Trump calls for 25th Amendment changes ahead of Harris debate amid new questions over his mental state: Live

Harris battens down the hatches at Pittsburgh hotel as she prepares for Tuesday’s debate against former president

Donald Trump mistakenly calls Elon Musk, ‘Leon’

Donald Trump rallied supporters in Mosinee, Wisconsin on Saturday, in his first visit to the deep-red, mostly rural part of the important swing state.

The former president made a new attack against Vice President Kamala Harris, suggesting expanding the 25th Amendment to include the possibility of removing a vice president for shielding any health issues of a president from public view. Trump has been openly bitter about President Joe Biden’s decision to exit the 2024 race.

Accusing Harris and other Biden allies of pushing him out of the race in a “cover-up,” Trump told the crowd: “I will support modifying the 25th Amendment to make clear that if a vice president lies or engages in a conspiracy to cover up the incapacity of the president of the United States — if you do that with a cover-up of the president of the United States, it’s grounds for impeachment immediately and removal from office, ‘cause that’s what they did.”

At another point during the rally, Trump offered an explanation for his frequent references to the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter.

The Silence of the Lambs character is a “representative of people that are coming into our country,” he said.

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[8 September 2024 03:42 · Kelly Rissman]

Trump vows ‘long term prison sentences’ for people he falsely claims ‘CHEATED’ in the 2020 election

Donald Trump promised to prosecute those who “cheated” during the 2020 election as he intends to keep a close eye on the November race, the Republican nominee said in a late night rant.

The former president vowed in a post shared to X on Saturday night to seek political retribution “when” he retakes the White House for Democrats who, Trump baselessly claimed, committed “rampant cheating and Skullduggery” during the 2020 election.

Despite Trump’s insistence and his team’s legal challenges to the election results across the country, no court has supported these fraud claims.

“CEASE & DESIST,” the former president wrote. “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

[8 September 2024 03:00 · Andrew Feinberg]

‘She needs to let Trump be Trump’: Inside Kamala Harris’s unconventional debate prep

Less than three months ago, a disastrous debate performance by President Joe Biden put Kamala Harris on a collision course with Donald Trump.

Now at the top of the Democratic ticket, Harris’s first public face-off with Trump on the ABC debate stage in Philadelphia is just days away. Right now, she is hunkered down in Pittsburgh for intensive preparations with a close circle of aides and confidantes who are getting her ready for her best — and perhaps only — chance to convince Americans that she, and not the former president, should spend the next four years in the White House.

According to NOTUS, the vice president will be participating in sessions led by Paul, Weiss partner Karen Dunn, the Washington super-lawyer who masterminded then-Senator Harris’s prep for her 2020 debate against her predecessor, Mike Pence. Harris will also reportedly be coached by her veteran policy adviser Rohini Kosoglu, as well as Democratic National Convention mastermind and longtime operative Minyon Moore; domestic policy aide Brian Nelson; campaign chief-of-staff Sheila Nix; veteran adviser Sean Clegg; and Cedric Richmond, the former Louisiana congressman who is a co-chair of her campaign.

[8 September 2024 02:34 · Eric Garcia]

Walz touts his record supporting LGBTQ+ rights in difficult times at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz addressed the Human Rights Campaign, the largest pro-LGBTQ+ rights group in the country, about his first run for Congress in 2006 in a Republican district when he was asked about whether he supported civil unions for gay couples.

“I said, ‘sure, if that’s your thing,’” Walz told crowd at the group’s annual dinner on Saturday evening. “But I said, my marriage, my wife, Gwen is the most important thing in my life. I love her deeply. Why would I stop anybody else from marrying the person they love? That makes no sense.”

At the time, many Democrats had run away from supporting same-sex marriage and had a tenuous relationship with gay rights at best. Two years before, George W Bush had won re-election by supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Shortly after, Walz won his race in 2006 and people praised him for winning despite supporting abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

Read the full story...

[8 September 2024 02:00 · Randall Chase]

Stakeholder in Trump's Truth Social parent company wins court ruling over share transfer

A federal judge in Delaware has ruled in favor of a firm seeking assurance that it will be able to sell its minority stake in the parent company of former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform.

The judge on Friday granted summary judgment to Florida-based United Atlantic Ventures LLC in a lawsuit filed against Minnesota-based Odyssey Transfer and Trust Co., a business that handles securities transfers among registered shareholders.

UAV is owned by Andrew Litinsky and Wesley Moss, former contestants on Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice” who also helped facilitate a merger that took Trump Media public in March.

[8 September 2024 01:00 · Jacob Stolworthy]

South Park creators have delayed the new season because of Donald Trump

The creators of South Park have made a vow about Donald Trump, who has inadvertently caused the delay of new episodes.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone have taken aim at Trump over the past 10 years, but were forced to take their foot off the gas in 2020 when they said it’s too hard to satirise the Republican presidential nominee, who was president from 2016 to 2020, as his administration is already too funny.

With Trump back in the news in a big way thanks to the forthcoming US election, which will take place in November, you would think that South Park would be prepping some jokes aimed at Trump.

[8 September 2024 00:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Jimmy Carter ‘talking about politics again’ since Kamala Harris became Democratic nominee

Former President Jimmy Carter is “talking about politics again” following the ascension of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic ticket.

“After my grandmother passed, he had a pretty long low period when he wasn’t really engaging much at all,” his eldest grandchild Jason Carter told The Washington Post. “But now he’s talking about politics again.”

Two members of the Carter family told the paper that after the death of his wife, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in November last year, his health has worsened. He has been in hospice for 18 months.

[7 September 2024 23:30 · Graig Graziosi]

Trump tries to manage expectations for Tuesday’s debate by predicting media will say he was humiliated

Donald Trump wants his supporters to know that even if he loses his upcoming debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he really won.

During a rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin on Saturday, Trump prepped his base, telling them that even if he does well in his debate with Harris, he’ll still be blasted by the media.

“If I destroy her in the debate, they’ll say Trump suffered a humiliating debate tonight,” he told a crowd of MAGA faithful on Saturday.

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[7 September 2024 23:00 · Lindsay Whitehurst]

Supreme Court Justice Alito says he got $900 concert tickets from German princess

Justice Samuel Alito reported Friday that he accepted $900 worth of concert tickets from a German princess, but disclosed no trips paid for by other people, according to a new financial disclosure form.

The required annual filing, for which Alito has often sought an extension, doesn’t include details of the event tickets gifted by socialite Gloria von Thurn und Taxis of Germany. Alito didn’t report any outside income from teaching or book contracts.

The financial disclosures filed by Supreme Court justices come against the backdrop of a heightened focus on ethics at the high court amid criticism over undisclosed trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors to some justices. The other eight justices filed their forms in June; Alito received an extension.

[7 September 2024 22:52 · Kelly Rissman]

Trump biographer believes he is ‘hyper-aware’ that he is mentally slipping

Donald Trump, now the oldest candidate to run for president, is facing intense scrutiny over his age and mental sharpness — and his biographer thinks Trump is “hyper-aware” that he is cognitively slipping and trying to make up for it with “convoluted explanations,” according to a report.

President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race after a fumbled debate performance that had voters questioning his mental acuity. Now Trump is facing similar questions and is trying to provide explanations for his frequent mentions of Hannibal Lecter, garbled words, incomplete thoughts, conflating the names of prominent figures, and his penchant for rambling.

But the explanations caused one Trump biographer to believe the GOP nominee knows full well that he is losing his mental footing.

Read the full story...

[7 September 2024 22:00 · Eric Garcia]

Why the mediocre jobs numbers might be a good thing for Kamala Harris

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest jobs numbers, which showed that the US economy added 142,000 jobs. That is higher than the 99,000 jobs that ADP predicted, but still lower than most expectations.

The number may not seem that relevant, especially given that President Joe Biden is no longer running for re-election and most people blamed Biden for the bad economy. But it still means something.

Vice President Harris has sought to separate herself from Biden’s economic policies somewhat. In New Hampshire this week, she announced that she would support a 28 percent tax on capital gains for people earning a million dollars or more, which is about 10 points lower than Biden’s proposed 39.6 capital gains tax increase.