Democrat ENDS THE CAREER of Republican candidate with ONE SIMPLE QUESTION during debate

 

Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear held his opponent Daniel Cameron's feet to the fire during a recent debate. Francis Maxwell reports.

Sidney Powell Could Lose Plea Deal After Shocking Allegations

 

A dark money group run by Sidney Powell claimed in their Substack newsletter this week that Powell was "extorted" by prosecutors in Georgia to take a plea deal, and Powell herself has still been pushing 2020 election lies on her social media account. These actions could easily result in a revocation of her plea agreement, opening her up for almost immediate prosecution under the full charges that were brought against her. Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

Having NO valid defense, Trump turns NY fraud trial into a circus w/combative, unhinged testimony

 

Donald Trump testified in his New York fraud trial and attempted to turn the proceedings into a circus with combative, non-responsive, insulting and absurd testimony. This is precisely what defendants do when they know they cannot win on the facts: they attack the prosecutors, the judge and the process that is attempting to hold them accountable for their wrong-doing. Testimony like Trump gave is not a sign of strength, it's a sign of weakness. It's not a sign of confidence, it's a sign of fear. This video reviews some of Trump's desperate, unpersuasive and often unhinged testimony before Judge Arthur Engoron.

The Secret Memo That Ruined Democracy

 

The Powell Memo laid out the blueprint for the conservative movement we know today. Let's discuss!

Chris Christie DESTROYS Trump Supporters to THEIR FACES during LIVE Speech

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on GOP Presidential candidate Chris Christie’s message to Donald Trump supporters who booed him during his speech at the Florida GOP Summit.

 

Trump BOXES Ivanka INTO A CORNER, SHE’S TOAST

 

Trump on the stand boxes his daughter Ivanka into a corner. Will she support her father who admitted to being involved or will she deny knowing anything like her brothers did? Former Prosecutor and Legal AF host, Karen Friedman Agnifilo reacts.

Trump SCREWS Himself, Delivers MASSIVE GIFT to Criminal Prosecutors

 

Trumps testimony today gave Alvin Bragg more evidence to consider when deciding whether to bring companion criminal charges against him. Former Prosecutor and Legal AF Host, Karen Friedman Agnifilo reports.

Mayor, Pastor Dies By Suicide After Being Outed For Cross-Dressing

 

1819 News published unnewsworthy and private photos of Alabama Pastor and Mayor Bubba Copeland. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.

November 6, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

 

November 6, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON NOV 7 Since taking office, the Biden administration has focused on using diplomacy in foreign affairs and has used it to solve global issues by strengthening regional partnerships. On Friday, President Biden hosted the first leaders’ summit for the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP). Biden announced the creation of APEP in June 2022 to establish a forum positioned to improve the economies of countries in the western hemisphere, with the idea that stronger economies will be able to address economic inequality, bolster supply chains, and “restore faith in democracy by delivering for working people across the region.”  APEP is also designed to strengthen the Los Angeles Declaration for Migration and Protection that established a responsibility-sharing approach to addressing this era’s historic migration flows. Rather than working solely on getting Congress to pass legislation to fix the border—as Biden has urged since the beginning of his term—the administration has focused on the prosperity and security of the countries from which migrants come, so that they feel less pressure to leave.  The administration has worked hard to develop that strategy. Vice President Kamala Harris took the lead in “diplomatic efforts to address root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,” and in July 2021 she released a report on strategies to slow migration from the region. In June 2022, at the 9th Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, the administration helped to bring to reality a long-standing realization among many countries that migration must be addressed on a regional level rather than with patchwork attempts by individual nations. That’s when the U.S. got 21 governments to sign on to “a comprehensive response to irregular migration and forced displacement in the Western Hemisphere,” known as the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection.  The Biden administration has emphasized that it wants to work with the region, not dictate to it, and the leaders of APEP are working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to fund improvements to infrastructure and train skilled workers and entrepreneurs. The IDB is an international financial institution, owned by 48 member states and headquartered in Washington, D.C., that provides development financing for Latin American and Caribbean countries.   A senior administration official on a background call on Friday noted that “the APEP countries are collectively hosting the majority of refugees and migrants in the Western Hemisphere” and that “each has been significantly impacted by the historic flows in recent years.” The official said that President Biden deeply appreciates how regional partners have offered new legal status to millions of people displaced in the western hemisphere, and noted that APEP is part of stepping up to support those countries and create incentives for other countries to do the same.  “The bottom line is that President Biden believes that targeted economic investment in top refugee and migrant host countries is critical to stabilizing migration flows,” the official said.  Today the U.S. State Department announced nearly $485 million in additional humanitarian assistance to address the needs of refugees, migrants, and other vulnerable populations across the western hemisphere. It specified that the funding advanced the goals of the Los Angeles declaration and noted that the U.S. is “the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance for the Western Hemisphere,” providing more than $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid in the past two years.  “We are committed to working collaboratively with governments, civil society, international organizations, and other partners to help protect displaced persons and migrants in situations of vulnerability, to address the root causes of irregular migration and displacement, and to humanely manage migration in the Western Hemisphere,” the State Department said. “We urge other donors to help support the humanitarian response in the region.” On November 11–17 the U.S. will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, where world leaders from 21 countries that border the Pacific Ocean, along with around 1,200 chief executive officers and about 20,000 other attendees, will meet to facilitate trade in the region. The APEC countries have almost 40% of the world’s population and support almost 50% of the world’s trade. They absorb more than 60% of U.S. exports, while the member states have invested an estimated $1.7 trillion in the U.S. and, as of 2020, employed 2.3 million U.S. workers.  The U.S. has hosted APEC this year, and Chinese president Xi Jinping is expected to attend this final event, where he will meet with Biden. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “Intense competition means intense diplomacy. That’s what you’re going to see.”  “[P]retty intensive negotiations with all sides relevant to this conflict” were what enabled 300 U.S. citizens, lawful residents, and their families to leave Gaza, according to Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser, on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. More remain as negotiations to gain the release of hostages continue.   The administration’s focus on diplomacy and regional partnerships contrasts dramatically these days with Pakistan’s expulsion of as many as 1.7 million Afghan, Uyghur, and Rohingya refugees because leaders blame members of the refugee community for terrorist attacks. Some of the Afghans have been in Pakistan since the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The Taliban, currently in control of Afghanistan though not the internationally recognized government of the country, is struggling to manage the influx of people who are being pushed back across the border. In the U.S., in the face of House Republicans’ repeated votes on bills to slash funding far below the amounts Republican leadership agreed to in May as a condition for passing a bipartisan law to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government, the administration on October 30 issued a “statement of administration policy” insisting that the Republicans honor their agreement on funding for transportation, housing, and development. On Friday the U.S. Department of Transportation announced an investment of more than $653 million to fund 41 port improvement projects across the nation. They are part of the work being done under the nearly $17 billion dedicated to ports and waterways in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, designed to strengthen supply chains, whose weaknesses we discovered the hard way during the pandemic. This week the Republicans have before the House a bill to cut more than 64%—about a billion dollars—out of Amtrak, as well as other significant parts of the country’s passenger rail system. Most of the cuts would come from the heavily traveled northeast corridor, which carries about 800,000 people a day and serves the region that produces about 20% of the country’s gross domestic product.   In contrast, President Biden today announced $16.4 billion in railroad investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in the northeast corridor. It will rebuild century-old tunnels and bridges and upgrade tracks, power systems, signals, stations, and other infrastructure, enabling higher speeds on the route and cutting delays. Overall, the administration will invest $66 billion in passenger rail, the largest such investment since Congress founded Amtrak in 1971 under the Nixon administration. In contrast to the slow, steady work of governance, we had today the pyrotechnics of former president Trump in Manhattan, where he testified in the civil trial in which Judge Arthur Engoron has already found that the Trump Organization, Donald Trump, the two oldest Trump sons, and two organization employees committed fraud. The trial is to determine damages.  Trump used his time on the stand to shout, accuse the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a political persecution, and yell about how unfair the whole lawsuit is. Whether or not it will work—he hardly sounded like a strong man while he was complaining that the judge was being mean to him—he was playing to his political base. — Notes: https://www.state.gov/americas-partnership-for-economic-prosperity/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/11/04/background-press-call-by-senior-administration-officials-to-preview-the-americas-partnership-leaders-summit/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-sends-immigration-bill-to-congress-as-part-of-his-commitment-to-modernize-our-immigration-system/ https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/los-angeles-declaration/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/02/executive-order-creating-a-comprehensive-regional-framework-to-address-the-causes-of-migration-to-manage-migration-throughout-north-and-central-america-and-to-provide-safe-and-orderly-processing/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/07/29/fact-sheet-strategy-to-address-the-root-causes-of-migration-in-central-america/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/03/fact-sheet-president-biden-hosts-inaugural-americas-partnership-for-economic-prosperity-leaders-summit/ https://www.state.gov/united-states-announces-nearly-485-million-in-additional-humanitarian-assistance-for-the-western-hemisphere/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/06/pakistan-undocumented-afghanistan-refugee-expel-migrants/ https://www.apec2023sf.org/what-is-apec https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-pakistan-migration-torkham-border-5f1bf1daec0368f0cd74ca76e23c5de7 https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/H.R.-4820-Transportation-Housing-and-Urban-Development-and-Related-Agencies-Appropriations-Act-2024-Final.pdf https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/xi-jinping-biden-18460336.php https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/06/fact-sheet-president-biden-advances-vision-for-world-class-passenger-rail-by-delivering-billions-in-new-funding/ https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/biden-harris-administration-invests-more-653-million-ports-strengthen-american-supply https://www.ft.com/content/644875ac-754c-4a97-9b1c-603ee6a7bd8b https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/11/05/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news https://www.reuters.com/world/more-than-300-americans-got-out-gaza-more-remain-white-house-2023-11-05/ https://themessenger.com/politics/why-a-new-york-judge-abandoned-plans-to-get-trump-under-control-in-civil-fraud-trial

POLITICO Nightly; The 2023 local elections are fully nationalized

 

BY ADAM WREN Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett delivers a speech in April 2021 during a vigil to mourn eight murdered FedEx Ground employees in Indianapolis. | Jon Cherry/Getty Images FORGET ABOUT POTHOLES — If you didn’t know any better, you might have thought Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett was running for federal office. There he was, campaigning on Saturday with a Democratic congressman from a state over 600 miles away, railing against the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol. It came at the back end of a campaign where Hogsett has been laser-focused on abortion rights in a red state that became the first to enact tighter restrictions in the wake of the fall of Roe v. Wade—even though there’s little the mayor can do on the matter. His opponent, Republican Jefferson Shreve, meanwhile, has assailed Hogsett on the war in Israel, questioning why the two-term mayor allowed a pro-Palestine group to protest at Indianapolis’ war memorials. It’s not exactly potholes and police, the traditional staples of municipal campaigns. Yet it’s in keeping with an off-year election when state and local campaigns from coast to coast have been seemingly nationalized to an unprecedented degree. It’s as if one of the old dictums of politics — all politics is local — has been thrown out the window. As he rallied the party faithful this weekend, accompanied by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chaired the Jan. 6 committee, Hogsett took issue with Shreve’s record of donating to election deniers — something he also hit Shreve on in an attack ad in recent weeks. “Honoring the right to vote? My opponent has given contributions to support the role of election deniers,” Hogsett said to boos at Kountry Kitchen, a famous soul food restaurant that provided the backdrop for a get-out-the-vote rally. The mayor was referencing Shreve’s donations to Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, as well as Sen. Ron Johnson. (Shreve told POLITICO he condemns what happened on Jan. 6.) Indianapolis, which is amid the most expensive mayoral campaign in its history at more than $20 million — a total that surpasses the amount spent on the state’s U.S. Senate race last year — is not unique with its nationalized debate. In Philadelphia’s city council races, abortion and the war in Israel have also been hot issues, for example, while national culture wars have defined New Jersey’s most competitive state house race . In Virginia’s state legislative elections, abortion has also been center stage. Head north from Indianapolis about 20 miles to the well-to-do suburb of Carmel, an increasingly purple suburb where the Democratic mayoral candidate is breaking fundraising records, and you’ll find the same thing. The Indiana Republican Party is carpet bombing the Democratic candidates for mayor and city council over their alleged affiliations with Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. “I wish we were able to focus on real policy, substantive, city-facing issues…instead of nationalizing over issues that are just B.S., characterizing me as having been on the Trump campaign. I was not, never — never contributed to his campaign,” said Shreve, whose presence as a delegate at the Republican National Convention in 2016 also became fodder for the Democrats earlier this year. “The nationalization of this campaign has been such a distraction, but it’s the only playbook that my opponent has.” Hogsett argues that what may seem like national issues have local consequences, and are therefore fair game. “Gun violence is a local issue,” he said in an interview Saturday before joining Thompson. “Access to guns and gun safety? That’s a really decidedly local issue. Women’s reproductive rights and healthcare? That’s profoundly local. That impacts real people. I understand why people think, ‘well, because the mayor is talking about abortion generally and gun violence and the implications of the Second Amendment, yeah that does have a certain national sense to it,’ but really what we’re focused on is how those issues affect the people of the city of Indianapolis, and they are profound.” In Indianapolis, the race has become so contentious that it drew off the sidelines former GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels, who broke an 11-year vow of political silence as the most recent former president of Purdue University to endorse Shreve. A former storage executive, Shreve is viewed as Republicans’ last best shot to flip a big-city mayoralty this year after the party lost mayoralties in Jacksonville, Florida, and Colorado Springs. He had his own surrogate, too: He invited Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who flipped from a Democrat to a Republican earlier this year, as his national surrogate of choice for a crime-focused event. “We have been blessed with a great run of mayors, of both political parties,” Daniels, who began his political career as a staffer for the late Richard Lugar when he was Indianapolis mayor, wrote in an open letter mailed to 80,000 households, trying to re-center the race in local issues. “Collectively they built from what was once called ‘India-no-place’ a vibrant, safe, clean city, a good place for people of all kinds to live and work together. Now, escalating crime, crumbling streets, public vagrancy and other problems threaten to undo all those years of remarkable progress.” In an interview with Nightly, Daniels lamented the nationalization of politics. “I think it’s terrible,” Daniels said, chalking the trend up to the decline of local media and the rise of social media. “It may well work as a tactic, but these things have nothing to do with improving the lives of people and making this or any community a place that can flourish. One is tempted to say: If that’s what a candidate thinks the election is about, they must have a shortage of ideas about the things that really matter.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at awren@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @adamwren .   JOIN US ON 11/15 FOR A TALK ON OUR SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: As the sustainability movement heats up, so have calls for a national standard for clean fuel. Join POLITICO on Nov. 15 in Washington D.C. as we convene leading officials from the administration, key congressional committees, states and other stakeholders to explore the role of EVs, biofuels, hydrogen and other options in the clean fuel sector and how evolving consumer behaviors are influencing sustainable energy practices. REGISTER HERE .     WHAT'D I MISS? — ‘I’m not a windmill person’: Trump takes the witness stand and doesn’t break character: Testimony by former President Donald Trump quickly descended into bitter sniping today as Trump’s discursive answers and outbursts prompted the judge to repeatedly admonish him. During his four hours on the witness stand, Trump repeatedly lost his temper and attacked the judge, railing against the person who will decide the fate of his business empire. “It’s a terrible thing you’ve done. You know nothing about me,” Trump said to Justice Arthur Engoron during one verbal strike from the witness stand. “You believe that political hack back there,” he added, looking toward New York Attorney General Tish James, who brought the $250 million civil fraud case against Trump, his adult sons and officers in the Trump Organization. Trump’s primary defense, which he has offered publicly since the start of the trial and which he repeated during his testimony, is that his financial statements contained “very, very powerful” disclaimers and therefore weren’t intended for use by banks or insurers. — U.S. diplomats slam Israel policy in leaked memo: State Department staffers offered a blistering critique of the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war in a dissent memo obtained by POLITICO, arguing that, among other things, the U.S. should be willing to publicly criticize the Israelis. The message suggests a growing loss of confidence among U.S. diplomats in President Joe Biden’s approach to the Middle East crisis. It reflects the sentiments of many U.S. diplomats, especially at mid-level and lower ranks, according to conversations with several department staffers as well as other reports. If such internal disagreements intensify, it could make it harder for the Biden administration to craft policy toward the region. The memo has two key requests: that the U.S. support a ceasefire, and that it balance its private and public messaging toward Israel, including airing criticisms of Israeli military tactics and treatment of Palestinians that the U.S. generally prefers to keep private. — Pro-impeachment ex-GOP congressman launches bid for Michigan Senate seat: Peter Meijer, the former Republican congressman who voted to impeach Donald Trump, launched his 2024 campaign for a Michigan Senate seat today . Meijer’s decision to join the increasingly crowded Senate candidate field comes after POLITICO reported last week that Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) told Republican senators that Meijer would launch a campaign. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, though, slammed his candidacy. “Peter Meijer isn’t viable in a primary election, and there’s worry that if Meijer were nominated, the base would not be enthused in the general election,” NRSC Executive Director Jason Thielman said in a statement to POLITICO. NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) speaks during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the National Mall in Washington on Oct. 20. | Jose Luis Magana/AP MENACE TO BIDEN — Rashida Tlaib and Dean Phillips are not political allies. But in recent weeks the two Democratic lawmakers have emerged together as a pincer-like menace to President Joe Biden’s reelection, writes POLITICO. These two Gen X Midwesterners are not coordinating their activities. The convergence of their attacks on Biden is purely coincidental. Yet in another sense it is hardly happenstance that they are battering Biden in these terms and at this moment. Both represent versions of the Democratic Party’s Trump-era new guard: the radical progressive movement embodied by Tlaib and her fellow members of the Squad, and the anti-partisan, suburban Problem Solvers Caucus set of which Phillips is an outspoken member. DEMOCRATIC DISCONNECT — Black voters are more disconnected from the Democratic Party than they have been in decades , frustrated with what many see as inaction on their political priorities and unhappy with President Biden, a candidate they helped lift to the White House just three years ago. The New York Times writes that new polls found that 22 percent of Black voters in six of the most important battleground states said they would support former President Donald J. Trump in next year’s election, and 71 percent would back Mr. Biden. The drift in support is striking, given that Mr. Trump won just 8 percent of Black voters nationally in 2020 and 6 percent in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center. A Republican presidential candidate has not won more than 12 percent of the Black vote in nearly half a century. ACA MIA — One of the most revealing debates in the Republican Party is one that has disappeared from the campaign trail: the fight over repealing Obamacare , reports the Wall Street Journal. This presidential election marks the first in more than a decade in which no GOP candidates are pledging to eviscerate the landmark Affordable Care Act, ending a standoff between the parties over whether the government is responsible for providing access to healthcare. AROUND THE WORLD UNDER FIRE — Attacks on American troops dramatically ramped up over the weekend , the Pentagon said today, as the U.S. military sent ships and a submarine into the Middle East, writes POLITICO. U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked by rockets and drones 38 times since Oct. 17, Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said today, an increase from 31 on Friday afternoon. Forty-six service members in total have now reported injuries from the attacks, which he called “harassing,” he said. Ryder did not specify the source of the attacks, but the Pentagon has recently blamed similar events on Iran-backed proxies. Sunday was a particularly violent day, with five rocket and one-way drone attacks near Al-Asad Airbase, Iraq, and in two locations in Syria, according to a Defense Department official, who was granted anonymity to give details on a sensitive topic. The U.S. military was able to thwart most of the attacks, the official said, adding that the majority of missiles and drones failed to reach their targets. The increase in attacks came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the region, including an unannounced trip to Iraq on Sunday. During the stop, Blinken received a briefing on threats to American troops in the region, and called the attacks “unacceptable.”   GET READY FOR POLITICO’S DEFENSE SUMMIT ON 11/14: Russia’s war on Ukraine … China’s threats to Taiwan … a war in Gaza. The U.S. is under increasing pressure to deter, defend and fight in more ways — but not everyone agrees how. Join POLITICO's 3rd Annual Defense Summit on November 14 for exclusive interviews and expert discussions on global security and the U.S.'s race to bolster alliances and stay ahead of adversaries. Explore critical topics, including international conflicts, advanced technology, spending priorities and political dynamics shaping global defense strategies. Don’t miss these timely and important discussions. REGISTER HERE .     NIGHTLY NUMBER Nearly 30,000 The number of active-duty military personnel who had their personal information collected, packaged and sold to overseas companies without any vetting , after researchers at Duke University posing as buyers in the U.S. and Singapore contacted multiple data-broker firms who listed datasets about active-duty servicemembers for sale. The report, from Duke researchers and funded by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, highlights a significant American security risk, according to military officials and lawmakers. RADAR SWEEP STRAWING CONCLUSIONS — Ditch the plastic straw, pick up the paper straw. The movement to use paper instead of plastic straws has brought a new attention to sustainability issues — but are paper straws actually helping the environment? From fossil fuels from the straws’ production to the dangerous PFAs found in the paper, the droopy paper straws may not have the environmental impact straw users think it does. BBC’s Ally Hirschlag dives into the complexity behind the straw problem, starting with her own experiences watching viral sea turtle videos to studies on the different types of straws and their environmental impacts today. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 2012: President Barack Obama wins re-election, waving as he walks on stage with first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   FOLLOW US

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