‘Guardrails’ that previously existed removed as Meta says voters should be able to hear from presidential nominees
Meta has removed previous restrictions on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Donald Trump as the 2024 election nears, the company announced on Friday.
Trump was allowed to return to the social networks in 2023 with “guardrails” in place, after being banned over his online behavior during the 6 January insurrection. Those guardrails have now been removed.
Continue reading...Hakeem Jeffries reveals ‘candid’ talks with president about 2024 future as another top Democrat urges Biden to pull out
Joe Biden delivered a defiant speech on Friday evening in the battleground state of Michigan, firmly dismissing the doubt swirling around his survival as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Biden held a rally at a high school gymnasium in Detroit as part of his visit to the critical swing state that chose Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. He walked on stage to audience chants of “don’t you quit” and addressed the speculation head on: “I am running, and we’re gonna win,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Continue reading...Ruling clears way for two Georgia election workers to try to recover nearly $150m Giuliani was ordered to pay them
A New York judge dismissed Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case on Friday, clearing the way for two Georgia election workers to try to recover nearly $150m Giuliani was ordered to pay them for defaming them after the 2020 election.
“The court finds that cause exists to convert or dismiss the case. The record in this case reflects Mr Giuliani’s continued failure to meet his reporting obligations and provide the financial transparency required of a debtor in possession,” US bankruptcy judge Sean Lane wrote in his ruling. Lane also barred Giuliani from filing for bankruptcy again within one year.
Continue reading...Sean O’Brien accused of bolstering ‘most anti-union party and president’ by senior members of his own union
Teamsters International president Sean O’Brien has been accused by senior members of the union of disgracing it by agreeing to an unprecedented appearance at next week’s Republican national convention.
O’Brien’s decision was branded “unconscionable” by John Palmer, vice-president at large at Teamsters, who accused him of lending support to the “most anti-union party and President” in a generation.
Continue reading...Billboards will go up in seven swing states as campaign seeks to publicize manifesto and tie it to ex-president
Democrats will put up billboards in swing states that show Donald Trump and tie him to Project 2025, a conservative manifesto that could become reality if he wins in November.
The Democratic National Committee’s paid media campaign escalates liberal efforts to publicize Project 2025 and tie it to the former president after he sought to distance himself from the plan. The blueprint for a second Trump administration is led by the rightwing thinktank the Heritage Foundation and counts support from more than 100 other conservative groups.
Continue reading...Pew finds that Trump has a 4 percentage point lead over Biden among registered voters nationwide
Joe Biden continues to push back against those calling for him to step aside, albeit gently.
Politico reports that the president’s aides have reached out to delegates ahead of the Democratic national convention in August, and asked questions that seem geared towards making sure they remain loyal to the president ahead of his formal re-nomination.
Fearing a floor revolt against his nomination, President Biden’s aides are telephoning individual delegates to next month’s Democratic convention to gauge their loyalty to the president, according to three delegates who received a call this week.
After a round of introductory questions confirming each delegate was still planning on going to Chicago and asking if they had served as delegate before, the Biden aide making the calls got to the point, the Democratic activists recalled to me in separate interviews.
Continue reading...US president’s press conference, which will include questions from reporters, is certain to be scrutinised for any signs of slip-up
Joe Biden was gearing up for one of the most pivotal press conferences of his long political career on Thursday in Washington as the growing number of Democratic party members calling on him to step down has turned the eyes of the world to his performance tonight.
The US president was scheduled to face journalists at a news conference marking the end of Nato’s 75th anniversary summit at 5.30pm, while across the city senators were preparing to meet key members of Biden’s staff at the White House to air their concerns about Biden’s electability following last month’s disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Board calls Trump ‘a chilling choice against this national moment’ days before Republican national convention
The editorial board of the New York Times has declared that “Donald Trump is unfit to lead” in an urgently worded article published just ahead of the Republican convention, where Trump will once again be formally named the party’s choice for president.
Noting that the former president and convicted felon has now become the Republican nominee three times in eight years, the board said: “A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the republic, a man whose values, temperament, ideas and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great.”
Continue reading...Senator Michael Bennet said Trump may win ‘by a landslide’ while two more senators echoed his concerns
Joe Biden came under renewed moral pressure on Wednesday to abandon his presidential candidacy amid agonised appeals by a succession of senior Democrats for him to consider the broader picture.
Those calls came as the US president dug in his heels to make it hard to supplant him as the nominee.
Continue reading...Republicans to push Safeguard American Voter Eligibility bill in effort to quell unproved fraud of non-citizens voting
Congressional Republicans will vote this week on a bill to require people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, a move that comes as they lay the groundwork for undermining election results in November.
The House will vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility bill, or Save bill, which would make states require, in person, documents that prove a person is a US citizen when registering to vote. This can include a Real ID, passport or other kinds of identification that show a person’s place of birth. It wouldn’t include a standard drivers license as a sole form of identification and calls for a secondary proof of place of birth alongside it, like a birth certificate.
Continue reading...Issue of burden-sharing threatens to become major stumbling block should second Trump administration come into power
European leaders at the Nato summit in Washington are focused on explaining to ordinary American taxpayers that the military alliance is worth the money, as the issue of burden-sharing has become a political football for both parties in the US – and threatens to become a serious stumbling block for the alliance should a second Trump administration come to power.
“There is a debate in the United States that the US are doing a lot to support Ukraine and Europe is not doing enough. If you look at figures, it’s actually a different picture. Europe is doing more than the United States: the financial support, military support we all have provided so far has been enormous … We are taking the security and defense seriously,” said Edgars Rinkēvičs, the president of Latvia, during a speech on Tuesday alongside former CIA director Leon Panetta and the Estonian defense minister, Hanno Pevkur. “It’s also very important to explain to the American public.”
Continue reading...Ex-president returns to campaign trail in Doral and makes baseless accusations but doesn’t name running mate
Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail in Florida on Tuesday night, hurling insults at Joe Biden and airing a litany of familiar grievances, but declining to name a running mate for November’s general election.
The former president and presumptive Republican nominee was speaking to a crowd of several hundred supporters at his golf club in Doral, a western suburb of Miami, keeping them waiting in 90F heat for a freewheeling monologue that began more than an hour later than scheduled.
Continue reading...Vice-president warns Trump would turn US to dictatorship if re-elected at event focused on AANHPI communities
Kamala Harris doubled down on her support of Joe Biden on Tuesday, describing the embattled president as a “fighter” as she warned Donald Trump would turn the country from a democracy into a dictatorship if he is re-elected to the White House in November.
The vice-president, speaking at a campaign event in Nevada, alluded to Biden’s struggles since his calamitous debate performance last month. “We always knew this election would be tough, and the past few days have been a reminder that running for president of the United States is never easy,” Harris said.
Continue reading...Party leaders have come out in support of president but rumbling continues as Tennessee Democrat says opinions are so vast they are ‘not even in the same book’
At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, Senator Josh Hawley endorsed the idea of Christian nationalism.
“Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian nation – so I am,” said Hawley during remarks at the conference on Monday. “And some will say that I am advocating Christian nationalism – so I do.”
Continue reading...Six House Democrats have so far called for president to step aside, evidence of a party in disarray after disastrous debate
Many House Democrats appeared ready to accept Joe Biden as their nominee, despite widespread concern about his electoral viability, as prominent Black, Hispanic and progressive lawmakers rally behind the president during a crucial day of meetings on Capitol Hill.
Lawmakers emerged from a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning stone-faced, appearing uneasy about Biden’s path forward, even if most weren’t ready to publicly call on him to step aside as concerns deepen over the 81-year-old president’s age, mental acuity and ability to win the White House for a second term. Asked if the party was on the same page, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee quipped: “We’re not even in the same book.”
Continue reading...The Oklahoman brought a snowball to the Senate floor in 2015 to prove humans couldn’t change the climate
Republican former senator James Inhofe, a climate denier who once brought a snowball to the chamber floor in a stunt attempting to disprove global warming, died on Tuesday at the age of 89.
Inhofe resigned as senator for Oklahoma in January 2023, suffering long-term effects of Covid-19. Elected in 1994, his time as the state’s longest-serving senator was notable for his ultra-conservative positions on numerous issues, including calling the climate emergency “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”.
Continue reading...Johnston, 54, faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to felony count of civil disorder from January 6 riot
Jay Johnston, an actor best known for his role on the animated comedy show Bob’s Burgers, has pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021.
Johnston, 54, faces a maximum of five years in prison and pleaded guilty to a felony count of civil disorder. He was released on a $25,000 bond in June 2023 after an initial court appearance in California.
Continue reading...Ranking Democrat on armed services committee says debate was ‘alarming’ and urges president to stand aside
Joe Biden’s position among congressional Democrats eroded further on Monday when an influential House committee member lent his voice to calls for him to end his presidential campaign following last month’s spectacular debate failure.
Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the armed services committee in the House of Representatives, issued the plea just hours after the president emphatically rejected calls for him to step aside in a letter to the party’s congressional contingent.
Continue reading...Error messages displayed on Facebook and X pages for South Dakota governor plagued by dog-killing admission
Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota who has been dogged by controversy since recounting how she chose to shoot dead a puppy and a goat, attracted new questions when it was noted that some of her official social media accounts appeared to have been deleted.
On Monday, a link from Noem’s official website led to an error message on Facebook, which said: “This content isn’t available right now. When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it’s been deleted.”
Continue reading...President hits trail in Pennsylvania as virtual lawmaker meeting with Hakeem Jeffries shows growing party doubt
Joe Biden insisted he was the person to reunite America in a second term in the White House and was “up for the job” as he hit the trail in Pennsylvania on Sunday – but the number of high-profile Democrats doubting his position as the presumptive party nominee only grew amid a campaign in crisis.
Pressure on the US president increased even further following his poor debate performance against Donald Trump last month and an underwhelming ABC interview last week, as a group of Democratic representatives met online with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday.
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