Donald Trump has caused fresh disquiet after suggesting in his NBC interview on Sunday that his political enemies Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, Adam Kinzinger and Bennie Thompson “should go to jail” for investigating the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol by his supporters four years ago.
So much so that even conservative law professor Jonathan Turley, a Fox News legal analyst and ally who defended Trump during hearings related to his first impeachment by the House of Representatives in 2019, has been moved to caution him against “rage rhetoric” in a blog post.
The president-elect has promised to issues pardons to convicted rioters on his first day in office and is now reportedly interested in appointing right-wing activist Pete Marocco – who was spotted among the mob that laid seige to the legislative complex in a bid to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results – to a key role in his transition team.
Trump has meanwhile backed a candidate to succeed his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and named two new nominees to his incoming administration: Harmeet Dhillon and Mark Paoletta.
Biden looks to lay out ‘economic legacy’ in address hailing ‘soft landing’
President Joe Biden is set to explain how his administration’s economic policies have put the US economy ahead of the entire developed world in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic with a major address on his “economic legacy,” the White House has said.
According to a White House official, Biden is scheduled to speak to the Brookings Institution think-tank Tuesday morning to lay out how his administration’s plan “rescued” the American economy “from one of the worst economic crises in American history and delivered a soft landing” that avoided the catastrophic recession predicted by many economists.
Here’s more from Andrew Feinberg.
Joe Sommerlad10 December 2024 11:40
Pete Hegseth continues fightback: ‘The anatomy of a smear’
After another session on Capitol Hill yesterday attempting to shore up support among concerned Republican senators…
…Trump’s choice for defense secretary was back on Fox News working to debunk the past accusations against him.
Joe Sommerlad10 December 2024 11:20
Schiff says Trump’s threat to jail House Jan 6 panel ‘about sending a message’
This is how the California Democrat responded to the president-elect’s latest disturbing remarks about incarcerating his political enemies yesterday.
Meanwhile, Trump adviser Jason Miller was attempting to downplay it all on CNN, evidently recognising a needless firestorm the transition team could well do without.
Joe Sommerlad10 December 2024 11:00
Trump backs candidate to replace daughter-in-law as co-chair of RNC
Also on Truth Social, the president-elect backed KC Crosbie to replace Lara Trump at the Republican National COmmittee after she announced her resignation late on Sunday, presumably with one eye on running for Marco Rubio’s soon-to-be-vacant Florida Senate seat.
Here’s Justin Baragona on what’s next for her.
Joe Sommerlad10 December 2024 10:30
Trump considering appointing Jan 6 rioter to transition team
The president-elect has already promised to issues pardons to convicted rioters on his first day in office and is now reportedly interested in appointing right-wing activist Pete Marocco – who was spotted among the mob that laid seige to the legislative complex in a bid to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results – to a key role in his transition team.
“Marocco, who drew internal fire when he worked in numerous agencies in the Trump administration and more recently was a conservative activist in Dallas, has been seen at the transition’s Florida headquarters working on hiring, including for the State Department,” Politico reports.
Marocco and his wife Merritt were reportedly spotted by the watchdog group Sedition Hunters inside and outside the Capitol on that infamous day after footage taken from social media was analysed.
The couple have called that a smear and Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Marocco has “valuable knowledge on national security policy has been a tremendous benefit to the Trump-Vance transition effort”.
Leavitt added: “Democrats and their allies in the media who think they are going to obstruct our ability to deliver on this mandate by going back to the same January 6 playbook of smears and faux outrage that was soundly rejected by the American people will be disappointed.”
Joe Sommerlad10 December 2024 10:00
Conservative law professor rebukes Trump for ‘rage rhetoric’ on jailing House Jan 6 committee members
The president-elect will not like the following one bit from Professor Jonathan Turley, who spoke out on his behalf during his first impeachment by the House of Representatives and whom he regularly quoted on Truth Social earlier this year during his now-historic legal wrangles.
But responding to Trump’s threat in his NBC interview on Sunday to jail the likes of Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney and Adam Schiff for daring to investigate his part in the Capitol riot, the Fox News legal analyst wrote on his blog: “The fact, however, is that there is no viable criminal case to be made against the J6 Committee members for their investigation or report.
“We need to move beyond the rage rhetoric if this country is going to come together to face the tough challenges ahead.”
Cheney herself has already hit back at Trump over the same comments, declaring in a statement: “Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power.
“He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes.
“Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave.”
Joe Sommerlad10 December 2024 09:30
Trump announces two more nominees to new administration
Donald Trump has announced two more picks for his incoming administration, naming Harmeet K Dhillon as his choice for assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department and Mark Paoletta as general counsel to the Office of Management and Budget, a role he has held before.
Here’s what he had to say about them:
Joe Sommerlad10 December 2024 09:00
Trump’s claim that Democrats are ‘fighting hard’ to keep the Electoral College sparks confusion
President-elect Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Sunday night and declared that Democrats were “fighting hard” to make all future presidential elections based “exclusively” on the Electoral College.
The curious late-night post prompted many to wonder if the incoming president was trolling liberals after finally winning the popular vote on his third try. At the same time, some progressives hoped that Trump’s assertion could lead conservatives to be “radicalized” against the notion of relying on states’ electoral votes to determine presidential elections.
Gustaf Kilander10 December 2024 08:00
Trump calls on China to help end ‘madness’ between Russia and Ukraine: ‘World is waiting’
Donald Trump called on China to help broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine as the incoming US president revealed he had communicated with Xi Jinping.
The conflict had caused enormous losses to both Russia and Ukraine, Mr Trump said, and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky “would like to make a deal” to end the “madness”.
Mr Zelensky was yet to respond to the claim.
Gustaf Kilander10 December 2024 07:00
Trump to launch two new Saudi Arabia projects weeks before White house return
The news comes just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. His close ties to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and day-to-day ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, drew heavy criticism after the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for the Washington Post who had written critically about the monarchy.
The company will partner with Dar Global, a London-based luxury real estate developer that will lease the Trump brand but fully own and develop the projects in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The two have partnered on other projects in the region, including the development of a golf resort in neighboring Oman.
Gustaf Kilander10 December 2024 06:00