U.S. News

Tafari Campbell, who was a White House chef while Barack Obama was president and continued working for the couple after his presidency, was identified as a the fatal victim of a drowning near the couple’s Martha’s Vineyard estate, The Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Campbell, 45, of Dumfries, Virginia, was visiting Martha’s Vineyard at the time of his death. The former president and his wife weren’t at the residence at the time of the drowning, police said, according to the report.

The "Never Trump" group led by Republicans and former Republicans dropped a new ad attacking Donald Trump as an "abuser."

"Sometimes we mock Trump," the group said in a tweet Monday. "Sometimes we call out his clown show. Other days, the harm he’s caused. The pain he’s inflicted. The women he’s mistreated… And reminds us, Donald Trump can never be President again."

A Florida couple on Monday pleaded guilty in connection with an assault on police during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the Department of Justice said in a news release.

Jamie Buteau, 50, of Ocala, Florida, pleaded guilty to one felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. Jennifer Buteau, 46, (also of Ocala), pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

Speaking to MSNBC on Monday ahead of an anticipated indictment of Donald Trump this week, former U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner, who runs the "Justice Matters" legal explainer blog, turned to Mark Meadows.

The former Republican lawmaker from North Carolina who became Donald Trump's chief of staff has been largely silent in recent weeks, sparking rumors that he may have sided with the Department of Justice against his former boss. It's only been a month since those close to Trump began referring to Meadows using a rat emoji in text message conversations. Now that a Jan. 6 indictment looms, the Washington Post this weekend questioned the role Meadows will play.

Former senior prosecutor for Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, said on Monday he believes there's "a distinct possibility" that Donald Trump's legal team has met with the Department of Justice to appeal against their client's possible indictment, and that charges involving Jack Smith's Jan. 6 investigation could be unsealed imminently.

"Seems like a distinct possibility that we will learn today that the Trump defense team has presented appeal to DOJ re the Jan. 6 charges; and then upon the rejection of that appeal, Jack Smith will seek the indictment tomorrow or Thursday at the latest in DC," Weissmann tweeted Monday afternoon.

Palm Beach hedge fund manager Nelson Peltz is reconsidering his support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), The Financial Times reported.

Citing "people familiar" with Peltz's thoughts, the billionaire sees DeSantis' position on abortion to be too extreme.

Former President Donald Trump continued his assault on special counsel Jack Smith and other prosecutors that work for the Department of Justice Monday – and his Truth Social attacks have reached such a degree that former Robert Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann thinks that the Washington, D.C. courts will act if Trump is indicted.

"Let's remember that he is out on bail in not one, but two criminal cases," Weissmann said about Trump. "One in Manhattan. One before Aileen Cannon, as you noted. And it's also important to note that if he's indicted in D.C., D.C. has, as part of its standing order, free press, fair trial rules that limit what a defendant can say that could taint a jury."

Ahead of the release of the "Barbie" movie, the far-right invented a conspiracy that the film promoted Chinese Communism and other reasons for outrage. Other conservatives, like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), say it should be the "next Bud Light," a campaign that ended with the beer company pulling back from its campaign targeting LGBTQ customers.

Extremist "Ben Shapiro [claimed] he has destroyed Barbie," said MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) called out Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is among the Republican lawmakers running for president. According to Kinzinger, Scott "knows better" than to excuse away Donald Trump's culpability with the Jan. 6 attack.

"I hold the folks who broke into the Capitol with ill will in their hearts destroying property, responsible for their actions," Scott told WMUR in "conversation with candidates" in New Hampshire. "I don't hold the former president, who didn't show up at the Capitol, as responsible."

Donald Trump has just hired a lawyer that one of his impeachment attack dogs has worked with and views as a respectable defense attorney. However, he doesn't anticipate it will help much.

Speaking to CNN's Jim Acosta on Sunday, former Ethics Czar and impeachment lawyer Norm Eisen explained that John Lauro is working in the proud tradition of a defense attorney.

CNN's Jim Acosta clashed with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Sunday as the host pressed on the seriousness of the former president's classified documents scandal.

This week, Donald Trump made a veiled threat about not putting him in jail, specifically saying it "would be very dangerous" if special counsel Jack Smith sent him to jail. As a point of fact, a jury will decide whether or not to send Trump to jail.

Donald Trump Jr. cried to "Flashpoint" host Gene Bailey that he hasn't been on television recently and he seems upset about it.

Bailey asked if the media would ever change to cover things in a pro-right way; he called it "accurately." The younger Trump agreed it was a "pipe dream."

UPDATE: A New York Times investigation published on Sept. 24 ,2023 stated that reporters had been unable to confirm Mansoor Adayfi's claims. "An examination of military records and interviews with detainees’ lawyers and service members who served at the same time as Mr. DeSantis found no evidence to back up the claims," the Times wrote. "The New York Times interviewed more than 40 people who served with Mr. DeSantis or around the same time and none recalled witnessing or even hearing of any episodes like the ones Mr. Adayfi described."

A leaked transcript of a Vice documentary into the role Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) played at Guantanamo Bay has been published after Showtime mysteriously canceled plans to screen the show.