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Santos Begs Trump For ‘Pardon, Commutation, Clemency, Whatever’

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A desperate plea…

Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who faces more than seven years behind bars after pleading guilty to wire fraud and identity theft, is seeking clemency from President Trump.

“I’ll take a commutation, clemency, whatever the president is willing to give me,” Santos told British media personality Piers Morgan in an episode of Morgan’s YouTube show â€œUncensored” on Thursday.

“Seven years and three months in prison for a first-time offender over campaign matters just screams ‘over the top,’ and I would appreciate if the president would consider,” he added.

The disgraced former lawmaker also noted he is filling out paperwork to formally seek intervention from the White House before he reports to prison in July.

By U.S. House Office of Photography – https://santos.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/santos.house.gov/files/evo-media-image/rep_santos_george_official.jpg, Public Domain,

In his interview with Morgan, Santos blasted former Biden administration Attorney General Merrick Garland, whom Trump and other conservative allies have criticized and accused of weaponizing the Department of Justice against the president and his allies.

“I do believe this is an unfair judgment handed down to me,” he said Thursday. “I think there was a lot of politicization over the process.”

“Merrick Garland was by far the most disgraceful and disgraced political [attorney general] to ever serve in that capacity of the United States,” Santos said.

Santos was elected to represent New York’s affluent Long Island-centered 3rd District in 2022, becoming the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a nonincumbent before his fall from grace. The House expelled Santos from the chamber in a 311–114 vote in 2023, as ethics charges mounted against him.

Manhattan District Attorney Opposes Push To Dismiss Trump Conviction

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Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday said they will oppose President-elect Trump’s demand to dismiss his criminal hush money.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) in the new letter said he won’t resist adjourning Trump’s sentencing next week so the judge can receive further briefing on the issue. 

“No current law establishes that a president’s temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a post-trial criminal proceeding that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution and that is based on unofficial conduct for which the defendant is also not immune,” Bragg wrote.  

“Rather, existing law suggests that the Court must balance competing constitutional interests and proceed ‘in a manner that preserves both the independence of the Executive and the integrity of the criminal justice system,’” he said. 

Bragg signed the filing himself – a departure from the office’s typical practice. 

Trump’s team celebrated the development.

“This is a total and definitive victory for President Trump and the American People who elected him in a landslide. The Manhattan DA has conceded that this Witch Hunt cannot continue,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign spokesperson and incoming White House communications director, said in a statement. 

Judge Juan Merchan, who oversees the case, must decide whether to push back the Nov. 26 sentencing, toss Trump’s conviction altogether or move forward despite his election victory.   

Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to conceal an alleged affair, which he denies, ahead of the 2016 presidential election. 

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

VP Vance Issues ‘Official’ Two Word Response To Racist Attacks On Wife

By Xuthoria - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

Vice President Vance has had enough…

Vice President JD Vance had two choice words for racist troll Nick Fuentes and others like MS NOW host Jen Psaki, who have made comments about the second lady: “Eat s–t.”

“Let me be clear. Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat s–t,” Vance told UnHerd in an interview published Sunday.

“That’s my official policy as vice president of the United States.”

He then told writer Sohrab Ahmari that “all forms of ethnic hatred” including antisemitism have “no place in the conservative movement.”

Vance’s response comes after Fuentes bashed him for being a “race traitor” for marrying his wife; Usha Vance is an American citizen born in San Diego to two Hindu Indian immigrants. Fuentes has also used derogatory terms about Indians to describe The Second Lady.

Fuentes has made a number of racist and antisemitic comments over the years, and he told Piers Morgan earlier this month that he believed Adolf Hitler was “really f*cking cool.” 

The vice president’s comments were published a few hours after he told the crowd at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest that President Donald Trump had wisely “relegated DEI to the dustbin of history.” 

Vance said DEI is antithetical to American values and a meritocratic society — which made it an easy target for the second Trump Administration.

“We don’t treat anybody different because of their race or their sex,” Vance told the Phoenix crowd.

Vance continued his message about unity:

In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.

And if you’re an Asian, you don’t have to talk around your skin color when you’re applying for college. Because we judge people based on who they are, not on ethnicity and things they can’t control.

We don’t persecute you for being male, for being straight, for being gay, for being anything. The only thing that we demand is that you be a great American patriot. And if you’re that. you’re very much on our team.

Watch:

Those comments were also well-received by the arena. His remark on white men comes a few days after a viral Compact article reported a number of professional fields had “gatekeepers [who] promised extra consideration to anyone who wasn’t a white man.”

Vice President Vance touted a number of accomplishments he said the Trump Administration has had in less than a year, including closing down the southern border. He said the crowd must continue to support the “America First Party” — echoing Donald Trump Jr., who earlier in the day said the Republican Party was no longer a thing.

Trump Jr. said it is a new era for the conservative movement — one that is constantly under attack from the Democratic Party and Republicans In Name Only (RINOs). He said those attacks are ramping up as both parties plow towards the 2026 midterm elections.

Here is what the told the AmFest crowd:

Midterms are coming around the corner and make no mistake, the Democrat Party wants to do whatever they possibly can to shut this movement down. Not just the Democrats. The RINOs.

You see the manufactured attacks on JD [Vance], myself, my father — anyone who understands that this isn’t the Republican Party anymore. It’s the America First Party. It’s the Make America Great Again Party. And we are not going back!

Watch:

Conservative Pundit Candace Owens Says She’s Embarrassed She Supported Trump

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Image via Gage Skidmore Flickr

The MAGA base is split over President Trump’s recent foreign policy moves…

Popular conservative pundit Candace Owens said she’s “embarrassed” she supported Donald Trump in the 2024 election following his decision to bomb multiple nuclear facilities in Iran.

“This is not the candidate that I voted for,” Owens told Morgan in a wide-ranging interview on his YouTube show Piers Morgan Uncensored.

Owens has long been a supporter of the president and was among the many prominent media supporters that urged Trump to stay out of the conflict. This faction of the MAGA movement noted that Trump campaigned on extracting the United States from foreign conflicts, and clashed with pro-war supporters of the president like Laura Loomer, who recently dubbed Owens, “Tehran Candy.”

“It’s all of the same rhetoric dating back to 9/11. All of the same tactic trying to smear people who are against this war as ‘jihadists,’” Owens told Morgan, arguing that conflict between Israel and Iran was “simply not our business.”

“There was no imminent threat to the United States when Trump made this decision to do what Bibi wanted,” Owens said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This was not Trump’s decision it was Bibi Netanyahu’s decision. And that is the reason that he did it. We’re very aware that Israel is dictating our foreign policy, and we’d now like that to stop.”

Owens, who first voiced opposition to the United States’ potential bombing last week, said she now sees her support of Trump in a different light.

“He’s been a chronic disappointment,” said Owens. “And I feel embarrassed that I told people to go vote for him because this wasn’t going to happen and it is happening.”

Owens said there was “no imminent threat” to the United States while slamming Trump’s Sunday strikes. However, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and others have alleged that Iran was nowhere near obtaining nuclear weapon capability, which the president adamantly denied.

“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday.

Watch:

Other well-known voices within the MAGA base have also criticized the President’s recent move against Iran.

Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) engaged in an explosive argument with Fox News host Mark Levin online which eventually spilled over to another interview on One America News.

Speaking to OAN’s The Matt Gaetz Show, Greene stepped up the MAGA civil war by laying into Levin and questioning his support for President Donald Trump.

The two conservatives have clashed over Levin’s support Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear sites, while Greene has opposed it. She told CNN on Monday: “I got elected on the exact same campaign promises that President Trump got elected on. We promised: no more foreign wars, no more regime change.”

Earlier in the day, she wrote in a lengthy post on X that Trump’s decision to authorize US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend “feels like a complete bait and switch” on the MAGA agenda.

Tulsi Gabbard Gives Update On Trump Debate Prep

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Tulsi Gabbard via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Former President Trump’s debate prep is going “great,” former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard informed Fox News.

“He knows the issues. He is very honed in on her [Kamala Harris’] record in reminding voters… ‘what have you done for the last three and a half years?’ You can paint this rosy picture about what you’re going to do, but we’re paying attention to what you’ve already done and how her policies have destroyed our economy, made us less safe, both here at home and abroad,” she told “FOX & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade.

The former president recruited Gabbard to help sharpen his skills ahead of the highly-anticipated Sept. 10 debate, where he is slated to face off against Vice President Kamala Harris at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia. 

Gabbard infamously tore into Harris during a 2019 Democratic primary debate for jailing hundreds of Californians for marijuana violations despite smoking the drug herself.

“She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” she said during the viral exchange.

Mitch McConnell Will Not Seek Senate Re-election

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A stunning development…

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday will announce that he is not seeking reelection in 2026, bringing an end to the longest-serving Senate leader’s political career.

“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell will say, according to prepared remarks.

“Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”

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

Trump Reacts To Surprise Biden Pardon

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Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

President Biden’s sudden decision to pardon his troubled son Hunter has sent shockwaves across the nation.

Following the shocking news on Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump reacted to Biden’s surprising decision.

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump wrote. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”

The Trump transition team also reacted to the shocking news.

“The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,” Trump’s incoming White House communications chief Steven Cheung said in a statement to Fox News.

“That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people.”

On Sunday, Biden accused Republicans of unfair treatment and claimed Hunter was “treated differently” by prosecutors in a lengthy statement announcing the pardon. Hunter Biden was convicted of three felony firearm offenses in a Delaware trial earlier this year, and then pleaded guilty to multiple felony tax offenses in September. 

“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” the president’s statement read.

Biden had previously denied any intent to pardon his son after Hunter was convicted earlier this year.

“I am not going to do anything,” Biden said after the conviction. “I will abide by the jury’s decision.”

Trump previously told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin that, if elected, he “wouldn’t do anything that would be overt” regarding Hunter Biden’s cases, calling the first son’s legal woes “a sad situation.”

While Trump supporters’ negative reaction to the news was to be expected a number of Biden supporters have also attacked the decision and noted that the President likely traded his own legacy to protect his family’s reputation.

MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes quoted a “smart person” that texted him, agreeing that Trump probably can’t “believe his own dumb fucking luck at this point.”

The Atlantic’s deputy executive editor Yoni Applebaum quoted an article by his publication’s newest addition, Jonathan Chait, who said Biden “chose to prioritize his own feelings over the defense of his country.”

Trump Responds To Biden’s ‘Garbage’ Comments

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Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Donald Trump had a surprising reaction to Biden’s shocking “garbage” comments on Tuesday.

The Republican nominee called on his supporters to forgive him during a packed rally at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

“Please forgive him for not knowing what he said,” Trump said. “These people are terrible, terrible, terrible to say a thing like that. But he really doesn’t know. He really honestly, he doesn’t. And I’m convinced that he likes me more than he likes Kamala. But that’s a terrible thing.”

Watch:

Trump’s call for unity – and forgiveness – came after the president called Trump supporters’ garbage during a get-out-the-vote call for Voto Latino.

In remarks from the White House, Biden had said earlier to Latino voters:

And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Well, let me tell you something. I don’t– I– I don’t know the Puerto Rican that– that I know– or a Puerto Rico, where I’m from– in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people.

The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters– his– his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.

Biden’s comments came after Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich that President Biden “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as ‘garbage.’”

“The president was referencing a joke by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he likened Puerto Rico to an island of floating “garbage” in the middle of the ocean,” Bates said.

Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity Tuesday that Hinchcliffe was not vetted by the campaign but that he saw the outcry as no “big deal.”

Hannity asked, “Do you wish [Hinchcliffe] wasn’t there?”

Trump responded, “Yeah, I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not, but I don’t want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes, and probably he shouldn’t have been there.”

Patriot Tulsi Gabbard Leaves Dems and Quickly Backs Republican Retired General

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Tulsi Gabbard via Gage Skidmore Flickr

ANALYSIS – Tulsi Gabbard, former Democrat congresswoman, Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee DNC and Democrat candidate for president has publicly left the Democrat Party.

And without skipping a beat, she quickly backed Trump-endorsed Republican New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolduc, a retired Army general.  

Bolduc, beat the GOP establishment-supported state Sen. Chuck Morse in the Republican primary last month.

He had created controversy by questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election, but after winning the primary, he said on Fox News: “I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive on this, the election was not stolen.”

In her blistering statement announcing her leaving the Dems, the patriotic Army Reserve Major twice deployed to the Middle East, blasted the Democrats for their insane wokeness, calling them an ‘elitist cabal.’

She also implored other “independent-minded Democrats” to join her by leaving the Democrats.

As CNN reported:

“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party. It’s now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoking anti-white racism, who actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms enshrined in our Constitution,” Gabbard said in a video posted to social media. The announcement was made on the first episode of her new podcast, “The Tulsi Gabbard Show.”

Gabbard, who made history by becoming the first American Samoan and practicing Hindu in Congress following her election in 2012, also criticized what she said were Democrats’ “open border” policies and anti-police rhetoric.

Gabbard endorsed Joe Biden after suspending her presidential campaign in 2020, but she has since been a vocal critic of the befuddled President.

“President Biden campaigned on a message of unity, healing the partisan divide bringing the country together. He just gave a big speech saying supporters of President (Donald) Trump are the most extremist group in our country and a threat to our democracy. That’s half the country,” she said in her Tuesday video.

During the 2020 campaign, Hillary Clinton suggested that Gabbard was being groomed as a potential third-party candidate without naming Gabbard, while also suggesting she was a “Russian asset.” 

Appearing increasingly on Fox News, Gabbard even spoke to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February.

While Gabbard has not said whether she will join the Republican Party, register as an independent or launch a new party, her strong support for Bolduc says a lot about her trajectory and hints to a possible future political role.

The Blaze reports:

The Bolduc campaign announced Wednesday that Gabbard will join the GOP candidate and “barnstorm the Granite State,” with a schedule of events forthcoming.

“We don’t agree on every issue, but I am honored to have the support of Tulsi Gabbard who shares my view that the status quo is broken, and we need a change of direction,” Bolduc said in a statement.

“Tulsi is a fellow change agent and independent-minded outsider willing to speak truth to power. I am going to spend every day between now and election day building a wide coalition of supporters that includes Republicans, independents and even disaffected Democrats…”

A recent Trafalgar Group survey found incumbent Democrat Senator Maggie Hassan leading Bolduc by a tiny margin of 48% to Bolduc’s 45%, showing that the race remains tight and Hassan vulnerable.

It is hoped that Gabbard’s independence, star quality and strong support can help propel Gen. Bolduc over the finish lion to victory. Let’s pray that it does.

Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

Trump-backed Paxton Privately Says GOP Convention Hurt Republican Candidates

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Political representation of parties making money

President Donald Trump’s Dallas convention was supposed to give Republicans a boost before November. Behind closed doors, one of his most prominent Senate candidates reportedly offered a far less encouraging assessment.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate, told conservative donors and lobbyists that the gathering had hurt his campaign’s numbers, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times.

“So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good,” Paxton said, according to the newspaper.

The remarks put Paxton’s private assessment at odds with Trump’s public claim that the convention helped him. They also come as Republicans pour money into a surprisingly competitive fight to hold a Texas Senate seat.

Private remarks draw a campaign rebuttal

The Times reported that the recording came from a private Washington fundraiser on Sept. 24 attended by roughly a dozen people. An attendee who opposes Paxton’s campaign provided the audio and received anonymity because the remarks were private.

In the recording, a questioner asks, “Do you feel like he’s a little bit of a drag?”

The newspaper cautioned that the audio is muffled at times and does not clearly establish whom the questioner meant. Paxton’s response, however, specifically addressed the convention and what he described as declining numbers.

Three other people with knowledge of the event confirmed Paxton attended, according to the Times. Two remembered the question, and one recalled his response about the convention’s negative consequences.

Paxton’s campaign sharply disputed the report.

Nick Maddux, a senior adviser, called it “more manipulated nonsense from The New York Times to create a story that doesn’t exist.”

“Our latest poll from the last week has Ken Paxton leading by three points, and every serious pollster will tell you that our numbers have improved since early September,” Maddux told the newspaper.

He added that Paxton expects to win and looks forward to “closing strong alongside President Trump.”

Trump offered a different assessment

Paxton has closely aligned himself with Trump, whose support helped him defeat Sen. John Cornyn in this year’s Republican primary, the Times reported.

The Dallas convention gave Paxton a prominent platform in his home state and opportunities to connect with Republican donors. Trump praised him onstage, even while teasing his appearance.

Afterward, the president offered an assessment that directly contrasted with Paxton’s recorded remarks.

“The fact that we had such a successful convention really helped Ken Paxton,” Trump said, according to the Times. “He was a big part of it.”

“The convention helped Ken Paxton a lot,” he added.

Whether the gathering actually hurt Republican candidates remains unresolved. The Times reported that public surveys of the Texas Senate race did not appear to show a significant convention-related change.

A costly fight in Texas

The broader polling picture nevertheless shows why Republicans are concerned.

As of Sept. 30, RealClearPolling’s average put Democratic state Rep. James Talarico ahead of Paxton, 47.6% to 44.7%, a 2.9-point advantage. That differs from the campaign’s claim of a three-point lead in its own poll.