CNN
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Republican front-runner Donald Trump, fresh off falsely accusing his opponents of running a “Gestapo” regime, is scheduled to appear again in a New York courtroom on Monday in a criminal trial — history. As the first former president.
Meanwhile, some Democrats worry that images of the unrest could give President Trump a boost and that the issue could jeopardize President Joe Biden’s coalition, so the White House seeks to soften the impact of campus protests against Israel’s attack on Gaza.
It all comes as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson could face a vote this week on his removal from office, after new signs of Republican chaos incited by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. It happened inside. It will take the Democratic Party to save him.
It’s been a normal week in American politics. Unforeseen forces will shake up both parties, setting off a tense battle for an election that could fundamentally change the country – just one day away from six months.
President Trump, who is on trial on charges of falsifying business records to cover up his affair with adult film actress Story Daniels, will spend another week in a Manhattan courtroom. Prosecutors allege he attempted to cover up early election interference in 2016 in an attempt to mislead voters. Mr. Trump denies he had an affair and has pleaded not guilty to this and three other criminal charges.
Prosecutors are keeping the witness list secret, given that the former president frequently attacks witnesses and last week sought $9,000 in damages for violating a gag order. But in dramatic testimony last week, former White House communications director Hope Hicks took the stand after being subpoenaed by prosecutors. In potentially the most important moment of the trial so far, a nervous Hicks briefly broke down in tears and said the former president had admitted he knew, potentially influencing the prosecution’s argument to criticize President Trump. It looked like he was involved. The fixer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels. He also said he felt President Trump would be better off addressing the issue after the election than before. But Trump’s lawyer Emile Bove, under cross-examination, said Hicks’ boss’s concerns about Daniels’ story were that it could hurt or embarrass the family. During the trial, they extracted statements that could help strengthen the core of the defense’s case.
Another important development in the trial is expected to come from testimony from Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, who served time in prison for charges including tax evasion, lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws.
As the trial continues, President Trump’s mood worsens. He has shown new glimpses of extremism that could propel him to a second term, following his resignation from corruption charges in 2021 based on false claims of fraud in the last election. , is already posing new challenges to American democracy.
At a private luncheon at his club, Mar-a-Lago, on Saturday, Mr. Biden accused the Biden team of “running a Gestapo regime” and called them out on Jews en masse, according to three people in attendance. They equated it with the Nazi secret police who rounded up and committed mass murder. Holocaust.
President Trump has repeatedly accused his indictment of being the result of a conspiracy by Democrats. However, there is no evidence to support this. His comments about the Gestapo not only expose historical ignorance, but also highlight that there is no limit to former presidents’ use of inflammatory rhetoric to win elections. In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week, President Trump refused to guarantee that he would accept the results of the upcoming election. And in an interview with Time magazine published last week, he said violence could occur depending on the “fairness” of the election.
Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said Trump’s comments at the fundraiser demonstrated the dangers of a possible second term, which he said would be focused on retaliation. “President Trump is once again making vile and insulting comments about the Holocaust, while simultaneously attacking law enforcement, glorifying political violence, and threatening our democracy,” Singer said. Stated.
Democrats will face another week of dealing with the political fallout from campus protests over Israel’s war in Gaza.
A wave of campus protests over the enclave’s massacre of civilians comes as a severe test for Biden’s appeal among progressive and younger voters who will need to help him defeat Trump in November. It’s surfacing.
After days of mounting political pressure, the president spoke on camera for the first time about the situation last Thursday, saying that while the right to protest is an important American freedom, it is unacceptable when demonstrations turn violent. Stated. On October 7, he condemned anti-Semitic incidents reported against some Jewish students, even though his requests to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have frequently been ignored. He said he would not reconsider his firm support for Israel in the wake of the terrorist attacks. We will do more to protect civilians in Gaza.
President Trump and the Republican Party have seized control of the protests, with police protests at some schools to underline their claims that the country is spiraling out of control under the Biden administration and that President Trump can restore law and order. Efforts are being made to eliminate this activity.
But on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Biden campaign national co-chair Mitch Landrieu echoed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ analogy, comparing the current protests to the 1968 anti-Vietnam War sentiment that sparked them at the time. I denied it. President Lyndon Johnson gives up his re-election bid. Landrieu said the independent senator is “over-exaggerating” from Vermont’s perspective. He added: “This is a completely different situation. People who actually lived through those very difficult times think, “This is incomparable.” But I don’t think this is such a serious problem. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”
Some Democrats cite polling that suggests the war in Gaza is low on most young voters’ list of concerns, despite dramatic scenes at many universities. , downplaying the impact of the protests. But Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, a staunch supporter of Israel during the conflict, warned that pro-Palestinian demonstrators could support President Trump in November. “If they want to throw Michigan to Trump like that, yeah, if they want to play with fire, It’s better to make that fire your own.” . He also warned against liberal voters abandoning Biden because of his stance on war. “If you’re planning to walk away, if you’re actually willing to vote for someone else, you’re throwing away your vote and you’re riding the Trump train, so don’t worry about the accident. I better put it on,” he said.
But another prominent Democrat, California Rep. Ro Khanna, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he is seeing constructive dialogue at many protests across the country. “We need to understand that this is a defining moment for this generation, just like the anti-Vietnam protests, the anti-apartheid protests, the anti-Iraq War protests,” he said. “They are telling us that over 30,000 people have died. It’s time for this war to end. It’s time for Hamas hostages to be released, and Hamas will show leadership in America and around the world. I hope so.”
Another major political drama looms this week, with Mr. Johnson expected to survive a vote demanded by Mr. Greene to expel him and throw House Republicans into further turmoil. Democrats are likely to vote to bail out Johnson after Johnson last month blocked Biden’s request for billions of dollars in funding for Ukraine. But even if he survives, no Republican chair wants to leave the impression that he owes his power to the opposition, and the Louisiana lawmaker’s long-term future remains uncertain.
Many Republicans, including some who are unsympathetic to the new speaker, are worried about the multiple-vote vote to elect Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, and the vote to expel and replace the California congressman last year. However, I don’t want to see a governance farce unfold.
Right-wing extremists have taken advantage of the small Republican majority to make the House of Representatives nearly ungovernable since Republicans took control after the 2022 midterm elections. But despite signs that Mr. Greene’s backer, Mr. Trump, has praised Mr. Johnson and is reluctant to further turmoil within the party that could complicate her and the Republican Party’s chances in the fall, Mr. has accused Johnson of betraying Republican voters and vowed to move forward.
