Category Archives: Donald Trump

By Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor | Tuesday, August 09, 2022President Donald J. Trump disembarks Marine One at Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, and boards Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. | White House/Shealah Craighead

While Donald Trump remains the front-running, potential presidential candidate in the GOP, an increasing number of Trump voters say they would prefer that he not run in 2024, myself included in that number.

Are we guilty of being fair-weather friends of Trump, supporting him when he was in power but rejecting him now that hes out of power? Thats certainly a fair question.

If Trump is your man, you obviously feel he has earned your trust and hes the best man for the job. My intent here is not to argue with you or question your judgment.

But what about those of us who voted for him twice but would prefer another candidate now? Are we being fair-weather friends?

Ill help you bring the charge against me.

You could argue that: 1) I was against Trump during the 2016 primaries, preferring any number of Republican candidates to him; 2) when he became the Republican candidate, I voted for him with both hope and trepidation in 2016, but primarily as a vote against Hillary; 3) I voted for him more enthusiastically in 2020 after watching him keep his promises for four years; 4) I distanced myself from him in the aftermath of January 6.

Isnt this like wearing your home teams jersey when theyre winning but calling them bums when theyre losing? Or worse still, like wearing their opponents jersey when theyre losing?

Im sure it could appear like that to some, and for many people, perception is reality.

Thats why I wasnt surprised at all when I was branded a Never Trumper and a RINO and weak and unpatriotic (and more) when I said that it was time for us to move on from Trump.

Of course, as a registered Independent, its hard to be a RINO. And as a two-time Trump voter (who often defended him when he was falsely accused), its hard to be a Never Trumper.

But the reality is that the same factors that caused me (and many others) to vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020 are the same factors that cause me (and many others) to wish for a different candidate in 2024.

And, given the intense loyalty and the large number of Trump supporters, it requires backbone, not weakness, to swim against this vocally fierce tide.

To be clear, I am not suggesting for a moment that millions of Trump supporters are backing him because it's convenient or easy. Not at all. I recognize their sincerity and I understand why they still believe hes the best man for the job. And they still suffer reproach for standing with their man.

Im simply saying that its a whole lot easier to keep ones mouth shut than to call the failed Trump prophets to account. Or to state publicly that, while not legally responsible for the storming of the Capitol, he was morally responsible.

For me, the conservative Christian principles that led me to vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020 are the principles that lead me to look for another candidate.

It has nothing to do with who the frontrunner is or who is currently in power.

It has everything to do with pros vs. cons, with gains vs. losses, with positives vs. negatives. And some things only become clear over time, which explains the chronological history of my attitudes toward Trump. Perhaps I speak for others here as well?

At the beginning, I didnt trust him at all, assuming he was using evangelicals like other presidents had done before him, especially given his own wheeler-dealer, worldly background.

When some of my friends got closer to him, sharing their positive perspective with me, and when it seemed there was something uncanny about his ascendancy to the top of the pack, I lowered my resistance.

When it was Trump vs. Hillary, my choice was clear. Still, I had concerns.

Over the course of Trumps presidency, in my view, the good outweighed the bad, and so I planned to vote for him again in 2020, with even more confidence than in 2016.

But in virtually every article I wrote speaking well of him, I also added caveats.

But this was not to hedge my bets. Instead, it was because I saw that our unreserved, wholehearted association with Trump as Christians was hurting our witness, not to mention hurting us too, as we seemed to emulate him more than we emulated Jesus. And I recognized the damage he could do.

To me, integrity required us to say (to give a case in point), I really appreciated the presidents Mt. Rushmore speech, and it sent a strong message of racial harmony. But why did he have to shoot himself in the foot by going after NASCAR driver Bubba Watson only hours later?

Then, as we got closer to November 2020, I became more deeply concerned.

There was a loud chorus of prophets guaranteeing four more years of Trump with almost cultlike support for their words.

There was an almost frenzied concern that, if Trump was not reelected, the whole country would collapse, as if only Trump could save America.

There was an increasingly unhealthy merging of the Gospel with politics and of the kingdom of God with national patriotism.

Yet I still voted for Trump, without hesitation (after all, it was Trump vs. Biden), even as these other concerns grew.

Then, in the aftermath of the elections, as I watched Christian leaders pronounce curses on those who allegedly stole the elections, as I watched many prophets try to cover their tracks, as I watched believers have emotional meltdowns over Trumps apparent defeat (or, the steal), as I watched QAnon conspiracies flood our social media pages, I realized things were even worse than I had realized.

Then, watching some of the rhetoric at Christian rallies leading up to January 6 it was downright dangerous and witnessing Trumps failure to read the crowd or recognize the irresponsibility of his own rhetoric, I was convinced that we needed a very serious course correction. And thats where I stand today.

I also agree with the assessment of Elon Musk, when he was asked where he differed with Trump on policy (since Musk expressed his preference for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis). He replied, Yeah, but too much drama. Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!?

Personally, I have deep appreciation for the good that Trump did and for his loyalty to his evangelical base, and I commend him for keeping his promises. There were even some things about his presidency that were exceptional.

But with so much collateral damage and with other viable candidates available, the same principles that prompted me to vote for him now prompt me (and many other, former Trump voters) to look for someone else.

You can differ with our assessment and think were dead wrong. Fair enough. Just dont mistake us for fair-weather friends. Quite the contrary.

Speaking for myself, this is about loyalty to God, concern for the Church, and love for America.

Dr. Michael Brown(www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicatedLine of Fireradio program. His latest book isRevival Or We Die: A Great Awakening Is Our Only Hope.Connect with him onFacebook,Twitter, orYouTube.

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Have we been fair weather friends of Donald Trump? - The Christian Post

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held at the Hilton Anatole on August 06, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. CPAC began in 1974, and is a conference that brings together and hosts conservative organizations, activists, and world leaders in discussing current events and future political agendas.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images

A commercial real estate firm held in contempt of court for failing to hand over records on its appraisals of severalTrump Organizationproperties to New York's attorney general has turned over nearly 36,000 documents, court filings show.

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron had found Cushman & Wakefieldin contemptlast month for not producing documents in state Attorney General Letitia James'civil probeinto the Trump Organization's business practices and ordered the firm to pay a $10,000-a-day fine until it complied.

In aletter to the judgelate Friday, James' office said it has now "received Cushman's production, which amounts to about 35,867 documents since entry of this court's contempt order." The letter said the attorney general's office was joining with Cushman in asking the judge to "dissolve the contempt order and hold any contempt purged, without any fines due or owing."

Cushman's and James' spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

James' office is considering whether to file a civil suitagainst former President Donald Trump and his company over their business practices, and has said in court filings that it has "uncovered substantial evidence establishing numerous misrepresentations in Mr. Trump's financial statements provided to banks, insurers, and the Internal Revenue Service."

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Trump real estate appraiser hands over thousands of documents to N.Y. AG in civil probe - CNBC

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Former President Donald Trump strongly indicated he is preparing to run for president and suggested an announcement will come soon.

Trump, who has repeatedly said that he's made a decision on the 2024 race, was asked by Fox News Digital at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas when Republicans could expect a formal announcement.

TRUMP EASILY WINS TEXAS CPAC 2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION STRAW POLL; DESANTIS SECOND

"Its certainly not a very long period, the time is coming," said the former president. "I think people are going to be very happy, our country has never been in a position like this, we've lost everything."

Former President Donald Trump speaks to Fox News Digital at CPAC in Texas. (Fox News Digital)

Trump said that America was facing both domestic and foreign policy crises. In particular, he argued the country's "prestige" had been damaged by President Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE OPEN TO WHITE HOUSE RUN 'DOWN THE ROAD'

"Our country has never been at a worse point," said Trump. "They gave away $85 billion worth of equipment, dead soldiers, you still have Americans over there probably as hostages, eventually will be hostages, there has never been a time like this.

"We'll be making an announcement in the not too distant future," added Trump.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The remarks came shortly after CPAC unveiled its straw poll showing Trump as the overwhelming favorite for the 2024 GOP nomination among the conservative grassroots. Trump captured nearly 70% of the ballots cast at the conference, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in at a distant second at 23.7%.

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Since leaving the White House in January 2021, Trump has maintained an active presence within the Republican Party.

The former president has endorsed an expansive list of candidates running for everything from local and state office to the United States Senate.

Haris Alic covers Congress and politics for Fox News Digital. You can contact him at haris.alic@fox.com or follow him on Twitter at @realharisalic.

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Donald Trump hints at 2024 White House comeback bid: The time is coming - Fox News

Dick Cheney has branded Donald Trump the greatest threat to our republic, in a new campaign ad for his daughter, Liz Cheney, who is running for re-election in Wyoming.

In our nations 236-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump, said Cheney, who served as vice-president for two terms under George W Bush.

Cheney said: He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.

He is a coward. A real man wouldnt lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down I think most Republicans know it.

Cheney went on to speak about how proud he was of his daughter for standing up to the truth, doing whats right, honoring her oath to the constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do so.

The one-minute ad featured the elder Cheneys sharpest public attacks against Trump to date. Best known as the most powerful vice-president in American history, and a major figure in leading the US to war in Iraq, he has taken to defending his daughter in her fight against Trump.

Theres nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never near the Oval Office. And she will succeed, he said in the ad.

The younger Cheney has been widely praised from liberals as vice-chairwoman of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack. Cheney has been one of Trumps most pointed critics, accusing him of violating the constitution for his role in the insurrection.

In return, she has been largely ostracized from her party. Cheney faces an uphill re-election battle against the Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman, who maintains that the 2020 election was stolen.

Liz Cheney has long forgotten she works for Wyoming (or perhaps she never knew), not the Radical Democrats, Hageman tweeted on Thursday. Wyoming deserves a Congresswoman who will represent us AND our conservative values. Its time to retire elitist Liz Cheney.

Though Cheney has at least a million dollars more in donations to her campaign against Hageman, she was 22 points behind Hageman in a July poll conducted by the Casper Star-Tribune.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Cheney said she does not expect to lose on 16 August.

I really believe that the people of Wyoming fundamentally understand how important fidelity to the constitution is understand how important it is that we fight for those fundamental principles on which everything else is based, she said.

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Dick Cheney attacks Donald Trump as greatest threat to our republic - The Guardian US

Last month we learned that Donald Trumps attorneys are planning for criminal charges from the Department of Justice, an effort that ramped up in the wake of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinsons damning testimony before the January 6 committee. It would be career malpractice not to, a source familiar with the matter told Rolling Stone. Do the [former] presidents attorneys believe everything Cassidy said? No. Do they think the Department of Justice would be wise to charge him? No. But weve gotten to a point where if you dont think criminal charges are at least somewhat likely, you are not serving the [former] presidents best interests. And while its possible the DOJ could decline to indict the former guy, recent developments suggest he might not get that lucky.

On Tuesday, ABC News reported that in a dramatic escalation in the Justice Departments investigation of the plot to overturn the 2020 election and the violent insurrection that followed, the department had subpoenaed Pat Cipollone, White House counsel during the Trump administration. In addition to being the highest-ranking member of the White House staff to have been called to testify by the feds to date, Cipollone was in the West Wing while Trumps supporters, egged on by the then commander in chief at the Stop the Steal rally, attacked the Capitol. As The New York Times notes, Cipollone also attended several meetings in the run-up to the riot in which Mr. Trump and his allies discussed how they could overturn the election and keep him in office. In a previously taped recording that aired during the final January 6 hearing of the summer, Cipollone told the panel he believed the president should have done more to call off the angry mob. I think I was pretty clear there needed to be an immediate and forceful response, statement, public statement, that people need to leave the Capitol now, he said. Cipollone also knew of Trumps desire to seize voting machines, which he dubbed a terrible idea for the country, not how we do things in the United States, and something the administration had no legal authority to do. Of Trumps tweet attacking Mike Pence as the violence was unfolding and Secret Service members thought they were going to lose their lives, Cipollone told the panel:

Responding to the news of the Cipollone subpoena, Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans on the January 6 panel, told CNN it didnt look good for Trump. He added: Well see where this goes, but there is no doubt that this investigation has developed further along than even where we knew it was or thought it was a few months ago.

On Thursday, CNN reported that Trumps legal team is is in direct communication with Justice Department officials, with the conversations focused mostly on whether any communications that witnesses from the Trump West Wing had with the former president can be kept from a federal criminal grand jury under Trumps claims of executive privilege. For example, his conversations with Cipollone. Sources told CNN Trumps lawyers have warned him criminal charges are possible, echoing Rolling Stones reporting.

The escalation of the DOJs investigation comes just over a week after it was revealed that Marc ShortandGreg Jacob,two former top aides to Mike Pence, had beeninterviewedby a grand jury investigating the plot to overturn the election and the attack on the Capitol. In addition to being able to speak to the threat to Pences life on January 6Short was at the Capitol with the V.P. that daythe former chief of staff was also present at the Oval Office meeting on January 4, 2021, during which attorneyJohn Eastmanpressuredthe V.P. to either suspend the Electoral College vote count and ask willing state legislatures to reexamine their results, or simply rejectJoe Bidens win outright. It was during that meeting that Eastman reportedly admitted that he knew such ideas were illegal, but told Pence, with the president listening, to go along with them anyway. Jacob, Pences chief legal counsel, was at that meeting as well. In March, a federal judgewrotethat Eastman and Trump very likely committed a crime in attempting to overturn the election, and noted that the illegality of the plan was obvious.

In other news re: Trumps legal peril, his allies in Georgia are reportedly mounting a campaign to recall Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her investigation into the then presidents attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. While conceding that the chances of a successful recall are low, a source familiar with the effort told Yahoo News that thats beside the point and that, as reporter Michael Isikoff writes, the aim is to use the recall campaign as a way to politically damage the Democratic district attorney, portraying her as a partisan actor who is ignoring soaring crime rates in Atlanta in order to target high-profile Republicans. Isikoff adds, A side benefit of that game plan, another source familiar with the campaign said, is to potentially influence a jury pool down the road should a case against Trump go to trial. In other words, theyre scared shitless.

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This Is Probably Bad for Former President Trump: The DOJ Does Not Appear to Be F--king Around - Vanity Fair

WASHINGTON Donald Trump brought his dark views of Joe Bidens presidency to Dallas on Saturday night, warning that American civilization will collapse if hes not returned to power and regurgitating his falsehoods about the 2020 election.

The election was rigged and stolen, and now our country is being systematically destroyed. And everybody knows it....I ran twice and won twice, he declared at the Conservative Political Action Conference. America is on the edge of an abyss. And our movement is the only force on earth that can save it.

We have to seize this opportunity to deal with the radical left socialists and fascists, Trump said, rallying activists for the November midterms.

Persecution and grievance were recurring themes at the three-day conference at the Hilton Anatole, where speakers echoed Trumps disproved assertions that he actually won in 2020. Trump and others denounced the House Jan. 6 investigation.

Look at what theyre doing to President Trump. They understand they cant beat him at the ballot box. They cant beat his energy. They cant beat his vision, Steve Bannon, Trumps former strategist, told CPAC on Friday, two weeks after his conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Theyre trying to put him in jail to make sure he cannot run again and 2024 and be the rightful president he should be right now.

Trump has been a rock star at CPAC for years.

He handily won a straw poll of attendees on Saturday, topping Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 69-24 as their top pick for president in 2024. Sen. Ted Cruz was a distant third at 2%.

I said I better win that damn straw poll Its an honor, Trump said, noting hed also scored a 99% approval rating. When is the last time somebody had 99% approval?

Nationally, just under half of Republicans named Trump as their top choice in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. And nearly one in five believe his actions after losing the election threatened American democracy. At CPAC, 91% of attendees said they would support Trump if he seeks the Republican nomination.

Almost all of the progress that we have made comes either directly or indirectly from Donald Trump, said conservative media host Glenn Beck, warming up the crowd for Trump.

High on Becks list: the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade and ending a half-century of constitutional protection for abortion rights. Trump installed three of justices on the nine-member court, cementing a rightward shift that will last a generation and endearing himself to conservatives.

Kari Lake, the Trump-backed GOP nominee for Arizona governor, called him the greatest president weve ever known.

Hes got the globalists against him. Hes got the fake news against him. Hes got the left against him, and hes even got some people in our own party against him, she said.

Trump took the stage at the Hilton Anatole to the strains of Lee Greenwoods Proud to be an American, surveying the ballroom at attention until the song ended.

A video played just before he stepped into the spotlight a four minute distillation of his case against Biden.

America, he said, has become a joke. And he said, We are a nation that allowed Russia to devastate a country, Ukraine, killing hundreds of thousands of people, and it will only get worse.

Fortunately for Ukraine, that vastly exaggerates the toll. The United Nations has confirmed 5,327 civilian deaths in Ukraine. Western intelligence agencies say Russia has lost up to 20,000 troops, and Ukraine somewhat fewer.

Trump lavished attention on Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, teasing that Jackson liked being White House physician even more than serving in Congress, because he loved looking at my body. He said I was the healthiest president thats ever lived.

Trump blasted Pelosi for visiting Taiwan earlier this week, asserting that she had provoked China needlessly.

I got impeached twice. She failed twice. The woman brings chaos, Trump said, asserting that by going to Taiwan, Pelosi played right into their hands. Now they have an excuse to do whatever theyre doing.

In Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike lauded Pelosi for refusing to let China dictate where American officials can travel.

Trump hit Biden for failures on the economy, border security and foreign policy, not always with the facts on his side, as when he taunted Biden for allowing gasoline prices to skyrocket.

$1.87 a gallon I got it down to....A friend of mine from California called me this morning. He just paid $8.55, Trump predicted. Hed cited $8.25 a day earlier at a rally in Wisconsin.

Data from the federal Energy Information Administration show the average at $4.13 per gallon nationally, and $5.47 in California.

Prices spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine in February but have subsided by 20% since a the peak in late May. The low point Trump cited came during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the economy had come to a standstill.

The latest average in Texas is $3.65, down nearly a dollar in two months.

Trump was in Dallas in July 2021, the last time the American Conservative Union held CPAC there. He basked in chants of four more years and spun tall tales about a rigged election.

No evidence? Theres so much evidence, he insisted then.

He also used the forum to downplay the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying Bidens victory.

He complained that some patriots remained in jail months later, glossing over the fact that some supporters had called for the deaths of Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi that day.

The House Jan. 6 hearings revealed that members of Pences senior staff and security detail feared for their lives, and the vice presidents.

Trumps grievance list in July 2021 included his attorney general. Bill Barr, he complained, had refused to echo his assertions about election fraud or assign the Justice Department to engage in a fishing expedition for evidence.

Barr has since testified under oath to the House Jan. 6 committee that Trumps fabrications had no basis in fact, and recounted his refusal to go along.

Trump remains formidable within the Republican Party.

He has used his clout to punish Republicans in Congress who voted to impeach him over the Jan. 6 attack, and to target against state officials who refused to help overturn his defeat.

On Friday, for instance, he stumped in Wisconsin for a candidate running for governor against state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. Biden won the state by more than 20,000 votes and Vos resisted Trumps pressure to somehow nullify that outcome.

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Watch live: Trump at CPAC Dallas says election was rigged and stolen - The Dallas Morning News

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

Paul Morigi | WireImage | Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump "probably" will be indicted on criminal charges along with officials in his White House as part of a Justice Department investigation of efforts to reverse the 2020 election results nationally, ex-Attorney General Eric Holder said in an interview Thursday.

But Holder suggested that before that happens, Trump is more likely to first face possible criminal charges from the Georgia state prosecutor who is investigating attempts by Trump and his allies to undo President Joe Biden's win there in 2020.

Holder, who led the Justice Department during the Obama administration, made those predictions during an interview with the SiriusXM Urban View satellite radio show Joe Madison The Black Eagle.

Madison asked Holder whether he would seek to indict Trump if he still were attorney general.

Holder demurred, saying he did not have access to all the material that the Justice Department currently has regarding Trump.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during the pro-am prior to the LIV Golf Invitational - Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 28, 2022 in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Cliff Hawkins | Getty Images

But he told Madison that, based on his experience as a federal prosecutor who filed public corruption cases against elected officials, as "more evidence is elicited, you will see people start to cut deals."

"My guess is that by the end of this process, you're going to see indictments involving high-level people in the White House, you're going to see indictments against people outside the White House who were advising them with regard to the attempt to steal the election," said Holder.

"And I think ultimately you're probably going to see the president, former president of the United States indicted as well," he said.

The Justice Department reportedly is presenting evidence and testimony before two federal grand juries in Washington, D.C., one of which is eyeing a plan by Trump's lawyers and others to have so-called fake electors claim that the then-Republican incumbent won the election in their individual states.

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The other grand jury is investigating events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, when a mob of Trump supporters interrupted for hours the confirmation of Biden's Electoral College win by Congress.

Pat Cipollone, who served as Trump's White House counsel, has been subpoenaed to appear before one of those grand juries, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday.

For weeks after the November 2020 popular election, Trump falsely claimed that he defeated Biden and argued his Democratic opponent's Electoral College victory was based on widespread ballot fraud in several swing states.

The former president since leaving the White House has continued to dispute the 2020 election results and has said that the investigations into his conduct and that of his allies are politically motivated witch hunts.

Holder in his interview said the pace of the Justice Department investigation into election meddling is likely to proceed in the same way that a character in the Ernest Hemingway novel "The Sun Also Rises" answered when another character asked how he went bankrupt: "Gradually, then suddenly."

"I expect you're going to see the pace of this investigation or these investigations pick up," Holder told Madison.

But Holder also said that he expected the Justice Department to "go dark" and not take public action in the case until after this fall's midterm elections.

The department in a long-standing practice in the months leading up to elections does not tend to file criminal charges or issue statements that might influence the outcome of elections.

"You watch the Justice Department in 2023," Holder said.

"But I think before that, I expect something coming of that prosecutor in Atlanta," he added.

That Georgia prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, is presenting evidence and testimony to a special grand jury empaneled to investigate possible criminal meddling in her state's election by Trump and his surrogates.

That grand jury has issued subpoenas to a number of fake Trump electors, as well to the former president's lawyers and to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

"I think in terms of time, that is the more advanced" investigation, Holder said Thursday.

"The case is in some ways less complicated," he said, noting that Trump is known to have phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state's top election official, on Jan. 2, 2021, and pressured Raffensperger to help find enough votes to overcome Biden's margin of victory there.

"You have the former president on tape saying, 'Find me 11,780 votes,'" Holder said.

"Now people argue: 'What was his intent?'" Holder said, referring to questions about whether Trump had criminal intent in asking such a question.

"Really?" Holder said sarcastically. "Put that before a jury ... Regular people, looking at the evidence, I think, will get to what I think is an appropriate conclusion."

"So my eyes are on Fulton County first. Look at the Justice Department in 2023," Holder said.

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Trump likely to be criminally charged in DOJ election probe along with other former White House officials, Obama AG Holder says - CNBC

Have you heard the good news? The walls are finally closing in on Donald Trump!

Attorney General Merrick Garland and the feds have Trump cornered, like a fascist rat in a trap! He's going to jail at last, and the goodguys will win in the end because it is the American Way!

Such reactions were triggered by a series of supposed bombshell reports last week. In a much-discussed interview last Tuesday, Attorney General Garland told Lester Holt of NBC News:

We intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding Jan. 6, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable. That's what we do. We don't pay any attention to other issues with respect to that.

Holt tried to press him further, asking whether, if Trump announces another presidential campaign, "that would not change your schedule or how you move forward or don't move forward?"

Garland responded: "I'll say again that we will hold accountable anyone who was criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer, legitimate, lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next."

In a story that dominated the news for the remainder of the week, and deservedly so, on that same daythe Washington Post reportedthat Garland's Justice Department was in fact "investigating President Donald Trump's actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results":

Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury including two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought tosubstitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; hispressure campaign on Penceto overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states, the people said. Some of the questions focused directly on the extent of Trump's involvement in the fake-elector effort led by his outside lawyers,including John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, these people said.

In a recent conversationwith Salon, Norman Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during Trump's first impeachment, offered these personal insights about Garland's temperament and how it may impact his investigation of Trump:

Garland fears no person. I've known him for years and he is a great American jurist and lawyer. He has said that he's going to follow the evidence where it leads and apply the law without fear or favor. He's going to let the chips fall where they may. I believe him. He's very methodical. He's very deliberate.

There's some element of not bumping into the Jan. 6 committee's work. There are strong norms at work here: You don't stampede into prosecuting a president.

Garland also needed to restore another kind of norm and that was the norm of a properly functioning Department of Justice. He's only a year and a half into his tenure, if even that long. He needed to get things settled down in the DOJ before he made such a momentous move. I have a lot of confidence in Merrick Garland's decision-making.

Of course that is encouraging news. But it pays to be cautious when attempting to decipher what may or may not be happening in the perpetual tempest of the MAGAverse and its leader. The following facts should be kept in mind in any and all discussions about Trump, the law and criminal consequences.

Donald Trump has been declared politically dead many times. He's been involved in thousands of lawsuits and accused of serious crimes and has never faced any serious consequences.

Trump has been declared politically dead on several previous occasions. He has been involved in thousands of lawsuits but has never been charged with a crime nor faced serious consequences for his evident wrongdoing. Hehas also been credibly accused of sexual assault and rape by numerous women without facing criminal charges or any other significant form of accountability.

Mental health professionals have repeatedly warned that Donald Trump is a sociopath (and perhaps a psychopath) with no regard for human decency, the rule of law or other norms and societal limits on his behavior. These pathologies, in a very real sense, are among his greatest strengths as a fascist leader who is plotting his return to power.

Is Donald Trump really at imminent risk of being indicted or prosecuted for his likely or apparent crimes related to the Jan. 6 coup attempt and Capitol attack? In the midst of all that breathless coverage suggesting that the answer was clearly "yes", NBC News offered this important qualification last Wednesday:

The Department of Justice is investigating then-President Donald Trump's actions leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, an administration official familiar with the investigation said.

The inquiry is related to the department's broader probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and not a criminal investigation of Trump himself, the official said.

Adding further caution to any narrative that Trump now faces imminent or inevitable prosecution, NBC News further reports that the Department of Justice may lack the resources necessary to properly investigate Trump, his confederates and the larger Jan. 6 coup conspiracy.

It's the "most wide-ranging investigation" in Justice Department history: the unprecedented manhunt forhundredsof rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitolon Donald Trump's behalfon Jan. 6, 2021, and the criminal inquiry into efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

It's also a logistical nightmare.

As cases against Capitol rioters work their way through the court system and a federal grand jury hears testimony aboutTrump's rolein Jan. 6, some federal officials are raising concerns that it could bring the already stretched investigation of Jan. 6 to a breaking point.

In conversations with NBC News in recent months, more than a dozen sources familiar with the sprawling Jan. 6 investigation expressed varying degrees of worry about whether the resources the Justice Department has allocated to the effort are sufficient for such a vast criminal investigation.

This is not the first time that Donald Trump supposedly faced legal peril for his conduct as president. As bestselling crime writer and activist Don Winslow has repeatedly pointed out on social media and elsewhere, over the course of the last six or seven years, Trump has faced numerous damning allegations and serious investigations and has escaped them all.

Trump became the first president to be impeached twice and only the third to be impeached at all and was acquitted at trial in the U.S. Senate on both occasions, suffering little or no long-term damage to his power or popularity within the Republican Party or among his cult followers.

For much of Trump's presidency, the media was obsessed with Robert Mueller's investigation, and kept telling us he would expose a massive web of lies and corruption and bring down the entire Trump regime.

For much of the Trump presidency, the mainstream news media was obsessed with Robert Mueller's investigation of the 2016 presidential campaign, with almost daily TV segments, interviews, reporting and commentary suggesting that Mueller was on the verge of exposing a massive web of treason and corruption that would bring down the entire Trump regime. But "Mueller time" was a bust, and the special counsel's report landed with a damp thud rather than anearth-shattering boom (at least partly due to the intervention of Attorney General Bill Barr).

In fact, Mueller's investigation conclusively showed that Trump's inner circle colluded with Russia, a hostile foreign power, during the 2016 campaign. Trump then obstructed justice on a grand scale to conceal those actions -- and also to hide his own culpability. After Congress did nothing to hold him properly accountable for the Russia scandal, Trump almost immediately tried to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into launching a fraudulent investigation of Joe Biden, then the leading Democratic candidate for president. That led to Trump's first impeachment and after he survived that, he moved toward inexorably toward the Jan. 6 coup attempt meant to keep him in office after losing the 2020 election to Biden.

So what will Trump do if Garland finally moves forward with criminal prosecution relating to the Jan. 6 coup attempt? The answer is obvious: As the leading student and protg of right-wing fixer and dirty trickster Roy Cohn, Trump will go on the attack.

He has already previewed his strategy in public. Throughout his presidency, Trump repeatedly said that he possessed "special" or secret executive powers that effectively placed him above the law. He has also repeatedly told his followers that he and they are the victims of a grand conspiracy involving the "deep state," the "liberal media" and the "socialist Democrats." In that context, any and all means of "self-defense," including law-breaking and political violence, are understood to be reasonable and righteous options.

In essence, Donald Trump and his confederates in the Republican-fascist movement seek to hold the American people hostage in order to prevent Garland and the Justice Department from enforcing the law.

In a new Rolling Stone report, Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley describe Trump's legal defense strategy:

"Members of the Trump legal team are quietly preparing, in the event charges are brought," says one person familiar with the situation. "It would be career malpractice not to. Do the [former] president's attorneys believe everything Cassidy [Hutchinson] said? No. Do they think the Department of Justice would be wise to charge him? No. But we've gotten to a point where if you don't think criminal charges are at least somewhat likely, you are not serving the [former] president's best interests.".

In their preparations, Trump's team has discussed strategies that involve shifting blame from Trump to his advisers for the efforts to overturn the election, per the three sources, reflecting a broader push to find afall guy orfall guys. "Trump got some terrible advice from attorneys who, some people would argue, should have or must have known better," says one of the sources with knowledge of recent discussions in Trumpland. "An 'advice of counsel' defense would be a big one."

Other potential strategies include defenses based on the First Amendment and the right to petition the government over a political grievance. Such arguments are viewed internally as potential defenses against charges related tothe "fake elector" scheme.

Trump also seems keenly aware of the blowback that could result from a federal indictment and is telling supporters it could be politically advantageous. Early this year, the former president told fans at a Texas rally that if prosecutors go after him, "we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta, and elsewhere."

Trump has repeated versions of that line to confidants and longtime pals, including at casual gatherings this summer, a person with direct knowledge of the matter says. "He says," the source recalls, "it would make the crowd size at [Jan. 6] look small by comparison."

Anticipating such violence, Malcolm Nance, an expert on terrorism, extremism and military intelligence, outlined this scenario in a recent interviewwith mefor Salon:

Trumpism is moving beyond Donald Trump. Trumpism is the embrace of the conspiracy against all of them. I believe that maybe half of them, 40 million or so of his voters, would take to the streets.

I'd say an easy 10 million would come out with arms. Here's the second component of that scenario. Republican governors and state legislatures refuse to do anything about the armed Trumpists. They refuse to bring out the National Guard. They refuse to allow the National Guard to be federalized. Now you're in pre-Civil War 1860 territory.

Here is a scenario from my new book. Terrorists bomb a parade using high-technology drones that are synced together and drop mortar bombs, just like ISIS does. The president of the United States starts getting these reports. It's not one city, it's 10 cities right here in the United States. Armed men are taking over federal armories and National Guardsmen are not stopping them. The president of the United States, in a matter of moments, has to do several things. The president has to federalize state troops. The U.S. military would have to be mobilized to fight state troopers and recalcitrant National Guardsmen who refuse federal orders.

There will be a fiefdom down in Mar-a-Lago. There will be civilians with long rifles. The governor of Florida endorsing them, calling out the state National Guard to resist the president of the United States. This is not as farfetched a scenario as many would like to believe.

It is both premature and irresponsible for the news media and other public voices to treat the prosecution of Donald Trump and his confederates as a fait accompli or an inevitable outcome. It undoubtedly feels good for theprofessional centrists and hope-peddlers to write such stories. Hope-starvedliberals, progressives and Democrats will feel good reading such stories about Trump and his co-conspirators finally getting their just deserts and going to prison for their abundant crimes against democracy, American society and human decency.

It is important to remember that many of the public voices now crowing the loudest about Trump going to jail are the same voices who insisted that Trump was not planning a coup on Jan. 6, that the "institutions" would surely defeat Trump and his movement, that Roe v. Wade would never be overturned, that the Republican Party would eventually get tired of Trump's antics and drive him out, that "moderation" and the "adults in the room" would vanquish evil, and that Robert Mueller was an avenging superhero. At almost every key juncture, these voices have been catastrophically wrong about the extreme peril that Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the larger neofascist movement represent to America's present and future.

There may be a time to celebrate the downfall of Donald Trump after he is prosecuted, tried, convicted and then sent to prison for a very long time and even then, such celebrations will be premature. Donald Trump is an idea, not a man. The dark political possibilities he symbolizes and made real have empowered the Republican Party to fully embrace fascism and white supremacy. Trump's followers will worship him as a political martyr and figurehead, no matter what happens to him. Trump the man is getting older, and is not immortal. But his most important role is not as president, or even potential dictator for life, but as prototype or proof of concept for an even more dangerous authoritarian leader in the near future.

In fact, Trump could become an even more powerful and compelling figure for the neofascist right, both in America and around the world, if he is prosecuted or imprisoned for his crimes. It is far too early to proclaim that the dark sorcerer is dead. He counts on such proclamations as his pathway to resurrection andrevenge.

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President Barack Obama delivers a televised statement that Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011. President Donald Trump makes a statement announcing the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. President Biden announces on Monday that a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Brendan Smialowski/Pool; Alex Wong; Jim Watson/Pool/Getty Images hide caption

President Barack Obama delivers a televised statement that Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011. President Donald Trump makes a statement announcing the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. President Biden announces on Monday that a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The sight of a U.S. president announcing the death of a terrorist leader has been a fixture in American politics over the past 11 years.

The words each president uttered and their mannerisms at the podium reveal a lot about the type of leaders former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump attempted to be and in the case of President Joe Biden, attempt to be.

This week, Biden announced that the U.S. had killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul over the weekend.

In 2019, Trump revealed that the U.S. killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. And in 2011, Obama shared with the American people that Osama bin Laden, the architect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., was killed.

In the days following Biden's announcement, edited videos have popped up online comparing the speeches by Biden, Obama and Trump. Though some of the videos are created to put certain leaders in a bad light, analyzing these three speeches is worthwhile, according to historians and rhetoric experts that spoke to NPR.

Taking a deeper look at each speech, their delivery, even down to the words each used, provides a small window into each man, those experts said.

Though starkly different characters, there are similarities worth noting, said Thomas Schwartz, a professor of history, political science and European studies at Vanderbilt University.

The fact that Obama, Trump and Biden took center stage to announce the execution of another person is "a little bloodthirsty," Schwartz said.

"But they do recognize that there's a domestic political gain from taking out terrorist leaders, and they want to claim it," he added.

Each president in their speech makes special note to say that they directed the military and intelligence officers to act on the intel provided, that they gave the orders, Schwartz said. Each man ultimately wants to assert his leadership on the global stage, he said.

"Underneath it all are presidents trying to justify themselves politically and gain something politically," Schwartz said. "So I think our comparison on that level is probably justified even if, on stylistic things, it also reminds people what they liked and didn't like about various presidents."

President Barack Obama reads his statement to photographers after making a televised statement on the death of Osama bin Laden from the East Room of the White House on May 1, 2011. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption

President Barack Obama reads his statement to photographers after making a televised statement on the death of Osama bin Laden from the East Room of the White House on May 1, 2011.

Each expert that spoke to NPR agreed: Obama's speech was iconic. Though Trump and Biden took out major terrorist leaders, the gravity of killing bin Laden is unmatched. To some degree, Trump and Biden attempted to even emulate Obama's bin Laden speech, Schwartz said.

"Bin Laden was, of course, someone who was a household name in a way that the other two men were not," said Margaret O'Mara, a history professor at the University of Washington. "So it was sort of an extraordinary historic moment, and something that in a way looms larger than the other two, because it was bin Laden."

O'Mara noted that Obama took time to acknowledge the emotion for victims of 9/11 nearly a decade after the attacks.

"Obama's speaking almost within a decade of 9/11 so it's much more raw," she said.

Obama, in a measured and somber tone, said in his nine-minute speech: "It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history."

In this image released by the White House and digitally altered by the source to diffuse the paper in front of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on May 1, 2011. Pete Souza/AP hide caption

In this image released by the White House and digitally altered by the source to diffuse the paper in front of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on May 1, 2011.

He went on to say: "And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. The empty seat at the dinner table. Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. Parents who would never know the feeling of their child's embrace. Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts."

Obama also carefully described how the White House came to receive intelligence on bin Laden and a short description of the steps special forces took to kill him.

"There's no question that watching Obama, you got reminded of how deliberative and almost academic his style could be in discussing things," Schwartz noted.

Former President Donald Trump speaks on Oct. 27, 2019 in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, announcing that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, is dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP hide caption

Former President Donald Trump speaks on Oct. 27, 2019 in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, announcing that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, is dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria.

Former President Trump took a far different approach in announcing the execution of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.

Taking a moment to analyze Trump's speech in comparison to Obama and Biden provides "a window into a lot of things," O'Mara said.

"In kind of a very blunt way, it's a window into how Trump was such a very different president and not just different from the two men who were on either side of him, but modern presidents generally," she said. "If you dial back and look at presidential oratory of presidents of both parties, it's very different in terms of not only the tone, but what type of information is being relayed."

Trump, known for lengthy rally speeches during his presidency, spoke for far longer than Obama or Biden in this announcement. His initial speech went on for over eight minutes, but he went on to take questions from reporters for another 40 minutes.

And with his usual flair, Trump spoke about the raid in dramatic detail using emotive language to describe both al-Baghdadi and the manner in which he died.

"No personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi's fighters and companions were killed with him. He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way," Trump said.

He went on describing the operation, saying, "The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him."

This goes back to Trump's background not in politics, but as a businessman and reality TV star, these experts noted.

"One of the things that was very noteworthy about Trump's presidential rhetoric was that he claimed to not want to use it, he said that he didn't want to be presidential," said Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of American political rhetoric and professor at Texas A&M University. "He thought that presidential [style] was boring and lame and he thought that he won the office of the presidency by being dynamic and interesting. And so that's, I think, very clearly reflected."

In comparison, Biden and Obama delivered very somber speeches, she said.

President Biden speaks from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House on Monday as he announces that a U.S. drone strike killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan. Jim Watson/AP hide caption

President Biden speaks from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House on Monday as he announces that a U.S. drone strike killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan.

Biden is known to struggle with blunders and flubs in speeches. He's even sometimes said the opposite of what he means, as noted by a New York Times piece during the 2020 presidential campaign.

For the announcement regarding the killing of al-Zawahiri, Biden (like the two presidents before him) wanted to communicate strength and power, Schwartz said.

Both Obama and Biden showed restraint in the language and description used to explain the killing of al-Zawahiri and bin Laden, Mercieca said.

Both men used the office of the president to sound official and to talk about justice owed to victims of 9/11.

Biden said of al-Zawahiri: "He carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats, and American interests. And since the United States delivered justice to bin Laden 11 years ago, Zawahiri has been a leader of al Qaeda the leader."

He added: "Now justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more."

Presidents do this to "sort of elevate what could be a very crass event, which is that the United States has exacted revenge and murdered someone else," Mercieca said.

"What Donald Trump did was the opposite. He didn't try to elevate it," she said. "Instead, he called the person a 'dog,' he very crudely described how they died, and what it meant."

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Analyzing how 3 U.S. presidents announced the deaths of terrorist leaders - NPR

Musician John Legend told the director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, David Axelrod, that his friendship with fellow musician Kanye West could not overcome his support for former President Donald Trump.

"We aren't friends as much as we used to be," the EGOT winner said of West on CNN's The Axe Files podcast, "because we publicly disagreed on his running for office, his supporting Trump"

WATCH: LINDSEY GRAHAM CALLS 'FRAUD' INFLATION REDUCTION ACT A 'LIE'

Evan Vucci/AP

"It became too much for us to sustain our friendship," he added.

He was upset that I didnt support his run for presidency of the United States of America for understandable reasons, Legend said.

"You weren't alone in that," Axelrod chimed in.

"He was not happy about that," explained the singer. As a result, he said they "haven't been close since then."

Of West, Legend said the rapper is "very real," adding that "there's not a lot about him that people don't get," he added.

"What you see with him is pretty much what you get," the singer continued.

Jordan Strauss/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Axelrod then asked the star about his past activism during the Iraq War, to which he asserted, "We all knew ... it was bulls***."

"You could tell they were trying to find ... intelligent support for something that clearly they just decided they wanted to do," he said of the Bush administration.

"Clearly, Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, and the case for him having WMDs was ... weak at best," Legend said.

"They were selling us a bill of goods," he explained, adding that he "didn't believe it."

"I was one of those people," he said, who didn't believe it from the beginning.

"I grew up very inspired by civil rights leaders," he further told Axelrod.

Legend also described when he cried after former President Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, was elected. "The moment that broke me was watching the older black Americans," he said.

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He also detailed using his celebrity power, influence, and resources to create change, revealing that he is currently focused on justice reform and local governments. Notably, Legend recently endorsed several Democratic district attorneys in elections across the country.

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John Legend says friendship with Kanye West couldn't survive Donald Trump - Washington Examiner