Politics

Home Politics

Trump’s Attorney Confirms Trump Ballot Concerns

3
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America,

Trump will never let them see him sweat…

Former President Trump’s attorney Alina Habba confirmed his concerns the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold Colorado and Maine’s decisions to boot Trump from the primary ballot.

Responding to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s recent comments about Trump’s concerns, Habba during an interview on Fox News said, “That’s a concern he’s voiced to me, he’s voiced to everybody publicly, not privately. And I can tell you that his concern is a valid one.”

“You know, Republicans are conservative, they get nervous. They unfortunately … sometimes shy away from being pro-Trump because they feel that even if the law is on our side, they are swayed much like the Democratic side, right?” Habba told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum. “So they’re trying so hard to look neutral that sometimes, they make the wrong call.”

Last month, Colorado and Maine sparked swift backlash after ruling Trump is ineligible to be on the primary ballot under the 14th Amendment.

Trump on Wednesday appealed Colorado’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, one day after he appealed Maine’s decision.

Three of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court were appointed by Trump, a point of concern Haberman addressed last week.

“They believe, generally speaking, he and his advisers, that they will have success at the Supreme Court, but he has also voiced some concern that a court that has — he appointed three of the justices at the Supreme Court and gave the conservatives a supermajority — he is concerned that they are going to look as if they’re trying not to rule in his favor and might rule against him,” Haberman said during a CNN appearance last week.

However, both Trump and his legal team have reportedly privately voiced concerns the justices may “shy away from being pro-Trump.”

Habba on Wednesday said she encourages the justices to “really look at the law in the Constitution.”

“It’s a very clean cut,” she said. “There’s no … politics that should be involved in this. It’s just simply American, and if the justices read the law, as I do, as most Americans and attorneys do, even [Alan Dershowitz] — who’s a known liberal — it’s just a simple decision, and it should have nothing to do with if you’re Republican or Democrat.”

Dershowitz last month called Colorado’s decision “an attempt to totally manipulate an amendment that was never designed to disqualify people in a future election,” Forbes reported.

Progressive Democrat Announces Challenge to High-Profile Arizona Senator

0
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America

Democrats are turning up the heat in Arizona.

On Friday, new reports indicated Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is set to officially launch his Senate campaign to unseat Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) in 2024.

According to Newsweek, Gallego is preparing to release a video announcing his campaign. The video was shot in the congressman’s home district and will be released in English and Spanish on Monday.

Gallego, the chair of BOLD PAC, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, plans to make the announcement via a video in English and Spanish that was shot in his home district, which includes parts of Phoenix, according to three sources briefed by the campaign.

The progressive lawmaker and outspoken critic of Sinema has hinted at launching the Senate bid for some time. According to Fox News, Gallego told reporters last month that he was being encouraged by “some senators” to announce his Senate campaign.

“There have been some senators that have encouraged me to run,” Gallego said. “There are some senators, some of Sen. Sinema’s colleagues, that are encouraging me to run.” 

Gallego did not identify which of Sinema’s colleagues are telling him to run, but predicted they would “absolutely” support him in a Senate race next year.

Last year, Sinema stunned everyone when she announced her detraction from the Democrat Party and switched to Independent. (RELATED: Kyrsten Sinema Leaves Democratic Party)

“Americans are told that we have only two choices – Democrat or Republican – and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes,” Sinema wrote in the op-ed announcing her decision.

“Most Arizonans believe this is a false choice, and when I ran for the U.S. House and the Senate, I promised Arizonans something different,” she continued. “I pledged to be independent and work with anyone to achieve lasting results. I committed I would not demonize people I disagreed with, engage in name-calling, or get distracted by political

GOP Presidential Candidate Drops Out, Makes Key Endorsement

2
Larry Elder ,Sgt. Jacob Harrer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Conservative talk show host Larry Elder has suspended his presidential campaign and is throwing his support behind former President Donald Trump.

In a statement Thursday evening, Elder expressed gratitude for his supporters and said he was honored by their enthusiasm and grassroots support. He further explained that after assessing his campaign and the state of the race, he had made the “difficult decision” to suspend his campaign.

“Throughout my campaign, I have been steadfast in my belief that the biggest issues facing our nation are the crisis of fatherlessness, the dangerous lie that America is systemically racist, the need for an amendment to the constitution to set federal spending to a fixed percentage of the GDP — otherwise government gets bigger whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge, and the need to remove the Soros-backed DAs across the country who refuse to enforce the law,” he said in a statement.

“The breakdown of the family structure and the absence of positive father figures in the lives of many children have far-reaching consequences for our society, including the crime wave we are currently seeing in America today,” he continued. “I hope that my campaign has helped shine a light on these critical issues and sparked important conversations about how we can solve them.”

In August, Elder made waves after he threatened to sue the Republican National Committee (RNC) for not including him in the first GOP debate. While the RNC determined Elder had failed to meet the required threshold for number of individual donors and polling, he accused them of purposely silencing him.

“I said from the beginning that it appeared the rules of the game were rigged, little did we know just how rigged it is. For some reason, the establishment leaders at the RNC are afraid of having my voice on the debate stage,” he said in an X post at the time.

In his Thursday statement, Elder encourages Republicans to support Trump for president.

“Now that I am exiting the race, I am proud to announce my endorsement of Donald Trump for President of the United States. His leadership has been instrumental in advancing conservative, America-first principles and policies that have benefited our great nation,” Elder said. “We must unite behind Donald Trump to beat Joe Biden and fight back against Biden’s unprecedented election interference and the left’s destruction of America.

“I want to thank my supporters, volunteers, and donors who invested their time, energy, and resources in this campaign. From Iowa to New Hampshire to Nevada and beyond, I am grateful for the opportunity to have met so many incredible Americans who share our values.”

Report: Appeals Court Upholds Jan. 6 Trespassing Misdemeanor

Elvert Barnes, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court upheld a Jan. 6 rioter’s misdemeanor trespassing conviction in connection with the 2021 Capitol riot.

Couy Griffin, a founder of “Cowboys for Trump” and former New Mexico county commissioner, challenged his 2022 conviction for entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

The law bars “knowingly” entering a restricted zone, described as areas “posted, cordoned off or otherwise restricted,” and later defines “otherwise restricted” as an area where Secret Service protectees will be visiting.

According to The Hill, Griffin claimed that he could not have “knowingly entered” the restricted zone without knowing the reason for the restriction was to safeguard a person under the Secret Service’s protection — on Jan. 6, then-Vice President Pence during his time at the Capitol.

A District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed 2-1 that breaching a restricted area alone suffices as a violation of the law, even without knowing why the restriction is in place.

“A contrary interpretation would impair the Secret Service’s ability to protect its charges,” Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote in the majority opinion. “It would require Secret Service agents preventing members of the public from encroaching on a temporary security zone to confirm that each intruder knows that a person under Secret Service protection is or is expected to be there. Neither the text nor the context of the statute supports that reading.”

Griffin also argued that many of the rioters ahead of him trampled fencing and signage that would have designated restricted areas, but the panel held that Capitol grounds were “adequately ‘posted, cordoned off or otherwise restricted’ when Griffin clambered over a stone wall and jumped inside.’”

Judge Gregory Katsas wrote in a dissenting opinion that both elements of the law — knowledge of an area being restricted and the reason why — must be satisfied to successfully convict for entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

“My colleagues try to split the difference,” Katsas wrote. “They agree the defendant must know that the relevant area satisfies the first part of the statutory definition — i.e., that the area was ‘posted, cordoned off, or otherwise restricted’ at the time of the trespass. But there is no textual or contextual basis for projecting the knowledge requirement only halfway through the definition.”

A decision in favor of Griffin could have upended the cases against hundreds of fellow rioters facing the same charge.

More than 1,400 Jan. 6 rioters faced the count as a misdemeanor.

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

Newsmax Host Delivers Blunt Assessment To Former VP Contender

2

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is in hot water over her recent book and it could cause a major dent in her career.

Noem’s new memoir No Going Back has sparked several controversies over its content, including an anecdote about Noem killing her 14-month-old dog and a story about the governor meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un which the Republican has yet to corroborate.

Interrogating Noem over the book on Newsmax’s Wake Up America, Rob Finnerty assessed that Donald Trump likely won’t invite the Republican to be his running mate due to the recent scandal.

Finnerty then said, “Governor, if you asked me a month ago who’s at the top of the list to run with Donald Trump, I would have said your name. If you asked me that same question this morning, I don’t even think you’re on the list.”

The host went on to say that the content within Noem’s book, specifically her allegedly fabricated meeting with Kim Jong-un, is likely what spoiled her chances of becoming Trump’s running mate.

“I should not have put that anecdote in the book,” conceded Noem, to which Finnerty shot back, “But an anecdote indicates that it happened, right?”

“I’m not going to talk about my conversations with world leaders,” Noem bluntly declared – a statement she has made repeatedly when pressed about the alleged meeting with Kim Jong-un.

Finnerty snapped, “Governor, I’m not asking you about the details of this alleged meeting. I’m asking if the meeting actually happened. I don’t think it did and I think if it did, you’d be able to confirm for me that, ‘Yes, it did, and here’s when it happened.’ It happened, say, at such and such a date or a month or you don’t have to be specific.”

After Noem refused yet again to say whether the alleged meeting actually took place, Finnerty continued, “Again, I think at one point you were at the top of that list, but you’re going to get questions a lot more difficult than that.”

Despite endorsing Noem’s book, Trump allegedly told several people he was “disgusted” by the governor’s anecdote about killing her 14-month-old dog Cricket in a gravel pit.

According to unnamed sources, Trump was baffled by Noem’s confession that she shot her dog after it proved “less than worthless” as a hunting dog and questioned, “Why would she do that?” and “What is wrong with her?”

Democrat Governor Sparks Backlash After Labeling Trump Voters ‘Un-American’ and ‘Anti-Women’

9
Governor Kathy Hochul and MTA Chair & CEO Janno Lieber make a subway safety announcement at the NYCT Rail Control Center (RCC) on Wednesday, Mar 6, 2024. (Marc A. Hermann / MTA)

Gov. Kathy Hochul called New Yorkers who vote for Republican House candidates “anti-American” and “anti-women” over the weekend, triggering immediate rage from people across both sides of the political aisle.

“If you’re voting for these Republicans in New York, you are voting for someone who supports Donald Trump and you’re anti-women, you’re anti-abortion, and basically, you’re anti-American,” Hochul said on MSNBC.

Watch:

“You just trashed American values and what our country is all about — over and over.”

Republicans immediately blasted the governor over her latest insults and even Democrat strategists said demonizing a large segment of voters as anti-American was not helpful to their candidates. 

The New York Post has more:

“This is about as helpful as a severe migraine. It’s never a good thing to identify a large segment of voters as un-American,” said New York ex-Democratic Rep. Max Rose, who is aiding Democrats in House races.

“Kathy Hochul doesn’t represent a majority of Democrats — anywhere,” said Rose, who served one-term representing Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn.

State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox fumed, “She’s smearing at least one half of American voters and all Trump voters.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-Hudson Valley) told The Post, “Governor Hochul has once again disgraced herself and the state of New York by calling supporters of some of the most bipartisan members of Congress ‘anti-American.’

“It’s shameful and wrong and shows exactly how much of a partisan hack Kathy Hochul really is. She must be voted out in November of 2026, but only after Republicans hold the House thanks to our New York GOP delegation.”

Republicans said the statement is so offensive and outrageous that it appears as if Hochul is angling for a future job in a Kamala Harris Administration because it is sure to hurt a re-election bid in 2026.

A Siena College poll released last month showed that only 36% of New Yorkers gave Hochul a favorable rating, while 51% viewed her unfavorably.

This Democrat Governor is Planning to Run for President in 2024 Under One Condition

11
Casa Rosada (Argentina Presidency of the Nation), CC BY 2.5 AR via Wikimedia Commons

Democrats are chomping at the bit to announce their campaign for president but there seems to be one obstacle, President Joe Biden.

Biden, who is currently the oldest president in history, will be 81 years old when the next election occurs and some Democrats say he isn’t the best candidate to lead the country or stand a chance of defeating Trump who has all-but-confirmed his own 2024 plans. (RELATED: New Report Indicates Trump Will Postpone 2024 Campaign Announcement)

One Democrat desperately vying for the presidency is none other than California Governor Gavin Newsom. According to sources close to the politician, Newsom is “absolutely” planning to run for president in 2024 if Biden opts out.

According to The Washington Examiner:

“After this midterm election is over, he absolutely is going to announce that he is running for the presidency once Biden announces that he is not running,” a top California fundraiser close to the Newsom family told the Wrap. “No ifs, ands or buts. He will run if Biden does not.”

Governor Newsom’s political ambitions have been the subject of scrutiny over the past few months as he has sought to distinguish himself early on as a presidential contender by meeting with prominent donors, sparring with Republican lawmakers, and calling out his party’s inaction on hot-button issues like abortion and climate change.

One of the Wrap’s sources, a Los Angeles philanthropist who backed Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid in 2020 and supported her during her time as district attorney in San Francisco, said some in the party have questioned whether she will be the automatic forerunner if Biden chooses to step aside.

“There’s going to be a ton of people coming out against Kamala if Biden doesn’t run,” the source said.

President Biden recently called his own 2024 campaign into question during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” when he declined to say if he absolutely planned to run for a second term.

“In terms of election laws,” Biden said, “it’s much too early to make that kind of decision.”

“Look, my intention, as I said to begin with, is that I would run again,” Biden responded to CBS anchor Scott Pelley. “But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen.”

Report: Trump Legal Team Files To Dismiss Special Counsel’s Election Interference Case

2
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Lawyers for former President Trump filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss charges related to the 2020 election brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

In their legal filing, the Trump team claims Smith was unlawfully appointed.

Fox News reports:

“President Donald J. Trump respectfully requests leave to file this proposed motion to dismiss the Superseding Indictment and for injunctive relief—which is timely and, alternatively, supported by good cause—based on violations of the Constitution’s Appointments and Appropriations Clauses,” the filing states. 

The Appointments Clause says, “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.” Smith, however, was never confirmed by the Senate.

“The proposed motion establishes that this unjust case was dead on arrival— unconstitutional even before its inception,” the Trump filing states.

Trump lawyers argued that in November 2022, Attorney General Merick Garland “violated the Appointments Clause by naming private-citizen Smith to target President Trump, while President Trump was campaigning to take back the Oval Office from the Attorney General’s boss, without a statutory basis for doing so.” 

Trump attorneys argue that Smith “was not appointed ‘by Law,'” and argue that he “has operated with a blank check by relying on an inapplicable permanent indefinite appropriation that was enacted in connection with a reauthorization of the Independent Counsel Act in 1987.” 

“Smith was not appointed pursuant to that Act, which expired in 1999. The appropriation contemplates the possibility of appointment by some ‘other law,’ but no ‘other law’ authorized Smith’s appointment,” the attorneys continue. “The appropriation also requires that the prosecutor be “independent,” in the very particular, rigorous sense that attorneys appointed pursuant to the defunct Independent Counsel Act were meant to be independent.” 

They added: “That is not true of Smith’s appointment, either.” 

“For these reasons, Smith should have never been permitted to access these huge sums of money, and his use of this funding violated the Appropriations Clause,” the filing states. “Based on these violations of the Appointments and Appropriations Clauses, the Superseding Indictment should be dismissed with prejudice. In addition, an injunction against additional spending by Smith is necessary to prevent ongoing irreparable harm and to ensure complete relief for the Appropriations Clause violation.” 

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

Smith has until Halloween, Oct. 31, to file his response.

Republican Governor Admits He Did Not Vote For Trump In Primary

1
Georgia National Guard from United States, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

An unexpected response…

Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp recently disclosed he did not vote for Donald Trump in the state’s primary.

Kemp in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins on Wednesday, said he didn’t vote for anyone in the state’s primary because the GOP’s presidential race had already been decided.

“I voted, but I didn’t vote for anybody. I mean, the race was already over when the primary got here,” Kemp told Collins. “Well, it would be, for me, personally, politically, I mean it would be interesting if I had’ve voted for him, it would be interesting if I didn’t, it would be interesting if I didn’t vote at all.” 

Watch:

During his interview with Collins, Kemp said Trump should not focus on the 2020 or 2022 election during the debate. 

“I think that hurts him with swing voters. I mean from what I’m hearing from people, they are not focused on what happened in 2020 or 2022,” he said. 

Kemp and Trump have had a rocky relationship since Trump’s last year in office. In 2018, Kemp won the governor’s mansion partly because of a Trump endorsement. 

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, where Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by 12,000 votes, Kemp pointedly pushed back against Trump’s election fraud claims, leading Trump to call him a “clown” and a “fool.” 

Kemp endorsed Trump in March in a short statement, saying, “I think he’d be better than Joe Biden. It’s as simple as that.”

House Overwhelmingly Votes To Sink Trump Impeachment Effort

5
Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to quash an effort by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) to impeach President Trump over the U.S. strikes on Iran.

The chamber voted 344-79 to table Green’s resolution, which charges Trump with abuse of power. One hundred-twenty eight Democrats voted with Republicans to table the measure.

Green has sought for months to trigger a vote on impeaching Trump, slamming his handling of foreign and domestic policy issues.

The congressman on Tuesday reupped that effort, filing a resolution accusing Trump of failing to seek authorization from Congress before striking three sites in Iran over the weekend, which Democrats have taken issue with.

“In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, abused the powers of the presidency when he disregarded the doctrine of separation of powers by usurping Congress’s power to declare war and ordered the United States military to bomb another country without the constitutionally mandated congressional authorization or notice to Congress — cognizant of the fact that should another country’s military bomb a facility within the United States of America, it would be a de facto declaration of war against the United States of America,” the impeachment resolution reads.

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