By Brian Kahn Follow @blkahn El Niño gawkers, rejoice. A new set of imagery provides an unmistakable view of the El Niño conditions that appear to be developing. On Tuesday, NASA’s Earth Observatory released a map showing ocean heights in the tropical…
In an all-caps post to his social media site, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump predicted that he would be arrested Tuesday on charges he said were fabricated by a politically motivated prosecutor in Manhattan. He used the specter of his indictment to galvanize his supporters, calling for protests.
“THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK,” he wrote, referring to himself in the third person. “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
But at the close of business on the East Coast, Trump had not been arrested, and widespread protests had not broken out, though a small group of Trump supporters did gather at the Louisiana Capitol.
The grounds surrounding the U.S. Capitol, the site of the Jan. 6 insurrection that Trump encouraged, were quiet late Tuesday afternoon. A bicyclist rode across the East Front plaza, children played nearby and a dog was having a photo shoot.
A New York grand jury is reportedly investigating payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 presidential race to keep her from disclosing their alleged affair. Trump has denied a sexual relationship with Daniels.
U.S. House Republicans followed Trump’s lead in criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for what they said was an unfair prosecution of the former president that would undermine confidence in the next presidential election. Trump, who lost reelection in 2020 after one term in office, was the first major candidate to announce he was running for the GOP nomination for president in 2024.
A trio of House committee leaders, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and Administration Chairman Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, sent Bragg a four-page letter on Monday attacking the prosecution and asking for documents related to it.
“You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority,” the letter began.
Echoing Trump’s criticisms, the House members accused Bragg of “searching for a basis — any basis” to prosecute the former president.
Bragg’s office said prosecutors would not be deterred by the congressional letter.
“We will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process, nor will we let baseless accusations deter us from fairly applying the law,” a spokesperson for the New York County District Attorney’s Office said in an email to States Newsroom.
House Republicans also attempted to use the possibility of an arrest to fundraise and build a campaign list.
“The Radical Left is trying to use this latest witch hunt to intimidate you,” an email from the National Republican Congressional Committee said. “House Republicans will stand strong against these fear tactics and threats. But we can’t do it alone. Our country is at a turning point. We need every single patriot to immediately condemn this witch hunt.”
The email then asks for supporters to click a link to “condemn the witch hunt.” The link leads to a page where users can make a campaign contribution and provide their personal information to the committee.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential Trump rival for the Republican nomination for president next year, offered a criticism of Bragg at a Monday press conference, while also reminding viewers of the misbehavior of which Trump is accused.
“I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” DeSantis said. “But what I can speak to is that if you have a prosecutor who … chooses to go back many, many years ago to try and use something about porn star hush money payments, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office.”
If Trump were indicted, it would be a historic event. No sitting or former president has been criminally indicted.
Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
A few hours later, he posted another message, which began, “IT’S TIME!!!” and asserted that White House officials are “EVIL” people who “HATE” the United States, and “WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
It is easy to dismiss all of this as just more Trump bombast, but I urge you not to. These messages mark the real start of Trump’s presidential campaign. They hold the key to his campaign strategy. And they provide an ominous echo of his tweets urging protests in the lead-up to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney and fixer who was sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations, noted that Trump could have used the adjective “peaceful” when urging his supporters to protest, “but he doesn’t want a peaceful protest.”
On Saturday afternoon, Trump supporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago home and country club in Florida to show their support. Trump later boarded a private jet to fly from Palm Beach to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to attend a college wrestling tournament, where he held up a defiant fist and received a standing ovation.
I am not going to get into the merits of any of the three pending criminal cases against Trump, because the merits aren’t relevant to Trump’s strategy. He will use them, as he will use everything else, to help whip his supporters into a frenzy.
Most Americans believe that no one should be above the law, not even former presidents. But most Americans also believe that former presidents should not be prosecuted for their political beliefs.
So the underlying issue here is the same as it’s been since Trump lurched into American politics with his lies about Obama’s birth, and then continued to lie his way through the four scorching years of his presidency, culminating in his Big Lie and the attack on the Capitol: How much trust is left in the system? And how far can Trump get in exploiting the distrust?
Republican leaders are aware that the party’s base is fueled by distrust, so the GOP is already pouring oil on the fire. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in a tweet, called the potential indictment “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance,” and ordered the House to “immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.”
Trump’s campaign will be little more than vicious, conspiratorial paranoia. A campaign that sees everyone, including judges, as out to get him and all those who support him. A campaign that divides America according to adoration or detestation of Trump.
Trump wants white working-class Americans (plus just enough of other groups to give him an Electoral College majority) to see him as being persecuted by the same forces that he wants the white working class to believe are persecuting them — Democrats, Biden, “Marxists,” “coastal elites,” the “deep state,” Muslims, immigrants, the FBI, and people of color. He presents no policies, no ideas, no goals other than to triumph over his (and therefore the white working class’s) enemies.
The genius of the American system of government has always been that citizens
don’t have to agree on issues. We only have to agree to be bound by decisions that emerge from our system of government. But to accept such decisions, we must regard the views and interests of those with whom we disagree as equally worthy of consideration as our own and believe that the system is basically trustworthy.
In other words, for the system to work, there must be an adequate storehouse of social trust.
Trump’s third campaign for president is exploiting the same void that empowered his first two — America’s dwindling social trust. He has done everything possible to further deplete that storehouse. He will now do whatever he can to reduce social trust still further — to the point where he wins (or takes) the presidency of a nation literally coming apart.
We must not let him.
Many believe the political winds in Georgia are shifting after the Democrats swept Senate elections in each of the past two cycles. Others say Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s reelection win last year shows that the notion that Georgia is turning blue is overstated.
But regardless of which direction Georgia goes on the red-blue political spectrum, all indications are that the Peach State is embracing the green economy, and that the push to make the state renewable energy friendly enjoys bipartisan support, Religious News Service reported earlier this month.
The recent announcement by Meta that it has partnered with a renewable energy company on three large solar projects typifies Georgia’s embrace of renewable energy.
The projects are expected to create local jobs, improve air quality and public health, and bring some unity to a divided country, the report said.
IN OTHER NEWS: Trump 'deliberately misled' his own lawyers about classified document stash
“I think there’s broad bipartisan support in Georgia … for securing energy independence, for ensuring that there is a robust supply of affordable energy that’s not destroying our environment.” Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff earlier this year told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The report notes that Georgia’s GOP-controlled House backed an measure to expand EV-charging stations statewide by a 161-0 margin.
In Cartersville, considered one of the state’s most conservative communities, a $2.31 billion solar panel manufacturing plant is expected to bring 2,000 new jobs.
During his inaugural address earlier this year Kemp said that by the end of his next term Georgia would become “the electric mobility capital of America,” Politico reports.
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