Trump hits out at judge’s wife as fraud trial gag order reinstated: Live

The ex-president was touting his endorsement from Mark Fisher, a founder of a small Black Lives Matter offshoot group in Rhode Island, in a Truth Social posting when he made the claim. It was just the latest in a long line of remarks from the former president that have betrayed a poor understanding of American history (at a minimum) while also provoking its own racist narrative — namely, that the end of slavery was inconsequential compared to Mr Trump’s presidency.

John Bowden reports on the latest baffling, egomaniacal claims from the former president.

The president’s son called the bluff of House Republicans by agreeing to appear before the panel on 13 December at the invitation of committee Chair James Comer.

Earlier this month, Mr Comer issued subpoenas compelling testimony from Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden, as part of a long-running probe into President Joe Biden’s family — an investigation which has thus far produced no evidence that the 46th president violated any laws or was improperly influenced by any family member’s business interests. Mr Biden’s team has issued their own subpoenas.

The younger Mr Biden’s response, delivered via his lawyer this week, forced Republicans to quickly backtrack and insist that it was important to first have a closed-door deposition from the younger Mr Biden.

Each side took to morning cable news shows to argue their case before each party held their weekly congressional press conference to further push their point.

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy believed that Donald Trump had accepted his defeat in the 2020 election and was going through the “five stages of grief” in the days immediately following the contest, according to a new book by Liz Cheney.

The former House Republican conference chair is out with a new book, publishing on 5 December, revealing new insights from her time in the GOP caucus in the days leading up to and following the January 6 attack on Congress. In Oath and Honor, Ms Cheney writes that Mr McCarthy summed up then-president Trump’s mood to her after a meeting at Mar-a-Lago between the two men.

“He knows it’s over,” said the former speaker, according to excerpts published on Wednesday by CNN. “He needs to go through all the stages of grief.”

Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney called Donald Trump‘s supporters in Congress “enablers and collaborators” in a new book, and revealed that at least one member called the former president “orange Jesus.”

Ms Cheney reportedly does not hold back from critiquing her former colleagues in the new book, Oath and Honor, according to CNN.

She claims that her fellow Republican lawmakers were “willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump.”

The former congresswoman called the former president “the most dangerous man ever to inhabit the Oval Office”, and blasted her fellow Republicans for their “cowardice.”

Graig Graziosi reports on which of them called Mr Trump “Orange Jesus” behind his back…

Donald Trump has argued in a Newsweek op-ed that President Joe Biden is “crushing” the dreams of young people with “debt, taxes, and inflation,” claiming that he’s “paving the way for a future of anger and despair”.

For his part, Mr Trump became the first president to leave office with fewer jobs than when he entered since the presidency of Herbert Hoover which coincided with the Great Depression. Economists have said that Mr Trump’s lack of leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic made the financial impact of the health crisis worse, pointing to policies that helped the wealthy and international trade plans that pushed away US allies and hurt domestic industries.

In the face of all this, Mr Trump still wrote in Newsweek that his administration “created the strongest and most prosperous economy in the history of the world”.

Former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson has privately said he “passionately” hates Donald Trump. He has described him as a “demonic force” and a “destroyer” that he “can’t wait” to ignore. Carlson says he plans to vote for him in 2024.

The far-right former Fox News commentator previously said he ‘passionately’ hates the former president

Alex Woodward has the full story:

New Hampshire’s moderate Republican governor has walked a fine line as a centre-right Republican in a party that is trending more and more to the extremes.

For example, while criticising the implementation of Mr Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill over what he viewed as insufficient highway funds for his state, for example, the governor also issued a stern rebuke aimed at members of his own party’s conservative wing who sought retribution against those members who had voted for the legislation.

John Bowden reports on what he said when asked about a Trump-Biden showdown in 2024…

Two Republican county supervisors from Arizona are now facing felony charges over what the state attorney general alleges was an organised conspiracy to delay the certification of the 2022 election.

John Bowden has the full story:

A former employee of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster has filed a complaint against the club over “unethical, fraudulent actions by Trump lawyer Alina Habba”, relating to a settlement agreement after she was sexually harassed by her manager at the Donald Trump-owned property.

Mediaite reports that Ali Bianco claims that in 2021 she was sexually harassed and coerced into performing sexual acts by Pavel Melichar, the food and beverage manager.

Ms Bianco says in her complaint that she did so in order to keep her job, but when she later rejected his advances he took retaliation. She alleges he gave her “unfair job assignments” and her tips were stolen by his “henchmen” who also abused her.

She also alleges that Mr Melichar showed her videos of the former president praising him to show he was “powerful” to intimidate her.

After a fellow female employee wrote a letter to Mr Trump’s personal staff about the toxic workplace atmosphere, Ms Bianco was contacted by human resources at the Trump Organization in New York.

The complaint states that Ms Habba contacted Ms Bianco, worked to have her fire her employment attorney and then pressured her to sign a non-disclosure agreement under the guise of being a neutral party and her friend.

It was only after receiving a “paltry payment” and agreeing to the strict NDA, that Ms Bianco discovered Ms Habba was not the neutral party she had portrayed herself as and was serving as Mr Trump’s attorney on some of his many legal cases.

The complaint seeks to declare the settlement agreement void, have Ms Habba and her law firm referred to the bar for ethics violations, and award attorneys’ fees and costs under the New Jersey law relating to this kind of discrimination claim.

News networks should be taken off air and investigated for treason. The nation’s top military official should be executed. A state judge presiding over a trial against him, and the attorney general suing him, should be arrested. People seeking asylum in the US are “poisoning the blood of our country” and should be turned away if they don’t accept “our religion.” Drug dealers should get the death sentence. “Liberal Jews” are voting to “destroy America and Israel.” The regime will “root out” political opponents who “live like vermin”.

Donald Trump’s latest violent, authoritarian visions in his 2024 campaign for the presidency are building on his platform of self-described retribution.

They are also increasingly colliding with the multiple criminal investigations and lawsuits against him, as prosecutors and judges hope to rely on gag orders to rein in his rhetoric, which has invited hundreds of abusive messages and credible death threats from his supporters against the judges and prosecutors involved.