He’s just asking questions.
Donald Trump gave us a taste of the mess that’s to come with the 2024 GOP primaries back in February when he less-than-subtly breathed life into what was, at the time, just far-right internet trolls making vague allegations that had something to do with Ron DeSantis partying with high schoolers.
Now DeSantis is giving him a taste of his own medicine.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: I’m Sure He Will Figure Out How To Insult Me Better Soon But In The Meantime …”When attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems asked NewsCorp Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch whether Fox News “endorsed” the idea that the 2020 election was stolen, he knew exactly which talking heads were responsible.
Continue reading “Fox, Dominion Set To Duke It Out In Court Tuesday Over 2020 Election Lies”House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) is demanding sworn testimony from the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg amid reports of a possible upcoming indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Continue reading “House GOP Use Trump’s Truth Social Conspiracy Theories To Go After Manhattan DA”Facing a potential indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, former President Trump pulled one of his favorite moves on Monday: taking legal action to disrupt the investigation before he could be charged.
Continue reading “Trump Tries To Throw Legal Wrench In Georgia Election Probe”Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, under pressure from Trump allies, is taking his first stab at addressing the Trump indictment situation. It shows both his inevitable strategy and the inherent difficulty of the situation. He pleads little knowledge of how it works when you pay “hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. I just, I can’t speak to that.” But he also insists that Alvin Bragg is a “Soros-funded prosecutor and so he like other Soros funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety.” The approach isn’t surprising: Deep State/Soros yada and also did you hear he paid hush money to a porn star he had sex with?
Continue reading “First Look at the DeSantis/Trump Storm”Former President Donald Trump’s political allies are trying to use the possible upcoming indictment against him in the Stormy Daniels hush money case to rally the GOP against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) — increasingly the most popular roadblock in Trump’s third run for office.
Continue reading “Trump Allies Use Expected Indictment To Try To Turn GOP Against DeSantis”I’ve only gotten a couple negative replies to the post below about Alvin Bragg’s expected indictments of ex-President Trump. But those replies have had a wild intensity that started me thinking about what the possible disconnect was between me and these readers. What I said was that it’s not great. But it’s happening entirely outside any framework that any of us can do anything about. And, mostly, I don’t think it will matter much one way or another if, as I expect, it is followed by indictments for graver crimes. In fact, even if this is the only Trump indictment ever, I still don’t think it matters much.
People just see things differently of course. And intense disagreement is nothing new to me. But I think there’s something more going on here — or two things rather. And, because I think these few TPM Readers represent a lot more people who think the same way, here’s what I think those things are.
Continue reading “Dems and the Folly of Micromanaging the Trump Spectacle”House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his fellow Republicans made a show of outrage over the possible upcoming indictment of former President Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
Continue reading “House Republicans Scramble To Get In Line After Trump Ominously Calls For Protest”A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Since January Republicans have been using their hanging-by-a-thread majority in the House to launch fake investigations into the various entities investigating Donald Trump, host photo-ops with fake explosives at the border and seize on any and all opportunities to yell about Hunter Biden’s laptop. It’s a well-worn Republican strategy at this point — a one-size-fits-all distraction tactic designed to give GOPers an out to not engage seriously, one that walks and talks like “but her emails.”
In the wake of news of Trump’s potential indictment this week, things are no different.
Obviously a few big things happened over the weekend.
Republicans, meanwhile, are doing one of two things in response.
During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Features” Rep. James Comer (R-KY) suggested the coming indictment is part of some grand scheme to distract from his and other House GOPers’ Very Important Research:
“Well, it’s very odd that [the news of a possible Trump indictment] would come out just the very next day after I revealed bank records which showed that the Biden family — the president in particular — hasn’t been truthful with respect to his family receiving payments directly from the Chinese communist party,” Comer said, referencing some memo he released last week about Hunter Biden potentially sharing money with his brother’s widow at some point.
Manhattan DA’s office to Comer:
Around the time Trump posted his incendiary statement on his knock-off Twitter app, Pence sat down for an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl in Iowa and responded to news of the potential indictment — using it all as a vehicle to go after the “radical left” and fuel right-wing conspiracy theories about America’s cities crumbling into hell holes as they burn up with crime.
“I’m taken aback at the idea of indicting a former President of the United States, at a time when there’s a crime wave in New York City, that — the fact that the Manhattan DA thinks that indicting President Trump is his top priority, I think is, just tells you everything you need to know about the radical left in this country,” Pence told Karl. “It just feels like a politically charged prosecution here. And I, for my part, I just feel like it’s just not what the American people want to see.”
Before the Manhattan grand jury votes on whether to indict Trump this week, the panel will hear testimony from at least one more witness: lawyer Robert J. Costello.
The news about the additional testimony from the New York Times is significant. While Trump’s team reportedly rebuffed the DA office’s invite for Trump to come testify before the grand jury last week, Costello is appearing at the request of Trump’s lawyers. Under New York law, a person who is facing indictment can call in witnesses to testify on their behalf, which is what’s happening here. Costello will likely go after the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, because the two have bad blood.
Josh Marshall unpacks what he agrees with and disagrees with about arguments centered on why, after all these years, it doesn’t really matter whether the Stormy Daniels’ hush payment case goes first.
In addition to reacting to his former running-mate’s potential indictment, Pence also discussed the Jack Smith grand jury subpoena for his testimony with ABC News over the weekend. He indicated he doesn’t plan to fight the entire thing.
When they’re not busy trying to overthrow the government, they’re out on the streets, confronting the Real Enemy.
Most of the details are still unclear, but here’s the gist: Some Proud Boys tried to protest a drag show story hour in Manhattan, hosted by New York Attorney General Letitia James. A clash broke out between supporters and some of the Proud Boys. At least one person wearing Proud Boys colors was arrested and one of the protesters wearing the far-right militia group’s attire appeared to have some bloody facial injuries.
Some tweets documenting the clash:
Alex Jones is reportedly moving his money around to avoid paying the families of Sandy Hook victims the $1.4 billion in damages he owes them for spreading lies and conspiracy theories about their children’s deaths. The New York Times conducted a review of his finances and court records and found that he has transferred millions in cash and assets to family and friends over the past year, potentially keeping his money out of creditors’ reach. More here.
Rarely, if ever, is my high school friend group chat abuzz with messages about a Politico article, but that was the case this weekend. These guys used to DJ at the dingiest dungeon of a campus bar in my hometown back when I was 18 and … absolutely not sneaking into college bars.
How 2 Midwestern College Kids Became Trumpworld’s Favorite DJs
Read the Chicago Tribune’s new deep-dive into the constitutional sheriffs movement as a group of Illinois sheriffs refuses to follow or enforce the state’s new assault weapons ban.
Four decades too late, a former Texas politician spilled the details of secret meetings between former Texas Governor John B. Connally Jr. and Middle Eastern leaders ahead of the 1980 presidential election, revealing the Ronald Reagan “October Surprise” plot was real after all.
According to Ben Barnes, who spoke to the Times, Connally pushed Middle Eastern officials to delay the release of the 52 American hostages being held captive in Iran until after the election between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, a plan that would eventually help rob the incumbent Carter of a diplomacy win ahead of Election Day.
Barnes was moved to finally tell the story amid news of Carter’s failing health. A must read: “History needs to know that this happened.”
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Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Barnes’ political affiliation. TPM regrets this error.
I have been assuming that Trump’s unhinged reference to his being “arrested” on Tuesday is based on what Alvin Bragg’s office has told his lawyers (for arranging Trump’s turning himself in to be booked in Manhattan). In other words, the “leak” is from Trump and the information is accurate. But CNN is reporting that Robert Costello, a one time legal advisor to Michael Cohen, has been designated by Trump’s lawyers to testify to the Manhattan grand jury about Cohen’s credibility on Monday. You could still have last-ditch testimony on Monday and an indictment on Tuesday. But that makes me significantly less confident that Tuesday is the day.
