Oscar-winning actor George Clooney on Wednesday joined the chorus of voices calling for Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
Since Biden’s disastrous appearance at the CNN presidential debate last month, many have suggested that he prove that his hesitation and functionality were not indicative of his intellectual acuity.
But in an op-ed for the New York Times, Clooney showed that things are just as bad as everyone feared.
“It’s devastating to say, but the Joe Biden that appeared 3 weeks ago at the fundraiser is not Joe Biden’s ‘big deal’ of 2010,” Clooney wrote, referring to a fundraiser he co-hosted. Biden last month, who raised $28 million for the presidential campaign, according to Variety. “He’s not even the Joe Biden of 2020. Es the same guy we all witnessed in the debate.
“Was he tired? Yes. A cold?But our party leaders want to avoid telling us that another 51 million people haven’t realized what we’ve just seen. We are all so terrified at the prospect of a second Trump term that we have decided to forget all signs of caution,” he wrote.
“We are not going to win in November with this president. The most sensible thing is that we’re not going to win the House and we’re going to lose the Senate,” Clooney said. “It’s not just my opinion; that is the opinion of each and every one of the senators, congressmen and governors with whom I have spoken in private. Everyone, no matter what they say publicly.
“We like to communicate how the Republican Party gave up all its strength and all the characteristics that made it so wonderful with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, to a user seeking to retain the presidency, and yet most of our members of Congress wait and see if the dam breaks. But the dam broke,” he wrote. We can bury our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can tell the truth. “
Clooney concluded that “Joe Biden is a hero; he preserved democracy in 2020. We want him to do it in 2024. “
Although he is a staunch supporter and Democratic donor, this is not the first time Clooney has hurt Biden. In May, the actor and director called a senior White House official to express his opposition to Biden’s denunciation of the International Criminal Court arrest warrant he opposed. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. An anonymous source told the Washington Post that Clooney hinted that ICC sanctions would penalize his wife, Amal Clooney, who worked on the case.
In the past, Biden has turned to famous spokesmen, such as Robert DeNiro, to help him define what’s at stake in his fight against Trump. If Clooney’s dissent prompts a wave of calls from high-profile public figures for him to resign, public opinion of the president could fall further.
A startling new investigation through The New York Times shows how Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago has become the lucrative “epicenter” of the MAGA movement, transforming from a nonpartisan venue for charity galas to a hub for the conspiratorial far right. Trump and sing songs in his honor for his son’s modest $600,000.
According to an investigation of the evidence of the New York fraud case against the Trump Organization, Mar-a-Lago made a net profit of $22 million in 2022. Trump’s presidency, Mar-a-Lago, where Trump spends most of his time and where conservatives flock in hopes of catching a glimpse of their beloved leader, has seen his benefits more than double, according to a Times investigation.
According to the Times, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club has increased its registration fee from $100,000 in 2016 to $600,000 through 2022. With about 500 members, that equates to about $12 million paid to Trump’s club, which is cash directly into Trump’s pocket.
According to first-quarter 2024 crusade financial documents reviewed by The Times, applicants and political committees have spent more than $4. 7 million on Mar-a-Lago since Trump left the White House, with Trump’s crusade and super PAC accounting for about a quarter. . of this total.
Some of Trump’s grudges became known during his presidency: Mar-a-Lago raised a handsome sum from the federal government, charging more than $1. 4 million for rooms rented to Trump’s mandatory Secret Service entourage during his presidency and even charging the White House for alcohol. consumed by his collaborators.
Before Trump’s political career, the Times notes, Mar-a-Lago was largely a place for ostentatious charity galas and few political occasions. In the 2014-2015 season, the last before Trump announced his candidacy for president, the Times counted 52 fundraising activities. occasions at Mar-a-Lago, of which only one policy.
After his notable comment about “very smart people” about neo-Nazis and white supremacists at the fatal Unite the Right rally in 2017, many classic charity events brought Mar-a-Lago to a halt and moved to other locations, according to the Times. So far, six fundraisers have left the venue and have since been relocated to far-right events, such as an annual gala hosted by Turning Point USA, a conservative Christian nationalist organization to attack school campuses, which began taking positions at Mar-a-Lago in 2018.
The Times met 130 other people who have attended three or more times at Mar-a-Lago since Trump left office. Many are election deniers and Capitol rioters, and 44 are members of Congress, state officials or Republican election candidates. four of the hopefuls won Trump’s endorsement after making the pilgrimage and kissing the ring.
“We don’t do a lot of those things at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said in March 2022 at a fundraiser for Vernon Jones, a candidate for the Republican nomination in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District. an absolutely political place,” Trump added.
Donald Trump’s donors are reportedly discussing the possibility that Sen. J. D. Vance will become Trump’s vice presidential nominee.
The Daily Beast reports that Republican donors are sharply divided over Vance, complaining about his lack of political and business experience. Some are also dissatisfied that one of Trump’s campaign managers, Susie Wiles, is playing the role of favorite with Vance.
“The user who has had outside influence here is Susie Wiles,” said one Republican strategist, based on donor conversions, adding that “she definitely needs Vance. Vance is like his little pet. “
Donors are more likely to turn to Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who have more experience and more secure foreign policy positions in Rubio’s case. On the other hand, “J. D. Vance is a guy who wrote an e-book and I contributed to a Netflix show,” the strategist said.
Vance also underperformed in his 2022 election victory in Ohio, trailing the state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, by just about 10 points. The strategist said this shows that many Ohio Republicans don’t believe in Vance, which can translate to other swing states.
The article reveals that Vance has the backing of at least one major donor: Silicon Valley billionaire David Sacks, who is part of the notorious “PayPal mafia” that includes the likes of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, among other tech moguls. Will those connections be enough to elevate Vance to the rank of Trump’s vice presidential candidate above Rubio and Burgum?Rubio is in favor of the status quo and hurts it with some MAGA figures, adding Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. It turns out that the resolution will depend on whether Trump needs a safe pick or an anti-status quo figure like him.
Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “punishment secretary” is touting a far-fetched plan to arrest politicians, police officers, and journalists he deems disloyal to the former president, according to an in-depth new investigation via Raw Story.
Conservative political activist Ivan Raiklin claims to have compiled a “list of deep state targets” that included senior Democrats and Republicans, U. S. Capitol Police officers, FBI officials, and intelligence agencies. They are grooming witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trials and journalists from the New York Times. . York Times, CNN, The Washington Post and media outlets. His alleged crime? And Raiklin is considered the embodiment of justice.
During a podcast appearance earlier this year, Raiklin mentioned his nickname “Deep State Marauder, aka Mauler. “Raiklin’s plan for what to do with his list is rarely that horrific, but it’s still terrifying. He intends to use the right-wing sheriffs of his wing to carry out mass arrests, and in May declared plans to conduct “live-streamed crushing raids. “
Raiklin reportedly claimed that if he were to go public with all the alleged evidence he has collected about Trump’s enemies in the deep state, it would be a very likely explanation for why he would arrest senior officials and news hounds on his list.
These arrests are reportedly carried out through “constitutional sheriffs,” in particular a right-wing anti-government organization called the Association of Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers. Those sheriffs would then replace the 75,000 veterans who Raiklin said had been discharged from the military. for refusing to comply with Covid-19 vaccination mandates, forming a rebel army eager for revenge.
So far, gathering his troops has not been successful.
Raiklin tried to recruit some at the group’s conference in April, where he asked a panel if they would be “willing to go to the max to create consequences for those federal actors,” who he said had committed some kind of “seditious conspiracy. “”. »
Although sympathetic to Raiklin, officials warned that his plot was illegal and that prosecutors were unlikely to ever press charges.
Even Sheriff Dar Leaf, known among the far right for suggesting that the organization that tried to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was only seeking to arrest a citizen, felt Raiklin’s plan went too far.
“We’re not going to go through passing out and stopping,” Leaf said. “We have to present an indictment to a grand jury, just as the Constitution says. “
When asked via Raw Story about Raiklin’s plan, Leaf said that he did not know who Raiklin was and opposed political prosecution.
Former Sheriff Richard Mack, who heads the Constitutional Sheriffs Group, told Raw Story that he cut ties with Raiklin in early June and did not approve of his rhetoric. “Frankly, he’s talking about this list of 350 other people; “They can turn to an attorney’s facility,” Mack said. “It reeks of process and does not respect due process. “
Raiklin sent emails to sheriff’s offices across the country in hopes of rallying them to his cause. No one has signed, according to Raw Story.
Elon Musk is excited to raise right-wing discourse issues about allegations of voter fraud before November.
Inspired by Donald Trump’s e-book last week, Musk was late and launched alarmist tweets about the requirement for paper polls, in-person voting, and manual counting of polls.
This is a coincidence. The House will vote Wednesday on the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Safeguard, or SAVE, sponsored by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. Ahead of the vote, the GOP is seeking to stir controversy over voter fraud.
The bill would require genuine identification or a U. S. passport to vote, instead of the popular driver’s license, in an effort to restrict voting to non-citizens. The bill also calls on states to remove noncitizens from their lists and even ask Homeland Security to deport anyone illegally registered.
In addition, this week, Republicans announced that they will include the citizenship test factor in their party’s platform at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week.
You wouldn’t know it from hearing Republicans talk, but voting in federal elections is already a federal crime. In addition, the noncitizen vote is incredibly rare, accounting for only about 0. 0001% of the votes cast in the 2016 national election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Even the Cato Institute states that “non-citizens vote illegally in detectable numbers. “
However, Republicans and their allies rely on the conspiracy theory that Democrats are immigrants to borrow elections, conflating two of their favorite themes: voter fraud and the border. “Why are Democrats so adamantly opposed to only American citizens voting in our elections?President Mike Johnson wrote Monday on X (formerly Twitter): “They want to turn illegal aliens into voters. We want to pass the SAVE Act to prevent them from doing this.
Musk later reposted Johnson, writing, “Those who oppose this are traitors. All in capital letters: TRAIDORES. What is the punishment for traitors, again?
At 2 a. m. on Tuesday, Musk tweeted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who wrote, “There’s no way to hide it now. Biden and Democrats need illegal immigrants to vote in next November’s election. Our elections are NOT immune to major interference as long as states require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
As the owner of X, Elon not only promotes this rhetoric on his site, but also takes steps to get Trump and Republicans to end nonexistent voter fraud. Together with billionaire Nelson Peltz, Musk intends to provide Trump with a “data-driven election tracking system.
As Elon would say, this all sounds “extremely worrying”!
As Democrats continue to fight after Biden’s debate last month, Trump on Tuesday let loose a dizzying array of nonsense and torpedoed his comments at a crossover rally at his golf course in DoralArray, Florida.
1. Trump claimed that Biden did not know what a synagogue was, a tangent foreign to his golf skills.
“Tonight, I will also officially challenge Crooked Joe to a game of 18 holes of golf right here at the Blue Monster in Doral,” Trump said, after challenging Biden to a debate “moderators, any restrictions. “
“I’m even going to give Joe Biden 10 secondary photos. And if he wins, I will donate a million dollars to the charity of his choice,” Trump continued before promptly signaling that Biden would not settle for the offer. Not because he’s hosting the NATO summit this week, but because he’s “just talking. “
Trump went on to claim that Biden “doesn’t know what a synagogue is” and claimed that Biden had undergone “three or four” facelifts. “Do you know why it took him so long to get into the race?Trump asked the crowd. ” The facelift didn’t work. “
2. Trump once praised Hannibal Lecter.
Trump devoted much of his speech to sowing concern for asylum seekers, comparing them to Hannibal Lecter. He then introduced a conspiracy for countries in South America, Asia, Africa, and “everyone else” to deliberately empty “their jails, prisons, and psychiatric facilities” in order to send “bloodthirsty terrorists, savage gang members, and child predators into the country. “The United States is after our people, it is after you, it is after everyone.
“Has anyone ever noticed The Silence of the Lambs?Have you ever heard of Hannibal Lecter?” Trump asked the crowd as he lashed out at asylum seekers. “He’s a lovely man. He’d love to invite you over for dinner. It will take you. He invited many other people over for dinner. “
Trump, aware of the implausible nature of this comparison, noted that the media “will say, ‘Oh, it’s terrible what Trump would say. ‘He rambles on about Hannibal Lecter. ” No, I’m not rambling,” he said in defense of his recurring non sequitur that compares asylum seekers to a fictional character eating other people. “We allow tens of thousands of people from insane asylums and psychiatric facilities to enter our country. . »
Trump’s claim appears to be rooted in a conspiracy theory that criminality has declined in Venezuela due to intentional efforts to send criminals to the United States. According to the available data, crime rates in Venezuela have gradually decreased over time due to the easing in the odds of crime. Because more and more people have been plunged into poverty and nothing valuable can be stolen from them.
3. Trump promised to “take our capital. “
Trump in Doral: “We will take over our country’s horribly run capital in Washington DC. . . immediately if you leave Florida – ‘oh, let’s pass by honey, let’s take a look at the Jefferson Memorial’. . . And that’s it, they’re going to shoot, attack, rape. We’re moving on to take our capital and. . . pic. twitter. com/NFnuQSMnoq.
Trump has declared that he will take over Washington, D. C. , so that it is no longer “a nightmare of homicides and crimes. “He also claimed that other people were “shot, assaulted and raped” every time they visited the Jefferson. Memorial or the Washington Monument.
Does Joe Biden have Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s authority to head the Democratic list in November?Pelosi says it’s up to him.
When Pelosi was asked Wednesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, she ominously replied, “It’s up to the president whether he’s going to run or not.
“We all inspire him to make this decision, because time is of the essence,” Pelosi said. Host Jonathan Lemire then reminded her that Biden said he would run and asked if she was looking for him to run.
“I need him for anything I need to do, and that’s just how it is, whatever it is, we get involved,” Pelosi responded.
Does Biden “count on your help to top the Democratic list?”Nancy Pelosi did not respond: “It’s up to the president if he’s going to run. We inspire you all to make this resolution because time is of the essence. “. (He repeated several times that he was running. ) pic. twitter. com/nyeZunyY30
Pelosi’s reaction can easily be interpreted as a non-reaction. Immediately after Biden’s disastrous debate two weeks ago, she also made no commitment. Last week, he called on Donald Trump and Biden to take an intellectual aptitude test.
Although she no longer heads the House Democratic caucus, Pelosi’s opinion still carries a lot of weight as a senior Democrat, and she is likely to be in a verbal exchange with other prominent members of the party. On Tuesday, House Democrats held a closed-door private caucus that reportedly left the party still divided over the long-term of Biden’s candidacy. While Biden has tried to shelve any attempt to replace him, reports show that many Democrats are concerned about his chances of being re-elected. If Biden doesn’t have his entire party heading into November, that doesn’t bode well.
ABC News anchor George Stephanopolous has been filmed expressing doubts about President Joe Biden’s ability to fulfill his term in the White House, just days after giving an exclusive interview with the embattled commander in chief.
In a low-quality video posted Tuesday via TMZ, a pedestrian approached Stephanopoulos on New York Street. “Do you think Biden will resign? You’ve talked to him more than anyone else lately,” the guy asked.
“I don’t think I can serve four more years,” Stephanopolous replied in a moment of frankness.
It’s a troubling reaction from the reporter whose interview with the president last week was aimed at easing national concerns about Biden’s intellectual acuity, following a disastrous performance in last month’s presidential debate on CNN.
Stephanopolous’ comment also comes amid a week of high stakes for the president, as Biden continues to face calls within his own party to withdraw from the presidential race, while attending the NATO summit in Washington, D. C.
Stephanopoulos showed TMZ that he made the statement, but tried to do so. “Earlier in the day, I answered a question from a passerby. I shouldn’t have done it,” he told the outlet.
An ABC spokesperson told TMZ that “George expressed his own perspectives and ABC News’ position. “
Donald Trump delivered a distinctly incoherent speech at a recent rally, as he raised a long list of grievances that didn’t seem entirely true and omitted some much-needed footage.
In front of a crowd of about 700 more people (though Trump claimed it was 45,000) on Tuesday in Doral, Florida, the former president resumed all the general rhythms of his crusade speeches, and more.
Trump attacked President Joe Biden for his weak performance in last month’s presidential debate and many of his policies. He dismissed the timing of Kamala Harris’ calls, arguing that no matter who the Democratic nominee is, he will beat anyone in a “resounding landslide victory. “
With the upbeat music, Trump had a tearful moment, only to complain about anything else. It is included in its entirety because it is very wild.
“We will institute a harsh death penalty for drug traffickers, with traffickers being guilty of the deaths of 500 or more people over the course of their lifetime,” he said.
“Mothers will never again have to see their children overdosed in the hospital. . . and we will never allow moms to watch their children die desperately in their arms screaming, “What can I do, what can I do?Help me, my God, what can I do?’ We are a country whose once-revered airports are a dirty, crowded mess,” Trump continued, turning suddenly.
“You sit and wait for hours, and then they tell you that the plane may not take off, that they have no idea when they will. Where ticket prices have tripled. They don’t have pilots to fly the planes, they don’t look for qualified air traffic controllers and they just don’t know what they’re doing.
Trump in Doral: “Mothers will never be forced to see their children overdose and be hospitalized. And we will never allow moms to watch their children die desperately in their arms, screaming, “What can I do?What can I do? Help me God, what can I do? We are a country that. . . pic. twitter. com/kESw73FQ44
From the death penalty to crying mothers to rotting airports, if Trump was expecting a moment of emotion, it turns out he missed it from afar. His frenetic speed and awkward speech suggest that the presumptive Republican nominee doesn’t care about a bachelor. How can he be taken seriously when he abandons his oft-repeated and unsubstantiated claims about immigrants to lament that, as a country, “we don’t eat bacon anymore”?
Trump continued to rely on blatant scaremongering to excite his supporters, who, sleepy and disinterested, as the former president continued his 75-minute speech, according to The Guardian.
“We will take back our nation’s horribly run capital, Washington, D. C. , clean it up, renovate it, and rebuild our capital, so that it is no longer a nightmare of homicide and crime. the world,” Trump said.
“Right now, if you leave Florida, ‘Oh, let’s come by, honey, let’s take a look at the Jefferson Memorial, let’s take a look at the Washington Monument, let’s go see some of the beautiful scenes,’ and you end up being shot, assaulted, raped,” she warned, promising that she would run the city “harshly and intelligently. “
Trump in Doral: “We will take over our country’s horribly run capital in Washington DC. . . immediately if you leave Florida – ‘oh, let’s pass by honey, let’s take a look at the Jefferson Memorial’. . . And that’s it, they’re going to shoot, attack, rape. We’re moving on to take our capital and. . . pic. twitter. com/NFnuQSMnoq.
The violent crime rate in Washington has fallen 30% since 2023, according to the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia. But of course, Trump doesn’t care about actual crime statistics. Instead, it needs its base in the red states to remain ignorant. fearful and about life in the blue states.
Donald Trump Jr. doesn’t need Sen. Marco Rubio to be his father’s vice presidential nominee, fearing it will tempt status quo Republicans to impeach Trump’s father.
The younger Trump expressed concern in his Triggered video podcast on Monday night, in reaction to a query presented in a live question-and-answer session, where the questioner claimed that “Rubio promises some other impeachment,” to which the host agreed.
If Rubio was the vice president on the ballot, “the moment my father’s hand moves away from the swearing-in process . . . 12 p. m. on January 20, at the moment it broke out, accusation!Trump Jr. said. ” That’s how fast it would be. “
Junior says he fears that if Trump chooses Rubio as his vice presidential nominee, the Senate RINO will vote with Democrats to impeach his father so they can elect President Rubio in his lugar. pic. twitter. com/CUVFEKoJNP
“It has something to do with having someone outside the status quo to protect you more from that status quo,” Trump Jr. added.
Even if hypotheses abound, there is still no indication of who Trump will be as vice president. Some reports imply that the shortlist includes three people: Rubio, Ohio Sen. J. D. Vance and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Other names discussed in recent months include Sen. Tim Scott, Rep. Elise Stefanik and Rep. Byron Donalds.
In Rubio’s case, however, his presence on the price list would seem odd considering how much Trump mocked the Florida senator during the 2016 presidential campaign, calling him “little Marco. “Rubio ended up aligning himself like the rest of the Republican Party and supported Trump. however, his political career was never affected by Trump’s bullying and his failed attempts to fight back.
Recently, Rubio defended the former president and convicted felon for attacks similar to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 excessive playbook, downplaying the manifesto and Trump’s connection to it. Will Trump forget about Rubio’s ties to the status quo to have a staunch defender like him?As vice president? According to a Trump adviser, the resolution will be known to everyone until next Monday.