nashua, Trump seemed peeved that Haley decided to stay in the GOP presidential race despite finishing second in the Granite State.
“Who the hell was the impostor that went up on stage and claimed a victory? She failed badly,” Trump said of Haley, even though Haley had congratulated him on his win minutes earlier at her election night party in Concord.
Trump wins the New Hampshire Republican primary, as Nikki Haley vows to fight on
Former President Donald Trump leapt closer to the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, defeating his lone remaining rival, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in New Hampshire’s primary, NBC News projects.
In doing so, he put one of the final pieces in place for a long-anticipated rematch with President Joe Biden in November.
The victory made the former president the first non-incumbent to win both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. No Republican has won both and failed to take the party’s nomination.
Supreme Court Backs Biden in Dispute With Texas Over Border Barrier
The Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration on Monday, allowing federal officials to cut or remove parts of a concertina-wire barrier along the Mexican border that Texas erected to keep migrants from crossing into the state.
The ruling, by a 5-to-4 vote, was a victory for the administration in the increasingly bitter dispute between the White House and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, an outspoken critic of President Biden’s border policy who has shipped busloads of migrants to northern cities.
Since 2021, Mr. Abbott, a third-term Republican, has mounted a multibillion-dollar campaign to impose stringent measures at the border to deter migrants. Those include erecting concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande, installing a barrier of buoys in the river and enacting a sweeping law that allows state and local law enforcement to arrest migrants crossing from Mexico.
Kamala Harris Says Trump Is ‘Proud That Women Are Silently Suffering’
Vice President Kamala Harris condemned former President Donald Trump for taking pride and credit for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, according to an exclusive CNN interviewpublished Monday.
“The previous president expressed his intentions quite clearly. And fast forward to just recently, says he’s proud of what he did,” Harris told CNN journalist Laura Coates in Wisconsin.
“By inference, he is proud that women have been deprived of fundamental freedoms to make decisions about their own body; by inference, proud that doctors are being penalized and criminalized for providing health care, proud that women are silently suffering because they don’t have access to the health care they need,” Harris said. “So, let’s understand that the stakes are so very high.”
Trump, Haley make their final pitches before today’s New Hampshire primary
The first six ballots of the 2024 primary season were cast at midnight today in the small town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.
Trump received no votes and Haley received all six. Four of the voters were registered Republicans, while two were undeclared.
“A great start to a great day in New Hampshire,” Haley said in a campaign news release. “Thank you Dixville Notch!”
Voters placed their ballots in a wooden box at midnight in a tradition that has endured since 1960, with a town moderator tabulating the ballots, filling out the necessary paperwork and recording the results on a board. Dixville Notch has the longest run of midnight voting.
Fake Joe Biden robocall tells New Hampshire Democrats not to vote Tuesday
The New Hampshire attorney general’s office says it is investigating what appears to be an “unlawful attempt” at voter suppression after NBC News reported on a robocall impersonating President Joe Biden that told recipients not to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary.
“Although the voice in the robocall sounds like the voice of President Biden, this message appears to be artificially generated based on initial indications,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “These messages appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election and to suppress New Hampshire voters. New Hampshire voters should disregard the content of this message entirely.”
Charlie Pierce: Ron DeSantis Picked a Fight He Couldn’t Win
A dream is a wish your heart makes, quoth Disney’s Cinderella. Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough, quoth J.M. Barrie’s (and Disney’s) Peter Pan. Ron DeSantis will now return to his regular day job of misruling Florida full in the knowledge that his presidential campaign will be reckoned among history’s worst and that, quite possibly, Disney believed that karmic revenge was a dish best served cold. Tinkerbell did it. The Magic Kingdom served up poisoned apples of the mind, and not only did DeSantis take a huge bite out of one of them, but a substantial portion of the elite political press gobbled them down like penny candy.
Don’t pick fights you can’t win, Ron. Not against Disney, and not against El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago. Don’t you ever learn?
The Rude Pundit: No One Hates America More Than Trump and the MAGA Cretins
Believe it or not, the election of 2020, up to and through Election Day, was pretty much a triumph of the American electoral system at all levels. At the height of a global pandemic, with hospitals overwhelmed, with corpses being kept in trailers, with supply chains fucked, we held a presidential election and that motherfucker was run amazingly well. Yes, there were the usual, preventable, bullshit problems of long lines at polling stations, especially in poor and non-white majority areas in Republican states. That’s a huge bastard of a problem that needs fixing. But the combination of early voting and mail-in ballots, along with Election Day voting, worked. It should have been one of the great civic celebrations in US history, as in “Holy shit, we really did that. We really made it work. And it was the most secure election in this country possibly ever.” We should have been cheering for election workers and officials at the local, state, and federal level like we cheered for essential workers. We should have been patting ourselves on the back for coming through and voting at the highest rate since 1900. We should have been beaming with pride at how awesome this country can be when it wants to be.
‘I Had to Follow My Compass’: Ex-Trump Lawyer Tells MSNBC Why He Bailed Just One Day Before E. Jean Carroll Trial
Joe Tacopina, a lawyer who represented former President Donald Trump, sat down for his first interview since bailing on Trump’s legal team on the eve of the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.
Saturday on MSNBC, Tacopina spoke with Rev. Al Sharpton in what he said would be his “first and only interview” addressing his 11th hour departure from Trump’s defense.
“I left the team because it was just my time,” Tacopina said. “I had to follow my compass, and my compass told me it was my time.”
Nikki Haley Suggests Trump Is ‘Not As Sharp’ As He ‘Used To Be’ In Response To Jan. 6 Gaffe
Nikki Haley questioned Donald Trump’s mental fitness while campaigning in New Hampshire on Saturday, where she suggested the 77-year-old former president is “not as sharp” as he “used to be.”
Haley asked Republican voters to consider Trump’s age after he appeared to mix her up with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during a campaign speech in Concord, New Hampshire, on Friday.
Trump blamed his former ambassador to the United Nations for the Jan. 6 attacks, an accusation he’s repeatedly aimed at Pelosi, who was then speaker of the House.
DOJ seeks 6-month prison term for former Trump adviser convicted of contempt of Congress
The Justice Department wants former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro to spend six months behind bars after being convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena.
Federal prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday that Navarro “deserves severe punishment” that includes a $200,000 fine in addition to prison time. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan 25.
Navarro, 74, was found guilty last year on two counts of contempt after he rejected a congressional subpoena to testify before the now-defunct Jan. 6 committee and provide relevant documents.
Ron DeSantis suspends his presidential bid and endorses Trump
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, once seen as the most formidable opponent to Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primary, suspended his campaign Sunday and endorsed the former president.
The move comes two days before the New Hampshire primary.
DeSantis made the announcement in a video on X — the same social media platform where he did the glitchy rollout of his White House bid.
“Now, following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on the way forward,” he said. “If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it. But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources. We don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.”
Trump For The First Time Concedes That His Actions May Have Been Illegal
In a middle-of-the-night, all-caps social media post, Donald Trump for the first time appears to have conceded that his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol may have broken the law.
“EVEN EVENTS THAT ‘CROSS THE LINE’ MUST FALL UNDER TOTAL IMMUNITY, OR IT WILL BE YEARS OF TRAUMA TRYING TO DETERMINE GOOD FROM BAD,” Trump wroteThursday at 1:59 a.m. about the federal prosecution against him related to Jan. 6, 2021.
From the day a mob of his followers swarmed the Capitol building as they tried to help him coerce then-Vice President Mike Pence and Congress into awarding Trump a second term even though he had lost reelection, the former president has claimed that he acted completely appropriately. Of the four criminal prosecutions against Trump, he and his lawyers have only argued that he is immune in the federal Jan. 6 case.
Nikki Haley Says Pardoning A Convicted Donald Trump Would Be ‘Healing’ For The Country
Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley said it would be bad for America to see Donald Trump“sitting in a jail cell” should he be convicted in any of the multitude of legal cases against him, but added she would not preemptively pardon him.
“For me, the last thing we need is an 80-year-old president sitting in jail because that’s just going to further divide our country,” Haley said during a town hall event with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday. “This is no longer about whether he’s innocent or guilty. This is about the fact: How do we bring the country back together?”
Trump currently faces 91 criminal charges in four separate indictments and has been forced to see-saw from the campaign trail to the courtroom as the Republican presidential primary heats up. He handily won the Iowa caucuses this week and currently leads in the New Hampshire primary, according to recent polls. But he has amped up his attacks against Haley as she sits firmly in second place in the state before next Tuesday’s presidential selection process.
Congress passes stopgap bill to prevent a shutdown until March, sending it to Biden
Congress passed a bill on Thursday that would prevent a partial government shutdown this weekend and keep federal funds flowing through March 1 and March 8.
The Democratic-led Senate voted 77-18 on final passage after considering a few amendments. The Republican-led House soon followed suit, passing it by a vote of 314-108.
The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law before the funding expires Friday at midnight.
Trump lawyers tell Supreme Court that removing him from ballots would unleash ‘chaos and bedlam’
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded with the Supreme Court to allow him to remain on the Republican primary ballot in Colorado as he seeks to overturn a state ruling that found him ineligible because of his role leading up to the Jan. 6. attack on the Capitol.
Trump’s lawyers filed a brief laying out his position ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Feb. 8.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Dec. 19 that a clause in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that prohibits “an officer of the United States” who “engaged in insurrection” from running for various federal offices applied to Trump.
Johnson gets squeezed by Biden, Senate GOP on Ukraine, border
President Biden and congressional leaders in both parties are ramping up pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to accept an expected deal on Ukraine funding and border security, warning national security is at risk without action by Congress.
Security experts at a White House meeting Wednesday briefed Johnson and other leaders about the dire situation faced by Ukraine. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan were among those in attendance.
The looming package also includes funding for Israel and the Indo-Pacific region, two other hot spots where U.S. concerns are rising.
Trump Savages Judge After Emerging from Courtroom: ‘That’s a Nasty Man’
Fresh off his contentious court appearance Wednesday, former President Donald Trump had some harsh words for Judge Lewis Kaplan, whom he called “a nasty man.”
Trump was not required to be in court for Wednesday’s proceedings in E. Jean Carroll defamation’s case against him, but he said he will attend “all days.” Last year, a jury found the former president liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in the mid-1990s. She is currently suing Trump for defamation (again) after Trump repeatedly claimed she lied about the assault.
Maine court pauses order that excluded Trump from primary ballot, pending Supreme Court ruling
The Maine Superior Court on Wednesday cleared the way for former President Donald Trump to appear on the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot for now, sending a dispute over his eligibility for a second term back to the secretary of state for further proceedings once the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling in a similar case from Colorado.
In a 17-page order, Justice Michaela Murphy, who sits on the superior court in Augusta, said that a December decision from Secretary of State Shella Bellows, a Democrat, should remain on hold until the Supreme Court renders its decision in the Colorado dispute.
Agitated Trump says ‘I would love it’ after judge threatens to boot him from E. Jean Carroll defamation trial
The judge presiding over E. Jean Carroll’s damages trial in New York federal court warned former President Donald Trump on Wednesday that he might bar him from the courtroom for grousing loudly and animatedly to his lawyer during Carroll’s testimony about how he repeatedly defamed her.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited, and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive” and “if he disregards court orders,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told Trump and his attorney after the jury had left the courtroom.
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you are very eager for me to do that,” Kaplan said.
“I would love it. I would love it,” Trump responded.
Malcolm Nance: Special Mission… Observing the Israel-HAMAS War from on the Ground
Every once in a while, somebody sends me a message that says Boy-Howdy, it sure looks like Malcolm is dropped off the grid again. Is he on another special mission to get right to the heart of explaining away something insanely complex? Well, in this particular instance, you would be correct.
I have traveled back to the Middle East on a mission, a very special mission. I am in Israel and headed to Gaza, the West Bank, and the Northern border to study the counterterrorism aspects of the Israeli-HAMAS War.
This study will include the counterinsurgency in the West Bank, the budding war with Hezbollah in the northern cities, and the military operations of the Israeli Army in Gaza itself.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his substack.
Charlie Pierce: Let’s Look at the Iowa Results With a Cold Eye
Let us be completely honest. There is no silver lining to the results of Monday’s Iowa caucuses. What coverage I watched on TV—truth be told, I watched far more of Baker Mayfield than of Steve Kornacki on Monday night—seemed focused on desperate crawling toward a mirage of hope through a democratic republic turned into some godawful hybrid half-Arctic and half-desert. Look at all the Republicans who didn’t vote for El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago, they told us, failing to mention that 99.99 percent of those renegade hayshakers will vote for him enthusiastically come November. Trying to draw any conclusions from the collective decision of 100,000 Iowans willing to scuttle through frozen wastelands to high school gymnasiums in a state run exclusively through god-bothering white people is a fool’s game.
SHOCK POLL: Haley Tied with Trump in New Hampshire
Nikki Haley (R-SC) is tied with Donald Trump in New Hampshire, according to a surprising new poll.
American Research Group, Inc. showed Trump and Haley tied at 40% of likely Republican primary voters in the Granite State.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was tied at 4% with Vivek Ramaswamy (R), who dropped out of the race Monday night. Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AK) polled at 1% and dropped out of contention on Tuesday.
The poll relied on 600 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of likely Republican primary voters living in New Hampshire (406 Republicans and 194 undeclared voters (independents)) from January 12-15, 2024. Margin of Error: ± 4 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split.
ABC Calls Off Next GOP Debate After Nikki Haley Says She Won’t Appear Without Trump
ABC News called off its Republican primary debate in New Hampshire on Thursday after former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said she would no longer participate if former President Donald Trump failed to show up.
“Our intent was to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates and the outcome of the race,” an ABC spokesperson said.
Haley, who finished in third place after the Iowa caucuses, said Tuesday Republicans had already participated in “five great debates in this campaign.” But she challenged Trump and his refusal to appear, saying the former president had “nowhere left to hide.”
House Republicans hit pause on effort to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress
The House has stopped moving forward with a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after Biden’s lawyers and the House Judiciary and Oversight committees renewed their conversations about scheduling a date for the president’s son to appear and testify.
The two Republican-led committees voted last week to recommend that the full House hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena in the Republican impeachment inquiry into his father. The younger Biden had offered to testify at a public hearing, and he appeared on Capitol Hill to make a statement in December on the day ordered in his subpoena but did not appear for the closed-door testimony the committees requested.
Trump damages trial gets underway in E. Jean Carroll defamation case with former president in courtroom
Former President Donald Trump attended his defamation damages trial in New York on Tuesday, sitting roughly 10 feet away from E. Jean Carroll, the writer whom a civil jury last year said he was responsible for sexually abusing in the 1990s.
Trump was in the courtroom for jury selection but left before opening statements began to go to a campaign rally in New Hampshire. He was not present when Carroll attorney Shawn Crowley told the jury how Trump had upended her client’s life and that they needed to return a verdict large enough to “make him stop” targeting her.
“We submit that number should be significant. Very significant,” Crowley said.
Trump plans to attend start of new E. Jean Carroll trial after Iowa caucuses
Former President Donald Trump intends to attend the start of the new E. Jean Carroll civil damages trial on Tuesday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his plans.
Trump plans to travel from Des Moines, Iowa, to New York City following the state’s caucuses that NBC News projected he won on Monday night, another source familiar with his travel plans said.
The trial centers on a defamation case brought by Carroll, a magazine writer who accused the former president of raping her in the 1990s, then defaming her when she went public with her allegations.
‘Succession’ nabs Emmy for best drama series, ‘The Bear’ and ‘Beef’ win big
Emmys: Full winners list
- Drama series: “Succession”
- Comedy series: “The Bear”
- Drama lead actress: Sarah Snook (“Succession”)
- Drama lead actor: Kieran Culkin (“Succession”)
- Limited or anthology series: “Beef”
- Limited/movie lead actress: Ali Wong (“Beef”)
- Limited/movie lead actor: Steven Yeun (“Beef”)
- Variety special (live): “Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium”
Vivek Ramaswamy drops out of the 2024 presidential race, endorses Trump
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the 2024 presidential race Monday night after a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucuses and endorsed former President Donald Trump.
Ramaswamy finished fourth in Iowa, NBC News projects, coming in well behind Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Ramaswamy had 8% of the GOP caucus vote with more than 90% of precincts reporting late Monday night.
Ramaswamy said he called Trump to congratulate him on his victory and would attend a rally with him in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
Trump easily wins the Iowa caucuses, Ron Desantis far behind in 2nd place
Donald Trump has won the Iowa caucuses, NBC News projects, cementing his firm status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump, who is aiming to be the first former president since Grover Cleveland in the 1890s to return to office after losing re-election to a second consecutive term, scored a record-breaking showing Monday in the first contest of 2024.
He will receive a majority of the vote, NBC News projects, and his final margin of victory will surpass the 13 points that Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas won by in the 1996 Republican caucuses. And Trump’s commanding performance is the strongest sign yet that there is no decisive demand for an alternative as the race shifts to next week’s New Hampshire primary.
The Rude Pundit: Trump’s Silence on Death Threats Is Evidence Against Him
I remember, as I’m sure you do, in the years after the 9/11 attacks, that every time some violence was committed by someone who was Muslim, the entire Muslim community in the United States was expected, if not forced, by the right and by the media to make a statement condemning the violence. It’s always been an absolutely ludicrous thing since it presumes that a Muslim who committed a shooting represented all Muslims if the denouncement didn’t happen. It also takes away focus from the very real Islamophobia and violence against Muslims in this country. But even though the local imam had nothing to do with a shooter, that imam always had to say on camera that Islam is a religion of peace and the shooter was really degrading his faith.
I also remember, as I’m sure you do, the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin. Sometimes, some people connected to the protests (very few people in the context of how huge the marches and rallies were) rioted and committed violence, looting and starting fires (allowing that some this might also have been caused by infiltrators). Any leaders who supported Black Lives Matter, any politician, especially Black politicians, had to get in front of reporters to condemn the violence and call on supporters to stop. This actually made sense. When some in your nonviolent movement get violent, you say something to try to end it or distance yourself from it, even if it’s being blown out of proportion. A burning police station is never a good look.
Arctic blast hits US bringing life-threatening cold, South braces for snowstorm
A record-breaking Arctic cold snap is sweeping across much of the United States as the Great Lakes deal with heavy snow and the South prepares for a significant winter storm.
Saturday brought record-breaking cold to much of the northern Plains, with Montana feeling the deepest chill. Chester, Montana, clocked in as the coldest spot in the nation when the temperature plunged to a mind-numbing minus 54 degrees.
In Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday, football fans braved negative-degree wind chills to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Miami Dolphins.
Nikki Haley Moves Into Second In Final Iowa Poll, Trump Still Reigns
Nikki Haley rose into second place in a final Iowa poll while former President Donald Trump’s support among likely caucus-goers still makes him the overwhelming favorite to win the GOP’s first presidential nominating contest on Monday.
The poll reinforced Trump’s projected strength in Iowa, while also underscoring Haley’s slow consolidation of the GOP field and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stagnation despite investing the bulk of his resources here. Trump was the polling leader at 48%, with Haley at 20% and DeSantis slipping into third place at 16%.
Haley was up 4 percentage points from December’s Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, underscoring her momentum in the race following five GOP debates. Both Trump and DeSantis, meanwhile, were down 3 points during the same period.
Trump Promises Voters Vengeance In His Final Pitch Before Iowa Caucus
Donald Trump implored his supporters Sunday to brave frigid temperatures and deliver him a decisive victory in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, saying their vote would help bring to Washington the retribution he has repeatedly promised if he returns to the White House.
The former president has set sky-high expectations for his own performance in the first contest of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. He spent the day before the caucuses trying to ensure he meets them. His main GOP rivals all spent Sunday in Iowa as well, making last-minute appeals to Iowans open to hearing them.
At a rally in Indianola, Trump said his supporters could fight back against his political enemies, claiming that the four indictments he faces were driven by politics and renewing his false claims about the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
What to Watch For in Today’s 2024 Iowa Caucuses
The coldest Iowa caucuses in history arrive Monday night amid expectations that Republicans in the state will put former President Donald J. Trump on the march to a third G.O.P. presidential nomination.
The battle for second place, hard-fought between Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, will anoint Mr. Trump’s closest rival ahead of the New Hampshire primary election and beyond.
The stakes for Iowans are high. Mr. Trump is pursuing a return to the presidency despite — or perhaps because of — 91 felony counts from four criminal prosecutions, a looming fraud judgment that could decide the fate of his New York real estate empire and a pending decision on the defamation of a woman he has already been held liable for sexually abusing.
Trump says he’s already picked his VP and ‘can’t tell you,’ but his campaign backtracks
Former President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he’s decided who his vice presidential pick will be if he wins the 2024 Republican nomination — but his campaign quickly downplayed that claim, saying the issue hasn’t been discussed in “any great detail.”
“I know who it’s going to be,” Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum during the network’s town hall on Wednesday, which he attended instead of the latest GOP primary debate.
Pressed on who that running mate is, Trump retorted, “I can’t tell you that really.”
Those comments seemingly caught his top aides off guard.
Hunter Biden Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Tax Charges
President Joe Biden’s son pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal tax charges filed after the collapse of a plea deal that could have spared him the spectacle of a criminal trial during the 2024 campaign.
Hunter Biden has been accused of nine felony and misdemeanor tax offenses. The charges stem from what federal prosecutors say was a four-year scheme to skip out on paying the $1.4 million he owed to the IRS and instead use the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle that by his own admission included drugs and alcohol.
“We’re here today because you’ve been accused by the United States of a criminal offense,” Judge Mark Scarsi said to Biden, who entered the not guilty plea himself.
U.S. Missiles Strike Targets in Yemen Linked to the Houthi Militia
The United States and five of its allies on Thursday carried out military strikes against more than a dozen targets in Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, in an expansion of the war in the Middle East that the Biden administration had sought to avoid for the past three months.
The American-led air and naval strikes came in response to more than two dozen Houthi drone and missile attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November, and after warnings to the Houthis in the past week from the Biden administration and several international allies of serious consequences if the salvos did not stop.
Trump rants that New York civil trial is a ‘fraud on me’ after judge allows him to speak during closing arguments
An angry Donald Trump told the judge presiding over his New York civil fraud trial Thursday that the case is “a fraud on me,” while lawyers from the state attorney general’s office painted the former president as a remorseless fraudster who intentionally lied about his net worth in a successful scheme to line his pockets with even more money.
Trump spoke on the final day of his trial. State Judge Arthur Engoron said immediately after closing arguments that he hopes to issue a ruling by the end of the month.
“It’s up to me now, and will do my best to have a final decision by Jan. 31st,” Engoron said after hours of closing statements in a case that could cost Trump up to $370 million and permanently ban him from the New York real estate industry where he made his name.
‘You Have No Balls’: House Committee Descends Into Chaos As Hunter Biden Crashes Contempt Vote
President Joe Biden’s son made a surprise appearance Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing where Republicans approved a resolution holding him in contempt of Congress.
Hunter Biden’s arrival served as a reminder that he has offered to testify in response to Republicans’ subpoena for his testimony ― but only in public.
Republicans have insisted he speak in a private deposition and are holding him in contemptbecause of his refusal. If approved by the full House, the contempt resolution would result in a request for the Justice Department to press charges.
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley use a few key themes to bludgeon each other in debate
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley tore into each other in Wednesday night’s Republican presidential primary debate in Iowa.
The rivals leaned on a few key themes to hit each other throughout the CNN debate, suggesting the other is fundamentally unfit for the job instead of merely being wrong on policy.
Haley portrayed DeSantis as an unserious, lying loser.
“Ron’s lying because Ron’s losing,” she said at one point. “You’re so desperate. You’re just so desperate.”
Judge in New York fraud trial won’t allow Trump to deliver part of closing arguments himself
The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud case will not allow the former president to speak during closing arguments in the trial Thursday after Trump refused to say he would stick to the facts of the case and not engage in any attacks.
Trump had asked to deliver part of the arguments himself, said a source with direct knowledge of the situation. But New York state Judge Arthur Engoron denied the request Wednesday after a contentious back-and-forth with Trump’s lawyers about certain conditions he wanted him to meet.
Engoron released an email chain with Trump attorney Chris Kise and New York Attorney Letitia James’ office when he denied the request Wednesday.
Chris Christie drops out of the 2024 presidential race
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced Wednesday that he is getting out of the 2024 presidential campaign — as his main competition for moderate votes in the New Hampshire primary, Nikki Haley, gains on Donald Trump in the state.
“It’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination,” Christie told voters at an evening event. “Which is why I’m suspending my campaign for president of the United States.”
“I want to promise you this,” he continued. “I’m going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again. And that’s more important than my own personal ambition.”
Dr. Irwin Redlener: Children In War, Lessons From Ukraine
In the history of war, civilians rarely get a pass. Noncombatants, including children, are inevitably in harm’s way. It doesn’t matter whether the conflict is centered around raw conquest and expansionism, religious dominance, fighting evil, insurgencies, or misinformation. Civilian innocence is rarely a consideration in the pursuit of security, power, riches, or hegemony.
So it is now with the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, where most current public and media attention is focused. That said, it is worth remembering that horrific civilian casualties are mounting in South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, among other nations seemingly entangled in “forever conflicts.”
Trump fraud trial: Trump intends to deliver part of closing argument on Thursday himself, say sources
Former President Trump intends to personally deliver part of the defense’s closing argument at the conclusion of his civil fraud trial in New York on Thursday, sources familiar with the former president’s strategy tell ABC News.
The defendants in the case — Trump, his two eldest sons and two former Trump Organization executives — are represented by three primary attorneys, Christopher Kise, Clifford Robert and Alina Habba. But sources say Trump himself is determined to deliver a portion of the closing statement.
The sources cautioned that plans for the defense’s closing argument remain fluid.
Biden Learned About Lloyd Austin’s Prostate Cancer YESTERDAY MORNING — Eight Days After He Was Hospitalized
National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirbyrevealed that President Joe Biden only found out that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had been diagnosed with cancer on Tuesday morning, two weeks after Austin underwent a procedure pertaining to that diagnoisis, eight days after Austin entered the hospital for a prolonged stay, and five days after Biden found out that Austin was still in the hospital.
It was originally only reported that Austin’s hospital visit stemmed from an unspecified procedure in December.
Kirby was asked directly when Biden found out about Austin’s diagnosis at a White House press briefing on Tuesday afternoon and replied that “He [Biden] was informed today.”
‘Utter Disgrace’: Trump Slammed After Admitting He Hopes Economy Crashes This Year
Critics are calling out Donald Trump for saying he’s hoping for an economic crash this year.
Stocks are surging, unemployment is near historic lows and the nation appears to have avoided a predicted recession. Yet Trump claimed on Monday that the economy is “fragile” and running on “fumes” as he warned of a crash.
“And when there’s a crash, I hope it’s gonna be during this next 12 months, because I don’t wanna be Herbert Hoover,” Trump told Lindell TV host Lou Dobbs. “The one president I just don’t want to be, Herbert Hoover.”
Hoover was president during the 1929 stock market crash, which plunged the nation into the Great Depression.
Read the rest of the story at HuffPost1`
Judges skeptical of Trump’s immunity appeal at court hearing in 2020 election interference case
Federal appeals court judges on Tuesday questioned former President Donald Trump’s broad claim of immunity from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that resulted in a chain of events that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The all-woman three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said nothing to suggest it would embrace Trump’s immunity argument, although the judges raised several options about how they could rule.
The court could issue a ruling that decisively resolves the immunity question, allowing the trial to move forward quickly, or alight on a narrower ruling that could leave some issues unresolved. It could also simply rule that Trump had no right to bring an appeal at this stage of the litigation.
Charlie Pierce: Jack Smith’s Latest Filing Is More Proof Trump Did F*ck All to Stop the Goons on January 6
Every president swears to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and every printed copy of said Constitution says that one of its original purposes is to “insure domestic tranquility.”
“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they’re doing. And stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with: We will stop the steal. Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election.”—El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago, January 6, 2021.
Nope. That’s not insuring domestic tranquility. Not a bit of it. I asked around.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin leaves intensive care amid growing scrutiny of Pentagon secrecy
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, whose failure to disclose his need for emergency hospitalization has ignited a firestorm, was moved out of intensive care on Monday, as Democrats and Republicans intensified their calls for accountability, and senior officials at the White House and Pentagon struggled to defuse the uproar.
Austin, 70, remains under doctors’ supervision at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. He was taken there by ambulance Jan. 1, while in “severe pain” with undisclosed complications from a Dec. 22 medical procedure that included an overnight stay, administration officials said.
Trump Says He Hopes Economic ‘Crash’ He Predicted Happens in ‘Next 12 Months’
Former President Donald Trump predicted the country will face an economic crisis and he hopes it happens within the next year.
On Monday night, President Joe Biden’s campaign posted a 10-second video on X/Twitter of the former president giving an interview on Lindell TV – a platform owned by Trump supporter and pillow magnate Mike Lindell. A teaser for the interview dropped earlier in the day showed Trump being interviewed by former Fox host Lou Dobbs.
At one point, Trump told Dobbs:
When there’s a crash, I hope it’s gonna be during this next [sic] 12 months because I don’t wanna be Hebert Hoover – the one president, I just don’t wanna be Herbert Hoover.
Hoover was inaugurated as president in March 1929. Six months later, the stock market crashed and triggered the Great Depression, which doomed his presidency.
Trump Claims Presidential Immunity In Georgia Election Case
Donald Trump is once again claiming presidential immunity in one of the many legal challenges mounted against him, this time in his Georgia racketeering case.
The former president’s lawyers filed the presidential immunity motion Monday in Georgia’s Fulton County Superior Court, where he’s facing 13 felony charges related to his attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results in his favor.
The filing asserts that Trump should be protected by the “unbroken historic tradition of presidential immunity” because he was acting in his official capacity as president when he objected to Georgia’s electoral votes going to President Joe Biden and implored a state official to “find” more votes for him instead.
Joe Biden in South Carolina Compares 2020 Election Deniers To Confederates After Civil War
Speaking to a predominantly Black audience on Monday at the site of the worst white supremacist terror attack in recent U.S. history, President Joe Biden compared the people who falsely assert that the 2020 election was stolen to defeated members of the Confederacy making spurious claims about the Civil War.
Biden’s remarks from the pulpit at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, showed how the president hopes to use former President Donald Trump’s role in fomenting the U.S. Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, to excite the Black voters in his base, as well as retain the support of suburban swing voters.
Although a larger percentage of Black voters approve of Biden’s performance than virtually any other demographic group, some polling shows that Black voters’ support for him has waned since 2020.
Mehdi Hasan Leaves MSNBC In Surprise Announcement At End Of Final Sunday Show
Mehdi Hasan signed off on Sunday evening’s final episode of MSNBC’s The Mehdi Hasan Show by announcing he is leaving the cable news network.
“As we begin 2024, with an election coming, a war still ongoing, and too many Trump trials honestly to even keep track of, and with this show going away, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to look for a new challenge,” Hasan said. “Tonight is not just my final episode of the Mehdi Hasan Show, it’s my last day with MSNBC. Yes, I’ve decided to leave.”
“To be clear: I’m so, so proud of what we’ve achieved on this show, on this network, and I can’t thank you all enough for tuning in and for your support and feedback,” he concluded. “But as I say, new year, new plans.”
Congress reaches a deal on how much to spend for 2024 as shutdown deadline nears
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a deal Sunday on how much the U.S. government will spend in the new year, a significant step toward avoiding a shutdown.
But while the agreement on a “topline” spending level breaks a logjam that had stalled the process, it doesn’t necessarily extinguish the shutdown threat as the first of two deadlines nears on Jan. 19, when some parts of the government will run out of money.
“The bipartisan topline appropriations agreement clears the way for Congress to act over the next few weeks in order to maintain important funding priorities for the American people and avoid a government shutdown,” Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, said in a statement.
Trump Says ‘J6 Hostages’ Have ‘Suffered Enough’ On Anniversary Of Deadly Capitol Attack
Former President Donald Trump, campaigning in Iowa Saturday, marked the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol by casting the migrant surge on the southern border as the “real” insurrection.
Just over a week before the Republican nomination process begins with Iowa’s kickoff caucuses, Trump did not explicitly acknowledge the date. But he continued to claim that countries have been emptying jails and mental institutions to fuel a record number of migrant crossings, even though there is no evidence that is the case.
Supreme Court agrees to weigh whether Trump can be kicked off ballot in Colorado
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether former President Donald Trump could be deemed ineligible to run for federal office again because of his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — a case that could have a seismic impact on the presidential election.
The justices will review a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court that said Trump could be barred from the Republican primary ballot in that state, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruling is likely to have national repercussions, potentially setting guidelines that would determine how every other state would handle the issue.
The brief order said the case would be argued on an accelerated schedule on Feb. 8, indicating that a ruling will follow soon after.
‘An Outrage!’ Pentagon Under Intense Fire For ‘Huge’ Failure To Disclose Def. Sec. Austin Hospitalized In Intensive Care — FIVE Days Ago
The Pentagon and President Joe Biden’s administration took intense heat on Friday and Saturday from politicos and journos alike after a Friday news dump from DOD revealed that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized — on Monday. And the criticism mounted from the Pentagon Press Association and others after learning he’d been in intensive care for part of that stay, all without anything being said to the American people.
“We are writing to express our significant concerns about the Defense Department’s failure to notify the public and the media about Secretary Lloyd Austin’s current hospitalization,” said the Pentagon Press Association in a letter released publicly over the weekend about the administration hiding Austin’s hospitalization. “The fact that he has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for four days and the Pentagon is only now alerting the public late on a Friday evening is an outrage.”
‘F*cking Pedophiles!’ Watch Disturbing New Footage of Republican Congressmen Confronting Jan. 6 Rioters
New footage of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was made public on Saturday, the three-year anniversary of the attack by Trump supporters that left multiple people dead and hundreds more wounded.
The eight-minute video, which was filmed by Jan. 6 rioter Damon Beckley, was obtained and first reported by NBC News correspondent Ryan Reilly. It shows the moment rioters had made it to the doors of the House chamber where members of Congress were sheltering. Police officers point their guns at the rioters as two Republican members of Congress try to reason with them.
The Rude Pundit: When You Say Trump Should Be Allowed to Run for Office, You Sound Like a F***ing Idiot
Jesus fuck, stop being such pedantic idiots about whether or not Donald Trump should be prohibited from holding public office. The fucking 14th Amendment is absolutely fucking clear that he shouldn’t be allowed near an election. And yet we keep having these pearl-clutching debates about what it means, how it’s the end of democracy, and other assorted shit. No, it’s the way the country avoids our stupid electoral system and our stupid voters putting a madman into office…again.
Look at these insane arguments.
1. “We should let the people decide.” You sound like an absolutely pathetic little bitch if you say this and more than a little brain-damaged. The fucking people fucking decided in 2020 and the reason we’re even having this discussion is because Donald Trump and a whole bunch of other elected officials decided that they were going to overturn that result because of shit they made up, shit that no court anywhere with every kind of judge agreed was real, and shit that no one has every been able to prove other than to keep asserting the shit is actual shit when it’s just shit shit. If Trump is on the ballot again in 2024 and the people decide again that he should be shoved into the history books as another “holy fuck, that really happened” chapter, do you honestly think that this time he’ll go quietly? He never goes quietly. Between the bellowing and the flatulence and the heavy breathing, he will always make a racket. It’s madness to insist that any election with Trump involved will end up as a regular election unless he outright wins (even when he does, he’s a total cockknob about it), and he shouldn’t even have a chance to do that. I don’t wanna keep going through this shit again and again like some moronic time loop we can’t escape from. It’s not supporting democracy to allow the person who says he’s going to pretty much murder democracy run for the office that will let him do it. Fucking madness.
Trump Received Millions From Foreign Governments as President, Report Finds
Donald J. Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency, according to new documents released by House Democrats on Thursday that show how much he received from overseas transactions while he was in the White House, most of it from China.
The transactions, detailed in a 156-page report called “White House For Sale” that was produced by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, offer concrete evidence that the former president engaged in the kind of conduct that House Republicans have labored, so far unsuccessfully, to prove that President Biden did as they work to build an impeachment case against him.
Gunman kills 14 people and wounds 25 others at Prague university
A shooter killed at least 14 people and wounded 25 others at a university in Prague on Thursday in the deadliest mass shooting the Czech Republic has seen in decades.
Authorities believe the gunman, a 24-year-old man, died by suicide, Czech Police Chief Martin Vondrášek said Thursday evening, but added it had not yet been confirmed. The gunman, who police said was a student of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, has not been formally identified because of the severity of his injuries, the chief said. Police have not named him.
Authorities are still investigating a motive in the rampage, which took place at the Faculty of Arts building of Charles University, in the center of the capital city. The area is popular with tourists and close to major attractions, just across the Vltava River from Prague Castle.
Read the rest of the story at CNN
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Rudy Giuliani Files For Bankruptcy
Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in New York on Thursday, court records show.
In the filing, the former New York City mayor listed nearly $152 million in debts, including legal fees and unpaid taxes. He lists his assets at between $1 million and $10 million.
The filing comes one day after Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, was ordered to immediately pay $148 million in damages to two election workers he defamed.
The election workers, Ruby Freeman and daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, won a defamation suit against Giuliani earlier this year. The attorney had falsely claimed that Freeman and Moss tampered with election results in Georgia’s Fulton County, leading to racist harassment and threats against the two Black women. The election workers said they were sent threatening letters and voicemails, targeted on social media with racist and violent posts and even confronted in person.
Jack Smith To SCOTUS: Yes, There Absolutely Is A Reason To Rush Trump’s Case
Responding to Donald Trump’s claim to the Supreme Court that there was no reason to rush the proceedings in the Jan. 6 criminal case against him, special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday told the high court: Oh, yes, there is — the former president’s unprecedented attempt to remain in power despite losing his election.
“The charges here are of the utmost gravity. This case involves ― for the first time in our nation’s history ― criminal charges against a former president based on his actions while in office,” Smith wrote in a 14-page filing. “And not just any actions: alleged acts to perpetuate himself in power by frustrating the constitutionally prescribed process for certifying the lawful winner of an election. The nation has a compelling interest in a decision on respondent’s claim of immunity from these charges ― and if they are to be tried, a resolution by conviction or acquittal, without undue delay.”
Recording Shows Trump Pressed Michigan Republicans To Not Certify Election Results: Report
Former President Donald Trump was recorded pressing two Wayne County, Michigan, election canvassers to not certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, the Detroit News reported Thursday.
According to four recordings listened to by the Detroit News, which were reportedly made by a person present during the conversation, the then-president and Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair, spoke with Monica Palmer and William Hartmann —Republican members of the county’s Board of Canvassers — on Nov. 17, 2020. At the time, Trump was falsely claiming the election had been stolen from him, filing dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits based on unfounded claims of voter fraud.
Colorado Supreme Court justices face a flood of threats after disqualifying Trump from the ballot
In the 24 hours since the Colorado Supreme Court kicked former President Donald Trump off the state’s Republican primary ballot, social media outlets have been flooded with threats against the justices who ruled in the case, according to a report obtained by NBC News.
Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts public interest research, identified “significant violent rhetoric” against the justices and Democrats, often in direct response to Trump’s posts about the ruling on his platform Truth Social. They found that some social media users posted justices’ email addresses, phone numbers and office building addresses.
“This ends when we kill these f–kers,” a user wrote on a pro-Trump forum that was used by several Jan. 6 rioters.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott escalates border fight by chartering migrant flight to Chicago
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the first time this week chartered a plane to fly migrants from his state to Chicago, marking an escalation after months of having bused migrants to Democratic-run cities to protest President Joe Biden‘s border policies.
Abbott, a Republican, acted after Chicago began impounding buses carrying migrants. The city has said it’s enforcing a new ordinance that impounds buses without permits and those that fail to drop off migrants at designated spots.
“Sanctuary city Chicago started obstructing and targeting our busing mission,” Abbott wrote Wednesday on X. “Texas will now expand our operation to include flights to Chicago.
CDC director says U.S. isn’t yet near peak Covid or flu levels for the season
Winter officially begins Thursday, and with the cold season comes an expected rise in rates of flu and Covid, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. is seeing a “sharp increase” in flu levels right now, particularly in the south, Cohen said Wednesday in an interview. Covid cases also appear to be climbing nationally, she said, while cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, seem to have reached their highest point this season.
“We’re seeing RSV peak a bit sooner, but we do not believe we’re near yet at the peak of flu or Covid,” Cohen said.
Trump urges Supreme Court not to intervene immediately on election interference immunity issue
Lawyers for Donald Trump on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to avoid deciding, for now, the key issue of whether the former president has broad immunity for actions he took challenging the 2020 presidential elections result.
The court filing was in response to special counsel Jack Smith’s request last week asking the justices to circumvent the normal appeals court process and quickly decide the legal question, which looms large in Trump’s criminal prosecution in Washington for election interference.
Trump’s lawyers, led by former Missouri Solicitor General Dean John Sauer, argued in the filing that Smith has given “no compelling reason” why the Supreme Court should immediately step in without waiting for the appeals court to act.
Malcolm Nance: A Fight to the Death… Can Israel Destroy HAMAS? Part 1
In 2004, the United States Army, Marines and Iraqi Army carried out Operation Phantom Fury, also known as al-Fajr “Dawn”. The Iraqi city of Fallujah had a population of 300,000. For over a year and had become a hotbed and safe haven for the Saddam’s fedayeen, a terrorist force formed by Saddam Hussein to oppose the American invasion and al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the newest offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s franchise. At the time the US Marine Corps led force surrounded the city with 40,000 soldiers and marines, the terrorist forces a dug themselves into the heart of the city with 5000 men & women. US Marine Corps forces had entered the city earlier in the year but did not need to have a major engagement. US commanders decided to take their time and spent over six months with the Iraqi army evacuating 90% of the city. When that was complete the tidal wave of US and Iraqi forces stormed down on the city. The fighting was bitter and door-to-door. US Marine Corps infantry and combat elements fought street by street. The terrorists had laid booby traps and mines.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack…
Congress Abandons Ukraine Aid Until Next Year as Border Talks Continue
Congress gave up Tuesday on a last-ditch bid to speed through emergency military aid to Ukraine before the end of the year, as negotiators failed to cement a deal that Republicans have demanded tying the money to a crackdown on migration across the U.S. border with Mexico.
“It is our hope that their efforts will allow the Senate to take swift action on the national security supplemental early in the new year,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said in a rare joint statement.
Judge orders Rep. Scott Perry to turn over nearly 1,700 cellphone records in Jan. 6 probe
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., must disclose 1,659 documents to government investigators, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, finding that the communication records were not protected by the speech or debate clause of the Constitution.
The court order is the latest twist in a Jan. 6-related investigation that has made its way through courts for months and entangled the Trump ally.
The FBI seized Perry’s phone in 2022 — before Jack Smith was appointed special counsel — as part of a federal investigation into efforts to interfere with the certification of the 2020 election. Investigators sought a second warrant to access Perry’s data but had to wait as Perry asserted speech or debate protection over 2,219 records.
Trump doubles down on immigrant ‘blood’ remark, says he ‘never read Mein Kampf’
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his widely criticized comments about immigration by suggesting that people crossing the border illegally into the United States are “destroying the blood of our country.”
“They dump them on the border, and they pour into our country, and nobody said to check them,” Trump said at a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa.
“They’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They’re destroying our country.”
Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state’s 2024 primary ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution
In a bombshell decision, Colorado’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that former President Donald Trump‘s candidacy in the state’s primary next year is prohibited on constitutional grounds.
The first-of-its kind ruling stems from a lawsuit that focused a little-known provision in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Similar challenges in other states have proven unsuccessful.
“A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” the Colorado ruling said. “Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”
Texas Gov. Abbott signs bill to let police make immigration arrests
“These laws will help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas,” Abbott said in a statement.
Abbott has taken increasingly strict measures to stop illegal immigration into Texas, including placing razor wire at certain locations and installing a chain of orange buoys in the Rio Grande. Both efforts set up legal battles with the Biden administration.
Federal appeals court rejects Mark Meadows’ bid to move his Georgia election case to federal court
A federal appeals court in Georgia has rejected a bid by former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to remove his Fulton County election interference case into federal court, affirming a lower court’s decision that left it in state court.
In its opinion, the appeals court found that “the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties.”
The decision said that “even if Meadows were an ‘officer,’ his participation in an alleged conspiracy to overturn a presidential election was not related to his official duties.”
Judge Rejects Trump’s Bid To Toss Fraud Lawsuit In Scathing New Ruling
Former President Donald Trump has lost his latest bid to end the business fraud lawsuit he faces in New York as he campaigns to reclaim the White House.
Judge Arthur Engoron issued a written ruling Monday denying the Republican’s latest request for a verdict in his favor in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
And in doing so, the judge dismissed the credibility of one of Trump’s expert witnesses at the trial, a professor who testified that he saw no fraud in the former president’s financial statements.
Rudy Giuliani sued again by former election workers who now want a court order against further defamatory remarks
Days after being awarded $148 million in damages against Rudy Giuliani in a defamation suit, two former Georgia election workers have filed a new lawsuit against the former Trump lawyer over remarks he made about them immediately after Friday’s verdict.
The new suit by Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss seeks a court order permanently barring Giuliani “from persisting in his defamatory campaign” against the mother and daughter, arguing that he’s continued to falsely accuse them of committing election fraud even after a federal jury handed down last week’s verdict in Washington, D.C.
Harry Litman: How Jack Smith’s risky but clever maneuver in the Jan. 6 prosecution puts Trump in a bind
Special counsel Jack Smith’s petition Monday for expedited Supreme Court consideration of Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution was a rare, risky and masterly move. It’s likely to upend Trump’s chief strategy of delaying the federal Jan. 6 trial until next year’s election.
Smith won on the immunity question in the trial court, where U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan meticulously analyzed the relevant text, history and structure of the Constitution before rejecting Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from prosecution for his conduct as president. Trump’s lawyers promptly appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Read the rest of Harry Litman’s piece at The Los Angeles Times
Charlie Pierce: The Republican Frontrunner Is Copping Lines From Adolf F*cking Hitler
Where are the rest of them? Are there enough beds in Iowa and New Hampshire under which they can hide? Ron? Nikki? Chris Christie is at least trying to confront the peril, but that’s balanced out by Vivek Ramaswamy, who wants to be the legal ward and heir to the peril itself. But some of these people are running campaigns against a guy who came up this weekend, looked out at Durham, North Carolina, and saw Nuremberg in his mind, and not in the sense of the postwar tribunals. Here are some now-notorious samples:
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America … but all over the world. They’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”
Dean Obeidallah: It wasn’t just Giuliani, Trump also made the lives of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss a nightmare
Indicted and soon to be disbarred lawyer Rudy Giuliani was ordered Friday by a federal jury to pay former Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby “Lady” Freeman nearly $150 million in damages for his repeated and false accusations against them after the 2020 election. As Lady Freeman said after the verdict, “Today is a good day. A jury stood witness to what Rudy Giuliani did to me and my daughter. And they held him accountable. And for that, I’m thankful.”
But the reality is that Donald Trump also repeatedly and intentionally spewed lies about Moss and Freeman that contributed to this nightmare. In fact, after all the media coverage of the hell these two suffered during last year’s Jan 6 hearings, Trump in January 2023—yes, 2023—took to his social media platform to again accuse Freeman by name of both lying and election crimes.
Read the rest of Dean Obeidallah’s piece and and subscribe to his newsletter at The Dean’s Report
Trump says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country.’ Biden campaign likens comments to Hitler
Former President Donald Trump said immigrants coming to the U.S. are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a remark on Saturday that quickly drew a rebuke from his chief Democratic rival as President Joe Biden’s campaign likened the words to those of Adolf Hitler.
“They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told the crowd at a rally in New Hampshire. “That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”
Florida Republican Party Suspends Chairman, Demands Resignation Amid Rape Investigation
The Republican Party of Florida suspended Chairman Christian Ziegler and demanded his resignation during an emergency meeting Sunday, adding to calls by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other top officials for him to step down as police investigate a rape accusation against him.
Ziegler is accused of raping a woman with whom he and his wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, had a prior consensual sexual relationship, according to police records.
“Christian Ziegler has engaged in conduct that renders him unfit for the office,” the party’s motion to censure Ziegler said, according to a document posted on the social media platform X by Lee County GOP Chairman Michael Thomason.
Israel Faces New Calls For Truce After Killing Of Hostages Raises Alarm
Israel’s government faced calls for a cease-fire from some of its closest European allies on Sunday after a series of shootings, including the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages, fueled global concerns about the conduct of the 10-week-old war in Gaza.
Israeli protesters are urging their government to renew negotiations with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whom Israel has vowed to destroy. Israel is also expected to face pressure to scale back major combat operations when U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits Monday. Washington is expressing growing unease with civilian casualties even as it provides vital military and diplomatic support.
Biden unharmed after car strikes president’s motorcade in Delaware
A sedan smacked into a Secret Service vehicle that was part of President Joe Biden’s motorcade in Delaware on Sunday night.
Following the crash, U.S. Secret Service agents whisked Biden into a vehicle.
Agents quickly surrounded the sedan with guns drawn and aimed at its driver, who had his hands up. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Special Agent Steve Kopek, a Secret Service spokesperson, said the vehicle that struck was securing Biden’s motorcade route.
Giuliani defamation trial: Jurors will continue deliberations on Friday
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is on trial in Washington, D.C., this week for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Giuliani, acting on behalf of former President Donald Trump, accused the mother and daughter of committing election fraud while the two were counting ballots on Election Day in Georgia’s Fulton County.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in August awarded a default judgment to the two women, leaving this week’s trial to determine the full scope of the damages and any penalties Giuliani will have to pay. Freeman and Moss are seeking between $15.5 million and $43 million.
Both sides have rested their case in Trump’s civil fraud trial. What happens now?
The lights are out in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.
After 44 days of testimony, the trial is set to resume in January with closing arguments. A final decision in the case is not expected until late January or early February, when Judge Arthur Engoron issues a written opinion.
“We have oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 11 but in a strange way, I’m going to miss this trial. It’s been an experience,” Engoron remarked Wednesday as he wrapped up the day’s contentious proceedings.
“I feel exactly like I did before, three years ago. This case was a joke. We wasted three months,” Trump’s legal spokesperson, Alina Habba, said on her way out of court.
Apology Letters By Sidney Powell And Kenneth Chesebro In Georgia Election Case Are One Sentence Long
The apology letters that Donald Trump-allied lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro were required to write as a condition of their plea deals in the Georgia election interference case are just one sentence long.
The letters, obtained Thursday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request, were hand-written and terse. Neither letter acknowledges the legitimacy of Democrat Joe Biden’s win in Georgia’s 2020 election nor denounces the baseless conspiracy theories they pushed to claim Trump was cheated out of victory through fraud.
“I apologize for my actions in connection with the events in Coffee County,” Powell wrote in a letter dated Oct. 19, the same day she pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties.
As House adjourns, Senate delays holiday recess to work on immigration deal
As the House adjourned Thursday for Christmas recess with plans to return in the new year, the Senate decided to delay its holiday break and return next week to hammer out a deal on immigration and aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that shift on the floor Thursday afternoon, one day after immigration negotiators expressed some signs of optimism in reaching a deal.
“Over the last few days, negotiations on a path forward to getting the national security supplemental done have made good progress. As I have said, if we believe something is important and urgent we should stay and get the job done,” Schumer said. “That is certainly the case with the supplemental. It is important. It is urgent.”
Court grants special counsel’s request to expedite Trump’s immunity appeal in election interference case
A federal court on Wednesday granted special counsel Jack Smith’s request for an expedited appeal in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit set several deadlines for prosecutors and the defense to file briefs laying out their positions on Trump’s argument that the case should be dismissed on presidential immunity grounds. No date for oral arguments has been set.
The decision to take up the appeal threatens to push back the trial’s start date, currently scheduled for March 4. The third of three briefs requested by the appeals court is due Jan. 2.
Judge hits pause on Trump federal election case over presidential immunity appeal
The judge presiding over the federal election interference case against Donald Trump halted all proceedings in the criminal case on Wednesday pending the outcome of Trump’s appeal arguing he’s protected by presidential immunity.
All pending deadlines and court dates in the case will be put on pause but not vacated, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan added.
“If jurisdiction is returned to this court, it will — consistent with its duty to ensure both a speedy trial and fairness for all parties — consider at that time whether to retain or continue the dates of any still-future deadlines and proceedings, including the trial scheduled for March 4, 2024,” the judge wrote.
Hunter Biden defies House Republican’s subpoena that he testify in private
Hunter Biden on Wednesday repeated his offer to appear at a public hearing on Capitol Hill, defying a House Republican-issued subpoena that called for him to testify instead at a closed-door deposition.
President Joe Biden’s son lashed out at Republicans during brief remarks standing outside of the U.S. Capitol, saying, “I’m here today to make sure that the House committees’ illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence and lies.”
Republicans had subpoenaed Hunter Biden to appear for a closed-door deposition Wednesday morning before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees. The chairmen of those committees, as well as the House Ways and Means Committee, are spearheading the impeachment effort into President Joe Biden.
House Republicans vote to authorize their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden
The GOP-controlled House on Wednesday voted to authorize its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden — a formal step Republicans believe will grant them the ability to better enforce their subpoenas in the courts.
The 221-212 vote was along party lines, with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats voting no.
“The impeachment power resides solely with the House of Representatives. If a majority of the House now says we’re in an official impeachment inquiry as part of our constitutional duty to do oversight, that carries weight. That’s going to help us get these witnesses in,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, one of the leaders of the impeachment push, told reporters.
COP28 climate summit OK’s controversial “historic” pact to fight climate change
United Nations climate negotiators directed the world on Wednesday to transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels in a move the talks’ chief called “historic,” despite critics’ worries about loopholes.
Within minutes of opening Wednesday’ session, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber gaveled approval of the central document, which says how far the world is off-track its climate-fighting goals and how it is going to get back – without asking for comments. Delegates stood and hugged each other.
“It is a plan that is led by the science,” al-Jaber said. “It is an enhanced, balanced but make no mistake, a historic package to accelerate climate action. It is the UAE consensus.”
Trump’s defense concludes its case in New York fraud trial
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump ended a month-long procession of more than a dozen witnesses Tuesday with testimony from a feisty, combative accounting professor named Eli Bartov, who proclaimed that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case against Trump is “absurd.”
Bartov’s appearance marked the end of the two sides’ core cases in the civil fraud trial. The state is expected to call two brief rebuttal witnesses before the case shifts to a new phase. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on Jan. 11, and the judge plans to issue his ruling a few weeks later.
The trial has been a lengthy, tense standoff between Trump and James, who were often in the room as their lawyers clashed. From the beginning, they took turns lashing out at each other to the media gathered outside.
Biden warns Netanyahu that Israel is losing support worldwide and its government must ‘change’
President Joe Biden appeared Tuesday to offer his harshest criticism yet of the Israeli government since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Oct. 7, saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a “tough decision to make.”
Biden made the remarks at an off-camera campaign reception in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, suggesting that Netanyahu’s government is hindering a long-term solution.
“I think he has to change, and with this government, this government in Israel is making it very difficult for him to move,” he said.
Biden announces $200M in aid for Ukraine as Zelenskyy meets GOP skepticism in Congress
President Joe Biden announced $200 million in pre-approved aid for Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s marathon day of meetings here on Tuesday.
The latest tranche of assistance came as the Ukrainian president visited the White House and Capitol Hill to make the case for additional U.S. support as an aid package with billions in funds for the war-torn country stalls amid partisan disagreements over immigration policies.
“We’ll continue to supply Ukraine with critical weapons and equipment as long as we can, including $200 million I just approved today in critical needed equipment, additional air defense interceptors, artillery and ammunition,” Biden said during a news conference with Zelenskyy. “But without supplemental funding, we’re rapidly coming to an end of our ability to help Ukraine respond to the urgent operational demands that it has.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith Plans To Use Trump’s Cell Phone Data At Trial
Special counsel Jack Smith plans to present former President Donald Trump’s cell phone data as evidence during his federal election interference trial, according to new court filings.
Smith’s office filed a notice Monday saying prosecutors plan to call several expert witnesses during the trial to explain Trump’s cell phone use during and after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. One witness, Smith wrote, has “extracted and processed data” from White House cell phones used by Trump and “specifically identified the periods of time” when the devices were unlocked and the Twitter application was open.
The three expert witnesses were not identified in the filing.
Special counsel asks Supreme Court to immediately decide if Trump is immune from Jan. 6 prosecution
Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the Supreme Court to immediately step in to decide whether former President Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution for his actions seeking to overturn the 2020 election.
“This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office,” Smith wrote in the court filing.
Smith said it was “of imperative public importance” that the high court decide the question so that Trump’s trial, currently scheduled for March, can move forward as quickly as possible.
George Santos is in plea negotiation talks, prosecutors say
Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., is in plea negotiations with federal prosecutors over the criminal charges filed against him this year, according to a new court filing.
“The parties are presently engaged in plea negotiations with the goal of resolving this matter without the need for a trial,” prosecutors wrote Monday in a document submitted to the district judge overseeing the case. “The parties wish to continue those negotiations over the next thirty days.”
Santos lawyer Joe Murray would not confirm whether Santos would be taking a plea deal. A spokesperson for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment.
Texas Supreme Court rules against woman who sought abortion hours after she says she’ll travel out of state
A Texas woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis and who was awaiting a decision from the Texas Supreme Court about whether she would be allowed to get an abortion said Monday that she has decided to leave Texas to get the procedure.
Kate Cox, a mother of two who is around 20 weeks pregnant, found out just after Thanksgiving that her developing fetus has trisomy 18, a fatal diagnosis. Seeking to terminate the pregnancy to protect her health and future fertility, she and her husband sought a court orderto block Texas’ abortion bans from applying in her case.
A state district judge granted the request Thursday, but then the state Supreme Court temporarily paused the lower court’s orderFriday. On Monday evening, the Texas Supreme Court directed the lower court to vacate its order.
Charlie Pierce: We Now Know What Jack Smith’s Case Against Trump Looks Like
Sometimes, within the blizzard of legal papers occasioned by the crimes and sedition of the former president*, you have to step back and filter all the filings and rulings and counter-filings to find the hidden significance of any single item. Over the weekend, special counsel Jack Smith filed what is officially titled a GOVERNMENT’S NOTICE PURSUANT TO FEDERAL RULE OF EVIDENCE 404(b). This boringly captioned document nonetheless gives us a very clear look at the outlines of what Smith seeks to prove when his case finally goes before the court in Washington. And, quite honestly, Smith is shooting the moon. He is going after both the duckboot and white-shoe elements of the attempted coup, and he’s obviously planning on pinning the whole thing on Fulton County (Ga) Inmate No. P01135809 and the upper echelons of his scurvy minions. Deep in the filing, we find this piquant passage concerning the attempted violent ratfcking of the effort to count votes in Michigan.
UPenn President Resigns Days After Backlash Over Comments About Antisemitism
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned from her position Saturday, following comments she made about antisemitism earlier this week.
“It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution,” Magill wrote in a statement. “It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”
Her resignation comes just days after outrage over comments she and other academic leaders made at a congressional hearing focused on holding campus leaders accountable and addressing antisemitism on college campuses went viral.
Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocks ruling that allowed woman emergency abortion
The Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked a historic lower court ruling on Friday that allowed a Texas woman to get an emergency abortion.
The state’s attorney general asked the high court to reverse a judge’s decision granting a woman’s request for an abortion for a pregnancy with a severe anomaly.
The Supreme Court said it will weigh in on the matter and put the lower court’s decision on hold until it has more time to consider the case, according to court documents.
Biden invites Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to the White House on Tuesday
President Joe Biden invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House for a meeting on Tuesday and he has accepted, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and another White House official said Sunday.
Biden intends to “underscore the United States’ unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine” in its war against Russia, Jean-Pierre said.
“As Russia ramps up its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, the leaders will discuss Ukraine’s urgent needs and the vital importance of the United States’ continued support at this critical moment,” she added.
In a reversal, Donald Trump says he won’t testify in his own defense in New York fraud trial
In an eleventh-hour reversal, former President Donald Trump announced Sunday he will not go back on the witness stand in the $250 million civil fraud trial against him and his company.
“I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt,” so “I will not be testifying on Monday,” Trump said in an all-caps, two-part post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Resumption of the trial had been scheduled for Monday, but the Office of Court Administration, the administrative arm of the New York State Unified Court System, said late Sunday that it would instead resume Tuesday.
The Rude Pundit: The Republican Strategy… Make Everyone Think Democrats Are as Fucking Awful as They Are
There is one thing tying together a bunch of shit that Republicans are doing right now. They know that the GOP brand is tarnished with insurrection, hatefulness, and the stink of Trump. Rather than try to change or kick Donald Trump to the curb, which would be hard work involving convincing the idiot hordes of MAGA drones to stay on board without their orange idol or shifting policies to reflect what the majority of Americans actually believe on things like guns, abortion, and more, they are saying, “Fuck it. Let’s just fuck shit up instead. It’s what we’re good at.” Playing to their vile strengths, Republicans in Congress and their media lackeys have decided that the best way to win in 2024 is to do everything possible to drag the image of Democrats down to their level and then rub some more shit on it.
Tuberville Drops Blockade of Most Military Promotions
Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, on Tuesday lifted his blockade of nearly all the military promotions he had delayed for almost a year in protest of a Pentagon policy ensuring abortion access for service members, saying he would continue to hold up only the most senior generals.
Hours after Mr. Tuberville said he would allow the promotions of about 440 service members, the Senate confirmed all of them in one fell swoop, by a single voice vote.
“Thank God,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said after he pushed the promotions through. “These military officers will now get the promotions they so rightfully earned.”
Republicans storm out of briefing as Congress battles over Israel and Ukraine aid package
A classified briefing for senators on the White House‘s request for aid for Israel and Ukraine became “heated” Tuesday, with Republican members storming out of the meeting.
The briefing, led by the secretaries of defense and state, as well as the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was held behind closed doors to allow all 100 senators to ask questions about the administration’s funding request.
But it fell apart, senators from both parties said, after Republicans began asking about the border. GOP members in both chambers have demanded serious changes to immigration policy to address rising migrant crossings in exchange for passing new aid for Ukraine.
Biden says that ‘if Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running’
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that his re-election campaign was prompted in part by Donald Trump’s decision to run for president again and an effort to block his predecessor from reclaiming the White House.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden said at a campaign event in Boston, adding that he “cannot let him win.”
Upon returning to the White House on Tuesday night, Biden was asked by a reporter if he would bow out of the race if Trump drops out. “No, not now,” the president responded.
Trump says he won’t be a dictator if elected, ‘except for Day One’
Former President Donald Trump said at a Fox News town hall Tuesday that he would not be a dictator “except for Day One” if he is elected president next year.
Trump’s comments at the taped event in Iowa came in response to host Sean Hannity’s asking him whether he would abuse the power of the office to seek revenge.
“You are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity said.
“Except for Day One,” Trump responded, repeating the phrase.
Charlie Pierce: Gone Fishin’
For some time, looking out my left eye has been like looking through a damn ice cube. So, on Tuesday, I’m having a cataract removed. (I would like to have a calendar year without surgery. Am I asking for the moon?) Due to this eventuality, I will be hors de blogging for a couple of days. Subscribers can rest assured that the newsletter will appear on schedule. (Spoiler alert: Religious Fanatics — Threat Or Menace? And whatever happened to hermits anyway?) I suspect the folks down at mission control in NYC will concoct some way to fill the space in the shebeen. I also call upon all American newsmakers to take this week off to pray for my speedy recovery. That means you, Rudy.
Trump fraud trial: Trump likely to attend trial Thursday
Former President Donald Trump will likely attend his civil fraud trial on Thursday, according to sources familiar with the matter. He is not expected to be in attendance on Wednesday when his son Eric testifies.
Trump last attended the trial on Nov. 6 when he testified as the last state witness. In total, the former president has attended the trial for eight of the 39 days the court has been in session.
Trump is scheduled to testify on Monday, Dec. 11, as the last witness in the case.
White House Warns Ukraine Aid Is Running Out, Pressing Congress for More
The White House warned congressional leaders on Monday that the United States would run out of money to send weapons to Ukraine by year’s end, severely jeopardizing Kyiv’s ability to defend itself against Russia if lawmakers fail to approve emergency military aid soon.
The urgent warning from President Biden’s top budget official, delivered in a blunt letter, was the administration’s latest bid to pressure the Republicans resisting another infusion of aid to Ukraine to drop their opposition.
It came at a critical time in the war, as Ukraine struggles to push back Russian troops in a counteroffensive that has largely stalled. President Vladimir V. Putin has continued to send a steady stream of his forces into the conflict, willing to endure high casualties amid signs of flagging resolve from Kyiv’s Western allies.
Fetterman commissions George Santos to record Cameo message for indicted Sen. Bob Menendez
Sen. John Fetterman commissioned expelled Rep. George Santos to unwittingly make a video on the celebrity video message platform Cameo telling Sen. Bob Menendez – whom Fetterman has called on to resign over charges he acted as a foreign agent to Egypt – to “stay strong.”
“I thought my ethically-challenged colleague @BobMenendezNJ could use some encouragement given his substantial legal problems. So, I approached a seasoned expert on the matter to give ‘Bobby from Jersey’ some advice,” Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, tweeted Monday.
In the video, Santos, the New York Republican who last week became only the sixth lawmaker to be expelled from Congress after a damning ethics report, says, “Hey, Bobby! I don’t think I need to tell you, but these people that want to make you get in trouble and want to kick you out and make you run away, you make them put up or shut up!”
House Oversight Republicans flaunt payments made by Hunter Biden to his dad; documents say they were for a car
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released a document showing payment from Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, to President Joe Biden when he was not in office, but neglected to include evidence that the president’s son was repaying his father for a car.
The redacted document provided to CNN shows that an account affiliated with Hunter Biden paid Joe Biden $1,380 on September 17, 2018. The document states the payments would occur on a monthly basis, and the panel is aware of at least three monthly payments to Joe Biden in total, a source familiar with the committee’s work told CNN.
But documents provided to CNN appear to show that Hunter Biden was repaying his father for a Ford Raptor, information that had already been publicized. A source familiar with the payment told CNN that Hunter Biden’s credit was low at the time while he was struggling with addiction, so he couldn’t finance the car and his father signed for the car, which was in Joe Biden’s name.
James Comer Claims GOP House Moderates Will Now Vote to Impeach Biden Because Constituents They Met at Walmart Want it
Representative James Comer (KY) claimed his fellow House Republicans have enough votes to advance their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Bidenbecause — as he put it — the Walmart shoppers have spoken.
The House Oversight Committee chairman joined Maria Bartiromo for Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, where they spoke about when and if Republicans would secure the votes needed to launch the inquiry. Comer was confident they have enough moderates on board to move forward now since… well, here’s how he explained it:
I had a reporter ask ‘Well, what’s changed,’ you know, because the press has been riding ‘We didn’t have the votes forever.’
Florida Republican chairman won’t resign over rape allegation, saying he is innocent
The chair of Florida’s Republican Party says he will not resign over a woman’s allegation that he raped her, saying in an email to supporters that he is innocent. He did not address any specifics of the accusation that has roiled the state’s conservative politics.
Christian Ziegler sent the statement to state Republicans on Saturday, saying that he and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, are being targeted because they are “such loud political voices.” His wife co-founded the conservative group Moms for Liberty, which has led a campaign with Gov. Ron DeSantis to roll back sex education in Florida schools.
DeSantis said last week that while Christian Ziegler is innocent until proven guilty, he should resign to avoid becoming a distraction to their party. Ziegler insists he won’t quit.
Israel expands Gaza ground offensive, says efforts in south will carry “no less strength” than in north
The Israeli military said Sunday its ground offensive had expanded to every part of Gaza, and it ordered more evacuations in the crowded south while vowing that operations there against Hamas would carry “no less strength” than its shattering ones in the north.
Heavy bombardment followed evacuation orders, and Palestinians said they were running out of places to go in the sealed-off territory bordering Israel and Egypt. Many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war, which was sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel that killed about 1,200, mostly civilians.
The United Nations estimates that 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced. Nearly 958,000 of them are in 99 U.N. facilities in the south, said Juliette Toma, director of communications at the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
Ousted George Santos Plots Revenge Against Ex-House Colleagues In Online Tear
Now-former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) was expelled from Congress on Friday, but he didn’t take the night off.
Instead, the disgraced Republican ― who was kicked out of the House after a committee alleged that he spent campaign funds on Botox and other personal expenses, which Santos has called a “politicized smear” ― kicked off the weekend by threatening to file ethics complaints against a few of the 311 members who voted to oust him.
The fallen congressman, ax to grind firmly in hand, lobbed accusations at New York GOP Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler, as well as against New Jersey Democratic Rep. Rob Menendez.
The Rude Pundit: Stop Normalizing Trump-Inspired Death Threats
Over on the online version of the conservative magazine American Spectator (motto: “We’re batshit right-wingers but also pretentious as all fuck”), Jeffrey Lord, who is what you picture when you think, “Soon-to-be-extinct kind of old white man,” wrote a thing last month titled, “The Trump Gag Order: Corrupt Judge Assaults Free Speech.” It’s an attack on Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is on the January 6 trial, for the now-stayed limits on the incendiary accusations and lies that Trump has been gleefully tossing like a stink-faced 1930s street urchin cackling as he throws firecrackers at dogs and horses.
One moment in the “column” (if by “column,” you mean, “The pathetic bullying of a bully-adjacent loser”) has stuck in my craw. It comes after Lord quotes Chutkan’s order. After discussing the truly fucked-up shit that Trump has said, she wrote that “once an individual is publicly targeted, even revoking the offending statement may not abate the subsequent threats, harassment, or other intimidating effects during the pretrial as well as the trial stages of this case.”
Trump fraud trial: Judge says he’ll ‘rigorously’ enforce reinstated gag order
Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
Israel Was Aware of Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago
Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.
The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.
The translated document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters.
Israel resumes Gaza military operation after cease-fire with Hamas ends
Israel renewed its assault on the Gaza Strip on Friday after the end of a weeklong deal with Hamas to pause the fighting and release more than 100 hostages as well as Palestinian prisoners.
Israel’s military said it had “resumed combat” shortly after the truce deal was due to expire at 7 a.m. Friday local time (midnight Thursday ET) — accusing Hamas of violating the terms of the agreement by firing rockets toward Israel from Gaza.
Around an hour before that announcement, the Israel Defense Forces said it had successfully intercepted a launch from Gaza.
Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis debate abortion, taxes, crime and who’s the bigger bully
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom duked it out in a roughly two-hour debate Thursday that was heavy on contrasts between their leadership of two of the nation’s largest states but lighter on references to the ongoing presidential primaries — the race one of the men is currently running in.
“There are profound differences tonight,” Newsom said in his opening statement to Fox News host Sean Hannity, who moderated the contest. “And I look forward to engaging [on them]. But there’s one thing in closing that we have in common … neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”
It was an assertion that DeSantis, who interjected and pushed back against Newsom throughout the night, didn’t counter.
Attorney warned Trump ‘it’s going to be a crime’ if he didn’t comply with subpoena for classified docs: Sources
One of former president Donald Trump’s current attorneys told special counsel Jack Smith’s team that, within days of the Justice Department issuing a subpoena last year for all classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, she “very clearly” warned Trump that if he failed to fully comply — but then swore he did — “it’s going to be a crime,” according to sources familiar with the matter.
Sources said the lawyer, Jennifer Little, told investigators Trump “absolutely” understood the warning, which came during a pivotal meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and another attorney, Evan Corcoran, who had recently joined Trump’s legal team.
What Little allegedly told Smith’s team earlier this year may shed further light on how Smith came to accuse Trump of knowingly violating the law, saying in his June 9 indictment against Trump that the former president defied a subpoena by hiding more than 100 classified documents from the FBI and even his own legal team, and then having his legal team certify otherwise.
Israel And Hamas Extend Ceasefire For Another Day As Captive Exchanges Continue
Israel and Hamas agreed to extend a temporary truce by another day minutes before it was set to expire, said Qatar, which has been mediating between the two sides.
The truce was set to expire Thursday morning. Negotiations on extending it came down to the wire, with last-minute disagreements over the hostages to be freed by Hamas in exchange for another day of a halt in fighting.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry said the truce was being extended under the same terms as in the past, under which Hamas has released 10 Israeli hostages per day in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners.
Elon Musk claims advertisers are trying to ‘blackmail’ him, says ‘Go f— yourself’
Speaking at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday, Elon Musk, the owner of social media site X (formerly Twitter), scoffed at advertisers leaving the platform because of antisemitic posts he amplified there.
“If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f—yourself. Go. F—. Yourself. Is that clear?” Musk singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger in the audience, saying “Hi Bob!”
He also implied that his fans would boycott those advertisers in kind. “The whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail,” Musk threatened.
Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state who shaped decades of U.S. policy, dies at 100
Henry Kissinger, the toweringly influential former secretary of state who earned a reputation as a sagacious diplomat but drew international condemnation and accusations of war crimes for his key role in widening the American presence in Vietnam and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia, died Wednesday. He was 100.
Kissinger’s consulting firm announced his death, saying he died at his home in Connecticut. No cause was given.
Kissinger, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, reached the pinnacle of the American political establishment and in turn became an unlikely household name. He was secretary of state and national security adviser under two Republican presidents, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and advised powerful leaders in both American political parties for decades.
Malcolm Nance: Hostage Warfare – Did HAMAS’s Strategy Work?
At 06:30 AM on October 7, 2023. HAMAS launched Operation al-Aqsa Storm. The attack on 10-7 appeared to have two tactical goals. Number one, cross the Israeli fence border and execute the orders of HAMAS High Command: That was to kill every living man, woman and child in Israel until the last fighter died at the hands of the Israeli army. This mission achieved surprise and was highly successful.
But a coda to the strategy was written in Hamas operations orders: “Take Jews as Hostages.” The instructions were found on the dead bodies of terrorists killed in battle buy the army and police.
Designated HAMAS teams were to go into Israel and bring out hostages. These teams had specific very orders, and locations for where to bring the hostages. Hamas knew the value of a hostage. In 2006 Israeli army soldier Gilad Shalit was seized and held hostage for five years. In the end, Israel freed 1,027 terrorists convicted of murder, criminals and civilians who acted as spies in exchange for Shalit’s life.
Charlie Pierce: Over the Weekend, Nikki Haley Topped What We Previously Considered Her Worst Idea
Nikki Haley is no bargain. First of all, she’s a Republican in 2023, which makes her prima facie a fringe candidate. Second, at least judging by her campaign rhetoric, she’s a bit too dedicated to the proposition that performative belligerence constitutes a foreign policy. And finally, she is a veritable fount of terrible ideas. A few weeks ago, she called for an end to anonymity on the Intertoobz. From, god help me, the New York Post:
“When I get into office, the first thing we have to do, social media accounts, social media companies, they have to show America their algorithms,” Haley said. “Let us see why they’re pushing what they’re pushing…The second thing is, every person on social media should be verified, by their name. That’s, first of all, it’s a national security threat. When you do that, all of a sudden, people have to stand by what they say. And it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots and the Chinese bots. And then you’re going to get some civility when people know their name is next to what they say, and they know their pastor and their family members are going to see it,” the 51-year-old former Trump administration official added.
Israel and Hamas discuss a broader hostage deal, but a renewed assault still looms
The gunfire, bombardment and cries of anguished relatives have for days now largely been replaced by the relief and joy of hostages reunited with loved ones and growing diplomatic murmurs of an extended cease-fire.
But while the U.S. and others push for a broader deal, government rhetoric and public opinion in Israel seem unequivocal: Sooner or later the intense military campaign in the Gaza Strip must and will resume.
A four-day pause in Israel’s war against Hamas has been extended by two days. And CIA Director William Burns is in Qatar, which hosts Hamas leaders and has mediated negotiations, focusing on ways to extend the reprieve so more hostages can be released, according to a senior administration official.
Anti-Trump network backed by Charles Koch endorses Nikki Haley in loss for Ron DeSantis
The political network financed largely by billionaire Charles Koch is endorsing former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, affording her new support against her Republican rivals in the fight to be the alternative to Donald Trump.
The announcement was made in a memo to grassroots activists via the network’s advocacy arm Tuesday and is being backed by a multimillion-dollar ad campaign beginning this week in states that hold early primary contests and several that vote on Super Tuesday.
“When we announced our decision to engage in our first ever Republican presidential primary, we made it clear that we’d be looking for a candidate who can turn the page on our political dysfunction — and win. It’s clear that candidate is Nikki Haley,” Emily Seidel, senior advisor to AFP Action, said in a statement. “Nikki Haley represents a new generation of leadership and offers a bold, positive vision for our future. AFP Action is proud to be endorsing her and we will be doing everything we can to help make her the next President of the United States.”
Pence Briefly Considered Not Presiding Over Jan. 6 Vote Certification
Former Vice President Mike Pence briefly considered not presiding over the ceremony that formalized his coup-attempting boss’s 2020 election loss, once again raising questions about the contemporaneous scheming about Iowa’s Chuck Grassley presiding in his stead.
In his daily planner, in which he also took journal-like notes, Pence on Christmas Eve in 2020 wrote it might be better to abdicate his constitutionally proscribed role overseeing the Electoral College tally to avoid bruising then-President Donald Trump’s ego.
“Not feeling like I should attend electoral count,” he wrote, according to a report Tuesday by ABC News. “Too many questions, too many doubts, too hurtful to my friend. Therefore I’m not going to participate in certification of election.”
Read the rest of the story at HuffPost
Liz Cheney’s new book blasts GOP as ‘enablers and collaborators’ of Trump, whom one member called ‘Orange Jesus’
In her new book, former Rep. Liz Cheney paints a scathing portrait of the Republican Party, condemning her former colleagues and party leaders as “enablers and collaborators,” who after the 2020 election were “willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump.”
The book, “Oath and Honor,” which was obtained exclusively by CNN ahead of its Dec. 5 release, is an unflinching account of what Cheney calls the GOP’s “cowardice,” and how so many were willing to support former President Donald Trump, who she calls “the most dangerous man ever to inhabit the Oval Office.”
Cheney delivers a particularly devastating takedown of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who she says told her that Trump knew he’d lost the election. Cheney is also critical of McCarthy’s successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who “appeared especially susceptible to flattery from Trump and aspired to being anywhere in Trump’s orbit,” she writes.
11 more hostages, including 2 toddlers, released by Hamas
Eleven more hostages who were abducted from Israel on Oct. 7 have been released and are in the custody of the Red Cross, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson said.Read More
The 11 hostages released from Gaza Monday were dual citizens — from Israel as well as France, Germany and Argentina — while the 33 released Palestinians are comprised of 30 minors and three women, Qatari officials said.
Israel identified the returned hostages as 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi, 51-year-old Karina Engel-Bart, 18-year-old Mika Engel, 12-year-old Yuval Engel, 34-year-old Sharon Aloni-Cunio, 3-year-old Yuli Cunio, 3-year-old Emma Cunio, 16-year-old Sahar Calderon, 12-year-old Erez Calderon, 16-year-old Or Yaakov and 12-year-old Yagil Yaakov.
Read the rest of the story at ABC News
Jimmy Carter is in Atlanta, expected to attend services for former first lady Rosalynn Carter
Former President Jimmy Carter is in Atlanta, expected to attend services Monday and Tuesday honoring the late first lady Rosalynn Carter, according to a source with knowledge of his whereabouts.
The former president is expected to attend a ceremony on Monday at the Carter Center as well as services on Tuesday at Emory University, but the source cautioned that it depends on how well he rests and how he is feeling. A spokesperson for the Carter Center confirmed separately on Monday that Carter would attend a tribute service on Tuesday at Glenn Memorial Church.
Jimmy Carter, 99, entered hospice care in February and has since rarely been seen in public.
Rep. George Santos could face expulsion from the House this week
The George Santos saga could soon come to an end on Capitol Hill, though his legal troubles will continue well into 2024.
As soon as this week, the House could vote to expel Santos, the indicted New York Republican congressman, after a blistering Ethics Committee report concluded he had used his campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, including rent, trips, luxury items, cosmetic treatments like Botox and a subscription to the adult content site OnlyFans.
The report also found that Santos deceived his donors and knowingly filed false campaign finance statements. (Santos, who blasted the report as “biased,” has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.)
Judge denies Trump’s ‘fishing expedition’ to subpoena Jan. 6 committee records
The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s upcoming election interference trial said in a ruling Monday that the former president’s attempt to subpoena what his legal team dubbed “missing” records from the House Jan. 6 committee appeared to be a “fishing expedition” that was not in good faith.
Last month, Trump’s team said it wanted to subpoena the U.S. archivist, the clerk of the House of Representatives, the Committee on House Administration, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., among others, saying there was a “significant overlap between the Select Committee’s investigation and this case” and a strong likelihood that some of the materials would discuss trial witnesses.
Donald Trump Greeted by Loud Boos at South Carolina Football Game
Former President Donald Trump was met with loud boos as he arrived at Williams-Brice Stadium in South Carolina on Saturday ahead of the Palmetto Bowl.
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential primary, was in Columbia to watch the Palmetto Bowl college football game between the University of South Carolina’s Gamecocks and Clemson University’s Tigers.
The former president remains a popular figure in South Carolina, a state where he beat President Joe Biden by 12 points in 2020. South Carolina is a key early voting state, and Trump has maintained a commanding lead in polls over his GOP rivals, including former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
Israel and Hamas have expressed interest in potentially extending the truce, as it enters its last day
As the truce between Hamas and Israel enters its fourth and final day Monday, both parties have discussed the possibility of extending it, a move which has the support of key nations, including the US and Qatar.
In a statement released Sunday evening, Hamas said it wants “to extend the truce after the four-day period ends, through serious efforts to increase the number of those released from imprisonment as stipulated in the humanitarian ceasefire agreement.”
The agreed upon truce already includes a provision for an extension of one extra day for every ten hostages Hamas is ready to free.
Suspect arrested in shooting of 3 students of Palestinian descent in Vermont, police say
A 48-year-old man was arrested on Sunday in connection with the shootings of three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday night, police said.
Jason J. Eaton was detained midday Sunday near the site of the shooting, the Burlington Police Department said in a press release. Police then searched his home and arrested him Sunday evening, officials said.
Eaton is expected to be arraigned Monday morning, police said.
Trump rages about judge and law clerk while gag order is paused in New York fraud trial
Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial in New York and the judge’s law clerk, baselessly accusing them both of political bias in a Thanksgiving Day social media post.
Trump had repeatedly raged against Judge Arthur Engoron and his clerk, leading the judge to impose a gag order last month on the second day of the $250 million New York civil fraud trial against the former president. The gag order was later expanded, placing similar restrictions on members of Trump’s legal team.
A New York appeals court last week temporarily blocked the gag order, issuing a stay after Trump’s attorneys had appealed the order as “unconstitutional.” The pause will be in effect until at least Nov. 27, when a panel of appeals court judges will consider the issue.
American girl who turned 4 while held hostage freed by Hamas
An American girl who spent her fourth birthday held captive by Hamas was freed by the militant group Sunday as a part of the cease-fire and hostage exchange agreement between Israel and the militant group.
Abigail Mor Edan was among 17 hostages freed on the third day of the fragile truce, which has seen Israel release Palestinian prisoners and allow aid into the Gaza Strip, according to a statement from Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum.
In an exclusive interview in Washington with NBC News’ Lester Holt earlier this month, Abigail’s great-aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali revealed that the little girl’s parents were killed in their home at the Kfar Aza kibbutz.
The Rude Pundit: A Poem for Thanksgiving from Indigenous America
by Joy Harjo, who is from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that
bottle of pop.
Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.
Open the door, then close it behind you.
Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel
the earth gathering essences of plants to clean.
Give back with gratitude.
Georgia judge declines to send Trump co-defendant in election fraud case to jail over social media posts
The judge overseeing the Fulton County election racketeering case declined Tuesday to send one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants to jail over recent social media posts and other comments he made targeting witnesses.
Judge Scott McAfee said that while the defendant, Harrison Floyd, made “technical violations” of his bond agreement, “not every violation compels revocation.”
The judge, however, modified Floyd’s bond agreement, adding a restriction on his social media activity. Floyd is prohibited from making any social media post “of any kind on any platform, whether public or private, concerning any codefendant or witness in this case or concerning any person specifically named in the indictment,” according to the modified bond agreement.
Former Trump Org. controller breaks down in tears on witness stand in fraud trial
After four days of testimony and two trips to the witness stand, former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney broke down in tears on Tuesday, telling the court the toll of the numerous investigations and accusations of misconduct drove him to leave the company he loved working for after 35 years.
“I just couldn’t do it anymore,” McConney said. “I just wanted to relax and stop being accused of misrepresenting assets for the company that I loved working for.”
The emotional outcry came when Jesus Suarez, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, asked McConney before the lunch break why he left the Trump Org.
Colorado Supreme Court to take up appeals in Trump ballot case
The Colorado Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear appeals related to a judge’s ruling against an effort to keep former President Donald Trump off the state’s ballot in 2024.
The appeals were filed by both Trump and the Colorado voters arguing he is ineligible to hold office. Trump took issue with the state judge’s finding that he “engaged in insurrection,” while the voters disagreed with the ruling that the constitutional clause about ineligibility does not apply to the presidency.
State Judge Sarah B. Wallace last week dismissed a legal challengebrought by a group of Colorado voters represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which argued Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, making him ineligible for office.
Israel and Hamas reach deal to release 50 hostages and pause fighting for 4 days in Gaza
A deal has been reached to release some of the hostages kidnapped during last month’s deadly Hamas terrorist attack in Israel — the most significant diplomatic breakthrough since Oct. 7.
Fifty women and children who have been held captive for more than a month will be released first over four days in exchange for Israeli-held Palestinian women and children, Qatar said in an announcement early Wednesday. The number of those released will be increased in later stages of the agreement, said Qatar, which worked alongside the U.S. and Egypt to broker the deal.
Three Americans could be part of the first group of hostages released: two adults and a 3-year-old girl named Abigail, a senior Biden administration official said.
Charlie Pierce: The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Just Walloped What Was Left of the Voting Rights Act
The poor old Voting Rights Act, one of the few pieces of legislation that people actually died trying to pass, has been limping along on one leg since the Supreme Court took a chainsaw to it in 2013. On Monday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals may have struck the first blow in the coup de grace. From The New York Times:
The ruling, made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, found that only the federal government could bring a legal challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a crucial part of the law that prohibits election or voting practices that discriminate against Americans based on race. The court of appeals found that the text of the Voting Rights Act did not explicitly contain language for “a private right of action,” or the right of private citizens to file lawsuits under the law. Therefore, the court found, the right to sue would effectively lie with the government alone. Should the ruling stand, it would remove perhaps the most important facet of the Voting Rights Act; the majority of challenges to discriminatory laws and racial gerrymanders have come from private citizens and civil rights groups.
Negotiators near deal with Hamas to release hostages
Negotiators are getting closer to an agreement with Hamas to release an initial 50 civilians in exchange for Israel allowing in more aid including fuel, coinciding with a limited pause in fighting, multiple sources told CBS News. More civilian hostage releases could potentially follow.
At this stage, there is no firm deal in hand but rather a written draft agreement that is being passed between parties who remain locked in what were described to CBS News as very difficult talks brokered with the help of the U.S. and Qatar, according to two sources familiar.
In an interview with “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” White House deputy national security advisor Jon Finer said that “many areas of difference that previously existed” in the hostage talks “have been narrowed,” and that the U.S. is “closer than we have been to reaching a final agreement.”
Federal Court Moves to Drastically Weaken Voting Rights Act
A federal appeals court moved on Monday to drastically weaken the Voting Rights Act, issuing a ruling that would effectively bar private citizens and civil rights groups from filing lawsuits under a central provision of the landmark civil rights law.
The ruling, made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, found that only the federal government could bring a legal challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a crucial part of the law that prohibits election or voting practices that discriminate against Americans based on race.
The opinion is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court. The court’s current conservative majority has issued several key decisions in recent years that have weakened the Voting Rights Act. But the justices have upheld the law in other instances, including in a June ruling that found Alabama had drawn a racially discriminatory congressional map.
House Speaker Johnson meets with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
House Speaker Mike Johnson met with former President Donald TrumpMonday night at Mar-a-Lago, according to a GOP source familiar with the meeting.
The meeting at the former president’s Florida resort comes nearly a week after the newly minted speaker publicly endorsed Trump’s 2024 bid for the White House, becoming the highest-ranking Republican so far to do so. It was not immediately clear what the pair discussed during the meeting.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, is a longtime Trump ally and served on the former president’s impeachment team, though the role was largely ceremonial. He voted to sustain the objection to electoral votes on January 6, 2021.
Elon Musk’s X Sues Watchdog Group Media Matters For Defamation
Elon Musk’s X sued the watchdog group Media Matters for America for defamation on Monday after the nonprofit published a report about ads for major brands appearing alongside posts touting Nazism.
Media Matters first published details Thursday about the spread of Nazi-related content on the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, saying X had been placing ads for major brands, including Apple, IBM and Comcast’s Xfinity, next to offending content. The research group published screenshots of posts praising Hitler that ran adjacent to the ads shortly after Musk seemed to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy theory on the site.
The Rude Pundit: The Media Won’t Make Republicans Own Trump’s Fascist Rhetoric
You are never gonna put a stake in the heart of Trumpism in this country. That bullshit is here to stay until its followers die of some illness they could have gotten vaccinated for, or from shooting themselves with one of their dozens of guns, or of old age, alone with a red hat faded by the sun and a threadbare “Let’s Go Brandon” flag they bought at a rally years ago, like an old Nazi treasuring that handkerchief the Fuhrer gave him after wiping the sweat off his brow. Truly, a Pandora’s box was opened once Donald Trump began running for president on an explicitly racist platform in 2015, except in this version, all the curses that were unleashed had beaten Hope to death in there long ago.
Trump’s rhetoric in the last few months has taken the racism and general hatred of anyone who doesn’t unabashedly love him and his awful family and amped it into explicit calls to round up and deport or imprison or flat-out murder large swaths of the population. It’s not just that he now regularly says some variation of his “vermin” line: “We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” That shit is frightening enough.
Trump visits Texas near US-Mexico border as he escalates anti-immigrant rhetoric
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday visited Texas near the US-Mexico border as he escalates his anti-immigrant rhetoric and campaigns on hard-line immigration policy proposals.
During the visit, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination received the endorsement of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“We need Donald J. Trump back as our president of the United States of America,” the Republican governor said at an event with the former president in Edinburg, Texas.
Speaking in front of a small crowd at the South Texas International Airport, Trump bashed President Joe Biden over his handling of the border, arguing the US now has the “most unsecure border in the history, I believe, really, of the world.”
Congressional leaders are aiming to pass Ukraine and Israel supplemental aid before Christmas
Congressional leaders are hoping to muster a supplemental package to aid the war efforts in Ukraine and Israel, as well as make improvements to the U.S. immigration system, by the end of the year, according to multiple people involved in discussions.
The ambitious timeline would mean striking a deal that satisfies the funding requested by the Department of Defense to aid conflict zones, while simultaneously crafting an immigration package that not only provides resources for border security but includes a suite of policy changes to appease conservatives without alienating progressive Democrats.
U.S., Israel, Hamas Reportedly Near Deal To Pause Fighting, Free Hostages
The U.S., Israel and Hamas are nearing a tentative deal that could result in the freeing of dozens of hostages held in Gaza, sources told The Washington Post on Saturday.
Under this U.S.-brokered agreement, Israel and Hamas will be expected to freeze all combat operations for five days while about 50 hostages are released every 24 hours. There is believed to be a total of about 239 hostages being held in Gaza, according to thePost. The pause, which would be monitored by overhead surveillance, would also assist in allowing humanitarian aid to enter.
An outline of the deal was drafted in Doha, Qatar, in recent weeks by Qatari mediators representing the three involved parties in conflict.
Rosalynn Carter, mental health activist, humanitarian and former first lady, dies at 96
Rosalynn Carter, who as first lady worked tirelessly on behalf of mental health reform and professionalized the role of the president’s spouse, died Sunday at the age of 96, according to The Carter Center.
Rosalynn Carter passed away peacefully with family by her side at her home in Plains, Georgia, the center said in a statement.
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, said. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”
Israel says soldiers recovered the body of a hostage near Al-Shifa Hospital
Israeli soldiers have recovered the body of one of the hostages kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack on Israel last month from a building next to the Al-Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City, the Israeli military said on Thursday night.
The body of Yehudit Weiss, 65, a resident of Be’eri, a kibbutz near the border with Gaza, was found by troops who in recent days have taken control of much of the hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, and were searching within and beneath it. Israeli officials say the hospital complex hosts major Hamas facilities, some in underground bunkers, a claim rejected by Hamas and hospital officials.
David DePape found guilty in Paul Pelosi hammer attack case
A federal jury on Thursday convicted the man who attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with a hammer during a break-in last year at the couple’s San Francisco home.
David DePape looked down and showed no emotion as the panel found him guilty of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official.
The 12 jurors were pulled from a pool of 15 jurors and alternates comprising 12 men and three women. They deliberated for seven hours over two days, about 4½ hours on Wednesday and 2½ hours on Thursday.
Donald Trump Posts Tirade Against Judge, Court Clerk Hours After Gag Order Paused
Former President Donald Trump went on a tirade against the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial on Thursday, just hours after an appeals court paused a gag order against him that limited what he could say about court staff.
A New York Appellate Division judge issued a stay on the gag order after finding it was “unconstitutional,” adding the pause would extend until at least Nov. 27 when a full panel of judges will consider the matter. The gag order was first imposed by Judge Arthur Engoron on the second day of the trial into Trump’s business practices after the former president fired off attacks against the judge’s law clerk.
Trump had violated the order twice, resulting in $15,000 in fines and warnings from Engoron that any further violations would result in harsh penalties. The judge had defended his ruling, noting he was attempting to protect court staff amid hundreds of threatening and antisemitic calls and letters.
Rep. George Santos won’t seek re-election following scathing House Ethics report
Embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., said Thursday he will not seek re-election next year after the House Ethics Committee released a scathing report that concluded there is “substantial evidence” he “violated federal criminal laws,” including using campaign funds for personal purposes and filing false campaign reports.
“I will continue on my mission to serve my constituents up until I am allowed. I will however NOT be seeking re-election for a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time,” Santos said in a statement on X.
Chip Roy Goes Ballistic On Fellow Republicans in Fiery Speech: ‘Give Me One Thing I Can Go Campaign On and Say We Did!’
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) gave a lengthy floor speech on Wednesday blasting Democrats and Republicans over what he sees as the failed leadership of the country, particularly on the issues of cutting spending and standing up to adversaries like China and Iran.
After throwing an elbow at Nikki Haley for her comment that anonymous online posting needs to end, Roy declared, “This country is in trouble, and the time for excuses is over.”
“No more excuses. No more excuses from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. But most importantly of all, no more excuses from my colleagues on this side of the aisle,” he said, blasting his own party.
Biden says ‘real progress’ made after meeting with China’s Xi Jinping
President Joe Biden met face to face with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Wednesday and said afterward they had agreed to revive dormant military communication channels, crack down on fentanyl trafficking and work jointly to address rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
The four-hour summit broke a yearlong silence marked by rising tensions that have stoked fears that the two countries are on a path toward direct conflict.
At a news conference afterward, Biden said, “I believe they were some of the most productive and constructive discussions we’ve had.”
Police and pro-Palestinian demonstrators clash at DNC headquarters
Police said they evacuated the area around the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., after making arrests at a chaotic pro-Palestinian rally Wednesday night.
U.S. Capitol Police said on X that a “large group of illegal protesters…have cleared out, but USCP officers will stay on scene out of an abundance of caution.” They previously put the number of demonstrators at about 150 and said they were “violently protesting in the area.”
Six officers were treated for injuries as a result of the demonstration, and one person was arrested and accused of assault on an officer, Capitol Police said on X.
Senate sends funding bill to Biden’s desk, averting a government shutdown
The Senate passed a stopgap funding bill Wednesday night, punting the GOP’s spending fight and the threat of a government shutdown until after the holidays.
The bipartisan vote was 87-11, with 10 Republicans and one Democrat — Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado — voting against the bill.
“Because of bipartisan cooperation, we are keeping the government open without any poison pills or harmful cuts to vital programs — a great outcome for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the vote.
Malcolm Nance: The Israel-HAMAs war is AWASH in disinformation. This interview is enlightening.
I think Roland Martin, the African-American commentator and host of the Roland Martin Unfiltered Show, is one of the underrated news interviewers out there. When the African-American perspective is needed, his gathers information at the street level, and his usual brace of experts provide an enlightening point of view. This interview I do with him and his panel is no exception. However, the recent war with between Israel and the HAMAS terrorist group is taking personal perspectives to a completely new place.
See the interview at and sign up for Malcolm Nance’s newsletter here
House passes a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown
House lawmakers on Tuesday passed Speaker Mike Johnson’s stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown, most likely punting the GOP’s spending fight until after the holidays.
The vote was 336-95, with 209 Democrats and 127 Republicans voting to support it. Ninety-three Republicans voted against it, more than voted against the last government funding bill in September; two Democrats opposed it: Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Mike Quigley of Illinois.
Because of the way leadership structured the vote, it needed support from two-thirds of the full House to pass.
‘Stand your butt up’: Fistfight nearly breaks out during Senate hearing until Bernie Sanders steps in
Tensions erupted on Capitol Hill on Tuesday after a fistfight nearly broke out in a Senate hearing and a Republican congressman accused former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of assaulting him.
At a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, an argument almost turned into a fistfight between GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and the president of the Teamsters union, Sean O’Brien.
The exchange occurred when Mullin, a former MMA fighter, recalled an interaction he had with O’Brien in June on Twitter, now known as X.
Republican Tim Burchett Says Kevin McCarthy Elbowed Him In The Back
Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) got into a physical altercation Tuesday inside the Capitol basement.
As the two were leaving a Republican meeting ahead of a key government funding vote in the afternoon, McCarthy passed Burchett and, according to the Tennessee lawmaker, elbowed him square in the back.
“I can still feel it, believe it or not,” Burchett told HuffPost about an hour after the incident. “It was a clean shot to the kidney.”
An NPR reporter who witnessed the moment described it as a shove by McCarthy. Burchett then accosted the former speaker.
Israeli Military Says Its Forces Have Entered Gaza Hospital
The Israeli military entered Gaza’s largest hospital early Wednesday, conducting what it called a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the facility, which has been the site of a standoff with the militant group.
The army surrounded the facility as part of its ground offensive against Hamas. Israeli authorities claim the militants conceal military operations in the facility. But with hundreds of patients and medical personnel inside, Israeli authorities have refrained from entering.
In recent weeks, Israeli defense forces have “publicly warned time and again that Hamas’ continued military use of the Shifa Hospital jeopardizes its protected status under international law,” the military said.
Democrats Signal Openness to Plan to Avert Shutdown as Republicans Balk
Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week ran into increasing opposition on Monday from hard-line Republicans. But with Democratic opposition softening, it appeared the plan could be headed toward bipartisan approval within days.
The shifting alliances came as the House planned to take its first action on the bill as early as Tuesday. The legislation would fund federal agencies into early 2024 with two staggered deadlines, allowing lawmakers time to try to finish off the annual spending bills and putting off a debate over wartime aid to Israel and Ukraine.
It was reminiscent of the situation in the House about six weeks ago. Kevin McCarthy, the speaker at the time, was facing right-wing opposition to a measure to keep federal funding flowing and was forced to turn to Democrats to push through a temporary extension. The move cost Mr. McCarthy his speakership.
‘The boss is not going to leave’: Proffer videos show ex-Trump lawyers telling Georgia prosecutors about efforts to overturn 2020 election
As part of a plea deal, one of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys has told prosecutors in Georgia that she was informed in the wake of the 2020 election that Donald Trump was “not going to leave” the White House — despite the fact that he had already lost the election and most of his subsequent challenges.
The revelation, along with others, came during a confidential interview the attorney, Jenna Ellis, had with Fulton County investigators. ABC News has obtained portions of videos of the proffer sessions of both Ellis and Sidney Powell, two attorneys who aided Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. The videos for the first time reveal details of what they have told law enforcement since agreeing to cooperate last month in the district attorney’s election interference case.
Paul Pelosi testifies about moments after hammer-wielding attacker burst into his room
The husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recalled Monday being bludgeoned by a hammer-wielding assailant and waking up in a pool of his own blood.
Paul Pelosi, 83, took the witness stand to testify against the man accused of attacking him with a hammer in a politically motivated attack on Oct. 28, 2022.
“The door opened, and a very large man came in with a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other, and he said, ‘Where’s Nancy?’ as I think that woke me up,” Pelosi testified. “I’m asleep, and he bursts in the door, and that woke me up.”
Supreme Court adopts code of conduct amid ethics scrutiny
The Supreme Court on Monday announced it has formally adopted what it called a new code of conduct following allegations of ethics lapses, although its impact is likely to be limited because the justices are left to enforce it themselves.
The court issued a 14-page document that included five canons of conduct on issues such as when justices should recuse themselves and what kind of outside activities they can engage in.
“The undersigned justices are promulgating this Code of Conduct to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the Members of the Court,” the justices said in an attached statement. All nine justices signed the statement.
Charlie Pierce: The Reptile House Is An Uproar Again and the Country Is Running Out of Money
The United States government runs out of money this week unless Congress gives the president something to sign. And we can all be grateful that the Republican majority in the House of Representatives has things in the proper perspective. From the Washington Post:
“People want to give Mike grace to be able to move forward. But at the end of the day, we have a job and the clock is ticking. You’re storming the beaches of Normandy and somebody goes down, you don’t sit around and form a committee,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) said about Johnson’s approach to listening and incorporating requests. “Time is ticking and we got to go get it done.”
(Did Congressman Chip ever “storm” anything more dangerous than a buffet table? Please. Pull the other one now.)
Operating rooms are completely out of service at Gaza’s largest hospital, director says
None of the operating rooms at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza are functioning due to lack of electricity, the medical center’s director told Al-Araby TV on Sunday.
“The operating rooms are completely out of service, and now the wounded come to us and we cannot give them anything other than first aid,” Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya said.
The hospital director said staff were trying to keep premature babies at the hospital alive after oxygen ran out and they had to be moved from the neonatal unit’s incubators.
Government shutdown looms as new speaker struggles to control hardliners
New House Speaker Mike Johnson may already be losing his first big clash with the hard-right lawmakers who are making the Republican majority and the nation ungovernable as time races down to yet another federal funding cut-off.
The Louisiana conservative, who was just lifted from obscurity to second in line to the presidency, may soon find himself in the position that doomed his predecessor Rep. Kevin McCarthy — needing Democratic votes to keep the government open.
A funding deadline of Friday night means Washington again faces a wild ride of shutdown brinkmanship caused by extreme GOP lawmakers who either cannot or don’t want to help run the country. The imbroglio is not just harming America’s image as a functioning democracy abroad. It has already wasted every week of the House majority party’s term since the summer and threatens to further weaken the key swing-district members critical to the GOP’s hopes of keeping the gavel in next year’s election.
Donald Trump Jr. to headline defense’s case today in $250 million civil fraud trial
After the New York attorney general last week rested her $250 million civil fraud caseagainst Donald Trump and top Trump Organization executives, lawyers for the former president will present the defense’s case beginning Monday with new testimony from Trump’s eldest son and co-defendant.
Donald Trump Jr. faced questions from a state attorney in the trial less than two weeks ago, distancing himself from the allegedly fraudulent financial statements at the center of the case and pinning responsibility on the experts and accountants who worked with the Trump Organization.
“I signed off on a document that [our accountants] prepared with intimate knowledge, and, as a trustee, I have an obligation to listen to those who are experts — who have an expertise of these things,” Trump Jr. testified.
Tim Scott drops out of the 2024 presidential race
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina announced Sunday night that he is dropping out of the 2024 Republican presidential campaign, shocking a TV interviewer and even his own campaign staff with an abrupt departure from the race.
“When I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate. I am suspending my campaign,” Scott said in an appearance on former GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy’s Fox News program.
“I think the voters, who are the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear that they’re telling me: not now,” Scott continued.
Read the rest of the story at NBC News
Dean Obeidallah: Why Democrats shouldn’t despair over concerning new polls about Biden
There’s no other way to put this: New poll results from The New York Times and Siena College that show President Joe Biden trailing former President Donald Trump in most of six battleground states tested are bad.
In fact, these polls about a hypothetical matchup between the two are alarming and a bit distressing. But they should not cause panic.
Let’s start with the Times/Siena polling that is likely causing many in Biden world to reach for a handful of antacids. It’s not just the top-line finding that the president is trailing in key battleground states including Nevada, Arizona and even Michigan, where Biden is down by 5 percentage points to Trump in a state he won by nearly 3 points in 2020.
The Rude Pundit: Democrats Win Just About Everything Everywhere All at Once
In last night’s absolute ass-reaming of Republicans, Democrats proved that the best strategy is just to be fucking Democrats. That means supporting abortion rights without any of the bullshit equivocating that gives credence to anti-choice arguments. That means calling out the culture war shit for the plain idiocy that it is. And it means that polls don’t vote.
A few takeaways on very, very good night, addressed directly to the GOP.
Hey, dicks,
1. You have pissed off the women of the United States in ways you can’t even imagine. The last year has been a sequel to the Dobbs decision sending abortion rights back to the states. Call it “The Revenge of Roe” because women are in warrior mode over protecting their bodily autonomy. And you withering cocks have painted yourself into a corner with the blood of women who have been hurt and killed by the Supreme Court’s monstrous decision. Who celebrated the end of Roe? Whose likely presidential candidate proudly proclaims that that he appointed the justices who made it possible? You kept telling women that actions have consequences when it comes to sex. Now look who’s finding out after fucking around. And this won’t stop and won’t slow down. Democratic women are coming for you.
Israel agrees to maintain daily pauses in fighting in northern Gaza, U.S. says
Israel will implement four-hour pauses in fighting in parts of the northern Gaza Strip each day, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.
Already, tens of thousands of people have fled from northern Gaza to the south in recent days as Israeli forces held brief battle pauses amid their bombardment of the north, where humanitarian conditions have continued to worsen.
Going forward, an announcement will be made three hours before each pause and a second route along a coastal road will allow thousands more civilians to reach southern Gaza, Kirby said. Israeli officials told the U.S. there will be no operations in designated areas during those times, he told reporters in a briefing.
Suspicious letters sent to election offices being investigated by federal law enforcement
Federal law enforcement officials are investigating reports of suspicious letters sent to public officials, a Justice Department spokesperson said Thursday.
“We are aware of the reports and the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating this matter,” the department spokesperson said in response to an inquiry from CNN.
Public officials in California, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington state have reported receiving suspicious mail. Most of the letters appear to have targeted election offices.
Investigators are treating all the letters as connected for now, given the timing, a law enforcement official told CNN.
Senate Democrat Joe Manchin says he will not seek reelection
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) announced Thursday he would not seek reelection in 2024, setting back Democrats’ plans to hold onto their Senate majority in 2024 and raising their fears that he could get involved in the presidential race as a third-party candidate.
“After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia,” Manchin said in a video posted to X. “I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for reelection to the United States Senate.”
Ivanka Trump Testifies She Wasn’t ‘Privy to’ Father’s Finances
Her father went on the attack. Her brothers backed away. And on Wednesday, Ivanka Trump calmly sidestepped accusations that her family’s business prospered thanks to a lie.
Ms. Trump, the fourth member of her family to take the witness stand in the civil fraud case brought by the New York attorney general, was questioned for five hours about her father’s net worth and the loans he received because of it.
While some evidence suggested that Ms. Trump had dealt directly with her father’s annual financial statements, which listed the value of his assets, she said that her focus had been elsewhere.
Blinken Lays Out Possible Endgame in Gaza Under Palestinian Authority
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Wednesday that Gaza should be unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority once the war is over, offering a strong signal about what the United States sees as its preferred endgame in the fight between Israel and Hamas.
The message, delivered during a meeting of foreign ministers in Tokyo, came as President Biden feels growing pressure to use his leverage to push for sustainable, long-term goals in the region and minimize civilian casualties. But increasingly, the United States and Israel are showing signs that their interests are diverging.
SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood studios reach a tentative agreement to resolve the strike
Hollywood actors are heading back to work.
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing more than 150,000 film and television performers, reached a tentative deal on a new contract with the entertainment world’s top studios Wednesday — a major step that would revive an industry that has been virtually paralyzed for months.
“In a unanimous vote this afternoon, the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP bringing an end to the 118-day strike,” the actors guild said in a statement, adding that the strike officially ends at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
SAG-AFTRA said the tentative deal will go to the union’s national board Friday for “review and consideration” and that more details will be released after that meeting.
Grappling with Trump and abortion losses: Six key takeaways from the Republican debate
On his home turf at the Republican presidential debate in Miami, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sharpened his case against front-runner Donald Trump and tussled with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as she looked to build on her momentum.
Five candidates met on stage Wednesday night, just over two months before voting begins: DeSantis, Haley, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Absent for the third time was Trump, the former president who is dominating the GOP polls so far — and continued his debate counterprogramming tradition with a rally in nearby Hialeah.
Rep. James Comer expected to subpoena Biden family members this week: Sources
Republican Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is planning to issue multiple subpoenas aimed at President Joe Biden’s family, which are expected to start being issued as soon as Wednesday, sources tell ABC News.
The move would mark an attempt by Republicans to ramp up their impeachment inquiry into President Biden, which had faced delays during the weeks-long House speaker dispute.
Newly installed House Speaker Mike Johnson has said Republicans will “follow the evidence” when asked if the inquiry is heading toward impeaching President Biden. Johnson has also defended the prospects of subpoenaing Hunter Biden, telling Fox News that “desperate times call for desperate measures and that perhaps is overdue,” but a final decision had not been made.
White House says Israel should not reoccupy Gaza, after Netanyahu remarks
The White House on Tuesday repeated its opposition to an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir he believed Israel will oversee Gaza’s security for “an indefinite period.”
On Monday, Netanyahu, in his first U.S. media interview since the conflict erupted following the deadly Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, was asked by Muir who should control Gaza when the conflict ends.
The prime minister said he thinks Israel will have “overall security responsibility” over Gaza for an “indefinite period.” President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has warned against Israel reoccupying Gaza and is pressing for a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority taking control.
House Censures Rep. Rashida Tlaib Over Israel Criticism
Lawmakers censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on Tuesday evening over what they claim is her antisemitic criticism of Israel.
The House approved a censure resolution against Tlaib by a vote of 234 to 188, with 22 Democrats joining all but four Republicans in opposition.
The resolution by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) accuses Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, of “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
Abortion rights advocates win major victories in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia
The results sent a stark signal about enduring demands across the political spectrum to protect access to abortion more than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, heralding potentially far-reaching implications for the 2024 election. They offered more evidence that the end of Roe and the patchwork of abortion bans that followed have given Democrats a powerful argument to turn out their base and sway moderates and some Republicans. And they reaffirmed that GOP candidates who support restrictions are still struggling to find an effective message, even as some have tried to soften their pitch.
Malcolm Nance: HAMAS Needs Children to Die
Palestinian Children are HAMAS’s secret weapon
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) led by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) is world renown for delivering punishing blows to terrorist enemies. They often use such devastating fire power, in the dense urban forest of the Gaza Strip, that civilians regularly suffer. In the smoke and dust from a distant TV camera, these strikes may look indiscriminate, but they are quite precise. Make no doubt, the IAF hits what it aims at. But regrettably innocent people within the blast effects are both killed and injured.
But only one side of this conflict planned for the deaths of Palestinian civilian population as an integral part of their strategy. That is the terrorist group HAMAS.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at (and subscribe to) his Substack…
Charlie Pierce: I Don’t Believe This Weekend’s Scary Poll Numbers
A week after Halloween and the scary monsters are still abroad in the land.
Boogedy, boogedy!
It was a great weekend for intellectual doomscrolling, to say nothing of galloping paranoia. First, The New York Times comes out with a poll that shows the president is trailing Fulton County (Ga.) Inmate No. PO1135809 in all the major battleground states.
The results show Mr. Biden losing to Mr. Trump, his likeliest Republican rival, by margins of four to 10 percentage points among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden is ahead only in Wisconsin, by two percentage points, the poll found. Discontent pulsates throughout the Times/Siena poll, with a majority of voters saying Mr. Biden’s policies have personally hurt them. The survey also reveals the extent to which the multiracial and multigenerational coalition that elected Mr. Biden is fraying. Demographic groups that backed Mr. Biden by landslide margins in 2020 are now far more closely contested, as two-thirds of the electorate sees the country moving in the wrong direction.
‘This Really Was a Debacle’: CNN Legal Analyst Says Trump ‘Made Important Concessions’ in His ‘Inherently Contradictory’ Testimony
CNN chief legal analyst Elie Honig was unimpressed with former President Donald Trump’s testimony in his civil fraud trial in New York on Monday.
Trump was questioned by state attorneys about the valuations of his assets, which Attorney General Letitia James says he and the Trump Organization inflated to defraud banks and insurance companies. In September, Judge Arthur Engoronagreed with that charge and issued a partial summary judgment to that effect. James is seeking $250 million from Trump and the revocation of his business licenses.
The former president said he relied on his accountants when valuing his company’s assets.
Israel closes in on Gaza City; Blinken leaves region without combat pause
Israeli forces advanced deeper into Gaza on Monday after a night of devastating airstrikes and another communications blackout, leaving the battered enclave struggling to assess the damage as a U.S.-backed humanitarian pause remained out of reach.
The airstrikes and ground attacks focused on the northern half of the Strip, cut off by the Israeli military over the weekend in its effort to destroy the Hamas militant movement that is deeply embedded across the territory. A month since the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, the death toll in the Palestinian enclave surpassed 10,000, including more than 4,100 children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
5 key races to watch on Election Day today
Voters across the country will be heading to the polls Tuesday to weigh in on a slew of statewide and local races, which could provide clues about the national mood ahead of 2024.
In Kentucky and Mississippi, voters will weigh whether to give Govs. Andy Beshear (D) and Tate Reeves (R), respectively, a second term, while voters in several states including Virginia and New Jersey will be determining partisan control of their state legislatures.
Meanwhile in Ohio, Democrats and abortion rights advocates are looking to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution — the first attempt of its kind in the state that’s trended increasingly red over the years.
A combative Donald Trump testifies in $250 million civil fraud trial, blasting judge and state AG’s office
An often-irate former President Donald Trump testified Monday in the high-stakes $250 million civil fraud trial in New York that could lead to the dismantling of his sprawling business empire, and used his time on the stand to engage in several blistering attacks against the judge and lawyers in the case whom he maintained were “unfair.”
“He rambled, he hurled insults, but we expected that,” state Attorney General Letitia James said after Trump wrapped up his day on the witness stand. She said the evidence shows Trump inflated his financial statements to enrich himself and his family and predicted that “justice will be served.”
Poll: Trump Leads Biden In 5 Swing States, Biden Leads In Wisconsin
More voters in five key swing states say that they would vote for former President Donald Trump (R) over President Joe Biden (D) in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, according to New York Times/Siena College polls released on Sunday.
Trump, the unrivaled front-runner in the GOP primary to take on Biden, leads Biden 52% to 41% in Nevada, 49% to 43% in Georgia, 49% to 44% in Arizona, 48% to 43% in Michigan, and 48% to 44% in Pennsylvania.
Wisconsin is the only swing state that The New York Times and Siena College polled where Biden has the edge. In the Badger State, Biden leads Trump 47% to 45%.
