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Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) aired out Republicans’ Ukraine “misinformation” and exposed party members’ hypocrisy at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday.

The Texas Democrat ripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for suggesting Hamas may have obtained U.S. weapons through Ukraine and for sharing a Putin-backed claim about Nazism’s presence in Ukraine.

“Well let me tell you something, you can find Nazis anywhere. You can find ’em right here in the United States. In fact, a bunch of the people that they’re calling victims and prisoners of war, also known as convicted felons on Jan. 6,” she said before noting that a neo-Nazi pleaded guilty for his role in the Capitol riot.

She continued, “So here’s the point: We have people in this chamber that are actually causing just as much a threat if not more of a threat to our own country. We should be talking about holding our very own accountable for the misinformation and disinformation that they are spreading.”

The comments arrive as Greene has renewed her threat to oust Mike Johnson from the speaker’s chair if he puts a Ukraine aid vote to the floor.

Crockett called it a problem that “people are dying” and lawmakers are unable to get the public support for aid that they need because of the “lies.”

“And I’m tired of it because I didn’t come to this chamber to play games,” said Crockett, who described House Republicans as having “killed” the border bill.

“If they wanna do some work, let me tell you somethin’, the Democrats are ready and it seems like the Senate Republicans are ready, too. They just need to get to it and stop peddlin’ Putin’s lies.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/jasmine-crockett-exposes-gops-ukraine-080557113.html

If you don't know Jasmine is a former trial attorney and public defender from Texas. She sums them up the GOPQ perfectly
Peddlin Putin's lies..... yep

Russia is NOT our fucking friend . You brain dead MAGA trash should have paid attention in history class... what??? you skipped... yeah, well it is you that shouldn't be allowed to vote.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke to reporters during his weekly press conference on Tuesday and labeled himself a “wartime speaker” governing at a time “comparable to the Civil War.”
Johnson is facing a hardright revolt as the House is set to vote to pass additional military aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

“Look, we are in. We are in unprecedented times. Okay. We’re in dangerous times. This has been articulated here around the world and here at home. We need steady leadership. We need steady hands at the wheel. Look, I regard myself as a as a wartime speaker,” Johnson said, adding:

I mean, in a literal sense, we are. I knew that when I took the gavel. I didn’t anticipate that this would be easy path. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich posted a couple days ago on his social media that, this is the hardest challenge that’s faced a speaker, probably in the history of the country and the moment we’re in right now. He said, arguably, may be comparable to the Civil War, but maybe worse.

On Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) slammed Johnson for advancing spending bills and supporting the additional foreign aid. “I just told Mike Johnson in conference that I’m cosponsoring the Motion to Vacate that was introduced by @RepMTG. He should pre-announce his resignation (as Boehner did), so we can pick a new Speaker without ever being without a GOP Speaker,” Massie fumed online.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/johnson-labels-himself-a-wartime-speaker-facing-challenges-similar-to-the-civil-war-maybe-worse/

Ok... let's try to think this through.... the GOPQ has a section that doesn't like Israel.... the GOPQ has a section that doesn't like Ukraine and loves Putin.... the GOPQ has a section that will say defending Taiwan is not worth it...the GOPQ has a section of white nationalists..... but MAGA Mike Johnson is not a wartime Speaker..... mmmm let's see in addition to the Civil War (which the GOPQ wishes to reignite and 600,000 Americans died) there was WW1,WW2, Korea, VIETNAM. So why is it that all the MAGA trash wish to be thought of as a martyr and savior??? Because they ain't.

There are two Donald Trump criminal trials now taking place.

There’s the one in a Manhattan courtroom, where a judge, attorneys for both sides and prospective jurors are making strenuous efforts to lay the foundation of the fair trial to which the ex-president and every other citizen is entitled.

And there’s the imaginary trial that exists in Trump’s rhetoric, led by “heartless thugs” and a “very conflicted judge” who is “rushing the trial” that the presumptive GOP nominee claims is a “Biden inspired witch-hunt.”

In court on Tuesday, Trump made eye contact with potential jurors and was admonished by Judge Juan Merchan for muttering while one was questioned. But the surprisingly snappy pace of the process confounded initial expectations that putting on trial possibly the most famous man on Earth would be a laborious and prolonged process. While there were occasional moments of levity in the court and reminders that Trump’s status make him a defendant like none other, conversations that members of the jury pool had with the judge and defense lawyers and prosecutors hinted at the gravity of what will unfold in the coming weeks. One potential juror, for instance, noted: “This is real. This man’s life is on the line, the country’s on the line, this is serious.”

As Trump’s hush money trial quickened on its second, compelling day — with seven jurors seated — Trump stepped up efforts to discredit the proceedings and the legal system itself. He bolstered the argument that is both his primary defense and his main campaign message — that he’s a persecuted victim being prosecuted because he’s on course to win back the White House in November. The former president’s strategy encapsulates one of the most consequential challenges to the American courts system in modern memory — one that is likely to leave it tarnished in the eyes of tens of millions of his supporters whatever the jury decides. And it exemplifies the unprecedented circumstances of the first former president going on trial in the middle of an election campaign that is now running more through multiple court rooms than swing states.

But outside the courtroom, the former president raged, offering a skewed commentary on the good faith efforts inside.

When the search for 12 jurors plus alternates paused for the day, Trump motorcaded to a bodega uptown, to highlight what he says is rising crime faced by the owners of small stores that are often open all night and especially serve immigrant communities. Trump was in his element, waving to a crowd that chanted “Four more years” and “We love Trump,” as he belted out quotes that dripped with falsehoods about foreign nations emptying their prisons and asylums to send a tide of migrants to American cities.

Read the rest here https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/16/politics/donald-trump-trial-narrative-analysis/index.html

yes, the country is at stake because the insurrectionist orange piece of shit, if re-elected will not leave office and will ignore court rulings BEFORE 2028 BECAUSE he knows he is not leaving.

Today, the President and First Lady released their 2023 federal income tax return. After restoring the bipartisan tradition of sharing presidential tax returns with the public, President Biden has now shared a total of 26 years of tax returns with the country. Once again demonstrating his commitment to being transparent with the American people, President Biden has released the most tax returns of any commander-in-chief while in office.

President Biden believes that all occupants of the Oval Office should be open and honest with the American people, and that the longstanding tradition of annually releasing presidential tax returns should continue unbroken.

The President and First Lady filed their income tax return jointly and reported federal adjusted gross income of $619,976. They paid $146,629 in federal income tax, and their 2023 effective federal income tax rate is 23.7 percent.

The President and First Lady also reported contributions of $20,477 to 17 different charities. Among those gifts to charity was a $5,000 contribution to the Beau Biden Foundation, a public charity dedicated to ensuring that all children are free from the threat of abuse. They also donated to St. Joseph on the Brandywine, their home parish, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation, among other charities.

The President and First Lady also released their Delaware income tax return and reported paying $30,908 in Delaware income tax. The First Lady also released her Virginia income tax return and reported paying $3,549 in Virginia income tax.

View the President and First Lady’s tax returns here.

The Vice President and the Second Gentleman also released their 2023 federal income tax return, as well as state income tax returns for California and the District of Columbia. Including today’s release, the Vice President has published 20 years of tax returns.

The Vice President and the Second Gentleman reported federal adjusted gross income of $450,299. They paid $88,570 in federal income tax, amounting to a 2023 effective federal income tax rate of 19.7 percent. They also paid $15,167 in California income tax, and Mr. Emhoff paid $11,599 in District of Columbia income tax. They contributed $23,026 to charity in 2023.


https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/15/the-president-and-vice-president-release-their-2023-tax-returns-setting-new-record-for-transparency/

So Biden releases his tax returns. Mango never did. Why you may ask didn't Mango?I'm glad you asked. I'm guessing it's because of what he claims as losses and his deductions. Not to mention it might disclose that this overweight insurrectionist never donates a dime to charity. Just a guess.

By Conover Kennard — April 16, 2024
When Team Trump claims something is "fake news," you know it's legit. In this case, the Twice Impeached One's snoozing in court was observed by quite a few reporters, even by the Trump Whisperer Maggie Haberman. On top of that, Trump fell asleep in court again today during his criminal court proceedings, according to New York Courts reporter Frank Runyeon.

"Trump's head slowly dropped, his eyes closed," Runyeon posted on Xitter. "It jerked back upward. He adjusts himself. Then, his head droops again. He straightens up, leaning back. His head drops for a third time, he shakes his shoulders. Eyes closed still. His head drops. Finally, he pops his eyes open.

https://crooksandliars.com/2024/04/sleepy-dons-campaign-denies-thing-everyone#google_vignette

Well, it is difficult weighing 280 lbs and have a shortage of energy for all of us to see

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and prominent election denier, who unsuccessfully argued his rights were violated when FBI agents seized his phone in 2022.

The federal government was investigating the sharing of sensitive information from Colorado’s computerized voting systems. Lindell was a key ally of Donald Trump.

Lindell’s phone was seized while he was in the drive through lane of a Hardee’s restaurant in Minnesota, as Lindell was on his way home from a duck hunting trip.

“Lindell’s irritation as to where and how the government took possession of his cell phone does not give rise to a constitutional claim, let alone a showing of a callous disregard for his constitutional rights,” Judge Ralph Erickson of the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in decision last September.

The FBI had questioned Lindell about Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk in Colorado who was indicted in 2022 over accusations that she improperly permitted someone to copy access passwords and other files from a secure voting system and post them online, exposing the machines to hackers. Peters has argued the files posted online from the machines she supervised demonstrated flaws in the systems.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mypillow-ceo-mike-lindell-trump-140427532.html

Oh and his good buddy Mango Mussolini is in Court today for his first criminal trial.

A voter data expert who was hired by the Trump campaign in 2020 to look for voter fraud criticized claims by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) about election integrity Friday.

“Speaker Johnson is an attorney, and he should know better,” Ken Block told CNN anchor Jim Sciutto during a Friday appearance on “Erin Burnett OutFront”. “He should understand that hearsay evidence… what he’s talking about, does not stand up in court and it should not ever rise to the level that it is right now, where we’re impugning our election integrity and our infrastructure, based on hearsay, which is what he’s doing.”

Johnson has previously backed former President Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“I have just called President Trump to say this: ‘Stay strong and keep fighting, sir! The nation is depending upon your resolve. We must exhaust every available legal remedy to restore Americans’ trust in the fairness of our election system,” Johnson said in a post to social platform X the day after the 2020 election.

Johnson also headed up an amicus brief signed by more than 100 House Republicans backing a filed by Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court that aimed to overturn the 2020 election results in states including Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Johnson and Trump appeared together for a press conference at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where they unveiled a bill that would bar those who are not U.S. citizens from voting, something that is already illegal. In the press conference, Trump said Johnson is “doing a very good job” when asked about a motion to oust Johnson from his current role as Speaker by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

“I think he’s doing a very good job, he’s doing about as good as you’re going to do and I’m sure that Marjorie understands that,” he continued. “She’s a very good friend of mine and I know she has a lot of respect for the Speaker.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/voter-data-expert-hired-trump-144459131.html

Russian state-run media host recently referred to House Speaker Mike Johnson as "our Johnson" while discussing the continued stalling of military aid to Ukraine.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who ascended to the speakership after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy in October, has long pledged to put forward a bill to approve further rounds of military aid to Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. Such a bill has been routinely advocated for by President Joe Biden, with Ukrainian leaders warning that they will lose the war without it.
....
On Friday, Julia Davis, founder of the Russia Media Monitor watchdog group, shared a clip from one of the Moscow's state-run news programs, in which pundits touched on a planned meeting between Johnson and former President Donald Trump at the latter's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, with one guest suggesting that Trump's influence could be the deciding factor in the fate of further aid to Ukraine.

During the discussion, host Olga Skabeeva interjected into the conversation about the House speaker to say, "That would be our Johnson."

Meanwhile in Russia: state TV experts discussed Mike Johnson's meeting with Trump as the deciding factor in whether Ukraine will receive stalled US funding. Referring to Mike Johnson, state TV host Olga Skabeeva claimed him as "theirs," just like Trump.

https://crooksandliars.com/2024/04/russia-state-tv-claims-mike-johnson-our#google_vignette

and there you go the Russian wing of the GOPQ,,,,, you better wake the fuck up.... Putin is not going to stop

By Ed Scarce — April 12, 2024
If you're normal, you can understand why people were upset when a Republican came to the House floor and said that it was God's wrath after they expanded abortion access that caused the mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine.

Though they were made to apologize later for their remarks, Reps. Lemelin and Rudnicki had already made their point, however repulsive. America has a big Christofascist problem and unless it's addressed in a meaningful way these people won't stop until the United States is turned into a theocracy.

Read the entire thing here https://crooksandliars.com/2024/04/maine-republicans-censured-after-linking

And Mango will try to use the theocracy to his advantage. He has already stated within the past week that Christianity is under attack. I would say whats under attack is the GOPQ perversion of Christianity.

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has been sentenced to five months in jailfor lying under oath about his role in Donald Trump’s financial statements, according to The Associated Press.

Last month, Weisselberg pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury after reaching a deal with prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“Weisselberg looks forward to putting this situation behind him,” Seth L. Rosenberg, one of his lawyers, said at the time.

Weisselberg had falsely claimed during sworn depositions in July 2020 and May 2023 and his testimony in Trump’s civil fraud trial in October that he had no involvement in inflating the value of the former president’s Manhattan penthouse — one of the properties that is at the center of the case against Trump.

“I never even thought about the apartment. It was de minimis, in my mind,” Weisselberg said during the October trial. “It was not something that was that important to me when looking at a $6 billion, $5 billion net worth.”

But Forbes revealed both notes and past communications between him and the outlet in which Weisselberg tried to prop up the value of the apartment as early as 2012.

“A review of old emails and notes, some of which the attorney general’s office does not possess, show that Weisselberg absolutely thought about Trump’s apartment — and played a key role in trying to convince Forbes over the course of several years that it was worth more than it really was,” the report states.

Still, even though Weisselberg admitted to lying in all three depositions, he only pleaded guilty to charges with regards to his July 2020 testimony before Attorney General Letitia James’ office, who brought Trump’s civil fraud case, sparing him a potentially even longer sentence.

Separately, Weisselberg served about 100 days in Rikers Island after he was sentenced to five months in prison in January 2023 for avoiding taxes on about $1.7 million he received in off-the-books job perks. The judge had said he would be eligible for release after a little more than three months if he exhibited good behavior. He had previously pleaded guilty to 15 counts he was charged with after he came to an agreement with prosecutors.

Weisselberg has worked for Trump’s family since 1973 when he was employed as an accountant for the former president’s father, Fred Trump, before going on to work with Donald Trump.

Despite his legal challenges, he has continued to stand by the former president and has failed to directly implicate him.

After leaving the Trump Organization, he came to an agreement to receive a $2 million in a severance package as long as he didn’t cooperate with any probes unless he was legally compelled to. The company is also footing his legal bills.

Weisselberg is not expected to be a witness in Trump’s hush money case set to begin later this month. The former president was indicted for falsifying business records in regards to hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the leadup to the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/allen-weisselberg-sentenced-lying-under-134757068.html

About a half-hour before the Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month in Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the case that’s become the Christian right’s next big bet on ending abortion in the United States, a cluster of anti-abortion activists gathered on the court’s steps to call for the prosecution of people who have obtained mifepristone—a drug used in more than 60 percent of abortions in this country—through the mail. Several men in the group held signs specifically urging the enforcement of the Comstock Act, a 151-year-old anti-obscenity law that was used at the turn of the twentieth century to arrest people for sharing information and items used for abortion and contraception, such as mailing educational pamphlets or medical supplies. One sign quoted Matthew Kacsmaryk, the federal judge in Texas who originally heard the mifepristone challenge: “The Comstock Act plainly forecloses mail-order abortion.”

While that law remains on the books, and some of its scope was narrowed substantially over the past century by court rulings and Congress, the Comstock Act was presumed to be a dead letter with 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision. Some of those provisions remain, including those that could be used to target abortion. So why, I asked the group, enforce it now? “The Comstock Act was about, uh, remember Margaret Sanger?” one of them said. Sanger, a founder of Planned Parenthood, in 1916 had her birth control clinics raided and was criminally charged under New York state’s version of the law. Did they think it’s OK to arrest people like that, and to jail people for sending the abortion pill? They wouldn’t answer me.

These men’s position—and reticence when challenged about it—is not unusual any more among anti-abortion activists. In a matter of months, the notion that the Comstock Act should be revived is now finding support among not just activists but lawmakers, and they’re just as unwilling to acknowledge what enforcement of the law would mean: arresting people for having or helping people have abortions.

In March, 145 Republican members of Congress signed onto an amicus brief in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine supporting this use of the Comstock Act to prohibit the mailing of mifepristone. Their brief alleges that the Comstock Act is still enforceable and that the FDA was “blatantly disregarding the federal law’s prohibition on the mailing and interstate shipment of abortion-inducing drugs.” Like the anti-abortion activists outside the court, I asked a sample of the higher-profile members of Congress who signed the brief for more specifics about how they believe the Comstock Act could and should be enforced. Senators Katie Britt, Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley were each asked whether they support using the Comstock Act “to prosecute those who obtain mifepristone through the mail—including those who use the pill for the purpose of self-managing their own abortion.” Representatives Robert Aderholt, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, and Elise Stefanik were asked the same question. None responded.

The purpose of these members’ brief was to support the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, or AHM, the anti-abortion group that brought the mifepristone challenge. They are represented by a Christian-right group called Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, a veteran of anti-abortion litigation at the Supreme Court, including the Dobbs case, which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Far from signaling that anti-abortion groups were done, Dobbs set the stage for the mifepristone case. In fact, AHM was legally incorporated not long after Dobbs, and as The New Republic has reported, the group appears to exist largely to overturn the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. There are several named plaintiffs in the case, such as Indiana state Senator Tyler Johnson, an anti-abortion activist who has worked with ADF to pass anti-trans legislation in his state. AHM’s legal challenge pushes anti-abortion pseudoscience to argue that the FDA carelessly approved mifepristone. They further allege that the FDA approved a means of dispensing the drug that violates federal law—by permitting mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth.

This second claim is what the amicus brief from 145 members of Congress takes up, supporting the notion that the FDA approved mifepristone in defiance of the Comstock Act’s prohibitions. Congress has “decreed,” their brief states, “that abortion-inducing drugs are ‘nonmailable matter’ and prohibited their shipment by the United States Postal Service and common carriers, protecting women and girls from the heightened risks of mail-order chemical abortion drugs.” For this, they cite two provisions of the Comstock Act barring the mailing, transportation, or importation of “obscene matter,” which the Act defines expansively and broadly. Such “matter” includes: “every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose.” This could potentially apply to everyone involved in medication abortion: the drug manufacturer (something Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas seemed to support at oral argument), the distributors, the health care providers, and the people who use the drug. If federal prosecutors brought cases under the provisions these members of Congress say should be enforced, sending or receiving mifepristone through the mail could potentially result in five years in prison.

This brief is not an isolated argument. These members of Congress who are arguing that the Comstock Act already prohibits mailing mifepristone are also advancing a larger plan openly advocated by the Christian right: to get a friendly attorney general to enforce Comstock as a national abortion ban. While their chosen candidate is getting scrutinized for whether he would sign a federal abortion ban, groups like the Heritage Foundation, along with Alliance Defending Freedom and more than 100 allied groups, are already rallying support for using the Comstock Act to immediately put into motion what they likely couldn’t win in Congress. As one anti-abortion attorney told The Atlantic recently, “Federal bans can’t pass,” but they don’t need to with Comstock already on the books. Among the ideas he floated for enforcing the Comstock Act? As the reporter paraphrased them, “The administration could kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid by saying that the women’s health care provider violates the act, he suggested. It could launch criminal investigations into abortion funds and abortion-pill distribution networks.”

This Republican-backed campaign to revive the Comstock Act as a national abortion ban is happening right in the open, but Democrats have not sufficiently acknowledged this threat. After Dobbs, the Department of Justice did issue legal guidance on abortion medications and the Comstock Act, stating that the law did not necessarily prohibit the mailing of the drugs. This week, a Biden campaign manager sent a memo to the press, noting that Trump’s advisers intend to use Comstock as a national abortion ban. That’s about it. There’s little open resistance from Democrats in Congress, with the notable exception of Representative Cori Bush, who called for repealing Comstock in March. The Washington Post editorial board voiced its support for a repeal as well. “Democrats should lead that effort while they still control the Senate and the White House,” they wrote earlier this month. “Let House Republicans refuse to consider a bill, or the Senate GOP filibuster one, and explain to voters why they oppose eliminating even the theoretical chance people could get up to five years in prison (the maximum penalty for a first offense) for shipping mifepristone.”

We know where at least 145 Republican members of Congress stand on that question. Momentum is, so far, with them. They don’t have to do anything but get someone in the White House who’s willing to enforce their new favorite old law.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/won-t-admit-comstock-act-100000156.html

And you will be hearing more

When Arizona’s state Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a near-total abortion ban on the books since 1864, Kari Lake, the leading GOP candidate for Senate in the swing state, came out forcefully against the decision.

“I wholeheartedly agree with [former] President [Donald] Trump — this is a very personal issue that should be determined by each individual state and her people,” Lake said in a statement that noted her status as the “only woman and mother” in the Senate race. “I oppose today’s ruling, and I am calling on [Arizona Gov.] Katie Hobbs and the State Legislature to come up with an immediate common sense solution that Arizonans can support.”

But in February 2022, when Lake appeared at a candidate forum while running for governor, her thoughts on the near-total ban were much different.

“We have a great law on the books right now,” Lake said of the old law, which had become unenforceable under Roe v. Wade. A month later, Arizona passed a 15-week ban in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s decision ultimately overturning abortion protections.

If Roe v. Wade was struck down, Lake said at the time, “we will be a state where we will not be taking the lives of our unborn anymore.”

Lake changed her position in February of this year when she told NBC News she supported the state’s 15-week abortion ban, rather than the 1864 measure known as the “territorial law” because it predates Arizona’s statehood. Arizona re-codified the ban, which only offers an exception for the life of the mother, in 1912, after it was admitted to the Union. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest, and doctors found guilty of performing the procedure face up to five years in prison.

Lake’s flip is one of the most glaring among the several Republican Senate contenders who are hoping voters won’t remember their more extreme stances from earlier in their careers, before the Supreme Court ignited a ferocious political backlash with its overturn of Roe v. Wade’s guarantee of abortion rights.

It also shows just how potent the issue of abortion rights could be in determining the presidential and Senate races in Arizona, a key swing state dominated by suburban voters. Lake is set to face Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in a battle to replace retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent, in November.

Lake may find it hard to walk back the public instances of her supporting the 1864 law as she runs for Senate.

“I think the older law is going to go into effect ― that’s what I believe will happen,” Lake predicted during a GOP debate in July 2022.

The debate moderator followed up: “OK, but you approve of that — at conception?”

“I believe that life begins at conception,” Lake responded, suggesting she had no problem with the territorial law’s complete ban on the procedure.

The Arizona abortion ruling will not take effect right away. The Arizona Supreme Court issued a stay until a lower court can weigh in on additional questions about its constitutionality.

But the political fallout has been immediate. The ruling is expected to turbocharge Democratic efforts to put a measure on the ballot seeking to codify abortion rights in the state constitution, a push that began well before Tuesday’s ruling. Arizona for Abortion Access says it’s already collected enough signatures for the constitutional amendment ahead of the July deadline.

Republicans went from confronting a potentially challenging election year to one that could be catastrophic. The fate of a U.S. Senate majority for Republicans, as well as a return to the White House, may hinge on how the GOP does in Arizona, with further ramifications down the ballot.

“This is a political earthquake that if not fixed by the legislature will cost Republicans seats in November,” said Barrett Marson, a GOP consultant in Arizona. “If the status quo remains the same, this is a huge problem for Republicans up and down the ballot ... Yesterday, Democrats had a real chance to flip one of the houses in the [state] legislature. Now I think both houses go Democrat. Kari Lake was going to be competitive — maybe. Now, I think she’s done.”

Arizona Democrats wasted no time tying Lake to the decision, even as she tried to distance herself from it.

Gallego cited Lake’s description of the 1864 ban as a “great law.”

“Yet again, extremist politicians like Kari Lake are forcing themselves into doctors’ offices and ripping away the right for women to make their own healthcare decisions,” Gallego said in a statement. “Lake called this a ‘great law’ – even though it will ban nearly all abortions, including in cases of rape or incest.”

“Here in Arizona, we support a woman’s right to an abortion — which is why I am going to defeat Kari Lake and fight like hell to protect abortion rights once and for all,” he added.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/kari-lake-wants-forget-she-221100335.html

Seems she is taking a page from Mango who has said it is up to the States. Don't believe a word either has to say. One more thing... for 50 years under Roe v Wade the GOPQ has said it should be states rights. The states should decide. Now Lindsay Graham ,GOPQ Senator from South Carolina, believes there should be a Federal law banning it and then there is MAGA TRASH U.S. senator J.D. Vance from Ohio who says some issues are to important to be left to voters when discussing state abortion rights. Vance is being mentioneed as a possible V.P. to Mango. And there are more of the GOPQ Senators and congressmen who feel that way.

Far-right provocateur Jacob Wohl and lobbyist Jack Burkman have a history of promoting conspiracy theories, unsuccessfully trying to frame public figures for made-up sexual assaults, and saying fraudulent things. Now they have to pay more than $1 million for a robocall scheme meant to discourage Black voters during the 2020 election.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has reached a settlement with the pair, who were found to have violated the Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act by a New York federal judge in 2023. Wohl and Burkman have been ordered to pay “up to $1.25 million” in the deal.

“The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, and it belongs to everyone,” James said in a statement released on Tuesday. “We will not allow anyone to threaten that right. Wohl and Burkman orchestrated a depraved and disinformation-ridden campaign to intimidate Black voters in an attempt to sway the election in favor of their preferred candidate.”

The calls, directed at areas with predominantly Black populations, made wild claims during the summer of 2020 about how voting by mail was unsafe. The robocalls insisted that voting by mail would put people’s personal data at risk of being used by local law enforcement to track old warrants, used by credit card companies to collect debts, and even used to make a database for “mandatory vaccines.” The robocalls mentioned Burkman and Wohl by name, making it easy for authorities to connect the effort to the pair.

Tuesday’s settlement is not the only legal consequence the two face for their voter intimidation efforts, which also affected Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and several other states. In June 2023, the Federal Communications Commission fined Burkman and Wohl $5,134,500 for the scheme, the largest penalty ever at the time it was proposed under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. In Ohio, Burkman and Wohl were each sentenced to community service, $2,500 fines, and probation. In Michigan, the case is pending before the state Supreme Court.

If the pair fail to pay at least $105,000 of the fine to the New York attorney general’s office, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and people harmed by the scheme by December 31, 2024, the fine’s amount will increase to $1.25 million.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/letitia-james-scores-again-nails-202616427.html

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in a 4-2 decision that a 150-year-old law criminalizing almost all abortions can go into effect, according to a Tuesday court filing.

The law would override a previous 15-week abortion ban in the state, which went into effect in March 2022. The 19th-century law has been stayed for 14 days, allowing for a lower court to hear additional arguments. But if allowed to go into effect, it would be a near-total ban, making exceptions only in the case that the pregnant person’s life is threatened. Health care providers who perform abortions could face prison time of between two and five years.

An October 2022 order from the Maricopa County Superior Court requires a delay of 45 days after a mandate in the case is issued before the 1864 law can go into effect.

Citing that order, Planned Parenthood Arizona said in an emailed statement that it will continue to provide abortions for pregnant patients up to the 15-week mark for an unspecified period of time.

The 1864 law is set to face legal challenges if it goes into effect.

State Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, stated that during her term, “no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state.” Mayes said the ruling was “unconscionable” and “an affront to freedom.”

Several reproductive rights groups in a coalition called Arizona for Abortion Access are pushing forward with a ballot initiative that would allow voters to choose whether language guaranteeing abortion access up to 24 weeks of pregnancy should be added to the state’s constitution. Exceptions could be made after the 24-week mark if a provider finds that an abortion would “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”

The groups, which include the state’s Planned Parenthood and American Civil Liberties Union affiliates, have successfully collected the required signatures to get the initiative on the ballot.

An August 2023 poll by Indivisible and Data For Progress, two progressive organizations, suggests that 60% of Arizonans consider themselves “pro-choice.”

“Today’s ruling is devastating. It’s also wildly out of step with where Arizona voters are at. Arizona Republicans in the courts and in public office have been playing political football with abortion rights, and voters are tired of it,” Mari Urbina, managing director at Indivisible, said in a statement. “The only course now is going directly to the voters to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.”

Since the Dobbs decision in June 2022 overturned the landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, abortion has been banned in at least 14 states.

“Today’s decision to allow Arizona’s archaic, near-total abortion ban to be enforced is devastating for reproductive freedom,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said.

“We have already seen the effect of similar bans in states like Texas and Oklahoma, where some patients have been unable to get care even when their lives are at risk and health care providers fear criminalization,” McGill Johnson said. “This is untenable, and it is not what the majority of Arizonans want.”

Angela Florez, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said in an email to HuffPost that the ban would disproportionately affect people from marginalized communities and would set Arizona back by nearly 150 years.

“We know that today’s ruling does not reflect the will of the people, as Arizonans are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion access,” Florez said. “Instead, it is the latest card in anti-abortion extremists’ deck of cruel and harmful tactics to strip Arizonans of their right to live under a rule of law that respects our bodily autonomy and reproductive decisions.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris each condemned the ruling.

“This cruel ban was first enacted in 1864 ― more than 150 years ago, before Arizona was even a state and well before women had secured the right to vote,” Biden said. “This ruling is a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.”

Harris largely blamed former President Donald Trump, who has taken credit for overturning Roe v. Wade.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/arizona-supreme-court-abortion-law_n_661579b6e4b07b7205f16f94

Well nothing like these Republicans who want to go back to the 19th fucking century. And on that note have you heard of the Comstock Act of 1873..? You will... Seems there is a move among Trumpists to get the coming DOJ under Mango to enforce it. It criminalizes any mailing and I presume shipping of any sort of ANY item used to effectuate an abortion.... any item

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PrinceOfTheDamned
02:29 Apr 10 2024

I heard about this earlier today. Really sucks. Hopefully it isn't completely banned in Arizona!

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POST COMMENT

By Frances Langum — April 8, 2024
Oh look, it turns out Mar-a-Lago isn't the only Palm Beach institution run by a lunatic.

Trinity Christian Academy is in the midst of a firestorm because their "pastor" thinks the practice of celebrating love and tolerance for people with autism is somehow not only anti-Christian, but "demonic." Palm Beach Post:

Trinity Christian Academy pastor Matt Baker wrote in the email to families March 30 that he was canceling the week's dress up days because, he argued, the events encouraged students to prioritize other identities above their faith in Jesus Christ.

"If Jesus Christ led Trinity, would HE have an Autism Awareness Week? Of course not! Why? Because anything that exalts itself above the name of Christ should be brought down," Baker wrote.

"The world, in its rejection and hatred of Christ, often devises programs such as 'Autism Awareness' (and cultural figures like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, etc.) to get the benefits of His teachings (compassion, kindness, feeling love, and self-worth) without acknowledging Jesus as the ultimate authority and the source of all life," he wrote in the email to the school.

Parents of children with autism, of whom there are more than one at TrinityChristian Academy, are pulling their children from the school.

And Pastor Baker is getting that attention he wanted. God Bless.

https://crooksandliars.com/2024/04/parents-revolt-pastor-calls-autism

Hard to believe this is 2024. Hard to believe that in addition to this lunatic man of the cloth there are elected members of congress who believe that earthquakes and eclipses are religious signs of something. I'm willing to bet this guy worships at the altar of the orange jesus.

Note, this is happening in Duhsantis Florida

A CRUEL hunter allegedly paraded a tortured wolf around a bar before he took it outside and killed it with his gun.

The terrified creature appears in a sickening image cowering with sunken eyes and its mouth taped tightly shut.

Cody Roberts, 42, was fined $250 for being in possession of the live wolf but it was not illegal to kill it, sparking outrage from animal rights activists.

Roberts posed with the traumatised animal, flashing a toothy grin while hooking his arm around its neck and raising a can of beer.

The wolf was already injured before Roberts ran it over with a snowmobile.

He reportedly dragged it through the Green River Bar as regulars swilled beer before taking it behind the bar, torturing it and killing it.

Jeanne Ivie-Roberts, a family member of Roberts, re-enacted the disturbing scene with a wolf skin in the same bar.

She posted photos to Facebook of herself with her mouth taped shut, just like the wolf, while holding the skin in front of her.

Ivie-Roberts wrote in another post after Roberts' picture went viral: "I love and support you Cody".

She also celebrated the news that animal cruelty laws didn't apply to Roberts' case, and another family member claimed they were getting death threats.


https://www.the-sun.com/news/11032258/cruel-hunter-parades-tortured-wolf-animal/

Let me make it clear... I hope the same fate befalls this guy. Such an All American fucking hero.

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Ravefox
13:30 Apr 09 2024

that could be arranged

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Disenchantment
13:44 Apr 09 2024

Well that shit bag sounds like a real piece of work. SMH

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Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) shook up the internet on Friday by suggesting the earthquake in New York and Monday’s pending eclipse were messages from God to repent.

The Georgia Republican took to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday and suggested that there was a higher meaning behind the natural phenomena.

he even dropped the G-word in her post.

“God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent,” she wrote. “Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marjorie-taylor-greene-earthquake-tweet-mockery_n_6610370be4b04fa3961491b4

ok... cuckoo...cuckooo...cuckoooo

Dan Rather has hit out at Donald Trump in a scathing social-media post, dubbing the former president a "vile man."

The veteran journalist took to X, formerly Twitter, to explain why he "vehemently" opposes the business mogul. "It's not about politics. I've voted for both parties," Rather told his 2.6 million followers on Wednesday.

"It's about me, as a patriot, rejecting a cheating, lying, racist, treasonous, fascist, and vile man who attacks the free press, and wants to lead the country I love," Rather added. "It's really that simple."

Since being shared, Rather's post has received almost 700,000 views. Newsweek has reached out to Dan Rather and Donald Trump for comment via email.


https://www.newsweek.com/dan-rather-donald-trump-x-twitter-vile-man-1886815

Well Dan summed it up nicely. I would add piece of shit to the description of Mango.

And anyone who votes for Mango has the same fucking words applied to them.

When I saw the news that the stock price of Truth Social went into freefall after the company initally went public for $8 billion, I immediately sent a joke to a friend text circle: "Whoever allowed the contract to keep Trump from dumping the stock until 6 months post-sale is gonna be covered in ketchup." Shortly after it was released, the company's stock soared to $70 a share, initially meaning Trump, on paper at least, had netted $3 billion in wealth. But Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, told CNN he was "confident the stock price will eventually drop to $2 a share and could even go below that," because Truth Social's business model is not conducive to profit.

"The large mismatch between stock price and stock value will sorely tempt the cash-poor Trump to sell off a significant portion of his shares, in a potential maneuver that I believe I am the first to label 'Trump and dump,'" Timothy Noah of the New Republic joked. "Pump and dump is an unethical practice where influential figures talk up a stock they own a lot of shares in, artificially inflating the value, and then sell it off for a major profit before the rubes realize they bought a lemon. Because Trump is contractually obliged not to sell his shares yet, he's watching the value slide downhill before he can cash in, while other hustlers openly brag to Reuters they used the blind loyalty of Trump fans to pull off the pump-and-dump.

One investor bragged he bought at $35 when the stock first released, waited "for Trump's fan base to hear about it," which doubled its value, and then dumped it. Because of these shenanigans, Trump's already lost a billion of his initial $3 billion valuation.

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

We do not know yet how many ketchup bottles lost their lives due to Trump's anger over this, but he's found a public way to lash out at his underlings: He's suing them.

In a lawsuit filed right before public SEC filings showed Truth Social lost $58 million last year, Trump tried to push the blame onto his co-founders, two former "Apprentice" contestants named Wes Moss and Andy Litinsky. It is true the two only managed to get, as Noah calculated, fewer than 2% of MAGA Republicans to create accounts. But still, they managed to make Trump $2 billion richer (on paper), while also giving him an outlet to whine incoherently for hours a day. That is, of course, how it goes: Bend over backward to help Trump out, and he will thank you by coating you in rage-ketchup.

Trump regularly offers paeans to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, holding a ceremony to honor those who are facing legal consequences for their criminal efforts to help him overthrow the government. Sometimes he even promises pardons. All this is done for a nakedly obvious purpose: To convince followers to risk their own skins in the future on Trump's behalf. But it's telling that Trump never offers any material support to the over 1,300 people who have been charged with crimes. Despite his claims to be a "billionaire," he hasn't paid their legal bills or helped their families after they lost their jobs. He loves to get publicly maudlin about Ashli Babbitt, the insurrectionist shot by Capitol police, but he didn't offer to say, cut back a little on his golf club budget to pay for Babbitt's funeral.

Wednesday, yet another Jan. 6 defendant was convicted. Taylor James Johnatakis got 7 years in federal prison for carrying a megaphone and barking orders at rioters as they attacked police. "In any angry mob, there are leaders and there are followers. Mr. Johnatakis was a leader," the judge said, correctly. But it's also true that Johnatakis was following the lead of Trump. Maybe he'll be included in Trump's future public singalongs about the so-called J6 hostages. But he certainly didn't get a dime of support from Trump during his criminal trial.

All of this fake support for people who commit crimes for him seems to have bamboozled Tyler Vogel, 26, of Lancaster, New York. Last week, Vogel was arrested by Erie County authorities for texting threats to New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York Justice Arthur Engoron, who prosecuted and presided over Trump's civil case for committing decades of fraud in New York. "Mark my words I will kill you if you even dare to permanently steal Donald Trumps assets or his property," Vogel texted after Trump lost the case, incurring a fine of nearly half a billion dollars.

Not that Vogel deserves an ounce of sympathy, but this is yet another pitiful example of someone throwing everything away for a man who would not give them a penny if they were starving. It's especially pathetic to see someone give up his freedom to defend Trump's "right" to keep private jets and golf courses that were obtained through decades of fraud. Trump has been on social media for months, unsubtly begging his supporters to get violent against law enforcement trying to hold him accountable. But we can all guess how much he'll do for this one guy who did what his orange god-emperor asked of him: Absolutely nothing. Yet that reality never seems to breach thick MAGA skulls, where the faith that Trump cares about them — despite daily evidence he does not — seems immovable.

When is the last time Trump even bothered to call Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, who put his considerable fortune to work paying for what Trump would not: Various efforts to validate the Big Lie and rally support for Trump's coup? Lindell's once-mighty linens empire was delivered another humiliating blow last week when his company was evicted from a Minnesota building after falling behind $200,000 on rent. The month before, Lindell was hit with a $5 million judgment, owed to a software engineer who entered Lindell's "Prove Mike Wrong Challenge," in which Lindell claimed no one could debunk his supposed "evidence" that President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election from Trump. But the "data" Lindell claimed to have appears to be random nonsense that has nothing to do with the election.

Good luck to that engineer ever seeing a penny of what's owed. Lindell hasn't been paying his lawyers and had MyPillow ads removed from Fox News for non-payment. He's also facing a massive defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which already won a similar lawsuit against Fox News for airing false claims that the company was part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election. Dominion is seeking over $1 billion in damages. Trump's minion Rudy Giuliani has also gone broke in his push to help Trump steal the election. He finally filed bankruptcy in December, after losing a defamation lawsuit, to the tune of $148 million, for false accusations aimed at two random election workers in Georgia.

MAGA never learns, though.

After months of insisting to the press that she would prevail in court, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake declined to defend herself against a defamation lawsuit filed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican official she's been lying about for years in her efforts to pretend the 2022 election was stolen from her. The reason she backed down, of course, is the same reason Giuliani eventually did. And it's the same reason why Infowars host Alex Jones refused to cooperate in the defamation lawsuits he lost: They know the evidence they lied is so overwhelming it's impossible to argue against it.

Considering that a jury will soon decide how much Lake owes Richer for lying about him, you'd think she'd shut up and start performing the remorse she is clearly incapable of feeling. Instead, she's out there talking smack about him, releasing a video where she openly gaslights him with, "Show me on a doll where my words hurt you" and offering to pay him for a "therapy dog." Richer has documented the death threats against him and his family, for which people are still getting arrested.

It seems that MAGA people believe they are endowed with the impunity that Trump has so long enjoyed, due to his wealth and status. It is repulsively true that Trump wriggles out of consequences for his crimes time and time again. But that is because he is a master at finding someone else to take the fall for him, from the January 6 defendants to his former lawyer Michael Cohen to Fox News and Rudy Giuliani. Loyalty to Trump doesn't mean getting a piece of his unbelievable levels of undeserved privilege. It just means being the next in line to be thrown under the bus as Trump escapes accountability yet again.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/evicted-arrested-being-sued-boss-100005281.html

yep Kari Lake has admitted she defamed and awaits a trial on money damages and Pillow guy has been evicted from his Minnesota location. lol

Despite what Donald Trump said at a Michigan event on Tuesday, the family of homicide victim Ruby Garcia told ABC News that the former president has not spoken to them.

"I can confirm and assure you he did not speak with me or my immediate family," Mavi Garcia, Ruby Garcia's sister, told ABC's Rachel Scott.

The Trump campaign declined to comment on the record about the contradiction, but sources insisted they don't share details of who they spoke with and what was said during private meetings unless given explicit permission by the families involved.

Trump on Tuesday in Grand Rapids used his speech to highlight Garcia's recent death as he attacked immigrants who enter the country illegally.

Police have said she was dating the suspect and described the killing last month as a domestic dispute, according to the Associated Press.

The suspected killer entered the country illegally from Mexico, according to border officials.

Trump called Garcia, who was 25, a "beautiful young woman [who] was savagely murdered by an illegal alien criminal."

He directly blamed President Joe Biden for the death of Garcia, claiming the suspect was deported under his administration but then was let back into the country under Biden.

But an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said in a statement that the suspect actually re-entered the U.S. after deportation "at an unknown date and location."

Trump also said on Tuesday that he had spoken with some of Garcia's family: "They said she had just the most contagious laughter and when she walked into a room, she lit up that room, and I've heard that from so many people."

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/ruby-garcias-family-disputes-trump-140000296.html

In a pair of significant decisions Monday, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a 15-week ban on abortion in the state while also allowing a proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution to appear on the November ballot.

The conservative-leaning court's decision on the 15-week ban also means that a six-week abortion ban, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the woman, that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law last year will take effect.

But the bench's ruling to allow the constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot this fall means voters will have a chance in just seven months to undo those restrictions.

Republicans have made multiple moves over the nearly two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade to restrict access to abortion.

In 2022, DeSantis, a Republican, signed a 15-week abortion ban passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature that was almost immediately challenged in court.

Then, in April 2023, just weeks before he announced his presidential campaign, he signed a ban after six weeks — before many women even know they're pregnant — which was also immediately challenged.

In reviewing the initial challenge to the 15-week ban, the state Supreme Court had said the six-week ban would remain blocked until it ruled on the 15-week proposal.

In its ruling Monday, the court’s justices wrote in a majority opinion, “Consistent with longstanding principles of judicial deference to legislative enactments, we conclude there is no basis under the Privacy Clause to invalidate” the 15-week statute.

They added that Planned Parenthood, the plaintiff, “cannot overcome the presumption of constitutionality and is unable to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the 15-week ban is unconstitutional.”

As a result, the justices concluded, the “six-week ban will take effect in thirty days.”

At the same time, their ruling on the proposed amendment will allow Florida voters to effectively decide whether to keep the six-week ban in effect.

read it here https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/florida-supreme-court-abortion-rights-ballot-measure-rcna142568

ok for those that don't know duhsantis appointed 3 ultra conservative justices. Prior to that the Privacy provision in the Fla. Constitution was held to allow a woman's right to an abortion/her medical treatment. That has now been overruled. However, this Court in a 4-3 vote allowed the Constitutional Amendment on abortion to be placed on the ballot in Nov. 2024. The newest justices,appointed by the Fla. governor voted AGAINST allowing that amendment on the ballot. The A.G. of Florida tried to keep it off the ballot. It takes a super majority of 60% in Florida to pass a Constitutional Amendment to the Florida Constitution.

One other thing some of those same justices will be on the ballot themselves.

Long known for his improvised and volatile stage performances, former President Donald Trump now tends to finish his rallies on a solemn note.

Soft, reflective music fills the venue as a hush falls over the crowd. Trump’s tone turns reverent and somber, prompting some supporters to bow their heads or close their eyes. Others raise open palms in the air or murmur as if in prayer.

In this moment, Trump’s audience is his congregation, and the former president their pastor as he delivers a roughly 15-minute finale that evokes an evangelical altar call, the emotional tradition that concludes some Christian services in which attendees come forward to commit to their savior.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

“The great silent majority is rising like never before and under our leadership,” he recites from a teleprompter in a typical version of the script. “We will pray to God for our strength and for our liberty. We will pray for God and we will pray with God. We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation under God.”

The meditative ritual might appear incongruent with the raucous epicenter of the nation’s conservative movement, but Trump’s political creed stands as one of the starkest examples of his effort to transform the Republican Party into a kind of Church of Trump. His insistence on absolute devotion and fealty can be seen at every level of the party, from Congress to the Republican National Committee to rank-and-file voters.

Trump’s ability to turn his supporters’ passion into piety is crucial to understanding how he remains the undisputed Republican leader despite guiding his party to repeated political failures and while facing dozens of felony charges in four criminal cases. His success at portraying those prosecutions as persecutions — and warning, without merit, that his followers could be targeted next — has fueled enthusiasm for his candidacy and placed him, once again, in a position to capture the White House.

‘He’s Definitely Been Chosen by God’

Trump has long defied conventional wisdom as an unlikely but irrefutable evangelical hero.

He has been married three times, has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault, has been convicted of business fraud and has never showed much interest in church services. Last week, days before Easter, he posted on his social media platform an infomercial-style video hawking a $60 Bible that comes with copies of some of the nation’s founding documents and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the USA.”

But while Trump is eager to maintain the support of evangelical voters and portray his presidential campaign as a battle for the nation’s soul, he has mostly been careful not to speak directly in messianic terms.

“This country has a savior, and it’s not me — that’s someone much higher up than me,” Trump said in 2021 from the pulpit at First Baptist Church in Dallas, whose congregation exceeds 14,000 people.

Still, he and his allies have inched closer to the Christ comparison.

Last year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a close Trump ally, said both the former president and Jesus had been arrested by “radical, corrupt governments.” On Saturday, Trump shared an article on social media with the headline “The Crucifixion of Donald Trump.”

He is also the latest in a long line of Republican presidents and presidential candidates who have prioritized evangelical voters. But many conservative Christian voters believe Trump outstripped his predecessors in delivering for them, pointing especially to the conservative majority he installed on the Supreme Court that overturned federal abortion rights.

Trump won an overwhelming majority of evangelical voters in his first two presidential races, but few — even among his rally crowds — explicitly compare him to Jesus.

Instead, the Trumpian flock is more likely to describe him as a modern version of Old Testament heroes like Cyrus or David, morally flawed figures hand-picked by God to lead profound missions aimed at achieving overdue justice or resisting existential evil.

“He’s definitely been chosen by God,” said Marie Zere, a commercial real estate broker from Long Island, New York, who attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in February outside Washington, D.C. “He’s still surviving even though all these people are coming after him, and I don’t know how else to explain that other than divine intervention.”

For some of Trump’s supporters, the political attacks and legal peril he faces are nothing short of biblical.

“They’ve crucified him worse than Jesus,” said Andriana Howard, 67, who works as a restaurant food runner in Conway, South Carolina.

A Political Weapon and Vulnerability

Trump’s solid and devoted core of voters has formed one of the most durable forces in U.S. politics, giving him a clear advantage over President Joe Biden when it comes to inspiring supporters.

Forty-eight percent of Republican primary voters are enthusiastic about Trump becoming the Republican nominee, and 32% are satisfied but not enthusiastic with that outcome, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. Just 23% of Democrats said they were enthusiastic about Biden as their nominee, and 43% were satisfied but not enthusiastic.

The intensity of the most committed Trump backers has also factored into the former president’s campaign decisions, according to two people familiar with internal deliberations. His team’s ability to bank on voters who will cast a ballot with little additional prompting means that some of the cash that would otherwise be spent on turnout operations can be invested in field staff, television ads or other ways to help Trump.

But Democrats see an advantage, too. Much of Biden’s support comes from voters deeply opposed to Trump, and the president’s advisers see an opportunity to spook moderate swing voters into supporting Biden by casting Trump’s movement as a cultlike creation bent on restricting abortion rights and undermining democracy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a top Democratic ally of Biden, pointed to an increasingly aggressive online presence from the president’s reelection campaign, which has sought to portray Trump as prone to religious extremism.

“There’s a huge opportunity here,” Newsom said in an interview. “Trump is so easily defined, and he reinforces that definition over and over and over again. And Biden has a campaign that can weaponize that now.”

‘Does He Really Care About Evangelicals? I Don’t Know.’

Trump’s braiding of politics and religion is hardly a new phenomenon. Christianity has long exerted a strong influence on American government, with most voters identifying as Christians even as the country grows more secular. According to Gallup, 68% of adults said they were Christian in 2022, down from 91% in 1948.

But as the former president tries to establish himself as the one, true Republican leader, religious overtones have pervaded his third presidential campaign.

Benevolently phrased fundraising emails in his name promise unconditional love amid solicitations for contributions of as little as $5.

Even more than in his past campaigns, he is framing his 2024 bid as a fight for Christianity, telling a convention of Christian broadcasters that “just like in the battles of the past, we still need the hand of our Lord.”

On his social media platform in recent months, Trump has shared a courtroom-style sketch of himself sitting next to Jesus and a video that repeatedly proclaims, “God gave us Trump” to lead the country.

The apparent effectiveness of such tactics has made Trump the nation’s first major politician to successfully separate character from policy for religious voters, said John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University, an evangelical school in Pennsylvania.

“Trump has split the atom between character and policy,” Fea said. “He did it because he’s really the first one to listen to their grievances and take them seriously. Does he really care about evangelicals? I don’t know. But he’s built a message to appeal directly to them.”

Support From Local Pastors

Trump rallies have always been something of a cross between a rock concert and a tent revival. When Trump first started winding down his rallies with the ambient strains, many connected them to similar theme music from the QAnon conspiracy movement, but the campaign distanced itself from that notion.

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, said in a statement: “President Trump has used the end of his speeches to draw a clear contrast to the last four years of Joe Biden’s disastrous presidency and lay out his vision to get America back on track.”

But the shift has helped turn Trump’s rallies into a more aesthetically churchlike experience.

A Trump rally in Las Vegas in January opened with a prayer from Jesus Marquez, an elder at a local church, who cited Scripture to declare that God wanted Trump to return to the White House.

“God is on our side — he’s on the side of this movement,” said Marquez, who founded the American Christian Caucus, a grassroots group.

And at a rally in South Carolina in February, Greg Rodermond, a pastor at Crossroads Community Church, prayed for God to intervene against Trump’s political opponents, arguing that they were “trying to steal, kill and destroy our America.”

“Father, we have gathered here today in unity for our nation to see it restored back to its greatness,” Rodermond continued, “and, God, we believe that you have chosen Donald Trump as an instrument in your hands for this purpose.”

But some Christian conservatives are loath to join their brethren in clearing a direct path from the ornate doors of Mar-a-Lago to the pearly gates of Heaven.

Russell Moore, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public-policy arm, said Trump’s rallies had veered into “dangerous territory” with the altar-call closing and opening prayers from preachers describing Trump as heaven-sent.

“Claiming godlike authority or an endorsement from God for a political candidate means that person cannot be questioned or opposed without also opposing God,” Moore said. “That’s a violation of the commandment to not take the Lord’s name in vain.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/church-trump-infusing-christianity-movement-115531979.html

they will have you bowing in the streets