Month: June 2023

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Elections Justice Department

Jack Smith’s Latest Move Could Wreck Trump’s 2024 Political Dreams

On Friday evening, Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith filed paperwork that would delay the upcoming trial of former president Donald Trump from August to December.

The Washington Post reports:

Federal prosecutors said in its Friday court filing that they have asked to delay Cannon’s proposed timetable by about four months — with jury selection beginning Dec. 11 — because Trump’s lawyers will need up to two months to obtain the security clearance required to view some of the classified documents. The government alleged in its indictment against Trump that the former president improperly retained 31 classified documents at his Florida residence, some of which include information about foreign countries’ nuclear and military capabilities.

A delay in the trial date would seem to be good news for Trump and his defense team, but it could wind up spoiling his chances of winning the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, because it would take place right as GOP primaries in key states are beginning.

According to Newsweek, “If the request is approved, Trump’s trial will begin just two months before the GOP primary season, when Republican voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina head to the polls.”

Most of the Republican primaries are scheduled for March, which means a December start for the case could stretch far beyond that date, with Trump having to appear in court for his trial instead of being in the campaign trail, which would leave him vulnerable to attacks on him by other GOP contenders.

And that’s not the only bad news for Trump when it comes to the classified documents case.

If Trump is found guilty on any of the charges, it could be a major boost to his Republican opponents and provide them exactly the cudgel they need to bludgeon the failed ex-president by painting him has unable to win against President Joe Biden with the stigma of a criminal conviction on his record.

A conviction and prison sentence would also make voters wonder how Trump is supposed to be leader of the country while incarcerated. Would his vice president pardon him and then hand back power? Is such a move even legal under the Constutition?

Whatever happens in the months ahead, it seems safe to bet that the chances of Donald Trump being president again are fading by the day.

 

Categories
Fox News Social Media

Tucker Carlson’s Twitter Video Views Plummet As He Discovers Fox Is What Made Him A Star

After he was fired from Fox in the wake of a massive $787.5 settlement to settle a lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, host Tucker Carlson announced that he would be doing weekly broadcasts on Twitter.

The first video from Carlson was a huge success, garnering 120 million views, which led some to suggest that “legacy media” was dying and totally irrelevant in the age of social media.

But subsequent episodes of Carlson’s Twitter broadcasts have not been nearly as successful, according to The Guardian, which reports that it appears Fox was exactly what made Carlson a star in the first place and continues to pursue legal actions against him for breach of the non-compete clause in his contract with them.

Fox has struggled to fill a hole in its primetime schedule as guest hosts try to replicate or replace Carlson’s blend of preppy ties and hard-right invective. But on Twitter, viewer numbers have fallen for Carlson too. Carlson’s most recent episode, on Hunter Biden’s plea deal on tax and gun charges, attracted fewer than 15m views.

From 120 million views to 15 million in a matter of weeks. That’s some major disinterest, and it suggests that Carlson and anyone else who tries to fight against the established news media model is facing a possibly intractable problem, according to Brian Stelter, the former host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” Fox has all the leverage while Carlson has none.

“I think it’s very clear that Fox would like to keep him off the air … for as long as they contractually can. That is not always how these things go. There’s often a compromise between network and talent. Instead of being benched for two years, he might accept one year. But I think from the tea-leaf reading, Fox wants him benched for the entire rest of the contract.”

“There’s a long history in TV news of anchors being put on the proverbial bench,” Stelter added. “It’s called pay or play. A network [doesn’t] have to play you, it can choose to just pay. [In Carlson’s case], they are paying him but they don’t have to play him.”

So where does that leave Carlson? Simply put, in a no-win situation with diminishing returns that fail to even help him get another position with any other networks as long as he’s still tied to Fox.

In other words, Tucker Carlson is quickly becoming irrelevant, and for a person who gets paid to broadcast their opinions, that’s the worst fate imaginable, though it’s certainly the one he deserves.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump GOP

Jim Jordan Accidentally Tells The Truth About The Charges Against Trump

With friends like Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), pretty soon failed one-term, twice-indicted and impeached former president Donald Trump won’t need any enemies.

Jordan felt the need to defend Trump from the 37 federal criminal counts filed against him by a grand jury empaneled by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, but the way he went about that defense resulted in what sounded like an admission that the ex-president is in very big trouble because he broke the law.

Here’s what Jordan posted on Twitter:

“Remember, if the FBI can do it to a presidential candidate, they can do it to you too.”

Well, yeah. The FBI can indeed do the same thing to anyone if they steal classified documents and keep them in an unsecured location at a golf club in Florida. Here’s hoping they prosecute anyone and everyone that engages in such dangerous behavior, especially after being told they need to return the documents and refusing to do so. Lock every last one of them up and throw away the key.

Jordan was quickly hit with a brutal clapback from others on Twitter who reminded him the law is supposed to apply to everyone.

https://twitter.com/dartagnank/status/1671614674440187905?s=20

 

Categories
Congress GOP

Jen Psaki Perfectly Trolls Lauren Boebert: ‘Are You Sure You’re Not In Middle School?’

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki hilariously tolled Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for her recent attempts to impeach President Joe Biden that led to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) calling her a “little bitch” on the House floor.

Psaki was asked by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough about the Boebert-Greene confrontation: “Jen Psaki, again, the chaos continues in the House. I can’t help but think, at the end of the day, all this is going to do is damage the House candidates and turn the House back over to Democrats.”

“Well, exactly,” Psaki responded. “I mean, in some ways, the White House and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee don’t have to do much aside from get out of the way.”

“Their entire message is competence versus chaos,” Psaki added. “As we just heard, kind of the outline from John Heilemann about the back-and-forth fight between Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, I mean, Lauren Boebert responded and said, ‘I’m not in middle school.’ It’s like, are you sure you’re not in middle school? That’s how middle schoolers act, you know?”

Psaki noted that the contrast between the House and the White House is clear and could indeed be used against the GOP in 2024.

“If you’re the American public sitting at home, you’re thinking, ‘what a waste of time, what a waste of my time that they are doing there. That is exactly the contrast that the White House, if you’re sitting in the White House right now, my old colleagues there, if you’re sitting in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and you’re working with Democratic candidates, you’re going to run on, ‘We’ll do something. We will fight for you the public. That is chaotic and crazy there, and we will not be that.'”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c2RciEPQHY
 

Categories
Right Wing Morons Social Media WTF?!

The Conservative Conspiracy Theories For Why The Titan Sub Failed Are BEYOND Ridiculous

Even though it remains unclear exactly what caused the “catastrophic implosion” of the Titan submersible that led to the deaths of five people, conservatives, right-wingers, and other extremist nutjobs have already come up with a reason: Wokeness.

No, it wasn’t being 13,000 feet under the ocean that caused the Titan to sink and never resurface. It was being “woke.”

HuffPost notes:

But conservatives had another theory. Could the sub have disappeared because OceanGate’s CEO went “woke”?

Wokeness has become a new boogeyman for the right, and no one is safe — even in a case like this, with five people believed to have lost their lives in the deep sea.

Fox host Jesse Watters had this to say about wokeness and the Titan sub and OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, who led the mission:

“There’s been lawsuits, there’s been accusations about slashing regulations. He’s (Rush) quoted as saying he didn’t hire a bunch of 50-year-old white guys with military experience because he didn’t want his vessels to be not inspirational for a younger generation.”

“I don’t care who is in these vessels, I just want them to be experienced and safe. And if you’re gonna be woke, you might have to —”

What Jesse? Go broke? Isn’t that the saying? Or in this case were you suggesting that to go woke is to die?

Right-wing agitator and social media shitposter Charlie Kirk concurred with Watters, “If it is true, this person tragically passes away, the CEO of OceanGate and he says that he was choosing and selecting his personnel based on not wanting to have 50-year-old white guys, then you could make the argument, albeit rather cruel and blunt, he killed himself and his customers with wokeness.” 

As if that’s not bad enough, there’s also the “blame Biden” contingency of the far right that’s suggesting President Joe Biden tried to hide that the Titan sub had failed sooner than announced because he was trying to distract the public from the recently guilty plea entered by his son, Hunter, for failing to pay taxes and illegal possession of a handgun, Newsweek notes.

Wokegate or Bidengate? Does it really matter? The right-wing echo chamber will have a new “theory” pretty soon and it’ll be even more delusional than the ones they’re already pushing.