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Its not unusual for Trump to survey donors, outside advisers and members of his Mar-a-Lago resort on personnel matters. He has also pressed allies for their impressions of other prominent Republicans in recent months including former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fl.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Arizona Republican Kari Lake.

But Haley has been the subject of his most recent focus.

Haleys polling surge has alarmed some staunch Trump confidants who are acutely aware that the former president pays close attention to survey data. In interviews and public appearances, they have emphatically swatted down the idea of Haley for vice president in hopes that Trump wont warm to the idea.

Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, who warned attendees at a conservative conference last weekend that the GOP hierarchy would try to push Trump to pick Haley, told POLITICO that the former ambassador used outdated Republican talking points and embraced Fox News-laundered neoliberal neocon policies that MAGA finds unacceptable.

Trumps campaign has dismissed any chatter of vice president picks as premature, maintaining that he is focused on winning the upcoming primary contests. A campaign spokesperson did not comment for this story. A Haley spokesperson declined to comment as well.

During a phone conversation with one ally about Haley, Trump indicated that he was aware of the criticisms of her but nonetheless wanted to get this persons take about the former ambassador, according to a person familiar with the call.

The two have had a complicated relationship. Haley backed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio over Trump in the 2016 Republican primary. But after he was elected, Trump picked her to be his U.N. ambassador, a post she held for two years. Haley broke sharply with Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, when she said Trump would be judged harshly by history.

But Haley would later try to patch things up. A few months after the Capitol siege, she said she wouldnt run for president in 2024 if Trump did. The former ambassador also tried to arrange a meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago but was turned down by the former president, who was rankled by her criticism.

After the 2022 midterm elections, Haley ultimately decided to run for president. She broke the news to Trump, who at that point had already entered the race, in a phone call.

Within some conservative circles, there is an emerging belief that Haleys potential electoral strength polls show her leading former President Joe Biden nationally and in key battleground states by wide margins make her a conventional choice to serve as a running mate. Trump allies have moved swiftly to express their concerns that shes not aligned with his base. And theyve done so with little subtlety; deploying a full-scale media barrage of anti-Haley attacks.

Donald Trump Jr., the former presidents eldest son, took to Newsmax to declare he would go to great lengths to make sure his father didnt pick Haley. And Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host who is frequently in touch with the former president, said on a conservative podcast this week that he would advocate against a Trump-Haley ticket as strongly as I could.

Republican strategist Roger Stone, a longtime outside adviser to the former president, told POLITICO that he too would be personally opposed to such a selection, because I believe that [Haleys] views are so antithetically different than President Trumps views.

Stone stressed that he had not personally spoken to Trump about Haley.

Vice presidential picks are not typically made until right before the party convention, which will be held next summer. But the early pile-on against Haley underscores how Trumps base has begun to mobilize well ahead of schedule. To those in the MAGA wing of the party, the stakes are high: Whoever Trump selects could be seen as his heir apparent and a prospective future party leader. Trump, if elected, can only serve four years.

Trump himself has downplayed the importance of the vice president pick.

The one thing I would say, nobody ever votes for the vice president, Trump said earlier this year.

Haley has said that she has no interest in being anyone elses vice president and is confident she will continue to rise in the primaries.

Its not even a conversation, and it doesnt matter what candidate wants me to answer it: I dont play for second, Haley told Christian Broadcast Network. Its offensive when anybody says that, Oh, she wants to be vice president. You dont do something like this to be vice president. You dont sacrifice emotionally, mentally, physically with your family, everything to come in second.

That hasnt stopped one of her top rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, from suggesting otherwise. DeSantis has tried to distinguish himself from Haley by saying that she is not seriously running for president but rather to be Trumps vice president. His campaign on Tuesday launched a website, TrumpNikki2024.com.

Despite the relatively early stage of the race, the vice presidential posturing and speculation is already underway. Stefanik, one of Trumps most forceful defenders on Capitol Hill, visited the former president at his Mar-a-Lago resort this week, and posted a picture on X of the two flashing a thumbs-up. And when Trump held a rally with Noem in September, a big-screen TV situated above them read Trump-Noem 2024.

How interested Trump is in Haley is not clear, and many of those close to the former president are skeptical he would actually pick her. They point out that he prizes loyalty and that Haley who Trump picked for the U.N. post ended up challenging Trump for the nomination after initially saying she wouldnt.

Trump has spent much of the past year focusing his attacks on DeSantis. But some Trump allies see indications that he might be willing to move against Haley, who has emerged as a favorite of a GOP donor class that is eager to stop Trump. Without explicitly naming Haley during a recent speech in New Hampshire, the former president assailed candidates who do the bidding of Wall Street and the Washington establishment.

It isnt the first time Haley has been mentioned as a prospective Trump veep pick. While running for reelection in Nov. 2019, Trump acknowledged rumors he would replace then-Vice President Mike Pence with Haley but shot down the idea that he would do so.

Some in the party see Haley as a potentially strong selection, and someone who has been able to appeal to a swath of the party beyond the MAGA set. During a recent appearance at The New York Times DealBook Summit, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that she would potentially add to Trumps base of supporters and that the eventual selection should be geared toward addition, not subtraction.

Dont tell that to members of Trumps hardcore base.

Theres only one good thing about Nikki Haley, said conservative activist Gavin Wax, who recently appeared onstage with the former president at a New York gala dinner. Its that everyone in MAGA hates her guts.

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Trump allies and MAGA luminaries move to kill off the Haley-for-VP buzz - POLITICO

Published Dec. 22

Former President Donald Trump has a few gripes with the Lincoln Project, a political advocacy group composed of Republicans who oppose Trumps leadership. A recent complaint: that the group is showing altered footage of him committing gaffes.

The perverts and losers at the failed and once disbanded Lincoln Project, and others, are using A.I.(Artificial Intelligence) in their Fake television commercials in order to make me look as bad and pathetic as Crooked Joe Biden, Trump posted Dec. 4 on Truth Social.

In the Lincoln Projects Dec. 4 video, titled Feeble, a narrator addresses Trump directly with a taunt. Hey, Donald, the female voice says. We notice something. More and more people are saying it. Youre weak. You seem unsteady. You need help getting around. The video flashes through scenes showing Trump tripping over his words, gesturing, misspeaking and climbing steps to a plane with something white stuck to his shoe.

Are these clips the work of AI? We reviewed them and found the Trump clips are legitimate and not generated using AI. We reached out to the Trump campaign but did not hear back.

The Lincoln Project posted on X, formerly Twitter, that its Feeble ad was not AI-generated. We also looked at two other ads the group published in the days preceding Trumps post and found no evidence they included AI-generated content, either.

We identified the origin of all but one of the 31 photos and videos used in the Feeble ad, 21 of them featuring Trump. Weve corroborated them with footage from C-SPAN, news outlets, and/or government archives. In some of the clips, Trump is trying to publicly mock President Joe Biden, which the Lincoln Project ad does not make clear.

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For good measure, we also checked the clips in the video that didnt feature Trump. These included clips and photos of Biden and stock videos. None of them were AI-generated, either.

We were unable to find the source for a 1-second video of Biden smiling at the 0:45 timestamp in the ad.

But of the 21 Trump-related images and clips in the ad, we found no evidence they were created or altered using AI.

The Lincoln Project also uploaded two other ads near the time of Trumps post that appeared to attack Trump. One called Christian Trump was also published on YouTube on Dec. 4. Another, titled Welcome to the clown show was uploaded Dec. 3.

We checked those, too, and found no evidence that AI was used to alter Trumps appearance or make him seem to say something he didnt.

At the 1:09 timestamp of Christian Trump, the Lincoln Project included a photo of Bibles stacked in a bathroom, which appears to have been altered. The original photo shows a bathroom in Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, which an indictment said was used to store boxes of records; it did not include a stack of Bibles.

In Welcome to the clown show we were unable to identify the source for a clip of a person talking about his preferred leader at the 0:58 timestamp. We were also unable to identify the source of the audio at the end of Christian Trump, which sounds like Trump saying Jesus Christ.

But there were no AI-generated clips of Trumps likeness.

We rate Trumps claim that the Lincoln Project is using AI in its television commercials about Trump False.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump said an ad used AI to make him look bad. The clips are real. - Tampa Bay Times

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump asked an appeals court in Washington on Saturday night to toss a federal indictment accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, arguing that he was immune to the charges because they arose from actions he had taken while he was in the White House.

The weekend filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was the latest salvo in a long-running and crucial battle between Mr. Trump and the special counsel, Jack Smith, over whether the former president enjoys immunity to the election interference charges.

The fight over immunity has now touched all three levels of the federal court system, including the Supreme Court, which on Friday declined Mr. Smiths request to intervene and hear the case before the appeals court. The ultimate resolution of the issue will have a significant effect not only on the overall viability of the election interference case, but also on whether a trial on the charges is postponed until the heart of the 2024 campaign or even until after the election. At that point, if Mr. Trump wins the presidency, he could order the charges to be dropped.

In a 55-page brief to a three-judge panel of the court, D. John Sauer, a lawyer who has been handling appeals for Mr. Trump, argued that under the Constitution, judges cannot hold the president accountable for any acts undertaken while in office.

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Trump Asks Appeals Court to Toss Election Case on Immunity Grounds - The New York Times

WASHINGTONDonald Trump is disqualified from serving as president and barred from appearing on ballots for president in Colorado under the 14th Amendment, according to a Colorado Supreme Court ruling issued today in a case brought on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the firms Tierney Lawrence Stiles LLC, KBN Law, LLC and Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC. This is the first time a presidential candidate has been disqualified or removed from a ballot under the 14th Amendments disqualification clause.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the president is an officer under the United States Constitution and that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to the president, reversing a ruling by a district court in November that Trump could appear on Colorado ballots for president despite engaging in insurrection on January 6, 2021. The Colorado Supreme Court ruling also denied Donald Trumps appeal on eleven issues, affirming that Trump engaged in insurrection and that his actions on and leading up to January 6, 2021 are not protected by the First Amendment.

My fellow plaintiffs and I brought this case to continue to protect the right to free and fair elections enshrined in our Constitution and to ensure Colorado Republican primary voters are only voting for eligible candidates. Todays win does just that, said petitioner and former Republican majority leader of the Colorado House and Senate Norma Anderson. Long before this lawsuit was filed, I had already read Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and concluded that it applied to Donald Trump, given his actions leading up to and on January 6th. I am proud to be a petitioner, and gratified that the Colorado Supreme Court arrived at the same conclusion we all did.

The courts decision today affirms what our clients alleged in this lawsuit: that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist who disqualified himself from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment based on his role in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and that Secretary Griswold must keep him off of Colorados primary ballot. It is not only historic and justified, but is necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country, said CREW President Noah Bookbinder. Our Constitution clearly states that those who violate their oath by attacking our democracy are barred from serving in government. It has been an honor to represent the petitioners, and we look forward to ensuring that this vitally important ruling stands.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause, bars any person from holding federal or state office who took an oathto support the Constitution of the United States and then has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood before the nation and took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. After losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump violated that oath by recruiting, inciting and encouraging a violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a futile attempt to remain in office.

We are gratified by the Colorado Supreme Courts determination that Trump is disqualified from appearing on any Colorado ballot. He betrayed his oath to the Constitution by engaging in insurrection against it, and by doing so he made himself ineligible for public office, said Sean Grimsley of Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC. We hope and believe other states will now follow suit.

This is the second time that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to bar officials who participated in the January 6th insurrection from elected office. Last year, CREW represented residents of New Mexico who sued to remove county commissioner Couy Griffin from office, the first successful case to be brought under Section 3 since 1869. The judge in that case determined January 6th was an insurrection under the Constitution and removed Griffin from office based on his engagement in the insurrection.

Originally posted here:
Colorado Supreme Court bars Trump from ballot - CREW - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

Donald Trumpallegedly personally pressured election officials in Michigan not to certify the 2020 presidential election and it was caught on tape, according to new reporting by The Detroit News.

The outlet published a story on Thursday with echoes of a similar situation in Fulton County, Ga. where Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in Jan. 2021 to demand he "find 11,780 votes" to change the electoral outcome in his favor after Joe Biden was determined to have won the state.

In Michigan, Trump reportedly spoke by phone to two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers on Nov. 17, 2020, pressuring them not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

The Detroit News reports that in the call, which was recorded and reviewed by the outlet, Trump told the two election officials: "We've got to fight for our country," and "We can't let these people take our country away from us," while telling them they would look "terrible" if they signed the certification, as legally required.

The outlet reports that the phone call also included Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who said on the call, "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. ... We will get you attorneys."

Trump, the outlet reports, added: "We'll take care of that."

The two canvassers Monica Palmer and William Hartmann ultimately refused that night to certify the votes cast in Wayne County, which is Michigan's largest. The move made it impossible for the county to officially declare the winner of the election that night. Later, the two relented after increasing pressure.

The recorded call is likely to figure into the federal investigation of Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

In August, Trump was indicted on four criminal counts by a federal grand jury and, per theindictment, charged with one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The indictment alleges that Trump, after losing the 2020 presidential election, "was determined to remain in power." The indictment also lists several unnamed co-conspirators, including four attorneys, a Justice Department official, and a political consultant who "helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification" of votes.

"So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won," it reads.

Also in August, Trump was indicted in Georgia, where he was charged with 13 felonycounts: racketeering (violation of the Georgia RICO Act); three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer; conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer; two counts conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree; two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings; conspiracy to commit filing false documents; filing false documents; and two counts of false statements and writings.

The Georgia investigation also hinges on Trump and his allies' behavior following hisloss of the popular vote in the state, and on the call he made to Raffensperger to demand he "find 11,780 votes" to change the outcome.

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Thetwice-impeachedformer president has been indicted four times over the past year the first one making him the only U.S. president to face criminal charges, and the next two further distinguishing him as the only president to face federal charges.

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Donald Trump Pressured Michigan Election Officials Not to Certify the 2020 Election and It Was Caught on Tape ... - PEOPLE