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      Republicans feud over Trump, abortion and climate in first 2024 primary debate

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      Republican presidential candidates clashed over Donald Trump’s legal woes during the first primary debate of the 2024 campaign season, underscoring the former president’s absence from the event and casting a spotlight on his potential vulnerabilities in a general election rematch against Joe Biden.Nearly an hour into the debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier asked the eight candidates on the stage whether they would still support Trump as the Republican presidential nominee if he were convicted of the charges he faces. Six candidates – North Carolina’s Governor Doug Burgum, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, the former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, the former vice-president Mike Pence, the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina’s Senator Tim Scott – indicated they would still support Trump. Only two candidates – the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson – said they would not.Christie, a vocal critic of Trump, called on the fellow debate participants to “stop normalizing this conduct”.“Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States,” Christie said. When his criticism was met with some boos from the debate crowd, Christie added: “Booing is allowed, but it doesn’t change the truth.”Ramaswamy jumped on Christie’s comments, echoing Trump’s complaints about the alleged politicization of federal law enforcement. “We have to end the weaponization of justice in this country,” Ramaswamy said.The debate came one day before Trump was expected to surrender to authorities in Fulton county, Georgia, where he has been charged on 13 felony counts related to his efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in the state. The former president faces 91 total felony counts across four criminal cases.But a CBS News/YouGov survey compiled last week found that Trump now holds his largest polling lead to date, as he won the support of 62% of likely Republican primary voters. The survey showed Trump beating his next closest competitor, DeSantis, by 46 points, with every other candidate mired in the single digits.Rather than attending the debate, Trump chose to sit down for an interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which was available on X, formerly known as Twitter, minutes before the debate began. Trump cited his standing in the polls to justify skipping the debate, mocking his opponents’ struggles to gain momentum in the race.“You see the polls that have come out, and I’m leading by 50 and 60 points and some of them are at one and zero and two. And I’m saying, do I sit there for an hour or two hours or whatever it’s going to be and get harassed by people who shouldn’t even be running for president?” Trump told Carlson. “I just felt it would be more appropriate not to do the debate.”Although Trump’s absence and his criminal charges shaped much of the debate, the candidates also sparred over key policy issues like abortion and climate change. Discussing federal abortion policy in the wake of the reversal of Roe v Wade, Pence praised a 15-week abortion ban as “an idea whose time has come” and DeSantis expressed pride over signing Florida’s six-week abortion ban into law.But Haley was more hesitant to embrace a potential federal ban, a proposal that is widely unpopular with the American people. Describing herself as “unapologetically pro-life”, Haley argued a federal ban would not pass Congress and called on Democrats and Republicans to “find consensus” on abortion access.Discussing the climate crisis, Ramaswamy drew some boos from the debate crowd when he denied the unequivocal truth of human-made climate change. “The climate change agenda is a hoax,” Ramaswamy said.Christie retorted: “I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT.”It was one of several insults directed at Ramaswamy, who has climbed into a distant third place in national polls. Mocking Ramaswamy’s inexperience, Pence said: “Now is not the time for on-the-job training. We don’t need to bring in a rookie.”Several other presidential candidates – including the rightwing commentator Larry Elder, the former Texas congressman Will Hurd and the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez – failed to meet the Republican National Committee’s qualifications for the debate, leaving them out of the event and further diminishing their primary prospects. Hurd elected to live-tweet his reactions to the debate, and he criticized his opponents who said they would still support Trump in the event of a conviction.“Anyone who raises their hand in support of Donald Trump as our party’s nominee even if convicted in a court of law is unfit to serve as president,” Hurd said.But Trump’s criminal charges appear to have only fortified his position as the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary. According to the CBS poll, 73% of Trump’s voters say they back the former president partly to “show support for his legal troubles”.With such stalwart support for Trump among the Republican base, it remains unclear how any of the participants in the Monday debate could capture the nomination. The electoral threat of nominating a twice-impeached former president, who now faces nearly 100 criminal charges, did not escape the attention of at least one debate participant.“We have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America,” Haley said. “We can’t win a general election that way.”The Guardian’s David Smith contributed reporting from Milwaukee More

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      Trump, Ukraine and a viral song: key takeaways from the Republican debate

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      Eight Republicans vying for the party nomination took the debate stage on Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, throwing punches over Ukraine, a federal abortion ban and more, hoping to increase their chances at defeating the no-show frontrunner.Absent was Donald Trump, whose pre-taped interview with the rightwing media personality Tucker Carlson simultaneously published on Twitter, now known as X, and sought to siphon away screen time from the debate housed on Fox News, which famously ousted Carlson earlier this year.But Trump’s presence loomed over the debate, even as candidates seemed to somewhat hold back from criticizing the ex-president, as Fox debate moderator Bret Baier put it, “the elephant not in the room”.Here are eight key takeaways from the night:A memorable opening with a viral song and jabs at ‘Bidenomics’The debate kicked off with a question about a controversial conservative country song, Rich Men North of Richmond, whose lyricist complains about taxes and nods to conspiracy theories surrounding the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.“Our country is in decline,” said Ron DeSantis, to whom Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier lobbed the first question. “We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse American decline.”Tim Scott touted his record of voting down government spending bills in the Senate, as well as his work on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a Trump-era piece of legislation that cut taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals.But Nikki Haley placed the blame on Republicans for spending exorbitantly during the pandemic, calling out Trump for increasing the national debt by $8tn and DeSantis, Scott and Mike Pence for voting to raise the national debt.Energy independence was also a focus, with candidates broadly advocating for increasing domestic energy production.“Unlock American energy. Drill, frack, burn, embrace nuclear,” said Ramaswamy, who later claimed that “the climate change agenda is a hoax”.Trump, ‘the elephant not in the room’Although Trump was absent, hosts asked candidates to show where they stand on the ex-president.Responding to a call for a show of hands by the Fox host Bret Baier, most candidates seemed to agree they would support Trump as president, even if he is convicted. Trump has amassed 91 felony counts in four criminal cases this year.“Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” said Christie, who raised his hand briefly and begrudgingly and has been a loud critic of Trump. “Whether or not you believe the criminal charges are right or wrong. The conduct is beneath the office of the president of the United States.” His comments were met with boos from the audience.Ramaswamy, who has defended Trump across all four indictments, continued to do so. He has repeatedly said he would pardon Trump as president and repeated that on the debate stage.Haley added her derision: “Trump is the most disliked candidate in America. We can’t win an election that way.”The candidates overall said they supported Mike Pence in his decision to refuse to stop the electoral certification, though Ramaswamy ardently defended Trump through the night and DeSantis refused to answer a question about whether he agreed Mike Pence was right.The war in Ukraine was a sticking pointRamaswamy came out the strongest against increased aid to Ukraine, calling it a “disastrous” decision and a “no-win war”. And DeSantis, who walked back earlier statements calling the war a “territorial dispute”, said he thinks Europe should remove itself from the situation.Haley, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, delivered perhaps the strongest stance yet, calling Ukraine “a pro-American country that was invaded by a thug”.Ramaswamy took a dig at Haley, wishing her “well” on her “future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon”.Haley countered, saying that Ramaswamy would hand Ukraine to Russia and China and make America less safe. “You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” Haley shot back at Ramaswamy, who said: “Ukraine is not a priority for America.”Christie, who made a visit to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, weeks earlier, took the opportunity to blast Trump, who has said the war in Ukraine isn’t a vital interest. “This is the Vladimir Putin who Donald Trump called brilliant and a genius. If we don’t stand up against this type of autocratic killing in the world, we will be next,” said Christie.DeSantis would send troops to the southern borderDeSantis said he would use lethal force at the US southern border to counter drug cartels entering the country and treat them as “foreign terrorist organizations”. DeSantis also said he would divert funds from Ukraine to do so and vowed to send troops.“When these drug pushers are bringing fentanyl across the border, that’s going to be the last thing they do. We’re going to use force and we’re going to leave them stone cold dead,” said DeSantis.Scott echoed DeSantis’s rhetoric, saying the southern border is the “most pressing need” when it comes to national security. He also laid out spending plans to complete Trump’s border wall with $10bn, though he did not mention Trump. Hutchinson also agreed that he would use lethal force, nodding to his time as an under secretary on border security for George W Bush.Candidates split over federal abortion banEach of the eight candidates have at some point identified themselves as anti-abortion but differed over implementing a federal abortion ban.Haley, the only woman on the debate stage, called herself “unapologetically pro-life” but warned against “demonizing” the issue, hedging against a federal abortion ban. DeSantis, who signed into law a six-week ban in Florida saying he believes in a “culture of life”, refused to answer whether he would approve a national ban.Pence, an evangelical Christian who has been the most outspoken anti-abortion candidate, said he would move to implement a national ban at “when a baby is capable of feeling pain” though he did not explicitly describe that length.Tim Scott also weighed in and said he would fight for a minimum 15-week ban on abortion. Burgum, who signed into law a six-week ban in North Dakota, said he would not sign a federal abortion ban.(Mostly) quiet on the climate crisisWith the exception of Ramaswamy declaring “the climate change agenda” a “hoax”, the candidates largely avoided a question about whether Republicans care about the climate crisis, a top issue among younger voters.DeSantis dodged the question, which pointed to the Hawaii wildfires, attacking “corporate media” for treating Republicans and Democrats differently, claiming Biden was on a beach in Delaware during the disaster.Haley was the only candidate to wholly assert that the climate crisis is real but said the onus should be on China and India to “really lower their emissions”.Night of introductionsWith the frontrunner absent, the lineup on the debate stage featured a bunch of relatively unknown faces.In his first remarks, Ramaswamy didn’t answer a question about the economy but instead said he guessed the audience would want to know “Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name and what the heck is he doing in the middle of this debate stage?”That earned him a later attack from Christie, who said: “The last person in one of these debates … who stood in the middle of the stage and said: ‘What’s a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here’ was Barack Obama, and I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur.”Ramaswamy shot back: “Come on and give me a hug! … Give me that bear hug bro”Scott, the only Black candidate on the debate stage, repeatedly brought up his back story, growing up in poverty and being raised by a single mom.And Burgum, the governor of North Dakota who arrived at the debate after a trip to the ER earlier Tuesday, mentioned at several points his “small-town” identity. More

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      Republican presidential candidates clash at first 2024 debate – in pictures

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      From left to right: the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the former vice-president Mike Pence, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott and North Dakota’s Governor Doug Burgum place their hands over their hearts during the performing of the national anthem

      Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images More

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      Combative Vivek Ramaswamy emerges as surprise focal point of GOP debate

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      Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur running third in Republican polling, emerged in the absence of Donald Trump as a surprise focus of the first debate of the Republican primary, showing scant respect for other candidates and drawing heavy fire in return.“We live in a dark moment,” Ramaswamy declaimed, in the distinctly Trumpian and conspiratorial fashion that has become a hallmark of his campaign.Ramaswamy’s bid for the Republican nomination has been hit by recent scandals over remarks that suggested sympathy for conspiracy theories around the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the January 6 assault on the Capitol. But he has sought to portray himself as a Trump-like outsider taking on the establishment with his extreme views.All the other presidential candidates onstage in Milwaukee, Ramaswamy repeatedly said, were “bought and paid for” by donors.After all eight candidates declined to raise their hands when asked if they believed human behavior was causing the climate crisis, Ramaswamy jumped in, stridently rapping out: “Unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear.”It has been a month of wildfire disaster in Hawaii and heavy flooding in California. The Fox News hosts pointed out that the climate crisis is the number one concern for young American voters. Regardless, the youngest candidate on stage ploughed on: “The climate change agenda is a hoax … more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate.”Amid exchanges on crime, Ramaswamy attacked the former vice-president Mike Pence, seeming even to doubt a Republican saint, Ronald Reagan, when he said: “Some others like you on this stage may have an, ‘It’s morning in America speech.’ It is not morning in America.“We live in a dark moment and we have to confront the fact that we’re in an internal sort of cold cultural civil war and we have to recognise that.”Ron DeSantis, second to Trump for months but widely seen to be struggling, stood centre stage. But the rightwing Florida governor was often reduced to an onlooker as Ramaswamy threw rhetorical punches and others hit him back, making him a frequent center of the debate.Most sought to contrast Ramaswamy’s lack of governing experience with their work as governors or members of Congress. The attacks were frequently brutal and personal, though succeeded mostly in giving Ramaswamy more vital attention. He also capitalized on his “rookie” status by underscoring his relative youth and reminding viewers he was born in 1985.In one of many angry exchanges, Pence said: “You recently said a president can’t do everything. Well, I got news for you. Vivek. I’ve been in the hallway. I’ve been in the West Wing. A president in the United States has to confront every crisis facing America.”Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who has based his campaign on attacking Trump, was characteristically blunt. Updating his famous 2016 attack on the Florida senator Marco Rubio, who he damned as robotic, he called Ramaswamy “a guy who sounds like ChatGPT”.Referring to Ramaswamy’s opening statement, an attempt to sell Republicans on his image as an outsider, Christie said: “Last person in one of these debates who stood in the middle of the stage and said ‘What’s a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here’ was Barack Obama, and I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur crusade.”Obama handed Republicans two crushing defeats and spent eight years in the White House. Christie also overlooked the famous moment at the business end of the 2012 election when he and Obama toured damage from Hurricane Sandy, an original sin in the eyes of the Republican right.“And you’ll help elect me just like” you helped elect Obama, Ramaswamy shot back.When he took over the Democratic primary of 2008, Obama was a US senator from Illinois, hymning hope and change. In a debate staged by the Republican party of Trump, Ramaswamy’s dash to the spotlight from the libertarian fringe seemed a bizarro opposite echo of Obama, in dark statement after dark statement from an evidently angry candidate.Ramaswamy clashed with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, over his attitude to support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and relations with US allies.He repeatedly clashed with Pence. He clashed again with Christie, over whether Trump should be pardoned if convicted on federal criminal charges. Echoing Trump and extreme advisors like Steve Bannon, Ramaswamy proposed to scrap the FBI and much of the federal government. Not long after his mockery of “morning in America rhetoric”, he said he would “deliver a Reagan 1980 revolution”.He was not asked about his recent, conspiracy-tinged remarks about January 6 and 9/11.In his closing statement, he rapped out hard-right talking points once again: “God is real. There are two genders. Fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity. Reverse racism is racism. An open border is not a border. Parents determine the education of their children. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to man. Capitalism lifts us up from poverty.”Despite all the attacks of his rivals – or perhaps because of them – Ramaswamy was having the time of his life. More

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      Rudy Giuliani mugshot released after he surrenders in Trump Georgia case – live

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      Hugo Lowell reports:
      Just in: A federal judge has denied former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ request for an emergency order to prevent his arrest at Fulton County jail while he tries to have his case removed to federal court.
      Furthermore:
      A federal judge has denied former Trump Justice department official Jeff Clark’s request for an emergency stay to avoid having to surrender at Fulton County jail, after he filed to have his case removed to federal court. Clark has until Friday at noon to travel to Atlanta for booking.
      In a fundraising email to supporters, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott offers a (very basic) taste of what he might offer on the debate stage in Milwaukee tonight.“If you had told 7-year-old Tim Scott he would one day be on a presidential debate stage, he would NOT believe you,” the email says.Seven-year-old Tim might also not have believed that his grown-up self would take his debate stage bow with just 1% support, a mere 51 points behind the frontrunner, Donald Trump. But I digress.The email continues: “I’m a child of divorce. When I was 7, my mom, my older brother, and I moved into a two-bedroom rental house that we shared with my grandparents.“My Mama and Granddaddy told me you can be bitter or you can be better. You can be a victim or you can choose victory. Well Friend, I’m ready to choose victory!“Tonight, I’ll share why the truth of my life disproves the Left’s lies and why I believe America can do for anyone what she’s done for me.”What Scott might do in the primary remains of course to be seen. He has big support from the Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison and with a big debate performance, who knows.But the signs are not particularly rosy, even when one zeroes in on Iowa, the first state to vote and one where evangelical Christians, a key Scott constituency, are strong.At the weekend, a major poll from NBC News and the Des Moines Register gave the senator third place. That was better than his position in national averages, linked to above. But though Scott had 9% support, Ron DeSantis of Florida had 19% and Trump – thrice-married and an adjudicated rapist yet still the No1 choice for Christian conservatives – had 42%.Our Washington bureau chief reports from Milwaukee, ahead of tonight’s Republican debate …Donald Trump is missing from the first Republican primary debate but his supporters are not. Nine hours before kick-off, they were roving outside the venue wearing “Make America great again” caps and brandishing signs mocking the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis.Some of the former president’s allies in the US Congress, such as Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, are also on here. Sitting in a hotel lobby, Greene told the Guardian that she backs Trump’s decision to stay away.“I told him to skip it,” the far-right congresswoman and conspiracy theorist said. “It’s a waste of his time.“He’s winning by over 60%, poll after poll depending on what state you’re looking at and the national poll. It’s a complete waste of his time to step out on a stage and be the centre of the attacks when he has a four-year record as president that everybody wants back and none of those people on the stage have anything that they can compare to him.”There has been speculation that Trump could choose Greene as his running mate.She said: “Well, I’d have to think about it and consider it. It’s talked about frequently and I know my name is on a list but really my biggest focus right now is serving the district that elected me.“That’s of course a decision that President Trump has to make. I don’t know who that person is going to be and I don’t even think they’re going to be on that debate stage. I’ll argue that. But, of course, that’s up to him. But I would be honoured and consider it. But my most important job is, of course, to serve the American people and I’ll help him do whatever in any way I can.”Greene said the three Republicans she talks to most frequently are Trump, Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the House of Representatives, and James Comer, chairman of the House oversight committee. Do they all seem to be on the same page?“A lot of times, yeah. Not all the time but a lot of times. It just depends on the issue.”Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges, over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. It is Greene’s home state but she dismisses the sweeping indictment as “garbage” and has not read it.“I wouldn’t waste five seconds of my time,” she said.Booking pictures of those Trump aides and allies who have so far surrendered in Georgia have now been released.Here is the official booking picture of Giuliani:Here are some for more of the co-defendants:Some levity, of a sort, for those wanting a slightly different angle on what until relatively recently would have been the outlandish, outrageous prospect of a former US president being booked at an Atlanta jail on charges including racketeering and conspiracy, related to an attempt to overturn an election.Bookies are offering punters the chance to bet on what Donald Trump’s recorded weight will be when he surrenders at the Fulton County Jail tomorrow. As the Daily Beast puts it, perennially pleasingly snarky…
      The line currently sits over/under 278.5lb, a far cry from the 244lb White House physician Sean Conley recorded for Trump in 2020.
      As the Beast also notes, part of punters’ interest in the former president’s avoirdupois is fueled by the purest schadenfreude, if I might overdo the pretentious italics. Trump, of course, has a habit of abusing his opponents, critics and enemies – see Christie, Chris and O’Donnell, Rosie, passim – about their body mass index.Trump’s height will also be taken. His 2020 White House physical said he was 6ft 3in tall. There is speculation, widespread, that the truth is different:Here’s a slightly fuller version of comments from Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor turned Trump attorney, after his surrender in Atlanta on charges including conspiracy and racketeering.Speaking to reporters, and laughing as he did so, Giuliani said he was “very, very honoured to be involved in this case because this case is a fight for our way of life”.“This indictment is a travesty,” he said. “It’s an attack on not just me, not just President [Donald] Trump, this is an attack on the American people. If this could happen to me, who is probably the most prolific prosecutor maybe in American history and the most effective mayor for sure, it can happen to you.”Giuliani was indeed a prolific prosecutor, back in New York before he became mayor and briefly, after leading New York on and after 9/11, dreamt of a rise to the White House.As US attorney in Manhattan, he memorably cracked down on organised crime by using racketeering statutes.It’s safe to say his current predicament in relation to similar such statutes … has been noticed by quite a few observers.I typed “Giuliani irony” into Google, and this and this and this came up. And more.Here, meanwhile, is some further reading about what Michael Cohen, another Trump attorney who turned on his old boss after being sent to jail, had to say the other day about Trump, Giuliani and the concept of payment for legal services rendered …Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota and GOP presidential candidate, said he will consult a physician before deciding if he will participate at tonight’s debate, after injuring his leg at a basketball game yesterday.Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, Burgum said his debate walkthrough went well despite tearing his achilles tendon.Fulton County officials have released the mug shot of Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of Donald Trump’s fake electors plot.Chesebro surrendered at the Fulton county jail earlier on Wednesday.Here’s the mug shot, as shared by CBS’ Scott MacFarlane:Rudy Giuliani claims he is being indicted because he was a lawyer for Donald Trump.The former New York mayor accuses the FBI of having “stole(n) my iCloud account the day that I began representing Donald Trump”.Rudy Giuliani says the Fulton county district office’s case against him, Donald Trump and his co-defendants is “an attack on the American people”.“If they can do this to me, they can do this to you,” he tells reporters.Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis “will go down in American history for having conducted one of the worst attacks on the American constitution”, Giuliani says.Rudy Giuliani is speaking to reporters after he surrendered to authorities at the Fulton county jail on charges that he helped lead a racketeering enterprise and conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.Asked if he regretted attaching his name to Donald Trump, Giuliani replied:
      I am very, very honoured to be involved in this because this case is a fight for our way of life.
      This indictment is a travesty. It’s an attack on not just me, not just President Trump, not just the people in this indictment, some of them I don’t even know.
      Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis sharply rejected efforts by two of Donald Trump’s co-defendants – former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark – to move their sprawling racketeering cases to federal court.From my colleague Sam Levine:Rudy Giuliani left Manhattan in the morning to travel to Atlanta with his lead lawyer, John Esposito, on a private jet, though the source of the funding for the plane remains uncertain given Giuliani has struggled financially in the wake of mounting legal bills.Giuliani’s financial trouble stemming from having to retain lawyers for the congressional and federal criminal investigations into efforts to subvert the 2020 election results have become particularly acute in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter.The money problems have been exacerbated by Giuliani’s recent setbacks in court – including in a defamation case against two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of stealing ballots – and the suspension of his law license over his election subversion efforts means he has few income streams.The situation has led to Giuliani listing his Manhattan apartment for sale for more than $6m. He also travelled to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in April to ask the former president to help pay his legal bills after Trump rejected his earlier entreaties for support, the people said.When that trip failed to convince Trump to have his Save America political action committee pay for Giuliani’s legal bills, in the way that Trump has doled out $21m for aides’ legal bills tied up in the criminal investigations, Giuliani’s son Andrew made his own trip to see Trump.Trump has never explained why he has consistently refused to help Giuliani, but people in his orbit point to Trump’s complaints that Giuliani was defeated in almost every 2020 election lawsuit that he brought.But the meeting with Andrew Giuliani appears to have helped, and Trump agreed to attend two fundraisers, the people said. Trump will host a $100,000-per-person fundraiser at his Bedminster club in New Jersey next month, according to an invitation reviewed by the New York Times.Rudy Giuliani’s surrender to authorities at the Fulton county jail marks a jarring moment for Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor who made his name with aggressive racketeering cases, now facing a racketeering charge himself.Alongside Donald Trump, Giuliani faces the most charges in the sprawling 41-count indictment handed up by a grand jury last week that described how he played a principal role in marshalling fake slates of electors among other schemes to reverse Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.The bond for Giuliani was set at $150,000 after his lawyers met with the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis earlier in the day. The amount was slightly less than the $200,000 bond for Trump but more than the $100,000 bond for another former Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell.Meanwhile, Joe Biden and his family are on vacation in Lake Tahoe.The president, first lady and members of the Biden family “are taking a Pilates class followed by a spin class”, the White House said earlier.AP’s Seung Min Kim shared a photo of Biden after his pilates and spin classes:Democrats will be denied political oxygen on Wednesday night but hope to turn this to their advantage by framing all the Republican candidates as Donald Trump-adjacent extremists.At a press conference on the top floor of a downtown Milwaukee hotel, Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said:
      Tonight, in prime time, Americans will have an opportunity to see in action the most extreme, the most divisive, the most chaotic slate of presidential candidates in history when these Maga 2024 Republicans take the debate stage here in Milwaukee, and I don’t know if it’s going to be a debate, but more like a circus.
      They may try to differentiate themselves but the truth is that every single one of these candidates from Donald Trump on down are extreme.
      Harrison went on to list the candidates one by one, setting out their positions on abortion, pushing conspiracy theories and past associations with the Tea Party or Trump.
      No matter who you pick, this group is as extreme as it gets. A bag full of Maga apples and they are all rotten. They are wildly out of step with the American people.
      He attempted to draw a contrast between the two parties. “We believe that our better days as a nation are ahead of us, not behind us. They believe that our better days are behind us and that is the difference in this election.
      Joe Biden wakes up every day thinking about how to make the lives of the American people better. They wake up every day thinking about how do I get back in power? That is the difference between the Democratic party led by Joe Biden and a Republican party led by Maga extremists.
      Satya Rhodes-Conway, the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, accused Republicans of pushing a national abortion ban. “Let me be crystal clear about this: the 2024 Maga Republican presidential candidates are running on their extreme anti-choice records,” she said.
      I’m sure that they’re going to talk about freedom on the debate stage tonight. But what about the freedom to make my own health care decisions? I guess that their version of freedom doesn’t include women.
      Rhodes-Conway added:
      Here’s the bottom line: the American people don’t want anything to do with their abortion bans. Voters in states all across this great country, including right here in Wisconsin, have made it clear that the craven abortion bans are wildly unpopular and out of step with the American public.
      Rudy Giuliani has turned himself in at the Fulton county jail over charges tied to his efforts to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election.The former New York City mayor and longtime Trump ally faces 13 charges that include racketeering, soliciting lawmakers to violate their oaths of office, making false statements and conspiracy counts dealing with the recruitment of fake electors.Here’s a look at the Fulton county jail records, as shared by NBC’s Blayne Alexander:Rudy Giuliani has arrived at the Fulton county jail and surrendered to authorities, according to the county sheriff’s website.The former New York mayor and lawyer for Donald Trump faces charges in the sprawling Georgia elections racketeering case. At a meeting earlier today with Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis’ team, Giuliani’s bond was set at $150,000.“I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I am defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” Giuliani told reporters in New York this morning. More

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      America on trial: the charges against Trump will decide the fate of a nation | Martin Kettle

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      History teaches us few wider lessons. But there are rare exceptions. One of these is that for a nation to put its former leaders on trial is never straightforward. Although such cases are rare, when they do occur they frequently involve the pushing of pre-existing legal boundaries and the reshaping of constitutional norms and assumptions. The evolution of the doctrine of crimes against humanity after the Nuremberg trials in 1945 is the most significant modern example of this.Both at the time they occur and subsequently, the arguments that surround trials of this kind are almost inescapably political to a significant degree. That was true of the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649, an event that divided England then; and some of those divisions of the 17th century can still be felt today. But it will unquestionably also be true of the trials of the former US president Donald Trump, of which the latest step is due to be taken in Atlanta on Thursday.It is important to see that this stubborn political reality applies just as much in the Trump cases as in Charles I’s. In part, this is because many will go out of their way to deny it. Trump’s prosecutors – and many of his political critics – will undoubtedly argue that Trump is simply a defendant like any other, and that their cases are designed to show that no one, not even a former president and commander-in-chief, is above the law. They will be adamant that this is not a political trial, and that it is not Joe Biden’s revenge.In some very fundamental senses, they are right about that. The law is not being altered in order to prosecute Trump. The investigations have followed long-established rules. The verdicts are not foregone conclusions. This is neither a witch-hunt nor a show trial. Yet, however true these points and however honourably such claims are made, they cannot be quite the whole story. The two cases are very different, yet in both 1649 and 2023, the indictments against the king and the president take a stand on behalf of a conception of the nation against a leader set on subverting it.Four separate cases against Trump are now on course for trial. The first three sets of allegations cover: falsification of business records in the Stormy Daniels hush money case; withholding of classified federal documents in his Florida home; and attempting to prevent the US Congress from validating Biden’s 2020 election. This week’s case alleges that Trump tried to interfere with the counting and validation of Georgia’s vote for Biden. All four cases are due in court in the first half of 2024, before the presidential election in which Trump aims to be a candidate.All of these cases also contain multiple allegations. Two – the Florida document cases and the US Congress case – will be heard in federal courts. The others have been brought at state level by New York and Georgia. All the charge sheets are extremely detailed. In the documents case, for instance, the indictment now stretches to 60 pages, with Trump facing 40 separate charges. In the 6 January case, the indictment stretches to another 45 pages, and centres on four separate charges.Like it or not, though, these carefully crafted cases take the US into new legal territory. That is not simply because Trump is the first serving or former American president in the nation’s history to face criminal charges. Nor is it even because, being Trump and still running for office, he will treat the courtroom as a political platform. It is also because a large number of the charges, and the way in which the judges and juries will be asked to test them, relate umbilically to his roles as head of state and upholder of the constitution. These cases are a test of the constitution and, in the broadest sense, of the nation.All of these points repeatedly echo aspects of cases from the past. The Trump cases are still, in the end, an attempt to hold a past leader to account and judge him for the way he handled his office. That was also what the cases against earlier rulers were ultimately about too. The indictments against Charles I for his “crimes and treasons” or against Louis XVI of France for having “plotted and formed a multitude of conspiracies to establish tyranny in destroying liberty” are maybe not a world away from those against Trump, after all.Nor is it a world away from the much more recent example of Marshal Philippe Pétain’s trial for treason after the liberation of France in 1945. Pétain was charged with treason for his role as head of the collapsing French government in 1940, when he signed an armistice with Hitler’s invaders, and then as head of the puppet Vichy regime that collaborated with the Germans until the allied victory in 1945. Pétain was tried and convicted in Paris that same summer. His death sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment by Charles de Gaulle.As described in Julian Jackson’s masterly recent book, France on Trial, the Pétain case has many differences from those facing Trump, but also some similarities. Pétain was put on trial after a war, not an election. His was an unashamedly political trial. The jury was stacked against him, and the outcome a foregone conclusion.But at the same time it was also the trial of a nation, its recent history, its dilemmas and its sense of itself. It was, in the end, a moment of catharsis for postwar France. It was a trial that had to happen, and it was vitally important for the future of France that the former leader in the dock was not acquitted. For all the many differences between the two cases, the exact same applies to the US on the eve of the Trump trials.
      Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist More

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      ‘In enemy territory’: first Republican debate descends on Democratic city

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      The Republican party faces an electability test on Wednesday when candidates including election deniers, climate deniers and anti-abortion extremists take the debate stage in a city that rebukes them and a state they cannot afford to lose.The first presidential primary debate will be held in Milwaukee, a racially diverse Democratic stronghold in Wisconsin, a battleground that could decide who wins the White House in 2024.Even without Donald Trump, who is skipping the primetime televised event, the juxtaposition between Republicans who have embraced his far-right agenda and their sceptical host city offers a preview of the party’s struggle to broaden its appeal.“This is a debate of bad ideas,” said Mandela Barnes, born and raised in Milwaukee and a former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin. “It’s going to be a bunch of Maga extremists showing up in this city because Wisconsin is a critical state every election year. But regardless of how they perform, the reality is they are choosing a losing strategy of extremism and showing how out of touch they are with the people of this country and specifically people here in the city of Milwaukee.”Republicans chose Milwaukee for the first debate and their national convention next year largely because of Wisconsin’s status as a swing state. Four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by less than one percentage point here, with Trump winning narrowly in 2016 before losing by a similar margin in 2020.In a measure of Wisconsin’s importance, Joe Biden travelled to Milwaukee last week to promote his efforts to create manufacturing jobs. On Sunday his campaign announced it was spending $25m to run ads in seven states, including Wisconsin, to counter Republicans as they debate.While Republicans have the edge in many rural areas, in Milwaukee, the state’s biggest city, the population of about 600,000 – around 40% African American, 40% white and 20% Latino – is heavily Democratic and has even had three socialist mayors. It was once known as the “machine shop of the world” but, like many cities in the industrial midwest, was hollowed out by factory closures and jobs losses in the 1980s and 1990s and is now embarked on a recovery, at least downtown.The city remains highly racially segregated and, in predominantly Black neighbourhoods on the north side, there are areas with cracked roads, overgrown grass and a patina of rust. An otherwise handsome row of houses with well-kept gardens can be punctuated by a derelict property with boarded-up windows.Angela Lang, founder and executive director of Bloc (Black Leaders Organising for Communities), works from an office within view of two big abandoned buildings in the 53206 zip code, which has the highest incarceration rate of Black men in the country. The organisation started in 2017 and works all year round to turn out voters. “Our team of ambassadors are basically canvassers on steroids,” she said.Lang said Republicans have a long history of using racist dog whistles about Milwaukee. “We’re the largest economic engine in the state yet we’re not treated that way and most folks’ conclusion is racism is a part of that. It’s jarring to have folks who otherwise insult Milwaukee in so many ways want to descend here. People are reading between the lines that this is going to be a battleground.“What happens in Milwaukee can determine the rest of the state and ultimately the importance of Wisconsin can influence the rest of the country. So to hear that now they’re showing up, folks see it’s transactional and a little bit disingenuous. I don’t think a lot of folks are welcoming them with open arms given their policies and their comments about Milwaukee.”Lang worries that next year’s convention could bring full Maga extremism to the city. “If this was like George Bush’s Republican party, I’d feel a little bit safer, but just to know how extreme the party has gotten and they haven’t denounced some of these far-right values and ideas and things that people are saying, I’m concerned about the safety of our city next year. I’ve been having some dark conversations and very sobering reality conversations of how to prepare and what that means for our city, especially a party that has embraced far-right violence lately.”In another Black suburb, Greg Lewis sat in the pews of St Gabriel’s Church of God and Christ, where he is assistant pastor. He is also the founder and executive director of Souls to the Polls Wisconsin. Three-quarters of people in the neighbourhood do not care about the debate, he suggested.“There’s one thing about that Republican party: they’re not afraid to go into enemy territory,” he said. “They have an office right in the middle of the central city right here; it’s on Martin Luther King Drive, as a matter of fact. So it’s not surprising. It’s a bit insulting for some of us because we understand how putrid the politics, how they are so nasty and uncaring, unloving and just irrational.“It’s an insult but this is an expectation now. I expect for those things to happen and that doesn’t hardly disappoint me any more. What disappoints me is when we don’t stand up against those things.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe debate is likely to illustrate how far the Republican party has shifted since falling under Trump’s spell. The eight candidates almost uniformly support his border wall and launching military action against drug cartels in Mexico. All except Chris Christie have vowed to fire the FBI director, Christopher Wray. Most have leaned into “culture war” issues such as curbing abortion and transgender rights and some have endorsed Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen.Such positions are wildly out of step with the majority of voters in Milwaukee. Ed Fallone, an associate law professor at Marquette University Law School, who has lived in the city since 1992, said: “Relatively few residents of the city of Milwaukee care about the candidates. Milwaukee is a heavily Democratic city and votes heavily Democratic.“However, residents are viewing this debate and also the convention as this alien entity that has arrived on our body and we’re concerned to see whether it will have a beneficial effect in generating positive interest in our town among the country, or whether it’ll have a negative effect and whether the Republicans are going to attack their host.”Milwaukee is emerging from a violent weekend that saw 28 people shot and four killed. Fallone would not be surprised if Republicans try to exploit this for political gain. “The concern I have as a resident is that the Republican candidates will just try to create their theme, whether it’s American carnage or ‘woke’ efforts to defund the police or whatever fear stoking that they’re going to engage in on public safety, they will try to make Milwaukee into a negative example.“The conservatives in the far suburbs and rural areas of Wisconsin don’t normally attack Milwaukee. They recognise we’re an important economic engine for the state. But I’m worried that conservatives running for president will try to make us exhibit one in the defund the police narrative that they’re trying to sell, which is not fair and not true.”Wisconsin will be one of the most crucial swing states in the general election. Democrats have been able to chip into the once-reliably conservative Milwaukee suburbs that saw Republican support drop in the Trump era, while Republicans have made gains made in rural areas over the same period.Democrats enter the next election cycle feeling emboldened. They have won 14 of the past 17 statewide elections, including Biden in 2020 and Tony Evers in 2022. Earlier this year Janet Protasiewicz’s victory in the Wisconsin supreme court race took majority control of the court away from conservatives for the first time in 15 years, with major decisions looming on abortion access, redistricting and voting rules.Many here say that abortion rights could be decisive in 2024 and Wednesday’s debate will put Republicans’ views on the issue in the spotlight. But Trump, the frontrunner who faces criminal charges in four separate cases, will not attend; he has reportedly pre-recorded an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to be streamed at the same time. Trump has also said he will surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face charges in the case accusing him of illegally scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss.Charlie Sykes, editor at large of the Bulwark website, who lives in Milwaukee, said: “It’s impossible to overstate how surreal this moment is that the former president of the United States will be perp-walked for the fourth time, will face a more than a dozen new felony charges, will have his mugshot taken, will be out on bail and yet is by far the leading Republican candidate for president of the United States.“We have been numbed and battered and bruised for the last eight years but this is an extraordinary moment, the split screen in American politics where you have these Republican candidates running for president over here, Donald Trump facing more felonies and Republican voters looking at that and going, yeah, we’re pretty much OK with the guy – orange is the new black.” More

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      Fury at Michigan officials charged in 2020 false electors scheme: ‘This isn’t who we are’

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      When the news broke in 2020 that 16 Republicans in Michigan had signed a certificate falsely claiming to be electors for Donald Trump, Rosemary Herweyer was dismayed to find a prominent local politician, Kent Vanderwood, listed among the signatories.“His willingness to sign a fake elector paper and try to send that in and negate Michigan’s actual vote speaks to his integrity,” Herweyer said of Vanderwood, who was then a member of the Wyoming, Michigan, city council. “How can I trust anything he does?”Vanderwood, who served on the city council for 16 years before being elected mayor of the city in 2022, now faces eight felony charges for his role as a false elector during the 2020 presidential election. Fifteen other Republicans, including the former co-chair of the Michigan GOP, have also been criminally charged.Since Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, announced the charges on 18 July – making the state the first to prosecute a full slate of false electors involved in the seven-state scheme – voters and good government groups have begun a push for elected officials involved to resign. Across the state, a mayor, a school board member and a township clerk whose role includes administering elections have each been arraigned and have pleaded not guilty, and in each community, constituents are pushing for accountability.“Over 2 million people voted for Joe Biden in Michigan, and Stan Grot decided that our votes didn’t matter,” said Alisa Diez, a Democratic party activist in Shelby Township, where Stanley Grot, one of the 16 false electors, currently serves as township clerk.After Grot was charged, the state stripped him of his ability to administer elections, but he remains in office.At a packed public meeting of the township board of trustees on 15 August, residents questioned Grot’s ability to serve as clerk, given the pending charges and the fact that he can no longer perform a key function of his post. “What, we pay him for a job he can’t do?” said Diez, who organized a protest at the meeting demanding Grot’s resignation. “It’s ridiculous.”Grot’s lawyer, Derek Wilczynski, said in a statement that there “is no merit to the charges alleged against Mr Grot”, and called the secretary of state’s directive that Grot pause his election-related responsibilities “improper”. Wilczynski added in an email to the Guardian that Grot “does not intend to resign his position as Township Clerk”.In a statement, Vanderwood’s attorney wrote that the mayor “had no intent to defraud anyone” when he signed his name as an elector in 2020 and added that Vanderwood “will not resign or voluntarily recuse himself from the important and completely unrelated work he is required to perform as the duly-elected Mayor of the City of Wyoming”.In Grand Blanc, a small city south of Flint, Michigan, Amy Facchinello, a school board member who in 2021 generated outrage for promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory on social media and now faces charges for her participation in forging the false electors’ certificate, could face a recall. On 14 August, the Genesee county elections commission approved a filing to recall Facchinello – meaning residents can begin to collect signatures to petition for an election.“Eight felony charges aren’t a good look for a school board member,” said Michelle Ryder, who filed the recall language. Ryder, who has two children in the school district, said school board meetings became chaotic and politicized during the pandemic, with Facchinello’s radical beliefs often a focal point.Ryder said she hoped the felony charges would inspire residents to recall Facchinello, whose term will otherwise end in 2026. “This is an opportunity for our community to say ‘this isn’t who we are,’” said Ryder.Facchinello and her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.Vanderwood, Grot, Facchinello and the 13 others charged met “covertly” in the basement of the Michigan Republican party headquarters in December 2020 to sign paperwork falsely claiming to be official electors, Nessel said, calling the action “an attempt to outmaneuver and circumvent the longstanding electoral college process”.The Michigan plan formed part of a broader push by Trump and his inner circle to overturn the results of the 2020 election by delivering alternate slates of electors for Trump and Pence in seven swing states. The multistate effort has emerged as a critical element in the prosecution of the former president and his allies, with several of Georgia’s false electors now facing charges in Fulton county.At least 17 fake electors across the US currently serve in public office, including the Arizona state senator Anthony Kern, Georgia’s lieutenant governor, Burt Jones and Robert Spindell, a member of the Wisconsin elections commission. The prosecutions in Michigan and Georgia have brought increased scrutiny on the false electors, and Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, has confirmed her office is investigating the slate of fake electors there.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionA coalition of activists and progressive organizers from groups including the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, All Voting Is Local Michigan, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and the Michigan People’s Campaign are supporting efforts in Wyoming and Shelby Township to oust their elected officials who served as fake electors. In letters to the Wyoming city council and the Shelby Township board of trustees, the advocates, referring to themselves as the Democracy Coalition, called on the local governments to address the issue of the false electors.The charges, the group wrote, “raise serious concerns” about the officials’ ability to fulfill their responsibilities “in a manner that upholds the values and principles an elected official should abide by”.Daniel Rivera, an organizer with the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and a resident of Wyoming, Michigan, said he helped get the word out before a tumultuous city council meeting on 7 August, where residents lined up to call for their mayor’s resignation. “When I saw the formal charges, that’s where I decided to really push for recruiting folks to come to the meeting and provide public comment myself,” said Rivera. “As a resident, it just raises a lot of concerns, because we deserve to trust our government.”Herweyer, who worked the polls during the 2020 presidential election and spoke at the 7 August city council meeting, said she already believed Vanderwood’s role as a false elector in 2020 disqualified him for public office when he ran for mayor in 2022. The idea that a longtime civil servant had apparently participated in the effort to overturn the presidential election upset Herweyer deeply.“It didn’t take the [attorney general] filing charges to get me upset,” said Herweyer. “I wanted him off immediately.”But while some individuals like Herweyer were bothered by the news about Vanderwood back in 2020, the issue didn’t get much local play until the charges dropped.Ivan Diaz, a Kent county commissioner whose district includes parts of Wyoming, said the false electors news wasn’t a major campaign talking point during Vanderwood’s mayoral race, and that he was “pleasantly surprised” when residents flooded the city council meeting to demand the mayor’s resignation.“Once there were actual charges, I think it kind of just elevated to a situation where it’s [in] everybody’s awareness,” he said.Residents cannot launch a recall until Vanderwood’s first year in office concludes in December.“At that point, he’ll probably very much be in danger of being recalled,” said Diaz.
      This article was amended on 23 August 2023 to correct a name. More