Trump planning to bring back firing squads if re-elected in 2024 – live news
Former President Donald Trump has a new challenger for the 2024 GOP nomination — Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations.
Ms Haley joined his administration in 2017, and left at the end of 2018. She’s not thought to have much of a support base within the GOP, and in most polling is only tracking in the single digits.
Mr Trump’s main rival remains Ron DeSantis, who has not yet said if he will run for president in 2024. Mr DeSantis has led the former president in some head-to-head polling.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s ex-vice president appears to be launching another bid to prove his loyalty to his former boss and his base of support in the GOP. Axios reports that he plans to fight a subpoena from Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating the effort to overturn the 2020 election at the Justice Department.
And a new piece on the inner deliberations of Trumpworld from Rolling Stone reveals that Donald Trump is making the death penalty — specifically, expanding its use in America — a centre point of his flagging 2024 campaign. According to several sources close to the former president who spoke with the magazine, Mr Trump is putting energy behind the idea of widely expanding the death penalty to make drug offences eligible for capital punishment.
The former president is said by aides to also be discussing the possibility of launching a political effort to reintroduce firing squads to the US justice system, apparently due to their flashy nature.
Key points
Trump trolls Rihanna’s Super Bowl show
Classified folder from Mar-a-Lago to DOJ
Former president denies branding Ron DeSantis ‘Meatball Ron’
Trump to testify in E Jean Carroll defamation case
Special counsel probes ramp up with former NSA chief and Mike Pence subpoenaed
Tim Scott preparing presidential bid, report claims
07:00 , John Bowden
As Nikki Haley becomes the second prominent Republican to enter the 2024 race, the Senate’s lone Black GOP member is reportedly planning on joining her.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Mr Scott is making plans and preparations for an official announcement. He would become the first current elected lawmaker to officially announce a bid for the nomination.
Read more at the Journal:
Trump’s ex-national security adviser subpoenaed in special counsel probes
06:00 , John Bowden
Donald Trump’s former national security adviser has been subpoenaed in special counsel probes investigating the former president, according to reports – which came just hours after it emerged a subpoena had been served to former vice president Mike Pence.
Robert O’Brien, who served as national security advisor from 2019 to 2021 under the Trump administration, was served a subpoena by special counsel Jack Smith in both his investigation into the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and the probe into Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Mr O’Brien has so far been asserting executive privilege in declining to provide some of the information that prosecutors are asking of him.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the story:
Trump’s ex-national security adviser subpoenaed in special counsel probes
Trump was subpoenaed for folder with classification markings
05:00 , John Bowden
Donald Trump’s latest batch of documents turned over to the US Justice Department came after another subpoena was issued for the material, according to a new report.
The Guardian reported on Saturday that Mr Trump’s handover of a laptop as well as an empty folder marked “classified evening briefing” and one document marked classified occurred after at least one of the items, the folder, was observed by an FBI source in the former president’s private residence.
That would likely mean the materials were not secured in the same fashion that others taken from a storage area and Mr Trump’s private office were held; if so, it could potentially mean that prosecutors looking into whether Mr Trump or others mishandled classified materials have more ammunition to use.
Read the full story here:
Trump was subpoenaed for folder with classification markings before turning it over
‘We detected it’: Biden White House says Trump officials failed to detect Chinese army balloon programme
04:00 , John Bowden
Pressured by criticism from Republicans and questions from reporters about a sudden series of efforts to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon and several other unidentified craft, the Biden White House on Monday blamed the Trump administration for failing to detect similar craft in US airspace between 2017-2021.
According to a spokesman for the National Security Council (NSC), the reason for this sudden effort by the US military was simply that balloons similar to the first object shot down in early February off the coast of South Carolina had only recently been detected. It wasn’t initially clear how the US now knew that those craft were active during the Trump presidency.
“It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it,” said John Kirby.
Read more about the White House’s latest statements regarding the Chinese spy craft shot down over South Carolina:
Biden White House says Trump’s team failed to detect Chinese army balloon programme
Donald Trump denies coming up with ‘Meatball Ron’ nickname for DeSantis
03:00 , John Bowden
Donald Trump is denying ownership of the latest un-savoury nickname for the man shaping up to be his biggest rival in the Republican party.
After The New York Times reported that Mr Trump has taken to calling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “Meatball Ron”, the ex-president released a statement on his Truth Social platform denying the story.
Rachel Sharp has the story:
Donald Trump denies coming up with ‘Meatball Ron’ nickname for DeSantis
VOICES – Murdoch and Musk’s Super Bowl confab gives the game away
02:00 , John Bowden
Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch were spotted sitting together and chatting at the Super Bowl.
This shouldn’t be that surprising. Murdoch is the owner of Fox and Musk is the owner of Twitter; they’re both in the media industry. And, of course, they’re both obscenely rich. Even after his disastrous tenure at Twitter, Musk is estimated to be the second richest person in the world, with a net worth of around $146 billion. Murdoch has around $19 billion, which makes him the 31st wealthiest person on earth.
The sighting was newsworthy, though, because the two men have different branding. Murdoch mostly stays out of the spotlight; he’s a typical staid businessman who sits behind the scenes and rakes in cash.
Murdoch and Musk’s Super Bowl confab gives the game away
Trump mocks Arizona over Super Bowl and 2020 conspiracies
01:00 , John Bowden
Donald Trump used the location of the Super Bowl as an excuse to dredge up his complaints against Arizona state officials over his 2020 defeat on Monday.
“Sorry football fans! Because the Super Bowl was held in Arizona, the results of the game, after a lengthy analysis currently taking place of the “holding” call, will not be known for at least 4 weeks. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I hope that you thoroughly enjoyed the game!” he quipped on Truth Social.
Judge orders partial release of Georgia grand jury report on Trump election schemes
00:00 , John Bowden
A Georgia judge has ordered the partial release of a Fulton County, Georgia grand jury report on efforts by former president Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden in the Peach State.
The members of the special purpose grand jury had asked the Fulton County Superior Court to allow the release of their full work product, which was commissioned at the request of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
But Judge Robert McBurney on Monday ordered that parts of the report remain sealed, including a list of individuals against whom the special purpose grand jury recommended indictments.
Andrew Feinberg has more:
Judge orders partial release of Georgia grand jury report on Trump election schemes
VOICES: Donald Trump doesn’t have proper conservative values
Tuesday 14 February 2023 23:30 , John Bowden
“As an American and as a millennial, I have never wanted to associate myself with a party that supports Trump.
“But in America, we still get separated into two outdated labels: either you’re a conservative Republican or a liberal-minded Democrat.
“So, where does this leave me?”
Hope Howard writes for The Independent:
Donald Trump doesn’t have proper conservative values
Kellyanne Conway dismisses concerns about Biden’s age
Tuesday 14 February 2023 23:15 , John Bowden
A former senior aide to the second-oldest man to serve as president of the United States says the age of the oldest man to serve as president won’t be an issue in next year’s election.
Kellyanne Conway, who served as Counselor to the President under former president Donald Trump from 2017 to 2020, said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday that Mr Biden’s age isn’t something voters will have problems with in 2024, when Mr Trump — who announced his candidacy for president in November — hopes to challenge Mr Biden for a second term in the White House.
It’s an interesting statement that could preempt attacks from her former boss on an issue that the right fixated on in 2020.
Read more:
Kellyanne Conway says Biden’s age won’t be an issue in 2024 campaign
Mike Pence to fight special counsel subpoena
Tuesday 14 February 2023 22:45 , John Bowden
Former Vice President Mike Pence will fight a subpoena from the Justice Department for his testimony in the investigation surrounding Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Axios reported the news on Tuesday, citing a source close to Mr Pence.
Mr Pence is supposedly set to address the issue this week when he appears in Iowa, site of the first 2024 GOP caucus. That could indicate that Mr Pence will also go through with plans for a presidential campaign, which have been widely reported.
Read more:
Pence to fight special counsel subpoena on 2020 election
Trump again insists that he only took empty ‘classified’ folders
Tuesday 14 February 2023 22:00 , John Bowden
Donald Trump again argued on Tuesday that many of the supposedly classified documents taken from his Mar-a-Lago residence were actually empty folders, which he says he took for keepsakes.
The former president’s resort and residence in Florida was raided last September by agents with the FBI after he and his team resisted for months their efforts to collect the documents he had retained without permission from the National Archives.
“Many of the so-called “documents” that the “Gestapo” took in the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, unlike the”No Raids of Biden,” were merely inexpensive and very common folders with words such as “Presidential Reading,” “Confidential,” “Classified,” or other words stamped on the front cover,” wrote Mr Trump in a Truth Social post.
“There was nothing inside of the folders because, during meetings where information was passed out, say at the Oval Office, when finished the papers inside were taken back, but the empty folders were left behind...I would put them in a pile and keep them as momentous. Nothing wrong with that, but sounds to me that the Injustice Department views these as DOCUMENTS - They are not!”
WATCH: Nikki Haley’s full announcement video
Tuesday 14 February 2023 21:14 , John Bowden
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is officially the first prominent Republican to get in the race against Donald Trump for president.
Watch her campaign announcement video here:
Get excited! Time for a new generation.
Let’s do this! 👊 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/BD5k4WY1CP— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 14, 2023
JD Vance slammed for delayed reaction to Ohio train derailment: ‘Gibberish’
Tuesday 14 February 2023 20:32 , John Bowden
Ohio Senator JD Vance is facing criticism for taking 10 days to issue a statement about a train derailment near East Palestine that forced thousands of residents to flee their homes due to a toxic chemical spill.
The 3 February crash sparked a large fire and left hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, a volatile odorless gas, and phosgene seeping into the water supply.
Ten days later, Mr Vance said in a statement released on his Twitter page that he was “horrified” by the crash. But many Twitter users took issue with the lack of specific promises for action in the text.
Bevan Hurley has more:
JD Vance slammed for delayed reaction to Ohio train derailment: ‘Gibberish’
Trump wants to bring back firing squads, execute drug dealers en masse
Tuesday 14 February 2023 19:56 , John Bowden
Donald Trump has a new issue at the centre of his third bid for the White House: killing drug dealers, according to Rolling Stone.
A new piece on the inner deliberations of Trumpworld from Rolling Stone reveals that Donald Trump is making the death penalty — specifically, expanding its use in America — a centre point of his flagging 2024 campaign. According to several sources close to the former president who spoke with the magazine, Mr Trump is putting energy behind the idea of widely expanding the death penalty to make drug offences eligible for capital punishment.
The former president is said by aides to also be discussing the possibility of launching a political effort to reintroduce firing squads to the US justice system, apparently due to their flashy nature.
John Bowden has more:
Trump is planning to bring back firing squads if re-elected
John Bolton: Nikki Haley wants to be VP
Tuesday 14 February 2023 18:40 , John Bowden
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton said this week that he believes Nikki Haley’s longshot presidential bid is really an effort to be the running mate of the eventual nominee.
“I think Nikki’s really running for vice president, that’s my sense,” Mr Bolton said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think she has a problem because she first said she wouldn’t run if President Trump ran.”
“Her justification for changing was that a lot of things have changed, which I don’t think is very convincing...I think Trump will have a lot of fun with her,” he predicted.
Chuck Schumer says GOP-led proposals to ban TikTok should be ‘looked at’
Tuesday 14 February 2023 18:00 , John Bowden
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that a ban on TikTok in the United States “should be looked at” as tensions with China escalate.
The Beijing-based company Bytedance owns the popular social media app. Former president Donald Trump explored the idea of banning TikTok and Republicans like Senator Josh Hawley have supported doing so.
“It’s something that should be looked at,” Mr Schumer said in an interview with ABC News. “We do know there’s Chinese ownership of the company that owns TikTok.”
Mr Schumer said some members of the Senate Commerce Committee were exploring the idea.
Eric Garcia has more:
Chuck Schumer says GOP-led proposals to ban TikTok should be ‘looked at’
Tim Scott preparing presidential bid, report claims
Tuesday 14 February 2023 17:20 , John Bowden
The Senate’s lone Black Republican is reportedly planning on being a contender for the 2024 GOP primary.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Mr Scott is making plans and preparations for an official announcement. He would become the first prominent Republican to officially announce beyond Donald Trump, though others like Nikki Haley, Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo are all thought to be considering runs as well.
Read more at the Journal:
Trump wants group executions of drug dealers by firing squad
Tuesday 14 February 2023 16:34 , John Bowden
A new piece on the inner deliberations of Trumpworld from Rolling Stone reveals that Donald Trump is making the death penalty — specifically, expanding its use in America — a centre point of his flagging 2024 campaign.
The former president is said by aides to be discussing the possibility of launching a political effort to reintroducte firing squads to the US justice system, apparently due to their flashy nature.
And that’s not all — Mr Trump has even floated the prospect of group executions with his closest advisers, while he rants about how drug dealers supposedly be “eradicated”.
Read more at Rolling Stone:
Mike Pence to fight special counsel subpoena
Tuesday 14 February 2023 15:26 , John Bowden
Former Vice President Mike Pence will fight a subpoena from the Justice Department for his testimony in the investigation surrounding Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Axios reported the news on Tuesday, citing a source close to Mr Pence.
Mr Pence is supposedly set to address the issue this week when he appears in Iowa, site of the first 2024 GOP caucus. That could indicate that Mr Pence will also go through with plans for a presidential campaign, which have been widely reported.
Nikki Haley officially announces 2024 presidential run
Tuesday 14 February 2023 14:17 , John Bowden
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as the US Ambassador to the United Nations for the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency, has officially announced her entry into the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
Ms Haley, who previously claimed she would not run in next year’s contest if her former boss were to mount a bid to return to the White House, appears to have reversed that stance. She and Mr Trump are now the only two declared presidential candidates running in the 2024 election.
The ex-Palmetto State chief executive had teased the launch of a presidential campaign for several weeks, but she made the news official in a video released by her campaign.
Andrew Feinberg has more:
Nikki Haley officially announces 2024 presidential run
Trump legal team hands over more classified material found at Mar-a-Lago
Tuesday 14 February 2023 13:00 , John Bowden
Donald Trump’s attorneys have turned over a new batch of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago to federal prosecutors, according to reports.
An empty folder marked “classified evening briefing,” and a document marked classified were located at the former president’s Florida resort in December, sources told CNN.
A laptop belonging to a current aide of Mr Trump’s was also handed over to the Justice Department, reports stated.
Read the full story here:
Trump legal team hands over more classified material found at Mar-a-Lago
Trump mocks Arizona over Super Bowl and 2020 conspiracies
Tuesday 14 February 2023 12:30 , John Bowden
Donald Trump used the location of the Super Bowl as an excuse to dredge up his complaints against Arizona state officials over his 2020 defeat on Monday.
“Sorry football fans! Because the Super Bowl was held in Arizona, the results of the game, after a lengthy analysis currently taking place of the “holding” call, will not be known for at least 4 weeks. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I hope that you thoroughly enjoyed the game!” he quipped on Truth Social.
Tuesday 14 February 2023 12:00 , John Bowden
A former senior aide to the second-oldest man to serve as president of the United States says the age of the oldest man to serve as president won’t be an issue in next year’s election.
Kellyanne Conway, who served as Counselor to the President under former president Donald Trump from 2017 to 2020, said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday that Mr Biden’s age isn’t something voters will have problems with in 2024, when Mr Trump — who announced his candidacy for president in November — hopes to challenge Mr Biden for a second term in the White House.
It’s an interesting statement that could preempt attacks from her former boss on an issue that the right fixated on in 2020.
Read more:
Kellyanne Conway says Biden’s age won’t be an issue in 2024 campaign
Trump wants to bring back firing squads, execute drug dealers en masse
Tuesday 14 February 2023 22:04 , John Bowden
Donald Trump has a new issue at the centre of his third bid for the White House: killing drug dealers, according to Rolling Stone.
A new piece on the inner deliberations of Trumpworld from Rolling Stone reveals that Donald Trump is making the death penalty — specifically, expanding its use in America — a centre point of his flagging 2024 campaign. According to several sources close to the former president who spoke with the magazine, Mr Trump is putting energy behind the idea of widely expanding the death penalty to make drug offences eligible for capital punishment.
The former president is said by aides to also be discussing the possibility of launching a political effort to reintroduce firing squads to the US justice system, apparently due to their flashy nature.
John Bowden has more:
Trump is planning to bring back firing squads if re-elected
Tim Scott preparing presidential bid, report claims
Tuesday 14 February 2023 11:00 , John Bowden
The Senate’s lone Black Republican is reportedly planning on being a contender for the 2024 GOP primary.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Mr Scott is making plans and preparations for an official announcement. He would become the first prominent Republican to officially announce beyond Donald Trump, though others like Nikki Haley, Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo are all thought to be considering runs as well.
Read more at the Journal:
Trump again insists that he only took empty ‘classified’ folders
Tuesday 14 February 2023 22:01 , John Bowden
Donald Trump again argued on Tuesday that many of the supposedly classified documents taken from his Mar-a-Lago residence were actually empty folders, which he says he took for keepsakes.
The former president’s resort and residence in Florida was raided last September by agents with the FBI after he and his team resisted for months their efforts to collect the documents he had retained without permission from the National Archives.
“Many of the so-called “documents” that the “Gestapo” took in the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, unlike the”No Raids of Biden,” were merely inexpensive and very common folders with words such as “Presidential Reading,” “Confidential,” “Classified,” or other words stamped on the front cover,” wrote Mr Trump in a Truth Social post.
“There was nothing inside of the folders because, during meetings where information was passed out, say at the Oval Office, when finished the papers inside were taken back, but the empty folders were left behind...I would put them in a pile and keep them as momentous. Nothing wrong with that, but sounds to me that the Injustice Department views these as DOCUMENTS - They are not!”
Judge orders partial release of Georgia grand jury report on Trump election schemes
Tuesday 14 February 2023 10:00 , John Bowden
A Georgia judge has ordered the partial release of a Fulton County, Georgia grand jury report on efforts by former president Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden in the Peach State.
The members of the special purpose grand jury had asked the Fulton County Superior Court to allow the release of their full work product, which was commissioned at the request of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
But Judge Robert McBurney on Monday ordered that parts of the report remain sealed, including a list of individuals against whom the special purpose grand jury recommended indictments.
Andrew Feinberg has more:
Judge orders partial release of Georgia grand jury report on Trump election schemes
‘We detected it’: Biden White House says Trump officials failed to detect Chinese army balloon programme
Tuesday 14 February 2023 09:00 , John Bowden
Pressured by criticism from Republicans and questions from reporters about a sudden series of efforts to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon and several other unidentified craft, the Biden White House on Monday blamed the Trump administration for failing to detect similar craft in US airspace between 2017-2021.
According to a spokesman for the National Security Council (NSC), the reason for this sudden effort by the US military was simply that balloons similar to the first object shot down in early February off the coast of South Carolina had only recently been detected. It wasn’t initially clear how the US now knew that those craft were active during the Trump presidency.
“It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it,” said John Kirby.
Read more about the White House’s latest statements regarding the Chinese spy craft shot down over South Carolina:
Biden White House says Trump’s team failed to detect Chinese army balloon programme
Chuck Schumer says GOP-led proposals to ban TikTok should be ‘looked at’
Tuesday 14 February 2023 08:00 , John Bowden
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that a ban on TikTok in the United States “should be looked at” as tensions with China escalate.
The Beijing-based company Bytedance owns the popular social media app. Former president Donald Trump explored the idea of banning TikTok and Republicans like Senator Josh Hawley have supported doing so.
“It’s something that should be looked at,” Mr Schumer said in an interview with ABC News. “We do know there’s Chinese ownership of the company that owns TikTok.”
Mr Schumer said some members of the Senate Commerce Committee were exploring the idea.
Eric Garcia has more:
Chuck Schumer says GOP-led proposals to ban TikTok should be ‘looked at’
VOICES – Murdoch and Musk’s Super Bowl confab gives the game away
Tuesday 14 February 2023 07:00 , John Bowden
Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch were spotted sitting together and chatting at the Super Bowl.
This shouldn’t be that surprising. Murdoch is the owner of Fox and Musk is the owner of Twitter; they’re both in the media industry. And, of course, they’re both obscenely rich. Even after his disastrous tenure at Twitter, Musk is estimated to be the second richest person in the world, with a net worth of around $146 billion. Murdoch has around $19 billion, which makes him the 31st wealthiest person on earth.
The sighting was newsworthy, though, because the two men have different branding. Murdoch mostly stays out of the spotlight; he’s a typical staid businessman who sits behind the scenes and rakes in cash.
