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Trump’s Top Allies Deserting Him on the Day He’s Expected to Announce Third Presidential Run

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I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” Those were President Donald Trump‘s words to FBI Director Jim Comey on January 27, 2017. Comey made clear Trump would get his honesty. He was fired less than four months later.

Americans quickly learned the one thing Donald Trump values above all else is loyalty.

One week after the January 6 insurrection, House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy stood on the floor and blasted Donald Trump, saying he “bears responsibility” for the attack on the Capitol and on democracy. Two weeks later he flew down to Mar-a-Lago, where he reaffirmed his loyalty to Trump with reporters.

Senator Lindsey Graham, on the night of January 6, 2021, told his fellow lawmakers, “Trump and I, we’re had a hell of a journey,” but, “today all I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”

The Washington Post just weeks later reported, Sen. Graham “is singing a different tune.”

READ MORE: January 6 Committee Issues Warning – Accuses Trump of ‘Defiance’ and ‘Hiding’ After He Ignores Lawful Subpoena

“Graham is set to visit the former president’s gilded Mar-a-Lago Club on Sunday to spend two days golfing and dining with Trump. He has spoken to the former president nearly daily since Jan. 6 — more frequently than any of his Republican colleagues in the Senate — and served as an informal adviser to Trump’s defense team during his Senate impeachment trial this month.”

Trump, however, may not be getting the loyalty he requires from his top allies as he prepares for Tuesday night’s announcement, expected to be the launch of his third presidential run.

“I think the majority of the conference would prefer that President Trump not announce his presidential run tonight,” Senator Lindsey Graham said Tuesday, according to the DC Examiner‘s Samantha-Jo Roth.

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), says the weather will make him miss Trump’s announcement tonight.

“Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of the very few GOP lawmakers who had planned to go down to Mar-a-Lago tonight for Trump’s announcement, says the weather is not looking good for his flight down from D.C. to Florida. But he will be there ‘in spirit,'” notes Associated Press congressional reporter Farnoush Amiri.

It gets worse for Trump.

READ MORE: ‘That’s Not How It Works’: Legal Experts, DOJ Slam Trump ‘Shell Game’ Claim He Owns Classified Docs

Politico reports even Trump’s “staunchest allies aren’t leaping to an endorsement.”

The news outlet quotes Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) saying, “who is the current leader of the Republican Party? Oh, I know who it is: Ron DeSantis.”

Sen. Graham, Politico adds, “who has stood with Trump through thick and thin since his onetime rival became president, said ‘let’s see what he says … I’ll tell you after Georgia.’ Lummis added that she’s ‘kind of disappointed that, if [Trump] announces something, that it will be a distraction from the Georgia race.'”

There’s more.

“South Dakota’s John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, had no qualms on Monday about declaring he wouldn’t endorse Trump in a contested primary. Neither did Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), saying: ‘No. I’m sure I’ll support the nominee of the Republican Party, but I think there’s likely to be a competitive primary election.'”

And still more.

“Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he had ‘no comment’ on Trump’s likely run while Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said he wasn’t taking any questions.”

Even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy “declined to comment” on Trump’s expected announcement.

It’s not just congressional Republicans who don’t want Trump to announce, either now or ever.

“In interviews, more than two dozen state GOP leaders, elected officials and operatives said Trump’s heavy involvement in midterm contests up and down the ballot doomed them in swing states, leaving intact the Democrats’ blue wall in Pennsylvania and the industrial Midwest and costing them a winnable Senate seat in Nevada,” NBC News reports. “Trump loomed large in the minds of voters, exit polls showed, and in many key races, voters rejected his hand-picked candidates.”

They “said they increasingly see Trump and Trumpism as losing propositions and would prefer he not run for president again in 2024.”

One top Trump supporter is still loyal.

The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief Tuesday morning reported: “Spotted in row 1 of flight from Washington to West Palm Beach in Florida: former White House senior adviser Stephen Miller.”

 

Image: Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com

 

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Lindsey Graham Admonished by Senate Ethics Committee

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U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been formally admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for violating ethics rules and standards by repeatedly soliciting campaign donations during an interview at the Capitol.

The bipartisan committee issued Graham a Public Letter of Admonition after the South Carolina Republican solicited donations for Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker.

“Based upon all available information, the Committee concluded that on November 30, 2022, you conducted a media interview with Fox News in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building and that your interview was slightly over nine minutes, with over four minutes devoted to a discussion of the 2022 senatorial run-off election in Georgia. The Committee further concluded that during your discussion of the senatorial run-off election, you directly solicited campaign contributions on behalf of Mr. Walker’s campaign committee, www.teamherschel.com, five separate times.”

The letter notes that Sen. Graham had previously violated the same standards when he solicited campaign donations in a federal building in October of 2020, but said it was an “unplanned media interview.” When a reporter had asked him about fundraising, Graham “directly solicited campaign contributions” for his re-election campaign.

READ MORE: Watch: GOP Lawmaker Orders Grieving Parkland Parents Removed From ‘ATF Overreach’ Hearing

The Committee noted “mitigating” circumstances and did not cite him for that violation.

“The public must feel confident that Members use public resources only for official actions in the best interests of the United States, not for partisan political activity,” the letter concludes. “Your actions failed to uphold that standard, resulting in harm to the public trust and confidence in the United States Senate. You are hereby admonished.”

CNN’s Manu Raju posted the letter to social media.

You can read the letter below or at this link.

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‘Repercussions’: Biden White House Warns Uganda ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill Could Force US to Cancel $950 Million in Annual Aid

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The Biden administration may cancel the $950 million in annual assistance the U.S. provides to Uganda if President Yoweri Museveni signs into law its latest “Kill the Gays” bill, which calls for the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and between ten and 20 years in prison for other LGBTQ “acts.”

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Wednesday made clear if Uganda further criminalizes homosexuality and the LGBTQ community there could be “repercussions that we would have to take.”

“That would be really unfortunate because so much of the economic assistance that we provide Uganda is health assistance,” Admiral Kirby said at a White House press briefing.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also told reporters Wednesday the Biden administration has “grave concerns” over the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), and “increasing violence targeting LGBTQIA+ persons.”

READ MORE: Florida GOP Lawmaker Who Wrote ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Facing Up to 35 Years After Pleading Guilty in COVID Fraud Case

“If the AHA is signed into law and enacted, it would impinge upon universal human rights, jeopardize progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, deter tourism and invest in Uganda and damage Uganda’s international reputation,” Jean-Pierre warned. “The bill is one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQI+ laws in the world.”

Kirby and Jean-Pierre’s remarks came on the same day as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” legislation, saying it “would undermine fundamental human rights of all Ugandans and could reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”

“The United States provides more than $950 million in aid to Uganda each year, according to the State Department. The money supports development and health care measures, such as combating HIV/AIDS,” Courthouse News reported Wednesday. “Uganda is already among 30 African countries that ban same-sex relations. The new proposal would broaden penalties and appears to be the first to outlaw identifying as LGBTQ+, according to Human Rights Watch.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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‘Going Full Fascist’: Morning Joe Blasts Trump’s Latest ‘Dehumanizing’ Attack on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg

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Days after he wrongly claimed he would be arrested and urged his supporters to “protest,” Donald Trump unleashed a vicious and antisemitic attack against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and philanthropist and donor George Soros, leading “Morning Joe” Scarborough on MSNBC to declare the ex-president has gone “full fascist” and even “full Nazi.”

“I mean he’s just going full Nazi here, full fascist,” Scarborough said Thursday morning, just minutes after Trump’s remarks posted on social media.

“You’re doing the whole Jewish international banker thing and and dehumanizing him as an ‘animal,’ calling him an ‘animal,'” Scarborough said.

“That’s ugly,” Mika Brzezinski added.

“And that’s like like straight out of the playbook. Yeah, that’s really that’s really ugly. Yeah, it’s really interesting to see exactly what’s happened with Bragg. He hasn’t taken the bait.”

READ MORE: Trump Lawyer’s ‘Critical Evidence’ Will Help DOJ Make Decision to Charge ‘Without Significant Delay’: Former Prosecutor

Thursday morning, in an all-caps rant, Trump called District Attorney Bragg a “Soros backed animal who just doesn’t care about right or wrong no matter how many people are hurt.”

Scarborough was not being hyperbolic when he said Trump had gone “full Nazi.”

“This is no legal system, this is the Gestapo, this is Russia and China, but worse. Disgraceful!”

The Gestapo were Adolf Hitler’s Nazi secret police.

In a separate post Thursday morning, after his attack on Bragg, Trump again appeared to telegraph a call for violence, writing: “Everybody knows I’m 100% innocent, including Bragg, but he doesn’t care. He is just carrying out the plans of the radical left lunatics. Our country is being destroyed, as they tell us to be peaceful!”

It is possible the grand jury, which is meeting Thursday, could vote on an indictment of Trump. Some say any potential vote would not come before next week.

READ MORE: ‘National Security Implications’: Former DOJ Official Speculates on Ruling Ordering Trump Attorney to Hand Over Docs

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