Tag: Donald Trump

  • ‘I know how to do this job’: Biden seeks to repair debate damage with fiery speech

    ‘I know how to do this job’: Biden seeks to repair debate damage with fiery speech

    A fired-up Joe Biden came out swinging on Friday as he tried to make up for a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, insisting he was the right man to win November’s US presidential election.

    Biden’s appearance at a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina came amid rumblings in his alarmed Democratic Party about replacing the 81-year-old as their nominee — and shortly before the nation’s most influential newspaper urged him to step aside.

    “I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden admitted to supporters in unusually confessional remarks.

    “But I know how to tell the truth. I know how to do this job,” he said to huge cheers, vowing “when you get knocked down, you get back up”.

    Biden’s team was in damage-control mode after Thursday’s debate when he often hesitated, tripped over words and lost his train of thought — exacerbating fears about his ability to serve another term.

    He had hoped to allay qualms about his advanced age, and to expose Trump as a habitual liar.

    But the president failed to counter his bombastic rival, who offered up a largely unchallenged reel of false or misleading statements about everything from the economy to immigration.

    On Friday, Biden delivered the lines Democrats wished they had heard in the televised debate.

    “Did you see Trump last night? My guess is he set — and I mean this sincerely — a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” Biden said.

    “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat for everything America stands for.”

    Trump also returned to the campaign trail on Friday, speaking at a rally in Virginia and launching his familiar attacks on Biden in a rambling speech.

    “It’s not his age, it’s his competence,” Trump said.

    “The question every voter should be asking themselves today is not whether Joe Biden can survive a 90-minute debate performance, but whether America can survive four more years of crooked Joe Biden.”

    A new Democrat?

    Trump addressed the chances of Biden being replaced by another candidate, saying, “I don’t really believe that because he does better in polls than any of the (other) Democrats.”

    So far, no senior Democratic figure has publicly called on Biden to withdraw, with most toeing a party line about sticking with the existing ticket.

    “I will never turn my back on President Biden,” California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has figured prominently on lists of possible replacement candidates, said immediately after the debate.

    Forcing a change in the ticket would be politically fraught, and Biden would have to decide himself to withdraw to make way for another nominee before the party convention next month.

    Biden overwhelmingly won the primary votes, and the party’s 3,900 delegates heading to the convention in Chicago are beholden to him.

    If he exits, the delegates would have to find a replacement.

    “Bad debate nights happen,” Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, wrote on X. But the election is “still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself”.

    A logical — but not automatic — candidate to take Biden’s place would be his vice president, Kamala Harris, who also loyally defended his debate performance.

    The show of Democratic loyalty and Biden’s defiance in North Carolina were not enough for The New York Times, however.

    The daily newspaper slammed Biden’s campaign as a “reckless gamble” in the face of the threat posed by Trump, with its editorial board — which is separate from the newsroom — calling for the president to stand aside.

    The “greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election,” it said.

    Many election bettors, too, abandoned Biden, preferring to bet on Trump or other Democratic leaders.

    Before the debate, bettors on the platform Smarkets were giving Biden a 35 per cent chance of winning in November, but on Friday that figure dropped to below 20pc.

  • Biden seeks reset after debate flop rocks campaign

    Biden seeks reset after debate flop rocks campaign

    A badly wounded Joe Biden looked to get his reelection campaign back on track Friday after a debate performance that unnerved supporters and left allies of Donald Trump unable to conceal their glee.

    Democrats had hoped to see the president defiantly answering critics who say he is too old for a second term while hammering Trump on his criminal record and the threat they say he poses to democracy.

    Instead, many acknowledged, they got a faltering display from a candidate who sounded hoarse for much of the showdown, stumbled over words, pulled punches, often stared open-mouthed and looked confused.

    “There are no two ways about it — that was not a good debate for Joe Biden,” Democratic former White House communications chief Kate Bedingfield told host network CNN as the curtain came down on the match-up.

    David Axelrod, a senior advisor in Barack Obama’s administration, said Biden’s performance had “confirmed people’s fears” about an 81-year-old being too old for the Oval Office.

    The president, who had spent days in mock debates at his Camp David retreat, was scheduled to begin the clean-up Friday with his largest event of the campaign, in the battleground state of North Carolina.

    Facing tough questions over his performance and immediate future, he told reporters he had done “well” as he stopped off at an Atlanta Waffle House with First Lady Jill Biden after coming off stage.

    He added that he was croaking because of a “sore throat” and that, in any case, it is “hard to debate a liar.”

    Although Biden managed to pin down Trump on abortion rights and his role in the violence that marred the 2021 handover, he waited bafflingly long — almost 45 minutes — to bring up Trump’s felony convictions and other legal woes in any detail.

    He spoke under his breath and appeared at times to lose focus, pausing for several seconds after stumbling in the opening stages.

    Trump’s performance was far from accomplished — his verbal fusillades were littered with falsehoods and he dodged several times when asked what he would do about the opioid crisis ravaging middle-class families.

    He also refused to clearly commit to accepting the results of November’s election, playing into the narrative that he has little respect for democracy or the rule of law.

    CNN reported that while Biden made nine false or misleading statements, Trump made a staggering 30, including “egregious” falsehoods on abortion, the US Capitol insurrection, health care and NATO.

    But the Republican — who is countering Biden’s rally with an appearance of his own in Virginia on Friday — largely avoided the rhetorical landmines that exploded under Biden.

    At one point, the president bizarrely declared that “we finally beat Medicare,” as the discussion turned to funding the health insurance program for seniors.

    As the disappointment of Biden’s showing registered with Democrats, there was even talk of finding a new candidate before the Democratic convention in August.

    “There’s been a lot of chatter in our circles about Newsom,” one party strategist told political outlet The Hill — although California governor Gavin Newsom quickly shut down suggestions that he could take Biden’s place.

    In the Trump corner, pundits reveled at how the night turned out.

    Keith Nahigian, a Republican veteran of six campaigns who helped prepare multiple election candidates including John McCain for debates, told AFP that Biden’s performance was “the worst I’ve ever seen.”

    “Biden called for this debate a few months ago. He pushed for this debate. I think he just sunk his presidency,” he added.

    Ralph Reed, chairman of the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition, compared the debate to a prize fight “that should have been stopped in the early rounds.”

  • ‘Conspiracy theorist’ sets self on fire outside Trump trial

    ‘Conspiracy theorist’ sets self on fire outside Trump trial

    A man set himself ablaze Friday outside the court where Donald Trump is standing trial, throwing pamphlets that police said contained conspiracy theories before he was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

    Police named the man as Maxwell Azzarello from St Augustine, Florida and said the pamphlets he sought to disseminate “seem to be propaganda-based.”

    “(They were) almost like a conspiracy theory type of pamphlet, some information in regards to Ponzi schemes, and the fact that some of our local educational institutes are a front for the mob,” NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.

    “His condition is not good, but as of now he is still alive.”

    Deputy police commissioner Tarik Sheppard said “we just right now labelled (him) a sort of conspiracy theorist, and we’re going from there.”

    Burning clothes were strewn in the park, which was locked down by authorities, while ambulances lined up nearby on standby, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw, describing a strong smell of burning chemicals.

    Laura Kavanagh, the New York City fire commissioner, said four officers were lightly injured in the incident. She described Azzarello’s condition as “critical.”

    Video seemingly taken by witnesses and posted on social media showed a person standing engulfed in flames, then falling to the ground as police officers, including one with a fire extinguisher, rushed to beat out the blaze.

    A witness who gave his name as Dave, 73, told AFP he saw a man throwing pamphlets before dousing himself with an unspecified liquid and lighting himself on fire.

    TV reporters described the incident unfolding moments after the full panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was selected for the trial of the former president in a hush money cover-up case.

    A CNN reporter described a heavy stench of burning flesh in the aftermath of the blaze.

    Hearings in the case resumed after lunch despite the incident. Trump declined to respond to questions about Azzarello as he returned to court after the break.

    The self-immolation happened in a park opposite the 100 Centre Street courthouse, which has been used by authorities to corral protesters, both pro-Trump and anti-Trump, as well as well as by some members of the media.

    Trump’s criminal trial, the first of a former president, is being conducted amid tight security in a 15th floor courtroom swarming with Secret Service officers as well as court police.

  • Trump fined $355 mn, banned from NY business in fraud trial

    Trump fined $355 mn, banned from NY business in fraud trial

    A New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay $355 million over fraud allegations and banned him from running companies in the state for three years Friday in a major blow to his business empire and financial standing.

    Trump — almost certain to be the Republican presidential nominee this November — was found liable for unlawfully inflating his wealth and manipulating the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.

    Trump lashed out on social media calling the ruling a “Total SHAM,” the judge in the case “crooked” and the prosecutor who brought it “totally corrupt.” His legal team said he would “of course” appeal.

    As the case was civil, not criminal, there was no threat of imprisonment. But Trump said ahead of the ruling that a ban on conducting business in New York state would be akin to a “corporate death penalty.”

    Trump, facing 91 criminal counts in other cases, has seized on his legal woes to fire up supporters and denounce his likely opponent, President Joe Biden, claiming that court cases are “just a way of hurting me in the election.”

    However, Judge Arthur Engoron said the financially shattering penalties are justified by Trump’s behavior.

    “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron said of Trump and his two sons, who were also defendants, in his scathing ruling.

    “They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money… Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways,” he added, referring to the perpetrator of a massive Ponzi scheme.

    Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were also found liable in the case and ordered to pay more than $4 million each, prompting Don Jr. to claim on social media that “political beliefs” had determined the outcome.

    Engoron also extended the mandate of retired judge Barbara Jones as an independent monitor of Trump’s business affairs, as well as ordering the appointment of an independent director of compliance to the Trump Organization, with candidates to be nominated by Jones.

    “Conditions that Judge Engoron imposed, such as having Judge Jones monitor the Trump companies, may be onerous. I do expect an appeal,” said Richmond University law professor Carl Tobias.

    It was as a property developer and businessman in New York that Trump built his public profile which he used as a springboard into the entertainment industry and ultimately the presidency.

    The judge’s order was a victory for New York state Attorney General Letitia James. She had sought $370 million from Trump to remedy the advantage he is alleged to have wrongfully obtained, as well as having him barred from conducting business in the state.

  • Jury orders Trump to pay $83 million for sexual assault defamation

    Jury orders Trump to pay $83 million for sexual assault defamation

    A jury in New York ordered former US president and 2024 candidate Donald Trump on Friday to pay $83.3 million to compensate the writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed.

    The civil order, which prompted an audible gasp in the federal court, far exceeds the more than $10 million in damages for defamation that Carroll had sought.

    Trump lashed out almost immediately, calling the verdict “ridiculous” in a statement and promising to appeal.

    The jury reached its decision after slightly less than three hours of deliberations.

    Trump had been in court earlier, storming out at one point but subsequently returning for closing arguments. He was not in court when the level of compensatory and punitive damages were read out by a court clerk.

    “This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down,” Carroll said in a statement.

    A juror exchanged a smile with Carroll as the nine men and women left the courtroom after the judge encouraged them to protect their privacy.

    “It’s clear to me… you paid attention,” Judge Lewis Kaplan told the jury following the verdict.

    The order was comprised of $65 million in punitive damages after the jury found Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Carroll, $7.3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million for a reputational repair program.

    “I was not surprised (by the award) partly because his egregious misbehavior during the trial could actually have alienated the jury,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.

    “(Trump) is unlikely to prevail on appeal, because the (appeal) judges have great respect for Judge Kaplan, who is a very experienced federal jurist.”

    Trump — whom a jury found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York — used his Truth Social platform to fire off a spate of insulting messages attacking Carroll, the trial and the judge, whom he called “an extremely abusive individual.”

    “We were stripped of every defense — every single defense — before we walked in there,” said Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba outside the court. “I am proud to stand with president Trump… We will immediately appeal.”

    Trump, 77, briefly took the stand on Thursday to deny he instructed anyone to harm Carroll with his statements.

    – Claims of witch hunt –

    During Trump’s testimony, Kaplan limited him to three questions from his lawyers, to which he could only answer yes or no — a precaution taken to prevent the Republican leader from returning to his custom of disparaging the court or Carroll in public.

    “This is not America,” Trump said as he left the courtroom following his short appearance.

    He was not required to attend the trial or to testify. However, he has used the case, as well as others he faces, to generate heated media coverage and to fuel his claims of being victimized as he campaigns for a return to the White House in November’s election.

    Trump separately faces multiple criminal cases, including his alleged attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden, and a civil business fraud case.

    Habba sought to have the case thrown out Thursday on the grounds that threatening messages targeting Carroll, which have been aired in the case, began on social media before Trump’s 2019 comments. Her request was denied.

    Jurors were shown Trump’s October 2022 deposition during which he confused a picture of Carroll for his former wife Marla Maples, which threatened to cast doubt on his claim Carroll was not his “type.”

    Last year, another federal jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a department store dressing room in 1996 and subsequently defaming her in 2022, when he called her a “complete con job.”

    Trump had been in court while he campaigned ahead of the New Hampshire primary, which he won handily over his only remaining challenger Nikki Haley, as he closes in on becoming the Republican candidate in the November election against Biden.

  • ‘Literally the plot of the movie’: Fans outraged by Barbie snubs

    ‘Literally the plot of the movie’: Fans outraged by Barbie snubs

    The announcement of Oscar nominations always generates a bit of buzz, with fans weighing in on which movies and which actors deserved recognition and didn’t get it.

    But few snubs have provoked as much online outrage as those delivered to summer blockbuster “Barbie”, a deft satire on the difficulties women face in being recognized for their talents, whose female director and female lead did not make the shortlist.

    Especially as the male actor playing Ken did.

    “Nominating Ken but not Barbie is literally the plot of the movie,” novelist Brad Meltzer wrote on social media.

    Greta Gerwig’s fizzing audience-pleaser, which took over $1 billion at the box office with its effortless melding of social commentary and bubblegum pop culture, had been seen as a lock for many of the biggest categories when the Oscars nominations were announced on Tuesday.

    Both Gerwig as director and star Margot Robbie had already garnered a suite of nominations in earlier awards and were expected to feature in the line-up for Hollywood’s top prizes.

    But while the film notched an impressive eight nods, including the coveted Best Picture, Gerwig and Robbie were left off the lists for director and leading actress.

    Ryan Gosling, who earned a supporting actor nomination for his efforts as Ken, was among the first to speak out.

    “No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius,” he said.

    “To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.”

    Fellow Ken actor Simu Liu lauded the way the two women had fought to make “Barbie” the movie it was.

    “Together they started a movement, touched the world and reinvigorated the cinema. They deserve everything. They ARE everything,” he wrote on social media.

    And it wasn’t just those involved in the movie who were annoyed.

    “Let me see if I understand this: the Academy nominated ‘Barbie’ for Best Picture (eight nominations total) — a film about women being sidelined and rendered invisible in patriarchal structures — but not the woman who directed the film,” wrote Charlotte Clymer on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

    As the outrage spread on Wednesday, one-time US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton weighed in.

    Clinton lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump because of the mathematics of the electoral college system, despite having a significant majority of the popular vote.

    “Greta & Margot, While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you. You’re both so much more than Kenough. #HillaryBarbie,” she wrote on X.

  • US judge begins to unseal Epstein contacts

    US judge begins to unseal Epstein contacts

    A New York judge on Wednesday began to unseal the identities of people linked in court documents to Jeffrey Epstein, the US financier who killed himself in 2019 as he awaited trial for sex crimes.

    Notably included in the unsealed documents, which include almost 1,000 pages of depositions and statements, were former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, who have not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.

    The list of around 150 people includes a host of Epstein associates previously identified as John or Jane Does in a lawsuit brought against Epstein’s former mistress, Ghislaine Maxwell. It carries no allegation of complicity in Epstein’s crimes.

    The disclosure is part of a defamation proceeding between Maxwell, sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison, and a plaintiff against the duo, Virginia Giuffre.

    Last month a judge listed in a 50-page document some 180 cases — under pseudonyms — ordering that their identities be made public within 14 days of the order.

    Some individuals have objected to the disclosure of their identities in the case.

    Lawyers for one individual, “Doe 107”, wrote to the judge in the case arguing they could face victimization in their home country, and requested time to submit grounds for their name to remain sealed.

    Accomplices in sex crimes

    According to British media, Giuffre’s defamation claim against Maxwell, 62, dates back to 2016 and was settled the following year. But the Miami Herald then took legal action to access the file and investigate the Epstein network.

    A number of documents in the case were made public in 2019, days before Epstein hanged himself in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

    Maxwell and Epstein were a couple in the early 1990s before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices in sex crimes for almost three decades.

    Epstein, a financier with a powerful network in the United States and abroad, was himself accused of raping young girls, but his suicide by hanging in a New York prison in August 2019 halted his prosecution.

    Fabricated lists and doctored photos of Epstein have circulated in conspiratorial internet circles for years, fueling speculation about the financier’s potential associates.

    The anticipated release of names from court documents reignited that frenzy.

    Comedian Jimmy Kimmel threatened Aaron Rodgers with legal action after the American football star suggested the late night host could be on the list.

    It was a baseless allegation echoed across platforms such as X, where numerous posts also drew actor Tom Hanks into the fold.

  • Mjhe kiyon nikala now in USA: Court declares Donald Trump ineligible to contest elections

    Mjhe kiyon nikala now in USA: Court declares Donald Trump ineligible to contest elections

    Colorado’s Supreme Court has issued a verdict so sting that former United States President Donald Trump is ineligible to run for the White House because of his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters, and should be removed from the state’s primary ballot.

    While the ruling only applies to Colorado, it is the first time in US history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars from public office anyone who “engaged in insurrection”, has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate. It comes as courts in other states consider similar legal actions.

    “A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United State’s Constitution,” the Colorado high court wrote in its four-three majority decision.

    “Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.

    “We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” they added.

    Trump has claimed he is the victim of political persecution.

    “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” the Colorado justices said. “We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”

    A lower court earlier found that while Trump incited an insurrection, he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the 14th Amendment was intended to cover the presidency.

  • You will never guess which actor is going to play Donald Trump in biopic

    You will never guess which actor is going to play Donald Trump in biopic

    Bad day for fans of hot actors, me thinks.

    An upcoming biopic titled ‘The Apprentice’ is set to explore the life of controversial real estate businessman and former president Donald Trump, tracing the rise of his business empire in the 70’s and 80’s. The film will also star ‘Succession’ alum Jeremy Strong and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalov as the late Ivana, Trump’s first wife.

    There were big questions about who will play Trump, and we couldn’t have been more surprised that the final name is…… Sebastian Stan.

    Y’all see the resemblance? Yeah, me neither.

    The film was announced in 2018, with Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi set to direct and co-write the project along with Gabriel Sherman. Abbasi’s previous credits including directing the last two episodes of HBO original series ‘The Last Of Us’. He has also received the Un Certain Regard from the Cannes Film Festival for ‘Border’ (2018).

  • ‘I walked to my home, spent a week in silence, biggest moment of my life’: Trump claims Khan was delighted about Iran operative death

    ‘I walked to my home, spent a week in silence, biggest moment of my life’: Trump claims Khan was delighted about Iran operative death

    Former American President Donald Trump is revealing about the killing of Iran’s master operative General Qassem Soleimani in 2020 just before COVID took over the world.

    Trump said that former Prime Minister Imran Khan ‘rejoiced’ at the killing.

    “There was a Khan, a great cricket player, he became the head of Pakistan, he said it was the single biggest thing I can ever remember happening in my life when Soleimani was killed,” Trump said.

    He further claimed that Khan said, “I left my office, I walked to my home, I stayed in my home in solitude for one week, It was the biggest event that ever happened to me. He was the biggest cricket player. That’s like being a great NFL player or a great baseball player. He was said to be just about the best handsome guy. He became the boss, Pakistan.”

    Trump was addressing a campaign rally in Houston, Texas, a city with a large Pakistani diaspora population.

    However, Trump’s claim of Imran Khan going into seclusion seems to be untrue. Journalist Omar Warraich pointed out in a X thread that Khan addressed a rally in his hometown Mianwali, the very next day and did not mention Soleimani’s assassination in the speech.

    Trump’s claim that Imran Khan walked from his office, the Prime Minister Secretariat, to his home, Bani Gala, also seems to be untrue. It has never been reported that Khan ever walked home, a distance of roughly 15 kilometers.

    The United States assassinated Qasem Soleimani with a drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. Soleimani was an Iranian general, the country’s most powerful commander, widely considered to be the most important person in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

    Soleimani was the leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, a pivotal figure in managing Iran’s campaign to drive U.S. forces out of Iraq, and built up Iran’s network of proxy armies across the Middle East. Washington accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.