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    Biden Learns the Reason Democrats Don’t Want His Support on the Campaign Trail

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    Don Lemon via Wikimedia Commons

    Joe Biden just got a brutal reality check from nonother than CNN host Don Lemon.

    While co-hosting his new morning show position, Lemon claimed Democrats are ashamed of Biden and are intentionally avoiding inviting him onto the campaign trail in the final days before Election Day.

    Lemon, whose words pack a punch considering his own well-documented support of Biden, says candidates are wary of the President’s low approval ratings and “don’t want to be seen with him.” Instead, candidates have opted to invite former President Obama on the trail in hopes of currying favor with undecided voters.

    “That’s a big factor in where Biden has been these last few days,” anchor and former Daily Caller reporter Kaitlan Collins said. “He is not going to the places that you’re seeing former President Obama go to. It’s because of that approval rating.”

    “A lot of people are not, you know, they don’t want to be seen with the president, quite frankly, and they don’t even want to answer the question about whether they should be running with him or having him on the campaign trail or whether he should be running in 2024,” Lemon added.

    According to The Daily Caller, a number of recent polls have signaled Biden’s downturn among Americans

    A recent CNN/SSRS poll found Biden’s approval rating at 41% among registered voters, the second lowest of presidential approval ratings ahead of the midterms. The poll surveyed 1,290 registered voters between October 26-31 with a 3.4 margin of error.

    Several polls throughout his presidency have consistently found the president’s approval ratings to stand between 30%-40%. More Americans continue to hold a negative view of Biden. Currently, 42% approve of Biden, while 53% disapprove, according to FiveThirtyEight.

    Democrats have been hesitant to publicly support Biden’s second term and a number of lawmakers have already signaled their plans to support other Democrats candidates.

    Ohio Democrat Senate candidate Tim Ryan hasn’t been shy about the fact he hopes Biden will abandon his 2024 plans. During an October debate against Republican opponent J.D. Vance, Ryan said Democrats need a “generational change.” (RELATED: Ohio Democrat Candidate Says Biden Should Not Run for President in 2024)

    “I’ve been very clear. I’d like to see a generational change,” Ryan at the time.

    “Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, the president, everybody,” the Senate candidate added. “We need a new generation of leadership.”

    Justice Department Mulls Immunity Deal for Trump Adviser Kash Patel

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ramón Colón-López and the chief of staff to Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, Kash Patel, arrive at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Jan. 14, 2021. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)

    The Justice Department is reportedly seriously contemplating offering former Trump adviser Kash Patel an immunity deal in exchange for his testimony about claims that highly sensitive government documents the FBI seized from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort were declassified.

    According to sources close to the matter, the DOJ is considering the special deal because Patel was one of Trump’s appointed representatives with the National Archives and therefore could have knowledge of how Trump handled the records seized from Mar-a-Lago.

    According to The Guardian, Patel started the Trump administration by railing against the Russia investigation when he served on the House intelligence committee’s Republican staff and ended it as chief of staff to the defense secretary.

    During its August raid, the FBI seized thousands of pages of documents from the former President’s Florida residence. Throughout its investigation into whether Trump violated the Espionage Act, the DOJ has honed in on roughly 100 documents and whether they were-as Trump has claimed- declassified before leaving office.

    Trump, Patel, and other confidantes have made claims about the declassification of the documents but the former president’s legal team has yet to make the assertion in court.

    Justice Department officials are examining whether to allow federal prosecutors to seek an order from the chief US district court judge in Washington Beryl Howell granting Patel limited use immunity to compel his testimony on the declassification issue and other matters, the sources said.

    The justice department had sought testimony from Patel when he was summoned to testify before a grand jury in Washington hearing evidence about Trump’s potential mishandling of national security materials and obstruction when he appeared resisted requests for their return, one source said.

    But Patel asserted his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination to an array of questions at the 13 October appearance, the source said, though the basis for some was not clear; even if the documents were not declassified, making false public statements would probably not be a crime.

    The Justice Department is not prone to offering immunity deals because it can potentially make bringing charges against the person in the future more difficult. The approval must also come from the top echelons of the DOJ according to guidelines, and the preference for prosecutors to obtain testimony is to have defendants plead guilty and then have them offer cooperation for a reduced sentence.

    Rudy Giuliani’s Effort to Dismiss Defamation Suit Falls Flat in Court

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    (Nova York - EUA, 24/09/2019) Presidente da República, Jair Bolsonaro, durante encontro com o senhor Rudolph Giuliani, ex-prefeito da cidade de Nova York. .Foto: Alan Santos/PR

    Rudy Giuliani was hit with bad news in court on Tuesday. A federal judge rejected President Donald Trump’s former attorney’s bid to dismiss a defamation suit from two Georgia elections workers who appeared before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

    According to The Hill, D.C. District Court Judge Beryl Howell said Giuliani contributed to “increasingly outlandish paranoia” by pushing false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

    “Defendant Rudolph Giuliani—a current media personality and former politician once dubbed ‘America’s mayor’—propagated and pushed that false narrative,” Howell wrote.

    The suit comes from Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, two witnesses who appeared before the Jan. 6 panel to describe how false claims from Giuliani, including a video repeatedly shared by him accusing the two poll workers of counting fraudulent ballots, upended their lives.

    Howell wrote that Giuliani “orchestrated and implemented a strategic plan” regarding faulty fraud claims and the allegations the campaign made against Moss, noting that the plan “provide[s] ample circumstantial evidence of a civil conspiracy between Giuliani and members of the Trump Campaign.”

    Moss and Freeman claimed that though election interference claims were eventually debunked they still received death threats.

    The judge’s ruling sends the lawsuit forward to its discovery phase, a process that will allow Moss and Freeman to demand more evidence from Giuliani.

    Giuliani is facing a separate defamation lawsuit stemming from his comments regarding the 2020 election results’ legitimacy from voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems.

    Judge Throws Out Mark Meadows Lawsuit Against Jan. 6 Panel

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Office of Congressman Mark Meadows, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    On Tuesday, federal U.S. district judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, dismissed a lawsuit from former President Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows against the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6th Capitol riot.

    Meadows sought to block two subpoenas from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, including one to Verizon seeking his phone and text data.

    Judge Nichols found that the panel’s subpoenas were covered under the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which he said protected them from civil suits as legislative actions.

    “The record makes clear that the challenged subpoenas are protected legislative acts,” Nichols wrote in the decision, according to The New York Times.

    Despite his decision, the judge said a number of matters raised by Mr. Meadows remained unsettled, including whether a senior aide to a former president can be compelled to testify before Congress; whether a former president can validly assert executive privilege; and whether a sitting president may override a former president’s claim of privilege.

    Judge Nichols’s ruling marks the latest chapter in Meadows’ nearly year-long saga against the committee. Last December, Meadows filed a lawsuit against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the committee, claiming the panel issued “two overly broad and unduly burdensome subpoenas” for his records.

    Before filing suit, Mr. Meadows turned over thousands of pages of documents to the committee, including more than 2,300 text messages that served as key evidence for jump-starting the panel’s investigation. But he refused the committee’s subpoena to sit for a deposition and withheld more than 1,000 documents he said were covered by executive privilege.

    The committee then recommended that Meadows, a former congressman from North Carolina, be charged with contempt of Congress. However, the Justice Department ultimately decided against prosecuting the case.

    Meadows will likely seek to appeal Judge Nichols’s ruling but has yet to make any comments publicly about the case.

    The January 6th panel’s future is up in the air as Republicans are poised to will back control of Congress, likely meaning Meadows will avoid testifying before the panel altogether.

    Trump Asks Supreme Court to Intervene in Tax Docs Battle

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5
    Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    UPDATE: Chief Justice John Roberts put a temporary hold on the handover of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to a congressional committee. Roberts’ order gives the Supreme Court time to weigh the legal issues in Trump’s emergency appeal.

    On Monday, former President Trump filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court declined to reverse its ruling mandating that he turn over his tax records to the House Ways and Means Committee. 

    “No Congress has ever wielded its legislative powers to demand a President’s tax returns,” Trump argued to the high court, expressing outrage about the “far-reaching implications” of the D.C. Circuit’s ruling.

    “The Committee’s purpose in requesting President Trump’s tax returns has nothing to do with funding or staffing issues at the IRS and everything to do with releasing the President’s tax information to the public,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing according to The Washington Examiner. 

    The request was made to Chief Justice John Roberts, who has authority over such appeals stemming from the District of Columbia.

    Last week, Trump lost his latest bid to block the House Committee from accessing his records after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reconsider a unanimous August ruling from one of the court’s panels ordering their release.

    Committee chairman Richard Neal(D-MA) celebrated the lower court’s ruling last week.

    “The law has always been on our side,” Rep. Neal said in a statement. “Former President Trump has tried to delay the inevitable, but once again, the Court has affirmed the strength of our position. We’ve waited long enough—we must begin our oversight of the IRS’s mandatory presidential audit program as soon as possible.”

    In December, federal court Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled that the Treasury Department must turn over the tax returns, holding that despite Trump’s claims that the pursuit of records by the House committee was politically motivated, the committee’s chairman, Democrat Richard Neal, held a “valid legislative purpose” with his request, according to The Hill.

    “The Chairman has identified a legitimate legislative purpose that it requires information to accomplish,” Judge David Sentelle, wrote in the panel’s opinion. “At this stage, it is not our place to delve deeper than this.”

    Democrats have engaged in a yearslong battle for Trump’s tax records, claiming they need to probe how the Internal Revenue Service conducts its routine presidential audits, however, Trump and his legal team have argued the matter is purely political. 

    New York Gubernatorial Candidate Under Investigation

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    14
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    New York Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin has been targeted in a new investigation less than two weeks before the midterm elections.

    Zeldin is under investigation by the State Board of Elections over allegations that he coordinated with two super PACs supporting his campaign, according to The Hill.

    Michael Johnson, the chief enforcement counsel of the New York State Board of Elections, opened a preliminary investigation into Zeldin’s campaign after the allegations emerged.

    Johnson is now seeking subpoena authority from the State Board of Elections to compel cooperation with his investigation, according to the Times. 

    However, he was stymied when two Republican members of the board unexpectedly missed a business meeting on Tuesday, preventing the board from reaching a quorum to vote on the subpoena issue and likely delaying the issue until after the election, per the Times.

    The Albany Times-Union first reported in mid-October that there were several overlaps between Zeldin’s campaign and two super PACs supporting him — Safe Together New York and Save Our State New York.

    Days later, the New York State Democratic Party filed a complaint against Zeldin’s campaign over the alleged super PAC. Super PACs are legally allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for or against candidates but are barred from coordinating with the candidates they benefit.

    Zeldin has been rapidly closing the gap against New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in recent weeks.

    Musk Fires Twitter Employee Who Banned Trump First Move as Boss

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    6


    Elon Musk is wasting no time as Twitter’s new boss.

    The South African-born billionaire officially became Twitter’s new CEO Thursday evening and he wasted no time before addressing some concerns. As part of his first move as boss, Musk fired Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde, who played an instrumental role in censoring the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and banning former President Donald Trump from the platform.

    Earlier this year after Musk announced his plan to buy Twitter, Politico reported that “Gadde cried during [a] meeting as she expressed concerns about how the company could change.”

    Musk also fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Sean Edgett, the company’s general counsel

    Musk released a statement earlier in the day explaining why he wanted to buy Twitter:

    “I wanted to reach out personally to share my motivation in acquiring Twitter,” Musk wrote. “There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong.”

    “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk continued. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

    “In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost,” Musk continued. “That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”

    “That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk concluded. “In addition to
    adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.”

    Musk’s first moves as the boss received widespread praise from conservative users.

    Musk, a free speech advocate, has vowed to address censorship and bias concerns on the platform.

    After officially becoming CEO, Trump released a statement praising Musk for the endeavor and urged him to reinstate his account.

    “Congratulations to Elon Musk on his purchase of Twitter. Many people are saying that change was needed, as the old management was too concerned with the woke agenda. I have been told that my account will be back up and running on Monday – we will see. Happy to be able to engage with African-American owned business!”

    In May, Musk said he didn’t agree with the decision to permanently ban Trump from the platform.

    “I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake,” Musk said back in May. “I would reverse the perma-ban. … But my opinion, and Jack Dorsey, I want to be clear, shares this opinion, is that we should not have perma-bans.”

    Kari Lake Responds to Democrat Opponent’s Baseless Criminal Accusation

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    6
    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]

    Don’t mess with Kari Lake.

    The TV reporter turned Republican Arizona gubernatorial nominee wasted no time in hitting back at her Democrat opponent Katie Hobbs’ baseless claim she was connected to a break-in at the Democrat’s office.

    The Phoenix Police Department is currently investigating an early Tuesday break-in at Hobbs’ campaign office as a “commercial burglary.” However, despite authorities noting only a few items were taken Hobbs wasted no time before pointing fingers at Lake.

    However, on Thursday authorities confirmed a suspect has been arrested in connection with the burglary.

    According to The Daily Caller, Phoenix police Sgt. Brian Bower didn’t identify what items were stolen from the campaign office.

    “Unfortunately, Katie and so many other elected officials are victims of threats and intimidation tactics like this. Make no mistake — this is a direct result of Kari Lake and fringe Republicans spreading lies and hate and inciting violence — and it is despicable.” The Arizona Democrat Party said while retweeting a message from Hobbs’ official Twitter.

    In photos of the break-in shared by Hobbs’ campaign, the suspect can’t be seen wearing anything distinguishing that points to any political affiliation, let alone a link to Republicans.

    During a Wednesday appearance with CNN, Lake called the accusations from Hobbs’s campaign “despicable” and hit at media for willingly amplifying her baseless lies.

    “That is absolutely absurd. It sounds like a Jussie Smollett part two. You’re going to drag the people through something like this?” Lake said. “You’re letting a woman who has been running a terrible campaign direct you to a story like this? You know she is running a bad campaign.”

    “I can’t believe she would blame my amazing people, blame me for something like that,” Lake said. ‘I don’t even know where her campaign office is. I’m assuming it’s in a basement somewhere, because that’s where she’s been campaigning. You guys are despicable for falling into that trap.”

    “I’m saddened that Hobbs and her camp would try to pin this on us. It’s defamatory and it’s wrong. Her own party is attacking her. She is trying to deflect her abysmal campaign,” Lake added.

    Lake, a political newcomer, has exceeded experts’ expectations as she’s seen unprecedented success throughout her campaign. RealClearPolitics still regards the race as a “toss up” but recent polls show Lake with a distinct edge over her opponent. A Daily Wire/ Trafalgar poll showed Lake with a three-point edge over Hobbs while a Fox 10/ InsiderAdvantage poll reported Lake up 11 points.

    In the Arizona Senate race, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report(CPR) reported it is shifting its rating of the race from “lean Democrat” to “toss up” less than two weeks ahead of Election Day.

    CPR noted the new shift because recent private polling has shown the race between Sen. Mark Kelley (D) and Republican Blake Masters tightening up despite the fact that Democrats are outspending Republicans in the state by a 2-to-1 margin.

    Mark Meadows Ordered to Testify in Georgia

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Office of Congressman Mark Meadows, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    On Wednesday, a Georgia circuit judge ordered former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to testify in an ongoing election investigation.

    Circuit Judge Edward Miller ruled that Meadows must cooperate in the probe by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who’s investigating former President Donald Trump and his associates for possible criminal interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, according to The Hill.

    Willis is looking into possible 2020 election interference in Georgia, which was initiated after a January 2021 conversation came to light of Trump urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to “find” more than 11,000 votes.

    “I am going to find that the witness is material and necessary to the investigation and that the state of Georgia is assuring not to cause undue hardship to him,” Miller ruled

    Willis subpoenaed Meadows in August, noting that he had been a part of a meeting in December 2020 with Trump and others “to discuss allegations of voter fraud and the certification of the electoral college votes from Georgia and other states.”

    She also noted Meadows’ attempt to observe an audit of election results in the state and also stated that the former Trump official was involved in the infamous call with Raffensberger. 

    Report: Biden’s Chief of Staff Notified of Hatch Act Violation

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5
    President Joe Biden walks with Chief of Staff Ron Klain along the Colonnade of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, to the White House Situation Room. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

    President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain was notified he violated the Hatch Act in May but the Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

    According to The Daily Wire, the OSC responded to the violation in a letter to America First Legal Foundation’s vice president and general counsel, Gene Hamilton, who filed the complaint in June.

    “Although OSC has concluded that Mr. Klain violated the Hatch Act, as explained below, we have decided not to pursue disciplinary action and instead issued him a warning letter,” Ana Galindo-Marrone, chief of the Hatch Act Unit at the OSC, wrote.

    “OSC confirmed that Mr. Klain retweeted a May 22, 2022 message from Strike PAC (@StrikePAC) from his official Twitter account (@WHCOS). The tweet read, ‘Operation Fly Formula delivers 70,000 pounds of infant formula for American mothers and their infants. Thank you @POTUS.’ The tweet also read, ‘Get your Democrats Deliver merch today!’ and included a link to Strike PAC’s online store and an image of the group’s ‘Democrats Deliver’ t-shirt,” she wrote.

    Strike PAC is a partisan political group that supports the Democratic Party. In the letter, Galindo-Marrone also noted that Klain promptly removed the tweet from his account after being notified of the violation.

    “Although OSC has concluded that Mr. Klain violated the Hatch Act, we understand that he promptly removed the retweet upon being notified of this complaint,” the letter read.

    “Accordingly, we have decided not to pursue disciplinary action and will close this matter. Mr. Klain has been warned that if in the future he engages in activity prohibited by the Hatch Act while employed in a covered position, OSC would consider such activity to be a willful and knowing violation of the law that could result in disciplinary action,” the letter concluded.

    “Using your White House Twitter account to advocate for a PAC is ILLEGAL,” said Hamilton in response to the OSC’s decision while also noting Klain previously criticized President Trump’s administration in 2018 over alleged Hatch Act violations.

     “Using your WH title in a press release advocating the President’s reelection is ILLEGAL,” Kalin tweeted at the time, suggesting he is versed in the Hatch Act.

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