Year: 2023

Should we expect anything different from Donald Trump? Isn’t it just like him to call for his Republicans in Congress to shut down the government if it means he walks free?

“Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media site late on Wednesday, calling it “the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots.”

The U.S. Justice Department has previously said activities funded by “permanent indefinite appropriations” would continue during any funding lapse.

In addition to his ongoing legal troubles for his unabashed enabling and support of Donald Trump’s recent crimes, more allegations are being piled on to Rudy Giuliani. Now he’s accused of groping a former Trump aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, during the January 6th assault on the Capitol.

The incident allegedly took place backstage at former President Donald Trump’s speech on the day of the insurrection. In an excerpt from Hutchinson’s new memoir, “Enough,” obtained by The Guardian, Hutchinson says the former mayor put his hand under her skirt.

“Rudy wraps one arm around my body, closing the space that was separating us… I lower my eyes and watch his free hand reach for the hem of my blazer,” she wrote of Giuliani.

“‘By the way,’ he says, fingering the fabric, ‘I’m loving this leather jacket on you.’ His hand slips under my blazer, then my skirt… I fight against the tension in my muscles and recoil from Rudy’s grip,” she wrote in the book published by Simon and Schuster, which is a division of CBS News’ parent company Paramount Global. It is set to be released Tuesday.

Giuliani denied the allegations during an interview with Newsmax’s Eric Boiling. “First of all, I am not going to grope somebody at all. False, totally absurd,” he said.

Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman told CBS News, “These allegations are false.”

During the recent Republican presidential debate, Vivek Ramaswamy made a series of aggressive attacks against all the participants on the stage. His rapid-fire delivery earned him the nickname “ChatGPT” from Chris Christie, one of the other Republican candidates. Ramaswamy seemed unmatched in his ability to use clever rhetoric to outsmart his opponents.

That was before his appearance on MSNBC.

Appearing on MSNBC, Ramaswamy was set to perform again, but host Medi Hasan had another plan – ask questions, demand answers and point out emphatically, where Ramaswamy was lying.

Nuclear Holocaust? Trump prevented Nuclear Holocaust? I guess we should all thank Trump for… living?

Under oath and under fire, former President Donald Trump sat for a seven-hour interview with the New York attorney general’s office in April, part of the civil fraud case against him and his company.

But as lawyers from the office grilled Trump on the inner-workings of his family business, which is accused of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars, he responded with a series of meandering non sequiturs, political digressions and self-aggrandizing defenses.

Asked about his authority at the Trump Organization while he was in the White House, Trump responded that he considered the presidency “the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives.”

“I think you would have nuclear holocaust, if I didn’t deal with North Korea,” he explained, and then added: “And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth.”

Although Trump invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination when initially questioned by the office last year, he answered questions from the attorney general, Letitia James, and her lawyers in the April deposition, a transcript of which was unsealed Wednesday.

The transcript shows a combative Trump, who was named as a defendant in the case alongside his company and three of his children, at times barely allowing lawyers to get a word in. The former president frequently seems personally offended by the idea that his net worth is being questioned.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson, the support being given to those impacted by the devastating wildfire in Maui is slowly but surely becoming a little more bearable.

According to a release, the fund will “distribute cash directly to those who were displaced and affected by the fire,” and “all net proceeds” from donations “will go to those directly impacted in Maui.”

“I have been meeting with people throughout the community that were impacted by the fires over the last few weeks, asking what they most needed and how I could be of service,” Winfrey said in the release. “The main thing I’ve been hearing is their concern about how to move forward under the immense financial burden.”

“The community has come together in so many wonderful ways, and my intention is to support those impacted as they determine what rebuilding looks like for them,” she added.

It’s surprising to hear that the Senate Minority Republican Leader froze up again during a press conference yesterday. Apparently, when a reporter asked if he planned to run for re-election, he was unable to respond.

This is the second time this has happened, and it’s definitely causing some concern among his supporters.

After freezing on the question, someone at his side then asked him, “Did you hear the question, senator, running for reelection in 2026?” McConnell did not respond.

“I’m sorry you all, we’re gonna need a minute,” the aide told reporters. A member of the senator’s detail spoke quietly to him for a moment, and McConnell was able to whisper an answer to him.

McConnell turned back to reporters, said, “OK,” and his aide asked if anyone had another question, and if reporters could “speak up.”

A spokesman for McConnell told CNN that the Kentucky Republican “felt momentarily lightheaded and paused during his press conference today.” A McConnell aide added: “While he feels fine, as a prudential measure, the leader will be consulting a physician prior to his next event.”

This just in!

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s prosecution on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election set a trial date on Monday for early March, rebuffing Mr. Trump’s proposal to push it off until 2026.

The decision by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to start the trial on March 4 amounted to an early victory for prosecutors, who had asked for Jan. 2. But it potentially brought the proceeding into conflict with the three other trials that Mr. Trump is facing, underscoring the extraordinary complexities of his legal situation and the intersection of the prosecutions with his campaign to return to the White House.

The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., has proposed taking Mr. Trump to trial on charges of tampering with the election in that state on March 4 as well. Another case, in Manhattan, in which Mr. Trump has been accused of more than 30 felonies connected to hush-money payments to a porn actress in the run-up the 2016 election, has been scheduled to go to trial on March 25.

Two men and a woman were killed in a racially-motivated shooting in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, The Independent reports.

The gunman, a white male in his twenties, “hated Black people”, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said.

The shooting took place at a Dollar General store just blocks from the historically-Black Edward Waters University. The gunman was initially seen near the library on the campus but security guards tried to take him into custody and he escaped.

Shortly before the shooting took place, the gunman’s parents called law enforcement to say they had found a manifesto, reported WJXT. The gunman had reportedly called his parents ahead of the attack and told them to look at his computer.

Sheriff Waters described those writings as a “disgusting ideology of hate”. He also confirmed that the three victims were Black.

Remember when Fox News was Trump’s best friend? Well, those days are long gone.

Today, Trump seemed to be upset with Fox and Friends for featuring a photo of him that he did not seem to like. He referred to it as the “big orange one” with his “chin pulled way back.” It is unclear why he is particularly unhappy with this particular image.

On his Truth Social site, Trump wrote;

“Why doesn’t Fox and Friends show all of the Polls where I am beating Biden, by a lot? They just won’t do it! Also, they purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back. They think they are getting away with something, they’re not. Just like 2016 all over again…And then they want me to debate!”

So, is he saying that the big orange picture of him with his chin pulled way back is not an accurate portrayal? I don’t believe that. I’ll stick with Fox and Friends on this one.

With four indictments under his belt, you’d think he has bigger things to worry about.

SMH.

Some people, not all, but some people simply cannot separate their politics from basic common sense. I mean, basic! How can anyone think that in the technological world of 2023, they can still make threatening phone calls to a judge… and get away with it?

I guess you have to be a Trump supporter to attempt such a thing.

Abigail Jo Shry called the chambers of Judge Tanya Chutkan on August 5 and left a voicemail message threatening to “kill anyone who went after former President Trump,” according to a criminal complaint.

The death threats also allegedly included racist comments against Chutkan, who is Black. Prosecutors said in court filings that Shry called the judge a “stupid slave n***er” in the voicemail.

Shry is charged with Transmission in Interstate or Foreign Commerce of any Communication Containing a Threat to Injure the Person of Another. She is being held in detention pending trial, according to court documents, and a bond hearing has been set for September 13.

“If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b*tch,” Shry said in the message, according to the complaint. “You are in our sights, we want to kill you.”