Trump news live: Trump loses bid to drop Georgia case, as ex-intel officials say his re-election would hurt US
Donald Trump has lost a bid to have the Georgia election interference case thrown out after the state’s supreme court ruled against him. The ex-president is accused of trying to bully state officials to change the results in the wake of his 2020 defeat, telling them to “find” him enough votes to win the state. A decision on charges is expected next month. A former Trump White House official has written a new book which quotes a senior former intelligence official warning that a second Trump term poses such a danger that it could mean the country barely exists in its current form by the time of America’s tricentennial in 2076. Meanwhile, the ex-president is considering his Republican 2024 rivals as potential running mates should he win the GOP nomination. The former president told Fox News on Sunday that his running mate could “possibly” be among those in the 2024 field. He said Vivek Ramaswamy had “done a very good job” and Senator Tim Scott is a “very good guy” but stopped short of saying who he might pick. Read More Donald Trump brands US a ‘third-world hellhole’ run by ‘perverts’ and ‘thugs’ Ron DeSantis campaign fires staff as Florida governor trails Trump in the polls Fundraising takeaways: Trump and DeSantis in their own tier as Pence and other Republicans struggle RFK Jr revives antisemitic conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jewish people
2023-07-18 09:16
Georgia Supreme Court tosses Trump attempt to challenge 2020 election investigation over vote call
Georgia’s Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an attempt from Donald Trump to shut down key parts of a probe from state officials investigating him for potential interference in the 2020 election. The high court found in a unanimous ruling that the former president hadn’t shown the kind of “extraordinary circumstances” that would require the Georgia Supreme Court to intervene in the case and toss out key portions of evidence. “(Trump) has not shown that this case presents one of those extremely rare circumstances in which this Court’s original jurisdiction should be invoked, and therefore, the petition is dismissed,” the ruling states. The judges also were not persuaded by Mr Trump’s arguments that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be removed from the case. On 11 July, a new set of grand jurors were sworn in for the long-running investigation who could potentially be the ones to approve an indictment against the former president. Since February 2021, officials in Fulton County have been investigating the conduct of Mr Trump and his allies in the state during the hotly contested 2020 election, where Joe Biden narrowly carried the state. The investigation has focused on an infamous 2 January, 2021, call Mr Trump placed to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, urging the top official to “find” enough votes for him to overturn his defeat in the state, but has expanded to cover a wide-ranging influence campaign Mr Trump and his allies exerted in Georgia. Another key area of focus is a December 2020 plot, allegedly directed by Trump campaign officials and potentially the former president himself, to organize a slate of unauthorised Republican electors to cast the state’s Electoral College votes, rather than the Democratic slate Georgia voters had selected. The group of false electors included the chair of the Georgia GOP and Republican members of the state legislature. They’ve defended their efforts as a back-up in case the original election results were tossed out in court. Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing. Ms Willis has suggested a decision on charges against Mr Trump could come as soon as August. Charges in Georgia would join the other unprecedented sanctions against the former president, including felony charges in New York for a hush money scheme involving a porn star and federal charges against Mr Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Read More Trump news – live: Manchin run could help Trump as ex-president eyes two of his GOP 2024 rivals for VP Citing Trump case, Pentagon leak suspect Teixeira urges judge to release him while he awaits trial Senior ex-intelligence official warns second Trump term could fatally destabilise US, new book says Georgia's top court rejects Trump attempt to thwart prosecutor in 2020 election investigation 9th Circuit denies bid by environmentalists and tribes to block Nevada lithium mine Trump praises judge overseeing classified documents case: ‘She loves our country’
2023-07-18 08:57
Manchin refuses to rule out third party presidential campaign, says 'if I get in a race, I'm going to win'
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday defended his flirtation with a third-party presidential campaign, telling voters at a No Labels forum at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire that he had no plans to play "spoiler" in the 2024 election.
2023-07-18 07:51
RFK Jr's conspiracy theories and Republican supporters
Robert F Kennedy Jr is under fire over comments suggesting Covid-19 was "ethnically targeted".
2023-07-18 06:49
Georgia Supreme Court dismisses Trump bid to shut down Fulton County probe
The Georgia Supreme Court has dismissed a longshot legal bid from former President Donald Trump to essentially shut down the Fulton County criminal probe into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
2023-07-18 06:22
The curse of third-party presidential candidates
The viable third-party presidential option is the fever dream of American politics.
2023-07-18 05:54
State judge temporarily blocks Iowa's 6-week abortion ban
Abortions in Iowa will for now remain legal up to 22 weeks into a pregnancy after a judge on Monday temporarily blocked the state's newly signed law that would ban the procedure as early as six weeks.
2023-07-18 05:21
White House condemns RFK Jr’s ‘vile’ antisemitic Covid conspiracy claim
The White House on Monday condemned anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr’s claim that the virus which causes Covid-19 was somehow engineered to target white and Black people while sparing Asians and Jews of Eastern European descent as an example of antisemitism that puts Americans at risk. During a press event in New York City on 11 July, Mr Kennedy baselessly stated that “there is an argument to be made” that the disease is “ethnically targeted” and claimed that the Sars-CoV-2 virus was “targeted to attack Cucasians and Black people” even as “those who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese”. Mr Kennedy later falsely claimed that he had made the remarks at an off-the-record event and attacked the New York Post who had reported on his offensive comments, accusing him of trying to “to discredit [him] as a crank — and by association, to discredit revelations of genuine corruption and collusion.” His comments were widely condemned by numerous Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League, which called them “deeply offensive” pointed out that they “feed into sinophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories”. Speaking at the White House daily press briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to respond to Mr Kennedy directly, citing his status as a 2024 presidential candidate. But Ms Jean-Pierre said the anti-vaccine activist’s comments were insensitive to the “countless” American families with empty seats at the dinner table because they’ve lost people to the virus since it began spreading across the globe in March 2020. Continuing, Ms Jean-Pierre said the claims Mr Kennedy made on a tape which was published by The New York Post were “false” as well as “vile,” and said they “put our fellow Americans in danger”. “if you think about the racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories that come out of saying those types of things, it’s an attack on our fellow citizens, our fellow Americans and so it is important that we ... speak out when we hear those claims made more broadly,” she said. “This President and this whole administration is going to stand against ... those false claims against ... Asian Americans, against Jewish Americans,” she said. “We’re going to continue to speak out and we believe ... it’s important to protect the dignity of our fellow Americans”. Read More RFK Jr revives antisemitic conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jewish people RFK Jr press dinner screaming match over climate crisis ends with columnist launching his own natural gas Robert F Kennedy Jr calls interviewer ‘unfair’ for spelling out his laundry list of conspiracy theories Editor apologises for publishing RFK Jr anti-vaxx screed: ‘I should have been fired’
2023-07-18 04:57
US orders deployment of fighter jets and Navy destroyer to Middle East in response to Iranian activities
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered F-35 and F-16 fighter jets deployed to the Middle East, as well as the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, in response to Iranian activities in the Strait of Hormuz.
2023-07-18 03:53
Donald Trump Jr says he wouldn’t have got away with having cocaine at White House: ‘Luckily it’s not my thing’
Former White House resident Donald Trump Jr has weighed in after the Secret Service closed its investigation into the discovery of cocaine in the building - suggesting he would not have “gotten away with that”. The eldest son of former president Donald Trump made the comments at the Turning Point Action Conference on Sunday, when he assured the crowd that snorting cocaine was not his “thing”. “My guys who I stayed in touch with — many of them just dear friends — they’re like, ‘Hey dude, there’s no way you would’ve gotten away with that,’” he animatedly told the crowd. “I go, ‘I know!’ Luckily, I don’t snort, er, cocaine! It’s just not my thing.” Mr Trump has previously denied being a drug user. On his Triggered podcast earlier this year, he described to former Trump White House official Kash Patel the price of his getting involved in politics, in the process making a series of unsubstantiated claims about President Biden’s son Hunter. “I look at what they called me: a traitor,” Mr Trump said. “Adam Schiff wanted to try me for treason, a crime punishable by death, but Hunter Biden can take a billion from China, work for Ukraine oligarchs, work for Russian oligarchs, money launder, be paid in diamonds off the books, not declare anything in taxes, drop guns in dumpsters across from high schools, and it’s like, ‘He’s an upstanding human being. And then I give an impassioned speech, and it’s ‘Don Jr is on coke.’” A small amount of cocaine (around .007oz – enough for a misdemeanour charge) – was discovered in the White House, but the Secret Service said their investigation would have involved 500 people, not a short enough list of suspects to draw any concrete conclusions. However the lack of investigation has lef to criticisms levelled at President Joe Biden for not doing enough to find the culprit, as well as at White House staff in general. Conservative pundits have speculated – without evidence – that the drug may have belonged to the president’s son, Hunter Biden, who is a recovering drug addict. Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: “Despite all of the cameras pointing directly at the ‘scene of the crime,’ and the greatest forensics anywhere in the World, they just can’t figure it out? They know the answer, and so does everyone else!” He subsequently took to calling President Biden a “crackhead”. Read More ‘Don Jr is on coke’: Trump’s son mocks accusations of drug use over his ‘impassioned’ speeches Trump finally reveals how he thinks he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in a day Judge in Trump documents case under the spotlight after case intensifies following controversial ruling Rudy Giuliani sparks backlash with bizarre appearance at Gilgo Beach murder suspect’s home Donald Trump brands US a ‘third-world hellhole’ run by ‘perverts’ and ‘thugs’ ‘Stoned’ DeSantis canvasser’s lewd rant caught on doorbell camera as 2024 campaign rushes to cut costs
2023-07-18 02:19
Common typo causes millions of emails intended for members of the US military to be sent to accounts in Mali
Millions of emails intended for Pentagon employees were inadvertently sent to email accounts in Mali over the last decade because of typos caused by the similarity of the US military's email address and the domain for the West African country, according to a Dutch technologist who discovered the problem.
2023-07-18 01:59
Xochitl Torres Small sworn in as first Latina to serve as USDA's No. 2
Xochitl Torres Small was sworn in as deputy agriculture secretary of the US Department of Agriculture on Monday, making history as the first Latina in the No. 2 position.
2023-07-18 01:46