Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category

Donald Trump said that he did ‘pretty much the opposite’ of what Dr. Fauci advised during the COVID-19 pandemic – Yahoo News

Former President Donald Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci, in April 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump said he did "the opposite" of Dr. Anthony Fauci's advice during the pandemic.

Trump said he decided against firing Fauci because he would have "taken heat" for it.

Trump and Fauci have often criticized each other for their differing approaches to the pandemic.

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Former President Donald Trump said he did "pretty much the opposite" of what Dr. Anthony Fauci advised during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump made the comments in an interview on Friday with David Brody on Real America's Voice.

Brody asked the former president whether he regretted not firing Fauci, who is now Biden's Chief Medical Advisor and was formerly a lead member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Trump said that while he "got along" with the doctor, he ignored his advice during the pandemic.

"He was there for like 40 years or something. He was a part of the furniture. But if you think about it, I really did pretty much the opposite of whatever he said," Trump said.

"I actually got along with him, you know? I actually found him-he was a character. He'd say, 'Just call me Tony. Just call me Tony, sir.' And, you know, he's a better promoter than he is a doctor."

Trump said that he made his own decisions about handling the pandemic, which was often at odds with Fauci's advice.

"He didn't want to close our country to China. I did it immediately. I didn't even hesitate. And he said three months later that I saved thousands of lives by doing it. He didn't want to close our country to Europe, and I did it."

In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci said that restricting travel was "not a good idea at this time."

However, he was generally supportive of the Chinese travel restrictions that Trump later announced, according to Politifact.

During the interview, Trump also criticized Fauci for changing his stance on the importance of masks.

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"He also said masks don't mean anything. Then he became a radical masker," Trump said.

Fauci initially said masks were not useful in preventing the spread of the virus and then advised the general public not to buy them and cause a shortage for medical professionals, Politifact said.

In April, the Centers for Disease Control first recommended that people cover their faces in public.

Fauci previously remarked that Trump disliked masks because he saw them as a "sign of weakness." Unfortunately, many Americans followed his lead, he said.

Trump said in the interview that he decided not to fire Fauci as it was a no-win situation, and he would have "taken heat" no matter what he did.

"But I did what I wanted to do, and I made the correct decisions," Trump said.

Fauci said that the former president "very likely" cost American lives by spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

In the interview with Real America's Voice, Trump also claimed that there were no issues with vaccine hesitancy during his presidency and that everybody "wanted the vaccine."

"I think people just don't trust the Biden administration or Biden. Because since I left now, you have the mandate fight, and that's a big fight, by the way, and you have to allow people their freedom," he said.

"I took the vaccine," Trump said. "A lot of people took the vaccine, and it's been very effective."

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Donald Trump said that he did 'pretty much the opposite' of what Dr. Fauci advised during the COVID-19 pandemic - Yahoo News

Donald Trump could be charged with multiple crimes over his attempts to overturn his loss in the state of Georgia, report says – Yahoo News

Former President Donald Trump. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Donald Trump could be charged with crimes over Georgia election interference, a new report says.

The report says Trump and his allies pressured Georgia officials to overturn his loss in the state.

Trump is facing several probes in relation to his post-election conduct in Georgia.

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Former President Donald Trump could be charged with multiple crimes over election interference in Georgia, a new report says.

The report by the Brookings Institution, a leading think tank in Washington DC, analyzes publicly available evidence that shows that Trump and his allies attempted to pressure Georgia officials to "change the lawful outcome of the election."

A key piece of evidence is the now-infamous call made by Trump on January 3 to Georgia's Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. He told him to "find 11,780 votes" to overturn Biden's win.

The report adds that Trump publicly pressured and personally contacted several other officials in Georgia to ask them to help him overturn his loss in the state.

It includes Governor Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr, who Trump reportedly placed direct calls to in December to urge them to go along with "his increasingly desperate plans to decertify his loss."

"We conclude that Trump's post-election conduct in Georgia leaves him at substantial risk of possible state charges predicated on multiple crimes," the report said.

"These charges potentially include criminal solicitation to commit election fraud; intentional interference with performance of election duties; conspiracy to commit election fraud; criminal solicitation; and state RICO violations."

The report added that criminal liability could extend to some Trump allies, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani appeared before committees in the Georgia Capitol with the intent of convincing state lawmakers to "take extraordinary action to reverse Biden's win," the report notes.

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In February, Raffensperger's office opened a probe into Trump's efforts to overturn his loss in the state.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also launched a criminal investigation into Trump's conduct relating to the election.

The Brookings Institution report analyzes these probes and suggests what crimes Trump could be charged with and his legal defenses.

The report suggests that Trump would likely claim immunity, arguing he cannot be prosecuted for actions taken while he was president.

Former presidents enjoy a measure of immunity for actions taken that "fall within the scope of their lawful duties as a federal official," according to the report.

However, in this case, Trump's actions were "well outside the scope of his official duties," the report says.

Trump and his allies have continued to promote baseless claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

The former president is currently facing several criminal probes over his conduct while in office, as well as his personal finances.

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Donald Trump could be charged with multiple crimes over his attempts to overturn his loss in the state of Georgia, report says - Yahoo News

Bob Woodward Warns Donald Trump Wants To Be President Again For 1 Worrying Reason – Yahoo News

Bob Woodward thinks he knows what Donald Trump wants to do if he wins the presidency again.

Tuesday on MSNBCs Morning Joe, Woodward and fellow Washington Post journalist Robert Costa spoke about the reporting that went into their newly released book, Peril.

The book details the final months of the Trump administration and lifts the lid on his many expletive-laden rants and attempts to overturn the 2020 election result.

Costa noted that many of Trumps allies they interviewed believe he wants another shot at becoming president in 2024.

Woodward brought up the question of what Trump would want to do if he were back in the White House. And the answer is: to be Donald Trump, Woodward said. And thats not an agenda. That does not connect to the needs of the people in the country.

His disconnection from that, the struggle that people are engaged in he has no idea, and again, the power of the presidency is so great, Woodward continued.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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Bob Woodward Warns Donald Trump Wants To Be President Again For 1 Worrying Reason - Yahoo News

Donald Trump Says Catholics ‘Very Angry’ at Joe Biden Over ProAbortion Act – Newsweek

Former President Donald Trump has said that Roman Catholics are "very angry" with President Joe Biden amid the administration's stated support for a pro-abortion bill.

Trump gave an interview to the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) on Friday and strongly criticized Biden after the White House expressed support for the Women's Health Protection Act which was recently passed by Democrats in the House of Representatives.

The White House said the administration "strongly supports" the act but it is unlikely to make it to the president's desk as it looks set to fail in the evenly divided Senate.

Trump spoke to CBN Chief Political Analyst David Brody about Biden's effect on religious voters.

"If you look at his policies, and if you look at what he's doing to religion, and organized religion, if you look at what's going on, I don't know how the Catholic Church can be supportive of him," Trump said.

"Now I got, I guess, 50 or 52 percent of the Catholic vote and I was very disappointed by that," he said.

"I said, there's no way. Evangelicals great, but they got it, they really got it. But the Catholics are very angry, very angry at him."

It is difficult to be entirely sure on the question of Catholic voters in November's election. According to exit polls conducted by Edison Research following the 2020 presidential election, an estimated 52 percent of Catholics voted for Biden and 46 percent for Trump. This represents a six-point swing to the Democratic candidate over 2016.

However, AP VoteCast estimated that Biden won 50 percent of Catholic votes compared to Trump's 47 percent. Biden is a Catholic and regularly attends mass at his local parish at St. Joseph's on the Brandywine in the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden and the Democrats' position on abortion has created tensions with the Catholic Church. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is also a Catholic who is open about her faith but has strongly defended the new pro-abortion bill in the face of criticism from the archbishop of San Francisco.

The Biden administration issued a statement in support of the bill on September 20, saying: "The Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R. 3755, the Women's Health Protection Act of 2021" and cited the controversial Texas abortion ban.

"In the wake of Texas' unprecedented attack, it has never been more important to codify this constitutional right and to strengthen health care access for all women, regardless of where they live. The Administration looks forward to working with Congress as the Women's Health Protection Act advances through the legislative process to ensure that this bill codifies and is consistent with the protections established by Roe and subsequent Supreme Court precedent," the White House said.

"The constitutional rights of women are essential to the health, safety, and progress of our nation. Our daughters and granddaughters deserve the same rights that their mothers and grandmothers fought for and wonand that a clear majority of the American people support. We will not allow this country to go backwards on women's equality," the statement concluded.

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Donald Trump Says Catholics 'Very Angry' at Joe Biden Over ProAbortion Act - Newsweek

Greta Thunberg Says of Donald Trump,’I Don’t Think We Would Enjoy Each Other’s Company’ – Newsweek

Activist Greta Thunberg has referred to a Twitter spat she had with former President Donald Trump and expressed pessimism about the ability of world leaders and an upcoming global environmental summit to effect change on the climate crisis.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in October in Glasgow known as COP26, the Swedish teenager described living with fame, her autism, and took aim at the green credentials of New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.

After saying that her best friends were in the climate movement, Thunberg was asked if she could ever be friends with someone who denied the existence of climate change. She said that she could because, "in one way we're all climate deniers because we're not acting as if it is a crisis. I don't know," she said, "it depends on the situation."

She was then asked by the paper, "So there's hope for your friendship with Donald Trump?"

After laughing, Thunberg replied, "Well, I don't think we would enjoy each other's company that much. We have very different interests."

The former U.S. president mocked Thunberg when she was named Time magazine's person of the year in 2019.

"So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend!" Trump tweeted at the time, "Chill Greta, Chill!"

Last year, she got her own back by mocking Trump's demands for an election recount by tweeting the same message but swapping her name for his.

The 18-year- old has used Twitter to make fun of other world leaders, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and British prime minister Boris Johnson.

However, her irreverence towards the powerful blends into pessimism over their ability to tackle climate change through talking shops like COP26.

"The leaders will say we'll do this...and achieve this, and then they will do nothing," she said, "we can have as many COPs as we want, but nothing real will come out of it."

She also doubted the concern of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern made in June that tackling climate change was a question of "life or death."

"It's funny that people believe Jacinda Ardern and people like that are climate leaders," Thunberg said, "That just tells you how little people know about the climate crisis." When asked why she thought that, she replied, "the emissions haven't fallen. It goes without saying that these people are not doing anything."

Figures released by the Kiwi government in April showed New Zealand's greenhouse-gas emissions had gone up by two percent in 2019. Newsweek has contacted the New Zealand prime minister's office for comment.

On Friday, youth activists staged protests across the world as part of a campaign to pressure governments into taking action on the environment.

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Greta Thunberg Says of Donald Trump,'I Don't Think We Would Enjoy Each Other's Company' - Newsweek