Maddow’s bombshell reporting: Trump trying to pay Stormy Daniels to be quiet again

+ 8,800 COMMENTS WORTH READING!

THE NY CRIMINAL TRIAL WAS ABOUT FALSIFICATION OF BUSINESS RECORDS.... 

DIAPER DON THINKS IT WAS ABOUT STORMY DANIELS....NOPE!

MSNBC

7.46M subscribers

#MSNBC #DonaldTrump

Rachel Maddow breaks down her bombshell reporting on how Trump is once again trying to pay Stormy Daniels to be quiet. » Subscribe to MSNBC:    / msnbc   Download our new MSNBC app for the latest breaking news and daily headlines at a glance: https://www.msnbc.com/information/dow... Follow MSNBC Show Blogs MaddowBlog: https://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog ReidOut Blog: https://www.msnbc.com/reidoutblog MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of politics headlines, as well as commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, The Beat with Ari Melber, Deadline: White House, The ReidOut, All In, Last Word, 11th Hour, and Alex Wagner who brings her breadth of reporting experience to MSNBC primetime. Watch “Alex Wagner Tonight” Tuesday through Friday at 9pm Eastern.

POLITICO Nightly: The ever-widening gender gap

By Anusha Mathur Presented by  A person walks past a painting of Vice President Kamala Harris and a sign for the political action committee EMILY's List outside the United Center in Chicago on Sunday. | Francis Chung/POLITICO MIND THE GAP — As the Democratic National Convention kicks off this week, polls show Kamala Harris is the beneficiary of gains across a number of traditionally Democratic groups. And they reveal that in her quest to become the first woman president, the traditional gender gap between male and female voters is beginning to resemble a chasm. Heightened concerns about reproductive rights, ignited by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, kickstarted a widening of the gender gap as women flocked to support Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections. The current presidential matchup — featuring the vice president’s historic candidacy and Donald Trump, who is viewed very unfavorably by women — appears to be supercharging this trend. “It is now close to, or certainly in the ballpark of, the biggest gender gap we’ve ever seen,” said Paul Maslin, pollster at FM3, a public policy-oriented opinion research firm. The gender gap typically refers to the difference between the percentage of women and the percentage of men voting for the winning candidate. In 2004 and 2008, according to exit polls, that gap was seven points. By 2012, that number increased to 10 points and it grew to 11 four years later. In 2020, it rose again to 12 points, powered by Trump’s 15-point loss among female voters — 57 percent to 42 percent. Polling ahead of the 2024 race shows signs the divide has widened even further, as Trump makes gains among men while losing even more ground with women. The most recent New York Times/Siena College poll in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin revealed that 55 percent of registered men support Trump compared to just 39 percent of women — a staggering 16-point difference. The Times/Siena poll conducted last week in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina likewise found the exact same difference. Trump’s struggles with women voters date back to his first run in 2016, when a recording surfaced of him speaking in extremely crude terms about women. He has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women over the years and a jury found him liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. More recently, running mate J.D. Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” haven’t helped. Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket appears to have exacerbated the divide. Women are backing Harris at significantly higher rates than they did President Biden — a July Times/Siena nationwide poll of likely voters showed a 6-point difference in female support for Biden over Trump (49 percent to 43 percent), compared to a newly released CBS News/YouGov poll that shows Harris leading nationally by 12 points among likely women voters, 56 to 44. Maslin said the most pivotal reason the gender gap widened the past month is Harris’ ability to solidify undecided female voters. “If you go back in time to the moment before Biden drops out of the race, we have what I call a huge group of standoffish voters – they were unquestionably disproportionately younger, independent and a little more female,” Maslin said. “Kamala Harris just reached up and gobbled them up in droves in these last three weeks.” Although Harris made gains among registered male voters compared to Biden, they still overwhelmingly prefer Trump — and by a 16-point margin in the Rust Belt swing states and 18 points in the Sun Belt swing states. The gender gap is also more pronounced in some states than others, largely driven by the importance of abortion rights in those areas. Abortion is a highly salient issue for female voters, with 23 percent of women listing it as “the most important issue in deciding their vote in November” out of 24 different topics. In Michigan — a state where female voters were energized by an abortion referendum on the state ballot in 2022 — women support Harris over Trump by 28 points and men favor Trump by 16 points. A similar referendum will be on the ballot in Arizona this November, where women favor Harris by 26 points and men support Trump by 16 points. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania — a state with no recent changes to reproductive rights since the repeal of Roe v. Wade — the gender gap is much narrower, with women favoring Harris by just seven points and men favoring Trump by 1 point. However, the gender gap in turnout magnifies even a small gender divide in political preference. In 2020, 68.4 percent of women turned out to vote compared with 65 percent of men, with women comprising 54 percent of the electorate overall. It’s an ominous sign for the Republican ticket if the gender gap remains this wide. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at amathur@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @AnushaMathur4 . Nightly will be reporting from Chicago this week. Reach out to cmchugh@politico.com with any and all DNC information or questions.   A message from Johnson&Johnson: We’re restoring the true meaning of healthcare—developing advanced treatments and smarter and less invasive solutions for today’s most complex diseases. See how we're connecting the best of Health&Care for every patient and provider. Learn more.   What'd I Miss? — Blinken says Israel OKs a plan to break the cease-fire impasse and urges Hamas to do the same: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge differences holding up a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza , and he called on Hamas to do the same, without saying whether concerns cited by the militant group had been addressed. The high-stakes negotiations have gained urgency in recent days as diplomats hope an agreement will deter Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah from avenging the targeted killings of two top militants that were blamed on Israel. The escalating tensions have raised fears of an even more destructive regional war. — Elon Musk denies gifting Chechen warlord a Tesla truck : Elon Musk today denied that he gifted Chechnya’s strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov a Cybertruck . “Are you seriously so retarded that you think I donated a Cybertruck to a Russian general?” Musk wrote on his social media platform, X. “Yet another example of how much the legacy media lies,” he added. Kadyrov on Saturday posted a video on Telegram of himself behind the wheel of the Tesla vehicle, which appeared to be fitted with a gun turret, and thanked Musk for sending it. — Bragg takes no position on delay of Trump sentencing as judge weighs impact of immunity ruling: Manhattan prosecutors say they won’t take a position on former President Donald Trump’s bid for a delay that would push his Sept. 18 business fraud sentencing until after the 2024 election. Instead, prosecutors working for District Attorney Alvin Bragg said they would defer to Justice Juan Merchan’s discretion, acknowledging that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity has complicated the process and could require a delay. Merchan is the judge overseeing Trump’s case. While the decision on timing will be up to Merchan, the prosecution’s stance appeared to increase the chances that Trump’s sentencing could slip until after Election Day — a result that would ensure none of Trump’s four criminal cases will reach that juncture until after voters cast their ballots. Nightly Road to 2024 MORE TRUMP LIES! SHAPIRO PUSHES BACK ON ANTISEMITISM CLAIMS — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said today that “antisemitism played absolutely no role ” in Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to not pick him as her running mate. Former President Donald Trump said at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday that Harris “turned him down because he’s Jewish.” Shapiro, who was widely considered to be a front-runner for the VP pick, pushed back on Trump’s remarks to reporters after delivering a speech to his home state’s presidential delegation breakfast today, writes POLITICO. GOP DESPERATION! GOP’S CORNEL WEST GAMBIT — A group of lawyers with deep ties to the Republican Party scrambled over the weekend to rescue an effort to get independent presidential candidate Cornel West on the Arizona ballot , offering one of the clearest examples yet of the GOP’s extensive involvement in furthering the left-wing academic’s long-shot bid, reports the Associated Press. Republicans and their allies have worked to get West on the ballot in Arizona, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Maine, all in the hope that West will help boost former President Donald Trump’s chances of winning later this year by pulling support from Harris. West does not need to win a state to serve as a spoiler candidate — a few thousand votes in battleground states could be decisive. LUTTIG BACKS HARRIS — Retired federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative legal scholar put on the bench by President George H.W. Bush, is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump , whose candidacy he describes as an existential threat to American democracy, reports CNN. It will be the first time Luttig, a veteran of two Republican administrations, has voted for a Democrat. TRUMP RETURNS TO THE TRAIL — As Democrats kick off their convention in Chicago, Donald Trump ‘s campaign is trying to regain its footing after weeks of struggling to adjust to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the opposing ticket, writes the Associated Press. Trump will attempt to undercut the Democratic celebration with a jam-packed schedule that includes daily events in battleground states tied to subjects where Republicans think they hold an advantage. It’s his busiest campaign week since the winter, when he faced challengers in the Republican primary. MORE TRUMP RAMBLINGS & DISTRACTIONS WITH WEIRD JD VANCE! Trump is scheduled to appear today in Pennsylvania to talk about the economy and energy, on Tuesday in Michigan to talk about crime and safety, and on Wednesday in North Carolina to talk about national security at a joint appearance with his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. On Thursday, he’ll travel to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona to talk about immigration before going Friday to Arizona and Nevada.   A message from Johnson&Johnson:     AROUND THE WORLD Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers questions at the 75th NATO Summit on July 9, 2024, in Washington, DC. | Bonnie Cash/Getty Images PRESSING THE WEST — As Ukraine gains territory inside Russia but is pushed back in its own Donetsk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy heaped pressure on his Western allies for more help . “Our guys are doing great on all fronts. However, there is a need for faster delivery of supplies from our partners,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address on Sunday. “Decisions are needed, as are timely logistics for the announced aid packages. I especially address this to the United States, the United Kingdom and France.” Ukraine has been struggling to fend off Russia’s assault in the east, hence the calls for accelerated weapons deliveries. Russia is rapidly advancing near Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. Russian forces almost seized Krasnohorivka and occupied New York, a town in the Donetsk region, a Ukrainian army brigade said in a Telegram post on Sunday. CAR WARS — Giorgia Meloni has found the ideal target in her economic patriotism crusade . Over the past months, the Italian government has engaged in a widening array of conflicts with Stellantis — the heir of Italy’s iconic carmaker Fiat, now one of the world’s biggest carmakers — for not investing enough in Italy. Stellantis — which owns a dozen brands spanning from Alfa Romeo and Maserati to Peugeot, Citroën and Jeep — has long been in the crosshairs of Meloni. When she was a lawmaker on the opposition benches, she was one of the fiercest opponents of the Franco-Italian merger between Fiat-Chrysler and Peugeot-maker PSA, which gave birth to Stellantis in 2021. Back then, Meloni warned that the deal was a dangerous French take-over of an Italian crown jewel, fueling the evergreen Franco-Italian economic rivalry. Nightly Number 13 The number of Democratic national conventions attended by Joe Biden. The president has been a key convention presence for a half-century, whether as a floor manager for candidates, a nominating speaker, or the vice presidential or presidential nominee. He’ll deliver the Democratic keynote address tonight. RADAR SWEEP AGING UNGRACEFULLY — If you’ve noticed a sudden accumulation of wrinkles, aches and pains or a general sensation of having grown older almost overnight, there may be a scientific explanation. Research suggests that rather than being a slow and steady process, aging occurs in at least two accelerated bursts. The study, which tracked thousands of different molecules in people aged 25 to 75, detected two major waves of age-related changes at around ages 44 and again at 60. The findings could explain why spikes in certain health issues including musculoskeletal problems and cardiovascular disease occur at certain ages, writes Hannah Devlin in the Guardian . Parting Image On this date in 1992: Former President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty watch a session of the Republican National Convention in the Houston Astrodome. | Barry Thumma/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   A message from Johnson&Johnson: At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured; treatments are smarter and less invasive; and solutions are personal. We are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow. We combine our science and technology with our determination to create a powerful force of care ... and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more.     Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us

POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

POLITICO Nightly: The scramble to suck up to Trump

BY CALDER MCHUGH Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) takes pictures as former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before departing Manhattan criminal court on May 13. | Pool photo by Mark Peterson. HOW TO GET AHEAD — After sitting in court listening to witness after witness testify to his alleged misdeeds, several weeks ago former President Donald Trump began grousing about his lack of support outside the courtroom. Almost immediately, a steady stream of friends, advisers and Republican elected officials from across the nation started to trickle in . Over the past two weeks, it’s turned into a cavalcade of defenders, with almost everyone who’s anyone in contemporary Republican politics making the pilgrimage to Manhattan to kiss the ring and complain to television cameras about the unfairness of the proceedings. They’re there in part to say what Trump can’t, due to his gag order — a series of talking points which include but aren’t limited to: Justice Juan Merchan’s daughter’s political leanings, the problem with the liberal New York jury pool, the character of various witnesses and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger’s donations to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. The trip to the Manhattan courthouse has become a MAGA acid test, but also a window into how to get ahead in the Trump-era Republican Party. In one theatrical measure of the raw ambition on display, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) became the first Republican member of Congress to show up in support of Trump . Scott, who’s up for reelection this year, drove with Trump from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue down to the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, then sat in the front row of the courtroom before departing to speak to the cameras. Two weeks later, he announced his plan to run for Senate Republican leader — and his case for being selected is largely based on having Trump’s ear . The following week saw a House Freedom Caucus road trip to Manhattan. There, nearly a dozen of the thirstiest and most contentious members in the House — including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who’s scrambling to win the GOP primary in a new House district — railed against the trial from across the street, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Gaetz, the tormenter of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who’s said to be eyeing a gubernatorial bid in 2026, blasted the charges as “the Mr. Potato Head doll of crimes, where they had to stick together a bunch of things that did not belong together.” Days earlier, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who’s been working on building his relationship with Trump in advance of the possibility the former president returns to office, appeared on the scene. A trial surrounding hush money payments made to a porn star seems like an unlikely place for the  government’s most powerful evangelical Christian to station himself — especially since Johnson once asserted that Trump “lacks the character and the moral center we desperately need again in the White House.” But Johnson, who’s been fending off an ouster attempt from the right, made clear he thought it was important to appear in support of “a friend.” “I wanted to be here myself and call out what is a travesty of justice.” he said, roughly one week after Trump publicly urged Republicans to unite behind Johnson and helped extinguish the threat to his speakership. To some degree, the blocks outside of 10 Centre Street have become something akin to Trump’s famous boardroom in “The Apprentice.” Vice presidential hopefuls including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance have all traveled far from their home states to pay homage to Trump, aiming to get in his good graces. If Trump is in fact found guilty next week, Merchan is not required to send him to prison; most first-time, non-violent crime offenders end up with probation or a fine instead. In any case, Trump would be sure to appeal. So, very soon, he’ll be free from the Manhattan courthouse with which he has so many complaints. The former president has made clear he’s paying attention to the loyalists who serve in his Manhattan vanguard and appreciates their service. “I do have a lot of surrogates and they are speaking very beautifully,” Trump said on Tuesday. “They come from all over Washington, and they’re highly respected and they think this is the biggest scam they’ve ever seen.” They also appear to think it’s the biggest opportunity. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh . POLITICO Nightly will not publish on Monday, May 27 for Memorial Day. We’ll be back in your inboxes on Tuesday, May 28.   TRUMP ON TRIAL ADJOURNED — The former president’s trial remains adjourned until next Tuesday, a scheduling decision from Justice Juan Merchan in order to avoid Memorial Day weekend breaking up the final days of the trial.   THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists. Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY .     WHAT'D I MISS? — Commerce-backed deal with Emirati AI giant sets off alarm bells in Congress: A Commerce Department-backed plan to pry an Emirati artificial intelligence company away from Beijing is sparking growing unease among the very lawmakers it appears designed to impress : China hawks. When Microsoft inked a $1.5 billion investment deal with UAE-based G42 last month, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo hailed it as a way to keep the firm out of China’s “camp.” But now, there are increasing concerns among China hawks on the Hill that the deal could soon put sensitive AI technology at risk of Chinese espionage. In recent briefings from Microsoft and the Commerce Department, lawmakers are finding out that G42 may get access to advanced semiconductors that the U.S. government wants to protect from China. — Judge rules Menendez’s prosecutors can’t show ‘critical’ evidence: Jurors in Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption case cannot see evidence prosecutors have called “critical” to part of their case , a federal judge ruled today. The decision puts a hole in prosecutors’ ability to prove their central claim: that the New Jersey Democrat took bribes to help send billions of dollars of American military aid to Egypt. U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein said prosecutors could not use evidence they hoped would show Egyptian officials were “frantic about not getting their money’s worth,” despite bribes Menendez allegedly took to help the country access billions of dollars of American military aid and arms. — Top Senate Judiciary Democrats seek meeting with Roberts over Alito concerns: Two senior Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), are requesting a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts “as soon as possible” amid reports that properties owned by Justice Samuel Alito displayed two flags with links to the Jan. 6 insurrection. “We urge you to immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that Justice Alito will recuse himself in any cases related to the 2020 presidential election and January 6th attack on the Capitol,” Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote in a letter released today. NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 RISING VP CONTENDER — Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has unexpectedly emerged as a top contender to become Donald J. Trump’s running mate , a signal that the former president is heavily weighing experience and the ability to run a disciplined campaign over other factors, reports the New York Times.. Cotton’s ascendance comes as Trump’s leading vice-presidential options have increasingly come into focus, according to three people with direct knowledge of Trump’s thinking who insisted on anonymity to discuss private meetings. These people said that Trump’s other current favorites were Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and three of Cotton’s Senate colleagues: Marco Rubio of Florida, Tim Scott of South Carolina and J.D. Vance of Ohio. The former president has also discussed the five Republican men as potential candidates for administration posts if he were to unseat President Biden in November.       AROUND THE WORLD Keir Starmer, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party gestures during a question and answer session at a business conference in London, on Feb. 1, 2024. | Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP FOLLOW THE LEADER — In the late summer of 2023, a small group of American and British political strategists sat down for dinner at a restaurant in London’s Marylebone neighborhood. On the menu: French cuisine and political anxiety. The gathering included several key Labour Party officials and two outspoken American centrists, Matt Bennett and Josh Freed, both leaders of the think tank Third Way . Conversation quickly turned to Labour’s political messaging, which remained fuzzy even as the ruling Conservatives flailed in the polls. As good as things looked for Labour, there had been some unsettling political misses — most notably, a by-election for Boris Johnson’s west London seat that Labour lost in an upset, largely because of backlash against local policies discouraging the use of cars. Was it time, some party officials wondered, to itemize a more precise governing agenda, to make it harder for the Tories to brand them with a radical caricature? Freed and Bennett responded with one voice: Don’t do it. It would not solve any of Labour’s problems to churn out reams of well-intentioned white papers, they said; on the contrary, presenting that kind of policy library would just offer the Conservatives countless tiny targets to shoot at. Not long after the dinner, Bennett recalled citing the 2016 U.S. election as a proof point. “I pointed out that Hillary’s campaign had 290 or so policy ideas on their website; Trump had seven,” Bennett said, perhaps exaggerating, but not by much. For an overall message, the Americans advised Labour: Keep it simple, keep it safe — just as Joe Biden did in 2020.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST:  Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today .     NIGHTLY NUMBER $3.5 billion The amount that Congress has shifted — earmarked originally for grants for semiconductor manufacturing — to a separate Pentagon program called Secure Enclave , a classified project to build chips in a special facility for defense and intelligence needs. RADAR SWEEP THINK DIFFERENT — Apple used to culturally dominate the tech world. Even if they didn’t sell as many computers as some of their competitors, their slick, indie rock-soundtracked advertisements, their new product launches and the star power inside of their company dwarfed that of their competitors and had real cultural influence. But in recent years, that has waned . The low came earlier this month, when Apple released an advertisement that they then pulled which showcased art and musical instruments being crushed by an oversized iPad. How did they get to their place atop the tech world? And how did they lose it? Nitish Pahwa investigates for Slate. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 1883: The Brooklyn Bridge opens after 14 years of construction. It's shown here in May 1983, on the occasion of its centennial. | David Handschuh/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .     Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   FOLLOW US

POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA