Mitch McConnell explains why he will still support Donald Trump
Donald Trump has said that he wouldn’t go back to Twitter if his ban was lifted during an interview in which he also boasted about Hispanic support for the Republican Party.
Mr Trump also told SiriusXM’s American Media people would be “very happy” about his plans for the 2024 election, which he said would be made public after the midterms in the fall.
Concerning Twitter, Mr Trump said that he “probably wouldn’t have any interest” in going back.
Meanwhile, two lawyers who served at the most senior level in the Trump White House are today set to talk to the committee investigating events leading up to the 6 January insurrection. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his onetime deputy Pat Philbin are reportedly speaking to the committee on a semi-formal basis rather than giving full testimony.
Meanwhile, the latest Capitol riot defendant to go on trial is blaming his actions on Donald Trump and his false claims about a stolen election, in a rare mention of the former president’s role during the ongoing hearings.
Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man charged with stealing a coat rack from the Capitol, did not deny that he joined the mob on 6 January 2021. But his lawyer vowed on Tuesday to show that Mr Trump abused his power to “authorise” the attack .
Trump is planning to endorse JD Vance in Ohio’s tight Senate race: NBC News
NBC News reported on Thursday citing multiple Republican sources close to Donald Trump that the former president plans to endorse author JD Vance in Ohio’s tight Senate race.
Polls have shown Mr Vance trailing others in the race including Josh Mandel, another right-wing conservative who has vied for Mr Trump’s blessing. And Mr Mandel’s campaign reportedly did not take the news well, according to NBC.
“The Mandel people hit the roof,” one Republican source told the network.
John Bowden14 April 2022 19:16
ICYMI: GOP pollster says party mocks Trump in private
Veteran pollster Frank Luntz said in an interview with TheDailyBeast that New Hampshire Gov Chris Sununu’s roast of Donald Trump at the DC-based Gridiron Dinner was a symptom of a larger phenomenon within the GOP: the tendency of its members to privately mock the bombastic Trump behind the scenes.
“They won’t say it [in public], but behind his back they think he’s a child. They’re laughing at him. That’s what made [Sununu’s comments] significant,” he said.
Read more from The Independent’s Graeme Massie:
John Bowden14 April 2022 18:15
Tennessee Republican cites Hitler in argument that homeless should aspire to a ‘productive life’
A Tennessee state legislator justified his support for a bill targeting homeless camps on public property by citing the example of the genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler.
In a shocking set of remarks to his fellow lawmakers on the state Senate floor, he justified his support for a bill meant to drive homeless encampments away from highways and other state property by decribing the supposedly inspiring tale of the German Nazi dictator who was responsible for the murder of millions.
“For two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory and his body language and how to connect with the masses, and then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books,” Senator Frank Nicely exclaimed.
Read more in The Independent from Andrew Feinberg:
John Bowden14 April 2022 17:56
ICYMI: Texas Governor Abbott buses migrants from border and leaves them at Fox’s DC HQ
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is going forward with his plan to bus undocumented migrants to Washington DC despite concerns from most legal experts regarding his total lack of authority to do so.
The Texas Republican’s administration oversaw the first arrival of a busload of undocumented migrants to the nation’s capital on Wednesday; the bus arrived at the headquarters of the right-leaning network Fox News.
Read more from The Independent:
John Bowden14 April 2022 17:10
Trump aides Stephen Miller reverses and agrees to cooperate with Capitol riot committee
Stephen Miller, a former top aide in the Trump White House, will testify before the Jan 6 committee today. It’s a huge reversal for Mr Miller, who has sought to keep lawmakers on the committee from obtaining his phone records from him, and shows how even some of Donald Trump’s fiercest allies fear the wrath of the Justice Department.
Read more from The Independent:
John Bowden14 April 2022 16:04
Trump Told Barr: Get Impeached
Former President Donald Trump turned to Fox News to excoriate his former attorney general over a wide range of issues, and shared some advice he gave the former head of the US Justice Department.
“I said: ‘Look, get impeached. I went up a lot in the polls when I got impeached. You have to get impeached, maybe.’ But he was so afraid of being impeached that he refused to do his job,” Trump said on Fox News.
John Bowden14 April 2022 15:37
Elon Musk shocks Twitter, offers to buy platform
Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an offer to buy Twitter on Thursday.
His potential purchase of the site is seen by some as an effort to push for weaker content moderation across social media. Doing so could allow or encourage former President Donald Trump to return to the site.
Read more from The Independent’s Andrew Feindberg
John Bowden14 April 2022 15:09
Trump ally’s latest stab at congressional districts would disenfranchise Black Democratic lawmaker
A top ally of Donald Trump in the GOP is leading up his state’s redistricting proccess. The partisan battle is likely to have at least one casualty: Democratic Rep Al Lawson, who could see his seat split up.
Mr Lawson’s seat is one of many oddly-shaped districts thanks to past gerrymandering in the US, and currently he represents a 200-mile-long stretch of the state.
““We are not going to have a 200-mile gerrymander that divides up people based on the color of their skin. That is wrong,” claimed Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis.
Read more from the Associated Press:
John Bowden14 April 2022 14:18
UPenn professor tells Tucker Carlson ‘Blacks’ resent ‘Western peoples’ and India is a ‘s***hole’
A Pennsylvania professor is facing a fierce backlash after she made a series of comments attacking non-white Americans in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
Read the full story here:
Maroosha Muzaffar14 April 2022 13:00
ICYMI: Trump flexes massive fundraising haul in bid to oust Georgia’s Republican governor
Former president’s fundraising eclipses both major parties.
Read the full story here:
Maroosha Muzaffar14 April 2022 12:15
www.independent.co.uk
