Republican candidate and biotech entrepreneur names Twitter CEO when asked about potential advisers should he win election
The Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said that he wants Elon Musk as an adviser if he becomes president.
The billionaire biotech entrepreneur was in Newton, Iowa, campaigning at a town hall on Friday when he was asked about whom he would want as advisers for his potential presidency.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed
Mugshots define eras.
Bugsy Siegel peering malevolently from beneath his fedora in a 1928 booking photo summed up the perverse romance of gangsters in the prohibition age.
Continue reading...Former vice-presidential nominee condemns prosecutors over ‘travesty’ and says ‘we’re not going to keep putting up with this’
A second US civil war is “going to happen” if state and federal authorities continue to prosecute Donald Trump, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said.
“Those who are conducting this travesty and creating this two-tier system of justice, I want to ask them what the heck, do you want us to be in civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen,” Palin told Newsmax on Thursday night.
Continue reading...Ex-president changes lawyers hours before being expected in Georgia; Mark Meadows surrenders after agreeing $100,000 bond payment
Full report: Trump ‘shakes up legal team hours before surrender’
In a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll, 35% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they think the climate change is a major factor in the extreme heat that the US has experienced recently, compared with 85% of those who lean Democratic. Overall, nearly two-thirds of Americans who experienced extremely hot days said climate change was a major factor.
Young Republican voters, however, seem increasingly concerned about the climate crisis. A 2022 Pew poll found that 73% of Republicans aged 18-39 thought climate change was an extremely/very or somewhat serious issue.
Continue reading...Benji Backer, executive director of conservative climate group, calls question on crisis in debate ‘historic’ but laments answers
Republicans “deserve to lose” electorally if they can’t show they care about the climate crisis, according to the head of a conservative climate organization that put forward a rare question on the issue to GOP candidates in Wednesday’s televised debate.
The Republican presidential hopefuls, minus Donald Trump, were asked at the Fox News debate what they would do to improve the party’s standing on climate policy by Alexander Diaz, a young conservative who is part of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), a youth conservative group that pushes for action on the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy take stage in Milwaukee
Onstage at the Republican presidential debate tonight is the governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum – who almost didn’t make it.
He has managed to make the event despite requiring crutches and wearing a boot after hurting his Achilles tendon while playing basketball.
Continue reading...Far-right congresswoman from Georgia tells the Guardian she ‘would be honored’ if chosen for the role
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia “knows” her name is “on a list” of possible picks as vice-president to Donald Trump should he win the Republican nomination next year, the far-right congresswoman and conspiracy theorist told the Guardian on Wednesday.
“I’d have to think about it and consider it,” Greene said, in Milwaukee ahead of the first Republican presidential debate.
Continue reading...The blog is now closed, but please follow these links to the Guardian’s latest US politics stories:
The Fulton county district attorney has advised several of Donald Trump’s co-defendants that they should surrender at the jail around 3am ET if they want a quick turnaround on their booking because it could take hours during the day, per people familiar.
Expect some surrenders in early hours.
Continue reading...Court to decide whether to remove them as Greg Abbott and other Republican governors defend militarization of border with Mexico
A federal judge heard arguments on Tuesday about whether state authorities should remove huge buoys installed to stop migrants crossing the river that divides Texas from Mexico.
The court hearing in Austin came a day after Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, and a group of hardline Republican governors gathered on the riverbank to defend local militarization of the US-Mexico border – while also acknowledging that the 1,000ft (305-meter) floating barrier had been adjusted after complaints that it had mostly drifted into Mexican territory.
Continue reading...The Bidens are accompanied by the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Deanne Criswell
Donald Trump continues to hold a dominant lead over the rest of the GOP field in Iowa, the site of the nation’s first presidential caucuses, with 23 points ahead of his closest competitor, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, according to a new poll.
The survey by the Des Moines Register, NBC News and Mediacom of likely Republican caucus-goers, was conducted before and after Trump’s latest indictment in Georgia, and shows the former president’s lead over DeSantis increased after his latest charges.
Continue reading...Senator Bill Cassidy says ‘he will lose to Joe Biden’ as ex-president faces more than 90 pending charges
Donald Trump should drop out of the 2024 race for the White House because polling shows the former US president trailing Joe Biden as he grapples with more than 90 pending criminal charges, according to Republican US senator Bill Cassidy.
Cassidy’s comments to State of the Union host Kasie Hunt were not the first time he has denounced Trump. About two months earlier, he went on CNN and predicted that Trump would lose if his party nominated him to run for the Oval Office again, citing the poor performance of his endorsed candidates during the 2022 midterms.
Continue reading...Former vice-president who once voted to expel felon from Congress says American people should decide
Donald Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence, refused to say Trump should be barred from returning to the White House if he is convicted on any of 91 criminal charges against him.
“I think that he’s to be left to the American people,” Pence told ABC’s This Week, on Sunday. “Let’s have the former president have his day in court. Let’s maintain a presumption of innocence.”
Continue reading...US president, Yoon Suk Yeol and Fumio Kishida meet as they agree to take trilateral defence cooperation to ‘unprecedented levels’
A standalone summit bringing together the leaders of Japan and South Korea would have been almost unthinkable just over a year ago, when the north-east Asian neighbours were embroiled in disputes over their bitter wartime legacy.
Bilateral ties were at a low point before the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, took office in May 2022, due to compensation claims by Koreans over Japan’s use of forced labour during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, and the longstanding controversy over Korean women who were coerced into working in Japanese military brothels.
It is a historic event, and it sets the conditions for a more peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and a stronger and more secure United States of America.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, but continuing coverage of Trump’s Georgia indictment can be found here and here.
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, dismissed the suggestion that she is running in the 2024 GOP presidential race in order to become the vice president.
In an interview with Politico, Haley said:
I think everybody that says, ‘She’s doing this to be vice president,’ needs to understand I don’t run for second.
That’s something that I hear all the time, and I’ll tell you that, look, we have a country to save, and I don’t trust anybody else to do it.
Sources tell ABC News that Trump’s legal advisers have told him that holding such a press conference with dubious claims of voter fraud will only complicate his legal problems and some of his attorneys have advised him to cancel it.
Continue reading...Rightwing Florida governor’s talking points for the first Republican debate include defending Trump and attacking Biden
Seeking to resurrect his flagging US presidential campaign, Ron DeSantis suffered a major embarrassment when memos about his preparation for the first Republican debate were reported by the New York Times.
Including advice not to attack the clear frontrunner, Donald Trump, the memos to the rightwing Florida governor ahead of the debate in Milwaukee next Wednesday were posted online by a consulting firm owned by Jeff Roe, chief strategist to Never Back Down, a Super Pac backing DeSantis.
Attack Joe Biden and the media 3-5 times.
State [DeSantis’s] positive vision 2-3 times.
Hammer Vivek Ramaswamy in a response.
Defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack.
Continue reading...US president and first lady to meet survivors and first responders on Monday; White House speech on anniversary will extol wins on EVs and green energy
The US is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the Inflation Reduction Act is widely forecast to slash these emissions, by as much as 48% by 2035, from 2005 levels, according to one analysis.
These forecasts have a relatively wide range of estimates due to uncertainties such as economic growth but even in the most optimistic scenario the US will require further measures if it is to get to net zero emissions by 2050, as scientists have said is imperative if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate impacts.
Continue reading...Charging document, staggering in its breadth and ambition of its charges, may represent greatest legal peril for ex-president to date
There’s no other way to say it: the 98-page indictment handed down by a Fulton county grand jury on Monday represents the most aggressive effort to hold Donald Trump and allies accountable for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The document is staggering in its breadth and the ambition of its charges. The 41 counts of crimes in it, including 13 against Trump, detail the lies the former president and his co-defendants told the public about fraud to try and keep him in power. It doesn’t back away from charging Trump’s attorneys and inner circle with crimes for coordinating a plan to create slates of fake electors and to stop Congress from counting votes. Some of the state’s 16 fake electors themselves also face charges. And it also casts a wide net, not letting those who breached voting equipment and intimidated poll workers off the hook.
Continue reading...Republican says no one has produced evidence of fraud in court of law despite ex-president’s vow to present ‘irrefutable’ proof
Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, insisted on Tuesday that the 2020 presidential election in his state “was not stolen” in an apparent defense of the latest criminal indictment of Donald Trump.
Kemp, who has clashed frequently with the former president over his false claim the election was rigged, responded on Twitter to an earlier post on Truth Social from Trump announcing a press conference next week at which he promised to present “irrefutable” evidence of fraud.
Continue reading...Former Georgia Lt Gov Geoff Duncan and journalist George Chidi to testify on Monday; court publishes then removes docket of charges against Trump
Twice impeached and now arrested and indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida and Washington over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages.
Continue reading...Georgia court appears to publish then take down key document, while ex-president lashes out against perceived persecutors
The indictment of Donald Trump over his attempted election subversion in Georgia loomed closer on Monday amid an apparent false alarm about charges being filed and a series of angry statements from the former president punctuating a day of prosecution presentations in court.
At about midday, a two-page docket report posted to the Fulton county court website indicated charges against Trump including racketeering, conspiracy and false statements. The appearance of the report set off a flurry of news media activity, but then the document vanished.
Continue reading...