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      Will Trump’s ‘reckless’ endorsements be a referendum on his political power?

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      Will Trump’s ‘reckless’ endorsements be a referendum on his political power?Some say his bets on extreme candidates are risky, as losses could threaten his role as king and kingmaker in the Republican party He has long held that the true measure of a man is his TV ratings. So perhaps it came as no surprise when Donald Trump endorsed a celebrity doctor for a US Senate seat in Pennsylvania.“They liked him for a long time,” Trump said of Mehmet Oz at a rally in Pennsylvania last week. “That’s like a poll. You know, when you’re in television for 18 years, that’s like a poll. That means people like you.”Trump stunned his own party by his decision to back Oz, who is struggling in the real polls and far from certain to win the Republican primary.It was one among dozens of risky bets placed by Trump on extreme candidates. The upcoming primaries – votes in states and districts to decide which Republicans will take on Democrats in November’s midterm elections – are shaping up to be a referendum on his dominance of the party.Next month could be pivotal. Defeat for Oz by David McCormick in Pennsylvania on 17 May, followed by defeat for Trump-backed David Perdue against incumbent governor Brian Kemp in Georgia a week later, could deal a huge blow to Trump’s status as party kingmaker.Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “Donald Trump is like a reckless gambler that’s gone into a casino and put his stack of money on one number. Right now the roulette wheel is turning and, if he’s wrong on a number of these, you’re going to see increasing defiance.“It’s almost certain that the growing sentiment among Republican leadership that Trump’s day has come and gone will be reinforced this year. He’s put his political capital on the line in so many races. A more seasoned politician would have been a little more judicious, a little more careful on these close races.”A string of primary losses for Trump’s picks could also puncture the aura of inevitability around him as party standard bearer in the race for the White House in 2024, encouraging potential rivals such as Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.Jacobs added: “There are definitely some Republicans looking at the presidential nomination who are ready to take on Trump, particularly if they see him as weakening. That is the orientation of a lot of the Republican leaders. They would like to see Trump quietly drift off into the past. Like so much about Trump, he’s refusing to go along and wants to still be a player.”Never before has a US president left office only to continue barnstorming the country with campaign rallies and insert himself so aggressively into congressional elections. Why Trump is so willing to jeopardise his brand – and how he would respond to being given a bloody nose by Republican voters – remains a matter of conjecture.One evident motive is to install loyalists who pass the litmus test of supporting his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by Joe Biden. Trump is laying the groundwork for purveyors of “the big lie” to take control of election machinery across the country.Allan Lichtman, a distinguished professor of history at American University in Washington, said: “He’s interested in shaping the party, endorsing those who he thinks support him and his approach to politics, and he’s also trying to put into place in some key swing states like Michigan, Arizona and Georgia folks that he thinks can help him steal the next election if he runs.”There are also financial incentives. Trump’s Save America group, responsible for countless fundraising events and emails, netted a massive $124m between November 2020 and March 2022 while spending only about $14m, or about 11%, to support midterm candidates, according to an analysis by the Reuters news agency.Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, said: “This has become a business for Trump. As his other businesses either get sold or dry up or are subject to lawsuits or criminal investigation, he’s still continuing to raise a lot of money and he gets to support his lifestyle through all of these activities.”She added: “Second, he’s trying to build local bases of support in swing states. If he does decide to run, these are all people who will be part of county and state political organisations. They’ll be people who are going to vote in those primaries in the Republican party, so the more contacts he makes at the local level, the better positioned he will be.”A procession of Republican aspirants have beaten a path to Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in the hope of joining the anointed ones. They run the gamut from shoo-ins to too-close-to-call to genuine underdogs.On Friday evening, Trump announced his endorsement of JD Vance, author of the memoir Hillbilly Elegy, for a fiercely competitive Senate primary in Ohio. “Like some others, JD Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades,” the ex-president explained.He is also all-in for Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and vice-presidential nominee, who is far from guaranteed to win a vacant House seat in her home state. “Sarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big,” Trump stated. “Now, it’s my turn!”But perhaps the climactic primary battle will come in Wyoming in August when congresswoman Liz Cheney, who has come to personify the party’s anti-Trump resistance, is challenged for a House seat by pro-Trump Harriet Hageman. Cheney has huge name recognition in the state and is raising vast sums of money.Some of Trump’s endorsements have already backfired. In the Pennsylvania Senate race – potentially critical to determining which party controls the chamber – he initially backed Sean Parnell, only for the candidate to drop out amid spousal abuse allegations.Trump’s subsequent decision to support Oz, reportedly encouraged by Trump’s wife, Melania, and Fox News host Sean Hannity, carries liabilities of its own. The host of the syndicated The Dr Oz Show is described by critics as a snake oil salesman. In 2014 he admitted to Congress that some of the products promoted on his show lacked “scientific muster”.Another setback occurred in Alabama, where Trump retracted his endorsement of congressman Mo Brooks in a Senate race, claiming that Brooks “made a horrible mistake” when he told supporters to put the 2020 election behind them. Most observers suspect the real reason was that polls show Brooks heading for defeat.Trump’s win-loss record is sure to be studied hard by pundits. Yet if past is prologue, it would not be hard to imagine him dismissing defeats in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wyoming and elsewhere as the fault of weak candidates or rigged elections, while claiming primary victories as his own.Frank Luntz, a pollster and political consultant, said, “I don’t think it’s risky for him because he doesn’t acknowledge losing: if they win, they win because of him; if they lose, they lost because of their own failure.”He added: “He’s not as popular today as he was a year ago. The sheen is not as bright but he’s still the most impactful Republican by far and his endorsement does mean something. I understand why candidates really want it, but they have to think about it: what gets you the nomination in Pennsylvania will cost you the election.”Kamala Harris again earns over twice as much as Joe Biden, tax returns showRead moreTrump has been written off countless times before. But at February’s Conservative Political Action Conference, he received more votes in a straw poll for the 2024 nomination than all other Republicans combined.So would a sprinkling of primary defeats truly break the fever?Reed Galen, cofounder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “Some people will say that; more people might even want to believe it. The chattering class of both parties in Washington DC, starting with [Senator Mitch] McConnell on the Republican side, will read those tea leaves that way.“But it doesn’t make it true because, ultimately, Trump making an endorsement of someone versus Trump being on the ballot – the majority of those primary voters are going to come back to him if he decides to run again.”DeSantis and other would-be contenders should therefore not leap to conclusions, Galen added.“I would tend to agree with the idea that there would be a weakness perceived by potential challengers in 2024,” Galen said. “It may embolden them. I do not believe that equation adds up to them beating him in a primary.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Kamala Harris again earns over twice as much as Joe Biden, tax returns show

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      Kamala Harris again earns over twice as much as Joe Biden, tax returns showThe vice-president and her husband reported a gross income of $1.7m while the Bidens made $611,000 Kamala Harris and her husband earned more than twice as much as Joe Biden and his wife did last year, according to copies of their income tax returns released on Friday.Harris and the so-called second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, reported a federal adjusted gross income of about $1.7m in 2021, which was about the same they claimed to have earned the prior year. More

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      ‘All these men’: Jill Biden resented Joe’s advisers who pushed White House run

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      ‘All these men’: Jill Biden resented Joe’s advisers who pushed White House runFirst lady tells authors of new biography she cut off push to recruit her husband to challenge George W Bush in 2004 Feeling “burned” by her husband’s first run for the presidency, Jill Biden resisted advisers including Ron Klain, now White House chief of staff, who pushed him to mount another campaign in 2004.Trump ‘very intent on bringing my brother down’, Joe Biden’s sister saysRead more“All these men – and they were mostly men – coming to our home,” she said. “You know, ‘You’ve got to run, you’ve got to run.’ I wanted no part of it.”The first lady was speaking to Julie Pace and Darlene Superville, co-authors of Jill: A Biography of the First Lady, which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.“I didn’t even know whether I wanted Joe to ever do it again,” Jill Biden said. “I mean, I had been so burned.”Joe Biden first ran for president in 1987, withdrawing amid allegations that he plagiarised the leader of the British Labour party, Neil Kinnock, in campaign remarks.Jill Biden was describing a meeting at the Bidens’ house in Delaware more than 15 years later, when Joe Biden met Mark Gitenstein, a long-term adviser, and Klain joined on speakerphone.John Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator, was favourite for the Democratic nomination to challenge George W Bush. But, the authors write, “some party leaders thought Joe could go head-to-head with [the] president … in the general election”.“There were always so many people trying to get Joe to run,” Jill Biden said. “You’ve got to run again. You’ve got to try again. Always. It was constant.“He knew that I wasn’t in favour of his running.”The authors cite Jill Biden’s autobiography, Where the Light Enters, published in 2019, in which she describes “‘fuming’ out by the pool” while the meeting with Klain and Gitenstein went on.Jill Biden writes that she eventually cut the meeting off by drawing “NO” on her stomach with a Sharpie pen and “march[ing] through the room in my bikini.“Needless to say, they got the message.”“Joe and Gitenstein did, at any rate,” Pace and Superville write. “Klain, still eagerly engaged on speakerphone and unaware of what had just transpired in the room, kept brainstorming away.“‘I don’t understand it,’ a bewildered Klain said later when Gitenstein called to explain. ‘The conversation was going so great and all of a sudden, it just stopped.’”Joe Biden did mount a second run for the White House in 2008, with Jill’s support, but dropped out early, unable to compete with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.Neil Kinnock on Biden’s plagiarism ‘scandal’ and why he deserves to win: ‘Joe’s an honest guy’Read moreHe was Obama’s vice-president for eight years, spent four years in apparent retirement, then beat Donald Trump in 2020 to become, at 78, the oldest president inaugurated for the first time. Pace and Superville describe how Jill Biden supported her husband’s second and third White House runs.Klain was appointed to oversee the effort against Ebola in 2014 and remains one of Joe Biden’s closest and most powerful advisers. Last year, the New York Times reported that “Republicans have taken to calling him Prime Minister Klain”, a characterisation Klain has disputed.Gitenstein, a lawyer who worked for the Senate judiciary committee when Biden chaired it, was ambassador to Romania under Obama. He advised Biden in 2020 and is now US ambassador to the European Union.Jill Biden’s most senior male aide is Anthony Bernal. He has been described, by Politico, as both “an influential figure” and “one of the most polarising people” in the Biden White House.TopicsBooksPolitics booksJoe BidenUS politicsDemocratsUS elections 2004US elections 2020newsReuse this content More

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      Much ado about Doug: second gentleman takes spotlight at Shakespeare debate

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      Much ado about Doug: second gentleman takes spotlight at Shakespeare debate Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’s husband, argues in a mock trial hosted by the Shakespeare Theatre Company and presided over by Stephen Breyer“I haven’t been in court for a few years, so excuse me if I’m a bit rusty,” said Doug Emhoff. “You know, not too much has changed in my life – except for the Secret Service, Air Force Two, the selfies, the cameras following me everywhere, and oh: my wife is the vice-president of the United States.”Mood as light as spring air as Ketanji Brown Jackson delivers words to rememberRead moreThe theatre erupted in whoops and clapping. Kamala Harris, sitting in the fifth row with her sister Maya, blew kisses through a black face mask and applauded her husband.It was one of those only-in-Washington moments. On Monday, the Shakespeare Theatre Company hosted a “mock trial” inspired by William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing and presided over by retiring supreme court justice and good sport Stephen Breyer.Much Ado is best known for Beatrice and Benedick, two proud intellects who only fall in love after others play Cupid. That seemed fitting for Harris and Emhoff, who were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend and married just shy of their 50th birthdays.But the question before the not-so-serious court was: should Margaret be held liable for Don John’s defamation of Hero? Emhoff, who was a prominent entertainment lawyer for nearly 30 years, was lead advocate on Margaret’s behalf.The event, full of inside-the-Beltway topical gags, had been due to take place last month but was postponed after the second gentleman came down with coronavirus.“I thank your honours for granting my motion for a continuance due to plague,” began Emhoff, wearing a dark suit, blue shirt and blue tie, and standing at a lectern under bright stage lights. “The White House apothecary told me my symptoms would be wild but – whew!”The mock trial is a longstanding Shakespeare Theatre Company tradition but had gone virtual for the past couple of years, due to the pandemic. Monday marked a return to an in-person audience at the Sidney Harman Hall but it was also livestreamed.Emhoff, an amiable and slightly goofy presence, remarked: “My parents tonight are watching the livestream but I might have told them that I was arguing in front of the United States supreme court so, cameraperson, can you just keep a very tight shot … ?”The second gentleman faced quick-fire questioning from Breyer and four leading judges from the District of Columbia and Virginia.“How do you define woman?” asked one, a nod to the recent esoteric questioning of the supreme court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson by Republican senators.Tongue firmly in cheek, Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she was interested in Beatrice and Benedick.“He says he doesn’t want to marry anyone but I think it’s clear from the text that his real concern is that if he marries somebody who’s really pretty and is really smart and witty, she could turn out to be the one who is better known and more prominent than he is.”There was laughter from the audience. There was more when Emhoff responded dryly: “As I say, your honour, I used to be somebody.”The judges – relishing a chance to let their hair down – also made references to Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock at the Oscars, Britney Spears’s conservatorship, Downton Abbey, Republicans Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck.Emhoff was careful not get too political. One judge asked: “So when Beatrice tore up her love letters, making them unavailable to investigators, was that a violation of the imperial records act? If so, is Merrick Garland going to get around to that?”The second gentleman demurred: “There’s certain things I’m not allowed to talk about.”Simon Godwin: how the British director is taking on US theatreRead moreBut he did take a deft swipe at Donald Trump’s oldest son, during his defence of Margaret.“She was just an unwitting pawn in the scheme of the real villain here, the self-described villain: Don Jr – I mean, Don John.”The case against Margaret was put by Debra Katz, a DC litigator and founding partner of Katz, Marshall & Banks. The judges and the theatre audience ruled in her favour, whereas the audience watching via livestream sided with Emhoff.Harris then took to the stage, gave Emhoff a hug, posed for photos and and spoke with those assembled including Britain’s Simon Godwin, artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company.Someone managed to get a selfie with Emhoff before the Secret Service trod the boards and encouraged Harris to exit, stage right.TopicsUS politicsThe US politics sketchKamala HarrisDemocratsWilliam ShakespeareTheatrenewsReuse this content More

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      Former Virginia police officer convicted of storming US Capitol

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      Former Virginia police officer convicted of storming US CapitolThomas Robertson was found guilty of all six counts he faced stemming from his participation in the 6 January 2021 riots A federal jury has convicted a former Virginia police officer of storming the US Capitol with another off-duty officer, to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.Proud Boys member pleads guilty to role in US Capitol attackRead moreJurors on Monday convicted former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of all six counts he faced stemming from the 6 January riot, including charges that he interfered with police officers at the Capitol and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon – a large wooden stick.His sentencing hearing was not immediately scheduled.Robertson’s jury trial was the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all five counts in his indictment.Robertson did not testify at his trial, which started 5 April. Jurors deliberated for several hours over two days before reaching their unanimous verdict.One juror, who spoke to the Associated Press only on condition of anonymity, said as she left the courthouse, “I think the government made a really compelling case and the evidence was fairly overwhelming.”Defense attorney Mark Rollins said Robertson will appeal the jury’s verdict. “While Mr Robertson disagrees with the jury’s decision, he respects the rule of law,” Rollins said in a statement.A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served on the Rocky Mount police force and viewed Robertson as a mentor and father figure.Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with authorities. Fracker testified Thursday that he had hoped the mob that attacked the Capitol could overturn the 2020 presidential election results.Robertson was charged with six counts: obstruction of Congress, interfering with officers during a civil disorder, entering a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building, and obstruction. The last charge stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.During the trial’s closing arguments Friday, assistant US attorney Risa Berkower said Robertson went to Washington and joined a “violent vigilante mob” because he believed the election was stolen from then-president Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to interfere with outnumbered police before he joined the crowd pouring into the Capitol, she said.“The defendant did all this because he wanted to overturn the election,” Berkower said.Rollins conceded that Robertson broke the law when he entered the Capitol during the riot. He encouraged jurors to convict Robertson of misdemeanor offenses but urged them to acquit Robertson of felony charges that he used the stick as a dangerous weapon and that he intended to stop Congress from certifying the electoral college vote.“There were no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to stop Congress from doing this vote,”’ Rollins said.Fracker testified that he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct Congress.The town of Rocky Mount, which is about 25 miles south of Roanoke and has roughly 5,000 residents, fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot.TopicsUS Capitol attackWashington DCUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      US tells some consulate staff to leave Shanghai as Covid outbreak worsens

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      US tells some consulate staff to leave Shanghai as Covid outbreak worsensState department cites risk of children and parents being separated as EU warns zero-Covid strategy eroding investor confidence

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      The US has said it has asked all its non-essential staff and their family members at the Shanghai consulate to leave, in Washington’s latest response to the financial hub’s handling of the worsening Covid outbreak.The state department ordered the departure “due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak” there, according to a spokesperson from its Beijing embassy. “It is best for our employees and their families to be reduced in number and our operations to be scaled down as we deal with the changing circumstances on the ground,” the person said on Tuesday.Washington’s latest move came after the state department on Friday announced that non-emergency personnel could voluntarily leave the Shanghai consulate. It is not clear why the departure of those workers had become mandatory in a short span of a few days.‘This is inhumane’: the cost of zero Covid in ShanghaiRead moreChina responded angrily to the earlier voluntary departure order, saying Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied” with and “firmly opposed” the US’s “groundless accusation” about China’s Covid policy.Shanghai’s handling of the latest Covid outbreak has made international headlines in the last few weeks. But the most controversial of its practices had been separating Covid-positive children from their parents. Although the authorities have since made some concessions, the state department cited the risk of parents and children being separated in its announcement.Shanghai on Tuesday reported 22,348 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases and 994 symptomatic cases for 11 April, the local government said. Asymptomatic cases were down from 25,173 a day earlier. The symptomatic cases rose from 914.The harsh lockdown in China’s most populous city – home to nearly 26 million people – has also caused a backlash among its residents. In the last few weeks, many patients have complained about being unable to access medical care facilities. Stories of food shortages have prompted citizens in other parts of China to rush to stockpile goods.The situation in Shanghai has also led the EU chamber of commerce to warn that China’s zero-Covid strategy was “eroding foreign investors’ confidence”. In a letter, it urged the Chinese government to shift its approach by giving the Chinese population access to mRNA vaccines and allowing people with mild symptoms to quarantine at home.Despite international pressure, Beijing did not seem able to adjust its zero-Covid policy, said Chen Zhengming, a professor of epidemiology at Oxford University. “China is in such a dilemma right now that if it sticks to this policy there’d be big burden to the economy and cause secondary disasters such as [those] in medical care. But if it loosens the policy, there may be a huge spike in new infections.”On Monday, Shanghai authorities started easing lockdown in some parts of the city, despite reporting a record of more than 25,000 new Covid cases. Residents of neighbourhoods where there have been no positive cases for at least two weeks were allowed some degree of freedom, but they were not allowed to travel to those still under severe lockdowns.Chinese officials admitted the situation in Shanghai was concerning. “The epidemic is in a rapid increase phase, with social transmission still not brought under effective control,” said Lei Zhenglong of the National Health Commission at a briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. “The forecast for the next few days is that the number of infected people will remain at a high level.”TopicsChinaCoronavirusAsia PacificUS foreign policyUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Joe Biden vows to tackle ‘grave threat’ of untraceable ‘ghost guns’ – as it happened

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      Biden to announce restrictions on ‘ghost guns’

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      Biden announces ghost gun restrictions, seeks to end ‘terrible fellowship of loss’

      Joe Biden said it was “basic common sense” to want untraceable, so-called ghost guns off the street, during a White House address to announce new firearms restrictions.
      In an event at the Rose Garden attended by numerous survivors and families of victims of gun violence, the president said he was clamping down on the kit-form guns to try to prevent others joining the “terrible fellowship of loss.”
      He also took a swipe at Republicans in Congress, and the gun rights lobby, including the national rifle association (NRA), that have opposed his efforts to enact reform.
      “The gun lobby tried to tie up the regulations and paperwork for a long, long time. The NRA called this rule I’m about to announce extreme,” Biden said. More

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      Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, tests positive for Covid-19

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      Eric Adams, mayor of New York City, tests positive for Covid-19Democrat found to have coronavirus on 100th day in office after busy week of public appearances

      Fauci: Biden protected by ‘pretty strong’ Covid protocols
      The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, his 100th day in office, according to a spokesperson.Omicron variant does cause different symptoms from Delta, study findsRead moreThe first-term Democrat woke up with a raspy voice and took a PCR test that came back positive, spokesperson Fabien Levy said in a statement.Earlier on Sunday, Levy tweeted that Adams had taken a rapid test that came back negative but took the additional test out of an abundance of caution.Adams has no other symptoms but has canceled all public events for the week and will be taking antiviral medications and working remotely, Levy said.New York City has been experiencing a steady resurgence in virus cases over the past month. It’s now averaging around 1,800 new cases per day – not counting the many home tests that go unreported to health officials.That’s triple the number in early March, when the city began relaxing masking and vaccination rules.Adams’s past week was busy: the mayor attended the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington last Saturday, after which dozens of attendees tested positive.He also delivered remarks at the National Action Network convention on Wednesday and attended that night’s gala, appeared in-studio on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday before joining Robert De Niro at the ReelAbilities Film Festival, went to the New York Yankees’ opening day game on Friday and was in Albany on Saturday.TopicsNew YorkCoronavirusUS politicsnewsReuse this content More