Donald Trump is appearing at a rally outside Columbus, Ohio on Saturday.
The rally is happening at Olentangy Orange High School in Ohio's 12th congressional district. The district has been called an "unshakable Republican bedrock" and was once represented by Ohio Governor John Kasich, but is showing signs of flipping.
A recent Monmouth University poll showed Republican state Sen. Troy Balderson with only a 1-point edge.
Watch below.
Former President Donald Trump's indictment for allegedly concealing classified information in boxes at Mar-a-Lago and demanding his attorneys destroy evidence subpoenaed by a federal grand jury is an unprecedent in American history.
But also unprecedented is the extent to which the former president put critical national security secrets at risk, as CNN's Kristen Holmes detailed out on Friday — because the photographed boxes of documents were in areas that had essentially no security at all.
"What do we know about how secure or insecure these documents, these classified documents containing important national secrets were when stored at Mar-a-Lago?" said anchor Jake Tapper.
"Well, I reached out to a Mar-a-Lago member when we got these," said Holmes. "We know it's not a house, it's a club that people have access to. But I wanted to know how much access. Were these pictures familiar to them? This is what this member told me. They said they have never seen anything, including that white and gold ballroom on there, locked. The direct quote is, 'Once you are on the property, you can really go anywhere. I do.' Being a private club, they can't really stop you from going into the public spaces. One thing to note, you do have to be a member to go on the property, but you can also be the guest of a member."
"This has been a long-term issue for security around the former president," Holmes continued. "We know that while he was president, his advance team, his body men, they had very specific protocols in place for when members brought an 'unsavory character' as a guest. That is, limit proximity to the president, not boxes in a room with an event. This source said they had taken guests to the ballroom on multiple occasions. Never had an issue going in and out of there. It was never secured in any way."
"The other thing to note, since he has been president, since these documents were there, we know that the protocols have gone wayside," Holmes added. "He had dinner with Kanye West. None of that was vetted by any staff. All of those protocols were no longer in place, which gives you an idea of who could have been on this property."
"Yeah," said Tapper. "And we should note, I said this earlier, go to Google and Google 'Mar-a-Lago intruder,' and you'll see at least two Chinese nationals were caught on the property; one of them was deported back to China. There is another allegation about somebody who appears to have been a con artist. Those are just the three we know about."
Watch below or at the following link.
Kristen Holmes describes lack of security at Mar-a-Lagowww.youtube.com
A Republican operative who’s backing Ron DeSantis said Friday that the cumulative effect of Donald Trump’s ongoing legal troubles is damaging the former president’s political standing in a way that’s not showing up in the polls.
Ken Cuccinelli, a former Trump official who founded the pro-DeSantis “Never Back Down” super PAC, said grassroots voters, including many who support the former president, have told him they’re tiring of the former president’s ongoing drama.
Cuccinelli expressed criticism of Trump during an appearance on NBC News Now’s “Meet The Press Now” on Friday, and was asked why the candidate he supports hasn’t expressed similar views about the former president.
“Well, the way you ask it is sort of binary,” Cuccinelli said.
“I would say that it is an important factor for an awful lot of folks, and I've traveled to a lot of states already and talked to a lot of grassroots folks and grassroots leaders who don't appreciate the drama.”
Cuccinelli suggested DeSantis offers a more focused approach to public policy than his former boss.
“This is not a plus for the (former) president, and when you compare it to Governor DeSantis’ much more effective governing style in Florida, that is a stark contrast, and it weighs very heavily in the governor's favor on with ordinary voters,” Cuccinelli said.
“You've heard of Trump derangement syndrome, there's also 'Trump exhaustion syndrome,' and that's among many of us who have or had supported him," he added.
Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, a possible 2024 presidential candidate, is under fire after remarks he made Friday morning defending Donald Trump after the ex-president was indicted on what has now been revealed to be 37 federal felony counts related to the Dept. of Justice’s criminal probe into his handling of hundreds of classified and top secret documents.
Youngkin Friday suggested that the prosecution of Donald Trump, which includes Espionage Act charges, conspiracy charges, and obstruction of justice charges among others, was just like the alleged prosecution of parents.
Gov. Youngkin, often wrongly portrayed in the media as a moderate Republican, may have been attempting to invoke the false yet viral far-right claim that Attorney General Merrick Garland was investigating and prosecuting parents for merely speaking at school board meetings. That claim came about after Garland issued a letter asking the Bureau to come up with strategies to address violence and violent threats directed at school board members. Some who have promoted that erroneous claim, including Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, have falsely claimed Garland called ordinary parents “terrorists.”
On Friday, Youngkin tweeted about the Trump indictment, saying, “These charges are unprecedented and it’s a sad day for our country, especially in light of what clearly appears to be a two-tiered justice system where some are selectively prosecuted, and others are not.”
“Parents in Virginia know firsthand what it’s like to be targeted by politically motivated actions,” he added.
“Regardless of your party, this undermines faith in our judicial system at exactly the time when we should be working to restore that trust,” Youngkin concluded, remarks that themselves could undermine faith in our judicial system.
Days before his election, Youngkin also promoted the false Garland claim, even after the Attorney General that same day explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee his letter directed the FBI to investigate not ordinary parents, but people who were organizing attacks on school board members.
Candidate Youngkin appeared on Fox News in October 0f 2021 (video below) and falsely told Tucker Carlson, “What happened today was, of course, Merrick Garland doubled down. He said, ‘No, I’m absolutely maintaining my position that the DOJ and the FBI should be investigating parents.’ Parents who are trying to stand up for their children when there’s been a sexual assault in a school bathroom. We have a board of education and in Loudoun County that tried to hide it from parents, hide it from hiding from the public, and they move this child into another school and then that child again committed another sexual assault.”
Youngkin made education and “parents’ rights” a campaign issue when he ran in 2021. His opponent, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, during a debate said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” While experts claim it didn’t swing the election for Youngkin, it at least established him nationally as focused on education and “parental rights,” a mantle Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly co-opted.
The Washington Post, alternatively, on Friday focused on Youngkin’s “two-tiered justice” remarks, reporting: “Youngkin’s suggestion that a rich White man — he didn’t actually name Trump — had been victimized by a ‘two-tiered justice system’ drew fierce pushback, with many critics noting the governor’s opposition to the notion that racial and ethnic minorities face systemic racism. The Republican won the governorship on a promise to purge ‘critical race theory’ from K-12 classrooms, though it was not part of any curriculum. Once in office, Youngkin launched a tip line for parents to report on teachers discussing ‘inherently divisive’ concepts in schools.”
Youngkin, who technically is a “populist conservative” but swings far-right on social issues, was quickly chastised for his tweet.
“You know what you are staying is wrong and incendiary. Shame on you,” declared former CIA officer John Sipher. “These charges stemmed from a grand [jury] of Florida citizens. Trump will have access to a Fair process. But instead you spread information to anger and confuse people. You are stoking misinformation and violence.”
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes took a different approach, mocking the Virginia Republican.
“It’s the pivot to ‘Parents in Virginia…’ in the third sentence that elevates this to art,” he wrote.
“The moderate, genial suburban dad in a fleece vest suggests that the only way to restore confidence in the justice system is to place Trump above the law,” wrote The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent, also mocking Youngkin.
“Youngkin is pro-Trump, as usual–even though Virginia voted heavily AGAINST Trump in both 2016 and 2020. When it comes to Donald Trump, Liz Cheney has more courage in her pinky than Youngkin does in his whole body,” observed Larry Sabato, the well-known professor of politics, political analyst, and founder and director of University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
The vice president of research for the liberal super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, Liz Charboneau, called Youngkin’s tweet an “especially stupid statement when a large portion of your state has a security clearance, handles classified documents, and has never been charged under the espionage act.”
Conservative Mona Charen, a syndicated columnist and Policy Editor at The Bulwark: “So here’s our answer as to whether Youngkin is a man of character. Fail.”
The Lincoln Project’s Michelle Kinney tweeted, “Youngkin twisting himself into pretzel to weave a vaguebook repudiation of Trump indictment and his weirdo anti vaxx anti trans ‘parents rights’ obsession into one tweet. It reads like Veep dialogue.”
Historian, professor, Holocaust expert Dr. Waitman Wade Beorn tweeted, “Hey dude, the Pentagon is literally in your state. Maybe stop in and have a chat…”
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