Category Archives: Donald Trump

Thousands have signed a progressive Christian group's petition calling for Catholic bishops to drop support for ex-President Donald Trump.

Faithful America, which backs social justice causes and opposes "Christian nationalism," urged Catholics to condemn bishops who "boost the Christofascist campaign of Donald Trump" in a recently launched online petition that had been signed by over 12,500 as of Friday afternoon.

The group mentioned in particular the "disturbing praise of Trump" from Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan and former Bishop Joseph Strickland, of Tyler, Texas, "inappropriately" endorsing a sermon that erroneously claimed Democrats cannot be Catholic.

Faithful America urged Catholics to sign the petition because "Pope Francis has been clear: Bishops should behave in a more pastoral manner than this," while asserting that "Christian-nationalist politicians like Donald Trump and their vile, hate-based policies do not speak for us -- or for Jesus."

"Pro-Trump words and actions like those we saw from Cardinal Dolan, Bishop Strickland, and others in 2020 were partisan, unpastoral, and extremely harmful to immigrants, the poor, and the marginalized," the petition reads. "They no doubt pushed many people away from the Church and should not be repeated in 2024."

"The Gospel teaches love, equality, and dignity -- all values that the MAGA movement clearly rejects," it continues. "Please listen to the millions of faithful, loving Catholics and allies who want bishops to stay out of this election."

A spokesperson for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops told Newsweek via email that "the Catholic Church doesn't tell the laity to vote for any particular candidate or political party."

The representative added that U.S. bishops do publish a "teaching document" meant "to guide Catholics on what the Church teaches so they may form their consciences to make their decisions on election day."

Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump's office via email on Friday.

Faithful America celebrated in November after Pope Francis removed Strickland from his position, calling the former bishop "a notoriously election-denying, QAnon-spreading, Francis-bashing, vaccine-rejecting, LGBTQ-hating, division-sowing, fire-breathing darling of right-wing Twitter."

Strickland was removed following a rare investigation by the Vatican. He had opposed the pope's reforms during a bishopship that included a frequent promotion of right-wing politics. Strickland also once described President Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic, as "evil."

During a meeting in Portugal last year, Francis criticized some conservative American Catholics for "backwardness" in putting their political ideology above church doctrine, arguing that "ideologies replace faith" among "reactionary" Catholics.

Faithful America's anti-Trump petition aimed at Catholics was far from the first time that the group has targeted the former president. The group's petitions often promote left-of-center political causes through a Christian lens, while denouncing Trump, the MAGA movement and the religious right.

A petition launched last month condemned "MAGA Republicans" for pushing "cruel policies" regarding immigration during the ongoing congressional battle over U.S.-Mexico border policies and aid for Ukraine.

A Faithful America petition from February 2023 called Trump "the insurrectionist ex-president" and urged Christians to support a different candidate in the coming presidential election, warning that Trump "intends to double down on the fascist tactics that led to the deadly January 6 Christian-nationalist attack on our Capitol."

Update 1/19/24, 6:30 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include a statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Thousands Sign Christian Petition Urging Bishops Not to Back Donald Trump - Newsweek

The accusations by the writer E. Jean Carroll that former President Donald J. Trump raped and defamed her have been the subject of two separate trials in U.S. District Court in Lower Manhattan and have unfolded as Mr. Trump campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination.

Last May, a jury found that Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine who said he assaulted her nearly three decades ago in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.

That same jury found he had also defamed her after he repeatedly denied the accusations and accused her of lying. Now, Mr. Trump, 77, is back in the same federal courthouse, defending himself again against accusations of defamation.

On Thursday, Ms. Carroll, the first witness in the case, ended her testimony in a trial that is expected to wrap up next week. It is still unknown whether Mr. Trump will take the stand.

Heres a closer look at the two cases and whats at stake.

Ms. Carroll, 80, filed two lawsuits against Mr. Trump. The first, in 2019, accused the former president of making disparaging comments and branding her a liar in response to the publication of her book Why Do We Need Men? A Modest Proposal.

On June 21 of that year, Ms. Carroll published an excerpt from the book in New York magazine describing the assault.

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Why Donald Trump Is Facing E. Jean Carroll in Court a Second Time - The New York Times

BOSTON - What should we take away from the Iowa caucus results?

First and foremost, the reiteration of an important lesson - the Republican Party of 2024 is a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald J. Trump MAGA Enterprises, Inc.

When Trump famously said as he ran in 2016 that "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters," he knew what he was talking about. The hardcore Trump base - an apparent majority of the GOP caucus voters in Iowa Monday - isn't going to be swayed by conservative challenger critiques, criminal trials, or incitement of mob attacks on the Capitol. They've found their man, and they're sticking with him no matter what.

Yes, Trump struggles to top 50% support in many state polls, fueling the old saw that if the assorted non-Trump candidates would just consolidate behind one challenger, the former president might be in trouble. Perhaps that's how it'll wind up working in New Hampshire next week, with Nikki Haley emerging as the likely beneficiary of Chris Christie's beaching. (Disclosure: a close family member of mine works for the Haley campaign.)

After a disappointing finish in Iowa, Vivek Ramaswamy ended his presidential bid late Monday night, according to his spokesperson. Those votes aren't going to Haley; didn't she call their man "scum"? And what if Ron DeSantis, the man voters seem to like less and less the more they get to know him, packs it in? Hard to believe there's a ton of opportunity for Haley there either.

And what about the notion that New Hampshire voters will relish the opportunity to negate the Iowa result? Maybe they will. Or maybe Trump's Iowa triumph will persuade wavering Republicans that it's OK to vote for him again after all. Consider how much of the anti-Trump argument within the party has been based on the notion that, after losing the White House to Methuselah and presiding over spectacular failures in recent Congressional elections, Trump himself is a wicked loser. Huh. The loser just won big in Iowa. How's that square up?

Speaking of President Biden, we hear Queen of Alternative Facts Kellyanne Conway opined on cable TV that he was the big loser of the Iowa outcome. Is that laughing I hear coming from Biden HQ? Recall the historic amount of votes the lackluster Biden campaign racked up four years ago and check out the polls that repeatedly show his running stronger against Trump than either DeSantis or Haley.

I'd guess Biden was perfectly happy with the Iowa outcome. Trump is what he needs to reanimate the Democratic base and swing voters so fed up with Trump's antics they rallied behind a candidate who didn't exactly thrill them. As Politico reported, Trump tolda roomful of Iowans the other day "these caucuses are your personal chance to score the ultimate victory over all of the liars, cheaters, thugs, perverts, frauds, crooks, freaks, creeps and other quite nice people."

That's you, America's non-MAGA citizens. It's enough to make you forget what a colossal gaffe Hillary Clinton's infamous line about all the "deplorables" backing Trump was.

Jon Keller is Political Analyst for WBZ-TV News, and his "Keller @ Large" reports on a wide range of topics are regularly featured during WBZ-TV News at 5 and 6 p.m. Keller's commentaries are also seen weekday mornings at 5:30 a.m. on WBZ This Morning.

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Keller @ Large: What Donald Trump's win in Iowa means for the presidential race - CBS Boston

Legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said Thursday that former President Donald Trump just incriminated himself in a Truth Social post about his federal election interference case.

Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in August on four federal felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, for his actions surrounding the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. On that fateful day, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. to stop the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election win. The riot erupted after Trump repeatedly said, without any evidence, that the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud. The former president has denied taking part in an insurrection and pleaded not guilty to all charges in the case.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has claimed that the case is politically motivated. Meanwhile, the former president and his legal team have also argued that he should receive presidential immunity in his federal election case since he was still in office when the riot ensued. However, critics say he was not acting in his official capacity at the time.

Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent critic of the former president, said in a YouTube video posted Thursday night that Trump incriminated himself with a recent post he made on Truth Social, the former president's social media platform.

Trump wrote in a post on Thursday, "A president of the United States must have full immunity, without which it would be impossible for him/her to properly function. Any mistake, even if well intended, would be met with almost certain indictment by the opposing party at term end. Even events that 'cross the line' must fall under total immunity, or it will be years of trauma trying to determine good from bad..."

Kirschner weighed in on why he thinks Trump's post could be used in DOJ special counsel Jack Smith's federal election interference case against Trump.

"That's what I'd refer to as a tacit admission or an implied admission, but you really don't have to read between the lines. This is Donald Trump demanding immunity for himself since when is he ever concerned about what happens to others, other presidents for example. He wants immunity for himself, even when events cross the line," Kirschner said.

In his video, he then interpreted Trump's post as the former president saying, "I'm entitled to total immunity. I'm entitled to be permitted to commit these crimes. These crimes must be tolerated. These crimes must be excused."

The NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst believes that Smith and his team are keeping close tabs on the former president.

"It doesn't look like Donald Trump is going to stop providing confessions, admissions, incriminating statements to Jack Smith anytime soon. And trust me friends, Jack Smith's team of federal prosecutors is cataloging every word, every sentence, every post because Donald Trump can't help himself," Kirschner said.

Kirschner told Newsweek via text message on Friday, "Trump also believes (IMO) [in my opinion] that when he openly admits his wrong-doing, it causes people to question his criminal intent (which is a necessary element of proof, together with proof of a criminal act). 'If he's openly admitting it, he must not think it's criminal. He must not think he's doing anything wrong.'"

He continued: "Please! In reality, his admissions simply make it easier to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, including Trump's criminal intent."

Kirschner also pointed a finger at the United States government for hesitating to hold Trump accountable.

"Trump is right to believe that he can not only commit crimes but can also admit to crimes, and the institutions of government will STILL hesitate to hold him accountable. Hell, it's worked for him thus far, hasn't it? Our law enforcement agencies and institutions do a lousy job of holding accountable the ruling class criminals - people of wealth, power, influence, connections," he told Newsweek.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign told Newsweek via email on Friday, "Glenn is a notorious trafficker of wild conspiracy theories and dubious legal analysis. I would expect nothing more from a clout-chasing MSNBC contributor who has been shunned by the legal community at large."

Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Trump's federal election interference case, has already ruled against Trump's immunity claim. But the former president has challenged her decision and the immunity claim is now with a federal appellate court.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Donald Trump Just Incriminated Himself on Truth Social: Legal Analyst - Newsweek

Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "actively hoping" that former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has long praised and even quoted the Russian leader on the campaign trail. At a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, earlier this month, the former president quoted Putin who criticized the numerous criminal charges that Trump is currently facing, all of which the former president has pleaded not guilty to.

"Even Vladimir Putin...says that Biden's, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy," Trump quoted Putin as saying, who made the comment during an economic forum in eastern Russia in September. Putin did not name Biden in the original quote.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Trump and Putin has been criticized since the former president's 2016 run when questions of Russia's alleged election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign arose.

"I have never understood this whole relationship between Mr. Trump and Putin. Putin is a thug, a murderer, he's gotten the Russian Federation into terrible trouble economically, politically. He stamped out free speech. So, why Mr. Trump seems to be in league with this desperado is hard to understand," McCaffrey said during his interview appearance on MSNBC.

He added: "Yes, Putin and for that matter other criminal enterprises like the North Koreans are actively hoping to have Mr. Trump back in office, where in my personal opinion, he would be devastatingly bad for U.S. national security."

McCaffrey, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, was in the U.S. Army for 32 years and later served as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bill Clinton.

Newsweek reached out to McCaffrey via X direct message, Trump's campaign via email and the Russian government via online form.

Following Trump's 2016 win against his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into possible Russian interference in the election.

Special counsel Robert Mueller led the investigation and in March 2019 his findings were made public in what is notoriously known as the Mueller report.

"Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," the report said.

Russia has denied allegations of election inference and Trump has called the Mueller report a "complete and total exoneration."

However, regarding the question of whether Trump obstructed justice, the report said, "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."

"While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," according to the report.

In March 2021, a U.S. intelligence report was released that alleged Russia also tried to help Trump in the 2020 election, but that there was no evidence of foreign voter fraud.

Putin authorized "influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating socio-political divisions in the U.S," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence report said.

The Kremlin denied allegations that it interfered in the 2020 election, which Trump ultimately lost to Biden. The former president also denied being "given help from any country" in the election.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Putin 'Actively Hoping' to Get Donald Trump Back as President: Ret. General - Newsweek

A United States appeals court denied on Thursday Donald Trumps request to pause his upcoming defamation trial in a lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.

Last week, the former presidents attorneys asked the court to delay the case for up to 90 days, asserting that they needed more time to consider whether to approach the U.S. Supreme Court after their presidential immunity claim was shot down.

Trump argued that he couldnt be sued for remarks he made in 2019 about Carroll and her sexual assault allegations against him because, as president, it was his job to tell the public that the accusations were false.

But, in a unanimous decision, the three-judge appeals court panel found that Trump waited too longthree yearsto come up with the defense.

The Jan. 16 trial, which will determine how much Trump owes Carroll in damages for his defamatory comments, will be Carrolls second against the former president.

In the previous case, she said Trump raped her at a New York department store in the 1990s and later defamed her after he called her accounts a con job.

In May, the jury found that Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll and awarded the writer $5 million in damages.

Trump has also used the presidential immunity claim in Special Counsel Jack Smiths criminal election interference case. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied that immunity claim, an order that Trump has since appealed.

Excerpt from:

Trump Loses Bid to Put E. Jean Carroll Defamation Trial on Hold - The Daily Beast

The campaign to have former President Donald J. Trump removed from the ballot over his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election has kicked into high gear, with decisions in two states, Maine and Colorado, barring him from the primary ballots.

Challenges are still underway in many more states, based on an obscure clause of a constitutional amendment enacted after the Civil War that disqualifies government officials who engaged in insurrection or rebellion from holding office.

Over the years, the courts and Congress have done little to clarify how that criterion should apply, adding urgency to the calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the politically explosive dispute before the upcoming election.

Heres what to know about the challenges.

The Maine secretary of state said on Thursday that Mr. Trump did not qualify for the Republican primary ballot there because of his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She agreed with a handful of citizens who claimed that he had incited an insurrection and was thus barred from seeking the presidency again under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

In a written decision, the secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said that while no one in her position had ever barred a candidate from the ballot based on Section 3 of the amendment, no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.

Hours later, the secretary of state in California announced that Mr. Trump would remain on the ballot in the nations most populous state, where election officials have limited power to remove candidates.

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Trump Ballot Challenges: What to Know - The New York Times

As the top elections official in Washington State, Steve Hobbs says he is troubled by the threat former President Donald J. Trump poses to democracy and fears the prospect of his return to power. But he also worries that recent decisions in Maine and Colorado to bar Mr. Trump from presidential primary ballots there could backfire, further eroding Americans fraying faith in U.S. elections.

Removing him from the ballot would, on its face value, seem very anti-democratic, said Mr. Hobbs, a Democrat who is in his first term as secretary of state. Then he added a critical caveat: But so is trying to overthrow your country.

Mr. Hobbss misgivings reflect deep divisions and unease among elected officials, democracy experts and voters over how to handle Mr. Trumps campaign to reclaim the presidency four years after he went to extraordinary lengths in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. While some, like Mr. Hobbs, think it best that voters settle the matter, others say that Mr. Trumps efforts require accountability and should be legally disqualifying.

Challenges to Mr. Trumps candidacy have been filed in at least 32 states, though many of those challenges have gained little or no traction, and some have languished on court dockets for months.

The decisions happening right now come amid a collapse of faith in the American electoral system, said Nate Persily, a Stanford Law School professor who specializes in election law and democracy.

We are walking in new constitutional snow here to try and figure out how to deal with these unprecedented developments, he said.

Professor Persily and other legal experts said they expected the United States Supreme Court would ultimately overturn the decisions in Colorado and Maine to keep Mr. Trump on the ballot, perhaps sidestepping the question of whether Mr. Trump engaged in an insurrection. Mr. Persily is hopeful that whatever ruling the court issues will bring clarity and soon.

This is not a political and electoral system that can deal with ambiguity right now, he said.

Mr. Trump and his supporters have called the disqualifications in Maine and Colorado partisan ploys that robbed voters of their right to choose candidates. They accused Democrats of hypocrisy for trying to bar Mr. Trump from the ballot after campaigning in the past two elections as champions of democracy.

After the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump should be removed from the states primary ballot, Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, said in a statement: Apparently democracy is when judges tell people theyre not allowed to vote for the candidate leading in the polls? This is disgraceful. The Supreme Court must take the case and end this assault on American voters.

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and Mr. Trumps most ardent critic in the Republican primary, warned that Maines decision would turn Mr. Trump into a martyr.

But other prominent critics of Mr. Trump many of them anti-Trump Republicans said the threat he posed to democracy and his actions surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol now required an extraordinary intervention, whatever the electoral consequences.

The challenges are based on a Reconstruction Era provision of the 14th Amendment that prohibits anyone who has engaged in rebellion or insurrection from holding federal or state office.

J. Michael Luttig, a retired conservative federal appeals court judge, hailed Colorados and Maines decisions as unassailable interpretations of the Constitution. Officials in Maine and Colorado who disqualified Mr. Trump from the ballot have written that their decisions stemmed from following the language of the Constitution.

But on a recent sunny Friday afternoon in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Deena Drewis, 37, a copy writer, and Aaron Baggaley, 43, a contractor, both of whom have consistently voted for Democrats, expressed a queasy ambivalence over such an extraordinary step.

Im really just conflicted, Mr. Baggaley said. Its hard to imagine he didnt fully engage in insurrection. Everything points to it. But the other half of the country is in a position where they feel like it should be up to the electorate.

Officials in Democratic-controlled California have shown little appetite for following Colorado and Maine. Californias Democratic secretary of state, Shirley Weber, announced on Thursday that Mr. Trump would remain on the ballot, and Gov. Gavin Newsom dismissed calls by other Democrats to remove him. We defeat candidates at the polls, Mr. Newsom said in a statement. Everything else is a political distraction.

In interviews, some voters and experts said it was premature to disqualify Mr. Trump because he had not been criminally convicted of insurrection. They worried that red-state officials could use the tactic to knock Democratic candidates off future ballots, or that the disqualifications could further poison the countrys political divisions while giving Mr. Trump a new grievance to rail against.

Attempts to disqualify demagogues with deep popular support often backfire, said Yascha Mounk, a professor and political scientist at Johns Hopkins University who has written about threats to democracies. The only way to neutralize the danger posed by authoritarian populists like Donald Trump is to beat them at the ballot box, as decisively as possible and as often as it takes.

The decisions by Colorados highest court and Maines secretary of state barring Mr. Trump from state primary ballots are on hold for now and are likely to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

While most of the challenges to Mr. Trumps candidacy have been proceeding in federal or state courts, Maines constitution required the voters seeking to disqualify Mr. Trump to file a petition with the secretary of state, putting the politically volatile and hugely consequential decision into the hands of Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat.

Her counterparts in other states said that they had spent months discussing whether they could face a similar decision, and that they had been talking with other elections officials and their legal teams about the thickets of state laws governing each states elections.

In Washington State, Mr. Hobbs said he did not believe he had the power as secretary of state to unilaterally remove Mr. Trump from the ballot. He was relieved, he said, because he did not think one person should have the power to decide who qualifies to run for president.

The stakes for the nation were enormous, Mr. Hobbs said, because of the damage Mr. Trump had already done to faith in the nations elections.

Its hard to put the genie back in the bottle, he said. This is going to be a long-term effort to try to regain trust among those who have lost it.

Jena Griswold, Colorados Democratic secretary of state, said in an interview this week that she supported decisions by Ms. Bellows and the Colorado Supreme Court to remove Mr. Trump from the ballot.

Election workers and secretaries of state have increasingly become the targets of conspiracy theorists and violent threats since Mr. Trumps refusal to accept his 2020 defeat; Ms. Griswold said she had received 64 death threats since the lawsuit seeking to remove Mr. Trump from the ballot was filed by six Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado.

All of us swear to uphold our state constitution and the U.S. Constitution, Ms. Griswold said. Making these decisions takes bravery and courage.

Her office announced this week that, because Mr. Trumps case had been appealed, his name would be included on Colorados primary ballots unless the U.S. Supreme Court said otherwise or declined to take up his case.

In Arizona, placing Mr. Trump on the ballot was a more cut-and-dry decision, said Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state. He said that state law required him to list any candidate who had been certified in two other states.

He called the blizzard of legal rulings, dissents and contradictory opinions swirling around Mr. Trumps place on the ballot a slow rolling civics lesson that demonstrated the countrys democratic resilience.

I kind of celebrate the notion its complicated, he said. Were having this conversation because thats what democracy is about.

Mitch Smith and Michael Wines contributed reporting.

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Would Keeping Trump Off the Ballot Hurt or Help Democracy? - The New York Times

Rot in hell.

Those words were part of Donald Trumps Christmas Day message, spewed at his political enemies. The next day, when I was asked during a CNN interview about the increased violence in this country, I responded honestly that I thought the former presidents message was wrong and divisive. Im not afraid to say what I think, even when that means there may be unpleasant repercussions and threats from the former president and his supporters. A lot of us may face this type of conflict in the year ahead. I am particularly familiar with this, as Mr. Trump has targeted me in the past in ways that have been very difficult.

I was married to a great and wise man with whom I shared an incredible love for decades. I miss John every day. On the day that he died, in 2019, he dictated an op-ed to me that would be titled My Last Words for America. He observed, In our modern political age, the presidential bully pulpit seems dedicated to sowing division and denigrating, often in the most irrelevant and infantile personal terms, the political opposition. Months after his death, when I voted for the first articles of impeachment against President Trump, he launched into a brutal attack saying that John was looking up at me (implying he was in hell). Thats the Trump way the cruelty is the point, yet that awareness doesnt make it any less painful. Were human. He knows that, and he thrives on it.

I am not seeking a fight with Mr. Trump. Its not easy to tangle with him, especially after that experience involving John. But I do know that hateful rhetoric cannot be ignored or become normalized. We have to stand up to bullies in this country, and we have to call out indignities. My bluntness about rot in hell being unacceptable was my unfiltered reaction and I stand by it. In my view, the only way you can deal with bullies is to consistently call out their inexcusable behavior and stand in defense of those they choose to target. Trust me, I know it can wear you down but we cant grow tired, and we must push back on the hatred when we see it, calling it out, using language everyone understands and in ways that prevent it from seeping into our everyday lives and routines.

Being in Mr. Trumps tunnel of hate is not enjoyable. Frankly, its often frightening. Like many of my colleagues, I have received hostile calls, antagonistic mail and death threats, and I have had people outside my home with weapons. And it reflects the vitriol, bullying, rage and threats we are witnessing across the country today from our exchanges on social media to dialogue with each other and with those in our workplaces, schools, gathering places, families and communities. Its a real danger to our democracy and our safety.

When I expressed my thoughts about his Christmas message, Mr. Trump took to Truth Social to go after me once again as a loser. Unfortunately, he also brought John into his rant. I can deal with being called names and subjected to the standard venom that weve all become familiar with in Mr. Trumps social media attacks. But when he brings up John, its one of the things that hit me hardest. It would be easy to say his words dont hurt, but they do. And I am sure he knows it.

When my husband died, Mr. Trump called me. At the time, I was touched by the presidents sympathy, his taking the time to reach out, and having the flags flown at half-staff. I did not ask Mr. Trump for anything during that call; it was Representative Nancy Pelosi, who was then speaker of the House, who helped with funeral arrangements. John earned the tributes he received. But President Trump cared enough to call, and he lowered the flags. Though we recall it differently, to this day I remember his act of kindness. But that private moment of empathy wasnt and is not some kind of pass when my duty was to consider articles of impeachment against him, or a permission slip to allow for the public words he chose four years ago or those he used this week.

People dont know how much I still miss John, especially this time of year, and how easily the tears come. Loneliness is something that is affecting many these days, and the loss of someone who was your total partner, and accepting the painful reality he is gone, does not happen quickly or easily. It is a hard, exhausting process.

But I cannot and will not be bullied or intimidated by anyone. Sometimes tyrants think women will cower. We cannot. We have the strength and courage to do what is right and fight for the betterment of our communities.

Mr. Trumps style of politics the disrespect, prejudice, name-calling and malice that too often get swept aside as his just calling it as he sees it makes healthy debate and discussion virtually impossible. The word congress by definition means coming together. Government shouldnt be about who can make the most noise; its about working together to find solutions. Take it from me: What Mr. Trump is doing isnt honesty or candor, its ruthless and deliberate viciousness.

We can be sure Mr. Trumps rhetoric will get only more fiery, discordant and divisive over the next year leading up to the election. Weve already seen the dangerous and deadly consequences his words can have, and we cannot become complacent. This isnt just about one man. We all face a choice in how we react to bullies, and we all have a responsibility to choose civility in the face of cruelty.

What I would encourage people to do, if attacked by Mr. Trump or his supporters, is to not be afraid to challenge the attack. Try to de-escalate the situation by presenting an alternative point of view calmly. Dont let them bait you to descend to their level. Because that animosity is exacerbating the problem: We are watching very premeditated and carefully chosen words and actions by Mr. Trump that are stoking anger, further fueling a lack of trust in many institutions and creating a climate that is threatening democracy. Beware, the dangers are real.

Im concerned by Mr. Trumps pledges to rip health care away from Americans and to rule as a dictator, and by his applause of political violence. We need to hold people accountable for their words. I know that if John were here, he would tell me to do exactly what Im doing now to stand up and make my voice heard, and not back down. Thats what Im going to continue to do, and I hope that as we look toward 2024, all our leaders, elected and aspiring, will join me.

Debbie Dingell is a Michigan Democrat and member of the House of Representatives from Michigan.

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Opinion | Debbie Dingell: Why Standing Up to Trump Is Worth the Pain - The New York Times

Overall, Donald Trump has had a pretty good 2023.

Despite his enormous legal troubles, including four criminal indictments, the former president has made it through a roller coaster of a year in some ways stronger than when it began.

A year ago, Trump had just announced an early bid for the GOP's presidential nomination, a campaign that many doubted would be successful in a crowded field that included a highly anticipated run from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But Trump's Republican rivals, including DeSantis, have failed to catch up to his popularity among voters, and Trump's 2024 candidacy only gained momentum as the pile of legal actions against him grew.

His chances of beating President Joe Biden in a hypothetical rematch have also improved from a year ago, thanks to stubborn high prices and the ongoing border crisis, with the latter becoming such a headache for Biden that the Democrats are considering reviving Trump's immigration policies. Biden's indicted son Hunter has inadvertently given Trump a boost, handing the GOP megastar fodder for his attacks on his successor as the indictment of a public figure, now seemingly normalized, has hit the president and his family personally.

Trump saw other victories in 2023 as well, including his reinstatement to Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership, as well as to Facebook and Instagram after a two-year ban.

Here's a look back on the former president's tumultuous year:

Trump spent 2023 fielding lawsuits and criminal charges left and right.

In March, he became the first former president to ever be charged with a crime when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that Trump had been indicted on 34 felony counts related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Trump was accused by Bragg of falsifying business records with the explicit intent of covering up crimes, which bumped up a misdemeanor charge to a felony.

That indictment was followed by three more: two federal indictments and one out of Fulton County, Georgia. Special counsel Jack Smith's two investigations indicted Trump in June over alleged mishandling of classified documents and, in August, for his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Two weeks after his third indictment, Trump was charged with violating Georgia's racketeering laws, along with 18 co-defendants. The sweeping Racketeer Inuenced Corrupt Organization indictment from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis concerned attempts to overturn the 2020 election's results in her state.

The outcomes of those indictments are not certain, but Trump's court calendar is beginning to fill up with tentative dates. His federal election interference trial is scheduled a day before Super Tuesday, March 4, pending a decision on his immunity claim, and his Manhattan trial in the hush money case is slated for March 25.

The Mar-a-Lago classified documents trial is set for May 20 and the Georgia RICO trial is scheduled to begin August 5, less than three weeks after the Republican National Convention, where the party's presidential nominee will be named.

While none of these cases spell good news for Trump, he and the Republican Party have still benefited politically from them. A Newsweek analysis found that Trump saw a bump in the polls following his first indictment. Even though the uptick wasn't repeated after the other three indictments, those charges did not impede his steady climb among GOP primary voters. The indictments also furthered Republican claims that the Department of Justice was being weaponized against conservatives, a sentiment that has struck a chord among Republican voters.

"Any time they file an indictment we go way up in the polls," Trump said before his fourth indictment during a Republican Party dinner in Alabama. "We need one more indictment to close out this election. One more indictment and this election is closed out."

Trump did, however, suffer several major legal defeats in his civil lawsuits this year. In May, a Manhattan jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store change room in the mid-1990s. She was awarded $5 million in damages. Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, is appealing the decision.

In September, New York Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization committed fraud related to his real estate empire and ordered that some of his companies be removed from his control and dissolved. The order was seen as a large win for a longtime Trump nemesis, New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

The trial in the $250 million civil lawsuit is expected to wrap up next month and could result in a verdict that would bar Trump from running any business in New York state.

Trump's lead in the Republican primary race is even greater than it was at the beginning of 2023.

FiveThirtyEight's tracker shows the former president with 61 percent support as of Thursday, a 50-point advantage over the rest of the pack. In January, Trump was seeing only 45 percent support and was only 10 points ahead of DeSantis.

The Florida governor did not announce his 2024 campaign until May and is polling at 11 percent support among GOP voters. Trump has also managed to remain the overwhelming front-runner despite his refusal to participate in any of the four Republican presidential debates held this year.

The greatest candidate threat to emerge against Trump has not been DeSantis but former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who has caught up with DeSantis. Nonetheless, she remains 50 points behind Trump nationally. Haley's strongest performance is expected to be in New Hampshire, which will follow Iowa in the primary season voting and where Trump's lead over Haley is a narrow 18 points.

Trump is also polling well in a hypothetical race against Biden. The latest data from Real Clear Politics shows that Trump leads Biden by 2 points and that his lead is even greater in key battleground states like Georgia, Michigan and Arizona, where Biden trails him by 5 points, and in Nevada, where Biden is behind by 4 points. Biden won all four states in the 2020 election.

Biden's support for Israel during its war with Hamas has also cost him support from young voters, who have historically voted Democratic and were credited with helping Biden secure his 2020 victory. Polls have increasingly shown a positive trend for Trump among voters under 30.

Last week, a national survey released by The New York Times/Siena College found Trump leading Biden 49 percent to 43 percent among Americans between 18 and 29 years olda 6-point advantage that's enough to give Trump a 2-point lead among registered voters overall.

Less than four years ago, 2020 exit polls showed Biden defeating Trump by 24 points among voters under 30. Just over a year ago, that advantage was 21 points.

Biden is not only losing voters with his response to the Israel-Hamas war. Overall, the president's 2023 has arguably been not as strong as Trump's.

Although Biden spent the first two years of his presidency signing several significant pieces of bipartisan legislation into law, appointing his first Supreme Court justice and celebrating the Democrats' better-than-expected midterms performance, his approval rating in 2023 took a toll from the public's perception of the economy and the border crisis.

Biden has spent the past year touting his economic agenda, dubbed Bidenomics; the unemployment rate's drop to a pre-pandemic, five-decade low; and the sharp curb in inflation, from June 2022's 9.1 percent peak to last month's 3.1 percent. But many Americans say they have yet to feel the economic reliefsomething that clearly frustrated the president as he ripped into the media coverage of the economy earlier this week.

"Start reporting it the right way," the president told White House reporters on Sunday.

Confidence in the economy has improved over the past year, but it remains in negative territory and is still a pressing issue for many voters. Last week, Gallup found that only 22 percent of Americans see current economic conditions in the U.S. as excellent or good, while nearly 7 in 10 Americans say the economy is getting worse.

Even though there have been improvements, 14 percent of voters say the economy in general is the most important problem facing the country, and 12 percent point to inflation specifically, making economic concerns the No. 3 concern among voters.

The government/poor leadership and immigration remain the top two concerns, with 16 percent of Americans citing each. Immigration has plagued the Biden administration since the beginning of his presidency, when an influx of migrants came to the U.S.-Mexico border.

In the 2023 fiscal year, 2.5 million migrants crossed the bordera historic high that topped the record set in the prior year. As some Republican governors deployed an offensive response, sending migrants to Democratic-led cities like New York City and Washington, D.C., the mayors of those so-called sanctuary cities have ramped up pressure on Biden to address the increase in asylum seekers.

Multiple reports have indicated that the White House is now prepared to implement border policies that mirror those under the Trump administration. These include a possible revival of the pandemic-era Title 42 policy that Biden tried to lift in 2022, a potential expansion of immigration enforcement inside the U.S., and changes to legal standards that could make it harder for people to get asylum.

Personally, Biden has faced a barrage of attacks from GOP critics over his son Hunter, who was indicted twice this year on gun and tax-related charges. Hunter has pleaded not guilty to the gun charges and is set to be arraigned on the tax charges in January. His indictments have helped somewhat to normalize Trump's indictments while also casting a shadow over his father. A CNN poll from September found that 55 percent of Americans think Biden acted inappropriately in connection with the Justice Department's investigation of his son's alleged crimes.

But Biden has remained undeterred in his efforts to win reelection, telling reporters earlier this month that even though he's not the only Democrat who could beat Trump if he wins the Republican nomination, "I will defeat him."

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Donald Trump's Amazing Year - 2024 Election - Newsweek