The Wall Street Journal
Of Many Spin Experiments, Biden's Is the Worst"
Opinion by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
30 SEPTEMBER 2023
It was an interesting week in spin, and I don’t use the term lightly since spin and reality can become intertwined to create new realities.
Take Donald Trump.
He is famous for being unbounded in his spinning about his wealth.
It was Forbes magazine — not a New York Supreme Court judge last week trying to strip Mr. Trump of his property rights — that pointed out to Mr. Trump and its readers that what he consistently claimed was a 30,000-square-foot triplex apartment in Trump Tower was 11,000 square feet.
Mr. Trump, in the case brought by New York’s highly partisan attorney general Letitia James, testified that everybody knew the valuation method employed was worthless (his word).
He pointed to the standard disclaimer that such claims shouldn’t be relied upon.
He might have added: No counterparty with which he dealt — bank, insurance company, independent appraiser — could have been in any doubt that Donald Trump is Donald Trump, notorious purveyor of bombast and, early in his career, of banner-headline bankruptcies.
So informed, his counterparties didn’t fail to write contracts that were realistic, even conservative, as testified by Mr. Trump’s never defaulting on an obligation or missing a payment.
Even the judge admits as much: “Defendants correctly assert that ‘the record is devoid of any evidence of default, breach, late payment, or any complaint of harm.’”
Judge Arthur F. Engoron engages in some spin and labored breathing of his own, nevertheless finding in Mr. Trump’s hyperbolic real-estate puffery the crime of the century.
The judge calls for Mr. Trump to be relieved of personal control of his assets, including his namesake Fifth Avenue tower, for the sin of overpraising them.
Happily, not everyone in the press was buying.
As the New York Times’s laudable Peter Coy points out, such an outcome would seem to “bump up against the layperson’s standard of ‘no harm, no foul.’”
Elsewhere in the world of spin, the Hollywood writers’ strike ended this week after both sides admitted it was doing neither any good.
As a membership organization, one whose leaders must submit to election, the union naturally proclaimed itself a winner.
Trump-like, it even produced numbers, claiming the final outcome was worth $233 million a year versus the studio’s initial offer of $86 million.
Uh huh.
Actually proved was the uselessness of the strike weapon to grapple with the challenges facing Hollywood workers.
The writers will get a bump in their pay rate along with minimum staffing and job-duration guarantees for the biggest shows.
These increases won’t remotely compensate them for the slowdown in production due to the streaming bust, only exacerbated by their own strike.
Every writer thinks his next show will be a “Seinfeld.”
The union was strangely determined, in the streaming era, to shift more risk to its members by tying pay to a program’s success.
But streamers not only closely control the data revealing whether a show is popular.
Their algorithms will let them dial that popularity up or down based on whether they feel like making the desired “residual” payments.
As everybody from this column to Barry Diller pointed out, a work stoppage solves nothing.
Streaming, digitization, the rule of the algorithm and artificial intelligence will still have to be endured and adapted to.
Compounded by the still-unresolved actors’ strike, the writers’ walkout left all concerned only worse off.
No frantic campaign of spin has been more consequential, however, or less likely to convince, than the White House’s spin about why Joe Biden is running for re-election.
A deluge of disheartening polls has undercut the claim, once made openly and which the White House still quietly implies at the risk of ridicule: Mr. Biden is the only person who can beat Mr. Trump.
The obvious and irresistible rejoinder: Mr. Trump increasingly appears to be the only Republican Mr. Biden might be able to beat.
Even that’s rapidly becoming less of a sure thing.
Mr. Biden, among possible Democratic alternatives, seems the candidate most likely to hand the White House back to Mr. Trump.
In clinging to his desire to be a two-term president, Mr. Biden threatens to be the agent of a Trump restoration even as he desperately portrays himself as the antidote to Trumpism.
Spinning this reality under the rug will be a tall order for the White House, even with the help of a compliant and blinkered national media.
Convincing America that Mr. Biden is doing the country a favor by running will, I predict, become harder and nigh impossible in the 11 months between now and next year’s Democratic National Convention.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 68e1&ei=25
THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
CNBC
"‘The Donald Trump show is over,’ AG says after ex-president leaves New York fraud trial"
Kevin Breuninger @KEVINWILLIAMB
PUBLISHED WED, OCT 4 2023
KEY POINTS
* Former President Donald Trump flew out of New York after leaving his $250 million fraud trial in the middle of the third day of proceedings.
* New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and its top officials of falsely overvaluing real estate properties and other assets in financial statements in order to obtain better loan terms and tax perks.
* Judge Arthur Engoron issued a gag order against Trump and others after the former president attacked the judge’s principal law clerk.[/color]
New York Attorney General Letitia James declared that “the Donald Trump show is over” after the former president left his $250 million civil business fraud trial in the middle of proceedings Wednesday.
“I will not be bullied,” James said at Manhattan Supreme Court.
She accused Trump engaging in a “political stunt,” and a “fundraising stop” by attending the trial for two-and-a-half days.
James, who is Black, also condemned Trump for making “comments that unfortunately fomented violence, or comments that I would describe as race baiting.”
Trump earlier Wednesday called James a “political animal.”
He also claimed her lawsuit against him was designed to hurt his chances of winning the 2024 presidential election.
“Mr. Trump’s comments were offensive."
"They were baseless,” James told reporters after Trump had left the building.
“They were void of any facts and or any evidence.”
“This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals have engaged in a pattern and practice of fraud,” James said, “and I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law.”
“So Mr. Trump is no longer here,” James said.
“The Donald Trump show is over."
"This was nothing more than a political stunt.”
Trump, who is seeking the 2024 GOP nomination, flew out of New York after leaving court, where he griped he was “stuck here.”
“I’d rather be right now in Iowa, I’d rather be in New Hampshire or South Carolina or Ohio or a lot of other places, but I’m stuck here because I have a corrupt attorney general,” the Queens native said, before hopping into his motorcade.
Trump was not required to attend the trial, which began Monday.
But he told reporters he showed up for three days of it to show “how corrupt it is.”
“Our whole system is corrupt,” said Trump, who claimed the judge in the case is “run by the Democrats” and “already knows what he’s going to do.”
Trump’s son Eric remained in the courtroom until the trial adjourned Wednesday afternoon.
Both Eric and his brother Donald Trump Jr., who jointly run the Trump Organization, are co-defendants in the lawsuit.
On Tuesday, Trump was slapped with a limited gag order for criticizing the judge’s law clerk.
The trial resumed Wednesday morning with the continuation of cross-examination of Trump’s former accountant Donald Bender.
Trump’s attorneys grilled Bender about his involvement in preparing financial statements for the Trump Organization.
Bender previously testified that he compiled the statements using information provided by Trump and his company.
Those statements are at the heart of James’ lawsuit.
The suit accuses Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the Trump Organization and top executives of misstating the true values of real estate properties in order to obtain better loan and insurance terms, and tax advantages.
In addition to seeking $250 million in damages, James wants the court to permanently bar Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump from serving as officers of any New York business.
Bender, a former partner at Mazars USA, is the first witness called in the case, which is expected to last until late December.
Also Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers filed an appeal of a pre-trial ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron that found Trump and other defendants liable for fraud, the top claim in the lawsuit.
Engoron in that ruling yanked the business licenses of various Trump corporate entities and ordered their dissolution.
The trial is dealing with the six remaining claims in the suit: falsifying business records, conspiracy to falsify business records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to falsify false financial statements, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
Before the trial resumed Wednesday, Trump outside the courtroom again called the case a “witch hunt” and a “disgrace,” and claimed James sued solely for political purposes.
Trump also called James, who is Black, a “political animal.”
James is a Democrat.
Trump is currently the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
But Trump did not make any comment about Engoron’s law clerk, whom he had attacked Tuesday in statements to reporters and in a social media post.
The clerk sits with Engoron during the trial and sometimes speaks with lawyers during the proceedings.
Trump’s post on Truth Social about her included her full name and a photo from her Instagram account of her posing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Trump accused the clerk of being “Schumer’s girlfriend” and “running this case against me.”
An angry Engoron later Tuesday called the attack on his staffer unacceptable.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/04/trump-f ... order.html
"‘The Donald Trump show is over,’ AG says after ex-president leaves New York fraud trial"
Kevin Breuninger @KEVINWILLIAMB
PUBLISHED WED, OCT 4 2023
KEY POINTS
* Former President Donald Trump flew out of New York after leaving his $250 million fraud trial in the middle of the third day of proceedings.
* New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and its top officials of falsely overvaluing real estate properties and other assets in financial statements in order to obtain better loan terms and tax perks.
* Judge Arthur Engoron issued a gag order against Trump and others after the former president attacked the judge’s principal law clerk.[/color]
New York Attorney General Letitia James declared that “the Donald Trump show is over” after the former president left his $250 million civil business fraud trial in the middle of proceedings Wednesday.
“I will not be bullied,” James said at Manhattan Supreme Court.
She accused Trump engaging in a “political stunt,” and a “fundraising stop” by attending the trial for two-and-a-half days.
James, who is Black, also condemned Trump for making “comments that unfortunately fomented violence, or comments that I would describe as race baiting.”
Trump earlier Wednesday called James a “political animal.”
He also claimed her lawsuit against him was designed to hurt his chances of winning the 2024 presidential election.
“Mr. Trump’s comments were offensive."
"They were baseless,” James told reporters after Trump had left the building.
“They were void of any facts and or any evidence.”
“This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals have engaged in a pattern and practice of fraud,” James said, “and I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law.”
“So Mr. Trump is no longer here,” James said.
“The Donald Trump show is over."
"This was nothing more than a political stunt.”
Trump, who is seeking the 2024 GOP nomination, flew out of New York after leaving court, where he griped he was “stuck here.”
“I’d rather be right now in Iowa, I’d rather be in New Hampshire or South Carolina or Ohio or a lot of other places, but I’m stuck here because I have a corrupt attorney general,” the Queens native said, before hopping into his motorcade.
Trump was not required to attend the trial, which began Monday.
But he told reporters he showed up for three days of it to show “how corrupt it is.”
“Our whole system is corrupt,” said Trump, who claimed the judge in the case is “run by the Democrats” and “already knows what he’s going to do.”
Trump’s son Eric remained in the courtroom until the trial adjourned Wednesday afternoon.
Both Eric and his brother Donald Trump Jr., who jointly run the Trump Organization, are co-defendants in the lawsuit.
On Tuesday, Trump was slapped with a limited gag order for criticizing the judge’s law clerk.
The trial resumed Wednesday morning with the continuation of cross-examination of Trump’s former accountant Donald Bender.
Trump’s attorneys grilled Bender about his involvement in preparing financial statements for the Trump Organization.
Bender previously testified that he compiled the statements using information provided by Trump and his company.
Those statements are at the heart of James’ lawsuit.
The suit accuses Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the Trump Organization and top executives of misstating the true values of real estate properties in order to obtain better loan and insurance terms, and tax advantages.
In addition to seeking $250 million in damages, James wants the court to permanently bar Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump from serving as officers of any New York business.
Bender, a former partner at Mazars USA, is the first witness called in the case, which is expected to last until late December.
Also Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers filed an appeal of a pre-trial ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron that found Trump and other defendants liable for fraud, the top claim in the lawsuit.
Engoron in that ruling yanked the business licenses of various Trump corporate entities and ordered their dissolution.
The trial is dealing with the six remaining claims in the suit: falsifying business records, conspiracy to falsify business records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to falsify false financial statements, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
Before the trial resumed Wednesday, Trump outside the courtroom again called the case a “witch hunt” and a “disgrace,” and claimed James sued solely for political purposes.
Trump also called James, who is Black, a “political animal.”
James is a Democrat.
Trump is currently the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
But Trump did not make any comment about Engoron’s law clerk, whom he had attacked Tuesday in statements to reporters and in a social media post.
The clerk sits with Engoron during the trial and sometimes speaks with lawyers during the proceedings.
Trump’s post on Truth Social about her included her full name and a photo from her Instagram account of her posing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Trump accused the clerk of being “Schumer’s girlfriend” and “running this case against me.”
An angry Engoron later Tuesday called the attack on his staffer unacceptable.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/04/trump-f ... order.html
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
1945
"The House of Biden Seems Destined to Fall"
Story by Brandon Weichert
22 OCTOBER 2023
The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), has uncovered evidence that in 2018, Joe Biden received a $200,000 payment from his brother, Jim Biden and his sister-in-law, Sara.
Comer is now demanding that the president make an official statement explaining the nature of that payout from five years ago.
You’d be forgiven for not having heard this breaking news, because the Republicans, in their typical fashion, have formed a political circular firing squad and started an unnecessary and unsuccessful civil war over who should be the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Corruption at the Highest Levels
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Hunter Biden probe continues and, despite the best efforts of Republicans to implode and the best attempts by the “mainstream” media to not cover the ongoing investigation, evidence is being produced that paints a sordid picture of world-spanning corruption on the part of the Biden Family.
In fact, Rep. Comer has discovered that key Biden Family members, as well as their close business associates, received “significant” payments from companies based in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania.
The Democrats, meanwhile, insist that this behavior is totally above-board and they caterwaul about the supposed abuse of power that House Republicans are engaged in by continuing an investigation that the White House describes as a “self-debunking wild goose chase.”
Of course, the way that the Democrats rally around their preferred presidential candidate is incredible to see.
Because these same Democrats trying to pretend — and convince any low-information voter out there — that Joe Biden and his family business were completely legal are the same people trying to claim that Jared Kushner and the rest of the Trump Family were illegally profiting from Donald Trump’s time in office.
I’ve said it before: the chutzpah of the Democratic Party is apparently boundless.
And their ability to deceive and project has reached cartoonish levels.
Remember, the Democrats knew about the threat that Hunter Biden posed to Joe Biden’s political future.
They were so attenuated to this threat that they got 51 leaders of the US intelligence community to sign a patently false document claiming that the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop were nothing more than “Russian disinformation.”
With that letter in hand, the mainstream media did what it does best: protect the Democratic Party during the contentious 2020 Presidential Election cycle.
The media refused to cover the story, under the pretense that it was all one big Russian lie.
Social media firms went a step further and actively collaborated with bent intelligence community agencies to identify their users and to effectively cancel the social media profiles of those users who were deemed to be spreading “misinformation” related to Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Most voters polled following the 2020 election have indicated that they’d have not cast their votes in favor of Joe Biden, had they heard about the extent and nature of the contents on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Most Americans rely exclusively on blatantly corrupt, partisan media sources to inform them, that they never got the full story of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal until after Joe Biden was encamped at the White House.
An Incredibly Unfair System
The fact is that if Joe Biden had an “R” rather than a “D” next to his name, he’d have been impeached a long time ago for that which the House Oversight Committee has discovered about he and the rest of his allegedly corrupt family.
But since Biden is a Democrat, he is described as a loving family man who generously doled out $200,000 to his brother, Jim, to help out that brother’s unspecified business ventures.
Yet, even Jim Biden admitted that he was able to get a sweetheart loan from Americore (a financially distressed lender) by trading on the fact that he was an important member of a politically connected family.
That’s what the lawyers for Americore said in their official bankruptcy documents when they were asked to justify the $200,000 loan to Jim Biden (who then immediately turned that money over to his brother, Joe).
This whole Hunter Biden scandal stinks to high heavens.
But the Democrats are the farthest thing from honest actors.
They pursued the previous Republican president on any-and-all fabricated charges as a means to politically weaken a president who, if he’d not been driven mad by those made-up scandals, would have delivered incredible results for the American people.
Instead, because the Democrats couldn’t admit they truly lost the 2016 Presidential Election, they dogged the forty-fifth president over any — and every — exaggerated or falsified scandal they could have.
There are Real Concerns About Biden’s Potential Corruption
The Republicans have legitimate concerns and are exercising their legal authority in Congress to investigate those legitimate worries about corruption emanating from the Biden Family.
The Democrats are calling the GOP insane and trying to bury the truth about the Biden Family.
Republicans must stop fighting each other and get things back to functioning order in the House of Representatives so that they may continue investigating the Biden Family.
And to be clear, the reason the Biden Family must be investigated is to determine if the current president has at all been compromised by hostile foreign governments, such as China’s.
Not because the Republicans have a political axe to grind against the Bidens.
But because the Bidens may have, in fact, abused their positions of power for personal gain at the American peoples’ expense.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor and an energy analyst at the The-Pipeline, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert occasionally serves as a Subject Matter Expert for various organizations, including the Department of Defense. The opinions expressed in this piece are the author's own.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... f00e&ei=45
"The House of Biden Seems Destined to Fall"
Story by Brandon Weichert
22 OCTOBER 2023
The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), has uncovered evidence that in 2018, Joe Biden received a $200,000 payment from his brother, Jim Biden and his sister-in-law, Sara.
Comer is now demanding that the president make an official statement explaining the nature of that payout from five years ago.
You’d be forgiven for not having heard this breaking news, because the Republicans, in their typical fashion, have formed a political circular firing squad and started an unnecessary and unsuccessful civil war over who should be the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Corruption at the Highest Levels
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Hunter Biden probe continues and, despite the best efforts of Republicans to implode and the best attempts by the “mainstream” media to not cover the ongoing investigation, evidence is being produced that paints a sordid picture of world-spanning corruption on the part of the Biden Family.
In fact, Rep. Comer has discovered that key Biden Family members, as well as their close business associates, received “significant” payments from companies based in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania.
The Democrats, meanwhile, insist that this behavior is totally above-board and they caterwaul about the supposed abuse of power that House Republicans are engaged in by continuing an investigation that the White House describes as a “self-debunking wild goose chase.”
Of course, the way that the Democrats rally around their preferred presidential candidate is incredible to see.
Because these same Democrats trying to pretend — and convince any low-information voter out there — that Joe Biden and his family business were completely legal are the same people trying to claim that Jared Kushner and the rest of the Trump Family were illegally profiting from Donald Trump’s time in office.
I’ve said it before: the chutzpah of the Democratic Party is apparently boundless.
And their ability to deceive and project has reached cartoonish levels.
Remember, the Democrats knew about the threat that Hunter Biden posed to Joe Biden’s political future.
They were so attenuated to this threat that they got 51 leaders of the US intelligence community to sign a patently false document claiming that the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop were nothing more than “Russian disinformation.”
With that letter in hand, the mainstream media did what it does best: protect the Democratic Party during the contentious 2020 Presidential Election cycle.
The media refused to cover the story, under the pretense that it was all one big Russian lie.
Social media firms went a step further and actively collaborated with bent intelligence community agencies to identify their users and to effectively cancel the social media profiles of those users who were deemed to be spreading “misinformation” related to Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Most voters polled following the 2020 election have indicated that they’d have not cast their votes in favor of Joe Biden, had they heard about the extent and nature of the contents on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Most Americans rely exclusively on blatantly corrupt, partisan media sources to inform them, that they never got the full story of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal until after Joe Biden was encamped at the White House.
An Incredibly Unfair System
The fact is that if Joe Biden had an “R” rather than a “D” next to his name, he’d have been impeached a long time ago for that which the House Oversight Committee has discovered about he and the rest of his allegedly corrupt family.
But since Biden is a Democrat, he is described as a loving family man who generously doled out $200,000 to his brother, Jim, to help out that brother’s unspecified business ventures.
Yet, even Jim Biden admitted that he was able to get a sweetheart loan from Americore (a financially distressed lender) by trading on the fact that he was an important member of a politically connected family.
That’s what the lawyers for Americore said in their official bankruptcy documents when they were asked to justify the $200,000 loan to Jim Biden (who then immediately turned that money over to his brother, Joe).
This whole Hunter Biden scandal stinks to high heavens.
But the Democrats are the farthest thing from honest actors.
They pursued the previous Republican president on any-and-all fabricated charges as a means to politically weaken a president who, if he’d not been driven mad by those made-up scandals, would have delivered incredible results for the American people.
Instead, because the Democrats couldn’t admit they truly lost the 2016 Presidential Election, they dogged the forty-fifth president over any — and every — exaggerated or falsified scandal they could have.
There are Real Concerns About Biden’s Potential Corruption
The Republicans have legitimate concerns and are exercising their legal authority in Congress to investigate those legitimate worries about corruption emanating from the Biden Family.
The Democrats are calling the GOP insane and trying to bury the truth about the Biden Family.
Republicans must stop fighting each other and get things back to functioning order in the House of Representatives so that they may continue investigating the Biden Family.
And to be clear, the reason the Biden Family must be investigated is to determine if the current president has at all been compromised by hostile foreign governments, such as China’s.
Not because the Republicans have a political axe to grind against the Bidens.
But because the Bidens may have, in fact, abused their positions of power for personal gain at the American peoples’ expense.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor and an energy analyst at the The-Pipeline, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert occasionally serves as a Subject Matter Expert for various organizations, including the Department of Defense. The opinions expressed in this piece are the author's own.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... f00e&ei=45
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
1945
"One Word Explains All of Joe Biden’s Problems"
Story by John Rossomando
26 OCTOBER 2023
The Weakness of Joe Biden - In a normal world, a presidential candidate facing 91 criminal counts would trail far behind an incumbent president.
But the fact Joe Biden remains statistically tied with his predecessor proves this is not the old normal.
Donald Trump’s gambit of casting himself as the victim of his successor’s political vindictiveness seems to be paying off.
Biden’s approval rating remains stuck around 40%.
No president seeking re-election has won a second term since polling began in the 1940s with an approval rating under 50%.
“Dave Wasserman, from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, posted earlier this month on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he believed Biden would lose the election to an indicted Trump if the election was held today."
"He noted that Biden had a positive favorability rating while Trump’s was about 41 percent in 2020, but Trump still was only 42,000 votes away in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin from winning,” Jared Gans wrote in The Hill.
Biden Alienates Minority Voters
Blacks who are a major demographic in the Democratic Party and Arab-Americans who support the Palestinian cause are against Biden.
If they stay home next year it could hurt Biden’s campaign.
The same is true if Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign divides the Democratic Party electorate by taking blue-collar voters from the president.
GOP Voters United Behind Trump
Trump is stronger than ever.
Close to 60% of the Republican electorate stands behind him.
The former president is barred by Judge Tanya Chutkin’s order from claiming that the prosecution against him is a “witch hunt” or that his successor is out to get him.
As a result, Trump’s attorneys who are representing him in the Jan. 6, 2021 election interference case have put their claims into the latest legal filing seeking to have the charges against him dismissed:
“In April 2022, the New York Times reported that, ‘as recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments.’"
"The article also attributed the following to Biden: ‘he has said privately that he wanted to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action . . . .’"
"That same month, the FBI reportedly ‘open an investigation of the electors scheme . . . , about 15 months after’ the January 6, 2021 protests at the Capitol,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in their court filing on Monday.
“On November 9, 2022, Biden was much less private."
"At a press conference, Biden stated: ‘we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power—if we—if he does run.'"
"'I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.'"
"‘On November 15, 2022, President Trump announced that he would run for a second term as President.’”
The legal filing continued, “Three days later, Biden’s Justice Department appointed Jack Smith to oversee this case."
"In the press release appointing Mr. Smith, the Attorney General stated that the appointment was necessary because of ‘recent developments, including the former President’s announcement that he is a candidate for President in the next election, and the sitting President’s stated intention to be a candidate as well.’”
Trump’s ability to frame the charges against him as politically motivated accounts for his strength.
By casting himself as a political martyr Trump is able to remove the stigma that normally accompanies such charges.
Biden Trails Trump in Key States
“The former president led Biden by 2 points in a national Emerson College poll released Friday and by 4 points in a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll from Thursday of seven key swing states that will most likely decide the outcome of the 2024 race, including Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania,” Gans wrote.
“Another Emerson poll out of Pennsylvania, released earlier this month, found Trump with a 9 point lead over the president.”
Democrats remain doggedly determined to stick with Biden despite his weakness against Trump.
It could come back to haunt them next year when voters stay home due to disgust with both candidates.
A lower turnout election would benefit Trump.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... bc85&ei=12
"One Word Explains All of Joe Biden’s Problems"
Story by John Rossomando
26 OCTOBER 2023
The Weakness of Joe Biden - In a normal world, a presidential candidate facing 91 criminal counts would trail far behind an incumbent president.
But the fact Joe Biden remains statistically tied with his predecessor proves this is not the old normal.
Donald Trump’s gambit of casting himself as the victim of his successor’s political vindictiveness seems to be paying off.
Biden’s approval rating remains stuck around 40%.
No president seeking re-election has won a second term since polling began in the 1940s with an approval rating under 50%.
“Dave Wasserman, from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, posted earlier this month on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he believed Biden would lose the election to an indicted Trump if the election was held today."
"He noted that Biden had a positive favorability rating while Trump’s was about 41 percent in 2020, but Trump still was only 42,000 votes away in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin from winning,” Jared Gans wrote in The Hill.
Biden Alienates Minority Voters
Blacks who are a major demographic in the Democratic Party and Arab-Americans who support the Palestinian cause are against Biden.
If they stay home next year it could hurt Biden’s campaign.
The same is true if Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign divides the Democratic Party electorate by taking blue-collar voters from the president.
GOP Voters United Behind Trump
Trump is stronger than ever.
Close to 60% of the Republican electorate stands behind him.
The former president is barred by Judge Tanya Chutkin’s order from claiming that the prosecution against him is a “witch hunt” or that his successor is out to get him.
As a result, Trump’s attorneys who are representing him in the Jan. 6, 2021 election interference case have put their claims into the latest legal filing seeking to have the charges against him dismissed:
“In April 2022, the New York Times reported that, ‘as recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments.’"
"The article also attributed the following to Biden: ‘he has said privately that he wanted to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action . . . .’"
"That same month, the FBI reportedly ‘open an investigation of the electors scheme . . . , about 15 months after’ the January 6, 2021 protests at the Capitol,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in their court filing on Monday.
“On November 9, 2022, Biden was much less private."
"At a press conference, Biden stated: ‘we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power—if we—if he does run.'"
"'I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.'"
"‘On November 15, 2022, President Trump announced that he would run for a second term as President.’”
The legal filing continued, “Three days later, Biden’s Justice Department appointed Jack Smith to oversee this case."
"In the press release appointing Mr. Smith, the Attorney General stated that the appointment was necessary because of ‘recent developments, including the former President’s announcement that he is a candidate for President in the next election, and the sitting President’s stated intention to be a candidate as well.’”
Trump’s ability to frame the charges against him as politically motivated accounts for his strength.
By casting himself as a political martyr Trump is able to remove the stigma that normally accompanies such charges.
Biden Trails Trump in Key States
“The former president led Biden by 2 points in a national Emerson College poll released Friday and by 4 points in a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll from Thursday of seven key swing states that will most likely decide the outcome of the 2024 race, including Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania,” Gans wrote.
“Another Emerson poll out of Pennsylvania, released earlier this month, found Trump with a 9 point lead over the president.”
Democrats remain doggedly determined to stick with Biden despite his weakness against Trump.
It could come back to haunt them next year when voters stay home due to disgust with both candidates.
A lower turnout election would benefit Trump.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... bc85&ei=12
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
Newsweek
"Jack Smith Finds Himself on Shaky Ground in Donald Trump Trial"
Story by Ewan Palmer
3 NOVEMBER 2023
Special Counsel Jack Smith's attempt to prosecute Donald Trump may be hindered by Supreme Court challenges to a charge cited against hundreds of people prosecuted over the January 6 attack.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has narrowly ruled in favor of the Department of Justice in two cases involving charges of obstruction of an official proceeding brought against suspects arrested over the Capitol riots in January 2021.
The first appeal involving former North Cornwall police officer Joseph Fischer was rejected in April.
A separate appeal from former Rocky Mount Police Sergeant Thomas Robertson, who was sentenced to seven years in jail for five felonies — including obstruction of an official proceeding — in connection to the January 6 attack was thrown out on October 20.
The defendants argued that the obstruction count, formally known in the penal code as 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2), should not be used against them over the January 6 attack.
Prosecutors argued that the attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election result in Congress at the Capitol justifies the charge to "corruptly" obstruct, impede or interfere with an official government proceeding.
However, in both decisions, there was a 2-1 split between the three-judge panel in the Circuit Court of Appeals as to whether the charge, introduced in 2002 in the wake of the accounting scandal involving energy company Enron to prevent the destruction of evidence or witness intimidation, should be cited in January 6 cases.
In an article for Lawfare, the site's senior editor Roger Parloff said that even though the appeals courts ruled in favor of the DOJ, the decisions were "exquisitely unstable" and may still end up in the Supreme Court, especially the Fischer case.
If the charge does end up being quashed by the conservative-majority Supreme Court, it could have a knock on effect for Smith's federal case against Trump.
Two of the four charges which the former president has pleaded not guilty to in the federal January 6 case are conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
Trump's legal team has recently attempted to have the case dismissed over the obstruction charges, suggesting the allegations cited again the former president "stretches the statutory language beyond any plausible mooring" to its original definition.
While noting the three appellants in the Fischer case are now seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of the Appeals Court ruling, Parloff wrote: "The judges who wrote it can't agree about its holdings, and its holdings determine the viability of a 20-year felony that an ex-president and major presidential candidate now stands charged with violating."
"Moreover, at the appeals court level, judges' acceptance of the Justice Department's interpretations of that law have been 100 percent correlated with the political party of the judge's appointer."
"If that trend continues, and if either case climbs one more rung up the appellate ladder, the department faces bleak prospects indeed."
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said that the charge of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding has not been "extensively litigated" since it was brought in more than 20 years ago, with any decision on its appropriateness in the January 6 cases potentially affecting Smith's case against Trump.
"The Capitol rioters argued that Congress certifying the electoral votes was not an 'official proceeding' and courts have universally rejected that argument," Rahmani told Newsweek.
"This bigger question is, what satisfies the 'corruptly' requirement?"
"Is it any criminal conduct, such as trespassing in the Capitol building or submitting fake electors?"
"Or does the corrupt conduct have to relate to the other subsections of 1512, which prohibit destroying or concealing evidence?
"If the corruption requires consciousness of guilt, then Trump can argue that he genuinely believed the election was stolen," Rahmani said.
"Either way, this issue will likely end up before the United States Supreme Court because it is a novel issue that affects hundreds of criminal defendants, including the former president."
In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Parloff said that the Supreme Court "doesn't typically take interlocutory criminal appeals, which is what these are," so the rulings involving Fischer and Robertson may still stand.
Parloff said that the DOJ has filed a "very strong brief" opposing any SCOTUS intervention in connection to the appeal decisions over the obstruction charges.
Replying to the post, former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann suggested that Smith and the DOJ must hope that any SCOTUS ruling regarding the obstruction charges arrives before Trump's March 2024 federal trial into his alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
"If you are Jack Smith, wouldn't you prefer this to be decided BEFORE your Trump obstruction trial, not after?"
"But that is assuming if it would be decided quickly, which is a big 'if'," Weissman wrote.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ja ... c9c6&ei=32
"Jack Smith Finds Himself on Shaky Ground in Donald Trump Trial"
Story by Ewan Palmer
3 NOVEMBER 2023
Special Counsel Jack Smith's attempt to prosecute Donald Trump may be hindered by Supreme Court challenges to a charge cited against hundreds of people prosecuted over the January 6 attack.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has narrowly ruled in favor of the Department of Justice in two cases involving charges of obstruction of an official proceeding brought against suspects arrested over the Capitol riots in January 2021.
The first appeal involving former North Cornwall police officer Joseph Fischer was rejected in April.
A separate appeal from former Rocky Mount Police Sergeant Thomas Robertson, who was sentenced to seven years in jail for five felonies — including obstruction of an official proceeding — in connection to the January 6 attack was thrown out on October 20.
The defendants argued that the obstruction count, formally known in the penal code as 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2), should not be used against them over the January 6 attack.
Prosecutors argued that the attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election result in Congress at the Capitol justifies the charge to "corruptly" obstruct, impede or interfere with an official government proceeding.
However, in both decisions, there was a 2-1 split between the three-judge panel in the Circuit Court of Appeals as to whether the charge, introduced in 2002 in the wake of the accounting scandal involving energy company Enron to prevent the destruction of evidence or witness intimidation, should be cited in January 6 cases.
In an article for Lawfare, the site's senior editor Roger Parloff said that even though the appeals courts ruled in favor of the DOJ, the decisions were "exquisitely unstable" and may still end up in the Supreme Court, especially the Fischer case.
If the charge does end up being quashed by the conservative-majority Supreme Court, it could have a knock on effect for Smith's federal case against Trump.
Two of the four charges which the former president has pleaded not guilty to in the federal January 6 case are conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
Trump's legal team has recently attempted to have the case dismissed over the obstruction charges, suggesting the allegations cited again the former president "stretches the statutory language beyond any plausible mooring" to its original definition.
While noting the three appellants in the Fischer case are now seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of the Appeals Court ruling, Parloff wrote: "The judges who wrote it can't agree about its holdings, and its holdings determine the viability of a 20-year felony that an ex-president and major presidential candidate now stands charged with violating."
"Moreover, at the appeals court level, judges' acceptance of the Justice Department's interpretations of that law have been 100 percent correlated with the political party of the judge's appointer."
"If that trend continues, and if either case climbs one more rung up the appellate ladder, the department faces bleak prospects indeed."
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said that the charge of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding has not been "extensively litigated" since it was brought in more than 20 years ago, with any decision on its appropriateness in the January 6 cases potentially affecting Smith's case against Trump.
"The Capitol rioters argued that Congress certifying the electoral votes was not an 'official proceeding' and courts have universally rejected that argument," Rahmani told Newsweek.
"This bigger question is, what satisfies the 'corruptly' requirement?"
"Is it any criminal conduct, such as trespassing in the Capitol building or submitting fake electors?"
"Or does the corrupt conduct have to relate to the other subsections of 1512, which prohibit destroying or concealing evidence?
"If the corruption requires consciousness of guilt, then Trump can argue that he genuinely believed the election was stolen," Rahmani said.
"Either way, this issue will likely end up before the United States Supreme Court because it is a novel issue that affects hundreds of criminal defendants, including the former president."
In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Parloff said that the Supreme Court "doesn't typically take interlocutory criminal appeals, which is what these are," so the rulings involving Fischer and Robertson may still stand.
Parloff said that the DOJ has filed a "very strong brief" opposing any SCOTUS intervention in connection to the appeal decisions over the obstruction charges.
Replying to the post, former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann suggested that Smith and the DOJ must hope that any SCOTUS ruling regarding the obstruction charges arrives before Trump's March 2024 federal trial into his alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
"If you are Jack Smith, wouldn't you prefer this to be decided BEFORE your Trump obstruction trial, not after?"
"But that is assuming if it would be decided quickly, which is a big 'if'," Weissman wrote.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ja ... c9c6&ei=32
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
Forbes
"Biden Says He Doesn’t Believe Polls Showing Him Trailing Trump — After Daunting New York Times Survey"
Story by Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff
10 NOVEMBER 2023
President Joe Biden dismissed a bleak New York Times/Siena College poll released this week that showed him trailing former President Donald Trump in five of six battleground states in a hypothetical matchup next year, insisting to reporters that 80% of recent polls actually show him beating or tied with Trump — a suggestion evidence doesn’t seem to back up.
Key Facts
Biden told Fox News reporter Peter Doocy on Thursday “you don’t read the polls” when asked why he thought the results released Sunday show him losing to Trump in five of six battleground states.
The president instead accused the media of zoning in on two negative polls, citing the New York Times and a subsequent CNN survey released Tuesday that also showed him trailing Trump by four points, claiming that in eight of 10 recent polls, he was beating Trump in the swing states.
It’s unclear which polls Biden is referring to — RealClearPolitics’ tracker of 10 recent, reputable national polls, including the CNN survey and others by YouGov, CBS, Quinnipiac University, Emerson College and more, show the numbers are in direct contrast with Biden’s assessment: he’s either losing or tied with Trump in eight of the 10.
When another reporter asked Biden if he believes he’s trailing in battleground states, he said “no I don’t.”
Tangent
Biden’s response to the New York Times poll was consistent with that of his campaign’s.
In a memo to news outlets on Tuesday, Biden-Harris communications director Michael Tyler downplayed the results, referencing a Gallup poll a year out from the 2012 presidential election that showed former President Barack Obama down eight points, even though he went on to win reelection.
“There have been eight polls in the past three weeks showing President Biden leading or tied with Donald Trump,” Tyler said.
Big Number
1. That’s the number of points Trump leads Biden by, according to the latest RealClearPolitics general election polling average.
Key Background
The New York Times/Siena poll, taken between October 22 and November 3 of voters in six swing states, found Trump would win more than 300 electoral college votes, surpassing the 270 he would need to claim victory in next year’s election.
Biden would win just one of the states, Wisconsin.
The survey found negative feelings about the economy and Biden’s age (80) were the driving factors behind his polling deficit and persisted among nearly all demographics.
Voters seem to be dismayed by Biden himself, rather than Democratic policies and priorities, as the survey found another generic Democrat running against Trump would win five of the six states (Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin).
Contra
Democratic wins in Tuesday’s election gave some solace to Democrats on the heels of the New York Times poll.
Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear won reelection in the deep-red state over Trump-backed Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and the party took full control of Virginia’s state legislature.
Ohio voters also approved an amendment to the state constitution that protects the right to abortion, indicating Roe v. Wade’s reversal is still a powerful messaging strategy for Democrats that can drive voter turnout.
But the results come with some caveats: off-year elections tend to be swayed by high turnout among highly engaged Democratic voters, while Trump’s base is more likely to participate when he’s on the ballot.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 36c2&ei=12
"Biden Says He Doesn’t Believe Polls Showing Him Trailing Trump — After Daunting New York Times Survey"
Story by Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff
10 NOVEMBER 2023
President Joe Biden dismissed a bleak New York Times/Siena College poll released this week that showed him trailing former President Donald Trump in five of six battleground states in a hypothetical matchup next year, insisting to reporters that 80% of recent polls actually show him beating or tied with Trump — a suggestion evidence doesn’t seem to back up.
Key Facts
Biden told Fox News reporter Peter Doocy on Thursday “you don’t read the polls” when asked why he thought the results released Sunday show him losing to Trump in five of six battleground states.
The president instead accused the media of zoning in on two negative polls, citing the New York Times and a subsequent CNN survey released Tuesday that also showed him trailing Trump by four points, claiming that in eight of 10 recent polls, he was beating Trump in the swing states.
It’s unclear which polls Biden is referring to — RealClearPolitics’ tracker of 10 recent, reputable national polls, including the CNN survey and others by YouGov, CBS, Quinnipiac University, Emerson College and more, show the numbers are in direct contrast with Biden’s assessment: he’s either losing or tied with Trump in eight of the 10.
When another reporter asked Biden if he believes he’s trailing in battleground states, he said “no I don’t.”
Tangent
Biden’s response to the New York Times poll was consistent with that of his campaign’s.
In a memo to news outlets on Tuesday, Biden-Harris communications director Michael Tyler downplayed the results, referencing a Gallup poll a year out from the 2012 presidential election that showed former President Barack Obama down eight points, even though he went on to win reelection.
“There have been eight polls in the past three weeks showing President Biden leading or tied with Donald Trump,” Tyler said.
Big Number
1. That’s the number of points Trump leads Biden by, according to the latest RealClearPolitics general election polling average.
Key Background
The New York Times/Siena poll, taken between October 22 and November 3 of voters in six swing states, found Trump would win more than 300 electoral college votes, surpassing the 270 he would need to claim victory in next year’s election.
Biden would win just one of the states, Wisconsin.
The survey found negative feelings about the economy and Biden’s age (80) were the driving factors behind his polling deficit and persisted among nearly all demographics.
Voters seem to be dismayed by Biden himself, rather than Democratic policies and priorities, as the survey found another generic Democrat running against Trump would win five of the six states (Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin).
Contra
Democratic wins in Tuesday’s election gave some solace to Democrats on the heels of the New York Times poll.
Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear won reelection in the deep-red state over Trump-backed Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and the party took full control of Virginia’s state legislature.
Ohio voters also approved an amendment to the state constitution that protects the right to abortion, indicating Roe v. Wade’s reversal is still a powerful messaging strategy for Democrats that can drive voter turnout.
But the results come with some caveats: off-year elections tend to be swayed by high turnout among highly engaged Democratic voters, while Trump’s base is more likely to participate when he’s on the ballot.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 36c2&ei=12
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
REUTERS
"Biden steps up Trump attacks as economic message falls flat"
By Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt
November 22, 2023
WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is more aggressively going after his likely 2024 election rival Donald Trump as polls show efforts to campaign on his own economic record are not working.
Ramping up the rhetoric, Biden has in recent weeks said Trump uses "language you heard in Nazi Germany," is singularly responsible for American women losing abortion rights and should not be allowed to become president again because he is "determined to destroy American democracy."
Now Biden's re-election campaign has started a new messaging push dubbed "Trump's America in 2025," highlighting what it says the Republican former president will do in office if elected, as well as his multiple legal troubles.
A Biden campaign spokesman said the plan is to have the campaign regularly attack specific policies proposed by Trump, the clear frontrunner in the Republican Party's primary race to pick its presidential candidate.
"There has been a lot of external pressure to start zeroing in on Trump and sharpen the hits against him," an official with direct knowledge of the plan said, adding pressure intensified after a New York Times/Siena poll this month showed Biden trailing Trump in key battleground states.
Biden is starting to add arguments around Trump and the economy to his speeches on the road.
The strategy is being honed at fundraisers and political events, and will ramp up further if and when Trump clinches the Republican nomination, a Biden aide said.
Trump leads top Republican challenger Ron DeSantis by nearly 50 points, polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight show.
Some aides and Democratic strategists have long urged Biden to be more aggressive, but say he had resisted that approach.
Instead, he tried to focus mostly on his own record in the White House and steered clear of naming the Republican former president, listing his multiple felony counts, or painting a dark picture of America's future if Trump is elected in 2024.
That good-news approach is not working, some officials inside and outside the Biden campaign say.
A series of polls have shown Trump leading Biden and that voters have a grim view of the economy, even as the U.S. grows faster than many other major economies this year.
The shift on messaging also comes as a growing number of Democrats, particularly young voters and Muslim-Americans, are angry at Biden's backing of Israel's attacks on Gaza that have killed 12,000 and threaten to abandon him in 2024 unless he backs a ceasefire.
NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNS
Both Biden and Trump have high unfavorable ratings, meaning that both sides are likely to run negative campaigns focused on their rival's weaknesses.
On the campaign trail, Trump has played up plans to "root out" his political enemies, deport millions of migrants, make it easier to fire civil servants, reshape global trade with pricey tariffs and roll back Biden's electric vehicles mandates if he is elected next year.
"Trump winning the nomination is a formality at this point and the hope is that once people are reminded of what Trump's policies and rhetoric are actually like, the polls will start to look a bit better," the official with knowledge of the campaign's plans said.
"Once the race is between Trump and Biden, the contrast will become clearer," said Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.
Biden's campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez says the president's policies remain popular and learning more about his record is effective in persuading key voters.
Trump's campaign team says Biden's efforts to attack the former president will not work.
"This is the latest, sad, desperate attempt to revive Joe Biden's failing presidency, but it's not going to work," said Trump senior campaign adviser Jason Miller, when asked about the strategy.
"The reality is that it's Joe Biden against democracy."
"Joe Biden has weaponized our justice system in an unconstitutional manner."
'TERRIBLE' CHOICE OF WORDS
As president, Biden had mostly eschewed direct attacks on Trump and said he wants to heal a deep political divide that separates rural and urban areas.
He has used legislation to pump investments into rural America, partly in an attempt to claw back voters in regions where Democrats have hemorrhaged support in recent years.
Aides say the 81-year-old president is confident he can beat Trump in 2024, just as he did in 2020.
In addition to campaigning on access to protecting abortion, voting rights, and a ban on assault rifles, Biden will ask voters to let him "finish the job" by giving him a second term, and is trying to focus attention on high employment rates and massive infrastructure spending.
Some Democrats and Biden donors have pleaded with the White House to take the emphasis away from Biden's economic record, dubbed "Bidenomics," especially given rising discontent over a surge in food and housing costs over the past year.
"Bidenomics is a terrible choice of words," John Morgan, a Florida attorney and top fundraiser for Biden, also known as a bundler, told Reuters.
When 40% of Americans have $400 or less in the bank, "you don't lean into the economy because they don't feel it," Morgan said.
The latest Reuters/Ispsos poll showed Biden and Trump locked in a tight race, with Trump leading Biden 51% to 49% when respondents were asked to pick between the two.
The poll also showed that voters who are inclined to support Biden in 2024 say they are more motivated by stopping Donald Trump from returning to the Oval Office than they are by supporting the incumbent.
"I don't fault the (Biden) campaign at all, for not wanting to get into the mud, the blood and the beer."
"Because you want to seem presidential," Morgan said, referring to the time it has taken the Biden campaign to step up its attacks on Trump.
"You want to stay out of that as long as possible, but these are different times."
"I think after we get past Christmas, it's game on."
"Let's roll," he said.
Reporting by Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt, Editing by Heather Timmons, Kieran Murray and Deepa Babington
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden- ... 023-11-22/
"Biden steps up Trump attacks as economic message falls flat"
By Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt
November 22, 2023
WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is more aggressively going after his likely 2024 election rival Donald Trump as polls show efforts to campaign on his own economic record are not working.
Ramping up the rhetoric, Biden has in recent weeks said Trump uses "language you heard in Nazi Germany," is singularly responsible for American women losing abortion rights and should not be allowed to become president again because he is "determined to destroy American democracy."
Now Biden's re-election campaign has started a new messaging push dubbed "Trump's America in 2025," highlighting what it says the Republican former president will do in office if elected, as well as his multiple legal troubles.
A Biden campaign spokesman said the plan is to have the campaign regularly attack specific policies proposed by Trump, the clear frontrunner in the Republican Party's primary race to pick its presidential candidate.
"There has been a lot of external pressure to start zeroing in on Trump and sharpen the hits against him," an official with direct knowledge of the plan said, adding pressure intensified after a New York Times/Siena poll this month showed Biden trailing Trump in key battleground states.
Biden is starting to add arguments around Trump and the economy to his speeches on the road.
The strategy is being honed at fundraisers and political events, and will ramp up further if and when Trump clinches the Republican nomination, a Biden aide said.
Trump leads top Republican challenger Ron DeSantis by nearly 50 points, polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight show.
Some aides and Democratic strategists have long urged Biden to be more aggressive, but say he had resisted that approach.
Instead, he tried to focus mostly on his own record in the White House and steered clear of naming the Republican former president, listing his multiple felony counts, or painting a dark picture of America's future if Trump is elected in 2024.
That good-news approach is not working, some officials inside and outside the Biden campaign say.
A series of polls have shown Trump leading Biden and that voters have a grim view of the economy, even as the U.S. grows faster than many other major economies this year.
The shift on messaging also comes as a growing number of Democrats, particularly young voters and Muslim-Americans, are angry at Biden's backing of Israel's attacks on Gaza that have killed 12,000 and threaten to abandon him in 2024 unless he backs a ceasefire.
NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNS
Both Biden and Trump have high unfavorable ratings, meaning that both sides are likely to run negative campaigns focused on their rival's weaknesses.
On the campaign trail, Trump has played up plans to "root out" his political enemies, deport millions of migrants, make it easier to fire civil servants, reshape global trade with pricey tariffs and roll back Biden's electric vehicles mandates if he is elected next year.
"Trump winning the nomination is a formality at this point and the hope is that once people are reminded of what Trump's policies and rhetoric are actually like, the polls will start to look a bit better," the official with knowledge of the campaign's plans said.
"Once the race is between Trump and Biden, the contrast will become clearer," said Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.
Biden's campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez says the president's policies remain popular and learning more about his record is effective in persuading key voters.
Trump's campaign team says Biden's efforts to attack the former president will not work.
"This is the latest, sad, desperate attempt to revive Joe Biden's failing presidency, but it's not going to work," said Trump senior campaign adviser Jason Miller, when asked about the strategy.
"The reality is that it's Joe Biden against democracy."
"Joe Biden has weaponized our justice system in an unconstitutional manner."
'TERRIBLE' CHOICE OF WORDS
As president, Biden had mostly eschewed direct attacks on Trump and said he wants to heal a deep political divide that separates rural and urban areas.
He has used legislation to pump investments into rural America, partly in an attempt to claw back voters in regions where Democrats have hemorrhaged support in recent years.
Aides say the 81-year-old president is confident he can beat Trump in 2024, just as he did in 2020.
In addition to campaigning on access to protecting abortion, voting rights, and a ban on assault rifles, Biden will ask voters to let him "finish the job" by giving him a second term, and is trying to focus attention on high employment rates and massive infrastructure spending.
Some Democrats and Biden donors have pleaded with the White House to take the emphasis away from Biden's economic record, dubbed "Bidenomics," especially given rising discontent over a surge in food and housing costs over the past year.
"Bidenomics is a terrible choice of words," John Morgan, a Florida attorney and top fundraiser for Biden, also known as a bundler, told Reuters.
When 40% of Americans have $400 or less in the bank, "you don't lean into the economy because they don't feel it," Morgan said.
The latest Reuters/Ispsos poll showed Biden and Trump locked in a tight race, with Trump leading Biden 51% to 49% when respondents were asked to pick between the two.
The poll also showed that voters who are inclined to support Biden in 2024 say they are more motivated by stopping Donald Trump from returning to the Oval Office than they are by supporting the incumbent.
"I don't fault the (Biden) campaign at all, for not wanting to get into the mud, the blood and the beer."
"Because you want to seem presidential," Morgan said, referring to the time it has taken the Biden campaign to step up its attacks on Trump.
"You want to stay out of that as long as possible, but these are different times."
"I think after we get past Christmas, it's game on."
"Let's roll," he said.
Reporting by Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt, Editing by Heather Timmons, Kieran Murray and Deepa Babington
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden- ... 023-11-22/
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
State Of The Union
"Biden’s Job Approval Is Lowest Ever Measured In NBC Poll"
Story by Jordan Andrews
24 NOVEMBER 2023
The latest NBC News poll shows President Joe Biden’s lowest approval rating ever at 40%, with an astounding 57% disapproving.
The handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict has deeply impacted Biden’s foreign policy approval, with a significant drop from September.
The poll also indicates that Donald Trump leads Biden in a hypothetical 2024 rematch.
Trump’s likability has improved, and he now surprisingly leads Biden among the youngest voters.
“As the war between Israel and Hamas rages, it is having a transformative impact on our politics."
"We have a brand new NBC News poll out this morning, which shows the toll it is taking on the president,” said NBC’s Kristen Welker.
“I think you’re right to set it up that way,” Steve Kornacki responded.
“What’s happening in the Middle East really does seem to be connecting with what’s happening domestically in our politics."
"Let’s start with the bottom line here."
"President Biden, what is his job approval rating?"
"We measure it now at 40%, with 57% disapproving.”
“The significance is that is the lowest President Biden has ever measured in our poll in terms of job approval."
"Just look at the sea change from the start of this year.”
“Recall, remember, Democrats coming off strong from the 2020 midterms, he was almost even."
"Now he’s 17 points underwater.”
“If you look by party, it’s significant for two reasons."
"One, independents, obviously, more than two to one disapprove."
"You don’t want to be there as an incumbent president.”
“But equally significant, no surprise, 7% of Republicans approve of Joe Biden’s job performance, but three times as many Democrats, 21%, more than one in five, say they disapprove.”
‘You need much more unified support in your own party than if you’ll have a successful re-election campaign."
"We mentioned the drop in that approval rating and the connection of the Middle East.”
“Here it is: on foreign policy, 33% approve of Joe Biden’s job performance."
"Just in September, we asked the same question, and it was 41-53.”
Welker jumped in, saying, “These numbers surprised our own pollsters with one saying he cannot remember a time when a foreign entanglement that didn’t involve U.S. troops had the power to transform the electorate, and that’s not the case in this poll.”
Additionally, when pitted against an unnamed Republican, Biden falls behind, while Trump’s lead diminishes when compared to an unnamed Democrat.
These shifts suggest a significant change in voter sentiment.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d48ef&ei=8
"Biden’s Job Approval Is Lowest Ever Measured In NBC Poll"
Story by Jordan Andrews
24 NOVEMBER 2023
The latest NBC News poll shows President Joe Biden’s lowest approval rating ever at 40%, with an astounding 57% disapproving.
The handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict has deeply impacted Biden’s foreign policy approval, with a significant drop from September.
The poll also indicates that Donald Trump leads Biden in a hypothetical 2024 rematch.
Trump’s likability has improved, and he now surprisingly leads Biden among the youngest voters.
“As the war between Israel and Hamas rages, it is having a transformative impact on our politics."
"We have a brand new NBC News poll out this morning, which shows the toll it is taking on the president,” said NBC’s Kristen Welker.
“I think you’re right to set it up that way,” Steve Kornacki responded.
“What’s happening in the Middle East really does seem to be connecting with what’s happening domestically in our politics."
"Let’s start with the bottom line here."
"President Biden, what is his job approval rating?"
"We measure it now at 40%, with 57% disapproving.”
“The significance is that is the lowest President Biden has ever measured in our poll in terms of job approval."
"Just look at the sea change from the start of this year.”
“Recall, remember, Democrats coming off strong from the 2020 midterms, he was almost even."
"Now he’s 17 points underwater.”
“If you look by party, it’s significant for two reasons."
"One, independents, obviously, more than two to one disapprove."
"You don’t want to be there as an incumbent president.”
“But equally significant, no surprise, 7% of Republicans approve of Joe Biden’s job performance, but three times as many Democrats, 21%, more than one in five, say they disapprove.”
‘You need much more unified support in your own party than if you’ll have a successful re-election campaign."
"We mentioned the drop in that approval rating and the connection of the Middle East.”
“Here it is: on foreign policy, 33% approve of Joe Biden’s job performance."
"Just in September, we asked the same question, and it was 41-53.”
Welker jumped in, saying, “These numbers surprised our own pollsters with one saying he cannot remember a time when a foreign entanglement that didn’t involve U.S. troops had the power to transform the electorate, and that’s not the case in this poll.”
Additionally, when pitted against an unnamed Republican, Biden falls behind, while Trump’s lead diminishes when compared to an unnamed Democrat.
These shifts suggest a significant change in voter sentiment.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d48ef&ei=8
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
Newsweek
"Joe Biden Airs Thanksgiving Ad To Try To Boost Floundering Campaign"
Story by Giulia Carbonaro
24 NOVEMBER 2023
Joe Biden's 2024 campaign will air a television ad during the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day football game on Thursday as the president tries to boost support in his bid for re-election, which appears to be dwindling.
Recent polls by The New York Times and Siena College have shown that Biden is losing ground to Donald Trump in five critical states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
That means that the embattled former president — currently the frontrunner in the Republican primary by a huge margin — is ahead in five out of six key battleground states, where voters said they trusted Trump over Biden on tackling issues surrounding the U.S. economy, immigration and foreign policy.
Biden was leading only in Washington, where he had an advantage of two percentage points.
The president and Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Wednesday that the one-minute commercial will air during the Lions-Green Bay Packers game on Thursday, in one of those swing states where Biden is trailing Trump, Michigan.
According to the New York Times/Siena poll, Trump would win the state by five percentage points.
The poll was conducted between October 22 and November 3.
In Nevada, Trump was ahead by 10 percentage points, in Georgia by six, in Arizona by five and in Pennsylvania by four.
Newsweek contacted the White House and Trump's 2024 campaign for comment by email on Thursday.
The ad, titled "Never Left," focuses on Biden's Scranton roots and underlines the Democratic president's understanding of the struggles of middle class Americans, as reported by The Detroit News.
"He grew up a middle-class kid in a middle-class town," the ad says, adding that the middle-class town "has never left him."
It adds: "He knows what life is like for working people and knows middle class life is too expensive right now."
The ad continues saying that the Biden administration is working to make the cost of healthcare more affordable for middle class Americans, including by capping the cost of insulin for seniors at $35 a month and giving Medicare officials the possibility of negotiating with drug companies for lower prices.
"For Joe Biden it's about restoring the sense of security working people deserve — that simple promise, that peace of mind."
"He's determined to get it back, because of where he's from and who he is," the narrator says in the ad that will show at the Thursday game.
The same ad, which was first rolled out in October, was expected to show in Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton, as reported by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
The commercial is part of a $25 million media campaign that the president announced in August and will focus on swing states.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 48ef&ei=30
"Joe Biden Airs Thanksgiving Ad To Try To Boost Floundering Campaign"
Story by Giulia Carbonaro
24 NOVEMBER 2023
Joe Biden's 2024 campaign will air a television ad during the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day football game on Thursday as the president tries to boost support in his bid for re-election, which appears to be dwindling.
Recent polls by The New York Times and Siena College have shown that Biden is losing ground to Donald Trump in five critical states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
That means that the embattled former president — currently the frontrunner in the Republican primary by a huge margin — is ahead in five out of six key battleground states, where voters said they trusted Trump over Biden on tackling issues surrounding the U.S. economy, immigration and foreign policy.
Biden was leading only in Washington, where he had an advantage of two percentage points.
The president and Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Wednesday that the one-minute commercial will air during the Lions-Green Bay Packers game on Thursday, in one of those swing states where Biden is trailing Trump, Michigan.
According to the New York Times/Siena poll, Trump would win the state by five percentage points.
The poll was conducted between October 22 and November 3.
In Nevada, Trump was ahead by 10 percentage points, in Georgia by six, in Arizona by five and in Pennsylvania by four.
Newsweek contacted the White House and Trump's 2024 campaign for comment by email on Thursday.
The ad, titled "Never Left," focuses on Biden's Scranton roots and underlines the Democratic president's understanding of the struggles of middle class Americans, as reported by The Detroit News.
"He grew up a middle-class kid in a middle-class town," the ad says, adding that the middle-class town "has never left him."
It adds: "He knows what life is like for working people and knows middle class life is too expensive right now."
The ad continues saying that the Biden administration is working to make the cost of healthcare more affordable for middle class Americans, including by capping the cost of insulin for seniors at $35 a month and giving Medicare officials the possibility of negotiating with drug companies for lower prices.
"For Joe Biden it's about restoring the sense of security working people deserve — that simple promise, that peace of mind."
"He's determined to get it back, because of where he's from and who he is," the narrator says in the ad that will show at the Thursday game.
The same ad, which was first rolled out in October, was expected to show in Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton, as reported by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
The commercial is part of a $25 million media campaign that the president announced in August and will focus on swing states.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 48ef&ei=30
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
State Of The Union
"Washington Post Columnist Admits Jack Smith’s Prosecution of Trump Is Built On Political ‘Fiction’"
Opinion by Jordan Andrews
16 DECEMBER 2023
Washington Post contributor Jason Willick wrote an opinion article titled, “Politics Are Now Clearly Shaping Jack Smith’s Trump Prosecution”, criticizing Smith’s alleged bias against Donald Trump.
Willick attacked the special counsel Smith and accused him of pursuing a political agenda, particularly in relation to the charge of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.
He also criticized Smith’s attempt to expedite the trial before the 2024 election, suggesting a political motive rather than a pursuit of justice.
“There are real legal problems with special counsel Jack Smith’s election-interference case against Donald Trump,” admitted Willick.
“The former president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election was despicable, but political lying isn’t generally a crime."
"Smith’s case thus must rely on some of the vaguest laws in the federal penal code, applying them in untested ways,” explained the analyst.
“Now, in a filing at the Supreme Court, Smith has all but announced that his prosecutorial timeline is controlled by the 2024 general election in which Trump is likely to be a candidate,” he continued.
Willick alleged that Smith was attempting to, “fast-track the Trump trial based on what can be described only as a political timetable.”
“This argument is circular: The case must be accelerated, because if it’s not accelerated, it will be delayed,” challenged Willick.
Predicting, “If Trump is not tried and convicted by the election, the chances of a Biden victory will take a hit.”
“Trump, of course, wants to delay the trial out of self-preservation."
"If he wins the election, his Justice Department could halt his federal prosecutions."
"But if Smith’s decisions were independent of the political calendar, that would be of no concern to him,” he affirmed.
Willick added, “His job is supposedly to work for the Justice Department — not to try to influence which party controls the Justice Department at a given time.”
Concluding, “The special counsel is an aggressive political actor seeking a political outcome as much as a legal one."
"The fiction that he is anything else is outliving its usefulness.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/ ... fd00&ei=50
"Washington Post Columnist Admits Jack Smith’s Prosecution of Trump Is Built On Political ‘Fiction’"
Opinion by Jordan Andrews
16 DECEMBER 2023
Washington Post contributor Jason Willick wrote an opinion article titled, “Politics Are Now Clearly Shaping Jack Smith’s Trump Prosecution”, criticizing Smith’s alleged bias against Donald Trump.
Willick attacked the special counsel Smith and accused him of pursuing a political agenda, particularly in relation to the charge of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.
He also criticized Smith’s attempt to expedite the trial before the 2024 election, suggesting a political motive rather than a pursuit of justice.
“There are real legal problems with special counsel Jack Smith’s election-interference case against Donald Trump,” admitted Willick.
“The former president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election was despicable, but political lying isn’t generally a crime."
"Smith’s case thus must rely on some of the vaguest laws in the federal penal code, applying them in untested ways,” explained the analyst.
“Now, in a filing at the Supreme Court, Smith has all but announced that his prosecutorial timeline is controlled by the 2024 general election in which Trump is likely to be a candidate,” he continued.
Willick alleged that Smith was attempting to, “fast-track the Trump trial based on what can be described only as a political timetable.”
“This argument is circular: The case must be accelerated, because if it’s not accelerated, it will be delayed,” challenged Willick.
Predicting, “If Trump is not tried and convicted by the election, the chances of a Biden victory will take a hit.”
“Trump, of course, wants to delay the trial out of self-preservation."
"If he wins the election, his Justice Department could halt his federal prosecutions."
"But if Smith’s decisions were independent of the political calendar, that would be of no concern to him,” he affirmed.
Willick added, “His job is supposedly to work for the Justice Department — not to try to influence which party controls the Justice Department at a given time.”
Concluding, “The special counsel is an aggressive political actor seeking a political outcome as much as a legal one."
"The fiction that he is anything else is outliving its usefulness.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/ ... fd00&ei=50