Trump makes wild claims about presidential immunity and Biden's 'crimes': Live – The Independent

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Both Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have signalled it would be in nation’s interest
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Donald Trump doubles down on anti-immigrant rhetoric after Supreme Court decision
Donald Trump’s main rivals for the 2024 Republican Party nomination have said they would pardon the former president if they were elected president.
The former president faces 91 criminal charges, many at the federal level and therefore within the chief executive’s power to grant clemency. Both Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have signalled it would be in the nation’s interest to do so.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump is preparing to claim election fraud again if he loses to President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.
In a ranting New Year’s message on Truth Social, the former president wrote: “I would like to wish an early New Year’s salutation to Crooked Joe Biden and his group of Radical Left Misfits & Thugs on their neverending attempt to DESTROY OUR NATION through Lawfare, Invasion, and Rigging Elections.”
Mr Trump is also reportedly concerned that some conservative justices on the Supreme Court may rule against him concerning his removal from ballots in two states under the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding public office.
Advisers to Mr Trump are prepping to file challenges as soon as Tuesday to the decisions in Colorado and Maine, according to The New York Times.
Gustaf Kilander writes:
Since George H.W. Bush won in 1988, Republican candidates have received the majority of the American people’s votes in only one presidential election.
In fact, it was the election that Mr Bush’s own son, George W Bush, won in 2004.
But despite the party’s dismal results, the GOP has still managed to claim the White House almost as many times as the Democrats.
Following the departure of the elder Mr Bush and before the inauguration of President Joe Biden in January 2021, Democrats and Republicans were exactly tied in Oval Office occupants with two presidents each.
Democrat Bill Clinton won the popular vote to take the presidency in 1992 and 1996. Mr Bush managed to become president in the 2000 election despite Mr Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, getting more votes overall.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the US entrance into Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Bush managed to win by the popular vote in 2004 before Barack Obama did so in both 2008 and 2012.
In the 2016 election, it was Hillary Clinton who won the popular vote with almost three million more votes than Donald Trump. But the showboating businessman ended up in the West Wing regardless.
To put it simply, in the most powerful democracy in the world, two of the nation’s last four leaders have been the less popular option among voters – due to an Electoral College system that many feel is undemocratic and needs to change.
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Disgraced former congressman George Santos has vowed to drive his critics “insane”, following the results of a self-posted online New Year’s poll.
Mr Santos, who was ousted from the House last month, had posted the poll the previous day asking his 120,000 followers whether or not he should remain in the Republican party.
On Monday he revealed that 26,000 people had responded to the poll, and that an “overwhelming majority” had said he should leave.
Mike Bedigan has the story:
The disgraced former congressman had posted a poll asking his 120,000 followers on X whether he should remain in the Republican party
Former President Donald Trump is set to hold a campaign rally on the third anniversary of the 2021 Capitol riots.
The former president will hold a “Commit to Caucus Rally” in Newton, Iowa, on 6 January 2024, three years after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol, resulting in five deaths and several injuries. More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection to the riot, and more than 500 have been sentenced.
Mr Trump is currently facing four federal counts regarding his role in the January 6 riots: obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. In Maine and Colorado, Mr Trump has even been removed – pending any appeals – from the 2024 ballot for his role in the 6 January riots.
Katie Hawkinson reports.
Trump to hold rally in Iowa on third anniversary of Capitol riot
This is the moment Green Day changed the lyrics to one of their most well-known songs in a swipe at Donald Trump live on air. The band made the change during a televised New Year’s Eve performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest on Sunday (31 December). Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong swapped the line “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” for “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda” in the hit song American Idiot.
Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene has called for a “tax revolt” in California, following the announcement of ambitious plans to expand healthcare for low-income immigrants in the state.
The Georgia congresswoman blasted the plans as “treason” and suggested that such a revolt was necessary to “solve the problem”.
As of Monday, more than 700,000 immigrants living illegally in California will gain access to free health care through the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, after legislation was approved in May.
Ms Greene is one of many Republicans who would rather see funding channelled into security at the US-Mexico border.
Writing on X/Twitter several days before the expansion came into effect, Ms Greene said: “A tax revolt would solve this problem in California.” From her professional account, she later added: “It’s treason. No other way to say it.
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An attorney for Donald Trump says that his supporters should not be made to believe that he has legal problems, following a decision to have the former president’s name taken off the Republican ballot in Maine.
Christina Bobb accused opponents of the former president of putting out “propaganda” to harm his 2024 presidential run.
It comes after Mr Trump was removed from the ballot in Colorado last month, under the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding public office. The decision to also block him from the ballot in Maine was handed down on Thursday by state secretary Shenna Bellows.
Speaking to Newsmax on Sunday, Ms Bobb suggested that Ms Bellows be impeached for her decision, and accused her of election interference.
Mike Bedigan reports on her comments:
Christina Bobb accused opponents of the former president of putting out ‘propaganda’ to harm his 2024 presidential run
The leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination faces 91 criminal charges, nearly half of which are at the federal level. And yet his two main GOP rivals have said they would pardon him if they’re elected.
Donald Trump faces 40 federal charges connected to his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago estate, as well as another four federal charges stemming from his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
He faces another 34 felonies in New York, where he is accused of falsifying business records stemming from hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, and another 13 in Georgia, where he is accused of leading a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn the state’s election results.
In recent days, Mr Trump’s leading Republican challengers have vowed to pardon him if convicted on federal charges.
Alex Woodward has the details…
DeSantis and Haley would grant clemency if the ex-president is convicted on a long list of federal crimes
Ryan Coogan writes:
Most new years are shrouded in a fog of mystery, like an area on a video game map that you haven’t explored yet. The unknown means possibility, and possibility means opportunity. That comes with its stresses and anxieties, but can also be cause for excitement.
This new year will be very different. We already know how much of it is going to play out – and that it has the potential to end with seismic, zeitgeist-altering change.
In 2024, the UK and US will have general elections, the first time this has happened since 1992. Both administrations could be thrown out. Will they prove to be known unknowns, or unknown knowns?
Continue reading…
More than half of the world will go to the polls this year – and the results could be as stark and startling as they are destabilising. Here’s how to brace yourself
To underscore how much Iowa means to Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor was unwilling to put his campaigning there on hold even in the waning hours of 2023.
At a New Year’s Eve event in a Sheraton Hotel ballroom in West Des Moines, jeans and cowboy boots outnumbered tuxedos and cocktail dresses, and Miller Lite seemed more popular than champagne.
But the modesty of the affair, where roughly 200 people turned out for the last campaign event of the busy year in Iowa, belied its the importance to the host, who has wagered the future of his Republican bid for president on the leadoff Iowa caucuses, just two weeks away.
“Are you ready to work hard over these next two weeks and win the Iowa caucuses?” DeSantis asked supporters who turned out at the suburban hotel Sunday evening.
Continue reading…
Ron DeSantis is underscoring how much Iowa means to him, campaigning there into the waning hours of 2023
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Former President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he arrives for his civil fraud trial in New York City on 17 October 2023
AFP via Getty Images
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