Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, politicians on both sides of the aisle in the United States have taken strong positions in support of Ukraine. Those actions have included pouring Russian vodka down the drain and divesting investments in Russian companies.
In Florida, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio introduced legislation that would bar U.S. institutions from investing in Russian securities. “We need to minimize the resultant harm to Americans, including teachers and retirees, who have pensions and retirement accounts invested in Russian securities,” Rubio said at the time. “Many Americans do not even realize that fund managers have placed their money in these Russian companies.”
But as Politico reports, sunshine state Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn't appear to have a sense of urgency about having the state ditch the investments its $200 billion pension plan has in Russian entities. Gary Fineout of Politico writes, "DeSantis is never shy about offering his views on foreign policy issues during his tenure, whether it be about Israel, China or Latin America," but has been uncharacteristically silent about Russia.
The Florida governor did make some comments early on about the Russian invasion and offered criticism of Vladimir Putin, but he has spent more time deriding President Joe Biden over his handling of the European war crisis.
Democrats in Florida are not happy with what they see as DeSantis's foot-dragging. At the end of last week, 11 Democratic members of Florida’s Congressional delegation signed a letter calling on DeSantis to act. Politico reports that no GOP members would sign onto the letter.
“Urgently isolating Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs saves Ukrainian lives, and I’m repulsed that DeSantis and his fellow Republicans refuse to divest Florida’s Russian-tied assets," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a statement. "I’m also stunned that, given the chance, Florida’s Republican members of Congress refused to sign this straightforward letter urging their counterparts in Tallahassee to wipe this blood-stained money off Florida’s investment books.”
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U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has bragged that he was “leading the charge” to ensure Joe Biden was not certified as the rightful winner of the 2020 election. But until now the depths and extent of his actions, including that he was "working directly with Trump to concoct a plan that came closer than widely realized to keeping him in power," have not been widely known.
That's according to a report by The Washington Post on Monday that reveals one day after major news outlets called the election for Joe Biden, Donald Trump, still the President of the United States, made "an urgent call" to Sen. Cruz, asking him if he would be willing to argue Trump's just-filed case at the Supreme Court.
“Sure, I’d be happy to” if the court granted a hearing, Cruz said he responded.
The call was just one step in a collaboration that for two months turned the once-bitter political enemies into close allies in the effort to keep Trump in the White House basedon the president’s false claims about a stolen election.
The Post adds another important revelation: Cruz's longtime friend is John Eastman, the author of the "coup memos," who retired from his post at the Chapman University School of Law after news of he memos became public. Eastman, who still serves as the chairman of an anti-LGBTQ organization, the National Organization For Marriage (NOM), is currently facing an ethics investigation from the California State Bar Assoc.
The House Select Committee of the January 6 Attack is now interested in Cruz's relationship with Eastman.
"As Eastman outlined a scenario in which Vice President Mike Pence could deny certifying Biden’s election, Cruz crafted a complementary plan in the Senate," the Post explains. "He proposed objecting to the results in six swing states and delaying accepting the electoral college results on Jan. 6 in favor of a 10-day 'audit' — thus potentially enabling GOP state legislatures to overturn the result."
U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the top Republican on the Committee, has said: "I think that Senator Cruz knew exactly what he was doing. I think that Senator Cruz is somebody who knows what the Constitution calls for, knows what his duties and obligations are, and was willing, frankly, to set that aside.”
Eastman pleaded the Fifth when asked by an attorney for the Committee if he had “any communication with Senator Ted Cruz regarding efforts to change the outcome of the 2020 election.”
Cruz canceled a scheduled interview with The Post, and through a spokesperson said: "To the best of his recollection, he did not read the Eastman memo until months after January 6, when it was publicly reported."
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign the possibly unconstitutional"Don't Say Gay" bill, which mandates schools "out" LGBTQ students to parents, likely on Monday at a taxpayer-funded charter school that has two board-approved anti-LGBTQ clubs. The legislation also greatly restricts "classroom instruction" of any LGBTQ topics, issues, or people.
The highly-controversial legislation has made national headlines for months, with President Joe Biden denouncing it, and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona warning it could force Florida to lose federal funding.
Florida Politics was first to report Gov. DeSantis is expected to sign the "Don't Say Gay" bill at Classical Preparatory School. State Rep. Carlos G. Smith, one of the leading voices against the dangerous legislation, announced DeSantis is expected to sign it Monday.
The school's website shows it has just a handful of board-approved clubs, including two exceptionally anti-LGBTQ ones. Coincidentally, the link to the school's anti-bullying policy, at the very bottom of its website, is currently broken.
"After-school clubs are offered because they provide additional opportunities for leadership and intellectual growth. Each club is chosen by the administration and approved by the board to advance the mission and vision of the school," Classical Preparatory School's website states.
Among them, The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), possibly best-known as one of the groups Chick-fil-A used to sponsor, and Young America’s Foundation/Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), a group headed by former GOP governor Scott Walker, and one of the first groups former Vice President Mike Pence aligned with after leaving the White House. The school's website shows no Gay-Straight Alliance or GLSEN chapter.
"The FCA requires its leaders to agree with its vision, mission and statement of faith, and applicants must also agree to its non-denominational statement and sexual purity statement," Outsports reported in 2019.
"We believe God’s design for sexual intimacy is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, that God created man and woman to complement and complete each other," reads part of FCA's vision statement. "God instituted marriage between one man and one woman as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. For this reason, we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman."
Outsports reported this sexual purity statement is also required for applicants:
God desires His children to lead pure lives of holiness. The Bible is clear in teaching on sexual sin including sex outside of marriage and homosexual acts. Neither heterosexual sex outside of marriage nor any homosexual act constitute an alternative lifestyle acceptable to God.
YAF has been actively advocating for the "Don't Say Gay" bill's passage.
Last year YAF also tweeted: "Targeting our children with progressive LGBT ideas is evil." On Facebook it says, "LGBT propaganda should not be added to movies made for children."
Students across Florida have held walkouts protesting the legislation, which has exceptionally-broad and undefined language that bans "classroom instruction" on LGBTQ issues and people that is not "age-appropriate," and allows parents to sue if they feel the school has crossed that undefined line.
Donald Trump is making Republicans uneasy with the primary candidates he's endorsed in Michigan.
The former president has already endorsed 10 state legislative candidates, more than any other state, and nearly half a cozen congressional races and two others for statewide office, but some Republicans expressed doubts about the quality of the loyalist candidates he's backing, reported Politico.
“This is going to be a big year for Republicans, and the only way it won’t be is if we nominate candidates who are looking back, not forward,” said John Engler, a former three-term Michigan governor. "[He is] endorsing a lot of candidates who I think are going to lose.”
Michigan has emerged as the MAGA movement's proving ground, where Trump will test his influence over Republican voters and his own standing in the battleground state he'll need to flip back in 2024, assuming he runs again.
“Obviously he sees the importance of Michigan as a swing state,” said Matt Marko, president of the North Oakland Republican Club in suburban Detroit. “He’s trying to maintain his support.”
But his support was already shaky in Michigan, which he won in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden by more than 3 percent in 2020, and the GOP lost the governor's office, attorney general, secretary of state and majorities on the state Board of Education and state Supreme Court during his presidency.
“We don’t have a strong Republican political infrastructure here to stand up to him, or to compete with his influence over the grassroots,” said Jason Roe, the state GOP's former executive director. “It’s a no-man’s land, and you know, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”
After opening the Mesa County Republican Assembly in Grand Junction with a prayer, a singing of the national anthem, and recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, county GOP chairman Kevin McCarney invited his “adopted daughter” Rep. Lauren Boebert to the stage.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is being one of 147 who voted against certification of the 2020 election,” Boebert told the crowd of delegates and alternates gathered at the DoubleTree by Hilton on March 26. “It’s why we need Republicans in the majority. We can’t work with Biden, but we can sure investigate Biden.”
Local, state and national candidates were invited to speak for three minutes to the approximately 390 people attending the assembly. Delegates elected during the GOP caucus in early March were there to vote on county candidates they want on the primary ballot in June. State candidates will be decided in April at the Republican Convention and Assembly in Colorado Springs.
Boebert briefly referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as the “Chinese virus funded by Fauci” — a slam that former President Donald Trump used during his presidency that some say fueled ongoing hate crimes against Asian Americans.
Boebert received a standing ovation with chants of “Lauren, Lauren, Lauren” after she touted “Biden ignored 13 men and women who died on his watch.” Boebert heckled President Joe Biden with a similar phrase during the State of the Union address while he was speaking about his veteran son’s death to cancer and the many veterans who may have suffered injuries from toxic military burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tina Peters, the embattled Mesa County clerk and recorder, who was indicted earlier this month on 10 criminal counts of alleged tampering with election equipment, was also present, seeking supporters for her bid for Colorado secretary of state. While Peters remains the county clerk until the end of the year, Secretary of State Jena Griswold intends to strip her of election responsibilities.
Before Peters addressed the crowd, Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis spoke on behalf of Peters’ GOP opponent in the secretary of state race — former Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson.
“Something all Republicans can agree on is that we have the most radical secretary of state in Colorado,” Davis said. “We have a real opportunity to take this seat away from Jena Griswold. (Anderson) is the best option to beat Jena Griswold in the fall.”
Peters disagreed after she took the stage following Davis.
“I’m running as the only choice for secretary of state,” Peters said, adding that she is “a Christian and a Gold Star mom” who is being persecuted for opposing corruption.
“(Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell) suspended my concealed carry,” she said. “I could go on about the night I spent in jail while my father was dying. I could go on and on about two lawsuits against me, but I won’t. What God has called you to, he will call you through.
“There are three reasons I am running — report No. 1, report No. 2 and report No. 3,” a reference to reports that claim to demonstrate vulnerabilities with the Mesa County election system written by a member of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s cyber investigation team — reports debunked by election officials.
“Make no mistake; they’re coming after you,” Peters said. “You’re the real target. I’m just standing in the way.”
Replacing Peters
Hoping to succeed Peters as county clerk and recorder are Bobbie Gross and Julie Fisher. Both women accepted primary ballot nominations on Saturday. Gross currently serves as Mesa County treasurer and public trustee technician. She worked previously in the clerk and recorder’s office for 13 years and is a nationally certified elections administrator.
Fisher is currently employed in the clerk and recorder’s office where Peters promoted Fisher to “second chief deputy clerk” after Peters’ chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, was barred from the office pending criminal investigations against her.
Delegates voted for Fisher over Gross, 205 to 146. However, Gross received at least 30% of the votes, which qualifies her to be added to the primary ballot along with Fisher.
There are three routes candidates can take to secure a spot on the primary ballot: They can petition on by collecting, for a county office, 1,000 party signatures; attend a county assembly where a candidate must win at least 30% of the delegate votes; or participate in both the assembly and do a petition — the path that Gross took. The signature threshold is greater for statewide offices.
However, there’s a risk to doing both, said Gross. If you petition successfully, but don’t receive at least 10% of the vote at the assembly your petition doesn’t count, she said.
“I took the risk because the party process is dear to me and I felt I should do both,” she said.
Fisher also petitioned to get on the ballot but fell short collecting enough signatures. Chief Deputy Attorney General Natalie Leh has said Fisher is unfit to oversee elections in the county, because – like Peters and Knisley – she has not completed required state training on how to run elections.
Delegates also voted for Mesa County sheriff and District 2 county commissioner. Incumbent Rowell, who suspended Peters’ concealed weapons permit, received 191 precinct votes compared to challenger Bob Dalley’s 160. Both men will be on the primary ballot.
In the county commissioner election Bobbie Daniel won the delegate vote in a landslide, 261 to 87, against Mesa County Assessor Ken Brownlee.
Andrea Haitz, 1 of 3 of a conservative bloc elected to the Mesa County Valley School District 51 board in November, nominated Daniel, who described herself as “a sixth-generation coal miner’s daughter,” who is tired of career politicians ruling our lives.
“I’ll work to keep the far-left policies at bay to keep our way of life,” Daniel said. “Freedom is not a gift from man or government. It’s up to this generation to preserve it. God is my foundation.”
Other candidates who spoke Saturday included U.S. Senate candidates state Rep. Ron Hanks, U.S. Air Force veteran Eli Bremer, Colorado Christian University professor Greg Moore, small business owner Deborah Flora, and entrepreneur Gino Campana.
Gubernatorial candidate Danielle Neuschwanger also spoke.
“Do we have any God-fearing, gun-toting, MAGA supporters in the house?” Neuschwanger yelled. “On day one I will fire all special appointees of Gov. (Jared) Polis. We need a criminal justice cowgirl who can stand up to D.C. Every law enforcement must also be an immigration agent. I’m the only candidate that openly supports Tina Peters.”
State Party platform resolutions
The assembly distributed 2022 resolution ballots that included 46 state party platform resolutions to be voted on in April, including: “The Republican party supports the registration and regulation of journalism to protect against the Marxist agenda.”
Other resolutions included:
“The Republican party supports the abolition of mail-in voting, reducing or eliminating early in-person voting, and requiring that all votes be cast in person on paper ballots after state-issued ID has been shown at a polling location (exceptions only for military members, or those physically disable who present written justification).”
“The Republican party supports protecting religious speech, and specifically protecting it from being labeled ‘hate’ speech.”
“The Republican Party opposes socialist and communist policies and tyranny, and publicly denounces Democrats and the Democratic Party as communists.”
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.
NOW WATCH: Trump all but formally announces his goals to re-run for president, 'he wants to cloak himself in immunity'
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Peter Navarro, U.S. trade adviser under former President Donald Trump, spent hours on television after the 2020 presidential election advocating for the false claim that the vote was rigged for Joe Biden. He even wrote a book about it.
But what Navarro won't do, without being legally compelled, is testify before the House select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He claims that executive privilege precludes him from revealing conversations he had with Trump as they plotted to overturn the election results and keep Trump in the White House.
The House select committee rejects that assertion by Navarro and former Trump aide Dan Scavino and today will vote on whether to hold both men in contempt of Congress for ignoring its subpoenas. A contempt of Congress charge carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine. If the committee agrees to send the matter to the full House, the body would then have to vote to refer the charge to the Justice Department.
Navarro and Scavino are among the handful of Trump’s closest confidants who have refused to be interviewed or turn over documents. More than 750 other people — including other top White House officials — have complied with the committee’s requests.
As the New York Times reports, the committee issued a report on Sunday in which it "repeats its argument that executive privilege does not apply, because overturning a legitimate election was not one of Navarro’s official duties in the White House."
Navarro released a statement to The New York Times Sunday night in which he repeated his refusal to comply with the subpoena. “My position remains this is not my executive privilege to waive and the committee should negotiate this matter with President Trump,” he said. “If he waives the privilege, I will be happy to comply.”
President Biden has said the executive privilege claim is invalid because Trump no longer is president and blocking testimony from Navarro and Scavino is “not in the national interest and therefore not justified."
On Saturday, Donald Trump made his latest triumphant return to Georgia after losing the 2020 election.
Much of Commerce, a rural city south of Athens, was swathed in patriotic colors, and merchants hawked Trump 2024 merchandise outside gas stations as thousands of the Trump faithful, many in vehicles festooned with Trump flags and bumper stickers, convened at Banks County Dragway in the hopes of reviving some of the magic of 2016.
The shirts on the backs and the signs in the hands of the attendees were largely pro-Trump or anti-President Joe Biden, but for the former president, the rally was a chance to reassert his kingmaking role in the GOP by stumping for his slate of preferred statewide candidates for Georgia’s upcoming May 24 primaries, led by former Sen. David Perdue.
“Before we can defeat the Democrat socialists and communists, which is exactly what we’re running against at the ballot box this fall, we first have to defeat the RINOs, the sellouts and the losers in the primaries in the spring,” Trump said, using an acronym for “Republican in name only.” “We have a big primary coming up right here in your state. We’re going to throw out a very, very sad situation that took place, your RINO governor, Brian Kemp, and we’re going to replace him with a very strong person and a fearless fighter and somebody that, frankly, got screwed in the last election, David Perdue.”
Kemp and Trump were once allies, but their relationship soured when Kemp did not illegally overturn the election.
Trump and Perdue continue to maintain the 2020 election was rife with cheating in states including Georgia, claims that have not held up in multiple lawsuits and recounts.
“Let’s get one thing straight, let me be very clear, very clear, in the state of Georgia, thanks to Brian Kemp, our elections in 2020 were absolutely stolen,” said Perdue, who also lost following the 2020 election.
A Monmouth University poll conducted in January found 61% of Republicans believe Biden’s win was due to voter fraud, and 30% say there is definitely or probably still a path to reverse the results and reinstate Trump before 2024.
The 2022 primary will be a test of the extent to which those beliefs will affect their ballot box behavior.
Recent polling has shown Kemp with a significant lead among the party: a Fox News poll of likely primary voters released March 8 shows Kemp with 50% of the vote to Perdue’s 39%.
Attendees Saturday, many of whom wore Perdue stickers on their shirts, largely said they will back the former senator in the primary, but few shared Trump’s scathing assessment of Kemp’s performance in office.
“I don’t have any issues with Governor Kemp, I just think that David Perdue, with his experience, and his agenda is the same agenda as President Trump,” said Missy Jarrott of Savannah.
“That’s why I’m voting for everyone that President Trump has endorsed.”
“He has done a good job, but with president Trump’s endorsement of Perdue, I think we need to get Perdue in there as governor,” said Scott Jones of Banks County.
A few rally goers were on the fence, like Cyndie Morris of northwest Georgia. Morris said she is still put off by Perdue’s decision not to debate now-Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2020.
Photos of Ossoff on a debate stage next to Perdue’s empty podium were heavily featured in Ossoff’s campaign materials.
“I need answers,” Morris said. “I need to know why David Perdue did not show up for the debate. That was inexcusable to me. And the fact that he never gave a reason or an excuse. I think you show up for a debate. I understand that he is Trump’s guy, and he may be my guy, but I want to know why he didn’t show up for that debate when he was supposed to, and he didn’t apologize, and he didn’t have an excuse, and he never even addressed it.”
A Trump endorsement is important, but not the only criteria, said Morris’ northwest Georgia friend Cliff Rhodes.
“We pay attention closely to what President Trump has to say as far as endorsements, but we also listen to the candidate, what his policies are,” he said. “You’ve got to see what he or she does, but yeah, I would say that his recommendations are highly regarded, especially seeing everything that’s going on today.”
Rhodes said he’s ruled out voting for Kemp in the primary because of his concerns over the election, but he hasn’t landed on Perdue either.
A few other Republican candidates have signed up to run for governor, and the most notable may be Kandiss Taylor, a south Georgia educator whose slogan, “Jesus, guns and babies” was displayed on a smattering of signs and stickers among the crowd.
Republican strategists would prefer for Trump to quit fixating on supposed election fraud, fearing it could discourage GOP voters from casting their ballots in what could be nailbiter races for the governor’s office as well as the Senate, where former University of Georgia football star Herschel Walker is Trump’s favorite to defeat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. If Trump is aware of these concerns, he paid them no heed Saturday.
“If Kemp runs, I think Herschel Walker is going to be very seriously and negatively impacted, because Republicans that happen to like
Donald Trump, MAGA Republicans, are not going to go vote for this guy, Kemp,” he said. “And if they don’t vote for Kemp, they’re not going to be able to vote for a great man right there, Herschel Walker, and we don’t want that to happen.”
Republicans sitting out the Senate runoffs after Trump’s loss in 2020 likely played a role in Warnock and Ossoff’s victories, but of the more than a dozen rally attendees the Recorder spoke with Saturday, only one person said they plan to stay home if Kemp is the candidate.
The majority said they’ll back Kemp in the general election if he is the nominee, some with their noses held, others with their heads held high.
For many, that is more of a response to the perceived flaws of presumed Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams than the qualities of Kemp.
Madeline Burns of Columbus, who refers to the governor as “Kemp the wimp” and “not an honorable man,” said she blames him for the party’s election losses in the state, but would still back him against Abrams.
“Abrams is dirty,” she said. “She will turn Georgia into California. We are doomed if we get her.”
For their part, Democrats are happy to cash in on the Trump fissure in the GOP, airing an ad featuring a parody country song lamenting Trump and Kemp’s “break up” and sending a mobile billboard to Commerce claiming the Republican agenda will cut Georgians’ access to health care.
“While Democrats are fighting to improve Georgians’ health care, the Republican agenda puts Trump first and Georgians last, and will keep people from accessing essential health care in communities all across the state,” said Georgia Congresswoman Nikema Williams in a press conference ahead of the rally. “We can’t let that happen.”
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.
Donald Trump's base has split over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The former president has long praised Russia's president Vladimir Putin, and conservative media often parrots Kremlin talking points, but attendees at Trump's weekend rally in Georgia expressed ambivalence over how the U.S. should respond to the brutal invasion of a peaceful democracy, reported NBC News.
"It's not our business," said Trump supporter Peggy Bright, 57, who said she understand why Putin would want to push back against NATO expansion. "I'm not a Putin lover, but if it was here in America, I would expect our president to take care of our people, just like I would expect him to take care of their people. I understand what Putin is doing."
Trump has blamed President Joe Biden for the invasion, although he has finally pulled back from praising Putin, and his backers are torn over U.S. involvement.
"We kind of forced the hand of Russia to do it, so, I mean, we have no choice but to protect them now," said Trump backer Andrew Johnson, 33. "How are you going to pursue something and then leave them out to dry? They're human, too, regardless of whether they're American or not."
Alina Robert, a Trump supporter who was born in Latvia, told NBC News she believes the U.S. military must remove Putin from power.
“I love America, love our troops, but I think we need to send them there,” said Roberts, 22. “If we don’t really fight him — as an individual, if you know what I mean — it’s never going to end until he gets what he wants in its entirety.”
But others were conflicted over sending even military aid to Ukraine.
"We should sit back and let them see what they can do on their own," said Trump voter Chad Gailey. "That's our dollars, not theirs. That's too much — dropping tanks and guns and things like that. I'm not against helping them, but, at the same time, that's not our fight."
"Putin as a person, honestly, I think he is a strong president, much like Trump," Gailey added. "We can’t be sending billions of dollars when we need it here."
At least one Trump supporter expressed relief that he wasn't president anymore, even as she criticized Biden's handling of the situation.
"I’m glad he’s not president now," said Trump voter Brenda Watkins, 77, who did not attend the rally. "I’m terribly discouraged and disturbed about what’s going on in the world. I don’t think President Biden is handling it well, but I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable if President Trump were in there, either. I hate to say that."
LONDON (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Monday that U.S. President Joe Biden's remark that Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power" was a cause for alarm, in a measured response to a public call from the United States for an end to Putin's 22-year rule.
"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden said on Saturday at the end of a speech to a crowd in Warsaw. He cast Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a battle in a much broader conflict between democracy and autocracy.
The White House tried to clarify Biden's remarks and the U.S. president said on Sunday he had not been publicly calling for regime change in Russia, which is the world's largest country by area and has more nuclear warheads than any other.
Asked about Biden's comment, which received little coverage on Russian state television, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "This is a statement that is certainly alarming."
"We will continue to track the statements of the U.S. president in the most attentive way," Peskov told reporters.
Putin has not commented publicly on Biden's remark.
In his first live appearance since the remark, Putin was shown on state television on Monday being briefed by Alexander Sergeev, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, on the accumulation of carbon in molluscs and the use of artifical intelligence to decipher ancient Tibetan manuscripts.
VETERAN LEADER
Putin has been Russia's paramount leader since Boris Yeltsin resigned in 1999. Dmitry Medvedev served as president from 2008 to 2012 while Putin was prime minister before returning to the Kremlin.
Under constitutional changes approved in 2020, Putin could seek election for two more 6-year terms as president, allowing him to stay in power until 2036.
The Kremlin says Putin is a democratically elected leader and that it is for the Russian people, not Washington, to decide who leads their country.
But such a blunt remark from Biden appeared to have breached the norms of U.S.-Russian and even U.S.-Soviet relations. No U.S. leader has publicly called for the departure of any Kremlin chief for decades.
The remark looks likely to further fuel concerns among Putin's closest circle that Washington wants him ousted and to impose its own views on Russia and the world.
Medvedev, now deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, said on March 23 the world could spiral towards a nuclear dystopia if Washington pressed on with what the Kremlin casts as a long-term plot to destroy Russia.
Medvedev painted a grim picture of a post-Putin Russia, saying it could lead to an unstable leadership in Moscow "with a maximum number of nuclear weapons aimed at targets in the United States and Europe".
Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, previously head of the powerful Federal Security Service spy agency, has said Washington is bent on stoking a "colour revolution" in Russia like those in Georgia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet states.
Top U.S. diplomats on Sunday played down Biden's remark, and Biden, asked by a reporter as he departed a church service in Washington if he was calling for regime change in Russia, gave a one-word reply: "No."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Jerusalem that Biden was making the point that Putin couldn't be empowered to wage war, adding that decisions on Russia's future leadership were "up to the Russian people".
Putin says Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine was necessary because the United States was using the country to threaten Russia and Moscow had to take action to stop what it calls Kyiv's persecution of Russian speakers.
Ukraine has dismissed the claim of persecution as a baseless pretext for invading.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones)
At his poorly attended campaign-style rally Saturday at a racetrack in Georgia, former president Donald Trump all but formally announced that he's going to try to reclaim his former job in 2024.
One reason that he might "have to" run again, according to a former assistant U.S. attorney general Dennis Aftergut writing for The Bulwark, is that Trump wants to cloak himself in the immunity of the presidency to shield himself from federal prosecution on charges stemming from the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.
"Two motivations appear to lead the pack of emotional wolves that maraud Trump’s brain," Aftergut wrote. "First, as his niece Mary Trump has said, he owns 'the most colossal and fragile ego on the planet.' His frail self-image fears external confirmation that he’s a loser. Restoration would represent redemption."
Trump has another, more pressing need to get himself back into the White House, and Aftergut said "we received a strong whiff of Trump’s fear of federal prosecution" when he unendorsed Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) -- who revealed the former president has been asking him since September 2021 to help him overturn President Joe Biden's election.
"Second, and likely more important, is his fear of federal prosecution," Aftergut added. "The presidency brings immunity from it under Justice Department memos. Although Attorney General Merrick Garland has appeared reluctant to prosecute Trump, he remains exposed to federal prosecution on a variety of charges — including charges related to Jan. 6th — absent a return to the White House."
Aftergut notes that the former president, who under any circumstances has no immunity from prosecutions at the state or local level, probably fears federal action more.
"It seems clear that Trump has more to fear from any indictment by the Justice Department, with its far greater resources, and with the venue for any trial in Washington, where he cannot count on a follower or two to be on the jury to hang it," Aftergut wrote.
Watch.
Trump all but formally announces goals to re-run for president, 'wants to cloak himself in immunity'
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MSNBC's Joe Scarborough blasted Republican lawmakers for using the Ukraine crisis to score domestic political points on President Joe Biden.
Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf appeared Monday on "Morning Joe" to discuss Biden's ab-libbed comments on regime change in Russia, and he and Scarborough agreed that showing strength against Vladimir Putin was better than whatever Donald Trump displayed during his presidency.
"I think the message of the speech from beginning to end was of strength, and I also think that it was a speech that resonated not just in the context of Ukraine but in the context of a shift," Rothkopf said. "The United States and Europe and our allies are looking at Russia in terms of a long-term threat. They're not going to be satisfied simply to end this war, hopefully to win this war, but they're going to require that Russia stays where it is, that it stops its talk of aggression."
"I think, finally as to your first point about the incredible hypocrisy of the Republicans who have taken both sides of this issue, as they had so many others, that, you know, this dividing line between autocracy and democracy is not a remote foreign issue," Rothkopf added. "We are fighting that war right here, right now with people like Donald Trump and others in his party seeking to undermine American democracy and embrace hallmarks of authoritarian governments. so historical speech."
Scarborough contrasted that with some Trump allies who have been approvingly quoted by Russian media.
"Many of the Trumpists are actually having their words played on Russian television to, again, try to inspire the Russian people to keep killing more Ukrainians," Scarborough said. "It's not a good look, especially when many of the same people were the ones in the Trumpist wing of the Republican Party who celebrated Ronald Reagan's 'evil empire' speech, who celebrated Ronald Reagan joking and saying the bombing would begin in five minutes. Again, it is hypocrisy. They're not concerned about what is best for America, they're not concerned about what is best for democracy, they're not concerned about what is best for Western Civilization. They just want Joe Biden to fail or any Democrat to fail."
"You wonder how twisted somebody's worldview would be when we are in the middle of the most critical foreign policy challenge since the end of World War II," he added. "I don't know how you do it."
Ukraine warned on Monday the humanitarian crisis in the pulverized city of Mariupol was now "catastrophic", while signaling grounds for compromise ahead of new face-to-face peace talks with Russia in Turkey.
About 20,000 Ukrainians have been killed in Russia's month-old invasion and 10 million have fled their homes, according to Kyiv, and several cities are still coming under withering bombardment.
After an apparent retreat in Moscow's war aims to focus on eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian intelligence said Russia could be bent on carving up the country into two entities like Korea.
Russia has de-facto control over the southern peninsula of Crimea that it annexed in 2014, and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the eastern Donbas region.
In the Lugansk city of Rubizhne, one person was killed and another wounded by overnight Russian bombardment, according to regional Ukrainian officials.
Further west near the capital Kyiv, Andrii Ostapets was determined to get back into his village of Stoyanka to bring food to his neighbors -- and to his cats, if still alive -- despite the threat of Russian snipers.
"We saw people killed, we saw burnt down houses, we lived through hell" when Russia occupied Stoyanka, the 69-year-old private museum owner told AFP, a week after fleeing the village.
But Ukrainian soldiers were pushing back the invaders at the village, Ostapets said. "The Russians have no chance to stay alive -- they can either surrender or die."
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the first round of in-person talks since March 10 -- due to open in Istanbul on Tuesday after near-daily video contacts -- must bring peace "without delay".
Red lines
Ukrainian "neutrality", and the future status of Donbas in line with Russian demands, could be in the mix for the Istanbul meeting as negotiators from both sides headed to Turkey on Monday.
"We understand that it is impossible to liberate all territory by force, that would mean World War III, I fully understand and realize that," Zelensky said.
But stressing his negotiating red lines, he added: "Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory."
Humanitarian needs are direst in the southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine says about 170,000 civilians are encircled by Russian forces, with ever-dwindling supplies of food, water and medicine.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said the situation there was "catastrophic" and Russia's assault from land, sea and air had turned the city of 450,000 people "into dust".
France, Greece and Turkey are hoping to launch a mass evacuation of civilians out of Mariupol within days, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, who is seeking agreement from Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine decided against any humanitarian corridors on Monday because of potential "provocations" by the Russians along designated routes, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Macron warned that any escalation "in words or action" could harm his evacuation efforts, after US President Joe Biden's shock declaration that Putin "cannot remain in power".
The ad-libbed remark on a visit to Poland sparked outrage in Moscow, and seemed to undercut Biden's own efforts for the West to present a united front.
Biden himself rowed back on Sunday, denying to reporters that he had been calling for regime change, while Britain and Germany have joined France in distancing themselves from the remark.
What does Putin want?
With Russia's much-larger military hampered by fierce Ukrainian resistance, the three days of Istanbul talks will test whether battlefield setbacks have tempered Moscow's demands.
Russia last week appeared to scale back its campaign when senior general Sergei Rudskoi said the "main goal" was now on controlling Donbas in the east.
For his part, Putin has avoided clearly defining the goals of his invasion, stating only that he wants to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine.
On March 10, the Turkish resort city of Antalya hosted the first talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba since the start of the invasion.
There was no agreement then for a hoped-for ceasefire. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "important" that talks in person were resuming, after no "significant achievements or breakthroughs" in the previous virtual rounds.
Divided nation
Many in Ukraine remain suspicious, however, that Russia could use the talks as an opportunity to regroup and fix serious tactical and logistical problems bedeviling its military.
"After a failure to capture Kyiv and remove Ukraine's government, Putin is changing his main operational directions," intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said.
He was aiming now "impose a separation line between the occupied and unoccupied regions", the Ukrainian official said. "It will be an attempt to set up South and North Koreas in Ukraine."
The head of Ukraine's Lugansk separatist region says it may hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia.
But resistance in besieged Mariupol is the main obstacle preventing Moscow from gaining unbroken control of land from the Donbas to the Crimea.
Counterattacks
In the southern town of Mykolaiv, under heavy assault for weeks, the bombardments appeared to be easing.
That was a welcome respite for locals like 13-year-old Sofia, who suffered shrapnel injuries to her head during shelling in early March near Mykolaiv.
"Now I can move my arms and legs a little," she said, after undergoing three operations. "I still can't get up without my mother's help, but hopefully I can leave soon."
The frontlines appeared to have receded from Mykolaiv, with a counteroffensive being mounted in Kherson, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the southeast.
In Kherson, the only significant city the Russian army claims to have seized, about 500 people took part in anti-Russian demonstrations on Sunday.
Kyrylo, a paramedic, told AFP by phone that the Russians dispersed the peaceful rally with tear gas and stun grenades.
By Zach Koons Ben Proudfoot, director of “Queen of Basketball,” ended his acceptance speech by supporting the detained WNBA star. A director had a pointed message for President Joe Biden regarding WNBA star Britney Griner after accepting an Academy Award on Sunday evening. Ben Proudfoot, who received the award for Best Documentary Short for “Queen of Basketball”, a film about basketball Hall of Famer Lusia Harris, ended his acceptance speech by imploring President Biden to “bring Brittney Griner home.” Griner, 31, was detained in mid-February after Russian authorities claimed they discovered v...
