Trump news – live: Ex-president hugs Jan 6 rioter who called for Pence to be executed
Donald Trump hugged a woman at one who spent time in prison for her role in the January 6 insurrection. She later said that former Vice President Mike Pence and “every single” member of Congress who voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory should be executed.
At a diner in New Hampshire, Mr Trump was notified by the people in the room that QAnon believer Micki Larson-Olson was a “January 6er”.
She later told NBC News the following day that Mr Trump is the “real president,” adding that she “would like a front seat of Mike Pence being executed”.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina was scolded by the judge during E Jean Carroll’s civil rape trial against the former president due to his “argumentative, repetitive, and inappropriate” questioning of the alleged victim.
During the grilling, Mr Tacopina repeatedly questioned why she didn’t scream during the alleged rape in a dressing room in Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store.
Judge Lewis Kaplan also became impatient with the attorney and warned him about his line of questioning.
Ms Carroll will return to the stand on Monday morning when the trial continues.
Key Points
PHOTOS: Trump greets supporters in New Hampshire diner
VIDEO: Trump says ‘it’s a shame’ what happened to Tucker Carlson: ‘He was telling the truth’
Trump says he can engage with Gen Z voters and brags about popularity on college campuses
Trump recommits to banning Muslims from entering US if he is re-elected
VOICES: Why Trump’s Truth Social account is a legal landmine for him
Trump says he can engage with Gen Z voters and brags about popularity on college campuses
08:00 , Sravasti Dasgupta
Former president Donald Trump said he is popular on college campuses and among the Generation Z while interacting with the audience at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday.
During the rally an audience member named Christine asked the former president about how he planned to engage with Gen-Z – the generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“Engaging with young voters is crucial. Here in New Hampshire we have America First warriors like Caroline Lovett. How do you plan to engage with Gen-Z voters,” she was quoted as saying in a clip shared on Twitter by user Acyn.
Mr Trump replied: “I think we are doing that. I tell you what you would be shocked, like Charlie Kirk and others the job that they do, it’s a youth movement, you would be shocked to see how popular we are in college campuses-much different than what you hear.”
According to AP VoteCast, a sweeping national survey of the electorate conducted in December voters under 30 went 53 per cent for Democratic House candidates compared with only 41 per cent for Republican candidates nationwide.
Read more:
Trump says people would be ‘shocked’ how popular he is on college campuses
The real reason Tucker Carlson should have been fired
05:00 , Louise Boyle
Lies over the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election appear to be what finally finished off Tucker Carlson at Fox News. But the TV showman was an equal opportunist when it came to disinformation.
Carlson was axed on Monday, days after Fox agreed to pay $787.5m to settle a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over false election claims.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” read a network statement. Carlson reportedly found out on Monday morning that he would be replaced in his primetime slot that night.
It was an abrupt, and unexpected, end for Carlson who emerged as Fox News’ biggest star in tandem with the rise of Donald Trump for his willingness to touch the third rail of right-wing extremist views.
Read more:
The real reason Tucker Carlson should have been fired
Why was Tucker Carlson fired from Fox News?
02:00 , Graig Graziosi
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News.
After the dueling choruses of doomsayers and giddy celebrants died down on Monday (24 April), the question of why Carlson was reportedly fired still lingered.
While there is no definitive answer to that question at the moment, there are a few contenders that – in part or in full – may explain why the conservative cable news network axed its biggest star without giving him so much as a goodbye tweet.
But first, the context.
Fox News announced it was “parting ways” with Carlson in a statement on Monday morning.
The statement confirmed that Carlson’s last show occurred the preceding Friday, which ended with him eating pizza with Pennsylvanian delivery man Tyler Morrell, who was honoured after he helped police stop a suspected car thief.
At the end of the segment, Carlson told his viewers he would see them again next week.
Read more:
Why did Fox News fire Tucker Carlson? Here are five theories
Tucker Carlson was caught making inappropriate comments about ‘postmenopausal fans’ before Fox News fired him
Sunday 30 April 2023 23:00 , Graeme Massie
Tucker Carlson was caught on video making inappropriate comments about his “postmenopausal fans” before he was fired by Fox News, according to a report.
Rupert Murdoch’s news network parted company with the right-wing TV host on Monday, days after Fox News agreed to pay $787.5m to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit over election lies amplified by the channel’s personalities.
Prior to the settlement, Mr Carlson was caught off camera talking about how his older female “fans” would like how he looked on his prime-time show, reported The New York Times.
In another video, the Times reported, the host was heard talking about how he found a woman “yummy.”
Both the Times and the Wall Street Journal also reported on a string of other offensive text messages allegedly sent by Mr Carlson a month after he was sued over allegations of sexism by a former producer.
Read more:
Tucker Carlson was caught making inappropriate comments about ‘postmenopausal fans’
Rising GOP star embroiled in tough Kentucky primary fight
Sunday 30 April 2023 20:00 , AP
Flagged as a rising Republican star who worked for Mitch McConnell and pitched Donald Trump’s campaign to Black voters, Daniel Cameron could have taken a cautious approach and run for reelection as attorney general.
Instead, he took a career-defining risk by plunging into Kentucky’s competitive race for governor against a popular Democratic incumbent and a crowded field of GOP primary opponents. If he wins, the state’s first Black attorney general would become its first Black governor.
But Cameron’s pursuit of Kentucky‘s top political office has turned bumpy. Instead of breezing to his party’s nomination, he’s embroiled in a tough primary fight, especially with former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft, who has attacked Cameron in an ad blitz backed by her family’s fortune.
The two are among a dozen candidates — including two other statewide officeholders, Ryan Quarles and Mike Harmon — competing for the GOP nomination in the May 16 primary.
Read more:
Rising GOP star embroiled in tough Kentucky primary fight
Who is running for president in 2024?
Sunday 30 April 2023 17:00 , Andrew Feinberg and Ariana Baio
With less than two years remaining until US voters will decide who will serve as president of the United States from January 2025 to January 2029, former Republican government officials are starting to jockey for position in the coming fight for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, while at least one prominent Democrat (California governor Gavin Newsom) has reportedly pledged not to challenge President Joe Biden in a Democratic primary.
As the 2024 campaign takes shape, here are the names you need to know:
Who is running for president in 2024?
Ron DeSantis blows up at reporter over question about Guantanamo Bay prisoner claims
Sunday 30 April 2023 14:00 , John Bowden
Ron DeSantis angrily chastised a reporter on Thursday as he spoke in Jerusalem, and denied that the had been present for force-feedings during his service at the US military prison at Guanatanamo Bay.
The moment occurred as Mr DeSantis gave a press conference at the Museum of Tolerance, a cultural centre in the Israeli territory of West Jerusalem. His visit to the Middle East comes as the Florida governor is thought to be preparing a bid for the Republican nomination against Donald Trump and others in 2024.
At the press conference, Mr DeSantis was questioned about claims from a former Guantanamo detainee who was held without being charged for more than a decade at the notorious military prison accused him of being present for episodes where he was force-fed by guards to break a hunger strike.
Mansoor Adayfi, a Yemeni citizen who was held for 14 years at Gitmo, told The Independent in March that he was brutally force-fed by camp staff during a hunger strike in 2006, and that Mr DeSantis was present for at least one of those sessions. Force-feeding is designated as torture by the United Nations
Read more:
Ron DeSantis blows up at reporter over question about Guantanamo Bay prisoner claims
GOP uses state capitol protests to redefine 'insurrection'
Sunday 30 April 2023 11:00 , AP
Silenced by her Republican colleagues, Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr looked up from the House floor to supporters in the gallery shouting “Let her speak!” and thrust her microphone into the air — amplifying the sentiment the Democratic transgender lawmaker was forbidden from expressing.
It was a brief moment of defiance and chaos. While seven people were arrested for trespassing, the boisterous demonstration was free of violence or damage. Yet later that day, a group of Republican lawmakers described it in darker tones, saying Zephyr’s actions were responsible for “encouraging an insurrection.”
It’s the third time in the last five weeks — and one of at least four times this year — that Republicans have attempted to compare disruptive but nonviolent protests at state capitols to insurrections.
Read more:
GOP uses state capitol protests to redefine 'insurrection'
Congress' anger at FBI shapes surveillance program's future
Sunday 30 April 2023 08:00 , AP
Growing anger at the FBI from both parties in Congress has become a major hurdle for U.S. intelligence agencies fighting to keep their vast powers to collect foreign communications that often sweep up the phone calls and emails of Americans.
Key lawmakers say they won’t vote to renew the programs under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that expire at the end of this year without major changes targeting the FBI. Many blame problems with how the FBI’s special agents search for U.S. citizens using Section 702 — along with publicly revealed mistakes in other intelligence investigations by the bureau.
Among the revelations since the law was last renewed in 2018: The bureau misled surveillance court judges in seeking to wiretap a 2016 campaign aide for former President Donald Trump, and agents didn’t follow guidelines in searching Section 702 databases for the names of a congressman on the House Intelligence Committee, a local political party, and people of Middle Eastern descent.
Read more:
Congress' anger at FBI shapes surveillance program's future
Pence testifies before federal grand jury investigating Trump
Sunday 30 April 2023 05:00 , Andrew Feinberg
Former vice president Mike Pence has given evidence before the federal grand jury investigating former president Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, The Independent has confirmed.
Mr Pence spent roughly seven hours testifying to the grand jury and answering questions from prosecutors led by Jack Smith, the US Department of Justice special counsel leading investigations into Mr Trump’s push to remain in office against the will of voters, and the twice-impeached ex-president’s alleged unlawful retention of national defence information.
Mr Pence’s appearance before the Washington DC grand jury comes less than 24 hours after a federal appeals court rejected a last-ditch appeal to block his testimony by Mr Trump’s legal team.
Read more:
Pence testifies before federal grand jury investigating Trump
Trump says he is retiring ‘crooked’ nickname for Hillary Clinton and bestowing it on Biden
Sunday 30 April 2023 02:00 , Abe Asher
Former President Donald Trump announced at a campaign event on Thursday that he is “retiring” the ‘Crooked’ nickname for Hillary Clinton and will instead be using it going forward for President Joe Biden.
“I will be retiring the name ‘Crooked’ from Hillary Clinton and her moniker, and I’m going to give her a new name, I don’t know, like maybe ‘Lovely Hillary’ or ‘Beautiful Hillary,’ but I’m going to retire the name ‘Crooked’ because he will be known from now on as ‘Crooked Joe Biden,’” Mr Trump said.
TRUMP: "I will be retiring the name 'Crooked' from Hillary Clinton & her moniker & I'm gonna give her a new name—I don't know—maybe 'Lovely' Hillary or 'Beautiful' Hillary [...] so that we can use the name for Joe Biden because he'll be known from now on as 'Crooked' Joe Biden." pic.twitter.com/Wlyz0yEQVj
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 27, 2023
The watching crowd cheered and whistled. Mr Trump then speculated that Ms Clinton would be “celebrating” the announcement. He then launched a sizeable accusation at Mr Biden, the candidate who beat him handily in both the popular vote and the Electoral College in 2020.
Read more:
Trump says he is retiring ‘crooked’ nickname for Hillary Clinton, giving it to Biden
Trump revives threat of skipping GOP presidential debates
Saturday 29 April 2023 23:00 , AP
Donald Trump is again threatening to skip a presidential debate.
The Republican former president has privately said that a debate in August would be too early and he would not participate, according to two people familiar with his concerns who insisted on anonymity to detail private discussions. He also has stepped up his public complaints this week, suggesting that his poll numbers are so high he has no reason to compete with the rest of the field.
“I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them,” Trump said in a Tuesday post on his social media network.
Trump repeated the idea at at campaign event in New Hampshire on Thursday afternoon, showing a slideshow of his recent poll numbers among the GOP contenders and saying of the debates, “Why would you do that?”
Read more:
Trump revives threat of skipping GOP presidential debates
Fox ratings tumble in Tucker Carlson slot after his firing
Saturday 29 April 2023 20:00 , AP
Hundreds of thousands of Fox News viewers are reacting to Tucker Carlson‘s firing by abandoning the network in his old time slot — at least temporarily.
Fox drew 1.33 million viewers for substitute host Brian Kilmeade in the 8 p.m. Eastern hour on Wednesday night, putting the network second to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes in a competition Carlson used to dominate, the Nielsen company said.
That’s down 56% from the 3.05 million viewers Carlson reached last Wednesday, Nielsen said. For all of 2022, Carlson averaged 3.03 million viewers, second only to Fox’s “The Five” as the most popular program on cable television.
Carlson offered his own alternative to Kilmeade on Wednesday, posting a two-minute monologue on Twitter at 8 p.m. By Thursday afternoon, that video had been viewed 62.7 million times, according to Twitter.
Kilmeade had 1.7 million viewers on Tuesday and 2.59 million on Monday, when he told people who hadn’t already heard the news that Carlson would no longer be there.
Read more:
Fox ratings tumble in Tucker Carlson slot after his firing
E Jean Carroll shuts down combative questioning by Trump lawyer: ‘He raped me, whether I screamed or not’
Saturday 29 April 2023 17:00 , Ariana Baio
On day three of E Jean Carroll’s civil trial against Donald Trump, the former columnist faced tough cross-examination from Mr Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, and defended herself for not screaming during the alleged rape.
Mr Tacopina pressed Ms Carroll about her previous testimony, in an attempt to discredit her recollection of Mr Trump allegedly assaulting her.
He specifically targeted a portion of Ms Carroll’s testimony where she said she did not scream while Mr Trump was allegedly raping her.
Ms Carroll is alleging that Mr Trump sexually assaulted and raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodmans in the mid-1990s.
“I’m a fighter, not a screamer,” Ms Carroll said during her emotional testimony on 26 April.
Read more:
E Jean Carroll shuts down Trump lawyer: ‘He raped me, whether I screamed or not’
GOP report on 2022 election struggles doesn't mention Trump
Saturday 29 April 2023 14:00 , AP
A draft of a report examining the Republican Party’s struggles in last year’s midterm elections says the results show that voters aren’t interested in “relitigating previous elections” and that failing to heed those warnings could harm the GOP in 2024 and beyond.
The draft notably does not mention former President Donald Trump by name, but alludes to the controversial, far-right candidates he endorsed who went on to lose. That includes many who echoed the former president’s lies about a stolen 2020 election.
“We cannot afford to ignore the obvious lessons of the 2022 election cycle,” the report’s introduction reads. “The Republican candidates in 2022 who delivered results and had a vision for the future did much, much better than those stuck in the past and rehashing old grievances.”
The draft also says that Republicans “underestimated the impact” of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in the months before the midterms, a landmark ruling that both parties have acknowledged played a role in Democrats‘ surprisingly strong performance in the elections.
Read more:
GOP report on 2022 election struggles doesn't mention Trump
VIDEO: Mike Pence testifies to federal grand jury
Saturday 29 April 2023 12:30 , Gustaf Kilander
Will Trump testify in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial? He faces ‘huge’ legal risk either way, experts say
Saturday 29 April 2023 11:00 , Bevan Hurley
A jury in New York is currently hearing allegations that E Jean Carroll was raped by Donald Trump in the changing rooms of a Manhattan department store nearly three decades ago.
The former president has been accused of sexual assault by more than two dozen women, but this is the first time a jury will be asked to determine the claims in court.
Legal experts told The Independent that Mr Trump’s likely non-appearance in the civil battery and defamation trial in the US District Courthouse in lower Manhattan was a major gamble.
“The risk for Trump if he doesn’t testify is huge,” Jennifer Keller, who represented Kevin Spacey when he was found not liable of sexual battery by a jury in 2022, told The Independent.
“The jury will hear only one side of the story — the plaintiff’s. And the jurors may well conclude he’s afraid of showing up because he knows the allegations are true.”
Read more:
Donald Trump’s ‘huge’ legal risk in E Jean Carroll civil rape trial
VIDEO: Trump’s lawyers try to poke holes in woman’s recollection of rape
Saturday 29 April 2023 09:30 , Gustaf Kilander
Who is Natasha Stoynoff? The journalist who may be testifying in Trump civil rape trial
Saturday 29 April 2023 08:00 , Gustaf Kilander
People magazine sent correspondent Natasha Stoynoff to Mar-a-Lago in late 2005 to write a wedding anniversary story about Donald Trump, who had then recently married Melania Knauss.
Almost two decades later, her experience of the future president allegedly “forcing his tongue” down her throat could prove essential testimony in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial that began on 25 April in a federal court in New York City.
Before joining the magazine, Ms Stoynoff was a reporter and photographer at The Toronto Star, a columnist at The Toronto Sun, and a freelancer for Time Magazine. She then worked for People magazine for almost 20 years. She now lives in New York, where she writes books and screenplays, according to her bio on Goodreads.
The Trump legal team failed to stop the inclusion of Ms Stoynoff’s testimony in the trial.
Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996 and that he later defamed her in 2019 as president when he rejected her allegation.
Read more:
Who is Natasha Stoynoff? The journalist whose testimony could bring down Trump
Trump hugs January 6 rioter who called for Pence and Congress to be executed
Saturday 29 April 2023 06:30 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump hugged a woman who spent time in prison for her role in the January 6 insurrection. She later said that former Vice President Mike Pence and “every single” member of Congress who voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory should be executed.
At a diner in New Hampshire, Mr Trump was notified by the people in the room that QAnon believer Micki Larson-Olson was a “January 6er”.
Mr Trump approached her, said she was “terrific” and told her to “hang in there”. He then embraced her, video from the episode shows, according to The Hill.
She told NBC News the following day that Mr Trump is the “real president,” adding that she “would like a front seat of Mike Pence being executed”.
“The punishment for treason is death, per the Constitution,” Larson-Olson said. “I believe every single person, every single person that stole a voice from our collective voice of ‘We the people, of the people, for the people, by the people,’ deserves death, and no less than that.”
Read more:
Trump hugs January 6 rioter who called for Pence and Congress to be executed
VOICES: Why Trump’s Truth Social account is a legal landmine for him
Saturday 29 April 2023 05:00 , Andrew Feinberg
Donald Trump has a problem.
He’s currently facing no fewer than three court proceedings in both civil and criminal courtrooms in his former home state of New York, and he can’t seem to keep his mouth shut about any of them.
In multiple instances, the twice-impeached ex-president’s conduct has caught the eye of the judges charged with overseeing cases against him, most recently in a New York City federal courtroom, where on Wednesday District Judge Lewis Kaplan issued a stern warning to Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina.
The veteran jurist told Tacopina, who is representing Trump in a civil rape lawsuit brought by writer E Jean Carroll, that the former chief executive could have opened himself up to “a new source of potential liability” with inflammatory posts about the case on his Truth Social platform.
Specifically, Trump called the case a “scam” and made reference to alleged DNA evidence which isn’t going to be part of the trial.
Read more:
Why Trump’s Truth Social account is a legal landmine for him
Trump revives threat of skipping GOP presidential debates
Saturday 29 April 2023 04:00 , AP
Donald Trump is again threatening to skip a presidential debate.
The Republican former president has privately said that a debate in August would be too early and he would not participate, according to two people familiar with his concerns who insisted on anonymity to detail private discussions. He also has stepped up his public complaints this week, suggesting that his poll numbers are so high he has no reason to compete with the rest of the field.
“I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them,” Trump said in a Tuesday post on his social media network.
Trump repeated the idea at at campaign event in New Hampshire on Thursday afternoon, showing a slideshow of his recent poll numbers among the GOP contenders and saying of the debates, “Why would you do that?”
Read more:
Trump revives threat of skipping GOP presidential debates
Trump says he is retiring ‘crooked’ nickname for Hillary Clinton and bestowing it on Biden
Saturday 29 April 2023 03:00 , Abe Asher
Former President Donald Trump announced at a campaign event on Thursday that he is “retiring” the ‘Crooked’ nickname for Hillary Clinton and will instead be using it going forward for President Joe Biden.
“I will be retiring the name ‘Crooked’ from Hillary Clinton and her moniker, and I’m going to give her a new name, I don’t know, like maybe ‘Lovely Hillary’ or ‘Beautiful Hillary,’ but I’m going to retire the name ‘Crooked’ because he will be known from now on as ‘Crooked Joe Biden,’” Mr Trump said.
The watching crowd cheered and whistled. Mr Trump then speculated that Ms Clinton would be “celebrating” the announcement. He then launched a sizeable accusation at Mr Biden, the candidate who beat him handily in both the popular vote and the Electoral College in 2020.
Read more:
Trump says he is retiring ‘crooked’ nickname for Hillary Clinton, giving it to Biden
Pence testifies before federal grand jury investigating Trump
Saturday 29 April 2023 02:00 , Andrew Feinberg
Former vice president Mike Pence has given evidence before the federal grand jury investigating former president Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, The Independent has confirmed.
Mr Pence spent roughly seven hours testifying to the grand jury and answering questions from prosecutors led by Jack Smith, the US Department of Justice special counsel leading investigations into Mr Trump’s push to remain in office against the will of voters, and the twice-impeached ex-president’s alleged unlawful retention of national defence information.
Mr Pence’s appearance before the Washington DC grand jury comes less than 24 hours after a federal appeals court rejected a last-ditch appeal to block his testimony by Mr Trump’s legal team.
Read more:
Pence testifies before federal grand jury investigating Trump
Who is running for president in 2024?
Saturday 29 April 2023 01:00 , Andrew Feinberg and Ariana Baio
With less than two years remaining until US voters will decide who will serve as president of the United States from January 2025 to January 2029, former Republican government officials are starting to jockey for position in the coming fight for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, while at least one prominent Democrat (California governor Gavin Newsom) has reportedly pledged not to challenge President Joe Biden in a Democratic primary.
As the 2024 campaign takes shape, here are the names you need to know:
Who is running for president in 2024?
Nikki Haley suggests Joe Biden will die in office if re-elected
Saturday 29 April 2023 00:30 , Andrew Feinberg
Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley on Thursday claimed that Americans should not vote for Joe Biden because he may die during a second term and leave Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of the executive branch.
Ms Haley made the incendiary comment during an interview on Fox News, just days after Mr Biden – the oldest person to ever serve as America’s chief executive – announced his candidacy in next year’s presidential election.
“He announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden you really are counting on a President Harris, because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” she said.
Mr Biden, who is 80 years of age, would be 82 on the day he is sworn in for a second term if he is re-elected next November. He would be 86 when his hypothetical second term expires.
The 46th president is generally considered to be in good health. In a memorandum released by the White House press office in February, Physician to the President Dr Kevin O’Connor said Mr Biden “remains a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief”.
Read more:
Nikki Haley suggests Joe Biden will die in office if re-elected
Trump says ‘it’s a shame’ what happened to Tucker Carlson: ‘He was telling the truth’
Friday 28 April 2023 23:30 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump appeared on his eldest son’s programme Triggered, saying that “it’s a shame what happened to Tucker Carlson” and that the ousted Fox host was willing to tell “the truth”.
Mr Trump blasted the $787.5m settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems following the voting machine company’s lawsuit against the network for its repeated broadcasts including lies about the election and Dominion’s role in it.
“They need a new law firm,” Mr Trump said, adding that the Dominion lawsuit is “the craziest case I’ve ever heard”.
“It’s a shame what happened to Tucker Carlson. He had the number one show. He was doing great. His show was very interesting, and he was out there in the sense that he was telling the truth,” he said.
He claimed that others in the media are “lying and they’re hiding and they’re afraid to talk”.
Read more:
Trump says ‘it’s a shame’ what happened to Tucker Carlson: ‘He was telling the truth’
Will other Fox News stars face Tucker Carlson’s fate?
Friday 28 April 2023 22:45 , Alex Woodward
A flood of reporting in the aftermath of Tucker Carlson’s abrupt exit from Fox News suggested that allegations outlined in lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems and a former producer who worked for his most-watched programme likely played a role in a decision to “part ways” with the host, as the network described it.
Now, speculation about the future of other Fox stars has been growing among pundits and media reporters after his apparent firing and the massive $787m settlement with Dominion, announced after a jury was already sworn in for what would have been a blockbuster trial against the right-wing media behemoth.
If that litigation played a role in Carlson’s exit from Fox News, analysts and pundits are left questioning how other figures who were central to the Dominion case have thus far avoided similar fates. The Daily Beast flatly asked in its headline, “How Does Maria Bartiromo Still Work at Fox News?”
Read more:
Will other Fox News stars face Tucker Carlson’s fate?
PHOTOS: Trump greets supporters in New Hampshire diner
Friday 28 April 2023 22:00 , Gustaf Kilander
VIDEO: Trump says ‘it’s a shame’ what happened to Tucker Carlson: ‘He was telling the truth’
Friday 28 April 2023 21:30 , Gustaf Kilander
Trump says he can engage with Gen Z voters and brags about popularity on college campuses
Friday 28 April 2023 21:00 , Sravasti Dasgupta
Former president Donald Trump said he is popular on college campuses and among the Generation Z while interacting with the audience at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday.
During the rally an audience member named Christine asked the former president about how he planned to engage with Gen-Z – the generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“Engaging with young voters is crucial. Here in New Hampshire we have America First warriors like Caroline Lovett. How do you plan to engage with Gen-Z voters,” she was quoted as saying in a clip shared on Twitter by user Acyn.
Mr Trump replied: “I think we are doing that. I tell you what you would be shocked, like Charlie Kirk and others the job that they do, it’s a youth movement, you would be shocked to see how popular we are in college campuses-much different than what you hear.”
According to AP VoteCast, a sweeping national survey of the electorate conducted in December voters under 30 went 53 per cent for Democratic House candidates compared with only 41 per cent for Republican candidates nationwide.
Read more:
Trump says people would be ‘shocked’ how popular he is on college campuses
Ex-president hugs Jan 6 rioter who called for Pence to be executed
Friday 28 April 2023 20:28 , Gustaf Kilander
Donald Trump hugged a woman at one who spent time in prison for her role in the January 6 insurrection. She later said that former Vice President Mike Pence and “every single” member of Congress who voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory should be executed.
At a diner in New Hampshire, Mr Trump was notified by the people in the room that QAnon believer Micki Larson-Olson was a “January 6er”.
Mr Trump approached her, said she was “terrific” and told her to “hang in there”. He then embraced her, video from the episode shows, according to The Hill.
She later told NBC News the following day that Mr Trump is the “real president,” adding that she “would like a front seat of Mike Pence being executed”.
“The punishment for treason is death, per the Constitution,” Ms Larson-Olson said. “I believe every single person, every single person that stole a voice from our collective voice of ‘We the people, of the people, for the people, by the people,’ deserves death, and no less than that.”
Trump recommits to banning Muslims from entering US if he is re-elected
Friday 28 April 2023 20:00 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Donald Trump has vowed to restore a travel ban on Islamic nations, prohibiting citizens of those countries from entering the US, if he is elected president in 2024.
“I will restore my travel ban to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of our country,” the twice-impeached former president said in New Hampshire on Thursday.
“You saw what happened. Four years… You saw that right? We were very tough on that. We don’t want our buildings blown up.”
Mr Trump, during his first week in office in 2017, restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority nations – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
While the order was at first blocked by the courts and the White House scrambled to say it was not a ban on Muslims, the Supreme Court in 2018 upheld the final version of the measure.
Read more:
Trump recommits to banning Muslims from entering US if he is re-elected
DeSantis' overseas trip overshadowed by fight with Disney
Friday 28 April 2023 19:30 , AP
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hoped his first international trade mission would generate lucrative business deals and boost his foreign policy resume ahead of an expected presidential run. Instead, he faced questions about losing ground to former President Donald Trump and being taken to court by Walt Disney World.
The trip reflected the intensifying pressure confronting DeSantis as some of his allies grow increasingly anxious about his White House prospects. Within a few short years, he rose from relatively a relatively obscure congressman to Trump’s leading Republican rival by embracing the former president’s cultural grievances without the constant tumult.
But it turns out DeSantis isn’t immune from drama. Facing questions this week about his standing within the GOP and his fight with Disney, he’s sometimes appeared agitated, reinforcing concerns within corners of his own party about his readiness for the rigor of presidential politics. Some in the GOP said that rather than burnish his image as a fighter, the confrontation with Disney over an anti-LGBTQ law and the theme part’s right to self-governor is becoming a distraction.
Read more:
DeSantis' overseas trip overshadowed by fight with Disney
Nikki Haley suggests Joe Biden will die in office if re-elected
Friday 28 April 2023 19:00 , Andrew Feinberg
Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley on Thursday claimed that Americans should not vote for Joe Biden because he may die during a second term and leave Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of the executive branch.
Ms Haley made the incendiary comment during an interview on Fox News, just days after Mr Biden – the oldest person to ever serve as America’s chief executive – announced his candidacy in next year’s presidential election.
“He announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden you really are counting on a President Harris, because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” she said.
Mr Biden, who is 80 years of age, would be 82 on the day he is sworn in for a second term if he is re-elected next November. He would be 86 when his hypothetical second term expires.
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Nikki Haley suggests Joe Biden will die in office if re-elected
Fox News anchor fires back at guest for calling her ‘far right’
Friday 28 April 2023 18:30 , Gustaf Kilander
Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner made it clear she was less than impressed when a guest referred to her as “far right” in a segment on the right-wing network this week.
During her show The Faulkner Focus on Thursday morning, Ms Faulker was joined by Democratic politician Desiree Tims and GOP strategist David Avella for a debate about the launch of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.
The exchange became heated when talk turned to who will be the likely Republican candidate to take on the current president in the 2024 White House race.
Ms Tims predicted that the US is headed for a 2020 Trump-Biden rematch – pointing out some polls that place Mr Biden “crushing” Donald Trump.
“There are also polls that came out recently that show President Biden absolutely crushing former President Donald Trump,” she said.
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Fox News anchor fires back at guest for calling her ‘far right’
Trump says ‘it’s a shame’ what happened to Tucker Carlson: ‘He was telling the truth’
Friday 28 April 2023 18:00 , Gustaf Kilander
The former president appeared on his oldest son’s programme Triggered, saying that “it’s a shame what happened to Tucker Carlson” and that the fired Fox host was willing to tell “the truth”.
Donald Trump blasted the $787.5m settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems following the voting machine company’s lawsuit against the network for its repeated broadcasts including lies about the election and Dominion’s role in it.
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Trump says ‘it’s a shame’ what happened to Tucker Carlson: ‘He was telling the truth’
Friday 28 April 2023 17:30 , Bevan Hurley
When asked why she had filed the first lawsuit, Ms Carroll said she had been asked in interviews by several journalists whether or not she would pursue legal action against the then-president.
The idea had “crystalised” when she met George Conway, the conservative lawyer and Trump antagonist, at a party at the author Molly Jong-Fast’s home in 2019, she said.
In her book, Ms Carroll also alleged she had been sexually assaulted by the disgraced former CBS CEO and president Les Moonves.
When asked why she hadn’t sued Mr Moonves, she said: “He didn’t call me a liar.”
Ms Carroll said she was “stunned” when Mr Trump attacked her again in 2022, after she had filed the initial lawsuit against him.
The trial, which was initially set down for five to 10 days, is still on its second witness heading into day four.
‘Wave of slime’
Friday 28 April 2023 17:00 , Bevan Hurley
Under questioning from her attorney Mike Ferrara, Ms Carroll told how she would be inundated with a “wave of slime” every time Mr Trump commented or posted about her.
“It’s very hard to get up in the morning and receive those messages, that you are way too ugly to go on living.”
Ms Carroll said she had “peeked” at Twitter on Thursday morning, and was met with a familiar stream of abusive and threatening messages.
“There it was again the onslaught,” she said. “It’s not a great way to start the day.”
Ms Carroll added: “I like attention, there is no question. I don’t like attention because I’m suing Donald Trump, getting attention for being raped is hard.”
Initial lawsuit filed in 2019
Friday 28 April 2023 16:30 , Bevan Hurley
Ms Carroll initially sued Mr Trump for defamation in 2019, after he claimed in interviews and in White House press statements that the alleged rape didn’t occur.
When the former president posted on Truth Social in October 2022 that the lawsuit was a “con job”, she sued for defamation again.
This time, she filed an additional claim for battery after New York state passed the Adult Survivors Act, which allows adults who were sexually abused to sue their alleged attackers after the statutes of limitations have run out.
‘My biggest fears came absolutely true’
Friday 28 April 2023 16:00 , Bevan Hurley
Mr Tacopina repeatedly tried to undermine Ms Carroll’s credibility after she had earlier testified in graphic detail about the alleged rape during a chance encounter with Mr Trump at Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s.
He suggested the author had been motivated by financial gain and political ideology to finally come forward with the allegations.
“For two decades, Ms Carroll, you never told the police and never revealed the story in your hundreds of columns,” Mr Tacopina said.
She replied that she had been fearful of what Mr Trump, who was then one of the wealthiest and most famous men in New York, could do to her.
“I was afraid that Donald Trump would retaliate, which is exactly what he did,” she said. “My biggest fears came absolutely true.”
‘I had been silent for too long'
Friday 28 April 2023 15:30 , Bevan Hurley
Ms Carroll told the court on day three of the civil trial in a Manhattan federal court she hadn’t intended to write about the alleged rape when she began work on her book.
But after sexual assault allegations against the disgraced filmmaker Harvey Weinstein became public in 2017, she decided she couldn’t remain silent any longer.
“I was not a pioneer, I am a follower,” she said during cross-examination. “I saw other women coming forward after Harvey Weinstein and I thought, ‘who am I to stay silent’. Also I was 78 or 79, I had been silent for too long.”
Judge slams Trump lawyer’s questioning as ‘argumentative, repetitive, and inappropriate'
Friday 28 April 2023 15:00 , Bevan Hurley
Judge Lewis Kaplan became impatient with the defence attorney as he continued to probe Ms Carroll’s testimony.
“It’s argumentative, it’s repetitive and it’s inappropriate,” Judge Kaplan told Mr Tacopina.
Ms Carroll first went public with the alleged rape in a 2019 New York magazine excerpt from her memoir What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.
She is suing the former president in civil court for defamation and battery after he said she was lying about the alleged incident, claiming she was “not his type”. Mr Trump, 76, has repeatedly denied the rape took place.
E Jean Carroll fires back on why she didn’t scream during alleged Donald Trump rape
Friday 28 April 2023 14:30 , Bevan Hurley
E Jean Carroll raised her voice in exasperation in a New York courtroom on Thursday as she was repeatedly asked why she didn’t scream while allegedly being raped by Donald Trump – before the judge admonished the ex-president’s lawyer for his line of questioning.
During hours of tense cross-examination, Mr Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina peppered the 79-year-old former Elle advice columnist with questions about an alleged sexual assault in the dressing room of Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in 1996.
Ms Carroll told how she was filled with adrenaline as she pushed and kicked back against the much larger man during the alleged three-minute encounter.
“I was in too much of a panic to scream, I was fighting,” she said.
When Mr Tacopina pressed the issue again, she replied: “You can’t beat up on me for not screaming.”
“One of the reasons why women don’t come forward is they are asked ‘why didn’t you scream’. It keeps women silent.”
Ms Carroll eventually raised her voice in exasperation, saying: “I’m telling you he raped me whether I screamed or not.”
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E Jean Carroll fires back on why she didn’t scream during alleged Donald Trump rape
Soccer executive and celebrity attorney: Who is Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina?
Friday 28 April 2023 14:00 , Gustaf Kilander
Lawyer Joe Tacopina is the head of the legal team representing former President Donald Trump in the civil rape trial against former Elle advice columnist E Jean Carroll.
Mr Tacopina began cross-examining Ms Carroll on Thursday in the trial, stemming from her allegation that Mr Trump raped her in a New York City department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996.
The attorney is also representing the ex-president in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into his alleged hush money payments to women claiming to have had affairs with him.
A Manhattan grand jury voted earlier this year to indict Mr Trump for falsifying business records in connection to a 2016 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels for her to remain silent about a 2006 affair she claims to have had with Mr Trump, a claim he denies.
Here’s what we know about the ex-president’s top lawyer:
Soccer executive and celebrity attorney: Who is Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina?
E Jean Carroll says she was hit with ‘wave of slime’ when Trump accused her of lying
Friday 28 April 2023 13:40 , Rachel Sharp
E Jean Carroll has said she was hit with “wave of slime” when Trump accused her of lying about the alleged rape in the 1990s.
During direct questioning on Thursday, Ms Carroll told how she would be inundated with a “wave of slime” every time Mr Trump commented or posted about her.
“It’s very hard to get up in the morning and receive those messages, that you are way too ugly to go on living,” she said.
Ms Carroll said she had “peeked” at Twitter on Thursday morning, and was met with a familiar stream of abusive and threatening messages.
“There it was again the onslaught,” she said. “It’s not a great way to start the day.”
E Jean Carroll to return to the stand Monday
Friday 28 April 2023 13:20 , Rachel Sharp
E Jean Carroll will return to the stand for her third day of testimony on Monday morning in her civil rape trial against Donald Trump.
In court on Thursday, she faced an intense cross-examination from Mr Trump’s legal team.
During the grilling, attorney Joe Tacopina repeatedly questioned why she didn’t scream during the alleged rape in a dressing room in Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store.
“One of the reasons why women don’t come forward is they are asked ‘why didn’t you scream’. It keeps women silent,” she said. “He raped me, whether I screamed or not.”
Judge Lewis Kaplan also became impatient with the attorney and warned him about his line of questioning.
VOICES: Why Trump’s Truth Social account is a legal landmine for him
Friday 28 April 2023 13:00 , Andrew Feinberg
Donald Trump has a problem.
He’s currently facing no fewer than three court proceedings in both civil and criminal courtrooms in his former home state of New York, and he can’t seem to keep his mouth shut about any of them.
In multiple instances, the twice-impeached ex-president’s conduct has caught the eye of the judges charged with overseeing cases against him, most recently in a New York City federal courtroom, where on Wednesday District Judge Lewis Kaplan issued a stern warning to Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina.
The veteran jurist told Tacopina, who is representing Trump in a civil rape lawsuit brought by writer E Jean Carroll, that the former chief executive could have opened himself up to “a new source of potential liability” with inflammatory posts about the case on his Truth Social platform.
Specifically, Trump called the case a “scam” and made reference to alleged DNA evidence which isn’t going to be part of the trial.
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Why Trump’s Truth Social account is a legal landmine for him
Trump claims he is retiring ‘crooked Hillary’ nickname – to give it to Biden instead
Friday 28 April 2023 12:40 , Rachel Sharp
Former President Donald Trump announced at a campaign event on Thursday that he is “retiring” the ‘Crooked’ nickname for Hillary Clinton and will instead be using it going forward for President Joe Biden.
“I will be retiring the name ‘Crooked’ from Hillary Clinton and her moniker, and I’m going to give her a new name, I don’t know, like maybe ‘Lovely Hillary’ or ‘Beautiful Hillary,’ but I’m going to retire the name ‘Crooked’ because he will be known from now on as ‘Crooked Joe Biden,’” Mr Trump said.
The watching crowd cheered and whistled. Mr Trump then speculated that Ms Clinton would be “celebrating” the announcement. He then launched a sizeable accusation at Mr Biden, the candidate who beat him handily in both the popular vote and the Electoral College in 2020.
“There’s never been anyone in the history of American politics so crooked or dishonest as Joe Biden, and the press absoultely refuses to report it — all that press back there — because, frankly, they’re just as crooked as he is, and they are,” Mr Trump said.
Trump says he can engage with Gen Z voters and brags about popularity on college campuses
Friday 28 April 2023 12:20 , Rachel Sharp
Former president Donald Trump said he is popular on college campuses and among the Generation Z while interacting with the audience at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday.
During the rally an audience member named Christine asked the former president about how he planned to engage with Gen-Z – the generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“Engaging with young voters is crucial. Here in New Hampshire we have America First warriors like Caroline Lovett. How do you plan to engage with Gen-Z voters,” she said.
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Trump says people would be ‘shocked’ how popular he is on college campuses
Trump lawyer cross examines rape accuser at rape trial
Friday 28 April 2023 12:00 , AP
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer went on the attack Thursday against writer E. Jean Carroll’s claims that she was raped by Trump in the 1990s, using cross examination to try to discredit the longtime advice columnist before a jury at a New York civil trial.
Attorney Joe Tacopina began his questioning in Manhattan federal court by citing Carroll’s own words as he asked her to acknowledge that she has described her account as odd.
“Certain parts of this story are difficult to conceive of,” she said.
Tacopina used the word “supposedly” in reference to her rape claim, drawing an immediate and stern correction from the writer.
“Not supposedly. I was raped,” she said.
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