The Long March to 11/24

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Well-Known Member
Not only will I be broke in 2024, I may not even be able to pardon myself!"
Trump rails after poll shows Haley within 4 points in New Hampshire
A poll released this week found Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley trails former President Trump by 4 points in New Hampshire, prompting online outrage from the former president.

According to a December survey by American Research Group Inc. asking voters who their preference was in the Republican presidential primary, Trump earned 33 percent support.

Haley earned 29 percent, a significant milestone for the former U.N. ambassador, who appears to have been gaining ground on Trump’s steady lead in the state; the gap between her and the former president was well within the poll’s margin of error of 4 points.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie earned 13 percent in the survey, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received 6 percent support and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy brought in 5 percent.

Haley showed confidence this week, saying Trump is “getting nervous” about her rising support in the polls, citing a new ad that targets her.

A spokesperson for Haley said it is clear that “this is a two-person race” between Haley and Trump, and they “hope to see him on the debate stage in Iowa.”

Trump told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Friday that he was not worried about the poll or Haley’s chances in New Hampshire. He later took to his social media site Truth Social to say the poll was fake.

“Fake New Hampshire poll was released on Birdbrain,” Trump said about Haley, using the nickname he coined in September. “Just another scam! Ratings challenged FoxNews will play it to the hilt. Sununu now one of the least popular governors in the U.S. Real poll to follow.”

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) endorsed Haley last week, a significant win for her as she hopes to gain momentum in the final few weeks.

Sununu went after Trump after announcing the endorsement, saying a second Trump term would be filled with “chaos and distraction.” Trump has attacked Sununu online since the endorsement.

Haley has doubled her support in the early voting state since September, according to another survey released by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center. It found Haley earning 30 percent of the likely Republican primary vote, 14 points behind Trump.

The American Research Group survey of 600 likely Republican primary voters was conducted Dec. 14-20.
 

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Well-Known Member
"I only need one term to do what I want." "After four years there will be enough of my people in place I can step down."
Trump says he would peacefully transfer power at end of his term if reelected
Former President Trump said he would allow for a peaceful transfer of power at the end of his second term if he is reelected.

In a Friday interview with Trump, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the former president if he would “peacefully surrender” power at the end of another term if he is reelected.

“I did that this time,” Trump said about the 2020 election. “And I’ll tell you what, the election was rigged and we have plenty of evidence of it, but I did it anyway.”

Trump continued, “The other question you should ask is you should ask the other side will you cheat on the elections, because the only way we’re going to lose is if they cheat on the elections.”

Trump and his supporters have falsely maintained that the 2020 election was rigged, leading some of his base to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of the election results.

In the same interview, the former president tried to distance himself from recent comparisons to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, saying he wasn’t a “student” of him. Trump has been facing the aforementioned comparisons in connection with recent comments in which he has said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

“When you look at it, if you look at what’s coming in, we have from all over the world — not one group — they’re coming in from Asia, from Africa, from South America; they’re coming from all over the world,” Trump said in the interview. “They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re terrorists, absolutely, that’s poisoning our country, that’s poisoning the blood of our country.”

“They have people coming in — we don’t even know what the language is that they speak. We have nobody that speaks the language, and they’re loading up our classes, we’re loading up our classes, our school classes with children that don’t speak the language, that don’t speak our language,” he continued. “And nobody knows what’s going on. No, we are poisoning our country; we’re poisoning the blood of our country.”

Hewitt’s interview wasn’t the only time this week that Trump has tried to distance himself from Hitler, who wrote in “Mein Kampf” that German blood was being poisoned by Jews.

“They’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They’re destroying our country. They don’t like it when I said that — and I never read ‘Mein Kampf,’” Trump said at a rally in Iowa on Tuesday.

"because the only way we’re going to lose is if they cheat on the elections.”

Where have we heard this before?
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
"I only need one term to do what I want." "After four years there will be enough of my people in place I can step down."
Trump says he would peacefully transfer power at end of his term if reelected
Former President Trump said he would allow for a peaceful transfer of power at the end of his second term if he is reelected.

In a Friday interview with Trump, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the former president if he would “peacefully surrender” power at the end of another term if he is reelected.

“I did that this time,” Trump said about the 2020 election. “And I’ll tell you what, the election was rigged and we have plenty of evidence of it, but I did it anyway.”

Trump continued, “The other question you should ask is you should ask the other side will you cheat on the elections, because the only way we’re going to lose is if they cheat on the elections.”

Trump and his supporters have falsely maintained that the 2020 election was rigged, leading some of his base to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of the election results.

In the same interview, the former president tried to distance himself from recent comparisons to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, saying he wasn’t a “student” of him. Trump has been facing the aforementioned comparisons in connection with recent comments in which he has said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

“When you look at it, if you look at what’s coming in, we have from all over the world — not one group — they’re coming in from Asia, from Africa, from South America; they’re coming from all over the world,” Trump said in the interview. “They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re terrorists, absolutely, that’s poisoning our country, that’s poisoning the blood of our country.”

“They have people coming in — we don’t even know what the language is that they speak. We have nobody that speaks the language, and they’re loading up our classes, we’re loading up our classes, our school classes with children that don’t speak the language, that don’t speak our language,” he continued. “And nobody knows what’s going on. No, we are poisoning our country; we’re poisoning the blood of our country.”

Hewitt’s interview wasn’t the only time this week that Trump has tried to distance himself from Hitler, who wrote in “Mein Kampf” that German blood was being poisoned by Jews.

“They’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They’re destroying our country. They don’t like it when I said that — and I never read ‘Mein Kampf,’” Trump said at a rally in Iowa on Tuesday.

"because the only way we’re going to lose is if they cheat on the elections.”

Where have we heard this before?
The generation that heard that is almost all gone.
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
"I only need one term to do what I want." "After four years there will be enough of my people in place I can step down."
Trump says he would peacefully transfer power at end of his term if reelected
Former President Trump said he would allow for a peaceful transfer of power at the end of his second term if he is reelected.

In a Friday interview with Trump, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the former president if he would “peacefully surrender” power at the end of another term if he is reelected.

“I did that this time,” Trump said about the 2020 election. “And I’ll tell you what, the election was rigged and we have plenty of evidence of it, but I did it anyway.”

Trump continued, “The other question you should ask is you should ask the other side will you cheat on the elections, because the only way we’re going to lose is if they cheat on the elections.”

Trump and his supporters have falsely maintained that the 2020 election was rigged, leading some of his base to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of the election results.

In the same interview, the former president tried to distance himself from recent comparisons to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, saying he wasn’t a “student” of him. Trump has been facing the aforementioned comparisons in connection with recent comments in which he has said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

“When you look at it, if you look at what’s coming in, we have from all over the world — not one group — they’re coming in from Asia, from Africa, from South America; they’re coming from all over the world,” Trump said in the interview. “They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re terrorists, absolutely, that’s poisoning our country, that’s poisoning the blood of our country.”

“They have people coming in — we don’t even know what the language is that they speak. We have nobody that speaks the language, and they’re loading up our classes, we’re loading up our classes, our school classes with children that don’t speak the language, that don’t speak our language,” he continued. “And nobody knows what’s going on. No, we are poisoning our country; we’re poisoning the blood of our country.”

Hewitt’s interview wasn’t the only time this week that Trump has tried to distance himself from Hitler, who wrote in “Mein Kampf” that German blood was being poisoned by Jews.

“They’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They’re destroying our country. They don’t like it when I said that — and I never read ‘Mein Kampf,’” Trump said at a rally in Iowa on Tuesday.

"because the only way we’re going to lose is if they cheat on the elections.”

Where have we heard this before?
Trump also once told the fable about the scorpion and the frog. So we should all know how his presidency will end. Or not end.
 

topcat

Well-Known Member
"I only need one term to do what I want." "After four years there will be enough of my people in place I can step down."
Trump says he would peacefully transfer power at end of his term if reelected
Former President Trump said he would allow for a peaceful transfer of power at the end of his second term if he is reelected.

In a Friday interview with Trump, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the former president if he would “peacefully surrender” power at the end of another term if he is reelected.

“I did that this time,” Trump said about the 2020 election. “And I’ll tell you what, the election was rigged and we have plenty of evidence of it, but I did it anyway.”

Trump continued, “The other question you should ask is you should ask the other side will you cheat on the elections, because the only way we’re going to lose is if they cheat on the elections.”

Trump and his supporters have falsely maintained that the 2020 election was rigged, leading some of his base to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of the election results.

In the same interview, the former president tried to distance himself from recent comparisons to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, saying he wasn’t a “student” of him. Trump has been facing the aforementioned comparisons in connection with recent comments in which he has said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

“When you look at it, if you look at what’s coming in, we have from all over the world — not one group — they’re coming in from Asia, from Africa, from South America; they’re coming from all over the world,” Trump said in the interview. “They’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums. They’re terrorists, absolutely, that’s poisoning our country, that’s poisoning the blood of our country.”

“They have people coming in — we don’t even know what the language is that they speak. We have nobody that speaks the language, and they’re loading up our classes, we’re loading up our classes, our school classes with children that don’t speak the language, that don’t speak our language,” he continued. “And nobody knows what’s going on. No, we are poisoning our country; we’re poisoning the blood of our country.”

Hewitt’s interview wasn’t the only time this week that Trump has tried to distance himself from Hitler, who wrote in “Mein Kampf” that German blood was being poisoned by Jews.

“They’re destroying the blood of our country. That’s what they’re doing. They’re destroying our country. They don’t like it when I said that — and I never read ‘Mein Kampf,’” Trump said at a rally in Iowa on Tuesday.

"because the only way we’re going to lose is if they cheat on the elections.”

Where have we heard this before?
He's playing his greatest hits; build the wall, caravans, invasion, recession, hoax, only I can fix it, stolen election, middle school put-downs, etc. Tired, old bombastic rhetoric and stepping it up. He won't pay for good writers. He doesn't need to. He knows his audience. I love the poorly educated.
 

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Well-Known Member
Barr predicts ‘abuse of government power’ if Trump elected again
Former Attorney General Bill Barr warned that his successor in a possible second Trump administration would have to oppose the former president’s “abuse of government power.”

Barr, who left Trump’s White House on poor terms in 2020, claimed members of the cabinet would struggle to act as guardrails for the president if he’s reelected in 2024 — just as he and others did during Trump’s first term.

“Trump needs people around him who will push back and help keep him on the straight and narrow,” Barr said in a Fox News interview Saturday.

“During his first term, the main way that could be done is by pointing out to him how this would hurt his prospects for a second term,” he continued. “Once he wins a second term, I don’t know you know what considerations can be used to push back against bad ideas.”

Barr has repeatedly criticized Trump and does not support him for the 2024 GOP nomination. Instead, he urged GOP voters to coalesce around a candidate like former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, who has shot up polls in New Hampshire in recent weeks.

The former attorney general warned that a second Trump term wouldn’t be productive, arguing it would be centered on political retribution against Democrats for what the former president views as targeted attacks now.

“One of the one of the reasons I’m against Trump as the nominee is because I don’t think he’s going to move the country forward,” Barr said.

“I’m worried that his style of governance, his continuing to pander to anger and frustration versus a constructive approach to solving our problems, is going to be chaotic and not accomplish very much,” he added. “He’ll be a lame duck president.”

Asked to give hypothetical advice to Trump’s next attorney general pick, Barr said he would urge them to stand up to Trump when needed.

“He has to be ready to say no and to resign,” Barr said of the hypothetical attorney general. “Trump has made it plain that he’s going to respond to what he considers the left wings’ ‘no holds barred’ approach by fighting fire with fire.”

“I think for people going into that administration. I think they have to be ready to oppose the abuse of government power,” he added.
 

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Well-Known Member
Trump demands recusal of Maine secretary of state in 14th Amendment determination
Former President Trump on Wednesday demanded the Maine secretary of state recuse herself from her upcoming decision on the former president’s ballot eligibility under the 14th Amendment, citing her past statements about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Unlike other states, where plaintiffs have sued over Trump’s eligibility in court, Maine’s system first allows the secretary of state to weigh in. Challengers can then appeal in state court.

In response to three petitions challenging Trump’s ballot eligibility, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, is set to issue a decision in the coming days.

On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers wrote Bellows a letter demanding she disqualify herself over three tweets she previously issued referencing Jan. 6, including those in which she described the attack as an insurrection.

The 14th Amendment prohibits someone from holding “any office … under the United States” if they “engaged in insurrection” after taking an oath to support the Constitution.

“Using similar language, the Challengers have claimed that the events of January 6, 2021, constituted a violent insurrection and that President Trump somehow poses a danger from which Maine voters must be protected. Thus, the Secretary has already passed judgment on the Challengers’ core assertions,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the letter.

Bellows’s spokesperson said the secretary is not commenting while the matter is pending.

The letter cites two social media posts Bellows issued the day Trump was acquitted in his second impeachment trial, which concerned the Capitol riot.

“The Jan 6 insurrection was an unlawful attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. Today 57 Senators including King & Collins found Trump guilty. That’s short of impeachment but nevertheless an indictment. The insurrectionists failed, and democracy prevailed,” Bellows wrote on Twitter, the platform now known as X.

The letter also takes aim at a post Bellows issued on the one-year anniversary of Jan. 6, in which she reposted a news report highlighting Bellows’s efforts to protect election workers.

“One year after the violent insurrection, it’s important to do all we can to safeguard our elections,” Bellows wrote.

Challenges to Trump’s ballot eligibility have been mounted in states across the country. Earlier on Wednesday, Michigan’s top court denied a 14th Amendment challenge, and similar lawsuits have been rejected in places including Minnesota.

In Colorado, however, the state’s top court became the first to declare Trump ineligible for the state’s primary ballot, in a case expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court within days.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
Oh for fuck sake. So Joe should be impeached because he might have known his son might ask to testify in public? Might being the key word. So what was Joe to do? Go run to Jim and tell him that Hunter will show up but not go and testify the same way Jim ignored a subpoena? What justice will be obstructed? There are still court cases where justice can prevail over Hunter.

GOP suggests President Biden may have obstructed justice in son’s defying subpoena
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are suggesting that President Biden may have “engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress” if he knew that his son Hunter Biden planned to defy a congressional subpoena.

In a Wednesday letter to Edward Siskel, a White House counsel and assistant to the president, the committee chairs requested documents and communications from employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding the deposition of Hunter Biden.

Comer and Jordan pointed to a statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to justify their suspicion of obstruction and said it “could constitute an impeachable offense.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The charge comes two weeks after Hunter Biden defied a subpoena from House Republicans as part of their impeachment probe concerning the president’s relationship with his family’s business dealings. The White House has repeatedly asserted that the president had no involvement in those business dealings, and it has rebuffed other accusations of obstruction by pointing to numerous Biden administration officials speaking to the committees.

In response to the House GOP subpoena to appear in a closed-door deposition, Hunter Biden had offered to speak in a public hearing, with his attorney pointing to a previous statement from Comer saying that witnesses could come in “depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose.” But Comer and Jordan said a closed-door format was necessary first.

Rather than appear for the deposition scheduled for Dec. 13, Hunter Biden spoke outside the Capitol — in a space recorded to be reserved by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) — and made a statement to the press asserting that his father was never financially involved with his businesses. House Republicans have pledged to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress over his failure to appear for the closed-door session.

Comer and Jordan wrote that a statement from Jean-Pierre indicated that “President Biden was aware in advance that his son, Hunter Biden, would knowingly defy two congressional subpoenas,” compelling them “to examine as part of our impeachment inquiry whether the President engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress.”

The day that Hunter Biden did not appear for the deposition, Jean-Pierre in a press briefing dodged questions about whether he should appear for a subpoena but said the president had some insight ahead of his son’s comments.

“The president was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say, and I think what you saw was from the heart from his son,” she said.

Comer and Jordan also brought up a Dec. 6 statement from Biden saying that claims he interacted with his son and brother’s foreign business partners were “a bunch of lies.” Devon Archer, a former Hunter Biden business partner, has testified that Biden exchanged pleasantries with some of Hunter Biden’s foreign business partners on speakerphone phone calls and during a 2014 dinner at Cafe Milano but did not discuss business.


“In light of this evidence, the fact that the President had advanced awareness that Mr. Biden would defy the Committees’ subpoenas raises a troubling new question that we must examine: whether the President corruptly sought to influence or obstruct the Committees’ proceeding by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son from complying with the Committees’ subpoenas,” the letter said. “Such conduct could constitute an impeachable offense.”

Comer and Jordan requested that the White House provide by Jan. 10 all documents and communications “sent or received by employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding the deposition of Hunter Biden” and “sent or received by employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding President Biden’s statement about his family’s business associates on December 6, 2023.”
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Got this in my email today.


Dec. 27, 2023, 4:00 AM MST
By Simon Rosenberg, Democratic strategist

As we head into 2024, the conventional wisdom is that Democrats are on the back foot for next year’s elections. But there are three reasons I am optimistic that 2024 is going to be a good year for Democrats:
First, President Joe Biden has kept his central promise in the 2020 election: that he would lead the nation to the other side of Covid, successfully. The pandemic has receded. Our economic recovery has been better than any other G7 nation. GDP grew at an annual rate of 4.9% last quarter, and more than 3% for the Biden presidency. We have the best job market since the 1960s and the lowest uninsured rate in U.S. history. The Dow Jones broke 37,000 this month for the first time. Wage growth, new business formation and prime-age labor participation rates are all at historically elevated levels. Prices fell — yes, fell — last month. Rents are softening, and gas prices and crime rates are falling. Domestic oil and renewable production are at record levels. The annual deficit, which exploded under Trump, is trillions less today.

Consumer sentiment has risen sharply in recent weeks, and measures of life, job and income satisfaction are remarkably high. There is no doubt that recent years have been hard — Covid, an insurrection at the Capitol, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, repeated OPEC price hikes, global and domestic inflation — but it is increasingly clear that America is getting to the other side of this challenging period, and are in a far better place than when President Biden took office.

Second, the strength of the president’s record is only matched by the strength of his party. I don’t think it is widely understood how strong the Democratic Party is right now. The party has won more votes in seven of the past eight presidential elections, something no party has done in modern American history. Over the last four presidential elections, Democrats have averaged 51% of the popular vote, their best showing over four national elections since the 1930s.

In both 2022 and 2023, Democrats prevented the historical down ballot struggle of the party in power and had two remarkably successful elections. In the 2022 midterms, Democrats’ statewide margins were greater than the 2020 presidential margins in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — all recent battleground states. That showing led the party to pick up a Senate seat, four state legislative chambers and two governorships, and helped keep the House of Representatives close, making it far more likely Republicans lose it in 2024.

Simon Rosenberg is a veteran Democratic strategist and author of Hopium Chronicles on Substack.

Stupid 10,000 character limit. To be continued . . .
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
‘Democrats are kicking ass’ in elections after Dobbs ruling, says Democratic strategist
Sept. 20, 202304:29

This year, Democrats flipped a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin; defeated a six-week abortion ban in Ohio; kept the Virginia state house, debunking the idea that Republicans could hide behind a 15-week abortion ban; and took state legislative seats, municipalities and school board seats across the country. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, grew his margin of victory from 2019, and Republicans lost mayoral elections in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Jacksonville, Florida, two of the largest GOP-controlled cities in the country. And in over three dozen state legislative special elections around the country, Democrats outperformed 2020 – an election we won by 4.5 percentage points — by an average of 5 percentage points.

While in 2022, Republicans could point to gains in New York and California to offset their losses in the battleground states, there were no places in 2023 where they outperformed expectations. A blue wave washed across the U.S. in 2023, and this ongoing strong performance of the Democratic Party in election after election, in all parts of the country, should fill Biden’s supporters with confidence.

Trump has, in political parlance, the highest “negatives” of any candidate perhaps in our history.

Finally, while Democrats keep winning, conventional wisdom continues to overly discount Trump’s historic baggage and MAGA’s repeated electoral failures. Despite these repeated failures, Republicans are on the cusp of nominating Trump again, who this time is an even more degraded and dangerous version of MAGA than he was in 2020.

Two things have happened to Trump since 2020 that are going to make it very hard for him to win in 2024 — the stripping away of women’s reproductive rights, and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and end American democracy for all time. Additionally, this year courts have already determined that he sexually abused journalist E. Jean Carroll in a department store; oversaw a yearslong financial fraud; and led a party-wide effort, involving hundreds of Republican leaders and thousands of willing allies, to overturn the last election, culminating in a violent attack on Congress.

Democrats will be able to argue that no one is more responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade than Trump; that his mishandling of classified documents is to blame for the most serious security breach in American history; that in concert with Russian President Vladimir Putin he will end the global liberal order that has brought America and the world unprecedented prosperity and peace; that he supports more dead kids in schools, a faster warming planet, lost health insurance for tens of millions of Americans and the end of American democracy for all time. Trump represents an unprecedented threat to the country, is even more extreme than 2020, and has, in political parlance, the highest “negatives” of any candidate perhaps in our history. It is going to be very hard for him to win next year.

For all these reasons, as we head into 2024, I am optimistic that Joe Biden and the Democrats will once again beat Donald Trump, and hopefully, this time, send MAGA into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

Simon Rosenberg
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
Got this in my email today.


Dec. 27, 2023, 4:00 AM MST
By Simon Rosenberg, Democratic strategist

As we head into 2024, the conventional wisdom is that Democrats are on the back foot for next year’s elections. But there are three reasons I am optimistic that 2024 is going to be a good year for Democrats:
First, President Joe Biden has kept his central promise in the 2020 election: that he would lead the nation to the other side of Covid, successfully. The pandemic has receded. Our economic recovery has been better than any other G7 nation. GDP grew at an annual rate of 4.9% last quarter, and more than 3% for the Biden presidency. We have the best job market since the 1960s and the lowest uninsured rate in U.S. history. The Dow Jones broke 37,000 this month for the first time. Wage growth, new business formation and prime-age labor participation rates are all at historically elevated levels. Prices fell — yes, fell — last month. Rents are softening, and gas prices and crime rates are falling. Domestic oil and renewable production are at record levels. The annual deficit, which exploded under Trump, is trillions less today.

Consumer sentiment has risen sharply in recent weeks, and measures of life, job and income satisfaction are remarkably high. There is no doubt that recent years have been hard — Covid, an insurrection at the Capitol, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, repeated OPEC price hikes, global and domestic inflation — but it is increasingly clear that America is getting to the other side of this challenging period, and are in a far better place than when President Biden took office.

Second, the strength of the president’s record is only matched by the strength of his party. I don’t think it is widely understood how strong the Democratic Party is right now. The party has won more votes in seven of the past eight presidential elections, something no party has done in modern American history. Over the last four presidential elections, Democrats have averaged 51% of the popular vote, their best showing over four national elections since the 1930s.

In both 2022 and 2023, Democrats prevented the historical down ballot struggle of the party in power and had two remarkably successful elections. In the 2022 midterms, Democrats’ statewide margins were greater than the 2020 presidential margins in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — all recent battleground states. That showing led the party to pick up a Senate seat, four state legislative chambers and two governorships, and helped keep the House of Representatives close, making it far more likely Republicans lose it in 2024.

Simon Rosenberg is a veteran Democratic strategist and author of Hopium Chronicles on Substack.

Stupid 10,000 character limit. To be continued . . .
Republicans

1703734445481.gif
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
Trump demands recusal of Maine secretary of state in 14th Amendment determination
Former President Trump on Wednesday demanded the Maine secretary of state recuse herself from her upcoming decision on the former president’s ballot eligibility under the 14th Amendment, citing her past statements about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Unlike other states, where plaintiffs have sued over Trump’s eligibility in court, Maine’s system first allows the secretary of state to weigh in. Challengers can then appeal in state court.

In response to three petitions challenging Trump’s ballot eligibility, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, is set to issue a decision in the coming days.

On Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers wrote Bellows a letter demanding she disqualify herself over three tweets she previously issued referencing Jan. 6, including those in which she described the attack as an insurrection.

The 14th Amendment prohibits someone from holding “any office … under the United States” if they “engaged in insurrection” after taking an oath to support the Constitution.

“Using similar language, the Challengers have claimed that the events of January 6, 2021, constituted a violent insurrection and that President Trump somehow poses a danger from which Maine voters must be protected. Thus, the Secretary has already passed judgment on the Challengers’ core assertions,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the letter.

Bellows’s spokesperson said the secretary is not commenting while the matter is pending.

The letter cites two social media posts Bellows issued the day Trump was acquitted in his second impeachment trial, which concerned the Capitol riot.

“The Jan 6 insurrection was an unlawful attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. Today 57 Senators including King & Collins found Trump guilty. That’s short of impeachment but nevertheless an indictment. The insurrectionists failed, and democracy prevailed,” Bellows wrote on Twitter, the platform now known as X.

The letter also takes aim at a post Bellows issued on the one-year anniversary of Jan. 6, in which she reposted a news report highlighting Bellows’s efforts to protect election workers.

“One year after the violent insurrection, it’s important to do all we can to safeguard our elections,” Bellows wrote.

Challenges to Trump’s ballot eligibility have been mounted in states across the country. Earlier on Wednesday, Michigan’s top court denied a 14th Amendment challenge, and similar lawsuits have been rejected in places including Minnesota.

In Colorado, however, the state’s top court became the first to declare Trump ineligible for the state’s primary ballot, in a case expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court within days.
maybe Shenna Bellows should say "I'll recuse if he does"

1703740797022.png
 

printer

Well-Known Member
Colorado Republican Party asks Supreme Court to overturn Trump ruling
The Colorado Republican Party filed an appeal Wednesday to the state supreme court’s ruling barring former President Trump from the primary ballot, taking the unprecedented case to the Supreme Court.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week that Trump was ineligible for the state’s ballot because of his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, which disqualified him under the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court, which is expected to hear the case, has never made a decision on the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause” since it was ratified in 1868.

The Colorado GOP argued that the state’s court ruled incorrectly in the case, claiming the 14th Amendment clause does not apply to the presidency. The party also argued that the unprecedented step of removing a major candidate from the ballot would be a disservice to the country.

“The Colorado Supreme Court has removed the leading Republican candidate from the primary and general ballots, fundamentally changing the course of American democracy,” the party’s attorneys wrote Wednesday.

“Unless the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision is overturned, any voter will have the power to sue to disqualify any political candidate, in Colorado or in any other jurisdiction that follows its lead,” they continued. “This will not only distort the 2024 presidential election but will also mire courts henceforth in political controversies over nebulous accusations of insurrection.”

Trump also vowed to appeal the case. Both he and the state party are defendants.

If the Supreme Court upholds the Colorado case it would not likely impact the 2024 by itself, as the state is likely to fall to Democrats anyway, but would open the door to similar 14th Amendment challenges nationwide.

Sean Grimsley, attorney for the plaintiffs, said he is preparing to request an accelerated decision from the high court.

“We obviously are going to ask for an extremely accelerated timeline because of all the reasons I’ve stated, we have a primary coming up on Super Tuesday and we need to know the answer,” Grimsley said in a podcast appearance last week, according to The Associated Press.

The legal arguments of the case have divided constitutional scholars from both political parties, and it’s unclear how the Supreme Court would rule.

The Michigan Supreme Court threw out a similar 14th Amendment challenge Wednesday, arguing that its Secretary of State does not have the authority to kick a candidate off the ballot. It did not rule on the merits of the 14th Amendment claim.

The Maine Secretary of State is expected to consider a similar challenge this week.

Trump derided the Colorado and other 14th Amendment challenges as “election interference.”

“Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls. They have lost faith in the failed Biden presidency and are now doing everything they can to stop the American voters from throwing them out of office next November,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement last week.
 

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Colorado Republican Party asks Supreme Court to overturn Trump ruling
The Colorado Republican Party filed an appeal Wednesday to the state supreme court’s ruling barring former President Trump from the primary ballot, taking the unprecedented case to the Supreme Court.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week that Trump was ineligible for the state’s ballot because of his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, which disqualified him under the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court, which is expected to hear the case, has never made a decision on the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause” since it was ratified in 1868.

The Colorado GOP argued that the state’s court ruled incorrectly in the case, claiming the 14th Amendment clause does not apply to the presidency. The party also argued that the unprecedented step of removing a major candidate from the ballot would be a disservice to the country.

“The Colorado Supreme Court has removed the leading Republican candidate from the primary and general ballots, fundamentally changing the course of American democracy,” the party’s attorneys wrote Wednesday.

“Unless the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision is overturned, any voter will have the power to sue to disqualify any political candidate, in Colorado or in any other jurisdiction that follows its lead,” they continued. “This will not only distort the 2024 presidential election but will also mire courts henceforth in political controversies over nebulous accusations of insurrection.”

Trump also vowed to appeal the case. Both he and the state party are defendants.

If the Supreme Court upholds the Colorado case it would not likely impact the 2024 by itself, as the state is likely to fall to Democrats anyway, but would open the door to similar 14th Amendment challenges nationwide.

Sean Grimsley, attorney for the plaintiffs, said he is preparing to request an accelerated decision from the high court.

“We obviously are going to ask for an extremely accelerated timeline because of all the reasons I’ve stated, we have a primary coming up on Super Tuesday and we need to know the answer,” Grimsley said in a podcast appearance last week, according to The Associated Press.

The legal arguments of the case have divided constitutional scholars from both political parties, and it’s unclear how the Supreme Court would rule.

The Michigan Supreme Court threw out a similar 14th Amendment challenge Wednesday, arguing that its Secretary of State does not have the authority to kick a candidate off the ballot. It did not rule on the merits of the 14th Amendment claim.

The Maine Secretary of State is expected to consider a similar challenge this week.

Trump derided the Colorado and other 14th Amendment challenges as “election interference.”

“Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls. They have lost faith in the failed Biden presidency and are now doing everything they can to stop the American voters from throwing them out of office next November,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement last week.
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