Former President Donald Trump is fundraising over a repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory that claims President Joe Biden was planning to assassinate him when the FBI searched his home for classified documents in 2022.
"Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger," Trump said in a fundraising email
reportedly sent out on Tuesday night.
The campaign email headline, in all caps, reads: "Biden's DOJ was authorized to shoot me!"
While Julie Kelly claimed newly revealed court records show the Federal Bureau of Investigation was authorized to use deadly force against Trump when they searched his home for classified documents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation explained otherwise.
“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force,” the bureau reportedly said in
an official statement.
"No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter."
Or, as Washington Post columnist Philip Bump explained Wednesday morning, "The deadly-force document
shared by Kelly constrains how and when firearms might be used."
News that Trump had included the incendiary language to describe a blatantly false claim stunned political analysts who took to social media to share their views.
"This is patently nuts," wrote CNN political commentator David Axelrod. "And dangerously provocative!"
"Another outright lie from the former President of the United States," added former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile. "Chaos…Mayhem and another simply outrageous lie."
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has a plan to incarcerate Attorney General Merrick Garland if he does not turn over tapes of President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
After two contempt resolutions against Garland passed out of committees, Republican leadership said they planned to press all their members to vote for contempt in the full House.
On Wednesday, Luna told War Room host Steve Bannon she had a "plan B" if Garland did not turn over the tapes, which were being withheld because the White House claimed executive privilege.
"There's something called inherent contempt, which hasn't been done since the early 1900s," Luna explained. "And actually, during my time when I was recovering from having my son, I read through the House rule book twice, and I actually found this on one of the pages."
"And so what this would allow is the Speaker of the House to essentially use the sergeant of arms as an enforcement authority," she continued. "And because Garland has not complied not just with one subpoena but two subpoenas, it would actually enable the sergeant of arms to go get Garland and basically hold him until he brings forward that information, or force him to essentially divulge and bring forward those recordings."
Luna said she would force a vote on the House floor ten days after Garland's criminal contempt vote.
"So that's my plan B. I'm planning on bringing this vote to the floor, which I can, ten days after we vote on contempt of Congress criminal out of Congress," she remarked.
Former President Donald Trump has been called out for hypocrisy by political spectators who note the defendant who cried "deadly force" Tuesday Night told the Supreme Court last month presidents should have free rein to use deadly force.
The brouhaha began with right-wing writer Julie Kelly's claim that recently revealed court records show the Federal Bureau of Investigation was authorized to use deadly force against Trump when they searched his home for classified documents in 2022, Philip Bump explained in a Washington Post column Wednesday morning.
"The deadly-force document shared by Kelly constrains how and when firearms might be used," Bump noted. "It is self-evidently ludicrous."
Bump's article on this swiftly fact-checked conspiracy theory includes a comment from the FBI confirming the Mar-a-Lago search warrant was strictly protocol.
On Wednesday morning, Greene doubled down on her claim in a tweet that includes an upside-down American flag, a symbol representing the former president's false claim the 2020 election was fraudulent.
"I posted this on the day the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago after Merrick Garland ordered it and gave the green light to kill anyone that stood in the way," Greene wrote. "Democrats declared war on us and weaponized the full power of the justice system the minute they took power."
Greene's message was quickly flooded with contemptuous responses, one of which provided telling context.
"Trump is arguing in the Supreme Court that presidents should be allowed to assassinate their political opponents," replied X user @SundaeDivine. "So I don't know why you're undercutting him."
The X user was referencing a court battle that unfolded in the U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, when Trump's attorneys argued Trump could not be prosecuted on election interference charges because his actions leading up to the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, were protected by his since-relinquished office.
This conflict of claims was not lost upon the world of social media Wednesday morning.
"These same idiots are saying Trump has such powers in his SCOTUS immunity argument," wrote X user @GOPMongos.
"While the right pretends outrage over FBI agents being authorized deadly force which they didn’t exercise, Trump is currently arguing to SCOTUS that as president he could have his political rival assassinated and he’d have immunity," added X user Francis Wegner.
Donald Trump and his allies are falsely claiming President Joe Biden, the U.S. Dept. of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had a plot to assassinate his top political rival, the ex-president, during the execution of a search warrant in 2022 at Mar-a-Lago. Critics, including law enforcement experts, are blasting Trump and his MAGA associates for the "dangerous" lie.
On Tuesday a U.S. District Judge unsealed court documents in Special Counsel Jack Smith's Espionage Act case against Trump where he faces 40 felony counts, most over his alleged unlawful removal, retention, and refusal to return classified documents including some of the nation's top nuclear secrets.
One of those filings, as The Washington Post reported, was a law enforcement documents that included a standard statement reminding FBI agents on the Bureau's policy on the use of deadly force, "which says officers may resort to lethal force only when the subject of such force poses an 'imminent danger of death or serious physical injury' to an officer or another person."
But on Tuesday, Trump explosively posted on Truth Social, "WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the 'Icebox,' and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE — 25TH AMENDMENT!"
"TRUMP ALERT," it begins. "BREAKING FROM TRUMP: BIDEN'S DOJ WAS AUTHORIZED TO SHOOT ME!"
"You know they're just itching to do the unthinkable... Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger."
Attorney and former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa observed, "Including the deadly force policy [in] an ops plan is SOP [standard operating procedure]. But just so I make sure I’m following the plot, according to Trump’s position in court, what he is accusing Biden of would be perfectly legal and within the scope of his 'official' powers, right?"
Trump repeatedly has insisted presidents must have complete and total "absolute immunity." His attorneys have argued in federal court and before the U.S. Supreme Court a president could order Seal Team Six to assassinate his political rival and it would be lawful, as was noted here:
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was among the top allies who falsely characterized the court filing.
"The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light," she posted to her official federal government account on X. "Does everyone get it yet???!!!! What are Republicans going to do about it?"
She also wrote: "This is grounds for impeachment of Wray and Garland. Trump and team was cooperating the entire time with the FBI," Greene claimed, both of which are false.
"Was deadly force authorized against Biden for his docs? Were they going to shoot SS then Pres Trump, Melania, and Barron too??? Speaker Mike Johnson fully funded the DOJ and FBI plus new building and tied our hands behind our backs to hold them accountable. We have the power of the purse and Johnson has handed the purse to Chuck Schumer. All of this is unforgivable."
Fox News Business host Maria Bartiromo also promoted the false claims Wednesday morning:
NBC News' Ryan Reilly mockingly explained the situation: "GOP members of Congress think the feds wanted to assassinate Trump and so they did a raid on his place in Florida when they knew him to be in New Jersey because Mar-A-Lago was closed for the season."
Meanwhile, critics are sounding the alarm on Trump's and the GOP's lies.
"This is wildly irresponsible, even for professional troll like Marjorie Taylor Greene," wrote conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg. "FBI knew Trump wasn’t there. It was all coordinated with Secret Service in advance. This is deeply dangerous bullshit."
"Trump wasn’t there," said talk radio host Joe Walsh, a former GOP U.S. Congressman, responding to U.S. Rep. Greene's remarks. "Everything was coordinated with Secret Service & local law enforcement. Even for you, this is a deeply irresponsible and dangerous thing to say."
David Axelrod, the former top Obama strategist and White House advisor, remarked, "This is patently nuts...and dangerously provocative!"
If presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump defeats incumbent President Joe Biden in November, he would — under the United States' current rules and presidential term limit — be required to leave office on January 20, 2029.
But some of Trump's critics fear that if he becomes president again, he will refuse to leave the White House when the time comes.
Bloomberg News' Joshua Green reports that this fear is being expressed by more than a few U.S. voters in focus groups.
Seiji Carpenter, vice president at David Binder Research, described an April focus group and told Bloomberg News, "We were talking to Latino men and Asian American-Pacific Islander women in battleground states, and they went straight to the issue of: What if Trump won't give up power?"
Carpenter added that this is a "real concern" among voters that David Binder Research has spoken to.
GOP strategist Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark and an outspoken Never Trump conservative, is also encountering this fear in focus groups she has been conducting.
At one of them, Longwell — who supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and is supporting him again in 2024 — asked voters, "Does anybody think he may not abide by the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution and leave office after the 2028 election? Anyone worried about that?"
A Pennsylvania man in that focus group said of Trump, "I wouldn't put it past him, now that he owns the RNC. To say, 'Don Jr. is going to do the next term, and he'll get two. And then Barron (Trump) will get two.' And we'll just have some fake monarchy."
Green points out that even some voters who have their criticisms of Biden are worried that if Trump wins a second term, he won't respect the 22nd Amendment.
The Bloomberg News journalist reports, "As far-fetched as it may sound, the prospect of Trump overriding or simply ignoring the constitutional provision that limits a president to serving two terms seems to be pushing some undecided voters toward Biden, despite significant reservations about the incumbent's age, turmoil in the Middle East and high inflation. Now, strategists in both parties are probing to see how widely this sentiment has spread, particularly among the undecided voters likely to sway the election."
Alma, Wisconsin-based voter Lori McCammon voted for Trump in 2016 but has since come to view him as an authoritarian and isn't supporting him this year.
McCammon told Bloomberg News, "Based on what I’ve heard from him and figures like Steve Bannon, this would be our last free and fair election."
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has found some surprising common ground with House Democrats — over a proposal to force disclosure of presidential tax returns.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the bill, also sponsored by Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), "would force presidents and vice presidents to disclose their tax filings for the two years before entering the White House, for the years while in office, and for two years afterward" and "compel them, along with close family members such as children, siblings and in-laws, to disclose payments from foreign entities as well as large gifts and loans from family members."
It remains unclear whether this bill, which Comer praises as "a good product" that resolves a "gray area" in ethics law, will gain traction in the House or pass the Senate. However, it is a surprising development after former President Donald Trump spent years refusing to release his tax returns, with the blessing of Republicans in Congress.
Ultimately, in 2020, many of Trump's tax returns were leaked to The New York Times, which revealed a number of damning details about how he used business losses to avoid paying income tax for years.
The motivation for the bipartisan teamup on the issue appears to be for Republicans to obtain more disclosures about the Biden family's financials, whom the bill would also impact. Comer has for months led an investigation to impeach President Joe Biden for allegedly laundering international bribes, although no evidence of this has turned up, even from the GOP committee members' own witnesses.
In recent weeks, Comer has floated the idea of quietly ending the impeachment inquiry with a simple criminal referral to the Justice Department rather than a vote on articles of impeachment, which would effectively end the matter.
Many Democrats appear opposed to the legislation, with one leadership aide calling it “a political stunt masquerading as a legislative proposal, coming from none other than the chief architect of extreme MAGA Republicans’ failed impeachment effort.” The White House also opposes the bill, saying that “We’re always happy to look at Congressman Comer’s bright ideas,” but that Biden has already disclosed all relevant financial information.
The Democratic National Committee is rushing ahead with an initiative to define Donald Trump's potential running mates as MAGA extremists.
The DNC is coordinating with President Joe Biden's campaign to lump all of Trump's VP candidates together as "all the same" in backing "ultra-MAGA" positions on the 2020 election, reproductive rights and other issues, and they're planning to use the candidates' own words against them, reported Axios.
" Trump has floated dozens of names, and while he trots them around like sad show ponies on the campaign trail, it doesn't really matter who's in his good graces one day and who's shooting their dog the next," said DNC communications director Rosemary Boeglin.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who has been rumored to be a frontrunner for Trump's running mate, has endured weeks of criticism after revealing that she gunned down her family's puppy in a gravel pit for misbehaving, although it's not clear whether that's dented her chances with the former president.
The DNC plans to highlight each candidate's stance on the 2020 election and whether they would certify a Trump loss as vice president, and they will focus on their position on a national abortion ban, repealing the Affordable Care Act and cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
"Trump's VP contenders have all already shown they pass his extreme, MAGA litmus test," Boeglin said.
Steven Cheung, the spokesman for Trump's campaign, pushed back on the effort with an attack on vice president Kamala Harris.
"The DNC and their media defenders will stop at nothing to gaslight the American people into believing their lies and forgetting their disastrous record," Cheung said. "The fact is that their VP candidate Kamala Harris, as border czar, has presided over record numbers of illegal crossings across the Southern border and overseen a horrible economic record dominated by crushing inflation numbers. The Biden-Harris agenda has put American lives in danger and the country can't survive another four years of their failed leadership."
Former Trump White House communications official Mike Dubke tried to defend Trump's back-and-forth stance on contraception this week on CNN — only to be laughed at by analyst Bakari Sellers.
This comes after Trump appeared to open the door to restricting birth control in an interview, but then swiftly reversed course after media attention and said he would do no such thing.
"In this case, I think it was very clear that the president did not [mean to say contraception]," said Dubke. "His campaign cleaned it up. But ... I also wish, and I think the American people also hope for this, is that when it is that obvious of a faux pas, whether it be on the right or the left, that the anchor clean it up. I mean, I — I'm — I'm a bit dubious at the anchor, was looking for some clickbait here in the way that he phrased the question and how we phrase the question to, frankly, to an individual who has had a lot on his mind this week and been distracted by other items" — presumably referring to Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan.
Sellers responded to this by bursting out in laughter, while anchor Kate Bolduan took issue with Dubke's demand that news reporters clean up after Trump's mistakes.
"In defense of all anchors, I ask the questions, and it is your job to listen to my question and to answer it because I promise you I will follow up," said Bolduan.
"If I was the Joe Biden campaign, look if you want Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Donald Trump deciding what your wife does with her body, re-elect Donald Trump," said Sellers. "They don't do well on this issue and they also don't do well on policy, which is why he stumbles. People vote for Donald Trump for something else. They vote for Donald Trump for that machismo, for that, what they believe to be strength. People don't vote for Donald Trump for policy depth because ... Trump has the policy depth of a shallow bathtub."
CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams on Tuesday made short work of a new claim made by former President Donald Trump and his allies that President Joe Biden had authorized the FBI to assassinate him when it executed a search warrant as his Mar-a-Lago resort to retrieve top-secret government documents.
While discussing new revelations in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, host Brianna Keilar asked Williams to comment on the fact that the FBI was authored to use "deadly force" if necessary when conducting the search.
"Can you just clear this up for us?" she asked. "People on the right are saying... some of them are going so far as to say this is an assassination attempt. My understanding is that this is pretty standard. What's the deal?"
Williams did not hold back in expressing his contempt for this claim.
"This is absolute nonsense," he said. "It is standard operating procedure to empower law enforcement to use deadly force, as we've seen in spectacular fashion over the last five years in many of these high-profile cases. Law enforcement's empowered to use deadly force when executing a search warrant. I wouldn't even call it a raid, it's a standard procedure when officers are appearing at a home."
Williams then explained that an authorization to use deadly force isn't a green light to barge into a building with guns blazing but gives law enforcement officials the power to use deadly force if they face legitimate threats to their own lives while conducting their search.
"If someone were, at the time they entered Mar-a-Lago, to be wielding machetes or firearms, of course law enforcement would be empowered to use deadly force!" he said. "The idea that this is somehow an assassination attempt is nonsense, it's absolute nonsense."
Donald Trump on Tuesday walked back remarks that he was open to restrictions on contraception, after an outcry that underlined his presidential campaign's vulnerability on reproductive rights issues.
"I have never, and will never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control, or other contraceptives," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, using all caps.
"I do not support a ban on birth control, and neither will the Republican Party!"
Trump's post appeared to dial down an earlier comment that he was "looking at" the issue, and is the latest case of the former president and 2024 presumptive Republican nominee giving mixed signals on his views on reproductive rights.
"We're looking at that, and I'm going to have a policy on that very shortly," he told news outlet KDKA earlier when asked if he supported any restrictions on a person's right to contraception.
"I think it's a smart decision, but we'll be releasing it very soon," said Trump, who often boasts of his three US Supreme Court picks being decisive in its 2022 decision to overturn the decades-old ruling that federally guaranteed abortion rights.
Polls show the vast majority of Americans approve of birth control, with 88 percent seeing it as "morally acceptable," according to a 2023 Gallup poll.
President Joe Biden's re-election campaign, which views reproductive rights as a vote-winning issue and has rallied around Trump's role in helping overturn Roe v Wade, quickly pounced on his comments.
"Women across the country are already suffering from Donald Trump's post-Roe nightmare, and if he wins a second term, it's clear he wants to go even further by restricting access to birth control and emergency contraceptives," said spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika.
Trump has often wobbled in his views on women's issues, notably abortion. While his core conservative supporters want tougher restrictions, sweeping bans on the procedure have typically been rejected by voters at the ballot box.
In March he suggested he would favor a national abortion ban after 15 or 16 weeks of pregnancy, but later backtracked to say such decisions should be left up to the states, of which 21 have total or partial abortion bans in place.
Trump told Time magazine in April that he had "pretty strong views" on women's access to mifepristone, a medication used for abortions, and would share his views on it within a week, but never did so.
The Supreme Court's 2022 ruling has cost Republicans politically. The party turned in a disappointing performance in midterm elections that year, and conservatives have repeatedly lost in referendums and other votes concerning abortion.
When House Republicans in February smacked down a border bill Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called "the strongest, most comprehensive border security bill we've seen in a generation," Democratic lawmakers said the reason was for political gain.
On Tuesday, former Vice President Mike Pence shared News Nation's report about his trip to the US-Mexico border, writing via X/Twitter: "Visited the southern border today to see the #BidenBorderCrisis firsthand as a deeply concerned citizen. The crisis at our southern border affects all 50 states. It’s time for Joe Biden to take this crisis seriously & Secure Our Border Now!"
Pence's ex-Homeland Security and Counterterrorism advisor Olivia Troye replied to the former vice president's comments, writing, "Dear Mike Pence: next time call your former Homeland Security Advisor, whom you very well know grew up in El Paso, TX. We could have had an honest discussion about the border, talked about the role that faith plays in a lot of the amazing people that live there, their dedication to helping migrants, asylum seekers, as well as refugees & how we can actually make a difference together."
Troye continued, "This is something I offered while you were the Vice President of the United States…It’s also something I felt strongly about when Trump’s hateful rhetoric led to a mass shooting in the Wal-Mart of my hometown, which you said you actually cared about."
"As someone who believed in the Republican Party for my entire life, it is appalling that this is a political talking point rather than an actual effort to secure the border—which was evident when Republicans refused to vote on Congressional legislation this year that would make a difference because Trump was worried it would 'benefit Biden.' You’re better than this."
NBC News reported Monday that Democrats "plan to force a vote Thursday on the bipartisan border security package" Republicans blocked two months ago.
When Republicans rejected the package, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-NH) wrote in a statement, "Senate Republicans defeated the bill because it would be effective. And that doesn't make sense. Right? Why would that be? Why would Senate Republicans vote against a bipartisan border security bill that would have been effective at bringing order to the southwest border? The reason is this: Republicans have decided that they don't want to solve the problem at the border. Republicans have decided that they want this issue to be outstanding. They want the border to be chaotic. They want the border to be a mess, because it helps for their political purposes. It helps win an election."
Rudy Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York City, shared a swiftly debunked conspiracy theory Tuesday that holds routine language in a new court filing shows President Joe Biden was plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
Giuliani took to X late Tuesday night to echo a claim first made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that newly revealed language in Trump's Mar-a-Lago search warrant regarding the use of deadly force.
"Newly released documents in relation to the Mar-a-Lago raid show that armed FBI agents were prepared to confront President Trump and engage with the Secret Service w/ deadly force," Giuliani wrote. "In other words, they were authorized to assassinate the 45th president... Sick."
Earlier in the evening, Greene claimed she "knew" of an assassination plot orchestrated by Biden's Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice department and warned the former president.
"The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light," Greene wrote. "I made sure that he knew."
Former FBI assistant director was among several officials to immediately and publicly fact check the claim.
"Every FBI operations order contains a reminder of FBI deadly force policy. Even for a search warrant," wrote Frank Figliuzzi. "Deadly force is always authorized if the required threat presents itself."
The document in question relates to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022, during which Trump was in New Jersey, as was noted by a former member of Congress.
This did not stop Giuliani's followers from responding to Giuliani's alarming message with fearful warnings about a Biden "dictatorship."
Interestingly, these fears were raised as Trump faced criticism over a campaign video that featured the words "Unified Reich."
The Biden campaign contends Trump's messaging, which his campaign claimed was the result of a staffer's mistake, was "echoing Nazi Germany."
The MAGA lawmaker also claimed that she attempted to warn the ex-president of such matters.
"The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light," Greene wrote via X/Twitter. "Does everyone get it yet???!!!! What are Republicans going to do about it? I tried to oust our Speaker who funded Biden’s DOJ AND FBI, but Democrats stopped it."
The Georgia Republican leader was responding to Truth Social post from Trump, in which he wrote: "WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the 'Icebox,' and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden's DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREATTO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE -25TH AMENDMENT!"
Retired FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi responded to Greene's claim, noting that "every FBI operations order contains a reminder of FBI deadly force policy."
The Dispatch Editor-In-Chief Jonah Goldberg commented: "This is wildly irresponsible, even for professional troll like Marjorie Taylor Greene. FBI knew Trump wasn’t there. It was all coordinated with Secret Service in advance. This is deeply dangerous bulls—-."
