Trump has trailed 15 November to launch run for the Republican presidential nomination, but senior adviser says he should wait
Donald Trump should delay his expected announcement of a third run for the Republican presidential nomination until after the Georgia Senate run-off, a senior adviser said.
“I’m advising the president to hold off until after the Georgia race, after Herschel Walker,” Jason Miller told the rightwing network Newsmax.
Continue reading...Pence also seems to blame anti-Trump Lincoln Project for angering former president with political ad, fueling Capitol attack
Shortly before the January 6 insurrection, Donald Trump warned Mike Pence he was “too honest” when he hesitated to pursue legalistic attempts to stop certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory and would make Trump’s supporters “hate his guts”, the former vice-president writes in his memoir.
Pence also seems, bizarrely, to blame the anti-Trump Lincoln Project for enraging Trump with a political ad, thereby fueling the anger that incited the Capitol attack.
Continue reading...Latest updates and results as Democrats perform better than expected and Georgia Senate race heads to runoff
One person who looks likely to benefit from the midterms results is ultra-conservative Republican Ron DeSantis. He was re-elected as governor of Florida, saying that the state is where “woke goes to die”. DeSantis defeated Democrat Charlie Crist in the midterm elections, granting him a second term as Florida’s governor. There is every likelihood, as the Republican party comes to terms with these results, that DeSantis could be their frontrunner for the White House nomination in 2024.
Young voters often come in for criticism for being apathetic about politics and staying at home, but at least one analyst is laying the cause of the Democrats better than anticipated performance at the feet of Generation Z, who appear from exit polls to have massively skewed towards them.
Continue reading...President says ‘giant red wave didn’t happen’ as Senate still in balance and race for House control much closer than predicted
Joe Biden hailed “a good day” for democracy after Democrats defied history and outperformed expectations in America’s midterm elections, leaving control of Congress on a knife-edge.
With ballots still being counted, Democrats were hopeful about holding the Senate while Republicans felt they were on course to win the House – but by a much narrower margin than widely predicted.
Continue reading...Latest updates and results as millions across the US cast votes in what is largely seen as a referendum on Biden’s presidency
The Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, Kari Lake, told reporters earlier she will be their “worst fricking nightmare for eight years” if she defeats the Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Lake has been talked up as a running mate for Donald Trump in his widely expected run for the Republican presidential nomination.
Continue reading...Democrats have reason for cautious optimism, but Republicans still have narrow advantage in battle for House
Democrats had reason for cautious optimism on Tuesday night, as some of their endangered candidates appeared likely to emerge victorious in the midterm elections, but Republicans still enjoyed a narrow advantage in the battle for control of the House of Representatives.
Americans headed to the polls on Tuesday to determine control of the US Congress for the next two years, and election forecasts had favored Republicans in the final days of campaigning. The president’s party typically loses seats in the midterms, and Joe Biden’s low approval rating, combined with concerns about the state of the US economy, had lowered Democrats’ expectations.
Continue reading...Millions across the country vote while Florida state department tells DoJ that federal election monitors won’t be permitted
Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and host of the podcast America Explained, and he writes for the Guardian today to argue that the future of American democracy is at stake in the midterm elections:
Never before in American history has there been an organized movement which was only one vote away from having the motivation and opportunity to make that election America’s last. Never that is, until now. Today’s anti-democratic movement is propelled not by genuine controversy or scandal, but rather by their commitment to ending competitive elections in the United States. There is no other way to interpret their belief that only one side, the Republicans, can legitimately be considered to win, and the plans that they hold to make this belief a reality.
Continue reading...At Ohio rally on eve of US midterm elections, ex-president suggests the reveal will come on Tuesday 15 November at Mar-a-Lago
Confidants spent much of Monday putting it about that former US president Donald Trump was on the brink of announcing his intention to become a future president at a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio.
The crowds shuffling into a corner of the local airport, run by a company named after the Wright brothers who invented the first aeroplane in their Dayton bicycle shop, were excited that they might be about to witness history and their man on his way back to the White House.
Continue reading...Momentum appears to be with Republicans capitalising on economic frustration as experts say party peaking at right time
Joe Biden is fighting a rearguard action to stave off defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections as Republicans look poised to make sweeping gains in the US Congress, setting up two years of political trench warfare.
The president, along with former president Barack Obama, has been criss-crossing America in a last-ditch bid to persuade voters that a Democratic victory is critical not only to Biden’s legislative agenda but the preservation of American democracy.
Continue reading...Part Trump rally, part religious service, and much conspiracy theory thrown in – on the eve of the midterms, Ed Pilkington visits the ReAwaken America tour
“There is a man by the name of Donald,” the voice on the recording says. “God said, ‘You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation … I will open that door that you prayed about, and when it comes time for the election you will be elected.”
Three thousand people are packed into an overflowing auditorium, many with arms raised and eyes closed in prayer. The recording to which they are listening is from April 2013 and of Kim Clement, a late South African preacher, as he prophesies the first coming of Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Ex-president strikes familiar notes at Pennsylvania rally as he swipes at potential rival ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ and effectively kicks off another run for White House
A Boeing 757 plane halted on the runway with “Trump” emblazoned on the side in giant gold letters. Loudspeakers boomed Elvis Presley’s Dixie, Village People’s YMCA and Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA. Donald Trump descended stairs to rapturous cheers and whistles from thousands of supporters.
Officially, the former US president was rallying at a regional airport to support Republicans candidates in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Unofficially, he was already accelerating down the runway of a 2024 campaign for the White House.
Continue reading...Move will restrict his company’s ability to freely make deals, sell assets and change its corporate structure
A Manhattan judge said Thursday that he would appoint an independent monitor to oversee Donald Trump’s real estate empire.
The move will restrict his company’s ability to freely make deals, sell assets and change its corporate structure.
Continue reading...In Pennsylvania, Chris McGreal reports that a major pro-Israel group is facing criticism for backing Republicans who denied the 2020 election, but not a Democratic candidate who would make history if elected:
More than 240 Jewish American voters in Pittsburgh have signed a letter denouncing the US’s largest pro-Israel group for backing extremist Republican election candidates while spending millions of dollars to oppose a Democrat who would be Pennsylvania’s first Black female member of Congress.
Continue reading...The former president claims civil suit mounted by Letitia James could cause ‘great harm’ to his company and reputation
Donald Trump has sued the attorney general of New York state, Letitia James, over what he claims is a “relentless, pernicious, public, and unapologetic crusade” against him, in the shape of her recent civil lawsuit against the former president and three of his adult children, Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric.
Filed on Wednesday in a circuit court in Florida, the lawsuit says James’s suit, which she announced in a dramatic press conference in September, will cause “great harm” to the company, brand and reputation of the thrice-married, oft-sued, twice-impeached and extensively legally imperiled former president.
Continue reading...Flurry of reports suggests former president will move swiftly after midterms, as soon as 14 November – but who will challenge him?
As the midterm elections loom and Republican hopes of retaking Congress rise, it appears to be a matter of when, not if, Donald Trump will announce his third White House run.
The former president has trailed another campaign ever since his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, a contest Trump refused to concede, pursuing the lie about electoral fraud which fueled the deadly attack on Congress and his second impeachment.
Continue reading...Emails show ex-president’s attorney saying justice was ‘our only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion’ by 6 January
In a last desperate attempt to delay or disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential race, allies of Donald Trump sought to appeal to conservative supreme court Justice Clarence Thomas, new emails show.
The emails, recently obtained by the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, show that members of Trump’s legal team considered Thomas to be “key” to their efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results.
Continue reading...Elon Musk says setting up process over those barred, including Donald Trump, will take ‘at least a few more weeks’
Banned Twitter accounts including Donald Trump’s will not be reinstated until after the US midterm elections at least, the platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, has said.
The Tesla chief executive’s statement came as a study revealed that Twitter had taken down six disinformation networks on the platform linked to China and Iran that had been tweeting about the 8 November elections.
Continue reading...Kash Patel’s close relationship with ex-president could provide information on how documents ended up at Trump’s resort
The justice department is weighing whether to grant immunity to the Trump adviser Kash Patel and force his testimony about claims that highly sensitive government documents the FBI seized from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort were declassified, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The status of the documents has emerged as relevant to the criminal investigation surrounding Trump’s mishandling of national security materials since it could strengthen a potential case that the former president was in violation of state secrecy laws.
Continue reading...Former vice-president says meeting at which advisers led by Giuliani urged Trump to not accept election defeat was ‘a new low’
A post-election meeting at which advisers led by Rudy Giuliani attacked campaign lawyers and urged Donald Trump not to accept his election defeat was “a new low” for a president “well acquainted with rough-and-tumble debates”, Mike Pence writes in a forthcoming memoir.
Of the meeting in November 2020, the former vice-president writes: “In the end, that day the president made the fateful decision to put Giuliani and [attorney] Sidney Powell in charge of the legal strategy … The seeds were being sown for a tragic day in January.”
Continue reading...Musk, despite his wealth, good fortune and global influence, is not a serious person – but he is toying with dangerous ideas
It took less than 48 hours for Elon Musk to reveal just how dangerous his new toy can be to this world. Replying to a tweet from former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the man worth more than $210bn with more than 112 million Twitter followers spread a dangerous conspiracy theory intended to distract people from an attempted political assassination just one week before a major US election.
Clinton had warned that “the Republican party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories”, in response not just to the attack on home and spouse of Nancy Pelosi but a slew of attempted kidnappings and threats against elected officials who have stood up to the Trump agenda and the attempted overthrow of the US government in January 2021.
Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
Continue reading...