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Trump's 'twisted and demented' salute to Jan. 6 rioters wrecked by Morning Joe

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Trump's 'twisted and demented' salute to Jan. 6 rioters wrecked by Morning Joe

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough condemned Donald Trump for celebrating jailed Jan. 6 rioters as patriots and hostages.

At a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, the former president saluted the J6 Prison Choir's alternate rendition of the national anthem, calling them "unbelievable patriots," and pledged to help those "hostages" on his first day in office, and both the "Morning Joe" host and co-host Mika Brzezinski called his comments "twisted."

"Donald Trump, again, the Republican frontrunner who basically clinched the nomination, addressing one of the first things he'll do in office, is free the – and I say this in quotes – 'hostages,'" Brzezinski said. "It's beyond twisted for him to use that word. Not surprised but as disturbed as we'll ever be."

Scarborough said the ex-president's remarks were insulting to Americans who have loved ones held as hostages by Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

READ MORE: MAGA’s Christian nationalism excludes a vast majority of Christianity

"What if you were an American family with hostages still being held in tunnels underneath Gaza, people who actually are hostages, who were doing nothing but being in their home or at a musical festival, minding their own business, when Hamas terrorists came and seized them and beat them, raped them, abused them, took them underground," Scarborough said. "Donald Trump comparing those people in name to others that drove from across the country, came to the Capitol, used bear spray on police officers, beat the hell out of cops, beat the hell out of other people who got in their way, wanted to hang Mike Pence, were looking for Nancy Pelosi, destroyed a lot of offices, defecated in the United States Capitol. Again, jammed cops' heads in doors and tried to hurt as many people as they could."

"You know, Donald Trump, I remember the day after, Donald Trump and members of his family getting in trouble for calling these rioters patriots," Scarborough continued. "They backed off, some of them backed off. Donald Trump wading straight in, saying these people were patriots and that, you know, others saying this wasn't a bloodbath. I would suggest that you talk to the wives, sons and daughters of those police officers who lost their lives as a result of Jan. 6, and they will tell you that their loved ones lost their lives as a result of Jan. 6. Donald Trump continues to praise these people. He says, he says, everybody knows they're patriots. No, everybody doesn't, in fact. You have to be twisted and demented in your head if you can look at can rioting, people beating the hell out of cops, with police officers with American flags, trying to kill them, and call them hostages after they went through the court system. That is a sickness and a twistedness, and the continued -- you have people continuing to try to apologize for this behavior, starting with Donald Trump, trying to minimize what happened on Jan. 6."

"For those who say, why do you talk about Donald Trump?" he added. "We talk about Donald Trump because, yes, democracy is on the line. When Donald Trump says this is normal political behavior, the RNC said it was normal political behavior, Donald Trump says it, he says those people abusing police officers are patriots. Those that got sent to jail for trying to overrun the U.S. Capitol and for beating the hell out of cops are hostages, nothing – there is nothing normal about this. For those weak-kneed wimps that say we should never mention Donald Trump's name and just turn our faces from this and talk about something else, I would suggest there are Germans who tried that with Hitler – didn't turn out well."

Watch the video below or at this link.


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Judge sends shockwaves with 'remarkable win' for Trump foe: 'Feds can no longer access it'

A judge on Saturday hit Donald Trump's DOJ with a negative ruling, giving some positive news to a well-known critic of the president.

As Politico reported, "A federal judge dealt a setback Saturday to the Justice Department’s effort to re-indict former FBI Director James Comey, blocking prosecutors’ access to key evidence from email accounts and a computer belonging to close Comey friend and attorney Daniel Richman."

"U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted a temporary restraining order sought by Richman’s lawyers, requiring that the evidence be sequestered pending a ruling on Richman’s claim that the government illegally retained his emails and other data," the report states. "Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee based in Washington, issued the restraining order before getting a formal response from prosecutors to a petition Richman filed last week seeking return of his data. However, she said a lack of clear indication about who currently has the data and where it is stored supported her conclusion that a temporary order limiting access to the trove of records was warranted."

Legal analyst Anna Bower said, "Judge grants Daniel Richman’s request to temporarily block DOJ’s access to evidence taken from his electronic devices. Richman was a key figure in the now-dismissed prosecution of former FBI director James Comey. Order could complicate DOJ’s effort to re-indict Comey."

Josh Gerstein also added, "Judge complicates DOJ drive to re-indict Comey, orders his lawyer Dan Richman's emails & computer off limits to prosecutors. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly says likely Richman's rights were violated by govt's retention & use of the data."

Roger Parloff wrote, "Remarkable win for Prof Dan Richman (and Comey), at least temporarily."

"Judge Kollar-Kotelly orders USA not to access any info seized from Richman's devices—which Mag Judge Fitzpatrick called the centerpiece of the case vs Comey—till she permits," the legal analyst added Saturday.

Adam Klasfeld chimed in, "The evidence that another judge previously called central to the grand jury presentation leading to Comey’s indictment was likely obtained in violation of his lawyer’s Fourth Amendment rights. Feds can no longer access it, for now."

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'They were civilians': Experts pounce as new facts emerge about boat strike

NBC came out with a bombshell exclusive report on the Trump administration's controversial "double tap" boat strike, prompting experts to express shock.

In a Saturday night article called "Admiral told lawmakers everyone on alleged drug boat was on a list of military targets," the outlet reported, "Adm. Frank Bradley said U.S. intelligence had identified the 11 people on the boat and determined the military was authorized to kill them as part of Trump’s campaign against alleged drug-smuggling vessels."

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military on Sept. 2 to kill all 11 people on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea because they were on an internal list of narco-terrorists who U.S. intelligence and military officials determined could be lethally targeted, the commander overseeing the operation told lawmakers in briefings this past week, according to two U.S. officials and one person familiar with the congressional briefings," according to the report.

However, the report also pointed out that, "Even so, Bradley acknowledged to lawmakers that U.S. intelligence did not conclude the drugs were heading to the U.S. Rather it showed that the boat was traveling south toward another country in South America, Suriname, which was first reported by CNN. Bradley told the lawmakers the boat was eventually heading to Europe or Africa." This quote was highlighted by independent veteran Paul Rieckhoff.

Legal analyst Ryan Goodman quoted this piece, "Bradley told lawmakers that the orders he received from Hegseth were to kill the individuals on the approved target list, which included everyone on the boat, then destroy the drugs and sink the boat, those sources said," and then added, "They were civilians."

Read it here.

Key Trump Cabinet member to be booted from admin 'really soon': report

A new report Saturday shows one Donald Trump Cabinet official will be fired "really soon."

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem won't be around for long, according to the Bulwark's reporting this weekend.

"For weeks, a rumor has been circulating in political circles that Noem may soon be on the outs. It briefly surfaced in a CNN report a few weeks back that listed her first among the cabinet officials who could be caught in a year-end turnover, noting that while Trump himself has been happy with Noem, top White House officials have grown frustrated with her tenure—specifically, her employment of her divisive and combustible chief adviser, Corey Lewandowski," according to the report.

It continues:

"But in conversations with three former DHS officials—who served in both the Biden and Trump administrations and are still in touch with current staff—it was made clear that Trump is indeed considering moving on from Noem. Two of those officials said they believed such a move could happen 'really soon,' relaying that they’ve been told Noem has been taking on less of a role in directing department memos. But they and the third official also cautioned that the situation is fluid. Trump could decide to let Noem oversee the launch of new enforcement operations planned for January and February. And, as always, the president’s views are fickle and often heavily influenced by the latest person to grab his ear."

According to journalist Adrian Carrasquillo, "Still, there are a few factors that make the possibility of a Noem exit likely."

"The first is that Trump may want to begin the New Year with a clean slate, hoping that fresh blood could improve either the execution of his signature mass deportation policy or—more importantly—the public’s perception of it," he wrote. "The second is that a prominent, if slightly faded, Republican governor may be soon on the job market, ready to burnish his MAGA credentials with a Trump appointment."

Read the full report here.

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