Trump attacks indictments in town hall with Sean Hannity on Fox News: Live

Donald Trump is taking part in a Fox News town hall on Tuesday, one night before the next Republican debate.

Sean Hannity is hosting the pre-taped event held in Davenport, Iowa. He kicked off by asking Mr Trump if he planned to “abuse power” if elected president again, to which he replied, citing his four indictments: “You mean like they’re using right now?”

Mr Trump was riled up by a new ad by the Lincoln Project that he claims uses Artificial Intelligence to make him look “as bad and pathetic as Crooked Joe Biden”.

Meanwhile, a judge has denied an attempt for a fast-tracked appeal of his gag order in his New York fraud trial, days after a ruling allowed the order to stay in place after court filings revealed the scope of abuse and harassment Judge Arthur Engoron’s staff has received.

Monday’s latest appeals court ruling means Mr Trump will likely still face a gag order when he makes his expected return to the state Supreme Court next week.

His son Eric Trump was due to take the stand for again on Wednesday as a witness for the defence, but now will not.

Key Points

• Judge denies Trump’s attempt for quick appeal on gag order

• Trump’s ‘co-opted’ GOP should lose House majority, says Cheney

• Trump isn’t immune from January 6 lawsuits, federal appeals court rules

• Faced with new gag order covering court staff, Trump attacks judge’s wife

• Trump rails against Lincoln Project ad

• NY fraud trial: Eric Trump will not testify again as planned

Why isn’t Eric Trump testifying again in New York fraud trial?

13:50 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump’s attorneys are set to wrap up the case for the defence in his civil fraud trial in New York next week, with the former president set to be the final witness, giving testimony for the second time at the trial.

His son Eric Trump was also set to take the stand again on Wednesday (6 December) in his capacity as executive vice president of the Trump Organization overseeing the management and operation of the global real estate empire.

Unexpectedly on Tuesday though, Trump family attorney Clifford Robert told the court that the defence “has decided not to call” Eric Trump to the stand. He offered no explanation.

It was not until Tuesday evening that former president Trump stepped forward with an explanation as to why Eric would not be appearing in court again.

Read on for the full explanation.

Pence added to the witness list for Trump’s Georgia election trial

13:37 , Oliver O'Connell

Former Vice President Mike Pence has been added to the witness list for former President Donald Trump’s election interference trial in Georgia.

Prosecutors added Mr Pence to the list of those who could be called to testify at trial, CNN reported citing sources with knowledge of filings still under seal.

Gustaf Kilander is following this developing story.

Mike Pence added to witness list for Trump’s Georgia election trial

13:20 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump predicts he will get 150 million votes in 2024 US presidential election

Trump suggests ‘vicious’ people will bring Biden down

13:00 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Donald Trump has predicted that ‘vicious people’ around President Joe Biden will bring him down.

“There are people in that Oval Office who are evil people, bad people, smart people. Young, vicious. They’re communists,” Mr Trump told Sean Hannity at a Town Hall in Iowa on Fox News on 5 December.

The former president mocked president Biden’s frailty, drawing laughter from the audience.

Watch here.

Trump suggests ‘vicious’ people will bring Biden down

Was the DeSantis campaign doomed from the start?

12:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Ron DeSantis entered the Republican primary this spring as the preeminent challenger to former President Donald Trump and as the heir apparent taking on the old guard.

The Florida governor was “Trump without the baggage,” a far-right fighter ready to rumble with the “radical left” and govern more productively than the chaotic reality TV star, blustering real estate mogul and grievance-filled showman.

In a race against the oldest president in US history, being born in the late 1970s instead of the mid-1940s would also be helpful. Part of the thinking was that Mr DeSantis could win the White House by simply standing next to President Joe Biden on the debate stage and not looking old.

But was his floundering campaign always inevitable? Was Mr DeSantis always too awkward to be president?

Gustaf Kilander investigates.

Was Ron DeSantis lacklustre campaign doomed from the start?

Trump repeatedly says ‘we shouldn’t be worried about global warming

12:15 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Donald Trump once again denied climate science and reiterated that the world shouldn’t be worried about global warming.

The former president said at a Fox News town hall: “The only global warming we should be thinking about and worrying about because it is gonna happen tomorrow, is nuclear global warming not global warming.”

He had previously said that scientists rebranded global warming as climate change.

“You know they don’t call it global warming so much now, they call it climate change because it wasn’t working… Global warming wasn’t working when it was cooling. So now they call it climate change, that takes care of everything,” he said.

Maroosha Muzaffar has more.

Trump denies climate science and says ‘we shouldn’t be worried about global warming’

Jack Smith details evidence he’ll introduce at Trump’s federal election conspiracy trial

11:45 , Oliver O'Connell

In a nine-page court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith has laid out some of the evidence the prosecution intends to deploy in its federal election interference case against Donald Trump.

“Evidence of the defendant’s post-conspiracy embrace of particularly violent and notorious rioters is admissible to establish the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6 — that he sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification,” Smith says.

“At trial, the Government will introduce a number of public statements by the defendant in advance of the charged conspiracies, claiming that there would be fraud in the 2020 presidential election,” laying the “foundation for the defendant’s criminal efforts.”

The government will also argue that the former president had a history of election denialism and conspiracies, citing statements he made in 2012 and ahead of the 2016 election — that he won.

One of the more alarming passages in the filing relates to an individual who sought “to cause a riot to disrupt the count” of votes in Detroit after the 2020 presidential election. The person is an unindicted co-conspirator and is only identified as a “campaign employee”.

“On November 4, 2020, the Campaign Employee exchanged a series of text messages with an attorney supporting the Campaign’s election day operations at the TCF Center in Detroit, where votes were being counted,” the filing says. “[I]n the messages, the Campaign Employee encouraged rioting and other methods of obstruction when he learned that the vote count was trending in favor of the defendant’s opponent.”

“An election official at the TCF Center observed that as Biden began to take the lead, a large number of untrained individuals flooded the TCF Center and began making illegitimate and aggressive challenges to the vote count,” prosecutors said.

“Thereafter, Trump made repeated false claims regarding election activities at the TCF Center, when in truth his agent was seeking to cause a riot to disrupt the count.”

Read the full filing here

Trump says he will be a dictator and abuse power ‘on day one’ if elected

11:10 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Donald Trump has said he will be a dictator “just for day one” of his presidency if he is re-elected amid a spate of grim warnings over consequences if the twice-impeached president wins the 2024 elections.

Mr Trump appeared to duck the question twice during a Fox News townhall on Tuesday when Sean Hannity categorically asked him to say that he will not abuse presidential powers if he wins the elections.

“Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever, if re-elected president, to abuse power?” Hannity asked. “To break the law? To use the government to go after people?”

“You mean like they’re using right now?” Mr Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination said, deflecting the questions.

Shweta Sharma reports.

Trump says he will be a dictator ‘on day one’ if elected president again

Democrat megadonor donates to Haley super PAC to help thwart Trump

10:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Just a week after JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon urged even liberal Democrats to help Nikki Haley’s campaign to give Republicans an alternative to Donald Trump, one Democrat megadonor has done just that.

Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting the former UN ambassador’s 2024 campaign to be the GOP nominee in 2024.

The New York Times confirmed the donation had been made with Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to Mr Hoffman.

Mr Mehlhorn told the outlet that the pro-Haley super PAC SFA Fund Inc was specifically asked if it would take money from a Democrat who actively supports President Joe Biden, and they said yes.

Read on...

Democrat megadonor gives to Nikki Haley super PAC to help thwart Trump

Full story: Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial

09:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Federal prosecutors have given notice that they plan to introduce evidence of former president Donald Trump’s embrace of and support for charged and convicted January 6 rioters as a way to demonstrate what he intended to happen when a riotous mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent certification of his 2020 election loss.

In a court document filed on Tuesday, prosecutors working under Special Counsel Jack Smith said that some of the evidence they intend to present is from before or after the criminal conspiracy in which the ex-president is charged with participating, but stressed that the evidence is admissible under rules allowing the government to use it to “establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge, absence of mistake, and common plan”.

Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC.

Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial

Trump makes alarming call to supporter to ‘go into’ cities and ‘watch’ election

08:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump’s call to his supporters to “guard” and “watch” ballot counting in cities with large Black populations has raised alarms among elections officials and voting rights advocates bracing for more threats to elections fuelled by his bogus narrative of widespread fraud.

During a rally in Ankeny, Iowa on Saturday, the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president justified his demands to “go into” cities with the same baseless allegations that surrounding the 2020 presidential election.

He falsely claimed that “they cheated like hell, they know it, and you’ll never find out all the ways but we don’t need all the ways,” adding that the “most important part of what’s coming up is to guard the vote.”

“The most important part of what’s coming up is to guard the vote, and you should go into Detroit, and you should go into Philadelphia, and you should go into some of these places – Atlanta – and you should go into some of these places, and we gotta watch those votes when they come in,” he said.

Read the full article

After another courtroom loss, Trump will face gag order during fraud trial testimony

06:45 , Oliver O'Connell

An appeals court judge has rejected Donald Trump’s request for a fast-tracked appeal of his gag order in his New York fraud trial, days before he is scheduled to return to the witness stand before his attorneys bring their case to a close.

On Monday, the former president’s legal team asked a state appeals court for a fast-tracked appeal process to challenge last week’s decision that keeps the gag order in place. A judge denied the request, and his lawyers will instead have to make their case before a full panel of judges next week.

The decision effectively guarantees that Mr Trump will remain under a gag order through the final days of his defence team’s presentations in a civil trial that could imperil the family’s vast real estate empire.

Last week, another appeals court allowed the gag order to stand after court filings revealed the wave of abusive messages and credible death threats to the judge overseeing the trial and members of his staff.

Moments later, Mr Trump attacked the judge’s wife on his Truth Social.

Alex Woodward has the full story.

Trump loses latest attempt to block his fraud trial gag order

Can Megyn Kelly shine at a debate without Trump?

04:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Megyn Kelly made headlines in 2015 when she confronted Donald Trump at a presidential debate. Now as the fourth GOP primary debate approaches, she could have another starpower moment as moderator — but it will have to be without the former president.

Kelly, a lawyer-turned-journalist, was moderating her first presidential debate when Mr Trump, a real-estate-mogul-turned-politician, was competing in his first GOP primary debate. In this potent interaction, their paths changed forever.

The exchange made her into something of a cultural icon and boosted her career, at least temporarily, while it set the tone for his soon-to-be successful campaign.

She is a lawyer, he’s in legal trouble. He was accused of sexual misconduct, while she was allegedly the victim of someone else’s. At almost every intersection, they are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum, but have each, separately, carved out a niche rightwing audience.

And when they come together, no one can turn away.

Kelly Rissman reports.

Megyn Kelly’s career rose after high-profile Trump feud. Can she still break through?

Poll: Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter

03:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Ahead of the fourth GOP debate in Alabama, Donald Trump is in his most comfortable polling position yet.

The ex-president remains atop the GOP field in a major way, having consolidated support from six in 10 Republican voters nationally according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released on Monday. Though Mr Trump will not appear this Wednesday for the debate held by NewsNation alongside his GOP fellows, his decision to skip the 2023-24 debate cycle appears to not have hurt his chances in the slightest.

Indeed, the poll shows few pieces of good news for his opponents. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are statistically tied, at 11 and 10 per cent respectively, while the former president’s base of support appears to trust him more on the most important issues to voters this year, including the economy.

John Bowden reports.

Poll shows Donald Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter

Donald Trump claims his bizarre gaffes are sarcastic

11:16 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Donald Trump has claimed that his verbal errors are him being sarcastic while speaking at a Town Hall event in Iowa.

The former president referenced mix-ups he made with current president Joe Biden with former president Barack Obama.

“I’ll say our real president is Barack Hussein Obama. They’ll say ‘he doesn’t know who the president is, he thinks it’s Barack Hussein,’ no I’m being sarcastic,” Mr Trump told the crowd.

Watch here.

Donald Trump claims his bizarre gaffes are sarcastic

Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination

02:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Far-right Florida Rep Matt Gaetz has claimed that the press is “green-lighting” the assassination of former President Donald Trump by reporting on what a second Trump term would look like.

On Monday, Mr Gaetz tweeted “They’re obviously green-lighting assassination” and included a screenshot from a Washington Post op-ed by Post Opinions contributing editor Robert Kagan bearing the headline “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending”.

Responding to Mr Gaetz, Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski noted that “There is nothing you can say or do to confront Maga gaslighting that won’t be met with more MAGA gaslighting”.

“They’ll say anything to make themselves the victim and hero in everything. And there is nothing you can say to do anything about it. That is the MAGA gaslighting paradox,” he added.

Read the full article...

Trump kicks off town hall with indictment comments

02:27 , Megan Sheets

Donald Trump is currently appearing at a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Hannity took the lead by asking Trump to be “very clear” about “any plans” to “abuse power” if he is elected president in 2024.

Trump referenced the many indictments against him as he replied: “You mean like they’re using right now?”

After raucous applause faded, he continued: “What has happened to us, again, has never happened before...”

Watch more:

Trump allies threaten criminal charges against media if elected

02:15 , Mike Bedigan

Kash Patel and Steve Bannon plan to “come after” journalists in unmoored Trump administration, Alex Woodward writes:

Trump allies threaten criminal charges against media if elected

Nikki Haley’s star is rising. But can she catch up to Trump?

01:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Nikki Haley is known for a lot of firsts — the first Asian American woman to serve as governor in US history, the first Indian American member of a presidential Cabinet, the first woman of colour to run for the GOP nomination — but will she become the first woman to serve as US president?

Few think so.

On paper, Ms Haley is arguably the ideal GOP candidate. She boasts impressive foreign policy experience amid the bloody conflict in Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas. She is the only woman in the race, giving her a sophisticated position to discuss reproductive rights as Republicans struggle to appeal to voters following the demise of Roe v Wade. Still, the 51-year-old can’t seem to catch up to Mr Trump. Ms Haley’s candidacy demonstrates a larger problem with the 2024 Republican race — no one can touch him.

However, some have argued that her path to the White House isn’t as far-reaching as it once was, as her star has risen in recent weeks. As of the beginning of November, she is tied with rival candidate Florida Gov Ron DeSantis for the spot trailing the prominent frontrunner.

Nikki Haley’s star is rising. But can she catch up to Trump?

Vivek Ramaswamy: Highly principled libertarian or ruthlessly ambitious kook

00:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Vivek Ramaswamy’s 10 principles to become Trump’s successor

Haley’s approach to abortion is rooted in her earliest days in politics

Tuesday 5 December 2023 23:45 , AP

As a state representative running a longshot campaign for South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley would often explain her opposition to abortion with a story about her family.

“I’m strongly pro-life, very pro-life, and not because my party tells me to be, but my husband was adopted, and so every day I know the blessings of having him there,” she said in 2010.

She won that race and was reelected as governor before serving as former President Donald Trump‘s United Nations ambassador. She’s now competing against Trump as the only woman seeking the Republican presidential nomination. And in a primary race animated by questions over the future of abortion access in the U.S., Haley is reviving the personal anecdote she would give in South Carolina — almost verbatim.

Read on...

Tuberville ends Senate blockade on military promotions

Tuesday 5 December 2023 22:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville announced on Tuesday that he would end his blockade on more than 400 military promotions as he continues to battle the Department of Defense over abortion policy.

The Republican senator had spent months earning his colleagues’ ire with the hold, which had prevented military promotions from being confirmed via voice vote in the Senate, per tradition. Such promotions have never been politicised before, and Senate leaders had vehemently opposed Mr Tuberville using them as a bargaining chip.

Now, he will only continue his hold for four-star generals and above, meaning that only top military brass will be directly affected by his blockade.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

Tommy Tuberville ends Senate blockade on 400+ military promotions

‘We cannot let him win’: Biden ‘not sure’ he’d run for re-election if Trump wasn’t running

Tuesday 5 December 2023 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden has told a group of Democratic donors on Tuesday that he might not have decided to stand for re-election at 81 years of age if former president Donald Trump wasn’t seeking to reclaim the presidency in next year’s general election.

Mr Biden, the oldest person to ever serve as America’s chief executive, is looking to be elected to serve another four-year term in the White House, which would end when he is 86 years old. He announced his candidacy for re-election in April, approximately six months after Mr Trump launched his campaign for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination against the man he lost to three years ago.

The 46th president’s advanced age has led a small number of Democrats to call for him to stand aside in favour of a younger, presumably more vigorous candidate who, in his critics’ telling, would easily best Mr Trump.

But while speaking at a fundraiser outside Boston on Tuesday, Mr Biden said Mr Trump’s persistence on the political scene is why he is not stepping aside in favour of a new generation.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

Biden ‘not sure’ he’d run in 2024 if Trump wasn’t running: ‘We cannot let him win’

Speaker Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges

Tuesday 5 December 2023 22:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to admit that he is protecting people who breached the halls of Congress on January 6 from potential prosecution from the US Department of Justice.

Mr Johnson has pledged the release of thousands of hours of raw footage from the attack on the US Capitol, fulfilling a promise to far-right members of his party who have downplayed the riots and accused federal law enforcement of selectively prosecuting political opponents who stormed the halls of Congress.

“We have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other, you know, concerns and problems,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Alex Woodward reports.

Mike Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges

Full story: Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial

Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:55 , Oliver O'Connell

Federal prosecutors have given notice that they plan to introduce evidence of former president Donald Trump’s embrace of and support for charged and convicted January 6 rioters as a way to demonstrate what he intended to happen when a riotous mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to prevent certification of his 2020 election loss.

In a court document filed on Tuesday, prosecutors working under Special Counsel Jack Smith said that some of the evidence they intend to present is from before or after the criminal conspiracy in which the ex-president is charged with participating, but stressed that the evidence is admissible under rules allowing the government to use it to “establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge, absence of mistake, and common plan”.

Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC.

Prosecutors want to use Trump’s embrace of rioters at his DC trial

NY fraud trial: Trump unloads on judge as court adjourns until Thursday

Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:45 , Oliver O'Connell

With Eric Trump no longer taking the stand tomorrow, Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial has adjourned until Thursday. To keep us entertained, the former president has again turned to Truth Social to vent about the case against him.

It’s the same argument he’s been posting throughout the trial...

We have totally proven our Case against the Corrupt, Racist, New York Attorney General, Letitia “Peekaboo” James. The Banks, Insurance Companies, virtually everybody said we were “GREAT,” PERFECT LOANS, NO VICTIMS! Their sole Witness has been completely discredited, and admitted he lied about everything. He was the only Witness they had, and should be prosecuted for his lies. The Judge and the A.G. falsified the value of Mar-a-Lago and other Assets to make me look as bad as possible, and got caught. For anyone else, what they did would be considered FRAUD, and they would be thrown off the “bench” and out of office….

….The Banks didn’t even know why they were there, said we were a great Customer, and that I did nothing wrong! Additionally, we have a 100% Disclaimer Clause (on Page One), with respect to the EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE Financial Statements (the exact opposite of what they said), which state, do your own due diligence and analysis—DO NOT RELY ON THESE STATEMENTS. Any Judge other than Engoron would have ended this Litigation years ago. It is a Rigged Case, WHERE A JURY WAS NOT ALLOWED. Judge Engoron is a Corrupt Puppet for Letitia James. It is all about ELECTION INTERFERENCE!

But wait, there’s more:

Judge Engoron has totally ignored a major decision on the Statute of Limitations in the New York Attorney General’s Witch Hunt Case against me. He said that he doesn’t care what the Appellate Court ruled, and that he won’t abide by the Ruling, which essentially would end most of this Highly Political Case against me. Judge Engoron should be sanctioned for his actions. Nobody has ever seen anything like what is happening in his Courtroom. It is Judicial and Prosecutorial Misconduct. Letitia James should be impeached. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!

Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:30 , Oliver O'Connell

But Trump, in his own testimony last month, said that he believes he retains the right to re-designate the property as a home. And Miami-based real estate attorney John Shubin testified Tuesday that “there is absolutely no prohibition on the use of Mar-a-Lago as a single-family residence.”

He noted that the property is simultaneously a club and Trump’s residence. Shubin also noted that a 1993 agreement between Trump and the town of Palm Beach said that Mar-a-Lago was to be used as a private social club but would revert to private residential use if the club were “abandoned.”

Trump’s lawyers argue that that means there was no problem with valuing the property the way that his financial statements did: as if it could be sold as an individual residence.

“Anybody who buys it … would just step into the shoes of President Trump,” defence attorney Christopher Kise said.

Some Palm Beach luxury real estate agents have told The Associated Press that the property would sell for $300 million to $600 million, and possibly $1 billion or more if it sparked a bidding war among uber-wealthy contenders.

Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:25 , Oliver O'Connell

The Palm Beach County tax assessment that the judge mentioned was based on Mar-a-Lago’s annual net operating income as a club, not on its resale value as a home or on its reconstruction cost. The operating-income method is the county’s standard way of valuing social clubs, and the outcome carries tax benefits for Trump — a $602,000 property tax bill this year, compared to about approximately $18 million if Mar-a-Lago were assessed at $1 billion.

Moreover, in a 2002 agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the club and Trump signed over “any and all of their rights to develop the property for any usage other than club usage.”

Yet when pulling information together for Trump’s annual financial statements, his former corporate controller Jeffrey McConney valued Mar-a-Lago club as though the property could be sold as a private home. The statements pegged it as high as $612 million in 2021.

James said that those values ignored the agreement with the National Trust. The attorney general, a Democrat, maintains that Trump should have valued Mar-a-Lago the same way the county does, based on its club income.

Continued...

Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:20 , Oliver O'Connell

Spanning 17 acres (7 hectares) with waterfront on two sides, the estate and social club is Trump’s home, a place where the former president and current Republican 2024 front-runner has conducted high-profile meetings while in and out of office, and the spot where federal special counsel Jack Smith alleges he improperly stashed classified documents, which Trump denies.

Mar-a-Lago also is a key element of the current New York civil case and Trump’s vehement frustration with it.

State Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit claims that the ex-president and his company deceived lenders and others by giving them financial statements that greatly overstated the values of some of his prime assets, including Mar-a-Lago.

Judge Arthur Engoron, in a pretrial ruling declaring that Trump and his company engaged in fraud, found that Trump exaggerated Mar-a-Lago’s worth by as much as 2,300%, compared to the Palm Beach County tax appraiser’s valuations. They ranged from $18 million to $28 million.

Trump denies any wrongdoing, saying that his financial statements actually undervalued his assets and were accompanied by disclaimers that wipe away liability for any mistakes.

His frequent complaints about the case have often spotlighted the claims about Mar-a-Lago. As recently as Friday, Trump vented on his Truth Social platform that the judge “fraudulently reduced the value of Mar-a-Lago.”

Continued...

NY fraud trial: Defence lays out Mar-a-Lago valuation argument

Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:15 , AP

Former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial turned Tuesday to one of the topics that has vexed him most — the value of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Testifying for Trump’s defence, a Florida real estate attorney said the club could be sold as a home, notwithstanding decades-old legal documents in which Trump said he intended to forswear its use as anything but a club. That’s a restriction that is key to New York state lawyers’ claims that the former president fraudulently overhyped the property’s value.

A Palm Beach luxury real estate broker played a glimmering video of the historic estate and testified that he’d value it at over $1 billion as of 2021.

“It’s something breathtaking. It’s something amazing to see,” broker Lawrence Moens said during testimony that took a rare turn when he briefly answered a personal phone call while on the witness stand.

Continued...

Comer reacts to mockery over $4k Biden impeachment ‘bombshell’

Tuesday 5 December 2023 21:05 , Oliver O'Connell

Republican lawmaker James Comer has defended himself from a mocking backlash over his $4,000 Hunter Biden “bombshell”.

The House Oversight Committee Chair – who is leading a controversial impeachment “hearing” into the president – came under fire for touting subpoenaed financial records that he said proved Joe Biden received monthly payments from a business account used by his son.

Lawyers for Hunter Biden have pointed out that the three monthly $1,380 payments were a loan for a truck that he was not able to finance himself – and that it took place during the period between Mr Biden serving as vice president and president.

Mr Comer, a congressman from Kentucky, appeared on Newsmax on Monday night to hit back at his critics and defend the “evidence” he had put forward in his ongoing attempt to impeach Joe Biden.

Graeme Massie reports.

James Comer reacts to mockery over $4k Biden impeachment ‘bombshell’

Jack Smith details evidence he’ll introduce at Trump’s federal election conspiracy trial

Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:55 , Oliver O'Connell

In a nine-page court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith has laid out some of the evidence the prosecution intends to deploy in its federal election interference case against Donald Trump.

“Evidence of the defendant’s post-conspiracy embrace of particularly violent and notorious rioters is admissible to establish the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6 — that he sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification,” Smith says.

“At trial, the Government will introduce a number of public statements by the defendant in advance of the charged conspiracies, claiming that there would be fraud in the 2020 presidential election,” laying the “foundation for the defendant’s criminal efforts.”

The government will also argue that the former president had a history of election denialism and conspiracies, citing statements he made in 2012 and ahead of the 2016 election — that he won.

One of the more alarming passages in the filing relates to an individual who sought “to cause a riot to disrupt the count" of votes in Detroit after the 2020 presidential election. The person is an unindicted co-conspirator and is only identified as a “campaign employee”.

“On November 4, 2020, the Campaign Employee exchanged a series of text messages with an attorney supporting the Campaign’s election day operations at the TCF Center in Detroit, where votes were being counted,” the filing says. “[I]n the messages, the Campaign Employee encouraged rioting and other methods of obstruction when he learned that the vote count was trending in favor of the defendant’s opponent.”

“An election official at the TCF Center observed that as Biden began to take the lead, a large number of untrained individuals flooded the TCF Center and began making illegitimate and aggressive challenges to the vote count,” prosecutors said.

“Thereafter, Trump made repeated false claims regarding election activities at the TCF Center, when in truth his agent was seeking to cause a riot to disrupt the count.”

Read the full filing here.

Watch: Kash Patel claims he will come after media as Trump’s CIA director

Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:40 , Oliver O'Connell

Voices: Trump continues down path of dominance as GOP rivals scramble for second place

Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell

John Bowden writes:

The fourth Republican debate is set for Wednesday, for whatever that’s worth.

Donald Trump, the race’s frontrunner, will not be in attendance. Having skipped three onstage clashes of candidates so far without any negative consequences whatsoever, the former president will complete his mockery of the nominating contest this month by refusing to attend the final debate before voters head to the polls next month in Iowa and begin the race proper.

There are zero signs that Wednesday’s debate will matter. A poll by NewsNation, the network hosting tomorrow’s event in Alabama, found Mr Trump in control of six in 10 GOP voters nationally this week — a clean 50-point margin over Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, his two closest rivals. Worse for them, only a small fraction of the GOP indicated in the poll that a conviction in any of his four criminal cases would change their views, meaning that short of Mr Trump exiting the race, the minds of most voters are likely made up.

This spells more than one problem for the GOP’s traditionalist-to-neoconservative wing, which never really embraced Donald Trump beyond the vehicle that he presented for the confirmation of conservative justices and the advancement of some conservative economic policy.

Continued...

Trump continues down path of dominance as GOP rivals scramble for second place

Giuliani skips confrontation with Georgia election workers

Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:24 , Oliver O'Connell

Rudy Giuliani failed to appear in court today for a pre-trial hearing in the defamation case against him filed by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.

Per Politico:

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers who have been tormented by harassment and threats since 2020, were prepared Tuesday to confront the man they view as the chief instigator of their suffering: Rudy Giuliani.

But Giuliani was a no-show at a federal court hearing in the duo’s defamation lawsuit, prompting a lashing for his attorney by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who had ordered Giuliani to be present.

“How could you have missed that?” Howell asked Giuliani’s attorney, Joe Sibley, incredulously, when he took the blame for Giuliani’s absence.

“My mistake,” Sibley replied, prompting Howell to ask whether he was “falling on his sword” for the former mayor. Sibley insisted he wasn’t but rather that he simply had misunderstood Howell’s order requiring Giuliani’s presence at the hearing, the final session before the civil damages case goes before a jury next week.

Here’s the full story of Ms Freeman and Ms Moss’s case against the former New York mayor:

Trump made life hell for two Black women. He will have to answer for it in court

GOP debate: What the candidates have said about the Israel-Hamas conflict

Tuesday 5 December 2023 20:00 , Oliver O'Connell

The onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict was a major theme of the third Republican primary debate on 8 November, with candidates declaring their support for Israel in varying degrees.

Since the war began in early October, there have been disagreements regarding how the US should back Israel as an ally while also trying to protect the innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire.

Candidates were under more pressure this time around because they were given more time to answer thoughtfully thanks to the dwindling number of participants who met the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) stricter criteria.

What the GOP debate candidates have said about the Israel-Hamas conflict

Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:50 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Woodward reports:

Trump family attorney Clifford Robert told the court that the defence “has decided not to call” Eric Trump to the stand but offered no other explanation, it seems.

The defence only has two other witnesses — an NYU professor who will talk about GAAP and valuations, and Donald Trump — so they can’t move up anything left on the schedule.

Yesterday, Mr Trump lost his attempt to get a fast-tracked appeal hearing on the gag order ruling in the state appeals court, and his attorneys really don’t want him back on the stand under the order.

Lead Trump attorney Christopher Kise made a lengthy request to postpone the former president’s testimony until the appeals court has ruled.

Asked by Justice Arthur Engoron what they thought about the request, attorneys for New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office replied: “Absolutely not.”

To which the judge added: “Absolutely not. No way. No how. It’s a nonstarter.”

NY fraud trial: Eric Trump will not testify again as planned

Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:41 , Oliver O'Connell

MSNBC reports that Eric Trump will not testify for a second time at the Trump Organization civil fraud trial in New York as had been expected.

Former president Donald Trump’s second son had already been a witness for the prosecution alongside his brother Donald Trump Jr and his father and had been billed to appear again on Wednesday.

The former president is still expected to testify again on 11 December as the final witness at the trial.

Trump attacks De Niro as ‘total loser'

Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump has finally responded to an attack by Robert De Niro in an awards speech last week.

The latest row between the long-feuding duo began when Mr De Niro hit out at the former president while presenting a tribute award for Celine Song’s drama Past Lives at the Gotham Awards on 27 November.

As he took to the stage and began reading from a teleprompter, the actor realised that some of his prepared remarks against Mr Trump had been omitted.

“The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out. I didn’t know about it,” he said before pulling out his phone to read the unedited version.

Read what the actor had to say...

Democrat megadonor takes up call to back Haley and thwart Trump

Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Just a week after JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon urged even liberal Democrats to help Nikki Haley’s campaign to give Republicans an alternative to Donald Trump, one Democrat megadonor has done just that.

Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting the former UN ambassador’s 2024 campaign to be the GOP nominee in 2024.

The New York Times confirmed the donation had been made with Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to Mr Hoffman.

Mr Mehlhorn told the outlet that the pro-Haley super PAC SFA Fund Inc was specifically asked if it would take money from a Democrat who actively supports President Joe Biden, and they said yes.

Read on...

Democrat megadonor gives to Nikki Haley super PAC to help thwart Trump

Trump denies being depressed after Jan 6 Capitol riot

Tuesday 5 December 2023 19:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump is pushing back on claims that he stopped eating in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot – instead saying he was actually eating “too much”.

Last week, an extract from former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney’s new book was released, revealing details of the GOP party’s response to the violent insurrection.

In the memoir Oath and Honor, set to be released this Tuesday, Ms Cheney writes about the moment that she learned then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy had gone to visit Mr Trump at Mar-a-Lago in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.

Rachel Sharp has the story.

Trump denies being depressed after Jan 6 and insists he was eating ‘too much’

Jack Smith gives preview of evidence in Trump’s federal election interference case

Tuesday 5 December 2023 18:30 , Oliver O'Connell

In a new court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith has given a preview of the evidence they will provide in the federal election interference case against Donald Trump.

The document lays out six types of evidence that will be presented at trial, which is scheduled to begin on 4 March 2024.

• Historical Evidence of the Defendant’s Consistent Plan of Baselessly Claiming Election Fraud

• Historical Evidence of the Defendant’s Common Plan to Refuse to Commit to a Peaceful Transition of Power

• Evidence of the Defendant and Co-Conspirators’ Knowledge of the Unfavorable Election Results and Motive and Intent to Subvert Them

• Pre- and Post-Conspiracy Evidence That the Defendant and Co-Conspirators Suppressed Proof Their Fraud Claims Were False and Retaliated Against Officials Who Undermined Their Criminal Plans

• Pre- and Post-Conspiracy Evidence of the Defendant’s Public Attacks on Individuals, Encouragement of Violence, and Knowledge of the Foreseeable Consequences

• Post-Conspiracy Evidence of the Defendant’s Steadfast Support and Endorsement of Rioters

Read the full filing here.

More details to follow...

Speaker Johnson admits to protecting Jan 6 rioters from charges

Tuesday 5 December 2023 18:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to admit that he is protecting people who breached the halls of Congress on January 6 from potential prosecution from the US Department of Justice.

Mr Johnson has pledged the release of thousands of hours of raw footage from the attack on the US Capitol, fulfilling a promise to far-right members of his party who have downplayed the riots and accused federal law enforcement of selectively prosecuting political opponents who stormed the halls of Congress.

“We have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and to be charged by the DOJ, and to have other, you know, concerns and problems,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr Johnson played a central effort among House Republicans to reject Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election, a campaign supported by baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that fuelled the Capitol attacks.

Read Alex Woodward’s full report

ICYMI: Trump calls Biden ‘destroyer’ of democracy despite own efforts to overturn 2020 election

Tuesday 5 December 2023 18:00 , AP

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday attempted to turn the tables on his likely rival in November, President Joe Biden, arguing that the man whose election victory Trump tried to overturn is “the destroyer of American democracy.”

Trump’s allegations about Biden, a Democrat, echo the ones that Biden has been making for years against his predecessor. As Trump has dominated the Republican presidential primary and talked about targeting his rivals and the news media if he wins the White House again, Biden has stepped up his own warnings, contending Trump is “ determined to destroy American democracy.”

On Saturday, Trump made his most explicit argument to date on why voters should instead see his rival as the bigger democratic threat. Trump repeated his longstanding contention that the four criminal indictments against him show Biden is misusing the federal justice system against his rival.

Continue reading...

Gaetz frets about House GOP’s precarious majority after Santos expulsion

Tuesday 5 December 2023 17:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Florida Rep Matt Gaetz is worried.

The controversial right-wing lawmaker fears that following the expulsion of disgraced former congressman George Santos, the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives is in peril

Specifically, he believes that other GOP lawmakers may also soon exit the lower chamber of Congress.

Speaking on The Charlie Kirk Show, Mr Gaetz, who in October led the ousting of former speaker Kevin McCarthy, said: “Our willingness to self-mutilate on these things really impairs our ability to get the job done.”

He called the expulsion of Mr Santos “tactically stupid” in the context of the narrow majority.

Read on...

Matt Gaetz frets about precarious Republican majority after George Santos exit

In depth: Megyn Kelly’s rise was tied to Trump. Can she shine at a debate without him?

Tuesday 5 December 2023 17:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Kelly Rissman writes:

Megyn Kelly made headlines in 2015 when she confronted Donald Trump at a presidential debate. Now as the fourth GOP primary debate approaches, she could have another starpower moment as moderator — but it will have to be without the former president.

Kelly, a lawyer-turned-journalist, was moderating her first presidential debate when Mr Trump, a real-estate-mogul-turned-politician, was competing in his first GOP primary debate. In this potent interaction, their paths changed forever.

The exchange made her into something of a cultural icon and boosted her career, at least temporarily, while it set the tone for his soon-to-be successful campaign.

She is a lawyer, he’s in legal trouble. He was accused of sexual misconduct, while she was allegedly the victim of someone else’s. At almost every intersection, they are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum, but have each, separately, carved out a niche rightwing audience.

And when they come together, no one can turn away.

On 6 December, the duelling duo could have had a chance to go head-to-head again — but Mr Trump refuses to participate.

Continue reading...

Megyn Kelly’s career rose after high-profile Trump feud. Can she still break through?

As new details emerge, Florida GOP chair denies rape

Tuesday 5 December 2023 17:00 , Oliver O'Connell

The defiant chair of the Florida Republican Party has denied allegations of rape made against him by a woman he and his wife were having a consensual affair with, as disturbing new details have emerged about the alleged attack.

Christian Ziegler, 40, told members of the state GOP that he and wife Bridget Ziegler, co-founder of the far-right Moms for Liberty parent’s rights group, were being unfairly targeted because they are “such loud political voices”.

Bevan Hurley reports.

Florida GOP chair denies rape claims as disturbing new details emerge

Watch: Speaker Johnson says new Jan 6 tapes will blur out faces so rioters won’t be charged

Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:45 , Oliver O'Connell

ICYMI: Trump tries to blame DeSantis for Florida State playoffs snub

Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:35 , Oliver O'Connell

The College Football Playoff Committee’s snubbing of Florida State has officially become an issue in the 2024 Republican primary.

On Sunday, the undefeated Seminoles faced a crushing decision from the panel which decides the four teams to compete in the annual championship between two of the biggest college football conferences in the US: the Big Ten, and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The reason for their exclusion, despite their perfect record, was the benching of their star quarterback Jordan Travis due to a season-ending leg injury.

Florida State’s fans and coaches alike were enraged by the decision. Head coach Mike Norvell wrote in a statement: “I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the game.”

He added: “What is the point of playing games?”

John Bowden reports.

Trump tries to blame DeSantis for Florida State Football playoffs snub

First signs of jury selection in Trump’s federal election interference case

Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:28 , Oliver O'Connell

NBC News reports that the first signs of the start of jury selection in the federal election interference case against Donald Trump may have just landed in mailboxes across the District of Columbia. The trial is scheduled to start in three months on 4 March 2024.

Per reporter Jonathan Allen:

Potential jurors in former President Donald Trump's federal election interference trial may know they are in the pool now.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has sent prospective jurors a "pre-screening" form asking about their availability to appear in person Feb. 9 to fill out a written questionnaire for use in the jury selection process for a March 4 trial. A resident in Washington, D.C., who received one of the forms in the mail Monday shared an image of it with NBC News.

Though the form does not name or refer to the defendant directly, the court had earlier set those dates for the questionnaire and the start of Trump's trial. The form advises potential jurors that their trial "may last approximately three months after jury selection is completed," which is consistent with estimates of the timetable for Trump's trial.

Recipients were also notified that the in-person written questionnaire is different from the online version, which is often the only one used in federal trials.

Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination

Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:20 , Oliver O'Connell

Far-right Florida Rep Matt Gaetz has claimed that the press is “green-lighting” the assassination of former President Donald Trump by reporting on what a second Trump term would look like.

On Monday, Mr Gaetz tweeted “They’re obviously green-lighting assassination” and included a screenshot from a Washington Post op-ed by Post Opinions contributing editor Robert Kagan bearing the headline “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending”.

Responding to Mr Gaetz, Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski noted that “There is nothing you can say or do to confront Maga gaslighting that won’t be met with more MAGA gaslighting”.

“They’ll say anything to make themselves the victim and hero in everything. And there is nothing you can say to do anything about it. That is the MAGA gaslighting paradox,” he added.

The image for the op-ed was a split image with the top being the head of a statue of Roman dictator Julius Ceaser, who was assassinated in 44BC, and the bottom being the face of Mr Trump.

Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, DC:

Matt Gaetz accuses media of ‘greenlighting’ Trump assassination

Watch: Cheney warns Trump is telling us every single day what he will do if he wins in 2024

Tuesday 5 December 2023 16:10 , Oliver O'Connell

Who will be on the debate stage on Wednesday night?

Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:55 , Oliver O'Connell

Four candidates have so far qualified for the fourth Republican primary debate, set to be hosted by NewsNation on 6 December.

Former Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke author Vivek Ramaswamy have all qualified for the Wednesday night showdown at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

The debate will be moderated by former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, now of SiriusXM, NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas, and Eliana Johnson, the editor of the Washington Free Beacon.

Read on...

Who qualified for the fourth GOP debate?

Watch: Cheney says GOP may not be salvageable and new party may be needed

Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:45 , Oliver O'Connell

Fourth GOP debate key moment for NewsNation cable network

Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:35 , AP

By airing the fourth Republican presidential primary debate scheduled for Wednesday — again, minus Donald Trump — the young NewsNation television network will almost certainly reach the largest audience in its history.

Yet with two of the three debate moderators associated with conservative media and not NewsNation, including podcast star Megyn Kelly, the event threatens to be at odds with the centrist image the network is trying to cultivate.

“I think it’s an amazing opportunity and allows us to have more people fully sample the network and see who we are and what we’re doing,” said Cherie Grzech, NewsNation’s senior vice president of news and politics.

Her advice to those who have doubts about how NewsNation can pull it off: Just watch.

Read the full article...

Watch: Cheney delivers warning about Trump second term

Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:29 , Oliver O'Connell

Trump still dominates GOP field as fourth debate looms

Tuesday 5 December 2023 15:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Ahead of the fourth GOP debate in Alabama, Donald Trump is in his most comfortable polling position yet.

The ex-president remains atop the GOP field in a major way, having consolidated support from six in 10 Republican voters nationally according to a NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll released on Monday. Though Mr Trump will not appear this Wednesday for the debate held by NewsNation alongside his GOP fellows, his decision to skip the 2023-24 debate cycle appears to not have hurt his chances in the slightest.

Indeed, the poll shows few pieces of good news for his opponents. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are statistically tied, at 11 and 10 per cent respectively, while the former president’s base of support appears to trust him more on the most important issues to voters this year, including the economy.

John Bowden has the latest from Washington, DC.

Poll shows Donald Trump dominating GOP field as rivals sputter

Did Paramount block Kelsey Grammer from being asked about Trump support by BBC?

Tuesday 5 December 2023 14:50 , Oliver O'Connell

The BBC has claimed that Kelsey Grammer was prevented from talking about Donald Trump by a Paramount PR person during a radio interview this morning.

Grammer, who plays Frasier Crane in the recently rebooted sitcom, is a Republican and noted Trump supporter, but according to a journalist working for the corporation, the topic of the former president was swiftly shut down during a new interview.

While appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme , the actor was asked if he was still backing Trump. Journalist Justin Webb asked Grammer: “You mentioned Roseanne [Barr] early on who had a great comeback but also was a Trump supporter. You were a Trump supporter, I’m fascinated to know if you still are?”

Jacob Stolworthy reports on what happened next.

BBC claims Frasier PR shut down Kelsey Grammer questions about his support for Trump

Watch the Lincoln Project ad that angered Trump

Tuesday 5 December 2023 14:32 , Oliver O'Connell

Alarm over Trump’s call to supporters to ‘go into’ cities and ‘watch’ elections

Tuesday 5 December 2023 14:24 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump’s call to his supporters to “guard” and “watch” ballot counting in cities with large Black populations has raised alarms among elections officials and voting rights advocates bracing for more threats to elections fuelled by his bogus narrative of widespread fraud.

During a rally in Ankeny, Iowa on Saturday, the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president justified his demands to “go into” cities with the same baseless allegations that surrounding the 2020 presidential election.

He falsely claimed that “they cheated like hell, they know it, and you’ll never find out all the ways but we don’t need all the ways,” adding that the “most important part of what’s coming up is to guard the vote.”

Alex Woodward reports.

Trump’s call to ‘go into’ cities and ‘watch’ elections sounds alarms

Full story: Trump will face gag order during fraud trial testimony after another courtroom loss

Tuesday 5 December 2023 13:00 , Alex Woodward

An appeals court judge has rejected Donald Trump’s request for a fast-tracked appeal of his gag order in his New York fraud trial, days before he is scheduled to return to the witness stand before his attorneys bring their case to a close.

The latest decision effectively guarantees that Trump will remain under a gag order through the final days of his defence team’s presentations in a civil trial that could imperil the family’s vast real estate empire.

Trump loses latest attempt to block his fraud trial gag order

Trump rails against coverage of his rallies

Tuesday 5 December 2023 12:43 , Megan Sheets

Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Monday night to accuse his rivals of using artificial intelligence in attack ads against him.

“The perverts and losers at the failed and once disbanded Lincoln Project, and others, are using A.I.(Artificial Intelligence) in their Fake television commercials in order to make me look as bad and pathetic as Crooked Joe Biden, not an easy thing to do,” he wrote.

“FoxNews shouldn’t run these ads, just as low ratings CNN & MSDNC will not, under any circumstances, run negative ads on Biden or the Democrats. They are, after all, in-kind campaign contributors to the Dems!”

There is no known evidence of AI being used in attack ads.