Tag Archive for: Donald Trump

House Republicans Demand Documents From Prosecutor Investigating Trump

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Three House Republican committee chairmen are demanding documents from the New York prosecutor who is investigating former President Donald Trump’s payments to an adult actress.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, and House Administration Committee chairman Bryan Steil are calling on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to provide all documents and communications involving his investigation into Trump, as well as sit for a transcribed interview. A New York grand jury is investigating Trump’s 2016 payments to Stormy Daniels, and the former president said Saturday that he expects to be arrested Tuesday, March 21.

“You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former President of the United States and current declared candidate for that office. This indictment comes after years of your office searching for a basis—any basis—on which to bring charges, ultimately settling on a novel legal theory untested anywhere in the country and one that federal authorities declined to pursue,” the lawmakers wrote.

Elected Republican officials and presidential candidates have defended Trump against the likely prosecution, highlighting liberal billionaire George Soros’ donations to Bragg. The Manhattan DA has also declined to prosecute numerous felonies, the Republicans have noted, while investigating Trump for allegedly falsifying business records, a misdemeanor.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy pledged action against Bragg on Sunday at the House Republican Conference retreat, telling reporters that he was speaking with Jordan about it. He later added that he does not believe people should protest an indictment.

“Your decision to pursue such a politically motivated prosecution—while adopting progressive criminal justice policies that allow career ‘criminals [to] run[ ] the streets’ of Manhattan—requires congressional scrutiny about how public safety funds appropriated by Congress are implemented by local law–enforcement agencies. In addition, your apparent decision to pursue criminal charges where federal authorities declined to do so requires oversight to inform potential legislative reforms about the delineation of prosecutorial authority between federal and local officials. Finally, because the circumstances of this matter stem, in part, from Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, Congress may consider legislative reforms to the authorities of special counsels and their relationships with other prosecuting entities,” the Republicans added.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, paid Daniels $130,000 days before the 2016 election as part of a non-disclosure agreement related to an affair. Daniels later violated the NDA and was ordered to pay Trump $300,000. Prosecutors reportedly believe that the payment violated New York law since Trump classified it as a “legal expense.”

AUTHOR

MICHAEL GINSBERG

Congressional correspondent.

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DeSantis Breaks Silence On Potential Trump Indictment

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Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis broke his silence Monday about former President Donald Trump’s possible indictment.

Trump announced Saturday he expects to be arrested Tuesday by the Manhattan District Attorneys Office, which is led by Alvin Bragg. The potential indictment relates to a years-long investigation into whether Trump paid hush money to former porn star actress Stormy Daniels. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, sent $130,000 to Daniels so she would not disclose her alleged affair. Cohen claims Trump then reimbursed him for the payments, with authorities investigating whether Trump forged business records to hide the alleged payout.

DeSantis broke his silence on the issue Monday.

“The Manhattan District Attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor and so he like, other Soros funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” DeSantis said.

“He has downgraded over 50% of the felonies to misdemeanors, he says he doesn’t even want to have jail time for the vast majorities of crimes,” DeSantis said, adding he doesn’t know “what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence” but that “if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office.” 

“I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” he continued, before again turning his attention to Soros’ involvement in helping elect liberal prosecutors.

“These Soros district attorneys are a menace to society,” he continued, adding he won’t be “getting involved” in the “political spectacle” and will be focusing on his own state.

AUTHOR

BRIANNA LYMAN

News and commentary writer. Follow Brianna on Twitter.

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‘We’re Like A Third World Nation’: Trump Hammers Pete Buttigieg Over Handling Of Toxic Train Derailment

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Former President Donald Trump hammered Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Wednesday afternoon and during his visit to eastern Ohio, where a train derailment early February spilled toxic chemicals into the air and water.

Trump visited East Palestine on Wednesday to speak with local residents and deliver pallets of water and cleaning supplies to the community more than two weeks after a Norfolk Southern trail derailed and a controlled burn released hazardous chemicals into the air to prevent an explosion. Trump denied that rail deregulations during his administration were relevant to the crash and said that the US is like a “third world country” and “breaking down” under Buttigieg’s leadership, according to a video filmed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“He should have been here a long time ago,” Trump said. “Now he was supposed to come today but he heard I was coming today and postponed it, but whenever he comes he’s got to do his job and if we didn’t come, they never would have come.”

Buttigieg is scheduled to be in East Palestine tomorrow, 20 days after the initial derailment, Politico reported. He came under fire for his slow response to the disaster after he posted a Twitter thread 10 days after it occurred.

Trump denied allegations that his administration’s deregulation of railroad safety policies could have contributed to the derailment.

“It had nothing to do with it,” Trump said when pressed about his administration’s policy on rail regulations. “No, he’s got to work on the airports and we’ve never had airports like this. We’re like a third world nation and this is an example of it … our whole country is breaking down.”

Trump made a quick appearance outside an East Palestine restaurant Wednesday afternoon, where he met with residents lined down the street to welcome him. East Palestine voted heavily for Trump during the 2020 election, USA Today reported.

Residents told the DCNF that they were frustrated with President Biden’s recent visit to Ukraine. Trump said at the restaurant that “it’s terrible” he has not visited the village.

AUTHOR

ALEXA SCHWERHA

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Trump To Visit Ohio Town After Toxic Train Derailment: REPORT

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Former President Donald Trump will visit East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday after a train derailment caused a toxic chemical plume to pollute the town, a source familiar with the plan told Fox News.

Trump will visit with members of the community who are dealing with the aftermath of a Norfolk Southern train derailment that occurred earlier this month, the source told Fox News. The derailment led to the evacuation of nearly 2,000 residents before a controlled release was performed to prevent an explosion, which subsequently released a hazardous mixture of chemicals into the air and water.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that the air and water are safe, but residents have reportedly shared that they are experiencing rashes and headaches. There are also reports of sick animals and thousands of dead fish in local streams.

The EPA tested 500 homes and planned to test over two dozen more as of Friday and detected no sign of chemicals related to the train derailment, according to the most recent Ohio Emergency Medical Agency update. While water testing shows the water is reportedly safe to drink, residents are advised to continue drinking bottled water until their private wells are tested.

Trump has a strong connection to the Ohio people, the source told Fox News. Trump, who was the first Republican to announce a bid for the 2024 election, won the state by eight points in 2020, according to Politico.

He won the state by 8.6 points in 2016, Politico reported.

The Biden administration faced criticism for their slow response to the disaster. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg broke his silence about the derailment 10 days after it occurred and posted a Twitter thread expressing concern for the town.

“I continue to be concerned about the impacts of the Feb 3 train derailment near East Palestine, OH, and the effects on families in the ten days since their lives were upended through no fault of their own,” Buttigieg tweeted. “It’s important that families have access to useful & accurate information.”

Buttigieg told Yahoo! Finance on Thursday that there are “roughly one thousand cases a year of a train derailing.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

ALEXA SCHWERHA

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘End The Destruction Of Our Country’: Trump Responds To Joe Biden’s State Of The Union

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Former President Donald Trump responded to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in a video released late Tuesday night after the speech.

The Daily Caller obtained a copy of the response, which Trump called the “real State of the Union.” Trump’s speech focuses on the border crisis, inflation, and high gas prices. He also says that Biden’s Department Of Justice is “waging war” on free speech and persecuting Biden’s political opponents. Trump mentions that he is running for president in 2024 and that he hopes to complete the “unfinished business” of making America great again.

“Over the past two years, under Biden, millions and millions of illegal aliens from 160 different countries have stormed across our southern border. Drug cartels are now raking in billions of dollars from smuggling poison to kill our people and to kill our children. Savage killers, rapists and violent criminals are being released from jail to continue their crime wave. And under Biden, the murder rate has reached the highest in the history of our country. Biden and the radical Democrats have wasted trillions of dollars and caused the worst inflation in half a century. Real wages are down 21 months in a row. Gas prices have soared and are now going up much higher than even before. And the typical American family is paying $2,200 in increased energy and food costs each year,” Trump said in his speech.

“Joe Biden’s weaponized Justice Department — and I’m a victim of it — is persecuting his political opponents. His administration is waging war on free speech. They are trying to indoctrinate and mutilate our children. He’s leading us to the brink of World War III. And on top of all of that, he’s the most corrupt president in American history, and it’s not even close. But the good news is we are going to reverse every single crisis, calamity and disaster that Joe Biden has created,” Trump continued.

“I am running for president to end the destruction of our country and to complete the unfinished business of making America great again. We will make our country better than ever before, and we will always put America first,” he added.

Biden’s speech did not mention Trump and he also did not use the term MAGA Republicans, something Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said that he urged the president that wouldn’t be “appropriate.”

Biden reportedly rehearsed his speech at Camp David with top officials this past weekend.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter

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Trump Demolished The GOP Status Quo. Some 2024 Contenders Want To Bring It Back

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After former President Donald Trump formally launched his 2024 presidential run in November, a favorite parlor game of the chattering class has been to guess the identity of his first formally announced challenger for the Republican nomination. This week answered that question: Nikki Haley. The former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is set to declare her candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 15. (N.B. deeply unpopular former national security adviser John Bolton made an offhand remark to a British television station last month that he would also run, but since then has merely intimated he is considering such a bid.)

Haley’s announcement will likely open up the floodgates for additional Trump challengers. Just as Haley had barely made an effort of late to contain her 2024 presidential ambitions, so too might we expect announcements to soon follow from other not-so-thinly-veiled aspirants, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and perhaps former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Later this spring or early summer, numerous other candidates are poised to also enter the fray: chief among them Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and perhaps also Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, 2016 GOP presidential primary runner-up Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has also been teasing a possible presidential run, despite his rather dubious credentials.

All of this will be sorted out in due time — by June or July of this year, at the latest. And as we approach that time, the key question facing the Right, and the Republican Party that is the Right’s natural partisan vehicle, is whether it will seize upon the Trump phenomenon and move forward, or instead move backward to the pre-2016 GOP status quo ante. Put another way: Was “Trumpism” a one-time flash in the pan based around an eponymous larger than-life personality and universal celebrity status, or was it a substantive wake-up call for the GOP to ditch its outmoded bromides and sober up on issues pertaining (especially) to trade, immigration, and foreign policy?

There is at least some reason for optimism that the latter formulation is correct.

In the current way-too-early 2024 polling for the presidential nomination, DeSantis consistently polls by far the best of any non-Trump alternative. DeSantis also happens to embody the tenets and overall ethos of the more nationalist- and populist-infused “New Right” movement better than almost any other current elected official in America. He is a fiery culture warrior who dives headfirst into the fight against woke-ism, with a clear appreciation of the governing imperatives to wield power in the service of good political order and to recapture institutions previously lost to woke-ism. His well publicized fight last year against The Walt Disney Company was straight out of the “New Right” playbook: Wield political power to punish a woke corporation pushing insidious gender ideology and to protect parental rights and the innocence of children.

More recently, DeSantis claimed a huge scalp from the College Board when it revised its AP African American Studies curriculum after the Florida governor objected to the initial course framework’s pervasive indoctrinatory leftism, including its suffusion of critical race theory pablum. His latest much-publicized moves with the New College of Florida’s board of trustees, furthermore, perfectly demonstrates how one can prudentially wield power to recapture and reorient woke-addled institutions. Even on his signature issue, COVID-19, DeSantis did not reflexively defer to private-sector actors, as many libertarians or right-liberals might have; rather, he properly wielded power to preclude private-sector vaccine mandates, demonstrating a recognition of the manner in which professional managerial class elites weaponized such mandates against dissenting “deplorables.”

President Trump, along with some of his loudest social media supporters, have recently taken to smearing DeSantis as a clone of former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), who perfectly personifies the older chamber of commerce-friendly GOP. That is laughable; Ryan, now a distinguished visiting fellow at the neoliberal American Enterprise Institute, would object to most, perhaps all, of DeSantis’ moves mentioned above.

On the other hand, there are a number of possible 2024 candidates who do embody the failures of the pre-2016 GOP status quo ante.

The foreign policy-centric Pompeo, for instance, has recently sounded a lot like Bush-era Donald Rumsfeld when he has opined on the Russo-Ukrainian war, defining America’s purported national interest at a cartoonishly high level of abstraction and urging for ever-more taxpayer-funded weapons shipments. Haley, for her part, gives off the strong impression of a “market can do no wrong”-style laissez faire fundamentalist, denigrating “hyphenated capitalism” — such as Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) proposal for “common good capitalism” — and hilariously tweeting in March 2020, on the precipice of the COVID-19 lockdowns, that “as we are dealing with changes in our economy, tax cuts are always a good idea.” Hogan and Suarez, for their part, both encapsulate the Republican National Committee’s infamous advice found in its post-2012 presidential election “autopsy”: namely, to soften on immigration, avoid those icky “culture war” issues and focus on economic issues more palatable for suburbia. Trump’s win four years later single-handedly proved the myopia of such thinking.

Assuming most of these likely 2024 contenders do indeed make the plunge, Republican primary voters will face a big decision. Let’s hope they choose to move forward, not backward — in terms of repeating either discredited public policy or, as the case may be, repeating sullied candidates.

To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

JOSH HAMMER

Contributor

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘I’m More Angry Now’: Trump Kicks Off 2024 Campaign In New Hampshire And South Carolina

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Donald Trump held his first campaign events in New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday, kicking off his 2024 presidential bid in early voting states.

“I’ve got two years… I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was,” the former president said in a speech to hundreds of GOP leaders in New Hampshire, defending starting the new phase of his launch months after the initial November announcement.

His 55-minute keynote speech focused on President Joe Biden, fentanyl and the border crisis, voter ID, the “woke” military, men playing in women’s sports and Hunter Biden’s laptop falsely being labeled “Russian disinformation.”

He said Democrats “hate our country” for allowing a record-breaking number of illegal immigrants to cross the border, and that it’s time to “wage war” on the drug cartels. 

Trump also stood by his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, saying the documents were “sealed” and “not laying all over the garage floor,” alluding to Biden keeping classified documents in his Delaware garage.

“What a pigsty that place was,” Trump added. The White House and the Department of Justice have not stated what condition the documents were found in Biden’s garage, but one 2020 campaign video appears to show boxes of papers.

Hours later in Columbia, South Carolina, Trump spoke at the state Capitol building alongside South Carolina leaders Governor Henry McMaster and Senator Lindsey Graham.

Trump’s South Carolina speech largely echoed that of New Hampshire, reiterating that many Democrat policies are like “April Fools’ Day,” because “they do just the opposite of common sense,” and unveiling his campaign leadership team for the state.

“We need a fighter who can stand up to the Left, can stand up to the swamp, stand up to the media, stand up to the deep state, am I allowed to say, ‘stand up to the RINOs’ too? I think we can say that,” Trump said, adding that he’s set to challenge the “entire establishment.”

The Saturday two events coincide with Trump’s campaign strategy for 2023. His campaign includes rolling out “top-level teams” in early voting states to “wage an overwhelming campaign that’s never been seen before,” Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told the Daily Caller.

Up till now, Trump has released policy videos and made speeches at private events, including at the Republican Jewish Coalition and the America First Policy Institute.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House reporter.

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Trump Says GOP Should Not Cut Social Security As Part Of Spending Deal

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Former President Donald Trump is urging congressional Republicans to keep entitlement reform off the table as part of debt ceiling negotiations.

“Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security to help pay for Joe Biden’s reckless spending spree, which is more reckless than anybody’s ever done or had in the history of our country,” Trump said Friday in a video posted to TRUTH Social. “We absolutely need to stop Biden’s out-of-control spending. The pain should be borne by Washington bureaucrats, not by hard-working American families and American seniors.”

Republicans are threatening to oppose raising the debt ceiling if the increase is not accompanied by spending cuts. As part of Kevin McCarthy’s speakership negotiations, Republicans agreed to freeze the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget at FY 2022 levels. While defense hawks like Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul of Texas are pledging to leave defense spending untouched, others, such as Texas Rep. Chip Roy, are pledging not to “touch” Medicare or Social Security.

“Cut the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars going to corrupt foreign countries. Cut the mass releases of illegal aliens that are depleting our social safety net and destroying our country. Cut the left-wing gender programs from our military. Cut the billions being spent on climate extremism. Cut waste, fraud and abuse everywhere we can find it. And there’s plenty of it. But do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save Social Security, don’t destroy it,” Trump continued.

Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is projected to become insolvent in 2033 if the program continues to pay benefits under current law, according to the Congressional Budget Office, meaning retirees will not receive full benefits. Some Republicans have acknowledged the program must be reformed in order to keep it solvent. Pennsylvania Rep. Lloyd Smucker floated means testing the universal program.

“We should ensure that we keep the promises that were made to the people who really need it, the people who are relying on it,” he told Bloomberg. “So some sort of means-testing potentially would help to ensure that we can do that.”

Social Security and Medicare combined make up more than 30% of the federal budget, and the number is set to increase as Baby Boomers continue to retire.

The U.S. Treasury on Thursday began taking extraordinary measures to avoid defaulting on the federal debt. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has estimated the government will go over the fiscal cliff at some point in June or July.

AUTHOR

MICHAEL GINSBERG

Congressional correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Adam Schiff’s Office Repeatedly Tried To Get Twitter To Censor Posts, Documents Show

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Staffers for Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California made repeated requests for Twitter to censor and suppress posts by users on the social media platform, according to documents published Friday by independent journalist Matt Taibbi.

Schiff’s office requested complete removal of “any and all search results about [Schiff staffer Sean] Misko and other committee staffers,” a request that Twitter denied as inconceivable under its rules, according to the documents. Schiff’s staff and the Democratic National Committee asked Twitter to remove an April 26, 2020 tweet containing an edited GIF of Joe Biden sticking his tongue out after then-President Donald Trump retweeted it, something Twitter staff also denied, the documents show.

“This is a pretty clearly edited GIF created with humorous intent,” former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth wrote in an Apr. 27, 2020 email, the documents show. “Any reasonable observer could identify that it’s doctored. And there’s no nexus to harm to anyone involved. It’s not a violation of our rules.”

Nonetheless, Schiff staffer Jeff Lowenstein expressed concern that the post represented a “slippery slope,” the documents show. Lowenstein expressed concern to Twitter staff that even if the edited content in the April 26, 2020, tweet was not in violation of Twitter policy, Twitter needed to lay out clear rules so it could act quickly on “more malicious and less obvious[ly]” edited content.

Taibbi previously reported on January 3, 2023, that Schiff’s office had lobbied Twitter to ban investigative journalist Paul Sperry and remove content pertaining to Schiff staffers in a November 2020 request. Twitter initially declined to ban Sperry, although he was ultimately suspended in August 2022.

Although Twitter pushed back on requests for outright bans, it did regularly deamplify, or reduce the reach of, accounts that promoted content related to QAnon, according to the documents. While Schiff’s office “greatly appreciate[d]” the efforts to deamplify users content, it was concerned that deamplification might “inadvertently impede” law enforcement’s ability to find threats posed to Congressional staff.

Previous releases of documents, dubbed “The Twitter Files” by Twitter CEO Elon Musk and the reporting journalists, have shown an extensive and close relationship between Twitter and intelligence agencies like the FBI, which regularly queried the social media platform to remove content.

Schiff’s office did not immediately respond to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.

AUTHOR

JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Rep. Matt Gaetz Votes For Trump For House Speaker

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Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz cast a vote on Thursday for former President Donald Trump to be speaker of the House.

House Republicans failed to elect a speaker on the seventh ballot, with opponents to Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy refusing to increase his vote tally. McCarthy received 201 votes, Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds garnered 20 votes, and Gaetz was the sole representative to vote for Trump.

The race for the speakership will continue until a candidate reaches a majority of 218 votes.

Gaetz said he would vote for Trump for speakership in March.

“Give us the ability to Fire Nancy Pelosi, take back the majority, impeach Joe Biden and I’m going to nominate Donald Trump as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives,” Gaetz said at the time.

Trump urged Republicans to vote for McCarthy on Wednesday to “close the deal, take the victory” and “watch Nancy Pelosi fly back home to a very broken California.”

“Republicans, do not turn a great triumph into a giant & embarrassing defeat. It’s time to celebrate, you deserve it,” Trump said on Truth Social.

He also said if Republicans are going to fight, they should be fighting against Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Trump Campaign Reveals Plans For 2023

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Former President Donald Trump’s team announced their plans for 2023, laying out their “overwhelming” campaign strategy for the next presidential election.

The campaign is rolling out “top-level teams in early voting states” and expanding its “massive data operation” to “wage an overwhelming campaign that’s never been seen before,” the former president’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told the Daily Caller.

Trump officially announced his 2024 bid Nov. 15 at Mar-a-Lago. Since his announcement, Trump has attended events with the Republican Jewish Coalition, America First Policy Institute, Log Cabin Republicans and the 14th Annual President’s Conference of Torah Umesorah.

He also attended galas with American Freedom Tour and Helping a Hero, participated in the Georgia runoff tele-rally, conducted numerous interviews and video appearances, and met with members of Congress, Cheung said.

Trump has released videos on freedom of speech, the Omnibus and the Jan. 6 Committee’s final report, promising in his first video that he would ban the federal government from censoring the “lawful speech of American citizens” in one of his first acts.

“There will be more policy related events and President Trump will continue to lead on key issues like [he] has done on free speech and the border crisis in the past few weeks. Additionally, more print, on-camera, and radio interviews with the press have been scheduled so President Trump can lay out his vision for the campaign and highlight Joe Biden’s disastrous policies that have made America less safe and less prosperous,” Cheung said.

Some polls indicate that Trump’s 2024 support has wavered with Republicans, especially after the results of the midterm elections. Some former officials from the Trump administration, like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Vice President Mike Pence, seem to have expressed some degree of doubt over the president and his effect on the party.

“I think we’ll have better choices … than my old running mate,” said Pence. “I think America longs to go back to the policies that were working for the American people, but I think it’s time for new leadership in this country that will bring us together around our highest ideals.”

Trump’s 2024 plans were hardly mentioned on stage at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, the largest multi-day conservative conference. Speakers like Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley refused to say if they would endorse Trump in a matchup against Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Some speakers told the Caller offstage that they would be endorsing Trump over a possible challenge from DeSantis.

“Donald Trump is the guy. He’s the guy. He’s the leader of the clubhouse. Ron DeSantis is great — great governor, my governor — but right now, there’s one person running. It’s Donald Trump. That’s it,” Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds said.

“Ron will be president one day. He’s a great guy, a great leader, but in this moment, President Trump has a unique ability to marshal the populist energy that can break through the corrupt establishment,” Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said.

Trump also holds endorsements from Republicans, Cheung said, including Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Texas Rep. Troy Nehls, Illinois Rep. Mary Miller, Ohio Rep. Mike Carey, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins, Alabama Rep. Barry Moore, Texas Rep.-elect Wesley Hunt, Ohio Rep.-elect Max Miller, Arizona Rep.-elect Eli Crane, Alabama Rep.-elect Dale Strong, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, Kari Lake and the New York Young Republicans Club.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Con Job And A Disgrace’: Donald Trump Issues Video Response To Jan. 6 Report

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Former President Donald Trump issued a video response to the release of the Jan. 6 report Friday, claiming the committee investigating the riot omitted evidence, made false statements and “did not produce a single shred of evidence” that he “intended” violence on the Capitol.

The House Select Committee released its final 845-page report Thursday, ending their 18-month investigation into the Jan. 6 riot. The committee cast blame on Trump as the “central cause” of the riot, and recommended he be banned from running for office in 2024. The Jan. 6 Committee recommended Monday that Trump be charged with obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government, conspiracy to make a false statement and inciting or assisting an insurrection. The recommendation was directed at the Department of Justice, and the committee itself can not file charges.

In an exclusive video provided to the Daily Caller, Trump responded to the report, saying that for two years, “the American people have been besieged with lies from the partisan witch hunt known as the Unselect Committee on January 6.”

The former president said the committee omitted the part of his speech where he encouraged “protesters to make their voices heard peacefully and patriotically,” the part of his tweet where he told protesters to “go home with love and in peace” and where he called for “law and order.”

WATCH:

Trump claimed he urged the deployment of 10,000 to 20,000 National Guard troops days before the protests at the Capitol, but that “Nancy Pelosi and the D.C. mayor refused.”

“If they had listened to me, my recommendation, none of this would have happened, and you wouldn’t have heard about January 6 as you know it,” he added.

He then called the allegations from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson about him lunging for the steering wheel to get to the Capitol an “absurd and discredited story.”

“The committee barely discussed the catastrophic security failures at the Capitol, and they didn’t discuss the other thing, the reason why everybody went there: the election, which was a corrupt disaster. They did not discuss why the doors were flung wide open … and they didn’t discuss the role of federal informants,” he continued.

“The events of January 6 were not an insurrection. They were a protest that tragically got out of control, and which the left has been weaponizing ever since, to censor, spy on and persecute American citizens. The entire phony hoax is about taking away your speech, taking away your vote and taking away your freedom,” Trump said.

“The Unselect Committee will go down in history as a con job and a disgrace. They want to stop us from taking back our country, but they will fail, they will not win. We will make America great again,” he concluded.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

RELATED ARTICLE: Jan. 6 Committee Recommends Four Charges For Trump

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Twitter Exec Pushed To Ban Matt Gaetz’ Account After Jan. 6

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Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, pushed internally for the company to ban Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, despite messaging another employee that such a decision did not align with the company’s policies, according to the company’s internal documents published by author Michael Shellenberger Friday as part of Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files.”

An employee, whose name was redacted, messaged Roth around noon on Jan. 7, 2021, asking “What’s the latest on Antifa claims?” — seemingly in reference to a Jan. 6, 2021, tweet by Gaetz alleging that members of the anarchist movement Antifa had “infiltrated Trump protestors who stormed Capitol” — and noting that another employee, identified only as “C,” was “yelling from the other room that we should just ban Gaetz,” Shellenberger reported. Roth responded that Twitter had employees “working on that.”

“It doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh),” Roth said, prompting agreement from the unnamed employee before he continued, according to the messages posted by Shellenberger. “But I’m trying to talk safety into treating it as incitement … I think we’ll get over the line for removal as a conspiracy that incites violence … [then-head of Legal, Policy and Trust] Vijaya [Gadde] was directionally okay with it.”

Gaetz’ account was ultimately never banned, despite the internal discussions.

The discussion occurred roughly seven hours before Roth would inform a sales executive that Twitter was “changing [its] public interest approach for [Donald Trump’s] account to say any violation would result in a suspension,” Shellenberger reported. Twitter policy protects tweets from elected officials that would otherwise violate its rules under so-called “public-interest exceptions,” which allow tweets to remain live so that the public may be aware of and discuss the users’ “actions and statements.”

Gaetz later had a June 1, 2021 tweet that read “Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?” hit with one such public-interest label for violating Twitter’s rules regarding the glorification of violence. At time of writing, Twitter users cannot share, like or comment on that tweet, but can still “quote tweet” it.

“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence,” the label reads at time of writing. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

Neither Twitter nor Gaetz’ office immediately responded to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.

AUTHOR

JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘Slippery Slope’: Internal Docs Show Just One Twitter Employee Raising ‘Serious’ Free-Speech Concerns Over Trump Ban

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  • In the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6, a junior staffer at Twitter was the only employee that appeared to express “serious” concerns about the effect that banning then-President Donald Trump might have on users’ speech, according to author Michael Shellenberger Friday, citing internal documents provided by CEO Elon Musk.
  • The unnamed staffer’s comments stood in contrast to other employees, who, according to former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth, were not “happy” with Twitter’s position on Trump following the riots, Shellenberger reported.
  • “This now appears to be a fiat by an online platform CEO with a global presence that can gatekeep speech for the entire world – which seems unsustainable,” the staffer wrote, Shellenberger reported.

As Twitter executives sought a justification to ban then-President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, only one employee appears to have expressed “serious” concerns about the potential impact the move might have on users’ speech, author Michael Shellenberger tweeted Friday, citing internal Twitter documents provided by new CEO Elon Musk.

The employee, a junior staffer, posted a message in a lower-level channel on the company’s internal Slack messaging system, questioning the “one off” nature of the decision, which did not appear to match with Twitter’s public policies, according to Shellenberger. Twitter employees usually considered moderation decisions to be “one off” events when they were made at the discretion of Twitter employees, as opposed to following a particular policy, Shellenberger reported.

“This might be an unpopular opinion but one off ad hoc decisions like this that don’t appear rooted in policy are [in my opinion] a slippery slope and reflect an alternatively equally dictatorial problem,” the unnamed staffer wrote, according to Shellenberger. “This now appears to be a fiat by an online platform CEO with a global presence that can gatekeep speech for the entire world – which seems unsustainable.”

Roughly 40 minutes after the junior staffer posted their initial concerns, they sent a follow-up message, citing an article by The Washington Post’s Will Oremus, then a writer for tech publication OneZero, which noted that Facebook’s decision to indefinitely ban Trump “lacks a clear basis in any of Facebook’s previously stated policies, highlights for the millionth time that the dominant platforms are quite literally making up the rules of online speech as they go along,” Shellenberger reported.

“My concern is specifically surrounding the unarticulated logic of the decision by FB,” the staffer wrote, according to Shellenberger. “That space fills with the idea (conspiracy theory?) that all … internet moguls … sit around like kings casually deciding what people can and cannot see.”

While Twitter employees debated the decision to ban Trump, then-CEO Jack Dorsey was on vacation in French Polynesia, ultimately delegating a significant amount of the company’s actions during the crisis to former head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth and former head of Legal, Policy and Trust Vijaya Gadde, Shellenberger reported. Dorsey sent staffers an email on Jan. 7 telling employees that the company needs to maintain consistent moderation policies, according to Shellenberger. (RELATED: Twitter’s Chief Censor Met Weekly With US Intelligence Officials While Trump Was In Office, Internal Comms Reveal)

“Jack’s emails have been _fine_… but ultimately, I think people want to hear from Vijaya, or Del, or someone closer to the specifics of this who can reassure them that the people who care about this are thinking deeply about these problems and aren’t happy with where we are,” Roth messaged an unidentified employee, according to Shellenberger. “A few engineers have reached out to me directly about it, and I’m chatting with them… but it’s so clear that they just want to know that _someone_ is doing something about this, and it’s not that we’re ignoring the issues here.”

The unnamed employee responded, arguing that some employees might not understand that “while it seems obvious and simple that we ‘should’ [permanently ban] his personal account,” the company would have to wrangle with the possibility of banning Trump’s official government account as well, a decision that required “thinking things through,” Shellenberger reported.

While the company had faced pressure to block or ban Trump in the past, it typically resisted those calls; the company’s Public Policy team posted a tweet in 2018 which argued banning world leaders for “controversial Tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate,” and would limit discussion of that leader without meaningfully silencing them, Shellenberger reported.

Twitter did not immediately respond to request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

JOHN HUGH DEMASTRI

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: CAUGHT IN LIES: Latest Twitter Files Release Reveals Feds and Twitter Both Caught Lying, Hiding Evidence in Major Lawsuit; Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt Calls Them Onto the Carpet

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.