List of All Articles with Tag 'politics'

Donald Trump has abruptly cancelled his proposed news conference at which he claimed he was going to unveil a report that would clear him of any wrongdoing and charges he tried to interfere with the presidential election in Georgia. The former president took to Truth Social on Thursday evening to say that he would not be going through with the Friday media event – scheduled for 11am est – at the advice of his lawyers. “Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta. Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!” he wrote on Truth Social. Mr Trump had vowed to hold the press conference after being indicted this week on 13 felony counts in Georgia, where he and members of his campaign sought to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election and prove baseless claims of voter and election fraud. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office is overseeing the prosecution of the former president in Georgia, has given Mr Trump a surrender date of no later than 25 August. That would likely see Mr Trump and the other defendants appear in court in Atlanta during the week of 5 September. The district attorney’s office has proposed a 4 March trial date for Mr Trump, which would be just one day is one day before Super Tuesday, in which voters in more than a dozen states cast their primary votes for the GOP presidential nomination. Mr Trump is now facing four different trials, two at the federal level, one in Georgia and one in Manhattan, with prosecutors jostling for windows to prosecute the Republican frontrunner. He has pleaded not guilty to every charge in court and insisted on his innocence on social media. Read More Trump abruptly cancels news conference on Georgia ‘proof’ as he tries to delay trial by years – live updates Trump proposes date for trial for subverting 2020 election – in three years Trump attacks on judges may be ‘crossing the line,’ but experts say he will avoid punishment

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that it "would not be out of character" for North Korea to use US soldier Travis King as a propaganda tool or bargaining chip.

The apparent attempt by a super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to float potential debate talking points to the Republican's presidential campaign has stirred confusion and anger from fundraisers and donors, multiple sources told CNN.

Erica Marsh quickly rose to fame earlier this year as a viral left-wing voice on social media. Her incendiary tweets, often ultra-liberal and hyper-political, drew millions of views and the ire of conservatives, who pointed to her outlandish comments comparing Republicans to pedophiles and conservative Supreme Court justices to Nazis as examples of extreme liberalism run amok.

A petition filed in San Francisco Superior Court alleges that California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been the victim of "elder financial abuse" with regard to the management of a trust.

Former President Donald Trump reposted a meme of the DC National Guard stationed outside of the Lincoln Memorial in an effort to slam President Joe Biden—but as it turns out, that photo was taken during his own administration. “If you need 10,000 armed soldiers to protect your inauguration from the people then you probably weren’t elected by the people,” the Truth Social meme says, suggesting that Mr Biden lost the election that brought him to power. Mr Trump “re-Truthed” a post by @Godloving, who wrote on Wednesday, “From the campaign to the election, vote certification, inauguration, and administration...it all screams FRAUDULENT ELECTION!! Everybody knows it, no one does anything about it! There is only one leader with the courage and plan to fix this and it’s President Trump!! In fact, there is no other leader, anywhere!!” Despite pairing the emphatic words with the haunting photo in an attempt to blast Mr Biden, the image was actually captured in 2020 amid protests after George Floyd was killed by police. The photo went viral at the time because of the striking contrast depicted in the scene. The Lincoln Memorial was built to honour a president who famously issued the Emancipation Proclamation; the site was also where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I have a Dream” speech. Having troops dressed in military gear perched resolutely on the landmark’s steps evokes a different feeling entirely. The re-post from Mr Trump comes shortly after he was indicted—both federally and in the state of Georgia—for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Even after numerous legal efforts failed to prove any evidence of election fraud, the 2024 GOP frontrunner still continues to maintain that the election was “rigged.” Following the Georgia indictment, which was brought on Monday evening, the former president wrote on Truth Social: “Can you believe it? This failed District Attorney from Atlanta, Fani Willis…is charging me with 2020 Presidential Election Interference. No, Fani, the only Election Interference was done by those that Rigged and Stole the Election. Those are the ones you should be going after, not the innocent people that are fighting for Election Integrity!” He faces 13 felony counts in Georgia, including racketeering, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of conspiracy to make false statements under oath, two counts of conspiracy to file false documents, two counts of solicitation of a public officer, filing false documents, conspiracy to solicit false statements, and making false statements. He is joined by 18 others who were indicted, including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, and Sidney Powell. Read More Ramaswamy dismisses ‘professional politician’ DeSantis after ‘sledgehammer’ strategy for debate revealed Trump slammed for ‘racist’ Georgia indictment post using term ‘riggers’ as jail booking nears – live updates Will Donald Trump go to prison?

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday reacted for the first time on camera to the Georgia indictment that accuses him of being the head of a "criminal enterprise" to overturn the 2020 election, dismissing the criminal charges as a "witch hunt" and a "horrible thing for the country."

An Oklahoma father killed his wife and three children, who are all under the age of 10, in what police are calling a “massacre.” The Oklahoma City Police Department says that it responded to a “domestic call” at a property to find five people suffering from gunshot wounds. Three people were already dead when police arrived on the scene on Wednesday night. The two who were still alive were suspected shooter Ruben Armendariz, 28, and one child. Although both were transported to nearby hospitals, they have since died, said investigators. The police said they think Armendariz and victim Cassandra Flores, 29, were married but separated; investigators said that it looked like Armendariz “shot the four victims before turning the gun on himself.” Police added that the investigation is ongoing, as they are trying to “piece together the chain of events that led to the massacre.” The three children were identified as 9-year-old Hillary Armendariz, 5-year-old Damaris Armendariz, and 2-year-old Matias Armendariz. Flores’s best friend, Jennifer Johnson, told News 9, “It’s just not real. I never expected that of Ruben at all. Like he was so quiet, but they’ve been together since she was like 17, so you know they’ve been together for a long time.” “This investigation is in the very early stages, and detectives are currently trying to piece together the chain of events that led to the massacre,” police said in a statement. Read More Texas woman who helped hide US soldier Vanessa Guillén’s body sentenced to 30 years in prison Man in Bosnia kills his ex-wife, posting it on Instagram, and 2 more people before taking his life

An Obama-era White House email transmitting then-vice president Joe Biden’s schedule to his son, Hunter Biden, was sent during planning for a Biden family gathering to mark the one-year anniversary of Beau Biden’s death, The Independent has learned. The communications between an aide for the then-vice president and his youngest and sole surviving son are part of a House Oversight Committee request for Obama-era records sent to the National Archives. The oversight committee chairman, Representative James Comer, said in a letter to the archives released on Thursday that it was “concerning” to the Republican-led panel that Hunter Biden was a recipient of a 26 May 2016 email showing that the then-vice president was scheduled to speak with then-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko the next day. Republicans have spent the last several years insinuating — without evidence — that then-vice president Biden abused his authority to help Hunter Biden’s business interests. One long-running but oft-disproven allegation states that Mr Biden ordered the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor to disrupt an investigation into a Ukrainian energy firm that employed his son on its board. In reality, the decision to push for the prosecutor’s sacking was official US policy driven by the prosecutor’s failure to pursue corruption cases, and it was supported by the EU, the IMF, World Bank and other stakeholders. In his letter to the Archives, Mr Comer has asked for unredacted copies of four emails that had been released in redacted form pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request. The Independent reviewed copies of the emails that have been publicly available on a website hosting the contents of a hard drive purportedly abandoned by Hunter Biden at a Delaware computer shop. According to the redacted versions of the emails, certain information was blocked out because it contained personal information about the then-vice president’s schedule. But the unredacted versions purportedly from Hunter Biden’s computer show that following the call with Mr Poroshenko, the then-vice president returned home to Delaware. The day of the call — and Mr Biden’s trip home — was 27 May 2016, nearly one year to the day since Mr Biden’s eldest son, then-Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, passed away after a long battle with brain cancer. Mr Biden’s public schedule from those days is available on archives of the Obama White House website, and they reveal that he had no public events for the period of 28 May 2016 to 30 May 2016. But another email from the purported Hunter Biden laptop, dated 30 May 2016, shows that the then-vice president’s staff coordinated movements of 23 Biden family members to and from a private memorial gathering that day, the exact anniversary of Beau Biden’s death. Hunter Biden, who was not present for the gathering, wrote in his recent memoir Beautiful Things that he spent that weekend in Monte Carlo for a meeting of Burisma’s board. But the younger Biden’s children — the then-vice president’s grandchildren — were listed as attending the gathering, which would have provided a reason for Hunter Biden to be kept aware of his father’s schedule. The day after the gathering, 31 May 2016, was also Memorial Day. That day, Joe Biden resumed his public schedule when he commemorated his late son at a ceremony to rename Delaware’s National Guard headquarters in Wilmington as the Major Joseph R “Beau” Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center. The late Delaware attorney general was an Iraq war veteran who had served a Major in the Army National Guard’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. The White House and a representative for Mr Comer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent. Read More Hunter Biden lawyer asks to withdraw from case after special counsel named to investigate president’s son Prosecutors in the Hunter Biden case deny defense push to keep gun charge agreement in place Trump and Hunter Biden legal blockbusters rock Washington – but offer a contrast Hunter Biden lawyer asks to withdraw from case after special counsel named in probe Prosecutors in the Hunter Biden case deny defense push to keep gun charge agreement in place Hunter Biden’s lawyer fight to keep plea deal

As President Joe Biden likes to remind anyone who’ll listen, “This is not your grandfather’s Republican Party”. One of the issues where that’s becoming more evident by the day is Ukraine. John McCain, the late Arizona Senator and 2008 GOP presidential candidate, sounded the alarm about Russia for years, making him one of President Vladimir Putin’s “greatest antagonists,” the Arizona Republic noted in February 2022, days after the Russian invasion began. During the last year of his presidency in 2008, George W Bush said he “strongly supported” eventual Nato membership for Ukraine and Georgia. Last year, in a viral gaffe, he mistakenly said Iraq when he meant to call the war in Ukraine “unjustified and brutal”. His younger brother, Jeb Bush, a former Florida Governor, went to Europe in 2015 shortly before announcing his presidential campaign. In a speech in Berlin about a year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support of separatists in eastern Ukraine, he said: “Russia must respect the sovereignty of all of its neighbours. And who can doubt that Russia will do what it pleases if aggression goes unanswered?” Mr Bush was quickly bullied out of the 2016 primary by the man who would come to embody the modern Republican Party – reality TV star and real estate mogul Donald Trump. Support for Ukraine is dividing the GOP field, with several saying the US should continue to support the war effort, while a number of others are following Mr Trump’s lead towards isolationism. The leading candidates are all against further intervention, while those adhering to more traditional Republican foreign policy remain in the lower half of the pack. Ahead of the first Republican primary debate, which may or may not include Mr Trump, here’s what the qualifying candidates have said about Ukraine: Donald Trump While president, Mr Trump attempted to withhold military assistance to Ukraine to get then-rookie president – now wartime leader – Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into Hunter and Joe Biden, who Mr Trump saw as his main rival in 2020. During an infamous press conference in Helsinki, Finland, Mr Trump sided with Mr Putin when asked if he believed Russia had interfered in the 2016 US election, as outlined by the US intelligence community. More recently, Mr Trump has argued that all aid to Ukraine should be put on pause until federal agencies provide evidence regarding what he claimed were “corrupt business dealings” by Mr Biden and his son. During a July rally in Pennsylvania, Mr Trump argued that Mr Biden was “dragging” the US into the war. “The US Congress should refuse to authorize a single additional payment of our depleted stockpiles … until the FBI, [Department of Justice] and [Internal Revenue Service] hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden crime family’s corrupt business dealings,” Mr Trump said in reference to what Republicans have claimed are allegations of bribery against Mr Biden. The GOP has been unable to provide any evidence of the supposed scheme. Mr Trump appeared on Fox News in March, saying that he would end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours with Zelensky and with Putin”. “And there’s a very easy negotiation to take place. But I don’t want to tell you what it is because then I can’t use that negotiation – it’ll never work. But it’s a very easy negotiation to take place. I will have it solved within one day, a peace between them. Now that’s a year and a half. That’s a long time. I can’t imagine something not happening,” he added. “The key is the war has to stop now because Ukraine is being obliterated.” Mr Trump has also been ambivalent about his support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato). While president he equivocated over whether he would back Article V, which states that an attack on any one of the defence pact’s 31 members constituted an attack on all of them. The article has only been invoked once, by the US following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. He is also reported to have wanted to pull the US out of Nato. Ron DeSantis In March, Mr DeSantis was forced to walk back his comments calling the war a “territorial dispute”. Mr DeSantis made the remark in writing to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “While the US has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” he wrote at the time. In an appearance on the streaming service Fox Nation, he backtracked. “What I’m referring to is where the fighting is going on now, which is that eastern border region Donbas, and then Crimea, and you have a situation where Russia has had that. I don’t think legitimately, but they had,” he said. “There’s a lot of ethnic Russians there. So, that’s some difficult fighting, and that’s what I was referring to, and so it wasn’t that I thought Russia had a right to that, and so if I should have made that more clear, I could have done it.” In April, he said he supported a ceasefire, saying it’s “in everybody’s interest”. He told the Japanese English-language weekly Nikkei Asia that “You don’t want to end up in like a [Battle of] Verdun situation, where you just have mass casualties, mass expense and end up with a stalemate”. Vivek Ramaswamy On 5 August, the tech entrepreneur suggested that the US is aiding Ukraine because of Hunter Biden. “The purpose of the US military [is] to advance American interests, to protect the homeland. Not to aimlessly fight some random war that’s arguably a repayment for a private bribe that a family member of the United States received, $5m from Burisma,” Mr Ramaswamy told a small crowd at a Council Bluffs, Iowa campaign event, according to NBC News. “Was the payment to Hunter Biden corrupt? Absolutely it was. Do I think that it has some relationship towards our posture toward Ukraine? I think it’s likely that it does,” he added, seemingly in reference to unsubstantiated allegations made by congressional Republicans. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer has claimed that a whistleblower told him about a tip about a $5m payment to Mr Biden and a family member during his time as vice president, “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions”. Mr Ramaswamy has said that he would work to get an agreement that would offer major concessions to Mr Putin, which would mean handing over most of the eastern Donbas regions of Ukraine to Russia, removing sanctions, shutting down all US bases in Eastern Europe, and blocking Ukraine from entering Nato, according to The New York Times. He would then require Russia to end its military alliance with China and once again join the START nuclear treaty. “I don’t think it is preferable for Russia to be able to invade a sovereign country that is its neighbour, but I think the job of the US president is to look after American interests, and what I think the number one threat to the US military is right now, our top military threat, is the Sino-Russian alliance,” he told ABC News. “I think that by fighting further in Russia, by further arming Ukraine, we are driving Russia into China’s hands.” Mike Pence The former vice president made a surprise visit to Ukraine in June to meet with Mr Zelensky, becoming the first GOP presidential candidate to do so. “I believe America’s the leader of the free world,” Mr Pence told NBC News at the time. “But coming here just as a private citizen — being able to really see firsthand the heroism of the Ukrainian soldiers holding the line in those woods, see the heroism of the people here in Irpin that held back the Russian army, to see families whose homes were literally shelled in the midst of an unconscionable and unprovoked Russian invasion — just steels my resolve to do my part, to continue to call for strong American support for our Ukrainian friends and allies.” He added that the visit “steeled my resolve, and it’s made me better equipped to be able to go home as I speak to the American people about the vital importance of American support to repel Russian aggression”. He also criticised the Biden administration for being slow in sending aid to Ukraine. “We should never send American troops into Ukraine, and we don’t need to,” he said. “There are too many voices in our party that are sounding the retreat, that are willing to let Putin keep the land grab that he’s made in Eastern Ukraine, willing to make promises. I heard my former running mate announced over the weekend that he’s willing to promise that Ukraine will never be in Nato,” Mr Pence told radio host Hugh Hewitt last month. “In my opinion, the only thing Putin will understand is strength, and providing those courageous fighters in Ukraine what they need to repel the Russian invasion is the fastest way to security and preventing, preventing the day that American forces are actually required to go into battle in Europe again.” Tim Scott The South Carolina Senator supports sending military aid to Ukraine but dodged questions on if it was right for the Biden administration to send cluster munitions. Like Mr Pence, Mr Scott told NBC News that Mr Biden has “done a terrible job explaining and articulating to the American people” what the US interests are in Ukraine. “First, it prevents or reduces attacks on the homeland,” Mr Scott said in May, according to the Greenville Post and Courier. “Second, as part of Nato and land being contiguous to Ukraine, it will reduce the likelihood that Russia will have the weaponry or the will to attack on Nato territory, which would get us involved.” Just a month after the invasion, in March 2022, Mr Scott wrote that the war was “for the principles that America has always championed”. In May last year, he voted for funding Ukraine beyond what Mr Biden had suggested. While Mr Scott argued that Mr Biden had been waiting “too long to provide too little support,” the president backed the increase in funding. Nikki Haley The former UN ambassador has argued that it’s in the best interest of the US to support Ukraine. “A win for Ukraine is a win for all of us because tyrants tell us exactly what they’re going to do,” she said on CNN. “China says Taiwan’s next, we’d better believe them. Russia said Poland and the Baltics are next, if that happens, we’re looking at a world war. This is about preventing war,” the ex-South Carolina governor added. She argued that a Ukrainian victory would send a broader message to warn China about attacking Taiwan, that it would push Iran to not build nuclear weapons, and urge North Korea to move away from ballistic missile testing. She added that it would tell Russia that “it’s over”. Mr Biden has been “far too slow and weak in helping Ukraine,” she said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. Chris Christie Like Mr Pence, Chris Christie also ventured through the old iron curtain to visit Ukraine and signal bipartisan support even as the top candidates in the field are arguing for US withdrawal. The former New Jersey governor has argued that the US should back Ukraine until the war is “resolved”. “None of us like the idea that there’s a war going on and that we’re supporting it, but the alternative is for the Chinese to take over, the Russians, the Iranians and the North Koreans,” he said on CNN. He referred to the conflict as “a proxy war with China”. He noted that “some kind of compromise” with Russia may be required at some point and that the US should be part of the negotiations at a time when “Ukraine can protect the land that’s been taken by Russia in this latest incursion”. He argued that Mr Trump “set the groundwork” for the invasion and echoed 2016 comments by former Secretary of State and then-Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, calling him “Putin’s puppet”. He compared Mr DeSantis to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who unsuccessfully attempted to appease Adolf Hitler ahead of the Second World War. Doug Burgum The North Dakota Governor has suggested that he supports backing Ukraine but that he wants “accountability on every dollar”. “Russia cannot have a win coming out of this, because if it’s a win for them, it’s a win for China,” he told told North Dakota TV station KFYR. But he also said he wanted Europe to take on a bigger role financially in supporting Ukraine. In June, during an appearance on CNN, he said that problems within Russia could be exploited by the US and Nato. “Let’s give them the support they need,” he said in reference to Ukraine. “Let’s get this war over now instead of having it be protracted.” On the day the invasion began, 24 February 2022, Mr Burgum issued a statement. “We support and pray for the Ukrainian people as they defend themselves against these brazen acts of aggression by Russia and President Putin, which we condemn in the strongest terms possible,” he said. “The United States and its allies must stand together in support of Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked attacks. “This international crisis underscores the importance of U.S. energy security and increasing American production so we can sell energy to our friends and allies versus buying it from our enemies. “Our thoughts also are with those of Ukrainian heritage here in North Dakota who are concerned for the safety of their relatives as their homeland is under siege, as well as those North Dakota farmers and businesses with interests in Ukraine.” Read More Trump is raking in supporters’ donations to pay for his legal battles. Some of his co-defendants are going broke Trump slammed for ‘racist’ Georgia indictment post using term ‘riggers’ as jail booking nears – live updates Ramaswamy dismisses ‘professional politician’ DeSantis after ‘sledgehammer’ strategy for debate revealed The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Police in Georgia are investigating online threats to members of a grand jury that voted to indict Donald Trump and 18 of the former president’s allies accused of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in a sprawling criminal case. The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office is “aware that personal information from members of the jury” has been shared across social media platforms, the agency announced on 17 August, less than three days after a sweeping charging document was unsealed. As required under state law, the names of the jurors are listed in the 98-page indictment. The sheriff’s office is working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to “track down” the origins of the threats in the county and in other jurisdictions, according to the statement. The former president’s supporters have published the jurors’ names, social media profiles, addresses and phone numbers as part of an apparent harassment campaign following right-wing outrage over a sweeping criminal indictment, the fullest accounting yet of an alleged effort among Mr Trump and his allies to coerce officials into a fraudulent scheme to subvert the votes of millions of Americans. Far-right message boards and platforms dominated by pro-Trump users such as Gab and Truth Social have been flooded with comments and posts surrounding the case and the jurors, with pledges to “doxx” or publish a person’s personal information online with the intent to harass them. Accounts on fringe far-right message boards such as 4chan and The Donald have threatened to follow jurors home and “photograph their faces,” labelled their names a “hit list,” posted images of jurors’ alleged profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, tried to determine their political affiliations and religious and ethnic backgrounds, and promoted violence against them. The Independent’s review of posts across Truth Social, where users vie for the audience of the former president himself, shows users rushing to Mr Trump’s defence while trying to identify and smear members of the jury who indicted him. Users on the far-right, pro-Trump message board The Donald, frequently a hotbed for violent rhetoric targeting political opponents, have promoted the killing of jurors and suggested igniting civil war. This is a developing story Read More Trump insists Democrats are angry at his indictment too as Georgia jail booking nears – live updates Will the Georgia gang of 18 turn on Trump? Trumpworld hanging by a thread as co-accused pressured to flip on ex-president Who is Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who could take down Trump

Threats to blow up polling stations. Police protection. Ballot counters in hiding. A grim new reality.