Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is the target of a bar association complaint over his role in undermining the 2020 election results – The Texas Tribune

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A group of lawyers want the State Bar of Texas to investigate Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for his leading role in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Lawyers with the 65 Project, an organization aiming to hold attorneys accountable for trying to keep former President Donald Trump in power despite his reelection loss, filed an ethics complaint with the association Wednesday. It cites Cruzs role in a lawsuit seeking to void absentee ballots, numerous claims he made about voter fraud, plus an attempt to stop four states from using 2020 election results to appoint electors all of which failed.

Mr. Cruz knew that the allegations he was echoing had already been reviewed and rejected by courts. And he knew that claims of voter fraud or the election being stolen were false, the complaint says.

Trump has falsely insisted he won the 2020 election even after multiple failed legal attempts to challenge the election results and his own attorney generals assurance that the election was accurate and secure. Republicans in Texas and throughout the country have echoed Trumps baseless claims and some have played roles in attempting to prevent or delay President Joe Biden from being officially certified as the winner.

Cruz represented Pennsylvania Republicans in their efforts to cast out nearly all 2020 absentee ballots in their state, which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected. Cruz accused the state court of being a partisan, Democratic court that has issued multiple decisions that were just on their face contrary to law.

The complaint wants to see Cruz disciplined. It does not say how, though it mentions a New York appellate courts suspension of Rudy Giulianis law license. Guiliani was one of Trumps lawyers who also repeated false voter fraud claims.

Cruz also agreed to represent Trump in a Texas lawsuit aiming to bar Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin from using its election results. The complaint argues Cruz pushed forward with a frivolous claim, which the U.S. Supreme Court quickly denied.

The 65 Project is a far-left dark money smear machine run by a whos who of shameless Democrat hacks, a Cruz spokesperson said in an email. Theyre not a credible organization and their complaint wont be worth the paper its printed on.

The complaint against Cruz comes just weeks after the State Bar of Texas moved to sue Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for professional misconduct in his lawsuit challenging the 2020 presidential election, which included his decision to file the federal lawsuit hoping to overturn election results in battleground states where Trump lost.

Disclosure: State Bar of Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is the target of a bar association complaint over his role in undermining the 2020 election results - The Texas Tribune

Guess whos coming to dinner? Trump. Again. Heres what hes up to in Texas – The Dallas Morning News

Riding a winning streak in Republican primaries across the country, Donald Trump is in Dallas on Monday for the first of two May visits to Texas.

The former president is headlining a private fundraiser to help congressional candidates. The program at the Renaissance Dallas Hotel is dubbed Countdown to the Majority by the partys House campaign arm.

As of Sunday there were no public events in Dallas on his schedule. On May 14, Trump will stage a public rally in Austin, one of the bluest areas in Texas.

While Trump likes Texas and has enjoyed significant support in Texas, his visits here have multiple purposes.

Always mindful of his brand, Trump wants to make sure that his strong record of backing winning candidates continues in Texas. In the March primaries the 33 candidates he backed in state and local races either won or advanced to runoffs, though many of those candidates, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, were heavily favored to win.

In the May 24 runoffs, Trump-backed Republicans include Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is fighting for his partys nomination against Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush.

Paxton is seeking a third term as attorney general as he fights a 2015 indictment for securities fraud and is the focus of an FBI investigation of public corruption allegations from within his office.

In previous generations those legal problems would have made a reelection campaign untenable. But in Republican politics this is the era of Trump, and many GOP voters are uninterested or skeptical when their leaders are accused of wrongdoing.

Paxton has the added bonus of Trumps support. And he seemingly earned it by his unabashed loyalty to the former president, which included filing an ill-fated lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in several battleground states. The Texas Bar Association plans to sue Paxton for filing that lawsuit.

Bush made a play for Trumps endorsement, but it went to Paxton. Expect Trump to promote Paxton during his Texas visit, since an upset by Bush would chip at the former presidents winning record in picking candidates.

Trump doesnt have a perfect endorsement record in Texas. Last year he endorsed Republican Susan Wright to replace her late husband, Ron Wright in Congress. Jake Ellzey, at the time a freshman state legislator, beat Wright and Trump to win the congressional seat.

Since then Trump has rebounded. Hes currently on a 55-0 primary winning streak that included recent victories in Indiana and Ohio.

Along with Paxton, Trump is active in some North Texas races, including the Tarrant County runoff for district attorney, where he endorsed former criminal court Judge Phil Sorrells over former state Rep. Matt Krause, whos backed by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Trump is also backing former McKinney council member Frederick Frazier over Republican Paul Chabot in a Collin County Texas House race.

Trumps interest in Texas politics raises the question of his own political ambition. Is he happy with being the leading voice in the Republican Party, but not sitting in the White House? Will he make another run for president in 2024?

If he does run for president, hell need Texas, a state that has pumped money in his campaign funds like no other.

Trumps last visit to Dallas included appearances at a First Baptist Dallas service the Sunday before Christmas, and at American Airlines Center that afternoon. He hinted at a 2024 comeback bid, declaring that with so many dark clouds hanging over the United States our country needs a savior right now.

Texas is still important to President Trump, said Plano businessman Wayne Richard, a longtime Trump supporter. Hes keeping his face in front of Texans for strategic reasons.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson suggests that there should be another NFL team in Dallas.

We are about to pass the Chicago metro and become the #3 metro in the US, which would make us the largest US metro WITHOUT 2 teams, Johnson said in a tweet replying to a NFL on CBS tweet asking which city deserves a new NFL team. Football is king here. Dallas needs an expansion team and we would be able to sustain 2 @NFL teams better than LA or NY.

I like it. Johnson points out that the Dallas metro area will soon surpass the Chicagoland area in population, making it the largest in the nation without at least two NFL teams. Good luck getting Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to agree.

Johnson knows an AFC team would help provide needed vitality to an area in Dallas, perhaps Fair Park/South Dallas.

The booming population here should have Dallas leaders thinking outside the box about landing new pro sports franchises.

In 2007 Dallas mayoral candidate Sam Coats, now the interim president and CEO of VisitDallas, told me that Dallas should be pushing for a National League baseball team. That also was a solid idea.

Imagine a cross-county baseball series between the Texas Rangers and a rival in Dallas.

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Guess whos coming to dinner? Trump. Again. Heres what hes up to in Texas - The Dallas Morning News

Does Donald Trump still control the GOP?: Three Senate races will give us an answer – The Hill

In less than two weeks, we will have a strong indication as to who the 2024 Republican nominee for president will be.

Put another way, it will become clear whether the G.O.P. is beginning to move on from former President Donald Trump, or whether Trumps grip on the Republican Party continues to endure.

By May 18, three general election battlegroundsOhio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania will have held their Republican primaries for U.S. Senate. Each race represents a test of Trumps strength with Republican voters, as he has backed candidates in all three primaries that were by no means shoe-ins for the nomination.

While we wont know anything for certain until North Carolina and Pennsylvania hold their primaries, the trajectory of these two races thus far taken together with the outcome in the Ohio primary point to Trump remaining a dominant figure in Republican politics through 2024, and indicate that he could very well be the partys presidential nominee.

Indeed, the result of the Ohio Republican primary for U.S. Senate, which was held this week, is telling of Trumps primacy within the G.O.P., as his endorsement of J.D. Vance undoubtedly helped catapult Vance to victory in a seven-way race.

Prior to Trumps April 15 endorsement, Vances position in the race was relatively weak there were no publicpollsthat showed him leading the field, and he often ranked in third place. Notably, a poll byTrafalgarGroup released the day prior to Trumps endorsement showed Vance trailing challenger Josh Mandel by 5 percent.

Following Trumps endorsement, Vance jumped to the lead ineverypublic poll conducted in the remainder of the campaign, and he won the nomination by 8 percent.

To be sure, the two other Trump-endorsed Senate candidates Tedd Budd in North Carolina and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania both also have a strong shot at securing their partys nomination and have clearly benefited from Trumps backing.

In North Carolina, all candidates in the Republican Senate primary were jockeying for Trumps support at the outset of the campaign. Trumps endorsement of Ted Budd, who tied himself to the former president in his campaign announcement, has propelled Budd to double-digit leads in most publicpolls, and he appears poised to secure the nomination.

Perhaps the most significant test of Trumps power over the G.O.P base will come on May 17 in the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania. Trump recently endorsed celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz over former George W. Bush staffer and hedge fund CEO David McCormick, causing intenseblowback, even within the MAGA movement.

Both Oz and McCormick have tried positioning themselves as the America First candidate deploying Trumpian rhetoric to that effect and notably, McCormick has surrounded himself with former Trump staffers, including Kellyanne Conway.

In the weeks prior to Trumps endorsement, anEmerson pollshowed McCormick with a 6-point lead over the crowded Republican field, and Oz trailing him in second place, 27 percent to 21 percent. Following Trumps endorsement, Oz jumped to a 3-point lead in the race, 23 percent to 20 percent, per recentpollingconducted by Trafalgar Group.

It should be noted that, unlike in North Carolina, the Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary is too close for us to be able to predict a winner at this stage, and its unclear how impactful Trumps endorsement will ultimately be in this race.

Roughly 7-in-10 (69 percent) Pennsylvania Republicans say that Trumps endorsement did not change their opinion of Oz, per a recent Monmouth Universitypoll.Just 22 percent said it made them view Oz more favorably though, in a close contest, that number still may boost Ozs prospects.

Ultimately, if three of Trumps handpicked Senate candidates running in battleground states prevail in their primary, it will indicate to the Republican rank-and-file that the G.O.P. is still Donald Trumps party.

If this outcome comes to fruition, it would all but end the presidential ambitions of Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) or any other Republican planning on running in 2024 until Trump officially makes his intentions clear that is, whether he plans to run for office again, or plans to put his full weight behind another candidate.

Though the Trump-endorsed challengers to G.O.P. incumbents in the Idaho and Georgia gubernatorial races will likely not prevail, if Oz and Budd win their primaries because of Trumps endorsement as Vance did Trump is almost certain to be the nominee.

Candidly, many Republicans would likely welcome the chance to put Trump behind them. The G.O.P. establishment understands that their political prospects will be in jeopardy if the party continues to focus on Trumps priorities namely, his Big Lie, rather than on their agenda for the future.

Indeed, relitigating the 2020 election is about the worst thing the Republicans can or should do if they are trying to build a strong base going forward into the 2024 election. Voters, and particularly swing voters, are focused on addressing the challenges of today not fighting about alleged voter fraud in the last election.

A forward-looking, moderate Republican agenda that offers solutions where Democrats have failed to provide them while avoiding pandering to the partys extreme fringes and relitigating past grievances is essential for the G.O.P.s prospects in 2022, 2024 and beyond.

Though only time will tell, if these three Trump-endorsed candidates ultimately prevail, Republicans might not be able to escape the ever-present shadow of Donald Trump.

Douglas E. Schoen is a political consultant who served as an adviser to former President Clinton and to the 2020 presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg. He is the author of The End of Democracy? Russia and China on the Rise and America in Retreat.

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Does Donald Trump still control the GOP?: Three Senate races will give us an answer - The Hill

Groups perpetuating Trumps 2020 election lie face scrutiny and lawsuits – The Guardian US

Conservative groups perpetuating Donald Trumps false charges that the 2020 election was rigged have sparked a lawsuit against one in Colorado, and a congressional panel investigation of another in New Mexico, over aggressive tactics allegedly used to seek out possible voter fraud.

The scrutiny and criticism facing these conservative groups underscore how Trump loyalists in several US states are working to sustain falsehoods about Trumps loss, while launching new drives that voting rights advocates say smack of voter intimidation, often targeting communities of color.

A lawsuit was filed by the NAACP and two other groups in March charging that Colorado-based US Election Integrity Plan (USEIP), which has echoed Trumps baseless claims about 2020 election fraud, has gone door to door in some counties aggressively questioning residents about their voting status and sometimes bearing arms.

Moreover, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform has been investigating EchoMail, a firm that helped push false claims of election fraud in Arizona and has reportedly been paid $50,000 by a New Mexico county to oversee a local audit force doing intrusive door-to-door voter canvassing.

Other states including Michigan and Utah boast conservative groups that, under the guise of protecting voting integrity by ferreting out fraud, have been criticized for the methods they employed in seeking out potential voter fraud.

As Americans, we expect and demand an open and participatory democracy that welcomes all voters equally, said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. Those engaging in these pressure tactics should know that voter intimidation is a crime with serious consequences.

The lawsuit against USEIP filed by the NAACP in Colorado, the League of Women Voters in Colorado and Mi Familia Vota charges that USEIP has engaged in door-to-door voter intimidation, including taking pictures of some houses, in neighborhoods with a large number of minority residents.

The lawsuit alleges, without providing specific cases, that USEIP representatives have at times worn badges or carried firearms when visiting voters residences, although they are not government officials.

Were very concerned about reports that Colorado voters have received visits at their homes from people, sometimes openly armed, posing as government officials who imply, without evidence, that fraudulent voting activity occurred at their address, Beth Hendrix, the League of Women voters executive director in Colorado told the Guardian.

A Colorado judge last week rejected a motion by USEIP to dismiss the lawsuit. A separate motion by the plaintiffs two counsels, the nonprofit legal group Free Speech for People and the law firm Lathrop GPM, to obtain a preliminary injunction to halt USEIPs efforts is pending.

The lawsuit partly rests on a measure that passed after the Civil War, called the KKK Act, aimed at stopping white terrorists from using violence to interfere with Black voters.

USEIP, which started after Joe Biden defeated Trump, is run by Shawn Smith, a retired air force colonel who also leads Cause of America, a nationwide group that boasts that its role is to enable, facilitate and support citizen grassroots action to restore trust in local elections.

Mike Lindell, the multimillionaire Trump loyalist who is CEO of MyPillow and has been the chief financier of Cause of America, told the Guardian that the group serves as an information hub with a presence in all 50 states and on his website FrankSpeech.com.

Lindell estimated he has spent between $100,000 and $200,000 monthly for salaries for the groups employees except for Smith, who is unpaid and other expenses.

Smith was reportedly tapped by Lindell to run Cause of America last fall, after Smith attended a Lindell-organized cyber symposium last summer in South Dakota which promoted conspiratorial and baseless claims of voting fraud in 2020.

An organizing manual for USEIP thanks Lindell, but he told the Guardian that he had no ties with it.

Smith can be seen in a 39-second video clip in a large crowd of Trump loyalists who were at the Capitol during the 6 January assault and another photo that was released by Colorado Newsline and relied on ProPublica research.

Smith did not reply to emails sent to Cause of America seeking comment.

Other outfits with track records for claiming the 2020 election was rigged have popped up in New Mexico, where ostensibly in the name of ferreting out voting fraud, they have sparked concerns about intimidating voters in areas with large minority populations.

Top Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in March announced an investigation into allegations from state officials that EchoMail was retained by tiny Otero county to examine potential voting fraud in part by overseeing a door-to-door voter canvass.

The founder of EchoMail, VA Shiva Ayyadurai, has been a frequent promoter of unfounded conspiracies about the 2020 election results as well as a Senate primary in Massachusetts that he lost, and the firm was also a subcontractor for a widely debunked Arizona audit of its largest county.

EchoMails contract, according to records obtained and published by the watchdog group American Oversight and first reported by NBC News, called for it to supervise a door-to-door voter canvass by a groupcalled the New Mexico Audit Force, to check the accuracy of voter rolls. The companys contract also said it would inspect ballot images in the county, and assess voter signatures for accuracy.

The House Oversight Committee chair, Carolyn Maloney, and the chair of its subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties, Jamie Raskin, wrote Ayyadurai in March that it is investigating whether your companys audit and canvass in New Mexico interferes with Americans right to vote by spreading disinformation about elections and intimidating voters.

The House letter pointed out that 40% of the countys residents are non-white Hispanic, and raised the concern that the companys canvas could have a particular impact on minority communities in Otero county.

Otero county, which has a population of 67,000 people, was won by Trump by more than 25% of the vote in 2020.

In response, Ayyadurai denied EchoMail was playing any such role in Otero county and did not provide requested documents, prompting another letter to Ayyadurai with evidence and statements from a New Mexico couple involved in the audit force.

A committee spokesperson told the Guardian that Dr Ayyadurai has denied EchoMails participation in the sham audit and canvass, directly contradicting statements made by leaders of the New Mexico Audit Force and raising serious doubts about his credibility.

The panel is now weighing its next moves to get to the bottom of this so-called audit and prevent other attacks on our elections, the spokesperson added.

The oversight committee also wrote in March to justice department assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke of the civil rights division to share its concerns about possible negative impacts of EchoMails Otero county efforts.

On a related voting front, congresswoman Maloney told the Guardian in a statement that another investigation she launched last month with congresswoman Zoe Lofren, the chair of the House administration committee, is looking into election disinformation in Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Texas. This is a fight for our democracy, and I am committed to finding solutions.

Lang of the Campaign Legal Center stressed that groups trying to find fraud while harassing voters or spreading disinformation wont succeed and will be challenged. The right to vote is the bedrock of our society and voters wont be bullied out of exercising their rights, Lang said.

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Groups perpetuating Trumps 2020 election lie face scrutiny and lawsuits - The Guardian US

Inside the Beltway: Donald Trump a ‘likely’ 2024 hopeful – Washington Times

NEWS AND OPINION:

The 2024 presidential election is exactly 911 days away, as of Monday. So we have a little time before the genuine political predictions begin about the big bout oh, wait. Those predictions are already arriving. Pundits, researchers and prognosticators are mulling over their lists of who might throw their proverbial hats into the ring. So lets join in.

What are the chances that former President Donald Trump will declare his intention to seek the White House once again? Two sources believe he will do it.

Former Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani says signs point to a likely run.

My instinct is hes running. I have known him for a long time. I see what hes doing and how hes preparing and he sounds to me like a man who is excited about the possibility of running, he told the New York Post.

He also clarified that Mr. Trump had not explicitly revealed any plans. The former New York City mayor who ran for president himself in 2008 appears to be familiar with the signs of a potential candidate.

Mr. Giuliani said he was much more confident than not, that Mr. Trump will reveal his plans and move forward with his bid to reclaim the White House.

Other Trump watchers have similar expectations. Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president in 2012, also appears to believe that Mr. Trump is ready to run and that his supporters are still loyal.

Its hard to imagine anything that would derail that support. So if Trump wants to become the nominee in 24, I think hes very likely to achieve that, the Utah Republican told Politico in a new interview.

Veteran newsman Bill OReilly is inclined to agree.

At this point, Donald Trump wants to run in 2024, he told NewsMax host Greg Kelly.

He wants to run and cant announce it until January 2023 because of campaign finance rules. He has raised an enormous amount of money. I dont think anyone has raised the amount of money Donald Trump has raised, Mr. OReilly noted.

Should Mr. Trump seek the office again, hell join a very crowded field, however.

At this juncture, there are 32 potential Republican candidates who could jump in for the 2024 bout and 28 potential Democratic candidates who also could join the fray. So says an updated list compiled by Ballotpedia.org.

The meticulous research group assembled the list based on those who have been actively discussed as potential presidential contenders in national media outlets.

CLASH OF THE TITANS

Should President Biden and former President Donald Trump decide to run against one another, heres what could happen.

Each man thinks they could beat the other. But they also may not run unless the other chooses to do so. The 2024 election begins as a high-stakes staring contest, predicts Saul Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and now a political commentator and consultant.

As each camp gears up for a rematch of the bitterly contested 2020 contest, there remains a small hiccup: Neither is inclined to take the plunge first. Its a game of political chicken that as described by more than a half dozen advisers to the two men has largely frozen the field among Democrats and Republicans alike. It is also raising questions about the future health of two parties being led by a pair of candidates who, by that Election Day, would have long ago celebrated their 75th birthdays, Mr. Anuzis wrote in an analysis released Sunday.

A PSAKI MOMENT

Fox News host Howard Kurtz had a question for outgoing White House press secretary Jen Psaki in an interview that aired Sunday.

President Biden the other day called the MAGA movement the most extreme political organization in American history. Have you and the White House and the president decided that with Donald Trump still being by far the most influential Republican, that youve increasingly got to take him on? Mr. Kurtz asked.

Ms. Psaki advised that Mr. Biden was addressing the impact and the hold that former President Trump has on the Republican Party and the influence and the impact that he has on their policies are and he wants to use it as a reminder of how these policies can impact people every day.

But Mr. Biden could do more.

Hes also not going to hesitate, calling out what he thinks are extreme positions that are out of whack with the mainstream, said Ms. Psaki who will leave her White House post next week and become an MSNBC commentator.

So are you taking on Donald Trump more? Mr. Kurtz asked.

Were taking on what he represents and what the people who are currently in elected office making policies represent, Ms. Psaki responded.

THE SCIENCE OF BUG SPLATS

Counting bug splats on vehicle license plates shows the numbers of flying insects has dropped significantly, reports the Buglife project, a British charity now working with the Kent Wildlife Trust, a conservation charity.

Both groups are concerned that the population of flying bugs has gotten lower in recent years and have now asked the public to monitor the situation through the use of a specially developed smartphone app.

Participants are asked to clean their license plates before heading out on a journey in their vehicle and then to photograph and count the number of bugs they found splattered on the plates when they returned, noted Phys.org, a news site.

Buglife spokesman Matt Shardlow described the findings to the press as dramatic and alarming.

The bug splat project will continue through August; details can be found atBuglife.org.uk.

POLL DU JOUR

66% of U.S. drivers have or will make significant changes in their driving habits because of the high price of gasoline.

62% will cut back vehicle use except for necessary trips like grocery shopping or doctor visits.

41% will not fill up their gas tanks, but only put in what is affordable.

35% will leave their cars home and take public transit.

34% will drive to different gas stations to find the best prices.

29% have canceled summer holiday travel plans by car.

Source: A Yahoo/Maru Public Opinion survey of 1,392 U.S. drivers conducted April 29-May 1, and released Saturday; respondents were asked multiple questions.

Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.

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Inside the Beltway: Donald Trump a 'likely' 2024 hopeful - Washington Times