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    DeSantis Commits to First GOP Presidential Primary Debate

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1

    Florida Governor and presidential contender Ron DeSantis is refusing to stand in the shadow of Donald Trump.

    DeSantis plans to participate in the first Republican presidential nomination debate “regardless” of whether former President Donald Trump takes the stage at the August showdown. 

    “I’ll be there regardless. I hope everybody who’s eligible comes. I think it’s an important part of the process and I look forward to being able to be on the stage and introducing our candidacy and our vision and our leadership to a wide audience,” DeSantis said Thursday on “Fox News Tonight.”

    Trump, who’s the commanding front-runner in the latest GOP presidential primary polls, has indicated that he may skip the debate. However, Trump campaign officials say the former president has yet to make a final decision on his participation. Trump’s aides have also been looking into options for an alternative event should the former president skip the debate, according to Fox News.

    The debate is scheduled for August 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and will be hosted by Fox News.

    The Republican National Committee (RNC), which is organizing all the GOP presidential nominating debates, is requiring a high donor threshold as well as polling thresholds for candidates to make the stage. 

    The RNC is also mandating that candidates that meet the thresholds sign a loyalty pledge to back the eventual 2024 GOP nominee, in order to participate in the debate.

    The state of Florida is adding a similar loyalty requirement for candidates to be included on the state’s ballot, according to POLITICO.

    The new oath, which includes a promise to “endorse” the GOP nominee and requires a candidate to pledge not to run as an independent or third-party candidate, mirrors language adopted by the Republican National Committee for its first debate.

    “We were trying to be consistent with what the debate was requiring,” said Evan Power, vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida, who said that campaigns were notified about the changes. “I don’t think this will come as a surprise.”

    Poll Shows New Trump Advantage In New Hampshire

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    More good news for Trump…

    A new poll conducted by St. Anselm College in New Hampshire indicates Biden’s poor debate performance is resonating with voters.

    According to the poll, Trump now holds a two-point lead (44%-42%) over Biden. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is mounting an independent bid for the presidency after initially running in the Democratic primary, earned the support of just 4% of voters.

    Neil Levesque, the director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm, declared that the poll shows “that New Hampshire is really a competitive state in the presidential election.”

    “Events like a presidential debate like we saw last week are pivot points in politics, and at this point, with the amount of change we’ve seen with the presidential contest, certainly the debate had an effect,” he added.

    Among voters who were aware of the debate, 54% said Trump won, while just 6% said Biden won and 39% said there was no winner. The poll showed that 81% of those who watched the debate said it won’t affect their vote in November, so the trend might have started before the end of last week.

    “I think people are very partisan,” Levesque said. “So, they’re in their camps and they say, ‘Well, I watched the debate, but it doesn’t affect how I’m going to vote.’ But certainly, events like a presidential debate like we saw last week are pivot points in politics, and at this point, with the amount of change we’ve seen with the presidential contest, certainly the debate had an effect.”

    One America News Founder Donates $20,000 to DeSantis Campaign

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    8
    Ron DeSantis via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just received a hefty donation from none other than One America News Network owner Robert Herring.

    Herring reportedly donated $20,000 to a political action committee backing DeSantis’s gubernatorial re-election. However, the donation raises special concerns considering DeSantis has been named an early favorite to be the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, possibly teeing up a battle against Donald Trump.

    According to Mediaite, The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona initially reported the donation, citing “election filings shared with Confider by the liberal American Bridge 21st Century PAC,” that went to Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC this month.

    “The donation is especially notable considering OAN and Herring’s unyielding loyalty to [Donald] Trump and the many ways in which the former president has quietly stewed over the emergence of DeSantis as a wannabe heir to the MAGA throne,” noted The Daily Beast.

    However, Herring defended his donation to the Florida Governor.

    “It means that we support DeSantis as a vice President,” he told the Beast. “I believe that President Trump was the greatest President in My eighty years.”

    Trump repeatedly praised OANN’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election and frequently pressed supporters to switch from Fox News to the more conservative network. While OANN experienced record-high viewership throughout the 2020 election the network has struggled to maintain its presence on cable.

    CIA Sued Over Role In Hunter Biden Laptop Election Cover-Up

    By
    Donny Ferguson
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    3
    The New Headquarters Building (NHB) of the CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    A nonprofit legal watchdog has filed a federal lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency, seeking documents and records over an election-year government effort to cover up reporting seen as damaging to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

    In particular, the group seeks information on the agency’s role in a letter signed by 51 intelligence officials that falsely claimed the Russian government “planted” evidence of criminal activity on a laptop owned by Biden’s middle-aged son Hunter.

    Judicial Watch filed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the CIA for all “communications of the spy agency’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) regarding an October 19, 2020, email request to review and ‘clear’ a letter signed by 51 former intelligence community officials characterizing the Hunter Biden laptop story as having ‘all the earmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign,’” the group announced.

    “The Deep State CIA, it seems, engaged in election interference and a political operation against the American people to help Joe Biden and hurt Trump,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “And now the CIA is ignoring FOIA law to cover up its role in the scandal, censoring and suppressing the Hunter Biden/Joe Biden laptop story just before the presidential election.”

    In October 2020, the New York Post broke a bombshell story revealing that Hunter Biden’s laptop, which he abandoned at a Delaware computer shop, contained photographs of Hunter Biden engaged in drug use and using prostitutes, as well as emails describing what appear to be shady foreign business deals.

    Fearing the story could damage Biden’s presidential campaign, social media companies attempted to suppress the sharing of the Post’s reporting.

    The Biden campaign also reached out to intelligence officials, including the CIA and FBI, seeking their help in falsely discrediting the story.

    “In a May 10, 2023, report the House Judiciary Committee revealed that on October 19, 2020, three days before the second presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democrat candidate Joe Biden, then-Acting CIA Director Michael Morell sent the PCRB the finalized letter for review, calling it a ‘rush job,’ and quickly secured its approval,” Judicial Watch reports.

    Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit after the CIA failed to respond to a May 11, 2023, FOIA request for:

    Records and communications of the Prepublication Classification Review Board, Central Intelligence Agency, including emails, email chains, email attachments, text messages, cables, voice recordings, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, reports, presentations, notes, or other form of record, regarding an October 19, 2020, email request to review and “clear” a letter involving the Hunter Biden laptop story potentially having Russian involvement or being a Russian disinformation plot.

    An investigation by the House Judiciary Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence found that the CIA, or a CIA employee, may have helped the Biden campaign find signers for the false letter.

    One former CIA employee, David Cariens, reveals that while speaking with the PCRB in October 2020 to review materials for his memoir, a CIA employee “asked” him to sign the false letter.

    “When the person in charge of reviewing the book called to say it was approved with no changes, I was told about the draft letter,” said Cariens.

    “The person asked me if I would be willing to sign. . . . After hearing the letter’s contents, and the qualifiers in it such as, “We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement . . .’ I agreed to sign,” Cariens said.

    “If accurate, this information raises fundamental concerns about the role of the CIA in helping to falsely discredit allegations about the Biden family in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election,” Judicial Watch notes.

    Another former CIA officer, Marc Polymeropoulos, criticized the CIA’s involvement in his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in the following exchange:

    Q. Does what [Former CIA official David Cariens] described there, that interaction with the [Prepublication Classification Review Board], sound like a quid pro quo to you?

    A. I can’t comment on this. This is—to me, this is something that the [Prepublication Classification Review Board] in my experience would never engage in something like that. They are just straightforward back and forth in terms of approval. The idea they would have a comment on any other thing that they were working on, that to me is not even close to what I’ve experienced with them.

    Q. Does that concern you?

    A. If it’s true, it would concern me, for sure. But I just—I have a hard time believing that occurred. If it did, that’s incredibly unprofessional.

    The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Great America News Desk. It first appeared in American Liberty News.

    READ NEXT: Longtime ACU/CPAC Leader David Keene Speaks Out After Vice Chair’s Resignation

    Arizona Democrat Reaffirms Interest in Sinema Challenge

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America

    Arizona Democrat Representative Ruben Gallego says that he’s seriously considering mounting a challenge against Senator Kyrsten Sinema after she announced she was leaving the Democrat Party.

    According to The Washington Examiner, Gallego isn’t deterred by the potential challenge of facing Sinema in the general election in a three-way race with a Republican. Despite the fact Sinema has not declared for reelection.

    However, Sinema’s decision to register as an independent frees herself from the burden of having to win renomination in a Democrat primary, a task that looked increasingly difficult.

    “Whether in the Marine Corps or in Congress, I have never backed down from fighting for Arizonans,” Gallego said in a statement issued Friday morning after Sinema revealed she was disaffiliating with the Democratic Party. “At a time when our nation needs leadership the most, Arizona deserves a voice that won’t back down in the face of the struggle.”

    “Unfortunately,” Gallego added, “Sen. Sinema is once again putting her own interests ahead of getting things done for Arizonans.”

    “Last month, the voters of Arizona made their voices heard loud and clear,” Gallego said in his statement. “They want people who put the people of Arizona first. We need senators who will put Arizonans ahead of big drug companies and Wall Street bankers.”

    “In a natural extension of my service since I was first elected to Congress, I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington and formally registering as an Arizona Independent.”

    Trump Names Two People When Asked About Potential VP Picks

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    0

    Trump is narrowing down his search for his next running mate…

    During a weekend interview, former President Donald Trump said he has two potential candidates in mind.

    Trump mentioned Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem when asked during a Sunday interview with Maria Bartiromo

    “Well, I have a lot of good people. We have a lot of really good people,” Trump said. “I have a lot of good ideas, but I haven’t — and there’s no reason to do that quickly.”

    “I speak to everybody,” he said. “I called Tim Scott … and I said, ‘you’re a much better candidate for me than you are for yourself.’ When I watched Tim, he was fine, he was good, but he was very low-key, et cetera, et cetera.”

    However, Trump admitted he’s still a ways off from making any final decisions on a running mate. The GOP frontrunner told Bartiromo that his priority in choosing a running mate will be choosing “someone who would be a good president.”

    “I watched him in the last week defending me and sticking up for me and fighting for me,” he continued. “I said, man, I said, ‘you’re a much better person for me than you are for yourself’, because, for himself, he was low-key. For me, he’s been a real tiger. He’s been incredible. And others have too.”

    “Kristi Noem has been incredible fighting for me,” Trump added. “She said, I’d never run against him because I can’t beat him. That was a very nice thing to say.”

    On Monday, former Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway advised the President to consider choosing a person of color for VP during an op-ed published in The New York Times.

    “With a crisis on the border, economic dissatisfaction, fears about crime, a parents’ rights renaissance and multiple wars and threats across the globe, Mr. Trump’s deputy must be able to navigate chaos and challenges at home and abroad,” Conway wrote.

    “Taking all of this into consideration, if I were advising Mr. Trump, I would suggest he choose a person of color as his running mate, depending on vetting of all possibilities and satisfaction of procedural issues like dual residency in Florida,” Conway wrote. “Not for identity politics a la the Democrats, but as an equal helping to lead an America First movement that includes more union workers, independents, first-time voters, veterans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and African Americans.”

    Conway listed Sen. Tim Scott, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) among the potential options.

    This article originally appeared on American Liberty News. Republished with permission.

    Trump VP Contender Calls Trump ‘The George Washington Of Our Moment’

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    0
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Do you agree?

    Tech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential challenger Vivek Ramaswamy called former President Donald Trump “the George Washington of our moment” and labeled the 2024 election a “1776 moment” in history

    Ramaswamy, who made an unexpected appearance at the Tuesday rally in Wisconsin, urged Trump supporters to view the former president as a modern-day Founding Father.

    “Dig deep and ask yourself why it is that our founding fathers made the sacrifices they did 250 years ago,” he told the crowd.

    He continued: “Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. We don’t often ask what became of them. I’m going to tell you what happened to them. Twelve of them had their homes ransacked by the British and burned down to the ground. Five of them were captured by the British and tortured until their deaths. Nine of them died in the Revolutionary War. Three more of them had their own kids die in the Revolutionary War. Many of them died bankrupt because they had their own private property seized before their deaths.

    Ramaswamy concluded: “They made those sacrifices in 1776, and I believe today it’s a 1776 moment in 2024, and Donald Trump is the George Washington of our moment. That is what I believe.”

    In the rest of his speech the Republican predicted a shake-up in the Democratic lineup: “I’m not going to sit here railing against Joe Biden because chances are, let’s be honest, he might not be the nominee that we’re running against.”

    Kamala Reveals If She Would Appoint Republican To Cabinet If Elected

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    7
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    A surprising turnaround…

    Vice President Harris said Thursday she would consider appointing a Republican to a Cabinet position if she wins the presidency in November.

    “I’ve got 68 days to go with this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse,” Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash. “But I would, I think. I think it’s really important.”

    Harris, who sat down with CNN for her first taped interview since becoming President Biden ended his campaign, told Bash that having a GOP official in her Cabinet would help her fulfill her pledge to be a president for all Americans. She did not name any individuals she would consider.

    “I think it’s important to have people at the table — when some of the most important decisions are being made — that have different views, different experiences,” Harris said. “And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”

    A number of GOP Trump critics spoke at the Democratic convention in Chicago earlier this month, including former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

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