Elections
DeSantis to declare presidential run next week?
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis is expected to be announcing his run for president next week. DeSantis will be joining a GOP field which includes former President Donald Trump, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and talk show host Larry Elder.
A RealClearPolitics average of national polls has Trump leading the race with 56 percent support with DeSantis following at a distant second with 19.9 percent support. However, that support comes despite having not formally entered the race yet.
DeSantis’ camp reportedly will file formal candidacy paperwork with the Federal Election Commission next week. Donors are supposedly meting in Miami on May 25 and a formal campaign kickoff event is expected to follow.
National Review reports:
In early March, Ken Cuccinelli, who previously served as the acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security under Trump, announced the launch of the Never Back Down PAC to urge DeSantis to run for president. The PAC has raised millions of dollars and may soon receive more than $80 million from a state committee DeSantis recently gave up control of, according to the report.
Indicators that DeSantis could be joining the race include moving his Tallahassee offices to a new location on Monday. “The move will likely cost more than $5,000, which would trigger a 15-day countdown for the team to file a Statement of Candidacy with the Federal Election Commission” writes National Review.
DeSantis’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, also announced he was exiting the governor’s office to “pursue other avenues of helping to deliver the governor’s success to our country.”
National Review writes:
DeSantis has already participated in a number of campaign-like events and made headlines over the weekend as he interacted one-on-one with voters in Iowa, shedding his reputation as a leader who struggles with retail politicking. He made an unscheduled appearance in Des Moines at a barbecue joint on Saturday while Trump, the front-runner, canceled his own rally in Des Moines that day because of “severe weather.”
The optics of the weekend in Iowa were a win for DeSantis, who also announced a day earlier the endorsements of more than three dozen Republicans in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. The endorsements, which amounted to more than a third of the Republicans in the state legislature, were more than any GOP candidate received in 2016. DeSantis also notched a flurry of endorsements in New Hampshire and Florida in recent days.
Elections
‘Federal Warfare is Winding Down’ as Judge Grants Request to Cancel Further Proceedings in Jan 6 Case
“Federal lawfare is indeed winding down” now that former President Donald Trump has won the 2024 presidential election, National Review shrewdly points out. One of the most significant examples is that of Judge Tanya Chutkan, the Obama appointee who is presiding over the 2020 election interference case against President-elect Trump.
On Friday, Chutkan issued a brief order on the docket vacating all proceedings scheduled in the case. That includes any briefing on pending issues; she ordered that on or before December 2, 2024, Biden-Harris DOJ special counsel Jack Smith must file “a status report indicating [the government’s] proposed course for this case going forward.”
The course for the case is to dismiss it. Judge Chutkan’s order was a result of a brief application by Smith’s staff. The Trump camp did not oppose the application which stated:
As a result of the election held on November 5, 2024, the defendant is expected to be certified as President-elect on January 6, 2025, and inaugurated on January 20, 2025. The Government respectfully requests that the Court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.
National Review states what many in the political sphere have avowed all along: the entire thing was a theatrical and costly attempt to prevent Trump from being elected.
Judge Juan Merchan is due to rule next Tuesday on Trump’s motion to vacate the guilty verdicts. The motion includes the defense claim that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s trial presentation violated the principles set out by the Supreme Court in its immunity ruling (in the January 6 case) a month after Trump’s Manhattan trial ended.
-
Nation7 days ago
Jon Kahn: The Inspiration Behind ‘Fighter’
-
Economy5 days ago
Biden-Harris Administration Brought in More ‘Parole Migrants’ Than Jobs Created in October
-
Elections5 days ago
Unveiling the Truth: Lee Smith on Trump and the Deep State
-
Elections5 days ago
Pennsylvania ‘Ground Zero’ for Presidential Victory as Election Integrity Lawsuits Increase