Trump Telling Allies He Plans To Run For Reelection In 2024 -- With One Caveat
Politico reports that ex-President Donald Trump is reportedly telling his inner circle that he’s planning on taking another shot at the presidency in 2024 as long as he’s in good health.
But some Republicans reportedly aren’t thrilled with the idea of having the twice-impeached former president, who unleashed a bloodthirsty mob of his supporters upon the Capitol less than six months ago, on the ticket again.
Nevada OKs bill in try for 1st presidential nominating state
Source: AP
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and SAM METZ
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada lawmakers passed a bill on Monday that aims to make the state the first to weigh in on the 2024 presidential primary contests.
The move upends decades of political tradition and is likely to prompt pushback from other early states that want to retain their places in the calendar.
The bill that passed in the state’s Assembly on Wednesday and the Senate on Monday still must be approved by Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak to become law. It would also need the backing of the national political parties to eventually make the change for the 2024 calendar.
The push for Nevada to jump past Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s longstanding first-in-the-nation primary follows a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign led by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Nevada governor signs law giving state the 1st presidential primary
Source: AP
LAS VEGAS — Nevada Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, signed into law Friday a bill that would make the Western state the first to vote in the 2024 presidential primary contests, bumping Iowa and New Hampshire from their leadoff spots.
Signing the law is a gamble.
It's likely to set off maneuvering by other states, especially Iowa and New Hampshire, trying to move up their contests. The national political parties would need to agree to changes in the calendar or state parties could risk losing their delegates at presidential nominating conventions.
The Democratic National Committee has not yet signaled whether it would support the calendar shakeup and isn't expected to start writing rules for its nominating process until next year.
Bossie: RNC might cut out networks if primary debates aren't reformed
Source: Politico
The Republican National Committee would consider circumventing major television networks if the presidential debate process is not overhauled, Citizens United President David Bossie said Friday.
“We don't need to count on just the networks,” Bossie told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “There are so many opportunities out there, so many platforms out there that we can go to and partner with to get the message out.”
Bossie was light on the details about what GOP debates without a partner network would look like, noting that the RNC is still early in its process for 2024 debate planning. Officials from both political parties exert more control over how their respective primary debates are structured, something that Bossie — who is helping to lead the RNC reform effort — said his party is actively exploring.
Both political parties have historically partnered with news networks to stage primary debates, as opposed to general election debates which are put on by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has overseen those forums since 1988. Bossie, in his interview with Hewitt, said that Republicans have been especially dismayed by what he characterized as grandstanding moderators.
Florida Gov. DeSantis Responds to Speculation He Will Join Trump in 2024 Bid
By Jack Phillips
June 13, 2021 Updated: June 13, 2021
biggersmaller Print
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’s had no discussion with former President Donald Trump or anyone else about being the former president’s running mate for a 2024 presidential bid.
There has been speculation that DeSantis—a Republican who has developed national prominence for his policies targeting critical race theory, lockdowns, and vaccine passports—could potentially run for president in 2024 or join Trump if he decides to run again.
“I haven’t had any discussions with anybody about anything beyond what we are doing now because, you know, we are putting a lot of points on the board, and we are really going on offense, moving the ball forward,” DeSantis told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Features” on June 13 when asked about whether he has had discussions with Trump.
Ron DeSantis Edges Out Trump for President in Straw Poll of Western Conservative Summit
Source: Newsweek
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won over former President Donald Trump in a straw poll for 2024 presidential candidates conducted by the Western Conservative Summit, the poll's organizer reported Saturday.
DeSantis led the poll with 74 percent of voters saying they approved of him as a presidential candidate ahead of Trump's 71 percent. The poll was held online using the approval voting method, where voters selected multiple responses to each question.
Because voters were allowed to make more than one choice, the percentages of the poll add up to more than 100 percent. Poll conductor Frank Attwood told Colorado Politics that the decision to use the approval voting method "minimizes spoilers and sabotage and gives viability and visibility to minor candidates."
The summit is hosted by Colorado Christian University's Centennial Institute, and was hosted both online and in-person, Colorado Politics reported. Around 500 people attended in person at a Denver hotel over the weekend, while tens of thousands of viewers were present virtually, according to the event's organizers.
1. Ron DeSantis - 74.12%
2. Donald Trump - 71.43%
3. Ted Cruz - 42.86%
4. Mike Pompeo - 39.35%
5. Tim Scott 35.58%
Biden's approval slumps after a slew of crises: AP-NORC poll
Source: AP
By JOSH BOAK and EMILY SWANSON
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s popularity has slumped after a slew of challenges in recent weeks at home and abroad for the leader who pledged to bring the country together and restore competence in government, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Fifty percent now say they approve of Biden, while 49% disapprove. Fifty-four percent approved in August, and 59% did in July. The results come as Americans process the harried and deadly evacuation from Afghanistan, mounted border patrol agents charging at Haitian refugees, the unshakable threat of the coronavirus with its delta variant and the legislative drama of Biden trying to negotiate his economic, infrastructure and tax policies through Congress.
Since July, Biden’s approval rating has dipped slightly among Democrats (from 92% to 85%) and among independents who don’t lean toward either party (from 62% to 38%). Just 11% of Republicans approve of the president, which is similar to July.
Approval also dipped somewhat among both white Americans (49% to 42%) and Black Americans (86% to 64%).
(Mother Jones) On November 30, 2020, Arizona’s Republican governor, attorney general, and chief justice of the state Supreme Court certified the state’s electoral votes for President Joe Biden.
If Donald Trump has his way, that will not happen again for the Democratic candidate in 2024.
Kari Lake, a former news anchor who is now the Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona governor in 2022, told One America News on Friday that she “would not have certified” the votes had she been governor at the time. She cited debunked lies about “serious irregularities” that were spread by the likes of Rudy Giuliani, whom she noted was in Arizona “at that very moment” of certification. (A New York court suspended Giuliani’s law license this year for making “demonstrably false and misleading statements” about the 2020 election.) Lake previously told the Arizona Republic that Trump was “the real winner of Arizona.” Her latest comments follow the much-hyped and highly dubious “audit” authorized by Arizona’s state senate recently that nonetheless confirmed Biden’s victory in the state.
Trump endorsed Lake on Tuesday after she said his head should be carved on Mt. Rushmore, saying she “will fight to restore Election Integrity (both past and future!).” Polls show she is now the frontrunner for the GOP nomination to replace outgoing GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, who Trump famously called during the certification ceremony and later attacked on Twitter for certifying the results. The Democratic nominee for governor is Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who oversaw the state’s election and has been a target of death threats from “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theorists.
(Alternet) If U.S. democracy falls this century, it will likely be at the hands of a stubby-fingered sack of extra-piquant donkey farts who likely never bothered to read the Constitution he swore to uphold—and certainly didn't understand it if he did bother. In other words, we're at the stage in the Siegfried & Roy show where the tiger starts picturing Roy as a semi-ambulant canned ham.
Donald Trump is a buffoon, but he's an evil buffoon, and it doesn't actually take a smart man to demagogue against democracy. You simply need zero shame, a preternatural instinct for bullying, and a party full of Q-besotted quislings to go along with your rotten plans.
On Friday's episode of The Beat With Ari Melber, Yale history professor Timothy Snyder didn't mince words when it came to the ominous, anti-democratic forces that are currently gathering to storm the gates of our venerable republic.
After Melber noted that several Big Lie proponents are running—with the backing of the ocher abomination—for secretary of state positions in several U.S. states—which would give them a great deal of control over the 2024 election in some key swing states—he had an unsettling talk with Snyder, an expert on authoritarianism and author of the book On Tyranny.
Kansas City plans to submit bid to host 2024 Republican National Convention
Source: Fox 4 WDAF
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City wants a chance to host the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Mayor Quinton Lucas’s office confirmed with FOX4 the city plans to submit a bid to host the political event where the party will select its nominees for president and vice president in the 2024 presidential election.
Kansas City also submitted a bid to host the 2016 RNC, but Cleveland was selected instead. Could 2024 be Kansas City’s year?
The national conventions are still three years away, but a lot can — and will — happen before then. The bidding process has already begun.
(Politico) In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, two of the largest progressive funding networks, the Democracy Alliance and the Committee on States, launched a new effort to drive resources into key states — trying to focus donors on state-level races rather than just national politics. The Democracy Alliance, which POLITICO once called “the country’s most powerful liberal donor club,” has sometimes been known for keeping its operations close to the vest. But we’re speaking out publicly now about our state initiative, the Strategic Victory Fund, to explain what our research shows about what we see as a significant risk to American democracy.
Early in the 2022 cycle, control of Congress has been the main focus of donors, as it has in the media. But control of State Houses may now matter more.
Based on our research, the five governors races that will matter most in 2022 are in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nevada. Those are the states that saw narrow margins in the 2020 presidential race, and where a current Republican legislature — or if Republicans regain it in Nevada — stands the strongest chance of trying to throw the Electoral College result to their side. Who wields the veto pen in those states could be the last line of defense in preventing not just voter suppression, but the kind of election subversion that could unfairly deny the rightly elected president the White House in 2024.
If Republicans take back the governorships in these states it will mean a lot more than the signing of right-wing bills coming out of the legislatures. It means MAGA followers of the “Big Lie” will control the levers of running the actual elections and the allocations of Electoral College electors. The stage would be set for another insurrection, with supporters of Donald Trump refusing to recognize or certify the actual winners of elections and Trump installed back into office regardless of whether he won.
The following article may be an exercise in wishful thinking. Also lacking is an analysis of Republican efforts to position themselves for victory even if the popular vote is not otherwise there to win. Still, there are enough variables that what is discussed is not completely implausible.
Trump's Grip on the GOP is 'Slipping' as Advisers Scramble for Reasons to Bail on 2024 Run
by Tom Boggioni
November 21, 2021
(Alternet) According to a report from the Atlantic's Peter Nicholas, a close adviser to former president Donald Trump admitted they are "rehearsing" arguments intended to convince the former president that another presidential run in 2024 could end in disaster and embarrassment.
As Nicholas wrote, despite polls showing Trump to be the odds-on choice to be the Republican Party presidential nominee in 2024, there are signs that there is a building movement against him among conservatives who are being more vocal about moving on without him.
Noting the election of Republican Glenn Youngkin as the new governor of Virginia who kept his distance from the twice-impeached former president as one key data point, Nicholas wrote that Trump's influence over GOP lawmakers is showing cracks.
According to Nicholas, "If Donald Trump tries to run for president again, one of his former campaign advisers has a plan to dissuade him. Anticipating that Trump may not know who Adlai Stevenson was or that he lost two straight presidential elections in the 1950s, this ex-adviser figures he or someone else might need to explain the man's unhappy fate. They'll remind Trump that if he were beaten in 2024, he would join Stevenson as one of history's serial losers. 'I think that would resonate,' said this person, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to talk more freely. 'Trump hates losers.'"
"Trump might not listen to his former campaign confidante. But the mere fact that someone who worked to elect Trump the first time is rehearsing arguments to stop a comeback suggests that the former president's tight grip on the Republican Party may be slipping," Nichols suggested.
(Counterpunch) As we approach the first anniversary of the attack on the United States congress, it is imperative to understand that the threat to democracy is not over. As details about the full scope of the scheme to undermine the presidential election of 2019 (should read 2020 - caltrek) emerge, it becomes even more important to understand that the coup did not end that day.
Most commentary informed by concern about the threat to US democracy focuses on countering voter suppression and strengthening voter rights across the country. For example, in a recent article the New York Times editorial board argued that the Democratic Party should end the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation, and admonished Republican leaders to respect the republic by combatting the extremists in their midst. These arguments are a response to the recent behavior of the Republican Party: following Trump’s insistence that the vote was stolen, the party has spent the last year advancing voter suppression laws and gerrymandering voting districts to ensure Trump’s return to power.
Conclusion:
But what if Trump is displaced by a member of his party who is equally willing to embrace his anti-democratic inclinations, perhaps with a slightly slicker veneer? This is a very real possibility given the trends that we have described within the party. However, we believe that the main imperative at this juncture is to oppose the Republican Party’s transformation into a personality cult that could destroy the basic institutions of US constitutional democracy.
The history of authoritarian movements underlines the importance of individual “leaders” as points of coalescence for reactionary ideas. Trump has provided ample evidence that he understands and is willing to exploit this dynamic. Preventing the demagogic and dictatorial former president from returning to power is of paramount importance.
(Mother Jones) On Tuesday, on the eve of the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell assured reporters on Capitol Hill that there was no risk that members of his party would attempt to reverse the results of a future presidential election. It was “ridiculous,” he argued, to even suggest that any state legislature would “want to overturn the counting of votes.”
“I think they assume that people who get elected to the legislature are idiots,” the Kentucky Republican said of his Democratic colleagues.
I mean, kind of. Last fall a Republican state representative in New Hampshire sent an email to his colleagues warning that the Covid-19 vaccine included a “living organism with tentacles.” A high-ranking Tennessee Republican state representative was ejected from a high school basketball game this week after attempting to pull down the referee’s pants. It’s a horror show out there. These are people who regularly have to be told how bodies work.
But whether or not these guys are “idiots” is not really the point. Politicians are measured by how they use their power, and on that point McConnell has already been proven wrong—Republicans at the state level have indicated quite clearly that they would support overturning the will of the people in a presidential election.
Just take Pennsylvania. In the run-up to the certification of the electoral college results last year, a majority of the Republican members of the Pennsylvania house of representatives—57 of them—signed a letter asking members of Congress to object to the counting of Pennsylvania’s electors.
About a week later, when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a desperate legal effort to have the Supreme Court throw out the election results in four Biden-won states, Pennsylvania’s speaker of the house and house majority leader submitted an amicus brief in support of the thing McConnell says they’d never do. McConnell’s own Senate colleague, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, volunteered to argue the case. And 125 members of Congress signed their own brief in support.
While doubts continue to emerge concerning Trump's viability as a 2024 candidate, Ron DeSantis is actually staking out a position to the right of Trump. This makes him perhaps the most dangerous man in America.
Of Ron DeSantis: 'Cross him once, you’re dead'
by Meaghan Ellis
January 16, 2022
(Alternet) Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is considered one of the most powerful governors to ever hold office in the state of Florida, according to a new report.
Per Politico, the Republican governor exerted even more power over top state officials and lawmakers by "cracking down on election crimes, spending $8 million to transport 'unauthorized aliens' out of state and targeting 'wokeness' in schools."
"Democrats, who are in the minority, are unable to stop him," Politico reports. "And Republicans in the Florida Legislature are enthusiastically carrying out his wishes or are unwilling to buck him."
“He’s become the 1,100-pound gorilla in state government,” said Tom Lee, a member of the Republican Party and former president of the Senate who worked with four different governors over the course of his 18 years with the Legislature. “Gov. DeSantis is extremely popular relative to most of his predecessors. With that goes a tremendous amount of power.”
Edit: Minor edit for clarification of intent.
Last edited by caltrek on Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
