Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category

Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump, and the start of the hush money trial podcast – The Guardian

On Monday, in a courtroom in New York, Donald Trump will become the first ever sitting or former US president to face a criminal trial.

As Hugo Lowell explains to Hannah Moore, it is a case that revolves around alleged payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election and, as New York prosecutors argue, the attempts by Trump and his campaign team to then cover them up.

But after so many years of scandal, will this trial or the other three Trump is due to face have any impact on his chances at regaining the presidency in elections this November?

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Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump, and the start of the hush money trial podcast - The Guardian

Trump fails to delay N.Y. criminal trial for a third time this week – The Washington Post

NEW YORK Donald Trumps attorneys failed to persuade an appeals court judge on Wednesday to delay the former presidents New York criminal trial, scheduled to begin next week, by saying the presiding judge was not qualified to oversee the proceedings.

The appeals court judge, Ellen Gesmer, denied Trumps request shortly after it was argued at an emergency session.

It was the Trump attorneys third attempt this week to delay his trial on charges of falsifying business documents to help cover up an affair that allegedly happened a decade before the 2016 election. Trump, the first former president to face criminal prosecution, has been indicted on various charges in three other jurisdictions and has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued in the proceeding before Gesmer that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan should have recused himself. Merchan denied a motion for his recusal in August after seeking the opinion of an advisory committee that guided his decision.

Last week, Trumps defense filed another motion to Merchan arguing for recusal and citing what Bove called several new developments that require Merchan to exit the case.

Merchan has not issued a ruling on that recusal bid.

Prosecutors and an attorney from the courts for Merchan said a delay in the trial was unwarranted.

Their recusal arguments are completely meritless, said Steven Wu, an attorney for the district attorneys office. The judge rejected them last year and he was right to do so.

Merchan last year declined to step down from the criminal case after Trumps attorneys filed a complaint about the judges daughters profession as a political consultant and the judges small contributions to Joe Bidens 2020 presidential campaign and a progressive group.

Merchans daughter is a part owner of a political consulting and marketing company that has worked on campaign materials for the Biden-Harris campaign, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) and other prominent Democrats.

Trumps attorneys recently filed recusal motion cited social media clippings that they argued were proof that Merchans daughters professional success depended at least in part on how Trump does in court. For that reason, they said, Merchan must recuse himself in the interest of fairness.

There is no proof, theres no evidence of [those allegations], and Judge Merchan has gotten an ethics opinion [that said] he can proceed with the trial, said Lisa Evans, a courts lawyer speaking on the judges behalf at the appeals court.

Judges in New York state are supposed to bow out of situations in which there may be an appearance of favoritism.

Gesmer also declined to grant a trial delay based on Trumps inability to raise presidential-immunity-related objections at the trial or because Merchan is not permitting Trumps legal team to file motions as quickly as it wishes to, which it believes will continue once the trial begins.

Jury selection in Trumps Manhattan criminal trial is scheduled to start Monday, marking the first such trial of a former U.S. president. He is the presumptive Republican nominee in the November election.

On Tuesday, a different New York appeals court judge denied Trumps request to delay the trial because a gag order imposed on him by Merchan remained in effect.

Yet another appeals court judge on Monday rejected Trumps attempt to delay the trial while he pursued an appeal to determine whether a change of venue is necessary, citing Manhattans liberal leanings.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, made shortly before the 2016 election. Prosecutors have said the payment was intended to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump years earlier.

Prosecutors said Trumps reimbursements to then-attorney Michael Cohen, who made the payment to Daniels, were illegally documented as legal fees despite being carried out to support Trumps campaign. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

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Trump fails to delay N.Y. criminal trial for a third time this week - The Washington Post

Why Biden Raising More Money Than Trump for the 2024 Election Matters – The New York Times

President Biden may be down in the polls, but hes way up on Donald Trump when it comes to campaign funds.

Each quarter since the president announced he was running again, Biden has lapped his predecessor in cash. The Biden campaign and its political committees held $192 million at the end of March, more than double the $93 million that Trump, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts reported. Biden will also benefit from more than $1 billion pledged by independent groups that back his re-election. Trump allies have so far announced only a pittance of the outside money Biden has accrued.

What can a campaign do with this sort of advantage? In todays newsletter, Ill explain how a deluge of cash might matter and why it might not.

There are two main things a political campaign buys: advertising and efforts to get out the vote.

TV and digital ads are by far the biggest expenditures for a national campaign, with staff-heavy field operations the next biggest. The Biden campaign plans to raise $2 billion by November. On screens and airwaves, it will hammer its anti-Trump message in battleground states. While thats happening, it will send campaign workers to find voters in those states, figure out which ones need prodding to return their ballots or drag others to their local precinct.

Campaigns spend their money on these things because they often work. You win this election going out and talking to voters, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul who is a co-chair of the Biden campaign, told me. Thats what our financial advantage allows us to do. One example is abortion policy: The Biden campaign is spending millions to remind voters about Trumps role in the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Its worth remembering that presidential campaign ads are not like commercials for insurance. They are aimed at people who dont follow politics closely and may not have strong opinions about Biden and Trump. Thats a relatively small population, but its large enough to decide any of the eight battleground states.

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How Voters Describe the 2024 Election in One Word – The New York Times

Its no secret that many voters are not looking forward to the election in November.

A New York Times/Siena College poll from February found that 19 percent of voters held an unfavorable view of both President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump. And 29 percent of Americans believe that neither candidate would be a good president, according to a March poll from Gallup.

At the same time, the prospect of a new president is exciting for many, and nearly half of Republican primary voters are enthusiastic with Mr. Trump as their nominee, the Times/Siena poll found. About a quarter of Democratic primary voters said the same about Mr. Biden.

Those findings are broad measures of an issue Americans have complex feelings on. To dig a little deeper, we asked respondents in that Times/Siena poll to summarize their feelings about the upcoming rematch in just one word.

We received hundreds of distinct responses from a representative sample of more than 900 registered voters across the country. We combined responses like anxious, apprehensive, concerned and worried into a category we labeled scared; responses under the umbrella of excited and hopeful became happy. Disappointed, annoyed and frustrated were classified as angry.

About a third of voters gave responses indicating anger, disappointment or resignation. And nearly as many respondents 30 percent replied with words indicating that they were scared or apprehensive.

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Opinion | Impromptu podcast: Columnists on presidential campaign 2024 – The Washington Post – The Washington Post

In the newest Impromptu podcast from Post Opinions, three columnists talked about how they are processing the unusually long general-election campaign of 2024, a rematch between a sitting president and a former president that feels absurd, high stakes and serious.

Use the audio player or The Posts Impromptu podcast feed to listen to the entire conversation.

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Perry Bacon Jr.: I do not enjoy covering this era of politics. But the audiences and the voters seem to be more engaged in it than, say, 2004 when I might have enjoyed covering it more. So its a complicated story.

Amanda Ripley: One poll shows that more than half of Americans feel dread, exhaustion and depression as they look toward it. And I can relate. And I wonder, can you? How are you both feeling as journalists and humans and Americans about the 2024 election?

Bacon: Im dreading it. I used to be someone who was very excited about going to Iowa. I think its really about [Donald] Trump. Trump creates this sense of crisis for a lot of people.

Ive gotten to a more extreme point now. When my wife and I are going to have dinner with another couple, I will usually email the man because he usually wants to do it and say, Hey, I try to avoid talking about politics during nonwork time.

Ripley: Wait. Can I just make sure I understand? You kind of want to set the stage, because people are going to naturally talk to you about politics, right? Just like were torturing you right now.

Bacon: Im getting paid for this, to be clear. Thats an important distinction!

When Im at the park with my daughter, I will really try to say, Well spend two minutes on this. And I will set a timer occasionally.

Jim Geraghty: Previously in our politics, the past generation or so, if somebody comes along whom you cant stand Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama they go away in eight years. They do not come back. Most of our former presidents are very quiet. Trump has not been that.

Ripley: Its particularly damaging for young Americans because all they know is this kind of politics, right? This kind of us versus them, burn down the house politics.

Politics are supposed to make us feel like we have some small amount of power over our destiny.

Bacon: The other thing I struggle with a lot is: What is the nature of this conflict? There were high conflicts in the 1860s and the 1960s, and I wouldnt be here on this podcast if people were not willing to engage in those conflicts. #MeToo was a high conflict moment. Im glad that happened. The 2020 protests were high conflict. Im glad those happened. The debate over how we teach race and education in Southern states is actually about something. They are trying to ban ideas that I think are important to understanding where we are in terms of race.

People are deeply concerned. They feel like the America they want is going away from them. And I dont want to minimize that conflict.

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Opinion | Impromptu podcast: Columnists on presidential campaign 2024 - The Washington Post - The Washington Post