Mitch McConnell explains why he will still support Donald Trump
Two lawyers who served at the most senior level in the Trump White House are today set to talk to the committee investigating events leading up to the 6 January insurrection. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his onetime deputy Pat Philbin are reportedly speaking to the committee on a semi-formal basis rather than giving full testimony.
Meanwhile, the latest Capitol riot defendant to go on trial is blaming his actions on Donald Trump and his false claims about a stolen election, in a rare mention of the former president’s role during the ongoing hearings.
Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man charged with stealing a coat rack from the Capitol, did not deny that he joined the mob on 6 January 2021. But his lawyer vowed on Tuesday to show that Mr Trump abused his power to “authorise” the attack.
Describing Mr Trump as a man without scruples or integrity, defence attorney Samuel Shamansky said the former president engaged in a “sinister” plot to encourage Mr Thompson and other supporters to “do his dirty work.”
ICYMI: Trump says he ‘probably wouldn’t have any interest’ in returning to Twitter
Donald Trump has said that he wouldn’t go back to Twitter if his ban was lifted during an interview in which he also boasted about Hispanic support for the Republican Party.
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Maroosha Muzaffar14 April 2022 07:45
Trump White House chief of staff stripped from North Carolina voter rolls, under investigation for voter fraud
A top White House aide who was part of the effort to overturn the 2020 election is now himself under investigation for voter fraud and was stripped from the voter rolls in his home state of North Carolina this week.
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Maroosha Muzaffar14 April 2022 07:00
Trump flexes massive fundraising haul in bid to oust Georgia’s Republican governor
Former President Donald Trump appears to be making good on his promise to force disloyal GOP politicians to face the might of his fundraising juggernaught, writes John Bowden.
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Maroosha Muzaffar14 April 2022 06:00
Trump’s former chief of staff says The Rock could win GOP 2024 nomination
What do Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott all have in common?
If you find yourself drawing a blank, don’t beat yourself up. Mick Mulvaney, perhaps the only person who could manage to sandwich these figures into the same thought, will have surprised some Politico readers on Wednesday when the former Trump chief of staff listed those three as the only nominees capable of upsetting the former president’s run at re-election in 2024.
“DeSantis could give him a run for his money. Tim Scott can give him a run for his money. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson could give him a run for his money,” Mr Mulvaney, now a pundit for CBS, told Politico’s Playbook.
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Johanna Chisholm14 April 2022 05:40
GOP pollster says party mocks ‘child’ Trump in private
A Republican pollster says that the party mocks Donald Trump as a “child” in private and is “laughing” at the one-term president.
Frank Luntz made the comment in the wake of New Hampshire’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, telling the annual Gridiron Club dinner that Mr Trump is “f***ing crazy.”
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Maroosha Muzaffar14 April 2022 05:00
Trump says he ‘probably wouldn’t have any interest’ in returning to Twitter
Donald Trump has said that he wouldn’t go back to Twitter if his ban was lifted during an interview in which he also boasted about Hispanic support for the Republican Party.
Mr Trump also told SiriusXM’s Americano Media people would be “very happy” about his plans for the 2024 election, which he said would be made public after the midterms in the fall.
“I’ll tell you this: I think a lot of people are going to be happy. I’ll announce it after the midterms, but a lot of people are going to be very happy,” Mr Trump told La Política.
He also claimed credit for Hispanic support for the GOP in the interview obtained by Fox News Digital.
“I think we really have a relationship … I think I started it and did very well in 2016. We did much better in almost every way – as you know I got 12 million more votes in the second election in 2020. But we did really well with the Hispanics,” he said.
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Gustaf Kilander14 April 2022 04:30
Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Fox’s DC HQ
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is going forward with his plan to bus undocumented migrants to Washington DC despite concerns from most legal experts regarding his total lack of authority to do so.
The Texas Republican’s administration oversaw the first arrival of a busload of undocumented migrants to the nation’s capital on Wednesday; the bus arrived at the headquarters of right-leaning network Fox News, which was the first to report on the scene and had a story published within minutes of their arrival.
The building also houses C-SPAN and NBC News’s offices, but Fox’s coverage touted news of the event as an “exclusive” while NBC did not publish an article on the subject until after noon on Wednesday.
The White House has blasted Mr Abbott’s efforts as a publicity stunt. State officials do not have legal authority outside of their own jurisdiction, and it’s not clear if the group of migrants that arrived on Wednesday did so with the cooperation, consent or knowledge of Washington DC city officials.
The Biden administration recently announced that the CDC would rescind the Title 42 authority granted under the Trump administration to turn away asylum-seekers at the border, a move which Republicans argue is going to further drive illegal migration and asylum claims, which are legal but require a person to be physically present at the US border or inside the country for claims to be processed.
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John Bowden14 April 2022 03:15
‘Idea that’ Trump is ‘invincible among Republicans is far from proven,’ political science professor says
Political science professor Jonathan Bernstein wrote in an opinion piece for Bloomberg that the idea that Donald Trump is “invincible among Republicans is far from proven”.
Dr Bernstein went on to note that Mr Trump’s 2016 nomination was “narrow” and that it was “aided by all sorts of odd events” and “a fair amount of luck”.
“He also has an electoral record now, and it’s not exactly an impressive one; after all, he lost re-election, and Republicans lost the House (in 2018) and the Senate (in 2020) while he was in office,” the professor wrote.
“His tantrum over losing the presidency and his false claims about fraud have widely been credited for the loss of two Senate seats in Georgia. Republicans may trust Trump more on policy than they once did, but they should have even less confidence that he’ll be a team player now,” he added.
This could all mean “more opposition from party actors” in 2024 compared to previous races.
“None of this is to say that Trump won’t be the nominee,” Dr Bernstein concluded. “It’s just a case for uncertainty.”
Gustaf Kilander14 April 2022 02:02
Trump supporters trick airport workers to page fake passengers at airports
Trump supporters are tricking airport workers to page fake passengers at airports, according to The Daily Beast.
The new trend comes after years of conservatives fighting mask mandates on planes and involves tricking airport staff into paging fake passengers with names that sound like right-wing memes, such as “Let’s go Brandon”, which is code for “f**k Joe Biden”.
Daily Beast political reporter Will Sommer said the trend is a sign of “the prankishness of the American right right now”.
He added that one of the more well-known pranksters “does it and has his little snicker at the Cinnabon”.
“These videos rack up tens of thousands of views,” he said.
Gustaf Kilander14 April 2022 00:45
Ingraham says Trump and Hannity endorsing Dr Oz was a ‘mistake’
Fox News host Laura Ingraham has said that she thinks that fellow Fox Anchor Sean Hannity and Donald Trump endorsing Mehmet Oz for senate in Pennsylvania was a mistake.
On Tuesday night, Ms Ingraham said she couldn’t support Dr Oz because of his previous statements on guns and abortion.
She ran a short clip on her programme showing the celebrity doctor questioning that a fetus has a heartbeat at the age of six weeks.
Alongside former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, they said that Dr Oz has never rejected his previous comments. He has said that he’s pro-life.
“A Trump endorsement, and waving the Trump flag, doesn’t make you Donald Trump,” Ms Conway said.
Mr Trump “did something I don’t see Oz doing” on the issue of abortion – “he’s had a conversion”, she added.
“Hannity, I believe, endorsed Oz … I think it was a mistake. I’m not afraid to say it. It was a mistake to endorse Oz,” Ms Ingraham said.
Gustaf Kilander13 April 2022 23:30
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