Elizabeth Preza, AlterNet

Bemused internet mocks NYC mayor as city 'discovers trash cans' in 2024 to curb rats

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday was roasted on social media after he unveiled the “official NYC Bin” at a Gracie Mansion press conference — and described the roll-out as a “trash revolution.”

According to video of the event, Adams walked out to the tune of “Empire State of Mind,” rolling a black trash can beside his podium. He then successfully tossed a bag of garbage into the bin.

ABC 7 reports the NYC mayor told reporters, “Today, we are tossing even more black bags into the dustbin of history and taking the next step forward in our 'Trash Revolution.’”

The new initiative marks “New York City's first official trash bin,” ABC 7 reports.

“In addition to the new bins, officials announced that starting Nov. 12, landlords with residential buildings with one to nine units will be required to use trash bins with secure latching lids,” the report adds.

Adams said the installment of “official” trash cans will help curb the growing NYC rat problem.

"They are getting more and more bold,” the mayor said.

Observers were quick to marvel at just how long it took for New York City to discover “official” trash bins.

“New York City is living in the future!!!” Podcast host Breanna Morello wrote on Twitter.

“New York discovers trash cans,” CBS News reporter Kathryn Watson said.

"Congratulations to New York City, which has seemingly invented the trash can," Brown research associate Benjy Renton mused.

Bulwark editor Sonny Bunch added, “New York learning about trash cans in 2024 is an insane flex.”

But the Adams Administration isn’t letting the grouchy haters stink up their fun.

In a tweet announcing the trash cans, Adams wrote, “Introducing the official NYC Bin! Today, we ROLLED OUT the next phase of our ‘Trash Revolution,’ showing New Yorkers how we're going to place even more black bags into the dustbin of history.”

“Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,” indeed.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Senate leader mulls bill to strip Trump of powers granted by Supreme Court

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Monday insisted the Democratic Party “will not let the Supreme Court’s decision” regarding Donald Trump’s immunity from prosecution “stand unaddressed.”

NBC News reported the New York senator is eyeing a legislative response to the Court’s controversial opinion.

The court, in a 6-3 ruling last week, decided Trump is “immune from prosecution for official acts taken while in office, but not for private conduct,” the Washington Post reports.

According to the Hill, Schumer said “he and other Senate Democrats will work to advance legislation to strip” Trump of that immunity.

The Hill reports:

Schumer, invoking Congress’s powers to regulate the courts, said Democrats are working on legislation to classify Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election as “unofficial acts” so they do not merit immunity from criminal prosecution under the high court’s recent 6-3 decision.

Speaking on the Senate floor, the Senate majority leader slammed the Court for “incorrectly [declaring] that all future presidents are entitled to a breathtaking level of immunity” and “effectively [placing] a crown on Trump’s head."

“I will work with my colleagues on legislation classifying Trump’s election subversion acts as unofficial acts not subject to immunity,” Schumer said.

Such long-shot legislation would undoubtedly be met with resistance in the highly divided Congress. As NBC News notes, “there would undoubtedly be hurdles to advancing the legislation in the Senate, where Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in a chamber that requires 60 votes for passage.”

Still, Schumer says such a bill is required to “rein in the abuse of our federal judiciary.”

'Harmless error': Inside the legal doctrine that all but guarantees Trump's sentencing

Former President Donald Trump can’t outrun his Sept. 18 “hush money” trial sentencing despite the Supreme Court’s stunning immunity ruling last week, former New York judges and prosecutors told Business Insider.

The Supreme Court last Monday ruled 6-3 that Trump is “immune from prosecution for official acts taken while in office, but not for private conduct,” the Washington Post reports. That decision put Trump’s pending criminal sentencing in peril after a Manhattan jury last month unanimously convicted the former president on 34 felony counts related to falsifying documents.

As Business Insider reports, “[E]ven if Trump's trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, finds that presidential immunity retroactively invalidates some evidence used at trial, he'll likely also find that this amounts to ‘harmless error.’ No harm, no foul — meaning that even if you removed the challenged evidence, there would still be overwhelming proof of Trump's guilt.”

READ MORE: 'I have to hit pause here': J.D. Vance flips out on NBC host as she fact-checks him

John Moscow, a former Manhattan financial crimes prosecutor, told Business Insider he believes “the judge will find that [Trump] would have been convicted regardless.”

Moscow explained “harmless error” as a doctrine that “means you're saying that removing this evidence from the trial wouldn't change the verdict.”

The Hill reports Trump’s lawyer aren’t claiming the former president is immune “from the actual 34 counts of falsifying business records he faced," but instead have “zeroed in on trial evidence used to prove those counts.”

“The former president contends that the jury’s verdict must be tossed out because some evidence shown to jurors is now inadmissible under the Supreme Court’s new test,” The Hill reports.

READ MORE: 'No one will be safe': Cohen warns Trump would rule as 'Führer' after SCOTUS immunity ruling

As Business Insider notes, “Trump's lawyers are about to file what's known as a 330.30 motion to set aside the verdict,” which is “based on a state statute that tells New York criminal trial judges that they must toss out a verdict if the defense proves that something happened in the trial that was so grievously wrong, it would never survive an appeal.”

The Hill reports:

Trump’s team says Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) improperly brought in an array of official acts as evidence[.]

...

Attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote to the judge that according to the Supreme Court’s decision, “this official-acts evidence should never have been put before the jury.”

According to Business Insider, “Trump hopes to use this section of New York law to overturn his” conviction. That legal argument rests on the claim that on at least four occasions, “the judge improperly let Manhattan prosecutors show official-act evidence to the jury.”

Those four instances were:

1. Trump’s 2017-2018 phone logs
2. Trump’s 2018 tweets
3. Trump’s Oval Office conversations with former aide Hope Hicks
4. Trump’s signing of a 2018 government ethics form

Moscow told Business Insider Trump’s phone calls don’t necessarily connote official acts. But, he said, even if those logs were removed from evidence, “the conversation is what was important, and the fact of a conversation was confirmed by the person on the other end.”

"So if you knock out the phone logs, that doesn't warrant a new trial,” Moscow said.

Experts similarly dismissed the defense’s claim that jurors “should never have seen” Trump’s 2018 tweets from the former president’s personal Twitter account.

As Business Insider reports, “In the tweets, Trump described his payments to Cohen as hush-money reimbursement, contrary to his business records, in which the payments were falsely — and 34 times — called ‘legal fees.’”

"If tweets or 'truths' are all official acts, then the libel and defamation laws all go," Moscow said. ”Privacy laws all go. He can say whatever he wants whenever he wants to.”

Diana Florence, a former financial crimes prosecutor, suggested Trump’s conversations with Hicks might be considered official acts because she worked in his administration. But “whether it was properly or improperly shared with the jury, the Hicks conversation is more corroborative than substantive, and the verdict would survive without it,” Business Insider reports.

According to Business Insider, the final instance expected to be used by the defense involves Trump’s signing of a 2018 government ethics form that prosecutors showed “to jurors because it includes Trump's claim that ‘Mr. Trump fully reimbursed Mr. Cohen in 2017.'"

“By calling it reimbursement, Trump contradicts his business records, which disguised the reimbursement as legal fees,” Business Insider reports.

Florence likewise described the 2018 government ethics form as “only more corroboration" of Trump's crimes.

“If he was being prosecuted for that form — for that being a false filing — then maybe, maybe, in the new world we're living in then that could cause the verdict to be overturned,” Florence said.

Absent that, the experts say there's a very good chance Trump's sentence will be adjudicated later this year.

Read the full report at Business Insider (subscription required).

Republican floats bizarre theory of behind-the-scenes White House shenanigans

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) on Tuesday claimed that former President Barack Obama and “his team” are “running the government, really.”

Speaking with Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” the New York Republican argued former U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice, among others, are “behind the scenes” of President Joe Biden’s administration.

"It's just like a Soviet-style Politburo," Tenney said, comparing Biden to former Communist Party Central Committee General Secretary Yuri Andropov — whom she described as “a decrepit, old Communist that they put” in charge of the USSR.

READ MORE: 'Even worse': Expert details disturbing legal conundrum inherent in SCOTUS’ Trump immunity ruling

"He looked good to the public, and they maneuvered behind the scenes," she said of Andropov. "And I suspect that's exactly what's going on.”

Tenney also claimed that the president’s debate performance was “a calculated pre-convention move to get Joe Biden out before” the election. But the far-right Republican's theorizing didn't end there.

"What was really interesting was the fallout,” Tenney said. "The media, which knew better, who knew better, went on about how disastrous this was. But guess who came to the rescue and said, 'Oh, no, no,' other than Joe Biden's family? It was President Obama, his team.

“The only president in American history to stay in Washington, to go from being a community organizer to worth an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars, is in Washington, is behind the scenes, along with Susan Rice and all of his staff."

"So they're running this government really, it seems to me," she claimed. "I don't think there's any other conclusion you can draw based on the evidence."

READ MORE: Ex-Bush speechwriter explains what Democrats are missing about calls for a Biden replacement

The New York Republican went on to describe the entire situation as “this sort of globalist, we're-going-to-run-the-entire-world situation.”

To be clear, Tenney provided no actual “evidence” to back up her claims. The congresswoman currently represents NY-24. Last week, she won the Republican nomination for November’s election against Democratic challenger David Wagenhauser.

Read the full report at Newsmax.

'Worldwide economic warfare': Ex-Treasury secretary's doomsday prediction spurs fear

Lawrence Summers, who served as the 71st Secretary of the Treasury under former President Bill Clinton, warned of “worldwide economic warfare” if Donald Trump implements his policy proposals, Bloomberg reports.

Summers spoke with Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin on Friday, describing Trump’s policy ideas as “a prescription for the mother of all stagflations.”

According to Bloomberg, Summers’ comments came on the heels of Trump, in a meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill Thursday, floating “using tariff hikes as a way to pay for some income tax cuts.”

READ MORE: CEOs left 'remarkably meandering' Trump event 'less predisposed' to voting for him: financial columnist

Trump in that meeting “also proposed a minimum 10 percent universal import levy and a punitive rate for China,” Bloomberg reports.

Speaking to Westin on Friday, Summers warned there’s never “been a more inflationary presidential economic policy platform in my lifetime,” comparing the proposal to “George McGovern in 1972.”

Though Summers conceded Trump could be following the time-honored tradition of presidential candidates “not [being] serious about the things they say,” the former Treasury secretary described Trump’s public policy platform as an “irresponsible set of proposals.”

Between the former president's economic platform and anti-immigration rhetoric, Summers warned of “more wage inflation pressures” if Trump wins the 2024 election. Such pressures, according to Summers, could force another rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

“This could easily be a prescription for a 10% mortgage rate,” Summers said. “… This is really dangerous stuff.”

READ MORE: 'Garbage Murdoch paper lying again': Critics call out NY Post over deceptively edited video of Biden

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt hit back at Summers’ assessment, claiming the former president’s “first-term pro-growth economic policies created record-low mortgage, interest and unemployment rates and made inflation virtually non-existent.”

“Americans can expect President Trump’s second-term economic agenda will have the same impact and end Joe Biden’s inflation crisis that continues to rob working families of thousands of dollars every month,” Leavitt said.

Read the full interview at Bloomberg (subscription required).

Mexican president-elect called 'less Jewish Jew' for thanking her husband — Jesús

An apparent language barrier led several English speakers on Monday to mistakenly claim Mexico’s first female president is “a less Jewish Jew” after she thanked her husband for accompanying her to the polls.

Monday, Mexican citizens elected Claudia Sheinbaum, a member of the leftist Morena party, as the nation’s first female president. According to the New York Times, Sheinbaum, a physicist and former mayor of Mexico City, “won a larger share of the vote than any other presidential candidate in decades, and her party and its allies are within reach of claiming big enough majorities in Congress to enact constitutional changes that have alarmed the opposition.”

Sheinbaum will be predominantly-Catholic Mexico’s first Jewish president. The president-elect has previously described her childhood as secular, telling Enlace Judío, a Mexican Jewish organization, “I grew up without religion.”

"That’s how my parents raised me,: Sheinbaum said in 2018. "But obviously the culture, that’s in your blood.”

According to NBC News, Sheinbaum’s “maternal grandparents were Jews who immigrated to Mexico from Bulgaria before the Holocaust, while her paternal grandparents had fled from Lithuania in the 1920s. Sheinbaum's parents were born in Mexico.”

“While campaigning, Sheinbaum said she considers herself a woman of faith but is not religiously affiliated; perhaps that's why there has been relatively little discussion about her becoming Mexico's first Jewish president,” NBC News reports.

In a Sunday post, Sheinbaum thanked her husband Jesús María Tarriba, writing, “gracias a Jesús, mi esposo, por acompañarme,” which translates to, “thank you to Jesús, my husband, for accompanying me.”

READ MORE: Hitler expert gives stunning warning about Trump's 'intellectual nitwit' image

Scam Economy and Doomed podcast host Matt Binder on Monday noted several English speakers appeared to conflate the name Jesús with Jesus Christ, using their confusion to question Sheinbaum’s Jewish bona fides.

“This is the funniest thing happening on here right now: people claiming the newly elected president of Mexico isn’t really Jewish because she thanked Jesus (she thanked Jesús, her husband),” Binder wrote in a tweet.

Indeed, Binder posted several examples of people questioning Sheinbaum’s Jewish identity including someone who claimed they’ve “never seen a less Jewish Jew than this.”

“Important to note that [Sheinbaum] is not involved in the Jewish community and thanked Jesus for her victory,” Democratic Majority for Israel co-chair Todd Richmond claimed.

Amherst College Latin American and Latino culture professor Ilan Stavans, who is Mexican and Jewish, defended Sheinbaum’s Jewish identity in an interview with NBC News.

“Sheinbaum, whose descendants immigrated to Mexico escaping poverty and antisemitism, including the Holocaust, grew up in a secular, science-driven household,” Stavans said. “She doesn’t perform her Jewish identity in public.”

View the tweets above or click this link.

'No, he's not': CNN reporter busts Trump over 'ridiculous' New York claim

CNN Senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere on Friday dismissed Donald Trump’s claim he’s “going to win New York,” calling the former president’s assertion “ridiculous.”

Trump made the comment Thursday at a rally in the Bronx’s Crotona Park. According to the New York Daily News, “hundreds” of supporters gathered to see the former president promise to “renovate New York’s subway system” and bring Americans together.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump insisted his “energetic” and “entrepreneurial” voting block is “going to save New York.”

READ MORE: GOP Senate hopeful courting major FEC fines for alleged campaign finance violations

“And we’re going to win New York, and if we win New York, the election’s over,” Trump said.

Asked about the former president’s chances of winning the state, Dovere seemed unconvinced.

‘No, he’s not going to win New York.” Dovere said. “Okay, first of all, it's ridiculous.”

The CNN reporter continued:

He's not going to win New York. New York has not — I don't even know, I think probably 1984 is the last time [a Republican won], and before that I’m not sure when it would have been. That by the way, is the year that [Ronald] Reagan won everything, basically. And moreover, Trump has made these claims before in 2016 and 2020. He would say, ‘Oh, we're going to win.’ He is not gonna win New York. The South Bronx — no matter how many people showed up for him last night — is one of the most democratic areas of the country. He says this, and it's not where the election is actually going to play out.

“But he is doing it because he likes to get us talking about this,” Dovere added.

Watch the video below.

'This is a bomb': Ex-assistant U.S. attorney reacts to stunning new Trump trial testimony

Michael Cohen, the one-time personal attorney to Donald Trump, dropped a “bomb” on Monday in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against the former president, according to CNN legal analyst Elie Honig.

Trump is on trial in Manhattan on a 34-count indictment related to allegations of falsifying business records to cover up a “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

During cross-examination on Monday, Cohen, a witness for the prosecution, revealed he stole money from the Trump Organization during his time as Trump’s personal attorney.

READ MORE: Inside the '11-hour journey' of covering the Trump hush money trial

“This is a bomb, this is really important,” Honig told CNN’s Jake Tapper and a panel of legal analysts.

“This is a bomb dropped in the middle of the prosecution's case. Two reasons: One, Michael Cohen was stealing from Donald Trump. He was lying to people about what he was doing with money. He pocketed at least the $30,000 by lying … this is crushing to the prosecution's credibility because the prosecution did not ask Michael Cohen about this."

“The other reason it's so important is the money that Michael Cohen stole from … by his own admission, was part of the $420,000 that Michael Cohen was reimbursed for Stormy Daniels,” the former assistant U.S. attorney explained.

“So the heart of the prosecution's case is that whole setup where they were going to repay Michael Cohen … to reimburse him for Stormy Daniels,” Honig said. "That was all done … to pay Stormy Daniels. Trump knew it. Trump knew every penny. That's why he's guilty.”

“Now it turns out Trump is getting robbed by his own guy,” he added.

READ MORE: Why a criminal conviction wouldn't necessarily doom 'hand grenade' Trump’s 2024 campaign

Later in the segment, Honig unleashed on Bragg, accusing his office of “prosecutorial malpractice” in failing to get ahead of testimony regarding Cohen stealing from Trump.

“I just have to say this is prosecutorial malpractice,” Honig said. “This is a failure by prosecutors to either know this and not raise it with Michael Cohen on his direct or to not know it, which would mean Michael Cohen is lying right now.”

CNN’s Laura Coates interjected, arguing “we don’t know that yet.”

“To call it misconduct is quite a sweeping statement,” Coates said.

READ MORE: Analysis exposes the true design of MAGA’s 'election integrity' lies: 'Permanent minority rule'

“I didn’t call it misconduct, I called it malpractice,” Honig replied.

“To be clear, I said malpractice, meaning terrible practice,” Honig later added. “Not unethical. that would be misconduct.”

Honig explained:

The crux of the prosecution's case is Donald Trump knew what that $420,000 was for. It was for Stormy Daniels. Michael Cohen read him in on all of it. He was fine with it. It turns out, Michael Cohen was stealing from Donald Trump within that $420,000 and Donald Trump not only didn't know, he certainly never would have agreed to be robbed by Michael Cohen.

'Cohen can’t remember how old his son is': J.D. Vance days after Trump forgets son’s age

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) on Monday joined a gaggle of Donald Trump defenders — including Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, (R-NY) and the ex-president’s son Eric Trump — at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse to attend the ongoing “hush money” trial.

At a press conference, Tuberville ranted against "supposedly American citizens" in the courtroom and claimed District Attorney Alvin Bragg is putting the former president through “mental anguish.”

Tuberville also said of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen: “This guy is giving an acting scene.”

Vance, in a series of tweets on X, assailed Cohen's credibility as a witness.

READ MORE: Tuberville slammed for berating 'supposedly American citizens' in Trump hush money courtroom

"Cohen can’t remember how old his son is or how old he was when he started to work for Trump but I’m sure he remembers extremely small details from years ago!" Vance wrote.

But his comment came just days after Trump, in an interview Thursday with Telemundo51, misstated son Barron Trump’s age as 17. Barron Trump turned 18 in March.

In that interview, Trump told reporter Marilys Llanos he’s “able to put [aside]” the ongoing trial and focus on “a lot of things at one time.”

“I’m very ambidextrous, so to speak,” Trump said last week.

READ MORE: 'Ambidextrous' Trump tells Telemundo his 18-year-old son is 17

Despite Trump’s claim that he’s able to compartmentalize the trial, allies like Vance are “[stepping] up attacks” in light of Merchan’s gag order — which the president has violated 10 times, NBC News reports.

“The president is expected to sit here for six weeks to listen to the Michael Cohens of the world,” Vance complained in his tweets. "I’m now convinced the main goal of this trial is psychological torture. But Trump is in great spirits."

The Ohio senator, a vice presidential contender, also appeared to defend Trump against claims he’s fallen asleep in the courtroom, The Arizona Republic reports.

"I’m 39 years old and I’ve been here for 26 minutes and I’m about to fall asleep," Vance wrote.

'Ambidextrous' Trump tells Telemundo his 18-year-old son is 17

Donald Trump, who frequently boasts about “ac[ing]” a “tough” cognitive test, “misstated the age of his youngest son” in a Telemundo51 of Miami interview published Thursday, NBC News reports.

In the interview, Telemundo’s Marilys Llanos asked Trump about his reaction to Barron Trump, his youngest son, being selected as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention.

“To me, that’s very cute, because he’s a very young guy and he’s graduating from high school this year,” Trump said. “He’s a very good student, very smart, and I think that’s great.”

“I think it’s very interesting too,” Trump added. “But he’s pretty young, I will say — he’s 17.”

Barron, NBC News notes, turned 18 in March.

“But, uh, if they can do that, I’m all for it,” Trump continued. “I think, I’m all for it. And he probably would be, knowing him, he’d probably be for it, too.”

Trump’s comments came after he told Llanos he’s “able to put [aside]” his legal problems when it comes to his family.

“I’m able to put it aside and to think about other things,” Trump said. “I’m very ambidextrous, so to speak. I can do a lot of things at one time."

In addition to describing himself as “very popular in the Republican Party and very popular in the country,” the former president dismissed reports he’s fallen asleep in court during Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s ongoing hush money trial against him.

"I don’t fall asleep, I close my eyes sometimes,” Trump said. “You know it’s very bright in that court, actually.”

“It’s also very cold,” Trump added, telling Llanos he'll sometimes “sit back close [his] eyes" in court.

“At some point I may fall asleep, but I’ll let you know when that is,” Trump quipped.

READ MORE: MTG 'lost a whole lot of respect in her district' after failing to oust Mike Johnson: report

“I haven’t fallen asleep, but I probably will,” he added.

Asked for comment about misstating his son's age, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung accused NBC News of suffering "from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Watch the videos at this link.

'Sociopath' Trump has one way to avoid spending 'rest of his life in jail': George Conway

Conservative attorney George Conway on Monday unloaded on “sociopath” Donald Trump, telling NPR’s Michael Martin, “[Trump] is either going to become president, or he is going to spend the rest of his life in prison.”

Discussing the four criminal indictments Trump is currently facing, Conway noted, “Any combination of the counts … with which he’s been charged … is going to put him in jail for a number of years.”

“And this is a 77-year-old man,” Conway added.

“So I think there is a very good chance he’ll spend the rest of his life in jail, and that’s part of the dynamic that is going on here,” Conway continued.

“He knows that. He’s not a strategic thinker, he’s a sociopath, he’s a man with reptilian — I’m not going to say intellect — but he understands that he is cornered. And that’s when people like him with that kind of psychology are the most dangerous.

“But he understands that and understands that the only way for him to escape the trouble that he’s in is to be elected president.”

Watch the full video below or at this link.

'No one voted for' him: Florida Republican Party ousts chairman after rape allegation

Florida’s Republican Party on Monday voted in an emergency meeting to remove chairman Christian Ziegler from his position following allegations of sexual assault, NBC News reports.

“No one voted for Christian Ziegler,” Florida Senate Republican Blaise Ingoglia told CNN.

Ziegler is currently under investigation by the Sarasota Police Department after a woman last year accused the former chairman of rape.

Politico reports:

Ziegler has maintained that the sexual encounter he had with the woman who leveled the rape accusations against him was consensual. He and his wife, Moms for Liberty cofounder and Sarasota County school board member Bridget Ziegler, also acknowledged to police that they had been in a three-way sexual encounter a year earlier with the alleged victim, per a search warrant affidavit.

Charges have not been filed in the case. NBC News reports “Ziegler was not in attendance for the vote.”

An anonymous source told NBC News the party was forced to oust Ziegler after he “did not do the right thing and resign.”

“I believe it was almost unanimous vote to remove Christian Ziegler, which I believe is the absolute right thing to do,” the source said. “And I want to reiterate that we are spending a lot of time and energy on this, on this meeting instead of focusing on the things we need to focus on, and that’s simply because Christian Ziegler did not do the right thing and resign.”

'Like a zombie coming back from the dead': Trump's resurgence leaves GOP senator appalled

Republican senators critical of Donald Trump insist they do not regret voting to acquit the former president during his second impeachment trial even as he consolidates power among the party in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

Two Republican senators interviewed anonymously by The Hill dispelled recent comments made by former House Speaker Paul Ryan. In those remarks, Ryan insisted “there are a lot of people in Congress, good friends of mine, who would take [their] vote back” because after Jan. 6 “they thought Trump was dead.”

Per The Hill:

One Republican senator who frequently criticizes Trump’s conduct but nevertheless voted to acquit Trump of inciting insurrection said they would have voted the same way if given a second chance after knowing the outcome.

“The way I look at it is the standard is high because you’re undermining the will of the American people,” the senator said of Trump’s post-Jan. 6 impeachment trial. “If you can’t meet that threshold, it’s inappropriate to convict for the purposes for keeping out of office.”

A second anonymous senator who is described as being “often critical of Trump” surmised that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would have still voted to acquit Trump even if he knew the former president “would come back to dominate the 2024 GOP presidential primary.”

“I think he would have made the calculated decision that he would not have been able to be leader of the caucus after that," the anonymous senator said. "He would have been deciding to be a senior committeeman for the next six years."

Meanwhile, Republican senators who voted to convict Trump marveled at his comeback while insisting they wouldn’t change a thing about their votes.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is one such Republican. She voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial and told the Hill she has “no regrets” about that decision. She likewise echoed Ryan’s claim that “some of her GOP colleagues do have regrets about their vote,” the Hill reports.

“I think they’re looking at this and [think,] ‘It’s like a zombie coming back from the dead,’” Murkowski said, according to The Hill. “He was political roadkill. Two impeachments and now these indictments — four indictments — and you’re telling me he’s the heir apparent?”

“Nobody’s saying it out loud,” she continued. “But, again, I certainly have no regrets.”

Read the full report at Th Hill.

George Conway uses Trump’s own legal filing to mock his late-night immunity appeal

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Saturday filed a late-night appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, “again trying to argue for presidential immunity,” CBS’ Scott MacFarlane reports.

Per McFarlane, “The 71-page briefing argues, ‘Under the doctrine of separated powers, neither a federal nor a state prosecutor, nor a state or federal court, may sit in judgment over a President’s official acts, which are vested in the Presidency alone.’”

"During the 234 years from 1789 to 2023, no current or former President had ever been criminally prosecuted for official acts. That unbroken tradition died this year,” the former president’s lawyers wrote in the filing.

Conservative lawyer George Conway on Sunday zeroed in on that “unbroken tradition” claim, using the language of the brief to highlight what sparked such an unprecedented reaction from the U.S. criminal justice system.

“During the 231 years from 1789 to 2020, no current or former President had ever telephoned officials in multiple states in an attempt to fraudulently alter presidential election results. That unbroken tradition died that year,” Conway wrote.

Read the full filing here.

'Scared': Analyst says GOPers ignore Trump's 'dictator' talk because they fear for jobs

The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg on Monday described “a level of absurdity” in the 2024 presidential race as Republicans turn a blind eye to Donald Trump's promise to rule as dictator “for one day” should he win reelection.

The Atlantic’s January/February 2024 issue focuses on how a second Trump term “could shatter norms with the courts, education, the military, foreign policy, immigration, abortion rights, science, gender.” In the issue, The Atlantic editors warn “the next Trump presidency will be worse.”

Discussing the January/February issue with CNN’s Dana Bash, Goldberg jokingly noted the editors took the time to “put out a special issue, and then he goes and says it.”

“We put a lot of work in there to try to prove that he has dictatorial tendencies and then he just goes ahead and says it,” Goldberg said. “It's kind of his superpower in a way. Unlike other politicians who, when they say something outrageous, they walk it back, he goes further.”

"This is part of a pattern,” Goldberg continued. “He neutralizes the serious criticism by embracing it and he overturns the traditional rules of political physics.”

“He's embracing this idea that he's going to be a dictator, and I think that American citizens who take politicians and politics seriously ought to consider the fact that the putative nominee of one of the two major parties is promising to rule as a dictator,” Goldberg added. “I know he says, ‘for one day,’ I don't even know what that means … We are at a level of absurdity here, and he's telling us what he's going to do.”

Bash then played a clip of Republicans dismissing Trump’s promise to rule as a dictator, with reactions ranging from "it’s entertainment” to “Trump uses unique expressions when he explains things.”

READ MORE: Activists hope Wisconsin Supreme Court's new liberal majority will strike down this ex-gov Walker law

“Two quick points about the reaction that you played there from members of Congress,” Goldberg said. “The first is that you and I both know plenty of Republicans in Congress, and we know how they actually feel about Donald Trump. They are scared of Donald Trump. They are repulsed by him, they don't like antidemocratic language, most of them at least, but they are frightened for their jobs.”

Goldberg then offered a “second point” which described “a double standard” in how Republicans approach Trump’s language compared with how they interpret language from other political parties.

“Believe people when they tell you what they want to do,” Goldberg said.

“We already have January 6th as evidence that Donald Trump does not want to conform to the norms of democratic behavior,” Goldberg said. “And so, I find their dismissal disconcerting.”

Watch the video below or at this link.