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]
Former President Donald Trump is in it to win it.
On Wednesday the former President and current GOP frontrunner said he will not sign the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) pledge required to participate in the first debate.
The RNC has said for candidates to participate in the first primary debate hosted by Fox News they must sign a pledge stating that they will support the eventual party nominee in 2024.
“I wouldn’t sign the pledge. Why would I sign a pledge if there are people on there that I wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t have certain people as somebody that I would endorse,” Trump told Eric Bolling on Newsmax, declining to specify who he would not endorse.
The former president told Bolling that he would announce next week whether he will attend the debate. So far Trump has been adamant he will skip the debate due to his commanding lead in the polls.
“I’ve already decided, and I’ll be announcing something next week,” Trump said.
“I haven’t totally ruled it out,” he added.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is running in second place behind Trump in most polls, signed the loyalty pledge earlier Wednesday.
On Thursday, GOP presidential candidate Nikkie Haley signed the “Beat Biden” pledge as well but with one importnent change. Haley crossed out President Biden’s name in the pledge and wrote, “President Harris,” signaling that she believes this race is not against Biden in the long run and instead against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Fox Business Network announced it will host the second Republican presidential debate.
Recently unsealed court filings show Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed and obtained a search warrant related to former President Trump’s account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The case, which was decided in July, ordered X to turn over the documents sought by Smith and also fined the company $350,000 for a three-day delay in complying with a court order of the records.
According to reports from The Hill, The Justice Department (DOJ) first sought the records in January.
The filing details a months-long battle between X and the special counsel’s office over the efforts to get information tied to Trump’s account, with an appeals court backing a lower court ruling “in all respects.”
“The district court found that there were ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump ‘would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation’ by giving him ‘an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates,’” the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. noted in its ruling.
The lower court’s March ruling also found probable cause to search Trump’s Twitter account “for evidence of criminal offenses.”
ANALYSIS – If you can’t beat him, charge him. As I wrote earlier: “From the four-year Hillary Clinton-manufactured ‘Russia collusion’ hoax to corrupt investigations to ‘deep state resistance’ within his administration to a partisan impeachment – no [other] president has been so unfairly hounded in U.S. history.”
But the persecution clearly didn’t end with Donald Trump leaving the White House. The absolute fear he could return to office has since resulted in multiple prosecutions from idiotic nonsense such as his bookkeeping regarding hush money to a porn actress, to sexual assault that reportedly happened 30 years ago.
But that was just the beginning, and those cases were brought by partisan local prosecutors. Now the prosecutorial floodgates have opened wider, with Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DoJ) being weaponized to go after Trump.
While I have blamed the ex-president for bringing the classified materials charges upon himself – see my earlier piece – there is no doubt that politics is playing a big part as well.
And it is getting hard to keep up with all the charges and case and court timelines. His most recent indictment being related to his words and actions leading up to and during the January 6 Capitol Riot.
“Not guilty,” Trump stressed the first word of his plea on Thursday (August 3) before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya.
The arraignment — U.S. special counsel Jack Smith’s second DoJ indictment against the former president — charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction, conspiracy to obstruct the Electoral College vote certification, and conspiracy against voter rights.
Charges that could carry serious prison time if convicted.
With the latest four charges, Trump now faces 78 criminal counts.
The 45-page indictment says Trump “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”
Trump’s next court date will be August 28, when U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a harsh critic of January 6 defendants, and Obama-appointee, sets a trial date.
“This is a very sad day for America,” Trump told reporters after the hearing, portraying the indictment and the other three criminal cases against him as a “witch hunt” intended to derail his 2024 presidential campaign.
Among the criminal charges that special counsel Jack Smith released; media identified six of Trump’s former lawyers as unnamed co-conspirators in his bid to rig the election.
They possibly are Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney; White House lawyer John Eastman; Trump attorney Sidney Powell; former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark; and attorney Kenneth Chesebro.
The description of the sixth co-conspirator is a “political consultant” and is not immediately apparent — the indictment gives few details.
The consultant identified attorneys who could help carry out a scheme to present fake Electoral College votes to Congress as lawmakers certified the election results.
According to the indictment, co-conspirator No. 2 is a lawyer who drafted a plan to have Vice President Mike Pence throw out Joe Biden’s Electoral Votes in Congress.
Speaking publicly for the first time since Trump’s indictment, Pence told reporters he had hoped it wouldn’t come to a charge.
“Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear,” said Pence.
Of the 78 charges across three criminal cases, 44 are federal and 34 state charges, all felonies, in three jurisdictions. Trump has denied wrongdoing in every case.
However, Trump’s legal woes have done little to damage his status as a Republican front-runner. A New York Times/Siena College poll between July 23-27 showed a landslide lead of 37 percentage points over Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, his closest competitor in the Republican primary.
Trump’s best defense against these mostly politicized prosecutions may be winning the White House in 2024.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
Barbie was released in cinemas worldwide on July 21. Since then, according toWarner Bros., the colorfully controversial, left-leaning, gender-bender, fantasy-comedy movie has drawn in $459m so far in the U.S. and $572m internationally.
That means it has already topped $1 billion overall. This is a huge global smash. But what does it say about us?
Oscar-nominated Barbie writer and director Greta Gerwig also became the first female filmmaker to surpass the billion-dollar benchmark as a solo director, Warner Bros. said.
Other female directors have helmed films that have surpassed the $1bn-mark, but they were working with others. Frozen, the animated blockbuster, and its sequel have generated more than $1.4bn in box office takings and were co-directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck.
Meanwhile, Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson and co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, generated more than $1.1bn at the box office.
But what is the very pink themed movie, starring Margot Robbie (the primary Barbie) and Ryan Gosling (the primary Ken), about? What is its messaging?
The feminist comedy with a PG-13 rating’s plot hinges on Barbie leaving her fake but perfectly idealized world behind and, like Pinocchio before her, becoming “real.”
That’s when it gets political and goes straight into lefty social issues like ‘the patriarchy,’ and gender confusion-fusion.
Elon Musk mocked the film on ‘X,’ formerly known as Twitter, saying: “If you take a shot every time Barbie says the word ‘Patriarchy,’ you will pass out before the movie ends.”
Conservatives have derided the Barbie movie’s anti-male themes, and inclusion of a trans-gender actor/actress playing one of the Barbies. The critics include journalist Piers Morgan and commentator Ben Shapiro. Newsweek reported:
“If I made a movie mocking women as useless dunderheads, constantly attacking ‘the matriarchy,’ and depicting all things feminist as toxic bulls***, I wouldn’t just be canceled, I’d be executed,” Morgan wrote in his columns for British newspaper The Sun and The New York Post after seeing the Barbie movie.
Shapiro meanwhile went as far as to burn a Barbie and Ken doll on Saturday, after seeing the movie the night before. The following Monday he claimed he had received death threats for his stunt.”
Writing for the New York Post, Morgan added: “the movie achieves exactly what it wanted to achieve and that is to establish the matriarchy as the perfect antidote to the patriarchy when in fact it’s just the same concept that they asked us all to detest in the first place.”
The movie “forgets its core audience of families and children while catering to nostalgic adults and pushing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender character stories,” wrote a contributor to Movieguide,a site with a conservative Christian bent.
Ginger Gaetz, wife of conservative Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, posted on ‘X’ that at the premiere, she saw “disappointingly low T from Ken,” referring to testosterone, and she also called him a “beta” male, not an alpha.
Less politically, Time said: “Barbie never lets us forget how clever it’s being, every exhausting minute.”
Mattel has a lot riding on its $100m Barbie movie, the first of a planned slew of films from the toy-making behemoth that include Masters of the Universe, Barney, Hot Wheels and Magic 8 Ball, to name but a few.
The Barbie doll was launched by Mattel in 1959, when the toy-maker itself was only 14 years old, and has sold over a billion units over six decades.
Today, Barbie is still considered Mattel’s crown jewel, driving about a third of its $5 billion annual revenue.
Since 2018, Mattel has been working on a strategy to license its intellectual properties to Hollywood, to reverse a sales decline over recent years. The new movie was a big gamble for Mattel Films.
A hit would boost toy sales, a flop would have done the opposite – threatening other projects currently in pre-production. But the gamble has clearly paid off.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
Retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig says that America’s democracy is at risk due to the current state of the Republican Party.
Luttig, a conservative-leaning former judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, joined CNN This Morning on Wednesday to discuss the “decay” of the Republican Party under Donald Trump’s leadership.
“What do you think has happened to your party?” Harlow asked Luttig.
His answer:
Frankly, I don’t care about the Republican Party at all, except to the extent that the two political parties in America are the political guardians of democracy in our country. American democracy simply cannot function without two equally healthy and equally strong political parties. So, today, in my view, there is no Republican Party to counter the Democratic Party in the country. And for that reason, American democracy is in grave peril.
“There is no Republican Party?” Harlow asked him. Luttig explained by outlining his view that “a political party is a collection, an assemblage of individuals who share a set of beliefs and principles and policy views about the United States of America.”
“Today there is no such shared set of beliefs and values and principles, or even policy views, within the Republican Party for America,” Luttig determined. “Until or unless the Republican Party can pull itself together into a credible Republican political party, we simply don’t have two competing parties in America.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence announced he will join the stage for the first round of Republican debates as the presidential campaign cycle ramps up.
On Monday, Pence’s 2024 presidential campaign said that earlier in the day they crossed the 40,000-donor threshold – one of two criteria set by the Republican National Committee for GOP White House hopefuls to reach the debate stage. Pence had already passed the polling threshold mandated by the RNC, according to Fox News.
The former vice president’s political team said they reached out to inform the RNC that Pence had qualified and spotlighted that they were the first campaign to submit their numbers for the national party committee’s verification process.
Pence becomes the eighth Republican presidential candidate to announce they’ve passed the thresholds to qualify for the debate. The other contenders who’ve already reached the criteria are former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and entrepreneur and best-selling author Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump has yet to say if he’ll attend the first debate.
Recently, Trump has upped his attacks against his former running mate over recent comments he made regarding Trump’s ongoing legal battles from Jan. 6th.
“WOW, it’s finally happened! Liddle’ Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
“I never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was ‘too honest.’ He’s delusional, and now he wants to show he’s a tough guy,” Trump added, denying information that was contained in the indictment. “I once read a major magazine article on Mike. It said he was not a very good person. I was surprised, but the article was right. Sad!”
During a campaign stop in New Hampshire over the weekend, Pence was greeted by pro-Trump hecklers who derided the former vice president as a “traitor” and a “sellout.”
Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has confirmed he has been subpoenaed to testify before a Fulton County grand jury this month.
Duncan confirmed a CNN report on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, that was subpoenaed to testify in the grand jury probe into whether the former president and his supporters violated Georgia law with their alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
“I can confirm this is true,” Duncan posted on X. “I will continue to share the facts as I know them around this investigation in hopes of figuring out what really happened.”
Duncan, who served as the lieutenant governor of Georgia from 2019 to 2023, has been an outspoken critic of the former president. In a post Sunday, he said, “History shows us that almost everyone associated with Trump ends up regretting it,” listing Trump’s business partners, investors and employees as examples.
History shows us that almost everyone associated with Trump ends up regretting it: Business Partners Investors Bankers Employees Friends Wives Girlfriends Cabinet Members Attorneys Republicans (in process) pic.twitter.com/AUAbhcd1sr
The yearslong investigation has focused heavily on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger when the former president asked him to “find” 11,780 votes to overturn President Biden’s victory in the election.
On Monday, a federal judge dismissed former President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against writer E. Jean Carroll.
According to The Hill, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed Trump’s argument Carroll defamed him last May, ruling Carroll’s statement made on a cable network was substantially true and “[t]here would have been no different effect on the mind of an average listener.”
“The difference between Ms. Carroll’s allegedly defamatory statements — that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as defined in the New York Penal Law — and the ‘truth’ — that Mr. Trump forcibly digitally penetrated Ms. Carroll — is minimal. Both are felonious sex crimes,” Kaplan ruled.
Kaplan, a Clinton appointee, separately rejected Trump’s defense that he has “absolute presidential immunity” in the case.
Trump attorney Alina Habba said the former president would be filing an appeal shortly, calling it a “flawed decision.”
“We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trump’s counterclaim,” Carroll attorney Robbie Kaplan said in a statement.
“That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldn’t take very long to complete,” she continued. “E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019.”
Former President Trump’s attorney John Lauro says there is no chance he will accept a plea deal in connection with the federal Jan. 6 case.
After being charged with four federal counts related to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election last week Trump’s attorney joined CBS News’ “Face The Nation” to discuss the case. Lauro told host Major Garrett there was no condition where Trump would accept a plea deal.
When asked if he planned to file a motion to dismiss the case, Lauro said he “absolutely” plans to, but did not reveal exact details.
“Hundred percent. Well, within the time permitted,” Lauro said. “This is what’s called a Swiss cheese indictment. It has so many holes that we’re going to be identifying and litigating a number of motions that we’re going to file on First Amendment grounds, on the fact that President Trump is immune as president from being prosecuted in this way.”
Lauro also said that cases similar to this case brought against Trump do not go to trial “before two or three years.” He also emphasized how he will be pushing to change the venue, saying West Virginia would be an “excellent venue to try this case
“Well, the problem with bringing a case like this in the middle of a campaign season is statements are going to be made in the context of a campaign,” he said. “We expect a fair and just trial in the District of Columbia. And — and my role — my role is simply to ensure that President Trump’s rights, just like every American’s rights, are protected every step of the way, and I’m going to do that.”
ANALYSIS – Welcome to ‘Biden World’ – where much of America has quickly devolved into a third-world country. On top of the rampant crime and homelessness plaguing many Democrat-run cities, now add the disaster of adding millions of unemployed, unhoused, illegal foreigners to our city streets, thanks to Joe Biden’s immigration crisis.
Democrats and the media ignored the crisis while it mostly affected El Paso or other GOP-run border towns and states. But with the ‘political stunt’ by Republican governors to send Biden’s illegal migrants to Democrat states and cities, things are now getting real for them.
Now places like New York City are seeing the carnage from the national inundation of illegals in their hoods. Things have gotten so bad in the Big Apple, with thousands of new migrants coming each week, that NYC officials are considering housing illegal immigrants in the world-famous Central Park.
…New York City Mayor Eric Adams already said that “from this moment on, it’s downhill. There is no more room,” while his office acknowledged that more than 95,000 migrants have arrived in since spring 2022.
With hotels at capacity, hundreds of migrants have been seen sleeping on city sidewalks, often on pieces of cardboard, littering the streets with trash and clothing in what look like extremely inhumane conditions.
“Everything is on the table,” Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said Wednesday at a press conference, according to Bloomberg. The city is reportedly looking at 3,000 locations for possible housing relief.
Williams-Isom added that “the system is at a breaking point” in response to questions about housing the migrants in parks.
While NYC Dems whine about having a couple of thousand migrants arriving every week (see tweet below), Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted his response:
“Come to South Texas. We’d LOVE to have only 2100 per week. (At over 7m under Biden, we’re looking at over 50,000 per week….)”
While Central Park would be the most damning location for a migrant homeless camp in Manhattan, The Gothamist reported that the city is also at Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Randalls Island, as other tent city options. The New York Daily News also reported on a plan to house migrants on soccer fields, which prompted outrage from locals whose facilities would be taken over.
But it’s not just Biden’s insane policies that are creating this crisis. Democrat-run cities exacerbate and fuel the crisis with their own insane policies.
Only two months ago, NYC enacted a “Homeless Bill of Rights” which gives anyone the right to sleep outdoors in public places, and the right to be assigned an area in a public space that corresponds to ‘one’s gender identity.’
If homeless persons, including illegal foreigners, aren’t happy, the NYC law gives them the right to complain about their emergency shelter accommodations without any repercussions.
Welcome to Biden and then Democrats’ third-world America.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
