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Judiciary Committee Republican Floated As Trump’s VP

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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

The dream team?

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) signaled an openness to being former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick when asked over the weekend during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” with guest host Peter Alexander.

“You are reportedly on Donald Trump’s short list of possible running mates,” Alexander said. “Would you accept if Donald Trump asked you?”

“Well, Peter, Donald Trump’s going to make this choice,” Cotton responded. “I suspect only he knows who’s on his short list.”

Cotton said that he has not been in direct contact with the Trump campaign about who the presumed candidate will pick as his vice presidential running mate or about any position in his administration.

When asked if he would accept the job if offered it, Cotton responded: “Peter, any great patriot, if offered a chance to serve our country by the president, would have to consider it seriously. But what I’m focused on, like the president, is making sure that we win this election in November, and I want to help him govern successfully to restore the peace and prosperity that he brought to America for four years that Joe Biden has destroyed.”

Watch Sen. Cotton:

Sen. Cotton’s committees include the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as the Ranking Member for the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism, the Intelligence Committee, and the Armed Services Committee, where he serves as the Ranking Member of the Air Land Power Subcommittee.

The Arkansas Senator served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Robert De Niro Has Award Revoked Over Anti-Trump Outburst

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Liberal actor Robert De Niro will no longer receive a coveted National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) award after going off on an anti-Trump tirade outside the Manhattan courthouse last week.

The NAB was set to honor De Niro with its prestigious NAB Leadership Foundation’s Service to America Award next week according to Fox News.

“This event is proudly bipartisan, uniting those from across the political spectrum to celebrate the impactful work of local broadcasters and our partners,” an NAB spokesperson told The Hill. 

“While we strongly support the right of every American to exercise free speech and participate in civic engagement, it is clear that Mr. De Niro’s recent high-profile activities will create a distraction from the philanthropic work that we were hoping to recognize,” the spokesperson continued. “To maintain the focus on service of the award winners, Mr. De Niro will no longer be attending the event.”

De Niro wished the NAB well after learning he wouldn’t receive the award.

“I support the work of the NAB Leadership Foundation and would like to express my appreciation and gratitude for what the Foundation has done and will continue to do for the good of us all, and I wish them well for their continued good work,” De Niro told The Hill

Last week, the actor argued that Trump does not “belong” in New York City during a Biden-Harris campaign event.

“I hope this new ad campaign reaches outside the bubble to remind supporters of what a danger he is to our lives. This is not a threat. This is our reality. And that’s why I’ve joined the Biden-Harris campaign, because the only way to preserve our freedoms and hold on to our humanity is to vote for Joe Biden for president,” De Niro said of Trump on Tuesday. 

“I owe this city a lot. And that’s why it’s so weird that Donald Trump is just across the street because he doesn’t belong in my city. I don’t know where he belongs, but he certainly doesn’t belong here,” De Niro continued. “We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot.”

After the remarks wrapped up, the situation soon descended into chaos as De Niro was heckled by Trump supporters as he was leaving the podium. 

On Thursday, the Manhattan jury found Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, guilty on all 34 charges.

Mike Pence Responds To Trump’s Guilty Conviction

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    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Former Vice President Mike Pence shared a harsh message following Donald Trump’s guilty conviction in New York.

    Despite Pence’s rocky relationship with the presumed Republican candidate, he slammed the conviction as a “disservice to the nation.”

    “The conviction of former President Trump on politically motivated charges is an outrage and disservice to the nation,” Pence told Fox News Digital. 

    “No one is above the law, but our courts must not become a tool to be used against political opponents,” Pence continued. “To millions of Americans, this was nothing more than a political prosecution driven by a Manhattan DA who ran for office on a pledge to indict the former president and this conviction undermines confidence in our system of justice.”

    “This conviction also sends a terrible message to the wider world about the American justice system and only further divides us at a time when the American people are struggling under the failed policies of the Biden administration at home and abroad,” he added.

    Pence continued, “Having been convicted in a court of law, the former president has every right to appeal this conviction and I trust it will be overturned on appeal in a manner that will restore public confidence in our system of justice and equal treatment under the law.”

    Last week, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scheme to prevent porn star Stormy Daniels from speaking out about her alleged extramarital affair before the 2016 presidential election.

    Following the guilty verdict, the Trump campaign announced a new fundraising record totaling $34.8 million.

    “From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online because of the amount of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small dollar donors. Not only was the amount historic, but 29.7% of yesterday’s donor’s were brand new donors to the WinRed platform. President Trump and our campaign are immensely grateful from this outpouring of support from patriots across our country. President Trump is fighting to save our nation and November 5th is the day Americans will deliver the real verdict.” – Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, Trump Campaign Senior Advisors

    Trump is expected to appeal the verdict.

    Ivanka Trump Shares Sweet Message After Guilty Verdict

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      Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

      The Trump family is sticking together…

      On Thursday, Trump became the first-ever U.S. President to be charged and convicted of criminal charges.

      The former first daughter shared a photo of a young Donald Trump holding her as a kid on his lap to Instagram Stories with the caption “I love you dad” and a heart emoji.

      The short and sweet message were the first public remarks Ivanka, 42, has made after her dad became the first former US president to be criminally convicted.

      The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scheme to prevent porn star Stormy Daniels from speaking out about her alleged extramarital affair before the 2016 presidential election.

      This is the lowest level felony in New York, any potential sentence will more than likely be served after the 2024 election.

      Senator Leaves Democrat Party, Registers As Independent

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      West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has announced his departure from the Democrat Party and has registered as an Independent.

      In a statement, Manchin, who is not running for re-election, said he switched his party affiliation at the West Virginia State Capitol. 

      “From my first day in public service in 1982, I have always focused on doing what’s best for my state and my country, without regard to party or politics. Throughout my days in elected office, I have always been proud of my commitment to common sense, bipartisanship and my desire to bring people together. It’s who I am. It’s who I will always be. I have never seen America through a partisan lens,” Manchin said. 

      “However, since becoming a United States Senator in 2010, I have seen both the Democrat and Republican parties leave West Virginia and our country behind for partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy. Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground. To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”

      “My commitment to do everything I can to bring our country together has led me to register as an independent with no party affiliation,” Manchin wrote on X.

      In a statement Friday, Manchin said partisanship on both sides has jeopardized democracy.

      “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority,” he said.

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

      Trump Donation Page Crashes After Verdict

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      Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. [Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

      Trump has made history again…

      Immediately after the Manhattan jury in the Trump criminal hush money case found the former President guilty of 24 counts a wave of donations overwhelmed the Trump campaign website.

      “The American people see through Crooked Joe Biden’s rigged show trial,” Trump’s campaign posted on the social platform X. “So many Americans were moved to donate to President Trump’s campaign that the WinRed pages went down. We are working on getting the website back online as quickly as possible.”

      Trump’s campaign website redirected visitors to WinRed, the official GOP fundraising site. But the page to donate to the former president said it was under maintenance. The campaign briefly redirected to a different donation processor amid the technical difficulties.

      Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita urged supporters to “log back on and try again” if they received an error message.

      On Friday, the Trump campaign announced a new fundraising record totaling $34.8 million.

      “From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online because of the amount of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small dollar donors. Not only was the amount historic, but 29.7% of yesterday’s donor’s were brand new donors to the WinRed platform. President Trump and our campaign are immensely grateful from this outpouring of support from patriots across our country. President Trump is fighting to save our nation and November 5th is the day Americans will deliver the real verdict.” – Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, Trump Campaign Senior Advisors

      Trump is expected to appeal the verdict.

      Despite Trump becoming the first President to be convicted of a felony the verdict is not expected to dissuade voters.

      The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist national poll showed 67% of registered voters nationally wouldn’t be swayed by a guilty verdict against Trump, while 15% said it would make them more likely to vote for him. Another 17% said a guilty verdict would make them less likely to vote for Trump.

      According to the Washington Examiner, among Republicans surveyed in the poll, 25% said a guilty verdict would make them more likely to vote for the former president, while 10% said it would make them less likely to vote for him. Only 7% of Democrats said a guilty verdict would make them more likely to vote for Trump, and 27% said it would make them less likely to vote for Trump.

      Among coveted independent voters, 15% said a guilty verdict would make them more likely to vote for Trump, and 11% said it would make them less likely.

      In contrast, 76% of all voters said a not-guilty verdict wouldn’t affect their votes.

      Jury Reaches Verdict In Historic Trump Hush Money Trial

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        Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

        This just in…

        On Thursday, the Manhattan jury found Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, guilty on all charges.

        Before the jury began deliberations, Judge Juan Merchan instructed its members that they did not need to have a unanimous verdict in order to convict the former president.

        The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scheme to prevent porn star Stormy Daniels from speaking out about her alleged extramarital affair before the 2016 presidential election.

        Before Trump, no sitting or former president ever faced criminal charges. This is the lowest level felony in New York, any potential sentence will more than likely be served after the 2024 election.

        Trump has yet to respond to the verdict.

        Trump, a slight favorite to win the White House, might face diminished support from some voters who aren’t keen on backing a candidate with a criminal record. On the flip side, it could galvanize his base and swing voters, who view the trial as a politically motivated attack while the economy languishes.

        The political significance of the trial was on display Tuesday, as the Biden and Trump campaigns held dueling events outside the courthouse.

        The Biden campaign featured actor Robert De Niro and retired law enforcement officers who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, for a press conference to bash Trump as dangerous. 

        It was the first time the Biden campaign held an event around the trial. Communications director Michael Tyler explained why it chose to do so, saying to the media, “Because you all are here.”

        “We want to remind the American people … of the unique, persistent and growing threat that Donald Trump poses to the American people and to our democracy,” he said.

        Trump’s team brushed off the Biden event as a sign of desperation.

        “Why is Joe Biden now making this a campaign event after months of weaponizing the legal system against President Trump? Because Joe Biden’s numbers are in the tank,” senior Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said.

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

        Poll Reveals How Likely Trump Verdict Is To Sway Voters

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          Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

          Nothing can slow Donald Trump down now…

          A recent report found that Trump’s criminal hush money trial is unlikely to deter voters as he awaits a verdict.

          The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist national poll showed 67% of registered voters nationally wouldn’t be swayed by a guilty verdict against Trump, while 15% said it would make them more likely to vote for him. Another 17% said a guilty verdict would make them less likely to vote for Trump.

           The 12-member jury is currently on day two of deliberations after the prosecution and defense concluded their closing arguments on Tuesday.

          According to the Washington Examiner, among Republicans surveyed in the poll, 25% said a guilty verdict would make them more likely to vote for the former president, while 10% said it would make them less likely to vote for him. Only 7% of Democrats said a guilty verdict would make them more likely to vote for Trump, and 27% said it would make them less likely to vote for Trump.

          Among coveted independent voters, 15% said a guilty verdict would make them more likely to vote for Trump, and 11% said it would make them less likely.

          In contrast, 76% of all voters said a not-guilty verdict wouldn’t affect their votes.

          The best-case scenario for Trump is acquittal however experts have noted outcome is unlikely as it would require all 12 jurors to find him innocent. The most realistic path for the defense is a hung jury, in which at least one juror dissents.

          The former president is expected to appeal if he is found guilty. A conviction would not keep him from running for a second term.

          DOJ Settles With Ex-FBI ‘Lovebirds’ Caught In Anti-Trump Text Scandal

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          Former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have settled their yearslong case with the Justice Department (DOJ).

          The former FBI agents alleged the DOJ committed privacy rights violations after the release of their text messages leveraged by former President Trump to challenge the Russia investigation during his presidency. 

          According to Fox News, a tentative agreement was filed Tuesday resolving Page’s 5-year-old lawsuit against the FBI for releasing text messages with Strzok — with whom she had an affair — that disparaged the former president. Strzok’s lawsuit seeking backpay and reinstatement remains unsettled.

          In 2019, Strzok argued in a court filing in Washington, D.C., federal district court that his politically charged anti-Trump messages were protected by the First Amendment even though he sent them on bureau-issued phones while playing leading roles in the probes into both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

          Strzok, once the FBI’s head of counterintelligence, said he was entitled to “develop a full factual record through discovery,” and that it would be premature to dismiss the case at this early stage. He went on to argue that the DOJ’s position would “leave thousands of career federal government employees without protections from discipline over the content of their political speech.”

          Page also filed suit against the FBI and DOJ alleging the government’s publication of her text messages with Strzok amounted to a breach of the Federal Privacy Act.

          Page’s complaint also sought reimbursement for “the cost of childcare during and transportation to multiple investigative reviews and appearances before Congress,” the “cost of paying a data-privacy service to protect her personal information” and attorney’s fees.

          In a later filing, according to CNN, Strzok’s lawyers wrote that the defendants “should not be heard to complain about the notoriety and putative damage to the FBI’s reputation from Strzok’s speech when it was their own illegal disclosures, magnified and distorted by the false attacks made by the President and his allies, that placed a spotlight on Strzok’s opinions.”

          The two agents were connected to the FBI’s initial counterintelligence investigation into potential Russian meddling collusion with Trump’s 2016 campaign associates and later served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

          Fox News noted that in 2020, the spotlight was on the lovers’ scandal during a live performance titled “FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers” at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which was based on the anti-Trump text messages shared between the former agents. Trump has called the couple the “FBI lovebirds” during his rallies. 

          Actor Dennis Quaid Says Why He’s Voting For Trump

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            He’s team Trump…

            Well-known actor Dennis Quaid said in a recent interview that he plans to vote for Donald Trump in the November election.

            The celebrity announced his support of the Republican candidate during an interview with Piers Morgan on British television when asked by Morgan what he thought of Trump.

            “I think I’m gonna vote for him in the next election,” the actor said. “It just makes sense. I was ready not to vote for Trump, until what I saw is, more than politics, I see a weaponization of our justice system and a challenge to our Constitution.”

            “Trump is the most investigated person, probably in the history of the world, and they haven’t been able to really get him on anything,” he added.

            Quaid went on to reference many of Trump’s accomplishments…

            “What he did with Korea, with Rocket Baby, the way he defeated ISIS in three weeks,” he continued. “You know, people don’t even remember, it happened so fast. How he stood up for us overseas. The way he responded to China. He stands up to people and that’s what makes him a leader. Rather than, what I kind of compare it to, what was going on in Jimmy Carter’s administration, where we’re trying to be everybody’s friend and pal.”

            “And there’s some evil people and bad actors in this world and so, you know, people might call [Trump] an a**hole but he’s my a**hole,” Quaid said. “I’ll tell you one true thing about him is that I really feel that he is working for the American people. That’s what he’s all about, and I do believe that to be true and sincere.”