This is stupid. This bridge and waterway is a vital cog in commerce. It's collapse and blockage will cause untold damage to everyone regardless of your party.
Quick question. Republicans refused to pass the immigration bill. Trump told them to do that and some of them even said the truth out loud. They asked why they should do anything that would help Biden during an election year? What causes you to think this would be any different?
This may be a little harder for them to refuse to do but as you can see some of them are already coming up with ways to avoid it.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
This is stupid. This bridge and waterway is a vital cog in commerce. It's collapse and blockage will cause untold damage to everyone regardless of your party.
Quick question. Republicans refused to pass the immigration bill. Trump told them to do that and some of them even said the truth out loud. They asked why they should do anything that would help Biden during an election year? What causes you to think this would be any different?
This may be a little harder for them to refuse to do but as you can see some of them are already coming up with ways to avoid it.
I would use Gov't money, probably from an emergency fund or the infrastructure bill to clear the debris, so that shipping can continue. I would get the shipping open in the next couple months. I would also quickly look at the federal/state mandates for what kind of shipping should be going through that channel and then start on the construction documents. I would also start looking into the companies ability to pay for reconstruction, what insurance they had and to see if this requires litigation for them to pay for this damage. This should not all be on the gov't with no means of recourse.
As for rebuilding the bridge, I would start on the construction docs now-I would guess that a rebuild of this size is probably about 2 1/2 to 4 years. If the company goes bankrupt or is unwilling to pay or wants to drag it out in courts, I would take appropriate action against them and then we will have to use state/federal monies or delay the bridge and vehicle access across.
That all sounds like a good game plan moving forward. But there are a couple of flies in the ointment. A president can't approve money to rebuild the bridge. Only congress can. There is an emergency fund that can be used to pay for it. The infrastructure bill has already been passed and all the money has been allocated as to where that money is earmarked. So the choice is either to use the emergency fund or rewrite the infrastructure bill. One certainly seems more plausible than the other. Now the job is to get congress to move quickly to resolve the issue. I think the only solution is to move quickly with federal money to get the thing started and go after the company to recuperate every dollar they have to reimburse the federal government.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Pit, To get my point thru, I would use emergency money/infrastructure money to clear the debris so that the shipping can restart-whatever is possible. I would then see what monies are available to start construction docs as the gov't starts to recoup the money against the shippers insurance.
As for rebuilding the bridge, yes that would have to be funded at some level. I don't know how much is in state/federal emergency funds or what is available in the infrastructure monies. We are working on another large project that they were just told in the last couple weeks they were given a grant for a new plant. If it has to be funded with congress approval, we may have to stop at cleaning up the debris and waiting for funding to rebuild or the shipper to cough up some of the rebuild cost.
The emergency money for the clean up was something Biden could do on his own. As such 60 million dollars were already approved for the clean up...............
Disaster Relief Fund, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Fiscal Year Summary
For this current fiscal year, this agency has been granted authority to spend $35B out of this federal account. They carried over a balance of $10B from last year, were given $25B in new appropriations, and have authority to use $33M of other budgetary resources.
To date, 57.2% ($20B) of the total $35B has been obligated.......................
All of the infrastructure money was allocated and earmarked before it was ever passed. There is no discretionary funding left in that bill as it was written. Where every dollar of it was to go is accounted for. It is totally separate from the emergency fund. As such they would have to rewrite at least part of the infrastructure bill all together by taking the funds already allocated to go somewhere else and reroute it to the bridge. The way congress has been functioning, or not functioning as the case may be, that looks more like a jigsaw puzzle than a realistic solution.
This type of disaster is exactly what the disaster relief fund is for. I don't see any of this as being complicated. Unless of course the Freedom Caucus decides to make it complicated. It's starting out to be leaning in that direction.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Bro if I ever try to take over the world, imma pay you very well for your services.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Russians. This was Prigozhin’s specialty before he went rogue.
And almost right on queue:
GOP Rep. Mike Turner said Sunday that Russian propaganda has taken hold among some of his House Republican colleagues and is even "being uttered on the House floor."
"We see directly coming from Russia ... communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor," Turner, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union."
"There are members of Congress today who still incorrectly say that this conflict between Russia and Ukraine is over NATO, which of course it is not," he added.
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Turner's office did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for clarification about which members of Congress he was referring to.
His comments come on the heels of remarks House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul made this week about how Russian propaganda has taken root among the GOP.
McCaul, a Texas Republican, told Puck News that he thinks "Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base."
Turner and McCaul each tied Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, to other authoritarian leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea.
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"[The propaganda] makes it more difficult for us to really see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle, which is what it is," Turner told CNN, adding, "President Xi of China, Vladimir Putin himself have identified as such."
McCaul described explaining to colleagues that the threat of Russian propaganda is similar to threats made by other U.S. adversaries.
"I have to explain to them what’s at stake, why Ukraine is in our national security interest," he said. "By the way, you don’t like Communist China? Well, guess what? They’re aligned [with Russia], along with the ayatollah [of Iran]. So when you explain it that way, they kind of start understanding it."
The committee chairs' remarks about Russian propaganda came as they spoke about the need for Congress to approve more military aid to Ukraine.
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"Ukraine needs our help and assistance now, and this is a very critical time for the U.S. Congress to step up and provide that aid," Turner told CNN.
The House in recent months has stalled on efforts to pass Ukraine aid, with Speaker Mike Johnson refusing to put an aid package the Senate passed in February that would provide resources to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on the House floor.
Last week, Rep. Don Bacon said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he had commitments from Johnson and McCaul that they would allow a bipartisan Ukraine military aid package to advance to a vote.
Rep. French Hill echoed this point on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday morning, saying he believes Johnson will bring Ukraine aid to the floor "immediately after completing the work on [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] and FISA's extension — that deadline of April 19 makes it a priority for the first few days we're back."
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"I believe he's fully committed to bringing it up to the floor immediately thereafter," Hill added.
But Bacon, R-Neb., also warned that Johnson could face a vote to oust him from the speakership if he moves forward with Ukraine aid.
On Sunday, Turner downplayed the notion that Johnson's position was at risk over Ukraine aid.
"I don't think he's at any risk," Turner said. "I think that what people have been referring to as the 'chaos caucus,' those individuals who are seeking attention for themselves and trying to stop all of the important work in Congress, are now seen as merely disruptive."
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Democrats have signaled that they could join several Republicans in helping to save Johnson's speakership if a motion to vacate, such as the one filed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene just before the House left for a two-week Easter recess, were brought to a vote.
This is stupid. This bridge and waterway is a vital cog in commerce. It's collapse and blockage will cause untold damage to everyone regardless of your party.
Quick question. Republicans refused to pass the immigration bill. Trump told them to do that and some of them even said the truth out loud. They asked why they should do anything that would help Biden during an election year? What causes you to think this would be any different?
This may be a little harder for them to refuse to do but as you can see some of them are already coming up with ways to avoid it.
I have no doubt about it, but I try to give the benefit. I keep hoping that Republicans will put this crap aside and help Americans. Probably too much to ask of them.
These damn fools think they work for TRUMP. They do not, they work for us. I'd like to see them act like it.
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
Russians. This was Prigozhin’s specialty before he went rogue.
And almost right on queue:
GOP Rep. Mike Turner said Sunday that Russian propaganda has taken hold among some of his House Republican colleagues and is even "being uttered on the House floor."
"We see directly coming from Russia ... communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor," Turner, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union."
"There are members of Congress today who still incorrectly say that this conflict between Russia and Ukraine is over NATO, which of course it is not," he added.
ADVERTISEMENT
Turner's office did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for clarification about which members of Congress he was referring to.
His comments come on the heels of remarks House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul made this week about how Russian propaganda has taken root among the GOP.
McCaul, a Texas Republican, told Puck News that he thinks "Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base."
Turner and McCaul each tied Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, to other authoritarian leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea.
ADVERTISEMENT
"[The propaganda] makes it more difficult for us to really see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle, which is what it is," Turner told CNN, adding, "President Xi of China, Vladimir Putin himself have identified as such."
McCaul described explaining to colleagues that the threat of Russian propaganda is similar to threats made by other U.S. adversaries.
"I have to explain to them what’s at stake, why Ukraine is in our national security interest," he said. "By the way, you don’t like Communist China? Well, guess what? They’re aligned [with Russia], along with the ayatollah [of Iran]. So when you explain it that way, they kind of start understanding it."
The committee chairs' remarks about Russian propaganda came as they spoke about the need for Congress to approve more military aid to Ukraine.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Ukraine needs our help and assistance now, and this is a very critical time for the U.S. Congress to step up and provide that aid," Turner told CNN.
The House in recent months has stalled on efforts to pass Ukraine aid, with Speaker Mike Johnson refusing to put an aid package the Senate passed in February that would provide resources to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on the House floor.
Last week, Rep. Don Bacon said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he had commitments from Johnson and McCaul that they would allow a bipartisan Ukraine military aid package to advance to a vote.
Rep. French Hill echoed this point on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday morning, saying he believes Johnson will bring Ukraine aid to the floor "immediately after completing the work on [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] and FISA's extension — that deadline of April 19 makes it a priority for the first few days we're back."
ADVERTISEMENT
"I believe he's fully committed to bringing it up to the floor immediately thereafter," Hill added.
But Bacon, R-Neb., also warned that Johnson could face a vote to oust him from the speakership if he moves forward with Ukraine aid.
On Sunday, Turner downplayed the notion that Johnson's position was at risk over Ukraine aid.
"I don't think he's at any risk," Turner said. "I think that what people have been referring to as the 'chaos caucus,' those individuals who are seeking attention for themselves and trying to stop all of the important work in Congress, are now seen as merely disruptive."
ADVERTISEMENT
Democrats have signaled that they could join several Republicans in helping to save Johnson's speakership if a motion to vacate, such as the one filed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene just before the House left for a two-week Easter recess, were brought to a vote.
Greene defends claim that eclipse, earthquake signs to repent
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Sunday defended an earlier statement saying Monday’s eclipse and Friday’s New York-area earthquake were signs from God telling people to repent.
After two days of backlash, Greene addressed a community note that was added to provide context to her original post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. She said that while eclipses are predictable, they still are created by God and can be signs for those who believe.
On Friday, an earthquake shook the New York region, which infrequently experiences such incidents. On Monday, people across the country will witness a total solar eclipse, a rare phenomenon that is next slated to occur in two decades.
In a post Friday, Greene wrote that “God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.”
A community note was subsequently added, providing links to government resources.
“Earthquakes happen all the time, all around the world, we can follow them realtime using USGS resources,” it stated. “Eclipses are not random, they follow strict mathematical rules and can be predicted centuries before they happen. NASA has a site listing eclipses until the year 3000.”
Greene in 2021 apologized during a heated closed-door House GOP conference meeting for her past controversial remarks and embracing the QAnon conspiracy theory.
GOP’s Marjorie Taylor Greene delivers fresh threats of ousting Speaker Johnson in scathing rebuke
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hard-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is escalating her criticism of House Speaker Mike Johnson, blistering his leadership in a lengthy letter to colleagues and renewing threats of a snap vote that could remove him from office.
As lawmakers returned to work Tuesday from a two-week spring recess, the fresh onslaught from the Georgia congresswoman dragged the still-new speaker back into the Republican chaos that has defined GOP House control and threatens to grind work to a halt. Johnson may very well be unable to execute the basics of his job.
“Today, I sent a letter to my colleagues explaining exactly why I filed a motion to vacate against Speaker Johnson,” Greene said on social media about the procedural tool that could force the quick vote.
Greene in stark terms warned Johnson not to reach across the aisle to Democrats for votes he would need to pass pending legislation that hard-right Republicans oppose, particularly aid to Ukraine. That aid package as well as other agenda items are in grave doubt.
“I will not tolerate this type of Republican ‘leadership,’” wrote Greene, a top ally of presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, in the five-page letter first reported by The New York Times.
The standoff threatens to mire the House in another standstill, saddling the Republican majority with a do-nothing label after months of turmoil that has sent some seasoned lawmakers heading for the exits.
It comes during what is typically a springtime legislative push in Congress to notch a few priorities before lawmakers turn their attention toward the November election campaigns.
For Johnson, who took the helm just six months ago after the House ousted Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s post, it is political payback for his efforts to keep government running by compromising with Democrats on must-past legislation to fund federal operations and prevent a shutdown.
Partnership with Democrats is about the only way Johnson can pass any bills in the face of a thin majority and staunch resistance from his right flank. He can lose barely more than a single Republican from his ranks on most votes.
Greene, who filed the motion to vacate the speaker before lawmakers left for spring break in March, has stopped short of saying she would call it up for the vote and her next steps are uncertain.
Other Republicans, even some of the eight who voted to oust McCarthy, the California Republican who has since retired from Congress, have cooled on Greene’s effort, trying to prevent another spectacle. McCarthy’s ouster left the House essentially shuttered for almost a month last fall as Republicans argued over a new leader.
And Democrats led by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York have signaled they may lend their votes to Johnson, a courtesy they did not extend to McCarthy, which could save the Louisiana Republican’s job in a bipartisan effort to keep the House open and functioning.
But Greene, during a rousing town hall late Monday in her home district in Georgia and in the scathing letter delivered Tuesday as lawmakers returned to work, left clear the threat that hangs over Johnson if he seeks any partnership with Democrats.
In the letter, she outlined the promises she said Johnson made to Republicans during the fight to become speaker, and listed ways she said he had broken them — for example, by passing the spending bills needed to fund the government with existing policies many Republicans oppose, or by failing to include legislation with Republican proposals for securing the U.S.-Mexico border.
”This has been a complete and total surrender to, if not complete and total lockstep with, the Democrats’ agenda that has angered our Republican base so much and given them very little reason to vote for a Republican House majority,” she wrote.
Trying, not really, more like succeeding in running the asylum.
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
Former Trump executive Allen Weisselberg sentenced to 5 months in jail for lying in civil fraud case
NEW YORK (AP) — Allen Weisselberg, a retired executive in Donald Trump’s real estate empire, was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in jail for lying under oath during his testimony in the civil fraud lawsuit brought against the former president by New York’s attorney general.
Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of perjury in connection with the suit. He admitted lying when he testified he had little knowledge of how Trump’s Manhattan penthouse came to be valued on his financial statements at nearly three times its actual size.
Asked if he wanted to address the court on Wednesday, Weisselberg, wearing a black windbreaker and a face mask, responded, “No, your honor.” He was escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs following the brief sentencing, which lasted less than five minutes.
It is Weisselberg’s second time behind bars. The former Trump Organization chief financial officer served 100 days last year for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in company perks, including a rent-free Manhattan apartment and luxury cars.
Now, he’s again trading life as a Florida retiree for a stay at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
The two cases highlight Weisselberg’s unflinching loyalty to Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Trump’s family employed Weisselberg for nearly 50 years, then gave him a $2 million severance deal when the tax charges prompted him to retire. The company continues to pay his legal bills.
Weisselberg testified twice in trials that went badly for Trump, but each time he took pains to suggest that his boss hadn’t committed any serious wrongdoing. His plea agreement does not require him to testify at Trump’s hush money criminal trial, which is scheduled to start with jury selection Monday.
In agreeing to a five-month sentence, prosecutors cited Weisselberg’s age and willingness to admit wrongdoing. In New York, perjury is a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. Prosecutors promised not to prosecute Weisselberg for other crimes he might have committed in connection with his Trump Organization employment.
Weisselberg’s sentence mirrors his previous case, in which he was ordered to serve five months in jail but was eligible for release after little more than three months with good behavior. Prior to that, he had no criminal record.
Trump’s lawyers took issue with Weisselberg’s perjury prosecution, accusing the Manhattan district attorney’s office of deploying “unethical, strong-armed tactics against an innocent man in his late 70s” while turning “a blind eye” to perjury allegations against Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who is now a key prosecution witness in the hush money case.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office and Weisselberg’s lawyer Seth Rosenberg declined to address the court.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty March 4. He admitted lying under oath on three occasions while testifying in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against Trump: in depositions in July 2020 and May 2023 and on the witness stand at the trial last October. To avoid violating his tax case probation, however, he agreed to plead guilty only to charges related to his 2020 deposition testimony.
The size of Trump’s penthouse was a key issue in the civil fraud case.
Trump valued the apartment on his financial statements from at least 2012 to 2016 as though it measured 30,000 square feet (2,800 square meters). A former Trump real estate executive testified that Weisselberg provided the figure. The former executive said that when he asked for the apartment’s size in 2012, Weisselberg replied: “It’s quite large. I think it’s around 30,000 square feet.”
However, state lawyers noted, Weisselberg got an email early in that year with a 1994 document attached that pegged Trump’s apartment at 10,996 square feet (1,022 square meters). Weisselberg testified that he remembered the email but not the attachment and that he didn’t “walk around knowing the size” of the apartment.
After Forbes magazine published an article in 2017 disputing the size of Trump’s penthouse, its estimated value on his financial statement was cut from $327 million to about $117 million.
As Weisselberg was testifying last October, Forbes published an article with the headline “Trump’s Longtime CFO Lied, Under Oath, About Trump Tower Penthouse.”
The civil fraud trial ended with Judge Arthur Engoron ruling that Trump and some of his executives had schemed to deceive banks, insurers and others by lying about his wealth on financial statements used to make deals and secure loans. The judge penalized Trump $455 million and ordered Weisselberg to pay $1 million. They are both appealing.
In his decision, Engoron said he found Weisselberg’s testimony “intentionally evasive” and “highly unreliable.”
Weisselberg is likely to factor into Trump’s hush money trial — even if he’s in jail and not on the witness stand while it’s happening.
Trump is accused of falsifying his company’s records to cover up payments during his 2016 campaign to bury stories of marital infidelity. It is the first of Trump’s four criminal cases scheduled to go to trial. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies wrongdoing.
Cohen has said Weisselberg had a role in orchestrating the payments. Weisselberg, who lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, has not been charged in that case, and neither prosecutors nor Trump’s lawyers have indicated they will call him as a witness.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The effort by supporters of former President Donald Trump to recall Wisconsin’s top elected Republican did not gather enough signatures to trigger the recall election and therefore should be rejected, state elections officials said Wednesday.
Trump backers angry with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos launched the recall effort, citing his refusal to decertify President Joe Biden’s narrow win in the state in 2020. Vos further angered Trump supporters when he did not back a plan to impeach Meagan Wolfe, the state’s top elections official.
Trump also renewed his criticism of Vos and Wolfe this week.
Vos dismissed petition organizers as “whack jobs and morons” and said previously that the effort had failed after challenging the validity of thousands of signatures.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission was expected to formally reject the Vos recall effort for not gathering enough valid signatures on Thursday.
Staff at the commission said in a memo released Wednesday that based on their review the effort did not collect enough valid signatures. The effort was complicated over what district should be used for any recall election, given that new boundary lines take effect in November.
But the staff review found that no matter what district is used — the one Vos was elected to serve in 2022 or either of the two new ones that comprise parts of the old district — the recall did not gather enough signatures.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court last week declined a request from the elections commission to clarify what district boundaries should be used in any recall.
Vos is the most powerful Republican in the GOP-led Legislature. He was first elected in 2004 and is the longest-serving Assembly speaker in state history, holding the post since 2013.
He did not return a message seeking comment. Recall organizers also did not return a message.
Recall organizers, recognizing that their initial effort was likely short of the needed signatures, launched a second recall effort last month.
Trump, in an interview on The Regular Joe radio show on Tuesday lobbed more criticism at Vos and renewed calls for Wolfe to be removed.
“I’ve heard so much about Meagan Wolfe, and it’s like unanimous, she shouldn’t be there,” Trump said. “And Robin Vos, who’s a Republican, is allowing her to be there. I don’t understand it. I can’t imagine it.”
Wolfe is one of the most respected elections officials in the nation. She has served as president of the National Association of State Election Directors and chair of the bipartisan Electronic Registration Information Center, which helps states maintain accurate voter rolls.
Vos has blocked efforts by five Republicans in the Assembly to impeach Wolfe. Senate Republicans voted in September to fire Wolfe, despite objections from Democrats and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys, who said the Senate didn’t have the authority to vote at that time because Wolfe was a holdover in her position and had not been reappointed.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul sued to challenge that vote, and in court filings, Republican legislative leaders changed course and claimed their vote to fire Wolfe was merely “symbolic” and had no legal effect.
A judge later ruled that Wolfe is legally holding her position.
RNC under Lara Trump spreads ‘massive fraud’ claims about 2020 election
The Republican National Committee last week sent out a scripted call to voters’ phones on behalf of new co-chair Lara Trump saying Democrats committed “massive fraud” in the 2020 election.
It’s the latest example of how the RNC under the former president’s daughter-in-law is perpetuating lies about the 2020 election, even as prominent Republicans say the party needs to look forward to win in 2024.
“We all know the problems. No photo IDs, unsecured ballot drop boxes, mass mailing of ballots, and voter rolls chock full of deceased people and non-citizens are just a few examples of the massive fraud that took place,” the RNC call said. “If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn’t even an American citizen.”
The claim of “massive fraud” in the 2020 election marks a significant shift in messaging for the RNC because lies about the 2020 election had not been a consistent theme in its messaging since Donald Trump left office.
But the call’s message is largely consistent with the views publicly espoused over the past four years by Lara Trump, who was elected as co-chair in early March as part of Donald Trump’s takeover of the GOP. Lara Trump has a long history of echoing his election fraud claims, according to a CNN KFile analysis of her past statements as a commentator and surrogate for the former president.
“I’m sure you agree with co-chair Trump that we cannot allow the chaos and questions of the 2020 election to ever happen again,” said the call, which was obtained by CNN’s KFile from the anti-robocall application Nomorobo, which estimated 145,000 calls were sent with the message from April 1-7.
It comes amid previous CNN reporting about the RNC asking employees who are reapplying for their jobs whether they believe the 2020 election was stolen in an apparent litmus test for hiring. The RNC denied any such litmus test existed. Lara Trump and new chair Michael Whatley succeeded Drew McKissick and Ronna McDaniel, who had earned the ire of the former president because of his dissatisfaction with how the RNC handled claims of fraud around the 2020 election, CNN previously reported.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, as even some state GOP election officials and former Trump Attorney General William Barr have acknowledged. The former president and his supporters filed more than 60 court cases in six key battleground states following the election and lost every one of them. And, they have still not brought forth any evidence of the rampant cheating they continue to talk about on the campaign trail.
But in the years since the 2020 election, Lara Trump has continued to push claims of fraud. Her comments have been in line with those of her father-in-law, who’s successfully reshaped the GOP in his image and easily secured his third-straight GOP nomination this year.
Polling, for example, shows that a majority of GOP voters think the 2020 election result was illegitimate. A CNN poll released last September found that 71% of Republicans said President Joe Biden’s “did not legitimately win enough votes to win the presidency.”
From November 2020 to February 2024, Lara Trump propagated the narrative of Democratic cheating in the 2020 presidential election. And even after she was elected co-chair and said claims of a stolen election are “in the past,” she didn’t repudiate those baseless accusations.
“Well, I think we’re past that. I think that’s in the past. We learned a lot. Certainly, we took a lot of notes,” Trump said in an NBC interview when asked whether claims of a stolen 2020 election would be the official position of the RNC in 2024. She went on to tout lawsuits across 23 states “to ensure that it is harder to cheat and easier to vote,” while raising questions about pandemic-era voting procedures during the 2020 election.
In the same interview, Trump also added the GOP needed to “trust mail-in voting.”
Neither the RNC nor Lara Trump responded to multiple requests for comment.
Trump attorneys trolled after they subpoena wrong Jeremy Rosenberg for hush money trial: ‘I’m keeping the $15’
Mr Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche made the embarrassing mistake when he was trying to subpoena former District Attorney Supervising Rackets Investigator Jeremy Rosenberg in March
Donald Trump’s lawyers have been trolled by a random man in Brooklyn after they subpoenaed him by mistake for the former president’s hush money trial.
In a filing from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office on Tuesday, prosecutors revealed that Mr Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche had tried to subpoena former District Attorney Supervising Rackets Investigator Jeremy Rosenberg in March, to seek files related to the Republican presidential candidate’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
However, it transpired that Mr Blanche made an embarrassing mistake – sending the subpoena to a man from Brooklyn also called Jeremy Rosenberg.
While the man shares the same name as the former DA’s office investigator, he has zero connection to the criminal case against the former president.
Following the blunder, Mr Rosenberg decided to have a bit of fun with Mr Trump’s attorneys – and told them he’d be keeping the money they sent him.
“I don’t have any files for you,” the apparently bemused Brooklynite wrote back, according to a filing from the former president’s legal team.
He added: “PS - The phone number you provided was disconnected.
“PPS - I’m keeping the fifteen dollars,” he added, referencing the money Mr Trump’s lawyers had sent him to help pay for sending the documents.
Mr Blanche had complained earlier this week that the man that he believed the former investigator Mr Rosenberg had displayed a “flippant and dismissive approach” to his subpoena “despite ample experience with the criminal justice system that should have instilled in him respect for this process and a criminal defendant’s rights”.
But in fact, Mr Trump’s lawyers had simply served court papers on the wrong man, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote.
“The people believe the defendant has served the incorrect person,” Mr Colangelo said in a court filing.
“The people spoke with Mr. Rosenberg’s counsel, who informed the People that Mr. Rosenberg was not, in fact, served with the subpoena, that Mr. Rosenberg had not corresponded with defense counsel, and that Mr. Rosenberg does not have any connection to the Brooklyn address where the subpoena purportedly was served,” he added.
Mr Trump is set to go on trial on 15 April on charges of falsifying business records in order to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and others to stop them from going public days before the 2016 presidential election about alleged affairs.
Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which each carry a potential prison sentence of up to four years.
It marks the first time a US president will go on trial and is one of just four criminal trials he is facing at a time when he is campaigning to take back the White House in November.
In recent days, the former president has made several unsuccessful attempts to have the case against him tossed – the latest of which came on Tuesday when a state appeals court judge rejected his 11th-hour bid to delay the trial while he fights the gag order in the case.
When the trial begins, Mr Trump’s lawyers plan to ask Mr Rosenberg for all records of communications he had with Mr Cohen from February 2021 until this May.
Mr Rosenberg, who previously prosecuted Trump ally Steve Bannon, was suspended as an investigator for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in June last year over his contact with Mr Cohen.
A law enforcement source told The New York Post at the time that Mr Bragg’s office was looking at how Mr Rosenberg shared communications about Mr Cohen with the office.
Mr Cohen’s lawyer Lanny J. Davis has insisted that the interactions between himself, Mr Rosenberg, and Mr Cohen were “always professional and focused on Mr Cohen’s personal security”.
So, speaker Johnson is going to mar-a largo tomorrow to kiss the ring and him and trump are going to have a news conference on a bill to promote election integrity by promoting a bill that denies non-citizens from voting. I guess they didn't know that this is already a law and non-citizens can not vote in federal elections.
Joining you in your trivial pursuit doesn't mean I'm blaming you for it. Just keeping the playing field even. You're having a hard time figuring out what the word "blame" means aren't you? This seems to be a persistent problem of yours lately.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Yes, Johnson and trump are going to have a meeting of the "minds?" on how to continue to spread the stolen election conspiracy of 2020 in order to implement voter suppression for the 2024 election. You know, a trivial little thing.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
This expounds on your source about the Johnson/trump meeting along with a, little azz kissing of MTG.
Speaker Johnson to meet with Trump, offers Marjorie Taylor Greene advisory role as own job teeters
WASHINGTON (AP) — His job on the line, House Speaker Mike Johnson is dashing to Florida to meet with Donald Trump this week and has offered far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene a seat on his own “kitchen cabinet” as he draws closer to the MAGA forces that now dominate the GOP.
The sudden moves Wednesday come as the House hit a standstill, thrown into chaos once again.
The House Republicans are tearing themselves apart, unable to work together to push party priorities through Congress yet watching their majority fritter away the days without a cohesive agenda or much to show for their 15 months in power.
Johnson was unable to pass a national security surveillance bill that was tanked by his own Republican majority shortly after Trump pushed them to “kill” it. But at the same time, the speaker was being warned off partnering with Democrats on that bill and others, including aid for Ukraine, or risk Greene calling a snap vote that could oust him from the speaker’s office.
It all leaves Johnson, just six months on the job, in a similar place as Kevin McCarthy, the previous House speaker who was unceremoniously voted out of the speaker’s chair last fall — the first in history to be toppled. “We’re going to regroup and consider next steps,” Johnson, R-La., told reporters as he called an impromptu meeting of Republicans in the Capitol basement.
Heading into the November election, Johnson has hitched his party’s prospects and his own political survival to Trump, believing the presumed presidential nominee and his MAGA supporters will boost Republican lawmakers and ensure they keep control of the House from Democrats.
On Friday, Trump and Johnson will appear for a press conference on “election integrity” at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club, according to a Trump campaign official.
They are expected to make a “joint announcement,” said another person familiar with the planning.
Once skeptical of Trump, Johnson became a key supporter. He led one of the main legal challenges to the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by the mob of Trump’s supporters trying to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
The issue of election integrity has been an obsession for Trump since he lost the 2020 election, even though elections are broadly secure and every state in the union certified its 2020 results that were sent to Congress on the day of the Capitol siege.
It’s unclear what the Trump-Johnson announcement will involve, but since becoming the House speaker Johnson has tried to keep a close relationship with Trump.
Johnson revived a House committee’s efforts to reinvestigate the findings of the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack as Trump calls for pardoning those involved in the bloody mob siege. More than 1,300 people have been charged in connection with the attack, as rioters fought police, stormed the Capitol and roamed the halls. Five people died in the siege and its immediate aftermath.
Trump and Johnson talk regularly, including on Tuesday night, as the speaker works to keep his own critics, particularly Greene, at bay.
A right-wing Republican from Georgia close to Trump, Greene has filed a motion to vacate the speaker, a procedural tool that allows a quick vote on his leadership, and now hangs over Johnson’s every move.
Johnson met with Greene for nearly an hour Wednesday at the Capitol, and she said the exchange was “direct and passionate.”
She is highly critical of Johnson, her grievances outlined in a five-page letter sent to colleagues this week, and in particular opposes helping Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion, and warned Johnson not to bring an aid package for Ukraine to a vote.
Greene also rallied against extending provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, ahead of Wednesday’s failed vote, despite Johnson’s push to have it approved.
Just before the vote, Trump also weighed in on social media, telling Republicans to vote against it. “Kill FISA,” Trump wrote in all capital letters. Trump said the law was used to spy on him, but a former adviser to his 2016 presidential campaign was targeted over potential ties to Russia under a different section of the surveillance law. With a threadbare majority, Johnson can lose no more than one or so Republican on any vote, but nearly 20 bolted.
Johnson offered to give Greene a spot on a proposed “kitchen cabinet” of advisors to the speaker, she said after the nearly hour-long session.
But Greene told reporters she would “wait and see” about his offer, but she was more interested in how he handles several issues before Congress, particularly aid for Ukraine and the FISA vote.
“I explained to him, this isn’t personal,” she said. “But he has not done the job that we elected him to do.”
Greene has said that Johnson has thrown the Republican majority into “chaos,” pointing in particular to the government spending bills that he passed to prevent a federal shutdown over Republican objections.
“That is chaos for a Republican majority: sending his Republican colleagues and members back home to their districts, having to campaign on a Republican House that funded the Biden administration,” she said late Tuesday at the Capitol.
Other Republicans, even those who ousted McCarthy, have been cool to Greene’s effort to oust Johnson, unenthusiastic about going through the turmoil of trying to elect a new speaker.
Last fall, it took Republicans almost a month to replace McCarthy with Johnson, a spectacle that put the party’s dysfunction on display in rounds of failed votes and essentially shut down all other House business.
Greene has not publicly discussed when she may bring up the motion to vacate and told reporters she does not yet have a “red line” for bringing up the action.
Johnson’s planned meeting with Trump was first reported on CNN.
Prosecutor to decide if Georgia lieutenant governor should be charged in election meddling case
ATLANTA (AP) — A special prosecutor has been assigned to look into whether Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones should face criminal charges over efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.
The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia announced Thursday that its executive director, Pete Skandalakis, will handle the matter after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was barred from prosecuting Jones as part of her election interference case against former President Donald Trump and others.
Jones was one of 16 state Republicans who signed a certificate stating that Trump had won Georgia and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors even though Democrat Joe Biden had been declared the winner in the state. As a state senator in the wake of the election, he also sought a special session of Georgia’s Legislature aimed at overturning Biden’s narrow win in the state.
As Willis was investigating possible illegal election meddling by Trump and others, Jones argued that Willis should not be able to pursue charges against him because she had hosted a fundraiser for his Democratic opponent in the lieutenant governor’s race. Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled in July 2022 that Willis’ actions created an “actual and untenable” conflict of interest.
McBurney’s ruling left it up to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council, a nonpartisan state agency that supports district attorneys, to appoint a prosecutor to decide whether Jones should be charged. Right after Trump and the others were indicted, Skandalakis said he would begin looking for an appropriate prosecutor. But he instead decided to appoint himself.
The statement announcing Skandalakis’ appointment cites state bar rules and says that “no further comments will be made at this time.”
Jones has previously denied wrongdoing, saying he and other electors acted on advice of lawyers to preserve Trump’s chances if the former president won a court challenge that was pending at the time. Three others who signed the Republican elector certificate were among those indicted along with Trump in August by a Fulton County grand jury.
In a statement Thursday, Jones welcomed the news of Skandalakis’ appointment.
“I’m happy to see this process move forward and look forward to the opportunity to get this charade behind me,” Jones said. “Fani Willis has made a mockery of this legal process, as she tends to do. I look forward to a quick resolution and moving forward with the business of the state of Georgia.”
Trump and the 18 others indicted in August were accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia. Four people have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. The others, including the former president, have pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.
It's a shame that anyone, much less a judge has to say this in order to combat the stupidity of it......
Judge in Trump’s election interference case rejects ‘hostages’ label for jailed Jan. 6 defendants
WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s election interference case rejected the notion Wednesday that jailed defendants charged with some of the most violent crimes of the U.S. Capitol riot are “hostages” — a label Trump and his allies have frequently used to describe the prisoners.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said the Capitol riot defendants who remain jailed in Washington, D.C., don’t deserve to be called hostages or heroes for their actions during the mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
“They’re being kept there because they are dangerous people,” Chutkan said during a sentencing hearing for Antony Vo, a man convicted of storming the Capitol with his mother.
During his trial, Vo attended a nightly vigil that supporters of Jan. 6 riot defendants hold outside the Washington jail. The judge previously ruled that Vo’s attendance at the vigil violated a condition of his release.
Chutkan rolled her eyes and shook her head when she learned from a prosecutor during Wednesday’s hearing that the vigil’s organizers refer to their gathering spot outside the jail as “Freedom Corner.”
“Is that what’s it’s called? Freedom Corner?” the judge asked, sounding incredulous.
At a November 2023 campaign event in Houston, Trump referred to the jailed riot defendants as “J6 hostages, not prisoners.” Trump campaign rallies have started with a recording of jailed Capitol riot defendants singing the national anthem. In June 2023, Trump spoke at a fundraiser benefiting Jan. 6 defendants.
“I’m gonna make a contribution,” Trump said. “There have been few people that have been treated in the history of our country like the people that you love, like the people that have gone through so much.”
Trump’s trial in Washington for the election interference case was scheduled to start March 4, but Chutkan agreed to place the case on hold while the former president pursues his claims that he is immune from prosecution. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments for Trump’s appeal later this month.
Chutkan didn’t mention Trump’s name during Wednesday’s hearing, where she sentenced Vo to nine months of imprisonment. A jury convicted Vo of four misdemeanor counts related to the riot. His mother also has been charged with Jan. 6-related crimes.
More than 1,300 people have charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. The vast majority of them have remained free while awaiting trial or a plea deal to resolve their case.
Chutkan told Vo, 31, of Bloomington, Indiana, that he was fortunate that she didn’t order him jailed after his trial conviction. She said he has consistently refused to express remorse or accept responsibility for his conduct on Jan. 6.
“He has doubled down on his behavior,” she said.
Before learning his sentence, Vo said he is “sorry for everything” and knows he shouldn’t have entered the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I wasn’t there to overthrow any democratic process or anything,” he told the judge.
In his bio for a social media account, Vo has called himself a “J6 wrongful convict.” In a post after his trial, he wrote that “there was zero jury of peers and 100% a kangaroo court.”
“I’ve been called worse,” Chutkan said, stressing that she wasn’t punishing Vo for his insult or his political beliefs.
“I’m thick-skinned,” the judge added.
Chutkan has stood out as one of the toughest punishers of Capitol rioters, often handing down prison sentences that are harsher than prosecutors’ recommendations. Vo’s attorney, Carmen Hernandez, told Chutkan that she appears to be an “outlier” compared to other judges who have sentenced Jan. 6 defendants.
“I may be an outlier, as Ms. Hernandez suggests. I don’t necessarily think I am,” Chutkan said.
I really struggled with identifying who the militants would be, regarding another American civil war. At first, maybe red vs blue states, but the states are so scattered like a connect 4 board that it wouldn’t work. Maybe rural vs urban? But since the rural (right) would be the aggressors, that means they would be attempting to invade the metro areas. That also wouldn’t work, or make any sense.
But then Marjorie Taylor Greene had to file a motion to vacate the house speaker. combined with the ruling on abortion in Arizona, the recent passing of the FISA bill and trump inviting speaker Johnson to Florida and still showed support, I realized that the hypothetical civil war wouldn’t be a left vs right thing…
It would be right vs right. The civil war would be between right wing Americans. one side being traditional, or more moderate conservatives, and the other being the MAGA/religious conservatives. I’ve said before that conservatives have made it clear that they can’t even stand each other, never mind everyone else. This week has only added more evidence to my belief. Right now it’s clear that the main people who feel as though they have no party representing them are conservative Americans, and with a bunch of people already prone and ready for political violence, I really see a scenario where it turns violent amongst themselves after the 2024 election.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
It was conservatives that attack the government. The ‘people’ implies it would be both equally left and right fighting the government in this scenario, and that’s far from it.
Conservatives are the ones who believe in rigged elections, RINOs, the deep state, and attacking the federal government over those issues and others.
It’s funny cause right now, the biggest threat to conservatives are…other conservatives who aren’t conservative enough.
Sigh…
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
When liberals are all living on the street because the country's economy collapses, they will be rebeling too. I know liberals dont mind taking it up the butt, but at some point they will snap.
I guess. I’ve been waiting on the economy to collapse for the last 2 years like conservatives claimed. One day you’ll finally be correct, I suppose.
But that doesn’t change the reality that the current political climate would be a war between conservatives if things continue the way they are. Y’all could get violent before the economy collapse.
Hell, conservative civil war might be the reason the economy collapses. I guess then y’all will finally be right about the economy, so there’s that.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
The fact that you don’t know a lot of conservatives with that view does nothing to change the fact that there are a bunch of conservatives in this country who hold those views, and right wing groups and individuals who have proven that they are willing to use violence, such as J6.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Haven’t seen it, either. But I want to, just hope everybody remembers it’s entertainment.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
The fact that you don’t know a lot of conservatives with that view does nothing to change the fact that there are a bunch of conservatives in this country who hold those views, and right wing groups and individuals who have proven that they are willing to use violence, such as J6.
When you are living on the street and cant feed your daughters you will snap too.
