Eric Trump claims Putin could tell Donald Trump was ‘a very strong person’
Donald Trump has withdrawn his endorsement from Alabama congressman and Senate candidate Mo Brooks, citing his longtime ally’s “horrible mistake” of suggesting that Republicans need to move on from the claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
Mr Trump accused the congressman of “going woke” in a lengthy statement this morning. He raised the possibility of retracting his endorsement in a recent interview, after which Mr Brooks released an ad boasting of his appearance at the rally outside the White House before the 6 January Capitol riot.
And on another front, Mr Trump and his children Donald Jr and Ivanka have filed an appeal in their fight against the New York attorney general’s attempt to depose them as part of a civil investigation into the Trump Organization.
Ms Trump has stepped up in the effort to support Ukrainian refugees by sending 1 million meals to Poland for distribution through charitable partners and aid workers on the ground there and in Ukraine.
Finally, in an unexpected development over the weekend, disgraced ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has links to Russia, was stopped from taking a flight from Miami to Dubai because of an invalid passport.
Graham rebuked for trying to blame Ketanji Brown Jackson for Kavanaugh hearing
Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.
Oliver O’Connell23 March 2022 18:32
Outrage as Marjorie Taylor Greene backs Madison Cawthorn and calls Zelensky a ‘thug’
Marjorie Taylor Green said she agrees that Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky is a “thug” and that his government is “corrupt”.
She made the comments during a town hall meeting where an audience member asked if she agreed with Republican colleague Madison Cawthorn.
“Yes and yes. That’s an easy one,” she said, according to Politico.
Oliver O’Connell23 March 2022 18:23
Ivanka Trump sending 1 million meals to Poland for Ukrainian refugees
Ivanka Trump has purchased 1 million meals to deliver to people in Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees on the Poland-Ukraine border, Fox News has learned.
Former President Trump’s eldest daughter personally contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars for the 1 million meals, which amounted to 158,400 pounds of food to Europe, a source familiar told Fox News.
Trump worked to connect several nonprofit organizations, including CityServe, City of Destiny and Mercy Chefs to help package shelf-stable meals of oatmeal and goulash. The choices of meals came from advised food preferences of aid workers in Ukraine.
Trump had been coordinating with the UPS Foundation, and her partners – City Serve, City of Destiny, the Pentecostal European Fellowship and several local church organizations – to deliver the food to Warsaw, Poland.
From there, local partners, including hundreds of volunteers from the local community and faith-based organizations, are set to deliver the meals to Ukrainians seeking refuge in Poland, as well as to families still inside Ukraine.
Oliver O’Connell23 March 2022 18:18
Mo Brooks says Trump is being “manipulated”
Alabama Congressman and Senate candidate Mo Brooks today lost Donald Trump’s endorsement, a precious thing in Republican primaries across the US – and in a statement issued today, he has given up pleading with the former president and instead attacked him, accusing him of being “manipulated” by Mitch McConnell and insisting he will stay in the race.
Andrew Naughtie23 March 2022 18:11
Donald Jr takes strange shot at Ketanji Brown Jackson
Ever the quick tweeter, Donald Trump Jr has blasted out what seems like a shot at Ketanji Brown Jackson’s intelligence as she sits through Republican attacks on Capitol Hill. It isn’t clear exactly what he means, and he’s already being ridiculed for it.
Andrew Naughtie23 March 2022 17:40
ICYMI: Paul Manafort prevented from leaving the US
It has emerged Paul Manafort, the disgraced former Trump campaign manager whose dealings in Russia landed him in severe legal trouble and became the centre of the FBI investigation into Donald Trump’s Russian connections, has been prevented from boarding a plane to the Middle East and had his US passport revoked.
Gustaf Kilander has more on the developing story…
Andrew Naughtie23 March 2022 17:10
Palin’s quest for victory over NYT continues
Sarah Palin, who recently teased a run for Congress, is taking another run at the New York Times, which she unsuccessfully sued for defamation over an article that she said accused her of helping incite the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords.
Law & Crime’s Adam Klasfeld reports that in her effort to secure another court battle, Ms Palin is going after the judge in the recent case and a potential juror who was ultimately not selected.
Andrew Naughtie23 March 2022 16:41
Ketanji Brown Jackson reiterates that “presidents are not kings”
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is currently going through her confirmation hearings, and was this morning asked to comment on a famous 2019 ruling in which she declared that “presidents are not kings”. The widely quoted sentence came in her opinion rejecting claims that former White House counsel Donald McGahn could not assert absolute immunity from a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee’s obstruction of justice probe into Mr Trump.
Asked to elaborate on her thinking today, she said:
“The framers decided, after experiencing monarchy, tyranny, and the like that they were going to create a government that would split the powers of a monarch in several different ways. One was federalism. It was vertical, they would split the powers between the federal government and states. Another was to prevent the federal government from itself becoming too powerful from having all of the authorities from having legislative, executive and judicial authority concentrated in one place.
“The separation of powers is crucial to liberty. It is what our country is founded on. And it’s important as consistent with my judicial methodology for each branch to operate within their own sphere.”
Mr Trump, meanwhile, recently said at a rally that if he returns to the presidency, he wants to change the law so that the president can unilaterally fire any executive branch employee.
Andrew Naughtie23 March 2022 16:07
Alex Jones loses bid to postpone Sandy Hook deposition
Alex Jones, the far-right shock jock who played a key role in disseminating conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, has failed in a bid to delay a deposition in yet another lawsuit related to his remarks about the massacre.
Mr Jones claimed that he was too sick to appear, but subsequently hosted an episode of his notorious InfoWars show. Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis then ordered that the deposition go ahead as planned, suggesting that Mr Jones’ legal team “unknowingly misled” the court with its attempts to postpone it over his mystery illness.
Rachel Sharp has the story.
Andrew Naughtie23 March 2022 15:15
Indicted former Trump aide denied flight to Dubai
Paul Manafort, whose foreign dealings were at the centre of investigations into contacts between the Trump team and Russian interests, has been denied exit from the US by authorities, who removed him from a flight to Dubai and revoked his US passport.
Andrew Naughtie23 March 2022 14:20
