Trump news – live: Ex-president shrugs off potential 2024 challenge from Mike Pence
‘Any of my fellow Republicans wanna speak out now’
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Donald Trump has laughed off the news that Mike Pence might run for president in 2024, shrugging that he “wouldn’t be concerned with that” even as his former deputy stumps for a rival candidate in Georgia.
Mr Pence has kept his public appearances mostly low-key since the end of the Trump administration, but has lately increased his presence on the campaign trail while insisting he was right not to try and overthrow Joe Biden’s victory on 6 January 2021.
Meanwhile, Kellyanne Conway, one of Donald Trump’s longest-standing political confidants and White House aides, has revealed that the ex-president offered her a blanket pardon after the 2020 election.
In her new memoir Here’s the Deal, Ms Conway writes that she asked the president why he thought she needed a pardon at all.
“Because they go after everyone, honey. It doesn’t matter,” Mr Trump allegedly said. Ms Conway claims she “politely declined” the offer.
Meet Brian Kemp: The man who could deal a blow to Donald Trump in Georgia
Georgia’s Brian Kemp may become known, at least after Tuesday, as the man who did the impossible: Defeat a candidate backed by Donald Trump in a Republican primary in the deep south.
That certainly looks to be the case as the incumbent governor charges into Tuesday’s primary with a double-digit polling lead over David Perdue, the Trump acolyte who looks to be set to deliver the former president his first defeat of the 2022 primary season.
Read more in The Independent:
Meet Brian Kemp: The man who could deal a blow to Donald Trump in Georgia
Brian Kemp charges into Tuesday’s primary with a double-digit polling lead over Trump-backed David Perdue
Could a Mo Brooks surge deal a second blow to Donald Trump on Tuesday?
Donald Trump is already likely bracing for the defeat of his chosen candiate in the Georgia gubernatorial primary on Tuesday. But in neighbouring Alabama, a surging Mo Brooks could be poised to deal him a double-tap defeat.
The congressman is surging in the race, according to a poll released late last week, and now sits only a few percentage points behind Katie Britt, the frontrunner. Ms Britt or Mr Brooks would need 50 per cent to avoid a June runoff, and if Mr Brooks comes out ahead of Ms Britt tomorrow it could be a serious sign that Donald Trump’s endorsement is not the powerful force it used to be.
Read more about the race in the Associated Press:
GOP primary race for Alabama Senate seat turns bitter
Alabama’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby is a bitter high-dollar fight between three candidates
Capitol rioter asks for looser release conditions to keep teenage kids out of mischief
Many of the scores of accused Capitol rioters are seeking to change the conditions of their release from custody, citing myriad reasons. Now, a new pretext has been given by Rachel Powell, who faces a curfew and is forced to wear an ankle braclet: she is worried that without her full supervision, her teenage sons will get up to too much trouble.
ICYMI: Watchdog says Secret Service spent $1.75m at Trump-owned properties
Donald Trump’s choice to frequently stay at his own properties while president resulted in a windfall for his company, according to Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.
The group, through Freedom of Information Act requests, learned that the Secret Service spent more than $1.75 million at Trump properties to protect the president over the course of four years.
It’s not unheard of for the Secret Service to spend large sums to protect presidential candidates, presidents, former presidents, or their family members, particularly when it comes to securing the use of facilities near a protectee’s residence.
Yet the scale and scope of protective operations, combined with the tendency of Mr Trump and his family members to travel to properties in their company’s portfolio and their insistence on charging the agents responsible for protecting for the privilege of doing so has no modern precedent.
Andrew Feinberg has the story.
Secret Service spent $1.75m at Trump-owned properties, watchdog says
Mr Trump charges the agency $396.15 per day to rent a room at the Mar-a-Lago club, where he has lived since leaving office in 2021
Opinion: How not to react to Trump’s “civil war” rhetoric
Writing for The Independent, Noah Berlatsky takes a look at the “civil war” rhetoric emanating from some of Donald Trump’s supporters – rhetoric that has recently been shared by the president himself on his bespoke Twitter alternative, Truth Social.
Many Democrats and other Trump critics have jumped at the chance to ridicule this sort of talk, dismissing it as the empty ramblings of people safely hidden behind their keyboards. But Noah argues that in their haste to pounce on this performative belligerence, the president’s opponents are missing a crucial point.
Yes, Trump is not, personally, going to take up arms. But that’s not the main problem with his call for “Civil War”. The main problem is that he has followers who may, like the case of the Buffalo shooter, decide to kill those they perceive as political enemies. When Trump frames opponents as traitors worthy of brutality and extermination, he’s encouraging political divison and political violence. He does that in part by equating leadership and manly brutality. Democrats like Swalwell shouldn’t help him do that.
Read his full argument below.
Donald Trump’s ‘Civil War’ bombast is bad enough. Democrats shouldn’t make it worse
Mocking someone for not being as tough as their rhetoric is not helpful if you want a public discourse that doesn’t reward aggression
Kellyanne Conway describes Trump’s pardon offer
In her new book Here’s the Deal, which like other Trump administration memoirs has spawned multiple stories before it’s even been released, Kellyanne Conway has a very strange anecdote about Mr Trump offering her a pardon for unspecified offences she did not expect to be charged with.
“Do you want one?” Mr Trump reportedly asked her.
“Do you know something, I don’t,” Ms Conway says she replied. “Why would I need a pardon?”
“Because they go after everyone, honey. It doesn’t matter,” Mr Trump said, according to the book.
Ms Conway says the conversation ended with her “politely declin[ing]”.
Sravasti Dasgupta has the story.
Kellyanne Conway says Trump offered her a blanket pardon after election
‘Because they go after everyone, honey. It doesn’t matter’
Tucker Carlson calls on Democrats to “de-escalate” rhetoric
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who routinely uses his show to promote bizarre, apocalyptic cultural takes and racist right-wing conspiracy theories, has warned Democrats that they are dangerously escalating the acrimonious tone of public discourse, and that the consequences if they keep going could be dire.
On the same edition of his show last night, he complained that those who are warning of the spread of violent white nationalist ideas are in fact trying to tarnish “normal” conservatives as dangerous racists.
Texas Republicans plan action against companies that help women access abortions
A group of Republican lawmakers in Texas have pledged to introduce legislation that would bar private companies from doing business in the state if they offer benefits or travel funds for employees seeking abortions in other states where the procedure is legal.
With abortions set to become automatically banned in Texas if Roe v Wade is overturned by the US Supreme Court next month, this recent escalation reflects how intent the state’s GOP lawmakers are to not only ban the procedure within their own borders, but severely hinder an individual’s ability to access it outside state lines.
Johanna Chisholm has more.
Texas Republicans look to bar companies that support out-of-state abortions
Major companies, like Amazon, Tesla and Apple, who have pledged to support employees have hubs throughout the state
Catch up: Trump’s bills to the Secret Service
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, one of the capital’s most established anti-corruption watchdogs, yesterday unveiled what it called a “gold mine” of documents about Donald Trump’s practice of billing the Secret Service for its agents’ accommodation at his own properties, effectively funnelling public money to his own personal business interests.
Here’s a thread where CREW spells out what it’s found.
ICYMI: Madison Cawthorn faces double-headed ethics investigation
Having recently been defeated in a Republican primary, freshman far-right Congressman Madison Cawthorn is facing an investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which is looking into allegations that he “improperly promoted a cryptocurrency in which he may have had an undisclosed financial interest, and engaged in an improper relationship with an individual employed on his congressional staff”.
Mr Cawthorn helped promote a cryptocurrency called “LGBCoin” just before it was announced as a sponsor of Nascar driver Brandon Brown, which watchdog groups say indicates he had foreknowledge of its likely rise in value.
Meanwhile, the sexual impropriety allegation focuses on staffer Stephen Smith, whom Mr Cawthorn says is his third cousin.
Read more from Andrew Feinberg:
Madison Cawthorn facing investigation by House Ethics Committee
The panel is investigation whether Mr Cawthorn ‘improperly promoted a cryptocurrency in which he may have had an undisclosed financial interest, and engaged in an improper relationship with an individual employed on his congressional staff’
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