Trump news - live: Omarosa says ex-president ‘ate’ documents in Oval Office as Kinzinger warns of ‘civil war’

Donald Trump has weighed in on the row engulfing wildly popular podcaster Joe Rogan, telling the host to “stop apologising to the Fake News and Radical Left” for his recent platforming of medical disinformation and his long history of racist, misogynistic and transphobic remarks.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump remains under suspicion of violating federal law by mishandling documents that the White House was required to preserve, from schedules to sensitive memos were regularly ripped into quarters and tossed into trash bins or “burn bags” for incineration at the Pentagon, forcing aides to sift through the contents to determine which needed to be preserved under the Presidential Records Act.

Advisers to the former president insisted that 15 boxes of administration records found at Mar-a-Lago didn’t contain any sensitive materials, but rather mementos and correspondence from other world leaders – including letters from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

The consequences of the former president’s words and actions both in and out of office are the subject of particularly heated discourse at the moment, with Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger warning that the strength of feeling whipped up among Mr Trump’s supporters poses a risk of full-on civil conflict.

Key Points

• Trump team still recovering documents owed to National Archives

• DeSantis dodges on key question regarding Pence’s constitutional authority on Jan 6

• Trump watched riot footage as it occurred, rewound footage to watch people ‘fighting’ for him

• Jan 6 committee member previews public hearing schedule

Mitch McConnell torches RNC resolution calling Jan 6 ‘legitimate political discourse'

20:20 , John Bowden

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not mince words on Tuesday when asked about the resolution passed by the Republican National Committee condemning Reps Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation in the effort to investigate the attack on the Capitol.

The shocking statement which referred to the bloody assault on Congress as “legitimate political discourse” was an expression of the party’s continued total loyalty to President Donald Trump and his false claims about the 2020 election, which the party apparatus as a whole embraced wholeheartedly.

The Senate Republican leader made what amounted to a defense of Reps Cheney and Kinzinger from the highest-profile Republican elected official thus far, telling reporters: "We all were here. We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That's what it was."

He went on to say it was “not the job” of the RNC to make such statements about sitting Republican officials.

Doug Emhoff rushed out of DC school after bomb threat

20:01 , John Bowden

Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was promptly removed from the premises of a Washington DC-area school on Tuesday after a security situation developed following his arrival.

White House pool reports indicated that Mr Emhoff was at Dunbar High School when “a security issue” required his immediate removal to a secure location. A statement from DC Public Schools indicated that the incident stemmed from a bomb threat.

Students and faculty at the school were evacuated as well.

Read more from The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg:

Oversight Democrat says panel to look in to stashes of documents at Mar-a-Lago

19:26 , John Bowden

Rep Carolyn Maloney reacted on Tuesday to news that President Donald Trump’s team was continuing to procure boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago that should have been turned over to the National Archives after Mr Trump left the White House last year.

Calling the news “troubling, but not surprising” in an interview with The Washington Post, Ms Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said that the panel would likely investigate why the Trump team had failed to hand over the documents last year.

"I plan to fully investigate this incident to ensure the law is followed and records from the Trump Administration are with the National Archives where they belong, rather than stashed away in Trump's golf resorts," she told the newspaper.

Read more in the The Washington Post.

Maryland’s Larry Hogan won’t run for Senate

18:56 , John Bowden

In a blow to the overall Republican Party but a potential victory for former President Donald Trump, the governor of Maryland announced on Tuesday that he would not run for the state’s Senate seat open in 2022.

The seat is currently held by a first-term Democratic senator, Chris Van Hollen. Larry Hogan, the state’s GOP governor, is widely popular in Maryland and was seen by the party as one of the few viable candidates to challenge Mr Van Hollen in the heavily blue state.

Mr Hogan is a top critic of former President Trump and his decision not to seek the Senate seat in 2024 represents a victory in Mr Trump’s efforts to clear the GOP field of any who oppose him and his false claims about the 2020 election.

“[A]s I have repeatedly said, I don’t aspire to be a senator, and that fact has not changed,” said Mr Hogan in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Omarosa claims ex-boss used to “chew” documents he ripped up

18:17 , John Bowden

Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide and The Apprentice contestant described her former boss’s enjoyment of destroying documents he no longer wanted in an MSNBC interview on Monday.

Speaking with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, she painted a vivid picture of a time when she claimed she saw the president “chewing what he had just torn up” from behind the Resolute Desk.

“After Michael Cohen left the office and I walked in to the Oval, Donald — in my view — was chewing what he had just torn up,” she told Mr Velshi.

“It was very bizarre,” she added.

Watch the whole interview via MSNBC:

Hill Republicans keep distance from RNC’s censure resolution

17:25 , Andrew Naughtie

The atmosphere among Washington Republicans after the RNC’s Cheney-Kinzinger censure resolution appears to be awkward indeed. CNN correspondents Manu Raju and Melanie Zanona report:

Former Trump adviser dumps on “Manchurian candidate” Pence in Bannon interview

17:05 , Andrew Naughtie

Former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, who has long been one of the former president’s most exuberant defenders and became notorious for his erratic pronouncements on Covid-19, has used an appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast to lay into Mike Pence for breaking ranks.

Fox News host slams Trump’s stolen election “lie"

16:45 , Andrew Naughtie

Brian Kilmeade, a Fox News host not known for his criticism of Donald Trump, yesterday told a caller on his radio show that the former president’s recent address at an Arizona rally was “the worst speech he ever gave” – and that his fixation on the 2020 election is getting more and more problematic.

“Everything that he said and the challenges that he made should’ve been done before the election,” Mr Kilmeade said. “And they did a recount in Arizona, and the recount showed no difference almost, and he came out and said it showed that they won Arizona. That’s an outright lie, and please stop wasting our time with that”.

Andrew Feinberg has the story:

Fox host Brian Kilmeade hits out at Trump’s ‘outright lie’ that election was stolen

Kinzinger on risk of civil war

16:17 , Andrew Naughtie

Adam Kinzinger has never held back in his criticism of Donald Trump, but as the retiring congressman increasingly tackles his own critics head-on, he has warned that the threat posed by the president’s behaviour should not be underestimated.

“Look, if it election was legitimately stolen, I would be pretty ticked off too,” he told CNN earlier. “That violates everything I swore to defend. And so when you convince that number of people, it is not a far thought... to think that someday, some militia shows up somewhere to do something and then some counter-militia and, truly, at that point that is how you end up in a civil war.”

Trump’s 2020 election lies could lead to civil war, warns Adam Kinzinger

Why hasn’t Mark Meadows faced contempt charges yet?

15:45 , Andrew Naughtie

Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows has been held in contempt by the House of Representatives for refusing to fully co-operate with the 6 January select committee. His case has been referred to the Department of Justice – which has yet to act, much to Democrats’ frustration.

But according to legal analyst and law professor Barb McQuade, there may be a reason the department has held back: the possibility of more serious charges stemming from the overall effort to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

She laid out her case on MSNBC last night:

Trump tells fans to cancel DirecTV subscriptions if it drops OAN

15:17 , Andrew Naughtie

One America News Network, the far-right channel known for putting out pro-Trump misinformation and platforming far-right commentators, is facing the threat of being dropped by mutichannel distributor DirecTV. The former president has just put out a statement telling his supporters to vote with their feet (or rather, their subscription payments):

Adam Kinzinger on GOP’s muddled Jan 6 messaging

15:05 , Andrew Naughtie

Adam Kinzinger, one of the two House Republicans censured by the RNC for daring to join the 6 January probe, points to increasing concerns in the GOP that the party’s divisions over the insurrection and its origins are starting to tear apart its national message heading into what should be a very winnable round of midterm elections:

Eric Garcia: Trump’s document-hoarding shows how fragile the presidency really is

14:45 , Andrew Naughtie

As the furore over Donald Trump’s alleged violation of the Presidential Records Act continues, The Independent’s Washington correspondent Eric Garcia writes:

Investigation into Trump’s election pressure on Georgia officials steadily escalates

14:15 , Andrew Naughtie

CNN reports that Fulton County, Georgia Attorney General Fani Willis is planning to issue subpoenas in her probe of Donald Trump’s call to state election officials after his 2020 defeat. The ex-president was recorded asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (a Republican) to “find” enough votes to wipe out Joe Biden’s margin of victory.

Trump’s document haul to face scrutiny from House committee

13:45 , Andrew Naughtie

Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, says she is planning a full-on investigation of Donald Trump’s decision to take more than a dozen boxes of White House documents to Florida rather than handing them over as the law demands.

Republicans’ latest win at the Supreme Court

13:15 , Andrew Naughtie

The current round of congressional redistricting has seen several state maps redrawn to favour one party or the other, but Republicans are overwhelmingly coming out on top in the gerrymandering stakes – and now a US Supreme Court ruling has reinstated an Alabama map that breaks up the concentration of the state’s Black voters.

In her dissent, liberal justice Elena Kagan pulled no punches about what the decision means, and described the verdict as the latest in a “disconcertingly long line of cases in which this Court uses its shadow docket to signal or make changes in the law, without anything approaching full briefing and argument.”

Read more:

Supreme Court restores Alabama’s GOP-drawn congressional map in voting rights battle

What is the Electoral Count Act, and how can it be reformed?

12:44 , Andrew Naughtie

As Donald Trump insists ever more stridently that Mike Pence in fact had the authority to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, a bipartisan group of Senators are working to reform the Electoral Count Act to make clear that the vice president has no such power. With lawmakers from both parties on board, the legislation is expected to pass before this year’s midterms, which could give pro-Trump Republicans the majority they’d need to block it.

The New York Times has this write-up of why the move matters:

Trump: Joe Rogan should "stop apologising”

12:15 , Andrew Naughtie

In a statement last night, Donald Trump took the side of embattled podcaster Joe Rogan as he faces opprobrium for spreading Covid-19 disinformation, as well as his long history of hosting right-wing conspiracy theories and sharing racist, misogynistic, transphobic and homophobic remarks.

As Mr Trump sees it, Mr Rogan (an “interesting and popular guy”) should “stop apologising to the Fake News and Radical Left maniacs and lunatics”.

News of delayed Trump social network launch damages stock in key partner company

11:48 , Andrew Naughtie

The delay to the launch of Truth Social, Donald Trump’s supposedly “censorship-free” social media site, has tanked the stock price of the network’s key finance partner, Digital World Acquisition Corp.

The app was meant to launch by 21 February, but Trump Media and Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes has since announced it will arrive “by 31 March”.

Read more below:

House lawmaker describes bullying he receives from fans of Rogan and Carlson

11:15 , Andrew Naughtie

Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who has long been a specific target of right-wing disgust and conspiracy theories, has told a DNC-hosted podcast just how serious the death threats he is confronted with really are.

As Gino Spocchia reports:

Read the full story below.

Democrat describes ‘tipping point’ with death threat from Joe Rogan listener

How to think about Trump’s document stash

10:35 , Andrew Naughtie

CNN analyst and former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa asks the most important question about the White House materials retrieved from Mar-a-Lago...

Outrageous Trump allies insist they’re not “lunatics"

10:00 , Andrew Naughtie

Sidney Powell, the pro-Trump attorney whose notorious post-election “kraken” lawsuits failed to overturn Joe Biden’s victory while spreading false conspiracy theories about non-existent election fraud, is facing disbarment for what a federal judge called “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process”.

She and eight other lawyers facing sanction have now filed an appeal motion objecting to their portrayal as “overwrought, dangerous lunatics,” quoting Voltaire and Shakespeare as they insist that “Millions of Americans believe the central contentions of the complaint to be true, and perhaps they are.”

Law and Crime has the story:

Nikki Haley joins Republicans knocking Cheney-Kinzinger censure

09:15 , Andrew Naughtie

As Trump administration alumni go, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley has played a particularly delicate game since leaving the former president’s team, sometimes appearing to break with her old boss but overall remaining on side as she remains the subject of perpetual speculation about a future campaign of her own.

Now, she appears to have taken exception to the RNC’s censure of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger – but as Republican Accountability Project founder Sarah Longwell points out, Ms Haley is hardly arguing based on her own principles.

Trump’s Truth Social app needs Apple and Google to survive

08:30 , Andrew Naughtie

Experts say that Donald’s Trump’s new social media venture — Truth Social — that is scheduled to be launched within a few weeks is trying to navigate the thin line between Trump’s base and Big Tech [Apple and Google’s app] policies.

Reuters reported that “the risk of .. de-platforming is a top priority” for the Trump Media and Technology Group.

According to two people with knowledge of the matter, TMTG Chief Executive Devin Nunes has pledged to deliver an “engaging and censorship-free experience” on its Truth Social app.

A source was quoted as saying that Mr Nunes believes that Truth Social will be a major target for hackers, so he wants to have “cyber talent at the nation-state level.”

Trump returned the Hurricane sharpie map to the National Archives

07:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Last month, Donald Trump handed over 15 boxes of documents, letters, gifts and momentos to the National Archives that he had unlawfully taken with him when leaving the White House.

New York Times reported that “the items... included a map Mr Trump famously drew on with a black Sharpie marker to demonstrate the track of Hurricane Dorian heading toward Alabama in 2019 to back up a declaration he had made on Twitter that contradicted weather forecasts.”

Other items in the boxes were “reams of news clips printed out for Mr Trump, as well as at least one item of clothing,” the report said.

Biden Cabinet member resigns after admitting to 'disrespectful' behaviour toward colleagues

06:46 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Dr Eric Lander, a former member of Joe Biden’s cabinet, has resigned after it was revealed that he had spoken disrespectfully to colleagues in front of others.

Read more here:

Eric Lander: Biden’s science adviser quits after being named as bully

Trump’s campaign manager picks Mike Gibbons in Ohio’s GOP Senate showdown

05:47 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Bill Stepien — who was Donald Trump’s campaign manager during 2020 — is joining Ohio’s Mike Gibbons’ Senate campaign as a senior adviser.

In a statement, Mr Stepien said: “National Public Affairs is proud to join the Gibbons campaign. Mike Gibbons has the momentum in the Ohio Senate race and is committed to the America First agenda and MAGA movement. Not only is Mike poised to win the primary, but he will be an excellent Senator for the great state of Ohio.”

ICYMI: Capitol attack was ‘incited by Donald Trump’ to ‘overturn the election,’ Chris Christie says

04:34 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Chris Christie said that Donald Trump incited the Capitol riots and said that “the actions the vice president took on January 6 spoke loudly, and I’m glad that he’s finally put words to it.”

He added: “I don’t know why it took him so long, but I’m glad that he did.”

Speaking on ABC’s This Week, the former New Jersey governor said: “Let’s call this what it is. January 6 was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress.”

Mr Christie concluded: “He actually told the truth by accident. He wanted the election to be overturned.”

Read the full story here:

Chris Christie says Jan 6 was ‘incited by Donald Trump’ to ‘overturn the election’

NPR White House correspondent: GOP’s January 6 statement was ‘political malpractice'

04:00 , John Bowden

Veteran NPR correspondent and White House Correspondents’ Association board member Tamara Keith had harsh words for the Republican Party on Monday after the party passed a resolution censuring Rep Liz Cheney for her role in the January 6 investigation.

Many took issue after the GOP’s resolution was passed as they noted one line in the declaration that referred to the deadly January 6 attack, where Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and openly threatened to harm or kill lawmakers, as “legitimate political discourse”.

That statement was "at the very least, that was political malpractice, or communications malpractice", Ms Keith told anchor Judy Woodruff Monday evening on PBS Newshour.

Psaki and State Department spox’s responses to reporters raise concerns

03:30 , John Bowden

Recent statements from White House press secretary Jen Psaki and State Department spokesman Ned Price attacking journalists who expressed skepticism about official US government narratives involving Isis, Ukraine and Russia are concerning, writes The Independent’s Eric Garcia.

The pair recently lashed out at journalists who asked for evidence about US claims involving Isis and Russia, despite it being less than a year since the US military wrongly struck a vehicle in Kabul, killing an entire family including numerous small children, and characterised the incident for weeks as a successful strike against militants before fessing up in the face of local media reports and intensifying scrutiny.

“Those deaths should have created some humility in the Biden administration, perhaps even a desire to appear especially open about making evidence available to the public. Instead, Psaki seemed incredulous that an American reporter would ask such a thing,” writes Mr Garcia.

Read more here:

Biden’s people reacted badly to questions about Isis and Russia. That’s concerning

Capitol rioter sentenced to probation, home curfew

03:00 , John Bowden

A Maryland woman was sentenced on Monday to a year of probation and two months of a nightly curfew beginning at 7:00 p.m. for her role in the Capitol riot.

Nicole Prado reportedly entered the Capitol and even joined with others in breaking in to an office before leaving the building on January 6, but avoided the harsher sentence that Justice Department attorneys were seeking.

The government wanted Ms Prado to spend two weeks in jail and an additional two years on probation. She will have to still pay a $500 fine for restitution under the judge’s sentence.

Ms Prado reportedly left the building after witnessing a fellow rioter steal a drink from a refrigerator in a congressional office; she also witnessed paramedics attending to the body of Ashli Babbitt, a woman shot by police for trying to violently breach the House chamber during the attack.

Major scientific organisation disinvites top White House official after bullying report

02:30 , John Bowden

A major organisation that oversees the publication of scientific journals including their flagship Science magazine disinvited a top White House official from their annual meeting on Monday after blowback over an investigation conducted by the White House that found credible evidence for claims that he bullied staff.

Dr Eric Lander was cut from the list of featured speakers at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the group’s CEO confirmed early Monday evening, hours after White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the decision not to fire him.

A report from the White House obtained by Politico and published on Monday revealed that Dr Lander had repeatedly demeaned and insulted coworkers and subordinates and even taken steps to marginalise and force people out of the small White House office he oversees. Dr Lander apologised in a statement, but one of his named accusers said that he had only acknowledged a small fraction of his rude and inappropriate behaviour.

Biden Covid adviser apologises for bullying staff

02:00 , John Bowden

A top official who serves as the White House’s main adviser on issues of science and technology who sits on the Covid-19 response team apologised on Friday after an internal White House report found he demeaned and belittled staff.

Dr Eric Lander issued an all-staff email to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Friday, writing that he had “spoken to colleagues within OSTP in a disrespectful or demeaning way”.

“I am deeply sorry for my conduct,” he added. “I especially want to apologize to those of you who I treated poorly or were present at the time,” his email reportedly continued. “It's my responsibility to set a respectful tone for our community. It's clear that I have not lived up to this responsibility.”

Read more here:

GOP congressman presses Jan 6 committee to investigate absurd conspiracy theory

01:30 , John Bowden

Rep Madison Cawthorn, a right-wing Republican congressman known for sharing misinformation and conspiracies about January 6 and the 2020 election, was back on Monday with a new demand for the January 6 committee to investigate a conspiracy theory about the riot.

In an interview with one of Mr Trump’s top allies, CPAC head Matt Schlapp, the North Carolina congressman questioned whether January 6 “was...a false flag operation to try and steal the election”, and suggested the committee shift its focus to that topic.

Mr Cawthorn is one of many Republicans who has sought in recent months to minimise the destruction and violence of the attack on the Capitol, as well as the culpability of former President Donald Trump and his supporters for causing it.

He also suggested in the same interview that leaders of US Capitol Police were “hiding” videos of the riot from the public, despite dozens of videos from numerous angles already being public record.

“What did all the Capital Police leaders know and when did they know it? Why are we hiding all of these videos?" he asked.

Billionaire Peter Thiel to step down from board of Facebook parent company in order to help Trump

01:00 , Andrew Naughtie

Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who currently sits on the board of Facebook’s parent company Meta, is stepping down in order to “increase his political support of Donald Trump’s agenda during the 2022 election”, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.

The PayPal and Palantir co-founder plans to increase his political support of former President Donald Trump’s agenda during the 2022 election and doesn’t want his political activities to be a distraction for Facebook”, a source close to Mr Thiel told the news outlet.

Mr Thiel previously supported Mr Trump’s campaigns for office and previewed what his support for the ex-president could look like last month when he hosted a fundraiser for the primary challenger of Rep Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the January 6 committee.

Supreme Court sets up case that could further weaken Voting Rights Act

00:30 , John Bowden

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority voted along ideological lines to protect a gerrymandered Alabama congressional district map that activists and civil rights experts say purposefully disenfranchises Black voters in the state.

In a decision on Monday that came before any oral arguments were heard in the case before the Court, the justices voted 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts abandoning his conservative colleagues and siding with liberals. The court also will hear the case in the months ahead, and could issue a decision that further weakens the Voting Rights Act’s provisions for preventing gerrymandering for the purpose of marginalising Black communities.

Justice Elena Kagan issued a dissent calling the decision a “diservice” to Black residents of Alabama. The decision illustrates the iron grip the Court’s most conservative members now hold following the expansion of their majority under Donald Trump’s presidency.

Cheney reacts to latest Jan 6 texts: Trump ignored his duty

00:00 , John Bowden

Rep Liz Cheney reacted in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday after new information was revealed publicly about the efforts of Alyssa Farah and other allies of Donald Trump to convince him to take action during the Capitol riot.

Speaking with the news service, Ms Cheney said that it was difficult to “imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty” than the one committed by the president on January 6.

Ms Cheney is one of two Republicans on the January 6 committee in the House, and serves as its vice chair.

‘Someone is going to get killed’, former White House aide warned

Monday 7 February 2022 23:30 , John Bowden

More information is being released regarding the actions taken by White House staffers, current and former, to convince Donald Trump to take action and call off his supporters as the riot unfolded on Capitol Hill.

A text from Alyssa Farah, a former communications staffer in the Trump administration, was reported by The Associated Press to have asked an aide to Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, to take action.

“Is someone getting to potus? He has to tell protestors to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed,” Ms Farah reportedly texted.

Ben Williamson, the Meadows aide, responded that he “literally stormed” into the outer Oval Office area to demand that Mr Trump release something on Twitter. The president would wait hours to go on camera and ask his supporters to dissipate.

Trump reiterates Jan 6 conspiracy in angry statement

Monday 7 February 2022 23:00 , John Bowden

As the newest revelations about his failure to follow public records laws unfolded on Monday, former President Donald Trump responded with a statement once again falsely blaming Nancy Pelosi for the speed at which the National Guard responded to January 6.

“There would have been no January 6, as we know it, if Nancy Pelosi heeded my recommendation to bring 10,000 Soldiers, or the National Guard, into the Capitol. End the Unselect Committee January 6th Witch Hunt right now. Pelosi and the Dems are responsible!” Mr Trump said in a late-afternoon statement released by his office.

The deployment of the National Guard is not something the Speaker of the House can control; despite frequent mischaracterisations of the process by Republicans, the deployment is handled by the Capitol Police Board, and there is no evidence that Ms Pelosi ever directed the House Sergeant at Arms one way or the other on the issue of whether they should support a decision to deploy the Guard.

That decision was initially declined before the riot, but was authorised by the board as rioters breached the Capitol grounds during the attack.

Biden names McConnell challenger, John McCain’s son to Naval Academy board

Monday 7 February 2022 22:25 , John Bowden

President Joe Biden dealt a blow to the egos of two allies of former President Donald Trump on Monday with a surprise nomination of two candidates to the Board of Visitors of the US Naval Academy, an apolitical body that is rarely the source of appointment drama.

A late-afternoon message from the White House confirmed the appointment of John McCain IV, son of the late Sen John McCain, as well as former Democratic candidate for the US Senate, Amy McGrath, to the board. The nominees are significant both in terms of who they are and who they replaced; Ms McGrath ran a widely-publicised campaign against GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell during Mr Trump’s campaign for reelection, and Mr McCain’s father was one of Mr Trump’s loudest critics in the GOP before his death.

The nomination of the pair also comes after two allies of the former president, his ex-press secretary Sean Spicer and Russell Vought of the Office of Management and Budget, were blocked by a judge from being seated on the Academy’s board after Joe Biden took office in January and instituted a minor purge of a slew of last-minute appointments of Trump loyalists undertaken by the former president during his last weeks in office.

Gawker obtains Kyrsten Sinema’s Social Security number

Monday 7 February 2022 21:53 , John Bowden

The gossip and news site Gawker published an explosive article on Monday in which the site’s writers claimed to have obtained the Social Security information of Sen Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist senator blamed by many Democrats for her opposition to filibuster changes that would have made the passage of voting rights legislation possible.

Among other information from her bank account and her driver’s license number, the website’s authors report that they obtained the information through a small fee to the Maricopa County court system in the process of attempting to obtain Ms Sinema’s divorce papers.

The senator’s office did not comment on the story. Gawker did not publish the number itself, or any of the senator’s other private information.

GOP mocked for brag that ‘record’ 40 candidates are Black

Monday 7 February 2022 21:24 , John Bowden

The Republican Party’s Twitter account faced brutal mockery from Democrats and others after it posted a tweet bragging about how just over three dozen Black people were running for office as Republicans in state and local elections around the country in 2022.

The shockingly low number was touted by the party as “historic” even though it represents only a miniscule fraction of the seats up for contention this year, prompting head-scratching responses on Twitter.

“There are about 470 House and Senate seats up for grabs and there are over 7300 state legislator seats total in the US, many of which are elected in even years like 2022,” tweeted Willamette University history professor Seth Cotlar. “That doesn’t count other ‘local’ elected positions. So, 40 you say? In the whole country?”

Read more from The Independent’s Josh Marcus:

Republicans mocked for brag that ‘record’ 40 candidates are Black

Trump staff continuing to search for records owed to National Archives

Monday 7 February 2022 20:51 , John Bowden

A statement from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on Monday afternoon revealed both that the retention of documents from Mar-a-Lago continued into January — and that former President Donald Trump’s team is searching for more records owed to the archives.

According to the agency’s statement, by law all of the documents were required to be returned to NARA from the White House in January 2021.

"Former President Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives,” said the agency on Monday.

Trump ‘confused’ why staff didn't enjoy him rewinding riot footage

Monday 7 February 2022 20:23 , John Bowden

Former President Donald Trump watched from the White House as chaos unfolded at the Capitol and rewinded video footage to enthusiastically watch the people he professed were “fighting for me”, according to a top aide.

The revelation came from Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary and one of the highest-ranking White House officials to break with Mr Trump after the riot.

“Look at all of the people fighting for me,” he told Ms Grisham at one point during the carnage, the former aide told The Associated Press.

The AP added in its report that “the president was confused why staffers weren’t as excited as he was watching the unrest unfold,” apparently attributing that characterisation of the scene to Ms Grisham as well.

Florida’s Ron DeSantis dodges questions on Pence’s constitutional authority

Monday 7 February 2022 19:50 , John Bowden

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who is considered a potential 2024 candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, dodged questions on Monday regarding whether Mike Pence had the authority to halt the certification of Electoral College votes on January 6.

The issue has become a major point of contention between Donald Trump and his ex-vice president, who refused to go along with Mr Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Pressed on the matter at a news briefing on Monday, Mr DeSantis hastily changed the subject and claimed he had a “great working relationship” with the former president, according to NBC News.

Psaki hammered on conduct of science adviser

Monday 7 February 2022 19:31 , John Bowden

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked repeatedly on Monday if conduct of Dr Eric Lander and the decision of the White House to not fire him detracted from Joe Biden’s promise to fire any administration appointee who did not treat coworkers with respect.

After Dr Lander apologised for conduct described by a White House internal probe as demeaning and disrespectful to colleagues, it was a top issue broached by reporters at Monday’s press briefing.

Ms Psaki defended the White House’s decision and asserted that Dr Lander would be forced to comply with measures taken to ensure his treatment of coworkers was up to standard going forward, and claimed that Mr Biden was still “crystal clear” about his expectations for staff.

She was hammered by reporters about why Mr Biden broke his promise to fire people; Ms Psaki repeatedly claimed that the White House had taken steps to address the issue, and avoided the issue of whether employees should take Mr Biden at his word on the issue in the future.

Read more here:

Riot committee member says public hearings to begin in April

Monday 7 February 2022 19:19 , John Bowden

Rep Jamie Raskin, who serves on the January 6 committee, said on Sunday that he hopes the panel will be holding public hearings on the Capitol riot beginning in April.

He said that the committee will need time until then to work through the various delays that former officials and other figures close to former President Donald Trump are putting lawmakers through in an attempt to stave off their public or private testimony.

“But we are determined to get to those hearings quickly in the spring, hoping in April, certainly no later than May,” Mr Raskin said on MSNBC.

“We’ve gotten overwhelming cooperation from the witnesses, but it still leaves more than a dozen people in Trump’s immediate entourage who are sandbagging and foot dragging with the committee,” said the congressman, adding that those delays contributed to “a few weeks” of time.

Hillary Clinton touts ‘But her emails’ mug amid Trump revelations

Monday 7 February 2022 18:50 , John Bowden

Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump’s 2016 opponent, weighed in on Twitter amid news that the former president had documents at his Mar-a-Lago property that should have been returned by law to the National Archives.

Referencing the attacks she faced in 2016 over her own records-handling scandal, she shared a link to an online store page for a mug bearing her likeness and the phrase ‘But her emails”, an expression used by her supporters in the years since to mock the coverage of her own wrongful actions.

“Take a sip from your new mug as you read the news,” Ms Clinton tweeted.

Republican hoping to run against Abrams pounces on maskless photo

Monday 7 February 2022 18:30 , John Bowden

David Perdue, the ex-senator running against Georgia’s Republican governor in the state primary, is focusing his fire for now on the woman who could be his opponent in the general election.

The Hill reported that Mr Perdue’s campaign is out with a new ad that slams Stacey Abrams, a Democratic activist and former state lawmaker, for appearing maskless in a photo taken indoors in a classroom where she is seen surrounded by masked students.

The ad apparently serves two purposes: Swiping at Ms Abrams for disobeying the rule, and hitting the governor for instating a mask mandate in the first place. Such anti-Covid measures are unpopular among Republican voters.

This is the Georgia Stacey Abrams wants," the ad says, and adds: "This is the reality Brian Kemp has allowed.”

NYT correspondent: Trump hammered Clinton on emails, then ‘spent four years destroying official documents despite federal law’

Monday 7 February 2022 18:19 , John Bowden

The chief White House correspondent for The New York Times highlighted the hypocrisy of the revelation that President Donald Trump was in possession of documents at Mar-a-Lago that should have been returned to the National Archives, including some that he attempted to physically destroy.

Peter Baker noted that Mr Trump was elected amid a scandal exploited by his campaign in which his opponent Hillary Clinton was found to have conducted official State Department business on a private email server not overseen by federal employees as was required by law.

Jan 6 committee Republican: Trump is a ‘charlatan’ with a fragile ego

Monday 7 February 2022 17:11 , John Bowden

Rep Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Congressman serving on the select committee investigating January 6, issued some of his strongest criticism yet of former President Donald Trump on Monday, deriding the GOP leader as unable to take criticism or mockery.

In an interview with CNN’s New Day, Mr Kinzinger called the former president “a charlatan,” and “a man with a more fragile ego than anybody I've ever met”.

“The irony of it is he walks around like the tough guy, but he's the one that gets more offended and wounded and sad than anybody I know,” said the congressman.

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg has the full story: