Trump news – live: Mitt Romney slams Trump’s ‘disgusting’ dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes

Andrew Naughtie,Maroosha Muzaffar and Oliver O'Connell
·37 min read
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Criticism continues to pour in after the former president hosted a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Kanye West, who has gone on an antisemitic rampage of late, and his associate Nick Fuentes, one of the US’s most notorious white supremacist activists – and it seems top Jewish Republicans are turning against the former president.

One leader of a right-wing pro-Israel lobby group told The New York Times that “Donald Trump is not an antisemite. He loves Israel. He loves Jews. But he mainstreams, he legitimizes Jew hatred and Jew haters. And this scares me.”

Meanwhile, a federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s claim that he has “presidential immunity” from a lawsuit about his actions around the 2020 election – in the latest blow to the former president as the fallout over a meeting with Kanye West and a white supremacist continues.

Civil rights groups including the NAACP are suing Mr Trump and the Republican National Committee for trying to disenfranchise voters, intimidate election officials and undermine lawfully cast votes in violation of both the federal Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act.

While Mr Trump’s lawyers claimed that he has “absolute immunity”, DC District Judge Emmet Sullivan disagreed.

Key points

When is the Georgia Senate runoff between Walker and Warnock - and what are the stakes?

23:40 , John Bowden

The last contest to determine the makeup of the US Senate is fast approaching.

Democrats already have a majority - but picking up a net seat by protecting Senator Raphael Warnock from a Republican challenge could be a massive win for the party.

Read more about what’s at stake in the Peach State:

When is the Georgia Senate runoff and what are the stakes?

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes found guilty of seditious conspiracy against US

22:40 , John Bowden

Members of a far-right anti-government militia group have been found guilty of seditious conspiracy against the United States in connection with the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021.

After a nearly two-month trial with testimony and arguments from federal prosecutors and defense attorneys, as well as the defendants themselves, Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs were found guilty by a federal jury in Washington DC on 29 November after three full days of deliberations.

Alex Woodward has more for The Independent:

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes found guilty of seditious conspiracy against US

Reporters press Kevin McCarthy over false claims Trump denounced white supremacist he dined with

22:10 , John Bowden

Reporters pressed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy about his false claim that former president Donald Trump denounced white supremacist Nick Fuentes four times.

Mr McCarthy spoke to reporters after he met with President Joe Biden about a potential railroad strike.

Last week, Mr Trump dined with rapper Kanye West and Mr Fuentes, a noted white supremacist and antisemite.

Read more coverage of the fallout from Eric Garcia:

Reporters press Kevin McCarthy over claims Trump denounced Nick Fuentes after dinner

White nationalist Nick Fuentes tells far right to ‘dream bigger’ than Maga movement

21:40 , John Bowden

The white nationalist who found his way into a meeting with former President Donald Trump now says that the far-right needs to “dream bigger” than the ex-president or his 2024 campaign.

Mr Fuentes, a relentless bigot whose authoritarian vision is to turn the GOP into a “truly reactionary party” grounded in white Christian nationalism, believes that Mr Trump’s campaign and his predicted GOP rival Ron DeSantis for the 2024 presidential nomination “are both inferior to the campaign that Trump ran in 2016.”

Read more from Alex Woodward in The Independent:

White nationalist Nick Fuentes tells far right to ‘dream bigger’ than Trump

A white nationalist and a 2024 rival: What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?

21:10 , John Bowden

More information is coming out about what exactly transpired during Kanye West and Nick Fuentes’ meeting with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

Mr West, who recently torpedoed his music career by launching into a string of bizarre antisemitic rants on social media causing his commercial sponsors to desert him in droves, has previously sought out Mr Trump at Trump Tower in New York City and at the White House during his presidency on a whim.

We know now that he wants to run either against or alongside Donald Trump in 2024, as well as what happened when America’s most prominent white nationalist met the president.

Read more:

What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?

Pence: Trump showed ‘profoundly poor judgement’ by dining with Nick Fuentes

20:40 , John Bowden

Donald Trump’s former No 2 defended the ex-president from accusations of antisemitism in a new interview this week, but condemned his decision to meet with one of America’s most prominent racists and Holocaust deniers at Mar-a-Lago alongside rapper Kanye West.

Mike Pence said that his former boss should apologise and called the meeting “wrong” — though the former president has denied knowledge of Nick Fuentes or his views, he has nevertheless faced criticism for not listening to aides who told him the dinner was a mistake and for agreeing to meet with Mr West as well given his recent antisemitic comments.

Read more:

Pence says Trump showed ‘profoundly poor judgement’ by hosting Kanye and Nick Fuentes

GOP Senators are starting to grapple with Trump, Kanye and Nick Fuentes

20:10 , John Bowden

Instead of confronting a littany of problems facing the US Congress in the lame duck session, Senate Republicans have found themselves stuck in a time warp, spending Monday evening having to answer for former president Donald Trump’s misdeeds, writes Eric Garcia for The Independent.

This time around, the disaster is his dinner with white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes and rapper-turned-professional bigot Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.

It’s an eerie flashback to the days of Mr Trump’s first campaign and presidency, when Senate Republicans were obliged to answer for every outrageous tweet, egregious insult or outright lie he told.

Read more:

GOP Senators are starting to grapple with Trump, Kanye and Nick Fuentes

Kevin McCarthy takes Trump’s side over Nick Fuentes meeting

19:40 , John Bowden

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke to reporters on Tuesday and took former President Donald Trump at his word over his claim that he did not know white nationalist broadcaster Nick Fuentes before Fuentes appeared at dinner with Mr Trump and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago.

The Republican House leader had not issued a statement about the meeting between a former president and one of the US’s most prominent racists until he was asked by reporters about the issue on Tuesday after he left the White House following a meeting with Joe Biden and other members of congressional leadership.

Watch below:

Supreme Court defends Alito in face of leak allegations

19:10 , Andrew Naughtie

The US Supreme Court’s legal counsel has dismissed an ethics inquiry from two top Democratic members of Congress after Justice Samuel Alito was accused of leaking the outcome of a landmark case in 2014.

A letter from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Hank Johnson pressed Chief Justice John Roberts to answer questions about alleged breaches after a former anti-abortion activist with an influential lobbying group told the court that powerful donors leaked a ruling from a major contraception case after they dined with Justice Alito.

Supreme Court attorney Ethan Torrey did not answer the letter’s questions about that alleged leak or the leak of a draft opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the June decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

“There is nothing to suggest that Justice Alito’s actions violated ethical standards,” Mr Torrey wrote on 28 November.

Alex Woodward reports:

Supreme Court defends Alito as members of Congress probe 2014 leak allegations

Rubio: Fuentes is an ‘a** clown’ and a ‘disgusting person’

18:40 , Andrew Naughtie

Senator Marco Rubio had a particularly aggressive rebuke of Nick Fuentes, one of America’s most infamous white nationalists and antisemites, on Monday after former President Donald Trump faced another day of questions and criticism surrounding the Mar-a-Lago meetup with Mr Fuentes and rapper Kanye West.

The Florida Republican made the comment to CNN, telling the network that Mr Fuentes “is a purveyor and a spreader of an evil, poison”.

“I hope he will [condemn Fuentes],” Mr Rubio continued. “Because I know he’s not an antisemite. I can tell you that for a fact that Trump is not, but this guy is evil. And that guy’s just a nasty, disgusting person. He’s an a** clown.”

John Bowden reports:

Marco Rubio brands Nick Fuentes an ‘a** clown’ and ‘disgusting’ after Trump meeting

Incoming GOP congressman condemns Fuentes

18:10 , Andrew Naughtie

As many Republican members of Congress keep quiet about Donald Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West, Mike Lawler, one of the new class of GOP representatives who won the party its ultra-narrow majority, has weighed in on the row in unsparing terms – albeit without mentioning Donald Trump’s name.

Mr Lawler is something of a hero in the House GOP conference having unseated DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney in a redrawn New York district.

Trump to keep up Twitter lawsuit despite reinstatement

17:40 , Andrew Naughtie

The lawyer representing former president Donald Trump in the lawsuit he filed after he was previously banned from Twitter has said he will not drop the case despite having been reinstated to the platform by the company’s new owner, Elon Musk.

Attorney John Cole told Bloomberg News that Mr Trump will continue to appeal the case’s dismissal by a California federal judge unless the company enters into an agreement to formally settle the lawsuit.

The twice-impeached ex-president filed the lawsuit in July 2021, six months after then-CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Mr Trump’s account had been permanently suspended from the platform in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol. His account has now been reinstated, but he has yet to use it, preferring instead to stick with Truth Social despite its dramatically smaller user base and limited reach.

Andrew Feinberg has more.

Trump won’t drop lawsuit against Twitter despite being reinstated to platform

Analysis: GOP Senators tentatively call out Trump on Fuentes

17:10 , Andrew Naughtie

In today’s Inside Washington dispatch, Eric Garcia reports from Capitol Hill, where he and other reporters have been asking Republican Senators to weigh in on Donald Trump’s antisemitic dinner party last week:

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has mainly been focusing on getting the Respect for Marriage Act over the finish line, vocally denounced the meeting.

“First, I honestly didn’t know who he was,” he told The Independent. “If the reports are true and the president didn’t know who he was, whoever allowed them in the room should have been fired.”

This new willingness among many Republicans to condemn the former president began to show itself after the midterm elections. Several of Mr Trump’s endorsed candidates flopped in winnable races, arguably costing his party the Senate and limiting its House majority to a mere handful of votes. (Side note: The batch of failed Trump endorsements makes a convenient alibi for those who don’t want to blame the overturning of Roe v Wade). The fact other Republicans, like Ron DeSantis, are looking ever more viable for a 2024 race means a convenient off-ramp could soon be in sight.

Read the full analysis below.

GOP Senators are starting to grapple with Trump, Kanye and Nick Fuentes

Trump furious at coverage of midterms humiliation

16:40 , Andrew Naughtie

Donald Trump’s unhappy morning on Truth Social continues with this rant about people blaming him in whole or in part for the Republican Party’s mortifying shortfall in the 8 November midterms.

It’s worth noting that even if the Trump-backed Herschel Walker wins next week’s Georgia runoff, the GOP will still have failed to make a net gain in the Senate – and that it was Dr Mehmet Oz, a key Trump endorsee, who failed to keep Pennsylvania’s open seat in Republican hands.

Trump awake and truthing...

16:15 , Andrew Naughtie

Donald Trump is clearly in a foul mood today, at least if the state of his Truth Social feed is anything to go by. Along with launching an all-caps screed against mail-in voting and sharing a video in relation to false claims of malfeasance in Arizona’s Maricopa County, the former president has also kicked off about the security of the US’s southern border – and launched a particularly bilious rant directed at Karl Rove, complete with Trumpian misspelling at the end:

Liz Cheney calls out Kevin McCarthy on silence about Nick Fuentes

16:10 , Andrew Naughtie

While many elected Republicans have yet to say anything about Donald Trump’s meeting with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, their silence is not going unnoticed. Retiring congresswoman Liz Cheney, who sits on the January 6 committee, has turned her scorn on the party’s House leader, Kevin McCarthy:

Mr McCarthy has five weeks to organise the House Republican conference to back him to be speaker. Because the GOP’s House majority is so slim, he can only afford to lose a handful of votes, meaning he can ill afford to irritate or embarrass his party’s more extreme members.

Meanwhile, here’s Joe Sommerlad with a catch-up on what we know about the Mar-a-Lago meeting.

What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?

Has Herschel Walker really been living in Georgia?

15:50 , Andrew Naughtie

Financial disclosure forms have revealed that contrary to his claims of deep ties to the state of Georgia, Republican nominee Herschel Walker in fact appears to have used his property there as a source of rental income rather than as a residence.

The news comes as Georgians turn out in record numbers to vote in the state’s Senate runoff, in which Mr Walker is trying to unseat Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock to give his party a 50th Senate seat.

According to The Daily Beast, Mr Walker’s financial records show that while he claims to have had a property in Georgia for many years, it is in fact owned solely by his wife, collected rental income from it for nearly two decades, indicating that Mr Walker has indeed spent many years living not in Georgia but in Texas – where he has claimed a home as his primary residence for tax purposes.

Read more:

Herschel Walker under fire as records show he was only renting out Georgia home

Trump falsely claims case against his company has collapsed

15:20 , Andrew Naughtie

The defence has rested its case in the trial of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges – albeit not before trying to introduce a welter of exhibits at the last minute, a move that saw the judge accuse the lawyers concerned of trying “to throw anything and everything” at the jury.

The six-week trial has seen prosecutors for the Manhattan district attorney’s office call various witnesses to the organization’s alleged conduct, including former CFO and longtime Trump associate Allen Weisselberg, who testified under a plea deal.

Mr Trump himself, however, is insisting on an unclear basis that the case has “collapsed” – this before the jury have even heard closing arguments, which they will on Thursday.

GOP lines up panel to carry out midterms post-mortem

14:50 , Andrew Naughtie

Still smarting from an embarrassing underperformance in this year’s midterm elections – particularly after failing to retake the Senate – the Republican Party is planning a deep assessment at the factors that thwarted its efforts to retake Congress.

However, the makeup of the panel so far indicates certain lessons haven’t been learned...

Jewish Republicans draw the line at Trump’s Fuentes-West dinner

14:20 , Andrew Naughtie

The news that Donald Trump had met with Kanye West and bilious antisemite Nick Fuentes has left many elected Republicans unsure what they can say short of outright condemning the former president – but according to a report from The New York Times, many in the Jewish Republican elite are ready to turn their backs on Mr Trump altogether.

Jonathan Weisman writes:

Not all Republican leaders have spoken out, but Jewish Republicans are slowly peeling away from a former president who, for years, insisted he had no ties to the bigoted far right, but refused to repudiate it. Jewish figures and organizations that have stood by Mr. Trump, from Mr. Klein’s group to the pro-Trump commentator Ben Shapiro to Mr. Trump’s own former ambassador to Israel and onetime bankruptcy lawyer, David M. Friedman, have all spoken out since the dinner.

For Jews, the concern extends far beyond a single meal at Mar-a-Lago, though that dinner has become a touchstone, especially for Jewish Republicans.

Read the article below.

MyPillow Trump fanatic running for RNC leader

13:50 , Andrew Naughtie

No-one in the Republican Party is safe from the ambition of Donald Trump’s followers, especially not when they’re perceived to be insufficiently loyal or effective in carrying out his wishes – and that includes Ronna McDaniel, the longtime RNC chair now up for re-election. She has a new challenger in the form of unhinged conspiracy theorist and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who reportedly advocated for the Trump administration to send in the military to seize voting machines after the 2020 election.

True to extremist form, he announced his long-shot run on Steve Bannon’s podcast.

Read more from John Bowden:

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says he’ll run to be chairman of the Republican Party

Judge dismisses Trump’s “immunity” claim

13:20 , Andrew Naughtie

A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s claim that he has “presidential immunity” from a lawsuit over his actions around the 2020 election – in the latest blow to the former president as the fallout over a meeting with Kanye West and a white supremacist continues.

The civil lawsuit alleges that Mr Trump tried to disenfranchise voters, intimidate election officials and undermine lawfully cast votes in violation of both the federal Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act.

Mr Trump’s lawyers pushed back on the lawsuit, claiming that he has “absolute immunity” from civil lawsuits as a former president. But on Monday, a federal judge in Washington DC disagreed.

Rachel Sharp reports.

Judge dismisses Trump’s claim of ‘presidential immunity’ in 2020 election suit

Ye flounces out of right-wing show after making antisemitic remarks

12:50 , Andrew Naughtie

Continuing his post-Mar-a-Lago tour, Kanye West brought Nick Fuentes along with him for an appearance on reactionary influencer Tim Pool’s Timcast – an interview that ended abruptly when the host told him he could not draw antisemitic inferences from the proximity of prominent Jewish people to American presidents.

In a write-up for The Spectator, Amber Athey describes being in the building for the incident.

Pool started the show by asking Ye about his recent dinner with Trump, and Ye explained how a number of other “canceled” commentators had got in touch after his “deathcon 3 on Jewish people” tweet. Ye revealed that Alex Jones’s producer had connected him with Yiannopoulos, who in turn brought Fuentes into the fold. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Ye to launch into a diatribe about the Jews controlling politics and the media. “Rahm Emanuel was next to Obama and Jared Kushner was right next to Trump,” he stressed. Pool pushed back respectfully, but Ye threatened to leave the show on two separate occasions before finally walking out at the twenty-one-minute mark.

I was sitting in the basement and could hear doors slamming upstairs, but when I went up to the kitchen Ye was gleefully holding court. He seemed in better spirits than he had the entire night, perhaps because the pressure of the program was off. One of the show’s regulars, Hannah Claire Brimelow, was telling Ye that she wished he had more time to share his views because people “needed to hear them.”

Nick Fuentes tells far right to ‘dream bigger’ than Maga movement

12:25 , Andrew Naughtie

Days after meeting Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago alongside Kanye West, virulently antisemitic white nationalist livestreamer Nick Fuentes has underscored his far-right agenda to push the Republican Party even further right, believing that the former president’s so-called Make America Great Again movement is no longer the vehicle to do just that.

Alex Woodward reports on his remarks.

White nationalist Nick Fuentes tells far right to ‘dream bigger’ than Trump

Marco Rubio brands Nick Fuentes an ‘a** clown’ and ‘disgusting person’ after Trump meeting

11:55 , Andrew Naughtie

Marco Rubio branded Nick Fuentes a “nasty, disgusting person” and “an a** clown” after Donald Trump hosted a meeting with the white supremacist and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago.

Several Republicans have refused to condemn Mr Trump over the meeting with the notorious white nationalist and Mr West, who has gone on an antisemitic rampage of late.

The Florida senator, meanwhile, had some strong words about the incident, saying that he hopes Mr Trump will speak out to condemn Mr Fuentes following the controversy.

“I know [Mr Trump’s] not an antisemite. I can tell you that for a fact that Trump is not but this guy [Mr Fuentes] is evil,” he said, according to CNN.

“And that guy’s just a nasty, disgusting person. He’s an a** clown.”

Federal judge dismisses Trump’s claim of ‘presidential immunity’ from civil suit

11:25 , Rachel Sharp

A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s claim that he has “presidential immunity” from a lawsuit about his actions around the 2020 election – in the latest blow to the former president as the fallout over a meeting with Kanye West and white supremacist continues.

Civil rights groups including the NAACP are suing Mr Trump and the Republican National Committee for trying to disenfranchise voters, intimidate election officials and undermine lawfully cast votes in violation of both the federal Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act.

While Mr Trump’s lawyers claimed that he has “absolute immunity, on Monday, DC District Judge Emmet Sullivan disagreed.

What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?

11:04 , Rachel Sharp

Another scandal has put the former president in the firing line of fellow Republicans, but what actually happened at the dinner?

Joe Sommerlad reports.

What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?

The high cost of McCarthy’s pursuit of the speaker’s gavel

10:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is in the fight of his political life, grinding through the promises and proposals, cajoling and deal-making necessary to win over reluctant colleagues whose support he needs to become House speaker.

The overtures McCarthy is making, some symbolic, others substantive, provide a snapshot of the speaker hopeful’s emerging leadership style.

Read on:

McCarthy's pursuit of speaker's gavel comes at a high cost

Trump and Melania ‘sick’ over Jan 6 detainees and will pardon them if reelected, Marjorie Taylor Greene says

22:57 , John Bowden

Marjorie Taylor Greene defended former president Donald Trump from accusations that he could have pardoned people in prison for their role in the January 6 riot, saying he is “sick” over their treatment and would pardon them if he wins in 2024.

The Georgia representative spoke on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast after Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, posted a video talking about his dinner with Mr Trump and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Eric Garcia has more for The Independent:

Trump and Melania are ‘sick’ over Jan 6 detainees, Marjorie Taylor Greene says

Trump reportedly ignored pleas from advisers to condemn Nick Fuentes after Kanye meeting

09:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump’s political bruising in response to his meeting with one of America’s most prominent racists only grew worse due to his unwillingness to take advice from his own advisers and condemn the man’s views, according to a new report.

John Bowden reports on the attempts to get the president to distance himself from Nick Fuentes.

Trump ignored pleas from advisers to condemn Nick Fuentes, report says

Who is running for president in 2024?

07:30 , Oliver O'Connell

With less than two years remaining until US voters will decide who will serve as president of the United States from January 2025 to January 2029, former Republican government officials are starting to jockey for position in the coming fight for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, while at least one prominent Democrat (California governor Gavin Newsom) has reportedly pledged not to challenge President Joe Biden in a Democratic primary.

As the 2024 campaign takes shape, here are the names you need to know:

Who is running for president in 2024?

ICYMI: Kellyanne Conway faces questioning from January 6 committee

05:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Former White House aide Kellyanne Conway is facing questioning from the House select committee investigating the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, NBC News reports.

She did not answer questions from reporters on the way into the meeting, Eric Garcia reports.

Kellyanne Conway faces questioning from January 6 committee

Premium: Another controversy for Donald Trump that voters will struggle to shrug off

04:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Recent polling suggests a significant number of Americans think the former president’s decision to make another run for the White House is a bad idea, writes Chris Stevenson.

Analysis: Another controversy for Donald Trump that voters will struggle to shrug off

What Trump’s family really think of a second term

03:00 , Oliver O'Connell

What do Melania, Don Jr, Eric, Lara, Ivanka, Jared Kushner and Mary Trump think about the prospect of the former president launching another tilt at the White House in two years’ time, asks Joe Sommerlad.

Ivanka Trump statement: What do Trump’s family really think of a second term?

HBO to air Nancy Pelosi doc shot by daughter Alexandra

02:00

A documentary on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s life and groundbreaking political career, shot and edited by her daughter, will debut on HBO next month.

Alexandra Pelosi’s “Pelosi in the House” will premiere Dec. 13 and will include footage shot during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Some of that footage, including moments when Nancy Pelos i was helping direct the government’s response as the U.S. Capitol was under attack, has been seen as part of a House investigation.

Read more from the AP:

HBO to air Nancy Pelosi doc shot by daughter Alexandra

White nationalist Nick Fuentes tells far right to ‘dream bigger’ than Maga movement after Trump dinner

01:45 , John Bowden

Days after meeting Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago alongside Kanye West, virulently antisemitic white nationalist livestreamer Nick Fuentes has underscored his far-right agenda to push the Republican Party even further right, believing that the former president’s so-called Make America Great Again movement no longer can be used as a vehicle for his far-right agenda.

Mr Fuentes, a relentless bigot whose authoritarian vision is to turn the GOP into a “truly reactionary party” grounded in white Christian nationalism, believes that Mr Trump’s campaign and his predicted GOP rival Ron DeSantis for the 2024 presidential nomination “are both inferior to the campaign that Trump ran in 2016.”

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg has more:

White nationalist Nick Fuentes tells far right to ‘dream bigger’ than Trump

Impeachment comes up during Trump Organization trial

01:00 , Michael R Sisak

There was talk of impeachment Monday at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial — not former President Donald Trump‘s, which happened twice — but whether lawyers for his company were angling to impeach their own witness, longtime Trump accountant Donald Bender.

Defense lawyer Susan Necheles said Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years overseeing tax returns for Trump’s hundreds of entities, “surprised” her when he testified that he didn’t actually do much work on the company’s tax returns.

Read more:

Impeachment talk at Trump Org. trial: Did witness misspeak?

Georgia on track to have a record day of early voting turnout in Senate runoff election

00:45 , John Bowden

Georgia is on track to set a record for a single day of early voting for a runoff as the state holds its the runoff Senate election between Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.

Many counties began voting early on Monday. Though some counties began voting over the weekend after a lawsuit from the Warnock campaign, the Georgia Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, others began accepting early votes on Monday.

The Independent’s Eric Garcia is following the race:

Georgia set to have a record day of early voting turnout in Senate runoff election

Pence says Trump was ‘wrong’ and showed ‘profoundly poor judgement’ by eating with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes

00:14 , Josh Marcus

Donald Trump was “wrong” for meeting last week at Mar-a-Lago with outspoken antisemites like rapper and fashion designer Ye and right-wing media figure Nick Fuentes, according to former vice-president Mike Pence.

“President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite, and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table,” Mr Pence said in an interview on NewsNation on Monday.

Read more:

Pence says Trump showed ‘profoundly poor judgement’ by hosting Kanye and Nick Fuentes

John Bolton: Trump’s act is ‘old and tired’

00:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton blistered Donald Trump as a has-been and political albatross around the neck of the GOP in a new interview about his former boss’s electoral prospects for 2024.

John Bowden reports on what Mr Bolton said.

Bolton says Trump’s act is ‘old and tired’ while predicting GOP will turn to DeSantis

Another controversy for Donald Trump that voters will struggle to shrug off

Monday 28 November 2022 23:45 , John Bowden

Donald Trump’s latest controversy is another one that will weigh him down in future electoral contests, writes The Independent’s Chris Stevenson.

The former president already saw his party suffer a humiliating showing in this year’s midterms, picking up far fewer seats in the House and certainly the Senate than the party’s leaders predicted.

Now, he’s under fire for a meeting with Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and anti-Jewish hatemongerer.

Analysis: Another controversy for Donald Trump that voters will struggle to shrug off

Donald Trump has officially jumped in for 2024. Who else is running?

Monday 28 November 2022 23:15 , John Bowden

Former President Donald Trump’s entrance into the 2024 presidential race has jump-started the GOP primary and led many to speculate whether Mr Trump’s early launch could crater before he has a shot at his party’s nomination.

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg takes a look at how the field is shaping up so far:

Who is running for president in 2024?

Kellyanne Conway meets with January 6 committee for five hours of testimony

Monday 28 November 2022 22:45 , John Bowden

Former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who later became White House counselor, testified before the January 6 committee for several hours on Monday.

Reporters outside the committee room said the testimony lasted roughly five hours, and that Ms Conway claimed afterwards she had not invoked her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Asked whether Donald Trump knew she was testifying, she responded: “He doesn’t know that from me, he may know that from you.”

Trump antisemitism envoy criticises Kanye West meeting

Monday 28 November 2022 22:15 , John Bowden

The State Department special envoy tasked with helping direct the US’s global efforts to fight antisemitism criticized former President Donald Trump on Monday for his meeting with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, a known spreader of anti-Jewish hate.

Elan Carr, who was appointed to his role under Mr Trump’s presidency, wrote on Twitter that his former boss needed to condemn Mr Fuentes’s views instead of simply claiming not to have known him ahead of time.

“No responsible American, and certainly no former President, should be cavorting with the likes of Nick Fuentes and Kanye West. To placate antisemitism is to promote antisemitism. President Trump must condemn these dangerous men and their disgusting and un-American views,” he wrote.

Trump’s act is ‘old and tired’ says John Bolton, predicting GOP will move on

Monday 28 November 2022 21:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton has given a blistering indictment of Donald Trump as a has-been and political albatross around the neck of the GOP in a new interview about his former boss’s electoral prospects for 2024.

John Bowden reports on what Mr Bolton has to say about the former president.

Bolton says Trump’s act is ‘old and tired’ while predicting GOP will turn to DeSantis

Georgia runoff early voting set to break record

Monday 28 November 2022 21:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Georgia is on track to set a record for a single day of early voting for a runoff as the state holds its runoff Senate election between incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.

Eric Garcia reports on the impressive turnout as the 6 December election draws near.

Georgia set to have a record day of early voting turnout in Senate runoff election

Oath Keepers trial: Jury deliberations resume

Monday 28 November 2022 20:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Jurors who will decide whether to convict Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates of seditious conspiracy resumed deliberations on Monday in the high-stakes trial stemming from the US Capitol attack.

Here’s the latest:

Jury deliberations resume in Oath Keepers 1/6 sedition case

Rep Greene: Trump and Melania ‘sick’ over Jan 6 detainees and will pardon them

Monday 28 November 2022 20:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Marjorie Taylor Greene defended former president Donald Trump from accusations that he could have pardoned people in prison for their role in the January 6 riot, saying he is “sick” over their treatment and would pardon them if he wins in 2024.

Here’s what she said:

Trump and Melania are ‘sick’ over Jan 6 detainees, Marjorie Taylor Greene says

What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?

Monday 28 November 2022 19:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump once again finds himself in hot water – this time even incurring the disapproval of his fellow Republicans – for sitting down to dinner at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, with the increasingly wayward Kanye West and the rapper’s “campaign adviser” Nick Fuentes.

What do we know about what happened at the meal?

What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?

Report says Trump ignored pleas from advisers to condemn Nick Fuentes after Kanye West meeting

Monday 28 November 2022 19:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump’s political bruising in response to his meeting with one of America’s most prominent racists only grew worse due to his unwillingness to take advice from his own advisers and condemn the man’s views, according to a new report.

John Bowden has the details.

Trump ignored pleas from advisers to condemn Nick Fuentes, report says

Louisiana senator denounces Trump for hosting ‘racist antisemites'

Monday 28 November 2022 18:57 , Oliver O'Connell

Bill Cassidy, Republican senator for Louisiana, has denounced former president Donald Trump for hosting “racist antisemites” at dinner describing their attitudes as “immoral” and saying that “this is not the Republican Party”.

Kellyanne Conway meets with January 6 committee

Monday 28 November 2022 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Former White House aide Kellyanne Conway will undergo questioning from the House select committee investigating the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, NBC News reports.

Eric Garcia reports from Washington, DC.

Kellyanne Conway undergoes questioning from January 6 committee

Watch: Kellyanne Conway arrives to meet with Jan 6 committee

Monday 28 November 2022 18:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Catch up: Trump’s racist hangout at Mar-a-Lago

Monday 28 November 2022 17:30 , Andrew Naughtie

If you’re just tuning into the story of Donald Trump’s meeting with two avowed racists at Mar-a-Lago, Joe Sommerlad has this explainer.

To recap: Mr Trump is in hot water for sitting down to dinner with the increasingly wayward Kanye West and the rapper’s “campaign adviser” Nick Fuentes.

Mr West, an acclaimed rapper now going by the name Ye, who recently torpedoed his music career by launching into a string of bizarre antisemitic rants on social media, causing his commercial sponsors to desert him in droves, has previously sought out Mr Trump at Trump Tower in New York City and at the White House during his presidency on a whim.

Now plotting a hopelessly unlikely presidential run in 2024 – theoretically pitching him against Mr Trump – West again sought out the one-term president and former luxury real estate magnate, this time for advice on that project.

They sat down to dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday 22 November with another man in attendance, the notorious white nationalist and Holocaust-denier Mr Fuentes, whom Mr Trump has subsequently claimed not to have previously known or recognised.

Read more below.

What happened at Trump’s dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West?

Why Senators haven’t been asked about the Trump-Fuentes encounter

Monday 28 November 2022 17:00 , Andrew Naughtie

Much is being made of the fact that more Republican senators haven’t spoken out about Donald Trump’s decision to meet with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, but ther e may in fact be a relatively mundane reason for their near-silence:

One person who hasn’t spoken up despite being constantly in the public eye is Georgia Senate nominee Herschel Walker, whom Mr Trump endorsed early in his campaign. Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, however, has issued some strong words:

Kellyanne Conway meets with Jan 6 panel

Monday 28 November 2022 16:30 , Andrew Naughtie

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports that even as the January 6 select committee wraps up its work in preparation for releasing a final report, a core member of the Trump administration’s inner circle has been seen heading in for a meeting with investigators...

Analysis: Why many Republicans still won’t condemn Trump over Fuentes

Monday 28 November 2022 16:00 , Andrew Naughtie

In today’s Inside Washington dispatch, Eric Garcia takes a look at the fact that even after he met with two avowed antisemites and racists, Donald Trump is still able to escape the public condemnation of his party’s top figures:

As we’ve explained before here at Inside Washington, the truth is that Mr McCarthy needs Ms Greene’s support if he wants to become Speaker of the House. That’s why he’s kept her close instead of ostracizing her. If he becomes speaker – for now still a matter of “if”, rather than “when” – he will spend much of his time trying to keep her, Mr Gosar and fellow travelers like Lauren Boebert, Andy Biggs and Matt Gaetz happy, lest they lead a right-wing rebellion to depose him.

When the House returns later this week, don’t expect Mr McCarthy to denounce former president Donald Trump for his dinner with Mr Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, now known for his antisemitic rants.

Read the article below.

Republicans draw the line at antisemitism – but still can’t risk condemning Trump

Georgia Senate runoff: Warnock ad shows voters reacting to Walker

Monday 28 November 2022 15:30 , Andrew Naughtie

Donald Trump’s chosen Georgia Senate nominee, Herschel Walker, is having a hard time making up ground in his runoff race against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock – largely because of things he himself has said and done.

The litany of bizarre Walker speeches and statements is so long that Mr Warnock’s campaign has issued a closing ad that simply shows voters reacting to the Republican candidate’s words. As one woman puts it: “Not only does it make no sense, I don’t even understand what he thinks he’s saying.”

Greene: Trumps are “sick” at treatment of Jan 6 defendants

Monday 28 November 2022 15:00 , Andrew Naughtie

Marjorie Taylor Greene has long made avenging the supposed ill treatment of accused January 6 rioters something of a personal crusade, and she continues to bang the “Justice for J6” drum – but in an interview with Steve Bannon this weekend, she let Donald Trump off the hook for not issuing a mass pardon.

“The very idea that he could have pardoned all the Jan. 6 defendants before he left the White House on Jan. 20 is impossible because the high majority of those people weren't even arrested until after he left office!" she told the far-right podcaster and agitator, who has been sentenced to jail for refusing to testify to the January 6 select committee.

Eric Garcia reports.

Trump and Melania are ‘sick’ over Jan 6 detainees, Marjorie Taylor Greene says

Bolton: Trump’s “act” is “old and tired"

Monday 28 November 2022 14:30 , Andrew Naughtie

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton blistered Donald Trump as a has-been and political albatross around the neck of the GOP in a new interview about his former boss’s electoral prospects for 2024.

Mr Bolton has been open with his criticism of the former president since leaving the White House and saw an opening to attack Mr Trump in an interview with The Guardian.

“There are a lot of reasons to be against Trump being the nominee but the one I’m hearing now as I call around the country, talking to my supporters and others about what happened on 8 November, is the number of people who have just switched Trump off in their brain,” Mr Bolton told the newspaper.

John Bowden writes:

Bolton says Trump’s act is ‘old and tired’ while predicting GOP will turn to DeSantis

Independent Premium: What will voters think of the Kanye West controversy?

Monday 28 November 2022 14:00 , Andrew Naughtie

Writing for The Independent’s Premium section, Chris Stevenson takes a look at the fallout from the news of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes’ hangout at Mar-a-Lago, and asks what bearing it might have on the electorate’s views of the former president.

These events will probably only add to the sense that appears to be prevalent among a significant number of Americans that Trump’s decision to make another run for the presidency in 2024 is a bad idea. According to a Quinnipiac University national poll released at the beginning of the week, 57 per cent of Americans said it was a bad thing that Trump was running again, while just 34 per cent said it was a good thing.

Sign in to read the piece below.

Analysis: Another controversy for Donald Trump that voters will struggle to shrug off

Who in the GOP has criticised Trump for the West-Fuentes meeting?

Monday 28 November 2022 13:30 , Andrew Naughtie

While the formal leaders of the current GOP have so far not spoken out to hold Donald Trump accountable for meeting with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago last week, some of the president’s more prominent critics in the party have begun to speak up.

One of those Republican critics who opened fire on Mr Trump this week was his erstwhile adviser and occasional rival, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Mr Christie told The New York Times that the meeting with Mr West and his new hard-right associates should never have been allowed to happen.

“This is just another example of an awful lack of judgment from Donald Trump, which, combined with his past poor judgments, make him an untenable general election candidate for the Republican Party in 2024,” said Mr Christie.

Conversely, notable by his silence is prospective House speaker Kevin McCarthy.

John Bowden reports:

Republicans hammer Trump over dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and Kanye