Former federal court Judge J. Michael Luttig was stunned by a "cynical" defense filed by former President Donald Trump in the Supreme Court case challenging his eligibility to appear on Colorado's ballot under the 14th Amendment's insurrectionist ban.
Luttig, a Republican who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, took to the social media site "X" on Monday evening to explain his shock at the arguments made by the former president's attorneys, which he argued were tantamount to admitting defeat.
"I would not have made the revealing, fatuous, and politically and constitutionally cynical, concluding argument that the former president and his lawyers made to the Supreme Court in their Reply Brief today," Luttig wrote.
"I would consider this argument tantamount to an acknowledgment that the former president and his lawyers have all but concluded that their arguments have become so weakened by the briefing of respondents and their supporting amici that they believe the Supreme Court is likely to hold the former president is disqualified."
Luttig likened the argument that not even the Supreme Court has the authority to disqualify Trump to an "eleventh-hour, Hail Mary."
"[N]either the Colorado Supreme Court nor this Court can declare a candidate ineligible for the presidency now based on a prediction of what Congress may or may not do in the future," the argument reads. "Nor can a court deprive a presidential candidate of the opportunity to petition Congress."
Lawfare journalist Roger Parloff was surprised to see Trump argue he could not be disqualified until after Jan. 20, 2029.
Parloff quoted attorney Richard Bernstein, who wrote an amicus brief for Luttig, saying, "It reminds one of the White Queen in Through the Looking-Glass: "Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday--but never jam today."
Vocal Trump critic George Conway was also among those not impressed.
Nikki Haley is requesting Secret Service protection as Donald Trump amps up his character attacks and threats against her increase, according to a new report.
Haley, the last opponent standing in a once-crowded Republican presidential nomination race, confirmed to the Wall Street Journal she’s faced "multiple issues."
The former South Carolina governor reportedly added, “It’s not going to stop me from doing what I need to do."
Those attacks include suggesting Haley could not run because her parents were not U.S. citizens and mocking her birth name, Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, NPR notes.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan suggested that Donald Trump's election subversion trial may not occur until after the Republican National Convention.
Politico reported that Chukan made the remarks Monday at a conference for another criminal case related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The judge said she only intended to be in the country in early August if Trump's trial was on her calendar. The trial is on hold while an appeals court hears arguments about presidential immunity.
"I hope not to be in the country on Aug. 5," Chutkan said, noting that she could be in the country because "I'm in trial in another matter that has not yet returned to my calendar."
Politico called Chutkan's remarks "a clear reference to Trump's case."
"It was Chutkan's first public acknowledgment that Trump's trial — on charges related to his effort to subvert the 2020 election — could extend past the GOP nominating contest and the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to be held July 15 to 18," the publication noted. "However, for the second time in a week, the Obama-appointed judge emphasized that the schedule is largely out of her control."
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When Sarah Lee Hooper’s mail-in ballot for Nevada’s presidential primary arrived last month, the Las Vegas Republican was utterly confused.
The candidate she wanted to vote for, Vivek Ramaswamy, wasn’t included. Neither were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and, most notably, former President Donald Trump. The only name she recognized was former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
“What the heck? This is weird,” she remembered thinking. “Are they trying to convince people Nikki is the only option?”
A quick internet search turned up the answer: The Nevada Republican Party opted to eschew the state-run presidential primary on Feb. 6, in favor of running its own caucus two days later, which will decide who wins Nevada’s delegates to the national GOP convention. Presidential contenders who participate in the primary are prohibited by the party from also being candidates in the caucus.
While legal, the party’s decision to host a competing nominating contest in the state has confused and angered GOP voters.
Hooper had no idea there would also be a caucus or that Ramaswamy opted to participate in it instead of the primary before dropping out of the race.
“If you don’t want me to be a conspiracy theorist, then be transparent,” Hooper said. “Send me all of the information at once.”
Since Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election, supporters have cultivated an ecosystem of confusion around election processes through unfounded claims of voter fraud, demands for paper ballots and hand counts, and state-by-state efforts to subvert the 2020 results.
Leaders of the caucus effort are among those who tried to keep Trump in power. Three caucus overseers face felony charges for their roles in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Others running the caucus have been on the vanguard of those pushing unfounded election fraud allegations in the state.
These Republicans claim the caucus will serve as a model for how to run a more secure election — a claim disputed by election experts who note the drastic differences between a caucus, which attracts a fraction of the electorate to decide a single race, and elections, where many more voters cast ballots for local, state and federal offices.
The primary election is run by state election officials and adheres to Nevada’s voting laws — which allow for mail-in ballots, early voting and same-day registration. The Nevada Republican Party’s rules for its caucus reflect some GOP leaders’ efforts to limit voting. Participation requires registering as a Republican 30 days in advance, arriving at a set location and time, and presenting identification.
The confusion created about how elections work, including fraud allegations and now around how Nevada will choose who it backs in the Republican primary, has provided fertile ground for conspiracy theories and misinformation to take hold, experts say, causing a greater share of voters to distrust election results and democratic institutions.
“It does make the misinformation environment more dangerous,” said Gowri Ramachandran, deputy director of elections and government for the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program. “These information gaps about voting, how it works, that sort of thing, can get filled in by incorrect information.”
“It’s clear from Jan. 6 that when that kind of misinformation spreads, it has a negative impact on people’s trust in elections and willingness to abide by the results,” she added. “It’s had a negative effect on democracy over the years.”
Confusion over competing contests
When primary ballots absent Trump’s name began hitting mailboxes, Republicans across the state reacted with angry bewilderment.
Some thought he had been kicked off the ballot by a court because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, as happened in a Colorado case that is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. (A judge in Nevada rejected a similar challenge.) Others latched on to a false rumor that an inept campaign staffer forgot to file paperwork to get Trump on the ballot. Voters also wondered whether they could participate in both contests, or if casting a primary ballot and caucusing would constitute an illegal attempt to vote twice. (Nevada’s attorney general and secretary of state have assured voters they are free to participate in both.)
“I haven’t heard anybody who is happy with this unless they are with the state party and the county parties,” said Assemblywoman Danielle Gallant, R-Las Vegas, who has spent recent weeks explaining the situation to her constituency of mostly older voters.
The Nevada Republican Party’s decision to force candidates to forgo the primary if they wanted to be included in the caucus will likely hand the state’s 26 convention delegates to the former president. (At this point only one other obscure candidate remains in the caucuses.) It also foreclosed on any of Trump’s opponents building momentum from a strong showing in the state’s primary even as the field has shrunk since Iowa and New Hampshire, leaving Haley and a handful of lesser-known contenders.
Trump’s allies in the state, including Nevada’s popular Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, have urged GOP voters who participate in the primary to mark “none of these candidates” on the ballot rather than vote for a candidate. They hope to avoid Haley emerging with a larger vote total in the primary than Trump receives in the caucus, a possibility because more voters are expected to cast a ballot in the primary than attend the caucus.
In a Jan. 27 campaign visit to Las Vegas, Trump urged supporters to skip the primary entirely, describing it as a “con job” and a “meaningless event.” The caucus, he said, “is the right way and the legitimate way.”
“Don’t go on Tuesday, Feb. 6,” he told the crowd. “Don’t do it. Don’t use the mail-in ballot.”
'We will deliver you 100% of the delegates'
Because of the primary-caucus confusion, candidates and the national political press have largely ignored Nevada’s “First in the West” contests despite the state’s early spot on the presidential nominating calendar. Trump is the only candidate to visit the state more than once since August.
Democrats have worked since 2007 to establish Nevada as an important early primary state. The effort was spearheaded by the late U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who used caucuses as a party-building exercise. Since then, both parties have held early caucuses with varying success at making them relevant and competitive.
A couple of years back, that looked to be changing. With the caucus process coming under fire for hindering participation, the Nevada Legislature passed a law in 2021 to create this year’s presidential preference election. Although that effort was led by Democratic lawmakers, Republicans had tried years earlier without success to swap the caucus for a primary.
The Nevada GOP rejects the notion that by holding a caucus it has rigged this year’s contest for the former president. But Trump has been actively preparing to secure the nomination for the past year, including courting party insiders across the country. Those efforts extended to Nevada. Early last year he wooed GOP leaders — including Nevada Republican Chairman Michael McDonald, National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid and Bruce Parks, chairperson of the second-largest county party — at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
McDonald, DeGraffenreid and Jim Hindle are under indictment for acting as fraudulent electors for Trump in his effort to overturn the 2020 election — charges to which they’ve pleaded not guilty and are arguing to have dropped. Hindle, as Storey County clerk, is responsible for administering elections, putting him in the novel position of overseeing parts of both the primary and the caucus.
“I’m just doing the job I was elected to do,” Hindle said.
Despite claims of neutrality, McDonald has referred to Trump as the “next president of the United States.” At Trump’s January rally, McDonald stated his intentions more explicitly, referring to Trump simply as “the president.”
“When I talked to the president, I said, ‘I guarantee you Nevada will show up and we will deliver you 100% of the delegates for the state of Nevada to Donald J. Trump,’” he said.
While the caucus favors Trump, the party was transparent with Republican voters and GOP presidential candidates in creating it, McDonald argued.
McDonald blamed the state’s lack of a voter identification requirement for the party’s decision to run a caucus, saying Republican voters don’t trust the system without it.
Parks, chairperson of the party in Washoe County, home to Reno, has also been a leading voice in promoting unfounded election fraud allegations. Under his leadership, the county party adopted a resolution in 2022 declaring Joe Biden’s presidency to be illegitimate. Trump endorsed Parks in his reelection bid for county party chair last year, which Parks described as “one of the proudest moments of my life.”
In an interview with ProPublica, Parks said the party’s central committee decided not to participate in Nevada’s new presidential preference primary election because it wants to demonstrate what he contends is the proper way to run an election: required identification, paper ballots and hand-counting with results reported on the same day.
“There was much discussion — the pros and cons were weighed and measured — and in the end, the people decided we are going to do a caucus because it is more secure and more transparent than a universal mail-in system that does not require ID,” he said.
“Anybody who wants to observe is welcome to,” he said before catching himself. “Let me rephrase that: Anybody who is a Republican and can participate in the process is welcome to observe.”
Until ProPublica raised the issue with the state party, Parks said he wouldn’t allow the news media into Washoe County sites. Now, he said he will allow a few reporters into a single caucus site. McDonald said each county’s chairperson decides whether reporters can observe the proceedings. In the past, reporters have not been barred from observing caucuses held by either party in Nevada.
When asked why the GOP was changing its policy, Parks said, “For obvious reasons. There seems to be a shortage of honest reporters. We’re not going to open the doors and allow a particular narrative to be put out there that is not truthful. That is just not going to happen.”
Anyone who disagrees with the way the caucuses are being run can register with the party and keep an eye on things themselves, he said. “You want to make sure everything is above board? Get involved. Most importantly, change your registration and become a Republican,” he said.
Counting caucus results is not the same as counting election results, Ramachandran said. Hand-counting an election with hundreds of thousands of voters and dozens of races is neither efficient nor accurate.
“It’s really important when people are looking at those issues not to make the mistake of comparing apples to oranges,” she said.
Unknown impact on the general election
How the confusion and resulting disinformation from the presidential nominating process will influence general-election voter behavior is difficult to forecast. Ramachandran said it’s challenging to study how disinformation affects turnout.
“It’s hard to know who’s been subjected to that confusion or has become susceptible to misinformation, and it’s really hard to tie that to impact on turnout or specific candidates,” she said.
Gallant, who is running for reelection to the Assembly this year, isn’t so sure. Beliefs about unfounded voter-fraud accusations kept Republican voters home in 2020, she said, describing it as “oops, we screwed up.” Polling has backed that up, with surveys showing claims of fraud have made Republicans less likely to vote.
“We’ve done a lot of reeducation around that,” Gallant said, referencing the national party’s “Bank Your Vote” campaign that now encourages Republicans to vote early and by mail.
Jeremy Hughes, a Republican political consultant who is not involved in any of the presidential campaigns this year, said too much is being made over the caucus confusion.
“Donald Trump would have won the primary and he will win the caucus, so the mode of voting isn’t going to matter,” he said. “I have zero concern with it affecting voting behaviors.”
Eleven candidates are on the March 5 primary ballot in California’s 20th Congressional District, previously held by retired Rep. Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, left Congress in December after being ousted as Speaker of the House of Representatives in October. In addition to the March 5 primary for a full two-year term to start in Jan. 2025, there is a separate election with a March 19 primary to finish the remainder of McCarthy’s term. Some of the same candidates are running in both, but this page focuses just on candidates for the March 5 primary. California’s 20th, a solidly-red di...
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called on Republicans to stop short of giving women the "death penalty" for abortions.
At a campaign stop in South Carolina on Monday, Haley was asked if she made a mistake by calling for a federal ban on abortions without specifics.
"In South Carolina and elsewhere, people on both sides of the aisle, they, they deal with weeks, they want hard, firm weeks," a moderator told Haley. "Was that a misfire on your part?"
Haley insisted she had not made a mistake.
"I mean, no offense, but the fellas don't know how to talk about this, and they just don't," the candidate opined. "The issue of abortion is incredibly personal to every woman and every man, and it requires respect."
"I am unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me to be, but because my husband was adopted, and I had trouble having both of my children," she continued. "And I think that there is a place for a federal law, but they need to tell the American people the truth on how you get there."
Haley acknowledged that Republicans could not get 60 votes in the Senate to pass a strict federal abortion ban.
"So what should we do? I think we find consensus. Can't we agree to ban late-term abortions?" she asked. "And can't we agree that no state law should say to a woman that if she has an abortion, she's going to jail or get the death penalty."
"I will not be a part of demonizing this issue," she added. "I think that I've watched Democrats, they have put fear in women. And I've watched Republicans use judgment. There's no place for fear or judgment when you're talking about something this personal and this sensitive."
Haley has said she would have signed a six-week abortion ban as governor of South Carolina.
MSNBC " Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough dropped the hammer on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) early Monday morning after the GOP leader announced his opposition to a proposed Senate border bill just hours after it was released.
Late Sunday, Johnson posted on social media, "I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, 'the border never closes.' If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival."
According to Scarborough, Johnson is only doing it to appease Donald Trump who wants the border issue to remain a problem for President Joe Biden.
"He continued to lie," he said. "As Liz Cheney said, and he basically admitted, he was going around spreading a lie about January 6th, trying to get people to sign onto a letter that would continue the lie and help Ken Paxton spread the lie in Texas, he lied about that. He is lying about this, he knows. [Sen.] James Langford (R-OK) said, 'I wish they'd all read the bill. I wish they would understand how strong the bill is.'"
"But the sad thing is, and it's pathetic, and we say things can be two things at once, I mean, the new speaker is both dangerous and pathetic," Scarborough exclaimed. "Dangerous because he has decided, and he said it publicly, we're going to put politics over stopping fentanyl from coming into the United States. We're going to put politics above allowing our border security to stop terrorists from coming into the United States. We're going to keep the border chaotic for at least another ten months because we want things to be as chaotic as possible for Joe Biden."
"It's just like Donald Trump saying he wants the economy to crash, there to be a Great Depression, and he wants Biden to be Herbert Hoover," he added.
Restaurateur Antonio Munoz feels the political winds changing in his native Nevada, where parts of the traditionally Democratic Latino community are drifting Republican ahead of this year's presidential election.
It's a trend across the United States, and with a fifth of eligible voters identifying as Latino, it's one that could prove decisive in November.
"In the last election, I voted Democrat... but this year I really am in the middle. I don't know what to do," Munoz, an ex-police officer, tells AFP at his colorful Las Vegas eatery.
Joe Biden, the 81-year-old incumbent, will almost certainly go head-to-head again with Donald Trump, whom he defeated in 2020 partially by harnessing a significant majority of Latino voters.
Despite facing a raft of criminal charges, including some relating to his alleged efforts to overthrow results of the last election, 77-year-old Trump has the edge in several national polls.
That's also true in Nevada, a southwest swing state that Biden carried last time by a small margin -- and where voters begin casting ballots this week in the parties' nominating processes.
Munoz says his feeling is that Latinos in Las Vegas overall probably lean Democratic, but not like in years past.
"I have friends (who are) there in the middle like me," he said.
- Generational change -
The Latino community is one of the fastest growing in the United States, explains Mark Hugo Lopez, director of research on race and ethnicity at Pew Research Center.
While it is not a monolith -- Latinos in Florida, many of whom have family connections to communist Cuba, lean heavily Republican -- historically the community has been more favorable to Democrats, he said.
Polling data shows that is changing.
Biden won Hispanic voters two to one over Trump in 2020, but now trails among that demographic by five points, 39 to 34 percent, according to January's USA Today/Suffolk University poll.
"Our most recent figures show... 65 percent disapprove of the job he's doing and 32 percent approve," Lopez said of Biden.
That is down significantly from 2021 when most Latinos approved of Biden's performance.
Some of that is related to kitchen table issues such as inflation, but also immigration, with the widely held belief there is a border crisis that the White House cannot control.
Those on the left have made much of Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric -- such as when he said "rapists" and drug dealers were crossing the border from Mexico -- assuming this would play badly in immigrant communities.
But a changing Latino demographic means such sentiment is not always unpopular.
"In a place like Nevada... there are many US-born children of immigrant parents," said Lopez.
"But there's also a growing number of people who are third or higher generation. And they have tended to lean more Republican" than other Latinos.
It's a shift that life-long Democrats like Maria Elena Castro have noticed with dismay.
She says she hears increasingly right-wing sentiments from her son and nephews when they talk politics.
"Kids don't know much about the past, what their parents had to go through," said the 51-year-old Mexican-American.
Young Latino voters favor Republicans "due to the lack of information."
- 'Better off?' -
It is perhaps the struggle of previous generations of Latinos that is animating the community's growing animosity towards newcomers, said Jesus Marquez, a political consultant who has worked on Trump's campaign in Nevada and spoke at a recent Las Vegas rally headlined by Trump.
The constant drumbeat of right-wing media and its associated social media sphere emphasizes what is happening at the border, where thousands of impoverished people arrive daily.
Once there, they walk across into the United States and say they want to claim asylum, before being released for a court date many years down the line.
The perception that this is unfair is a powerful one, according to Marquez.
"That is something that the Latinos that have lived here for decades don't really like, because they feel that the new people are just jumping the line and getting ahead of them," he told AFP.
Ultimately, it makes less and less sense to speak of "Latinos" as a distinct community in America's ethnic melting pot, he said.
Latinos, and the working class in general, struggle with the high cost of living, Marquez said.
"A lot of Hispanics did much better during Donald Trump's years," he claimed.
"So that is the question they ask themselves: Are we better off right now or when he was in office?"
WASHINGTON — After protecting – and studying – lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol for the past 15 years, Harry Dunn turned his service revolver over to the Capitol Police at the end of 2023.
He then entered the 2024 race to represent residents of Maryland’s 3rd congressional district, which curls through the suburbs south and west of Baltimore, as a Democrat.
Dunn found his life upended during the 2021 Capitol insurrection as he protected then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s staffers from militia group the Oath Keepers and other violent attackers.
In the three years since the Capitol attack, Dunn has made it his mission to raise the alarm about what he sees as the greatest threat to American democracy: former President Donald Trump.
He offered gripping testimony about the day to the U.S. House’s select January 6 committee.
“I was distressed, I was angry, and I was scared," Dunn testified to the select committee in 2022. "During the event, it was just about surviving."
He also became a New York Times bestselling author with his book “Standing my Ground.”
In this Raw Story exclusive, Dunn discusses more than his newfound ambitions as a politician – “Don't think of me as one! I’m a public servant.” He also pulls the veil back on how his fellow officers reacted to his accidental activism and what he views as the hypocrisy of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“I refuse – win or lose this election – to let the story of January 6 and the narrative go in any other direction than the truth. Hell, that's been my mission since I started speaking out three years ago,” Dunn told Raw Story.
The distinguished former Capitol Police officer also discussed his personal interactions with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other lawmakers – “a lot of the people that are holding those seats shouldn't be there” – including House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has supported imprisoned Jan. 6 attackers and seems to be auditioning to get the vice-presidential nod from Trump.
Raw Story’s conversation with Dunn is lightly edited for length and clarity:
Raw Story: “So now you are running…”
Harry Dunn: “I know. What the hell am I thinking, right?”
RS: “Exactly! You’ve looked at all these politicians from the other side and, to now to be running — how's that change feel?”
HD: “Maybe ‘inspire’ is the right word. I've been up close and personal with them every day of my life for the last 15-plus years, and I feel like I see what they're doing and I'd say, ‘I could do it a little better’ – or not necessarily better but different or more effective. I've watched them. I've heard the things that they said, specifically the MAGA faction of the Republican Party that has kind of downplayed everything since January 6. Now, obviously, Jan. 6 was the catalyst that brought me to this point, but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things.”
RS: “Even before we jump into January 6, just seeing lawmakers every day, you kind of get a takeaway, like, ‘oh, wait, they're just humans.’”
HD: “I love that part of it, man. Because that's what public servants, to me, are supposed to be: just people – average people that aren't on a pedestal. But my job is to give a voice to the members of the community that I represent, and that's what your job is as an elected official. Your job is to represent those people, and you should be an everyday American because that's what the government should be made up of.”
RS: “Now to get to January 6, especially this year with the anniversary, it just had a different feeling at the Capitol, almost like it never happened.”
HD: “Because that's what Donald Trump wanted. Everything that Donald Trump has said — slowly but surely it starts trickling down into Congress. Everything that Donald Trump has said they are saying – ‘they’ meaning the subordinates of him in Congress parroting his talking points – and that's not how Congress is supposed to work.”
RS: “You'd expect it more – I'd expect it more from someone like MTG – but how is it watching…”
HD: “Do I expect more? At the Capitol, we would see these individuals every day so maybe we expect more from the position that they hold but not necessarily the person. Like, I don't expect more from Donald Trump, I expect more from the presidency. And that's how I was able to do my job. I was able to separate that, the institution of Congress – I marvel at it; I respect it – but a lot of the people that are holding those seats shouldn't be there.”
RS: “I've been with MTG to the D.C. jail for her to advocate for J6 prisoners, and it's been a part of her rhetoric. But now to hear Elise Stefanik – who’s been in Republican leadership – say, ‘January 6 hostages,’ that's new.”
HD: “So what is Elise Stefanik right now? She’s vying for a VP nod, right? So it's anything to stay in Trump's graces. We've seen it all the way from the beginning of January 6 with Kevin McCarthy when later that night he went on the floor and condemned Donald Trump. Few days later, he’s down at Mar-a-Lago changing his tune, right? [Sen.] Lindsey Graham, same thing with him. Elise Stefanik. The list goes on and on and on. He has that much of a hold over the people that it's dangerous and very counterproductive in Congress.”
RS: “We see Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party, how would it be serving with those folks?”
HD: “The same way it was for me protecting them. This isn't just something that I'll have to get used to being able to see them and say ‘hi’ to them every day. I did that January 7th – the day we went back after the attack at the Capitol, because I revere the institution. I hold it in high regard. I think the world of it, and I expect great things to come from Congress. The fact that we haven't been able to doesn't mean that we shouldn't still strive to get greatness out of it.”
RS: “Have you been surprised watching the rhetoric of MTG and that faction trickle into the leadership?”
HD: “I'm disappointed. I'm not surprised, because Donald Trump has this stranglehold over these individuals. It's very important to acknowledge, though, what Congress is supposed to do. I believe in it, and maybe that's crazy on me for believing in something that hasn't functioned well for a long time.”
RS: “How important is this election just for the legacy of January 6, because it feels very tied to Donald Trump and his future?”
HD: “It's very important, not necessarily for the legacy of it, so to speak. I refuse – win or lose this election – to let the story of January 6 and the narrative go in any other direction than the truth. Hell, that's been my mission since I started speaking out three years ago. But I think what this election will show is how important the threats to free and fair elections are and holding on to our democracy is to people. Donald Trump said it himself that [he] wants to be a dictator on day one. He said that. So I think what the election will show is how many people think that what we have now is worth preserving and worth fighting for it.”
RS: “When you were on the force, what was the reaction from Capitol Police brass – but then your fellow officers – to you speaking out?”
HD: “That was tough to navigate, because Capitol Police officers aren't allowed to give press conferences or speak to the media. So when I spoke, I was speaking as a citizen. I wasn't representing Capitol Police. So it was difficult to navigate, because those things are tied together – the Capitol Police and January 6 – so I was in a tough bind. I never went rogue or anything like that. I was respectful to the department. I said, ‘Listen, this is what I want to do. I'm not here to bash the department. I'm here to get the people responsible and hold them accountable.’ Period. There were a couple head bumps about me speaking out. I respect the Capitol Police leadership, and they were great. And obviously, when you talk about frontline — my co-workers — a lot of them were indifferent. A lot supported me, and said, ‘keep going.’ And there were a few that hated it – you know, ‘I'm making it about me’ – which kind of sucks, but it’s expected. If you look, the FOP [Fraternal Order of Police], the last few times Donald Trump ran, they endorsed him, so there's a lot of police officers that support Donald Trump, even after January 6. So I expected all types of mixed reactions. But I know what I'm doing, I'm standing up for what I believe in.”
RS: “What do you make of seeing law enforcement come around Trump or, more so, seeing Republicans still try to wear the mantle of law enforcement when they threw y'all literally under the bus?”
HD: “Does that make me dislike Donald Trump more or does that make me have to face the sad reality of what our country is? I don't think that necessarily makes me hate Donald Trump even more, I think it makes me have an awakening to, ‘hey, this faction exists, and it's not a small faction – it's a large population of people.’ We have to figure out how to navigate that, because they're here and clearly aren't going anywhere.”
RS: “When it comes to the lead up of January 6, have your questions been answered? For one, on congressional leaders – Pelosi and [Sen. Mitch] McConnell — for the pre-planning. But then also the agencies. Are you sure we can’t have a repeat?”
HD: “I don't believe in any conspiracy that McConnell or Pelosi wanted to see the Capitol attacked. I don't believe that at all. I believe in incompetence, versus it was a setup or some s— like that. Somebody dropped the ball, and they need to be held accountable. I don't know where that is, but somebody did. But I don't believe it was the leadership. I think they trusted people that they put in positions to answer for those things, and those people need to be held accountable.”
RS: “Seeing groups like Moms for Liberty take root on the right, are you worried about — maybe January 6 not repeating itself in a physical assault but them kind of taking root at the local level and trying to really take control of the reins of democracy at voting stations, etc.?”
HD: “We have to realize this faction – this chokehold that Donald Trump has – it's not just limited to members of Congress. It's triggered all the way down to local school board elections, like Moms for Liberty. And that's why it's so important to have truth tellers, individuals that really understand what is at stake right now. Obviously, we all want, in the long run, the same things, but I don't think that a lot of people realize the dire situation and how urgently we need to fight for it right now. Because it is a clear and present threat right now and we have to take it seriously. I left my job early. Meaning, I was there 15-plus years, four years short of being able to collect a full pension, because it's that important to me. It can't wait.”
RS: “How's that been going? Because it's hard for me to think of you as a politician, but, I guess, technically on paper, you are.”
HD: “Don't think of me as one! I’m a public servant. You saw me at the Capitol every day. You saw me interacting with people, ‘how can I help you?’ My job was to help people, and that's what I did. I've been doing that for the last 15 years of my adult life, and that won't change.”
RS: “But now you gotta dial for dollars and stuff like that. How's the campaigning?”
HD: “That sucks. I hate asking people for stuff. It’s difficult, but it's necessary. It's not like I'm raising money and putting it in my pocket. It’s for messaging, and I want to reach as many people as I can. Obviously, to win the election, but, the bigger picture, to educate and inform people of what is at stake right now.”
RS: “I'm from Chicago, which is very much like Baltimore, you got these old political machines. How's it been navigating Maryland Democratic politics?”
HD: “It's a lot to learn, but I've cared about politics, so it's not like, ‘who is the lieutenant governor?’ I'm engaged. Before I'm a candidate, before I'm a police officer, I'm a proud citizen of Maryland – and I have been my whole life – who wants to see the people and the state thrive. So running for office or not, that is always how I felt. But being a player now, so to speak, I don't want to lose the essence of who I am, which is a public servant.”
RS: “You obviously get a lot of focus from January 6, but what are the other things you're running on that you think – especially coming from law enforcement – that you can really bring to the table?”
HD: “Since you said it, let’s talk about that, law enforcement and police reform. There's been a long time where Cory Booker and Tim Scott, two black senators, were working together to create a bill to address police reform of criminal justice reform. They were unable to come to an agreement through a consensus, so the talks stalled and now it's just tabled. But the change can't wait … I've been very vocal about mental health. I think we need to reallocate funding to fight the war on mental health right now and the stigma that is associated with it. We all are struggling in some capacity every single day, and we need to make accessibility to mental health way more accessible … Lower health care costs. Obviously, I agree with the majority of the Democratic principles: the woman's right to choose, common sense gun reform. That's the stuff that I agree on, and those issues fall under the umbrella of democracy to me, because, you know, if Trump is elected back into the White House, do those issues even matter? They’ll be gone just like that.”
RS: “You have a presence, and it's usually a smiley, happy presence at the Capitol, but knowing that you were one of our boys in blue but then if you're wearing a suit and wearing that congressional pin, what signal would that send to the MTGs, the Matt Gaetzes, the Boeberts, the people trying to whitewash January 6th?”
HD: “That I can't be dismissed. It's easy to dismiss me when I was an officer, right? As just some ‘angry liberal plant,’ right? It's easy to dismiss me as that. But actually, I'm your colleague, now, I'm your equal. You can't dismiss me. You have to listen. I can bring an issue to the table and force it to be addressed.”
RS: “What would the lawmakers tell you like, personally off the record, post January 6?”
HD: “Well, the ones that I got to talk to, the ones who would dare talk to me about it – and that’s how bad it was – a lot of those members aren't in Congress anymore. That’s just a symptom of being a truth teller in a Donald Trump Congress, so to speak. It sucks. It’s unfortunate. But you mentioned MTG, I mean, she was a very friendly person. When I saw her on the Hill, she would always wave. She would always say hello. I don't know if she knew who I was, but she would always say hello. So I don't have anything bad to say about her about that.”
RS: “You get that southern nice but then it seems like some of those policies are very harmful but then they're cloaked in this smile. Like, does that worry you?”
HD: “I think it's disingenuous – smiling without even having your pulse on what's going on.”
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen, who also served as one of the impeachment lawyers for House Democrats and White House ethics czar, told the network Sunday that he firmly believes Donald Trump will be sent to prison.
Eisen called the recent decision from Judge Tanya Chutkin to abandon her March 4 trial date pending the appeal from the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals a "small win" for Trump. The ex-president has worked to delay as many of his trials as possible. The D.C. appeal will likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court after the appeals court rules on it.
What Eisen found to be the most shocking is the argument made in court by Trump's lawyers that with his "presidential immunity," Trump could send S.E.A.L. Team 6 out to assassinate anyone he wants without any repercussions.
Eisen said that the appeals court is likely to reject that idea and hopes it comes soon, but it has been nearly four weeks since the ruling could be handed down. He doesn't believe the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold that idea either.
"That case is going to get back on track," he promised.
That case also doesn't get Trump out of "election interference hot water either," he continued, noting that at its source, the New York case from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is an election interference case. In that one, there are 34 felony counts against Trump.
Due to the delay now with the federal cases, it gives Bragg a window to "slide in," he explained. "Most likely over the summer."
He thinks it will be finished before the election and the 2020 election case will begin before the November election. The rule is that 60 days from an election, an investigation can't unfold. However, Eisen said, the trial can move forward since the investigation is over.
"Most likely that one will conclude before the November election," he said of the 2020 election interference case.
Republicans have spent the better part of the past year arguing that the efforts by President Joe Biden have made the economy worse. In fact, by every measure, things have significantly increased.
MSNBC reported last week that the positive economic turn has forced the GOP to change their language for the 2024 campaign season.
He explained that the voters have largely blamed Biden for inflation caused by the pandemic.
"How that vote — how that concern is going to change now that you have a robust economy," Bussey continued as host Eric Shawn nodded. He cited "3.3 percent GDP growth in the fourth quarter, an incredible gangbusters jobs numbers this past Friday. Inflation has been slashed. That message — you know, you and I follow it because we're in the news business, but it takes several months for the electorate, which is busy with its jobs and other responsibilities, to get the word that the economy is actually quite robust."
Shawn agreed, saying that Democrats argue that the message hasn't gotten across to voters yet. He cited "the success of the economy, the record employment rate, as well as the bills that the president has been able to pass."
Bussey said that there are still many more months for that message to get through and it likely will before the election.
In an interview as late as last month, Donald Trump said he was hoping the economy would crash so that he could use it against Biden in the election. He went on to say he didn't want to be "Herbert Hoover," the president blamed for the 1929 crash that led to the Great Depression. Approximately 11 million jobs were lost under Hoover, while 22 million were lost under Trump during the 2020 pandemic.
Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, spoke to Amelia Adams for the Australian version of "60 Minutes," which was on hand in New Hampshire last weekend to speak to voters in the so-called "MAGA movement."
While the piece spoke to a Republican county chair in Colorado and Washington insiders, it was Cohen who told the outlet the danger that the world faces with another Trump presidency.
Aghast how a U.S. citizen can be convicted of a crime and still be president, Cohen was forced to explain to Adams and the Australian audience that the U.S. Constitution doesn't forbid someone from serving as president from jail.
"So, therefore, the White House will become whatever federal correctional institution that he is currently remanded to," explained Cohen. "Because our founding fathers never contemplated a scenario — anything even remotely close to something like this."
The shocked reporter wondered what it is that makes Americans look past Trump's flaws. Cohen explained, "He's a cult leader. He does want to make himself into a king."
It isn't the first time Cohen has used the description for Trump. Not long after Cohen was thrown under the bus, he explained to his friend Donny Deutsch that he felt he got caught up. Former FBI Director James Comey described Trump as a crime boss. Former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi said something similar.
"He also possessed a cult-like hold over his supporters, some of them demonstrably unhinged and willing to do anything to please or protect the President," Cohen wrote in his book "Disloyal."
"I knew how committed these fanatics were because I’d been one of them: an acolyte obsessed with Donald J. Trump, a demented follower willing to do anything for him, including, as I vowed once to a reporter, to take a bullet," he explained.
Steven Hassan, the author of “The Cult of Trump,” explained to Sean Illing of Vox that former cultists see the same similarities.
“[What] really made me think of Trump as a cult was the way the groups who supported him were behaving, especially religious groups who believed that God had chosen Trump or was using Trump. There are actual pro-Trump religious groups, like the New Apostolic Reformation, whose leaders were saying, ‘We’re of God. The rest of the world is of Satan, and we need to follow our chosen leaders who are connected to God,'” Hassan said. “There was this blind-faith aspect to the whole thing and an unwillingness to look at any inconvenient facts. That’s all very cult-like.”
Adams recalled being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as "frightening."
"How can anyone enjoy an attack on the 'People's House?'" Cohen asked. "And the answer is, because they were doing it in his name. They were carrying the Trump 2020 flag, and they were screaming and attacking people in his honor.
He went on to say that it's a little bit of "both" that Trump is nuts or his followers are crazy but drinking the Kool-Aid.
"I think Donald Trump has become the worst version of himself imaginable, and that includes losing it," Cohen explained. "The things that he is saying, the racist, sexist, misogynistic, the xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic rant that this man is spewing on a day-to-day basis — the divisiveness that he's creating in this country is only being parroted by his MAGA supporters. So, can you separate their insanity from Donald Trump's insanity? And the answer is no."
Adams shows a clip of Trump playing to such a crowd last week.
"I'm being indicted for you," Trump tells his audience at a recent New Hampshire rally. "And, never forget, they're trying to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom."
Cohen continued explaining that his biggest fear is that if Trump is reelected in 2024, "the world will absolutely go haywire."
"You'll immediately see China invade Taiwan. You'll see wars everywhere. You'll begin to see the warlords grabbing power and fighting within one another," he said. "Donald Trump has no problem with creating World War III if it's in his name, just like the kings throughout history."
He thinks dictators like Vladimir Putin are popping champagne each time they see Trump on television.
Former "Tea Party" Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman (VA) is telling former Donald Trump staff and appointees who've come out against their ex-boss that it's not enough.
Speaking to MSNBC on Sunday, Riggleman addressed recent comments from former adviser and communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who promoted Joe Biden in a recent interview.
The ex-congressman agreed it's "absolutely" time for those anti-Trump Republicans to speak out publicly.
"When you see Scaramucci, or you see Adam Kinzinger, you see all these individuals say, you know, 'If it's Trump/Biden, I'm voting for Joe Biden,'" he explained. "It's really not much of a choice for anybody if they're worried about law, order, or even sanity, or somebody who buys into conspiracy theories for their own self-aggrandizement or self-identifies as a dictator in talks about retribution."
Over the past several months, many former Trump White House officials such as Mark Esper, John Bolton, Bill Barr, James Mattis, retired Gen. Mark Milley, H.R. McMaster, and others have stepped forward to talk about the danger that Trump poses to the country.
Most recently, Bolton updated his book with a new forward discussion of Trump's ignorance about NATO and other foreign policy issues. Milley has called Trump a "wannabe dictator." Barr said he "shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office." None of those Republicans have been willing to say that they will vote for Biden over Trump.
Riggleman wants those folks to make it clear that Biden is the only option.
"This is a person that you don't want anywhere near, I would say the Oval Office again," he continued. "You do have a former president who is running who has a lot of support. This is an individual that is out of touch with reality, or pretends to be out of touch with reality to actually ignite the base, try to make the base violent, or to do things outside of what normal behavior would be."
Based on past experiences with Trump, those who worked with him should be the first to understand.
"There is no question, if you're looking at what the former president has done, the people around him, the quality of people around him, which might be as high as a slug crawling on the ground, I think when you look at the quality of people around and who he picks, who surrounds himself with, I think there's nobody else to vote for than Joe Biden," he closed.
