Trump prosecutors considered obstruction charges months before Jack Smith’s appointment – live

A Republican senator from Alabama co-signed former president Donald Trump’s words about immigrants “poisoning the blood” of the United States, saying that the former president and Republican frontrunner for the party’s nomination for president did not go far enough.

Sen Tommy Tuberville told The Independent that Mr Trump’s words were too timid when discussing migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.

“I’m mad he wasn’t tougher than that because you’re seeing what’s happening on the border? We’re being overrun,” Mr Tuberville told The Independent.

Mr Tuberville, who endorsed Mr Trump for re-election, made the remarks after Mr Trump spoke in New Hampshire about migration degrading the United States in extreme terms.

“They’re poisoning the blood of the country. That’s what they’ve done,” the former president said. “They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America. Not just the three or four countries we think about. But all over the world they’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia.”

Mr Tuberville has come under fire in the past for his defence of white nationalists serving in the US military, saying in response to a question from CNN host Kaitlan Collins that white nationalists are people who believe white people are superior, “Well, that’s some people’s opinion.”

Tucker Carlson has ripped in to Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign team as the “nastiest, stupidest” political operation he has ever seen.

Mr Carlson also blamed the Florida Governor’s flip-flop on opposition to Ukraine funding after being pressured by top GOP donor Ken Griffin during a live debate with podcaster Tim Pool at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest.

“You really get the sense that Ron DeSantis – who I liked as governor – the people who represent him online are the nastiest, the stupidest, and the most zero-sum people I’ve ever seen in my life,” Carlson said.

“And I don’t think that reflects him, but it’s like, this is kind of small ball.”

Pool, an influential far-right media figure, agreed that the DeSantis campaign’s repeated missteps reflected badly on him.

“Ron should have fired the people running his campaign a long time ago,” Pool said.

“The high heels, boot scandal. Who’s giving this guy advice and why does he keep taking it?” he added, referring to Mr DeSantis being roasted for wearing heel lifts.

Lawyer Alina Habba, who is representing the former president in his New York civil fraud trial prosecuted by Ms James, made the inflammatory comments on stage at the four-day AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday.

“So I’m sure everybody has seen for the last 11 joyous weeks, I’ve been attacked and been attacking Miss Letitia James,” she said.

“The attorney general for the state of New York who is trying to kill the Trump family, their organisation and the presidency.”

Ms Habba did not provide any evidence to back up her wild claims. The Independent has reached out to AG James’s office for comment.

Ms Habba went on to say that the attorney general ran her election campaign on the promise that she would be “getting Trump”.

“She said ‘I’m going to turn every page on the Trump Organization. I’m going to go in there. I’m going to get Trump and I’m gonna go home’,” said Ms Habba.

“That’s what we’re dealing with.”

Everywhere RFK Jr goes on the campaign trail, he talks about his plan to make housing affordable for younger voters through low-cost loans backed by Uncle Sam.

Holden Culotta told The Independent those ideas are resonating with other young people.

“Growing up, I never really saw a path to owning a home and no one around me in my age group did,” Mr Culotta says. “I think that’s a huge part of it, seeing a really detailed plan that’s going to address that.”

The judge added that his testimony indicates that some people will say anything for “a million or so dollars”.

“Bartov is a tenured professor, but all that his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Judge Engoron wrote.

Mr Bartov was a final expert witness for the defence, whose testimony aimed to bolster arguments from Mr Trump’s team that the statements of financial condition did not evidence of fraud.

“My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud,” he testified.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC were considering obstruction charges linked to Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election months before Special Counsel Jack Smith took charge of the investigation.

It remains unclear if the prosecutors were considering bringing the charge against Mr Trump at the time or just against people close to the former president.

The 18-29-year-old demographic has historically been exercised to turn out by issues like foreign wars, climate change, threats to women’s reproductive rights, LGBT+ equality and police brutality.

But after 30-year high inflation and a federal minimum wage anchored at $7.25 per hour, many among Gen Z are feeling the pinch of financial hardship.

NYU student Olivia Archard, 20, told The Independent she senses a shift towards Gen Z prioritising their own personal finances out of grim necessity.

“There are people working extra jobs to put themselves through NYU,” she said. “People are having to hop the subway so they can save money to afford to eat. That is a reality for some students.”

Ms Archard grew up in New Hampshire in a Democratic-supporting family, and politics is a hot topic of conversation at NYU’s Global Liberal Studies where she is vice president.

She was surprised by RFK Jr’s high polling, and says his name had not come up during discussions about the election on campus.

“After looking into his policies more I can understand the appeal for many 18- to 29-years-olds. Policies that are targeting the economic institutions that are failing young people is a very smart move,” she said.

CNN’s Manu Raju asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday, “Are you comfortable with your party’s leading presidential candidate referring to legal immigrants as people who are poisoning the blood of our country?”

“That didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao Secretary of Transportation,” he said.

Mr McConnell has been married to Ms Chao since 1993.

But Mr McConnell chose not to address how Donald Trump previously spoke about Ms Chao.

Alex Woodward wrote in January that Mr Trump spent months unleashing “a string of thinly veiled racist comments about his former transportation secretary, the wife of his party’s Senate leader, to relative silence from other GOP officials … Mr Trump has repeatedly used a racist nickname or some variation of ‘China-loving wife’ on his Truth Social account to describe Ms Chao, a Republican and the first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet”.

“Well, after marrying his cousin, giving a press conference at a landscaping company, and almost masturbating in the Borat movie, Rudy Giuliani has finally slipped up,” Mr Meyers joked on his show on Monday night.

The former attorney for Donald Trump had falsely claimed that the two women wheeled in a suitcase to the election offices that was packed with fraudulent ballots to make sure President Joe Biden won the race.

As a result of his claims, the plaintiffs were subject to relentless abuse, threats and racist attacks.

Last week, a four-day trial saw them victorious as the judge ruled on the staggering settlement amount.