President Donald Trump was seen for the first time in days on Friday evening as he was interviewed on Fox News.
In the interview, Trump denied that he had breathing problems, which could be heard during his Thursday night call-in with Fox News.
Trump went on to announce that he is no longer taking any medications.
Michigan's attorney general rejected a defense floated by a so-called "constitutional sheriff" for militia associates accused of plotting to kidnap the governor.
The FBI charged members of the Wolverine Watchmen militia group after an investigation into an alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf suggested they may have been planning to lawfully arrest the Democratic governor for allegedly violating the law with her coronavirus orders.
“It’s just a charge, and they say a 'plot to kidnap,' and you got to remember that," Leaf said. "Are they trying to kidnap? Because a lot of people are angry with the governor, and they want her arrested. So are they trying to arrest or was it a kidnap attempt? Because you can still in Michigan, if it's a felony, make a felony arrest."
Leaf, who shared a stage with one of the militants at an anti-Whitmer demonstration in May, cited a statute that allows for private citizens to arrest someone for a felony crime under certain circumstances -- but the attorney general shot down his argument.
"As Michigan’s top law enforcement official, let me make this abundantly clear," tweeted attorney general Dana Nessel. "Persons who are not sworn, licensed members of a law enforcement agency cannot and should not 'arrest' government offficials [sic] with whom they have disagreements. These comments are dangerous."
On one of his twice-weekly podcasts, former Republican campaign consultant Rick Wilson went off on a hilarious rant about Donald Trump's COVID-19 health issues and how the president made the situation worse by trying to lay the blame for his infection on a veterans' group -- likely alienating even more voters.
Prompted by his "New Abnormal" co-host Molly Jong-Fast, who said the president "shouldn't have gotten COVID," Wilson dug right in on Trump's travails.
"No, he shouldn't have gotten COVID, but he's a f*cking dipsh*t," Wilson explained. "So he got COVID. He's a dumbass, Donald Trump has no one to blame but himself. Oh wait, hold on, who did Donald Trump go on to blame today? He said maybe the Gold Star families gave him COVID."
"Yeah, that seems like a bad choice," Jong-Fast laughed.
"Let's see, let's see who I should attack now?" Wilson replied, mimicking the president. "I'm sure these guys like [campaign manager Bill] Stepien and these guys are like, 'Oh man, that's a great hit, Mr. President,' while they are actually sinking their heads into their elbows saying, "Oh dear God, he attacked the veterans' wives. F****ck!'"
"How can he do worse than that," Wilson's co-host asked.
"What he could do next is go to an animal shelter and, for each paragraph of his speech, walk to a cage and snap a kitten's neck," Wilson suggested. "The guy is just so tone-deaf ---"
"But he would never get that close to an animal," Jong-Fast quipped.
"No," Wilson shot back. "That's true too. Well, he would have Miller do it. At every third one, he'd say 'where are you Stephen?' and he'd look back and Miller would be draining the blood from a cat or something."
There is plenty more where that came from and you can listen to the "New Abnormal" below:
"The View" co-host Ana Navarro says the coronavirus is "choking" the life out of President Donald Trump's re-election chances.
The president has been off the campaign trail since he announced his COVID-19 infection last week, but he coughed his way through a phoned-in interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity after backing out of a virtual debate next week with Joe Biden.
"To me, he sounds like a guy who's choking literally and politically," Navarro said. "Look, I think he regrets all this stuff about not wanting to debate. Donald Trump has no leverage right now. All the polls are showing him behind."
"He needs to debate more than Joe Biden needs to debate," she added. "I realize after seeing a fly land on Mike Pence's head, he probably thought, 'My god, if a fly lands on my head, it will never get out of there, so I should probably not debate.' But I think now he is trying to go back on this issue of, you know, I couldn't debate, and he needs to debate, so he's trying to show that he is healthy."
MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson cut short an interview after White House deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern refused – at least six times – to reveal when President Donald Trump's last negative coronavirus test was, or even if the President has tested negative since announcing he tested positive one week ago, but tried to turn the interview into an attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
President Donald Trump says he is planning on returning to the campaign trail by holding a rally in Florida on Saturday and in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
Morgenstern refused to answer the question Friday morning, and even falsely claimed there is no "public health value" in telling the American people if the President is still infectious and shedding virus, potentially at those rallies Trump teased he will hold this weekend.
There is currently no evidence Trump has tested negative since his diagnosis. CDC guidelines require three consecutive negative tests before coronavirus patients are deemed safe to break quarantine.
Citing Trump's "privacy" Morgenstern claimed "the president doesn't check all of his HIPAA rights at the door just when he becomes president."
"You just said a couple of minutes ago," Jackson replied, "that you would share the results of this PCR test today if you get it and if that happens so what's the difference, why not be more transparent with people about this last negative test you know there is a public health reason for this. And it impacts the people who were potentially exposed to the virus before the President was diagnosed, why not be transparent about that specific very specific piece of information?"
"It's not something that has the public health value that the other information we're releasing does," Morgenstern claimed, falsely. Americans have the right to know if their president is contagious with a potentially lethal virus for which there is no medical cure or vaccine.
Morgenstern, claiming Trump was "socially distant," lied about the president's last known outing, when he attended a New Jersey fundraiser right before self-quarantining, but after he knew Hope Hicks had tested positive for coronavirus.
Jackson slammed him.
"Brian! We have video! That's not true. We've seen video," she replied.
After Morgenstern refused to answer even more questions and tried to change the topic of the conversation to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's new 25th Amendment bill, Jackson cut the interview – but not without getting the last word.
"Nope. All right, Brian, thank you very much," she declared. "Critical piece of information: one of your colleagues just yesterday told me that it was a fair question that you would try to give us the information on that was hoping that you'd have that for us today. I certainly hope that you'll come back with that. Brian Morgenstern it's great to have you on the show. Thank you very much. Over to Capitol Hill now."
Watch:
An anti-mask Michigan sheriff shared a stage with one of the right-wing militants who were allegedly plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor.
Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf was a guest speaker at the May rally in Grand Rapids against stay-at-home orders issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, where he stood alongside kidnap plot suspect William Null, reported WXMI-TV.
“I haven't read everything up on it, I've got other duties to do," Leaf told the station when asked about the kidnapping plot. "It wasn't our investigation. I was shocked, did not see this coming with those guys, but still we can't convict them in the media here, they do have a right to a fair trial."
Leaf is no stranger to the right-wing fringe. He has lent support to the Bundy family and has close ties to the rogue Constitutional Sheriff and Peace Officers Association that promotes the legal fallacy that sheriffs are the “highest legitimate law enforcement” in the U.S. and may decide which laws to enforce.
"What's the definition of an arrest?" Leaf said at the May anti-Whitmer rally, flanked by armed militia men. "It's basically taking away your right to free will, our right to move about. That's an arrest, and an unlawful arrest is when we do it unlawfully."
As such, the sheriff has refused to enforce Whitmer's pandemic orders, and he won't enforce new COVID-19 orders issued by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
“It has to be within the guidelines of the constitution,” Leaf said. “This pandemic, didn’t trample or shred the constitution so we took an oath.”
He also refused to comment on the charges against Null and his brother Michael Null, who are being held on a $250,000 cash bail and could face up to 22 years in prison, if convicted.
“The two gentlemen that I know of from my county, were they involved in that?" Leaf said. "I don't know. They're innocent until proven guilty, and we really, really should be careful, trying to try them in the media."
Leaf then suggested their alleged plot may have been to take Whitmer into custody before the Nov. 3 election and then take her to a secure location in Wisconsin, where they allegedly planned to try her for treason.
“It’s just a charge, and they say a 'plot to kidnap,' and you got to remember that," Leaf said. "Are they trying to kidnap? Because a lot of people are angry with the governor, and they want her arrested. So are they trying to arrest or was it a kidnap attempt? Because you can still in Michigan, if it's a felony, make a felony arrest."
He cited a statute that he believes may have justified the militants' kidnap plot.
“I think it's MCL 764.4, 764.5 somewhere on there, and it doesn't say if you are an elected office that you're exempt from that arrest," Leaf said.
The TV station linked to the correct statute, 764.16, which lists certain conditions that a private individual may make an arrest for a felony.
"I have to look at it from that angle," Leaf said, "and I’m hoping that's more what it is, in fact, these guys are innocent until proven guilty, so I’m not even sure if they had any part of it."
In a video discovered on Twitter, one of the members of the right-wing militia who were taken into custody over a plot to kidnap Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attacked Donald Trump and called him "a tyrant."
Brandon Caserta, who could be looking at life in prison after the FBI foiled the plot to nab Whitmer outside of one of her homes and then whisk her away to Wisconsin to face trial, was also not a fan of Trump and told his followers, "Trump is not your friend, dude."
Continuing in that vein, he asserted, “It amazes me that people actually, like, believe that when he’s shown over and over and over again that he’s a tyrant. Every single person that works for government is your enemy, dude.”
You can see the video below:
;Appearing on CNN on Friday morning, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel lashed out at Attorney General Bill Barr for testifying in July that he was unaware of threats against the state’s governor -- saying he was either ignorant of what is going on in his department or he committed perjury.
On Thursday, the Detroit News reported on a plan by right-wing militia members to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and place her on trial, while noting that Barr had pleaded ignorance when asked about people with threatening signs at anti-Whitmer rallies.
Speaking with CNN host John Berman, Nessel said too little attention is being paid to Barr's words before a House committee.
"Can I bring up a point that no one seems to be talking about?" Nessel asked the host. "Over the summer United States Attorney General Bill Barr testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee that he had no idea that there were any threats being made at all to the governor of the state of Michigan."
She then added, "And yet, his own authorities were actively working to foil these types of plans and these threats, which seems very curious to me that either, A: he didn't know what was happening in his own Justice Department or, B: he committed perjury."
Watch below:
Speaking with "New Day" hosts Alisyn Camerota and John Berman, CNN White House correspondent John Harwood claimed Donald Trump is acting even more erratic than usual and suggested that the president's illness is likely worse than the White House is letting on.
"He wants this weekend to go to hold rallies in Florida for one and his doctor it appears has given him the green light to do so, but we don't know what's happening with his health," host Camerota began. "We don't know if he's tested positive or negative. When last we checked he was still on the steroid, but we have no idea because other than giving him the green light, we just haven't gotten a lot of transparency."
"Alisyn, the president has always been somebody who behaved erratically," Harwood replied. "He seems to be behaving more erratically than usual right now in a way that makes him a danger to himself as well as people around him. He has insisted on going to the Oval Office, even though he is very likely still infectious with COVID."
"He is making these rapid reversals by saying, 'oh, I'm going to kill the stimulus talks,' then 'I'm going to revive the stimulus talks,' 'I'm going to pull out of the debate. No, now I want a debate.' This is odd behavior from the president. As you mentioned, he is on a powerful steroid for treatment of his coronavirus. We have not heard directly from his doctor -- we get these vague statements that he puts out, we've gotten taped statements."
"We expect to see him on camera today on Fox, but we do not know if the president is getting healthier or not and certainly from -- to judge from his behavior, he is not well right now," he added.
Watch below:
MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski called on administration officials to pull the plug on President Donald Trump.
The "Morning Joe" co-host has been forbidden by her husband and co-host Joe Scarborough from talking about the 25th Amendment every day, but the president's conduct since his COVID-19 diagnosis allowed for a reprieve.
"We're dealing with a president who, on the same day, did not condemn the plot to kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and also perhaps incited the potential attack by tweeting 'liberate Michigan' and dog whistles and refused to condemn white supremacy in 'stand back and stand by,' and even on this day that this plot was announced and unfolding before us, she talked to the Michiganders and the president is criticizing her," Brzezinski said. "This man is crazy. He's not well. He's cruel, and everything that he appears to be saying and doing is leading to a place where, why wouldn't anyone and everyone who could be considering the 25th Amendment right now?"
CNN's John Avlon on Friday said that there were increasing signs that President Donald Trump's tight grip on the Republican Party may be slipping from his grasp.
During his latest "Reality Check" segment, Avlon took stock of Republicans who have started distancing themselves from the president ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
"The fever may be starting to break," he observed. "Badly trailing in the polls and wounded by self-sabotage, there are signs that some Republicans are starting to back away from Donald Trump."
The CNN contributor then noted that Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) recently refused to say whether she was proud to support the president at a recent debate with Democratic rival Mark Kelly, which Avlon believes shows that the president's polling numbers in the state make him a political millstone.
"Turns out trump's a liability in Arizona with his repeated insults to Hispanics and the state's favorite son, John McCain," he said. "Sure, the base loves trump. But get this: Independents make up 32% of registered voters in Arizona, and trump has just a 37 percent approval among independents nationwide."
Avlon notes that GOP senators including Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Joni Ernst (R-IA) have also been struggling with how much they're going to stand by the president.
"Here's the deal: Donald Trump is a drag on the ticket," Avlon said. "He's been so focused on projecting strength to the base that it's obscured the fact that he's weak with the general electorate."
Watch the video below.
During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," longtime Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said the "floor has fallen out from under" Donald Trump as his re-election hopes grow increasingly distant and a Joe Biden landslide appears imminent.
With "Morning Joe" co-panelist Jonathan Lemire noting that the president has not done any on-camera appearances all week, choosing to do call-ins to Fox News instead, Robinson said the president is not in good shape both healthwise and politically.
With MSNBC host Joe Scarborough quoting from a Robinson column saying "president's unmoored behavior is only going to get worse," Robinson conceded everyone should be nervous about what the president will do next.
"I don't just fear it," Robinson began. "I mean, you can see it and, you know, at the moment you don't know if this is, in fact, being boosted by the steroid Dexamethasone that gives people the energy and this euphoria and frankly makes them a little crazy a lot of the time."
"It's ramping up," he continued. "He looks at the polls, he sees that he's not just losing, he's losing badly and it looks as if the floor has fallen out from under him. I mean, the numbers we were -- we have seen over the past week -- have been landslide numbers for Joe Biden and, you know, maybe they will regress to the mean at some point and the race will go back to where it was but where it was is, you know, a seven or eight-point lead for Biden and Trump -- he's frantic about this."
"So, you know, calling yesterday morning for his predecessor and his opponent and his previous opponent to be arrested by his -- and lambasting his attorney general for not getting that done," he continued. "Lambasting his secretary of state for not properly persecuting Hillary Clinton, and you know, expressing the disappointment in the head of the FBI that he installed, for not getting this job done."
"This is not the America that we thought, at least, we were living in and that we thought was our country and this just has to end" he added. "But it's going to get worse. It's going to get more frantic and it will be a test of all of these next four weeks."
Watch below:
A former CIA and Defense Department official declared the U.S. is "at war" against right-wing terrorists, even if the Trump administration doesn't seem to agree.
The FBI arrested six men who allegedly plotted to kidnap and possibly murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which President Donald Trump and one of his campaign spokesmen appeared to justify, and MSNBC contributor Jeremy Bash called them out for promoting terrorism.
"The president is undermining law and order when he supports these groups, these white supremacist groups, these militias, and when he undermines the work of the FBI to confront them," said Bash, the former chief of staff at the Department of Defense and CIA under President Barack Obama.
"Terrorism is classically defined as when an organization tries to use violence to achieve a political outcome, and I think that's exactly what's happening here with these organizations, these groups, these conspiracies, in Michigan," he added. "Their purpose really was to fracture state government, to ignite a civil war, to take down a sitting governor and they believe they had support, I think, from many others in the country, including potentially some in Washington."
The president attacked Whitmer, even as he condemned the plot against her, but Trump also called for corrupt prosecutions against his political enemies and suggested he would not accept an election loss.
"Just as this is happening, as [host] Joe [Scarborough] tied this all together with respect to the president saying he wanted to jail his opponent, did not commit to the peaceful transfer of power, you have Republican senators like Mike Lee of Utah, who is tweeting that democracy is not the objective of the United States," Bash said. "I urge people to go back and look at what he put out yesterday about that. That is code, that is code for authoritarianism for autocracy. Maybe he meant some academic point he didn't convey well, but I think if we don't make clear that democracy is our objective you'll see a lot more of these kind of activities, and this is dangerous."
"This is domestic terrorism and this needs to be confronted," he added. "We are at war with these organizations, and we better act like it."
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