Donald Trump

Subterms

    More stories

    • 188 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Kevin McCarthy ousted as House speaker; Republicans to meet to discuss next steps – live

      by

      From 1h agoCalifornia Republican Kevin McCarthy has become the first speaker of the House forced out of the job in US history, after a rebellion by far-right Republicans that was aided by Democrats and fueled by frustration over his approach to government spending and negotiating with Joe Biden.The final vote tally was 216 in favor and 210 against.A congressman since 2007, McCarthy was elected to the speaker’s post in January, but only through a grueling 15 rounds of balloting after the same rightwing Republicans who would later plot his ouster demanded concessions in exchange for their assent. In the months that followed, those lawmakers grew frustrated with the speaker’s approach to governing after he struck deals with Biden and the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling and, this past weekend, keep the federal government open while lawmakers worked out long-term spending plans.That agreement prompted Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to on Monday file a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. While most House Republicans supported McCarthy, Democrats’ hostility to the speaker, who is an ally of Donald Trump, and a handful of GOP defections sealed his fate.The House must now begin the process of finding a new speaker. Republicans maintain a four-set majority in Congress’s lower chamber.House Democrats will meet at 9am eastern time on Wednesday after the chamber voted to remove Kevin McCarthy from his role as speaker.As we reported earlier, House Republicans are expected to meet at 6.30pm this evening to decide their next steps.Speaker election votes are not expected tonight, according to reports.South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace was among the eight Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership.Explaining her decision, Mace said McCarthy “has not lived up to his word on how the House would operate”. She added:
      With the current speaker, this chaos will continue. We need a fresh start so we can get back to the people’s business free of these distractions.
      House Republicans will convene to meet at 6.30pm to decide their next steps after eight rightwing members joined with Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy from the post of speaker of the House, according to Punchbowl News:The big question before them is who will they elect to replace McCarthy. One obvious name: Kevin McCarthy. Nothing is stopping him from running for the speakership again and hoping his detractors have changed their minds.But if they refuse, the GOP will have to find someone else.Lots of emotions in the Capitol right now, particularly among the many House Republicans who did not want to see Kevin McCarthy booted as their speaker.Case in point: Patrick McHenry, who is now acting House speaker. The way he gavelled the chamber into recess following the successful expulsion vote says it all:Speaking at an event at Georgetown University in Washington DC, Mike Pence, the former vice-president and current candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, condemned Kevin McCarthy’s overthrow as ‘chaos’.
      Chaos is never America’s strength and it’s never a friend of American families that are struggling. I’m deeply disappointed that a handful of Republicans have partnered with Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House.
      Pence added: “Political performance art in Washington DC does little to address the issues the American people are facing.”Pence represented an Indiana district in the House from 2001 to 2013.Per CNN, Kevin McCarthy had nothing to say as he left the House chamber following the vote that removed him as speaker:Eight Republicans voted to remove Kevin McCarthy, among them Tim Burchett of Tennessee.Burchett said that as he was considering whether or not to support ejecting McCarthy, the then speaker called him and “said something that I thought belittled me and my belief system”, Burchett told CNN.“You know, that pretty much sealed it with me right there. I thought that showed the character of a man,” he continued, but declined to elaborate on what McCarthy said.Asked by anchor Jake Tapper if he would support any of the high-ranking Republicans who have been floated as potential McCarthy replacements – such as Minnesota’s Tom Emmer, Oklahoma’s Tom Cole or Louisiana’s Steve Scalise – Burchett replied “All three of those would be excellent choices, and I think they can do an excellent job. They’re honorable men.”“They’ve never openly mocked me anyway,” he added.North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry has taken over as House speaker pro tempore following Kevin McCarthy’s removal from the leadership role in Congress’s lower chamber moments ago.Per House rules, McCarthy submitted to the chamber’s clerk a list of lawmakers who would take over if his seat becomes vacant, of which McHenry was apparently first.McHenry is the chair of the financial services committee, and voted against removing McCarthy. After picking up the gavel, he recessed the House.Some sharp intakes of breath in the chamber as Kevin McCarthy was removed.McCarthy threw his head back and chuckled – perhaps the only thing he could do – as a couple of members walked over to shake his hand. The upper section of the gallery emptied pretty quickly as soon as the vote to remove was gavelled.California Republican Kevin McCarthy has become the first speaker of the House forced out of the job in US history, after a rebellion by far-right Republicans that was aided by Democrats and fueled by frustration over his approach to government spending and negotiating with Joe Biden.The final vote tally was 216 in favor and 210 against.A congressman since 2007, McCarthy was elected to the speaker’s post in January, but only through a grueling 15 rounds of balloting after the same rightwing Republicans who would later plot his ouster demanded concessions in exchange for their assent. In the months that followed, those lawmakers grew frustrated with the speaker’s approach to governing after he struck deals with Biden and the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling and, this past weekend, keep the federal government open while lawmakers worked out long-term spending plans.That agreement prompted Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to on Monday file a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. While most House Republicans supported McCarthy, Democrats’ hostility to the speaker, who is an ally of Donald Trump, and a handful of GOP defections sealed his fate.The House must now begin the process of finding a new speaker. Republicans maintain a four-set majority in Congress’s lower chamber.The vote is nearly over.The motion to vacate is currently leading with 216 in favor, and 207 opposed. Kevin McCarthy is on course to lose his position as speaker of the House.Kevin McCarthy looks resigned as he sits in his chair with his palms over each other in his lap.The number of Republicans voting for his ouster just crossed eight members – likely enough to end his speakership.Matt Gaetz, who filed the motion to remove him as speaker, is sitting towards the back of the chamber, also in an aisle seat, leaning forward in his chair and talking to a few members sitting around him.Standing near Gaetz is George Santos, the Republican congressman who is an admitted fabulist and also facing a federal indictment. It seems like he’s eavesdropping on Gaetz’s conversation.Seven Republicans have now voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.Assuming all Democrats vote for his ouster, McCarthy is on track to become the first House speaker in American history ejected from the job.Ohio Republican Warren Davidson joined with Democrats to vote for proceeding with the vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.But, interestingly, he just voted against actually removing McCarthy.I’m standing in the House press gallery, which is on the second level above the dais, and currently packed with reporters.The chamber feels tense. None of the lawmakers are moving around, and are barely speaking except to call out their votes. Kevin McCarthy is sitting three rows in from the well, in an aisle seat. He seems to be gripping the arm rest quite tightly with his right hand.Most of the rest of the Republican conference is standing at the back of the chamber.So far, about 120 votes have been cast, and the motion to vacate has a small lead.The House is now voting on whether to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Lawmakers will be called to vote in alphabetical order, similarly to how it was done in January, when he was elected to the post.About an hour ago, a motion to block the removal motion was defeated with 218 votes. That amount of support would also be enough to remove McCarthy as speaker, assuming no lawmakers change their minds.Should the motion to vacate be successful, McCarthy will become the first speaker of the House removed from his post in US history.As Republicans debate his fate on the House floor, NBC News reports that Kevin McCarthy’s office has reached out to some moderate Democrats to ask them to vote to keep him as speaker.There is no indication they are willing to oblige:If Democrats were to save McCarthy, he would likely have had to make substantial concessions to Joe Biden’s allies. One can only imagine what those would have been, but ending the impeachment inquiry would probably have been one of them. More

    • 175 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      House speaker contender Steve Scalise reportedly said he was ‘David Duke without the baggage’

      by

      Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Republican who some in his party reportedly want to elect as speaker of the US House of Representatives after the stunning and historic removal of Kevin McCarthy, was once reported to have called himself “David Duke without the baggage”.Duke, 73, is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, an avowed white supremacist who has run for Louisiana governor, the US House and Senate and for president and who in 2003 was sentenced to 15 months in jail for mail and tax fraud.Scalise, now 57, was elected to Congress in 2008. He became Republican House whip in 2014 and was elected majority leader in 2022, as a hardline conservative acceptable to the far right of his party, which has now successfully rebelled against McCarthy.Ahead of McCarthy’s removal, Scalise implored his fellow Republicans “to keep doing this work that we were sent to do” rather than focus on ejecting the speaker.“This isn’t the time to slow that process down,” said Scalise, denying interest in the speakership.Immediately after the vote to remove McCarthy, however, the ringleader of the motion to vacate, Matt Gaetz of Florida, used his first remarks to say Scalise would be “a phenomenal speaker”. He also said Tom Emmer of Minnesota or Tom Cole of Oklahoma might be good choices.The speakership may offer Scalise a tempting prize: if he is elevated into the role, he will become the highest-ranking member of Congress ever to come from Louisiana.His fellow Louisianan, Duke, last made national headlines when he supported Donald Trump for president in 2016 – support Trump was slow to disavow.Two years before that, Scalise ran into controversy, and his remark about Duke surfaced, after a blogger revealed Scalise’s attendance at a white supremacist conference organised by Duke in 2002.Scalise, whose district includes a large suburban area of New Orleans, said he had been seeking “support for legislation that focused on cutting wasteful state spending, eliminating government corruption and stopping tax hikes”, but “wholeheartedly condemn[ed]” the views of the group concerned.He also said attending the conference “was a mistake I regret”, as he “emphatically oppose[d] the divisive racial and religious views that groups like these hold”.Citing his Catholicism, Scalise said “these groups hold views that are vehemently opposed to my own personal faith, and I reject that kind of hateful bigotry. Those who know me best know I have always been passionate about helping, serving and fighting for every family that I represent. And I will continue to do so.”Duke, however, told the Washington Post: “Scalise would communicate a lot with my campaign manager, Kenny Knight. That is why he was invited and why he would come. Kenny knew Scalise, Scalise knew Kenny. They were friendly.”That wasn’t the end of it. The controversy deepened when Stephanie Grace, a Louisiana politics reporter and columnist, told the New York Times that at the start of Scalise’s legislative career, while “explaining his politics”, he told her “he was like David Duke without the baggage”.Grace said she thought Scalise had “meant he supported the same policy ideas as David Duke, but he wasn’t David Duke, that he didn’t have the same feelings about certain people as David Duke did”.Scalise did not comment on Grace’s remarks. But Chuck Kleckley, the Republican speaker of the Louisiana state house at the time, told the paper comparisons between Scalise and the Klan leader were “not fair to Steve at all”.Nonetheless, the Duke controversy has followed Scalise throughout a career in Republican leadership which has seen him survive being seriously wounded in a mass shooting at congressional baseball practice, in 2017; become one of five Louisiana Congress members to vote against certifying some election results hours after the deadly Capitol attack of 6 January 2021; become majority leader in 2022; and, in August this year, announce a cancer diagnosis.The 2017 shooting was an assassination attempt. The gunman, a leftist extremist who was killed by law enforcement, legally bought the rifle used to shoot Scalise and three others despite a history of run-ins with police.Despite that, through legislation he has sponsored and co-sponsored, Scalise has staunchly advocated to keep guns as accessible to the public as possible, citing the right to bear arms enshrined in the US constitution’s second amendment.In the aftermath of his own shooting, Scalise told reporters: “I was a strong supporter of the second amendment before the shooting and, frankly, as ardent as ever after the shooting in part because I was saved by people who had guns.”Last month, discussing his recent diagnosis of multiple myeloma, Scalise said aggressive treatment meant his outlook was improving.Should Scalise eventually secure the speaker’s gavel, he will surpass the New Orleans Democrat Hale Boggs as the most powerful member of Congress ever to come from the state. Boggs was House majority leader before his plane disappeared over Alaska in 1972. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Is the fever of Trumpism starting to break? | Robert Reich

      by

      There’s reason to feel a bit more secure about the strength of American democracy, notwithstanding Donald Trump’s escalating threats.For one thing, a large bipartisan coalition in both chambers of Congress has beat back the House Maga Republicans’ attempt to shut down the government.This was a major defeat for Trump, who had called a shutdown “the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other patriots”.Americans should also feel encouraged by the tenacity of judges and prosecutors in holding Trump accountable, notwithstanding his threats.Ever since his first indictment, Trump has attacked with increasing ferocity the judges and prosecutors who have tried to hold him accountable – calling them “deranged”, “thugs”, “hacks”, “corrupt”, “biased”, “disgraceful”, “radical”, “un-American” and worse.To their credit, judges and prosecutors have not wavered.They have set strict timetables for Trump’s criminal trials. They have refused Trump’s many motions and appeals. They have ruled against Trump in the civil lawsuits against him and meted out tough penalties.Last Tuesday, Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used to secure financing.As punishment, Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded.Trump lashed out: “The widespread, radical attack against me, my family, and my supporters has now devolved to new, un-American depths, at the hands of a DERANGED New York State Judge, doing the bidding of a completely biased and corrupt ‘Prosecutor,’ Letitia James,” Trump wrote.As Trump’s attacks on judges and prosecutors have worsened, prosecutors and judges have responded forcefully.On Friday, the Colorado district judge Sarah B Wallace, overseeing the first significant lawsuit to bar Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot – on grounds that the 14th amendment explicitly bars from office anyone who has sworn an oath to uphold the constitution and has taken part in an insurrection – issued a protective order prohibiting parties in the case from making threatening or intimidating statements.Judge Wallace said the order was necessary to protect the safety of those involved – including herself and her staff.Meanwhile, Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the justice department’s prosecutions of Trump, has requested a gag order against Trump. Smith linked Trump’s ominous rhetoric to threats against prosecutors, judges and potential witnesses.“The defendant continues these attacks on individuals precisely because he knows that in doing so, he is able to roil the public and marshal and prompt his supporters,” Smith said in the court filing.One day after he posted “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING FOR YOU!” a woman called the chambers of the US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been assigned to the election fraud case against Trump, and said that if Trump is not re-elected next year, “we are coming to kill you”. The woman was later charged with making the call.The top prosecutors on the four criminal cases against Trump – two brought by the justice department and one each in Georgia and New York – now require round-the-clock protection.Smith himself – whom Trump has described as “a thug” and “deranged” – has been a target of violent threats. His office is spending $8m to $10m on protective details for him, his family and senior staff members, according to officials.Since its agents carried out the court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, the FBI has seen the number of threats against its personnel and facilities surge more than 300%.A Trump supporter wearing tactical gear and armed with an AR-15 tried to breach the FBI field office in Cincinnati. He failed, fled and later died in a shootout with law enforcement.Trump is escalating his threats and provocations. Even if one or two of his followers act on them, the result would be tragic.Merrick B Garland, the attorney general, recently told Congress that Trump’s demonization of judges and prosecutors threatened the rule of law. “Singling out individual career public servants who are just doing their jobs is dangerous – particularly at a time of increased threats to the safety of public servants and their families,” Garland said.Garland then added: “We will not be intimidated. We will do our jobs free from outside influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.”America owes a great debt of gratitude to the judges, prosecutors, grand jurors and prospective jurors who refuse to be intimidated by Trump’s threats, and who will not back down from defending our democracy.While the mainstream media continues to treat Trump as a politician rather than a peril, normalizing his dangerous threats, the nation’s judges and prosecutors are protecting the rule of law.They – along with Saturday’s bipartisan majority vote in Congress against Maga extremists – give some hope that the fever of Trumpism may be starting to break.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
      Guardian Newsroom: How will the US presidential race unfold? On Thursday 2 November 8pm–9.15pm BST, join Devika Bhat, David Smith, Hugo Lowell and Joan E Greve for a livestream discussion on the 2024 US presidential election. Book tickets here More

    • 225 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump rails against fraud trial as it appears legal team did not submit request for jury – live

      by

      From 27m agoDonald Trump, speaking after leaving the courtroom during the first day of his fraud trial, accused New York attorney general Letitia James of being a “disgrace” who “should focus on all of the violent crime and murders going on” in the state rather than on him.The former president insisted he has done “nothing wrong” and that the lawsuit was part of an effort to interfere with the 2024 election, NBC reported.He also complained that his time spent at trial was keeping him off the campaign trail.
      I’ve been sitting in a courthouse all day long instead of being in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or a lot of other places I could be at. This is a horrible situation for our country.
      Congressman Jamaal Bowman attempted to distance himself from a memo released by his office that referred to some Republican extremists as Nazis.In a memo obtained by Politico, Bowman’s office suggested several talking points his Democratic colleagues could use to defend him amid a GOP push to punish the New York congressman after he set off a House fire alarm during Saturday’s spending vote.One suggested response from Bowman’s office to questions about the incident:
      I believe Congressman Bowman when he says this was an accident. Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else.
      Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Bowman condemned the use of the word “Nazi”, calling it “inappropriate”.Donald Trump, speaking after leaving the courtroom during the first day of his fraud trial, accused New York attorney general Letitia James of being a “disgrace” who “should focus on all of the violent crime and murders going on” in the state rather than on him.The former president insisted he has done “nothing wrong” and that the lawsuit was part of an effort to interfere with the 2024 election, NBC reported.He also complained that his time spent at trial was keeping him off the campaign trail.
      I’ve been sitting in a courthouse all day long instead of being in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or a lot of other places I could be at. This is a horrible situation for our country.
      New York City public hospitals will now offer abortion care via telehealth, placing them among the first public health systems in the US to do so.The city’s mayor, Eric Adams, announced on Monday that abortion pill prescriptions would now be available by telephone or online, adding that such access can happen from “the comfort of your home”.As a result of the move, New York City residents will now be able to connect with health practitioners for those prescriptions, building on previous legislations to protect abortions rights in New York.“If you are clinically eligible, that provider will be able to prescribe abortion medication that would be delivered to your New York City address within days,” Adams said during Monday’s announcement.“We will not stand idly by as these attacks continue and the far-rights seeks to strip our citizens of their basic rights,” Adams added, referring to abortion restrictions being legislated across the country.Abortion rights organizations celebrated Monday’s announcement as an essential step to protect reproductive rights.The first day of Donald Trump’s fraud trial has concluded, with proceedings expected to resume tomorrow morning.Judge Arthur Engoron heard testimony from the first witness in the trial, Trump’s former longtime accountant Donald Bender.A federal judge has scheduled the trial of US senator Bob Menendez and his wife on bribery and corruption charges to begin 6 May 2024.The New Jersey Democratic senator has pleaded not guilty and resisted calls for his resignation after he was indicted on charges of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen.Under the indictment unsealed last month, Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were accused of using his seat in the Senate, as chair of the foreign relations committee, to benefit the government of Egypt.Prosecutors described how the large sums of cash were found at Menendez’s New Jersey home, as well as actual gold bars. A Mercedes-Benz car is also at issue. Three businessmen have also been charged.Gavin Newsom, the California governor, has named Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and former labor leader, to fill the Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein, who died on Thursday.The appointment fulfills Newsom’s pledge to appoint a Black woman to the Senate, while shirking calls to name Barbara Lee, a Black Bay Area congresswoman who is already running for the position in 2024.Butler, 44, will be the only Black woman serving in the US senate, and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber. She currently leads Emily’s List, a national political organization dedicated to electing Democratic women who support reproductive rights. She has also served as a strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and was a former labor leader of SEIU California, the state’s largest union, representing more than 700,000 workers.Butler currently lives in Maryland, according to her Emily’s List biography, but she owns a house in California and will re-register to vote in the state before taking office, according to the Newsom administration. She could be sworn in as early as Tuesday evening when the Senate returns to session.Democrats control the Senate 51-49, though Feinstein’s seat is vacant. The quick appointment by Newsom will give the Democratic caucus more wiggle room on close votes, including nominations that Republicans uniformly oppose.At the opening of Donald Trump and his family’s civil fraud trial today, an attorney for New York state said the defendants gained more than $100m by inflating the value of their properties, Reuters reports.The gains came through lower insurance premiums and better loan conditions, and in his opening statement, Kevin Wallace, an attorney for New York attorney general Letitia James, said the former president was “materially inaccurate” when he would describe his business to insurers and lenders.“This isn’t business as usual, and this isn’t how sophisticated parties deal with each other,” Wallace said. “These are not victimless crimes.”However, Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise denied any wrongdoing.“It is one of the most highly successful brands in the world, and he has made a fortune literally being right about real estate investments,” Kise said in his opening statement. “There was no intent to defraud, there was no illegality, there was no default, there was no breach, there was no reliance from the banks, there were no unjust profits, and there were no victims.”Kise also said that Trump’s valuations of his properties were understood to be estimates, and that just because people disagree with them does not mean they are fraudulent.But as evidence for his case, Wallace played from a deposition with Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, where he said he was told “to attain the number that Mr. Trump wanted.”Note: We first reported the figure as $1bn, citing Reuters. We have since corrected the figure to $100m.Axios reports that congressman Jamaal Bowman’s office is encouraging his fellow Democrats to step up and defend him after he pulled a fire alarm on Saturday:Meanwhile, the Capitol police says they are investigating the incident, and released a statement recounting what happened. It reads, in part:
      At approximately 12:05 p.m. on Saturday, September 30, a fire alarm sounded inside the Cannon Building. USCP officers evacuated people from the building, floor by floor, while DC Fire & EMS responded. The fire alarm only sounded in the Cannon Building, so that was the only building that was evacuated.
      On security video, a man was seen trying to exit the door in the Cannon Building and then pulling the fire alarm that prompted the evacuation. USCP officers had previously placed signs with clear language that explained the door was secured and marked as an emergency exit only.
      At approximately 1:30 p.m. the DC Fire Marshal determined there was not a fire and the building was safe.
      The USCP will continue to keep the public updated on the status of the investigation.
      Some House Republicans have already made up their mind, and will try to expel Bowman, Axios reports. However, expelling a House member requires the approval of two-thirds of the chamber, and has not been done since 2002:As lawmakers scrambled over the weekend in their surprisingly successful effort to avert a government shutdown, the show was almost disrupted when Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman pulled the fire alarm in a House office building. There have been some new developments in that episode, but before we get into it, here’s a recap of what happened, from the Guardian’s Maya Yang:The New York Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman denied that he pulled a fire alarm in a Capitol office building to delay a vote on the stopgap measure that ultimately stopped a government shutdown.In a statement on Saturday evening, the New Yorker said he mistakenly thought the alarm, which prompted the Cannon House office building to be evacuated, would open a door.“Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today was not open. I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door,” said Bowman.“I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused.”He dismissed accusations from Republicans that he pulled the alarm in an attempt to delay the vote.“I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite – I was trying to urgently get a vote, which I ultimately did and joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to keep our government open,” he said.An update on Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, which has resumed in New York City.As the Messenger reports, the first witness to take the stand in the damages phase of the trial is Trump’s former accountant:Trump and his three children were named by their attorneys as witnesses, but that does not necessarily mean they will speak to the court.Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial isn’t the only court news happening today. As the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports, the supreme court is starting a new term today, giving its conservative majority another opportunity to hand down decisions that could have major impacts on American life: The US supreme court will gather on Monday at the start of a new judicial term that has the potential to catastrophically disrupt the functioning of government, expand the assault on reproductive rights and unleash yet more gun violence on an already reeling America.When the nine justices convene on Monday morning it will mark the start of the third full term in which the 6-3 rightwing supermajority created by Donald Trump is in command. Explosive rulings delivered over the past two terms have demonstrated the conservatives’ newfound muscle, stripping millions of Americans of fundamental rights from abortion to affirmative action.Three significant cases before the court this term cut to the core of the functioning of the US government itself. According to the co-hosts of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, at stake is no less than “the future of government as we know it”.On Tuesday the court will hear oral arguments in a case that poses the greatest threat to consumer protections for decades. Stephen Vladeck, an authority on constitutional law at the University of Texas law school, said that although CFPB v CFSA is technical in its framing, it has the potential to “bring down much of the American financial system”.Donald Trump, speaking in front of cameras during the break, said he attended the civil fraud trial against him so he could “watch this witch-hunt myself”.He slammed the “disgraceful trial” put forward by the “corrupt” New York attorney general, Letitia James, accusing her of wasting time when there are “murderers and killers that are all over New York killing people”. He added:
      We’re going to be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind. It’s ridiculous. He’s a Democrat judge a and operative and it’s ridiculous.
      “Other than that, things went very well,” Trump added.The former president also attacked Manhattan supreme court judge Arthur Engoron, who he said should be disbarred for “interfering with an election”.The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked about Matt Gaetz’s comments on the House floor accusing Speaker Kevin McCarthy of making a secret side deal on Ukraine aid with Joe Biden.Speaking to reporters, she replied:
      What we know is that there is bipartisan support for this deal. Speaker McCarthy was on the air multiple times yesterday saying that he wants to continue support for Ukraine, to get the weapons that they need. So we are going to hold him to that.
      As we reported earlier, Donald Trump’s civil fraud case is being tried without a jury reportedly because the former president’s attorneys seemingly did not pay too close of attention to their paperwork.“Nobody asked for” a jury trial, Judge Arthur Engoron noted during Monday’s trial. According to the Messenger:
      Earlier this year, New York Attorney Letitia James filed a form with a checkmark next to the field: “Trial without a jury.”
      Trump’s legal team didn’t file a corresponding form, and the former president may have regretted his lawyer’s inaction ever since.
      In brief remarks as he arrived at the courthouse, Donald Trump claimed his financial statements were “phenomenal”, even though a judge last week determined he and his family had committed fraud over the course of a decade.Here’s a clip:The damages phase of Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial opened in New York City, which the former president attended in person. Though he blasted the case as politically motivated and insisted that his financial statements were “phenomenal”, despite already being found liable for fraud, he and his children are facing severe financial consequences, and could lose control of properties such as Trump Tower. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, Republican insurgent leader Matt Gaetz held off on formally attempting to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House. Gaetz demanded answers from his fellow Republican, accusing him of cutting a side deal with Joe Biden. We’ll see if he gets them.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Gaetz said he delayed formally introducing his motion to vacate because not enough lawmakers were in town yet.
      Trump’s legal team did not ask for a jury to determine damages in the ex-president’s civil fraud trial, meaning the decision will be left to judge Arthur Engoron.
      New York attorney general Letitia James said “no one is above the law” just before Trump’s fraud trial was about to get under way. More

    • 200 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘No one is above the law’: attorney general on Donald Trump’s civil fraud case – video

      by

      Trump arrived at a New York court just a few miles south of Trump Tower on Monday for the first day of a fraud trial that could end up with the former US president and his family business paying hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, and has already threatened to end his business career in the city where it started. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, has accused Trump of using false and misleading financial statements from 2011 to 2021 to make himself and his businesses wealthier, helping him broker deals and obtain financing. Based on her office’s three-year investigation, James is arguing that Trump owes at least $250m for committing fraud More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump defends financial statements despite fraud liability ruling – video

      by

      In brief remarks as he arrived at the courthouse, the former president claimed his financial statements were ‘phenomenal’, even though a judge last week determined he and his family had committed fraud over the course of a decade

      Trump attends his New York civil trial after being found liable for fraud – live
      Trump in New York court for fraud trial that threatens his business career More

    • 200 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      As Trump’s presidential chances get better, his legal and financial woes get worse | Lloyd Green

      by

      Donald Trump laps the Republican field and leads Joe Biden, but the judiciary is unimpressed. Since Tuesday, the 45th president went zero-for-three in New York and DC courtrooms. After all the smoke cleared, his financial assets and personal freedom remain in jeopardy.On Monday, his latest trial begins in Manhattan. He and his adult sons face civil fraud charges. Last Tuesday a New York trial judge found that Trump had defrauded his lenders and insurers. In hindsight, The Art of the Deal bordered on the art of the steal.Earlier in the week, Arthur F Engoron, a state trial judge, reviewed the evidence and determined that Trump had committed fraud. Engoron held that the annual financial statements that Trump had submitted to lenders and insurers “clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business”.As a real estate developer, Trump both overvalued and undervalued assets when it suited him, according to the court. He exaggerated his net worth to the tune of billions of dollars. In hindsight, the students at Trump University were not alone. All were fair game in Trump’s eyes.In his decision, Engoron essentially determined that no further trial was needed to ascertain that Trump had illicitly obtained favorable terms on his company’s loans and insurance. “The documents here clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business, satisfying [the attorney general’s] burden to establish liability as a matter of law against defendants,” Engoron wrote in a 35-page decision.“The documents do not say what they say; that there is no such thing as ‘objective’ value … ” the judge wrote, characterizing Trump’s arguments. “Essentially, the court should not believe its own eyes.” That did not happen.The decision could ultimately cost Trump his brand. Business certificates of the Trump Organization and other Trump subsidiaries will be cancelled, ditto certificates of companies owned by Trump and his two older sons. In addition, defendants could face up to $250m in penalties.The Trumps aren’t known for their liquidity. Bankruptcies dot their companies’ landscapes.In July 2016, the Guardian reported that a statement filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Wells Fargo Securities on Trump’s behalf in 2012 indicated that the real estate developer was then worth roughly only $4.2bn with comparatively few liquid assets, pegged at more than $250m.To be sure, that is a lot of money, but a bit on the low side given Trump’s present legal crush. Indeed, in a lawsuit Trump brought against the journalist Tim O’Brien for raising the possibility that he was not a billionaire, Trump acknowledged that his asset valuations were not objective measures.“You said that the net worth goes up and down based upon your own feelings?” Trump was asked in a deposition.“Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day,” he replied.On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump has touted a net worth north of $10bn.Still, Tuesday’s ruling wasn’t the final word. Things grew worse on Thursday when an intermediate appellate court refused to bar the case from proceeding to trial. “It is ordered that the motion for a stay of trial is denied,” the order read.One day earlier, Tanya Chutkan, the judge presiding over the special counsel’s election interference case, had refused to disqualify herself. The basis of that unsuccessful motion was Team Trump elevating Chutkan’s characterization of positions taken in separate January 6 cases as her own views.“The court has never taken the position the defense ascribes to it, that former ‘President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,’” Chutkan stated.It is unlikely that any of these developments will impact Republican primary voters or the Republican field. Since Trump was first indicted in late March, his popularity among Republicans has only grown. At the same time, his leading rivals won’t raise his legal woes as an issue. They know the base wouldn’t stand for it.Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy have internalized that the Republican party’s machinery belongs to Trump. When news broke in March of Trump’s indictment, Florida’s governor reflexively rushed to his defense. In the moment, he accused Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, of pushing an “un-American” political “agenda”.DeSantis also stood ready to fight Trump’s extradition to New York, a meaningless gesture. Trump voluntarily surrendered days later.These days, there is nothing they can do other than bleat like sheep and wait. Even Brian Kemp, Georgia’s governor and Trump nemesis, knows the score. He pledged to back Trump if he is the Republican nominee. The self-abasement continues.
      Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump says he would prefer to die by electrocution in bizarre campaign rant

      by

      Faced with a litany of criminal charges, Donald Trump on Sunday told a campaign rally in Iowa that he would prefer to die by electrocution rather than be eaten by a shark if he ever found himself on a rapidly sinking, electrically powered boat.The former president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination delivered the bizarre remarks during a speech in the community of Ottumwa. He was pontificating over batteries for electric powered boats while recounting a conversation he claimed to have had with a boat manufacturer in South Carolina.“If I’m sitting down and that boat is going down and I’m on top of a battery and the water starts flooding in, I’m getting concerned, but then I look 10 yards to my left and there’s a shark over there, so I have a choice of electrocution and a shark, you know what I’m going to take? Electrocution,” Trump said. “I will take electrocution every single time, do we agree?”Trump then continued criticizing the prospect of any other sustainable energy technologies and claiming he would repeal the Joe Biden White House’s electric vehicle mandate.“These people are crazy,” Trump said.Trump’s remarks drew ridicule from his political opponents, including Ron Filipkowski, a Florida criminal defense attorney who is a frequent critic of the ex-president. Filipkowski noted that Trump was “slurring his words” when he started “riffing about how he would rather be electrocuted to death than be eaten by a shark”.Trump has previously confirmed he is “not a big fan” of sharks, and Stormy Daniels has recounted his obsession with sharks in a 2011 interview and her 2018 autobiography.Hush-money payments to Daniels resulted in one of four criminal indictments pending against Trump. The other indictments charge him with retaining classified documents after his presidency and of efforts to subvert his defeat in the 2020 election against Biden.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionOn Monday, in New York, a state judge is set to begin hearing allegations of fraud within the Trump Organization in a civil trial that could see the former president and his family business paying hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The case has already threatened to end his business career.Nonetheless, Trump has enjoyed dominant polling leads over other candidates pursuing the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. And most polls find that an electoral rematch between Biden and Trump next year would be a close, competitive race. More