Trump calls for Putin to release dirt on the Biden family
Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner has appeared virtually before the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. His testimony is said to have been “really valuable”.
The meeting comes as White House records turned over to the committee by the National Archives and Records Administration do not include any calls made or received by Mr Trump between the hours of 11.17am and 6.54pm on the day of the storming of Congress.
The panel is now probing whether Mr Trump or his advisers used untraceable “burner phones” to evade official record-keeping systems which documented the president’s inbound and outbound phone calls that day. Mr Trump denied doing so in a statement in which he claimed to have “no idea what a burner phone is” and has never used the term. However, law suits filed on his behalf and a statement by former national security adviser John Bolton indicate otherwise.
Meanwhile, the current administration blasted Mr Trump’s request for Russian President Vladimir Putin to release potentially damaging information on President Joe Biden’s son in the middle of the war in Ukraine.
“What kind of American, let alone an ex-president, thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin? There is only one, and it’s Donald Trump,” White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said to reporters on Wednesday.
Why Jared Kushner’s Jan 6 testimony matters…and its limits
Jared Kushner’s expected testimony before the 6 January select committee is a major turn in the Congressional investigation into the riot. Notably, unlike other members of the Trump inner circle, Mr Kushner will be testifying voluntarily, not under subpoena; as committee chair Bennie Thompson said to ABC News, he “was an integral part of the administration,” and it’s therefore “important for us to find out if he knew anything about the planning before January 6, and to get it from him.”
However, as CBS’s Scott MacFarlane has pointed out, Mr Kushner’s movements around the time of the insurrection put him at a greater distance than other core Trump figures from the events of the day itself.
Andrew Naughtie1 April 2022 11:12
Democratic senator: Ginni Thomas was involved in an attempted coup
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy used a speech on the Senate floor yesterday to insist that given the text messages between Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows that were recently revealed, a “clear, binding code of conduct” with a standard of recusal must be introduced to marshal Supreme Court justices.
His remarks come after Nancy Pelosi’s extraordinary description yesterday of Ms Thomas as a “proud contributor to a coup”. More on that below…
Andrew Naughtie1 April 2022 10:40
Fox News on Transgender Visibility Day
Yesterday saw the US observe the Transgender Day of Visibility, as proclaimed by Joe Biden – but on Fox News, it played out in a characteristically hostile way.
Then again, Fox has also hired Caitlyn Jenner as a new contributor, with CEO Suzanne Scott remarking that her story “is an inspiration to us all” and calling her “a trailblazer in the LGBTQ+ community”.
In the House of Representatives, meanwhile, one Republican Congressman, Bob Good, used a floor speech to mock inclusive understandings of sex and gender:
Andrew Naughtie1 April 2022 10:04
ICYMI: GOP candidate shoots at ‘godless commie’ vote counting machine in campaign advert
Jarrin Jackson, who is running for state office in Oklahoma, posted the video on Monday. In the advertisement, he approaches a printer and asks “Who owns this?”
The lid of the printer is labelled “Property of: Godless Commies.”
Read the full story here:
Maroosha Muzaffar1 April 2022 09:30
Roger Stone, a longtime confidante and ally of Donald Trump, came to the defence of far-right Rep Madison Cawthorn on Thursday and said that “I can tell you first hand that these parties happen. I can tell you that they continue to happen. I can tell you that Madison Cawthorn told me yesterday that he had not retracted what he said, even though Kevin McCarthy has popped up and is now speaking for the member of Congress.”
Read the full story here:
Andrew Naughtie1 April 2022 08:30
Trump tells supporter ‘you don’t look gay’
Former president Donald Trump told someone in the crowd during a fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago, “You don’t look gay.”
Mr Trump was speaking at an event for the Republican congressional candidate and former Trump administration Housing and Urban Development Department official John Gibbs.
Someone in the crowd shouted “Gays for Trump!” and Mr Trump responded by saying “you don’t look gay.”
Read the full story here:
Maroosha Muzaffar1 April 2022 06:20
Trump tried to take profits from book of photos published by White House photographer, report says
Former President Donald Trump reportedly tried to muscle his way into the profits generated by a book of images taken by the official White House photographer during his tenure.
Read the full story here:
Maroosha Muzaffar1 April 2022 05:51
Debunking Donald Trump’s false claim that he ‘built up’ oil reserves
Former president Donald Trump’s recent claim that his administration “built up” US strategic petroleum reserves that were “virtually empty” for a half-century is a complete falsehood, according to US Department of Energy records.
Andrew Feinberg explains.
Oliver O’Connell1 April 2022 05:30
Trump won’t change says GOP senator
North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer dismisses Donald Trump again asking Vladimir Putin to release dirt on his political foes as just Trump being Trump.
“Donald Trump is Donald Trump. He hasn’t changed. He’s not going to change,” he tells MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.
Oliver O’Connell1 April 2022 04:45
ICYMI: Jared Kushner was set to meet with Jan 6 committee today
Jared Kushner is today expected to meet virtually with the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.
Committee chairman Bennie Thompson told ABC News Mr Kushner is of interest “because he was an integral part of the administration. It’s, I think, important for us to find out if he knew anything about the planning before January 6, and to get it from him.”
The committee has no evidence that he was involved in the planning for the events of 6 January 2021 and has not sought to obtain his email or phone records, Mr Thompson further told reporters.
(AFP via Getty Images)
Oliver O’Connell1 April 2022 04:00
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