Former President Trump touted the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity as a “big win for our Constitution and for democracy” during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
“The President therefore may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts,” the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts states. “That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office, regardless of politics, policy, or party.”
Although the decision appears to be less than a total victory for Trump, the former president lauded the ruling.
“I have been harassed by the Democrat Party, Joe Biden, Obama and their thugs, fascists and communists for years,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “And now the courts have spoken.”
He added: “This is a big win for our Constitution and for democracy. Now I am free to campaign like anyone else. We are leading in every poll – by a lot – and we will make America great again.”
Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The decision is in…
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that a former president has absolute immunity for his core constitutional powers.
Former presidents are also entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for their official acts. There is no immunity, the court holds, for unofficial acts.
The case is the most high-profile of the court’s session, and it is being released on the final day before the Supreme Court justices go on summer recess. The case relates to Trump’s efforts to defend himself against a federal indictment for election interference.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment charged Trump with four felonies relating to his efforts to reverse President Biden’s 2020 victory. Trump’s legal team argues that the actions he took were all part of his official duties as president, and that presidents cannot be prosecuted for such acts.
The court directed trial judge Tanya Chutkan to determine which allegations in Trump’s indictment constitute official acts and must therefore be stricken from the case — and which do not.
“We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is also entitled to immunity. At the current stage of proceedings in this case, however, we need not and do not decide whether that immunity must be absolute, or instead whether a presumptive immunity is sufficient,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.
In nearly three hours of debate in April, the high court wrestled with this question: “Whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office?”
“We’re writing a rule for the ages,” Justice Neil Gorsuch said during oral arguments for the case in April, according to Fox News.
Two lower courts sided staunchly against Trump. If the Supreme Court does the same, it could allow Trump’s election interference trial to occur before the November election.
Take a look at some reactions to the Supreme Court’s ruling:
BIG WIN FROM SCOTUS!!
President Trump said it best: if a president doesn’t have immunity, nothing can be accomplished in office.
The RADICAL LEFT can no longer continue with their KANGAROO courts, and their BLATANT bending of the law for an administration they disagree with and…
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon reported to prison today to begin his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress charges.
The one-time Trump adviser is on his way to federal prison in Connecticut over his contempt charges for defying a subpoena from a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Steve Bannon goes SCORCHED EARTH on the eve of becoming a political prisoner 🔥
Bannon was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the attack. He was allowed by a federal judge to delay his sentence for about two years as he appealed the case.
Steve Bannon told reporters that he was “proud” to report to federal prison.
“I am going to prison. I’m proud to go to prison. I am proud of going to prison today,” Bannon said at a press conference held with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) outside the Federal Correctional Institution Danbury. “I am proud to go to prison. If this is what it takes to stand up to tyranny. If this is what it takes to stand up to the Garland corrupt, criminal DOJ. If this is what it takes to stand up to Nancy Pelosi, if this is what it takes to stand up to Joe Biden, I’m proud to do it.”
Bannon also addressed a priest who came to the conference offering spiritual guidance.
“Father, don’t pray for me. Pray for our enemies. They’re the ones who are going to need the prayers,” Bannon said.
“It’s Nancy Pelosi and Merrick Garland that made me a martyr, but martyrs die, and I’m far from dead baby,” Bannon said earlier, reminding supporters that Trump will be sentenced in his Manhattan hush-money case on July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“You can’t run a business from a federal prison. I have no intention to do anything with business, but I have a First Amendment right. I have a First Amendment right to have my voice heard, and my voice is going to be heard every day, and more importantly, their voices are going to be heard. You don’t need my voice, we’re a populous movement,” Bannon said.
Last week, the Supreme Court denied Bannon’s longshot appeal to delay his prison sentence.
Bannon will be the second former Trump White House aide to serve time in prison in connection with defying a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee.
Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Trump, began his four-month prison sentence in March after his emergency appeal at the Supreme Court also failed.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is crafting a resolution urging Vice President Harris to convene the Cabinet and declare President Biden unable to carry out the duties of the Oval Office after the poor debate performance Thursday.
“I intend to put forth a resolution calling upon the @VP to immediately use her powers under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene & mobilize the principal officers of the Cabinet to declare the @POTUS is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office,” Roy wrote on X.
I intend to put forth a resolution calling upon the @VP to immediately use her powers under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene & mobilize the principal officers of the Cabinet to declare the @POTUS is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office.
Roy told reporters Friday morning that, ”I think anybody with eyes and anybody observing objectively last night saw an individual that is not capable of carrying out the duties the commander-in-chief in a world in which we’re, you know, facing increasing dangers.”
He added, “for those of us who follow this stuff internally, it has been very clear the declining status of the of the capacity of the president, but last night put it all out for all to see. Our colleagues on their side of the aisle can’t hide from it. And frankly, I don’t do this through a political lens, right. I mean, I don’t view it through the lens of well, is the timing good and bad for what happens in November or anything else? It’s just the simple fact of the matter is the president United States is not capable of doing the job.”
Section 4 of the 25th Amendment — which has never been used — says that if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet or Congress deem the president as “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” the vice president should “immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President,” the amendment reads.
Lisa Ferdinando via Wikimedia Commons
Harris defended Biden’s debate performance on CNN immediately after Thursday night’s event, conceding he had a “slow start” but arguing he had a “strong finish” and had laid out a strong contrast between himself and Trump.
Watch:
BREAKING: CNN grills Kamala Harris—should Joe Biden step aside?
"CNN's John King has described a panic in the Democratic Party right now because of Biden's performance. Some in your party are even asking if President Biden should step aside. What do you say to that?"
Several leading columnists for the New York Times are urging President Biden to drop out of the race, citing his poor performance during Thursday night’s debate.
“President Biden is a good man who capped a long career in public service with a successful presidential term. But I hope he reviews his debate performance Thursday evening and withdraws from the race, throwing the choice of a Democratic nominee to the convention in August,” Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote.
Thomas Friedman, another Times columnist, made a similar argument.
“I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime,” he wrote, saying Biden “a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.”
Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News
Authorities have arrested and charged an Arizona man for allegedly stealing a security fob and keys from a ballot tabulation center in Maricopa County.
According to Fox News, Walter Ringfield, 37, who was a temporary election worker, was arrested for allegedly stealing items from a ballot tabulation center.
Security footage showed Ringfield allegedly taking a red lanyard with a crucial security fob and keys from a desk inside the facility. Despite initially denying the theft when confronted by his employer, a subsequent search of Ringfield’s vehicle uncovered the lanyard.
Police later went to Ringfield’s home and arrested him. The lanyard and keys were found in his car. The missing fob was found inside his home.
Ringfield was booked into jail and is accused of theft and criminal damage.
Ringfield allegedly admitted to stealing the fob but said he “gave it back” after 20 minutes.
“Walter stated his reason for taking the fob was because he wanted to ‘clean up,’” court documents read. “Walter said the job was temporary and he was trying to make it permanent, so he wanted to clean up.”‘
Security fobs are used with special secure tablets. Because one was removed, the staff must now reprogram every fob and tablet. Maricopa County Election officials estimate the cost of the reprogramming to be more than $19,000.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes confirmed the incident
“Our systems are not only designed to detect anomalies but are also supported by dedicated professionals committed to upholding the democratic process,” Fontes said in a statement, according to Fox News. “While this event is unwelcome, it speaks to the effectiveness of the security protocols built into Arizona’s election systems.”
At a press conference on Tuesday, Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner said election staffers and law enforcement’s “swift response and ultimate action helped safeguard democracy and rapid response to the security protocols we have with elections proved to be effective.”
“If it wasn’t for the staff members at the Maricopa County Elections Center, we wouldn’t have been able to get on this in time to potentially find the missing evidence and get a suspect in custody,” he said.
Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News
Polling expert Nate Silver is predicting Donald Trump finds himself back in the White House.
Silver was acclaimed in 2012 for correctly picking the winner of every state between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and confidently forecasting an Obama victory. He was bullish on Hillary Clinton in 2016 but cautioned Trump had a reasonable chance.
“The candidate who I honest-to-God think has a better chance (Trump) isn’t the candidate I’d rather have win (Biden),” Silver, who formerly ran polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight, wrote in his “Silver Bulletin” substack.
Silver’s forecast model, based on 40,000 simulations, found Trump had a 65.7% of winning the electoral college, compared to Biden, who had a 33.7% chance. However, Biden is slightly favored to win the popular vote. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 but won the presidency with a slew of narrow swing state wins.
“If the Electoral College/popular vote gap looks anything like it did in 1 or 2020, you’d expect Biden to be in deep trouble if the popular vote is roughly tied,” Silver wrote.
The data expert wrote that there was still time for Biden to turn things around and suggested the president give the nomination to Vice President Harris or someone else at the Democratic convention. However, he wrote, “Disclaimer: that also might be a terrible idea.”`
The Colorado Republican said she made the switch to CO-04 to ensure another Republican could win her old district, which she nearly lost in 2022 and had blamed outside groups for targeting her. But Boebert left the district having already become a fundraising magnet for the likely Democrat candidate, who has pulled in millions that may help him flip a district that has leaned Republican in recent years.
Boebert is expected to also win the November general election in the district. Its voters overwhelmingly backed former President Trump in 2020.
In Colorado’s 4th District:
We defeated the establishment.
We defeated the dark money.
We defeated the uniparty.
Now, we have to defeat our Democrat opponent in November so that we can SAVE AMERICA.
Will you chip in $15 today so that we can do just that?…
Republicans on the opposite side of the country are also celebrating a significant Tuesday win when progressive Democrat Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) suffered a double-digit loss. New York’s Republican Party celebrated the first ouster of a “Squad” member since the progressive coalition’s inception in 2018 to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a pro-Israel moderate Democrat.
As a working-class kid in Mt Vernon, I watched my parents strive to give me the best life possible. When I graduated high school on Memorial Field, my mom cried.
She never dreamed I would be here. But tonight the voters spoke & I'm proud to be your Democratic Nominee for #NY16pic.twitter.com/fAb3A1NiyU
“Good riddance, Jamaal. Every socialist in Congress and the State Legislature should likewise be rooted out of public office,” New York GOP Chair Ed Cox said in a statement Wednesday. “Jamaal Bowman just faced the consequences of his disgraceful actions. From his childish fire alarm stunt to his blatant anti-Semitic remarks and his latest public meltdown, Bowman has repeatedly shown he is unfit for office.”
Latimer welcomed his victory with a message of unity.
“Tonight we turn a page, and we say that we believe in inclusion of everybody in our representation. That you are included, no matter what your demographic is. Doesn’t matter your age, the color of your skin, your religion, sexual identity, whether you’re a right hander or left hander, whether you’re a Met fan or a Yankee fan,” Latimer joked.
“We go to Washington, we’re one of 435. But we’re not the only one. You know, good men and women in Washington who feel the same way we do, and we have to find each other and link with each other. We have to look at arguments of the far right and the far left and say you cannot destroy this country with your rhetoric and your arguments,” he said, garnering cheers from the crowd. “We have to have unity all across that continuum, and if you hold a strong belief, you still must work with other people don’t share that belief because America hangs in the balance.”
Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman has officially lost the Democratic primary to George Latimer in NY-16 race. With 88% of the vote in, Latimer has clinched the nomination 58.4 to 41.6.
On Tuesday, a New York judge partially lifted a gag order imposed on former President Trump’s speech in his hush money criminal case.
The updated terms allow Trump to resume speaking about trial witnesses like Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.
The partial lift however will allow Trump to address the jury who convicted him last month on 34 criminal charges, though the former president remains under a separate protective order that prohibits him from publicly disclosing their identities.
The gag order remains in place when it comes to prosecutors overseeing the case, except for District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) as well as Judge Juan Merchan.
Judge Juan Merchan initially granted prosecutors’ request for a gag order that precluded Trump from making public statements about any witnesses in the case, jurors, prosecutors, court staff, or members of their family. Trump was not restricted from commenting on the judge or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Merchan reluctantly lifted those restrictions, saying it would be his “strong preference” to extend the jurors’ protection.
“However, circumstances have now changed. The trial portion of these proceedings ended when the verdict was rendered, and the jury discharged,” Merchan wrote in his ruling.
The partial lifting of the order comes just days before the first 2024 presidential debate on Thursday where Trump is expected to address his conviction in the case.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Despite Democrats’ attempts to make a dent in Florida, President Joe Biden’s campaign manager knows when it is time to call it quits.
In an interview that Puck’s John Heilemann described as a “rare and candid conversation,” Jen O’Malley Dillon was asked about the Biden team’s strategy for 2024, including what states the campaign viewed as true battlegrounds they could win.
Heilemann: If you boil it down, what you’re saying is that 2020 was a national election; there were battleground states, but you ran the campaign like a national referendum on Trump. But in 2024, you’re running a half-dozen targeted state campaigns—which gets us to the topic of your paths to victory. I named six states [Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia]. You’d agree those are battlegrounds, yes?
O’Malley Dillon: Yes.
And you’re saying you see North Carolina also as a battleground state?
Yes.
Florida?
No.
Thank you. I was afraid you were going to lie.
“The job of the campaign is to keep as many battleground states in play for as long as possible so we can navigate any flexibility in the race,” O’Malley Dillon explained, pointing out how Biden had won Georgia and Arizona in 2020 despite those states not being “in play at all at this point” in the election cycle, “and certainly were not traditional battleground states.”
O’Malley Dillon’s comments come just days after Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison visited Tallahassee for a Florida Democratic Party (FDP) rally and told reporters there he viewed the state to be “in play.”
Days after DNC chair @harrisonjaime said stars were aligning for Dems in Florida & told Fla reporters that he wouldn't be in Tally if the state weren't in play … Puck News quotes top Biden campaign official Jen O'Malley Dillon acknowledging Fla is not a battleground for them
Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood said she would vote for former President Trump over President Biden in the November presidential election.
Wood took part in an interview with ‘Meet Kevin’ financial analyst and YouTuber Kevin Paffrath, during which she was asked the popular question, “Trump or Biden?”
Wood told the host she has three children with whom she has discussed the upcoming election and its consequences.
“As I’ve said to them, ‘Look, I am going to vote for the person who’s going to do the best job for our economy,’” Wood told Paffrath. “I am a voter when it comes to economics, and on that basis, Trump.”
She further explained that Laffer Associates founder and chairman Art Laffer “describes the first three years of the Trump presidency as the best in U.S. economic history, not the last one because of COVID, and I would agree.”
Watch:
🔥🔥Cathie Wood Ark investor and one of the most influential people in the business world just publicly announced that she'll be voting for Trump and that he had the best economy in history.
Dont vote based off personal feelings. Vote based off personal experience.
Mr. Mellon is now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. Mr. Mellon has previously given $25 million to both.
Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, announced last month he will back Trump in the 2024 race after he previously called for the Republican Party to turn to a “new generation of leaders.”
