Donald Trump's role in the future of the Republican Party is in question following the 2022 midterm elections.
"Donald J. Trump faced unusual public attacks from across the Republican Party on Wednesday after a string of midterm losses by candidates he had handpicked and supported, a display of weakness as he prepared to announce a third presidential campaign as soon as next week," Michael Bender and Maggie Haberman reported for The New York Times.
Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal editorialized against Trump and his New York Post ridiculed Trump on Thursday's front page.
"As the sheer number of missed Republican opportunities sank in, the rush to openly blame Mr. Trump was as immediate as it was surprising," The Times reported. "The chorus of criticism, which unfolded on Fox News and social media throughout the day, revealed Mr. Trump to be at his most vulnerable point politically since the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol."
Trump did particularly poorly in battleground districts.
"And in 36 House races that the Cook Political Report rated as tossups, Mr. Trump endorsed just five Republicans. Each one lost on Tuesday," the newspaper reported. "Adding to Mr. Trump’s long night on Tuesday, one of the few Republican bright spots in the midterms came in Florida, where Mr. DeSantis — widely viewed as the leading alternative to Mr. Trump in 2024 — won re-election with the widest margin of any Republican in the 24 years the party has controlled the governor’s office in Tallahassee."
Read the full report.
Former President Donald Trump launched a new attack on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after the governor took a thinly veiled shot at the former president for allegedly paying off an adult film star to keep quiet about an alleged affair.
Just weeks after Trump promoted a social media post that baselessly accused DeSantis of being a "groomer," the former president took to his Truth Social platform to warn his prospective rival for the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination that some day he might face sexual misconduct allegations of his own.
"Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are 'underage' (or possibly a man!)," Trump wrote. "I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!"
Below this post, Trump shared a screen shot of a story about DeSantis allegedly partying with teenage girls when he was a young high school teacher.
READ MORE: There is a good reason for Trump's 'irate' freakout over an impending Manhattan indictment: analyst
No one so far has come forward to accuse DeSantis of any sexual misconduct and Trump has a long history of floating baseless smears against his opponents, such as when he insinuated that Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) father had a hand in murdering the late President John Kennedy.
A 63-year-old American citizen and mother of seven who has been reported missing in Mexico was last seen being forced into a white van outside her residence in the country, Fox News reported.
The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to Maria del Carmen Lopez's whereabouts. The agency says she was last seen at her home in Pueblo Nuevo in Mexico’s Colima state on Feb. 9.
"There was an exchange of words. She was refusing to get into the van," her daughter Zonia Lopez told a local news outlet.
"There was another individual who stepped out of the van and helped those two bring her inside and they drove away," she said, adding that ever since her disappearance, her family "all started calling her to see if she would pick up her phone or answer her messenger and we have not heard from her."
Her daughter added that she doesn't think that drug cartels were involved, instead saying that local gangs that organize kidnappings may be to blame.
Lopez’s disappearance follows a U.S. State Department warning last October for Americans to stay away from Mexico’s Colima state.
"Do not travel due to crime and kidnapping," the State Department warned. "Violent crime and gang activity are widespread. Most homicides are targeted assassinations against members of criminal organizations. Shooting incidents between criminal groups have injured or killed bystanders. U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents have been victims of kidnapping."
"The FBI is offering a reward of up to $20,000 USD for information leading to the physical location of Maria del Carmen Lopez," the FBI’s Los Angeles Office said.
As former President Donald Trump faces potential indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over a $130,000 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up their alleged affair, his defenders are arguing that the indictment is political targeting over a minor offense.
Even former Vice President Mike Pence, who has been critical of his former boss and is considering a run against him for president himself, slammed the New York D.A., telling reporters, "the fact that the Manhattan D.A., in the midst of a crime wave in New York City, then says that indicting the former president is his highest priority. It tells you everything you need to know about the liberal left in this country."
Some of Trump's critics from the left, too, appear disappointed that this might be his first indictment, with former Obama strategist David Axelrod calling it the "least meaningful" case against him.
But liberal journalist Judd Legum wrote for his "Popular Information" blog on Monday that this case is a big deal, and it cuts to the heart of a matter that changed the course of American history.
"There are some basic rules about how federal campaigns operate. If you spend money to benefit your campaign, it must be publicly reported. If you run an ad, you must disclose that your campaign paid for the ad. The underlying principle of these rules is transparency — voters have a right to know what you are saying and doing to get elected," wrote Legum. "If Trump is charged, it will be because prosecutors believe he violated the law in order to hide relevant information from voters in the days leading up to the 2016 election. After Election Day, Trump allegedly engaged in more crimes, including falsifying business records, to cover up his actions."
IN OTHER NEWS: There is a good reason for Trump's 'irate' freakout over an impending Manhattan indictment
"If Bragg decides to charge Trump, he will have to make the case in detail. But Trump's conduct was not unmeaningful, and efforts to hold him legally accountable are not outrageous," wrote Legum. "Trump schemed to conceal relevant information from the voting public in the days before the election, engaged in an elaborate coverup, and then lied about his involvement. This deceit was a subversion of the democratic process and may have changed the course of history."
The most likely charges that Trump could face are misdemeanor bookkeeping fraud. However, it could rise to a felony, which carries jail time, if prosecutors could show Trump committed the fraud in order to conceal a second crime.
Trump has claimed that the case cannot be brought because it is outside the statute of limitations; however, the statute only applies while Trump continuously lives in the state of New York, and he has spent most of his time since the hush payment living either in the White House or his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
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