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      Chris Christie says he’s anti-Trump – but did he secure a presidential pardon for a crony?

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      A leading US ethics expert said the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who this week launched a presidential campaign aimed at taking down Donald Trump, owes the American public an explanation of why and how he secured a pardon for a powerful New Jersey Republican, issued on Trump’s last day in the White House.“We just don’t know the answer to that,” Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), said. “And I think we should.”Trump is the clear Republican frontrunner to face Joe Biden next year. But Christie says Trump is not fit to return to the White House, given his scandal-plagued time in office and his incitement of the January 6 Capitol attack.Christie has said he has not spoken to Trump since before 6 January 2021, the day Trump sent supporters to the Capitol in a deadly attempt to stop the certification of his defeat by Biden.But 14 days after the attack, on Trump’s last day in power, a 143-strong list of pardons and commutations included a name supported by Christie.Alongside Trump allies Steve Bannon and Ken Kurson, and the rapper Lil Wayne, was George Gilmore, a lawyer and Republican party chair in Ocean county, New Jersey.Gilmore was indicted on federal tax charges in January 2020. He denied wrongdoing, his attorney claiming his lavish spending on collectibles was evidence of a hoarding disorder. Nonetheless, Gilmore was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and three years of supervised release, a conviction upheld on appeal that December.Gilmore avoided prison time. Announcing his pardon, the White House saluted his “important civic contributions over his career in New Jersey”. It also listed his supporters. The first two named were Christie and Bill Stepien.Stepien managed Trump’s re-election campaign. Before that, he worked in New Jersey for Christie, including when Christie narrowly won in 2009 and during his landslide re-election in 2013.By the time Christie left office, though, he and Stepien were under the shadow of the Bridgegate scandal, concerning political payback against a Democratic mayor.Notably, Christie ran for president in 2016 but failed to make an impact. Swiftly endorsing Trump, he stuck with him even after being fired from Trump’s transition, which Christie says was due to bad blood with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser. Stepien, Politico said, saw his own career threatened by Bridgegate but “kept a lifeline of income from the [Republican] super pac GOPAC, thanks to Gilmore’s help. That connection helped secure Gilmore the Trump pardon.”Stepien also worked in the Trump White House. He is now a founding partner of a consultancy, National Public Affairs, whose website features Trump allies including Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma senator; Harriet Hageman, who defeated Liz Cheney in 2022 for her Wyoming House seat; and Ronny Jackson, a White House doctor turned Texas congressman.In February, Politico described Gilmore’s own political resurrection, including a return as Ocean county Republican chair made possible, the site said, because Gilmore “had … a key connection to Trump world”.Stepien told Politico that Gilmore would once again play a key role in elections in New Jersey: “One out of every seven votes will come out of Ocean county in the next statewide primary. So if you’re not spending time trying to build a relationship with George and his team, I have to question your strategy.”Christie, who became an analyst for ABC and wrote two books, has made his political strategy clear: he is going to take the game to Trump.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBookbinder said: “I think it’s a good thing that Christie is calling out Donald Trump on his role in inciting an insurrection and on his undercutting of democracy. For that to be coming from people who were insiders is powerful.“That said, I think Chris Christie needs to answer for his [having been] someone who was close to Trump when Trump’s abuses were very much apparent, really from the beginning, and from before Donald Trump became president, and in carrying through to the end of the presidency.“We don’t know when Christie made [or supported the pardon] request [for Gilmore]. It certainly may be that all contacts were before January 6, when Christie at least says that he cut off Trump completely. But we just don’t know the answer to that,” he added.“And I think we should, because to the extent that he is saying he was outraged by Trump’s anti-democratic abuses and had nothing to do with them, that would not be consistent with continuing to ask for favours that might seem to go around the normal pardon process. And that’s something that I think it’s appropriate for the public to have answers to.”The pardon power, Bookbinder said, is “meant to be broad, as a check on runaway prosecutorial power”. Pardons and acts of clemency as a president leaves office are common.But Trump’s pardons proved as controversial as his presidency, amid reports of aides including Rudy Giuliani seeking to profit and with those pardoned including the likes of Bannon and Roger Stone, who might otherwise have testified against Trump.Pointing to the need to lessen abuse of the pardon power, Bookbinder said: “You can’t see Donald Trump as an existential threat to democracy, which I believe he is, while also still having dealings with him and his circle. You can’t do both at once.“And so it is reasonable to ask Chris Christie if that’s what he is doing, or if that’s what he has been doing – [if he has] a good answer to that. We should, at least, have a right to know that answer.”A Christie spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. More

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      Mike Pence: ‘Trump asked me to choose him or the constitution – I chose the constitution’ – as it happened

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      From 4h agoMike Pence directly addressed the rivalry between him and Donald Trump, saying on January 6, his then-boss asked him to “choose between him and the constitution.”“January 6 was a tragic day in the life of our nation,” Pence began. “As I’ve said many times, on that fateful day, president Trump’s words were reckless. They endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol. But the American people deserve to know that on that day, president Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the constitution. Now, voters will be faced with the same choice: I chose the constitution and I always will.”Mike Pence is now officially on the presidential campaign trail, after kicking off his bid for the White House with a speech in Iowa where he unsurprisingly attacked Joe Biden, but also went directly at Donald Trump. Pence accused his former running mate of drifting away from conservative values and of asking him to violate the constitution, as the former vice-president sought to carve a place out for himself in the crowded Republican field. In the months to come, we’ll find out what voters think.Here’s what else happened today:
      North Dakota governor Doug Burgum started his own campaign for the Republican presidential nomination with a speech in Fargo.
      Trump said he has not been told he is being indicted, after days of reports that prosecutors are nearing the end of their investigation into his possession of classified documents.
      Major East Coast cities including Washington DC and New York City are grappling with an influx of wildfire smoke that has drifted down from Canada, rendering the air quality hazardous for some groups.
      Clarence Thomas, the conservative supreme court justice, asked for extra time to file his financial disclosures following reports that he’d accepted gifts and travel from a Republican megadonor.
      Ron DeSantis isn’t letting the wide gap between his second place and Trump’s lead in the polls phase him.
      Donald Trump says he has not been told he is being indicted, despite reports in recent days that prosecutors are nearing the conclusion of their investigation into the classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort last year.Here’s what the former president wrote on his Truth social account:
      No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong, but I have assumed for years that I am a Target of the WEAPONIZED DOJ & FBI, starting with the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX, the “No Collusion” Mueller Report, Impeachment HOAX #1, Impeachment HOAX #2, the PERFECT Ukraine phone call, and various other SCAMS & WITCH HUNTS. A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE & ELECTION INTERFERENCE AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE. REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS MUST MAKE THIS THEIR # 1 ISSUE!!!
      Earlier this week, attorneys for the former president met at justice department headquarters in Washington DC with top officials, including Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed to handle the investigation into the classified documents, as well as Trump’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection and the plot to overturn the 2020 election result.Such meetings typically take place before charging decisions are announced in federal investigations. Today, an aide to the former president, Taylor Budowich, said he had spoken to a grand jury investigating Trump.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell has reported the Budowich was among those summoned by federal prosecutors to appear before a new grand jury convened in Florida, which is focusing on Trump’s handling of national security matters and potential obstruction of justice. It remains unclear what that grand jury’s empaneling implies for the status of the overall investigation, but you can read more about it here:Ron DeSantis doesn’t appear to be too worried about trailing Donald Trump in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, and claims to be “really excited” about the enthusiasm he believes he has generated.Florida’s governor, who entered the race with a glitch-ridden launch event on Twitter last month, has just been speaking at a immigration roundtable in Arizona, and was asked by a reporter about his numbers.“Did you just see the Iowa polls that just came out?” DeSantis said, presumably referring to his own internal polling, reported by the New York Post, that purportedly shows him gaining ground on the former president in the state.“We can talk about polls all day long. You’ve seen some some great stuff. When you run in these things, you run and you persuade people. I mean, that’s the whole point of it. Like you don’t do a poll a year out and say that that’s how the election runs out.“If that were the case, you know, I wouldn’t have been elected in the first place as governor, and even my reelection I had people saying we were going to win by a couple of percentage points. We won by 20.“So we’re really excited about the enthusiasm we’ve generated. I think you’re gonna see a lot of really good stuff over the ensuing weeks and months.”The latest polling by Real Clear Politics for the Republican nomination has Trump at 53% and DeSantis at 22.The academic and public intellectual Cornel West could pose a threat to Joe Biden’s hold on the White House, the former Trump strategist Kellyanne Conway said – not because West’s People’s Party candidacy has a chance of winning the race but because it could draw young voters and voters of colour away from the Democratic president.“Even if you don’t become president, you, as a third-party candidate spoiler, can decide who is the president,” Conway told Fox News.Conway gave the example of Ross Perot, the millionaire businessman whose third-party run is widely held to have cost George HW Bush dear in 1992, when he was turfed out of the White House by Bill Clinton.Other third-party candidates who have had an impact on presidential races include Ralph Nader, widely held to have damaged Al Gore in the knife-edge 2000 election against George W Bush.In 2016, when Conway managed Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, both the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, and the Green candidate, Jill Stein, made an impact at the polls in states that decided the contest.Conway continued: “It’s important also … that if you play to win and you’re Cornel West, and you are still not satisfied with the trajectory of the Democratic party being progressive enough for you under a Biden-Harris administration, then you’re going to run to the left of them.”West, Conway said, is “going to make a play for people who feel forgotten, who feel abandoned by this Democratic party, who feel like nobody’s listening to them and including them.“It’s part of how Trump won in 2016, but I think he could do it from the left.“I know him. He’s a super-smart guy. He’s very committed to the principles and policies that he thinks more Americans want to hear.”The supreme court justice Clarence Thomas has asked for extra time to file his financial disclosures, records keenly awaited amid the ongoing scandal concerning his links to, and extensive gifts from, the Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow.Crow and another conservative on the court, Samuel Alito, asked for 90 more days to file their annual financial disclosures, the Washington Post reported.The Post added: “Both requests were confirmed by the Administrative Office of the US Courts on Wednesday, the same day that disclosure reports filed by their court colleagues were posted on the court system’s website.”As the Post also said, the supreme court “is under increasing pressure from Democratic lawmakers and transparency advocates to strengthen disclosure rules and adopt ethics guidelines specific to the justices after news reports revealed Thomas’s undisclosed real estate deals and private jet travel, and raised questions about the recusal practices of both conservative and liberal justices”.Crow is the subject of attempts by Senate Democrats to obtain details of gifts given to Thomas.Supreme court justices are nominally subject to the same ethics rules as all federal judgs but in practise govern themselves. Thomas and Crow deny wrongdoing. Thomas has said he did not declare extensive and costly gifts from Crow because he was advised he did not have to.In a statement after news of Thomas’s request for an extension, Kyle Herrig, president of the pressure group Accountable.US, said: “Justice Thomas and his billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow can’t dodge accountability forever. It was their decades-long improper relationship that sparked the supreme court corruption crisis in the first place.“What more is Thomas trying to hide? Are his gifts and connections so extensive that he needs more time to account for them all? Chief Justice [John] Roberts needs to act immediately to clean up his court.”Further reading:Mike Pence is now officially on the presidential campaign trail, kicking off his bid for the White House with a speech in Iowa where he unsurprisingly attacked Joe Biden, but also went directly at Donald Trump. He accused his former running mate of drifting away from conservative values and asking him to violate the constitution in an attempt to carve a place out for himself in the crowded Republican field. In the months to come, we’ll find out what voters think.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      North Dakota governor Doug Burgum started his own campaign for the Republican presidential nomination with a speech in Fargo.
      An aide to Trump confirmed he had spoken to a grand jury that the Guardian reports has been empaneled in Florida to look into the former president’s handling of national security matters and potential obstruction of justice.
      It’s really smoky on the East Coast. Also, a volcano is erupting in Hawaii, and you can watch it happen live.
      A major Pac supporting Donald Trump has responded to Mike Pence’s campaign announcement with a statement that dismisses both him and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.“Mike Pence’s entrance into the race caps off another bad week for Ron DeSantis’ faltering campaign, but the question most GOP voters are asking themselves about Pence’s candidacy is ‘Why?’” Make America Great Again Inc spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.As Pence’s speech wrapped up, he accused Donald Trump and Joe Biden of being too mean to lead.“Joe Biden promised to restore decency and civility if he was elected president. He broke that promise on day one. He’s continually vilified those of us that disagree with him, and even vilified members of his own party,” Pence said.‘Our politics are more divided than ever before, but I’m not convinced our country is as divided as our politics. Most Americans treat each other with kindness and respect even when we disagree. We know how to be good neighbors. That’s not too much to ask our leaders to do the same. But sadly, it’s clear that neither Joe Biden or Donald Trump share this belief.”Pence is taking both Joe Biden and Donald Trump to task over their approach to managing the US government’s debt and spending, and their support for Ukraine.“Joe Biden’s policy is insolvency,” Pence said, after recounting the looming challenges the massive government Social Security and Medicare problems face. “But you deserve to know, my fellow Republicans, that Donald Trump’s position on entitlement reform is the same. Both of them refuse to even talk about the issue taken to the American people.”He then turned to both Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the possibility of war with China.“America is the leader of the free world. We’re the arsenal of democracy … Donald Trump and others who would seek the presidency would walk away from our traditional role on the world stage,” Pence said.“President Trump, he described Vladimir Putin as a ‘genius’ at the outset of the invasion and another candidate for the Republican nomination described the invasion of Ukraine as a quote, territorial dispute,” he continued in a reference to Florida governor Ron DeSantis, a competitor for the Republican nomination.“I know the difference between a genius, I know the difference between a territorial dispute and a war of aggression. The war in Ukraine is not our war but freedom is our fight and America must always stand for freedom, and when I’m your president, we will.”One more broadside at Trump: “What President Trump and others are forgetting is that our administration succeeded not because we compromised or abandoned conservative principles, but because we acted,” Pence said.Pence hasn’t held back on criticizing Joe Biden.Earlier in the speech, he decried his “disastrous presidency”, and promised to, if elected, lower taxes, “give the American people freedom from excessive federal regulations” and end Biden’s “trillion-dollar spending spree that’s driving inflation”.But Pence also needs to get through a crowded Republican primary field that includes Donald Trump if he wants to appear on the general election ballot, and the former vice-president has spent a considerable portion of his speech criticizing his ex-boss.“You know, when Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative. Together, we did just that. Today, he makes no such promise,” Pence said.“After leaving the most pro-life administration in American history, Donald Trump and others in this race are retreating from the cause of the unborn. Sanctity of life has been our party’s calling for a half-a-century, long before Donald Trump was a part of it. Now he treats it is an inconvenience, even blaming our election losses in 2022 on overturning Roe v Wade,” he continued.“Mr. President, I will always stand for the sanctity of life, and I will not rest and I will not relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the land,” Pence said.What he did not say: whether he would sign a federal law banning abortion.As Pence continues his speech, his strategy for taking on Donald Trump has become clear.The former vice-president is touting the Trump administration’s accomplishments, while simultaneously portraying his former running mate as straying from true conservative principles.“I’ll always be grateful for what president Trump did for this country. I’ve often prayed for him over the past few years. And I prayed for him again today. I had hoped he would come around, see that he had been misled about my role that day,” Pence said, referring to January 6.“The Republican party must be the party of the constitution of the United States. We’ve had enough of the Democrats in the radical left repeatedly trampling on our constitution, threatening to pack the court, to dismantle the God given rights that are enshrined,” Pence continued, saying the GOP must protect the “right to life” as well as keep firearms freely available.And then he again turned to Trump.“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the United States. And anyone who asked someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the United States again,” Pence said. “Our liberties have been bought at too high a price.” More

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      Mike Pence enters 2024 race with speech denouncing Trump’s ‘reckless’ actions

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      Mike Pence officially announced he is running for the Republican presidential nomination in a video posted early Wednesday and formally addressed a crowd of supporters in Ankeny, Iowa, on Wednesday afternoon.In his speech, the former Indiana governor chastised Donald Trump for his “reckless” actions on 6 January 2021, took swipes at Joe Biden and singled out “enemies of freedom” around the world, including a three-second frame of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and China’s president, Xi Jinping, in the video.“I’ve long believed that to whom much is given much will be required,” Pence told the audience, referencing the Bible. “That’s why today, before God and my family, I’m announcing that I’m running for president of the United States of America.”The event, which took place at Des Moines Area Community College, began with a prayer. After a few short speeches by Pence allies, including his brother, the candidate stepped onto the stage with his wife, who introduced him.“We knew that Iowa was the place to start our engines for the great American comeback,” said Pence, who has been campaigning in the state in recent weeks.“I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” Pence said, repeating a frequently used phrase.Pence touted his record in Congress and as Indiana governor, during which he supported legislation against abortion and expanded government spending, and repeated ideas from his campaign video released hours earlier including addressing inflation, the national debt and issues at the US-Mexico border.He also hearkened his time as vice-president, touting some of the policies that he and Trump pushed forth in their term.“I was proud to stand by President Donald Trump every day,” Pence said.But Pence broke from Trump on 6 January 2021 when Congress met to certify Biden’s 2020 win by saying he did not have authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted. That had infuriated some Trump supporters, with a small group calling to “hang Mike Pence” as rioters stormed the US Capitol.“The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the constitution. Now, voters will be faced with the same choice,” said Pence on Wednesday.“And anyone who asked someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the United States again,” he said later.Pence, like others vying for Republican ticket, also doubled down on his call for abortion restrictions, and pushed his conservative agenda.“Timeless American values are under assault as never before,” said Pence in the announcement video, in which he quoted former presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.His candidacy marks a rare instance of a former vice-president contending for the nomination against a former president with whom he shared a ticket.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump is leading the polls among GOP voters, with Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, now trailing about 30 percentage points behind him. Pence has consistently polled third, in the single digits.But while the Trump campaign openly questioned why Pence would run, the latter focused on what he said was a belief in freedom and the American people.“Every time our nation has produced leadership that has called upon this country to do hard things, the American people have always risen to the challenge,” Pence said. “And we will again. We just need government as good as our people to do it.”Eight Republican candidates have officially joined the race alongside DeSantis and Trump, with the latest being North Dakota’s governor, Doug Burgum, who announced his candidacy in a Wall Street Journal piece on Wednesday. The former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie officially joined the race in a New Hampshire town hall on Tuesday.Pence, who also served in the House of Representatives for a decade before becoming Indiana governor, joins a crowded field for the Republican nomination.In recent months, Pence has appealed to his base of evangelical Christians and anti-abortion activists.“God is not done with America yet,” he said in the announcement video.Wednesday is also Pence’s birthday. He is 64. More

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      Pence’s historic challenge: can Trump’s loyal deputy become his nemesis?

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      Mike Pence enters the 2024 presidential race with a murky path to capturing the Republican nomination and a contentious relationship with his former boss and now primary opponent, Donald Trump.Pence formally launched his campaign on Wednesday with a video announcement and an event in Des Moines, Iowa, after the former vice-president spent months traveling to early voting states and speaking at Republican party events.“It would be easy to stay on the sidelines. That’s not how I was raised,” Pence told the Iowa crowd. “I’ve long believed that to whom much is given much would be required. That’s why today, before God and my family, I’m announcing that I’m running for president of the United States of America.”Pence’s campaign launch kicks off a historic primary battle, as this marks the first time in more than 80 years that a former vice-president has competed against his former boss in a nomination fight.In his speech on Wednesday, Pence did not shy away from attacking Trump, accusing the former president of straying from the rightwing priorities that carried him to victory in 2016.“I know we can bring this country back,” Pence said. “But it’ll require new leadership in the White House and the Republican Party.”The former vice-president becomes the latest Republican to join a growing field of candidates looking to deprive Trump of the nomination. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott, the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum have all jumped into the race in just the past few weeks, following the campaign announcements of Trump, the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.Historically, vice-presidents have been able to use their past White House experience to make a strong case for their party’s nomination. But Pence faces unique challenges that could complicate his already difficult task of attempting to topple Trump, who continues to lead in polls of Republican primary voters.Pence left the vice-presidency in 2021, weeks after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. As part of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump attempted to pressure Pence into using his role as president of the Senate to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.Pence refused to do so, as he argued that the vice-president has no authority to object to the election results, an assessment supported by constitutional experts. Trump lashed out against Pence, accusing the vice-president of cowardice for refusing to meddle in a free and fair election. The vice-president then became a target for the insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol, some of whom chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!”Secret Service officers safely evacuated Pence for the Capitol, and he was ultimately able to oversee the certification of the election results. But the horror of that day has become an ongoing source of tension between Pence and Trump, who has continued to falsely claim that his vice-president could have stepped in to overturn the election results. When asked at a CNN town hall last month whether he owed Pence an apology for endangering him on January 6, Trump said no.On Wednesday, Pence offered pointed criticism of Trump’s actions on January 6, insinuating that they should disqualify the former president from seeking another term.“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the United States,” Pence said. “And anyone who asks someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the United States again.”Although Pence’s actions on January 6 have been lauded by Republicans and Democrats in Congress, they have not made him as popular with the primary voters whose support he will need to win the nomination.According to a Quinnipiac University poll taken last month, 48% of Republican voters have a favorable opinion of Pence, compared with 35% who have an unfavorable opinion of him. Pence’s favorability rating of +13 among Republican voters is considerably lower than Trump’s rating of +75 and DeSantis’s of +74.Pence appears to be counting on white evangelical voters, who make up a significant portion of the Republican base, to boost his standing. To appeal to those voters, Pence has leaned heavily into the issue of abortion access.Since the supreme court’s reversal of Roe v Wade last year, abortion rights have become an even more crucial issue in America’s elections. Other Republican presidential candidates have struggled to clarify their stances on a potential federal abortion ban. Pence has said that he would “of course” support a six-week nationwide ban.Speaking to Iowa voters on Wednesday, Pence emphasized his commitment to the anti-abortion movement and attacked fellow Republican primary candidates for failing to do the same.“After leading the most pro-life administration in American history, Donald Trump and others in this race are retreating from the cause of the unborn,” Pence said. “As your president, I will always stand for the sanctity of life and I will not rest and I will not relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the land.”Despite his staunch support for a federal abortion ban, it remains unclear whether Pence can sway a large number of evangelical voters, many of whom remain loyal to Trump after helping him secure his 2016 win. A Monmouth University survey released in February found that 3% of evangelical voters wanted Pence to be the Republican presidential nominee, compared with 34% who said the same of Trump.Pence has his work cut out for him, but he projected optimism as he entered what promises to be a bruising primary fight.“The American people have always been great. We just need government as good as our people,” Pence said Wednesday. “And we’ll have it soon.” More

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      North Dakota governor Doug Burgum announces Republican presidential bid

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      Doug Burgum, the Republican governor of North Dakota, has announced his candidacy for the party’s presidential nomination next year.Burgum made the announcement in the the Wall Street Journal newspaper. A campaign event is scheduled for later on Wednesday in the city of Fargo.“We need a change in the White House. We need a new leader for a changing economy. That’s why I’m announcing my run for president,” he said in a commentary on the Journal’s website.The 66-year-old was a software entrepreneur, Microsoft executive and venture capitalist before becoming governor in 2016. He will be a rank outsider in a race dominated by two candidates: former US president Donald Trump and rightwing Florida governor Ron DeSantis.Trump enjoys commanding polling leads, having parlayed unparalleled legal jeopardy, including possible indictments over his election subversion and incitement of the January 6 attack on Congress, into a surge of support.DeSantis, a hardline self-styled culture warrior, is a distant second but still well clear of a raft of other candidates including former vice-president Mike Pence, the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott, the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur.Burgum has rarely made national headlines but he did so in May 2020, pleading emotionally for North Dakotans to “try to dial up your empathy and your understanding” over the need to wear masks in public during the Covid pandemic.“We’re all in this together and there’s only one battle we’re fighting,” Burgum said. “And that’s the battle of the virus.”In that appearance in Bismarck, the state capital, Burgum also said he “would really love to see in North Dakota that we could just skip this thing that other parts of the nation are going through, that they’re creating a divide. Either it’s ideological or political or something around mask versus no mask.“This is, I would say, a senseless dividing line … If someone is wearing a mask, they’re not doing it to represent what political party they’re in or what candidates they support.”In Trump’s culture war-stoked Republican party, however, masks and other public health measures against Covid quickly became a key political issue.Only recently, Trump and DeSantis swapped campaign-trail barbs about what each said or did not say about Anthony Fauci, then Trump’s chief Covid adviser, in the early stages of the pandemic.Should Burgum pull off a political miracle and win the Republican nomination, another culture war issue would be likely to hurt his chances with the US public.In April, Burgum signed a law banning abortion at six weeks of gestation, when many women do not know they are pregnant, with few exceptions.Burgum said the bill “reaffirms North Dakota as a pro-life state”.In the year since the US supreme court removed the right to abortion, other Republican governors have signed strict abortion bans. DeSantis is among them, having signed a six-week ban in Florida.US public opinion is consistently in favor of abortion rights.Burgum has also signed numerous laws curtailing the rights of transgender North Dakotans and a law banning the teaching of critical race theory in public schools.Last year, Burgum approved a new electoral map which Indigenous leaders said was gerrymandered to reduce their political voice, already challenged by a voter ID law.Though Burgum’s policies include the goal of making North Dakota carbon neutral by 2030, a rare environmental commitment from a Republican governor, he has also been a backer of fossil fuel projects including the Dakota Access pipeline, which has fueled widespread protests. More

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      Chris Christie launches 2024 presidential run and calls out ‘Voldemort’ Trump – video

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      Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie announced his presidential run in a town hall at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester, New Hampshire. Christie joins the primary as a rank outsider but promises a campaign with a singular focus: to take the fight to Donald Trump, who Christie said was ‘obsessed with the mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault and who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong, but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right’. More

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      Chris Christie, ex-New Jersey governor, launches 2024 presidential run

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      The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has confirmed his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination next year.Christie filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday afternoon. He was scheduled to announce his presidential run hours later in a town hall hosted at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester, New Hampshire.The pugilistic politician joins the primary as a rank outsider but promises a campaign with a singular focus: to take the fight to Donald Trump, the former president who left office in disgrace after the January 6 attack on Congress but who is the clear frontrunner to face Joe Biden again at the polls.Such is Trump’s dominance of Republican polling – in which he leads his closest challenger, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, by wide margins – others in the field have been slow to turn their fire Trump’s way.Declared but low-polling candidates include the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott, the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur.While Christie has insisted he is “not a paid assassin”, the 60-year-old is certainly a seasoned brawler.Christie’s claims to fame include leaving office in New Jersey amid a scandal about political payback involving traffic on the George Washington Bridge to New York, then leaving the Florida senator Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign in pieces after a debate-stage clash for the ages.Christie was quick to drop out of that campaign, then equally quick to endorse the clear frontrunner. He stayed loyal despite a brutal firing as Trump’s transition coordinator, fueled by old enmities with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and only broke from Trump after the Capitol attack.Recently, Christie has worked for ABC News as a political analyst, honing his turn of phrase. Speaking to Politico, he insisted he was serious about winning the primary.“I’m not a paid assassin,” he said. “When you’re waking up for your 45th morning at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manchester [New Hampshire], you better think you can win, because that walk from the bed to the shower, if you don’t think you can win, it’s hard.”He also said Trump “needs to be called out and … needs to be called out by somebody who knows him. Nobody knows Donald Trump better than I do.”Trump has taken practice swings of his own.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I hear Chris Christie’s coming in,” Trump told Fox News at an Iowa town hall. “He was at 6% in New Jersey … I love New Jersey, but 6% approval rating in New Jersey. What’s the purpose? And he’s polling at zero.”Most observers think Christie’s second presidential campaign will struggle to last even as long as his first. But not all think he will drop out without leaving his mark.In the Washington Post, columnist Jennifer Rubin said Christie, having followed Trump then abandoned him, “can help create a rationale (what psychologists call a ‘permission structure’) that allows Republicans who voted for Trump to move on”.Rubin also said Christie could be a “truth-teller who can force Republicans to confront reality … and, as a bonus, Christie might be just the right person to take down the other bully in the race: DeSantis.” More

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      At least 100 million people are eligible to run for US president. Why are we left with Robert F Kennedy Jr? | Arwa Mahdawi

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      Robert F Kennedy Jr likes to talk to dead people. In a recent interview, the anti-vaccine activist, who is challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination, said he talks to the dearly departed daily. “They are one-way prayers for strength and wisdom,” he later clarified. “I get no strategic advice from the dead.”It doesn’t seem as if he needs it. Kennedy, who is the nephew of the former President John F Kennedy and the son of the assassinated presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy, is doing pretty well in the land of the living. While it is incredibly unlikely that the 69-year-old will wangle his way into the White House, his long-shot presidential campaign has gained momentum. According to a recent CNN poll, 20% of Democratic voters say they support RFK to be the party’s candidate and 64% say they would consider supporting him. That is well behind Biden (who came in with 60% of supporters) but nothing to sniff at. Particularly considering that Kennedy doesn’t have many policies, just a famous last name – and a penchant for spreading conspiracy theories and referencing Anne Frank in offensive ways.On Sunday, Kennedy got a boost to his campaign when Twitter’s co-founder, Jack Dorsey, retweeted a video of the candidate saying he could beat the former President Donald Trump and the Florida governor Ron DeSantis in 2024. Dorsey captioned the video with: “He can and will.” When a Twitter user asked if the tweet was an endorsement or a prediction, the billionaire replied: “Both.” Dorsey is not exactly a political kingmaker, but he has influence and money so his endorsements matter.Dorsey isn’t the only tech bro eyeing up Kennedy. On Monday, Elon Musk hosted a conversation with RFK on Twitter Spaces. I imagine Musk was thrilled with how this turned out: it wasn’t plagued with the same technical glitches that affected his conversation with Republican DeSantis last month and Kennedy spent much of the conversation licking Musk’s boots. At one point, RFK compared the Twitter troll to colonists who died during the American revolution in order to give “us our constitution.” He went on to blame school shootings on antidepressants: “Prior to the introduction of Prozac we had almost none of these events in our country,” he said. This was among a number of other questionable statements.It’s easy to make fun of RFK, to dismiss him as a wacky conspiracy theorist. But it’s more productive to ask why he resonates with so many people. Again, 64% of Democratic-leaning voters say they either support or would consider supporting him being the Democratic party candidate – that’s not a small number. While Kennedy may spread vaccine misinformation, his platform also taps into very real feelings of frustration and desperation in the US. One of RFK’s big talking points is “the corrupt merger of state and corporate power” and the decimation of the middle class. Those aren’t conspiracy theories; they are facts. The middle class is shrinking in the US and polls show that the majority of Americans on either side of the aisle think the government is corrupt and rigged against normal people. Of course it is going to resonate when a politician rails against this. Of course it’s going to resonate when someone says they are going to challenge the deeply unfair status quo.To be clear: this isn’t an endorsement of RFK. Rather, it’s a primal scream of frustration. Let’s do a bit of quick maths, shall we? There are more than 331 million people in the US. Let’s say more than half of those people can’t run for president because they are too young or don’t fulfil the various technical requirements; that still gives you at least 100 million eligible people. That’s a big talent pool! Surely there should be an inspiring field of candidates standing in 2024?Well, no. There isn’t. There is Biden, obviously. He has decades of experience, sure, but he is also 80 years old and will be 86 at the end of a second term. And he is not particularly popular. Still, the Democratic establishment have closed ranks around him and he’s the only real candidate: his sole challengers are kooky outsiders. RFK, a man who speaks to dead people, and Marianne Williamson, a woman who once tweeted – before deleting the comment – that hurricanes can be stopped with the power of the mind. And on the other side? The leading candidate is Trump, a sexual predator. Why don’t people have any trust in politicians these days? This might be why. More