Trump news – live: AG dubbed ‘racist’ for investigating his taxes says she won’t be ‘bullied’

Former President Donald Trump sent out special Easter messages to “radical Left maniacs” and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whom he described as a “failed gubernatorial candidate and racist”.

Continuing the holiday theme, Mr Trump was lampooned in the cold open of Saturday Night Live along with other notable figures.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy denied that Republicans are being over-confident about November’s midterms and the prospects of retaking the lower chamber of Congress.

“Americans want, need and deserve [a] clear, common sense alternative,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

GOP congressman Fred Upton said on NBC he believes the popularity of the more extreme members of the party puts it in “troubled waters” — a sentiment echoed by Mitch McConnell and other more moderate figures in the party who want to have broader appeal.

Mr Trump recently endorsed controversial Hillbilly Elegy author and venture capitalist JD Vance in the Ohio GOP Senate Primary on Friday evening. “We cannot play games,” he said. “It is all about winning!”

Key Points

• Trump sends out special Easter message to ‘Radical Left Maniacs’ and New York AG

• SNL skewers Trump with Easter cold open sketch

• Trump endorses JD Vance in Ohio GOP Senate primary

• Recap: Stephen Miller questioned by Jan 6 committee

• Trump’s Truth Social panned as ‘hilariously bad’ as Melania’s account goes silent

Tucker Carlson’s new doc on testosterone levels mocked for ‘homoeroticism’ and ‘testicle tanning’ segment

18:41 , John Bowden

Fox News host Tucker Carlson is raising eyebrows with a segment on his new documentary which examines testosterone levels in men that describes a process known as “testicle tanning”.

In the segement, Mr Carlson interviews a fitness professional who advocates for “testicle tanning”, in which the full body is treated with “red light therapy” to allegedly raise testosterone levels.

Read more from The Independent’s Johanna Chisholm:

Tucker Carlson film promo mocked for ‘homoeroticism’, segment on ‘testicular tanning’

Trump nodded after Roger Stone called Ron DeSantis a ‘piece of s***'

17:35 , John Bowden

Longer video has just been surfaced of Roger Stone’s reunion with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.

Mr Stone originally posted a clip of the meeting on Saturday. In it, he is seen telling the former president that Florida’s Trump-endorsed governor, Ron DeSantis, is a “piece of s***”.

Watch the clip above, and read more in The Independent:

Roger Stone tells Trump that DeSantis is ‘a piece of s***’ at Mar-a-Lago reunion

Trump doubles down, attacks ‘racist’ Letitia James

17:19 , John Bowden

Donald Trump doubled down on Monday after using his Easter greetings to attack the New York attorney general for a fraud investigation her office launched into his businesses.

In a statement released through a spokeswoman, Mr Trump accused Ms James of being a “racist”, apparently inferring that her office was investigating him because he is white.

Read more in The Independent:

Trump lashes out at tax probe, says NY AG should focus on street crime instead

Biden releases tax returns after Trump went four years without doing so

15:45 , John Bowden

Joe Biden released his tax returns on Friday, marking both the traditional federal income tax filing deadline and a significant change of pace for the White House after four years of Donald Trump’s refusal to do so.

Mr Trump, a millionaire and longtime real estate developer, came under pressure first in 2015 to release his tax returns and at the time claimed he would do so when a supposed federal audit concluded. He never did; in late 2020, just over a month before voters decided not to reelect him, The New York Times finally obtained a copy mailed anonymously.

Read more from The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg:

Biden tax returns reveal how much money the president and first lady made last year

ICYMI: Trump jokes about his weight loss at event

15:09 , John Bowden

Donald Trump joked to his supporters last week that he doesn’t “have time to lose weight” after Dr Mehmet Oz, his favoured candidate in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary, suggested he do so years ago on his show.

‘Can you believe I weigh 208?’ the former president told his laughing supporters. ”Now maybe a little more.”

“Dr Oz has said you should lose weight. I told him, ‘I don’t have time to lose weight,” he said.

Dr Oz has leaned into the endorsement from the former president, who remains banned from Twitter and Facebook due to his conspiracies about the 2020 election and the violence that resulted from those claims on January 6.

Trump complains about weight gain: ‘I don’t have time to lose it’

Trump’s attempted coup to be in focus in US House hearings, says Raskin

14:30 , Stuti Mishra

Donald Trump’s attempted coup on 6 January 2021 will be the centrepiece of committee hearings in Congress next month, said Democrat Jamie Raskin, a committee member who led the prosecution of Mr Trump’s second impeachment.

“This was a coup organised by the president against the vice president and against the Congress in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” Mr Raskin said in an interview with Reuters, National Public Radio and The Guardian newspaper when asked what he has learned so far from the committee’s probe.

“We’re going to tell the whole story of everything that happened. There was a violent insurrection and an attempted coup and we were saved by Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with that plan,” said Mr Raskin, a member of the House special committee.

It was unclear whether Mr Raskin, during the interview, was expressing only his thoughts or the thinking also of fellow lawmakers serving on the special committee made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans.

Historian says only a successful criminal prosecution can deflate Trump’s ‘personality cult'

13:45 , Stuti Mishra

Election defeats alone cannot stop Donald Trump; a successful criminal prosecution is the sure way to deflate the power of his “personality cult”, a historian has said.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is an expert on authoritarian leaders and has written Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present told Politico in a lengthy interview over the weekend that Mr Trump checks all the boxes for history’s authoritarians.

“It takes prosecution and conviction to deflate their personality cults,” Ms Ben-Ghiat said. “That’s what it takes.”

“I just predicted that he [Trump] wouldn’t leave in a quiet manner” after he lost the election, said Ms Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. “He’s an authoritarian, and they can’t leave office. They don’t have good endings and they don’t leave properly.”

She said Mr Trump’s lies over election results “maintains him as their [his supporters’] hero, as their winner, as the invincible Trump — but also as the wronged Trump, the victim. Victimhood is extremely important for all autocrats,” she noted. “They always have to be the biggest victim.”

Trump endorses longshot Republican JD Vance

13:00 , Stuti Mishra

Former president Donald Trump endorsed author JD Vance for the Republican nomination in Ohio’s Senate race, which the best-selling author and venture capitalist hopes could revive his lagging Senate campaign.

Mr Vance seeks to replace the retiring Senator Rob Portman, who won re-election and outran Mr Trump in the Buckeye State in 2016. Previously a swing state, Ohio has moved hard right in recent years and the winner of the primary will be the favourite to win the general election come November.

Eric Garcia has more details below:

Trump endorses longshot Republican JD Vance – despite concerns from GOP allies

Marjorie Taylor Greene sees first fundraising loss

12:15 , Stuti Mishra

The campaign committee for Marjorie Taylor Greene has reported its first net loss since she was elected, according to its most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Oliver O’Connell has more details:

Marjorie Taylor Greene sees first fundraising loss

Wisconsin Democrats aim to beat Ron Johnson, but how?

11:30 , Stuti Mishra

A crowded field of Democrats is trying to figure out a winning strategy to unseat Republican Senator Ron Johnson, one of Donald Trump‘s most vocal — and to his opponents, most loathsome — supporters, in Wisconsin in November.

Read more:

Wisconsin Democrats aim to beat Sen. Ron Johnson, but how?

The truth about Hunter Biden and the charges he faces

10:45 , Stuti Mishra

Here’s a brief explainer from Andrew Feinberg on who is Hunter Biden, what Republicans have accused him of, and what accusations may be real.

The truth about Hunter Biden and the charges he faces

SNL skewers Trump with Easter cold open sketch

10:00 , Stuti Mishra

The Easter special episode of “Saturday Night Live” opened with the Easter Bunny and some special guests, including Donald Trump, to pass on special holiday messages.

Mr Trump, played by actor James Austin Johnson, began the act by complaining about his omission, claiming that it was “another example of how whites are being treated horribly in this country”.

He went on to give a rambling, discursive monologue about Cap’n Crunch, Seabiscuit and Little Caesar.

“Easter is time for basket, it’s time for bunny and frankly, bonnet,” the character of the former president said. “And let’s not forget egg.”

The sketch showed Mr Trump admitting that he did say Covid would be over by Easter. “I just didn’t say which one, okay?” he said. “So say it with me, everyone! Happy Easter!”

Trump wishes Easter to ‘radical left maniacs’

09:15 , Stuti Mishra

Former President Donald Trump sent out special Easter messages on Sunday to “radical Left maniacs” and New York attorney general Letitia James, whom he described as a “failed gubernatorial candidate and racist”.

“Happy Easter to all including the Radical Left Maniacs who are doing everything possible to destroy our Country. May they not succeed, but let them, nevertheless, be happy, healthy, wealthy, and well!” he wrote in one message.

“Happy Easter to failed gubernatorial candidate and racist Attorney General Letitia James. May she remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and destruction in New York!” he wrote in another.

Mr Trump’s bizarre greetings left many on the internet stunned as people compared his messages targeting his opponents on the holiday with that of President Biden, who called to “reflect today on Christ’s Resurrection”.

Bidens throw first White House party since Covid

08:30 , Stuti Mishra

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will welcome families back to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll on Monday in what will be the first big party at the residence since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Bidens announced the event earlier this month alongside the Easter Bunny, and the first lady tweeted on Friday: “As a teacher, my heart is always in the classroom. Joe and I look forward to welcoming thousands of families to join us for this year’s White House Easter ‘EGGucation’ Roll!”

My colleague John Bowden has more details on the celebrations:

Bidens host first party since Covid at White House for Easter Egg roll

Roger Stone describes Governor DeSantis as ‘a piece of s***’

07:45 , Stuti Mishra

Donald Trump reunited with his longtime confidante and Republican operative Roger Stone at Mar-a-Lago this weekend - who wasted no time in getting into grievances.

Mr Stone posted a video on Rumble, a conservative social media site, and other platforms on Saturday showing him embracing the former president at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida.

In the video, Mr Trump is seen recognising Mr Stone and embracing him before Mr Stone describes Ron DeSantis as “a piece of s***”

My colleague John Bowden has the full story here:

Roger Stone tells Trump that DeSantis is ‘a piece of s***’ at Mar-a-Lago reunion

Voices: Dianne Feinstein’s decline is heartbreaking and difficult to discuss — but we can’t avoid it

06:30 , Stuti Mishra

The Senator is an institution in California, and she risks having an impressive legacy overshadowed by her refusal to walk away, writes Eric Garcia.

Dianne Feinstein’s decline is heartbreaking — but we need to talk about it

Happy Tax Day

05:45 , Stuti Mishra

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on Friday marked the traditional 15 April deadline for Americans to file their federal income tax returns by releasing a copy of their own — though this year Tax Day falls on Monday 18 April.

“With this release, the President has shared a total of 24 years of tax returns with the American public, once again demonstrating his commitment to being transparent with the American people about the finances of the commander in chief,” the White House said in a statement.

The release of the Bidens’ tax returns marked the second year in a row that the president and First Lady have put their tax documents in the public record since moving into the White House, returning to a practice dating back to the post-Watergate era which lapsed under Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, who never released a single year of tax returns during his four years in office while falsely claiming he could not because they were under audit by the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr Biden, whose presidential salary is $400,000 per year, and Ms Biden, who works as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, reported a total of $610,702 in gross income on their joint tax return, $150,439 of which was returned to Mr Biden’s employer in the form of tax payments.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

Biden tax returns reveal how much money the president and first lady made last year

Eric Garcia: We have to talk about Diane Feinstein

Thursday 14 April 2022 20:45 , John Bowden

A report detailing concerns of colleagues that Sen Diane Feinstein is mentally unfit to serve in the Senate needs to be discussed seriously by the US national media, The Independent’s Eric Garcia.

“[S]hying away from doing so would be an unforgiveable error,” he writes.

Read more from Eric about the senior California senator:

Dianne Feinstein’s decline is heartbreaking — but we need to talk about it

Trump-backed candidate in Nebraska accused of groping women

Thursday 14 April 2022 20:13 , John Bowden

A Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska endorsed by Donald Trump was accused by multiple women of unwanted groping in an article published on Thursday in a local newspaper.

Charles Herbster, a frontrunner in the Republican primary for governor, has denied the allegations from eight women in the Nebraska Examiner.

Women said the incidents occurred while Mr Herbster was a beauty padgeant judge as well as during his campaign for governor.

Read more:

Charles Herbster accused of groping several women, including Nebraska senator: Report

Scrutiny on Democratic senator after home state newspaper questions if she’s ‘mentally unfit to serve'

Thursday 14 April 2022 19:55 , John Bowden

One of the Senate’s oldest members, Diane Feinstein, was the subject of debate on Twitter on Thursday as users discussed a San Francisco Chronicle article that cited the senior state senator’s own Democratic colleagues questioning whether her mental faculties were slipping.

A Demcoratic member of the House from her home state even described having to reintroduce himself to the senator multiple times in one conversation.

“She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that’s why my encounter with her was so jarring. Because there was just no trace of that,” they said.

Read more at the Chronicle:

Trump is planning to endorse JD Vance in Ohio’s tight Senate race: NBC News

Thursday 14 April 2022 19:16 , John Bowden

NBC News reported on Thursday citing multiple Republican sources close to Donald Trump that the former president plans to endorse author JD Vance in Ohio’s tight Senate race.

Polls have shown Mr Vance trailing others in the race including Josh Mandel, another right-wing conservative who has vied for Mr Trump’s blessing. And Mr Mandel’s campaign reportedly did not take the news well, according to NBC.

"The Mandel people hit the roof," one Republican source told the network.

Read more:

ICYMI: GOP pollster says party mocks Trump in private

Thursday 14 April 2022 18:15 , John Bowden

Veteran pollster Frank Luntz said in an interview with The Daily Beast that New Hampshire Gov Chris Sununu’s roast of Donald Trump at the DC-based Gridiron Dinner was a symptom of a larger phenomenon within the GOP: the tendency of its members to privately mock the bombastic Trump behind the scenes.

“They won’t say it [in public], but behind his back they think he’s a child. They’re laughing at him. That’s what made [Sununu’s comments] significant,” he said.

Read more from The Independent’s Graeme Massie:

GOP pollster says party mocks ‘child’ Trump in private

Tennessee Republican cites Hitler in argument that homeless should aspire to a ‘productive life’

Thursday 14 April 2022 17:56 , John Bowden

A Tennessee state legislator justified his support for a bill targeting homeless camps on public property by citing the example of the genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler.

In a shocking set of remarks to his fellow lawmakers on the state Senate floor, he justified his support for a bill meant to drive homeless encampments away from highways and other state property by decribing the suppsedly inspiring tale of the German Nazi dictator who was responsible for the murder of millions.

“For two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory and his body language and how to connect with the masses, and then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books,” Senator Frank Nicely exclaimed.

Read more in The Independent from Andrew Feinberg:

GOP senator cites Hitler in argument homeless should aspire to ‘productive life’

ICYMI: Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Fox’s DC HQ

Thursday 14 April 2022 17:10 , John Bowden

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.

Read more from The Independent:

Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Fox’s DC HQ

Trump aide Stephen Miller reverses and agrees to cooperate with Capitol riot committee

Thursday 14 April 2022 16:04 , John Bowden

Stephen Miller, a former top aide in the Trump White House, will testify before the Jan 6 committee today. It’s a huge reversal for Mr Miller, who has sought to keep lawmakers on the committee from obtaining his phone records, and shows how even some of Donald Trump’s fiercest allies fear the wrath of the Justice Department.

Read more from The Independent:

Trump aide Stephen Miller agrees to cooperate with Capitol riot committee

Trump told Barr: Get impeached

Thursday 14 April 2022 15:37 , John Bowden

Former President Donald Trump turned to Fox News to excoriate his former attorney general over a wide range of issues, and shared some advice he gave the former head of the US Justice Department.

“I said: ‘Look, get impeached. I went up a lot in the polls when I got impeached. You have to get impeached, maybe.’ But he was so afraid of being impeached that he refused to do his job,” Trump said on Fox News.

Read more from Business Insider:

Elon Musk shocks Twitter, offers to buy platform

Thursday 14 April 2022 15:09 , John Bowden

Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an offer to buy Twitter on Thursday.

His potential purchase of the site is seen by some as an effort to push for weaker content moderation across social media. Doing so could allow or encourage former President Donald Trump to return to the site.

Read more from The Independent’s Andrew Feindberg

Trump ally’s latest stab at congressional districts would disenfranchise Black Democratic lawmaker

Thursday 14 April 2022 14:18 , John Bowden

A top ally of Donald Trump in the GOP is leading up his state’s redistricting proccess. The partisan battle is likely to have at least one casualty: Democratic Rep Al Lawson, who could see his seat split up.

Mr Lawson’s seat is one of many oddly-shaped districts thanks to past gerrymandering in the US, and currently he represents a 200-mile-long stretch of the state.

““We are not going to have a 200-mile gerrymander that divvies up people based on the color of their skin. That is wrong,” claimed Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.

Read more from the Associated Press:

DeSantis congressional map tears up Black rep's district

UPenn professor tells Tucker Carlson ‘Blacks’ resent ‘Western peoples’ and India is a ‘s***hole’

Thursday 14 April 2022 13:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

A Pennsylvania professor is facing a fierce backlash after she made a series of comments attacking non-white Americans in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

Read the full story here:

UPenn professor tells Tucker Carlson ‘Blacks’ resent ‘Western peoples’

ICYMI: Trump flexes massive fundraising haul in bid to oust Georgia’s Republican governor

Thursday 14 April 2022 12:15 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Former president’s fundraising eclipses both major parties.

Read the full story here:

Trump flexes massive fundraising haul to oust Georgia’s GOP governor

Trump PAC gives $500,000 to attack Georgia's Brian Kemp

Thursday 14 April 2022 11:55 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee has given $500,000 to a group that is running attack ads in Georgia against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

Read the full story here:

Trump PAC gives $500,000 to attack Georgia's Brian Kemp

ICYMI: Trump returning to Ohio for GOP rally ahead of May 3 primary

Thursday 14 April 2022 09:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Former President Donald Trump is returning to Ohio to try to boost Republican candidates and turnout ahead of the 3 May primary.

Mr Trump will headline an evening rally at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Delaware, north of Columbus, on 23 April — certainly to stump for US House candidate Max Miller, his pick for the 7th Congressional District, and perhaps for US Senate or governor choices he is yet to make, the Associated Press reported.

Read the full story here:

Trump returning to Ohio for GOP rally ahead of May 3 primary

ICYMI: Trump says he ‘probably wouldn’t have any interest’ in returning to Twitter

Thursday 14 April 2022 07:45 , Maroosha Muzaffar

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.

Read the full story here:

Trump says he ‘probably wouldn’t have any interest’ in returning to Twitter

Trump White House chief of staff stripped from North Carolina voter rolls, under investigation for voter fraud

Thursday 14 April 2022 07:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

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.

Read the full story here:

Trump chief of staff purged from NC voter rolls, under investigation for voter fraud

Trump flexes massive fundraising haul in bid to oust Georgia’s Republican governor

Thursday 14 April 2022 06:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

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.

Read the full piece here:

Trump flexes massive fundraising haul to oust Georgia’s GOP governor

Trump’s former chief of staff says The Rock could win GOP 2024 nomination

Thursday 14 April 2022 05:40 , Johanna Chisholm

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.

Read more:

Trump’s former chief of staff says The Rock could win GOP 2024 nomination

GOP pollster says party mocks ‘child’ Trump in private

Thursday 14 April 2022 05:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

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.”

Read the full story here:

GOP pollster says party mocks ‘child’ Trump in private

Trump says he ‘probably wouldn’t have any interest’ in returning to Twitter

Thursday 14 April 2022 04:30 , Gustaf Kilander

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.

Read more:

Trump says he ‘probably wouldn’t have any interest’ in returning to Twitter

Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Fox’s DC HQ

Thursday 14 April 2022 03:15 , John Bowden

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.

Read more:

Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Fox’s DC HQ

‘Idea that’ Trump is ‘invincible among Republicans is far from proven,’ political science professor says

Thursday 14 April 2022 02:02 , Gustaf Kilander

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.”

Trump supporters trick airport workers to page fake passengers at airports

Thursday 14 April 2022 00:45 , Gustaf Kilander

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.

Ingraham says Trump and Hannity endorsing Dr Oz was a ‘mistake'

Wednesday 13 April 2022 23:30 , Gustaf Kilander

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.

Trump to host Ohio rally as race to replace retiring senator heats up

Wednesday 13 April 2022 22:12 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump will hold a rally in Ohio as the race to replace retiring GOP Senator Rob Portman is intensifying.

The rally will be held on 23 April in Delaware, a town north of the state capital of Columbus.

The GOP candidates are competing for Mr Trump’s endorsement in the race. Fighting for his support are the author and venture capitalist JD Vance, businessman Mike Gibbons, the previous state Treasurer Josh Mandel as well as the former Ohio Republican Chair Jane Timken.

Most polls have shown a tight race so far.

Democrats have largely stepped in line behind Representative Tim Ryan, one of many Democrats who ran for president in 2020.

Trump PAC throws money on Georgia governor’s race

Wednesday 13 April 2022 21:02 , Gustaf Kilander

The political action committee of Donald Trump, Save America PAC, has transferred half a million dollars to a PAC aiming to unseat Georgia GOP Governor Brian Kemp.

It’s Mr Trump’s first large financial stake in a midterm race, according to Politico.

People close to Mr Trump say it’s an initial cash boost as the campaign nears the 24 May primary between Mr Kemp and former Senator David Perdue, who has been endorsed by Mr Trump.

Mr Trump’s PAC has more than $110m on hand, meaning it’s one of the wealthiest political organisations.

Book reveals Trump put McConnell in tight spot as GOP leader scrambled to win Georgia senate runoffs

Wednesday 13 April 2022 20:35 , Gustaf Kilander

After the 2020 election, Donald Trump was sure he could overturn the results, telling then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he had been speaking to officials in Pennsylvania and Michigan, states that Joe Biden won, who told him that they would be able to keep Mr Trump in the White House.

“I’ve been calling folks in those states and they’re with us,” Mr Trump said, according to a new book by New York Times political reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

A CNN excerpt details how Mr Trump’s false claims put Mr McConnell in a tight spot while he was trying to focus on the two Senate runoffs in Georgia, both of which were later won by Democrats.

Mr McConnell stayed quiet about Mr Trump’s lies to try to stop him from ruining the GOP’s chances in Georgia, the book – This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future – states.

“We’ve got to stay focused on Georgia,” Mr McConnell told colleagues after getting off the phone with Mr Trump.

“What it looks to me like he’s doing is setting this up so he can blame the governor and the secretary of state if we lose,” Mr McConnell told the reporters. “He’s always setting up somebody to blame it on.”

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk claims higher buildings leads to more liberal voters

Wednesday 13 April 2022 20:01 , Gustaf Kilander

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk has claimed that living in higher buildings leads to people becoming more liberal voters.

“We have a huge housing crisis in our country, the likes of which we have not seen in a long period of time,” Mr Kirk said during an event hosted by Turning Point USA – Mr Kirk’s organisation pushing conservative ideas on high school and university campuses.

“I believe that we need to build horizontally, not vertically. It’s one of my speeches – developers don’t like it when I say this, but it’s true,” he added. “The higher the building, the more liberal the voter. It just is. The closer to the ground you are, the more conservative you are.”

“We should encourage people to spread horizontally and not vertically. Look at Denver. The higher the high rises – has Denver become less free, or more free? It’s become a dystopian nightmare,” he claimed.

“Now, you might say, ‘Charlie, it’s a correlation with causation’. Think about it. If you’re on the 32nd floor, renting not owning, if you’re not in the weeds and in the yard and understanding what it takes to grow food and to maintain the land – are you gonna be more or less likely to actually be a conservative?” he asked.

“The higher the building, every single study shows, they become more liberal over time,” he said. “It’s happening in Phoenix, it’s happened in Denver, happened in Atlanta, happened in Dallas, happened in Chicago – everywhere, and yet few people actually say that out loud.”

While it’s unclear what studies Mr Kirk was referring to, The Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson wrote in September 2019 that it’s “conceivable that living in a city might naturally promote ideologies that correspond with the modern Democratic Party”.

“The modern city brings its residents into constant interaction with the fact of, and necessity for, state intervention. Urban residents trade cars for public transit, live in neighborhoods with local trash codes, and deal with planning commissions about shadows, ocean views, and parking rights,” he added.

Mr Thompson noted that those who live in cities “are exquisitely sensitive to the consequences of individual behavior in a dense place where one man’s action is another man’s nuisance. As a result, residents of dense cities tend to reject libertarianism as unacceptable chaos and instead agitate for wiser governance related to health care, housing policy, and climate change”.

Obama appears to take shot at Trump over birther conspiracy

Wednesday 13 April 2022 19:29 , Gustaf Kilander

Former President Barack Obama appeared to take a shot at Donald Trump over his past false claims that his predecessor in the White House wasn’t born in the US.

Mr Obama appeared on NBC’s Today programme to promote his Netflix show Our Great National Parks. Together with host Al Roker, Mr Obama led a group of kids on a scavenger hunt in the Great Falls National Park in Virginia.

Mr Obama at one point remembered seeing whales migrating in Hawaii and one of the kids noted that he was born in the island state.

“I was born in Hawaii, yeah … Honolulu. See, you know more than some people know about where I was born,” he said.

After providing his long-form birth certificate, Mr Obama joked at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner that “no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald”.

“That’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like: Did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?” he added.

Trump says he wouldn’t go back to Twitter if he was allowed

Wednesday 13 April 2022 19:02 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump has told SiriusXM’s Americano Media 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 said 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.

“I did great with the Hispanics. And you know why? Because they’re very incredible people with great energy, and they’re very entrepreneurial. And they also understood the border. You know, they understand the border better than anybody else. And they want security at the border,” he added.

In the summer of 2015 when Mr Trump announced his 2016 bid for the White House, he said: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems.”

“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting,” he added at the time.

Concerning Twitter, Mr Trump said in the interview set to air on Wednesday night that he “probably wouldn’t have any interest” in going back.

“You know, Twitter has become very boring. They’ve gotten rid of a lot of their good voices … a lot of their conservative voices,” he added.

Ex-Trump chief of staff says The Rock could ‘could give him a run for his money’ in 2024

Wednesday 13 April 2022 18:29 , Gustaf Kilander

Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has said that actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could give the former president a “run for his money” in the 2024 presidential election.

Mr Mulvaney told Politico on Tuesday that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “could give him a run for his money”, South Carolina Senator “Tim Scott can give him a run for his money” and The Rock “could give him a run for his money”.

“It’s a short list,” he added.

“By the way, there’s one other person who could beat him, which is himself,” he added.

Mr Mulvaney resigned from his position as special envoy to Northern Ireland after the 6 January insurrection.

“Donald Trump is sometimes his own worst enemy when it comes to campaigning,” Mr Mulvaney said.

Kid at Trump rally says on TV that he’s excited to see Joe Biden

Wednesday 13 April 2022 17:58 , Gustaf Kilander

A video of a kid at a Trump rally in North Carolina has gone viral after he said he was excited to “see Joe Biden” and quickly being corrected by his parents.

Lawyer Ron Filipkowski shared the clip from the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN), best known for its live streams of Trump events on its YouTube channel after its founding in 2015.

The video, filmed ahead of the rally on Saturday, had received around 2.7 million views as of Wednesday morning.

In the footage, the RSBN reporter asks the parents how excited they were when they found out there was going to be a rally in Selma, southeast of Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Just as excited as he was,” the mother said, nodding towards the father. “He’s the one who told me about it.”

Kid at Trump rally says on TV that he’s excited to see Joe Biden

Ex-White House chief removed from NC voter roll as he's investigated for 2020 voter fraud

Wednesday 13 April 2022 17:23 , Gustaf Kilander

Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has been removed from the North Carolina voter roll as he’s investigated for possibly committing voter fraud in the 2020 election.

North Carolina State Board of Elections spokesman Patrick Gannon said in a statement that on 11 April, officials in Macon County “administratively removed the voter registration of Mark Meadows … after documentation indicated he lived in Virginia and last voted in the 2021 election there”.

John Bowden has the story:

Trump chief of staff purged from NC voter rolls, under investigation for voter fraud

GOP pollster Frank Luntz says Republicans are mocking Trump behind his back, think ‘he’s a child'

Wednesday 13 April 2022 16:55 , Gustaf Kilander

Republican pollster Frank Luntz has alleged that GOP lawmakers are laughing at Donald Trump behind his back and are mocking him because they “think he’s a child”.

After New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu said during the Gridiron Dinner in Washington, DC that Mr Trump is “f***ing crazy”, Mr Luntz told The Daily Beast that “I don’t know a single Republican who was surprised by what Sununu said”.

“The press often will ask me if I think Donald Trump is crazy. And I’ll say it this way: I don’t think he’s so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain’t getting out!” Mr Sununu said.

Mr Luntz said Mr Sununu said what Republicans are already thinking.

“They won’t say it [in public], but behind his back, they think he’s a child. They’re laughing at him. That’s what made [Sununu’s comments] significant,” Mr Luntz told The Daily Beast.

“Trump isn’t the same man he was a year ago,” the pollster added. “Even many Republicans are tired of going back and rehashing the 2020 election. Everybody else has moved on, and in Washington, everyone believes he lost the election.”

Questions from Trump’s first impeachment remain unanswered

Wednesday 13 April 2022 16:20 , Gustaf Kilander

Questions from Donald Trump’s first impeachment remain unanswered as the war in Ukraine enters a new phase.

In 2019, Mr Trump secretly withheld military aid to Ukraine before asking President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations into then-candidate Joe Biden and his family.

Lawmakers and witnesses from the following impeachment say the scandal is directly connected to the current conflict, Politico reports.

The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, told the outlet that Mr Trump’s actions “absolutely” negatively affected Ukraine’s preparedness to fight Russia and made them unsure of the commitment of the US to their security.

“Remember, this was the guy who tried to extort political favours from President Zelenskyy for his own personal political gain,” Mr Warner said. “But the fact is we need to continue to get all the aid we can, as quickly as possible.”

Politico

Former Roger Stone aide urged Trump supporters to ‘descend on the Capitol’ week before insurrection

Wednesday 13 April 2022 15:55 , Gustaf Kilander

A former aide to Republican political operative Roger Stone urged Trump supporters to “descend on the Capitol” a week before the insurrection on 6 January 2021.

According to The New York Times, Right-wing communications advisor Jason Sullivan, a promoter of QAnon conspiracy theories, said during a conference call on 30 December 2020 that the election had been stolen and told Trump supporters to go to Washington, DC and make congressional representatives “sweat” before they certified President Joe Biden’s election victory.

“If we make the people inside that building sweat, and they understand that they may not be able to walk in the streets any longer if they do the wrong thing, then maybe they’ll do the right thing,” The Times quoted Mr Sullivan as saying.

A lawyer for Mr Sullivan told the paper that he wasn’t condoning any violence.

Trump struggling to get evangelicals to support bid to oust Georgia governor

Wednesday 13 April 2022 15:20 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump is struggling to get evangelical Christians to support his bid to oust Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp.

Mr Trump deemed Mr Kemp to be insufficiently supportive of his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.

While evangelicals support Mr Trump and like his preferred candidate for the governorship, former US Senator David Perdue, they also support Mr Kemp.

Mr Perdue and Mr Kemp will face off in the Republican primary on 24 May.

Evangelical voters make up a third of Republican voters in the state and half of GOP primary voters.

Mr Trump is backing candidates across the country who support his false 2020 election claims, but voters are concerned about other issues, Bloomberg noted.

Evangelicals in the state say they like Mr Kemp for pushing a bill that bans abortion when a heartbeat is found, for not closing churches during the pandemic, and for his opposition to mask mandates.

The executive director of the conservative Christian group Faith and Freedom Coalition, Tim Head, told Bloomberg that “most evangelicals do feel strongly that Brian Kemp has delivered very well”.

Pence claims he “stood toe to toe” with Putin

Wednesday 13 April 2022 14:45 , Andrew Naughtie

As Donald Trump makes a haphazard effort to walk back his long history of remarks praising Vladimir Putin’s strength and supposed strategic brilliance, former vice president Mike Pence claimed yesterday that he had told Mr Putin some hard truths when encountering him during his own time in office.

Lauren Boebert gets a primary challenger

Wednesday 13 April 2022 14:10 , Andrew Naughtie

Far-right Colorado representative and gun-themed restaurant owner Lauren Boebert, who infamously tweeted the words “This is 1776” on the day of the Capitol riot, has attracted a Republican primary challenger.

Longtime state legislator Don Coram says on his campaign website that “When the fringe leaders of both political spectrums have taken all the oxygen in the room and act more like out-of-touch celebrities than members of Congress, we have a problem” – a judgment shared by many less outré Republicans than Ms Boebert, but not by Donald Trump, who has endorsed her for re-election.