Ad trolls Trump over January 6 committee developments
Donald Trump has hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin as “savvy” and called his move on Ukraine “genius” in a new interview.
Mr Putin’s steps towards a possible full-on invasion of Ukraine have seen a number of Republicans seeking to blame the crisis on Joe Biden, arguing that Russia did not invade any countries while Mr Trump was president – despite the fact that he repeatedly sided with Mr Putin over the US’s military and intelligence agencies, disdained Nato, and attempted to extort the Ukrainian government into investigating the Biden family.
Mr Trump initially broke his silence on the Russia-Ukraine crisis on Tuesday morning through a tweet posted by his spokesperson in which he claimed that his relationship with Putin would have prevented the crisis.
The former president saw another defeat in his effort to stymie the 6 January Select Committee’s investigation into the causes and events of the Capitol riot. The Supreme Court has rejected a request from the former president to review the panel’s demand that his records be handed over. He has now several times been defeated in his claims that papers from his time in the White House are covered by “executive privilege” and should not be released to the investigation.
2024 Republicans still laying the groundwork
Aaron Rupar spots a telltale sign that South Dakota’s Kristi Noem is getting her ducks in a row for the 2024 Republican primary with a de rigeur super-safe political “memoir”:
Report: Giuliani striking co-operation deal with 6 January committee
According to The Guardian, Rudy Giuliani is poised to begin co-operating with the select committee investigating the 6 January riot under a proposed deal that would see him reveal any contact he had with Republican members of Congress about what was planned for the day.
The paper reports:
Broadly, Giuliani has indicated through his lawyer to the select committee that he will produce documents and answer questions about Trump’s schemes to return himself to office on 6 January that House investigators had outlined in a subpoena issued to him last month. The former president’s attorney is prepared to reveal his contacts and the roles played by Republican members of Congress in the scheme Giuliani helped orchestrate to have then-vice-president Mike Pence stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
Giuliani is also prepared to divulge details about Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence to adopt the scheme, and the effort coordinated by him and the Trump White House to have legislatures certify slates of electors for Trump in states actually won by Biden.
But the former president’s attorney has indicated that he will assist the select committee only if his appearance is not pursuant to his subpoena, and does not have to give records or discuss his contacts with Trump over executive and attorney-client privilege concerns.
Read the full piece here.
Trump begins the day with dig at Biden
Another day, another statement from Donald Trump issued via his Save America mailing list. This one is less verbose than some of his recent rants:
Putin is playing Biden like a drum. It is not a pretty thing to watch!
GOP Senate battle in Missouri turns nastier
The Missouri Senate seat thrown open by the retirement of Republican Roy Blunt is a must-hold for the GOP as they try to retake the upper chamber, and like many races around the country, some of the party establishment are worried about what might happen if a loose-cannon candidate with a toxic personal history gets the nomination.
The candidate in question is Eric Greitens, a former governor who resigned amid a scandal in 2018 that saw him accused of numerous sexual assaults and “revenge porn” blackmail by a woman with whom he’d had an affair. Nonetheless, despite those and unrelated ethics investigations, he has decided to run for the seat.
Read more on Mr Greitens below:
EXPLAINER: What’s the background of Senate hopeful Greitens?
Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in June 2018 amid a sex scandal, criminal charges and ethics investigations, is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2022
Florida Senator punches back at criticism of his homegrown party platform
Republican Florida Senator Rick Scott took an unusually bold step this week by releasing his own quasi-manifesto for his party’s midterm Senate campaign. The chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which oversees the GOP’s strategy to retake the upper chamber, he immediately drew criticism from Democrats for his plan, which explicitly accuses them of trying to “rig elections” and appears to suggest raising income tax on half the adult American population.
By releasing the 11-point plan, Mr Scott jumped ahead of his own party’s congressional leadership, who have declined to spell out any specific legislative agenda in favour of simply promising to obstruct Joe Biden. Read more on his plans below:
Rick Scott’s Senate GOP platform accuses Democrats of ‘trying to rig elections’
Republican senator releases 2022 blueprint to ‘rescue America’
Truck driver planning Washington, DC protest sympathises with dead Jan 6 rioter
As plans come together for a US “freedom convoy” protest mimicking the truckers’ occupation of Ottawa – an idea that has leaders worried about possible risks to the US Capitol – one of the key organisers is voicing grievances that have nothing to do with Covid-19 vaccine mandates:
As Alex Woodward writes, the prospects for the protest remain unclear, as do the precise intentions of those involved.
What we know about possible trucker protests coming to Washington DC
‘Freedom convoys’ across US aim to replicate Canada demonstrations that gripped Ontario
ICYMI: Psaki on Trump’s ‘genius’ remarks
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki last night laid into Donald Trump over his description of Vladimir Putin as a “genius”, saying at her briefing that “As a matter of policy, we try not to take advice from anyone who praises President Putin and his military strategy, which I believe is what happened there.”
On concerns that Mr Trump’s comments could help turn the Russian invasion into a wedge issue in American politics, she remarked: “You know, I think that is up to members of the Republican Party to make the decision, to make the determination.”
Jen Psaki slams Trump for defending Putin’s invasion of parts of Ukraine territory
During an interview on Tuesday, Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin a ‘very savvy’ guy
Look back: Trump and Putin’s Helsinki meeting
The word “Helsinki” is trending after Donald Trump’s interview calling Vladimir Putin a “genius” and boasting of how well he knew and liked him during his time in office. It’s a prompt to look back at one of the most disastrous moments of the Trump presidency: the 2018 Helsinki meeting where the then-president held a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin and sided with him over the US’s own intelligence services.
“President Putin says it’s not Russia,” Mr Trump said of intelligence assessments that the Kremlin ordered interference in the 2016 election. “I don’t see why it should be. President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial.”
Former aide and Russia expert Fiona Hill has since described how she considered setting off a fire alarm to bring the summit to a halt. Here’s how The Independent’s Kim Sengupta wrote up the summit at the time.
Opinion: Donald Trump is cosying up to Vladimir Putin while cutting off Europe – we should be scared
The US president has blamed bad relations with Russia on the investigation into the Kremlin’s interference in the US election, rather than the interference itself
Falsehood social: Trump fans “tricked” by fake site
The bumpy quasi-launch of Donald Trump’s new social media site Truth Social saw thousands of fans confined to a waitlist and confronted with error messages – and another problem has now emerged: insidious imitators.
According to new reports, many users of the Android store – where Truth Social is not yet available – downloaded similar-looking apps that invited them to create profiles before bombarding them with ads and possibly introducing malware onto their phones.
Read more:
Thousands of Trump fans duped by fake versions of his social media site Truth Social
One fake app called ‘MAGA Hub — Truth Social Trump’ downloaded more than 100,000 times
House Republicans’ attempt to troll Biden backfires
A Tweet from the House Republicans’ official twitter account accusing Joe Biden of “weakness on the world stage” appears to have backfired somewhat, with reams of disgusted and mocking replies to its unclear message…
Source Article from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-news-today-jan-6-supreme-court-latest-b2021078.html
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