It's time to choose, Biden tells Republicans in fiery voting rights speech
January 12, 2022
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An admission by House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) that he helped publicize a 2015 leak of a journalist’s private emails is casting a cloud over his investigations into President Joe Biden's administration but also his desire to question Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
As the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger wrote, Comer "'confirmed, for the first time' that he had helped orchestrate the 2015 leak of a journalist’s private emails. His campaign then used the leak -- unsuccessfully -- to combat domestic abuse allegations during Comer’s ill-fated Kentucky gubernatorial run."
That, in turn, has raised questions about Comer's ethics, to say nothing of the hypocrisy, as he attempts, as he did on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday to make his case that he wants to investigate the Manhattan grand jury proceedings looking at Donald Trump.
According to the Beast report, "During the 2015 primary, the Comer campaign tied those leaked emails to a grand jury investigation into local blogger and erstwhile attorney Michael J. Adams, who had been publishing rumors of the abuse allegations since the early stages of Comer’s run. But the Comer campaign was itself responsible for putting that grand jury into motion in the first place, when Comer’s running mate, Chris McDaniel, passed other emails he’d received from the blogger to a county prosecutor, Rob Sanders—who also happened to be a political ally."
READ MORE: Trump might be forced to shut up if he's finally charged with a crime
Congressional Integrity Project president Kyle Herrig is now questioning Comer's use of his committee and said an investigation into his prior activities is warranted.
“While Comer may have grown accustomed to leading political stunts that don’t pack much of a punch, a law enforcement investigation in Kentucky into his apparent admission that he illegally hacked a server and leaked documents would have serious consequences,” he told the Beast.
You can read more here.
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Donald Trump has been hurling ominous warnings and racist insults against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ahead of a possible indictment, and legal experts fear those threats could provoke violence in the same way his rhetoric fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The former president has attacked state and federal prosecutors "thugs," claimed two Black districts attorney are "racist" and used anti-Semitic tropes to suggests he's the victim of a "globalist" conspiracy and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the prosecutors who are investigating him, reported The Guardian.
“Trump cannot stop the judicial process, although he can try to slow it," said Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor. "But he can undermine its credibility through his charges and by mobilizing his supporters. I see what he’s doing now as aimed at them, just as he tried to discredit the election returns in their eyes and anger them with baseless charges over the 'steal.'"
Trump's legal defenses have recently weakened after federal courts required some of his top aides, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, to testify in the Jan. 6 grand jury investigation, and compelled the testimony of his current lawyer Evan Corcoran in the classified documents case, and prosecutions in Manhattan and Georgia also appear to be nearing conclusion.
“If I were on the prosecution teams in Manhattan or Georgia, I would expect Trump to assert every defense he can think of, including accusing the prosecutors of misconduct,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Michigan.
“None of these accusations about the motives of prosecutors, however, will negate the evidence of Trump’s own crimes," McQuade added. "A jury will focus on the facts and the law, and not any of this name calling. The Trump strategy may work in the court of public opinion, but not in a court of law."
Trump's lawyers are using his trusted stalling tactic by raising "specious" objections in Georgia, according to former Watergate prosecutor Phlip Lacovara, and Trump is “trying to pollute the jury pool” with attacks on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
“All he needs is one juror who believes this is all a concocted plot,” Lacovara said.
Trump used many of the same tactics in his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, which ultimately led to the deadly U.S. Capitol attack.
“This is more of what we saw during the election,” said Donald Ayer, who served as deputy attorney general in the George HW Bush administration. “He throws up gibberish and obstruction.”
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French President Emmanuel Macron's personal ratings are approaching their lowest recorded level over his handling of pension reform and protests, a poll indicated Tuesday.
The survey by the Odoxa polling group said only 30 percent of respondents thought he was a "good" president, down by six percentage points in a month, while 70 percent judged him negatively.
Macron's popularity is approaching the low reached in December 2018 during so-called "Yellow Vest" anti-government demonstrations, when only 27 percent of people held positive views of the president.
The survey, carried out for the Public Senat channel and regional newspapers, showed falls for most of the French political class amid increasingly violent protests against the government's bid to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen saw her favorability rating slump three percentage points to 32 percent, but the country's most popular political figure, Macron's first prime minister Edouard Philippe, skidded by seven points to 34 percent.
"If Edouard Philippe falls again next month, it's likely that for the first time in the history of our political trackers (meaning six or seven decades), we would have someone from the far-right at the head of our table," Odoxa said.
The survey showed that 71 percent of respondents favored a referendum on raising the pension age and 67 percent would vote against, with opposition to the move relatively stable since the start of the year.
Rubbish on streets
Other surveys have also confirmed a slump in Macron's ratings as rubbish builds up in the streets of Paris due a strike by refuse collectors and protesters blocking ports and refineries.
Tuesday marked the 10th day of national strikes and protests organized by trade unions since the start of the year.
A poll by the BVA group published on Monday showed that 28 percent had a positive view of the president, the lowest level since November 2018.
A tracking poll by the Ifop group published on March 19 showed 28 percent of respondents were "satisfied" with the president, not far off the low of 23 percent reached during the "Yellow Vest" crisis.
Even at these low levels, Macron is still more popular than his predecessor Francois Hollande while he was in office.
Hollande, a Socialist, plumbed historic depths to a four percent approval rating after the publication of a disastrous tell-all book that ended his hopes of seeking re-election.
Like his highly contested predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande has bounced back since leaving office and now figures among the most-liked political figures in France.
© 2023 AFP
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