Trump defends ‘bloodbath’ comments in fiery Truth Social post: Latest

Here’s Trump claiming the media has willfully misinterpreted his comments over the weekend in order to discredit him.

Kurtz also offered Trump the chance to hit back again at Jimmy Kimmel after the late-night host read out a Truth Social attack on him during last week’s Oscars, asking: “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

Never one to brush off an insult with good humour, the Republican took the bait.

Here’s more from Amelia Neath.

The Media Buzz host gave the Republican presidential contender a chance to condemn the Russian president, just returned to power in a sham election, over the highly-suspicious death of heroic dissident Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison camp last month and, of course, he flubbed his answer, reluctant to call out a dictator he has repeatedly championed.

The luxury real estate mogul also gave an interview to Fox News journalist Howard Kurtz over the weekend in which he doubled-down on comparing migrants to “vermin” and on his call to “terminate” parts of the US Constitution and floated the prospect of supporting a 16-week national abortion ban in an overt appeal to the Christian right.

Kelly Rissman was watching.

There was also this hit on Moreno’s opponent over the Cleveland Guardians, an attempt it whip up some good old-fashioned culture war aggravation of the classic, political-correctness-gone-mad stripe.

Donald Trump is always in his least controllable state when unchained from his teleprompter — and Saturday afternoon’s rally in Ohio was a prime example.

The event at the home of the Dayton Air Show was billed as an event to boost Bernie Moreno, a local car dealership mogul and business owner, to victory in the state’s quickly-approaching Senate primary on Tuesday.

Moreno, running his second campaign for Congress, is backed by Trump’s endorsement for the first time and hopes that it will push him past his rivals in the Republican field.

What sparse polling exists suggests that the race is tight, with single digits likely separating the three main candidates.

Trump’s favourite has a small lead, but a persistent one.

Saturday’s rally was anything but focused on Bernie Moreno, however.

Among the “highlights” from another meandering address were his calling migrants “snakes”, anti-vax riffing and weird gaffes galore.

John Bowden was there and offers this eye-witness account.

Here’s our man saying the unsayable in Dayton, courtesy of IndyTV.

The Republican presidential challenger caused a stir when he declared during a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday evening that his failure to win re-election in November would result in a “bloodbath” for the country’s auto industry.

Although this alarming phrase was applied to an economic argument, Trump was quickly rebuked for his irresponsible language by the White House, with spokespeople for Joe Biden accusing him of “endorsing political violence” – particularly given that he bemoaned the fate of the “J6 hostages” at the same event – and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi saying of the candidate: “You wouldn’t even allow him in your house.”

Here’s Kelly Rissman with more on the backlash.

Ariana Baio has the details:

On Thursday, Mr Bragg asked a judge to push back the trial so prosecutors could review approximately 31,000 pages of records that were submitted by the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) on Wednesday.

Those records, which Mr Bragg said were requested more than a year ago, are related to a federal investigation into Michael Cohen – whose testimony Mr Bragg used to build the case in which he is accusing Mr Trump of falsifying business records.

Mr Bragg said that while most of the filings are unrelated to the case, he noted approximately 172 pages of witness statements could be relevant. He added that prosecutors are prepared to go to trial as expected on 25 March and find no merit for dismissal but “do not oppose a brief adjournment of up to 30 days”.

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Friday that public officials can sometimes be sued for blocking their critics on social media, an issue that first arose for the high court in a case involving then-President Donald Trump.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the court, said that officials who use personal accounts to make official statements may not be free to delete comments about those statements or block critics altogether.

On the other hand, Barrett wrote, “State officials have private lives and their own constitutional rights.”