A federal judge has rejected efforts by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to keep its mass email marketing records from the House Select Committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The committee is seeking records held by business software company Salesforce in connection with its work with former President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection campaign to determine if Trump's fund-raising emails encouraged the violence of the mob that tried to prevent confirmation of Joe Biden as the duly-elected president, according to the Washington Post, which described the judge's ruling as a "thorough victory" for the January 6 committee.
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly of Washington rejected the RNC’s claims that its and the Trump campaign’s information was protected under the First Amendment. Kelly also affirmed the committee's Constitutionally-granted legislative power to obtain the records and found that judges cannot interfere with how lawmakers obtain and use information.
Kelly's ruling late Sunday temporarily blocks Salesforce from releasing any records to the House before Wednesday to give the national GOP committee time to appeal. The RNC sued the committee in early March seeking to quash the subpoena it had issued to Salesforce on Feb. 23.
“It is hard to imagine a more important interest for Congress than to preserve its own ability to carry out specific duties assigned to it under the Constitution,” Kelly wrote in a 53-page opinion issued shortly before midnight. “To repeat: according to the Select Committee, its investigation and public reporting suggest that claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent or stolen motivated some who participated in the attack, and emails sent by the RNC and the Trump campaign using Salesforce’s platform spread those claims.”
One email, sent an hour before rioters breached police lines at the Capitol that day urged supporters to “FIGHT BACK,” under another header stating, “This is our LAST CHANCE.”
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough mocked former President Donald Trump for botching the name of the candidate he endorsed for the Ohio Republican Senate primary.
The former president backed venture capitalist and "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance over former state treasurer Josh Mandel, but he combined their names during a speech at a campaign rally in Nebraska, telling supporters he had endorsed "J.D. Mandel."
"Oh, my God," Scarborough said, hooting with laughter. "You know, you know, if the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue had done that, there would be headlines for, like, months. 'Oh, he can't remember,' which, of course, underlines the fact, how funny it is, you have people, right-wing Trumpists attacking Joe Biden for his mental acuity, right before Donald Trump couldn't remember who he endorsed."
The "Morning Joe" host recalled when Trump boasted that he had aced a cognitive test used to determine whether a person has dementia.
"What were the six or seven words he could remember?" Scarborough said.
Trump bragged that he remembered the words "person, woman, man, camera, TV," which he said astonished medical personnel, and Scarborough joked that perhaps the two GOP candidates could be fused together instead of running against one another.
"This from the former president was a remarkable performance, perhaps fusing together these Republican candidates, maybe he thinks it'll be the best chance in Ohio," Scarborough said. "Seriously, the guy -- like, what planet is he on?"
Early voting officially kicks off Monday for the 2022 midterm elections with sky-high stakes freighted with the never-ending relitigation of the 2020 presidential election.
Over the next several weeks Georgians will cast ballots for the May 24 primaries that will determine the Republican and Democratic nominees for governor, U.S. Senate, congressional districts, secretary of state and other tests of the state’s budding battleground status.
The primary is the first statewide election since the election overhaul implemented by Republican lawmakers in spring 2020 that reshaped absentee voting, set new deadlines when provisional ballots can be cast, added an extra Saturday of early voting, and gave the state power to take over local election boards deemed to be underperforming.
Over the coming months, progressive voting rights groups are poised to closely monitor the effects of changes they charge are suppressing Black voters and other marginalized groups who helped secure Georgia’s two Senate seats and Joe Biden’s narrow Georgia win over Donald Trump for president.
Voting rights organizations are increasing their effort to educate the public about the voting law and resources like ones offered by a coalition of 100 organizations that allow voters who have questions or problems to report them at 866-OUR-VOTE.
Even with the efforts some say make it harder to vote, Common Cause Georgia Executive Director Aunna Dennis said there’s a strong counter effort to ensure every eligible voter can cast a ballot.
“But the anti-voter legislation that’s been pushed through our legislature means that it will be harder for some voters to vote this year,” she said in a statement. “So it’s more important than ever for Georgia voters to make a plan to vote – and maybe make a backup plan, too.”
This year’s party primaries feature a heated race between Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and former U.S. Sen. David Perdue and a crowded U.S. senate field led by former University of Georgia football great Herchel Walker trying to break out of the pack to take on Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock on Nov. 8.
And as people head to the polls, the most important push from voting rights champions is for Georgians to vote early and inform their coworkers, families, and others about the new rules and to check on their status, said Jamil Favors, a co-founder of Atlanta-based nonprofit Power the Vote.
As a result of the new law, the deadline for requesting and submitting absentee ballots is shorter and drop boxes will no longer be available around the clock but only during early voting hours.
Under the new law, Republicans officials trumpeted a plan to replace a comparatively subjective signature match for absentee ballots with a more objective driver’s license, other state ID or requiring a photocopy of a utility bill, bank statement or government check to verify identity.
“That’s going to significantly affect many individuals who may not have that license or may not have a photocopier to take a copy of their utility bill,” Favors said. “And these things may seem small, but they’re really small cuts that are deep cuts to truly keep people away from the ballot box.”
Georgians will also have more difficulty requesting an absentee via an online portal under the new law since they will need a signed document in order to apply.
Georgian officials with the secretary of state’s office counter 97% of eligible voters already have a government ID.
It is proving difficult for many election supervisors in Georgia to find enough poll workers after the pandemic led to the older ones opting out. Meanwhile, threats to poll workers grew across Georgia in the wake of discredited claims by Trump and his allies of a fraudulent election.
The new voting law isn’t factoring into the struggles of Cobb County in hiring enough staff for an election, where Election Director Janine Eveler expects a strong turnout to settle the many contested races.
But how those votes are cast should be different from 2020’s presidential preference primary when a record 1.1 million absentee ballots were cast across Georgia.
“Absentee voting will not be as popular as in 2020. More people are comfortable voting in person now and absentee voting is much harder than before with more restrictive deadlines,” Eveler said.
As a result of the new law, provisional ballots cast at a wrong polling place before 5 p.m. on Election Day will not be counted. The proponents of this change say it will give voters a chance to vote on all the candidates on the ballot. But others say it will make it more confusing for poll workers and will leave thousands of people without enough time to cast their votes.
“I think part of the problem with this law in particular is just how unnecessarily complex a rule that changes at five o’clock on Election Day is,” said Saira Amir Draper, a co-founder of Power the Vote and a Democratic candidate for state House District 90.
In 2020, the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot was three days before the election, but now voters must request the ballot 11 days before the election, which means the deadline is May 13 for the primaries.
While a large number of groups, including presumptive governor candidate Democrat Stacey Abrams, founder of the New Georgia Project, and former Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s Greater Georgia, are pushing to get more voters registered, the largest driving force in signing up new voters – the automatic registration process through the Department of Driver Service – had its percentage fall by half over the last year.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that when the agency shut off automatic voter registration after a design of its website, registrations decreased from 35,000 in February 2020 to less than 6,000 in the month the following year.
Draper, who is also a former director of the Democratic Party of Georgia’s voter protection division, said that drop should have sounded off alarms within state agencies workers that the system was flawed.
What to know heading into the May 24 primary
Georgians can view their registration status, update their contact information, and more at the secretary of state’s My Voter Page. Voters who have problems with the website can confirm their poll location by contacting their county elections office.
Monday: Early voting begins with polls open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
May 7 and 14: Saturday early voting.
May 13: Deadline to submit application for absentee ballot.
May 20: Last day of early voting.
May 24: Election Day. Polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
Joe Biden’s got jokes. The president took his critics — and even some friends — down a notch or two Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the first time a sitting president has attended since President Barack Obama did so in 2016. Here are his and host Trevor Noah’s best jokes from the Nerd Prom. On Trump“This is the first time the president has attended this dinner in six years. It’s understandable. We had a horrible plague, followed by two years of COVID.” — Biden “I know there are questions about whether we should gather here tonight, because of COVID. Well, we’re here t...
Speaking to the crowd to promote Charles Herbster, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by eight women, Trump also named other candidates he hopes to elevate to the U.S. Capitol.
"You know, in Texas, on endorsements, I was 33 and 0, and if I lost one race they'd say, 'Trump was humiliated,'" said Trump. "That's what they're waiting for one race. You know we've endorsed Dr. Oz. We've endorsed JP? JD Mandel."
The person Trump said that he endorsed was JD Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy, and a close friend of Donald Trump Jr. In fact, Trump Jr has spent the past several weeks traveling with the candidate in an effort to get him elected. Vance was a strong opponent of Trump in 2016 and has only come around to support him in the past few years.
"Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades," Trump said in his statement on April 15. "He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race."
Josh Mandel has been a far-right candidate that desperately courted Trump's support ahead of the endorsement. Several of Trump's former staffers, including Hope Hicks, are working for Mandel and allies like Michael Flynn have appeared around the state with him.
“I'm confident we're going to win this primary on May 3. I'm looking forward to working with President Trump to beat the Democrats in November. There is no candidate in this race more America First than me,” Mandel said, speaking to reporter Chelsea Sick in a Dayton 24/7 interview.
Digital activist Matt Ortega responded by launching the campaign website for JP Mandel:
Former President Donald Trump went after President Joe Biden's mental fitness for office again in his speech before a Nebraska crowd. He explained that he scored exceptionally well when given the test by now-Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas.
The reality, however, is that the "test" was hardly a representation of what people with suspected dementia or Alzheimer's disease take. Tests for Alzheimer's or dementia take hours to gather the detail necessary. In the case of Alzheimer's disease, brain scans like MIR or CT are done to rule out other conditions.
"During the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), a health professional asks a patient a series of questions designed to test a range of everyday mental skills. The maximum MMSE score is 30 points," the Alzheimer's Association explains. "A score of 20 to 24 suggests mild dementia, 13 to 20 suggests moderate dementia, and less than 12 indicates severe dementia. On average, the MMSE score of a person with Alzheimer's declines about two to four points each year."
Trump's father had Alzheimer's, though studies have shown that if your mother has the disease, you are more likely to develop it than if your father suffered from it.
"To test memory, for example, the examiner reads five words at a rate of one per second and asks the subject to repeat them immediately and then again after some time has passed," the report described. "To assess attention and concentration, subjects are read a list of five digits and asked to repeat them in the order they were provided and then in reverse order. The subjects also are asked to count backward from 100 in increments of 7."
Trump notoriously told Fox that the questions were things that he should remember like "person, woman, man, camera, TV." There were five questions a the end of the test that Trump said he found difficult.
"The first few questions are easy, but I'll bet you couldn't even answer the last five questions. I'll bet you couldn't, they get very hard, the last five questions," Trump told to former Fox host Chris Wallace.
The last five questions were posted online, revealing that, in fact, they were remarkably simple. One asked for the naming of animals. Another asked him to recall the words, then read numbers backward. One question asked him to simply repeat the sentences, "I only know that John is the one to help today." Another sentence was "The cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room."
(Reuters) -U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday he will add provisions to a $33 billion Ukraine aid package to allow the United States to seize Russian oligarchs' assets and send money from their sale directly to Ukraine.
"Ukraine needs all the help it can get and, at the same time, we need all the assets we can put together to give Ukraine the aid it needs," Schumer said at a media briefing in New York City.
President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve $33 billion in assistance for Kyiv on Thursday in what would mark a dramatic escalation of U.S. funding for Ukraine more than two months after it was invaded by Russia.
Schumer said the Biden administration had asked lawmakers to insert provisions into the aid bill to help it seize assets, liquidate them and send Ukraine the money. The U.S. House of Representatives signaled its support for giving the administration more power to target oligarchs profiting from their association with Russian President Vladimir Putin when it approved non-binding legislation on Wednesday.
The $33 billion in funding for Ukraine, which lawmakers have said they want to approve quickly, would be used to provide weapons, ammunition and other military assistance, as well as direct economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Daniel Wallis)
Kari Lake, a former TV host who has been endorsed by Donald Trump for Arizona governor, suggested this week that she will not recognize Joe Biden as president if she wins the race.
During an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, Lake went over some of her campaign promises.
"We would like to lower taxes as well," she said. "We're going to start with the sales tax because that affects every single Arizonan. And especially under Joe Biden's inflation. We need need to make things more affordable any way we can."
"I'm not going to take orders, though, from an illegitimate president like Joe Biden," Lake added. "Arizona is going to do things the Arizona way."
Meanwhile, the former president has falsely been claiming success in his endorsements.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed to have a perfect record when it comes to political endorsements, but his applause line at rallies went over less effectively when he told it to The New York Times.
Trump was interviewed for an article the newspaper published under the headline, "Why Republican Insurgents Are Struggling to Topple G.O.P. Governors."
"Trump-inspired and Trump-endorsed candidates for governor have put up spirited opposition in May primaries across five states, but they are facing strong headwinds. In addition to Ohio, where Gov. Mike DeWine holds a polling lead of nearly 20 percentage points over [Jim] Renacci, Republican governors in Alabama, Georgia and Idaho are so far holding off Trump-wing candidates," Reid Epstein reported. "For Mr. Trump, who regularly boasts of his approval rating among Republican voters and his endorsement record in primaries, the prospect of losing primaries — especially in Georgia, where he has for more than a year attacked [Brian] Kemp — would be an embarrassing setback."
(Reuters) - The month of May brings DonaldTrump the biggest test of his political clout since the end of his presidency, as candidates he has endorsed contest Republican primaries that will set the stage for November's midterm congressional elections.
Trump-backed candidates in Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina face active and well-funded challengers seeking the Republican nomination to run for U.S. Senate. The former president has also backed a challenger to Georgia's sitting Republican governor, who angered Trump by rejected his false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud.
They are among the highest-profile -- and in the case of the Senate, most critical for the party -- of the more than 150 candidates for federal, state and local races Trump has endorsed this year. Their races will be closely scrutinized for any sign that Trump's iron-clad grip on his party could be waning as he flirts with a possible 2024 White House run.
"It's important for him to maintain that perception, and perhaps a reality, that he is a king-maker in the Republican Party," said Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist, cautioning: "The Trump endorsement is still powerful, but it's not undefeatable."
Victories in May by some of Trump's more controversial Senate picks, including former football star Herschel Walker in Georgia and television doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, would not guarantee success in the Nov. 8 general elections and missteps could allow Democrats to hold onto their razor-thin Senate majority.
Polls show that at least one of Trump's May picks, Senate candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio, is leading going into his Tuesday primary. But Oz trails rival David McCormick ahead of the May 17 Pennsylvania primary and former Senator David Perdue lags Georgia Governor Brian Kemp heading into their May 24 matchup.
Poor performances by Trump-backed candidates may not diminish his support with his core supporters. Reuters/Ipsos polling last week showed 83% of Republicans view the former president favorably and 40% said he is the leader who best represents their party, well ahead of the 25% for his nearest potential rival for the 2024 nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
"His power base is tens of millions of disaffected voters around the country," said Justin Sayfie of Ballard Partners, a Florida-based lobbying firm with ties to Trump. "No matter what happens to his endorsed candidates, I don't think it will change the conventional wisdom that he would still be the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for 2024."
Trump is expected to finalize a midterms spending plan for his massive war chest following the contests in Ohio and Pennsylvania, sources told Reuters last month.
A spokesman for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
TRUMP'S CANDIDATES
Trump stunned Ohio Republicans on April 15 by endorsing Vance, a venture capitalist and author who has been bitterly critical of the former president.
More than 40 Republican officials had written to Trump urging him to not endorse Vance, arguing that his history of criticizing Trump would be fodder for his Democratic opponent.
Following Trump's endorsement, a Fox News poll showed Vance leaping 12 percentage points from a previous poll to notch the support of 23% of primary voters, whereas opponent Josh Mandel lost 2 points to poll at 18%. Still, 25% of voters said they were undecided.
In Pennsylvania, Trump's April 9 endorsement of Oz has done little to move the polls, with the latest survey showing a tight race with former hedge fund CEO McCormick.
In a Monmouth University poll released last week, 61% of Pennsylvania Republicans say they were "very likely" to vote for McCormick compared to 51% for Oz.
In North Carolina, polls show Trump-backed Senate candidate Representative Ted Budd leading rival former Governor Pat McCrory, though a crowded field in that race could force a July run-off.
In Georgia, Trump defied the Republican establishment by encouraging Perdue to challenge popular incumbent Kemp, who infuriated Trump by certifying the 2020 election results that showed President Joe Biden defeated him in the state.
Perdue lagged Kemp by some 20 points in a recent poll published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Georgia is going to be the proving ground for what the rest of the country is going to see: It's time to turn the page," said Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, an anti-Trump Republican.
Even Trump's faith in Perdue appears to be wavering. At a Georgia rally in March, Trump turned to Perdue and said: "I hope, David, you're going to be the governor. Or I just wasted a helluva lot a time tonight."
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco and Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)
President Joe Biden's Saturday evening speech at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner drew anger from the Republican National Committee.
"This is the first time the president attended this dinner in six years. It's understandable, we had a horrible plague followed by two years of Covid," Biden joked in a video posted to Twitter by the organization.
"Joe Biden just called President Trump 'a horrible plague.' Reminder: Biden ran on uniting the country," the RNC posted to Twitter.
The clip did not include Biden's following line, "Just imagine, if my predecessor came to this dinner this year, now that would have been a real coup if that occurred."
Comedian Trevor Noah hosted this year's dinner, the first held since the pandemic.
President Joe Biden roasted his predecessor during a Saturday evening speech to the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
"This is the first time the president attended this dinner in six years," Biden said. "It's understandable, we had a horrible plague followed by two years of Covid."
"Just imagine, if my predecessor came to this dinner this year, now that would have been a real coup if that occurred," he said.
"A little tough, huh?" Biden said with a smile.
The annual event, often referred to as "nerd prom," featured Trevor Noah as the host.
Trump attended the 2011 dinner at which host Seth Meyers said, "Trump said he's running as a Republican. Which is surprising; I just assumed he was running as a joke."
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) caved to public pressure from Donald Trump and his supporters and extended the state's controversial audit of the 2020 election, but the man tasked with the review shared the stage with some of the speaker's biggest critics on Saturday.
"Michael Gableman got a reprieve a few days ago, when Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced the former state Supreme Court justice could continue his taxpayer-funded review of the 2020 election that was supposed to end in April. On Saturday, Gableman responded by appearing on a stage with some of the Republican speaker’s most vocal critics on the right, including Vos’ primary opponent," Patrick Marley reported for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Gableman spoke at the rally on the state Capitol steps immediately after Vos’ opponent, Adam Steen, called the speaker a "treasonous traitor."
"The event featured a who’s who of Vos’ conservative critics who have maintained he has not done enough to review Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in Wisconsin. (Vos' many critics on the left say just the opposite — that he has spent too much time and money on studying an election that recounts and courts have found was properly conducted)," the newspaper explained. "Also speaking were Rep. Tim Ramthun, a Campbellsport Republican running for governor who has squabbled with Vos; Jefferson Davis, a former Menomonee Falls village president and frequent Vos critic; and Rep. Janel Brandtjen, the Menomonee Falls Republican who leads the Assembly Elections Committee."
Gableman was hired by Vos and given a budget of $676,000.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday will begin selecting a special grand jury to investigate Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
The move comes 482 days after The Washington Postpublished a damning recording of Trump pressuring GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" to make up the margin he lost to Joe Biden.
"The jury selection process will kick off amid recent reports that a separate grand jury in New York has fizzled after six months without bringing any charges against the former president," Mother Jonesreported Saturday. "The investigation is likely to proceed along a drawn-out timeframe. Willis previously told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she will wait to issue subpoenas until after Georgia’s primaries in late May to avoid the appearance that she’s attempting to influence the election for politically motivated reasons."
Raffensperger released the audio recording to The Post after Trump tweeted about the call and said the secretary of state "had no clue."
In February, Willis told Rachel Maddow the investigation would go beyond the call.
Criminal Investigation Of Trump In Georgia Takes Key Step With Special Grand Jury Request
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In the call, Trump repeated his false claims of winning and implied that Raffensperger could lose re-election if he did not overturn the will of the voters. Two month later, in March of 2021, Trump endorsed Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), who is waging a primary campaign against the incumbent secretary of state.
Full Phone Call: Trump Pressures Georgia Secretary of State To Recount Election Votes | NBC News
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