Donald Trump’s fourth indictment out of Georgia distinguishes itself from the federal felony indictments in certain ways: its scope is broader, with 19 people indicted. Trump can’t just pardon himself if he’s reelected.
And, the subsequent trial will likely be televised.
Continue reading “Trump’s Georgia Trial Is Latest Frontier In A Many-Decades-Long War Over Cameras In Courtrooms”One of Democrats’ pet peeves is that President Biden has not only overseen a robust economy with almost unprecedentedly low levels of unemployment, his policies actually have some decent claim to responsibility for that record. And yet he gets no credit for it. Not only has Biden been mired in low-40s approval for the last two years, his ratings on the economy are some of his weakest.
This is definitely annoying and certainly unfair (what isn’t?). But it shouldn’t seem new or unexpected. If you’ve been following politics closely for a few decades you’ll remember that Presidents Reagan, Clinton and Obama faced a very similar issue. All three presidents had a significant interval when the economy was demonstrably doing well and yet got zero credit for it or even any clear public recognition that the economy was in good shape.
Continue reading “Don’t Be Surprised Biden Isn’t Getting Credit for A Good Economy (He’s Got Time)”Mike Lindell has a lot going on.
Along with a business empire, the “My Pillow” entrepreneur has been one of the primary promoters of false conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election. And, nearly three years after those votes were cast, Lindell has not given up on the idea that the man he calls “our great, real president Donald Trump” was robbed. Lindell has formed a constellation of activist groups and other enterprises dedicated to the cause of Trump dead-ender election denialism and, for months, he has been working on a project, the unveiling of which he vowed would be one of the “most important” moments in our nation’s history.
Continue reading “Mike Lindell Has A ‘Plan’ To Stop ‘The Evil,’ Fix Elections, And Help You Save On Bedding”Former President Donald Trump announced on social media Thursday evening that he will no longer hold a press conference or release his so-called extensive report that he claimed would refute the Fulton County indictment allegations against him.
Continue reading “Trump Reluctantly Listens To His Lawyers, Cancels Press Conference On Georgia Indictment”A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Like with all Trump gambits, it’s go big or go home. No guts no glory.
He scoffs at the puny trial delay strategies of past criminal defendants, the same way he ridiculed vodka, steaks, bottled water and universities.
You seek trial delays of weeks or months? Fool.
He seeks trial delays of years. Genius.
No one saw 2026 coming. No one. That’s just how he rolls.
Trump Trial Delay is its own brand of goodness but like his other projects: it’s all hype, it only benefits him, and only a fool would buy into it.
How’d legal observers react to Trump’s proposed trial date of April 2026?
Aside from all the legal commentary on how preposterously late an April 2026 trial date is, I can offer you some piquant examples from Trump’s filing that show how petulant and not-serious it is. Don’t get me wrong, he’s dead serious about delaying all of the criminal proceedings for as long as possible, but his logic is comically strained:
You get the vibe.
Having now encountered U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, Trump has run back to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida to complain about all the nasty things Special Counsel Jack Smith is doing to him in DC.
In a weird little filing in the Mar-a-Lago case, Trump’s obsequiousness toward Cannon results in the use of “Your Honor” nine (9!) times in a four-page document.
Trump’s complaint is that the special counsel is proposing dates for the Jan. 6 case that conflict with dates already set in the Mar-a-Lago case – and he wants Cannon to haul prosecutors into court and force them to explain themselves.
Trump has already cancelled his self-ballyhooed ‘big’ reveal of why the Georgia 2020 election really was rigged after all:
The Fulton County sheriff is investigating online threats against the grand jurors who indicted former President Trump and 18 others in the sprawling RICO case for alleged 2020 election interference.
CNN: Kenneth Chesebro, alleged architect of fake electors’ plot, followed Alex Jones around Capitol grounds on January 6th
A quickly deleted tweet from Project Veritas:
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Donald Trump still has not indicated one way or the other whether he plans to attend the first Republican primary debate next week, put on by the RNC and Fox News. The event will almost certainly be entirely about him whether he’s there or not.
As he leads in the primary field by a not-even-close margin, his opponents are reportedly planning to use his legal woes as debate fodder, NBC News reported. Both Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis are already using his latest indictment in Georgia this week to bolster their own campaigns — seizing on Trump’s ongoing hysterics about the election being stolen in Georgia in 2020 as an opportunity to draw a contrast, presenting themselves as the Reasonable Guys who believe the election was legit.
Continue reading “Trump Will Steal Oxygen From GOP Debate Whether He’s There Or Not”A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate are joined by TPM investigative reporter Josh Kovensky to talk all things Georgia indictment.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Plus two bonus pods!
Josh and Kate do a mini-pod to discuss the fourth indictment of Donald Trump out of Georgia.
Josh and Kate discuss the Fifth Circuit’s newest mifepristone ruling in a mini-pod.
One of the many interesting details in Josh Kovensky’s podcast interview with independent Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar was the discussion of what often seems like Vladimir Putin’s very American culture war politics. To Americans, these statements by Putin can come off as almost a kind of trolling or part of some common rightist, authoritarian playbook. Zygar argued that they are, for the most part, not aimed at Putin’s domestic audience. In short, Putin decided over the last decade that he needed new international allies. And those allies were less a set of particular countries — or not only that — than the right and far-right in North America and Europe. As an example, Zygar argued that Russia’s recent crackdown on trans rights had very little grounding in Russia’s domestic political dialog. It’s not that Russians are pro-trans rights. It just isn’t something that has much salience either way. The crackdown was more something Putin did to deepen his bond with the global right.
Continue reading “How Wars and Revolutions Change Countries in Unexpected Ways”One of the biggest potential spoiler candidates in next year’s presidential race is having trouble getting his 2024 campaign off the ground. Various teams of lawyers, far-right provocateurs, and seemingly random entrants with an interest are vying for control of his 2020 presidential committee, which still has unfinished business.
Continue reading “Ye 2024 Devolves Into Brawl As Lawyers, Far-Right Figures Claim Control”Shortly after he and his 18 co-conspirators were hit with the Georgia indictment, Donald Trump took to social media to announce that he intends to hold a Monday press conference to refute Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ allegations.
Continue reading “Trump Legal Advisers Tell Him Press Conference On Georgia Indictment Is A Bad Idea”
