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Democrat Ruben Gallego Praised After Launching Campaign to Unseat Unpopular and ‘Out-of-Touch’ Senator Krysten Sinema

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U.S. Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) won immediate praise Monday morning after officially announcing he is challenging Democrat-turned-independent U.S. Senator Krysten Sinema for her senate seat.

Calling Gallego “a liberal firebrand and prominent Latino lawmaker,” The Associated Press reports he “announced Monday he’ll challenge independent U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in 2024, becoming the first candidate to jump into the race and setting up a potential three-way contest.”

“Gallego said he’d fight for normal people struggling to make ends meet and losing faith in politicians. He said he and Sinema both come from ‘modest to poor means’ but have taken different paths in Congress.”

“I’m better for this job than Kyrsten Sinema because I haven’t forgotten where I came from,” Gallego told the AP. “I think she clearly has forgotten where she came from. Instead of meeting with the people that need help, she meets with the people that are already powerful.”

READ MORE: ‘Unseemly’: Legal Experts Blast Supreme Court for Not Formally Investigating Justices in Leak Probe

Gallego’s progressive résumé is bolstered by his unabashed record of going on the attack against enemies of democracy, opponents of Democrats, and support for popular causes as he demonstrates regularly in his colorful social media postings. For example, his daring response just over a year ago to a report a Russian lawmaker called for his abduction.

Or his strongly-worded response to extremist calls to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021.

Or his frustration at the “thoughts and prayers” crowd. Or his anger at Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Sinema, one of the least-popular U.S. Senators in the country, last month switched her party registration to independent as some said she would be unable to withstand a primary challenge. Gallego has long been rumored and floated as a replacement for the unpopular freshman Senator from Arizona.

Earlier this month a Morning Consult poll found Sinema’s unpopularity actually grew after she left the Democratic Party, hitting 50% disapproval. But she picked up points among Republicans and independents, pushing her approval rating up two points to 38%. Among Democrats she dropped from 42% approval to 30% approval.

In December, Rep. Gallego told MSNBC that Sinema “claims to be independent. That’s not the case. The case is that she can’t win a primary against me.”

READ MORE: Democratic Congressman Delivers 5 Word Response to Russian Lawmaker Calling Him a ‘Bastard’ Who Should Be Kidnapped

“She long ago abandoned Arizona when it comes to representing their values,” he added.

It was a statement some seemed to strongly believe even before his Monday morning announcement, as some pointed to her trip to Davos, accusing her of “hobnobbing” with elites, wearing a fur vest, and caught high-fiving Sen. Joe Manchin for protecting the filibuster.

NBC News reports Sen. Sinema did not comment on Gallego’s campaign challenge, but the Arizona Democrat did have strong words for his prospective opponent.

“The problem isn’t that Senator Sinema abandoned the Democratic Party — it’s that she’s abandoned Arizona. She’s repeatedly broken her promises and fought for the interests of big pharma and Wall Street at our expense. I’m running for the U.S. Senate because the rich and the powerful don’t need any more advocates in Washington — but families who can’t afford groceries do,” Gallego said in a statement.

Pointing to Gallego’s campaign launch video (below), writer, activist, and former Human Rights Campaign press secretary Charlotte Clymer noted, “It took Ruben Gallego less than three and a half minutes to make Kyrsten Sinema look unreasonable, unserious, and out-of-touch, and all he did was tell his own story.”

Even before becoming an independent, Sinema was “the least popular Democratic senator among Democratic voters in the fourth quarter of 2022, and especially vulnerable to the kind of primary challenge that was apparently in the works by Rep. Ruben Gallego,” Morning Consult reported.

READ MORE: Democratic Congressman Blasts ‘Baby Killer’ Ted Cruz

Sinema has one of the highest disapproval ratings (48%), beaten in that category only by Senators Mitch McConnell (64% disapproval), Joe Manchin and Ron Johnson (53% disapproval), and Susan Collins (52% disapproval).

Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer called Gallego’s new campaign video “excellent,” while former Obama official Tim Fullerton called the ad “tremendous.” He says, “Ruben Gallego is going to be a great Senator for Arizona and the country.”

Watch Gallego’s campaign launch video below or at this link.

 

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Trump Lawyers in Classified Docs Case Quit Hours After Indictment: Report

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Attorneys representing Donald Trump in the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s prosecution of the former president on what reportedly are seven categories of federal felonies have resigned from representing him, just hours after a grand jury indicted their client.

“Two lawyers who represented Donald Trump in the months before he was indicted on federal charges over his handling of classified documents quit working for him Friday morning,” CNBC reports.

“This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation,” Trump attorneys Jim Trusty (photo) and John Rowley said in a joint statement, according to CNN’s Alayna Treene.

“The attorneys,” CNBC also reported, “did not explain in detail why they had resigned, other than to say that ‘this is a logical moment’ to do given his indictment Thursday in U.S. District Court in Miami.”

READ MORE: ‘Disgraced’ Trump-Appointed Florida Judge Initially Assigned to Oversee Ex-President’s Criminal Case: Report

The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports, “Trump announces on Truth Social that Todd Blanche will be his criminal defense attorney in the Mar-a-Lago docs case with another firm yet to be named. Jim Trusty and John Rowley are out.”

This is far from the first time Trump’s lawyers have quit.

Less than one month ago, as Alternet reported, “Timothy Parlatore, an attorney for Donald Trump, made a major announcement on Wednesday, May 17: He is leaving the former president’s legal team.”

Trusty appeared on CNN just Thursday night, to defend Trump.

Watch video below or at this link.

This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change. 

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‘Disgraced’ Trump-Appointed Florida Judge Initially Assigned to Oversee Ex-President’s Criminal Case: Report

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A federal judge whose highly-controversial rulings favoring Donald Trump were derided by legal experts and judges on a higher court, has been initially assigned to the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s criminal case against the ex-president, who appointed her to the bench three years ago.

Judge Aileen Cannon, known for agreeing to Trump’s request by assigning a special master to review the entirety of federal government documents the FBI retrieved from Mar-a-Lago last summer during the execution of a search and seizure warrant will, at least for now, oversee the government’s case allegedly charging Donald Trump with seven different felony categories in its classified documents probe, according to ABC News.

“The summons sent to former President Donald Trump and his legal team late Thursday indicates that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon will be assigned to oversee his case, at least initially, according to sources briefed on the matter,” ABC News reports.

READ MORE: Trump Lawyers Blindsided by Existence of Bombshell Recording – ‘They Don’t Know How to Defend This’: Maggie Haberman

“Cannon’s apparent assignment would add yet another unprecedented wrinkle to a case involving the first federal charges against a former president: Trump appointed Cannon to the federal bench in 2019, meaning that, if Trump is ultimately convicted, she would be responsible for determining the sentence – which may include prison time – for the man who elevated her to the role.”

Cannon, agreeing to Trump’s request to appoint a special master last September, also halted the Dept. of Justice’s use of those materials, which included at least one hundred classified documents, in its criminal investigation into Trump.

Harvard University professor emeritus of constitutional law, Laurence Tribe, called Judge Cannon’s special master decision “utterly lawless,” and said: “She has disgraced her position as an Article III judge.”

ABC News notes that “Legal experts [had] accused Cannon of handing Trump a series of head-scratching victories over the course of those proceedings,” and added, “Cannon’s order was ultimately thrown out in its entirety by an 11th Circuit Court of appeals panel, which found she overstepped in exercising her jurisdiction in the probe.”

The 11th Circuit issued a scathing rebuke of Judge’ Cannon’s decision to appoint the special master. One week later, without explanation or reasoning, she overruled the special master’s decision and extended deadlines – decisions which favored Donald Trump.

RELATED: ‘Pure Essence of Judicial Corruption’: Morning Joe Panelists ‘Stunned’ by Cannon’s Ruling on Classified Docs

Cannon is not the only judge whose name appears on the summons.

“In addition to Cannon, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart’s name also appeared on the summons sent to Trump on Thursday, the sources said,” ABC adds. “Reinhart, who was sworn in as a magistrate judge in 2018, is also familiar with the proceedings against Trump: he signed off on the initial search warrant of Mar-a-Lago last year and later ruled to unseal the search affidavit – decisions that made him the target of antisemitic jabs on the internet.”

The New York Times in August of last year reported, “in a segment on Fox News, a host showed a manipulated photo that appeared to show Judge Reinhart seated on a plane with Ghislaine Maxwell, Mr. [Jeffrey] Epstein’s companion who had been convicted last year of aiding Mr. Epstein in sexually abusing minors.”

Brian Kilmeade, the Fox News host, the following day tweeted: “Last night while subbing for Tucker Carlson, we showed you an image of Judge Bruce Reinhart w/ Ghislaine Maxwell that was sourced on screen to a meme pulled from Twitter & wasn’t real. This depiction never took place & we wanted to make clear that we were showing a meme in jest.”

READ MORE: SCOTUS ‘Surprise’ Voting Rights Decision Could – and Did – Have Big Implications for Democrats, Legal Experts Say

The Times noted “the scrutiny of Judge Reinhart has also prompted the local authorities to step up security. His synagogue canceled a Friday night Shabbat service last week in response to multiple antisemitic threats, and the police in his neighborhood said officers had intensified patrols near his house.”

Professor of Law Joyce Vance, an NBC News/MSNBC contributor and former U.S. Attorney responded to the news of Cannon’s assignment. Pointing to an earlier case as precedent, Vance says: “This is persuasive authority that Judge Cannon must step aside if the case falls to her as a permanent assignment. Her court & certainly the 11th [Circuit] won’t tolerate the damage it would do to their credibility if she failed to voluntarily recuse.”

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Trump Lawyers Blindsided by Existence of Bombshell Recording – ‘They Don’t Know How to Defend This’: Maggie Haberman

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CNN on Friday morning obtained a bombshell transcript of a recording in which former President Donald Trump boasts of retaining “secret” military information that he never declassified while he was president.

Appearing on CNN shortly after this news broke, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman revealed that the former president’s team was essentially blindsided by this recording’s existence.

“I don’t think they quite know how to defend this… from what we have heard,” she said. “They were… startled by the existence of this tape. This tape was something that they learned existed when this aide to Trump testified. The prosecutors were already in possession of this tape. They didn’t get it from the aide, although it appears the aide had a copy when it was subpoenaed later, but this is has been described to us by multiple sources… as a really problematic piece of evidence for Trump.”

Haberman predicted that the recording’s existence would not change the Trump legal team’s overall defense strategy, however.

READ MORE: ‘He’s just not that smart’: Trump buried by Morning Joe for handing investigators all they need

“I think they are going to stick that their line: ‘He says things, he didn’t mean it a certain way,'” she said. “I am sure they can come up with all kinds of explanations for why he used the language he used. But it’s on tape.”

Trump is due in court in Miami next week to face seven felony counts related to his handling of top-secret government documents.

Watch the video below or at this link.

 

Image via Shutterstock

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