Trump news - live: Fetterman responds after Trump attacks him and ‘weirdo’ Zuckerberg at rally
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Former President Donald Trump in his Pennsylvania address called Joe Biden an “enemy of the state” who is somehow controlled by a shadowy cabal of other enemies.
Mr Trump attacked his successor in remarks at a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania rally in support of Republican candidates in November’s midterm elections, his first since his Mar-a-Lago residence was raided by the FBI.
He noted that Mr Biden had gone to Philadelphia for a primetime speech in which he spoke about the threat to American democracy posed by Mr Trump and his supporters, who reject the legitimacy of elections won by Democrats and institutions that are not firmly under the control of the Republican Party.
Mr Trump accused Mr Biden of having “vilified” the 71 million voters who supported the ex-president in 2020 as “threats to democracy and as enemies of the state”.
He said it was the current president who is actually the enemy.
“He's an enemy of the state, if you want to know the truth. The enemy of the state is him and the group that control him which is circling around him,” Mr Trump said.
Key points
Trump says Joe Biden is an ‘enemy of the state’ in Pennsylvania rally rant
Trump accuses FBI of ‘trying to destroy our country’ and ransacking Barron’s room at Pennsylvania rally
Trump baselessly accuses John Fetterman of using heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl
Court unseals more detailed inventory of Mar-a-Lago seized papers
Trump lets his hatred of Fetterman fly, but it doesn’t help Dr Oz
04:15 , John Bowden
The Independent’s Eric Garcia traveled to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to attend the first rally Donald Trump has held since the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago last month.
In the Rust Belt state he learned that Donald Trump’s efforts to help his chosen candidate, Dr Mehmet Oz, largely consists of a half-hearted effort to attack the popular Democratic lieutenant governor that has not inspired support for his Republican ally.
That could be a problem, given that recent polls indicate Mr Fetterman enjoys a wide lead over Dr Oz in terms of flat-out support while the Republican’s supporters indicated a lack of enthusiasm about their own candidate.
Read more below:
Trump’s most unhinged speech yet and what we learned in PA about the midterms
ICYMI: John Fetterman responds to smear he hired ‘murderers'
03:15 , John Bowden
Pennsylvania US Senate candidate John Fetterman is clapping back after his opponent, Dr Mehmet Oz, smeared two men he hired following their release from prison after a parole board recognised their wrongful convictions in a unanimous vote.
In a withering statement, the Fetterman campaign questioned whether Dr Oz and his staff truly believe that wrongfully convicted people should die in prison — or whether they were merely smearing two innocent men for politcal gain.
“[F]ighting for their release was one of the proudest moments of my career and I’m honored to have them on this team,” said Mr Fetterman, who is the state’s lieutenant governor.
Read more from Josh Marcus in The Independent:
Fetterman hits back at Dr Oz for misleading claim he hired ‘convicted murderers’
GOP escalates fight against citizen-led ballot initiatives
02:15 , John Bowden
Republican politicians in multiple states are esclating their battles against ballot initiatives meant to advance a number of progressive causes like expanding abortion rights and legalising recreational marijuana.
Officials and right-leaning judges are taking largely procedural steps to block popular pieces of legislation from going to a ballot in what one expert called a “wave of technicalities”.
"That is not the way our democracy should work,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.
Read more from The Associated Press:
GOP escalates fight against citizen-led ballot initiatives
Tucker Carlson advises GOP to ‘make fun’ of Lindsay Graham, not ‘emulate’ him
01:15 , John Bowden
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s fealty to the Trump wing of the Republican Party is winning him no fans on Fox News’s primetime lineup.
The network’s Tucker Carlson ripped the senator — who has flip-flopped on support for Donald Trump more than once — in a mocking piece of advice to Republican candidates running in the fall during a recent broadcast.
“Your job is to make fun of Lindsey Graham and to disavow Lindsey Graham,” Mr Carlson said. “Your job is not to emulate Lindsey Graham and steal his talking points, and if you do emulate Lindsey Graham and steal those talking points, you will lose, and the losing candidates did just that.”
Read more from The Independent’s Johanna Chisholm:
Tucker Carlson advises GOP to ‘make fun’ of Lindsay Graham, not ‘emulate’ him
ICYMI: Speakers at Pennsylvania Trump rally tied to January 6 rioters and neo-Nazi
Monday 5 September 2022 00:15 , John Bowden
Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday featured two controversial speakers with family ties to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
And one of them has a nephew whose former Navy colleagues warned investigators that he harbored extremist and even neo-Nazi views.
Their attendance is a sign of the growing acceptance among the Trump wing of the GOP of its more radical elements.
Read more from Josh Marcus in The Independent:
Speakers at Pennsylvania Trump rally tied to January 6 rioters and neo-Nazi
Jan 6 committee member Jamie Raskin says he wants Ginni Thomas to testify
Sunday 4 September 2022 23:15 , John Bowden
A member of the January 6 committee said on Sunday that he wants to hear testimony from Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about her own personal efforts to aid in the campaign to overturn the 2020 election.
But Rep Jamie Raskin did not go as far as saying that his panel would issue a subpoena.
She was previously known to have emailed numerous Republican lawmakers in Arizona in 2020 with the hopes of persuading them to vote on a resolution declaring (without constitutional authority) their own state’s election results invalid.
Now, it is known through public records requests that Ms Thomas’s activities were at work in Wisconsin as well. Both states flipped for Joe Biden in 2020 after being lost by Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Read more from John Bowden in The Independent:
Jan 6 committee member Jamie Raskin says he wants Ginni Thomas to testify
Marjorie Taylor Greene spreads conspiracy theories about 2020 election and furries at Pennsylvania rally
Sunday 4 September 2022 22:19 , John Bowden
Before Marjorie Taylor Greene even got onstage at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, she was repeating debunked right-wing myths, including false claims that public schools are lowering tables and putting out litter boxes for students who are “furries” that dress or self-identify as cats.
“They’re embracing lies, literally embracing lies,” Ms Greene ironically told reporters outside the event.
Read more from The Independent’s Josh Marcus:
Marjorie Taylor Greene spreads conspiracies about election and furries at Trump rally
Writer debunks Doug Mastriano’s excessive 9/11 claims about Trump the ‘champion’
Sunday 4 September 2022 21:10 , John Bowden
A writer went viral debunking claims about Donald Trump and the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Saturday after the Republican running for governor in Pennsylvania credited Mr Trump as being a “champion” of New York and the United States in the immediate aftermath.
Jeff Pearlman, a sports writer from New York, wrote the thread on Twitter in response to Doug Mastriano’s comments at an appearance beside the ex-president in Wilkes-Barre.
Mr Pearlman took on a number of Mr Trump’s own false claims as well in his lengthy objection.
Read more from The Independent’s John Bowden:
Writer debunks Doug Mastriano’s excessive 9/11 claims about Trump the ‘champion’
George Conway says ‘any honest jury’ would convict Trump over classified documents
Sunday 4 September 2022 19:45 , John Bowden
Conservative attorney George Conway says in a new interview that the Justice Department has already laid out enough evidence to prosecute and likely convict Donald Trump for violating the Presidential Records Act.
Mr Conway is married to Kellyanne Conway, a longtime Trump loyalist who ran the president’s successful 2016 campaign and later served as a counselor in the White House.
"I think it's going to be very difficult for the Justice Department to decline prosecuting him," he explained during an interview with The Daily Beast’s podcast “The New Abnormal”.
Read more from Graig Graziosi in The Independent:
George Conway says ‘any honest jury’ would convict Trump over government documents
Fetterman spokesman mocks ‘desperate and sad’ Donald Trump and Dr Oz
Sunday 4 September 2022 19:00 , John Bowden
A spokesman for John Fetterman’s campaign fired back in a statement to The Independent on Saturday after the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor and Senate candidate was called-out onstage by Donald Trump.
The former president baselessly smeared the Democratic nominee as a user of hard drugs, including fentanyl.
“Another day, but it's the same crap from these two desperate and sad dudes,” Joe Calvello said.
Read more from John Bowden in The Independent:
Fetterman spokesman mocks ‘desperate and sad’ Donald Trump and Dr Oz
New congressional maps dilute Black power, critics say
Sunday 4 September 2022 18:07 , John Bowden
Congressional redistricting led by Republican-controlled state legislatures is resulting in districts gerrymandered to dilute the political strength of predominantly Black communities, according to both experts and residents in those areas.
The Associated Press investigated how new congressional maps in multiple states including Florida and South Carolina are working to further erode the number of Black lawmakers in Congress.
“What this ultimately means is that (Black voters) will not have as big of a voice as they should if the districts were drawn more fairly,” said one expert at Louisiana State University.
Read more in The Independent:
New congressional maps dilute Black power, critics say
Donald Trump claims he invited Zuckerberg to White House ‘last week'
Sunday 4 September 2022 16:57 , John Bowden
In one of the more bizarre moments at Saturday night’s rally, former President Donald Trump appeared to forget that he is no longer in the White House.
At one point in the night, he seemed to recall a 2019 dinner with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the White House — but strangely referred to it as having occurred “last week”.
He then suggested that Mr Zuckerberg lavished praise on him over his now-banned Facebook page.
Read more in The Independent from John Bowden:
Trump said ‘weirdo’ Zuckerberg joined him at the White House for dinner ‘last week’
US election conspiracies find fertile ground in conferences
Sunday 4 September 2022 15:45 , John Bowden
While the news media and America’s legal experts toil away hoping to make a dent in the segment of Americans who believe the 2020 election was stolen thanks to the lies and conspiracies spread by Donald Trump and his supporters, those conspiracies continue to spread in small gatherings of fearful political fringe groups around the nation.
The Associated Press reports that many Americans who were not previously active in politics were nevertheless drawn in to political conspiracies on social media and found common cause and community while following a dark path.
Read more in The Independent:
US election conspiracies find fertile ground in conferences
Trump’s first rally since Mar-a-Lago raid gathers diehard fans: ‘They do not want Trump to win’
Sunday 4 September 2022 14:39 , John Bowden
Donald Trump’s stumping for other Republicans took a notable backseat on Saturday as the former president defiantly defended himself in his first campaign rally since the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago home.
His most faithful supporters were on hand to show their solidarity with the man they consider the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
“The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everyone else in the polls,” Mr Trump said to a rapturous crowd at the Mohegan Sun Arena, which was met with echoing boos. “They’re trying to silence me and, more importantly, they are trying to silence you.”
Read more from The Independent’s Eric Garcia, who was on the scene:
Trump’s first rally since Mar-a-Lago raid gathers diehard fans
ICYMI: Trump lashes out at FBI and DOJ in first public remarks since Mar-a-Lago search
Sunday 4 September 2022 10:00 , Stuti Mishra
The former president went after federal officials in his speech at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, calling the FBI and DOJ “vicious” because they searched his Mar-a-Lago estate last month.
Watch Mr Trump’s scathing attack.
George Conway says ‘any honest jury’ would convict Trump over classified documents
Sunday 4 September 2022 08:30 , Stuti Mishra
George Conway, a conservative lawyer and the husband of former Donald Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, said that it would be hard for “any fair jury” not to convict the former president over his handling of sensitive government documents recovered from his Florida residence.
Mr Conway appeared on The Daily Beast’s podcast “The New Abnormal” hosted by journalist Molly Jong-Fast, and said that while he “can’t guarantee” that Mr Trump will see the inside of a jail cell, he did predict that “there’s a reasonable likelihood of it.”
“I think it’s going to be very difficult for the Justice Department to decline prosecuting him,” Mr Conway said.
“I think before any fair jury, he’d have to be convicted based upon what we’re seeing. There’s still more evidence that needs to come out, but everything points to him being in a heap of trouble and we haven’t seen everything that the Justice Department has.”
Read more from Graig Graziosi here:
George Conway says ‘any honest jury’ would convict Trump over government documents
Speakers at Pennsylvania Trump rally tied to January 6 rioters and neo-Nazi
Sunday 4 September 2022 07:30 , Stuti Mishra
Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday featured two controversial speakers with family ties to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
Among the speakers was Cynthia Hughes, who helps organise a support group and legal defence funding for accused Capitol rioters.
Her nephew, Tim Cusanelli, was convicted in May of yelling “advance” before he and a mob of people entered the US Capitol building on January 6.
Josh Marcus has more details:
Speakers at Pennsylvania Trump rally tied to January 6 rioters and neo-Nazi
MAGA faithful show up in Pennsylvania for Trump’s first rally since Mar-a-Lago raid
Sunday 4 September 2022 06:45 , Stuti Mishra
Former president Donald Trump was ostensibly in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to stump for Republican candidates on the state ballot this November, writes Eric Garcia.
But stumping for other Republicans took a notable backseat as the former president defiantly defended himself in his first campaign rally since the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago home and his most faithful supporters were on hand to show their solidarity with the man they consider the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
Read what the MAGA supporters said on the FBI raids in this dispatch from Pennsylvania:
MAGA faithful show up in Pennsylvania for Trump’s first rally since Mar-a-Lago raid
WATCH: Trump baselessly accuses John Fetterman of using illegal drugs
Sunday 4 September 2022 06:05 , Josh Marcus
Donald Trump used his Pennsylvania rally speech on Saturday to make baseless claims about Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman.
Here’s what he said.
ICMYI: Trump claims FBI searched his son’s room during Mar-a-Lago raid
Sunday 4 September 2022 05:20 , Josh Marcus
Former president Donald Trump, a central figure in no fewer than three separate criminal probes involving state and federal grand juries, lashed out at the federal law enforcement agencies currently investigating whether he violated federal laws prohibiting unauthorised possession of national defence information and obstruction of justice during a hours-long speech at one of his signature political rallies on Saturday.
Mr Trump was roughly ten minutes into remarks at a “Save America” rally purportedly meant to boost the campaigns of GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano when he began to air a series of grievances about the 8 August search of his Palm Beach, Florida home by FBI agents.
He accused the Biden administration of “weaponising the FBI and justice department like never ever before” and described the court-authorised search of his property as the FBI “breaking into the homes of their political opponents”.
Mr Trump condemned the lawful search of his property as “shameful” and “a travesty of justice” and complained that agents had combed through the room belonging to his 16-year-old son, Barron Trump, while looking for evidence of crimes.
Catch up with Andrew Feinberg’s full report.
Trump accuses FBI of ‘trying to destroy our country’ at Pennsylvania rally
Trump says Joe Biden is an ‘enemy of the state’ in Pennsylvania rally rant
Sunday 4 September 2022 04:35 , Josh Marcus
Former president Donald Trump on Saturday said Joe Biden, the sitting president of the United States and the man who defeated him nearly two years ago, is an “enemy of the state” who is somehow controlled by a shadowy cabal of other enemies.
Mr Trump, who is currently under investigation for violations of multiple federal laws against mishandling national defence information and obstruction of justice stemming from his alleged theft of over 11,000 government documents, attacked his successor in remarks at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania rally in support of Republican candidates in November’s midterm elections.
He noted that Mr Biden had gone to Philadelphia for a primetime speech in which he spoke about the threat to American democracy posed by Mr Trump and his supporters, who reject the legitimacy of elections won by Democrats and institutions that are not firmly under the control of the Republican Party.
Mr Trump accused Mr Biden of having “vilified” the 71 million voters who supported the ex-president in 2020 as “threats to democracy and as enemies of the state”.
Andrew Feinberg takes a look at the former president’s harsh attacks.
Trump calls Joe Biden ‘enemy of the state’ in Pennsylvania rally rant
Fetterman campaign calls Trump drug attacks ‘crap’ and ‘lies’ from a ‘desperate and sad’ candidate
Sunday 4 September 2022 03:50 , Josh Marcus
Senate candidate John Fetterman is pushing back against Donald Trump’s baseless claims in a Saturday speech that the Democrat uses a variety of illegal drugs.
“More and more lies from Trump and [Senate candidate] Dr [Mehmet] Oz; another day, but it’s the same crap from these two desperate and sad dudes,” his campaign told The Independent in a statement.
During a Pennsylvania rally supporting Mr Oz’s bid for Senate, Mr Trump claimed Mr Fetterman, the current Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, supported using and legalising heavy drugs.
Trump baselessly accuses John Fetterman of using heroin, cocaine, meth and fentanyl
Trump baselessly accuses John Fetterman of using heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl
Sunday 4 September 2022 03:05 , Josh Marcus
Former president Donald Trump on Saturday went on an extended rant about Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor and Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman that ended with him accusing Mr Fetterman of using multiple illegal drugs.
Mr Trump was speaking at a Pennsylvania political rally in support of GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz when he began speaking about Mr Fetterman, who is currently leading Mr Oz in most public polling.
He said the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor — who is known for his trademark campaign trail uniform of shorts and hooded sweatshirts — dresses “like a teenager getting high in his parents basement” and called him a “raging lunatic” who not only supports legalisation of illicit drugs but partakes of them personally.
“Fetterman supports taxpayer funded drug dens and the complete decriminalization of illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and ultra lethal fentanyl,” he said. “And by the way, he takes them himself”.
Andrew Feinberg has the full story.
Trump baselessly accuses John Fetterman of using heroin, cocaine, meth and fentanyl
Donald Trump accuses Senate candidate John Fetterman of taking drugs
Sunday 4 September 2022 02:50 , Josh Marcus
Donald Trump is stooping to real lows here.
During his speech in Pennsylvania, he accused Democratic candidate for Senate John Fetterman of taking a host of illegal drugs.
Mr Trump alleged the current Pennsylvania lieutenant governor wants “complete decriminalisation of illegal drugs including heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, and ultra-lethal fentanyl and by the way, he takes them himself.”
There is not any evidence to back up the claim Mr Fetterman uses all of these drugs, and he doesn’t want total decriminalisation.
Rather, Mr Fetterman has held a listening tour on decriminalising marijuana in particular, an idea which is popular with Pennsylvania voters. The Pennsylvania official has also pushed to federally de-schedule marijuana as a high-risk drug, to recognise its medical value. Numerous states have legalised medical and recreational marijuana, which remains illegal at the federal level.
Mr Fetterman also wants to release individuals from the criminal justice system who are in prison for non-violent marijuana offences.
Fashion and Fetterman: Trump mocks Senate candidate’s ‘dirty sweatsuit'
Sunday 4 September 2022 02:35 , Josh Marcus
Donald Trump, a self-admitted “clean freak,” slammed US Senate candidate John Fetterman for his trademark campaign attire of sweatsuits and hoodies.
Trump mocks Fetterman's "dirty, dirty, dirty sweatsuits." Says @JohnFetterman may "dress like a teenager getting high in his parents' basement." #PASen
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) September 4, 2022
Follow The Independent’s Eric Garcia at @EricMGarcia on Twitter for more updates.
Trump accuses FBI of ‘trying to destroy our country’ and ransacking Barron’s room at Pennsylvania rally
Sunday 4 September 2022 02:20 , Josh Marcus
Former president Donald Trump, a central figure in no fewer than three separate criminal probes involving state and federal grand juries, lashed out at the federal law enforcement agencies currently investigating whether he violated federal laws prohibiting unauthorised possession of national defence information and obstruction of justice during a hours-long speech at one of his signature political rallies on Saturday.
Mr Trump was roughly ten minutes into remarks at a “Save America” rally purportedly meant to boost the campaigns of GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano when he began to air a series of grievances about the 8 August search of his Palm Beach, Florida home by FBI agents.
Read Andrew Feinberg’s full report on Trump’s wild Pennsylvania rally.
Trump accuses FBI of ‘trying to destroy our country’ at Pennsylvania rally
VIDEO: Trump trashes Biden as ‘enemy of the state’ after Mar-a-Lago raid
Sunday 4 September 2022 02:05 , Josh Marcus
Donald Trump is still clearly fuming that Joe Biden called him and his fellow MAGA Republicans a threat to democracy.
The former president slammed the current one during a Saturday speech in Pennsylvania, accusing Mr Biden of being an “enemy of the state.”
Watch below.
Trump rally speaker defends Nazi nephew who stormed Capitol
Sunday 4 September 2022 01:50 , Josh Marcus
Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally began with the highly controversial choice to platform two family members who defended men convicted of being part of the US Capitol insurrection on January 6.
Among the speakers was Cynthia Hughes, who runs a support group and legal defence fund for accused Capitol rioters.
Cynthia Hughes, who runs a support group for J6ers, spoke at tonight's Trump rally. She told the story of her nephew Tim Cusanelli, a convicted Capitol rioter — and Nazi sympathizer, who said "Hitler should've finished the job." This is their poster child for J6 "injustice." /1 pic.twitter.com/bII5D95GXq
— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) September 3, 2022
Her nephew, Tim Cusanelli, was convicted in May of yelling “advance” before he and a mob of people entered the US Capitol building.
The Army reservist had Nazi views, a Hitler-style mustache, and once claimed the genocidal German fascist “should have finished the job,” according to law enforcement officials who interviewed the former Navy servicemember’s colleagues. (Cusanelli has denied this.)
Here’s our report on Cusanelli from James Crump.
Donald Trump trashes ‘weirdo’ Mark Zuckerberg during Pennsylvania speech
Sunday 4 September 2022 01:35 , Josh Marcus
I have to say, I didn’t see that one coming.
Donald Trump took a break from bashing Joe Biden and the Democrats during a speech in Pennsylvania on Saturday to call Mark Zuckerberg a “weirdo,” fixating on a meal the two men had in 2019.
“He’s a weirdo,” Mr Trump said, adding, “Mark Zuckerberg came to the White House kiss my a**.”
The former president claimed the Meta CEO congratulated Mr Trump for his prominence on Facebook.
Mr Zuckerg likely came back on Mr Trump’s radar because he gave a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, where the billionaire said the FBI encouraged Facebook to limit the reach of pro-Trump content based in part on claims from Russian disinformation.
“They knew that was not true,” Mr Trump claimed.
Mark Zuckerberg says FBI warned Facebook about ‘Russian propaganda’
WATCH: Trump lashes out at FBI and DOJ in first public remarks since Mar-a-Lago search
Sunday 4 September 2022 01:25 , Josh Marcus
The former president went after federal officials in his speech at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, calling the FBI and DOJ “vicious” because they searched his Mar-a-Lago estate last month.
Watch Mr Trump’s scathing attack.
