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the DON JONES
INDEX… |
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GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 11/13/23... 14,872.71 11/6/23... 14,884.15 |
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6/27/13… 15,000.00 |
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(THE DOW
JONES INDEX: 11/13/23... 34,283.10; 11/6/23... 34,031.66; 6/27/13…
15,000.00) |
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LESSON for November 13th, 2023 – “...
and ON the COURT(s)!”
As
former President Donald Trump returned from his sojourn in Detroit to meet and
greet and speak at a non-union plant to
take the stand this week and answer for his purported crimes against fiscal
responsibility, he reiterated what opinionator Greg Sargent called “the vacuity
of the right-wing populism espoused by Trump and other Republicans eager to
give the GOP a “working class” makeover.”
(WashPost, Attachment One... re-attached from
last week’s Lesson, Attachment Nineteen)
During the interval between Djonald UnChained stepping down
from the stand on Monday... fined, but feeling fine... millions of Americans were going
to the polls to vote in elections and ballot measures “that could offer an
interim verdict on Joe Biden’s presidency a year out from his bid to retain the
White House.” (Guardian U.K., November 7th,
Attachment Two) There were
Governorships... an outlier Democrat, Andy Beshear, running
for re-election
in deep-red Kentucky and Democrat Brandon Presley, a second cousin to Elvis in even
deeper crimson Mississippi.
There were
numerous state and local contests for legislatures and council seats, even the
judiciary – here and there... there were dark schemes and moondreams
enough to fly. And there were some of
America’s hot button issues in referenda... abortion, gun control, wealth and nicotine taxes, banning foreign spending in elections and greenlighting
the right of the mentally ill to vote... even
a push by the stoners in O-High-O! to legalize the wicked weed.
And
while Ol’ 45 was decompressing from having been
sitting on the stand in Judge Eragon’s castle (or sometimes standing on the
floor, denouncing “witch hunters” with all the fervor of Samantha Stephens and
her mother, Endora) and worrying whether Ivanka,
indeed, would rat him out, the surviving Five Little Foxes of the Republican
opposition were prepping for their standing in the court of public opinion in
Miami, Wednesday night, itching to do battle with the absent dragon and, more
likely, with each other.
But
first, on Tuesday, it was the turn of the voters to voice their choice.
And
it would be a very good night for choice.
The political
potency of abortion rights proved more powerful than the drag of President
Biden’s approval ratings in Tuesday’s off-year elections, as Ohioans enshrined
a right to abortion in their state’s constitution, and Democrats took control
of both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly while holding on to
Kentucky’s governorship (but failing to corral the Magolia
State into their heartbreak hotel).
Tuesday night’s
results “showed the durability of Democrats’ political momentum since the
Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an
abortion in 2022,” the New York Times opined (November 8th,
Attachment Three) It
may also, at least temporarily, have stemmed the latest round of Democratic
fretting from a series of polls demonstrating Mr. Biden’s political
weakness.
In
results from Tuesday’s elections, as reported by the Times, vhoice
was the choice of 56.6% of the voters in Ohio, who also choiced
for cannabis by an even wider 57% margin.
The grass was blue in the Bluegrass State where Beshear
captured 52.5% of the electorate and, while losing, Mister Presley came within
five percent of Republican incumbent Tate Reeves, a very respectable
performance for a Democrat in Mississippi.
(Not quite Vegas-worthy, but pretty good for Tupelo.)
Overall,
political journal The Hill concluded that Democrats “saw a successful
Election Night on Tuesday,” oot only scoring wins in
a number of competitive contests (the Kentucky Governorhship
and the Ohio twin spins) but preserving the Democrats’ 5-2 majority, on the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a race that also focused heavily on abortion rights
and flipping Virginia’s House of Delegates and, in the process, delivering a
kill shot to any hopes that Governor Glenn Youngkin
might have had of jumping into the Republican primary at the last moment...
swatting away the five little flies, outpolling Trump in the primaries and then
marching onwards to the White House.
The Hill’s own five little
takeaways from Tuesday’s contests included...
1) Abortion
showing no signs of waning as (a) top issue,
2) Democrats
were “re-energized” by high turnout and hammering the redliners
on abortion,
3) Beshear’s status as a “rising star for Democrats” after
outperforming Biden, as well as his Republican opponent,
4) Youngkin’s eclipse – a “sharp reversal” from his own election
to the governor’s mansion in 2021, and
5) Questions
about Biden’s strength that persisted, despite the victories.
Between
Tuesday’s election and Wednesday’s debate, Republicans were eager to ascribe
the defeat to Donald Trump. “A dismal night for Republicans
on Election Day 2023” gave some of former
President Donald Trump's rivals fresh ammunition to “target the commanding front-runner
for the 2024 GOP nomination.” (Fox, Attachment Five)
The
“disappointing results” followed similar heartbreak “in the 2022 midterm
elections, when an expected red wave never materialized;” a failure that
DeSantis’ campaign manager called “eerily similar.” Nikki Haley called the former President “a
loser” (probably driving a stake through the heart of any Vice
Presidential aspirations she may have had) and Chris Christie blamed the
former POTUS for becoining “political and electoral poison
down ballot," and, specifically, causing the failed attempt to
snatch Kentucky’s bag of oats out of the donkeys’ muzzles.
(Trump
responded that failed candidate Daniel Cameron was a Mitchy
McConnell acolyte,”which
depressed Republican turnout.")
Prominent among the ballot issues
on the ballot was Ohio voters’ approval of Issue One... a constitutional
amendment that ensures access to abortion and other forms of reproductive
health care, the latest victory for abortion rights supporters since the U.S.
Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year
according to Julie Carr-Smyth of AP News. (Attachment
Six)
“The future is bright, and tonight
we can celebrate this win for bodily autonomy and reproductive rights,” Lauren
Blauvelt, co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, which led support
for the amendment, told a jubilant crowd of supporters.
“Ohio’s resounding support for
this constitutional amendment reaffirms Democratic priorities and sends a
strong message to the state GOP that reproductive rights are non-negotiable,”
said Heather Williams, interim president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign
Committee.
Republicans remained defiant in
the wake of Tuesday’s vote. Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens said Issue 1’s
approval “is not the end of the conversation.”
“As a 100% pro-life conservative,
I remain steadfastly committed to protecting life, and that commitment is
unwavering,” Stephens said. “The Legislature has multiple paths that we will
explore to continue to protect innocent life.”
The AP’s Ms. Smyth also reported on the
Buckeye State’s passage
of Issue 2, making Ohio the 24th state to allow adult cannabis use for
non-medical purposes. (Attachment Seven)
“Marijuana is no longer a
controversial issue,” said Tom Haren, spokesman for
the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. “Ohioans demonstrated this by passing State Issue 2 in a landslide. Ohioans are being
extremely clear on the future they want for our state: adult-use marijuana
legal and regulated.”
The new law will allow adults 21
and over to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and to grow plants at
home. A 10% tax will be imposed on purchases, to be spent on administrative
costs, addiction treatment, municipalities with dispensaries and social equity
and jobs programs supporting the industry itself.
As a citizen-initiated statute, the
law is subject to change. Angry Republicans who remain opposed to it in the
Legislature are free to make tweaks to the law — or even repeal it, though the
political stakes are higher now that the voters have approved it.
“This fight is not over,” Smart
Approaches to Marijuana Action President Kevin Sabet
said in a statement. He called on state lawmakers to eliminate provisions of
Issue 2 that allow for commercial sales, advertising and production... Scott
Milburn, spokesperson for the opposition campaign Protect Ohio Workers and
Families, called Tuesday’s result disappointing. He said the debate now shifts
to the Statehouse.
“This ticking time bomb crafted in
secret by a Columbus law firm will now be cracked open by the Legislature in
the full light of day so they can defuse it in an open, public process before
it blows up in Ohio’s face.”
And other ballot issues, as
reported by CBS (Attachment Eight) included taxes... (higher on nicotine, and a
Texas ban on “wealth taxes” for the billionaires)...
measures banning foreign cash being poured into American elections but allowing
the mentally ill to vote and, in addition to the two Governors’ races, numerous
state and local candidacies in five states.
Democrats won control of both chambers of the Virginia state legislature
after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and GOP
candidates pushed for new abortion limits and the blowout effectively ended
hopes among Never Trumpers that Youngkin might leap
into the 2024 Presidential race to stop the Man From
Maga.
Media
matters mattered – although there was headscratching
and fingerpointing among right-wing media icons
too... the liberal Daily Beast gloating that Fox News
had been “shell shocked” by the Dems’ “election night romp.” (Attachment Nine)
Calling
the off-year contests an “epic failure”, Beastie boy Justin Baragona
reported that: “(Virginia
Governor) Youngkin’s face-plant in Virginia, along
with the results in Ohio and Kentucky, left Fox News in a state of shock,
huffing so-called “copium” as they desperately searched for
answers.
“In the end, two things were clear
at the conservative cable giant by Wednesday morning: Youngkin
was no longer presidential material, and it was time for the GOP to learn to
love abortion.
Former Trump White House press
secretary and current Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany suggested that the GOP should
“not just be a pro-baby party,” but propose more “pro-mother” bills to appeal
to women voters.
“If we’re really going to be
honest about this, and I consider myself pro-life, but I understand that’s not
where the country is,” Fox factotem Sean Hannity
conceded.
Other Foxies like Steve and Peter Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, Charlie
Hurt, Lawrence Jones, Harris Faulkner and Brian Kilmeade chimed in... all
allowing that abortion had become a concrete block attached to a drowning
Republican party (and, further, that Youngkin was a
dead flounder),
And the lousy liberals over at Salon reported that Hannity accused Democrats of
having tried to “scare
women into thinking Republicans don’t want abortion legal under any
circumstances,” shrugged off
the defeat of “underperforming” and “anti-abortion” not-Elvis Presley and
quailed in Nazi fear that Newsmax contributor (and former Presidential
candidate) Rick
Santorum had lamented that... inasmuch as Democrats were trying to groom young
people with “sexy things like abortion and marijuana”... which were a “secret
sauce” for disaster in Ohio and warned that “pure democracies are not the way
to run a country”.
(As he was so speaking, Mayor Eric
Adams in true blue New York City was confronting a thin, blue line accusing of
trying to out-authoritarianize neighboring Jersey ass
Menendez by wallowing in a swamp of Turkish
finances.)
McEnany (above), Salon reported, urged
the House of Representatives to pass legislation for “men to pay women child
support from the moment of conception, legislation to make the child tax credit
apply to the unborn, legislation for women to have access to the supplemental
food and nutrition program up to two years after childbirth.”
“These are things that could be
done today that will make a difference!” she added. “But until we own this
issue as a party, we will lose again, and again, and again.”
And so, the sun came up on
Wednesday. And then it went down in
Miami where the Five Remainders took to the stage (and, via NBC, to competition
with the Country Music Awards over on ABC) with “pressure mounting and time
running out to shake up the race (CNBC, Attachment Eleven).
And, despite rumours
to the contrary, Djonald UnPresent
remained un-present... hosting, instead, a one-man debate at Hialeah, down the
road a bit: repeating his contention that he “saw no point in sharing the stage
with candidates who trail him by wide margins.”
In
promoting the show... as show it was, is and will be for another whole year... CNBC might have, sorta,
could have scuttled their own scow by reporting that: “Tomorrow’s debate will be a
dumping ground for every single loser candidate to foolishly fight for distant
second place,” according to Trump spokesman Steven Cheung.
Positing the debate as a showdown
between DeSantis and Haley, the peacock reported that Ronny “has already seen previous big money
supporters, such as Citadel CEO Ken
Griffin and
businessman Robert Bigelow, have each distanced themselves from the Florida’s governor’s bid for
president.”
The
day after Republicans suffered what the Guardian U.K. termed “a string of
off-year election defeats,” the five little Munchkins “barreled through a substantive yet hostile primary
debate on Wednesday, clashing over policy and with each other in a competition
for second place behind the absentee frontrunner, Donald Trump
(November 9th, Five AM EST, Attachment Twelve), and warning America
and the Grand Old Party that 2024 could end with the re-election of Old
White Joe if they were unsuccessful in breaking Trump’s dominance of the
Republican primary.
“We’ve become a party of losers,” said
businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, noting that Republicans had ost
the US House in 2018, and the Senate and the White House in 2020. He decried
the “red wave that never came” in 2022. And on Tuesday night, Ramaswamy said
the party again “got trounced”.
Home,
but also alone in his home state, Gov. DeSantis recalled that Trump often said
“Republicans were gonna get tired of winning”.
“Well,
we saw last night – I’m sick of Republicans losing,” he said, before inflating
his own prospects to greater heights than Djonald djacked up the value of his New York real estate,
promising: “I will be a nominee that can win the election.”
“The
world is on fire,” said Nikki Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the
United Nations. In 2016, she admitted,
Trump was the “right president at the right time. I don’t think he’s the right
president now.”
Christie, who has become the former President’s leading
antagonist remaining since the demise of Asa Hutchinson scoffed that: “Anybody who’s going to be
spending the next year and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves
out of jail and courtrooms cannot lead this party or this country.”
And
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, literally spitting in the face of the
religious right, offered a compromise national ban on abortions after 15 weeks
of pregnancy, engendering resignation from DeSantis and the “culture of life”
while Haley invoked political reality – inasmuch as the Senate, let alone
President Joe would never go along.
“As much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge
anyone for being pro-choice, and I don’t want them to judge me for being
pro-life,” she said, adding that the decision to restrict or expand abortion
rights should be left up to the states. “There are some states that are going
more on the pro-choice side. I wish that wasn’t the case, but the people decide
it.”
Ron DeSantis said that “terrorists have come in through our southern
border” and that he is going to “shut it down.” Vivek Ramaswamy vowed to “smoke
the terrorists” out of the U.S. southern border.
What terrorists?
Alex Nowrasteh of the pro-immigration Cato Institute
documented nine foreign-born terrorists who entered the United States illegally
from 1975 through last year. Three entered Mexico in 1984 when they were 5
years old or younger and were convicted of plotting to attack Fort Dix, New
Jersey, in 2007. The other six entered through Canada. (AP News, Attachment Thirteen)
That’s not to say it can’t happen here. AP cited the Homeland Security Department,
which said in a national “threat assessment” this year that people with “potential terrorism connections”
continue to attempt to enter the country.
Vivek was on fire all night... not only denouncing money for Ukraine,
but for Israel too. Those damn Jews! Read more at https://apnews.com/live/republican-debate-live-updates
He even called Zelenskyy a Nazi… “Ukraine is not a paragon of democracy,” Ramaswamy
said. “This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties. It has
consolidated all media into one state TV media arm. That’s not democratic. It
has threatened not to hold elections this year unless the U.S. forks over more
money. That is not democratic.”
“It celebrated a Nazi in
its ranks — the comedian in cargo pants, a man called Zelensky — doing it in
their own ranks. That is not democratic,” he continued. See more here.
All
five supported the Israeli war against Hamas so long as we didn’t pay for it...
Scott even urging Biden to attack (nuke?) Iran, defund universities harboring
pro-Palestinian students and professors and deport uppity visa holders... and
Christie (while cautioning domestic Jews against physical attacks on domestic
Muslims) declared: “(l)et us never have a false moral
equivalence between Hamas and Hezbollah and the Jewish people. The Jewish
people stand for right and justice and Hamas and Hezbollah stand for
death.” (Time, November 8th,
Attachment Fouteen),
Ramaswamy
derided Haley and DeSantis as “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels” – a jab that
immediately drew accusations of sexism. DeSantis ignored what amounted to a
gay/transvestite allegation based on the high heeled boots he’d worn to augment
his height, but Haley responded that “(t)hey’re
five-inch heels, and I don’t wear them unless you can run in them,” she said.
And
after Ramaswamy upped the personal assault against Haley (who also s some
Indian-from-Infia blooslines
with Rama) because her daughter used the Chinese spy-app TikTok,
she snarled: “Leave my daughter out of your voice,” adding: “You’re just scum.”
The exchange caused
Time editorialist
Phillip Elliott to declare that she’d won the debate, such as it was – and perhaps reminded voters that “combativeness is way too
easily clothed as rage” on female candidates. “That clear-eyed ownership of her
space in the current Republican campaign has served her well to this point. She
is the only candidate on the rise in national polls, early state polls, and
her standing among donors. Although ex-President Donald Trump remains leaps ahead
of her, Haley is quickly becoming a plausible chief rival and the best shot for
Republicans to find an off-ramp to his third nomination,” Elliott suggested,
expressing a little hope amidst a truckload of futility. (Attachment Fifteen)
“We can’t win the fights
of the 21st century with politicians from the 20th century. We have to move
forward,” Haley said during her closing statement. It was the distillation of
her campaign thesis, “one that hinges on an appetite among Republican voters
for a former state executive and high-stakes diplomat over a former President
who is on trial in four jurisdictions,” an absentee candidate who was staging
his own production only twenty minutes away from the Miami circus... a
soliloquy “chock full of victimhood and grievance, promising the GOP base once
again a fanciful agenda.”
And
a fruitful fundraising pitch...
Trump raised more
than $24 million in the three-months leading into October, and $17 million
during the quarter before that... finishing the period with $37 million in
the bank, $20 million ahead of the $12 million in the pockets of Florida GOP
Gov. Ron DeSantis and even less spread out among the others (including Haley).
Speaking
of the money, NBC’s worthy presentation of the entire Miami sideshow fell short
of the ratings (hence, network revenues) of the competing Country Music Awards
on ABC which “also
narrowly avoided posting its smallest viewer tally ever,” according to the
Hollywood Reporter. (Attachment Sixteen)
Some
7.57 million viewers tuned in to the award show, which was an 11% increase from
two years ago when it hit an all-time low in viewership. The Washington
Examiner (Attachment Seventeen) reported that this was the most viewership
since the pre-plague broadcast of 2019. “Meanwhile, the GOP debate trailed by
over 2 million viewers, as it only drew 4.92 million...” as opposed to the 13
million who tuned into the first debate, hosted by Fox, and the second,
garnering 9.5 milliom.
And since the compilation of polling pollsters by RCP (Real
Clear Politics) is to statesmanship (or showmanship) what the Nielsens are to television, one might compare Donald Trump
to the CMA and Joe Biden to the Republican debate. Poll after poll (Attachment Eighteen) shows a
divided, disgusted electorate pulling the crank for Djonald
UnWanted in the purple states that Biden narrowly won
(or stole) in 2020.
The only good sign for Democrats is that RFK Junior and his
running mate, the plague, seems to be taking as many votes away from President Djonald as from President Joe. So maybe a Manchin “No Labels” candidacy...
despite the horror engendered in the liberal talkshow
panelists... might help Biden.
Over the weekend, the Atlantic Magazine published a curious cacophony
of candidate commentary... part prognostication, part autopsy (innumerable dead
or dying candidacies... Burgum, Suaarez, Pence); part
nostalgia (Rick Perry, the Bern); and part wishlisters
(John Sununu, J. B. Pritzker,
V.P. Harris). (Attachment Ninteen)
The little opinionates on candidate chances of being nominated
by their party (or cult) is amusing, if rather conventional... “(a) big tranche of the GOP” wants Trump; DeSantis might “hold
on” to take the honorary silver. (Given
the putative nominee’s obsession with revenge... not likely!
And
while Atlanticist David A. Graham dismisses a Manchin
candidacy, citing his statement that: “Make no mistake, I will win
any race I enter,” as a political pledge (and we all know how binding those are).
Manchin, at least, hs 'The View' hosts “worried” that 'problem child' for
Democrats Joe Manchin will run third party and sink Biden in 2024 according to
Fox News (Attachment Twenty)
View-eeAna Navarro declared she would ask Manchin, 'Are you
willing to be responsible for putting Donald Trump back in the White House?'
The
hosts of "The View" on ABC debated whether Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,
could potentially run as a third-party candidate for the 2024 presidential
election and help President Trump get re-elected.
Manchin announced on Thursday he would not seek re-election to the Senate. "I’ve made one
of the toughest decisions in my life and decided that I will not be running for
re-election to the United States Senate. But what I will be doing is traveling
the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a
movement to mobilize the middle, and bring Americans together. We need to take
back America and not let this divisive hatred further pull us apart."
Multiple co-hosts of "The View" fretted about
him doing so, with some speculating he would join the No Labels movement.
Co-host
Joy Behar noted that Manchin "has a lot of people wondering if power in
D.C. will shift for the right, because yesterday he announced he will end his
run as the Senate’s worst Democrat," adding that he was "right up
there with Kyrsten Sinema."
"So we're gonna lose the Senate
because of this?" Behar asked.
"Very
likely," co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin replied, before later noting it
"seemed like Joe Manchin was hinting at potentially a third-party bid.
People have wondered if he'd jump into the No Labels kinda
discussion. I’ve been largely critical of No Labels because my fear is that, A,
it would end up boosting Trump, getting more supporters to him, but also I
think for a third party, which we need in this country to come about, it’s
going to take years not one cycle."
She
did argue, however, that she is "warming" to certain aspects of the
idea in theory and likes many of the candidates associated with the movement to
the point she is "willing to hear what they have to say, but I worry that
it could end up boosting the more dangerous candidate."
Co-host
Sunny Hostin said she wasn't sure if a third party
candidate "has ever been successful other than in drawing votes away"
from either of the larger parties as others recalled names like Ralph Nader and
Jill Stein. She then argued, "I think it’s a bad idea, I think it's a much
better idea to have a healthier Republican Party that is not led by Donald
Trump. I think it's time for Republicans that are moderate and that are
sophisticated to step up and denounce Trump and I think that would solve the
problem much more so than this No Label Party."
Co-host
Ana Navarro argued that Joe Manchin has "been a problem child for
Democrats for the last few years, he and Kyrsten Sinema, but he's been part of
the family and he's kept them in the majority, so he's played a very important
role."
However,
she contested that his potential run would be a disaster for Democrats.
She
added that while she initially liked the No Labels movement, "This thing
to me is a desperate cry for relevance and attention by a bunch of elitist former ‘something’ who are thirsty to be part of the
conversation." She then proposed that she would ask Manchin, "Are you
willing to be responsible for putting Donald Trump back in the White House? The
man who’s been a threat to democracy, a threat to American values, who led an
insurrection? Are you willing to be part of something that may end up putting
that man who should be nowhere near the Oval Office, he should be in a jail
cell."
Sara
Haines argued that even if she likes the No Labels Party in theory and as a
future prospect with potential, "I don't think that it's right for this
election because of the risk of running against Donald Trump."
Behar
rejected the idea that this would be the "death knell for Democrats,"
citing election results earlier in the week which "show voters are much
more motivated by issues like keeping abortion rights safe," warning them
against forgetting the potential electoral consequences of Trump's involvement
in the end of Roe v. Wade.
So – who is this man counting the
blessings on his fingers... five, six, seven? Minor party candidates snatching
away votes from President Joe?
Well, after the liberal Guardian U.K. called Djonald
UnChained an “emperor who has no clothes”...
they backtracked, allowing: “were the election
today, Trump would win.”
A week ago, the Brits declared that: “One has signed historic climate
and infrastructure legislation, steered the economy past a recession and
rallied the west against Vladimir Putin. The other spent Monday on trial for
fraud ranting and raving against a judge in a puerile display from the witness
stand.
“And if a presidential election were
held today, Joe Biden would lose to Donald Trump by a lot.
“Maybe
it’s the pandemic, or inflation, or tribalism, but it is increasingly hard to
deny that something strange and perverse is happening in American
politics.” (Attachment Twenty One)
Trump
is facing 91 criminal indictments in Atlanta, Miami, New York and Washington
DC, including “an attempt to overthrow the US government,” filching and sharing
classified documents, indulging in stormy sex with an admitted prostitute and,
last Monday, testifying angrily in court on the New York civil business fraud
case “in which he has already been fined
$15,000 for twice violating a limited gag order that prevents him from criticising court staff.”
If
the colonials stay their course, GUK maintains, the newly re-elected President
will probably need the money. But the more
the indictments and the outrages pour in, the higher Trump’s ratings rise.
“Everyone
is talking about his temper tantrums, instead of talking about his commissions
of fraud and that he is a cheat,” attorney Neal Katyal posted.
Leaving court after concluding his testimony, Trump said: “I think it’s
a very sad day for America,” channeling grievance, resentment and victimhood as
only he can.
For a few short moments in and
around Monday, current
events watchers held their breaths as Judge Arthur E. Engoron, presiding
over his New York civil trial for inflating the value of his real estate
portfolio might take what U.S. News called “the next step” – perhaps the most
unsettling for a country accustomed to being more deferential to its former
leaders – and “put Trump behind bars?” (U.S. News and World Report, November 3rd,
Attachment Twenty Two)
USNWR correspondent Susan Milligan
allowed that incarceration for contempt, or fraud, or making terroristic
threats against courtroom janitors and clerk “could be a security nightmare as
authorities figure out how to safely incarcerate a man who has Secret Service
protection himself. And it would forever change the narrative of American
democracy.”
“Sending Trump to jail for
contempt – or even putting him in home detention, as legal experts think is a more
likely scenario, given the security and public relations complications of
putting him in a local or federal facility – has implications for Trump if he
is convicted,” according to
experts interviewed by the media some of whom said that he was
“playing a game of legal chicken.”
And chicken is what the ExPrez has been calling associates who have taken plea
deals to rat him out in any of the five cases.
"Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and
cowards, and so bad for the future of our Failing Nation," Trump
excoriated former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, after ABC reported that Meadows
was cooperating in an immunity deal with special prosecutor Jack Smith on the
Jan. 6 case.
"I think if it were you or
me, we would be pretty close to being put in jail," William "Widge" Devaney, a former assistant U.S. attorney in
New Jersey who is now a partner with the prominent law firm Baker McKenzie told
the press.
Devaney said he thought it was
"unlikely" Trump will end up in jail for contempt, because "it
gives him more of a platform and would "encourage exactly" what the
gag orders are trying to prevent.
And polls have been confirming his
prescience – giving the legal system pause.
But, said California trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani: "You've got
to do something if you're a judge. These violations are not inadvertent.
They're not gray areas. They're clear, black and white violations of these
orders."
After an interval of hemming and
hawing, Judge Erdogan... no, Aragorn... no, Engorgon
– well, you know – anyway, he heard the first Trump Next Generation witness,
select son Don Junior.
Don Junior is a serious man...
perhaps a felon, but serious. He sports
a serious beard. He has made speeches
and written a book, he’ll probably run for some office, someday. And probably win. So his testimony was
expected to be serious, even though it was the day after Halloween.
In an interview with Newsmax, reported upon
by its political polar opposite, GUK, Don Jr claimed the “mainstream media, the
people in [Washington] DC … want to throw Trump in jail for a thousand years
and/or the death penalty. Truly sick stuff, but this is why we fight.”
Actually Judge Urugay...
ah, to Anaxagoras with it... that man in black robes will be judge and jury
because this was, and remains, a bench trial, with no jury. (Guardian U.K., Attachments Twenty Three and
Twenty Four) Engoron is presiding over the case, and will be the
sole decider... which leads even a fair-minded turquoise voter to wonder if the
devil Don Senior might be... uh... sorta right about that witch hunting
thing? But Don Junior was also in the
wrong... because this is a civil trial, Trump will not be sent to prison if
found guilty – nor executed. He’ll just
lose a lot of money. “While he is not required to appear in court, he has on
several occasions, including for last week’s testimony by Michael Cohen, his
former fixer.”
But
Monday... All Saints’ Day was Junior’s
day to shine (or, at least, glower).
But, after a delay, he began testifying in the vein of a comedian,
hoping to win a gig as a latenite host (hint... Fox!)
rather than as a vain, feral Avenger. In
court, Trump Jr was polite and courteous after his testimony was delayed as
Trump’s lawyers quizzed earlier witnesses. “I should have worn makeup,” he joked
as photographers took his picture ahead of his testimony.
When
asked to slow down, the fast-talking Trump Jr said: “I apologize, your honor. I
moved to Florida but I kept the New York pace.”
Then,
his memory sort of failed. Pressed on
his role in creating the financial statements at the heart of the case, Trump
Jr said: “The accountants worked on it. That’s why we pay them.”
Donald
Trump Senior, denying denied all wrongdoing nor solicitation of “ill-gotten
gains” blasted the trial on social media. “Leave my children alone, Engoron. You are a disgrace to the legal profession!” he
wrote on social media on Wednesday morning – perhaps anticipating Nikki Haley’s
blowup against Ramalama at the debate which he passed
up.
Trump
attacked Engoron as a “political hack” in a post that
ended with the line: “WITCH HUNT!!! ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
The family took off All Souls’ Day (otherwise
November second, the Day of the Dead).
And then it was Eric’s turn. After
that spell of rest and respite over said Day of the Dead, the New York attorney
general’s office pressed
Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr. in tense exchanges this
week about their knowledge of and involvement with the financial documents at
the center of the $250 million lawsuit. The attorney general’s lawyers
presented evidence intended to challenge claims that the brothers were not
involved with the former president’s statements of financial condition.
Eric also blamed accountants and said he did
not recall any criminality. (CNN,
November 3rd, Attachment Twenty Five) His testimony spanned two more days,
and, on Friday, the network’s Dan Berman and Kristina Sgueglia
governed a timeline such as covered the plurality of Eric’s Day Two Testimony.
Assistant Attorney General Andrew
Amer questioned Eric Trump about Mar-A-Lago and it's
tax assessment with the municipality in Florida in 2021 as a commercial
property run as a social club — not a private residence like it was valued on
Trump’s personal financial statements.
Assistant Attorney General Andrew
Amer continued questioning Eric Trump Friday about his involvement in his
father’s financial statements that he signed for.
When Amer showed annual compliance
certificates that Eric Trump signed on behalf of his father in 2020 and 2021
for Deutsche Bank loans, the former president’s son said he stands by the
financial statements submitted.
“I believe everything in the
statements was accurate,” he said, adding that what Deutsche Bank did with the
statements was “within their purview.”
Amer asked Trump’s son if he
intended for the compliance certificate to be accurate when he submitted the
forms to Deutsche Bank.
“Yes, I think my father’s net
worth is far higher,” Eric Trump said.
“I would not sign something that
was not accurate,” he added. "I relied on our accounting office. I relied on
one of the biggest accounting firms in the country and I relied on a great
legal team, and when they gave me comfort that the statement was perfect, I was
more than happy to execute it.”
CBS
(November 3rd, Attachment Twenty Seven)
remarked that Eric
Trump reiterated his earlier testimony that “he relied on the Trump
Organization's accountants to prepare statements of financial condition, the
documents at the center of the attorney general's case. He also faced questions
about a $2 million severance package for Allen Weisselberg,
the Trump Organization's longtime chief financial officer who pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges
last year.”
In their respective testimony,
Eric and Donald Trump Jr. each sought to blame the Trump Organization's
accountants — both internal and external — for any inaccuracies that led to the
state's allegations of fraud.
As Thursday's testimony drew to a
close, the two teams of lawyers argued over whether a lawyer from the attorney
general's office was repeating questions to get the testimony they wanted.
But New York Attorney General
special counsel Andrew Amer said he had been "happy with" Eric
Trump's "great" testimony.
The New Republic threw a red challenge flag
down on Erik’s testimony that he had “never worked” on the Trump
Organization’s statement of financial condition and wasn’t aware of it until
the bank fraud trial “came to fruition,” the taller Trump brother admitted he
was in fact aware of it dating as far back as 2013.
The brothers’ testimony has
attempted to divert most of the responsibility regarding the faulty financial
statements onto the companies’ accounting team, including former CFO Allen Weisselberg, as well as their accounting
firm, Mazars USA.
After claiming that he had “never worked”
on the Trump Organization’s statement of financial condition and wasn’t aware
of it until the bank fraud trial “came to fruition,” the taller Trump brother
admitted he was in fact aware of it dating as far back as 2013.
The “gotcha” moment, NR contended,
has big implications for how the rest of this case will unfold. (Attachment Twenty Eight)
Eric’s
contradiction to his own deposition also shines a light on the prosecution’s
strategy, which has been to question his credibility without outright calling
him a liar. Essentially, Eric has already revealed that his claims of having no
knowledge were “at best, based on a very faulty memory and at worst,
constituted deliberate falsehoods,” reported NBC News.
Newsweek dismissed Eric’s
testimony as just a "march towards defeat." (November 4th,
Attachment Twenty Nine), citing former federal prosecutor
Renato Mariotti ‘s alleged testimony began a
"march towards defeat."
During an MSNBC appearance on
Friday, Mariotti was asked about his thoughts on Eric
Trump's testimony and what this could mean for the former president in the
case.
"I think they basically know they are headed towards
defeat. I really think the defeat was shown when Eric Trump pleaded the fifth
five hundred times in his deposition and at that point it could be held against
him. From then on it's really about a slow march
towards defeat for Trump in this particular lawsuit," Mariotti
said.
He
added that he believes Trump's defense will continue to try to shift the
narrative that they relied on accountants and lawyers to ensure the financial
statements were accurate.
"They
have to blame somebody and I will tell you, you can bet your bottom dollar that
the accountants and lawyers are not going to march in there and say it was all
their fault. I do think that's where they have to go and that's why they're
trying to shift the narrative. Trump, when he gets caught in one lie, he always
tries to pivot to another," Mariotti said.
“In
multiple courts,” seconded Time’s Brian Bennett (November 1, Attachent
Thirty) “Trump’s mouth catches up with him...”
While misleading and mouthing off
in court can bring on fines and the risk of a jail sentence, the Timeserver
declared, the persecution is fried catfish to the former President... and
catnip to his base... as the multiple court cases move forward... “charges that
he illegally tried to overturn election results in Georgia, fomented a violent
attempt to block the certification of the election on Jan. 6, refused to return
sensitive government secrets, fraudulently covered up hush money payments, and
(in the civil case) fudged the value of his properties to get better loan
terms.”
And that was putting it politely!
Tackling three of these cases
individually (Stormy and Mar-a-Lago deferred), Bennet’s overview found...
The
judge in the New York civil fraud trial (the dread Engoron)
found Trump not credible (i.e.
lying – DJI);
Trump’s
under a gag order in the Jan. 6 case (i.e. the Capitol riot.insurrection – DJI);
Trump’s
former lawyers admit to breaking the law in Georgia (two
of three now ratting him out – DJI).
The Time piece, furthermore, treats the
Colorado attempt to have Djonald DeNyial
denied a place on the 2024 ballots due to the 14th Amendment clause
barring Confederate officers from running in Yankee elections.
CNN’s takeaways from the civil trial
(November 3, Attachment Thirty One) focused on his
(adult) children’s testimony – in that all three allegedly conferred with Daddy
about his business deals and steals.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump
are co-defendants in the case, along with their father, the Trump Org., and
several company executives. Ivanka is
the generical “unindicted co-conspirator”.
CNN’s takeaways from the
testimonies included...
Eric Trump confronted with emails
showing his work on Trump’s finances...
Eric Trump saying
he doesn’t ‘focus on appraisals’...
Donald Trump Jr. says he relied on
accountants...
Judge Engoron
admonishes Trump lawyer Chris Kise over clerk’s
competency...
Donald Trump Jr. back on the stand
today...
The court denied Ivanka’s motion
for a stay in a filing Thursday night.
WashPost analyst resuscitated the
possibility that one or more of his civil or criminal judges could still toss
him in jail. (WashPost,
Attachent Thirty Two) “The question is whether one dares.”
Judge Engoron fined Trump twice, for a total of
$15,000, over his attacks on a law clerk. “The Trump team initially left a post
on his campaign website that violated the gag order. Then Trump made veiled
comments the judge ruled had referred to the clerk,” attacked a potential
witness, (his former attorney general William P. Barr) as “dumb,” “weak” and “gutless” on Truth Social
Sunday night and, has, throughout his political career, the Post-er posted:
“sought to exploit plausible deniability, sending coded messages to his base to say
things without explicitly saying them.”
Current and former Trump allies
seem to acknowledge where this could be headed. While appearing on Newsmax on
Tuesday, Trump lawyer Alina Habba was asked about his
potentially being jailed for violating gag orders. She insisted it is not
something his legal team had given much thought to, while offering the kind of
answer that suggests they had indeed. (She suggested
the Secret Service might prevent his jailing.)
Fox News host Jesse Watters on
Tuesday devoted a whole segment on the prospect of Trump being jailed, while
saying, “Do you think Donald Trump is going to respect a gag order? He does not
see a gag order as a threat. He sees it as a challenge.”
Former Trump White House lawyer Ty
Cobb on Monday outright predicted Trump would land in jail. Cobb said
on CNN, “Ultimately, I think he’ll spend a night or a weekend in jail.” He
added, “I think it’ll take that to stop him.”
“I would be extremely reluctant to
take a person who is a former president, the leading candidate of one of our
major parties, and put him in jail,” Obama administration attorney general Eric
Holder said. Judges likely will be too. But Trump, according to Post-man Aaron
Blake, “has a talent for forcing people into unavoidably horrible decisions
they would rather not have to make.”
“Perjury
Is on the Menu” Mary Trump told the New Republic (Attachment Thirty
Three), adding that cousin
Eric just lost the entire case “after he was caught lying in court about his
knowledge of the Trump Organization’s finances.”
“They lie so much, they can’t even
keep track of their own bullshit,” Mary Trump tweeted gleefully on Thursday
evening.
“Sounds like perjury is on today’s
menu.” She also predicted that Eric “basically just lost the entire case.”
These tweets occurred before the
death of her mother, Trump’s older sister.
The
fifth week of the New York fraud trial ended “smack in
the middle of a family affair and with another gag order for the combative
Trump team,” according to the liberals at GUK – who, perhaps, honored the
occasion by presenting their own list of five jurisprudential takeaways
circling the increasingly imprudent former President.
These
five things they alleged to have learned from the trial’s fraught fifth week
were...
The
Trump family’s strategy: blame game (in the case of the sons of Djonald, their lawyers and accountants)…
The
paper trail “is thicker for Eric Trump” than for Don Junior (as assistant prosecutor
Andrew Amer produced a blizzard of print, vocal and texted communications
between Eric and former
Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney…
Trump
Organization lenders lost out on an estimated $168m because of fudged financial
statements…
Patience
is wearing thin in the courtroom...
And Engoron also revealed his chambers had been
“inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails,
emails, letters and packages” since the trial began.
Djonald UnPyramidden and “Pharaoh” Menendez were not the only
politicians in hot places as the weather turned chilly.
There
was the inevitable (and seemingly invincible) George Santos, who survived a
House vote to expel him upon violation of 23 federal charges (Reuters, Attachment) when fewer than two-thirds of the
chamber supported the resolution, preserving Republicans’ narrow 221-212
majority.
“Republican
lawmakers from Santos’ state of New York said last month they would introduce a
resolution to expel Santos, but the move was delayed by weeks when the House
was leaderless following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker,” Reuters
detailed.
Finally,
on 25 October. when Republicans elected Mike Johnson (who has said he does not
support expelling Santos for being charged with a crime), to succeed McCarthy,
the process resumed.
The expulsion measure failed
179-213, with 24 Republicans voting for it and – in a surprising twist
– 31 Democrats voting against – one of whom one of whom... Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md. and a constitutional law professor in his
past life) wrote that it's "not shameful to resign" in response to
the letters that Santos wrote to his supporters. (Axios, Attachment Thirty Six)
Criminal charges charges against Santos, which also
include reporting a false $500,000 campaign loan, lying to the House about his
assets and raiding the bank accounts of those who helped him with donations is
scheduled for 9 September 2024, shortly before the elections that will
determine control of the White House and both congressional chambers.
Nevertheless,
Santos submitted to a “wide-ranging” interview with CNN’s Manu Raju and said he
would “absolutely” run in 2024 ,whether or not he was
expelled
“Nobody knew my biography. Nobody
opened my biography who voted for me in the campaign,” he said.
Referring to past
misrepresentations about his background, Santos said, “Nobody elected me
because I played volleyball or not. Nobody elected me because I graduated
college or not. People elected me because I said I’d come here to fight
the swamp, I’d come here to lower inflation, create more jobs, make life more
affordable, and the commitment to America,” he said.
New York Republicans expressed
confidence that House Republican holdouts will ultimately vote to expel Santos
after the next indignity... or perhaps the one after that reaches the House
Ethics Committee,
“At the end of the day. I suspect
the ethics report will prove and suggest that he is as bad as we think he is,”
Rep. Marc Molinaro said. “There just isn’t room for that kind of nonsense here
anymore.”
On the other side of the aisle Menendez − the influential chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee − and and his
then-girlfriend Nadine Arslanian joined an Egyptian intelligence
official, and an associate for dinner at a posh Washington steakhouse where the
Egyptians wanted help with weapons sales and financing - promising the future
Mrs. Menendez a low- or no-show job... later sweeten the pot with wads of cash
and gold bars that the Senator stuffed into his pockets.
Arslanian boldly cut to the
chase according to USA Today (Attachment Thirty Eight).
"What else can the love of my life do for you?" she asked.
“A member of
Congress swears an oath to the United States," said David Laufman, a former federal prosecutor and chief of
counter-intelligence for the Justice Department. "Their duty of loyalty,
without division or equivocation, is to the United States government, not to
serve the interests of foreign military or foreign intelligence services.”
Menendez and Arslanian were married in October 2020. Around 2022, Menendez sent his wife a news
article on pending military sales to Egypt worth about $2.5 billion. She
forwarded it to Hana with a message: "Bob had to sign off on this."
“When you find gold
bars stuffed in a mattress, the jokes write themselves. But our national
security isn’t funny, it’s often life or death,” said
fellow Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
The
House also, in a bipartisan 222-186, vote defeated a resolution to censure
congresswoman Rashida Tlaib after she spoke at a
rally that called for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Marjorie
Taylor Greene, the Republican Representative, introduced the resolution on 26
October, accusing Tlaib of “antisemitic activity,
sympathizing with terrorist organizations, and leading an insurrection at the
US Capitol Complex”.
And,
while the actors finally ended their strike, the UAW membership, as noted
above, rejected the contract worked out between the automakers and
egg-on-the-face President Shawn Fain.
(Yahoo Finance, Attachment Thirty Nine)
The UAW revealed
members at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant and Louisville Assembly Plant, where
Ford’s Super Duty trucks and full-size SUVs are assembled, voted down the tentative agreement by 54.5% and 50.4%
"no" votes, respectively. However, skilled
workers at both those plants overwhelmingly approved of the deal (65.8% and
76.7% respectively).
Local 598, which
represents GM’s Flint Truck assembly plant, voted 51.8% against the tentative deal. The Flint Assembly
plant employs 4,746 UAW workers and assembles trucks including the Chevrolet
Silverado HD pickup.
Finally, taking a
pause before diving into his upcoming meetings with China’s President Xi and
dealing with the potential gumment shutdown Friday,
President Joe did enjoy an inspiration moment at Arlington Cemetery.
My
fellow Americans, he began, on this day, 105 years ago, the Great War
ended. As news of peace reached the frontlines of France, a young
American solider sent a letter home to his parents in Missouri, and I — and
I’ll quote it. It said, “If only you all could see,” he wrote.
“Fighting stopped, lanterns shine in every window and door,” end of quote.
“For those who had fought in this war unlike any war the world had ever seen
before, it was a symbol — a reminder that as long as those who stand for
freedom, light will always triumph over the darkness.” (Whitehouse.gov... Attachment Forty)
“Today,”
he concluded, “we not only see that light of liberty; we live by it. And just
like our forebearers, it’s on all of us — all of us together –- to ask
ourselves what can we do, what we must do to keep that light burning, to keep
it shining in every window and door for generations to come.”
|
Our
Lesson: November 6th through November 12th, 2023 |
|
|
|
Monday, November 6, 2023 Dow:
34,096.86 |
Former
President Trump on the stand - hurling insults and insisting that
he did not overvalue his assets due to the fact that moneylenders cut him
slack because of his “brand”. Pundits
call his hatred of Judge Engoron “personal”. (See above) Hamas says civilian death toll in Gaza
tops 10,000 (4,000 of whom are children).
Israel disagrees, saying that some of these are terrorists. Israeli PM Netanyahu calls every civilian
death “a tragedy” but says that Hamas is using civilians as human
shields. The Israeli Defense Force
(IDF) claims to have “cut Gaza in half into North and South Gazaz” but the fighting goes on and America sends its
warships to prowl the coast of Lebanon to intimidate Hezbollah... terror
attacks, however, continue in both the northern part of Israel and in the
West Bank despite SecState Blinken’s
appeals. Alec Murdaugh
wants his murder conviction overturn so he can go out and kill again... and
he has a chance of doing this due to Becky the court clerk who chatted up
jurors to gather material for her “tell some” book “Behind The
Doors of Justice” to become a TV star and make money. Legal beagles say the chances of Al getting
a new trial are “a long shot.” |
|
|
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 Dow:
34,252.60 |
Election
2024 is one year away. Polls (IPSOS,
NY Times) show Trump far ahead of Biden, even further ahead of Republican
challengers... now down to five. Some
voters, however, say they would hold their nose and vote for President Joe if
Djonald UnChained were
convicted and chained, depriving
America of the fun of being governmed by a
prisoner. U.N. Sec. Gutierrez claims that Gaza is
now “a graveyard for children.” Pro-
and anti-Hamas mobs fight in the streets as anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic
terror threats and incidents spike. A 69 year old Jew is beaten to death by a protester with a
megaphone and police arrest an even older partisan for stabbing a six year
old Arab boy to death. SCOTUS follows up its greenlighting
committed and released psychotics buying assault weapons with their ruling
that domestic abusers have Second Amendment rights too. Survivors and relatives of victims protest
but the dead are silent. Producers and SAG/AFTRA near a tentative
deal that would rein in AI exploitation of actors’ images and Starbucks will
give $2/hr pay raises to its minwage
workers. |
|
|
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 Dow: 34,112.27 |
Democrats claim victory in yesterday’s elections, winning several
abortion battles and re-electing a donkey Governor in deep red Kentucky. But Elvis Presley’s cousin loses in
Mississippi. Meanwhile, Ivanka rats
out her Daddy in court, Daddy Trump reportedly “seethes” and five Republicans
hurl barbs at him and at each other in Miami.
(Above) Congress rebukes
pro-Palestinian (and Palestinian) Rashida Talib (D-Mi) for calling for the
destruction of Israel and promulgating “false narratives” as the war expands
and escalates... American bombers striking terrorists in Syria and Lebanon. The One Six crackdown rumbles
on as hundreds of police, FBI agents, dogs, drones (and, for all we know,
Mannix, Aquaman and Barney Fife) pursue a rioter
known as “Suspect 278.” He is
considered so MAGA-dangerous that authorities shut down the town of Helmette, New Jersey, order all residents to shelter in
place. An even more disgusting
criminal is the Colorado undertaker arrested for stockpiling 189 rotting
corpses in his funeral parlour, while a man in St.
Louis digs up his dead
grandmother. |
|
|
Thursday, November 9, 2023 Dow:
34,108.20 |
Anticipating a vote to settle, actors promote old, shelved streaming,
cinema and TV projects and scramble and scurry for new projects. Ryan Reynolds announces he will bring back
“Deadpool Three”. Under a barrage by Israel and
with the prospect of American intervention looming, Hamas now says it is open
to negotiating for the hostages – perhaps in a swap for Israeli “political
prisoners”. Netanyahu, Egypt, Jordan
and other humanitarian sorts sidestep the question of who will rule Gaza,
such as it remains, after Hamas... nobody really wants this territory or its people. The verdict is in... even tho’ both were televised on network channels, fewer
people watched the Country Music Awards, but fewer, still, watched the
Republican debate. Lainie Wilson won
five awards in Nashville while most talking heads agreed Nikki Haley was the
best of the five elephants onstage in Miami.
Girl power! “Femme à la montre”, a Picasso portrait of his secret lover, sells
for 139M at Sotheby’s
auction house while Pharrel’s designer handbab for Louis Vuitton retails for only one
million. Loser! |
|
|
Friday, November 10, 2023 Dow:
34,283.10 |
It’s Veterans’ Day Weekend... some closures today, more celebrations
tomorrow. Many words of wisdom, tears
from the Gold Star contingent, free pancakes and “thank you’s
for your service” but, as far as deeds go – active military and veterans were
ordered back into the kitchen to peel potatoes. It’s one week until the government shuts
down, freezing pay for the Pentagon as well as for Federal law enfocement, paper pushers and air traffic controllers
while Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Al) is showing American, sort of, strength by
refusing to allow military promotions until President Joe and the Democratic
Senate ban abortion (a dismal loser on Tuesday). Further, veterans, active
military and the National Guard are being denied medical benefits by VA
bureaucrats who say they are “milking the system.” Advocates are outraged,
but helpless. Horror movie “Five Nights at Freddys” butchers Barbie and takes box office crown...
Freddy Mac (the bankers) say mortgage rates are falling (7.75% to 7.5%) but
housing sales remain stagnant. The
Dow, however, laps it up like a vampire or mosquito sniffing a nice, tasty deadpool of blood. And, in a political horror
story for Democrats, purplish Sen. Joe Manchin (R-WV) says he’ll retire,
leading to an almost certain red state flip.
Worse, he’s promising to run for President on the No Labels party, which
liberals fear will just drain more votes from Biden and bring back Djonald UnAshamed. |
|
|
Saturday, November 11, 2023 Dow:
Closed |
Israel escalates attacks on Gaza including the bombing of hospitals
because, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) says, Hamas is hiding in tunnels
deep beneath the sub-sub-basements of hospitals and schools, While the humanitarians of the world
scold Israel, SecState Blinken
suggests more humanitarian pauses (which Netanyahu rejects) and President Joe
promises to negotiate with somebody... that is, after he finishes meeting
with China’s President Xi who, as ever, is watching and waiting. College football sinks deeper
into crisis mode as the NCAA bans #3 ranked Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for
sending secret agents out to steal enemy signs. Michigan defeats Penn State anyway. There’s more trouble for
Democrats, too, above and beyond Manchin.
The FBI is investigating the taffy in New York City, where Mayor Eric
Adams, who is being accused of being a Turkish secret agent. And former Senator Martha McSally shows off
Girl Power by fighting off a rapist in broad daylight in, of all places, Iowa!, and bopping him with a water bottle. Girl Power rules at the Grammies where Taylor Swift collects a bucket of nominations and) and in pro soccer where
Megan Rapinoe and Ali Krieger play their final games against each
other. The Recording Academy has
officially revealed the nominations for the 2024 GRAMMYs, which will take
place Sunday, Feb. 4, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. |
|
|
Sunday, November 12, 2023 Dow: Closed |
US military aircraft downed over waters off the coast of Lebanon and
the spin doctors can only say it was the result of a “mishap”. Speaker “Crusader” Johnson
releases a plan to default the defaulting by splitting various agencies up
into new kick-the-canlines... to January 19th
for some bureaus, February for others.
It garners rare bipartisan concensus –
everybody hates it. Republican “Crazy
Eights” want more money for a war on migrants at the southern border; Dems
want more for wars in the MidEast and Ukraine (increaseingly a G.O.P. no-no). Sunday talkshow
host John Karl touts his new book: “Tired of Winning” which alleges that Djonald UnHinged plotted with
My Pillow’s Mike Lindell, Q-Anon and Mo Brooks to declare the 2020 election
invalid and seize power until Brooks defected, earning Trump’s
dis-endorsement and 2022 election defeat. Congessmen
Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Jared Moskowitz (D-Fl) report on their trip to Israel
where they met with Bibi to discuss the hostages, although Lawler, speaking
of Hamas, said “we’re not dealing with the most rational people here.” Other talksters
(mostly all Demos and a few RINOs) said that President Joe was rapidly losing
support among black men, pro-lifers lost because they failed to offer
alternatives to abortion like (gumment funded)
childcare and maternal health, and the Democrats should plan a 2024 campaign
focusing on what America and the world would look like under Trump Two...
reiterating the slogan that they have to compare Biden to the “alternative,
not the Almighty.” |
|
|
Christmas is around the corner and shoppers… eschewing Thanksgiving even
as they chew their cheaper turkeys… are already starting to load up on cheap
gifts from China, sending the balance of payment chart reeling, A Note * the usually reliable debt
clock plastered an unremovable ad over some of its weekend entries, so a few categories are
slightly out of line. Wouldn’t have
changed the Dow-niness |
|
|
|
CHART of CATEGORIES
w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000 (REFLECTING…
approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013) See a further explanation
of categories here… Get thestreet.com for restaurant bnnkruptcies ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)
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SOCIAL
INDICES (40%)
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ACTS of MAN |
12% |
|
|
1371 |
|||||||
|
World Affairs |
3% |
450 |
10/9/23 |
+0.1% |
11/13/23 |
450.74 |
451.19 |
Europe
(maybe not Germany) joins Americans in celebrating Armistice Day. China repossesses three giant pandas from
the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington D.C. |
|||
|
War and terrorism |
2% |
300 |
10/30/23 |
-0.1% |
11/13/23 |
287.36 |
287.07 |
Gaza
hostage agreement under discussion... 240 including ten Americans for a
“humanitarian pause” and release of Hamas captives. U.N. Sec. Gutierrez joins various lobbies
in a chorus of impotence. |
|||
|
Politics |
3% |
450 |
10/30/23 |
-0.2% |
11/13/23 |
481.40 |
480.44 |
Djonald UnQuenched battles evil Engoron,
conjures up campaign cash and votes from his victimhood. (See above) Following condemnation by fellow
elephants (and the example of Hamas), Sen. Tommy Tuberville – while still
“standing up for the unborn” allows that he might be open to negotiations on his paralyzing our military to
the existential threat extent. R(etire)IC(haos): Senator Joe Manchin
(D-WVa) |
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|
Economics |
3% |
450 |
10/30/23 |
-0.3% |
11/13/23 |
429.17 |
427,88 |
WeWork
transitions to WeBroke. American Gambling Association reports $93B
in revenues from online sports and other contests; critics say they’re
exploiting children. Balance of trade
payment deficit soars as Black Friday (more Americans buying more cheap
Chinese and expensive Eurogadgets), |
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|
Crime |
1% |
150 |
10/30/23 |
+0.1% |
11/13/23 |
245.51 |
245.76 |
Three of
the four viral prison escapees are captured but the fourth (the only murderer
in the bushes) is still at large. CIAsshole accused of raping dozens of women. The usual white collar and red (blood)
collar criminals do their usual things. |
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|
ACTS of GOD |
(6%) |
|
|
||||||||
|
Environment/Weather |
3% |
450 |
10/30/23 |
-0.2% |
11/13/23 |
398.60 |
397.80 |
Climate
changer-ers declaim that October was the hottest
month ever on Planet Earth. Ever! Last week’s record heat replaced by a cold
snap, replaced by record heat again. |
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|
Disasters |
3% |
450 |
10/30/23 |
-0.2% |
11/13/23 |
422.56 |
421.71 |
Chemical
plant explodes and poisons the people of Shepherd, Texas. Down the way in Batesville, TX, a truck
full of illegal migrants crashes and kills eight. |
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|
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX |
(15%) |
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|
Science, Tech, Educ. |
4% |
600 |
10/30/23 |
+0.1% |
11/13/23 |
640.50 |
641.14 |
The
Magnificent Mister Musk debuts Grok, an AI app to compete with Chatbox for the highschool
cheaters’ demographic. Astronaut Frank
Borman joins Ken Mattingly in going beyond that frontier no living man has
gone before. |
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|
Equality (econ/social) |
4% |
600 |
10/30/23 |
+0.1% |
11/13/23 |
635.54 |
636.18 |
Tracy
Chapman becomes the first black female songwriter to win a CMA award after
Luke Combs covers her “Fast Car”.
Citigroup sued for discrimination against... Armenians? Those Azeri banker bastards! |
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|
Health |
4% |
600 |
10/30/23 |
-0.1% |
11/13/23 |
472.02 |
471.55 |
FDA
approves anti-obesity drug Zepbound for rich, fat
people (who can pay $1,000 for six doses), Doctors say syphilis is escalating –
even among newborns! |
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|
Freedom and Justice |
3% |
450 |
10/30/23 |
+0.1% |
11/13/23 |
469.63 |
470.10 |
America
celebrates Veterans’ Day... Bruce Springsteen and his ulcers come out to
celebrate at “Stand Up for Heroes” benefit concert. Chokehold Cop celebrates his acquittal in Elijah McClain death. |
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|
MISCELLANEOUS and TRANSIENT INDEX |
(7%) |
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|
|
|
||||||
|
Cultural incidents |
3% |
450 |
10/30/23 |
+0.2% |
11/13/23 |
509.58 |
510.60 |
Cinematic
elves off the shelf after SAG strike settled include “Dune Two” (actually
Three if you count the David Lynch fiasco), High school girls proxied into prosties by AI teen boys tell their stories. Lainie Wilson takes home five trophies from
the CMAwards while the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts Dolly,
Rage Against the Machine and quite a few others. |
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|
Misc. incidents |
4% |
450 |
10/30/23 |
+0.3% |
11/13/23 |
487.67 |
489.13 |
Liberal
celebrities rage against the Manchin.
People Magazine declares actor Patrick Dempsey the world’s sexiest
man. (Mad Vlad Putin gnashing his
teeth in rage?) Books of the week: Dan Senor claims that
Israelis are “the happiest people on Earth”.
Rachel Maddow’s “Prequel” claims that the world is turning... of
course... Fascist. (Or purple?) RIP: Mary, older sister of Donald Trump and
mother of his fiercest family critic. |
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The Don Jones Index
for the week of November 5th through November 12th, 2023 was DOWN 11.44 points
The Don Jones
Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman
and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator.
The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well
as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell,
environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna
Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The
Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial
“Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties
promulgating this and/or other such slanders.
Comments,
complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.
ATTACHMENT ONE – From the Washington Post
(Re-attached from last week’s DJI
as Attachment Nineteen)
THE
AUTOWORKERS’ BIG WIN EXPOSES THE ABSURDITY OF TRUMP’S POPULISM
Opinion by Greg
Sargent November 1, 2023 at 6:45 a.m.
EDT
“The billionaire class,”
Fain said recently, has “spent decades” convincing workers that “we are
weak,” that “it’s futile to fight” and that workers “should be grateful for the
scraps that they decide to give us.” Fain relentlessly argues that this strike
is about defeating an idea, that what’s good for the wealthy is
synonymous with what’s good for our country because it showers benefits on
everyone else.
But this is exactly what the
striking workers have been trying to address — and they appear to be
having some success. The New York Times reports that Ford and GM
workers at battery plants will be covered by the new UAW contracts, which
suggests that some EV-related gigs will be union jobs with benefits.
That’s why Fain says the UAW does not oppose the
green transition but merely wants a “just transition” for workers. By
contrast, in the Trump faction’s worldview, the green transition can only be
understood as a threat to them.
What’s more, you rarely, if ever,
hear Trump or Vance say this strike should succeed specifically to revitalize
unions and boost worker bargaining power. While some right-wing populist
thinkers do favor stronger unions, this is almost
never foregrounded by GOP lawmakers, as Sohrab Ahmari lamented to Vox’s Sean Illing.
Yet, this is the core of what
those on strike aspire to. As historian Erik Baker details, Fain’s vision is ultimately
about recapturing a sense that class-based organizing can make lasting change.
That spirit will be essential as UAW thinks about how to organize the nonunion
Tesla, a goal that’s critical to ensuring that EV-manufacturing can supply good
jobs long into the future.
Trump and Vance can do all the
pro-worker posturing they want. But in the end, the future envisioned by UAW
strikers is just not a future either of them seems to want.
(Note: Turns out not big
enough for the membership, who reject Shawn’s deal. See Attachment Thirty Nine.)
ATTACHMENT TWO – From Guardian U.K.
A2 trump on
stand x47 A2 X47
Elections from Virginia to New Jersey could offer early referendum on Biden
Voters could
strike blow for abortion rights in Ohio and choose governors, legislators and
mayors in off-year elections across US
David
Smith in Washington
Tue 7 Nov 2023 05.00 EST
Millions of
Americans go to the polls on Tuesday to vote in elections and ballot measures
that could offer an interim verdict on Joe Biden’s presidency a year out from
his bid to retain the White House.
Voters will
choose governors in Kentucky and Mississippi,
decide legislative control in New Jersey and Virginia and determine whether the
Ohio state constitution should protect abortion rights.
All 40 seats
in Virginia’s senate and all 100 seats in the state’s house of delegates are in play. Democrats are aiming to hold or widen
their 22-18 advantage in the senate and win a majority in the House, where
Republicans currently have a 52-48 edge.
Voters’
decisions could be affected by events on the national political stage, ranging
from Biden’s low approval ratings to the recent chaos in the House of
Representatives as Republicans struggled
for three weeks to elect a speaker.
“People say,
oh, it doesn’t matter because it’s national but people don’t make those
distinctions,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at
the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “National is state and state is
local. They’re measuring the worth of the parties, one against the other. I
don’t know if there’s any way we can measure it but
surely this Republican dysfunction in the US House is having some effect.”
Virginia is
the only state in the south that has not imposed further limits on abortion
since the supreme court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade
ruling last year. But Republicans have pledged to pass a 15-week abortion ban –
supported by the Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin
– if they gain control of the legislature.
Youngkin, who upset Democrats in 2021 by making
“parents’ rights” his signature issue, is not on the ballot this time but the
elections will be watched closely for clues to his future political prospects. Republican
donors opposed to Donald Trump could yet try to persuade Youngkin
to make a last-minute entry into the 2024 presidential primary.
Republicans
are also pursuing control of either legislative chamber in solidly
Democratic New Jersey, where all seats in the general assembly and
senate are up for grabs. Republicans have made headway since 2021, when they
flipped seven seats, and are pushing issues ranging from the economy to
parental rights in K-12 education.
Meanwhile, in
conservative Kentucky, the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, is running for
re-election against the Republican state attorney general, Daniel Cameron. Beshear’s campaign is touting his record of bringing jobs
to Kentucky, backing public schools, expanding healthcare access and setting
strict policies to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Cameron, who
is African American, has been touting his endorsement by Trump. He is focusing
on public safety, learning loss from school closures during the pandemic and
culture war issues championed by Republicans nationally, such as opposing
gender-affirming care for transgender children.
In
Mississippi, the Republican governor, Tate Reeves, is running for re-election
against the Democrat Brandon Presley, a former small-town mayor who is the
second cousin of singer Elvis Presley. While Reeves is leading in the polls in
the deeply conservative southern state, Presley has raised more money over the
course of the campaign.
In political
ads, Reeves has accused Presley of being backed by out-of-state liberals and
opposing bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth like the one
Reeves signed into law in February. Presley has said he does not support
gender-affirming care for minors, or transgender girls playing girls’ sports,
and is running on the promise of tax cuts and expanding Medicaid.
A debate
between the candidates last week proved an ill-tempered affair with Reeves and Presley
trading insults and talking over one another.
A ballot question in Ohio asks voters whether to enshrine abortion rights in
the state constitution, a move that would render moot a six-week limit signed
into law by the Republican governor, Mike DeWine. That law is on hold pending
litigation at the state supreme court. The vote is being closely watched as
Democrats across the country hope to add to their string of abortion-related
ballot measure wins in 2022.
Ohio voters will also answer a ballot question about whether the state should legalise marijuana for recreational use. If approved, the
statute would legalise, regulate and tax marijuana
for adults over 21, expanding on the currently legal medicinal use of cannabis.
Cities across the country will elect mayors on Tuesday. In Philadelphia,
Democrat Cherelle Parker and Republican David Oh, both former
city council members, are competing for an open seat as Democrat Jim Kenney
reaches the limit of his mayoral term. In Houston, a crowded field of
candidates led by the US congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and state senator
John Whitmire, both Democrats, are competing to succeed the term-limited mayor,
Sylvester Turner, also a Democrat.
A bad night
for Democrats might been seen as a grim reflection on Biden, who approval
rating stood at just 37% in a Gallup opinion poll last
week. Surveys suggest he is running neck and neck with Trump in a hypothetical
rematch.
|
ATTACHMENT THREE – From From the New York Times The
political potency of abortion rights proved more powerful than the drag of
President Biden’s approval ratings in Tuesday’s off-year elections, as
Ohioans enshrined a right to abortion in their state’s constitution, and
Democrats took control of both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly
while holding on to Kentucky’s governorship. The
night’s results showed the durability of Democrats’ political momentum since
the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right
to an abortion in 2022. It may also, at least temporarily, stem the latest
round of Democratic fretting from a series of polls demonstrating Mr. Biden’s
political weakness. Here are seven takeaways from Tuesday’s elections. |
|
Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times |
|
|
|
How Abortion Lifted
Democrats, and More Takeaways From Tuesday’s Elections |
|
President Biden is
unpopular, but the winning streak for his party and its policies has been
extended through another election night. |
|
Results from Kentucky |
|
Governor |
|
CANDIDATE |
PARTY |
VOTES |
PCT. |
||
|
Democrat |
693,370 |
52.5% |
||
|
Daniel Cameron |
Republican |
626,196 |
47.5% |
||
|
>95% of votes in * Incumbent |
|
Source: Election results and race
calls are from The Associated Press. Results as of 10:03 a.m. E.T. |
|
Results from
Mississippi |
|
Governor |
|
CANDIDATE |
PARTY |
VOTES |
PCT. |
||
|
Republican |
406,247 |
51.8% |
||
|
Brandon Presley |
Democrat |
367,562 |
46.9% |
||
|
Gwendolyn Gray |
Independent |
10,713 |
1.4% |
||
|
>95% of votes in * Incumbent |
|
Source: Election results and race
calls are from The Associated Press. Results as of 10:03 a.m. E.T. |
|
Results from Ohio |
|
Issue 1: Establish a
Constitutional Right to Abortion |
|
ANSWER |
VOTES |
PCT. |
||
|
2,186,962 |
56.6% |
||
|
No |
1,675,728 |
43.4% |
||
|
>95% of votes in |
|
Issue 2: Legalize
Marijuana |
|
ANSWER |
VOTES |
PCT. |
||
|
2,183,734 |
57.0% |
||
|
No |
1,649,384 |
43.0% |
||
|
>95% of votes in |
|
Source: Election results and race
calls are from The Associated Press. Results as of 10:03 a.m. E.T. |
ATTACHMENT FOUR – From The Hill
5 takeaways from a winning election night for Democrats
BY JULIA
MANCHESTER - 11/08/23 12:02 AM ET
Democrats saw a successful Election
Night on Tuesday, scoring wins in a number of competitive contests.
In deep-red Kentucky, Democratic
Gov. Andy Beshear sailed to reelection, while in
Virginia, Democrats flipped control of the House of Delegates and maintained
control of the state Senate.
Abortion rights advocates also saw
a number of wins, most notably in Ohio, where voters chose to enshrine abortion
protections.
Here are five takeaways from the
2023 election results:
Abortion
shows no signs of waning as top issue
Abortion proved to be a top issue
for voters Tuesday, more than a year after the overturning of Roe v.
Wade.
Abortion access advocates saw a
major victory in Ohio, where a majority of voters voted “yes” on Issue 1, a
ballot measure that enshrines abortion rights into the state’s constitution.
Ohio was one of several states
that rolled back abortion access following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The
state made headlines after a 10-year-old girl was denied an abortion in Ohio
and had to travel outside of the state to undergo the procedure.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Beshear
won his reelection bid after campaigning on expanding abortion access. Beshear’s
campaign released an ad showing a prosecutor criticizing the lack of exceptions
for rape and incest under Kentucky’s ban on the procedure. His GOP opponent,
Attorney General Daniel Cameron, said
during the campaign that he would approve legislation that would include rape
and incest as exceptions to the ban, but later appeared to tack to the right on
the issue.
And in Virginia, Democrats
maintained their majority in the state Senate and flipped the House of
Delegates by largely campaigning in competitive districts on the threat of an
abortion ban.
The victories for abortion rights advocates,
particularly in right-leaning Ohio and Kentucky, are a good sign for Democrats
going into 2024. A number of Democratic incumbents and candidates, including
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, have signaled that they plan to campaign on the issue
next year.
As for Republicans, Tuesday’s
results show that they have yet to find a successful message on abortion in a
post-Roe World. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R)
embraced a proposed 15-week ban on abortion with exceptions in the state, and a
number of down-ballot Republicans followed his lead. But the strategy does not
appear to have paid off.
In Virginia’s 16th state Senate
District, incumbent Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant (R) was unseated by Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg
(D). VanValkenburg painted Dunnavant as extreme on the issue, while Dunnavant
embraced Youngkin’s proposed ban and even ran an ad calling it
“reasonable.”
Democrats are
energized
Democrats benefited from high
turnout in Tuesday’s off-year elections. This was evident in the red states of
Ohio and Kentucky, where Democrats turned out in high numbers. In Ohio, the
Issue 1 ballot measure sparked an early voting surge that clearly benefited
Democrats. In Kentucky, Democrats benefited from strong turnout, while
Republicans struggled to bring out their base in what is typically a reliably
red state.
Strong Democratic turnout was
evident in Virginia as well; NBC News reported earlier Tuesday that Election
Day turnout at one precinct in Henrico County, in the greater Richmond area,
reached 1,200 people by the middle of the day. There are more than 3,200 people
registered to vote at that precinct, and 800 people cast their ballots during
the early voting period.
Democrats appear to have bet
correctly on using the threat of Republican-led abortion bans in various states
as a means to drive out the base and appeal to independent voters as
well.
Beshear is a
rising star for Democrats
Beshear emerged as the biggest
star of the night, proving that a Democrat could win in a deep-red state. He
outperformed Biden, who lost Kentucky in 2020, and even improved his own
margins from 2019.
At 45 years old, Beshear is one of
the younger national faces of the Democratic Party and could be floated for
other offices in the future.
Beshear also provided a blueprint
for Democrats to win in red states by running a localized campaign and focusing
on kitchen table issues.
“Tonight, Kentucky made a choice,
a choice not to move to the right or to the left but to move forward for every
single family,” Beshear said in remarks from his campaign’s victory
party. “A choice to reject ‘team R’ or ‘team D’ and to state clearly that
we are one ‘team Kentucky.'”
Beshear has also provided
Democrats running in 2024 with a potential strategy on how to campaign in the
shadow of an incumbent Democratic president with low approval ratings.
Youngkin’s
brand dealt a blow
Youngkin threw himself on the line
for Republican candidates in Virginia, but his efforts were not enough to stop
Democrats from flipping the House of Delegates and maintaining their control of
the state Senate.
The governor got involved in
Republican legislative primaries earlier this year to ensure that electable
candidates made it to the general election. Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC
also played a major fundraising role for Republicans, he even appeared in
several ads for Republican candidates and joined them on the campaign leading
up to Election Day. Youngkin also pushed for Republicans to embrace early and
mail-in voting in an effort to boost turnout.
Tuesday’s election results in
Virginia are a sharp reversal from Youngkin’s own election to the governor’s
mansion in 2021, which also saw Republicans win control of the House of
Delegates. Those elections catapulted Youngkin to the national stage, with many
Republicans looking to the governor as the future of their party.
Not all hope is lost for Youngkin,
by any means. The governor still enjoys high approval ratings in Virginia. A
Roanoke College poll released in September showed Youngkin’s approval rating
among Virginians at 51 percent.
Questions
remain about Biden’s strength
President Biden and his allies
were certainly feeling enthusiastic following Tuesday’s election night
results.
“Across the country tonight, democracy
won and MAGA lost. Voters vote. Polls don’t. Now let’s go win next year,” read
one tweet from Biden’s campaign account on X, the website formerly known as
Twitter.
But Biden is still being dogged by
questions about his electoral strength heading into a possible rematch with
former President Trump. Just hours before the election results trickled in,
a CNN poll was released showing Trump leading Biden 49
percent to 45 percent among registered voters. A New York Times and Siena College poll released Monday
showed Trump leading Biden in the critical swing states of Arizona, Georgia,
Nevada, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Significantly, Biden wasn’t
front-and-center in a lot of Tuesday’s races. The president rolled out endorsements
in Virginia’s state Legislature races but didn’t campaign in any of the
country’s off-year elections this this year. In Kentucky, Cameron and
Republicans worked to tie Beshear to Biden, and while Beshear did not run away
from Biden, he did not run toward him either.
Biden and his team will work to
use Tuesday’s Democratic victories to their advantage — but it’s unclear
whether voters will ultimately buy that.
ATTACHMENT FIVE – From Fox
2023 Election Fallout: 2024 rivals DeSantis, Haley, Christie blame
Trump for GOP's rough night
Nikki Haley's
campaign charges that 'Trump is a loser' as they blame the former president for
the disappointing GOP results in the 2023 elections
Published November 8, 2023
11:27am EST
MIAMI – A
dismal night for Republicans on Election Day 2023 is giving some of former President Donald
Trump's rivals fresh ammunition to target the commanding
front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.
The disappointing
results — which included Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear winning re-election in
red-state Kentucky; Democrats winning total control of the state legislature in
Virginia, expanding their legislative majorities in New Jersey and winning a
state Supreme Court seat in battleground Pennsylvania; and the convincing
victory in Ohio of a referendum that enshrined abortion rights in the state's
constitution — follow similar results in the 2022 midterm elections, when an
expected red wave never materialized.
"Last
night was a sweeping loss for republicans. It was eerily similar to last
November, when the anticipated ‘red wave’ never came," James Uthmeier, who
manages Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential
campaign, said in a social media post.
The comment
was a clear dig at Trump, who was heavily criticized by many in the GOP
following last year's midterms, as a bunch of high-profile Trump-backed
candidates went down to defeat, arguably costing Republicans control of the
Senate, a larger House majority and control of a handful of governorships.
Pointing to
DeSantis' convincingly gubernatorial re-election victory last year, Uthmeier
emphasized, "RonDeSantis won by 20 points and turned the swing state of
Florida solid red. We need a new leader that can win again for America."
YOUNGKIN FALLS FAR SHORT IN HIS MISSION FOR TOTAL GOP CONTROL IN VIRGINIA
The campaign
of former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley —
who is battling DeSantis for a distant second place to Trump in the primary
fight — argued in a memo Wednesday that "Trump is a loser."
"Republicans
suffered big losses in the 2022 midterms, the pattern continues one year later.
Whether it’s a purple state like Virginia, a leaning red state like Ohio, or a
deep red state like Kentucky, the election results last night were bad for
Republicans," the memo states.
TRUMP TO LAND BIG ENDORSEMENT AT RALLY TO COUNTERPROGRAM THIRD GOP
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Haley's
campaign argued that "we all know that Donald Trump struggles against Joe
Biden in 2024, while Nikki Haley easily defeats Biden. In fact, Haley is the
only candidate to lead Biden outside of the margin of error in a recent CNN
poll."
Another Trump
rival, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, specifically blasted the former president for
the defeat of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who lost to Democratic
Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday.
Cameron, a
protégé of longtime Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, attributed
his victory earlier this year in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary
to Trump's backing. He said at the time that "the Trump culture of winning
is alive and well in Kentucky." Cameron also highlighted the former
president in his ads.
"Daniel
Cameron was a rising star of the Republican Party until he decided to throw his
lot in with Donald Trump. I mean, let's face it, Donald Trump is political and electoral poison down
ballot," said Christie, a one-time Trump ally who has become a very
vocal critic of the former president.
"Daniel
Cameron made a huge mistake by embracing Donald Trump and selling his soul to
him, that's what he did and the voters of Kentucky, a very red state,"
Christie said.
Responding to
Christie's jabs, the Trump campaign argued that "Cameron was never able to
shake the perception of being a McConnell acolyte, which depressed Republican
turnout."
And they
noted that "Kentucky has elected only 3 Republican Governors since the end
of World War 2."
The attacks
against Trump come hours before DeSantis, Haley and Christie join Sen. Tim
Scott of South Carolina and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on the stage
in Miami at the third Republican presidential primary debate.
Trump is
skipping the third GOP primary debate in a row and instead will hold a
competing rally just a few miles away, in Hialeah, Florida.
Paul
Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
ATTACHMENT SIX – From the AP
Ohio voters enshrine abortion access in constitution in latest
statewide win for reproductive rights
It was a busy election night
across America on Tuesday, with voters deciding on governors, mayors and
reproductive rights. (Nov. 8)
BY JULIE
CARR SMYTH Updated 11:31 PM EST, November 7,
2023
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters
approved a constitutional amendment on Tuesday that ensures access to abortion
and other forms of reproductive health care, the latest victory for abortion
rights supporters since the U.S.
Supreme Court overturned
Roe v. Wade last year.
Ohio became the seventh state
where voters decided to protect abortion access after the landmark ruling and
was the only
state to
consider a statewide abortion rights question this year.
“The future is bright, and tonight
we can celebrate this win for bodily autonomy and reproductive rights,” Lauren Blauvelt,
co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, which led support for the
amendment, told a jubilant crowd of supporters.
What to know
about Tuesday’s elections
§
Key
issues: Democrats got more evidence that they can win races centered on
the national
debate over abortion.
Abortion rights supporters won an Ohio
ballot measure and the
Democratic governor
of Kentucky, Andy
Beshear, held onto his office by campaigning on reproductive rights.
§
Historic
firsts: Former Biden White House aide Gabe Amo became the
first Black member of Congress from Rhode Island after winning a special
election. Democrat Cherelle Parker was elected as Philadelphia’s
first female mayor.
§
Looking to
2024: It was a good
night for Democrats,
but none of the races were an up-or-down decision on President Joe Biden, or
former President Donald Trump.
§
Up
next: It’s time for the third Republican presidential debate. Here’s
what to know if you
want to tune in Wednesday night.
The outcome of the intense,
off-year election could
be a bellwether
for 2024, when
Democrats hope the issue will energize their voters and help President Joe
Biden keep the White House. Voters in Arizona, Missouri and elsewhere are expected
to vote on similar protections next year.
Heather Williams, interim
president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works to
elect Democrats to state legislatures, said the vote in favor of abortion
rights was a “huge victory.”
“Ohio’s resounding support for this
constitutional amendment reaffirms Democratic priorities and sends a strong
message to the state GOP that reproductive rights are non-negotiable,” she said
in a statement.
President Joe Biden and Vice
President Kamala Harris issued statements celebrating the amendment’s win, emphasizing
that attempts to ban or severely restrict abortion represent a minority view
across the country. Harris hinted at how the issue would likely be central to
Democrats’ campaigning next year for Congress and the presidency, saying
“extremists are pushing for a national abortion ban that would criminalize
reproductive health care in every single state in our nation.”
Ohio’s constitutional amendment,
on the ballot as Issue 1, included some of the most protective language for
abortion access of any statewide ballot initiative since the Supreme Court’s
ruling. Opponents had argued that the
amendment would threaten parental
rights, allow
unrestricted gender surgeries for minors and revive “partial
birth” abortions,
which are federally banned.
Public
polling shows about two-thirds of
Americans say abortion should generally be legal in the earliest stages of
pregnancy, a sentiment that has been underscored in both Democratic
and deeply Republican states since the justices overturned Roe in
June 2022.
Before the Ohio vote, statewide
initiatives in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont had
either affirmed abortion access or turned back attempts to undermine the right.
Voter turnout for Ohio’s
amendment, including
early voting, was robust
for an off-year election. Issue 1’s approval will all but certainly undo a 2019
state law passed by Republicans that bans most abortions after fetal cardiac
activity is detected, with no exceptions for rape and incest. That law,
currently on hold because of court challenges,
is one of roughly two dozen restrictions on abortion the Ohio Legislature has
passed in recent years.
Republicans remained defiant in
the wake of Tuesday’s vote. Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens said Issue 1’s
approval “is not the end of the conversation.”
“As a 100% pro-life conservative,
I remain steadfastly committed to protecting life, and that commitment is
unwavering,” Stephens said. “The Legislature has multiple paths that we will
explore to continue to protect innocent life.”
Previously, state Senate President
Matt Huffman, a Republican, has suggested that lawmakers could come back with
another proposed amendment next year that would undo Issue 1, although they
would have only a six-week window after Election Day to get it on the 2024
primary ballot.
Issue 1 specifically declared an
individual’s right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,”
including birth control, fertility treatments, miscarriage and abortion.
It allowed the state to regulate
the procedure after fetal viability, as long as exceptions were provided for
cases in which a doctor determined the “life or health” of the woman was at
risk. Viability was defined as the point when the fetus had “a significant
likelihood of survival” outside the womb, with reasonable interventions.
Anti-abortion groups, with the
help of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, tested a variety
of messages to try
to defeat the amendment, primarily focusing on the idea that the proposal was
too extreme for the state. The supporters’ campaign centered on a message of
keeping government out of families’ private affairs.
The latest vote followed an August
special election called by the Republican-controlled Legislature that was aimed
at making future constitutional changes harder to pass by increasing the
threshold from a simple majority vote to 60%. That proposal was aimed in part
at undermining the abortion-rights measure decided Tuesday.
Voters overwhelmingly
defeated that
special election question, setting the stage for the high-stakes fall abortion
campaign.
ATTACHMENT SEVEN – From
the
AP
Ohio votes to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use, becoming
24th state to do so
BY JULIE CARR SMYTH Updated 11:30 PM EST, November 7, 2023
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters
approved a measure legalizing recreational marijuana on Tuesday, defying
Republican legislative leaders who had failed to pass the proposed law.
Passage of Issue 2 makes Ohio the
24th state to allow adult cannabis use for non-medical purposes.
“Marijuana is no longer a
controversial issue,” said Tom Haren, spokesman for the Coalition to Regulate
Marijuana Like Alcohol. “Ohioans demonstrated this by passing State Issue 2 in
a landslide. Ohioans are being extremely clear on the future they want for our
state: adult-use marijuana legal and regulated.”
The new law will allow adults 21
and over to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and to grow plants at
home. A 10% tax will be imposed on purchases, to be spent on administrative
costs, addiction treatment, municipalities with dispensaries and social equity
and jobs programs supporting the industry itself.
The election’s outcome represents
a blow to GOP lawmakers, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and business and
manufacturing organizations concerned about its impact on workplace and traffic
safety.
But as a citizen-initiated
statute, the law is subject to change. Republicans who remain opposed to it in
the Legislature are free to make tweaks to the law — or even repeal it, though
the political stakes are higher now that the voters have approved it.
Among concerns raised by opponents
that lawmakers may revisit is the measure’s tax structure, which earmarks none
of the earnings for Ohio counties that administer social services programs
directed at drug use, addiction and other issues that could rise due to Issue
2’s passage.
“This fight is not over,” Smart Approaches to
Marijuana Action President Kevin Sabet said in a statement. He called on state
lawmakers to eliminate provisions of Issue 2 that allow for commercial sales,
advertising and production, at a minimum.
Republican Ohio Senate President
Matt Huffman said lawmakers may also reconsider “questionable language”
regarding limits on THC, the compound that gives marijuana its high.
“This statute was written by the
marijuana industry and should not be treated as a cash grab for their cash crop
at the expense of a state trying to emerge from the opioid epidemic,” he said
in a text sent by his spokesperson.
For the Coalition to Regulate
Marijuana Like Alcohol, voter approval marked the culmination of the proposal’s
yearslong fight
to become law.
GOP Secretary of State Frank
LaRose first submitted petitions to the Ohio General Assembly on behalf of the
coalition in January 2022, triggering a four-month countdown for lawmakers to
act. Republican legislative leaders didn’t, and lawmakers asserted the group’s
petitions arrived too late for 2022 ballots.
A lawsuit
and settlement ensued, under which the group agreed to wait until
this year.
Scott Milburn, spokesperson for
the opposition campaign Protect Ohio Workers and Families, called Tuesday’s
result disappointing. He said the debate now shifts to the Statehouse.
“This ticking time bomb crafted in
secret by a Columbus law firm will now be cracked open by the Legislature in
the full light of day so they can defuse it in an open, public process before
it blows up in Ohio’s face,” he said in a statement.
LeafLink, a large wholesale
cannabis marketplace, commended Ohio residents on approving Issue 2 and urged
lawmakers to promptly enact the law as passed.
“This vote presents a tremendous
opportunity for the state where legal adult-use sales are projected to exceed
$1 billion annually,” Policy Director Rodney Holcombe said in a statement.
“This move puts Ohio in league with 23 other states that have taken this
significant stride forward. We have witnessed firsthand the positive impact of
legalized cannabis, including job creation, tax revenue for vital government
services and unique business opportunities for entrepreneurs.”
ATTACHMENT EIGHT – From
CBS
The ballot issues for Election Day 2023 with the highest stakes across
U.S. voting
UPDATED ON: NOVEMBER 7, 2023 /
9:57 PM EST / CBS NEWS
Voters in five states took up ballot
measures in the 2023 elections Tuesday, weighing in on issues including
abortion, marijuana legalization and abolishing wealth taxes.
Perhaps the most closely watched
ballot measure was Ohio's Issue 1, on guaranteeing abortion access to women in
the state, and it was projected to pass Tuesday night.
Here are some of the top ballot
measures to watch.
Ohio Issue 1:
Abortion access
Ohioans voted on whether to amend
Ohio's Constitution to enshrine abortion rights in state law, which appears on
the ballot as Issue 1. A "yes" vote would amend the state
Constitution, while a "no" vote would reject the amendment and keep
the status quo. The measure was projected to pass Tuesday night.
In Ohio, abortion is legal until
22 weeks, although Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, signed a bill into law in 2019 that
outlaws abortions once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, usually at about
six weeks into a pregnancy, without exceptions for rape or incest. The new law
has been blocked by state courts while litigation continues.
Ohio is one of
several states that put abortion protections on the ballot after the Supreme
Court overturned the federal right to an abortion with its decision in
Roe v. Wade.
If the final results show the
measure won a simple majority of votes, it will become law 30 days after the
election.
Last year, Kansas voters rejected a ballot measure that would
have eliminated abortion protections from the state Constitution.
Ohio Issue 2:
Marijuana legalization
CBS News projected Tuesday night
that Ohio's Issue 2, on legalizing recreational marijuana, will also pass. The
issue allows adults over 21 to legally purchase, possess and grow marijuana for
recreational use.
The measure would allow eligible
adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana at a
time, and sales would be taxed at 10%. The measure would also allow Ohio
residents to keep up to six cannabis plants.
A vote against the measure would
mean marijuana would remain illegal in the state.
Issue 2, if the final results
verify Issue 2's passage, it would go into effect 30 days after the
election.
Colorado
Proposition II: Excess nicotine taxes for preschools
A ballot measure in Colorado,
Proposition II, would allow the state to keep any revenue that exceeds official
projections from tax increases on tobacco, cigarettes and nicotine, and require
Colorado officials to spend those funds on preschool education. If the measure
is not approved, the state must refund excess revenue to wholesalers and
distributors.
Maine
Question 2: Expanding ban on foreign spending in elections
Foreign spending is already
prohibited in federal, state and local elections, but a Maine initiative would
expand the ban.
The ballot measure would prohibit
foreign governments as well as entities with at least 5% foreign government ownership
or control from spending money to influence candidates or ballot
measures.
Federal law doesn't prohibit
foreign nationals from donating related to ballot measures.
The measure also directs TV,
radio, print and online news organizations to establish policies to prevent
publishing communications where foreign government-influenced entities have
illegally spent money.
If it becomes law, violating the
prohibition would be a crime punishable by a $5,000 fine, or double the amount
of the contribution, whichever is greater.
Maine
Question 8: Removing bar against voting by some with mental illness
Another Maine ballot measure would
remove a constitutional provision that a federal court has already found
unconstitutional, a state provision barring people who are placed under
guardianship because of a mental illness from voting.
A federal court in 2001 found
Maine's constitutional provision violated the Constitution's due process and
the equal protection clauses. Amendments to make voting available to people
under guardianships for mental illness have been on the ballot in Maine before,
but not since 2000. And the public's understanding of and perspective on mental
illness has shifted significantly in the last 23 years.
Texas
Proposition 3: Banning wealth taxes
This Texas measure supports
amending the state Constitution to prohibit the Texas Legislature from enacting
a tax on a person's wealth or net worth in the future. Such a tax is highly
unlikely in the near future, since Republicans control both chambers of the
Legislature, as well as the governor's mansion.
"The constitutional amendment
prohibiting the imposition of an individual wealth or net worth tax, including
a tax on the difference between the assets and liabilities of an individual or
family," the title of the ballot measure reads.
Texas
Proposition 4: Raising the homestead tax exemption
Another Texas ballot measure would
amend the state's constitution to increase the homestead tax exemption for
homeowners from $40,000 to $100,000 for their primary residence.
Currently, homeowners may deduct
$40,000 from the appraised value of the home to calculate the homeowner's state
tax burden. This measure would increase that figure to $100,000, in light of
soaring home prices in Texas in recent years.
The measure would also allow the
Legislature to limit the annual appraisal increase on non-homestead properties.
Texas
Proposition 12: Eliminating the Galveston County treasurer
One of the more unusual statewide
ballot measures is Prop. 12, which asks all Texas voters whether they support
an amendment to the state Constitution to abolish the position of Galveston
County treasurer.
In fact, it's the Galveston County
treasurer himself, Hank Dugie, who is pushing the measure, meaning he's seeking
a constitutional amendment to eliminate his own job. Dugie campaigned for
office — and won — on getting rid of the position. He argues that his job is
redundant, that other departments can easily absorb the duties of treasurer,
and taxpayers should not have to pay his salary of $117,260.
Dugie points out on his website
that this is not the first time Texas has voted to abolish the county
treasurer's job — if Prop. 12 succeeds, Galveston will be the 10th county in
the state to get rid of its treasurer.
The amendment would authorize the
county to choose someone else or another county official to fulfill the duties
of treasurer.
ATTACHMENT NINE – From
the Daily Beast
Fox News Left Shell Shocked by Dems’ Election Night Romp
‘EPIC FAILURE’
Election night 2023 was a GOP
disaster, and Fox News is pissed—killing off Youngkin’s candidacy before it
existed and telling Republicans to set aside their abortion fixation.
Justin Baragona Updated Nov. 08, 2023 3:50PM
EST / Published Nov. 08, 2023 3:15PM EST
A year after promising viewers a “red tsunami” in the 2022 midterms, only to be
left with egg on their faces after the GOP drastically underperformed, Fox News
was once again wondering what went wrong after Democrats romped to victory in
statewide elections on Tuesday night.
Despite recent polls showing President
Joe Biden deeply underwater with voters and even losing to
Donald Trump in several battleground states, the Democratic incumbent
governor easily won victory over his MAGA-endorsed
opponent in deep-red Kentucky. And over in Ohio, a state Trump won by eight
points in 2020, voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment
ensuring access to abortion care in the state’s constitution.
The continued drag that
undoing Roe v. Wade has had on the GOP was especially apparent
in Virginia, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin had promised to implement a 15-week
abortion ban if the GOP was able to gain unified control over the state’s
General Assembly. Instead, not only were Youngkin’s hopes of a Republican
sweep dashed, but the Democrats now control both chambers.
Youngkin Bet on a ‘Less
Extreme’ Abortion Ban and Lost
Youngkin’s face-plant in Virginia,
along with the results in Ohio and Kentucky, left Fox News in a state of shock,
huffing so-called “copium” as they desperately searched for
answers. In the end, two things were clear at the conservative cable giant by
Wednesday morning: Youngkin was no longer presidential material, and it was
time for the GOP to learn to love abortion.
With the results pouring in while
Fox News star (and chief Republican cheerleader) Sean Hannity was on the air, conservative
viewers saw in real-time that it was a bad night for the GOP and its agenda.
While the network had spent the
past two days hyping up Biden’s bad poll numbers to lay the ground for Republican
victories on election night, a morose Hannity opened his 9 p.m. show by
informing viewers that Fox News had already projected that Kentucky Gov. Andy
Beshear had defeated GOP candidate Daniel Cameron. A short time later, he was
also tasked with announcing that the Ohio abortion rights measure had passed.
Throughout the rest of Hannity’s broadcast, the one-time
Trump White House shadow chief of staff huddled with his right-wing Fox
colleagues to figure out what the GOP could do to actually win elections in a
post-Roe environment.
“If we’re really going to be
honest about this, and I consider myself pro-life, but I understand that’s not
where the country is,” Hannity conceded, adding: “I have to believe that is an
indication that the women in America, suburban moms, want it probably legal and
rare and probably earlier than at the point of viability.” (Following the GOP’s
defeat in the 2012 presidential election, Hannity famously suggested the party should become pro-immigrant in
order to compete. That didn’t last long.)
Hannity also groused that
Republicans’ push to ban abortion in states across the country, as well as the
reversal of the federal right to abortion, meant that “Democrats are trying to
scare women into thinking Republicans don’t want abortion legal under any
circumstances.”
Former Trump White House press
secretary and current Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany,
meanwhile, suggested that this was all a matter of messaging. Saying that the
GOP should “not just be a pro-baby party,” she called on the party to propose
more “pro-mother” bills to appeal to women voters.
“We need a national strategy.
Tomorrow, I want the House of Representatives passing legislation for men to
pay women child support from the moment of conception, legislation to make the
child tax credit apply to the unborn, legislation for women to have access to
the supplemental food and nutrition program up to two years after childbirth,”
she demanded. “These are things that could be done today that will make a
difference! But until we own this issue as a party, we will lose again, and
again, and again.”
While the other cable news
networks stuck with live special coverage for the rest of the evening, Fox News
decided that its audience needed a break from the deflating electoral results
for conservatives. After Hannity signed off at 10 p.m., Fox aired its regularly
scheduled broadcast of “comedy” show Gutfeld!, which was pre-taped
and didn’t make any mention of the elections.
The following morning, it was also
clear that Democrats had swept in Virginia, prompting the crew of Fox’s morning
flagship show to actively bury Youngkin as a possible 2024 alternative to
Trump. At the same time, the denizens of Fox & Friends also
urged the GOP to figure out a way to get past the abortion issue.
“Ever since Roe was
overturned, pretty much every time the Democrats have run on abortion, they
have won, and was last night a harbinger for 2024? Absolutely,” Fox
& Friends co-host Steve Doocy argued.
Meanwhile, Doocy’s colleague
Ainsley Earhardt, an ardent Christian conservative, went even further in
telling Republicans that they should set aside their anti-abortion principles
to win elections and nakedly gain more power.
“Republicans need to look at all
of these numbers, and really think about what’s more important. Yes, most
people that are Republicans are probably pro-life,” she stated. “And we love our babies. And I love
being a mother. But what’s most important? Republicans taking over. And
Republicans being able to keep our country!”
Co-host Lawrence Jones added that
most voters don’t approve of full abortion bans with no exceptions, urging
Republicans to “talk directly to the people” and “give and take on some
issues.”
The biggest takeaway on Wednesday
morning, though, was that Fox News wanted it known that they were pulling the
plug on Youngkin 2024 before it ever began.
The Virginia governor, whose
successful gubernatorial bid was heavily boosted by Fox, had been encouraged earlier this year by
network founder Rupert Murdoch to launch a last-minute presidential bid.
Murdoch’s other media entities had already helped lay the groundwork for a
possible White House run while he kept the idea afloat, especially since the
other non-Trump candidates had yet to seriously contend with the ex-president.
“What an epic failure by Governor
Youngkin. It’s a huge loss for him,” Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade fumed, adding that this had
destroyed any chance of him running for president in 2024 and “definitely ’28.”
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy also delivered the message that
Youngkin was toast. During a report on Fox & Friends, the
younger Doocy said that Tuesday night’s results are “potentially lethal to this
theory that Youngkin could ride a red wave in Richmond to a last-minute
presidential campaign as a dark horse Trump alternative in 2024.”
Making it even more bittersweet
for Youngkin: Fox & Friends had broadcasted live from a
Virginia diner the previous morning, looking to gin up support for Youngkin
amid his push for a GOP-held legislature to help pass his conservative agenda.
Throughout the rest of Fox’s
morning shows, the network’s personalities continued to pound home the
narrative that Youngkin has become damaged goods.
“The Virginia state house will be
fully under Democrat control,” anchor Harris Faulkner noted. “Youngkin was
saying he wanted that not to happen. He wanted one side to flip. The whole
Senate [is] up for grabs. None of that happened. That will prevent state
Republicans from passing new abortion restrictions.”
It didn’t take long for Younkin to
hear that siren call and acquiesce, telling reporters on Wednesday that he’s “not going anywhere” while finally closing
the door on the 2024 run.
ATTACHMENT TEN – From
Salon
“Trying to scare women”: Fox News struggles to cope after brutal
election night for G.O.P.
And over on
Newsmax, Rick Santorum lamented that “pure democracies are not the way to run a
country”
By IGOR DERYSH
Senior News Editor
PUBLISHED
NOVEMBER 8, 2023 9:01AM (EST)
Abortion rights on Tuesday helped
fuel a series of Democratic election victories in key states after the Supreme
Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Democrats placed abortion
rights at the center of their campaigns and spent
tens of millions highlighting Republican support for abortion bans in
the off-year election and picked up major wins in those elections.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who
criticized his Trump-endorsed Republican opponent Daniel Cameron’s
anti-abortion views, won re-election. Democrats won control of both chambers of
the Virginia state legislature after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and GOP
candidates pushed for new abortion limits. Democrat Dan McCaffery won a seat on
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, preserving the Democrats’ 5-2 majority, in a
race that also focused heavily on abortion rights.
Voters in Ohio also overwhelmingly approved a
Democratic-backed ballot measure establishing a right to abortion in the State
Constitution.
Meanwhile, anti-abortion Democrat
Brandon Presley underperformed in Mississippi’s gubernatorial election, losing
to incumbent Republican Tate Reeves.
Voters aren't fooled by Republican lies on abortion — and Democrats are
benefiting at the ballot box
Conservatives on Fox News
struggled to cope with the abortion-related losses.
“If we’re really gonna honest about
this – and I consider myself pro-life, but I understand that’s not where the
country is – I would say first trimester, 15 weeks seems to be where the
country is,” host Sean Hannity said Tuesday night while discussing the Ohio
results. “And these issues will be decided by the states.”
Hannity pointed to earlier
abortion-related losses in other states, calling it an “indication that the
women in America, suburban moms, want it probably legal and rare and probably
earlier than at the point of viability.”
Fellow Fox News host and former
Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany lamented the “losing streak in the
pro-life movement.”
“Every ballot initiative has been lost
post-Dobbs for the pro-life movement,” she said. “As a party, Sean, we must, we
must not just be a pro-baby party. That’s a great thing. We must be a
pro-mother party. We need a national strategy… to help vulnerable women because
the results of next year’s election could be determined by that.”
McEnany urged the House of
Representatives to pass legislation for “men to pay women child support from
the moment of conception, legislation to make the child tax credit apply to the
unborn, legislation for women to have access to the supplemental food and
nutrition program up to two years after childbirth.”
“These are things that could be
done today that will make a difference!” she added. “But until we own this
issue as a party, we will lose again, and again, and again.”
Fox contributor Charlie Hurt, who
also appeared on the segment, said the Supreme Court ruling had put the GOP in
an “awkward” position.
“This is what happens when you go
for 50 years [after] an unelected group of Supreme Court justices take this
vitally important issue out of voters’ hands and rule by fiat in Washington,”
he said, despite decades of GOP efforts to have Roe v. Wade overturned.
“Thankfully we get it returned to
the states and returned to voters—it’s a difficult issue, and we’re working
through it,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult and it’s going to be awkward.
Everybody has got to try to find their voice on it.”
Hannity then accused Democrats of
“trying to scare women into thinking Republicans don’t want abortion legal
under any circumstances.”
Over on Newsmax, former Sen. Rick
Santorum, R-Pa., lamented that the Democratic base is “more ginned up to go out
and vote generally than Republicans” and bemoaned voters’ ability to directly
vote on issues that affect them like the Ohio initiative.
“We’ve seen this now for the last several
years, and so a base election, they — Democrats — outspend, and you put very
sexy things like abortion and marijuana on the ballot, and a lot of young
people come out and vote. It was a secret sauce for disaster in Ohio,” he said.
“I don’t know what they were thinking, but that’s why I thank goodness that
most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the
ballot because pure democracies are not the way to run a country.”
Ohio Republicans use taxpayer funds to boost "absolutely false"
anti-abortion claims ahead of vote
·
Ohio voters finally get a chance to overturn dangerous abortion ban
·
"Keep her legs closed!": Republicans are mad one of them said
the quiet part out loud
ATTACHMENT ELEVEN – From
CNBC
Republican debate live updates: GOP presidential candidates square off
By Kevin
Breuninger, Dan Mangan and Brian Schwartz
WED, NOV 8 20234:58 PM
GOP presidential contenders are
set to debate in Miami, as front-runner Donald Trump once again skips a
face-off with his rivals.
Five Republican presidential candidates
are set to take the stage in Miami on Wednesday night for the third debate of
the 2024 GOP primary cycle, with pressure mounting and time running out to
shake up the race.
But the candidates will once again
be denied a shot at their biggest rival, former President Donald Trump, whose
decision to skip each and every primary debate has not damaged his commanding
lead in the polls.
The two-hour debate, hosted by NBC
News, is set to kick off at 8 p.m. ET at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the
Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. Salem Radio Network and the Republican
Jewish Coalition were selected as partners by the Republican National
Committee.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former
United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie,
entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott will participate
in the debate.
With just five on stage, it’s safe
to expect a very different dynamic from the more crowded prior debates, which
often devolved into a porridge of overlapping slogans and one-liners.
The churning battle for second
place has birthed new rivalries: DeSantis and Haley have opened fire on each
other ahead of the debate, with the ex-UN ambassador even offering a “debate
preview” in the form of a campaign release panning the Florida governor as a
liar.
As he did for the first two
debates, Trump is seeking to upstage his opponents by counter-programming the
event. He is scheduled to host a rally starting at 7 p.m. ET in nearby Hialeah,
Florida, at Ted Hendricks stadium.
Former President Donald Trump
justified skipping the first two Republican
debates by arguing that he saw no point in sharing the stage with candidates
who trail him by wide margins.
Hours out from the third debate,
that situation hasn’t changed.
Average national polls of the primary race show that Trump’s lead has only
grown in recent months, in large part by cutting into the support for his top
rival, DeSantis.
The Florida governor now faces an
imminent threat from Haley to surpass him as the top non-Trump alternative.
Trump, meanwhile, has hosted fewer rallies than in his prior campaigns, and much of
his recent coverage in the media has been focused on his legal troubles. But
none of that appears to have damaged his standing in the polls — including in
surveys of states that will be pivotal for the primary and the general
election.
Recent polls from The New York Times and Siena College found Trump leading
President Joe Biden in five major battleground states, triggering some anxiety among the current president’s supporters
that was only partly assuaged by strong Democratic showings in
state elections Tuesday night.
Trump’s team, meanwhile, has
already declared that the primary is effectively over.
“Tomorrow’s debate will be a
dumping ground for every single loser candidate to foolishly fight for distant
second place,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a campaign email Tuesday.
— Kevin
Breuninger
Polls and experts say the
Republican primarily field is increasingly looking like a two-person contest
between former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, to
see who will challenge former President Donald Trump for the nomination.
After a lackluster spring, Haley
has quickly risen to second place in polls of voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and
South Carolina, the first three states to hold primaries early next year.
The former South Carolina governor
has surged 10 points in Iowa to tie DeSantis for second place, according to the
latest NBC News/Des Moines Register poll. Iowa will hold the
first GOP caucuses on Jan. 15. Haley has surpassed DeSantis in New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to recent polls.
Now she threatens to displace
DeSantis as the GOP’s preferred alternative to Trump.
Even so, Trump still holds a
seemingly insurmountable lead over his rivals. The former president is skipping
Wednesday’s debate.
— Spencer Kimball
1 HOUR AGO
Just five Republican candidates
qualified and will participate in the Miami debate hosted
by NBC News.
They are former New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki
Haley, the businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Donald Trump, the former
president, as the front-runner in the GOP nomination race more than qualified
for the debate. But for the third time this election cycle he has declined to
debate his opponents.
To qualify for the debate, the
quintet that is participating had to have at least 70,000 unique donors
garnered at least 4% in two national polls or one national and one early-state
poll that met Republican National Committee requirements.
- Dan Mangan
1 HOUR AGO
A good night
in Miami could boost Ron DeSantis’ campaign fundraising
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ debate
performance in Miami could be a boost to his fundraising, already on the
upswing since he was endorsed by Iowa GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds.
DeSantis,
who raised over $15 million in the third quarter, could see an uptick in
fundraising if he does well in the debate. The contest in Miami comes just days
after Reynolds endorsed him over former President Donald Trump and other
Republican primary contenders.
The latest debate for DeSantis comes
at a time when a few of the Republican Party’s wealthiest donors are opting not
to help him, at least for now.
DeSantis has already seen previous big money supporters, such as
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and
businessman Robert Bigelow, have each distanced themselves from the
Florida’s governor’s bid for president. Griffin, a previous DeSantis donor, recently
told CNBC that he’s remaining on the sidelines for now of the 2024 presidential
election.
Bigelow, who gave over $20 million
to a pro-DeSantis super PAC, recently said in an interview with the Financial
Times that he may end up backing Trump.
- Brian Schwartz
1 HOUR AGO
Viewers can watch the debate
starting at 8 p.m. ET on NBC TV channel. It will also be streamed live and for
free on NBC News NOW, which is available on NBCNews.com, Peaock and other
streaming services.
The showdown, hosted by NBC News,
is being held in Miami at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of
Miami-Dade County.
The Salem Radio Network and the
Republican Jewish Coalition are also partners in the event.
- Dan Mangan
ATTACHMENT TWELVE – From
the Guardian U.K.
Republican hopefuls
sharpen critique of Trump as election losses hang in the air
Candidates
barrel through substantive but hostile debate in Miami amid warning that
Republicans have become ‘a party of losers’
Lauren Gambino in
Washington Thu 9 Nov 2023 05.00 EST
A day after
Republicans suffered a string of off-year election defeats, five of the party’s
presidential hopefuls barreled through a substantive yet hostile primary debate on
Wednesday, clashing over policy and with each other in a competition for second
place behind the absentee frontrunner, Donald Trump.
On stage in
Miami, the debate was dominated by foreign questions about the Israel-Hamas
war, immigration and China. But the contenders also decried the losses in Ohio,
Kentucky and Virginia, warning that 2024 could end with the re-election of Joe
Biden if they were unsuccessful in breaking Trump’s dominance of the Republican
primary.
“We’ve become a party of losers,” said businessman
Vivek Ramaswamy, noting
that Republicans lost
the US House in 2018, and the Senate and the White House in 2020. He decried
the “red wave that never came” in 2022. And on Tuesday night, Ramaswamy said
the party again “got trounced”.
With just
over two months until the Iowa caucuses, which officially launch the Republican
nominating contest, the window for denting Trump’s lead is closing. On
Wednesday, his leading rival for the nomination, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis,
sharpened his case against the former president.
Taking the
stage in his home state, DeSantis recalled that Trump often said “Republicans
were gonna get tired of winning”.
“Well, we saw
last night – I’m sick of Republicans losing,” he said, before touting his re-election
rout last year, a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing midterm election
for the party. “I will be a nominee that can win the election.”
Trump, who
became a resident of Florida after leaving the White House, again skipped the
debate and instead held a dueling rally in Hialeah, a heavily Latino Miami
suburb.
Nikki Haley,
who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, sought to build on her
campaign’s momentum, presenting herself as in the vanguard of the next
generation of Republican leaders and distinguishing herself from Trump as an
unambiguous foreign policy hawk.
“The world is
on fire,” Haley said. In 2016, Trump, she said, was the “right president at the
right time. I don’t think he’s the right president now.”
As the
candidates confronted their most immediate challenge – beating Trump in a
primary – they were well into the second hour of the debate when it came time
to discuss the issue that has powered Democratic wins in conservative states
despite Biden’s low approval ratings: abortion.
On Tuesday,
Ohio voted to enshrine a right to abortion into their state constitution, the
Democrats took control of both chambers of the Virginia general assembly, and
held on to the governorship in beet-red Kentucky.
When finally
asked about their position on abortion, the candidates offered a range of
positions underscoring the lack of consensus within the party since the supreme
court overturned Roe v Wade last year.
Senator Tim
Scott of South Carolina again committed to supporting a national ban on
abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. He argued that 15 weeks was a reasonable
limit, and called on Haley and DeSantis to support one, too.
DeSantis, who
signed a six-week ban in Florida, emphasized his support for “a culture of
life” and lamented that the anti-abortion movement had been “caught
flat-footed” after Roe.
Haley
sidestepped Scott’s challenge, arguing that Republicans “should be honest with
the American people” that they do not have the votes in the Senate to enact
such a ban.
“As much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge anyone for
being pro-choice, and I don’t want them to judge me for being pro-life,” she
said, adding that the decision to restrict or expand abortion rights should be
left up to the states. “There are some states that are going more on the
pro-choice side. I wish that wasn’t the case, but the people decide it.”
“I’ll say this about Donald Trump,” said
former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, whose anti-Trump candidacy has
struggled to gain traction. “Anybody who’s going to be spending the next year
and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jail and
courtrooms cannot lead this party or this country.”
Substantive
discussion over America’s role in the world pervaded the debate, the first
since Israel’s war in Gaza after the attack by Hamas that left 1,400 people
dead. The candidates were largely united in their support for Israel’s
retaliatory offensive, which has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians.
It also drew some
of the sharpest attacks. Ramaswamy, an isolationist, derided Haley and DeSantis
as “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels” – a jab that immediately drew accusations
of sexism. DeSantis ignored the barb, but Haley responded.
“They’re
five-inch heels, and I don’t wear them unless you can run in them,” she said.
She added: “They’re not a fashion statement. They’re for ammunition.”
Ramaswamy
went after Haley again later in the debate, noting that her daughter was on
TikTok. “Leave my daughter out of your voice,” Haley shot back, adding: “You’re
just scum.”
ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN – From
AP News
GOP candidates voice support for Israel and spar over Ukraine in
debate Last Updated: November 08, 2023 10:35 PM
Five candidates took the stage at a whittled-down
third Republican presidential debate in Miami while front-runner Donald Trump held his own event a short drive
away.
How to tune
in to the third GOP presidential debate
§
When is it? 8
p.m. ET on Wednesday.
§
Where can I
watch? NBC is airing the debate on TV, streaming and digital.
The RNC has also partnered with Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular with
some conservatives, to livestream the debate.
§
Who’s
participating? Five Republicans will take the stage: Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott from South
Carolina, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey
Gov. Chris Christie.
§
Who’s
moderating? NBC’s Lester Holt and Kristen Welker, as well as Salem Radio Network
host Hugh Hewitt
While the debate was going on
Wednesday night in Miami, Trump held a rally in a nearby suburb. Many of the candidates have gone after each other hoping
to break out as a viable alternative to Trump.
10:12 PM EST
Ramaswamy hints at conspiracy
theory when talking about Biden
Ramaswamy’s final comments onstage
at the third presidential debate hinted at far-flung conspiracy theories
believed by some far-right Americans, including the idea that Joe Biden isn’t
the real president.
End this farce that Joe Biden is
going to be your nominee. We know he’s not even the president of the United
States.
Vivek Ramaswamy
He went on to suggest that Biden
is a placeholder for Democrats to put someone else into the candidacy,
mentioning former first lady Michelle Obama and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
10:04 PM EST
Fact check on Ohio’s new abortion
amendment
Ramaswamy’s claim that Ohio’s new abortion amendment “effectively codifies
abortion all the way up until the moment of birth without parental consent”
needs context.
The language Ohioans voted for in
Tuesday’s election doesn’t change Ohio’s existing parental notification and consent law,
which requires minors to have parental permission — or a judicial exception in
extreme cases — to get an abortion.
To be overturned, that law would
have to be challenged in court and struck down by the state Supreme Court,
whose conservative majority would likely vote to protect it.
Medical experts also dispute the
idea of abortions “until the moment of birth” that Ramaswamy and other
candidates on stage are using. Terminations later in pregnancy — which are
exceedingly rare — involve medication that induces birth early, which is
different from a surgical abortion.
10:01 PM EST
Republicans play up threat of
terrorists crossing US border
Ron DeSantis said that “terrorists
have come in through our southern border” and that he is going to “shut it
down.” Vivek Ramaswamy vowed to “smoke the terrorists” out of the U.S. southern
border.
What terrorists?
Alex Nowrasteh of the
pro-immigration Cato Institute documented nine foreign-born terrorists who
entered the United States illegally from 1975 through last year. Three entered
Mexico in 1984 when they were 5 years old or younger and were convicted of
plotting to attack Fort Dix, New Jersey, in 2007. The other six entered through
Canada.
That’s not to say it can’t happen.
The Homeland Security Department said in a national “threat assessment” this year that people with
“potential terrorism connections” continue to attempt to enter the country.
Republicans have seized on arrests
of people who crossed illegally from Mexico and are on the Terrorist Screening
Dataset, known as the “terrorist watchlist,” a compilation of names that
have aroused suspicion for any number of reasons. It doesn’t mean they are
terrorists.
The number jumped to 172 in the government’s budget year ended Sept. 30 from 98
the previous year, 15 the year before that and 11 in the previous four years
combined.
10:00 PM EST
Scenes from the third Republican
debate
Follow APNews on
Instagram.
9:55 PM EST
Build a wall on the US-Canadian
border, Ramaswamy says
There has been a lot of talk about
how GOP candidates would handle their concerns related to security at the
U.S.-Mexico border, but Vivek Ramaswamy wanted to shift perspective northward.
The biotech entrepreneur said in
Wednesday night’s debate that he’s the only Republican hopeful “who has
actually visited the northern border” with Canada, where he said enough
fentanyl was captured last year “to kill 3 million Americans.”
Don’t just build the wall. Build
both walls.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Ramaswamy, who visited the northern
border last month, also advocating using U.S. troops to “seal the Swiss cheese”
tunnels he said are underneath the northern border.
9:55 PM EST
Mexico will pay for the border
wall, Part 2
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis began
the debate demanding that Donald Trump come to the stage and explain why he didn’t wall off the entire U.S. southern border
and have Mexico pay for it as he’d promised to do as president.
As the night wound down, DeSantis
went a step farther, making the unlikely claim that he could keep the promise
Trump broke.
DeSantis vowed to build a border
wall and have Mexico pay for it, a comment that went unchallenged by moderators
or other candidates.
Whether DeSantis will get the
chance remains to be seen given the commanding early lead Trump has built in
the Republican 2024 presidential primary, despite skipping all three debates.
But erecting a wall the length of the nearly 2,000-mile border is nearly unthinkable
–and the idea that Mexico would fit the bill strains credulity even further.
Read
more at https://apnews.com/live/republican-debate-live-updates
The
Hill reported that Rama also called Zelenskyy a Nazi…
“Ukraine is not a paragon of
democracy,” Ramaswamy said. “This is a country that has banned 11 opposition
parties. It has consolidated all media into one state TV media arm. That’s not
democratic. It has threatened not to hold elections this year unless the U.S.
forks over more money. That is not democratic.”
“It celebrated a Nazi in its ranks
— the comedian in cargo pants, a man called Zelensky — doing it in their own
ranks. That is not democratic,” he continued.
See
more here.
ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN – From
Time
The Biggest Moments From the Third Republican Debate
BY MINI RACKER
UPDATED: NOVEMBER 8, 2023
10:20 PM EST | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 8, 2023 9:36 PM EST
Two months ahead
of the Iowa caucuses, Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate in Miami was
one of a dwindling number of opportunities for former President Donald
Trump’s rivals to prove that they have a real chance of winning
the nomination.
National and early state polls
continue to show Trump dominating the field, with the support of as many as half
of Republicans. The former president once again skipped the debate, instead
holding his own rally in nearby Hialeah.
His GOP opponents started
the debate by landing some blows on the former President, but quickly pivoted
to attacking each other and outlining their own views on the Israel-Hamas war,
related hate incidents at home, and China. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and
former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley occupied much of the
spotlight as they vie for second in the polls, with both DeSantis and Haley accusing each other of
having ties to China and only attacking the country’s leaders when
convenient..
These were some of the highlights
of the third Republican presidential debate in the 2024 campaign.
Knives out
for Trump
Asked at the start of the debate
why any of them should be the Republican nominee over Trump, the five
candidates onstage drew some of the clearest contrasts yet.
“Donald Trump’s a lot different
guy than he was in 2016,” said DeSantis. “He owes it to you to be on this stage
and explain why he should get another chance. He should explain why he didn’t
have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much
debt. He should explain why he didn’t drain the swamp. And he said Republicans
were going to get tired of winning. Well, we saw last night. I’m sick of
Republicans losing. In Florida, I showed how it’s done,” referencing his
landslide reelection in 2022.
Haley painted a portrait of a
country in dire straits thanks to antisemitism, an insecure border, and wars
abroad. She described Trump as the right choice for 2016, but not for 2024,
blaming him for saddling the country with $8 trillion in debt.
“He used to be right on Ukraine
and foreign issues, now he’s getting weak in the knees and trying to be
friendly again,” she said, earning applause from attendees.
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek
Ramaswamy lamented Republicans’ losses in multiple states Tuesday night, but
mostly steered clear of attacking Trump, instead going after the NBC News
anchors who were moderating the debate and suggesting Tucker Carlson, Joe
Rogan, and Elon Musk would have been better picks.
Criticizing Trump was familiar
territory for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. South Carolina Senator
Tim Scott, known for his nice-guy reputation, avoided criticizing Trump by name
but suggested that he is the candidate who could solidify the base and attract
independents, as well as African American and Hispanic voters.
Israel-Hamas
war
All five candidates made clear
their firm support for Israel, and spent virtually no time expressing concern
for the situation in Gaza, as the humanitarian crisis there deepens.
“Finish the job once and for all
with these butchers, Hamas,” DeSantis said he would tell Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu as president. He emphasized that he mobilized Florida
resources to return American hostages to the United States.
Haley highlighted her experience
working as ambassador to the United Nations.
“It is not that Israel needs
America,” she said. “America needs Israel. They are the tip of the spear when
it comes to this Islamic terrorism and we need to make sure that we have their
backs in that process.”
Ramaswamy used fiery rhetoric to
advocate for his more isolationist views, saying, “I would tell him to smoke
those terrorists on his Southern border and I’ll tell him, as President of the
United States, I’ll be smoking the terrorists on our Southern border.”
As he did in previous debates, he
went after Haley. “Do you want a leader from a generation that’s going to put
this country first, or do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?” he asked,
sparking a roar of laughter.
Haley shot back minutes later,
saying, “I wear heels. They’re not for a fashion statement,
they’re for ammunition.”
Scott called for an escalation in
America’s response to the war. He said he’d tell President Joe Biden, “If you want
to stop the 40-plus attacks on military personnel in the Middle East, you have
to strike in Iran.” Haley and DeSantis also slammed Biden for not being tough
enough on Iran.
Antisemitism
on college campuses
Matthew Brooks, the CEO of the
Republican Jewish Coalition, asked the candidates what they would say to Jewish
students who’ve felt threatened on campus in recent weeks, and to university
presidents who have not forcibly condemned Hamas terrorism.
Ramaswamy condemned campus
antisemitism, but said it must be quelled by leadership, rather than
censorship.
“If we go the direction of Ron
DeSantis and Nikki Haley, with whom I respectfully disagree on this issue,
pro-censorship, telling student groups to disband, mark my words, soon they
will say if you question a vaccine and its side effects, you’re a
bioterrorist,” he said.
Scott suggested a more punitive
position, pledging to cut university funding and deport students to stop
individuals from promoting genocide or terrorism.
“Let me just say to every single
university president in America, federal funding is a privilege, not a right,
number one,” Scott said. “Number two, to every student who’ve come to our
country on a visa to a college campus, your visa is a privilege, not a
right.”
DeSantis said he was the first to
advocate canceling the visas of foreign students who demonstrate in support of
Hamas. Christie, meanwhile, was asked how he would help Muslim Americans who
have feared for their own safety. Christie, who was a U.S. Attorney for the
District of New Jersey from 2002 to 2008, pointed to his decision to send
federal agents to synagogues and to personally visit mosques after the Sept. 11
attacks.
“You must work with both sides,
both sides need to know it,” he said. “But let us never have a false moral
equivalence between Hamas and Hezbollah and the Jewish people. The Jewish
people stand for right and justice and Hamas and Hezbollah stand for death.”
Haley said higher education
leaders weren’t treating anti-semitism on their campuses as seriously as they
would racism.
“If the KKK were doing this, every
college president would be up in arms,” she said.
Ramaswamy
questions Haley's role as a mother, drawing loud boos
Asked about concerns around
TikTok, several candidates expressed support for banning the Chinese-owned app. But it was an exchange between Haley and
Ramaswamy that drew the biggest response. The biotech entrepreneur was asked
about banning the app while he himself uses it. He quickly pivoted.
“In the last debate, she made fun
of me for actually joining TikTok,” Ramaswamy said of Haley. “Well, her own
daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So you might want to
actually take care of your family first, before preaching—”
|
ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN – From Time |
|
BY PHILIP ELLIOTT |
|
Washington Correspondent, TIME |
|
Nikki Haley
Walks Away With the Debate, and the Attention of Trump-Averse Republicans Nikki
Haley had heard worse than the snipes from one of the three men standing to
her left on stage Wednesday night in Miami. As a candidate for Governor of
South Carolina in 2010, she was attacked with
anti-Indian American slurs. Three years later, the state party chairman said she should go
“back to wherever the hell she came from,” ignoring that she was born in
South Carolina’s Bamberg County Hospital. When she was the U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations, the Secretary of State allegedly called her sexist
slurs that begin with a B and a C. To her face. But
when the presidential candidate had her daughter’s social media usage invoked
during the third debate among the second-tier contenders, Haley stood on the
verge of boiling over. “Leave my daughter out of your voice,” Haley said with
a cool edge as tech bro Vivek Ramaswamy
brought up Rena Haley’s TikTok. “You’re just scum,” she added as her daughter
watched from the room. With
her eyes cast toward the blazing stage lights overhead in Miami, you could
see Haley push reset and perhaps remind herself that combativeness
is way too easily clothed as rage on female candidates. That clear-eyed
ownership of her space in the current Republican campaign has served her well
to this point. She is the only candidate on the rise in national polls, early state
polls, and her standing among donors. Although ex-President Donald Trump
remains leaps ahead of her, Haley is quickly becoming a plausible chief rival
and the best shot for Republicans to find an off-ramp to his third
nomination. “We
can’t win the fights of the 21st century with politicians from the 20th
century. We have to move forward,” Haley said during her closing statement.
It was the distillation of her campaign thesis, one that hinges on an
appetite among Republican voters for a former state executive and high-stakes
diplomat over a former President who is on trial in four jurisdictions.
Objectively, that formulation makes a ton of sense. But ask Jon Huntsman, a
former Utah Governor and the ex-Ambassador to China and Singapore, about the
two delegates he earned during his 2012 campaign for the White House. On
stage, Haley understood the rules. She has a hawkish instinct on national
security, giving her a leg up during a debate that toured the globe’s crises
in Ukraine and Israel as well as threats from the southern border and China.
She’s a pragmatic realist when it comes to social issues, smartly reasoning
that Congress passing a federal abortion ban is as realistic as finding the
Loch Ness Monster. And she has some very talented advisers in lead-off states
of Iowa and New Hampshire guiding her, plus her home-state advantage in South
Carolina, where she can count just one loss at the ballot in a 20-year
career. But it
has to be said: Haley is still far from a threat to Trump, her policy-based
antithesis who once again skipped the debate stage altogether. About 20
minutes away from the Miami theater, the former President was staging his own
production that was chock full of victimhood and grievance, promising the GOP
base once again a fanciful agenda. Before Trump took the stage in Hialeah,
Fla., a UFC fighter led the crowd in a chant of “Let’s Go, Brandon,” a
not-terribly-clever intonation of an anti-Joe Biden rallying cry. It was
showmanship, not statecraft. Being
a former President has its advantages, and fundraising is chief among them.
Trump raised more than
$24 million in the three-months leading into October, and $17 million during
the quarter before that. He finished the period
with $37 million in the bank, $20 million ahead of the $12 million in the
pockets of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis. That’s
right: DeSantis remains in the race, even if his standing among
Republicans has faded greatly since the start of the year. Some rocky terrain
and Trump’s withering attacks have left the man dubbed “Ron DeSanctimonious”
slightly off balance heading into the starting line. Even so, the closest he
ever crept to overtaking Trump was a 15-point deficit, meaning his
threat was never exactly perilous. Haley,
meanwhile, may be improving, but she’s a solid 50 points behind Trump. And
while emerging as the winner of the Not-Trump primary matters for media
coverage, the Republicans rules don’t reward second place. That means either
she starts to chart a way to overtake Trump in less than 100 days or she
needs to convince backers of folks like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and
former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to pivot to her camp. Even so, it’s
still tough odds. Trump’s hold on the party has proven durable enough that
not even the prospect of voting for a jailed nominee is sufficient to dent
his support. “I’ll
say this about Donald Trump: Anybody who is going to be spending the next
year and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jail in
courtrooms cannot lead this party or this country,” Christie said dryly. “It
needs to be said plainly.” Which
is why Haley has been so strategic in picking her spots in a critique of her
former boss. “He was the right President at the right time. He’s not the
right president now,” she said of Trump, for whom she served as his
representative to the U.N. Her
smart late rise, however, has left her a prime target for rivals who lack
Trump to bash on stages. “Do
you want a leader from a different generation that is going to put this
country first? Or do you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?” Ramaswamy
said before taking a mocking tone toward not just Haley but DeSantis’ choice
of footwear. “In this case,
we’ve got two of them on-stage tonight.” Haley,
turning to her go-to rejoinder, missed zero beats. “They’re five-inch heels.
I don’t wear them unless you can run in them,” she said. “I wear heels.
They’re not for a fashion statement. They’re for ammunition.” Asked
later about the Ramaswamy aggression, Haley was justifiably dismissive.
“Look, I’m a mom. The second that you start saying something about my
25-year-old daughter, I’m going to get my back up,” she said in the spin
room. “I don’t even give him the time of day.” It may
be time, though, for serious-minded Republicans to give her that courtesy if
they want to dodge a third nomination of Trump. |
“Leave my daughter out of your
voice,” Haley said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes as the audience
erupted in a chorus of boos. Haley has a daughter and a son, both of whom are
adults.
“You have her supporters propping
her up,” Ramaswamy said, while Haley replied, “You’re just scum.” She smiled
icily while Ramaswamy continued talking. The moderators then afforded Haley a
chance to respond, and she proceeded to defend her record on China.
Abortion and
the GOP
Following elections on Tuesday in
which abortion rights supporters saw major wins in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia,
the candidates were asked about the path forward on the issue. None seemed to
be moved.
DeSantis said he stands for “a
culture of life.” But he added that he understands different states will handle
the issue differently.
“Of all the stuff that’s happened
to the pro-life cause, they have been caught flat-footed on these referenda,”
he said. “A lot of the people who are voting for the referenda are Republicans
who would vote for a Republican candidate.”
Haley said that she continued to
be "pro-life," but said, “There’s some states that are going more on
the pro-choice side. I wish that wasn’t the case, but the people decided.” She
reiterated a point she’s made before, that the political reality in Congress
requires a President finding consensus.
Scott called on DeSantis and Haley
to join him in supporting a 15-week limit on abortion. Haley called Scott out
for not openly committing to that standard earlier in his bid.
None of the candidates touched on
Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin made a proposed 15-week abortion ban that
included exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother the
centerpiece of his high-profile bid to boost Republicans in Tuesday's state
elections. It didn't work.
Democrats not only maintained control of the state's Senate, but flipped
control of the House.
ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN – From
Hollywood Reporter
TV Ratings: Third Republican
Debate Slumps
The CMA Awards narrowly
avoid an all-time low in total viewers on ABC.
BY RICK PORTER NOVEMBER 9,
2023 1:53PM
The TV
audience for the third Republican presidential primary debate fell off
considerably on Wednesday. The CMA Awards also narrowly avoided posting its
smallest viewer tally ever.
The
Republican debate aired on NBC (but not cable siblings MSNBC or CNBC) and drew
7.5 million viewers on the network, Peacock and other streaming and digital
platforms. That’s down from 9.5 million for the second debate on Fox News, Fox
Business and Univision on Sept. 27. NBC did slightly outdraw the total for just
Fox News (6.86 million viewers to 6.69 million) from the last debate; streaming
and digital platforms accounted for the remaining 640,000 viewers.
ATTACHMENT
SEVENTEEN – From
WashXaminer
Country
Music Awards topple third GOP debate in viewers
by Jenny
Goldsberry, Social Media Producer
November 09, 2023 02:12 PM
The Country Music Awards rallied viewers to
its program,
toppling the third Republican debate in ratings
Wednesday night.
Some
7.57 million viewers tuned in to the award show, which was an 11% increase from
two years ago when it hit an all-time low in viewership. This was the most
viewership since 2019. Meanwhile, the GOP debate trailed by over 2 million viewers,
as it only drew 4.92 million according to Nielson ratings.
REPUBLICAN DEBATE: THE FOUR BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM NBC'S
MIAMI MATCHUP
Still,
the key demographic of 18 to 49-year-old adults fell slightly, with only 1.37
million viewers. Besides the debate, other shows that were on Wednesday paled
in comparison, as Survivor rallied over 4 million
viewers, The Amazing Race had less than 3 million viewers,
and The Masked Singer had just over 3 million.
NBC's
debate was ranked last in the 18-49 demographic, with only .5% of those
watching falling within the age group. It began airing after the CMA's had
begun and lasted two hours.
For
the party's second debate, Fox News was
able to garner 9.5 million viewers, which was still a decrease from the 13
million who tuned into the first debate, also hosted by Fox.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE
WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Five
of the eight Republican candidates for president were at the debate, including
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former South Carolina Gov.
Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Chris Christie, and entrepreneur Vivek
Ramaswamy.
The fourth debate will be hosted by NewsNation
on Dec. 6, featuring moderators Elizabeth Vargas from NewsNation, Eliana
Johnson of the Washington Free Beacon, and Megyn Kelly of
SiriusXM. It will air at 8 p.m. Eastern.
ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN – From
RCP
The Weeks
Polls
Friday, January 10th
|
Thursday, November 9 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Trump +8 |
|||
|
Trump +4 |
|||
|
Biden +2 |
|||
|
Tie |
|||
|
Trump +3 |
|||
|
Trump +2 |
|||
|
Biden +2 |
|||
|
Biden +2 |
|||
|
Trump 60,
DeSantis 13, Haley 5, Ramaswamy 7, Christie 3, Scott 2, Pence, Burgum 1,
Hutchinson 0 |
Trump +47 |
||
|
Biden +68 |
|||
|
Trump 53,
DeSantis 12, Haley 9, Pence 6, Ramaswamy 5, Christie 4, Scott 3, Burgum 0 |
Trump +41 |
||
|
Biden +31 |
|||
|
Porter 18,
Schiff 21, Garvey, Lee 9, Bradley 5, Early 6, Reese 1, Pascucci, Reiss 2,
Liew 2 |
Schiff +3 |
||
|
Disapprove +8 |
|
Wednesday, November 8 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Trump +4 |
|||
|
Trump +6 |
|||
|
Trump 61,
DeSantis 17, Haley 10, Ramaswamy 4, Christie 2, Scott 3, Pence, Burgum 0,
Hutchinson 1 |
Trump +44 |
||
|
DeSantis +2 |
|||
|
Haley +6 |
|||
|
Trump +1 |
|||
|
Recommended ·
Maher: Biden Is
"Not The Same Guy" He Was When He Ran Against Trump in 2020,
"I Don't Think He Can Win" ·
Christie: At This
Time In 2015, Ben Carson Was Ahead Ten Points In Iowa ·
'FOX News Sunday'
Panel: Biden Trails Trump In Key Swing States, RFK Jr. Pulling Voters From
Both Sides |
|||
|
Biden +1 |
|||
|
Haley +2 |
|||
|
Biden +2 |
|||
|
DeSantis +2 |
|||
|
Haley +9 |
|||
|
Trump 38,
DeSantis 18, Haley 11, Ramaswamy 3, Pence 3, Scott 1, Christie 1, Burgum 1,
Hutchinson 0 |
Trump +20 |
||
|
Trump 57,
DeSantis 12, Haley 9, Pence, Ramaswamy 3, Christie 2, Scott 1, Burgum |
Trump +45 |
||
|
Biden +15 |
|||
|
Biden +14 |
|||
|
Disapprove +11 |
|||
|
Disapprove +17 |
|||
|
Disapprove +20 |
|||
|
Republicans +1 |
|||
|
Democrats +1 |
|||
|
Disapprove +45 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +41 |
|||
|
Tuesday, November 7 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Trump +7 |
|||
|
Tie |
|||
|
Tie |
|||
|
Biden +2 |
|||
|
Trump +6 |
|||
|
Tie |
|||
|
Trump 60,
DeSantis 21, Haley 6, Ramaswamy 1, Christie 2, Pence 1, T. Scott 0,
Hutchinson 0 |
Trump +39 |
||
|
Trump 63,
DeSantis 15, Haley 8, Ramaswamy 7, Christie 3, Scott 2, Pence, Burgum 0,
Hutchinson 0 |
Trump +48 |
||
|
Trump +2 |
|||
|
Biden +2 |
|||
|
Disapprove +13 |
|
Monday, November 6 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Trump +26 |
|||
|
Trump 50,
DeSantis 13, Haley 15, Ramaswamy 4, Christie 5, Scott 4, Pence, Burgum 3,
Hutchinson 0 |
Trump +35 |
||
|
Trump 61,
DeSantis 18, Haley 9, Ramaswamy 5, Christie 2, Scott 4, Pence, Burgum 1,
Hutchinson 1 |
Trump +43 |
||
|
Trump 50,
DeSantis 12, Haley 9, Ramaswamy 3, Christie 5, Scott 2, Pence 3, Burgum 0,
Hutchinson 1 |
Trump +38 |
||
|
Wrong Track +36 |
|||
|
Beshear +2 |
|
Sunday, November 5 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Trump +6 |
|||
|
Trump +4 |
|||
|
Trump +5 |
|||
|
Biden +2 |
|||
|
Trump +11 |
|||
|
Trump +5 |
|||
|
Trump +3 |
|||
|
Trump +3 |
|||
|
Trump +4 |
|||
|
Harris +2 |
|||
|
Trump +2 |
|||
|
Trump +8 |
|||
|
Trump +5 |
|||
|
DeSantis +1 |
|||
|
DeSantis +4 |
|||
|
Biden +1 |
|||
|
DeSantis +4 |
|||
|
DeSantis +4 |
|||
|
DeSantis +4 |
|||
|
Haley +5 |
|||
|
Haley +10 |
|||
|
Haley +10 |
|||
|
Haley +9 |
|||
|
Haley +9 |
|||
|
Haley +14 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +53 |
|
Friday, November 3 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Cameron +1 |
|||
|
Biden +69 |
|||
|
Porter 17,
Schiff 16, Garvey 10, Lee 9, Bradley 7, Early 4, Reese 1, Pascucci 1, Reiss,
Liew |
Porter +1 |
|
Thursday, November 2 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Trump 62,
DeSantis 12, Haley 7, Ramaswamy 6, Christie 1, Scott 1, Pence, Burgum 1,
Hutchinson 1 |
Trump +50 |
||
|
Biden +68 |
|||
|
Trump +2 |
|||
|
Trump +6 |
|||
|
Biden +7 |
|||
|
Trump 58,
DeSantis 14, Haley 6, Ramaswamy 3, Pence 3, Christie 2, Scott 2, Hutchinson 1 |
Trump +44 |
||
|
Disapprove +15 |
|||
|
Disapprove +18 |
|||
|
Democrats +3 |
|
Wednesday, November 1 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Trump 64,
DeSantis 15, Haley 8, Ramaswamy 3, Christie 3, Scott 3, Pence, Burgum 1,
Hutchinson 0 |
Trump +49 |
||
|
Biden +69 |
|||
|
Biden +1 |
|||
|
Biden +3 |
|||
|
Biden +1 |
|||
|
Trump 56,
DeSantis 17, Haley 8, Ramaswamy 5, Christie 1, Scott 1, Pence, Burgum 0,
Hutchinson 1 |
Trump +39 |
||
|
Tie |
|||
|
Disapprove +19 |
|||
|
Disapprove +17 |
|||
|
Democrats +1 |
|||
|
Disapprove +53 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +49 |
|
Tuesday, October 31 |
|
Race/Topic (Click
to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Trump 53,
Haley 22, DeSantis 11, Scott 6, Ramaswamy 1, Christie 2, Pence 2, Hutchinson
0, Burgum 0 |
Trump +31 |
||
|
Trump 61, DeSantis
13, Haley 7, Ramaswamy 7, Christie 3, Scott 2, Pence 5, Burgum 1, Hutchinson
0 |
Trump +48 |
||
|
Tie |
|||
|
Biden +4 |
|||
|
Disapprove +12 |
|||
|
Republicans +2 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +40 |
ATTACHMENT NINETEEN – From
the Atlantic
The 2024 U.S. Presidential Race: A Cheat Sheet
No one alive has seen a race like
this.
By David A. Graham NOVEMBER 9, 2023
No one alive has seen a race like
the 2024 presidential election. For months, if not years, many people have expected
a reprise of the 2020 election, a matchup between the sitting president and a
former president.
But that hasn’t prevented a
crowded primary. On the GOP side, more than a dozen candidates are ostensibly
vying for the nomination. Donald Trump’s lead appears prohibitive, but no
candidate has ever won his party’s nomination while facing four (so far)
separate felony indictments. (Then again, no one has ever lost his party’s
nomination while facing four separate felony indictments either.) Ron DeSantis is
still barely clinging to his position as the leading challenger to Trump, but
Nikki Haley has closed most of the distance with him—though the title seems
ever more meaningless. Behind them is a large field of Republicans who are
hoping for a lucky break, a Trump collapse, a VP nomination, or maybe just some
fun travel and a cable-news contract down the road.
On the other side, Democratic
hesitations about a second Joe Biden term have mostly dissolved into
resignation that he’s running, but Representative Dean Phillips is making a last-ditch effort to offer a younger
alternative. Biden’s age and the generally lukewarm feeling among some voters
have ensured that a decent-size shadow field still lingers, just waiting in
case Biden bows out for some reason.
Behind all of this, the
possibility of a serious third-party bid, led by either No Labels or some other
group, continues to linger; Cornel West is running, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
has leapt from the Democratic primary to an independent campaign. It adds up to
a race that is simple on the surface but strangely confusing just below it.
This guide to the candidates—who’s in, who’s out, and who’s somewhere in
between—serves as a road map to navigate that. It will be updated as the
campaign develops, so check in regularly.
REPUBLICANS
Donald Trump
Who is he?
You know him and you love him. Or hate him. Probably not much in between.
Is he running?
Yes. Trump announced his bid to return to the White House at Mar-a-Lago in
November 2022.
Why does he want to run?
Revenge, boredom, rivalry, fear of prosecution, long-standing psychological
hang-ups.
Who wants him to run?
A big tranche of the GOP was always fully behind Trump, and as his rivals have
failed to gain much traction, he's consolidated many of the rest and built an
all-but-prohibitive lead.
Can he win the nomination?
Yes, and he very likely will.
What else do we know?
More than we could possibly want to.
Ron DeSantis
Who is he?
The second-term governor of Florida, DeSantis was previously a U.S.
representative.
Is he running?
Yes. He announced his run in a train wreck of an appearance with Elon Musk on
Twitter Spaces on May 24.
Why does he want to run?
DeSantis offers a synthesis of Trump-style culture warring and bullying and the
conservative politics of the early-2010s Republican Party.
Who wants him to run?
From the advent of his campaign, DeSantis presented the prospect of a candidate
with Trump’s policies but no Trump. But his fading polling suggests that not
many Republicans are interested.
Can he win the nomination?
A better question these days: Can he hold on to take honorary silver in the
race?
Nikki Haley
Who is she?
Haley, the daughter of immigrants, was governor of South Carolina and then
ambassador to the United Nations under Trump.
Is she running?
Yes. She announced her campaign on February 14, saying, “Time for a new generation.”
Why does she want to run?
Haley has tried to steer a path that distances herself from Trump—pointing out
his unpopularity—without openly attacking him. She may also be the top
foreign-policy hawk in the field.
Who wants her to run? Haley
is on the rise now, and seems to be challenging DeSantis for status as the top
Trump alternative—but still lags far behind Trump himself.
Can she win the nomination?
Dubious.
Vivek
Ramaswamy
Who is he?
A 38-year-old biotech millionaire with a sparkling résumé (Harvard, then Yale
Law, where he became friends with Senator J. D. Vance), Ramaswamy has recently
become prominent as a crusader against “wokeism” and environmental, social, and
governance (ESG) investing.
Is he running?
Yes. He announced his campaign on February 21.
Why does he want to run?
“We’re in the middle of a national identity crisis,” Ramaswamy said in a somewhat-hectoring
launch video. “Faith, patriotism, and hard work have disappeared,
only to be replaced by new secular religions like COVIDism, climatism, and
gender ideology.”
Who wants him to run?
That remains a bit unclear—though his Republican rivals all seem to viscerally
detest him. Ramaswamy had a summer surge when he was a new flavor, but it’s
subsided as people have gotten to know and, apparently, dislike him.
Can he win the nomination?
Seems unlikely. Ramaswamy broke out of the ranks of oddballs to become a mildly
formidable contender, but his slick shtick and questionable
pronouncements have dragged him down.
Asa
Hutchinson
Who is he?
Hutchinson, the formerly longtime member of Congress, just finished a stint as
governor of Arkansas.
Is he running?
Yes. Hutchinson announced on April 2 that he is
running. It would have been funnier to announce a day earlier, though.
Why does he want to run?
At one time, Hutchinson was a right-wing Republican—he was one of the managers
of Bill Clinton’s impeachment—but as the party has changed, he finds himself
closer to the center. He’s been very critical of Trump, saying that Trump
disqualified himself with his attempts to steal the 2020 election. Hutchinson
is also unique in the field for having called on Trump to drop out over his
indictment in New York.
Who wants him to run?
Old-school, very conservative Republicans who also detest Trump.
Can he win the nomination?
No.
Tim Scott
Who is he?
A South Carolinian, Scott is the only Black Republican senator.
Is he running?
Yes. He announced his campaign in North Charleston, South Carolina, on May 22.
Why does he want to run?
Unlike some of the others on this list, Scott doesn’t telegraph his ambition
quite so plainly, but he’s built a record as a solid Republican. He was aligned
with Trump, but never sycophantically attached.
Who wants him to run?
Scott’s Senate colleagues adore him. John Thune of
South Dakota, the Senate minority whip, is his first highish-profile endorsement. As
DeSantis stumbles, he’s gotten some attention as a possible likable Trump
alternative.
Can he win the nomination?
Doesn’t look like it. Scott has always been solidly in the second tier, but
he’s running out of time to ever get anywhere.
Mike Pence
Who is he?
The former vice president, he also served as the governor of Indiana and a U.S.
representative.
Is he running?
No! He shocked a Las Vegas audience by
dropping out on October 28. He’d been running since June 7.
Why did he want to run?
Pence has long harbored White House dreams, and he has a strong
conservative-Christian political agenda. As the campaign went on, he slowly
began to develop a sharper critique of Trump while still awkwardly celebrating
the accomplishments of the administration in which he served.
Who wanted him to run?
Conservative Christians and rabbit lovers, but not very many people
overall.
Could he have won the nomination?
It wasn’t in the cards.
Chris
Christie
Who is he?
What a journey this guy has had, from U.S. attorney to respected governor of
New Jersey to traffic-jam laughingstock to Trump sidekick to Trump critic.
Whew.
Is he running?
Yes. He announced his campaign on June 6 in New Hampshire.
Why does he want to run?
Anyone who runs for president once and loses wants to run again—especially if
he thinks the guy who beat him is an idiot, as Christie clearly thinks about
Trump. Moreover, he seems agitated to see other Republicans trying to run
without criticizing Trump.
Who wants him to run?
Trump-skeptical donors, liberal pundits.
Can he win the nomination?
Highly doubtful.
Doug Burgum
Who is he?
Do you even pay attention to politics? Nah, just kidding. A self-made software
billionaire, Burgum is serving his second term as the governor of North Dakota.
Is he running?
Apparently! He formally
launched his campaign on June 7 in Fargo.
Why does he want to run?
It’s tough to tell. His campaign-announcement video focuses so much on North Dakota
that it seems more like a reelection push. He told a state newspaper that he
thinks the “silent majority” of Americans wants candidates who aren’t on the
extremes. (A wealthy outsider targeting the silent majority? Where have we heard
that before?) He also really wants more domestic oil
production.
Who wants him to run?
Lots of people expected a governor from the Dakotas to be a candidate in 2024,
but they were looking at Kristi Noem of South Dakota. Burgum is very popular at
home—he won more than three-quarters of the vote in 2020—but that still amounts
to fewer people than the population of Toledo, Ohio.
Can he win the nomination?
“There’s a value to being underestimated all the time,” he has said. “That’s a
competitive advantage.” But it’s even better to have a chance, which he
doesn’t.
What else do we know?
He’s giving people $20 gift cards in return
for donating to his campaign.
Will Hurd
Who is he?
A former CIA officer, Hurd served three terms in the House, representing a San
Antonio–area district.
Is he running?
No. Hurd, who announced his campaign on June 22,
dropped out on October 9 and endorsed Nikki Haley.
Why did he want to run?
Hurd said he had “commonsense” ideas and was “pissed” that elected officials
are dividing Americans. He’s also been an outspoken Trump critic.
Who wanted him to run?
As a moderate, youngish Black Republican and someone who cares about defense,
he is the sort of candidate whom the party establishment seemed to desire after
the now-discarded 2012 GOP autopsy.
Could he have won the nomination?
No.
Francis
Suarez
Who is he?
Suarez is the popular second-term mayor of Miami and the president of the U.S.
Conference of Mayors.
Is he running?
No. He suspended his campaign on August 29,
less than three months after his June
15 entry.
Why did he want to run?
Suarez touted his youth—he’s 45—and said in October 2022, “I’m someone who
believes in a positive aspirational message. I’m someone who has a track record
of success and a formula for success.”
Who wanted him to run?
Is there really room for another moderate-ish Republican in the race? Apparently
not! Despite dabbling in fundraising shenanigans,
Suarez failed to make the first Republican debate (or any other splash).
Could he have won the nomination?
No way.
Larry Hogan
Who is he?
Hogan left office this year, after serving two terms as governor of Maryland.
Is he running?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Hogan ruled himself out of the GOP race
on March 5, saying he was worried it would help
Trump win the nomination, but he is now rumored as a potential No Labels
candidate, even though such a run might hand the presidency to … Trump.
Why does he want to run?
Hogan has argued that his experience of governing a very blue state as a
Republican is a model: “We’ve been really successful outside of Washington,
where everything appears to be broken and nothing but divisiveness and
dysfunction.”
Who wants him to run?
Dead-ender centrists.
Could he win the nomination?
No.
Chris Sununu
Who is he?
The governor of New Hampshire, he is the little brother of former Senator John
E. Sununu and the son of former White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu.
Is he running?
No. On June 5, after weighing a campaign, he announced that he would not run.
Warning about the dangers of a Trump reprise, he said, “Every candidate needs
to understand the responsibility of getting out and getting out quickly if it’s
not working.” Points for taking his own advice!
Why did he want to run?
Sununu seems disgusted by a lot of Washington politics and saw his success in
New Hampshire, a purple-blue state, as a model for small-government
conservatism. He is also a prominent Trump critic.
Who wanted him to run?
Trump-skeptical Republicans, old-school conservatives.
Could he have won the nomination?
No.
Mike Pompeo
Who is he?
Pompeo, a former member of Congress, led the CIA and was secretary of state
under Trump.
Is he running?
No. On April 14, Pompeo announced that he wasn’t running. “This is not that
time or that moment for me to seek elected office again,” he said.
Why did he want to run?
Pompeo has always been ambitious, and he seems to think he can combine MAGA
proximity with a hawkish foreign-policy approach.
Who wanted him to run?
That’s not entirely clear.
Could he have won the nomination?
Maybe, but probably not.
Glenn
Youngkin
Who is he?
Youngkin, the former CEO of the private-equity Carlyle Group, was elected
governor of Virginia in 2021.
Is he running?
No. He spent much of 2023 refusing to categorically rule out a
race but not quite committing. As Ron DeSantis’s Trump-alternative glow dimmed,
Youngkin seemed to be hoping that Republican success in
off-year Virginia legislative elections would give him a boost. After Democrats
won control of both the state’s legislative chambers, however, he said he was “not going anywhere.”
Why did he want to run?
Youngkin is a bit of a cipher; he ran for governor largely on education issues,
and has sought to tighten abortion laws in Virginia, but the legislative defeat
makes that unlikely.
Who wanted him to run?
Rupert Murdoch, reportedly, as well as other wealthy,
business-friendly Republican figures.
Could he have won the nomination?
Certainly not without running, and almost certainly not if he did.
Mike Rogers
Who is he?
Rogers is a congressman from Alabam—wait, no, sorry, that’s the other Representative
Mike Rogers. This one is from Michigan and retired in 2015. He was previously
an FBI agent and was head of the Intelligence Committee while on Capitol Hill.
Is he running?
No. He thought about it but announced in late August that he would
run for U.S. Senate instead.
Why did he want to run?
He laid out some unassailably broad ideas for a campaign in an interview with Fox News, including a
focus on innovation and civic education, but it’s hard to tell what exactly the
goal is here. “This is not a vanity project for me,” he added, which, okay,
sure.
Who wanted him to run?
It’s not clear that anyone even noticed he was running.
Could he have won the nomination?
Nope.
Larry Elder
Who is he?
A longtime conservative radio host and columnist, he ran as a Republican in the
unsuccessful 2021 attempt to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Is he running?
Not anymore. Elder announced his campaign on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show on
April 20, but then disappeared without a trace. On October 27, he dropped out and endorsed Trump.
Why did he want to run?
Glad you asked! “America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable,”
he tweeted. “We can
enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us
there. That’s why I’m running for President.” We don’t have any idea what that
means either.
Who wanted him to run?
Practically no one.
Could he have won the nomination?
Absolutely not.
Rick Perry
Who is he?
Perry was a three-term governor of Texas before serving as energy secretary
under Donald Trump. He’s also run for president three times: in 2012, 2016, and
… I forget the third one. Oops.
Is he running?
Oh, right! The third one is 2024, maybe. He told CNN in May that he’s considering a run. Nothing’s
been heard since. We’ll say no.
Why did he want to run?
He didn’t say, but he’s struggled to articulate much of a compelling case to
Republican voters beyond the fact that he’s from Texas, he looks good in a
suit, and he wants to be president, gosh darn it.
Who wanted him to run?
Probably no one. As Mike Pompeo already discovered, there wasn’t much of a
market for a run-of-the-mill former Trump Cabinet member in the
primary—especially one who had such a forgettable turn as secretary, mostly
remembered for being dragged peripherally into both the first Trump impeachment and election subversion.
Could he have won the nomination?
The third time wouldn’t have been a charm.
Rick Scott
Who is he?
Before his current gig as a U.S. senator from Florida, Scott was governor and
chief executive of a health-care company that committed massive Medicare fraud.
Is he running?
The New York Times says he’s considering it, though an
aide said Scott is running for reelection to the Senate. He’d be the fourth
Floridian in the race.
Why does he want to run?
A Scott campaign would raise a fascinating question: What if you took Trump’s
pose and ideology but removed all the charisma and, instead of promising to
protect popular entitlement programs, aimed to demolish them?
Who wants him to run?
Not Mitch McConnell.
Can he win the nomination?
lol
DEMOCRATS
Joe Biden
Who is he?
After decades of trying, Biden is the president of the United States.
Is he running?
Yes. Biden formally announced his run on
April 25.
Why does he want to run?
Biden’s slogan is apparently “Let’s finish the job.” He centered his launch
video on the theme of freedom, but underlying all of this is his apparent
belief that he may be the only person who can defeat Donald Trump in a
head-to-head matchup.
Who wants him to run?
There’s the catch. Some prominent Democrats support his bid for a second term,
but voters have consistently told pollsters that they don’t want him to
run again.
Can he win the nomination?
Barring unforeseen catastrophe, yes. No incumbent president has lost the
nomination in the modern era, and Biden has pushed through changes to the
Democratic-primary process that make him an even more prohibitive favorite.
What else do we know?
Biden is already the oldest person to be elected president and to serve as
president, so a second term would set more records.
Cenk Uygur
Who is he?
A pundit from the party’s left flank, Uygur is probably best know for his The
Young Turks network. He was briefly an MSNBC personality and also ran for
Congress in California in 2020.
Is he running?
Apparently. He announced his plans on October 11.
Why does he want to run?
Uygur believes that Biden will lose the 2024 election and thus wants to force
him to withdraw. “I’m going to do whatever I can to help him decide that this
is not the right path,” he told Semafor’s
Dave Weigel. “If he retires now, he’s a hero: He beat Trump, he did
a good job of being a steward of the economy. If he doesn’t, he loses to Trump,
and he’s the villain of the story.”
Who wants him to run?
We’ll see if anyone does. Uygur has a sizable audience—his YouTube channel has
millions of subscribers—but that doesn’t mean he has any real presidential
constituency.
Can he win the nomination?
No, and he has a deeper problem: He is ineligible to serve, because he was born
in Turkey. This isn’t an interesting nuance of the law, as with misguided
questions about Ted Cruz’s or John McCain’s eligibility, or
disinformation, as with Barack Obama. Uygur is just not a
natural-born citizen. He claims he’ll take the matter to the Supreme Court and
win in a “slam dunk.” As Biden would say, if he were
willing to give Uygur any attention: Lots of luck in your senior year.
Dean Phillips
Who is he?
Phillips, a mildly unorthodox and interesting figure,
is a Minnesota moderate serving his third term in the House.
Is he running?
Yes. He launched his campaign October 27 in New Hampshire. That follows a
Hamlet act to make Mario Cuomo proud—in July, he said he was considering it;
in August, he said he was unlikely to run but
would encourage other Democrats to do so; then, after finding no other Democrats
willing to run, he said he was not ruling it out.
Why does he want to run?
In an in-depth profile by my colleague Tim Alberta,
Phillips said he’s most concerned about beating Trump. “Look, just because
[Biden’s] old, that’s not a disqualifier,” Phillips said. “But being old, in
decline, and having numbers that are clearly moving in the
wrong direction? It’s getting to red-alert kind of stuff.” He added: “Someone
had to do this. It just was so self-evident.”
Who wants him to run?
Phillips told Alberta that even some
Biden allies privately encouraged him to run—but no one will say it openly.
Though many Democrats feel Biden is too old, that doesn’t mean that they’re
willing to openly back a challenger, especially a little-known one, or that
Phillips can overcome the structural barriers to beating an incumbent in a
primary. There’s a reason Phillips couldn’t draft another Democrat to run.
Can he win the nomination?
Almost certainly not in 2024—even if Biden leaves the race.
What else do we know?
His grandmother was “Dear Abby,” and he made a fortune running the Talenti
gelato company.
Kamala Harris
Who is she?
Harris is the vice president of the United States.
Is she running?
No, but if Biden were to bow out, she’d be the immediate favorite.
Why does she want to run?
One problem with her 2020 presidential campaign was the lack of a clear answer
to this question. Perhaps running on the Biden-Harris legacy would help fill in
the blank.
Who wants her to run?
Some Democrats are excited about the prospect of nominating a woman of color,
but generally Harris’s struggles as a candidate and in defining a role for
herself (in the admittedly impossible position of VP) have resulted in nervousness about her as a
standard-bearer.
Can she win the nomination?
Not right now.
Pete
Buttigieg
Who is he?
Mayor Pete is Secretary Pete now, overseeing the Department of Transportation.
Is he running?
No, but he would also be a likely candidate if Biden stepped away.
Why does he want to run?
Just as he was four years ago, Buttigieg is a young, ambitious politician with
a moderate, technocratic vision of government.
Who wants him to run?
Buttigieg’s fans are passionate, and Biden showed that moderates remain a force
in the party.
Can he win the nomination?
Not at this moment.
Bernie
Sanders
Who is he?
The senator from Vermont is changeless, ageless, ever the same.
Is he running?
No, but if Biden dropped out, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t seriously
consider another go. A top adviser even says so.
Why does he want to run?
Sanders still wants to tax billionaires, level the economic playing field, and
push a left-wing platform.
Who wants him to run?
Sanders continues to have the strong support of a large portion of the
Democratic electorate, especially younger voters.
Can he win the nomination?
Two consecutive tries have shown that he’s formidable, but can’t close. Maybe
the third time’s the charm?
Gretchen
Whitmer
Who is she?
Whitmer cruised to a second term as governor of Michigan in 2022.
Is she running?
No.
Why would she want to run?
It’s a little early to know, but her reelection campaign focused on abortion
rights.
Who wants her to run?
Whitmer would check a lot of boxes for Democrats. She’s a fresh face, she’s a
woman, and she’s proved she can win in the upper Midwest against a MAGA
candidate.
Can she win the nomination?
Not if she isn’t running.
Marianne
Williamson
Who is she?
If you don’t know Williamson from her popular writing on spirituality, then you
surely remember her somewhat woo-woo Democratic bid in 2020.
Is she running?
Supposedly. Williamson announced her campaign on March 4 in D.C., but the only
peeps from her have involved staff turnover.
Why does she want to run?
“It is our job to create a vision of justice and love that is so powerful that
it will override the forces of hatred and injustice and fear,” she said at her campaign launch. She has
also said that she wants to give voters a
choice: “The question I ask myself is not ‘What is my path to victory?’ My
question is ‘What is my path to radical truth-telling?’ There are some things
that need to be said in this country.”
Who wants her to run?
Williamson has her fans, but she doesn’t have a clear political constituency.
Can she win the nomination?
Nah.
J. B.
Pritzker
Who is he?
The governor of Illinois is both a scion of a wealthy family and a “nomadic
warrior.”
Is he running?
No.
Why does he want to run?
After years of unfulfilled interest in elected office, Pritzker has established
himself as a muscular proponent of progressivism in a Democratic stronghold.
Who wants him to run?
Improbably for a billionaire, Pritzker has become a darling of the
Sanders-style left, as well as a memelord.
Can he win the nomination?
Not now.
THIRD-PARTY AND INDEPENDENT
Robert F.
Kennedy Jr.
Who is he?
The son of a presidential candidate, the nephew of another, and the nephew of a
president, Kennedy is a longtime environmental activist and also a chronic crank.
Is he running?
Yes. He announced his run for the Democratic
nomination on April 19, but on October 9 he dropped out of that race to run as
an independent.
Why does he want to run?
Running for president is a family tradition. His campaign is arranged around
his esoteric combination of left-wing interests (the environment, drug prices) and
right-wing causes (vaccine skepticism, anger about social-media “deplatforming”), but tending toward extremely dark places.
Who wants him to run?
Soon after he announced his campaign, Kennedy reached double digits in polls
against Biden—a sign of dissatisfaction with the president and of Kennedy’s
name recognition. It has since become clear that Democratic voters are not
interested in anti-Semitic kookery, though some other fringe elements might be.
What are his prospects?
It is possible, if unlikely, that Kennedy could play a serious spoiler role by
drawing enough votes from either Trump or Biden in key states to swing the
election. The short answer is no one knows what might happen, but he
very well might boost the president’s chances.
Joe Manchin
Who is he?
A Democratic U.S. senator and former governor of West Virginia, he was the
pivotal centrist vote for the first two years of Joe Biden’s term.
Is he running?
It’s hard to tell how serious he is. Manchin has been courted by No Labels, the nonpartisan
centrist organization, to carry its banner, and on November 9, Manchin announced
that he wouldn’t run for reelection to the Senate in 2024, forgoing what would
have been the toughest race of his career. His announcement suggested some
interest in a third-party bid: “What I will be doing is traveling the country
and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to
mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.” (He never made any noises
about a Democratic primary campaign, and wouldn’t have fared well.)
Why does he want to run?
Some mix of true belief and umbrage. I’ve described him as “a middle-of-the-road
guy with good electoral instincts, decent intentions, and bad ideas,” but he
also periodically seems personally piqued at
Biden and the Democrats over slights perceived or real.
Who wants him to run?
No Labels would love to have someone like him, a high-profile figure who’s
willing to buck his party and has policies that would appeal to voters from
either party. It’s hard to imagine that he’d have much of an organic base of
support, but Democrats are terrified that he’d siphon off enough
votes to hand Trump or another Republican the win in a three-way race.
What are his prospects?
“Make no mistake, I will win any race I enter,” he said in April. If that is true, do not
expect to see him in the presidential race.
Cornel West
Who is he?
West is a philosopher, a theologian, a professor, a preacher, a gadfly, a
progressive activist, an actor, a spoken-word recording artist, an author … and
we’re probably missing a few.
Is he running?
Yes. He announced his campaign on the People’s
Party ticket on June 5. Soon thereafter he switched to the Green Party, which
might have gotten him the best ballot access. But as of October, he’s running as an independent.
Why does he want to run?
“In these bleak times, I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes
the form of running for president of the United States,” he said in his announcement video. West is
a fierce leftist who has described Trump as a “neofascist” and Biden as a
“milquetoast neoliberal.”
Who wants him to run?
West was a high-profile backer of Bernie Sanders, and it’s easy to imagine him
winning over some of Sanders’s fervent fans. Now that he is running as an
independent, he will likely have trouble building a base of his own.
What are his prospects?
Let’s hear from Brother West: “Do we have what it takes? We shall see,” he
said. “But some of us are going to go down fighting, go down swinging, with
style and a smile.”
Jill Stein
Who is she?
Here’s what I wrote in 2016: “A
Massachusetts resident and physician, she is a candidate of nearly Stassen-like
frequency, having run for president in 2012 and a slew of other offices before
that.”
Is she running?
So it seems. Now that Cornel West’s campaign (which she briefly managed,
whatever that means) has dropped out of contention for the Green Party
nomination, she has filed to run on the Green
line.
Why does she want to run?
Though she hasn’t laid out a platform yet, you can get a decent sense of what
her campaign is likely to look like from her 2016 issues: a pretty standard leftist
focus on social justice, the environment, and peace. Her weird comments after the 2016 election make
one suspect that vanity plays a role, too.
Who wants her to run?
The Green Party has a small but consistent batch of voters and ballot access in
many states. It’s also clear who doesn’t want her to run: Democrats
who fear that an even halfway effective Green candidate will cost Joe Biden
just enough votes to lose in key swing states. (For the record, the case that
she cost Hillary Clinton the 2016 race is shaky.)
What are her prospects?
Since she’s the closest thing the Greens have to a proven quantity, she should
be in a strong position for the nomination. And then what? Maybe voters’ dread
of a Biden-Trump rematch will drive some non-Greens to her. Or maybe they will
mostly be over her.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY – From
Fox News
'The View' hosts worry that 'problem child' for Democrats Joe Manchin
will run third party, sink Biden in 2024
Ana Navarro
declared she would ask Manchin, 'Are you willing to be responsible for putting
Donald Trump back in the White House?'
Published November 11, 2023
11:28am EST
The hosts of
"The View" on ABC debated whether Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., could
potentially run as a third-party candidate for the 2024 presidential election
and help President Trump get
re-elected.
Manchin
announced on Thursday he would not seek re-election to the Senate. "I’ve made
one of the toughest decisions in my life and decided that I will not be running
for re-election to the United States Senate. But what I will be doing is
traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in
creating a movement to mobilize the middle, and bring Americans together. We
need to take back America and not let this divisive hatred further pull us
apart."
Multiple
co-hosts of "The View" fretted about him doing
so, with some speculating he would join the No Labels movement.
Co-host Joy
Behar noted that Manchin "has a lot of people wondering if power in D.C.
will shift for the right, because yesterday he announced he will end his run as
the Senate’s worst Democrat," adding that he was "right up there with
Kyrsten Sinema."
"So
we're gonna lose the Senate because of this?" Behar asked.
"Very
likely," co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin replied, before later noting it
"seemed like Joe Manchin was hinting at potentially a third-party bid.
People have wondered if he'd jump into the No Labels kinda discussion. I’ve
been largely critical of No Labels because my fear is that, A, it would end up
boosting Trump, getting more supporters to him, but also I think for a third
party, which we need in this country to come about, it’s going to take years
not one cycle."
She did
argue, however, that she is "warming" to certain aspects of the idea
in theory and likes many of the candidates associated with the movement to the
point she is "willing to hear what they have to say, but I worry that it
could end up boosting the more dangerous candidate."
Co-host Sunny
Hostin said she wasn't sure if a third party candidate "has ever been
successful other than in drawing votes away" from either of the larger
parties as others recalled names like Ralph Nader and Jill Stein. She then
argued, "I think it’s a bad idea, I think it's a much better idea to have
a healthier Republican Party that is not led by Donald Trump. I think it's time
for Republicans that are moderate and that are sophisticated to step up and
denounce Trump and I think that would solve the problem much more so than this
No Label Party."
Co-host Ana
Navarro argued that Joe Manchin has "been a problem child for Democrats
for the last few years, he and Kyrsten Sinema, but he's been part of the family
and he's kept them in the majority, so he's played a very important role."
However, she
contested that his potential run would be a disaster for Democrats.
She added
that while she initially liked the No Labels movement, "This thing to me
is a desperate cry for relevance and attention by a bunch of elitist former
‘something’ who are thirsty to be part of the conversation." She then
proposed that she would ask Manchin, "Are you willing to be responsible
for putting Donald Trump back in the White House? The man who’s been a threat
to democracy, a threat to American values, who led an insurrection? Are you
willing to be part of something that may end up putting that man who should be
nowhere near the Oval Office, he should be in a jail cell."
Sara Haines
argued that even if she likes the No Labels Party in theory and as a future
prospect with potential, "I don't think that it's right for this election
because of the risk of running against Donald Trump."
Behar
rejected the idea that this would be the "death knell for Democrats,"
citing election results earlier in the week which "show voters are much more
motivated by issues like keeping abortion rights safe," warning them
against forgetting the potential electoral consequences of Trump's involvement
in the end of Roe v. Wade.
So
– who is this man counting the blessings on his fingers... five, six, seven?
Minor party candidates snatching away votes from President Joe?
Well, the
liberal Guardian U.K. calls Djonald UnChained an emperor who has no clothes...
but “were the election today, Trump would win.”
A week ago, the Brits declared that: “One has signed historic climate and
infrastructure legislation, steered the economy past a recession and rallied
the west against Vladimir Putin. The other spent Monday on trial for fraud
ranting and raving against a judge in a puerile display from the witness stand.
“And if
a presidential election were held today, Joe Biden would lose to Donald Trump
by a lot.
“Maybe it’s
the pandemic, or inflation, or tribalism, but it is increasingly hard to deny
that something strange and perverse is happening in American politics.” (Attachment Twenty One)
Trump is
facing 91 criminal indictments in Atlanta, Miami, New York and Washington DC,
including “an attempt to overthrow the US government,” filching and sharing
classified documents, indulging in stormy sex with an admitted prostitute and,
last Monday, testifying angrily in court on the New York civil business fraud
case “in
which he has already been fined $15,000 for twice violating a limited gag order
that prevents him from criticising court staff.”
If the
colonials stay their course, GUK maintains, the newly re-elected President will
probably need the money. But the more
the indictments and the outrages pour in, the higher Trump’s ratings rise.
“Everyone is
talking about his temper tantrums, instead of talking about his commissions of
fraud and that he is a cheat,” attorney Neal Katyal posted.
Leaving court after concluding his testimony, Trump said: “I think it’s
a very sad day for America,” channeling grievance, resentment and victimhood as
only he can.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE – From
GUK
X23The emperor has no
clothes. But were the election today, Trump would win
David Smithin Washington
Despite a puerile
display in court in the New York fraud case, Trump outpolls Biden, whose
impressive record isn’t translating into support
Tue 7 Nov 2023 05.00 EST
One has
signed historic climate and infrastructure legislation, steered the economy
past a recession and rallied the west against Vladimir Putin. The other spent
Monday on trial for fraud ranting and raving against a judge in a puerile
display from the witness stand.
And if a presidential election were held today,
Joe Biden would lose to Donald Trump by a lot, according to the latest swing state polls.
Maybe it’s the
pandemic, or inflation, or tribalism, but it is increasingly hard to deny that
something strange and perverse is happening in American politics.
Since Biden
took office the US economy has added a record 14m jobs while his list of
legislative accomplishments has earned some comparisons with those of Franklin
Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Yet in a recent Gallup poll the 80-year-old’s overall
approval rating was just 37%.Israel-Hamas war live: IDF says forces ‘fighting in theheart of
Gaza City’ as Netanyahu says ‘Israel won’t stop’
Trump,
meanwhile, is facing 91 criminal indictments in Atlanta, Miami, New York and
Washington DC, some of which relate to an attempt to overthrow the US
government. Yet the 77-year-old is running away with a Republican primary
election from which Mike Pence, the vice-president who opposed the coup, made an ignominious early exit.
On Monday
Trump was in court for a New York civil business fraud case in which he has
already been fined $15,000 for twice violating a limited gag order that
prevents him from criticising court staff.
The case
threatens to tear down the Trump Organization, revealing that the emperor has
no clothes. Voters do not seem to care. Swing state voters say they trust Trump
over Biden on the economy by a 22-point margin, 59% to 37%, according to this weekend’s poll from the New York Times and
Siena College.
The same poll
showed Trump beating Biden in five of the six most important battleground
states exactly a year before the presidential election, although if Trump were
to be convicted of criminal charges against him, some of his support would
erode by about 6%.
Conventional
wisdom used to hold that Trump’s myriad legal woes would help in the Republican
primary and hurt him in the presidential election. Now even that no longer
seems certain as Trump appears politically bulletproof and Democrats sweat over
the disconnect between Biden’s record and his flagging numbers.
It seems no
event or behavior in court hurts those dynamics. In the sober trappings of a Manhattan
courtroom, Trump’s belligerent, boorish conduct was thrown into sharper relief
than at his knockabout political rallies. Trump repeatedly clashed with Judge
Arthur Engoron, prompting him to warn that he might remove the ex-president
from the witness stand if he did not answer questions directly.
As if
pleading with parents to discipline an unruly child, the judge entreated
Trump’s lawyers: “I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can’t, I
will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can.”
Engoron
added: “This is not a political rally. This is a courtroom.”
It was a
telling observation, given the way in which Trump has consciously and
deliberately conflated his court appearances with his 2024
election campaign, frequently addressing reporters in the hallway. The mountain
of legal troubles that would end most candidacies has turned into a USP of his
White House run.
There is no
better symbol of this than the mugshot taken in August when Trump surrendered
and was booked at the Fulton county jail in Atlanta.
For any other politician, it would be career-ending; for any other citizen, a
badge of shame. For Trump, however, it has become a valuable to asset to slap
on campaign merchandise, make money and rally the base.
Again, on
Monday, Trump knew well
that his courtroom antics would grab media attention. He told reporters: “So
while Israel is being attacked, while Ukraine is being attacked, while
inflation is eating our country alive, I’m down here.
“These are all political opponent attack ads
by the Biden administration, their poll numbers are terrible. The New York
Times came back with a poll that I’m leading all over the place, but it’s a
very unfair situation.”
He whined
petulantly: “I’m sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules
against me. This is a very unfair trial, very, very unfair and I hope the
public is watching.”
He rambled,
hurled insults, boasted about his properties and his wealth and questioned the
motivations of the Democratic New York attorney general, Letitia James, who
brought the case and is seeking $250m in fines. He said: “This is a political
witch-hunt and I think she should be ashamed of herself.”
As a
distraction technique, it worked. Neal Katyal, a lawyer who has argued dozens
of cases before the supreme court, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter:
“Everyone is talking about his temper tantrums, instead of talking about his
commissions of fraud and that he is a cheat. He’s already lost the merits of the
case, so this is his best play.”
It was a show
of impunity from a man who demonstrated on 6 January 2021 that rules and
rituals mean nothing to him. Few of Trump’s critics doubt that he would burn
democracy down given half the chance.
But Trump
also acknowledged that his company did not provide accurate estimates of the
value of apartment towers, golf courses and other assets. New York state
lawyers said those values were pumped up to win better financing terms, and
Engoron has already ruled that they were fraudulent.
Trump emerged
from court after five hours of testimony into his happy place: a barrage of
camera flashes, live coverage on the cable news networks CNN, Fox News and
MSNBC, a chance to talk about his poll numbers. Anyone traumatised by the 2016
election might be suffering flashbacks.
The polls
suggest these are the most potent forces in politics right now. Biden has a
year to find the antidote.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO – From
US
News
Will Trump’s Barbs Land Him Behind Bars?
If Trump violates gag orders or
threatens witnesses, will a judge – to use a phrase the former president often
lobbed at his 2016 election opponent – lock him up?
By Susan Milligan Senior Politics Writer Nov. 3, 2023, at
7:46 a.m.
Closing In on Contempt
It was a historic and jarring
event when FBI agents searched former President Donald Trump's home last year
to look for classified documents he was accused of hoarding. It was shocking
when Trump was indicted in four separate cases, including three directly
related to his conduct as president and as a former president. It was stunning
to court-watchers when Trump continued to attack prosecutors, judicial
personnel and potential witnesses as the cases against him proceeded, resulting
in fines against the former president-turned-defendant.
But are judges willing to take the
next step – perhaps the most unsettling for a country accustomed to being more
deferential to its former leaders – and put Trump behind bars? If Trump
violates gag orders or violates the terms of his bail by threatening witnesses
or court personnel, will a judge – to use a phrase Trump frequently lobbed at
his 2016 election opponent – lock him up?
Doing so could make the judge a
target of vitriol and even violence and could be a security nightmare as
authorities figure out how to safely incarcerate a man who has Secret Service
protection himself. And it would forever change the narrative of American
democracy, where misbehaving presidents are voted out or forced into
self-imposed domestic exile, experts say.
But refusing to take a step that
is used against virtually every other defendant who violates a gag order or
conditions of bail could endanger American democracy even more, they say, by
establishing a separate category of justice for the powerful.
"Trump will continue to get
as close to the line, if not crossing the line, of propriety as far as the gag
orders are concerned until he is actually and meaningfully penalized by a
court," says Richard Signorelli, a former federal prosecutor who now has a
criminal defense and civil litigation practice in New York City.
"Given his status as a former
president and a current candidate for president, the courts will continue to
treat him in a different and more special way than they would an ordinary
litigant or defendant. However, if he continues his approach of testing the
court, he will be punished in an escalating fashion. I do believe … if Trump
continues to violate, she will order him detained in his home," Signorelli
says, referring to federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case
related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
Sending Trump to jail for contempt
– or even putting him in home detention, as legal experts think is a more
likely scenario, given the security and public relations complications of
putting him in a local or federal facility – has implications for Trump if he
is convicted, experts say.
Prosecutors "didn't want to
be the first person to charge a former president. Then, [New York District
Attorney] Alvin Bragg opened the door and everyone walked right through
it," says California trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor Neama
Rahmani.
Similarly, if Trump is confined –
at home or in a facility – for violating gag orders or the terms of his bail,
it would create a new precedent that would make it easier to imagine Trump in
prison if he is convicted of any of the 91 felony counts against him.
"Courts and prosecutors have
to become normalized to the idea of detaining Trump – if he continues to
violate gag orders and/or if he is convicted at trial," Signorelli says.
Less-powerful defendants have been
punished with time behind bars for being in contempt of court (including
violating gag orders) or threatening authorities. This week, Vitali
GossJankowski, found guilty on several charges related to the Jan. 6
insurrection, was jailed pending sentencing after he "doxxed" FBI
agents, releasing private information about them and threatening the agents on
social media.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former
billionaire crypto trader, was put behind bars in August weeks before his fraud
trial after giving a media outlet private writings by a witness. A judge said
the actions amounted to witness tampering and violated the terms of
Bankman-Fried's bail.
Trump is playing a game of legal
chicken on several fronts: He has limited gag orders in two cases – a civil
fraud trial in New York City, where two of his children testified this week,
and the federal case on charges related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
In Georgia, where four of the 19
defendants in a case alleging conspiracy to undo the 2020 elections there have
already pleaded guilty, Trump is free on $200,000 bail. But if he violates the
conditions of his bail – which include threatening or intimidating witnesses –
a judge could impose escalating penalties, including incarceration at a state
facility or detention at home, legal experts explain.
Trump walked the line – and may have
crossed it, former prosecutors say – when he lambasted his former chief of
staff, Mark Meadows, after ABC reported that Meadows was cooperating in an
immunity deal with special prosecutor Jack Smith on the Jan. 6 case.
"Some people would make that
deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future of our
Failing Nation," Trump said on social media. Meadows, who has not been
indicted in federal charges, is a co-defendant with Trump in the Georgia case.
Trump has also called Chutkan
"very biased and unfair" and has called Smith "deranged."
And after Chutkan reinstated Trump's gag order (which had temporarily been
lifted while he appealed it), the former president went after both the judge
and a potential witness, former Attorney General Bill Barr, on social media.
"I do think he has already
said things that would have virtually any other defendant in far worse
trouble," says Norm Eisen, executive chair of the States United Democracy
Center and co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during Trump's first
impeachment and trial in 2020.
While courts are sensitive to
First Amendment protections – especially for someone running for president –
Trump is pushing the legal envelope, Eisen says.
"At least when it comes to
gag order violations, if he does not stop, it will eventually escalate to
short-term confinement, either in the New York or the federal cases,"
Eisen says.
Judge Arthur F. Engoron, who is
presiding over Trump's civil fraud trial in New York, has already imposed
separate fines ($5,000 and $10,000) for violations of the gag order, after
Trump blasted Engoron's clerk, posting her photo and claiming she was biased
against him.
The attacks on prosecutors and
tainting of possible witnesses has not been without impact, legal experts note.
An Alabama man has been charged with threatening Fulton County District
Attorney Fani Willis because of her prosecution of Trump in Georgia. A Texas
woman has been accused of threatening Chutkan, leaving a voicemail for the
judge saying, "If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill
you," according to an affidavit filed in a criminal complaint in Houston.
"It's about safety – public
safety. We know what his word can do. We saw that on Jan. 6," says New
York City trial lawyer Bernarda Villalona, a veteran of both the Philadelphia
and Kings County (Brooklyn) district attorney's offices. The fines are "a
drop in the bucket" for someone like Trump, who easily raises cash from
his devoted followers, she notes.
The judges have been increasingly
impatient with Trump but have yet to pull out the most powerful weapon in their
arsenals: confinement, either in a traditional jail or at home.
"I think if it were you or
me, we would be pretty close to being put in jail," says William
"Widge" Devaney, a former assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey who
is now a partner with the prominent law firm Baker McKenzie.
Devaney says he thinks it's
"unlikely" Trump will end up in jail for contempt, because "it
gives him more of a platform and would "encourage exactly" what the
gag orders are trying to prevent.
Like other former prosecutors,
Devaney says it's possible one of the judges would put Trump in home
confinement, perhaps banning him from social media. Home detention, Signorelli
says, means no golf, no off-site rallies – and leaving home only for medical
appointments, religious practice or meetings with his defense lawyers.
Chutkan also will be pressed to
protect his free speech rights, particularly since he is a 2024 candidate for
president.
"I think Judge Chutkan is
trying to balance those two interests," Devaney says.
But if Trump continues to attack
players in his court cases – and "I don't think he can help himself,"
Eisen says, noting Trump’s particularly erratic behavior of late on the
campaign trail and in social media – judges may have no choice, experts say.
"These orders don't mean
anything if they're not going to be enforced," Rahmani says. "You've
got to do something if you're a judge. These violations are not inadvertent.
They're not gray areas. They're clear, black and white violations of these
orders."
It's rhetoric, to be sure, that
has helped propel Trump to front-runner status in the 2024 Republican primary.
But it could also get him locked up.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE – From
GUK
Trump’s son Donald Jr begins testifying at real estate fraud trial in New York
Former
president’s eldest son is a defendant in the Trump Organization case alongside
his father and brother Eric
Callum
Jones in New York
Wed 1 Nov 2023 15.08 EDT
Donald Trump’s
eldest son has taken the stand on Wednesday at the New York civil fraud trial surrounding the former president’s
business empire.
Donald Trump
Jr, a defendant in the case alongside his father, is testifying as the judge
considers whether the Trump Organization and its top executives lied about the
value of its properties.
Both Don Jr
and his brother Eric – executive vice-presidents at the company – are set to be
questioned in court this week. Donald Trump,
a former president, is expected to testify next week, before his daughter,
Ivanka, who is not a defendant in the case, is set to appear.
In an interview with Newsmax on Monday, Don Jr claimed the
“mainstream media, the people in [Washington] DC … want to throw Trump in jail
for a thousand years and/or the death penalty. Truly sick stuff, but this is
why we fight.”
Judge Arthur
Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his family business committed fraud.
Engoron is using this trial – focused on remaining claims of conspiracy,
insurance fraud and falsifying business records – to decide on punishment.
The $250m
fraud case against the former president, his eldest sons and other Trump
executives has been brought by the office of the New York attorney
general, Letitia James.
The trial is
a bench trial, with no jury. Engoron is presiding over the case, and will be
the sole decider. Because this is a civil trial, Trump will not be sent to
prison if found guilty. While he is not required to appear in court, he has on
several occasions, including for last week’s testimony by Michael Cohen, his
former fixer.
Engoron
imposed a gag order on Trump after he criticised the judge’s law clerk on
social media. He has since fined the former president twice: first $5,000 after
the offending post remained online, and then $10,000 for comments outside the court last week that he
concluded amounted to a further attack.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR – From
GUK
x04Trump Jr distances
himself from documents at center of fraud trial: ‘I don’t recall’
Donald Trump’s
eldest son testifies in New York civil trial, claiming repeatedly: ‘I don’t
recall’
Lauren Aratani and Dominic Rushe in New York
Donald Trump
Jr took the stand in the ongoing fraud trial against his father and the family
business on Wednesday and tried to distance himself from the financial
statements at the center of the case.
Trump’s eldest
son, 45, is the first family member to testify in the civil
trial brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. His younger
brother Eric is expected to testify on Thursday, with Trump and his daughter
Ivanka expected in court next week.
In court,
Trump Jr was polite and courteous after his testimony was delayed as Trump’s
lawyers quizzed earlier witnesses. “I should have worn makeup,” he joked as
photographers took his picture ahead of his testimony.
When asked to
slow down, the fast-talking Trump Jr said: “I apologize, your honor. I moved to
Florida but I kept the New York pace.”
Trump Jr was
asked a series of questions about the roles he, his father and Trump’s former
chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, had as trustees of the Donald J
Trump Revocable Trust, which holds assets for the “exclusive benefit” of the
former president.
When asked
whether his father was still a trustee of the trust, Trump Jr said: “I don’t
recall.”
He said he
did not recall much, including why there was a brief period in 2021 when he had
resigned and then been restored to the trust. Trump Jr said there was “autonomy
to do what I wanted” but that he consulted with Weisselberg and others. Pressed
on his role in creating the financial statements at the heart of the case,
Trump Jr said: “The accountants worked on it. That’s why we pay them.”
Trump Jr was
much more combative earlier in the week. In an interview with the rightwing cable TV channel
Newsmax on Monday, he claimed the “mainstream media, the people in [Washington]
DC … want to throw Trump in jail for a thousand years and/or the death penalty.
Truly sick stuff, but this is why we fight.”
James has
accused Trump, his eldest sons and other Trump executives of fraudulently
inflating the former president’s wealth to secure better loans from banks.
In one
example, James said Trump claimed his Trump Tower triplex apartment was 30,000
sq ft, rather than its actual square footage of 10,996.
Judge Arthur
Engoron has already ruled that the Trumps committed fraud. He is holding the
trial to determine the penalty that should be meted out. James has asked for
$250m and the cancellation of Trump’s business licenses in New York – a move
that would end the Trumps’ ability to run businesses in the state.
Earlier in
the day, one of the attorney general’s witnesses testified about the losses he
believes banks suffered as a result of Trump’s alleged fraud. Michiel McCarty,
the chair and CEO of investment bank MM Dillon & Co, said the inflation of
Trump’s wealth allowed the Trump organization to secure better rates for loans.
He calculated the banks lost more than $168m in interest payments as a result.
Trump’s
lawyers asserted that the banks had not been misled.
“They are not
ill-gotten gains if the bank does not testify it would have done it
differently,” Trump’s lawyer Christopher Kise said.
“I decided
these were ill-gotten,” Engoron replied.
Donald Trump
has denied all wrongdoing and the former US president was not in court on
Wednesday but once again blasted the trial on social media. “Leave my children
alone, Engoron. You are a disgrace to the legal profession!” he wrote on social
media on Wednesday morning.
Trump
attacked Engoron as a “political hack” in a post that ended with the line:
“WITCH HUNT!!! ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE – From
CNN
Eric Trump continues testimony in civil fraud trial
By Dan Berman
Updated 4:29 p.m. ET, November
3, 2023
What we
covered here
·
Donald
Trump’s son Eric Trump was back on the stand Friday for roughly an hour in his
second day of testimony in the New York civil fraud case against
him, his family and their business.
·
The New York attorney general’s office pressed Eric Trump and his brother Donald Trump Jr.
in tense exchanges this week about their knowledge of and
involvement with the financial documents at the center of the $250 million
lawsuit. The attorney general’s lawyers presented evidence intended to
challenge claims that the brothers were not involved with the former
president’s statements of financial condition.
·
Trump's adult sons are accused in the lawsuit of
knowingly participating in a scheme to inflate their father’s net worth to
obtain financial benefits like better loan and insurance policy terms. The case
is civil, not criminal, but threatens Donald Trump's business in New York.
The former president is scheduled to testify on Monday.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX – From
CNN
Takeaways: 13 Posts
Reverse Chronology
5 hr 19 min ago
Eric Trump is
off the stand; Donald Trump is next on Monday
From CNN's Dan Berman and Kristina
Sgueglia
Eric Trump's two days in court have ended after
roughly an hour on the stand Friday.
Speaking to the media outside of
the courtroom, he touted the success of his family's company and decried the
trial as a “witch hunt” for "political purposes."
Next up on the stand is his
father, Donald Trump, who on Monday will testify in a historic moment where the
former president will be publicly under oath to discuss his business practices
(He has previously testified in depositions.)
"The only witness will be
Donald J. Trump," assistant attorney general Andrew Amer said when Judge
Arthur Engoron asked who would be testifying when court reconvenes on Monday.
Eric Trump told reporters his
father is “fired up” to be coming to New York and testifying.
57 min ago
Judge
overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial expands gag order
From CNN’s Kara Scannell
The judge overseeing Donald
Trump’s civil fraud trial has expanded the gag order in the trial to extend
to Trump’s attorneys after they raised multiple questions about the judge’s
communications with his law clerk.
In a written order Friday,
Judge Arthur Engoron prohibited Trump’s attorneys from making any further
comments about confidential communications between the judge and his staff
inside or outside of the courtroom.
“Since the commencement of this
bench trial, my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and
threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages. The First
Amendment right of defendants and their attorneys to comment on my staff is far
and away outweighed by the need to protect them from threats and physical
harm,” the judge wrote.
The judge said violating
the order would result in “serious sanctions.”
54 min ago
Ivanka Trump
withdraws her appeal of judge's order requiring her testimony in civil fraud
trial next week
From CNN's Kara Scannell
Ivanka Trump withdrew her
appeal of a judge’s order requiring her to testify at the civil fraud trial
next week after an appellate court refused to pause her testimony.
Thursday night an appeals court
denied Trump’s request to postpone her testimony until her lawyers could make
arguments before the panel that she shouldn’t be required to appear.
Ivanka Trump argued a “hardship”
to testify during the school week when she had young children. She also argued
that since she is no longer a defendant in the lawsuit and does not live in New
York state she shouldn’t be required to appeal. The trial judge previously
rejected those arguments.
In dropping her appeal, her
attorney’s said since she is scheduled to testify on Wednesday, before she can
make her legal arguments, the appeal is now “moot.”
5 hr 48 min ago
Eric Trump
pressed about Mar-a-Lago tax status
From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Kara
Scannell and Jeremy Herb
Assistant Attorney General Andrew Amer
questioned Eric Trump about Mar-A-Lago and it's tax assessment with the
municipality in Florida in 2021 as a commercial property run as a social club —
not a private residence like it was valued on Trump’s personal financial
statements.
In a 2021 email thread shown in
court, an adviser counseled Eric Trump and Allen Weisselberg that reassessing
even part of the property that holds Trump’s private home at Mar-a-Lago would
increase the taxable assessed value and raise the property taxes.
Eric Trump testified it was his
understanding that Mar-A-Lago is private residence that can be sold to an
individual.
“We have the absolute zoning right
to do so,” he said.
The former president's son also
confirmed it is a social club, but earlier at trial, the attorney general’s
office presented a 2005 document in which Donald Trump deeded away his right to
use the property for any other purpose other than the social club.
54 min ago
Judge to
issue written order on what can be said about his law clerk
From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Kara
Scannell and Jeremy Herb
Judge Arthur Engoron said he will
issue a written order Friday afternoon on what can and can't be said during the
New York civil fraud trial about his staff after more discussion about the role
of his law clerk during the hearing.
Donald Trump’s lawyers and Engoron
ended Friday’s court hearing just as it started — arguing about objections over
the judge’s law clerk. Engoron said he'll consider Trump's team objecting to
his communications with his law clerk a standing objection and will continue to
do so.
He also asked them to stop talking
about it.
"Let's not belabor this
point. There’s no more need to make a record. There’s such a complete record.
You’ve made speeches, you’ve made observations,” Engoron said. “What more
record do you want?”
Kevin Wallace from the attorney
general’s office called Kise's complaints about the clerk a "side
show," suggesting Trump’s team was "trying to blow up the
trial."
Trump attorney Chris Kise
responded by saying that it was important for Trump’s team to be able to raise
objections to conduct in the courtroom contemporaneously so they can include it
in the court record.
“Whether we will make a motion now
or not, that’s something we will determine,” Kise said. “That’s something very
different for an appellate record that needs to be complete for appellate
purposes.”
5 hr 50 min ago
Eric Trump
says accounting firms and legal team provided "perfect" financial
statements
From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Kara
Scannell and Jeremy Herb
Assistant Attorney General Andrew
Amer continued questioning Eric Trump Friday about his involvement in his
father’s financial statements that he signed for.
When Amer showed annual compliance
certificates that Eric Trump signed on behalf of his father in 2020 and 2021
for Deutsche Bank loans, the former president’s son said he stands by the
financial statements submitted.
“I believe everything in the
statements was accurate,” he said, adding that what Deutsche Bank did with the
statements was “within their purview.”
Amer asked Trump’s son if he
intended for the compliance certificate to be accurate when he submitted the
forms to Deutsche Bank.
“Yes, I think my father’s net
worth is far higher,” Eric Trump said.
“I would not sign something that
was not accurate,” he added. "I relied on our accounting office. I relied
on one of the biggest accounting firms in the country and I relied on a great
legal team, and when they gave me comfort that the statement was perfect, I was
more than happy to execute it.”
Deutsche Bank has loaned the Trump
Organization hundreds of millions of dollars for a golf course in Miami, a
hotel and condo in Chicago, and the conversion of the Old Post Office building
in Washington, DC, into a hotel.
Amer also asked Eric Trump about
what happened after New York Attorney General Letitia James announced her
investigation into the Trump Organization in 2019.
Eric Trump said there were
“thousands of phone calls about the statements of financial condition,” after
the attorney general announced her investigation.“There’s no question there
were conversations about the statements of financial condition after this
action started,” he said.
6 hr 41 min ago
Trump lawyers
and Judge Engoron spar over role of judge's clerk, again
From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Kara
Scannell and Jeremy Herb
Friday’s court session in Donald
Trump’s New York civil fraud trial began with another extended debate about the
role of Judge Arthur Engoron’s principal law clerk.
On Thursday, Engoron and Trump
attorney Chris Kise had a tense argument about his clerk
in response to criticism of her, prompting Engoron to threaten to extend his
gag order barring public commentary on members of his court staff.
Kise picked up the debate Friday
morning with a lengthy speech complaining about the clerk, raising an
allegation from a right-wing website and claiming that the political bias could
be cause for a mistrial.
“The entire country if not the
world is watching this proceeding,” Kise said, arguing he had a right to put
allegations of bias and the perception of bias in the court record. “The
rulings are frequently, if not inordinately against us on almost every major
issue,” Kise complained.
Engoron defended his rulings and
his clerk’s role in the trial, sitting alongside him, saying he believes he is
deciding issues in the trial “right down the middle.”
Assistant Attorney General Andrew
Amer said if Trump's team has evidence of extrajudicial conduct that suggests
the law clerk is biased then they should go ahead and make a motion.
"Making speeches," he said, was "wasting a lot of time."
More context: Engoron’s
clerk, who sits alongside him on the bench, has played a significant role in
the commentary of the trial. After Donald Trump attacked the clerk on social
media in the first week of the trial, Engoron imposed his gag order on
commentary about his staff. Trump has since been fined twice for violating the
gag order, including comments he made to reporters while outside the courtroom
last week, which prompted Engoron to briefly put Trump on the stand.
7 hr 11 min ago
Tense
exchanges unfolded Thursday over Eric Trump's knowledge of his father's
financial statements
From CNN's Lauren del Valle, Kara
Scannell and Jeremy Herb
Assistant Attorney General Andrew
Amer’s examination of Eric Trump grew tense Thursday as
the son of the former president grew visibly agitated when pressed about his
understanding of his father’s financial statements that were used to support
real estate transactions.
Amer used a series of emails
dating as far back as 2010 and phone conversations to argue that Eric Trump was
familiar with the statements, contradicting his testimony.
For instance, there was a series
of February 2012 emails regarding the purchase of a golf club in Charlotte,
North Carolina, which referenced a club board member reviewing personal
financial statements at the Trump Organization's New York office to ensure the
club board of the company's ability to run the club. In the email, Eric Trump
expressed his concern over the confidentiality of the financial information to
the board member.
Amer pushed Eric Trump to
acknowledge that, based on the written exchange, he must have known by 2012
that his father had personal financial statements used to support real estate
transactions. Eric Trump asserted that the records shown in court don’t
prove that the board member reviewed the statements of financial condition at
issue in the civil case.
“I understand we had financials as
a company,” Eric Trump said. “I was not personally aware of the statement of
financial condition. I did not work on the of financial condition. I’ve been
very, very clear on that.”
Amer then pointed back to Jeff McConney’s supporting data spreadsheet valuing
Seven Springs, suggesting Eric Trump must have known about his father’s
financial statements by the time that spreadsheet was created later that
year. (McConney is a co-defendant.)
Amer also showed the court an
email dated August 20, 2013, that former controller Jeff McConney sent Eric
Trump expressly asking for help to value Seven Springs on his father’s annual
financial statement. McConney also attached the supporting data spreadsheet for
the previous year’s statement detailing the Seven Springs valuation including
the note about a conversation with Eric in 2012.
“So you did know about your
father’s annual financial statement, as of August 20, 2013, didn’t you?” Amer
asked.
“It appears that way, yes,” Eric Trump said.
Still, Eric Trump sought to
distance himself from the statement, suggesting his input to McConney was related
to plans for land development and not the values ascribed to the property on
the spreadsheet.
7 hr 15 min ago
Eric Trump
arrives at Manhattan courthouse
From CNN’s Carolyn Sung
Former President Donald Trump's
adult son, Eric Trump, has arrived at the courthouse in downtown Manhattan
ahead of testimony in the New York attorney general's ongoing civil fraud
trial.
Eric Trump is expected to resume
his testimony this morning after spending time on the stand Thursday afternoon.
7 hr 11 min ago
Why there's
no jury for Trump's New York civil fraud case
From CNN's Hannah
Rabinowitz and Jeremy Herb
Former President Donald Trump has
complained repeatedly that the civil trial in New York, where he’s
accused of business fraud, does not have a jury – and the fate of the case is
up to Judge Arthur Engoron.
Trump’s lawyers say the New York
state law that state Attorney General Letitia James used to bring the complaint
against him – a civil statute giving the state attorney general wide latitude
to go after “persistent fraud” in business – did not allow him to request a
jury trial.
But legal experts familiar with
New York state law say that the question of whether Trump could have sought a
jury trial is complicated. While Trump may not have been likely to succeed,
experts said the question of a jury trial is something that Trump’s lawyers
could have tried to litigate.
“It’s not entirely clear whether
Trump would have been entitled to a jury trial under New York law – that would
depend on nuanced legal determinations about the nature of the remedy sought by
the attorney general,” said Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and former
federal and New Jersey prosecutor. “But Trump’s legal team absolutely could
have requested a jury, litigated the issue, and then appealed had they lost.”
At the start of the trial, Engoron
noted that no parties in the case requested a jury trial and that the law
mandated a “bench trial” decided by a judge.
“You have probably noticed or
already read that this case has no jury,” Engoron said. “Neither side asked for
one and, in any event, the remedies sought are all equitable in nature,
mandating that the trial be a bench trial, one that a judge alone decides.”
Trump’s lawyers have pushed back
on the notion that they failed to request a jury trial, as some have suggested
based on paperwork filed in the case.
“Under 63 (12), which is what this
case is, you don’t have a right, an absolute right to a jury,” Trump lawyer
Alina Habba said on Fox News previously.
A Trump spokesperson said that the
attorney general “filed this case under a consumer protection statute that
denies the right to a jury.”
“There was never an option to
choose a jury trial,” the spokesperson said. “It is unfortunate that a jury
won’t be able to hear how absurd the merits of this case are and conclude no
wrongdoing ever happened.”
In other legal cases that the
former president has faced, however, Trump and his attorneys have lamented that
he is unable to receive a fair verdict from a jury in New York. After a New
York jury found that Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in 1996,
attorney Joe Tacopina said
that Trump is “firm in his belief” that he cannot get a fair trial in New York
City “based on the jury pool.”
3 hr 48 min ago
Here's what
is at stake in Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York
From CNN's Lauren del
Valle and Kara Scannell
The New York civil fraud trial against former
President Donald Trump, his eldest sons, their companies and Trump Organization
executives is expected to continue Friday with more testimony from Eric Trump.
The civil trial over inflated
assets in fraudulent financial statements started last month just after a shocking ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron at
the end of September that found Trump and his co-defendants are liable for
“persistent and repeated” fraud.
Trump inflated his net worth by as
much as $3.6 billion in three separate years between 2011 and 2021, according
to the attorney general’s office. Attorneys for Trump have refuted the claims,
arguing that asset valuations are highly subjective and that they are still
sorting through what the ruling means for the company’s future.
What's at stake at
trial: Trump and his companies could be forced to pay hefty sums in
damages for the profits they've allegedly garnered through their fraudulent
business practices.
Engoron will consider just how
much the Trumps and their businesses will have to pay.
Since Engoron has
already ruled on one of the claims — persistent and repeated fraud —he will now
decide on the six other claims:
·
Falsifying business
records
·
Conspiracy to
falsify business records
·
Issuing false
financial statements
·
Conspiracy to
falsify false financial statements
·
Insurance
fraud
·
Conspiracy to
commit insurance fraud
Engoron set aside more than three
months for the trial, which could continue through late December.
7 hr 59 min ago
What to know
about Thursday's testimony from Trump's adult sons in the New York fraud case
From CNN's Jeremy
Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell---
The New York Attorney General’s
office pressed Donald Trump’s two adult sons Thursday about their knowledge of
and involvement with the former president’s financial statements in some
of the most significant and tense days of the
fraud trial.
The back-to-back appearances
Thursday from Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — who both helped run the Trump
Organization while their father was in the White House — comes ahead of the
former president’s own testimony on Monday.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump
are co-defendants in the case, along with their father, the Trump Org., and
several company executives.
Here are some key takeaways from the day in court:
Eric Trump confronted with emails
showing his work on Trump’s finances: Assistant Attorney General Andrew
Amer’s examination grew tense as he pressed Eric Trump about his
understanding of his father’s financial statements that were used to support
real estate transactions and confronted him with a series of emails dating
back to 2010.
Eric Trump acknowledged he
provided information to former Trump Organization controller Jeff
McConney, who is also a co-defendant in the trial. But he tried to distinguish
between specific statements of financial condition — his father’s personal
financial statements at the heart of the civil case — and general financial
records for the company.
The distinction is relevant
because Donald Trump’s statements of finances are the documents that the
attorney general pointed to as evidence that he inflated the values of his
properties to boost his net worth — and obtain favorable loan terms.
An expert witness for the attorney
general testified Wednesday the Trump Organization saved $168 million thanks to
the loan rates obtained with the help of fraudulent information.
Donald Trump Jr. said he relied on
accountants: Donald Trump Jr. repeatedly said he relied on his accountants
and was not involved with the preparations of financial statements for his
father, even though he signed them as a trustee of his father’s revocable
trust.
He testified that he didn’t draft
the financial statements, and when he certified them as a trustee, he
relied on the Trump Organization accounting and legal teams that he said
assured him they were accurate to sign.
The attorney general’s office and
Trump’s lawyers got into a lengthy back-and-forth over attorney-client
privilege after Faherty asked what steps the Trump Organization had taken once
the attorney general’s investigation into the company began in 2019.
Some internal policies and
methodologies “have been bolstered” since the investigation began, Trump Jr.
said. One of those changes, he said, was hiring a chief financial officer
who is a certified public accountant.
7 hr 59 min ago
Analysis:
Trump launches new attack on the legal system after his adult sons'
testimony-------------------------------------- strategy that he’s deploying
across his staggeringly broad legal exposure that includes four looming
criminal trials weighing on his 2024 White House bid.
Trump’s latest blast against Judge
Arthur Engoron, who has already found Trump, his two adult sons and their
family empire – the Trump Organization – liable for fraud, also served as a
preemptive blow ahead of the ex-president’s own expected testimony in the civil
trial in the courtroom on Monday. The sometimes strange goings on at the court
in New York are offering early insight into how the even more high-profile and
criminal cases facing Trump could play out in an unprecedented election year
when the campaign trail will run through the courts as well as key swing
states.
Trump’s legal defense has become indistinguishable from his presidential
campaign as he struggles to cope with accountability imposed by
courtroom procedures but portrays himself as a victim of political hounding.
Just as he tarnished the reputation of the US electoral system among millions
of his supporters with false claims of election fraud, the ex-president is now
seeking to trash the image of another pillar of American democracy: the courts.
And characteristically, he is accusing President Joe Biden, his Justice
Department and various prosecutors of being guilty of the very transgression
that he himself perpetrated as he portrays the cases against him as “Election
Interference.”
Trump put his two adult sons in
charge of his real estate firm when he became president, but despite their
positions of authority, both insisted they had very little to do with dealing
with their father’s financial statements, which were used in securing loans on
the firm’s behalf.
“That’s not the focus of my day. I
focus on construction. I don’t focus on appraisals,” Eric Trump said at one point,
after a long exchange in which Assistant New York Attorney General Andrew Amer
tried to show his deep involvement in the affairs of a development at a Trump
golf course in New York.
Read the full analysis of Trump's fraud case here.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN – From
CBS
Eric Trump wraps up testimony in fraud trial, with Donald Trump to be
sworn in MondayARE
UPDATED ON: NOVEMBER 3, 2023 /
10:27 AM EDT / CBS NEWS
Eric Trump returned to the stand in a Manhattan
courtroom on Friday, one day after a lawyer for the New York Attorney General's
Office called his testimony "extremely favorable" to the
state's fraud case against the Trump family.
Friday's questioning was brief,
lasting less than an hour. Eric Trump reiterated his earlier testimony that he
relied on the Trump Organization's accountants to prepare statements of
financial condition, the documents at the center of the attorney general's
case. He also faced questions about a $2 million severance package for Allen
Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's longtime chief financial officer
who pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges last year.
On Thursday, Eric Trump and older
brother Donald Trump Jr. each downplayed their connection to the financial
records, saying they had little to do with the preparation of documents that
inflated the value of Trump Organization properties and their father's wealth.
Both Trump sons are executive vice presidents at the Trump Organization.
The judge in the case has already
found the Trumps and their company liable for fraud, determining that they
manipulated financial statements to obtain favorable deals with banks and
insurers. New York Attorney General Letitia James says the family profited from
fraud to the tune of at least $250 million. The Trumps and the other
co-defendants in the case deny all wrongdoing.
Former President Donald Trump is
slated to take the stand to face questions on Monday.
The case revolves around
statements of financial condition that showed inflated values for Trump
properties and Trump's personal assets to secure better rates on loans and
insurance. On Thursday, Eric Trump testified that he didn't think he "ever
saw or worked on a statement of financial condition" and "never had
anything to do with" them.
He was shown email exchanges with
company executives referring to "annual financial statements" for his
father, or the abbreviation "f/s." Eric Trump said he understood them
to be referring to financial statements, but not necessarily the specific
annual statements of financial condition that are the focus of the case.
On Friday, a lawyer from the
attorney general's office asked Eric Trump if he remembered a call that took
place two years ago related to the attorney general's investigation. He
responded that he didn't recall the conversation and has "thousands of
calls a day."
Eric Trump stood by statements of
financial condition he submitted to lenders on behalf of his father in 2020 and
2021. He maintained that the certifications attesting to their accuracy were
reliable, and said he trusted his accountants, the accounting firm Mazars and
his attorneys to ensure that what he was signing was truthful. "I stand by
it 100%," he said about a certificate from 2020. Facing similar questions
related to the 2021 certificate, Eric Trump stated he "would not sign
something that was not accurate."
The final line of questioning
related to a severance agreement for Weisselberg, the former CFO. The deal was
signed by Eric Trump and Weisselberg in January 2023, just before Weisselberg
was due to begin a jail sentence.
The agreement entitled Weisselberg
to $2 million paid in installments over two years. In exchange, he agreed
to not "verbally or in writing disparage, criticize or denigrate the
Company or any of its current or former entities, officers, directors,
managers, employees, owners, or representatives." Eric Trump confirmed
that those entities included himself, his siblings and his father. The deal
included an exception for "acts of testimony directly compelled by
subpoena or other lawful process."
Eric Trump said that his father
did not direct him or approve of this agreement he signed with Weisselberg. He
stated that he was the person who crafted, signed and approved the agreement.
The defense did not cross examine
Eric Trump.
In their respective testimony,
Eric and Donald Trump Jr. each sought to blame the Trump Organization's
accountants — both internal and external — for any inaccuracies that led to the
state's allegations of fraud.
As Thursday's testimony drew to a
close, the two teams of lawyers argued over whether a lawyer from the attorney
general's office was repeating questions to get the testimony they wanted.
But New York Attorney General
special counsel Andrew Amer said he had been "happy with" Eric
Trump's "great" testimony.
ATTACHMENT TWENTY EIGHT – From
New
Republic
Uh-Oh: Eric Trump Stumbles in Key “Gotcha” Moment in Fraud Trial
Eric Trump got a little testy on
the stand Thursday—moments before he was caught lying about his knowledge
regarding his father’s financial statements.
After claiming that he had “never worked”
on the Trump Organization’s statement of financial condition and wasn’t aware
of it until the bank fraud trial “came to fruition,” the taller Trump brother
admitted he was in fact aware of it dating as far back as 2013.
The “gotcha” moment has big implications
for how the rest of this case will unfold.
Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr.
spent the majority of Wednesday and Thursday on the stand, where they conveniently
seemed to have forgotten many details about serving as the Trump Organization’s
top executives.
The brothers have largely skirted
specifics, blaming their faulty memories for the total lapses. Don Jr. claimed
he could not remember the period in 2021 in which he was removed and then
reinstated as a trustee of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, couldn’t
remember if his father was a trustee, had no idea why his father added himself
back as a trustee during his presidency, and claimed he could not recall if he
had worked on his father’s statement of financial condition.
Instead, the brothers’ testimony
has attempted to divert most of the responsibility regarding the faulty
financial statements onto the companies’ accounting team, including former CFO Allen Weisselberg,
as well as their accounting firm, Mazars USA.
Yet Eric’s contradiction to his
own deposition also shines a light on the prosecution’s strategy, which has
been to question his credibility without outright calling him a liar.
Essentially, Eric has already revealed that his claims of having no knowledge
were “at best, based on a very faulty memory and at worst, constituted
deliberate falsehoods,” reported NBC News.
Both Donald Trump and his two sons
are defendants in the $250 million New York bank fraud trial in which the trio
stands accused of deceiving banks and insurers by massively overvaluing the
elder Trump’s net worth.
That figure was sometimes off by as
much as billions of dollars, the president’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, revealed last week.
So far, Judge Arthur Engoron has
ruled that Trump and his sons committed fraud and has stripped the Trump Organization of
its business certificates. Trump is also fighting hard to appeal that
decision.
Trump and Ivanka are set to testify
next week, though the heiress is working to appeal Engoron’s ruling that she
must participate
ATTACHMENT TWENTY NINE – From
Newsweek
Eric Trump Testimony Began 'March Towards Defeat' in Fraud Trial:
Attorney
By Natalie Venegas Nov 04,
2023 at 11:28 AM EDT
After Eric Trump testified
in his father's $250 million civil fraud trial, former federal prosecutor Renato
Mariotti said Friday that his testimony began a "march towards
defeat."
The trial stems from a lawsuit New
York Attorney General Letitia James filed last year, alleging that former
President Donald Trump and top executives at his family company,
The Trump Organization, conspired to increase his net worth by billions of dollars on
financial statements provided to banks and insurers to make deals and secure
loans. Trump, who is campaigning for the 2024 Republican presidential
nomination and is the current frontrunner, has denied any wrongdoing and has
called the trial politically motivated. Eric and Donald Trump Jr., senior
executives of The Trump Organization, are also accused of assisting the former
president and have been set to testify along with Ivanka Trump.
While Eric Trump wrapped up his
testimony on Friday, he reiterated that he relied on others to ensure the
financial statements were accurate. However, documents shown during the trial
by the attorney general's legal team also showed Eric Trump had to sign off on
the statements estimating the values of some of The Trump Organization's
properties.
During an MSNBC appearance on
Friday, Mariotti was asked about his thoughts on Eric Trump's testimony and
what this could mean for the former president in the case.
"I think they basically know they are headed towards
defeat. I really think the defeat was shown when Eric Trump pleaded the fifth
five hundred times in his deposition and at that point it could be held against
him. From then on it's really about a slow march towards defeat for Trump in
this particular lawsuit," Mariotti said.
He
added that he believes Trump's defense will continue to try to shift the
narrative that they relied on accountants and lawyers to ensure the financial
statements were accurate.
"They
have to blame somebody and I will tell you, you can bet your bottom dollar that
the accountants and lawyers are not going to march in there and say it was all
their fault. I do think that's where they have to go and that's why they're
trying to shift the narrative. Trump, when he gets caught in one lie, he always
tries to pivot to another," Mariotti said.
Mariotti's
prediction comes after other legal analysts have weighed in on Eric Trump's
testimony and the subsequent expected testimony of Ivanka Trump as they explain
how their testimony lays the foundation for the rest of the former president's
case.
On Wednesday in an MSNBC blog
post for The Rachel Maddow Show, former litigator and MSNBC
legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained how Eric Trump's expected testimony may be a
missing link in the case.
"Put another way, Eric's
testimony—assuming he recalls various events and testifies truthfully—could help
establish the missing link in the attorney general's remaining claims: intent,
both his own and those of his co-defendants," Rubin wrote.
Meanwhile, former federal
prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, a legal analyst for NBC and MSNBC and
frequent Trump critic, suggested that things are "about to go from bad to
worse" for the former president when he and his three children testify in
the civil trial.
"Do you really think Don Jr.,
Eric and Ivanka are going to be able to withstand the rigors of examination and
cross-examination? They are hostile witnesses, they will be cross-examined by
New York Attorney General Letitia James' team," he said last week during
his online show Justice Matters.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump via
email for further comment.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY – From
Time
In Multiple Courts, Trump’s Mouth Catches Up With Him and His Allies
BY BRIAN BENNETT
NOVEMBER 1,
2023 12:20 PM EDT
For many politicians, exaggerating
or lying in public speeches and on TV often draws few consequences, even when
it’s called out. But it’s different in the judicial system. Misleading and
mouthing off in court can bring on fines and the risk of a jail sentence.
That’s what Trump and his orbit
are coming up against as multiple court cases move forward, with the former
President fighting charges that he illegally tried to overturn election results
in Georgia, fomented a violent attempt to block the certification of the
election on Jan. 6, refused to return sensitive government secrets,
fraudulently covered up hush money payments, and fudged the value of his properties
to get better loan terms.
The proceedings are playing out in
courtrooms in New York, Washington, D.C., Georgia and Florida. And it’s not
going well for Trump. Here’s an overview of key developments in Trump’s cases.
The judge in
the New York civil fraud trial found Trump not credible
The judge presiding over Trump’s
civil fraud trial in New York said last week he didn’t find Trump credible when
he was briefly asked questions on the stand. That doesn’t bode well for Trump
as prosecutors are expected to call on him next week to answer questions about
how he valued his properties for insurance companies and banks. The judge has
already fined Trump for disparaging court officials and will soon render a
verdict on whether Trump should pay the state of New York $250 million in fines
for fraud.
Justice Arthur F. Engoron
unexpectedly called Trump to the stand on Oct. 25 to answer whether he had
disparaged a law clerk in comments to reporters outside the courtroom earlier
that day. Why did that matter? Judges can restrict what defendants can
say publicly about court staff in an effort to protect courtroom workers from
threats, intimidation, and undue influence. Trump was already under
court-ordered restrictions on making additional public comments about staff on
duty in the courtroom, and the judge had previously fined Trump $5,000
for not deleting disparaging comments about a law clerk from his
campaign website.
With Trump on the stand last week,
the judge wanted to know if he was referring to the same law clerk when he told
reporters the person sitting next to Engoron was “very partisan.” Trump denied
it and said he was speaking about his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who that day
had been on the witness stand, on the other side of the judge. After
deliberating for a few minutes, Engoron reportedly said, “I find that the
witness is not credible,” and fined Trump $10,000 for the additional violation
of the court’s gag order.
Trump is accused of fraudulently
giving banks and insurance companies inflated values of his properties. New
York's attorney general Letitia James brought the case against Trump and his
two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric. Trump's legal team has said that Trump
didn't commit fraud and that the financial transactions were profitable for the
institutions involved.
Justice Engoron has already ruled
that Trump is liable for fraud and the trial will determine what financial
fines or other punishments Trump will face. Engoron also canceled the business
licenses Trump uses to operate in the state, but an appeals court allowed the
licenses to stay in place for now.
Over the next several days, Donald
Jr. and Eric are slated to take the stand in the trial, in addition to Trump
himself on Nov. 6, and Trump’s daughter Ivanka later that week.
Prosecutors could finish bringing
witnesses as soon as next week, and then Trump’s legal team will have an
opportunity to bring a slate of witnesses to the stand. The trial is expected
to be wrapped up by the end of the year.
Trump’s under
a gag order in the Jan. 6 case
Trump's also under a gag order in federal court in
Washington, D.C. where he's going to trial on charges brought by Justice
Department Special Counsel Jack Smith for his actions to overturn Joe Biden's 2020
election win and encourage the violent interruption of the certification of the
results in the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
After weeks of deliberations, U.S.
District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ruled on Sunday that Trump cannot make public
statements targeting individuals involved in the case. The judge found that
when Trump has publicly singled out people in the past, that has led to them
being threatened and harassed.
Trump’s legal team had argued that
the order restricting Trump’s public comments about the case was vague and
violated Trump’s free speech rights. Chutkan disagreed, saying the gag order
was necessary for the “orderly administration” of the case.
The judge said the court’s gag
order is narrowly tailored to block comments about the people involved in the
case and doesn’t limit Trump’s political speech. Chutkan went on to give
examples of what kinds of statements Trump is allowed to make, saying that
Trump is allowed to say he is innocent, say the prosecution is politically
motivated and that the Biden administration is corrupt. Chutkan cited a Truth
Social post Trump wrote on Oct. 20 in which Trump wrote, “Does anyone notice
that the Election Rigging Biden Administration never goes after the Riggers,
but only after those that want to catch and expose the Rigging Dogs.” That
would still be allowed under her gag order, Chutkan said.
By contrast, a Truth Social post
Trump wrote on Oct. 24 that singled out a potential witness, Mark Meadows, and
said that people who make a deal with prosecutors are "weaklings and
cowards," is not allowed under the court's gag order, Chutkan wrote. That
post, Chutkan ruled, could be seen as an effort to intimidate Meadows or
prevent him from working with prosecutors.
Trump will have to show he’s
complying with the order for several months. That trial in federal court in
Washington, D.C. is set to start on March 4.
Trump’s
former lawyers admit to breaking the law in Georgia
The fact that members of Trump’s
legal team spread lies and took steps to illegally reverse the 2020 election is
now a matter of public record, leading to real consequences for the former
Trump allies. In Georgia, three of Trump’s former attorneys who worked on his
effort to overturn Biden’s win there took plea deals from prosecutors in the
past few weeks.
Facing the prospect of harsher
penalties, Sydney Powell pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge that she
illegally accessed voting equipment. Kenneth Chesebro took a felony charge for
actions that brought together fake electors in the state. And Jenna Ellis
pleaded to a felony for aiding and abetting false statements and writings.
“I believe in, and I value
election integrity,” Ellis wrote in an apology to the people of Georgia that
she read from in court on Oct. 24. “If I knew then what I know now, I would
have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,”
Ellis wrote.
The Georgia case, brought by Fulton
County District Attorney Fani Willis, accuses Trump and 18 others of launching
a conspiracy to overturn Trump’s election loss to Biden in the state. In
addition to Trump’s three former lawyers, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall
pleaded guilty in September to five misdemeanors related to illegally accessing
voting equipment and data and agreed to testify in future cases.
The plea deals put pressure on
other high-profile defendants in the case, including Rudy Giuliani, who was
Trump's most prominent lawyer spreading false claims that Trump won, and John
Eastman, who worked in multiple states to marshal fake Trump electors to
overturn Biden's win.
The deals also make it more likely
that Trump’s former lawyers will provide information to prosecutors about Trump’s
role in trying to reverse his loss in Georgia, including what led up to Trump’s
taped phone call with Georgia’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger,
asking him to “find” votes to help him win.
A Colorado
court will decide if Trump stays on the ballot
Trump's actions and statements
after the 2020 election are also being examined in a Colorado court where a
group of voters are trying to kick Trump off the 2024 ballot in the state,
citing a Constitutional amendment that disqualifies officials who have engaged
in insurrection from holding future office.
The trial in the lawsuit began
this week in Denver. The judge in the case, Sarah B. Wallace, will decide
whether to remove Trump's name from GOP primary ballots before they are printed
in January in advance of Colorado's March 5 Republican primary.
Lawyers arguing for Trump to be
removed from the ballot reportedly said in court Monday that Trump's statements
had encouraged the crowd that violently broke into the Capitol Building to stop
the certification of election results. Trump’s legal team has said Trump had
been using his free speech rights to question the integrity of the election
results.
Similar cases trying to bar Trump
from ballots for supporting an insurrection are being heard in the Minnesota
Supreme Court and Michigan state court.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY ONE – From
CNN
Takeaways from the tense testimony of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
in the New York fraud case
By Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell, CNN
Updated 8:57 AM EDT, Fri November
3, 2023
The New York Attorney General’s office
pressed Donald Trump’s two adult sons Thursday about their knowledge of and
involvement with the former president’s financial statements in some of
the most significant and tense days of the
fraud trial.
The back-to-back appearances
Thursday from Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump – who both helped run the Trump
Organization while their father was in the White House – comes ahead of the
former president’s own testimony on Monday.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump
are co-defendants in the case, along with their father, the Trump Org., and
several company executives.
Lawyers with New York
Attorney General Letitia James’ office presented evidence Thursday
intended to challenge claims that the brothers were not involved with the
former president’s statements of financial condition – which the judge has
already ruled fraudulently inflated Donald Trump’s net worth to obtain
favorable loan terms.
Here are the key takeaways from
the day in court:
Eric Trump
confronted with emails showing his work on Trump’s finances
Assistant Attorney General Andrew
Amer’s examination grew tense as he pressed Eric Trump about his
understanding of his father’s financial statements that were used to support
real estate transactions and confronted him with a series of emails dating
back to 2010.
Eric Trump acknowledged he
provided information to former Trump Org. controller Jeff McConney,
who is also a co-defendant in the trial. But he tried to distinguish between
specific statements of financial condition – his father’s personal financial
statements at the heart of the civil case – and general financial records for
the company.
“I clearly understand that I sent
notes to Jeff McConney. I worked with him almost every day,” Eric Trump said.
“What seems to not be registering
is the difference between sending things used for financials and sending things
used for a statement of financial condition,” he added. “I don’t
think it ever registered that it was for a personal statement of financial
condition. It was a detail that was irrelevant to me.”
The distinction is relevant
because Donald Trump’s statements of finances are the documents that the
attorney general pointed to as evidence that he inflated the values of his
properties to boost his net worth – and obtain favorable loan terms.
An expert witness for the attorney
general testified Wednesday the Trump Organization saved $168 million thanks to
the loan rates obtained with the help of fraudulent information.
Eric Trump
says he doesn’t ‘focus on appraisals’
The assistant attorney general
pressed Eric Trump to concede now at trial, in contrast to some of his
answers in a deposition, that he knew at the time of the documented
exchanges with McConney that the information he provided about assets like
Seven Springs and the Doral Golf Resort were for his father’s financial
statements.
Amer showed emails in court
Thursday suggesting that Eric Trump was aware of the $45 million
value Cushman & Wakefield appraiser David McArdle offered for the
Briarcliff Manor development in 2015, which turned out to be $58 million less
than what was reported on his father’s financial statements from 2013 to 2018,
according to the attorney general’s complaint.
Amer pushed Eric Trump to
acknowledge he testified incorrectly in his deposition earlier this year when
he said he wasn’t involved in the appraisal process for Briarcliff Manor,
pointing to emails and phone calls about it.
After a lengthy exchange, Eric
Trump said he stood by his testimony that he had limited involvement.
“That’s not the focus of my day. I
focus on construction. I don’t focus on appraisals,” Eric Trump said Thursday.
Earlier in the trial, McConney testified that
Eric Trump directed him to make certain decisions that led to the inflated
valuations of several Trump properties.
Donald Trump
Jr. says he relied on accountants
Donald Trump Jr., whose testimony
began on Wednesday, repeatedly said that he relied on his accountants and
was not involved with the preparations of financial statements for his father,
even though he signed them as a trustee of his father’s revocable trust.
As a trustee starting in 2017 once
Donald Trump became president, Trump Jr. signed certifications for annual
financial submittals required for Trump Organization loans at Deutsche Bank for
the Old Post Office, Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, and Doral
Golf Resort & Spa in Florida.
He testified that he didn’t draft
the financial statements, and when he certified them as a trustee, he
relied on the Trump Organization accounting and legal teams that he said would
have assured him they were accurate to sign.
The attorney general’s office and
Trump’s lawyers got into a lengthy back-and-forth over attorney-client
privilege after Faherty asked what steps the Trump Organization had taken once
the attorney general’s investigation into the company began in 2019.
Some internal policies and
methodologies “have been bolstered” since the investigation began, Trump Jr.
said. One of those changes, he said, was hiring a chief financial officer
who is a certified public accountant.
Judge admonishes
Trump lawyer over clerk
The tensest moment of the day
wasn’t an exchange between either of the Trump sons and the lawyers – but
between the judge and Trump attorney Chris Kise.
Engoron admonished Kise over an
offhand comment critical of the judge’s clerk amid an argument about the
relevance of Eric Trump invoking his Fifth Amendment rights in an
investigatory interview years ago in the case.
Engoron warned Kise about making
comments about his clerk, reminding him that he had already put a gag order
barring public comment about his staff and threatened to extend the gag order
to lawyers, too. Engoron said there could be “a bit of misogyny” in the
continued criticism of his female law clerk.
Kise responded that the objections
he was making were relevant to the case, and he was allowed to raise concerns
about the process of the trial.
“I’m not a misogynist. I’m very
happily married, and I have a 17-year-old daughter. I reject that squarely,”
Kise said.
The clerk’s role in the case
sitting alongside the judge led to Trump attacking her on social media, which
prompted Engoron to put the gag order in place. He’s already fined Trump twice
for violating it.
Engoron defended his clerk’s role.
The notes she passes him during testimony are “confidential communications from
my law clerk,” he said, pounding on the bench.
“She’s a civil servant. She’s
doing what I ask her to do,” the judge said of his clerk.
Trump takes
the stand on Monday
While Eric Trump returns Friday,
eyes are already looking towards Monday, when Donald Trump is slated to testify
as he continues to attack the trial, the judge
and Attorney General Letitia James.
It’s not the first time Trump will
be on the stand in the trial: Last month, Engoron called him to testify about a
comment he made in the hallway in apparent reference to Engoron’s clerk – and
in violation of Engoron’s gag order barring discussion of his staff.
The testimony could also
offer a preview of sorts to how Trump might react in the four criminal trials –
in New York, Washington, Florida and Georgia – which are looming in 2024 at the
same time as Trump prepares to challenge President Joe Biden for the White
House.
Trump has attended the civil trial
at several points to observe, though he was not present for his sons’
testimony. But that didn’t stop him from weighing in on his social media while
they were on the stand.
“So sad to see my sons being
PERSECUTED in a political Witch Hunt by this out of control, publicity seeking,
New York State Judge, on a case that should have NEVER been brought. Legal
Scholars Scream Disgrace!” Trump posted on Truth
Social.
Separately, Trump’s daughter
Ivanka filed an appeal Thursday to block Engoron’s previous order for her to
testify in the trial until an appeal can be heard by the New York appellate
court.
The court denied the motion for a
stay in a filing Thursday night.
Her attorney had argued in
the filing that forcing her to testify next week presents an “undue hardship” –
in part because it’s the middle of a school week and she lives in Florida with
three minor children.
At the end of Ivanka Trump’s
filing, her attorney asked the appeals court to stay the ruling requiring her
testimony as well as a “stay of the trial.”
ATTACHMENT THIRTY TWO – From
WashPost
A judge could toss Trump in jail. The question is whether one dares.
He transparently
challenges gag orders as allies, as well as some critics, are girding for what
that might portend
Analysis by Aaron Blake November 1,
2023 at 11:48 a.m. EDT
Donald Trump in a 2016 debate infamously
warned Hillary Clinton that, if he were president, “you’d be in jail.” A little
more than seven years later, he appears bent on challenging judges who actually
have the power to land him there himself.
But could it really get to that
point? There is little question judges will seek to exhaust other options, but
there is also increasingly little question Trump will continue to test their
resolve with his attacks on judges, prosecutors,
witnesses and others.
And his current and former allies
appear to be girding for the likelihood of this tug-of-war with the judges
escalating. One is even predicting Trump will go to jail. The
former president has in recent weeks responded to a pair of limited gag orders
with his typical defiance and provocation.
A judge in his New York civil case
has fined Trump twice, for a total of $15,000,
over his attacks on a law clerk. The Trump team initially left a post on his
campaign website that violated the gag order. Then Trump made veiled comments
the judge ruled had referred to the clerk.
In his federal election
interference case, Trump responded to a judge pausing another
limited gag order by issuing comments that would transparently have violated it
had the pause not been in effect. When the judge reinstituted the gag order this week,
Trump seemed to quickly violate it by attacking a potential witness, his former
attorney general William P. Barr.
The Trump campaign told The
Washington Post that Trump had not been aware the gag order had been reimposed when he called Barr “dumb,”
“weak” and “gutless” on Truth Social on Sunday night. But the post remained live as of Wednesday
morning, two and half days later.
What unites all of these instances
is, to be charitable, a distinct lack of care on the part of Trump when it
comes to abiding by the limits placed on his speech. You could certainly be
forgiven for thinking Trump is being intentionally provocative and defiant. He
has throughout his political career sought to exploit plausible deniability, sending coded messages to his
base to say things without explicitly saying them.
Court gag order collides with Donald Trump attack on likely witness
New York Supreme Court Justice
Arthur Engoron has wagered that is precisely what happened in the case over
which he is presiding. He barred Trump from attacking his staff, and Trump
proceeded to attack the judge and “a person who is very partisan sitting
alongside him.” The clerk sits right next to Engoron.
Trump was called to the stand and
claimed he was talking about his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who had been
serving as a witness near the judge. The judge rejected this claim, calling
the explanation from Trump “not credible”
and noting that Trump otherwise had no problem invoking Cohen by name. Engoron,
in initially fining Trump for violating the gag order, warned that penalties
could include “holding Donald Trump in contempt of court, and possibly
imprisoning him.”
Current and former Trump allies
seem to acknowledge where this could be headed. While appearing on Newsmax on
Tuesday, Trump lawyer Alina Habba was asked about his potentially being jailed
for violating gag orders. She insisted it is not something his legal team had
given much thought to, while offering the kind of answer that suggests they had indeed. (She suggested the Secret
Service might prevent his jailing.)
Fox News host Jesse Watters on
Tuesday devoted a whole segment on the prospect of Trump being jailed, while
saying, “Do you think Donald Trump is going to respect a gag order? He does not
see a gag order as a threat. He sees it as a challenge.”
Former Trump White House lawyer Ty
Cobb on Monday outright predicted Trump would land in jail.
Cobb said on CNN, “Ultimately, I think he’ll spend a night or a weekend in jail.”
He added, “I think it’ll take that to stop him.” Cobb certainly has experience
in dealing with Trump. Other lawyers who have served Trump have also hinted
broadly their client could be unwieldy at best.
Earlier this year, Trump lawyer
Joe Tacopina had acknowledged an “ill-advised” Trump
social media post featuring a picture of Trump holding a baseball bat next to a
picture of a prosecutor. “I’m not his social media consultant,” Tacopina said.
Another Trump lawyer, John Lauro,
has alluded to the fact that Trump does not always follow advice with his
public comments. “To the extent that I can make
any appropriate suggestions to a client, I do. But as we know,” Lauro said,
“sometimes clients follow our suggestions, sometimes they don’t.”
Secret Service may be prison obstacle if Donald Trump is convicted
Should that continue to be the
case, with Trump challenging or outright flouting gag orders, judges have a
number of options. The simplest option is one we have already seen: escalating
fines. Trump is wealthy, but this would seem to be the most readily available
tool, and Trump previously complied after Engoran
fined him $110,000 for defying a subpoena. Whether such fines would be as
compelling with Trump facing criminal conviction and a potential prison
sentence is very much an open question.
Catherine Ross, an expert on gag
orders at George Washington University, suggested a judge could also confine
Trump to an apartment or house without social media. “That would be gentler
than prison, but with many of the same restrictions,” she said.
Again, this would be dicey given
that it would prevent Trump from traveling for his campaign. Another drastic
but potentially compelling option would be threatening to expedite a trial. The
federal election interference case in which Trump faces a limited gag order is
set for March.
The Trump team has sought to move
it to a much later date, and holding it earlier could place it in the heart of
the early presidential contests. But this would not only feed into his
allegations that these trials are timed to hurt him politically, it could also
feed the claim that his legal team was not given sufficient time to mount a
robust defense.
Obama administration attorney
general Eric Holder suggested recently the judges could move to restrict access
to social media. But the idea that Trump would literally be barred from a
preferred method of speech could be problematic practically and also
potentially lead to public backlash.
Holder, in the same interview this week, played up the other options and,
unlike Cobb, downplayed the idea that the former president would ever go to
jail, even as he agreed that an ordinary person would indeed be facing such a
sanction.
“I would be extremely reluctant to
take a person who is a former president, the leading candidate of one of our
major parties, and put him in jail,” Holder said. Judges likely will be too.
But Trump has a talent for forcing people into unavoidably horrible decisions
they would rather not have to make.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY THREE – From
The
new republic
“Perjury Is on the Menu”: Mary Trump Drags Eric’s Testimony in Fraud
Trial
Mary Trump
predicts Eric just lost the entire case.
Mary Trump delivered an epic burn
to her cousin Eric after he was caught lying in court about his knowledge of
the Trump Organization’s finances.
Eric Trump claimed Thursday during the company’s
business fraud trial that he had “never worked” on the Trump Organization’s
statement of financial condition and that he wasn’t even aware of it until the
trial began. Moments later, he was shown an email in which he told employees he
was working on the statement, forcing him to admit he actually knew about it as
far back as 2013.
“They lie so much, they can’t even
keep track of their own bullshit,” Mary Trump tweeted gleefully
on Thursday evening.
“Sounds like perjury is on today’s
menu.” She also predicted that Eric “basically just lost the entire case.”
Mary Trump, who has contributed to The New Republic and
participated in TNR’s “Stop Trump Summit,” regularly and
brilliantly drags her family on social media. In September, she marked her
uncle Donald Trump being found liable for fraud by listing all of his historic
accomplishments—including being the first former president to be impeached
twice, accused of inciting an insurrection, indicted, found liable for sexual assault, and found liable for fraud.
New York state Supreme Court Judge
Arthur Engoron ruled in September that Donald Trump
had committed business fraud and ordered all his New York business certificates
be canceled. This makes it nearly impossible to do business in New York and
could effectively kill the Trump Organization as it exists today.
Both of Trump’s older sons, Eric
and Don Jr., testified in court this week. Donald Trump freaked out about their pending
testimony ahead of time. And now it’s clear why. His sons’ words have hurt his
case more than helped him.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY FOUR – From
GUK
Trump family on trial: five takeaways from a week in the New York fraud case
Eric Trump
and Donald Trump Jr both testified in a trial featuring a copious paper trail,
plenty of blame shifting and a gag order
Lauren Aratani Sat 4 Nov 2023 07.00 EDT
The fifth
week of the New York fraud trial of Donald Trump ended smack in the
middle of a family affair and with another gag order for the combative Trump
team.
Trump’s elder
sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, took the witness stand in New York this
week and testified they had little knowledge about the financial statements at
the center of the case. Next week, Donald Trump is expected to take the stand
on Monday, followed by daughter Ivanka Trump on Wednesday.
The New York
attorney general’s office has been building its case that Trump, his adult sons
and executives at the Trump Organization knowingly inflated the value of assets
to boost the former president’s net worth when brokering deals. Judge Arthur
Engoron ruled before the trial started that documents prove the family had
fudged financial statements to do this. The trial has been about whether Trump
will have to pay a fine of at least $250m for committing fraud.
It’s getting
closer to the end. The attorney general’s office plans to rest its case against
Trump after the family finishes testifying.
Here are five
things we learned from the trial’s fraught fifth week.
The Trump family’s strategy: blame game
Over the
three days that Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump testified on the witness stand, both brothers pointed to the company’s
accountants and lawyers as responsible for handling the financial statements at
the center of the case.
This is
despite multiple emails and signed documents that show the brothers, who serve
as top executives of their father’s company, were consulted by employees
preparing the statements and brokered deals in which the statements were used
to confirm Trump’s net worth.
Trump Jr said
that they relied on the accountants Mazars to include accurate information in
the statements, as they were “intimately involved” with the company’s finances.
“Mazars for
30 years was involved in every transaction, every LLC. They would have been a
key point in anything that was related to accounting,” Trump Jr said.
It’s worth
noting that Mazars USA dropped the Trump Organization as a client in 2022, and a
representative from the firm, Donald Bender, who had worked closely with the
Trump Organization, said earlier in the trial that he relied on the Trump
Organization to give him accurate information.
Later that
day, when Eric Trump took the stand, he similarly insisted that the company’s
accountants and lawyers were in charge of the financial statements.
“I never had
anything to do with the statements of financial condition,” Eric Trump said.
Prosecutors
questioned Eric Trump about an appraisal for the Trump Organization by the real
estate firm Cushman & Wakefield for a conservation easement, or a type of
tax break. Eric Trump said he had no recollection of the appraisal, though
emails shown in court showed multiple meetings and emails he had had with the
appraiser at the time in 2014.
“I really
hadn’t been involved in the appraisal of the property,” Eric Trump said on the
stand, appearing to grow frustrated. “You pointed out four interactions … I
don’t recall McArdle [the appraiser] at all. I don’t think I was the main
person involved.
“I don’t
focus on appraisals, that’s not the focus of my day,” Eric Trump followed up,
speaking quickly, saying that he was focused on construction and physical
development of properties.
Trump’s elder sons signed multiple documents
saying the company was giving fair and accurate information in its financial
statements
Both of
Trump’s adult sons denied ever working on the statements of financial condition.
Eric Trump went so far as to imply that he only ever learned about the
statement when the attorney general opened the case against the family. But
multiple documents show both brothers signed off on deals that involved the use
of the financial statements to confirm their father’s net worth.
Trump gave
his sons power of attorney, meaning they could sign documents on his behalf,
including bank certifications affirming the use of statements of financial
conditions to verify Trump’s net worth and assets.
Responding to
these certifications, Trump Jr said that he would have “signed a dozen of them
during his time at the company”. When asked whether he signed the
certifications with the intention that the banks would rely on the financial
statements, Trump Jr said that he could not speak to the intent of the banks.
“I know a lot
of bankers that do their own due diligence,” he said.
The next day,
when a similar bank certification was pulled up for Eric Trump, he responded:
“I don’t choose what the bank relies on” but said that he believed the
statements were “absolutely accurate”.
The paper trail is thicker for Eric Trump, but
…
Eric Trump
got the brunt of questioning when it came to his knowledge of financial
statements in the company. Multiple email correspondences suggested he had been
consulted for the statement over the years.
Multiple
emails came from the former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney, who
wrote two separate emails to Eric Trump, one in 2013 and another in 2017, that
started with: “Hi Eric, I’m working on your dad’s financial statement … ”.
McConney
would go on to note in a spreadsheet of supporting data for the financial statement
that he had talked to Eric Trump over the phone to discuss the figures for the
Seven Springs estate in Westchester, New York.
“Having
reviewed the emails we’ve been discussing over the course of the last hour,
will you now concede that you were very familiar with [the financial
statements]?” prosecutor Andrew Amer asked Eric Trump.
“No, I was
not very familiar with my father’s financial statement,” Eric Trump said.
In another
exchange with the prosecutor on correspondence over a North Carolina golf club,
where Eric was consulted to affirm the family’s net worth for the deal, he
said: “I do not recall ever working on my father’s statement of financial
condition.”
“People in
the company have conversations with you all the time, and you provide them with
answers when you can,” he said.
Donald Trump
Jr was also presented with emails from accountants that cited multiple
discussions with Trump trustees, including Trump Jr, over the years that
accountants used to confirm no changes to Trump’s net worth. Trump Jr replied
that he had “no recollection” of the meetings.
Trump Organization lenders lost out on an
estimated $168m because of fudged financial statements
The attorney
general’s office brought in an expert witness, Michiel McCarty, the chief
executive of an investment bank, to testify about the losses lenders
unwittingly accrued when making deals with the Trump Organization because it
had inflated the value of its assets.
McCarty
explained that if lenders had been given accurate valuations for the assets,
they could have charged the Trump Organization higher interest rates. McCarty
calculated the lost interest for loans given for four properties in the case at
$168,040,168.
Patience is wearing thin in the courtroom
In the middle
of Eric Trump’s testimony, as prosecutors were pointing out that Trump invoked
the fifth amendment against self-incrimination 500 times during his deposition
for the case in 2022, Trump lawyers stood up to object. The objection soon
boiled into a heated argument between Trump lawyer Christopher Kise and the
judge, Arthur Engoron, over bias in the case. Kise made a passing comment about
Engoron’s law clerk, whom Trump has attacked on social media, for her role in
the trial, specifically that she passes notes to him during the proceedings.
“I have an
absolute right to get advice from my principal law clerk,” Engoron said, at one
point pounding his fist on the bench. Engoron said that the continued
references to his law clerk could be taken as stemming from misogyny. A
defensive Kise said that they were “not misogynistic. I have a 17-year-old
daughter.”
The next day,
when the issue was brought up again, Kise gave a speech on “perception of bias
in the case” for “the record”. At some point, prosecutor Kevin Wallace stepped
in to say that the defense team had been making similar claims for “weeks” and
that they should file a motion instead of “continuing to interrupt the trial”.
Engoron would ultimately expand a gag order, originally for just Trump, to his
entire defense team prohibiting them from referring to “confidential
communications” between him and his clerk.
He also
revealed his chambers had been “inundated with hundreds of harassing and
threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages” since the
trial began.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY FIVE – From
GUK
US House vote fails to
expel Republican George Santos after 23 federal charges
The lying representative
from New York retained his seat with fewer than two-thirds of the chamber
supporting the resolution
Wed 1 Nov 2023 21.00 EDT
A vote to
expel Republican lawmaker George Santos from the US House of Representatives failed on Wednesday when
fewer than two-thirds of the chamber supported the resolution, preserving
Republicans’ narrow 221-212 majority.
Santos on
Friday pleaded not guilty to a 23-count federal indictment accusing him of
crimes including laundering funds to pay for his personal expenses, illegally
receiving unemployment benefits and charging donors’ credit cards without their
consent.
Santos, who
represents a small slice of New York City and parts of its eastern suburbs,
would have been just the sixth to be expelled from the House in US history.
Three of the five congressmen have been voted out for fighting against the US
in the civil war.
Republican
lawmakers from Santos’ state of New York said last month they would introduce a
resolution to expel Santos, but the move was delayed by weeks when the House
was leaderless following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker.
Republicans
on 25 October elected Mike Johnson, who has said he does not support expelling
Santos for being charged with a crime, to succeed McCarthy.
Santos has
been ensnared in controversy since shortly after winning his election in
November, when he was accused of fabricating much of his biography on the
campaign trail.
The
corruption charges against Santos also include reporting a false $500,000
campaign loan and lying to the House about his assets.
A trial for
Santos is scheduled for 9 September 2024, shortly before the elections that
will determine control of the White House and both congressional chambers.
The House
ethics committee has also said it is looking into allegations involving Santos.
The investigative subcommittee contacted 40 witnesses, reviewed more than
170,000 pages of documents and authorized 37 subpoenas, the committee said.
The ethics
panel said it would announce its next steps by 17 November.
Also
Wednesday, the House in a bipartisan 222-186 vote defeated a resolution to censure
congresswoman Rashida Tlaib after she spoke at a rally that called for a
ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Marjorie
Taylor Greene, the Republican Representative, introduced the resolution on 26
October, accusing Tlaib of “antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist
organizations, and leading an insurrection at the US Capitol Complex”.
Greene’s
resolution refers to a peaceful demonstration in a House office building,
during which hundreds of protesters were arrested. Tlaib did not participate in
that demonstration.
Tlaib in a
statement called the resolution “deeply Islamophobic”, adding: “I will continue
to work for a just and lasting peace that upholds the human rights and dignity
of all people, and ensures that no person, no child has to suffer or live in
fear of violence.”
ATTACHMENT THIRTY SIX – From
Axios
George Santos sends letters thanking colleagues who
voted not to expel him
By Andrew Solender, and Juliegrace Brufke
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) sent letters to colleagues
who voted against expelling him from Congress earlier this week thanking them
for their votes.
The intrigue: The letters went out not only to
Republicans, but the dozens of Democrats who voted to spare the embattled Long
Islander as well – one of whom wrote back that it's "not shameful to
resign."
• "I
am writing to express my gratitude to you for standing up for the principals
[sic] of due process and the presumption of innocence until proven
guilty," Santos wrote in the letters, copies of which were obtained by Axios.
• Santos
stressed that he knows their votes were "not done for me, but for the
sanctity of this institution and the possibility of setting a very dangerous
precedent," adding, "For that, I thank you."
The backdrop: Santos' fellow New York Republican
freshmen forced a vote this week to expel him from Congress over his many
fabrications on the 2022 campaign trail and his two federal indictments.
• The
expulsion measure failed 179-213, with 24 Republicans voting for it and – in a
surprising twist – 31 Democrats voting against it.
Zoom out: Santos has been hurtling back and forth
between swiping at the lawmakers who voted to remove him and expressing
contrition.
• A post
on X he put out in the immediate aftermath of the vote featured a meme of him
wearing a crown and the text "if you come for me, you best not miss,"
which he later deleted and replaced with the same post excluding the meme.
• He also
took aim at Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) by seizing on Womack's son's arrest on
federal drug and firearm charges, only to delete that post and walk it back as
a "misguided moment of rage."
The other side: Rep. Jamie Raskin
(D-Md.), a constitutional law professor who said he voted against expulsion out
of respect for "due process and the rule of law" but said he will
"certainly" vote to oust Santos if he's convicted, marked up his copy
of the letter to correct several grammatical mistakes.
• "Dear
Congressman Santos: I appreciate your note and only wish someone had proofread
it first," Raskin wrote. "Meantime, you
should apologize to the people of New York for all of your lies and
deceit."
• "I
know you must have thought you could get away with it all in the party of
Trump, but the truth is resilient," he continued. "PS: It's not
shameful to resign."
Santos replied to Raskin's
post, telling Axios that Raskin
scoring "cheap points on social media in a cheap defense for his
fundraising is the shameful part."
ATTACHMENT THIRTY SEVEN – From
CNN
Indicted Rep. George Santos says
he plans to run for his seat in 2024 even if he’s expelled from Congress and
insisted that fabricating large parts of his life story would not have any
impact on voters next year.
In a wide-ranging interview with
CNN’s Manu Raju on Friday, Santos, a New York Republican, argued that his
constituents didn’t vote for him based on his biography and said he would
“absolutely” run in 2024 if he is expelled – something that could happen as
soon as this month if the House Ethics committee recommends the chamber take
such a dramatic step.
Santos, who is under investigation
by the Ethics Committee, has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal
charges, including seven counts of wire fraud,
three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two
counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. A
superseding indictment filed last month provided new and damaging details
about Santos’ alleged efforts to personally profit through his campaign.
Adding to the congressman’s
mounting legal issues, Santos’ former campaign treasurer Nancy Marks pleaded guilty last month to one
count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. In court, Marks said she and
Santos knowingly filled out federal documents with false claims and
information.
During the interview, Santos
defended himself, arguing he has done nothing wrong despite the evidence
accumulated by federal prosecutors. He also dismissed concerns that voters may
have about lying about his past, something he has acknowledged in the past and
did so again on Friday.
“Nobody knew my biography. Nobody
opened my biography who voted for me in the campaign,” he said.
Referring to past
misrepresentations about his background, Santos said, “Nobody elected me
because I played volleyball or not. Nobody elected me because I graduated
college or not. People elected me because I said I’d come here to fight
the swamp, I’d come here to lower inflation, create more jobs, make life more
affordable, and the commitment to America,” he said.
Santos has previously admitted to lying
about parts of his resume, including graduating from college. CNN’s KFILE has
reported that while Santos’ biography has at times listed an education at
Baruch College, a spokesperson said the college could not find a
record of anyone with his name or birthday ever attending the school. Santos
has also falsely claimed to be a member of the Baruch volleyball team.
A resolution to expel Santos came
up short of the required two-thirds majority vote in the House this week, but
backers of the measure have said they will press for a future expulsion vote.
But the New York Republican said
he believes he could win a primary and projected confidence for his prospects
in a general election in the swing district he represents. “Look, could I have
won the general election last time? Nobody said I could,” he said. “Elections
are tricky. There’s no predetermined outcome.”
On Thursday, New York Republicans
expressed confidence that House Republican holdouts will ultimately vote to
expel Santos after the committee releases its report.
“At the end of the day. I suspect
the ethics report will prove and suggest that he is as bad as we think he is,”
Rep. Marc Molinaro said. “There just isn’t room for that kind of nonsense here
anymore.”
ATTACHMENT THIRTY EIGHT – From
USA
Today
Senator or secret agent? How Robert Menendez is alleged to have been
Egypt's inside man
Senator Bob Menendez's
indictment on allegations of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Egypt
expands a prosecutorial fight against foreign influence that has grown since
the 2016 election.
By Aysha Bagchi and Josh Meyer
WASHINGTON − The deal was
sealed over meetings and dinner, federal prosecutors say. Officials
representing Egypt's authoritarian government wanted a powerful American's help
with weapons sales and financing. Sen. Robert Menendez and his then-girlfriend
Nadine Arslanian said the senator could facilitate both.
In exchange, a New Jersey
middleman − a struggling Egyptian-born entrepreneur named Wael
"Will" Hana − allegedly promised the future Mrs. Menendez a
low- or no-show job. He would later sweeten the pot with wads of cash and gold
bars.
In the middle of one of many
encounters, Menendez − the influential chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee − and Arslanian joined an Egyptian intelligence
official, Hana, and an associate for dinner at a posh Washington steakhouse.
Arslanian boldly cut to the chase.
"What else can the love of my life do for you?" she asked.
The offer is part of the story
prosecutors unspooled in a shocking indictment charging the couple and
Hana with conspiring to use New Jersey's senior senator as an eager tool of
Egypt's government. The defendants pleaded not guilty to the foreign
agent charge in a New York federal courthouse in October, and
to bribery and extortion charges the
previous month.
The indictment represents the most
serious criminal charges filed against a sitting U.S. senator in recent memory,
alleging that Menendez sold his position and influence to a foreign power for
tawdry personal gain.
The indictment offers an intimate
look at how a powerful lawmaker allegedly undermined national security for
financial gain.
US and Egypt
are close but strained allies
For decades, Egypt had been a
stalwart U.S. ally − and a top recipient of American aid in one
of the world's most volatile regions. The relationship has deteriorated
sharply in recent years over U.S. concerns about Egypt's human rights
record; the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who took power in a
military coup, holds an estimated 60,000 political prisoners.
From his perch as the top Democrat
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez had huge sway over
decisions to continue − or sometimes hold back − hundreds of
millions of dollars in aid to Egypt, as well as billions more in weapons sales
and financing.
“A member of Congress swears an
oath to the United States," said David Laufman, a former federal
prosecutor and chief of counter-intelligence for the Justice Department.
"Their duty of loyalty, without division or equivocation, is to the United
States government, not to serve the interests of foreign military or foreign
intelligence services.”
In a statement to USA TODAY,
Menendez vehemently rejected the allegations.
“The government’s latest charge is
as outrageous as it is absurd,” Menendez said, asserting he has a long record
of challenging Egyptian leaders on issues like human rights. “I have been,
throughout my life, loyal to only one country − the United States of
America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom.”
A lawyer for Hana told USA TODAY
his client "is innocent and has nothing to hide."
"Moreover, the recent
allegation that Mr. Hana was part of a plot concocted over dinner to enlist
Sen. Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian Government is, as the evidence will
show, completely false," said attorney Lawrence Lustberg.
The senator recently boasted that
he’s been able to maintain his top-secret security clearance despite the
federal charges. Requests for comment from lawyers for Menendez were not
answered. An attorney for his wife declined to comment.
Gold bars,
fingerprints, and famous company
Menendez and Arslanian were
married in October 2020.
Prosecutors say they found
hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars during a raid on the
couple's home, with DNA, fingerprints, and serial numbers linking the haul to
other alleged participants named in the bribery and foreign influence
indictments.
The Menendez charges come as the
Justice Department probes whether President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden violated the Foreign Agents
Registration Act, known as FARA, by failing to register while
working in the U.S. on behalf of companies based in China and Ukraine.
The department has also pursued
FARA prosecutions against Paul Manafort, former President Donald Trump's
one-time campaign manager, and Michael Flynn, a top national security adviser
to the campaign. The prosecutions were part of a growing effort to use the
once-staid foreign agent law against big-league targets.
In Manhattan, prosecutors are
using a similar approach against Menendez − but with a legal twist.
Position of
influence
Bob Menendez wasn't just any
senator. The veteran New Jersey Democrat was the ranking member and then
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with the power to stop U.S.
funding to allies around the globe. In 2017, the committee canceled $65.6
million in military financing, and in 2022 the State Department withheld $130
million in assistance.
The senator, according to prosecutors,
wielded that influence to benefit the Egyptian government and himself. They
accuse him of sharing nonpublic information on personnel at the U.S. Embassy in
Cairo with his then-girlfriend, who allegedly got the information to an
Egyptian official through Hana. They say he secretly helped draft a letter for
the Egyptian government aimed at convincing his fellow senators to release $300
million in aid. Menendez allegedly instructed his wife to tell Hana he was
going to sign off on a $99 million arms deal.
Further immersing himself in
Egyptian affairs, prosecutors say the senator pushed U.S. diplomats to engage
in negotiations that had stalled between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan over an
Ethiopian mega-dam on the Nile River. Around 2022, Menendez sent his wife a
news article on pending military sales to Egypt worth about $2.5 billion. She
forwarded it to Hana with a message: "Bob had to sign off on this."
Nadine Menendez was the apparent
go-between in the alleged conspiracy. Around March of 2020, prosecutors say,
she texted an Egyptian official with a bold reassurance: "Anytime you need
anything you have my number and we will make everything happen."
'Never been
utilized before'
These details form the basis of
the foreign agent charge against Menendez, his wife and Hana, which may be
the first prosecution of its kind. The charge is tied to a law that federal
prosecutors began enforcing more aggressively following concerns about foreign
interference in the 2016 presidential election: the Foreign Agents Registration Act,
which requires anyone lobbying in the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government or
entity to register with the Justice Department. Failure to register is a felony
crime.
But FARA exempts sitting U.S.
senators − and some other senior U.S. government officials − from
having to register because of the nature of their jobs. So in Menendez's case, prosecutors dredged up a related statute that
makes it a criminal offense for a "public official" of the United States
"to be or to act as an agent of a foreign principal required to register
under FARA."
Specifically, the indictment
alleges that from at least January 2018 through at least June 2022, when the
FBI conducted search warrants, Menendez, Arslanian and Hana "willfully and
knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each
other" to have Menendez act as an agent of the government of Egypt and
Egyptian officials.
Brandon Van Grack,
a national security lawyer who oversaw
foreign influence investigations and prosecutions for the Justice Department,
told USA TODAY that to his knowledge, the statute has never been used before
the Menendez case.
"Utilizing this law," he
says, "signals that the Department of Justice continues to aggressively
enforce both FARA but also all laws that are connected to the issue of foreign
influence."
Federal authorities took a fresh
look at FARA statutes in 2015, when they became alarmed that Russia was using
operatives inside the U.S. to mount an unprecedented clandestine effort to
influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, said Van
Grack, who was a senior prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller's
investigation of Russian interference.
Justice Department officials,
looking for existing legal tools to crack down on the electoral sabotage,
homed in on FARA as one way to go after the suspected agents of influence. In
turning to the foreign agents law, they ensnared two key players in Trump’s
2016 campaign: Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and Michael
Flynn, a top national security adviser to Trump.
Suddenly, the Justice Department’s
FARA unit was no longer viewed as a sleepy enforcement office chasing lobbyists
who forgot to register as foreign agents. The unit became a critical weapon in
upholding American democracy and national security, Van Grack said.
One of the most high-profile cases
involved Manafort, a longtime lobbyist for a pro-Russian political party in
Ukraine before he became Trump’s campaign chairman in the summer of 2016.
In 2018, after being convicted in
his criminal trial on bank fraud and tax charges, Manafort pleaded guilty in
federal court in Washington to conspiracy to commit multiple offenses, including
failing to register under FARA as a longtime agent of the Ukraine government,
the pro-Russia Ukrainian Party of Regions and former Ukrainian President Viktor
Yanukovych, the Justice Department said.
Another prominent FARA case under
Trump, stemming from the Justice Department's Russia election interference
investigation, was the case of Flynn, the former Trump national
security adviser and retired Army lieutenant general. In 2017,
Flynn pleaded guilty to making “materially false statements in
multiple documents” filed pursuant to FARA requirements in
connection with work he had done for the government of Turkey.
What makes the Menendez case
different is that the Justice Department is using the "foreign agent"
statutes to charge a sitting senator with acting as an agent of a foreign
government, said Ryan Fayhee, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department's
Counterespionage Section.
"Obviously this use of it in
the Menendez case is totally unprecedented," Fayhee told USA TODAY, "even
if, as we've seen over the years, the use of the FARA statutes is really
evolving and becoming part of the toolkit that prosecutors use."
Menendez and his co-defendants
have denied wrongdoing, and the senator has suggested that it's still business
as usual for him on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee even though he was
forced to step down from the chairmanship after the charges were filed.
“I still have all my intelligence
credentials,” Menendez said on New Jersey PBS’s Chatbox with David Cruz show,
adding that he still attends regular committee briefings, including on the
Israel-Hamas war.
Five days after that interview,
one of Menendez's fellow Democrats, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania,
introduced a resolution that would strip any senator facing such charges of
their committee assignments, prohibit them from accessing classified
information or classified briefings, and bar them from requesting earmarks or
using official funds for international travel.
“When you find gold bars stuffed
in a mattress, the jokes write themselves. But our national security isn’t
funny, it’s often life or death,” Fetterman said. “The Senate has an
obligation to its constituents and this country to do everything it can to
protect national security, and that means making sure that senators who are
currently indicted for acting as agents of foreign powers don’t have access to
our most sensitive national secrets."
Laufman, who served as DOJ's counterintelligence chief from 2014 to 2018,
agreed that the allegations against Menendez are "exceedingly
concerning," especially given his position.
Laufman, now at the Washington law
firm of Wiggin and Dana, said he was skeptical of Menendez’s claim that he was
acting in his official capacity in his dealings with Egyptian officials.
It’s common and accepted practice,
especially for someone on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to interact
with foreign government officials and to take good faith positions that they
believe are in U.S. interests, Laufman told USA TODAY.
“Those debates happen all the time.
Those are all valid expressions of disagreement and of a healthy democracy,”
Laufman said. “But he's alleged to have done something more than that by
acting, as alleged, in the interest of Egyptian military and intelligence
officials to influence U.S. government action on behalf of Egypt in ways that
he concealed and for remuneration. And that's a gigantic horse of a different
color.”
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski,
D-N.J., told USA TODAY that the charges against Menendez should raise alarms
about whether he was secretly helping Egypt secure U.S. military aid even as he
was allegedly getting paid under the table to help the Sisi government.
"I'm sure that Bob Menendez
did not single-handedly stand in the way of more restrictions on Egypt. But he
was a key person in the room when these things were being negotiated” in
Congress, said Malinowski, a former assistant secretary of state for democracy,
human rights and labor. "Knowing now that there's evidence he was involved
in a corrupt relationship with the government we were trying to hold
accountable is very troubling.”
A bill shot
down, looking forward to trial
In the Menendez indictment,
prosecutors say the senator made multiple requests between 2020 and 2022 for
the Justice Department to investigate an alleged FARA violation by a
group including a former member of Congress − an apparent reference
to David Rivera, a one-term Florida Republican arrested last year on money
laundering and foreign agent charges related to his consulting work for the
Venezuelan government and its state oil company.
While Menendez, a longtime
opponent of Venezuela’s socialist government, favored using FARA against
Rivera, he also single-handedly shot down a 2020 attempt by Iowa Republican
Sen. Chuck Grassley to strengthen the foreign agent law. Grassley's bill would
have increased penalties for violations and required reviews of exemptions to
the registration requirement.
At a September news conference after
the initial bribery and extortion charges, Menendez said he had a long record
of challenging Egypt’s government on human rights abuses and other issues. He
also said he has withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from his personal
savings account for 30 years because he wanted to be ready for emergencies and
based on his family's experiences with confiscation in Cuba.
"I look forward to addressing
other issues at trial," he said.
ATTACHMENT THIRTY NINE – From
Yahoo Finance
UAW
members at Ford, GM plants in Kentucky and Michigan reject tentative deal
Mon, November 13, 2023 at 2:47 PM EST
Ford (F) and GM (GM)
both suffered slight hiccups with UAW member votes on tentative contracts, but
the automakers and the union are still cautiously optimistic the ratifications
will happen.
The UAW revealed members at Ford’s
Kentucky Truck Plant and Louisville Assembly Plant, where Ford’s Super Duty
trucks and full-size SUVs are assembled, voted down the tentative agreement
by 54.5% and 50.4% "no" votes, respectively. However,
skilled workers at both those plants overwhelmingly approved of the deal (65.8%
and 76.7% respectively).
Of the plants that have voted,
Ford’s Kentucky Truck and Louisville Assembly were the first UAW chapters to
vote against the deal, adding some uncertainty to the ratification process.
That being said, 27 other chapters have voted to approve the deal, with several
chapters still outstanding. On the GM side, the UAW posted on Facebook
that Local 598, which represents GM’s Flint Truck assembly plant, voted 51.8% against the tentative
deal. The Flint Assembly plant employs 4,746 UAW workers and
assembles trucks including the Chevrolet Silverado HD pickup.
"The situation at GM is more
serious as a potential threat to ratification at that company than at Ford,
though I would not take anything for granted," labor expert Marick
Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University's Mike Ilitch School of
Business, told Yahoo Finance. "If the contract is rejected at one company,
the union will have several decisions to make, including whether to call out a
strike, how to deal with maintaining pattern agreements, and determining what
they should try to get to satisfy rank and file."
GM
(stock) dipped on Friday following news of the vote. However, per
the UAW’s GM vote tracker,
58% of UAW members working at GM plants have approved the the tentative deal
thus far.
On the Ford side, the numbers are
even stronger: 65.3% of Ford UAW workers have approved the tentative deal,
versus 34.7% who have not. Again, not all the plants on both the Ford and GM
side have voted.
A tentative contract is ratified
if a majority of hourly workers (which includes production and skilled trades)
who vote vote in favor of the agreement. There is no possibility of a
plant-level strike or negotiation, a source told Yahoo Finance.
While the potential of new labor
contracts has investors concerned the Big Three automakers will have a cost
disadvantage versus other non-union automakers, this may not be the case. The
effects of the UAW’s collective bargaining efforts are now trickling down to other
non-union automakers, who are concerned workers may perceive they are not
getting paid enough — and may jump ship.
Today, Hyundai announced “a wage strategy” starting in January 2024 that
will give its Georgia assembly workers wage increases of 25% by 2028. This
follows Honda’s announcement on Friday that
it will implement 11% wage increases for its US factory workers, and Toyota’s move a couple weeks back
to hike wage by 9% for its hourly and skilled workers.
ATTACHMENT FORTY – From
Whitehouse.gov
NOVEMBER 11, 2023
Remarks by President Biden at a Veterans Day Wreath Laying
Ceremony | Arlington, VA
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington, Virginia
12:00 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank
you. (Applause.) Thank you, thank you, thank you.
My fellow Americans, on this day, 105 years ago, the Great War ended. As
news of peace reached the frontlines of France, a young American solider sent a
letter home to his parents in Missouri, and I — and I’ll quote it. It
said, “If only you all could see,” he wrote. “Fighting stopped, lanterns
shine in every window and door,” end of quote.
For those who had fought in this war unlike any war the world had ever seen
before, it was a symbol — a reminder that as long as those who stand for
freedom, light will always triumph over the darkness.
My fellow Americans, Jill, Vice President Harris, Second Gentleman Emhoff,
Secretary McDonough, Secretary Buttigieg is here. Se- — Secretary
Mayorkas, Acting Secretary Su, Director Haines, Deputy Secretary Hicks, Vice
Chairman Grady, and, most importantly, our veterans and servicemembers and,
equally as important, their families.
We come together today to once again honor the generations of Americans who
stood on the frontlines of freedom; to once again bear witness to the great
deeds of a noble few who risked everything — everything to give us a better
future — those who have always, always kept the light of liberty shining bright
across the world: our veterans. That’s not hyperbole. Our veterans.
Every year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, we gather in
this sanctuary of sacrifice to pause, to pay tribute to these patriots of the
greatest fighting force in the history of the world.
As Commander-in-Chief, I have no higher honor. As a father of a son who
served, I have no greater privilege.
Like it is for so many of you, Veterans Day is personal to Jill and me.
On this day, I can still see my son, the Attorney General of Delaware, standing
ramrod straight as I pinned his bars on him the day he joined the Army National
Guard in Delaware.
I can still feel the overwhelming pride in Major Beau Biden receiving the
Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, and the Delaware Conspicuous Service Cross.
We miss him. I can still hear my wife, Jill, every morning she’d get up
to go to school to teach, praying over her cup of coffee during the year he was
deployed to Iraq, and six months before that, he was a civilian overseas.
And like it was yesterday, I can also still hear what he told me when he signed
up to serve. I said, “Beau, why?” It’s the God’s truth. He said,
“Dad, it’s my duty” — “duty.”
That was the code my son lived by and the creed that millions of veterans have
followed, from Belleau Woods to Baghdad to Gettysburg to Guadalcanal, from
Korea to Kandahar and beyond.
Each one linked in a chain of honor that stretches back to our founding days;
each one bound by a sacred oath to support and defend. Not a place, not a
person, not a president, but an idea — to defend an idea unlike any other in
human history. That idea is the United States of America.
We’re the only nation in the world — only nation in the world that’s built on
an idea. Every other nation is based on things like geography, ethnicity,
religion. But we’re the only nation built on the idea that we are all —
all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable
rights.
We haven’t always lived up to it, but because of our veterans, because of you,
we’ve never walked away from it.
For throughout the annals of history, whenever and wherever the force of
darkness has sought to extinguish the light of liberty, American veterans have
been holding the lantern as high as they can for us all.
They were there when a determined band of patriots sparked a revolution,
delivering a nation where everyone — everyone is endowed with certain
unalienable rights.
They were there when, less than a century later, they gave our nation a new
birth of freedom.
They were there when the forces of fascism brought the fight to the trenches of
Europe and the bloody beaches of Normandy.
They were there when called upon to face the oppression in the frozen rice
paddies of Korea and the sweltering jungles of Vietnam.
And they were there when darkness came to our shores, signing up for tour after
tour after tour to keep our democracy safe and secure these last two decades.
Folks, as a nation, we owe them. We owe you, not just for keeping the
flame of freedom burning during the darkest of moments but for serving our
communities even after they hang up their uniforms, for inspiring the next
generation to serve.
We see this at barracks and bases all across America, where young women and men
continue to risk their own safety for the safety of their fellow
Americans. And we see it around the world in all the countries I’ve been
in when our troops continue to stand with our allies against the forces of
tyranny and terrorism.
To this day, wherever the forces of darkness have sought to extinguish the
light of liberty, American troops are there. And right by their side are
their families.
As the English poet John Milton wrote, “They also serve who only stand and
wait.” “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Our veterans are the steel spine of this nation. And their families, like
so many of you, are the courageous heart.
Most Americans will never see the sacrifices that you, as family members, also
make. They’ll never see those holidays, those birthdays made special even
with the empty seat at the dinner table.
They’ll never see all the packing and unpacking, readying the family to make
another move, needing to move to a new school, a new job for the spouse.
They’ll never see all those nights spent waiting for word from a loved one deployed
overseas because you’re not sure.
Too often, your sacrifices go without thanks or without acknowledgment.
Well, we must remember only 1 percent — 1 percent of our society today protects
99 percent of us. One percent. We owe them. We owe you.
So, to all the families across our nation, to all those who are grieving the
loss of a loved one who wore the uniform, to all those with loved ones still
missing or unaccounted for, I want to say to you: We see you, we stand with
you, and we will not forget.
And just as you have kept the ultimate faith to our country, we will keep the
faith with you.
As a nation, I’ve said many times, we have many obligations, but we have only
one truly sacred obligation: to prepare those we send into harm’s way and to
care for them and their families when they return home. It’s not an
obligation based on party or politics but on a promise that unites us all.
And together, over the last three years, we’ve worked to make good on that
promise, passing more than 30 bipartisan laws to support our veterans and their
families, caregivers, and survivors.
That includes the PACT Act, one of the most significant laws ever to help
millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins and burn pits during their
military service. Pits the size of football fields that incinerated with
the wastes of war: tires, chemicals, jet fuel, and so much more.
Too many of our nation’s warriors have served only to return home to suffer
from permanent effects of this poisonous smoke. Too many have died.
In the 15 months since I — we wrote and signed the PACT Act, a half a million
veterans and their surviving family members have already started receiving
benefits. But far, far too many are still are not getting what they need,
the care they deserve.
That’s why I’m proud to announce that any toxin-exposed veteran who served
during any conflict outlined in the PACT Act will be able to roll — be able to
enroll in VA healthcare starting March of next year.
We’re not stopping there. This past year, we delivered more benefits,
processed more claims than ever before in VA history. We expanded
resources to end veterans’ homelessness, end veterans’ poverty, end the silent
scourge of suicide, which is taking more veterans than war is.
We’re launching a new initiative to protect veterans from scams, because no one
should be defrauded by those they defended, for God’s sake. (Applause.)
Through Jill’s work and others in Joining Forces, we’ve also announced the most
comprehensive set of actions in our nation’s history to strengthen economic
opportunity for military and veteran spouses, caregivers, and survivors.
And this year, as we marked 75 years of a desegregated military, 75 years of
women’s integration into the military, and 50 years of an all-volunteer force,
we’ve doubled down on our efforts to ensure all troops, all veterans get the
services they need and that no veteran is denied the honor they earned because
they were discharged for being L[G]BTQ+. (Applause.)
It matters. It matters to the vet from the state of Delaware who, after
years of being homeless, after years of living in a tent made of his own
uniforms, finally got a roof over his head.
It matters to the vet in Arkansas, who after answering duty’s call on 9/11,
after dealing with debilitating post-traumatic stress for years, finally is
able to receive tailored mental health care that has changed his life.
It matters to the vet from Utah. After flying mission after mission over
burn pits in Iraq, after being diagnosed with cancer at just 23 years of age,
is finally receiving full coverage for his treatment.
It matters. (Applause.)
It matters to the vet from Florida who has been exposed to Agent Orange in
Vietnam, after applying and being rejected for benefits four times, finally, as
he wrote to me in a letter, quote, “[is] able to get by a little easier now.”
Today, we gather not only to honor these stories but the story of all veterans,
for it’s a story of our nation at its best, a nation that stands as one to
forge a better future for all; a nation that faces down fear, generation after
generation; a nation that meets darkness with light again and again and again,
no matter how high the cost, no matter how heavy the burden.
Ladies and gentlemen, for nearly 250 years, the sacrifices of many of you
sitting in front of me and behind me and those who served have kept our country
free and our democracy strong.
As that young soldier wrote more than a century ago after World War One ended:
“If you only could see. Lanterns shine in every window and door.”
Today, we not only see that light of liberty; we live by it. And just
like our forebearers, it’s on all of us — all of us together –- to ask
ourselves what can we do, what we must do to keep that light burning, to keep
it shining in every window and door for generations to come.
I know we can. I know we will. Because, as our veterans know best,
we are the United States of America. And there’s n Remarks by
Presidentothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity. (Applause.)
Nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.
God bless you all. God bless our veterans. And may God protect our
— our troops today and always.
Thank you. And thank you for your service. (Applause.)
12:15 P.M. EST