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US Monthly Headline News September 2024
Story by Lee Moran

As the 2024 election enters its home straight, a Republican group is ramping up its attacks on GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump with a $15 million ad campaign targeting swing voters in key battleground states.

Disillusioned, angry and frustrated former Trump supporters explain why they will vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November in testimonial ads that Republican Voters Against Trump will air digitally, on broadcast and cable networks and radio in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nebraska.

In one of the testimonials, an ex-Trump voter named Ken calls out the former president’s “incessant lying,” said there is “no way” he could support him again and described voting for Harris as a “no-brainer.”
Story by Sean O'Driscoll

Russia hacked into Hillary Clinton's computer about five hours after Donald Trump asked them for her emails, a lawyer involved in the Mueller investigation has said.

Aaron Zebley revealed that Trump couldn't be prosecuted because he made his request publicly and did not directly conspire with the Russian government.

Zebley was speaking on Friday to former federal prosecutor, Preet Bharara, on the Stay Tuned With Preet podcast.

He appeared on the podcast with attorney Andrew Goldstein. Both of them worked on the Mueller investigation into alleged links between Trump and the Russian government and have published a new book: Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation.

Zebley said that there was a "call and response" going on between Trump and the Russians but, legally, it could not be considered a conspiracy.

Zebley was referring to a July 27, 2016, press conference in Florida, in which Trump publicly asked Russia to supply Clinton emails.
Story by Christopher Mathias

MONROEVILLE, Pa. — JD Vance spoke at a festival of election denialism in a Pittsburgh suburb Saturday, lending the imprimatur of his position as the Republican nominee for vice president to a gathering of people who still falsely believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and who might be laying the groundwork to make the same bogus claim next month if Trump and Vance lose in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state.

Vance participated in an hour-long town hall at one of the final stops of the “Courage” tour, a neo-Charismatic Christian revival roadshow organized by Lance Wallnau, a Texas-based evangelical pastor and self-described “apostle” who claims to be able to speak with God, who told him Trump is prophesied to be the 47th president of the U.S. If Wallnau’s name sounds familiar, it might be because he played a major role in fomenting disinformation about the last presidential election and was even set to speak at the Jan. 6, 2021, election denial rally in Washington that became the violent insurrection.

As Vance spoke from the stage at Wallnau’s event Saturday to a few hundred mostly middle-aged and octogenarian white people, a familiar cast of election-denying organizations operated booths on the other side of the convention hall, encouraging people to join their mailing list or offering them candy. Their presence here demonstrated the ways Wallnau’s brand of extreme Christian nationalism dovetails with election denial. After all, of what import are actually fair elections here on Earth if a candidate is predestined or prophesied from above to take office?
An unexpected guest joined the former president on stage in Wisconsin
Michelle Del Rey

Former President Donald Trump expressed his frustration over a fly that approached his lectern in a bizarre moment during a rally speech.

Trump was on stage at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, making a point about a hat, when he appeared to get distracted by the creature.

“Oh there’s a fly,” the former president said. “I wonder where the fly came from?”

One audience member shouted out “Kamala.”

Trump continued: “See, two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. We can’t take it any longer.” It wasn’t clear who or what the president was referring to before he changed the subject.

Meanwhile, American Bridge 21st Century, who describe themselves an a Republican accountability group, said: “Trump is exhausted and struggling to stay on track. He begins a story about a hat, but gets distracted by a fly and never finishes. He starts a entirely new story and struggles with the word “unique.”
Story by Samuel Short

Is someone trying to sabotage the Navy?

Evidence suggests so as a memo released Tuesday by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Nickolas Guertin to Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchett says welds on in-service and in-construction Navy submarines and aircraft carriers were intentionally faulty.

USNI News reported Thursday that Newport News Shipbuilding -- a Virginia based company and division of Huntington Ingalls Industries -- told the Department of Justice that welds could have been made wrong intentionally.

Newport News Shipbuilding provided a statement to USNI saying they discovered welds that "did not meet our high-quality standards."

Special counsel Jack Smith filed never-before-seen evidence under seal in the election subversion case against former President Donald Trump. CNN’s Paula Reid reports.
Story by Monica Sager

The X, formerly known as Twitter, account of journalist Ken Klippenstein was suspended on Thursday following the release of a dossier about Senator JD Vance that was allegedly from an Iranian government hack.

"Here's the dossier the media refused to publish," Klippenstein wrote in a post earlier.

Klippenstein, who is a former reporter at Intercept, published the dossier to his substack website about three hours prior to the account suspension on Thursday. It is still available to be viewed at the time this article was published.

"The dossier has been offered to me and I've decided to publish it because it's of keen public interest in an election season," Klippenstein wrote. "It's a 271-page research paper the Trump campaign prepared to vet now vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. As far as I can tell, it hasn't been altered, but even if it was, its contents are publicly verifiable. I'll let it speak for itself."
Opinion by Thomas G. Moukawsher

"We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."

The Republican Party Reagan led was once dedicated to principles like this and things like law and order. But it's current leader, former President Donald Trump, couldn't be more unlike Reagan and the Republicans of just a few years ago. In addition to attacking American law enforcement agencies like the FBI, in court Trump has refused to accept any responsibility for things he has been accused of and even things he has been found guilty of.

Instead of being the leader of a party of personal responsibility, Trump leads a right-wing MOPE brigade in America—a label often unkindly applied to the Irish— but all too fitting for Trump. He is apparently among the "Most Oppressed People Ever." Trump's claims of victimization in court have at least been consistent—nothing is ever his fault:

Found to have raped E. Jean Carroll by a New York jury, Trump said it was a fake story, totally made-up story," he was the victim, and Carroll was to blame along with a "terrible" "highly corrupt" judge acting in a case that was a "Biden Directed Witch Hunt."

During the prosecution in which Trump was convicted of 34 felonies related to paying hush money to a porn star, Trump attacked the jury and called the district attorney and the presiding judge corrupt.
Story by ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was disbarred in Washington on Thursday, months after he lost his law license in New York for pursuing false claims that then-President Donald Trump made about his 2020 presidential election loss.

The brief ruling from Washington D.C.'s appeals court said Giuliani did not respond to an order to explain why he should not be disbarred in Washington after he was in New York last summer.

Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, called the decision “an absolute travesty and a total miscarriage of justice.” Giuliani has argued that he believed the claims he was making on behalf of the Trump campaign were true.

“Members of the legal community who want to protect the integrity of our justice system should immediately speak out against this partisan, politically motivated decision,” Goodman said in a text message.

It's the latest blow to the man once lauded as “America’s mayor." His advocacy of Trump’s false election claims has also led to criminal charges. He's also facing financial ruin after a jury last year awarded $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers who sued him for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020.
ABC News

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with five counts connected to improper campaign contributions, according to a sweeping indictment unsealed Thursday morning.

"ERIC ADAMS, the defendant, sought and accepted illegal campaign contributions in the form of 'nominee' or 'straw' contributions, meaning that the true contributors conveyed their money through nominal donors, who falsely certified they were contributing their own money," the indictment states.

"As a result of those false certifications, ADAMS's 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10,000,000 in public funds," the indictment alleges.

Adams faces one count of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, two counts of solicitation of a contribution from a foreign national and one count of bribery, according to the indictment, charges that expose the mayor to significant prison time if convicted.
Story by Carl Gibson

One Senate Democrat investigating the company headed by Jared Kushner — former President Donald Trump's son-in-law (husband of Ivanka Trump) and onetime White House senior advisor — is suggesting the firm may simply be a vehicle for accepting gifts from other governments.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) recently asked numerous questions of Kushner's Miami, Florida-based Affinity Partners firm in a letter sent earlier this week: Namely, why the company has yet to pay out any dividends to investors despite pulling in more than $3 billion since 2021.

According to the Times, More than 99% of the $3 billion Kushner's company has taken in since it was launched is from foreign governments — including roughly $2 billion just from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Other foreign governments that have contributed include the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan-based billionaire Terry Gou, who founded tech manufacturer Foxconn. An additional "mystery" investor that Affinity has not revealed to the public is also reportedly a stakeholder in the firm.
Story by Rhian Lubin

Leading mental health experts, including a former White House doctor, have expressed alarm over Donald Trump’s mental faculties, suggesting he’s showing signs of “cognitive decline.”

Several experts told The Independent their concerns about the Republican presidential nominee are similar to those they had about President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race, warning Trump appears to “have lost touch with reality,” as exhibited by the 78-year-old’s “rambling” speeches and “erratic” debate performance.

They join a growing number of mental health professionals calling for independent and objective cognitive testing as November’s election edges closer.

Biden, 81, faced a deluge of questions about his mental fitness for another four years in office following his disastrous debate against Trump in June when he repeatedly stumbled over his words and trailed off. Now, all eyes are on Trump, who is prone to incoherent tangents and bizarre musings.

That was on full display at Monday night’s rally in Pennsylvania, where Trump was mocked for his “word salads.”He said of Kamala Harris: “She had the other interview with the other guy who was a nice guy I think from Philadelphia from Pennsylvania, he was a nice guy, he was asking her all these [inaudible] — the daily take — they don’t take like I do! Anybody wants to go, go what the hell differences they make — they have — and how dishonest was ABC...”
Story by Alex Henderson

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has been calling for the impeachment of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, describing his wife Ginni Thomas' efforts to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election results and the gifts he has received from billionaire Harlan Crow (according to extensive reporting in Pro Publica) as especially egregious.

Most Democrats in Congress and the Biden Administration, although highly critical of the Thomases, haven't gone so far as to join AOC in calling for Justice Thomas' impeachment. But now, someone on the right — libertarian/conservative former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Virginia) — believes there is a solid case for impeaching him for "unethical" conduct.

In a September 24 post on X, formerly Twitter, Riggleman posted recent video of Trump saying that critics of the Roberts Court "should be put in jail" for "the way they talk about" the justices.
Story by Matthew Impelli

Former President Donald Trump is set to announce a plan that will provide tax cuts and federal land to foreign companies operating in the U.S.

On Tuesday, Trump is expected to deliver a speech where he will discuss plans to stop U.S. businesses from outsourcing jobs, but also to bring jobs and factories from other countries back to the United States.

One of Trump's key proposals includes offering foreign companies access to federal land as an incentive to bring their operations to the U.S. He hinted at the plan earlier this month, alongside a proposal to cut the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent—but only for companies manufacturing domestically.

In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris has called for raising the rate to 28 percent. The corporate tax rate was 35 percent when Trump took office in 2017, before he signed legislation to lower it.
Story by Ariana Baio

Donald Trump scolded those who critique the Supreme Court at a rally on Monday, saying people should be jailed for “the way they talk about our judges and our justices” – despite the First Amendment allowing people to criticize the government.

The former president, who has invoked his First Amendment right to launch a bevy of attacks against federal and state judges, suggested it should be “illegal” to rebuke judicial decisions or try and advocate in favor of a certain decision.

“It should be illegal, what happens,” Trump told a crowd in Pennslyvania. “You know, you have these guys like playing the ref, like the great Bobby Knight. These people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges and our justices, trying to get them to sway their vote, sway their decision.”

The former president was referring to the backlash the Supreme Court received after overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022. He called the court “very brave” for making a decision that “everybody wanted” – an unfounded claim.

Under the First Amendment, people have the right to complain about government officials and decisions.

Trump himself has been safeguarded by this rule when during his New York criminal trial, Trump called Justice Juan Merchan “highly conflicted.” When a gag order was placed on him, Trump violated it at least 10 times and then utilized his allies to launch more attacks against the judge.
Story by Matthew Chapman

Former President Donald Trump is falling back on his oldest and most dangerous tactic as his campaign falters near the finish line, Salon's Chauncey DeVega wrote Tuesday — inciting racial hatred and violence.

This, the columnist wrote, is how best to understand his promotion of the lie that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating people's pets, which has triggered harassment and even bomb threats in the community.

Far from apologizing, Trump is turning up the heat, inflaming tensions at a recent New York rally with a story about "young American girls being raped and sodomized and murdered by savage criminal aliens.”
Story by Katie S. Phang and Allison Detzel

When people — and political parties — show you who they are, believe them … each and every time.

Last week, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on antisemitism and Islamophobia, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana accused Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.

After Berry, the only Muslim witness in the hearing, repeatedly denied Kennedy’s accusations — and pointed out how insulting they were — the senator went on a tirade that ended with him telling Berry to “hide [her] head in a bag.”

It was a disgusting scene and it was the latest example of something that has become part of the DNA of the GOP: what I now call Republican rage rhetoric.

We saw a similar display last week from the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who vowed to restore his anti-Muslim travel ban, during an event in Washington, D.C.:
Story by Steve Benen

One of the great ironies of the last few years is that Donald Trump and his party have repeatedly accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the Justice Department and federal law enforcement. To date, there is literally no evidence to support the claims — and unambiguous evidence pointing in the opposite direction — but Republicans have eagerly replaced reality with their preferred counternarrative.

Indeed, as we’ve discussed, Republicans don’t just want their conspiracy theory to be true; they need it to be true. This simple, ridiculous idea is at the center of the party’s Trump criminal defense, fundraising, stump speeches, cable news segments, and even legislative campaigns on Capitol Hill.

In 2024, assertions about a “two-tiered” justice system are foundational to Republican politics. They’re also routinely discredited by real-world events.

If, however, GOP voices are looking for a president who actually tried to weaponize law enforcement to target his perceived political foes, I have some good news for them: They don’t have to look very hard.

Though Republicans tend to forget, it was in October 2020 when Trump publicly called on federal prosecutors to charge Joe Biden, accusing him of undefined crimes. That said week, Politico published an especially memorable headline: “‘Where are all of the arrests?’: Trump demands Barr lock up his foes.”
Alex Lo

A manhunt has been launched for “multiple shooters” who killed four and injured 18 more when they “fired upon a large group of people,” in Birmingham, Alabama, police said early Sunday.

Police Chief Scott Thurmond said that multiple people pulled up in a vehicle, got out and opened fire before getting back inside the vehicle to flee the scene. A total of 21 people were shot, including the four people killed.

The chief did not release the identities of any suspects, but Thurmond said a preliminary investigation led police to believe the shooters were targeting one person.

"We believe there was a hit, if you will, on that particular person as far as someone willing to pay money to have that person killed," Thurmond said.

That individual, who was not identified by police, was among those killed in the shooting. Thurmond added that investigators believe the shooters may have used a fully-automatic weapon, which is illegal.
Story by Carl Gibson

On the 2024 campaign trail, former President Donald Trump has made more than 200 promises about what he'll do on day one of a second term — famously promising to act as a "dictator" immediately upon taking the oath of office. And some experts are cautioning that many of those promises fly in the face of the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes.

The Washington Post reported that, by its count, Trump has made 82 education-related Day One promises, 74 related to immigration, 41 ties to energy policy, 25 about transgender issues and 33 other promises. Some of those are about his signature border wall proposal and vows to eliminate the teaching of racial and LGBTQ+ curriculum in schools. But others, according to experts, disregard longstanding federal law.

"A lot but not all of what Trump says he wants to do on day one is going to be illegal or impractical," Georgetown University constitutional law professor Steve Vladeck told the Post. "But even the illegal stuff might go into effect for some time, and he might actually succeed in pushing the law in his direction."
By Rachel Dobkin

Former President Donald Trump just "kneecapped" his own defense in Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith's federal election subversion case against him, ex-prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said on Friday.

Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, faces four felony counts in the DOJ's case against him in Washington, D.C., after he allegedly tried to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 election victory in the wake of his loss, which culminated in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

On that day, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden's election win. The riot erupted following repeated claims from Trump that the election was stolen via widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence of this. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claimed the case is politically motivated against him.

Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, said in a YouTube video on Friday that Trump "kneecapped his January 6 defense" with a new Gutfeld! interview on Fox News.
Story by Mike Lofgren

Readers of my previous articles here will have noticed a heavy focus on history: historical periods as intriguing analogies to current events; distorted history as propaganda; history as warning; perhaps above all, the question of who gets to control our history.

Contrary to the common belief, Americans are not less historically conscious than Europeans; in fact, the reverse is true. The Franco-Prussian War or the Italian wars of unification were roughly contemporaneous with the American Civil War, yet the former events are largely relegated to academic works, whereas the latter continues to create an unending flood of popular overviews, biographies and unit histories — with Abraham Lincoln being the most written-about figure in American history.

For Western Europeans, at least (in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the past is all too present in contemporary life), the two world wars were so horrific that after 1945, a kind of willed forgetting created a caesura between those events and the everyday life of the present. (This is described in the late Tony Judt’s outstanding book, “Postwar.”) Contrast that with the Civil War, whose causes and symbols are still very much in the American consciousness. We're deeply aware of history, but the problem is that we often get it wrong because of deliberate political distortion.

JD Vance, the Republican aspirant to the second-highest office in the land, has even invoked the Civil War as a morality play in which Southern slaveholders were the good guys and the North consisted of woke socialists. Using the supposed lessons of history to prove some inane or horrifying right-wing talking point is also performed with other defining events: the founding of the country and the framing of the Constitution, the Great Depression and World War II, Vietnam and Watergate.
Story by Noah Jampol

There's long been a thorn in the side of climate-conscious lawmakers and citizens.

At seemingly every turn, The Republican Attorneys General Association, a nationwide group of 28 officials, vigorously fights on behalf of fossil fuel companies against environmental regulation and compensation for damages.

In a disturbing revelation that explains the trend, the Guardian reported that RAGA is bankrolled to the tune of millions in dark money tied to Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo, as well as donations from the oil and gas industry.

What's happening?
The Guardian uncovered that the dirty energy industry sent $5.8 million to RAGA over the last four years. Meanwhile, the "Leo-linked Concord Fund" pushed a staggering $18.8 million to RAGA since 2014.

RAGA uses that money to elect and reelect attorneys general who align with their policies. Once in power, these officials dutifully back their donors' causes, per the Guardian. When it comes to energy, that means shielding the fossil fuel industry from lawsuits and regulations.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a senator from Rhode Island, told the Guardian that it's a "corrupt scheme," where RAGA is "rushing in to provide taxpayer-funded legal services for their polluter funders."
By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN

CNN) — Mark Robinson, the controversial and socially conservative Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for reinstating slavery, a CNN KFile investigation found.

Despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, Robinson said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, a review of archived messages found in which he also referred to himself as a “perv.”

The comments, which Robinson denies making, predate his entry into politics and current stint as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. They were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.

Many of Robinson’s comments were gratuitously sexual and lewd in nature. They were made between 2008 and 2012 on “Nude Africa,” a pornographic website that includes a message board. The comments were made under the username minisoldr, a moniker Robinson used frequently online.
Story by Grace Hall | YouTube

International allies
The FBI, along with its international allies, has successfully dismantled a botnet that was managed by a Chinese firm called Integrity Technology Group, as reported by MorningHoney.com. The botnet consisted of around 260,000 devices including PCs and IoT gadgets.

The botnet
The botnet was reportedly being used for espionage against U.S. critical infrastructure and Taiwanese networks.

More than half
Shockingly, more than half of the hardware was located in the U.S.

FBI Director
FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that the Chinese group, known as Flax Typhoon, had been using this botnet since 2021.
by Sharon Lerner

Three reports issued by the agency’s inspector general detailed personal attacks suffered by the scientists — including being called “stupid,” “piranhas” and “pot-stirrers” — and called on the EPA to take “appropriate corrective action” in response.

More than three years ago, a small group of government scientists came forward with disturbing allegations.

During President Donald Trump’s administration, they said, their managers at the Environmental Protection Agency began pressuring them to make new chemicals they were vetting seem safer than they really were. They were encouraged to delete evidence of chemicals’ harms, including cancer, miscarriage and neurological problems, from their reports — and in some cases, they said, their managers deleted the information themselves.

After the scientists pushed back, they received negative performance reviews and three of them were removed from their positions in the EPA’s division of new chemicals and reassigned to jobs elsewhere in the agency.
By Artemis Moshtaghian and Cindy Von Quednow, CNN

CNN — A Kentucky sheriff has been arrested Thursday in connection with the fatal shooting of a district judge inside a courthouse, Kentucky State Police said.

District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was found with multiple gunshots and he was pronounced dead at the scene, state police said.

A preliminary investigation found Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines shot Mullins after an argument inside the judge’s chambers, according to state police.
Story by Nicholas Liu

Georgia’s GOP-controlled State Election Board is teeing up votes on nearly a dozen election rule changes on Friday, worrying officials who say that the proposals and their timing would disrupt an election process due to start in a matter of weeks — and open the door for board members to block certification of results at will, NPR reported.

Some of the proposals include adding hand counts of absentee ballots; requiring the publication of all registered voters in the 2024 election; giving poll watchers expanded access to voting centers; and permitting local election board members to vote against certifying an election if they claim to find discrepancies or do not receive access to every election document they request.
Story by Ed Kilgore

With the major-party presidential candidates in close battles in a sparse landscape of battleground states, every electoral vote matters. There are scenarios where either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins 269 or 270 electoral votes. Part of the underlying picture is that each of them has been expected to snag a single Electoral College vote from one of the two states (Maine and Nebraska) that allocate them by congressional district. Biden won the Omaha-based Second Congressional District of Nebraska in 2020, when Trump won the largely rural Second Congressional District of Maine. Polls are showing the same outcome is likely this year.

So the two campaigns have hungrily looked at a potential gain or loss of an electoral vote if either state moved toward a winner-take-all system. But only Nebraska, pushed aggressively by Team Trump, has seriously moved toward taking that step in 2024. It hasn’t happened yet, in part because of internal Nebraska Republican dissension and in part because Maine Democrats have threatened to retaliate and make the whole exercise pointless. But now, at the very last minute, the heist may be back on, as the Nebraska Examiner reports:

The national Republican push to help former President Donald Trump win all five of Nebraska’s Electoral College votes is ramping up again, and this time it might work.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Wednesday hosted two dozen state senators at the Governor’s Mansion, along with Secretary of State Bob Evnen, the state’s chief election official.

Several who attended the meeting said some senators who had wavered earlier showed more support now for changing Nebraska to the winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes this year.
Robinson denied the CNN report, which said he referred to himself as a "black NAZI" and expressed support for bringing back slavery more than 10 years ago.
By Adam Edelman and Alexandra Marquez

Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, vowed Thursday to remain in the race following a report that he made dozens of lewd and inflammatory comments more than 10 years ago on the message board of a pornography website.

The report, published by CNN, said Robinson, in posts to a pornographic website called Nude Africa, called himself a “black NAZI,” expressed support for bringing back slavery, said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography and recounted sexually graphic stories, including one about his memory of “peeping” on women in gym showers when he was 14. The posts were made under the username “minisoldr” from 2008 to 2012, CNN reported, before Robinson, who was elected lieutenant governor in 2020, entered politics.

In a video posted to X ahead of the story’s publication, Robinson denied the report, calling it “tabloid trash.”

“Let me reassure you: The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson. You know my words, you know my character, and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before,” Robinson said in the video.

“We are staying in this race, we are in it to win it, and we know that, with your help, we will,” he added.
Story by Nikki McCann Ramirez

The House is expected to vote Wednesday on a continuing resolution to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown at the end of the month, just weeks before the November election. The vote will likely fail.

The bill ties the continued funding of the federal government to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), a piece of legislation that would make it harder for Americans to cast their ballots by requiring proof of citizenship when one registers to vote.

Packaging the two pieces of legislation together is a doomed endeavor. Still, Republicans in control of the lower chamber, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), are taking their marching orders from former President Donald Trump, who is demanding the government be shut down if the SAVE act doesn't pass.
"If Republicans don't get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form," Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.

"Democrats are registering Illegal Voters by the TENS OF THOUSANDS, as we speak – They will be voting in the 2024 Presidential Election, and they shouldn't be allowed to," Trump claimed. "Only American Citizens should be voting in our Most Important Election in History, or any Election!"
Story by The Black Wall Street Times

GREENWOOD Dist.–Days after the Oklahoma Supreme Court made a final decision to bar 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre survivors from seeking justice, the lead attorney for the 110 and 109-year-old plaintiffs renewed calls for President Joe Biden to launch a federal investigation.

“By denying the petition brought by the last two living survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma doubled down on one of the biggest miscarriages of justice that this nation has ever seen,” national civil rights attorney and Justice for Greenwood founder Damario Solomon-Simmons said in a statement.

He’s calling on Pres. Biden and VP Harris to “heed the survivors’ plea” by launching a federal investigation into the Tulsa Race Massacre under The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act.

“Now is the time for the federal government to step up where Oklahoma has failed. I know that Greenwood’s quest for justice is close to the hearts of President Biden and Vice President Harris, who have met with the survivors and heard their stories firsthand.”

To date, not a single person or government entity has ever been held accountable for massacre, which killed upwards of 300 Black men, women and children, according to the Tulsa Historical Society.
Sheila Flynn

The most honest thing Sean Combs may have ever done was name his record label “Bad Boy.”

Although 54-year-old Combs – aka Puff Daddy, aka Puffy, aka P. Diddy, Diddy and Love – has been orchestrating a lot more than just braggadocious “bad” behavior during the intervening decades, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday. Instead, it charges, he’s been the veritable architect and leader of a “criminal enterprise” engaged in alleged arson, kidnapping, forced labor, bribery, obstruction of justice and sex trafficking.

It was that final accusation, laid out not in federal charging papers but in a series of damning lawsuits last year, that first revealed the growing cracks in the veneer of Combs’ carefully-curated reputation. He strenuously denied all wrongdoing. But the filings were quickly followed by a bicoastal raid on his properties amid a tight-lipped federal investigation, then the leaking of a violent video showing Diddy’s brutal beating at a hotel of then-girlfriend Cassie– the most high-profile victim to sue him.
Opinion by Kalyn Womack

Federal prosecutors arrested two individuals accused of trying to recruit white nationalist terrorists through a social media platform. When you find out what they were allegedly scheming, you’ll be disgusted.

Monday, an indictment filed in the Eastern District of California was unsealed, revealing a list of charges against 37-year-old Matthew Allison and 34-year-old Dallas Humber. Each of them were slammed with fifteen crimes including hate crimes and plotting the murder of federal officials. The indictment says the two had been leading an initiative called the “Terrorgram Collective” on messaging app Telegram for the past two years instructing followers internationally to commit acts of racist violence.

The Department of Justice claims Allison and Humber published a hit list inside the platform of people they wanted dead because of their racial, religious or sexual identity. These people included federal judges, U.S. state’s attorneys and other public officials described to be anti-white or anti-gun. What was even more frightening is that each person was given a description with their photo and even home addresses, per the DOJ.
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was headed to jail Tuesday to await trial in his federal sex trafficking case, after a magistrate ordered him to be held without bail in a case that accuses him of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes.

The music mogul pleaded not guilty Tuesday to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He’s accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.”

The indictment against him also alleges he coerced and abused women for years while using blackmail and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line. It refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.

Prosecutors wanted him jailed. His attorneys proposed that he be released on a $50 million bond to home detention with electronic monitoring. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky sided with the government.
A new report reveals how Chief Justice John Roberts tried to protect Samuel Alito as he faced backlash amid his flag scandal.
New Republic

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts knows that Justice Samuel Alito’s antics and ideology are getting out of hand—and that’s why he’s taking care to protect him from the public eye.

The New York Times reports that Roberts had initially assigned Alito to write the majority opinion in a case ruling that prosecutors overreached by charging some January 6 rioters with obstruction of justice in April. But in May, Roberts took over the opinion himself, only four days after revelations that an upside-down U.S. flag, a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement, was displayed outside Alito’s home soon after the January 6 attack.
ABC News

Sean "Diddy" Combs was arrested Monday night in New York City by federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations, ABC News has confirmed.

"Earlier this evening, federal agents arrested Sean Combs, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY," United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a statement. "We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time."

Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt hotel in Midtown Manhattan, sources said. He will spend the night in federal custody before he is brought to court for arraignment Tuesday, sources told ABC News.
Story by Ewan Palmer

Questions have been raised regarding U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's involvement in a ruling related to January 6 defendants in the wake of details around Chief Justice John Roberts' alleged strong-arming of cases linked to former President Donald Trump.

The New York Times reported on Sunday, based on apparent leaked memos from Roberts and other justices and interviews with unnamed court insiders, that Roberts had asked Alito in April to write the majority opinion on Fischer v. United States, before Roberts made the extremely rare move of deciding to write it himself.

In June, the nation's highest court voted 6-3 in the Fischer case that a federal charge of obstructing an official proceeding must include proof that a defendant tried to tamper with or destroy documents. The decision meant that hundreds of Trump supporters who were charged with obstructing an official proceeding in relation to the 2021 Capitol riot are having their cases reexamined.
MSN

Chief Justice John Roberts strong-armed his fellow Supreme Court judges into allowing him the key role in cases involving Donald Trump, leaked memos reveal. The conservative judge took the lead in March’s case on whether states could remove the former president from their ballots over his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Roberts (pictured) demanded a unanimous decision from the bench according to memos leaked to the New York Times. He also took charge of the case concerning prosecution of the January 6 rioters himself from Justice Samuel Alito after his fellow conservative was embroiled in a row about his wife flying the Stars and Stripes upside down from their home. Roberts told his colleagues they should take the case after an appellate court ruled that Trump did not enjoy presidential immunity for his alleged role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

'As I read it, it says simply a former president can be prosecuted because he’s being prosecuted,' he said of the lower court's judgment. And he made no secret of the what he thought his colleagues should decide. 'I think it likely that we will view the separation of powers analysis differently,' he wrote in a February memo.
By Rob Picheta, Jessie Yeung, Teele Rebane and Lex Harvey, CNN

CNN  —

Ryan Wesley Routh put his enmity toward Donald Trump – the man he once supported but then dismissed as an “idiot,” a “buffoon” and a “fool” – at the center of a rambling and fanciful worldview that also fixated on Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea, and what he called the “end of humanity.”

The 58-year-old, who was detained Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on the former president, protested in Kyiv after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and committed his ideas to paper in a self-published 291-page book.

Authorities suspect Routh, who owns a small construction company in Hawaii, was planning to attack the former President as he played a round of golf on Sunday, with US Secret Service agents firing at a man with a rifle in the bushes near the golf club. He was later apprehended after being stopped on a nearby highway.

For years, he criticized not only Trump but himself, describing Trump as “my choice” in the 2016 presidential election but later writing that he is “man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake.”

Here’s what we know about Routh so far.
A memo obtained by The New York Times indicated the chief justice wanted to act quick—and decisively—on Donald Trump’s presidential immunity.
Corbin Bolies

The Supreme Court was hit by a flurry of damaging new leaks Sunday as a series of confidential memos written by the chief justice were revealed by The New York Times.

The court’s Chief Justice John Roberts was clear to his fellow justices in February: He wanted the court to take up a case weighing Donald Trump’s right to presidential immunity—and he seemed inclined to protect the former president.

“I think it likely that we will view the separation of powers analysis differently,” Roberts wrote to his Supreme Court peers, according to a private memo obtained by the Times. He was referencing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to allow the case to move forward.

Roberts took an unusual level of involvement in this and other cases that ultimately benefited Trump, according to the Times—his handling of the cases surprised even some other justices on the high court, across ideological lines.
The woman behind an early Facebook post that helped spark baseless rumors about Haitians eating pets told NBC News that she feels for the immigrant community.
By Alicia Victoria Lozano

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The woman behind an early Facebook post spreading a harmful and baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating local pets that helped thrust a small Ohio city into the national spotlight says she had no firsthand knowledge of any such incident and is now filled with regret and fear as a result of the ensuing fallout.

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday.

Lee recently posted on Facebook about a neighbor’s cat that went missing, adding that the neighbor told Lee she thought the cat was the victim of an attack by her Haitian neighbors.
Story by rrommen@insider.com (Rebecca Rommen)

The Trump campaign had to pay a deposit of over $145,000 to secure a spot at the Tucson Convention Center for a rally on Thursday.

In a statement to Business Insider, the City of Tucson City Manager's Office confirmed that the Trump campaign had paid a deposit for estimated costs of $145,222.70 to use the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall at the venue.

"In accordance with City of Tucson policy implemented after the 2016 campaign visits of then candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, we now require users at the TCC to pay all costs associated with public safety response, so that taxpayers do not have to shoulder these expenses," the statement said.
"Users must deposit the City's estimated amount of public safety response and TCC usage expenses in advance of an event," it added.

According to local media, the City of Tucson asked for the deposit because the former president failed to pay a bill of $81,837 after a campaign event at the convention center in 2016.

"You know, the former president is entitled to come to anywhere he wants in Arizona," Regina Romero, the Mayor of Tucson, said, per KOLD News 13. "It's up to the Trump campaign to pay their bills."
Story by Jon Passantino and Sean Lyngaas, CNN

Where did the money go?

The right-wing social media stars who were allegedly paid millions of dollars in a nefarious Russian influence operation to shape public opinion around the 2024 US presidential election are remaining mum.

Last week, the Justice Department alleged that Russian state media producers funneled nearly $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee-based company, later determined by CNN to be Tenet Media, to create and amplify content that often featured narratives and themes supported by the Kremlin. Tenet Media boasts a slate of high-profile right-wing, pro-Trump commentators including Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson and several others.

While the indictment doesn’t directly name or accuse the influencers of wrongdoing, or state that they knew at the time that the money was part of a Russian influence operation, it alleged two employees of RT, the Russian state media propaganda outlet, paid nearly $10 million to hire the “talent” and create social media videos promoting its agenda. All of the figures have said they did not know the funds originated with the Kremlin and had no idea they were being employed for the purpose of amplifying pro-Russia narratives. The influencers all say they are “victims,” and that the FBI has contacted them for voluntary interviews.
Story by Travis Gettys

Donald Trump could rightly be seen as a Russian asset, according to a former FBI director the ex-president fired in his first term.

Andrew McCabe appeared on the One Decision podcast co-hosted by former British intelligence agency chief Sir Richard Dearlove, who asked whether he thought it possible that Trump was a Russian asset, and he said, "I do, I do," reported The Guardian.

“I don’t know that I would characterize it as [an] active, recruited, knowing asset in the way that people in the intelligence community think of that term," McCabe said. "But I do think that Donald Trump has given us many reasons to question his approach to the Russia problem in the United States, and I think his approach to interacting with Vladimir Putin, be it phone calls, face-to-face meetings, the things that he has said in public about Putin, all raise significant questions.”

U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges on Monday (September 9) against two alleged leaders of a white supremacist gang, saying they used the Telegram social media site to solicit attacks on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people and immigrants aiming to incite a race war.
Story by Nicholas Liu

Leonard Leo, the influential right-wing activist behind an array of dark-money groups powering the conservative movement, is tired of policy seminars and self-indulgent, big-idea conferences. Now he wants to see some action by the groups he's helped bankroll to "weaponize our conservative vision" and graft it onto key national institutions — or he'll withhold the $1 billion he has stored across his money network.
Leonard Leo was architect of effort to secure conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court

The conservative activist who led the crusade to overhaul the US legal system is making a $1bn push to “crush liberal dominance” across corporate America and in the country’s news and entertainment sectors.

In a rare interview, Leonard Leo, the architect of the rightward shift on the Supreme Court under Donald Trump, said his non-profit advocacy group, the Marble Freedom Trust, was ready to confront the private sector in addition to the government.

“We need to crush liberal dominance where it’s most insidious, so we’ll direct resources to build talent and capital formation pipelines in the areas of news and entertainment, where leftwing extremism is most evident,” Leo told the Financial Times.

“Expect us to increase support for organisations that call out companies and financial institutions that bend to the woke mind virus spread by regulators and NGOs, so that they have to pay a price for putting extreme leftwing ideology ahead of consumers,” he said.

Story by Dominic Yeatman For Dailymail.Com

Donald Trump has warned Kamala Harris's campaign donors that they will not escape his retribution if they play a role in a 2024 election 'steal'.

The GOP candidate promised he would not allow a repeat of the 'rampant Cheating and Skullduggery' he claims cost him the White House in 2020, and threatened unprecedented legal action against those who try.

Posting on X and his own Truth Social channel under the heading 'cease and desist' he said 'lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters, and corrupt election officials' would all find themselves targeted.

The swipe at donors came as Trump's Democrat rival reported raising a whopping $230 million more than Trump in campaign contributions during the month of August.
'Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,' Trump wrote.
VERIFY found that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has unpaid bills in at least six cities for costs associated with his campaign events over the years.
Megan Loe, Mauricio Chamberlin

In mid-August, former President Trump’s plane was diverted from Bozeman, Montana, to Billings. VERIFY debunked claims that the plane was diverted because he owed the Bozeman airport and city money.

While that claim turned out to be false, other social media posts shared around the same time claimed the Trump campaign does owe money to more than a dozen other cities.

Those posts shared an MSNBC map graphic that lists the cities and the alleged amounts of money the Trump campaign owes them. The cities where Trump purportedly owes money include Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, among others.

Multiple VERIFY readers also asked us if it’s true that Trump’s campaign has unpaid bills in multiple U.S. cities.
Story by Tatyana Tandanpolie

As Republicans across the country sound alarms over the potential for illegal, noncitizen voting in the upcoming presidential election — and roll out measures to prevent it — they've painted a picture suggesting the matter is a widespread fraud that threatens the legitimacy of the results. But experts say the opposite is true, and instead, these efforts to curtail what is effectively a non-issue amount to little more than voter suppression tactics.

Hinging their claims on the influx of migrants in recent years along the United States-Mexico border, GOP officials and activists have increasingly mounted concerns about the potential for noncitizen voting as November approaches. Officials have gone on to review and purge voter rolls, place constitutional amendments on their state ballots and issue executive orders as part of efforts to thwart such voter fraud.

In Louisiana, a state that explicitly bans noncitizen voting in its constitution, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry recently signed an executive order requiring state agencies that offer voter registration forms to include a disclaimer that only U.S. citizens can vote.
By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - A New York judge on Friday delayed former U.S. President Donald Trump's sentencing in his hush money criminal case until after the Nov. 5 election, writing that he wants to avoid the unwarranted perception of a political motive.

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, had previously been scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18. His lawyers in August asked Justice Juan Merchan to push back his sentencing date until after the vote, citing "naked election-interference objectives." Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges against Trump, is a Democrat.

Merchan said on Friday he now planned to sentence Trump on Nov. 26, unless the case is dismissed before then. "The imposition of sentence will be adjourned to avoid any appearance - however unwarranted - that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate," the judge wrote, opens new tab. "The Court is a fair, impartial and apolitical institution."

Texas Governor Greg Abbott's migrant busing program has reportedly cost taxpayers $221 million to transport nearly scores of asylum seekers to Democrat-run states north of the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the Washington Examiner.

The cost amounts to $1,841 per passenger, as revealed through a public information request filed by the Washington Examiner with the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

Since April 2022, Texas has made over 750 payments totaling $221,705,637 to transportation companies.

Newsweek has contacted the office of Governor Abbott for comment.
Story by David Badash

Donald Trump’s latest attack on American rule of law and the U.S. Dept. of Justice is facing condemnation. The GOP presidential nominee and convicted felon awaiting sentencing, while speaking at a courthouse press conference on his efforts to appeal a $5 million judgment in a New York sexual abuse and defamation civil case, called the DOJ’s bombshell indictments in the Kremlin cash and Russian disinformation case a “scam.”

“It’s always the same,” observed foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf. “Defend Putin. Defend Russia. Defend corruption. Accuse those who are enforcing the law of being engaged in a scam. Why does he sound this way? Because he is a traitor and a criminal.”
Trump told reporters Friday, “This is a long and complicated web and story, but it all goes back to the DOJ and Kamala and sleepy Joe and all the rest of them.”

“We have a whole rigged election system,” he declared, as he often does, promoting his “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen while appearing to be paving the ground for the same response should he lose in November.
Story by Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY

The media company now alleged to have been part of a Russian election interference plot featured interviews with prominent Republicans such as a daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, one of Trump's lawyers and a member of Congress, a USA TODAY review of its content reveals.

Tenet Media’s podcasts, broadcast on platforms such as YouTube, included appearances by Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump, who is married Donald Trump's son Eric; Rep. Brian Mast of Florida; longtime Trump lawyer Harmeet Dhillon; and former Trump national security aide Kash Patel.

Other notable Trump-supporting guests who have appeared on Tenet Media include Republican U.S. Senate nominee Kari Lake of Arizona, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who recently endorsed Trump.
Story by John Miller, Mark Morales, Gloria Pazmino and Gregory Krieg, CNN

Federal investigators on Wednesday seized electronic devices from the homes of several top officials in New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, including the powerful police commissioner and two deputy mayors, according to multiple sources familiar with the probe.

Sources said investigators from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York seized electronic devices, including phones, from New York Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III. Chancellor of New York City schools David Banks was also subpoenaed for his devices, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Investigators also served a subpoena to Adams’ special adviser Timothy Pearson, a former police inspector, for his phone, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Story by bmetzger@insider.com (Bryan Metzger)

Rep. Byron Donalds failed to properly disclose two years' worth of his and his wife's stock trades.
It was up to $1.6 million, including stock in companies he oversees on a House committee.
Donalds has previously spoken out in favor of banning lawmakers from trading stocks.

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, the Florida congressman who was in the running to be former President Donald Trump's vice presidential pick, is in some hot water over his stock trades.

A spokesperson for Donalds did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the congressman's disclosures, the stocks were held in a retirement account associated with Donalds' former employer, Moran Wealth Management, a firm based in Naples, Florida. It's possible that the trades were made by someone other than Donalds, as is sometimes the case with other lawmakers, though he is still legally responsible for disclosing those trades.

Donalds also supports banning lawmakers from trading stocks, making his violation of the law all the more notable.

In March 2022, when asked about Business Insider's reporting that dozens of lawmakers and staffers had failed to disclose their stock trades in a timely fashion, Donalds said, "That's when you have to have sanctions, and the House has to get real."

Campaign Legal argued that because Donalds appeared to be aware of the STOCK Act's requirements — as many lawmakers often are not — there's reason to believe he intentionally did not disclose the trades.
Opinion by Chris Brennan, USA TODAY

Former President Donald Trump sat down in late May for an interview with Tim Pool, a right-wing "influencer," where they commiserated about the money America has spent to help Ukraine after that country was invaded by Russia.

Somewhere in Russia, someone must have been thinking at that time that pouring $10 million in the past year into the company that promotes Pool's podcast, "Timcast IRL," and a small band of similarly provocative conservative content creators was a very smart investment.

"Putin respects me. Zelenskyy respects me," Trump told Pool about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "I know all the players, and I want to get that war ended."

I've seen no evidence to suggest that Trump knew in that moment that Russian money was paying to support that podcast. Pool now says he was in the dark about the alleged Russian money backing the company promoting his show.

But, in retrospect, and after a federal indictment Wednesday of two Russian media executives accused of spearheading the secret influencer scheme, this is inescapable – the conservative content allegedly funded by one of America's most dangerous geopolitical foes is completely in tune with Russia's own propaganda.

And why? Because that sort of propaganda attracts attention, which creates profit.
By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Thursday accused Donald Trump's lawyers of trying to stop potentially damaging evidence of his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss from becoming public before the Nov. 5 election, while acknowledging the case would not go to trial before then.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan also gave prosecutors what is likely their last chance to divulge evidence in the case before the election, ordering Special Counsel Jack Smith to respond by Sept. 26 to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

Thomas Windom, a prosecutor in Smith's office, told Chutkan prosecutors were prepared to reveal potentially new evidence in their filing to argue that their remaining case against Trump is not affected by the high court's ruling and should proceed to trial.
Story by Dan Gooding

Donald Trump's defense attorney, John Lauro, quickly corrected himself in court on Thursday after saying Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had "directed" him to challenge special counsel Jack Smith's authority in the election subversion case.

During a hearing in Washington, D.C., addressing an updated indictment brought by Smith against the former president following a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, Lauro referenced concerns raised by Thomas in a note on that ruling as a reason the case should be dismissed.

The reference from Lauro is to a note from Thomas that he wrote in the concurrence regarding the immunity ruling. Some speculated that note was written to be seen by Judge Aileen Cannon, A Trump appointed judge who is presiding over the classified documents case against the former president in Florida.
By Flynn Nicholls

Billionaire business owner Mark Cuban has criticized Donald Trump's answers to policy questions, describing them as "gibberish."

On Thursday, Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, gave a speech at the Economic Club of New York and answered several policy questions in a long-winded fashion.

When asked how the U.S. could better coordinate trade policy and national security policy with China, Trump said he had a good relationship with President Xi Jinping, whom he described as "smart" and "tough." He added that Xi had been his "dear, dear friend" before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump said he would reestablish a good relationship with China and then discussed why it was important that the U.S. got along with the rest of the world, touching on nuclear weapons, his uncle John Trump, former President Barack Obama and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Story by Zachary Basu

Conservative media is facing a rare moment of introspection, rocked by a series of scandals that have drawn new scrutiny to the right's favorite influencers.

Why it matters: The battle for MAGA's future is unfolding not just at the ballot box, but online — where traditionally pro-Trump forces are suddenly feuding over antisemitism, revisionist history and Russian disinformation.

Driving the news: At the center of the firestorm is Tucker Carlson, who has drawn sustained backlash for hosting a guest on his podcast who called Winston Churchill "the chief villain" of World War II.

Elon Musk promoted the interview with Darryl Cooper, who Carlson suggested was "the best and most honest popular historian" in the U.S. — then backtracked after X users accused Cooper of Nazi apologia.

Even hardcore conservatives were gobsmacked by Carlson giving voice to Cooper, the latest in a string of controversial guests — Vladimir Putin among them — whom Carlson has interviewed since leaving Fox News.

Zoom in: Carlson's mainstream relevance may have waned since he was stripped of the top-rated show in cable news, but his influence on the "America First" movement remains unrivaled.
Story by Ed Mazza

Donald Trump on Sunday tried to defend himself from the criminal charges he’s facing in the election interference case ― but experts say it sounded more like a confession.

Trump on Fox News bragged that his poll numbers go up every time he’s indicted.

“Whoever heard, you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it, you get indicted, and your poll numbers go up,” he said.
Senator Tom Cotton said he was ‘open’ to the plan while senator Lindsey Graham quickly dismissed the idea
John Bowden

Donald Trump’s new proposal for the government or insurance companies to be mandated to pay for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment for Americans has already divided the Republican party – with two GOP senators giving opposing stances on the matter on Sunday.

The ex-president has been trying to navigate the post-Roe landscape since 2022, with limited success. As his presidential campaign has progressed throughout 2024, Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for appointing Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn federal protections on abortion — while he has simultaneously sought to distance himself from hardline opponents of abortion who are seeking to ban IVF and other fertility treatments, as well as the stricter end of GOP-led proposals to ban abortion at various points during the pregnancy.

Over the past week, the former president made his latest attempt.

Speaking to NBC News minutes before taking the stage in Potterville, Michigan, the ex-president made two announcements on the issue.
Donica Phifer

Fallout from former President Trump's August 26 visit to Arlington National Cemetery continued Sunday, with allies lining up to recast the visit as a knock against President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Here's what you missed when lawmakers hit the airwaves on Sept. 1.

1. Cotton defends Trump over Arlington by pointing at Biden, Harris
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) worked to turn the tables over the Trump campaign's alleged incident at Arlington National Cemetery by asking why Biden and Harris didn't attend at the request of several of the Gold Star families who had a loved one die when Abbey Gate was bombed in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021.

Why it matters: The report of Trump campaign staffers allegedly "pushed aside" at Arlington National Cemetery employee aside prompted outrage from Democrats and some families with loved ones buried inside Section 60.

   The Trump campaign said it had permission to film, but the debate continues regarding whether the campaign violated federal law.

What they're saying: Cotton disputed that the Arlington photos and footage were meant for the Trump campaign in an appearance on "Meet the Press," saying that the families invited Trump, Biden and Harris and intended for the day to be bipartisan.
AP News

HONOLULU (AP) — Three people were killed and two others injured in a shooting at a home stemming from a dispute between neighbors on Saturday night in Hawaii, police said. The shooter was also fatally shot by a resident, who was arrested on a second-degree murder charge.

Witnesses reported that a 58-year-old man was using a front-end loader to ram cars into the home where a family gathering was taking place, then opened fire at people gathered in the carport, fatally shooting three women at the residence in Waianae, a community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of downtown Honolulu, Honolulu police detective Lt. Deena Thoemmes said.

At some point, a 42-year-old man who lived in the home fatally shot the suspect with a handgun, she said at a news conference. A police spokesperson did not immediately respond to to a telephone message or an email asking for details about why the resident was arrested.
By  OLIVIA DIAZ and BRIAN WITTE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Worries of being uprooted from their jobs have returned for Laura Dodson and other federal workers, who have long been the economic backbone of the nation’s capital and its suburbs.

During former President Donald Trump ‘s administration, her office under the U.S. Department of Agriculture was told it would be moving. About 75 people were going to be relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, Dodson said, but less than 40 actually moved. A rushed process that failed to consider the need to find homes, jobs for spouses and schools for children prompted some retirements, she said, and some took other federal jobs, hurting the agency in the end.

Now, with Trump proposing the relocation of up to 100,000 federal jobs from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia under his Agenda 47 plan, concerns about being abruptly moved are again troubling federal workers. The Republican’s proposals stir anxiety in the midst of an unusually competitive U.S. Senate race in heavily Democratic Maryland that could determine control of the Senate, with even the Republican candidate calling the plans “crazy.” The proposals also could hinder Trump’s chances to win Virginia, a state he lost in 2016 and 2020, where a U.S. Senate seat widely seen as safely Democratic is also on the ballot.
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