The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Who will be Donald Trump’s next pick for vice president?
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would advise Trump to choose former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as his running mate.
During the New York Times’s DealBook Summit, Andrew Ross Sorkin asked McCarthy who the “right person” would be for Trump to pick as his vice president among Haley, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and 2024 GOP presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.).
“If I was a political person, and I was going to advise somebody, you’re going to pick the vice president that’s about addition, not subtraction. So you’re not going to pick somebody that already equates to you,” McCarthy responded.
“Now if I was picking for purely political decisions, what it looks like today is the anti-Trump vote is going to Nikki Haley,” he added.
McCarthy noted that there are plenty of Republicans and Independents critical of another Trump term in the White House, and the California Republican predicted Haley could potentially help close those gaps.
Asked who that person is, McCarthy said, “Well, right now I think it would be Nikki Haley, in my view. But the question is: Who you select, will they serve? So that’s another question you have to have. And it’s about addition.”
Sorkin then asked if he believed Haley would accept Trump’s invitation.
“It’s up to Nikki,” McCarthy responded. “But this is a bigger question for Trump: If his campaign is about renew, rebuild and restore, he’ll win. If it’s about revenge, he’ll lose. The only person that’s going to determine that is — not his campaign ad — is him.”
It’s possible that air marshals have been monitoring you for years.
According to a Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) representative, the Biden administration monitored individuals who traveled to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 even if they did not participate in the attack on the Capitol.
The revelation follows news the FBI reportedly halted a probe into an alleged child pornographer to investigate participants in the Capitol riot.
Five days after the January 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and then-Rep. John Katko (R-NY) wrote to the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), David Pekoske, to demand that the agency “disrupt the travel of terrorists who just attacked the seat of the U.S. government,” citing “online chatter” as evidence that they might be al-Qaeda-style bombers.
Soon, TSA appeared to be doing just that — a situation discovered only because of an almost comical situation in which one Air Marshal was forced to monitor another Air Marshal because his wife was in D.C. during that time period.
In January 2023, David Londo and Sonya LaBosco, the president and executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, an association that represents air marshals, wrote to House leaders saying that innocent Americans were being put on watchlists.
“We have recently become aware that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) are improperly classifying innocent Americans as ‘Domestic Terrorists’ on internal TSA/FAMS databases and watchlists,” the pair wrote. “Most of these classifications occur in the absence of any investigation or even any follow up.”
A protester holds up a Black Lives Matter sign outside the Hennepin County Government Center.
A Black Lives Matter leader is supporting Trump to become the next President, saying Black Americans are tired of Democrats’ “duplicity and hypocrisy.”
Mark Fisher, who is the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island, joined ‘FOX & Friends’ to discuss why some Black voters are abandoning Democrats as they consider who they will vote for in the 2024 presidential election.
“It’s the duplicity of the Democrats, the hypocrisy,” Fisher told Lawrence Jones Tuesday. “We’re not stupid. The brothers are not stupid. We understand when someone’s for us and when someone is not, and it’s obvious that the Democratic Party is not for us.”
Fisher argued Democrats “don’t value” the Black vote during an interview with “The Kim Iversen Show” earlier this month.
“We’ve been used and abused for so long by that party, they don’t value our vote,” Fisher said. “Their policies are basically racist policies. I believe it’s a racist party. Donald Trump is just the opposite. He’s he’s going to tell you how it is. He’s going to give it to you straight.”
“A lot of people are misinformed,” Fisher said. “They don’t really understand because they don’t educate themselves on Donald Trump as a person and his history, but if they do that, and it’s going to take… educated leaders to getting the word out there, I think that it’ll happen on its own, and it’ll be organic, because personally, I love the man.
A Rhode Island judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s right to be on that state’s presidential ballot.
The suit was brought by John Anthony Castro, supposedly a Republican presidential candidate, who sought to disqualify Trump from holding office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
John Castro, a long-shot presidential candidate, had filed cases arguing that Mr. Trump is prevented from running for president due to the Constitution’s insurrection clause, which essentially says anyone who led a rebellion can’t serve in federal office.
But on Monday, Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr., an Obama appointee, dismissed Mr. Castro’s case in Rhode Island. The Supreme Court previously refused to hear a challenge from Mr. Castro out of Florida.
…
It’s the latest victory for Mr. Trump. Liberal advocacy groups have appealed lower court rulings in Colorado and Michigan that would keep Mr. Trump on the primary ballot next year, asserting that the Constitution’s clause on insurrection forbids him from being reelected following the 2021 Capitol attack.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning watchdog group, filed an appeal on behalf of a group of voters with the Colorado Supreme Court, after a trial judge rejected their claim that Mr. Trump can’t be on the state’s primary ballot. The state’s Supreme Court is expected to hear the case on Dec. 6.
Responding to the news, a spokesman for the GOP front-runner celebrated the dismissal: “President Trump believes the American voters, not the courts, should decide who wins next year’s elections and we urge a swift dismissal of all such remaining bogus ballot challenges.”
Fox News host Jesse Watters was attacked by a dog over Thanksgiving…
On Monday, Watters told viewers he had been approached by a woman and her “big dog” during a hike in a nature preserve:
We’re on a tight part of the trail and I notice the dog’s all wet, and she’s like, “Oh, this my dog, you know, kind of wet, he just swam in the pond,” and I’m thinking, this is kind of crazy. You’re letting your dog swim in a pond, 37 degrees in a nature preserve? That’s my first clue. Second clue, woman’s kind of struggling to hold the dog on the leash.
He continued, “The dog comes by, and I’m trying to back up, just give her a little room– dog bites me. Twice. Nips my groin and takes a chunk out of my hand.”
Watters then ordered the camera to zoom in on his hand, which showed signs of a clear bite mark.
“See it? Zoom in on that. Zoom in. And I never like to show pain, I never say ouch,” he said, before adding, “I mean, thank God she bit me. She didn’t bite someone litigious like Judge Jeanine. She would have been tied up in court for a year.”
Watters then claimed, “I could tell she was a Democrat because when I pulled into the preserve in my car, there was Subaru Outback. Dead giveaway. Plus, she didn’t recognize me.” He concluded, “So that was my Thanksgiving. How was yours?”
The political network founded by the Koch brothers is endorsing Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential primary race according to a Tuesday memo.
Americans for Prosperity Action’s endorsement bolsters Haley’s campaign as Republicans get closer to the Iowa Caucuses. Haley is largely seen as the candidate most likely to topple Ron DeSantis for the No. 2 position in the primary field. Trump has so far dominated the primary field despite refusing to participate in any debates.
“In sharp contrast to recent elections that were dominated by the negative baggage of Donald Trump and in which good candidates lost races that should have been won, Nikki Haley, at the top of the ticket, would boost candidates up and down the ballot,” reads the memo from Emily Seidel, a senior adviser to Americans for Prosperity Action, who adds that Ms. Haley would win “the key independent and moderate voters that Trump has no chance to win.”
The memo goes on to say that the country “is being ripped apart by extremes on both sides,” adding: “The moment we face requires a tested leader with the governing judgment and policy experience to pull our nation back from the brink. Nikki Haley is that leader.”
The group has been committed to opposing Mr. Trump’s return as leader of the Republican Party. In a memo in February, Ms. Seidel, who also serves as the president of Americans for Prosperity, the political network’s parent group, wrote: “We need to turn the page on the past. So the best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter.”
In recent months, Haley’s popularity has surged among Republicans and political pundits but the endorsement from the super PAC established by David and Charles Koch could prove Haley’s campaign the push it needs. It will give her access to a direct-mail operation, field workers to knock on doors and people making phone calls to prospective voters in Iowa and beyond. The group has money to spend on television advertisements, as well.
Americans for Prosperity Action has been among the country’s largest spenders on anti-Trump material this year, buying online ads and sending mailers to voters in several states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. All told, the group has spent more than $9 million in independent expenditures opposing Mr. Trump.
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC via Wikimedia Commons
Influential Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats is making sure his disapproval of Donald Trump is known.
Less than a week after Vander Plaats officially endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, the CEO of the Iowa-based Christian conservative group The Family Leader, told the Blaze’s Steve Deace that he’s never supported Trump.
There's one thing missing from virtually every national conversation@bobvanderplaats once again dispels the defamatory lies about him being spread by the former President
“The number one hurdle for Donald Trump is I’ve never met a dad or a mom or a grandpa or a grandma who have told me they want their son or daughter, grandchild to grow up to be like him,” Vander Plaats said. “That’s a big deal.”
“Iowa will rise up,” he continued. “This is not leadership our country needs.”
The evangelical leader has not been shy about voicing his disapproval of Trump. He told NewsNation earlier this year that voters were “exhausted and tired” and he felt it was time to “turn the page.”
Trump recently turned his focus to criticizing Vander Plaats on his Truth Social account.
“Bob Vander Plaats, the former High School Accountant from Iowa, will do anything to win, something which he hasn’t done in many years,” Trump wrote over the weekend.
“He’s more known for scamming Candidates than he is for Victory, but now he’s going around using Disinformation from the Champions of that Art, the Democrats,” he added.
President Donald J. Trump is presented with a 10th Combat Aviation Brigade challenge coin following an air assault and gun rain demonstration at Fort Drum, New York, on August 13. The demonstration was part of President Trump's visit to the 10th Mountain Division (LI) to sign the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019, which increases the Army's authorized active-duty end strength by 4,000 enabling us to field critical capabilities in support of the National Defense Strategy. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Thomas Scaggs) 180813-A-TZ475-010
Donald Trump signaled what changes he may consider if he wins the 2024 presidential election.
While campaigning in Iowa, Trump said he was advised against using the military to quell violence in largely Democrat-led cities.
Calling New York City and Chicago “crime dens,” the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination told his audience, “The next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it and we’re going to show how bad a job they do,” he said. “Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.”
Trump hasn’t revealed any exact plans for the military in his second term but has signaled mass deportations and travel bans for some countries.
The Insurrection Act allows presidents to call on reserve or active-duty military units to respond to unrest in the states, an authority that is not reviewable by the courts. One of its few guardrails merely requires the president to request that the participants disperse.
“The principal constraint on the president’s use of the Insurrection Act is basically political, that presidents don’t want to be the guy who sent tanks rolling down Main Street,” said Joseph Nunn, a national security expert with the Brennan Center for Justice. “There’s not much really in the law to stay the president’s hand.”
Trump has spoken openly about his plans should he win the presidency, including using the military at the border and in cities struggling with violent crime. His plans also have included using the military against foreign drug cartels.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Retiring Utah Senator Mitt Romney signaled we could be open to voting for a Democrat in the next presidential election if it helps keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
“I’d be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans — maybe not Vivek [Ramaswamy] — but the others that are running would be acceptable to me, and I’d be happy to vote for them,” the retiring senator said Friday in an interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell.
“I’d be happy to vote for a number of the Democrats too,” he continued. “It would be an upgrade, in my opinion, from Donald Trump and perhaps also from Joe Biden.”
Romney announced in September that he would not seek reelection, sparking a wave of gloating insults from Trump. Romeny has been one of Trump’s staunchest critics among Senate Republicans, voting twice to impeach him.
“Mitt Romney, sometimes referred to as Pierre Delecto, will not be seeking a second term in the U.S. Senate, where he did not serve with distinction,” Trump wrote in all caps on Truth Social when Romney announced his retirement, referencing the pseudonym Romney used for a private Twitter account.
The Utah Republican’s biographer, McKay Coppins, suggested last month that the animosity between the former president and senator is so heavy that he could even opt to endorse Biden later in the election.
“I would keep an eye out for whether Romney does something like endorse Joe Biden late in the election,” Coppins said in an October interview with “The Press Box” podcast. “I mean, I have no idea, I haven’t talked to him about this. I would not be shocked if he did.”
ANALYSIS – Former President Donald Trump is thinking bigly. In his bid to return to the Oval Office, Trump and his allies have promised a sweeping transformation of the federal government.
And while the left and their mass media puppets decry these plans as radical, they are mostly a much-needed corrective after four years of truly extreme and disastrous Biden policies.
If he returns to the White House in 2024, Trump is planning to root out political foes (dismantle the hyper political and leftist ‘deep state’), deport millions of illegal migrants who have invaded the U.S. under Joe Biden, slap tariffs on imports and scale back involvement in overseas wars.
I’m hoping that the last pledge doesn’t mean misguided global retreats, but instead ‘recalibrating’ to force NATO allies to do more in Europe, while we focus on China, for example.
And though no longer talking about a ‘wall,’ Trump says he would “fully secure” the southern border, ending mass unskilled illegal immigration through Mexico.
Trump’s allies are also working on executive orders and studying the Constitution in anticipation of legal challenges.
The goal is to have executive orders prepared – on everything from immigration to the removal of government protections for civil servants – for Trump to sign on day one of a potential second administration.
Meanwhile, ‘Project 2025’, a significant effort run by the conservative Heritage Foundation, has brought many of these groups together to “pave the way for an effective conservative administration.”
Trump’s plan includes asserting more White House control over the Department of Justice (DOJ), which he says he would use to pursue his relentlessly weaponized persecutors, plus reigning in the increasingly politicized FBI and Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The former president has also promised to issue pardons to “a large portion” of the nonviolent rioters jailed after the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. Too many of them have received obscenely long sentences for minor, nonviolent crimes.
And he isn’t giving Biden a pass. CNN noted:
“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump also said in June after his arraignment in Florida.
“I will totally obliterate the Deep State.”
One of Trump’s more sweeping, and welcome, proposals is ‘Agenda 47’: The large-scale arrest, detention, and mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Trump also plans to end automatic citizenship for children born to illegal migrants.
Additionally, Trump vows to revive many of his effective first-term immigration policies to restrict both legal and illegal immigration – including reinstating and expanding a travel ban on predominantly-Muslim countries.
He has also vowed to designate deadly Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and to impose the death penalty at the federal level on drug dealers and human traffickers.
Trump says he would also deploy the National Guard “to restore law and order” in liberal cities and would investigate “radical Marxist prosecutors” refusing to punish disorder.
Trump has weighed in on most of the so-called “culture war” issues that polarize Americans, from abortion, transgender rights and gun control to the teaching of America’s racist history.
The candidate says he would crack down on doctors providing gender-affirming care to minors and “pink haired communists” pushing critical race theory or “inappropriate” political material in schools.
Trump would also create a new tax credit, he said, to reimburse teachers for concealed carry firearms and training…
While some of these plans do hold the potential for abuse, the current system is already being abused in an unprecedented manner.
To quote the Joker played by Jack Nicholson in the 1989 Batman movie: “this town needs an enema.” And Trump may be the one providing it.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
