Category Archives: Donald Trump

The congressional attempt to expose any direct role that Donald Trump and his top associates played in the January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol is intensifying. This week, the House select committee investigating the attack issued subpoenas to sixteen former senior Trump Administration and campaign officials, including the former White House adviser Stephen Miller and the former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. A federal judge roundly dismissed Trumps effort to block his allies from having to testify before the committee, including his erstwhile strategist Steve Bannon. Legal experts suggested that the judges ruling could prompt Attorney General Merrick Garland to criminally prosecute Bannon for refusing to testify, a step that may induce others to coperate. And, late on Thursday, the committee threatened to hold Trumps former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who spent hours with Trump on January 6th, in contempt if he does not testify on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, in a speech in New Hampshire, Liz Cheney, the committees vice-chair and one of the few Republicans daring to challenge Trump while seeking relection, said that the nation is confronting a domestic threat that weve never faced before: a former President whos attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic, aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man. She added, Political leaders who sit silent in the face of these false and dangerous claims are aiding a former President who is at war with the rule of law and the Constitution.

The political reality, though, is that Trumps hold on the Republican Party remains iron. A recent Morning Consult / Politico poll found that sixty-seven per cent of Republicans want Trump to run for President in 2024, a slight increase from several months ago. Other surveys showed similar numbers. The Republican nomination would likely be his for the taking, Nathaniel RakichandMackenzie Wilkes wrote on FiveThirtyEight. He remainsextremelypopular among Republicans.And opinion polls suggest that three-quarters of Wyoming Republicans plan to oppose Cheney when a Trump-backed candidate challenges her in the 2022 primary. Hours after Cheneys speech, Trump declared, in trademark Orwellian fashion, She is a threat to Free and Fair elections, adding that the 2020 election had been stolen from him in the Crime of the Century.

The situation is unprecedented. A former American President refuses to concede that he lost the election. He has launched a public effort to drive the state election officials who certified his defeat from office. He continues to employ the lies and rhetoric that helped incite violence on January 6th. And this week an independent review alleged that thirteen former Trump Administration officialsincluding Meadows and Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushnercampaigned illegally for him in the final weeks of the 2020 election. Its increasingly clear to many observers that Trump plans to make every attempt to insure that he or an acolyte wins the 2024 election at any cost. On Wednesday, a hundred former national-security officials, Republicans and Democratsincluding Christopher Krebs, the former director of the Department of Homeland Securitys cybersecurity agency, who was hired and fired by the Trump Administrationpublished an open letter to Congress, warning that partisan interference, intimidation campaigns, and disinformation are rapidly undermining American democracy. In the course of our careers, many of us have analyzed the threats posed by unstable democracies elsewhere, never imagining we would begin to see similar threats at home, they wrote. Sadly, that moment has arrived.

Democrats focus on the fact that, among Americans as a whole, Trump remains broadly unpopular, with fifty-three per cent viewing him unfavorably and forty-one per cent seeing him favorably. Bidens numbers, though, arent much better, with fifty-one per cent approving of his performance in office and forty-three per cent disapproving. While political analysts and legal experts lose sleep over Trumps continued claims that he won in 2020, most Americans, according to Gallup polling, see COVID, the economy, and poor leadership as the countrys three most important problems. Only one per cent cited the need for election reform. If Republicans win control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, they would almost certainly disband the January 6th committee and end its investigation.

Members of the committee vow to achieve results before then. The panel plans to produce a definitive account of Trumps actions and to propose laws that will prevent future Presidents from interfering in the Electoral College vote count. In a court hearing last week, Douglas Letter, a lawyer for the committee, said that investigators are seeking White House documents dating back to April, 2020, to help determine whether Trump engaged in a months-long effort to discredit the results if he lost. We think, maybe, this all ties in with... the fomenting of it, building a groundswell of feeling that this election was going to be tainted, Letter said. Timothy Mulvey, the committees communications director, told me that most witnesses called are coperating. Even among former Administration officials, he said, very few have flatly refused to comply with a subpoena. He added, about Trumps legal attempts to block the investigation, The former Presidents aim is to delay and impede our probe, but the committees work willnonethelesscontinue to move forward quickly.

Stephen Gillers, a professor of law at New York University, said that Attorney General Garland may wait for higher courts to rule on Trumps legal claims, but he believes that Garland will eventually prosecute Bannon. Gillers pointed out that if Bannon is not charged, those who were subpoenaed this week might be encouraged to try waiting out the investigation. Garland knows that, Gillers said, adding, Everything we know about his devotion to the rule of law makes me confident that hewill not allow that to happen.

Ilya Somin, a libertarian legal scholar at George Mason University, predicted that the higher courts will uphold the committees right to subpoena individuals significantly involved in the events leading up to January 6th. It seems to me that it should be a no-brainer, that Congress should be able to subpoena witnesses, he said, particularly those who may have played a role in an attack on Congress. Somin doubts that the committees investigation will produce conclusive evidence of seditious acts by Trump. I think sedition is a high hill to climb, unless the committee uncovers some dramatic new information, he said. The broader political challenge is the countrys seemingly intractable polarization. Like the two impeachment trials of Trump, the January 6th probe may simply harden existing divisions rather than ease them. Barring some dramatic revelation, Im not sure it will fundamentally change anything, he said.

Cheney, in her speech, said that the country is in a time of testing and implored political leaders to recognize the fragility of American democracy. Will we defend our Constitution? Will we stand for truth? Will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics? she asked. Or will we look away from the danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies and enable the liar? There is no gray area when it comes to that question. When it comes to this moment, there is no middle ground.She is right that Americas drift toward authoritarianism continues, but it is not inevitable.

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The January 6th Investigation Gets Closer to Donald Trump - The New Yorker

Chris Christie wants to be very clear about something: The election of 2020 was not stolen.

An election for president was held on November 3, 2020. Joe Biden won. Donald Trump did not, Mr. Christie writes in his new book, Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden.

That is the truth. Any claim to the contrary is untrue, Mr. Christie says.

It is not a popular view in the Republican Party right now, as Mr. Trump has promoted his baseless claims of widespread election fraud for more than a year, and as many Republicans have either echoed those claims or averted their gaze.

But its a view that Mr. Christie has been repeating since Election Day, as he urges the G.O.P. and Mr. Trump to move on from looking backward.

Its not a book about him, Mr. Christie said in a recent interview about the book, which will be released on Wednesday. Its a book about where we go from here and why it is important for us to let go of the past.

Of Mr. Trump, Mr. Christie was blunt: If he wants to be a positive force in the future, hes got to let this other stuff go. If he doesnt, I dont think he can be.

Mr. Christie pointed to the Virginia governors race and Glenn Youngkin, the Republican who won the state party convention without Mr. Trumps endorsement and then kept him at bay during the general election. Mr. Youngkin ultimately defeated his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe.

Mr. Christie said the Youngkin victory knocks down this idea that if you dont agree with Donald Trump on everything, and pledge unfettered fealty to him, then you cant win because his voters quote unquote wont come out to vote, Mr. Christie said. No candidate owns voters. They dont.

He described Mr. Trumps conduct in the year since he left office and the anxiety felt by lawmakers who worry about crossing him in stark terms. Donald Trumps own conduct is meant to instill fear, he said.

Mr. Christie is a former governor of New Jersey, a former presidential candidate and a possible future one. He was one of Mr. Trumps earliest supporters in 2016 after he ended his own national candidacy, was a potential vice-presidential candidate, led Mr. Trumps transition effort until he was fired from that role and helped lead Mr. Trumps opioids commission.

He was with Mr. Trump throughout a tumultuous presidency, a fact that Mr. Christies critics say makes his critiques too late to be meaningful. Mr. Christie argues that his support for Mr. Trump, and their 15-year friendship before that, makes him a credible critic.

I think it was really important for people to understand why I did support the president for so long, Mr. Christie said. And the reason was, because I generally agreed with the policies that he was pursuing. When they would argue over the years, he added, it was rarely over policy.

The arguments were generally over how things were handled, Mr. Christie added, citing Mr. Trumps throwing of bouquets at President Xi Jinping of China as an example. Being generous with Mr. Xi when the Chinese government was withholding information about the coronavirus was unacceptable, Mr. Christie said.

Mr. Christie does not blame Mr. Trumps speech on Jan. 6 for the violence that followed at the Capitol by his supporters. He said instead that it was the months of Mr. Trumps false claims that the election was stolen from him that instilled anger in those who believed him.

The responsibility for what happened was months long in coming, he said. As a leader, you need to know that there are consequences to the words you use. And that those consequences at times can be stuff that you may not even be able to anticipate. I dont believe he anticipated that people would cause violence up on Capitol Hill. But I dont think he thought about it, either.

Mr. Christie began road-testing his themes in a speech at the Reagan presidential library in September, during which he didnt name Mr. Trump. When he spoke again at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Nevada last weekend, Mr. Trump took notice, and delivered a broadside that his aides intended as a warning shot.

Mr. Christie was just absolutely massacred by his statements that Republicans have to move on from the past, meaning the 2020 Election Fraud, Mr. Trump said in a statement that also attacked Mr. Christie for a low approval rating, which Mr. Trump mischaracterized by half.

Mr. Christie said that Mr. Trump should focus less on personal vendetta, and added, I just think if he wants to have that kind of conversation about me then Im going to point out that I got 60 percent of the vote in a blue state with 51 percent of the Hispanic vote.

Mr. Christie said he would not make a decision about running for president in 2024 until after the midterm elections in 2022. He said that Mr. Trump would not factor into his thinking and that he would not rule out supporting the former president if he saw no path for himself.

A key issue yet untested. Donald Trumps power as former president to keep information from his White House secret has become a central issue in the Houses investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Amid an attempt byMr. Trumpto keep personal records secret and the indictment of Stephen K. Bannon for contempt of Congress, heres a breakdown of executive privilege:

What is executive privilege? It is a power claimed by presidents under the Constitution to prevent the other two branches of government from gaining access to certain internal executive branch information, especially confidential communications involving the president or among his top aides.

What is Trumps claim? Former President Trump has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the disclosure of White House files related to his actions and communications surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He argues that these matters must remain a secret as a matter of executive privilege.

Is Trumps privilege claim valid? The constitutional line between a presidents secrecy powers and Congresss investigative authority is hazy. Though a judge rejected Mr. Trumps bid to keep his papers secret, it is likely that the case will ultimately be resolved by the Supreme Court.

Is executive privilege an absolute power? No. Even a legitimate claim of executive privilege may not always prevail in court. During the Watergate scandal in 1974, the Supreme Court upheld an orderrequiring President Richard M. Nixon to turn over his Oval Office tapes.

May ex-presidents invoke executive privilege? Yes, but courts may view their claims with less deference than those of current presidents. In 1977, the Supreme Court said Nixon could make a claim of executive privilege even though he was out of office, though the court ultimately ruled against him in the case.

Is Steve Bannon covered by executive privilege? This is unclear. Mr. Bannons case could raise the novel legal question of whether or how far a claim of executive privilege may extend to communications between a president and an informal adviser outside of the government.

Throughout the book, Mr. Christie places Mr. Trump in the historical context of a political strain in the country that is centuries old. The QAnon conspiracy theorists of the last several years are in many ways the descendants of John Birch Society members, Mr. Christie writes, and he contrasts how Ronald Reagan handled extremist voices in his party with how Mr. Trump has.

He faults Mr. Trump for spreading the birther campaign about former President Barack Obamas birthplace in 2011.

He truly showed everyone how a lie like that can be exploited, Mr. Christie said, taking note of other Republicans who encouraged questions about where the first Black president was born.

And Mr. Christie writes that he knows Mr. Trump was furious after he was laughed at during the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011, when Mr. Obama roasted him over his birther crusade. Mr. Trump later boasted that he was unbothered, but Mr. Christie said he spoke with Mr. Trump about it. Just beside himself with fury, Mr. Christie writes.

Mr. Christie also describes some of the debate prep sessions that he led for Mr. Trump before he took the stage with President Joseph R. Biden Jr. last year. In one session, Mr. Trump turned to Mr. Christie and began to excoriate him for recommending Christopher Wray for F.B.I. director.

Hes doing an awful job, and hes your pick. He was your pick, Mr. Trump told Mr. Christie in front of a half-dozen other Trump aides.

Hold on a second, Mr. Christie replied, praising Mr. Wray. He wasnt my pick. He was your pick. He was my recommendation. Im not the president. I dont get to pick.

Mr. Christie reveals how worried he and others were for his survival when he became infected with the coronavirus after being at the White House around the same time that Mr. Trump and several other aides contracted Covid-19. Mr. Christie writes that his priest arrived in the hospital and rubbed oils on his forehead in the sign of the cross, praying over him.

He got a call from a hospitalized Mr. Trump, who had one main concern: Are you gonna say you got it from me? Mr. Trump asked him.

Mr. Christie is unsparing in the book about Mr. Biden, whose policies he says he cannot align himself with. In the interview, he faulted the president for running as one kind of politician but governing as another, citing the aftermath of the withdrawal from Afghanistan as an example.

If they had known how he was going to govern, Mr. Christie said of voters, Mr. Biden may not have won.

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Chris Christie Wants the Post-Trump G.O.P. to Move Past 2020 - The New York Times

Trumpworld is in legal jeopardy. The 45th presidents phone call to Brad Raffensperger, urging the Georgia secretary of state to find 11,780 votes, may have birthed a grand jury.

In Manhattan, the outgoing district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, has empaneled one of those, to look at Trumps business. As a Vanity Fair headline blared, The Trump Organization should be soiling itself right now.

In Washington, the Department of Justice indicts Steve Bannon, chairman of Trumps 2016 campaign and a pivotal figure in the Stop the Steal movement second time round.

For Trump, out-of-office has not translated into out-of-mind. He thrives on all the attention.

Amid it all, Jonathan Karl dives once again into the Stygian mosh pit, this time with Betrayal, a sequel to Front Row at the Trump Show, a New York Times bestseller.

In that book, in the spring of 2020, ABC News chief Washington correspondent prophesied that Trumps war on truth may do lasting damage to American democracy. Sadly, he wasnt wrong. Front Row preceded by months a coup attempt egged on by a defeated president. Looking back, Trumps embrace of birtherism, alternative facts and crowd violence were mere prelude to the chaos that filled his time in power, his final days in office and all that has come and gone since then.

In his second book, under the subtitle The Final Act of the Trump Show, Karl gets members of Trumps cabinet to speak on the record. They paint a portrait of a wrath-filled president, untethered from reality, bent on revenge.

Karl captures Bill Barr denouncing Trumps election-related conspiracy theories and criticizing his election strategy. Appearing determined to salvage his own battered reputation, Trumps second attorney general tells Karl his president was making it too much of a base election. I felt that he had to repair the bridges he had burned [with moderate voters] in the suburbs.

By that metric, Glenn Youngkin, Virginias governor-elect, has a bright future, a politician who puts suburban dads and rural moms at ease. No wonder Republicans think they have found a star, and with him a winning formula.

As for Trumps claims about rigged voting machines, Barr realized from the beginning it was just bullshit and says the number of actual improper voters were de minimus. No matter, to Trump: he continues to demand Republican legislatures carry out post-election audits.

Karl delivers further confirmation of Mitch McConnells fractious personal relationship with Trump, a man the Kentucky senator reportedly repeatedly mocked. According to Karl, McConnell, then Senate majority leader, sought to formally disinvite Trump from Joe Bidens inauguration. Kevin McCarthy, the chief House Republican, leaked the plan to the White House. In turn, Trump tweeted that he would not attend.

McConnell attempted to thread the needle, placating Trump while keeping the GOPs Koch brothers wing onside. But once he acknowledged Bidens victory, the damage was permanently done. McConnell was an object of Trumpian scorn.

That the senator jammed Amy Coney Barrett on to the supreme court days before the 2020 election and before that played blocking back for Brett Kavanaugh is now rendered irrelevant. Trump wants McConnell out of Senate leadership. Adding insult to injury, Trump recently told the Washington Post McConnell wasnt a real leader because he didnt fight for the presidency, and said he was only a leader because he raises a lot of money.

You know, Trump said, with the senators, thats how it is, frankly. Thats his primary power.

Hes not wrong all the time.

Betrayal also documents a commander-in-chief who scared his own cabinet witless. After Trump junked the Iran nuclear deal, for example, Tehran thumbed its nose back. Drama ensued, because Trump wanted to know his options.

Chris Miller, then acting defense secretary, tells Karl that to dissuade Trump from ordering the destruction of Irans uranium enrichment program, he chose to play the role of fucking madman his words, not Karls which meant advocating that very course of action. According to Karl, not even Mike Pompeo, then secretary of state and an Iran hawk, played along.

Oftentimes with provocative people, if you get more provocative than them, they then have to dial it down, Miller explains to Karl. Theyre like, Yeah, I was fucking crazy, but that guys batshit.

Here, the reader might pause to imagine a campaign slogan for Trump in 2024: Fucking crazy, but not batshit.

On a similar note, Karl depicts Rudy Giuliani, Trumps crony and attorney, as a walking timebomb. Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and chief adviser, avoided the former New York mayor. Mark Meadows, Trumps last chief of staff, saw him as a corrosive force.

Im not going to let Rudy in the building for any more of these, Meadows reportedly told Chris Christie, New Jerseys former governor, and Bill Stepien, Trumps campaign manager, as they prepared for debates with Biden.

These days, Giuliani is suspended from the bar, reportedly under investigation and unable to persuade Trump to pay his bills. Christie and Trump are at loggerheads too, over sins real and imagined, past and present.

As for Meadows and Stepien, they are in the crosshairs of the House select committee focused on the US Capitol attack. From the looks of things only Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have so far remained intact, ensconced in Florida, sufficiently distanced from Big Daddy.

Despite such fallout, Betrayal concludes with words of warning. Karl rightly contends that Trumps betrayal of American democracy highlighted just how vulnerable the system is.

The continued survival of our republic, he writes, may depend, in part, on the willingness of those who promoted Trumps lies and those who remained silent to acknowledge they were wrong.

In a hypothetical rematch, Trump leads Biden 45-43. Among independent voters, he holds a double-digit lead. Dont hold your breath.

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Betrayal review: Trumps final days and a threat not yet extinguished - The Guardian

Murkowski did not mention Trump in her announcement even as he hangs over every single GOP primary in the nation.

"My heart is, and always has been, in Alaska, and that's why I am proud to announce my campaign for reelection to the US Senate in 2022," Murkowski said. "I pledged to be Alaska, always. I'm still committed to those values and meeting the challenges Alaskans face today.

Murkowski has been in office since 2002, appointed by her father Frank, after he became governor. She lost her 2010 primary to tea party candidate Joe Miller, but won a write-in campaign in the general election cementing her as a legendary politician in Alaska and a key player in the Senate no matter which party controls the majority.

This cycle, the Alaska Republican is facing altogether different factors, with Trump replacing the tea party as a foil to centrists like Murkowski. Several key members of Trump's 2020 campaign are serving as Tshibaka's senior advisers and Trump has repeatedly vowed to help oust Murkowski.

In a statement, Tshibaka labeled Murkowski "Bidens Chief Enabling Officer" for her work across the aisle and dinged Murkowski for working "against President Trump, whose policies were the best that Alaska has ever known."

Still, beating Murkowski wont be easy.

As of October, the incumbent had $3 million on hand compared to about $300,000 for Tshibaka. Murkowski has the support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In a recent interview, McConnell said the NRSC, the Senate Leadership Fund and GOP senators are all in for Lisa.

She's a remarkable politician. Other than Strom Thurmond, she's the only person in American history to win write-in to the Senate, McConnell said.

NRSC chair Rick Scott of Florida has also vowed to defend Murkowski.

Whats more, Alaska voters changed the states primary system to insulate her from a Tshibaka head-to-head. The top four vote-getters advance to a run-off election, and the winner of that round will be determined by ranked-choice. That means even if Tshibaka outpaces Murkowski in the states open primary, Murkowski could still win the general election.

Its also apparent that Murkowski will have plenty of air cover. Murkowski's reelection campaign announcement comes after a new super PAC, "Alaskans for Lisa," filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission this week. Still, in an interview in August, Murkowski expressed hope the states system will help steer the country away from increasingly divisive politics.

It actually helps to ensure that you dont see these primary results, where the individual further to the right prevails in a primary and then is not able to prevail in a general, Murkowski said. I cant stand the destructive, negative nature of so much that we see in campaigning. And I dont think most people appreciate it.

Murkowskis coalition includes some Democrats, Native Americans, centrist Republicans and the states independent voters. Its not clear if Democrats will mount a serious challenge in Alaska, given their close relationships with Murkowski and the fact that a Democrat hasnt won a Senate race there since 2008.

Augmenting her bipartisan appeal, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) endorsed her during a rare joint interview earlier this year.

People understand that they have a person that understands Alaska and has Alaska in her blood and in every part of her veins and every morsel of her body, Manchin said in April.

Murkowski was a key player on the bipartisan infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden will sign on Monday, one of several moves that irked Trump. She also has developed a working relationship with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, though after considering whether to vote for Democrats coronavirus relief bill, Murkowski ended up opposing it.

She has, however, supported some of Bidens embattled nominees. She backed Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Rachel Levine as a health official, the first openly transgender person to win confirmation in the Senate. Murkowski has also been the Republican senator most involved in rewriting the Voting Rights Act.

Though shes often in the mix in Washington, Murkowski remains engaged with the particular issues facing a massive and sparsely populated state, inlcuding with transportation and health care. Last week during an interview about her party's win in Virginia's gubernatorial race, Murkowski had her head buried deep in papers documenting the spread of coronavirus in Alaska, which has struggled of late with its pandemic response.

But even as she attends to the sluggish economy and dire coronavirus situation in Alaska, she also said shes paying attention to the national political mood and it looks good for Republicans.

You pay attention to how these races are going, she said. I certainly think that it is a signal to Biden that hes got some real challenges in front of him in terms of the level of support.

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Facing Trump's opposition, Murkowski hits gas on reelection - POLITICO

Cheney has to beat Trump's hold on the GOP to keep her seat in Wyoming

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney soured GOP voters when she turned on Donald Trump; now she faces his endorsed candidate and his hold on the Republican Party.

Hannah Gaber, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., rejoined her battle with Donald Trump on Tuesday, condemning Republican leaders for following a"dangerous and irrational man" who is at "war with the rule of law and the Constitution."

Noting that public officials swear an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution, Cheney told a crowd at a speaking eventin New Hampshire that "too many political leaders seem to have forgotten the sacred nature of that oath" in failing to speak against Trump's lies regarding the outcomeof the 2020 presidential election.

Cheney said the nation is confronting "a domesticthreat that we've neverfaced before:A former president who's attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic, aided by political leaderswho have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man."

More: Liz Cheney vs. Trump: The feud forcing Wyoming to ask hard questions

More: 'Just the Trump party:' Liz Cheney's demotion proves Trump still rules Republican politics, experts say

Cheney noted that Trump delivered a keynote address at a House Republican campaign fundraiser on Monday night. Trump, she said,repeated his false claims about voter fraud and claimedthat the real insurrectionwas on Election Day in November, while theJan. 6 riot was a justified protest.

"Political leaders who sit silent in the face of these false and dangerous claims are aiding a former president who is at war with the rule of law and the Constitution," she said, and are risking more violence in the future.

Trump is has made Cheney a top political target after she and nine other House Republicans voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6 riot. Trump is supporting a primary challenger to Cheney in Wyoming.

In a series of statements, Trump described Cheney as a "war monger" and a "lap dog" to House Democrats. "To look at her is to despise her," he said on Oct. 20.

More: Donald Trump endorses Wyoming lawyer Harriet Hageman in GOP primary against Liz Cheney

More: 'I will not sit back': In fiery speech, Rep. Liz Cheney calls Trump a 'threat'

Cheney is also battling House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other GOP members who voted to remove her from her congressional leadership position because of her criticism of Trump.

Cheney, one of two Republican members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, continues to seek national forums to critique the former Republican president. Her speech Tuesday came at a free speech awards ceremony hosted bythe Nackey Loeb School of Communications in Manchester, N.H.

New Hampshire, as always, is expected to hold the first Republican primary of the 2024 presidential campaign. Cheney has not said whether she plans to run for president.

Next year, Cheney is scheduled to give a speech on the future of the Republican Party, part of a speakers series sponsored by theRonaldReaganPresidential Foundation & Institute.

In her remarks in New Hampshire, Cheney said too many people were downplaying the violence of Jan. 6 by saying that the "institutions held." The nation may not be so lucky if there is a next time, she said.

"Our institutions do not defend themselves," Cheney said. "We the people defend them."

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Liz Cheney hits fellow Republicans for following 'dangerous and irrational' Donald Trump - USA TODAY

Tunstall, 34, has been linked to a number of political action committees including as recently as this spring using Trumps name in order to raise money. Campaign finance disclosures showed that those PACs contributed little or none of that money to Trumps campaign or causes. And Tunstall has reportedly used the returns to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself, or one portrayed as such online.

So-called scam PACs have proliferated on the political fundraising scene over the last decade. A POLITICO investigation in 2019 identified more than a dozen pro-Trump PACs with no actual ties to the president, including one committee operated by Tunstall. The phenomenon has grown serious enough to trigger a warning from the FBI earlier this year urging would-be donors to be on the lookout for such schemes.

The operator of another pro-Trump scam PAC admitted in May that hed swindled Trump supporters and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with the operation. The FEC, meanwhile, has weighed options aimed at fighting scam PACs and received recommendations from a working group on the issue this spring.

The scheme prosecutors zeroed in on in Wednesdays indictment took place in the lead up to the 2016 election, when Tunstall, Reyes and Davies formed two PACs claiming to support candidates on the right and the left, respectively.

The indictment does not name either candidate but makes clear that the defendants Liberty Action Group PAC claimed to support then-candidate Trump and their Progressive Priorities PAC claimed to support his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Both PACs made false and misleading representations in robocalls and written and radio ads soliciting donations, which sought to portray the committees as being affiliated with or working to financially support both directly and indirectly their respective candidates, prosecutors said. They offered campaign swag like stickers and signed photos as rewards for larger donations.

Tunstall, Reyes and Davies instead used the funds they acquired through the scheme to pay for additional fraudulent solicitations for money, to enrich themselves directly, and to support their independent, unrelated business ventures, according to the indictment, which charges that the PACs reported little or no operating expenditures while money was transferred to the defendants or falsely reported as advertising expenses.

The defendants also allegedly used the names of others including a friend of Davies, his then-girlfriend, an associate of Davies, and an accountant who did compliance work for the PACs to conceal their involvement with the scam PACs in campaign finance records, sometimes without the others knowledge and occasionally forging others names on FEC filings or other related documents.

Finally, prosecutors allege that a common third-party vendor for the two committees was used to launder more than $350,000 in illegal proceeds to bank accounts belonging to Tunstall and Reyes or controlled by them.

Attempts to reach Tunstall and Reyes were unsuccessful. There was no readily available contact information for Davies.

Prosecutors say Tunstall and Reyes overpaid the vendor, an unnamed company that disseminated robocalls, and then arranged for the company to wire the excess funds in a series of nearly two dozen transactions between June 2016 and April 2017 to bank accounts belonging to three companies: Matte Media Creations and Supreme Dream Media, which Tunstall controlled, and Modern Media Group, which Reyes controlled. In other instances, the defendants or the companies linked to them received payments from at least one of the committees themselves.

Tunstall made his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Tuesday, according to a press release from the Justice Department. Reyes and Davies will make their initial appearances on Wednesday in the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of California and the Western District of Texas, respectively.

If convicted on all counts, Tunstall and Reyes face up to 125 years in prison, while Davies faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

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They raised millions for Trump, spent barely any of it on him. Now theyre indicted. - POLITICO

Similar to their father, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have also gotten into a bit of legal trouble over the past few years. Most recently, the pair have been involved in a lawsuit filed by Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington D.C., against the Trump Organization and the Presidential Inaugural Committee. According to Mother Jones, Racine alleges that Trump's inauguration committee misused charitable funds in order to further enrich the Trump family. Allegedly, this enrichment occurred when the Trump family used more than $1 million in charitable funds from the inauguration fund to "overpay" for a space in the Trump International Hotel and to throw a private party that cost several hundred thousand dollars.

As it turns out, Ivanka and Donald Jr. were involved in negotiations surrounding this misuse of funds. Filings show that Ivanka knew about and was involved in negotiations to use a space in the Trump International Hotel for a price that far exceeded the typical costs that the hotel charged (thus allegedly padding the Trump family's pockets with even more cash), per Mother Jones. Additionally, the final decision to go ahead with the private party using funds from the inauguration committee was ultimately up to Donald Jr. and other key members of the Trump Organization.

On Monday, according to CNN, a D.C. Superior Court ruled that these claims accusing the inauguration of overpaying for the event space at the hotel will move forward meaning that Ivanka and Donald Jr. will soon be defending their actions in court.

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Are Ivanka And Donald Trump Jr. Headed For Court Soon? - The List

The only good part of inflation I was always jealous of those old guys who would go, like, Back in my day, you could buy a house with a dollar! It looks like now if inflation gets bad enough, well get to be those old guys: Oh, yeah? Back in my day, a million dollars could buy a whole lot more than just a haircut! TREVOR NOAH

I feel like a million bucks, and thats not nearly enough, because everything is getting so expensive. STEPHEN COLBERT

All your favorite stuff is more expensive. Prices have gone up for autos, energy, furniture, rent and medical care. That is terrible! One of my favorite things is being mobile, warm, comfortable, dry and alive. STEPHEN COLBERT

This is a big danger to Biden politically, because inflation is the one economic concept that normal people actually care about. Like, the debt ceiling, the Federal Reserve, derivatives thats all just [expletive] we pretend to understand: [mocking] The debt ceiling, the debt ceiling. But when you hear inflation is rising, you know it means youre about to be a broke [expletive]. TREVOR NOAH

OK, how much more bad news is Biden going to get? At the end of the month, were going to find out the turkey he pardoned was at the Capitol on Jan. 6. SETH MEYERS

Yesterday, the N.F.L. fined Rodgers and the Packers for violating Covid-19 protocols. Phew. Now that Covid protocols are being enforced, we can get back to safely enjoying the beautiful game of 300-pound men crushing each others spines like a sleeve of Ritz crackers. STEPHEN COLBERT on the Green Bay Packers and their quarterback Aaron Rodgers

Rodgers attended a Halloween party despite being unvaccinated, for which the N.F.L. fined him $14,650. Which sounds like a lot of money, but its the equivalent of fining an average American $33.80 or one beer at a Packers game. STEPHEN COLBERT

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Stephen Colbert Is Tickled by a Judges Takedown of Trump - The New York Times

Per the Associated Press, a still from the video of former President Donald Trump addressing his supporters from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center included a caption that read, "The doctors said they've never seen a body kill the coronavirus like my body. They tested my DNA and it wasn't DNA. It was USA."

However, after several fact checks, it later emerged that the video still and accompanying quote were false, and there is no evidence that the former president ever made this statement.

Although false, the video was shared thousands of times across social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. In the real video clip, Trump actually said, "I came here, wasn't feeling so well. I feel much better now. We're working hard to get me all the way back. I have to be back because we still have to make America great again."

Per USA Today, the former president also said that his wife, Melania Trump, was handling the coronavirus "very nicely" and described potential cures for COVID-19 as "miracles coming down from God."

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The Truth About The Viral Video Of Donald Trump Talking About His COVID-19 Recovery - The List

After Donald Trump lost the Presidential election last year, a law professor named John Eastman drafted, for Trumps use, a two-page manual for unlawfully throwing out the electoral votes of certain states as they were being tallied in Congress, on January 6th. The name he mentions most often in the memo is that of Vice-President Mike Pence. It appears in such statements as Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected and, regarding disrupting the count, The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission. Eastman also spoke at Trumps January 6th rally, where he said that what we are demanding of Vice-President Pence is that he intervene in the electoral count. Trump, speaking shortly afterward, cited Eastmans authority when he said, If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.

Soon afterward, the assault on the Capitol began, and, once it became clear that the Vice-President was not going to do what Trump and his allies demanded, a group of insurrectionists chanted Hang Mike Pence. Members of the Pence family were also in the Capitol, and in danger. Eastman is expected to be subpoenaed in the coming days by the House select committee investigating the events surrounding January 6th. In addition to writing that memo, and a revised, more detailed onein which he declares that letting the results stand would mean thatAmericans were no longer a self-governing peoplehe attended a meeting with Trump and Pence in the Oval Office on January 4th. (Eastman says that he ultimately advised Pence to delay the count, not to stage a coup.) An area of inquiry for the committee is how much pressure Trump put on Pence to help him overturn the election. (A lot, it seems.)

But one person who doesnt appear eager to dwell on that question, at least not publicly, is Pence himself, who has been biding his time giving speeches and setting up an organization called Advancing American Freedom. Last month, in an interview with Sean Hannity, on Fox News, he said that the media is trying to use January 6th to distract from President Bidens failed agenda and to demean the character and intentions of people who voted for Trump. He assured Hannity that he and Trump had parted amicably after leaving office, and had stayed in touch. On social media and in a podcast he has launched, he steadily repeats the phrase Trump-Pence Administrationlinking his name with that of a man who was ready to abandon him to a mob.

Pences position is intriguing on a human level, but it is significant in political terms, too, because it captures so much about the state of the G.O.P., where the 2024 Presidential race is headed, and how much the contest over the legacy of January 6th matters in setting that course. Trump seems to realize that as much as anybody. After Pence appeared on Fox News, Trump put out a statement saying that the interview very much destroys and discredits the Unselect Committees Witch Hunt on the events of January 6th. The interview does not do that, of course. But the Trump-Pence dance underscores how high the stakes are for the committee. Trump, in trying to obstruct the investigation into January 6thwith spurious claims of executive privilege, for exampleis fighting not only to impose his view of the past but to insure his political future.

A simple explanation for Pences complacency is that he wants to run for President himself, and cant afford to alienate Trump if he is to have any hope of making it through the primaries. According to a recent poll, Trumps favorability rating among Republicans is eighty-six per cent. His Save America PAC, the new Make America Great Again, Again! super PAC, and ancillary political funds have raised more than a hundred million dollars. But Trump may not want to help anyone but Trump. In September, when asked by Fox News if he would run, he said, It is getting to a point where we really have no choice. Its hard to know whom he means by we. In a Morning Consult/Politico poll that asked Republicans whom they would support out of more than fifteen potential candidates for 2024, forty-seven per cent chose Trump. Pence came next, with just thirteen per cent. Close behind Pence was Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a Trump ally, with twelve per cent. (Six per cent chose Donald Trump, Jr.twice as many as picked Senators Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio.) When Trump was asked recently, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, what he thought of DeSantiss Presidential prospects, he said, If I faced him, Id beat him like I would beat everyone else. But Trump didnt believe it would come to that. He said he thought that, if he ran, most people would drop out, I think he would drop out.

Trump may be right. Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, criticized him in straightforward terms after January 6th; in February, she told Politico that the Party had been wrong to follow him. A few weeks ago, she told the Wall Street Journal, We need him in the Republican Party. She also said that, if theres a place for me in the 2024 race, I would talk to him and see what his plans are.... We would work on it together. Perhaps she was hinting at the Vice-Presidential spot; its extraordinary to think that there are people who would like to be the next Mike Pence. One wonders if candidates for the job would be given copies of Eastmans memos and asked to check off the unconstitutional moves that they would be willing to make.

Far from being a witch hunt, the investigations into January 6th have continued to uncover unsettling material concerning Trumps efforts to overturn the election. (The Senate Judiciary Committee reported last month on his attempts to enlist officials in the Department of Justice in that cause.) Theres no shortage of reminders that he hasnt moved on. Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy letter to the editor from Trump, full of baseless claims that the vote count in Pennsylvania was wrong. The election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still havent figured out, he informed the Journal. In a statement a week earlier, he spoke in even more strident terms: The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!

There can hardly be a better example of why a clear accounting of the events leading up to the assault on the Capitol is so crucial. According to Trump, the real insurrection was never put down. January 6th, in that sense, is a long way from over.

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When Will January 6th Be Over? - The New Yorker