Republicans in Michigan took an unexpected beating in last year's midterm elections, and the party responded by doubling down on extremist personalities by electing election-denying conspiracy theorist Kristina Karamo as its chairman.
In an interview with Michigan's WOOD TV, longtime Michigan Republican strategist Dennis Lennox said Karamo's election showed that "the crazies have taken over the asylum," and added that "this is somebody who in her head believes she is the legitimate secretary of state in Michigan" despite having lost her election last year by 14 points.
Fellow Republican strategist Jason Cabel Roe expressed similar misgivings about the state of the party under Karamo's leadership and he said it could keep quality United States Senate candidates away from the race.
"We have this great pickup opportunity in a very purple state and I think one of the concerns that’s keeping top-tier candidates out is the state of the party here in Michigan," he explained.
READ MORE: Trump faces major setback as DOJ refuses to back his immunity claims in Jan. 6 lawsuits
Even though many Michigan Republican officials are hardcore Trump supporters who believe the election was stolen in 2020, Karamo stands out for her outlandish claims about several other issues, including a belief that demonic possession can be transferred from one person to another through sexual contact.
In addition to this, the Michigan GOP leader has accused Democrats of selling off the body parts of babies and engaging in ritual child sacrifice.
Should a Manhattan grand jury hand down an indictment against Donald Trump this week or later, how the former president responds with regard to turning himself in could have huge implications for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
With the former president claiming he will be arrested on Tuesday for his 2016 hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, it is expected that the former president will jet from his Mar-a-Lago home to New York and surrender to authorities.
However, the unpredictable and publicity-hungry Trump could elect to stay in Florida and force Bragg's hand to ask Florida to extradite the former president, which could complicate things for DeSantis as he continues to set up a 2024 presidential run of his own.
According to the New York Times, the law is on Bragg's side but DeSantis will have to weigh the political consideration of agreeing with the Manhattan DA and infuriating the hardcore conservative voters he would need to win the 2024 GOP nomination.
READ MORE: Georgia weighs slapping Trump with racketeering charges: CNN
"Surrender, some might argue, is not in the confrontational former president’s DNA, and he often seems to relish antagonizing and attacking the prosecutors who have investigated him," the Times report states before adding, "In the unlikely event that the former president refuses to surrender, he would put Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, his leading but undeclared rival for the Republican nomination, in an awkward political position. Under law, the role of Mr. DeSantis would be essentially ministerial and he would have few legal options other than approving an extradition request from New York."
"Still, if New York prosecutors sought Mr. Trump’s extradition, Mr. DeSantis would face an unenviable dilemma. He would be compelled to choose between authorizing an arrest warrant for Mr. Trump and inflaming his base, or attempting in some way to aide his Republican rival, and possibly face legal action as a result," the Times report added.
You can read more here.
George Conway ripped Republicans for defending lifelong "criminal" Donald Trump against a looming indictment in New York.
The ex-president apparently expects to be charged in the Stormy Daniels hush money payoff, and the conservative attorney told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he richly deserves it.
"The Republicans are behaving like complete disgraces," Conway said. "They're basically saying that, by saying that Trump is being persecuted, they're essentially saying, you can't touch Trump and Trump is above the law. Whatever slack you might have wanted to cut a former president, that was gone after Jan. 6. This man is a recidivist criminal, he's committed fraud all his life, he's lied all of his life."
"This Stormy Daniels thing was something he cooked up," Conway added. "The notion that [Michael] Cohen is going to be discredited on it is ridiculous given the paper trail. We see the checks signed by Donald Trump. It's hard to say he is being picked on for paying $130,000 in hush money to a porn star and concealing that and using a straw donor, which was Cohen, to do that, and saying he's being persecuted somehow when no one has ever done that it is completely ridiculous."
RELATED: Georgia weighs slapping Trump with racketeering charges: CNN
Watch the video below or at this link.
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During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," former U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg pushed back at conservatives who have been whining that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has a "weak case" against former President Donald Trump as part of his investigation over hush money being paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
On Friday it was reported that an indictment might be forthcoming this week from a Manhattan grand jury against the former president. That, in turn, led Trump to claim on Truth Social that he will be "arrested" on Tuesday, which was followed by outrage from Trump's defenders in Congress who took to social media and the Sunday cable shows to attack Bragg.
As part of their defense of Trump, some Republicans leveled complaints that the case against the former president is weak, well before the details of the possible indictment have been revealed.
According to former prosecutor Rosenberg, nothing about what Bragg is investigating should be dismissed as trivial.
RELATED: Trump takes a big risk by 'overplaying his hand' in call for protests: report
"People keep referring to the New York case as the weakest case. To me, as a former prosecutor, weak means a case where the evidence is thin or perhaps you don't have a reasonable probability of conviction," Rosenberg explained to the MSNBC hosts. "What I think they might mean is that it's the less serious case and how serious a case is is reflected in how it is categorized or classified."
"In this case, under New York State law, it's a misdemeanor so it's admittedly less serious and how serious a case is is also sort of explained or demonstrated by how it is sentenced," he elaborated. "Murder is a very serious case and people often go to jail for a very long time, if not for life. Falsifying business records under New York state law is a less serious case, so the penalties are less severe."
"It doesn't make it a weak case if you look at it from the perspective of a prosecutor -- you bring your case when it is ready," he continued. "So it would be a political decision to bring it too soon for some other purpose or to wait for some other purpose. If the case is ready, and as the elected prosecutor in Manhattan, you believe it is an appropriate charge, you bring it. It may be less serious than the other cases out there, but that doesn't make it weaker."
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