Hope Hicks tells Jan. 6 committee Trump ignored warnings about election fraud: 'Only thing that matters is winning'
December 19, 2022, 1:53 PM ET
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Erik Wallenberg, a visiting professor at the New College of Florida and a detractor of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' efforts to take over the state's higher educational system, was unceremoniously removed, leaving the campus without a professor who teaches U.S. history, the Miami New Times reported this week.
"Though he'd been an outspoken critic of New College's recent anti-'woke' overhaul, the axing of his teaching position made little sense to Wallenberg from an academic standpoint," reported Naomi Feinstein. "'The social sciences department had been supportive of his planned return for another year, he had received positive student evaluations, and he had just published an American history research paper."
In an interview with the Miami New Times, Wallenberg elaborated on why he was surprised by his dismissal.
"They have no U.S. historians in the department, and they need someone to teach U.S. history," he told the publication. "They asked if I would come back, and I said I would definitely be interested, so they said, 'Great, we'll send over the offer letter to the provost's office,' and then the head of the social sciences division told me that it was being held up by interim president Richard Corcoran.'"
IN OTHER NEWS: Trump rails at DOJ 'fascists and Marxists' over looming charges: 'I did nothing wrong -- fight!'
Wallenberg's status remained in limbo for six weeks before he was told that Corcoran, a DeSantis appointtee, would not sign off on his offer letter.
The New College of Florida, located in Sarasota, has been ground zero of DeSantis' experiment to exert right-wing control over higher education. He has appointed a number of far-right activists to oversee the school, including Chris Rufo, a filmmaker who architected the GOP moral panic against "Critical Race Theory." The Florida legislature actually rejected one of DeSantis' chosen trustees, Eddie Speir, due to his stated goal of wanting to use the position to proselytize about Jesus to students.
Wallenberg's own personal criticism of DeSantis may not be the only factor in his dismissal, the report noted.
"On April 20, Wallenberg had Black historian and outspoken DeSantis critic Marvin Dunn speak to his class for a lecture about Black history in the state and threats to educational freedom. Wallenberg says the social sciences division head supported Dunn coming to campus," the report noted. However, "Dunn's presence on campus was bound to ruffle feathers among DeSantis' newly installed college higher-ups. The professor emeritus at Florida International University was one of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit in August 2022 to block DeSantis' so-called Stop WOKE Act, which restricts the teaching of systemic racism in public schools. And he has not held back in his opposition to the governor's education agenda. (He recently told New Times, 'We will not allow DeSantis to kill our history. We just won't allow it.')"
All of this comes at a time when Florida's K-12 school system is also in crisis over DeSantis-backed laws prohibiting any expression of queerness and book censorship that pushed one school to strip its library shelves bare. It also comes as DeSantis mounts a campaign for president, trying to sell the country on the agenda he has pushed in Florida.
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Trump rails at DOJ 'fascists and Marxists' over looming charges: 'I did nothing wrong -- fight!'
June 06, 2023
Donald Trump raged against investigators as an indictment looms over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, and he urged his followers to "fight" on his behalf.
Lawyers for the former president met with the Department of Justice on Monday to argue against an indictment in the Mar-a-Lago case, and Trump issued a denial the following morning insisting that he had not broken any laws and misleadingly compared his handling of sensitive materials to President Joe Biden and former vice president Mike Pence.
"The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Joe Biden kept (keeps) thousand of documents, in many locations, some illegally taken from skiffs while he was a Senator, a big portion of which were classified. He didn’t want to give them back, and still doesn’t. Nothing happens to him, with same reasonable prosecutor who correctly exonerated Mike Pence. I have a much different prosecutor, a Trump hater!"
Trump accused the Department of Justice of targeting him because Republicans were investigating Biden and his son, and to prevent him from winning a second term after losing in 2020.
RELATED: 'Nihilistic moron' Trump heading for another indictment: George Conway
"It’s all about ELECTION INTERFERENCE," Trump posted. "They don’t want to run against me. I ran twice, I did much better the second time, getting millions and millions more votes than the first, a record for a sitting President, and am leading Biden in the polls, by a lot. They are the Party of Disinformation! They are using the DOJ & FBI against me to Rigg the 2024 Election. They’ll hit Hunter [Biden] with something small to make their strike on me look 'fair.' Nothing about these Fascists is fair or honest. FIGHT!"
"They are also going after me as RETRIBUTION for the Republicans in Congress going after them," Trump added. "The difference is, they have created major crimes, I have created none!"
The FBI conducted a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August after the National Archives determined the former president had not returned all government documents, as required by law, and investigators found dozens of boxes filled with sensitive materials after Trump's lawyers had provided sworn certification that all those records had been returned.
Special counsel Jack Smith obtained a recording showing that Trump knew he had retained classified material after leaving office and suggested he would like to share that information but knew his authority was limited to declassify records since he was no longer president.
Biden's attorneys discovered the president had classified materials from his time as vice president and immediately returned them to the National Archives, and he permitted a search of his private residence in Delaware that turned up additional documents that were also returned.
Attorneys for Pence also found classified materials at the former vice president's residence in Indiana, which were immediately returned to the National Archives, and the DOJ closed its investigation of that matter and found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Republicans in Georgia are bracing for a new round of bitter infighting over a proposal being pitched by a hard-right faction of the party to block Republicans the group deems "traitors" from serving in office.
According to the AJC, Georgia Republican Assembly head Alex Johnson on Monday night tried to rally support for the proposal while also assailing what he called the "paid political class" for trying to kill it.
“Right now, they buy the seats,” he fumed. “Do we get a seat at the table or are we left with whoever bought the primaries?”
The proposal in question would give the roughly 1,500 delegates in the Georgia Republican Party the power to veto any candidate from representing the party in a general election, even if they receive the most votes in a primary race.
IN OTHER NEWS: 'This is it': CNN legal expert says Trump documents probe has reached its endgame
However, even some right-wing Republicans who are sympathetic to the plan are now lobbying against it because they fear it could easily backfire on their own ideological allies.
Former Republican Georgia state legislator Philip Singleton tells the AJC that the establishment wing of the party could enact a takeover of the state party apparatus and then use the proposal to block far-right candidates from running under the GOP banner.
"This rule is like the Georgia GOP jumping into a lion’s den, pulling the lion’s tail and waiting to see who will get bit,” he said. “My bet is everyone.”
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