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    White House Candidate Abruptly Ends Campaign, Endorses Trump Rival

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5

    The pool of Republican presidential candidates is already shrinking…

    On Monday, former CIA agent and Texas Rep. Will Hurd announced he is ending his campaign for president and instead opting to support former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for office.

    “Our nation deserves a leader who can unite us and navigate the complex challenges we face, particularly when it comes to our national security. I believe Ambassador Nikki Haley is the best person in this race to do that,” Hurd wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, and in an email to supporters.

    Hurd emphasized that Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the first two years of the Trump administration, “has shown a willingness to articulate a different vision for the country than Donald Trump and has an unmatched grasp on the complexities of our foreign policy. I wholeheartedly endorse Ambassador Haley and look forward to supporting her for the remainder of this race.”

    Responding to Hurd’s endorsement, Haley wrote in a social media posting that “America is at a crossroads and it’s time to come together and make Joe Biden a one-term president. Thank you @WillHurd for your support and confidence. We have a country to save!”

    Hurd announced his long-shot bid for the White House in June and automatically took aim at former President Trump.

    He emphasized to Fox News that “while I appreciate all the time and energy our supporters have given, it is important to recognize the realities of the political landscape and the need to consolidate our party around one person to defeat both Donald Trump and President Biden. I urge donors, voters, and other candidates to unite around an alternative candidate to Trump.”

    Centrist Republicans Float Re-electing McCarthy as House Speaker In Wake of Israel Attacks

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    13
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The old saying goes “the more things change the more they stay the same…”

    Some Republicans are mulling a move to reinstate Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House Speaker in the wake of the deadly attacks in Israel.

    On Saturday morning, Palestine militant group Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war on the organization and order retaliatory action.

    “Israel attacks have moderates holding out for the one person who can truly unite us: Kevin McCarthy,” a House GOP lawmaker said.

    Last week, McCarthy was ousted by the votes of eight Republicans and all House Democrats thanks to a rule change McCarthy agreed to when he was elected speaker.

    However, handing McCarthy back the Speaker’s gavel is an uphill battle due to the support Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) have already garnered. Last week, former President Donald Trump threw his support behind Jordan for Speaker.

    McCarthy, for his part, is “aware and grateful” for the efforts to reinstate him, but he’s not engaging at this point, the House GOP lawmaker said.

    However, some Republicans are optimistic that it could be done, given the severity of the attack in Israel. They believe the urgency surrounding the attacks could pressure the eight House Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy to switch their stance. Many Republicans are still upset with those who voted against McCarthy, who is a vocal supporter of Israel, and are “using this moment to show how wrong they were,” per the House GOP lawmaker.

    “A short window is all we need in the House to reinstate Kevin McCarthy and change the rule,” Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) said.

    House Republicans plan on meeting behind closed doors on Monday to hash out details and differences of opinion. On Tuesday, there will be a candidate forum to hear the pros and cons of each speaker candidate.

    The conference plans to hold a secret vote on Wednesday to see who it wants to nominate for speaker on the floor. The nomination will go to whichever candidate secures a majority of the GOP conference. That figure could be as low as 113, including the three nonvoting GOP delegates to the House. If all 435 House members participate, a successful candidate will need 217 votes to become speaker.

    Trump Requests Pause In New York Fraud Trial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Former President Trump’s legal team is seeking a temporary stay in his New York civil fraud trial.

    Trump’s legal team wrote in a 1,154-page court filing that Judge Arthur Engoron’s decision last week imposed “unauthorized, undemanded, overbroad relief” to the New York attorney general’s office, which will result in “significant, irreparable harm” to the former president and his business.

    “Supreme Court clearly does not comprehend the scope of the chaos its decision has wrought,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing.

    Defense attorneys argue in the Friday filing that Engoron had “no rationale or legal authority” to dissolve Trump’s businesses or order additional directives.

    “Supreme Court’s sprawling and punitive relief is both unprecedented in a civil action in this State and indefensible under the law or any reasonable view of the facts,” Trump’s legal team wrote.

    “They also claimed the order would “unquestionably inflict severe and irreparable harm” to “innocent” employees who depend on Trump’s businesses for their livelihoods, suggesting it threatens termination for “hundreds of New York employees without any jurisdiction or due process.”

    Trump attorney Chris Kise informed the court and prosecutors Thursday that the defense would seek a stay of the trial and the summary judgment Engoron had issued.

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Trump Makes Endorsement in House Speaker Race

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Jim Jordan via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Donald Trump is throwing his support behind Jim Jordan to become the next Speaker of the House.

    “He is a STRONG on Crime, Borders, our Military/Vets, & 2nd Amendment. Jim, his wife, Polly, & family are outstanding – He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

    “Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., representing Ohio’s 4th Congressional District. Respected by all, he is now Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,” Trump wrote.

    The former president backed Jordan over Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who announced his own bid to replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday.

    Trump had initially declined to back any particular candidate for Speaker following McCarthy’s removal, telling reporters Wednesday that “we have some great people in the Republican Party that could do a great job as Speaker.”

    Some House Republicans floated the former president himself as a possible Speaker nominee, with the conference scrambling to coalesce around a new leader following McCarthy’s exit from a position he had held since January.

    Trump appeared to dismiss those calls, saying Wednesday he was “totally” focused on his White House bid. On Thursday, he said he would do so on a temporary basis only “if necessary,” adding to Fox News Digital: “I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress.” 

    Trump Requests Judge Throw Out Jan. 6 Charges

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Wednesday, former President Trump asked to dismiss the whole of the government’s election interference case against him, arguing all his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are protected by presidential immunity. 

    The Hill has more:

    “The prosecution does not, and cannot, argue that President Trump’s efforts to ensure election integrity, and to advocate for the same, were outside the scope of his duties. Instead, the prosecution falsely claims that President Trump’s motives were impure — that he purportedly ‘knew’ that the widespread reports of fraud and election irregularities were untrue but sought to address them anyway,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the motion. 

    “But as the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and hundreds of years of history and tradition all make clear, the President’s motivations are not for the prosecution or this Court to decide. Rather, where, as here, the President’s actions are within the ambit of his office, he is absolutely immune from prosecution.”

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Trump Requests Delay In Mar-A-Lago Trial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. [Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

    Former President Donald Trump is seeking to delay his trial in the Mar-a-Lago case until “at least mid-November 2024,” which would put it beyond next year’s presidential election.

    The request from Trump comes on the heels of complaints from his legal team about the amount of classified evidence they’ve been able to review in the case, as well as their workload, as they manage numerous indictments filed against the former president.

    The Hill continues:

    The attorneys say they have yet to get access to all classified evidence underpinning charges in a superseding indictment that accused Trump of an additional Espionage Act charge and of trying to delete security camera footage from his Florida home.

    Trump’s team also complains that it “only has access to a small, temporary facility in Miami” to view the highly classified records. It must visit the facility in person while managing hearing dates for Trump’s trial on allegations he sought to block the transfer of power after losing the 2020 election.

    “The March 4, 2023 trial date in the District of Columbia, and the underlying schedule in that case, currently require President Trump and his lawyers to be in two places at once,” Trump’s attorneys, Christopher Kise and Todd Blanche, wrote in the filing.

    Trump is set to face trial on the classified records case in May.

    Trump Issues Response To Biden Admin.

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Wednesday, Biden made a stark reversal from his campaign policy and announced the need for a border wall in Texas citing security, drug and arms trafficking, and steepening migration.

    “There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the statement.

    The U.S. Border Patrol saw more than 245,000 people in the last fiscal year trying to enter the United States in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, the DHS said, citing data from August.

    Trump wasted no time before chiding Biden over the border barrier.

    “Biden sees our country is being invaded,” Trump said. “What is he going to do about the 15 million people from prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums, and terrorists that have already come into our country?”

    “What has happened to our country?” Trump said, adding that the Biden administration needs to “go back to Trump policies.”

    “He has to reinstate Remain in Mexico and Title 42,” Trump said. “He has to do all of the other things that we were doing.”

    A Trump campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital Wednesday night that “President Trump is always right.” 

    “That’s why he built close to 500 miles of powerful new wall on the border and it would have been finished by now,” the spokesperson said. “Instead, Crooked Joe Biden turned our country into one giant sanctuary for dangerous criminal aliens.”

    Judge Issues Gag Order Following Trump’s Truth Social Posts

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    5
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    New York Judge Arthur Engoron issued a limited gag order for all parties on Tuesday after Trump’s Truth Social account made a post targeting the judge’s principal clerk while she sat just feet away from him in the courtroom.

    The judge issued the gag order barring Trump and any party in the case from posting or speaking publicly about members of his staff after Trump released personally identifying information about his principal clerk

    The trial judge, without naming Trump, addressed the court on the matter, saying “one of the defendants” posted a “disparaging, untrue and personally-identifying post” about his staff, and though the judge ordered it deleted, it had been emailed out to “millions of other recipients.”

    “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are not appropriate and I will not tolerate it under any circumstance,” Engoron said.

    He added that he warned counsel off the record about the former president’s comments yesterday, but the warning went unheeded.

    In a Truth Social post that went up while Trump was sitting in the courtroom Tuesday, Trump targeted Engoron’s principal law clerk — who was sitting just a few feet away — calling her “Schumer’s girlfriend,” that reposted a picture of her alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow New York Democrat.

    It is unclear what connection, if any, Schumer has with the clerk.

    Trump’s campaign on Tuesday also sent out an email shortly after the Truth Social post while the court was on a lunch break

    Supreme Court Reviews 14th Amendment Challenge to Boot Trump from Ballot

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    2
    Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    Good news for Team Trump!

    On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a bid to disqualify former President Trump from running for office under the 14th Amendment.

    John Castro, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, filed various lawsuits seeking to challenge Trump’s eligibility to appear on the 2024 ballot.

    Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that no person shall hold elected office who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”

    The Hill has more:

    In a brief, unsigned order issued Monday, the justices declined to take up one of his cases after Castro lost in a lower court.

    “The Supreme Court can deny to hear the case but appellate courts cannot,” Castro responded on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

    “I’m still pursuing decisions in the liberal appellate courts and there’s a full blown trial scheduled for October 20 in New Hampshire and a bench trial in Arizona on October 31,” he added.

    Castro had argued Trump gave “his aid and comfort to the convicted criminals and insurrectionists that violently attacked our United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, which results in disqualification to hold public office pursuant to the self-executing nature of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

    The Supreme Court’s decision comes as Trump faces similar efforts in multiple states to disqualify him from the ballot.

    Over the weekend a liberal group in Michigan filed a lawsuit to keep Trump off the ballot, arguing he violated the 14th Amendment. (RELATED: Michigan Group Sues To Keep Trump Off 2024 Ballot)

    Trump, who waived his right to respond to Castro’s petition before the Supreme Court, has broadly attacked the legal push as “another ‘trick’ being used by the Radical Left Communists, Marxists, and Fascists.”

    Attorney General to Resign If Asked to Take Action on Trump

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    5
    Chuck Kennedy for The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview that he would resign if asked by President Joe Biden to take action against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.

    While noting the unlikelihood that he would be put in such a position AG Garland told “60 Minutes” that he would not personally take action against the former president. The Justice Department has indicted Trump on charges relating to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and wrongly keeping classified documents after leaving office.

    “I am sure that that will not happen, but I would not do anything in that regard,” he said on CBS “60 Minutes.” “And if necessary, I would resign. But there is no sense that anything like that will happen.”

    Garland has largely kept silent about the cases and reiterated Sunday he would not get into specifics, but dismissed claims by Trump and his supporters that the cases were timed to ruin his chances to be president in 2024.

    “Well, that’s absolutely not true. Justice Department prosecutors are nonpartisan. They don’t allow partisan considerations to play any role in their determinations,” Garland said.

    “We do not have one rule for Republicans and another rule for Democrats. We don’t have one rule for foes and another for friends,” he said. ”We have only one rule; and that one rule is that we follow the facts and the law, and we reach the decisions required by the Constitution, and we protect civil liberties.”

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