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Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speak at midterm election rallies, in Dayton, Ohio, Nov. 7, 2022, and Tampa, Florida, Nov. 8, 2022, in a combination of file photos.

Gaelen Morse | Reuters;Marco Bello | Reuters

As former President Donald Trump blinks on the abortion debate, his likely top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is taking an opportunity to fight him on a key 2024 election issue that is shaping up to be as divisive in the Republican primary as it will be in the general.

DeSantis, who is expected to publicly announce his presidential plans in the coming weeks, took a direct swing at Trump on Tuesday after the current GOP presidential front-runner suggested that Florida's new six-week abortion ban was "too harsh."

Asked about that remark, DeSantis said the legislation he signed is something that "probably 99% of pro-lifers support."

The governor noted that Trump had dodged on whether he would back that bill.

"As a Florida resident, you know, he didn't give an answer about, 'Would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did, that had all the exceptions that people talk about?'" he said.

"The Legislature put it in, I signed the bill, I was proud to do it," DeSantis said, adding, "He won't answer whether he would sign it or not."

The governor's remarks at a bill-signing event marked a rare rebuttal to Trump, who has spent months bludgeoning his potential primary rival with attacks that have mostly gone unanswered.

Trump was a main catalyst for last year's lethal blow to federal abortion rights, as he appointed three of the conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. That seismic ruling made good on Trump's 2016 campaign promise to put abortion regulations back in the hands of the states.

It was the biggest-ever win for conservatives whose opposition to abortion protections has been a rallying cry for decades. But it drew a ferocious backlash.

Many voters, incensed by the sudden loss of what had been a constitutional right for nearly five decades, flocked to the polls in the November midterms, and pro-abortion rights Democrats broadly outperformed expectations that had strongly favored Republicans. Surveys showed the high court's ruling galvanized turnout among young voters, women and those voting in a general election for the first time.

Now, as he looks for another term in the White House, Trump has shown comparatively little interest in flaunting his record on abortion. When pressed to detail what his abortion agenda would look like if he won in 2024, the pugilistic ex-president has opted for a softer, less committed tone than some of his competitors.

Trump himself underlined that contrast when asked in a recent interview about the six-week abortion ban that DeSantis had just signed in Florida.

"Many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh," Trump said in an interview published Monday with The Messenger. He demurred on whether he felt the same way, or whether he would sign a similar ban.

"I'm looking at all alternatives. I'm looking at many alternatives," Trump said.

He was similarly hard to pin down in a recent CNN town hall, declining to say if he would sign a federal abortion ban or what other policies he might favor instead.

"What I will do is negotiate so that people are happy," Trump said, while defending his efforts that led to Roe's reversal.

Trump may be speaking with a general-election audience in mind: National polls tend to show most voters support abortion rights, especially following the Supreme Court's ruling. Surveys also show voters consider the issue extremely important to them.

President Joe Biden has taken notice: His reelection announcement video slammed what he described as Republican "MAGA extremists" who are bent on "dictating what health care decisions women can make."

But DeSantis' willingness to hit Trump from the right on abortion could also be a strategic one. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found a strong majority of likely Republican primary voters, 68% to 27%, supported banning most abortions after six weeks.

Those numbers could be emboldening the governor, who otherwise has appeared to go out of his way to avoid alienating the swath of Republican voters still highly sensitive to criticism of Trump.

Other candidates, both those who have declared their campaigns and those who are considering taking the plunge, seem to be making their own calculations.

Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, has reaffirmed his staunchly anti-abortion views as he appears to be inching toward his own White House bid. He has also come out against a widely used abortion pill, mifepristone, saying he wants the medication taken off the market.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who launched a Republican presidential exploratory committee last month, has said that he would limit abortions to "no more than 15 weeks" of pregnancy if elected president.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, meanwhile, distinguished herself by addressing the abortion debate head on, saying in a speech that the next president must find a "national consensus."

Read more here:
Ron DeSantis just made it clear he's going to fight Trump on abortion - CNBC

Last week, anonymous sources made an extremely bold claim in the pages of Page Six. Donald and Melania Trump, those sources claimed, are closer and more bonded than ever. And while, sure, love works in mysterious ways, that declaration struck us as fairly improbable given that not only has Melania long appeared to hate her husbands guts, but she appeared to hate them as recently as last month. Also, if the ex-president is supposedly a new man who demonstrates love and affection toward his wifehes not doing a great job of showing it!

On Sunday, Trump celebrated Mothers Day by writing on Truth Social: Happy Mothers Day to ALL, in particular the Mothers, Wives and Lovers of the Radical Left Fascists, Marxists, and Communists who are doing everything within their power to destroy and obliterate our once great Country. Please make these complete Lunatics and Maniacs Kinder, Gentler, Softer and, most importantly, Smarter, so that we can, quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! He did not mention his current wife, i.e. the mother of his fifth and youngest child.

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Of course, this type of holiday commemoration is typical Trump. Last Easter, he celebrated the resurrection of Christ by writing: HAPPY EASTER TO ALL, INCLUDING THOSE THAT DREAM ENDLESSLY OF DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY BECAUSE THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF DREAMING ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE. On July Fourth, in 2014, he took to Twitter to tell his followers, Happy 4th of July to everyone, including the haters and losers! And a year prior, he famously tweeted, on 9/11: I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.

Anyway, nothing says love like ignoring your wife on Mothers Day.

See the original post here:
Donald Trump Celebrates Mothers Day in the Most Donald Trump Way Possible - Vanity Fair

Though the Aramco Team Series is a Saudi Arabian event at the Trump International Golf Club, South Florida product Lexi Thompson gets a chance to play in her backyard this week and on her home course owned by one of her favorite people.

Thompson, a Coral Springs native who now lives in Delray Beach, shot to fame when she was 12, winning a USGA qualifier to earn a spot in the 2007 U.S. Womens Open, becoming the youngest to do so.

Crediting her two golf-playing brothers, Thompson turned pro at 15 and won her first LPGA event at 16.

At 28, the 6-footer has 11 LPGA titles, still going strong, though she has taken a respite in 2023, playing few events.

The Aramco Series, now in its third year, is part team event, part individual tournament with its sponsor a Saudi Arabian oil company.

The format calls for a foursome of three pros from either the LPGA or Ladies European Tour linked with one amateur. The tournament takes place Friday to Sunday at the suburban West Palm Beach course.

The team event is Friday and Saturday and the individual title is up for grabs in Sundays final round. (The scores of the pros are added up from the three days of rounds).

The tournament is the second Aramco event of 2023 after Marchs Singapore event won by Lydia Ko, who also is entered here. The tournament continues in London, Hong Kong and Riyadh.

More: Lexi Thompson in photos through the years

In October, Thompson won the first Aramco event on American soil, held in The Bronx at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point. Thompson is now on home turf trying for an American sweep.

Thursday, the pre-tournament pro-am will be held and is closed to the public and media. Sources indicated former President Donald Trump is expected to compete.

Thompson held a news conference at Trump International, then conducted this Q&A with The Palm Beach Post.

Its always nice to have an additional event in Florida. Theres so many golfers based here, especially in the Palm Beach/Jupiter area. We have one in Orlando and Naples. We have a few here and hopefully, well get a few more. Any Florida events we get, I look forward to them. Usually, because I get to drive and this ones very close only about 25 minutes from my home and I practice out of here. It would mean the world to me to defend the title. I have a lot of family, friends coming up to support me, so itll be a blast of a week.

Honestly, these events are put on so well and Aramco has been a huge supporter of the Ladies European Tour and golf in general. Were all out there playing a game we love. Having the support from sponsors in Saudi Arabia and Aramco, its great to be able to play here.

Ive played with Mr. Trump quite a bit being out here 10-plus years. Ive seen him out a lot, played a lot of rounds with him. Hes a big supporter of womens golf and my family as well. Were forever gratefulof that friendship.

He drives it straight. Im always on his team. We make a good team. Hes a pretty good golfer not too bad. And he absolutely loves the game. Just a big supporter of golf.

There hasnt been any talks about it. Im focusing on the tournaments I can play in this year. Not much we can do about it. Well continue to play our butts off.Theres still enough going on in the golf world and see how far we can take our tour.

Honestly, its about living a life, spending time with friends and family at home. Being able to go to bed and not have a 5:30 a.m. wakeup call and have to get out there to training and to a tee time. Just being able to do what I want. Even though Im out there practicing, I can come out here for a few hours and then lay by my pool for multiple hours. Or go out. Whatever I want to do. Its very important to have that balance. Im so family-oriented, time away from my family does more harm than me being out there playing multiple days.

I would say its a little bit of an advantage being my home course, but you still have to go out there and hit the golf shots. And the weather does look very nice coming into the week. Very hot. But Im used to it. I just played nine, but this is getting to be summer weather. It feels like its very humid out there, but just have to drink a lot of water.

Im out here pretty much every day if not every other day. And its just a very difficult golf course and they have it set up difficult yardage-wise. So its a ball-striker golf course. You have to definitely commit to your lines off the tee. And it requires a lot of really good tee shots. Its very scenic, a lot of water, palm trees. Its in the best shape Ive ever seen. But you have to really commit to your lines, sometimes play more aggressively because you want shorter clubs coming into some of the greens because some are elevated, some have a lot of slope.

Read more from the original source:
Lexi Thompson Q&A: How she's 'forever grateful' of friendship with ... - Golfweek

Efren Landaos/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images

Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch compared CNNs town hall last week with Donald Trump to Fox News post-2020 election coverage, the source of the companys $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.

Last week, we can look at it factually, CNN had a town hall with the former president where he made a lot of allegations about the [2020] election, Murdoch said at the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference. If you believe that it was newsworthy to have a former president, also a candidate for the next presidential election, if you believe that was newsworthy in 2023, well certainly it was newsworthy in 2020 to report on similar allegations.

Michael Nathanson, who interviewed Murdoch, had asked him whether Fox News would do anything differently to not place shareholders in future jeopardy of more litigation. Murdoch, though, insisted that Fox would have won the case eventually.

Murdoch said that in the Dominion Voting Systems case, we were denied our ability to rely on a First Amendment defense, and we were denied an ability to rely on newsworthiness.

The judge in the case, Eric Davis, removed those defenses in a summary judgment decision weeks before a trial was scheduled to star. Davis concluded that those defenses were not supported by case law.

Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox for $1.6 billion in the aftermath of the election, and was armed with a trove of documents and text messages. Dominions legal team was prepared to show that network personalities and executives doubted or knew Trumps election rigging claims were false but let them be amplified on the air anyway. Trump did not cite Dominion specifically in his CNN town hall, but his allies Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell brought up the company in multiple appearances on the network in the weeks after the election.

The case was settled just after a jury was selected. Dominion was poised to call Rupert Murdoch, the Fox Corp. executive chairman, to testify, and it is likely that he would have been asked about a portion of his deposition. He admitted that some Fox hosts endorsed Trumps false election claims.

Murdoch said that had the Dominion case gone forward, we were going to be in a multi-year, prolonged legal battle, which we would ultimately win, but the distraction to the company, the distraction to our growth plans, our management, would have been extraordinarily costly, which is why we decided to settle. He said that it was a difficult decision to make but ultimately the right decision, because I dont believe Fox News or any of our hosts engaged in any defamation the whole period.

Fox News also faces another major lawsuit related to its 2020 coverage, this one from Smartmatic, another voting systems company.

Less than a week after the settlement, the network parted ways with Tucker Carlson, whose show was the top rated primetime show on the news networks.

Murdoch would not go into the reasons for why Carlson was dropped, but defended the decision.

Im not going to go into programming at Fox News short of saying that all our programming decisions are made with the long-term interests of the the Fox News brand and the Fox News business at heart, he said.

He pointed to past decisions in which top rated personalities left the network or were let go.

Bill OReilly was a superstar. Megyn Kelly was a superstar. Glenn Beck was a superstar, he said. And were able to move forward with programming decisions that ultimately result in long-term growth and profitability of the business.

The network has seen a ratings dip in primetime since Carlsons exit, but the replacement show, Fox News Tonight, has generally won the time period in total viewers. That said, MSNBC beat Fox News in primetime on Monday, largely due to the top rated program for the night, The Rachel Maddow Show, which airs once a week. Fox News The Five, aired at 5 p.m. ET, was still the most watched cable news show overall.

More here:
Lachlan Murdoch Compares CNNs Donald Trump Town Hall To Fox Newss Coverage Of His Unfounded Election Claims: If You Believe That Is Newsworthy In...

On Thursday, E. Jean Carroll officially rested her case. This means a jury in New York City will soon be asked to decide whether Donald Trump raped, and then later defamed, the former magazine columnist and media personality. The general public will draw its own conclusions about the civil lawsuit, a remarkable event not only because Trump is the former president of the United States, but also because he is a presidential candidate once again. But because jurors are instructed to reach their decision only on the evidence they see or hear in the trial, the decisions U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan makes about what evidence comes in and what does not are of enormous importance.

This week, the jury heard from four key witnesses likely to be top of mind for the jurors when they begin their deliberations.

This week, the jury heard from four key witnesses likely to be top of mind for the jurors when they begin their deliberations. Two women Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin testified that Carroll talked to them shortly after the attack in 1996 and that her account back then was consistent with her testimony at trial. This evidence is important corroboration of Carrolls testimony that is, it was introduced to show that the rape allegation was not a recent fabrication. (Trump has denied Carroll's claims, calling them a scam.)

But Judge Kaplans more fraught decision was whether to allow Carrolls legal team to introduce evidence from two other witnesses: Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.

Dozens of women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct of some kind, up to and including assault. Trump was never indicted on criminal charges for any of these alleged acts, and the statute of limitations has expired on most of them. (He also claims he has never forced himself on any woman.) The battery (i.e., rape) claims that were in Carrolls lawsuit were made possible only by a temporary 2022 law that extended the statute of limitations for sexual assault lawsuits. In that sense, it is an alternative means of holding Trump accountable outside a criminal courtroom. Given the unusual situation, should the jury be entitled to hear from any of Trumps other accusers? That was the weighty question Kaplan had to decide.

He did so in a 23-page opinion. Kaplan ruled that Leeds, who said Trump sexually attacked her when she was seated next to him on a plane, and Stoynoff, a reporter for People magazine who said Trump sexually assaulted her while she was at Mar-a-Lago covering a story, should be allowed to testify.

So how did events unrelated to the facts in Carrolls complaint make their way to the jury? Fans of courtroom TV dramas may be wondering, for example, about the probative value of such evidence. Indeed, evidence that a defendant has a bad character or might have a propensity to commit an offense usually is not permitted at trial, the exception being evidence offered to establish specific aspects of the act, such as a defendants motive, intent, preparation or plan. And even then, judges are wary of allowing in too much other act evidence for fear that the weight of such evidence would end up being substantially more prejudicial than probative and be grounds for a reversal on appeal.

But in this case, Carrolls lawyers had an advantage. This is a civil case alleging rape, and a federal rule of evidence, passed in 1994, explicitly says that in a civil case alleging sexual assault, the court may admit evidence that the party committed any other sexual assault.

The late GOP Sen. Bob Dole, a co-sponsor, justified the federal evidence rule by quoting the words of a former Justice Department official: The past conduct of [a] person with a history of rape ... provides evidence that he has the combination of aggressive and sexual impulses that motivates the commission of such crimes, that he lacks effective inhibitions against acting on these impulses, and that the risks involved do not deter him. In 2017, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which would hear any appeal coming from this trial, ruled in another case that the evidence rule is constitutional. Three other courts of appeals have ruled the same way.

Despite these precedents, Judge Kaplans opinion allowing testimony from other women who say they were assaulted is not exactly bulletproof. An appeals court could still find that Kaplan did not appropriately weightthe probative value of Leeds and Staynoffs testimony against the prejudicial nature of their evidence.But, given that only two women out of many testified to Trumps similar sexual aggressions in the past and given Kaplans carefully written analysis of the probative nature of the evidence, it is likely that his decision will hold up if Trump is found liable and there is an appeal.

And that also means, at least for now, that E. Jean Carroll does not stand alone.

Carol C. Lam

Carol C.Lam was a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California and a federal prosecutor for 18 years. She also wasa Superior Court judge in San Diego County.She is a legal analyst for MSNBC.

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Judge in E. Jean Carroll trial allows key Trump rape testimony - MSNBC