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    Judge Responds To Trump Request To Move Hush Money Case To Federal Court

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    Case closed…

    On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that former President Trump may not request to move his hush money criminal case to federal court after failing to show “good cause,” meaning the case will remain in New York state court.

    U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said in a four-page order that the two reasons Trump offered as to why his case should be removed fall short.

    Hellerstein said that district courts do not have jurisdiction to consider alleged bias against Trump in New York state courts, contending that’s an issue for state appellate courts to consider. That means Trump’s second argument, on presidential immunity, is the only one that “deserves attention,” he said.

    On that matter, Hellerstein previously ruled that “hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President’s official acts.”

    “Nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,” the judge said Tuesday.

    In a Thursday letter to Juan Merchan, he asked the trial judge to refrain from ruling on outstanding motions, which include his presidential immunity motion and a motion to push back his Sept. 18 sentencing

    Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election.

    Read the full court order below:

    gov.uscourts.nysd.598311.50.0Download

    Piers Morgan Bets Former White House Official $1000 Trump Will Win Election

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    6

    Ex-White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci is putting his money where his mouth is…

    Recently, Scaramucci bet journalist Piers Morgan’s $1000 bet that his old boss, former President Donald Trump, would lose the 2024 presidential election.

    Citing the tweet during an interview on his show Piers Morgan Uncensored on Monday night, the host asked: “Do you stand by it? And if you do, will you accept a $1000 bet from me right now that Trump isn’t going to pull out?”

    Hesitant, Scaramucci replied: “Well, I’ll bet you $1000 on the election, I don’t know if I’m going to bet on the pullout. I mean, he’s got to drop more substantially in the polls.”

    Expanding on his answers he continued to outline the gap in polling numbers between the two candidates: “You know, he’s down with the likely voters. If she opens up a lead, 12 to 15 points, he’s not going to want to lose to her. He’s the worst presidential candidate for the Republicans since Herbert Hoover. He’s lost the House, the Senate and the presidency. And if [Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis or Nikki Haley were running against Kamala Harris, they’d probably be up 10 or 15. So we’ll have to see. But on likely voters, he’s already down six. And I like her momentum.”

    Watch:

    He added: “I understand all the issues that you’re raising related to her. But unfortunately, there’s only two choices. There’s him and her. And I think I would implore people to read H.R. McMaster’s book if they get a chance, because he’s very honest and very objective about the insanity that is Donald Trump.”

    Seeing the bet as non-viable, Morgan pivoted to the election bet, which the ex-Trump staffer accepted.

    “A thousand dollars on the election,” Scaramucci said. “I got Kamala. You can take the orange man if you want. I’m done on that part.”

    Morgan accepted too: “I’ll tell you what, we’ll make you for charity. We’ll make you for charity. I’ll take that bet. I still think Trump’s going to win. I’m not an American citizen. I don’t have a vote. I don’t have a horse in the race. I just think reality is going to kick in.”

    Former GOP Official Abruptly Cuts Ties With Trump Campaign

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Good riddance…

    A senior adviser to the Trump campaign announced on Monday that a top volunteer for former President Donald Trump in Massachusetts would “no longer have any involvement” with the campaign after predicting a massive loss this November.

    Former Massachusetts state GOP official Tom Mountain claimed in an email to other volunteers this week that the campaign had “determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state,” and that Trump was “sure to lose by an even higher margin” in the state than in 2016 and 2020.

    According to the Boston Globe, which obtained a copy of the email, Mountain also “claimed resources would be suspended” in New Hampshire and that “the campaign would not send Trump or high-profile surrogates such as his sons.”

    Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes announced in a statement on Monday that Mountain would “no longer have any involvement” with the Trump campaign as a result of his “ridiculous misrepresentation of our ongoing operation in New Hampshire.”

    Hughes rejected references to Mountain as a “leading volunteer,” calling the label a “massive overstatement of his involvement,” and denied Mountain’s claims about resources in New Hampshire being suspended.

    “This isn’t true,” he said. “President Trump’s campaign maintains an on-the-ground presence in New Hampshire, including staff and offices, while Kamala Harris is parachuting in because she knows that the Granite State is in play. We look forward to building on the momentum that we have grown since the primary and sending New Hampshire’s four electoral votes to President Trump’s column on November 5.”

    According to RealClearPolitics’s poll average, Vice President Kamala Harris is currently ahead of Trump by 5% in New Hampshire.

    Report: Man Who Stormed Trump Rally Press Area to Face Multiple Charges

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Police image via Pixabay free images

    The man who stormed the press area on Friday at a Donald Trump rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania will face charges in the incident, police confirmed.

    Johnstown police chief Richard Pritchard said in a statement on Saturday that the man who was arrested at the rally after a dramatic incident caught on multiple cameras was released, but will be formally charged next week, at which time his identity will be made public.

    Mediate has more:

    “It was not immediately clear what motivated the man or whether he was a Trump supporter or critic,” according to Saturday reports. “Pritchard, who was not directly involved in the arrest, declined to speculate on the man’s motives.”

    The suspect will face several misdemeanors in municipal court next week, “for alleged disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and disrupting a public assembly,” according to reports.

    As things were going down, Trump was on stage saying “That’s ok,” although it was not clear whether he could see what was happening. “He’s on our side. We get a little, uh, itchy, don’t we? Huh, ok. No, no. He’s on our side,” Trump said of the man storming the press area.

    The man was tasered, according to reports, then handcuffed and taken from the venue.

    The AP notes:

    The incident happened amid heightened scrutiny of security at Trump rallies after a gunman fired at him, grazing his ear, during an outdoor rally in July in nearby Butler, Pennsylvania. Security at political events has been noticeably tighter since the shooting.

    A Secret Service spokesperson referred questions to local authorities.

    Nate Silver Reveals The One Battleground State That Could Cost Kamala The White House

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Polling and data guru Nate Silver said Thursday that Vice President Kamala Harris is poised to be a “slight underdog” in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state with 19 electoral college points.

    Silver, a prominent elections analyst and statistician, wrote on Substack that while Harris is leading by 3.8 points in his national poll tracker and is slated to win the popular vote, his nuanced election forecast model predicts former President Trump is electorally favored to win the White House by a 52.4% chance, versus Harris, who now shows a 47.3% chance of pulling off an electoral victory.

    “Kamala Harris had one of her worst days in some time in our forecast on Thursday despite gaining in our national polling average,” Silver wrote.

    But, he continued, “There’s another, longer-term concern for Harris, though: it’s been a while since we’ve seen a poll showing her ahead in Pennsylvania, which is the tipping-point state more than a third of time in our model.”

    The latest Emerson College swing state poll shows Trump and Harris tied at 48% each in Pennsylvania. 

    “The model puts a lot of weight on this recent data because of all the changes in the race,” Silver explained. “And you can see why it thinks this is a problem for her: if she’s only tied in Pennsylvania now, during what should be one of her stronger polling periods, that implies being a slight underdog in November.”

    At the current date, Silver said his model shows a 17% chance that Harris wins the popular vote but not the Electoral College, calling it “a big concern for her campaign all along. 

    “If she won the popular vote nationally by between 1 and 2 points, for instance, the model estimates that she’d still be a 70/30 underdog in the Electoral College,” he wrote.

    Still, Silver acknowledged that Harris’ unusually late entry into the race could skew his forecast results.

    “While there’s a solid basis for this empirically, you could argue we’re under unusual circumstances because of her late entry into the race. So if you want to treat all of this as a little fuzzier than usual, I don’t really mind that,” he wrote.

    Kamala Reveals If She Would Appoint Republican To Cabinet If Elected

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    8
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    A surprising turnaround…

    Vice President Harris said Thursday she would consider appointing a Republican to a Cabinet position if she wins the presidency in November.

    “I’ve got 68 days to go with this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse,” Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash. “But I would, I think. I think it’s really important.”

    Harris, who sat down with CNN for her first taped interview since becoming President Biden ended his campaign, told Bash that having a GOP official in her Cabinet would help her fulfill her pledge to be a president for all Americans. She did not name any individuals she would consider.

    “I think it’s important to have people at the table — when some of the most important decisions are being made — that have different views, different experiences,” Harris said. “And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”

    A number of GOP Trump critics spoke at the Democratic convention in Chicago earlier this month, including former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

    ABC Responds To Kamala’s Effort To Change Debate Rules

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    (Los Angeles - EUA, 09/06/2022) Presidente da República Jair Bolsonaro, durante Sessão Plenária de Abertura da IX Cúpula das Américas..Foto: Alan Santos/PR

    ABC News has reportedly rejected a request from the Kamala Harris campaign to have microphones unmuted during the entirety of the September 10th debate against former President Donald Trump.

    Oliver Darcy confirmed that ABC sent an email on Tuesday evening stating that the microphones for candidates will be muted if they are not asked a direct question by the moderators, anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis.

    According to a New York Post report published Thursday, Trump and Harris will stand for the duration of the debate. Each will be allowed a water bottle, a pen, and paper. The event will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

    One Trump ally told The Post that both campaigns were informed of the debate rules in writing last week — and both agreed — before Harris’ campaign reached out again and called for the mics to be left on for the entirety of the debate. The consensus, according to some reports, was that live mics could be a liability for Trump, given his history of interrupting debate opponents. Others argued that Harris, who spent a fair amount of time interrupting former Vice President Mike Pence during her vice presidential debate, was simply attempting to use the same strategy against Trump.

    “At this point, Team Harris is going to be taking an ‘L’ when they finally accept, as the debate rules aren’t changing, or they’ll take an even bigger ‘L’ if they back out of the debate because the Dana Bash/CNN interview goes poorly,” the source told The Post.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Latest Poll Reports Dismal Decline In Kari Lake Support

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Kari Lake speaking with supporters at a "Stand for Freedom" rally at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Scottsdale Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. [Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

    Republican Kari Lake is trailing behind her Democratic opponent in this cycle’s U.S. Senate race in Arizona.

    According to a Fox News poll released on Wednesday, the former TV news anchor is currently trailing Rep. Ruben Gallego by 15 points as they seek to win the Senate seat left by Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema.

    Gallego leads Lake 56% to 41%, according to the Fox News survey, which was conducted with one Republican and one Democratic polling firm. The poll had 1,014 respondents and has a margin of error of 3%.

    The bad polling data for Lake comes two days after a major Arizona police union, which endorsed Trump, threw its support behind Gallego.

    “Congressman Gallego has continually fought for robust, increased funding for America’s Law Enforcement, and specifically Arizona Law Enforcement, securing over $168,000,000,000 (BILLION) in direct support of police officers so that they have the personnel and equipment needed to both protect themselves and keep their communities safe,” the union said in a statement.

    Democrats face a tough Senate map this cycle as they hold a narrow 51-49 majority.

    Governor Says Kamala Destined For Failure If She Can’t Win This State

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1
    Georgia National Guard from United States, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    Georgia Governor Bian Kemp (R) says Kamala won’t make it to the White House without the Peach State. During an interview, the Republican governor insisted “the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia” 

    Kemp, interviewed Tuesday on the eve of Vice President Harris’ two-day bus swing through Georgia, said his state “should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out.”

    “It’s my belief that we cannot afford four more years of [President] Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz, which I think would probably be worse than even Biden and Harris were,” Kemp said.

    The governor was interviewed a couple of days after Trump praised Kemp in a social media post “for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country.”

    “I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the Republican presidential nominee added.

    Republican strategists agree that to recapture Georgia, Trump will need assistance from Kemp’s well-oiled and funded political machine to turn out GOP voters.

    Kemp said he’s “working hard” to “turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November.”

    “How that looks and how that goes will really be up to kind of how things play out and what states are in play and who’s going where and when,” Kemp added.

    “I’ve got other responsibilities in my duties with the Republican Governors Association, traveling around the country helping to raise money to win North Carolina and hold New Hampshire in our column and also helping our legislative races here.”

    Special Counsel Files Superseding Indictment Against Trump

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    4
    Image via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment in his case indicting former President Trump for his actions seeking to subvert the 2020 election

    The superseding indictment is an effort by the special counsel to respond to a ruling earlier this summer by the Supreme Court, which held that Trump and other former executives retain broad immunity for core actions they took as president and are presumptively immune for other actions taken while in office.

    While the indictment retains the original charges – a sign of Smith’s confidence in the evidence underpinning the case – it makes significant cuts in an effort “to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings.”

    The filing removes former Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark as an unnamed, unindicted co-conspirator in the case, a reflection of specific instructions from the Supreme Court that said Trump’s conversations with Justice Department officials were protected from prosecution. 

    The superseding indictment is 10 pages shorter than the original, cutting lengthy examples from the original “speaking indictment” that walked through the evidence against Trump and his plots to remain in power.

    But the new filing takes pains to distinguish various elements of Trump’s efforts to unwind the election as actions taken purely in a private capacity – and thus conduct that can be prosecuted.

    Trump on his social media site called it “an effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ Witch Hunt” and move by Smith to “save face.”

    “Deranged Jack Smith, has brought a ridiculous new Indictment against me, which has all the problems of the old Indictment, and should be dismissed IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote.

    The Tuesday filing comes after Smith presented the case against the former president to a second grand jury, which had not previously heard the matter. It likewise concluded charges were warranted against the president.

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