A vigil is held for victims of last week's U-Haul truck rampage on Bay Ridge Parkway and Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York City on Monday, Feb.20, 2023.. - Gardiner Anderson/New York Daily News/TNS
NEW YORK — Nearly 100 people gathered in Brooklyn on Monday to mourn a man who was killed and rally for another who was critically injured when a U-Haul driver mowed them down during a terrifying rampage last week. Attendees included the wife of Mohammed Salah Rakchi, 36, a victim who is “still unconscious,” she said. “He’s stable, but still in critical condition,” said the spouse, Nadjet Tchener. “I’m so sad about what happened to my husband.” Salah Rakchi was one of nine people struck when Weng Sor, 62, allegedly got behind the wheel of the U-Haul truck he had rented in Florida and rode thro...
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) said "both sides" were to blame after former President Donald Trump glorified Jan. 6 defendants at a rally in Waco, Texas over the weekend.
In an interview on CBS News, host Margaret Brennan pointed to Trump's
Saturday rally in Waco.
"When he walked on stage, he played a recording made by some of those who are being prosecuted for attacking the Capitol on January 6th," Brennan said. "He also had footage seeming to glorify the attack that day. He's calling for protests. He said things like death and destruction if he's indicted."
"I know you've supported him in the past," she added. "Do you support statements like this?"
"Look, January 6th was a terrible day. We have to make sure that never happens again," Gonzales replied. "But it was great to have President Trump back in Texas. And it was a reminder that Trump's policies, President Trump's policies worked. Right now, we're in a time where Biden is failing us. And so, I welcome any serious presidential candidate to come to Texas, see it firsthand."
"But what the former president was talking about was not policy or substance," Brennan countered. "Don't you see some danger from lionizing those who are being prosecuted for breaking the law and attacking the place where you and other lawmakers work? Isn't that part of it something that must give you pause?"
"The rhetoric is absolutely out of control," Gonzales insisted. "On both sides, on all sides."
"But I'd also see, you know, I see President Trump honestly being attacked, being demonized on all these different fronts," he continued. You know, things that are happening to him in regards to the classified documentation, similar things happen to President Biden. You don't see those things."
Brennan pressed Gonzales on his support for Trump.
"This is a line that you feel you can't cross when it comes to criticizing what the former president did with lionizing January 6th attackers?" she said.
"I'm always going to fight for what I believe is right," Gonzales asserted. "And what I see right now is people are fed up with the environment that is happening. They're fed up with the rhetoric. They're tired of inflation. They're tired of the border crisis. They're tired of the national security policy. And they want real action."
"And whoever delivers that for them is going to get their vote, whether that's President Trump or anyone else," he concluded.
Joseph Tacopina, an attorney for Donald Trump, lashed out at NBC host Chuck Todd who suggested that the former president was not telling the truth about having an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
"What this investigation may end up being is about — is essentially the falsifying of business records," Todd told Tacopina in a Sunday interview. "This is not an unusual crime to charge someone in the Manhattan District Attorney's office. We have over sixty instances of this."
"You couldn't be more wrong when you make that statement," Tacopina disagreed. "This, first of all, would be a case of first... never in the history of this country has this been done before, and never in the Manhattan District Attorney's office has someone been charged with a crime for falsifying business records to pay hush money as they call it or confidential settlement."
"What should he put in his ledger?" the attorney said of Trump.
Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union' to make his case that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg needs to appear before Republicans and explain why he is investigating Donald Trump, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) painted himself into a corner when he suggested Bragg might be subpoenaed.
With Bragg's office firingback at GOP House members who have been threatening to interfere in his investigation into the former president paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, Comer went back and forth with CNN's Jake Tapper over the propriety of federal interference in a state matter.
Things came to a head when the CNN host asked if the House Republican would subpoena Bragg.
"Let me ask you if he refuses to come in willingly, will you subpoena him?" Tapper pressed.
"Well, that'll be up to [House Judiciary Chair] Jim Jordan. I mean, he's the lead investigator in this particular situation. I come in as Oversight because it deals with the unnecessary use of tax dollars. Chairman [Bryan] Steil is head of House Administration. He's in charge of elections. That's why the three of us were the three that signed the letter. But Jim Jordan is the lead and he would be the one to answer that question."
