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Donald Trump has posted a long, rambling screed on Truth Social against Juan Merchan, the New York judge who yesterday ruled that the president-elect’s conviction on 34 felony business fraud charges could stand.
Attorneys for Trump had argued the verdicts should be thrown out because of a recent supreme court ruling giving presidents immunity for official acts, but Merchan said no, sparking the president-elect’s ire. Here’s part of what Trump wrote:
In a completely illegal, psychotic order, the deeply conflicted, corrupt, biased, and incompetent Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court, and its Historic Decision on Immunity. But even without Immunity, this illegitimate case is nothing but a Rigged Hoax. Merchan, who is a radical partisan, wrote an opinion that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution, and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.
Here’s more about Merchan’s decision:
Donald Trump posted a long and angry message on Truth Social, after a New York judge refused to dismiss his conviction on 34 business fraud charges. His lawyers had argued, to no avail, that the supreme court’s ruling earlier this year granting presidents immunity for official acts should mean that the verdicts against him are overturned. Trump’s attorneys were nonetheless busy with other matters today, after reportedly filing a civil fraud suit against the Des Moines Register and Iowa’s top pollster Ann Selzer over a survey they released on the eve of the presidential election showing Kamala Harris with a narrow lead among the red state’s voters. Trump ended up winning Iowa handily, and has trained his ire on Selzer and the Register in the weeks since.
Here’s what else happened today:
Robert F Kennedy Jr was back on Capitol Hill for more meetings with Republican senators weighing his candidacy for secretary of health and human services. Several lawmakers said they were ready to support him.
Electors were meeting in all 50 states to certify Trump’s victory in the presidential race last month. This is the same process he tried to disrupt four years ago, when Joe Biden was the winner.
US government archivists said the Equal Rights Amendment did not meet the requirements to be added to the constitution, dashing the hopes of some Democrats who were hoping Biden would support their effort.
Trump’s allies gathered for a gala in New York last night, where they mused about the president-elect seeking a third term in 2028. The constitution prevents him from doing this.
The president-elect again referred to Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, as “governor”, and attacked his outgoing deputy, Chrystia Freeland, with claims that she was preventing the two countries from agreeing to a trade deal.
Yesterday, CNN reported that Donald Trump might name Democratic congressman Jared Moskowitz to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
As a Democrat, Moskowitz would have been an unusual pick to join the Trump administration, even though his previous job heading up Florida’s emergency response department may have given him the relevant experience. Today, Moskowitz wrote on X that he has no plans take any other job than the one he was elected to do:
I appreciate the speculation but I am staying in Congress and running for re-election. It’s an honor to serve the people of Florida’s 23rd district.
To be clear, nothing was ever offered.
Our Revolution, a progressive group born out of independent senator Bernie Sanders’s unsuccessful presidential run in 2016, called Democrats’s decision not to make congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the ranking member on the high-profile House oversight committee a “missed opportunity”.
The ranking member starting next year will instead be Gerry Connolly, a long-serving congressman from Virginia.
“Today’s outcome was a missed opportunity. As Trump prepares for a return to power with a far-right authoritarian agenda, House Democrats had the chance to choose bold, progressive leadership in Rep. Ocasio-Cortez,” Our Revolution’s executive director Joseph Geervarghese, said, adding that “AOC represents the working-class values and new generation of leadership that this moment demands – someone unafraid to call out Trump’s lies, expose corporate corruption, and hold power accountable in a way that resonates with everyday people.”
“Instead, the party establishment chose to double down on the status quo — an ominous signal of their unwillingness to reflect and adapt after recent devastating losses,” he continued.
“In the absence of leadership willing to rise to this moment, it falls upon the progressive base to step in by organizing and exposing Trump’s faux populism for what it truly is — a direct attack on working-class Americans that is nothing short of a massive privatization and further erosion of our already fragile safety net. Our movement will continue to hold him accountable and push for a Democratic Party that reflects the values and urgency of the people it represents.”
Keith Kellogg, a retired US lieutenant general who Donald Trump appointed as his envoy to Ukraine, will travel to Kyiv and the capitals of other European nations prior to the president-elect being sworn in, Reuters reports.
The planned trip is viewed as a sign that Trump will try to make good on his promise to end the war in Ukraine, which began when Russia invaded in 2022, within 24 hours of taking office. Here’s more on Kellogg’s travel, from Reuters:
Retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, who is set to serve as Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, is not planning to visit Moscow during this trip, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private matters.
Instead, he will visit senior leaders in Kyiv, and his team is working to set up meetings with leaders in other European capitals, such as Rome and Paris, said the sources. Planning for the trip is still being finalized and the itinerary could change, one of the sources warned.
The meetings are expected to focus on “fact-finding” on behalf of the incoming Trump administration, rather than on active negotiations, the sources said. Still, the planned trip illustrates the urgency the president-elect has placed on winding down the war in Ukraine.
Trump has promised to end the war within 24 hours of taking office, if not before. Former intelligence and national-security officials have expressed doubt that such a feat can be accomplished, in part because Russian President Vladimir Putin may have little reason to come to the negotiating table, at least on terms acceptable to Kyiv.
A representative for Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did representatives of the Ukrainian and Italian embassies in Washington. It was not immediately possible to reach a representative of the French embassy in Washington.
Republican senators who have met with Robert F Kennedy Jr have expressed support for confirming him as secretary of health and human services.
Some conservatives have been skeptical of Kennedy for his past support of abortion rights, but several GOP senators who met with the former independent presidential candidate signaled they are not bothered by that. Here’s what Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma wrote on X:
Just visited with @RobertKennedyJr about his plans to address the mental health epidemic, chronic disease, and opioid addiction. Importantly, he’s said he will support the Trump pro-life agenda. I’m confident Bobby will be confirmed, and it’s my honor to support him for HHS.
And Tim Scott of South Carolina:
I had a productive discussion with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. this evening about the future of our nation’s healthcare system, preventing taxpayer funded abortion, and Americans’ long-term wellbeing …
President Trump won a sweeping victory and should have the latitude to choose the Cabinet he feels will best serve the American people. I look forward to learning more and further considering his nomination during his upcoming confirmation hearing.
Robert F Kennedy Jr is back on Capitol Hill, meeting with Republican senators who will vote next year on whether to confirm him as secretary of health and human services.
Kennedy, whose anti-vaccine views and embrace of various conspiracy theories has horrified Democrats, didn’t say much when asked by reporters how his meetings had gone.
“Really productive, really good,” was all he had to say.
Of the many defeats Democrats suffered on 5 November, few were as bitter as Ohio voters rejecting senator Sherrod Brown’s bid for a second term.
Along with Montana’s Jon Tester, Brown was one of two red state Democratic incumbents who asked voters to send them to the Senate for another six years, and were told no. But while Tester’s prospects were generally regarded as a long-shot from the start, Democrats were cautiously optimistic that Brown’s longtime support of union and working-class issues would help him prevail in Ohio, which like much of the midwest has swung towards the GOP ever since Donald Trump’s first presidential victory.
In an interview with NBC News, Brown confirmed that he might stand again for the Senate in 2026, when a special election is held to fill the seat being vacated by JD Vance. He also offered some thoughts on why Democrats at large had seen their support ebb among working-class voters. Here’s what Brown told NBC:
“I’m not going to whine about my loss,” he said. “But I lost in large part because the national reputation of the Democratic Party is that we are sort of a lighter version of a corporation — a corporate party. We’re seen as a bicoastal, elite party. And it’s hard to argue that.”
Brown then added: “We couldn’t pass the minimum wage because Republicans almost uniformly were against it. It’s always Republicans who are on the wrong side, and there aren’t enough Democrats on the right side to win. … It’s a good example of how workers get screwed.”
Even after his loss to Republican Bernie Moreno this fall, no Democrat in the state has anywhere close to Brown’s track record of name-recognition or electoral success. He outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, by 7.5 percentage points in Ohio. Brown’s allies believe that he had coattails that helped endangered Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Emilia Sykes hold onto their congressional seats in tough districts.
Brown, for his part, has been reciting the 7.5-point figure with an almost cosmic reverence. While dissecting trade policy, for example, he argued that both parties had “ganged up on workers” while asserting that Ohio voters trust him more than other Democrats on those issues.
“That’s why I’ve won elections in the state,” he said. “It’s why I finished 7-and-a-half points ahead of Harris. Harris won the union vote [in Ohio] by like 1 point. I won it by like 20.”
Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been escorted around the Capitol by a security guard who was accused of beating a civilian while serving in the army special forces. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon:
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for US defense secretary, has been accompanied by a security guard with a history of alleged military misconduct.
John Jacob Hasenbein, a former army special forces MSgt who deployed to Iraq eight times, was found guilty of aggravated assault in a 2020 court-martial stemming from a 2019 incident at Fort Knox, Kentucky, the New York Times reports. The incident involved the violent treatment of Ahmed Altameemi, a civilian role player in a simulated hostage rescue training scenario.
According to court documents and witness statements observed by the Times, Hasenbein allegedly kicked, punched, and left Altameemi hogtied in a pool of his own blood, causing multiple injuries including a broken nose and significant facial trauma.
Although a military court-martial found Hasenbein guilty of aggravated assault in 2020, a mistrial was declared after it emerged that a fellow soldier had inappropriately influenced a juror. The army did not retry the case.
Hasenbein subsequently retired from the military after 22 years of service. He has maintained his innocence, stating he was “honorably retired” and has no conviction.
The US government’s archivists rejected calls to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution, saying that doing so would be unlawful.
Their statement comes after dozens of Democrats have pressured Joe Biden in his final weeks in office to declare that the amendment, which protects against discrimination by sex and narrowly missed being added to the constitution in the 1970s and early 1980s, has met the bar for ratification, and order the archivists to publish it in America’s governing document.
Colleen Shogan, the archivist of the United States, and William J Bosanko, the deputy archivist, said they do not believe the ERA has met the requirements needed to become the 28th amendment to the constitution:
As Archivist and Deputy Archivist of the United States, it is our responsibility to uphold the integrity of the constitutional amendment process and ensure that changes to the Constitution are carried out in accordance with the law. At this time, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) cannot be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.
In 2020 and again in 2022, the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice affirmed that the ratification deadline established by Congress for the ERA is valid and enforceable. The OLC concluded that extending or removing the deadline requires new action by Congress or the courts. Court decisions at both the District and Circuit levels have affirmed that the ratification deadlines established by Congress for the ERA are valid. Therefore, the Archivist of the United States cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment. As the leaders of the National Archives, we will abide by these legal precedents and support the constitutional framework in which we operate.
Donald Trump won a second White House term in November’s election thanks to voters’ attaching higher priority to having an effective president than one who was trustworthy, fresh polling has suggested.
A post-election survey conducted by Scheon Cooperman Research, in conjunction with George Washington University’s graduate school of political management, has concluded that voters believe Trump’s second presidency will be more effective in getting things done – even though they trust his administration less to share accurate information.
And Trump not only failed to deliver on some of his more prominent campaign promises during his first term from 2017 to 2021, including a southern US border wall for which Mexico would pay – he also botched the federal response to the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
The findings suggest that Kamala Harris, the defeated Democratic nominee, erred in fighting a “values-based” campaign that depicted Trump as untrustworthy and “dangerous”.
The veteran Virginia congressman Gerry Connolly has defeated Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to lead Democrats on the oversight committee in a closed-door caucus vote.
The vote on Tuesday came a day after Connolly won the recommendation of the Democratic steering and policy committee.
The competition between the pair reflected broader dynamics within the Democratic party – a tension between political veterans and energetic progressive voices seeking to take the reins on political strategy. Connolly, 74, defeated New York congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, 35, by a vote of 131-84, according to multiple reports.
The oversight committee set to play a critical role in challenging potential actions during the next second Trump administration.
It is meant to examine government operations, and its jurisdiction spans a wide range of issues including potential government waste and corruption and investigating federal agencies and presidential administrations.
Kamala Harris urged young people to “stay in the fight” even as she acknowledged the “disappointment” many feel after her loss to Donald Trump.
Harris made no direct reference to the president-elect in her remarks on Tuesday, but she implored Americans not to “sit passive while our ideals are under assault”.
Harris made the protection of reproductive rights and democratic norms a cornerstone of her campaign.
She also drew laughs and applause with a reference to a viral meme related to a story she tells about not falling from a coconut tree.
“I ask you to remember the context in which you exist,” Harris said nodding emphatically as the line rippled across the auditorium drawing laughs and cheers. “Yeah I did that.”
In closing, Harris urged supporters to “get some rest over the holidays” and return next year “ready to get back to work”.
Kamala Harris opened her remarks at Prince George’s community college in Largo, Maryland, by addressing yesterday’s school shooting in Wisconsin.
“It’s another school shooting, another community being torn apart by gun violence,” Harris said.
“Our nation mourns for those who were killed, and we pray for the recovery of those who were injured and for the entire community,” she said.
“But look, as we hold our loved ones close this holiday season, we as a nation, must renew our commitment to end … gun violence, both mass shootings, and everyday, gun violence that touches so many.”
As vice-president, reducing gun violence was a major piece of her profile.
