Raw Story

Republican voters have already shown they overwhelmingly prefer to keep Donald Trump in control of their party.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out Sunday after falling short in Iowa, and Nikki Haley could be out of the race soon unless she surprises in New Hampshire, showing that GOP voters don't want Trump "lite" when the real deal is running for his third nomination, reported Wall Street Journal columnist Molly Ball.

"What the GOP’s most loyal voters want, it seems, is pure, uncut Trumpism — with all the baggage and ideological divergence from traditional conservatism that entails," Ball wrote.

"Between DeSantis’s withdrawal and Haley’s having little apparent path forward barring a major upset, the race could well be effectively over by Wednesday, the party having passed up yet another opportunity to turn the page on a polarizing, multiply-indicted fabulist who lost the last election and has never won the popular vote."

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Both Haley and DeSantis tried to appeal to voters who liked Trump but would prefer an alternative, but the Iowa results and polls in New Hampshire and elsewhere make clear Republicans have no interest in turning the page on the former president, Ball wrote.

“The Republican Party we knew isn’t coming back,” the anti-Trump Republican Sarah Longwell posted on X. “GOP voters don’t want it back. They don’t want limited government, free markets, and American leadership in the world. They want isolationism, an authoritarian crackpot president, and a big government that enforces their worldview.”

The party's Reaganites thought they might wait for the fever to break and reclaim the party, but anti-Trump Republicans think that will never happen, she wrote.

“I’m never surprised — that went out the window six or seven years ago — but I can’t lie, I’m still profoundly disappointed,” said former GOP congressman Joe Walsh, who launched a long-shot challenge against Trump in 2020. “The fact that Trump incited and led an insurrection and they didn’t throw him into Siberia proved there’s nothing he can do to lose the base.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) scolded the U.S. Supreme Court after justices ruled that President Joe Biden's administration could remove razor wire placed at the border by Texas officials.

During an interview on Tuesday, Real America's Voice correspondent Ben Bergquam asked Greene about the recent Supreme Court ruling.

"And you, I noticed you mentioned the disastrous unconstitutional ruling by the Supreme Court yesterday, basically allowing the federal government to allow an invasion on our southern border," Bergquam stated. "How concerned are you with that and then the implications that that could have with their decisions around President Trump on the ballots going forward, especially with this lawfare weaponization of the justice system against President Trump?"

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"Right. This is how communism starts," Greene replied. "I was just talking to a New Hampshire voter right here, an independent, and he was saying that statism is a concern, that big government is a concern. That's what the Biden administration absolutely has brought is big, powerful government, which is communism."

"I'm extremely concerned about that Supreme Court ruling," she continued. "We literally saw a ruling that's going to put the federal government at war with the state of Texas. What's going to be happening with the Border Patrol? What is going to be happening with Texas law enforcement? Are we actually going to see them fighting with one another?"

Greene called the ruling "the most radical, devastating thing that we have seen happen in a Supreme Court ruling, and I think Texas needs to stand their ground and we should join Texas in their fight against the federal government to defend their state, defend their border, defend their people."

"And I'm calling for that right now," she added.

Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.

Alina Habba, an attorney for Donald Trump, convinced a federal judge to postpone her client's defamation trial on Monday.

Moments after Monday's hearing started, Habba asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to adjourn because her parents had been exposed to COVID-19, according to reports.

At the same time, a juror who was on their way to the trial began to feel sick, according to reports.

"Trump won't be taking the stand today [because] everyone's going home," reporter Molly Crane-Newman wrote. "Juror No. 3 was 'on the way to the city but feeling hot and nauseous' this morning."

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"Alina Habba, who is beside Trump and not wearing a mask, tells the court she's had a fever. Kaplan grants a 1-day adjournment," she added.

Trump is accused of defaming writer E. Jean Carroll when he denied raping her. His testimony was expected this week.

Before adjourning, Kaplan denied another request for a mistrial from Trump's attorneys.

Asked about what to expect when Donald Trump does make an appearance at the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial — which was set to restart Monday before being adjourned for a day because of illness — MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained that court attendees can expect Carroll's legal team to submit a barrage of new evidence against the former president.

"Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski, prompted Rubin, asking, "Where does this go after today? How much longer do you expect this to play out until they decide what the damages are?"

"I think it really depends on who testifies," Rubin replied. "There's one thing I know for sure is going to happen, and that is E. Jean Carroll's side is going to call Robbie Myers, she's E. Jean's former boss at Elle magazine. She is the editor-in-chief. She's going to testify to the damage to her reputation. After Robbie Meyers gets off the stand, I expect E.Jean Carroll's lawyers will further confront President Trump with some of his prior statements."

"Usually, you have to have a witness in the chair to introduce evidence. One exception is party admissions," she elaborated. "You know, Mika, as well as I do, the former president has given a series of depositions in which he said things that might be relevant to this case, even though the depositions were far afield from whether or not he defamed or sexually abused Carroll."

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"The New York attorney general's case where he was deposed, he says a number of things about his net worth, brand value, how much cash on hand, all of which could be highly relevant to a jury considering punitive damages," she added.

Trump had been expected to take the stand on Monday, but a juror fell ill on the way to court and then the former president's lawyer complained of having a fever. The judge agreed to postpone the hearing for a day, which would have Trump testify on the day of the New Hampshire primary.

Watch below or at the link

MSNBC 01 22 2024 07 33 07 youtu.be

Donald Trump's attorney has asked a federal judge to postpone the former president's defamation trial so her client can campaign for the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

The request came at a Monday hearing over allegations Trump defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after raping her. The judge had announced an adjournment of Monday's hearing for a day after a juror fell sick and the attorney, Alina Habba, complained of having a fever.

Trump had been expected to take the stand. The one-day adjournment would mean he gives testimony on the day of the primary.

Habba asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to postpone Tuesday's trial while New Hampshire voters cast their ballots.

ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene wants GOP leaders to coronate Trump — right now

Attorneys for Carroll opposed the request. Kaplan declined to rule immediately.

MSNBC's Lisa Rubin spent most of Thursday inside New York courtroom where day three of the defamation trial regarding comments Donald Trump made to E. Jean Carroll unwound.

And she had a view of the widely-mocked performance of attorney Alina Habba.

"Lisa, I was reading through our producer's ongoing log, so correct me if I'm wrong with anything here," host Chris Jansing began as Rubin joined him. "But at one point today, Judge (Lewis) Kaplan told Alina Habba, come on, this is evidence 101. Another, from our producer in the courtroom, said Kaplan seemed incredulous at a question that she had asked."

Jansing said that it's clear that Habba is a "forceful defender of the former president's position, right, which is her job." But he added, "We saw a lot of headlines late yesterday, overnight, about the tension between her and the judge."

Before the trial, those who know Kaplan warned that he was a no-nonsense judge and a stickler for the rules. Habba learned that firsthand as he repeatedly hit her over struggles with basic courtroom procedure.

"Judge Kaplan, in some respects, is an equal opportunity grouch about enforcement of the evidence in court rules," Rubin, a legal analyst for the network.

"He admonished E. Jean Carroll several times to stick to the question and answer it simply and directly. There was another evidentiary dispute later in the morning that Alina Habba won, and he looked at her and said, 'Ms. Habba, when you're right, you're right.'"

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The majority of the judge's frustrations, however, have been with Habba. That can reflect poorly on her and on Trump to the jury, several legal analysts explained Wednesday.

"Alina Habba has a lot of trouble asking questions according to the rules of evidence and civil procedure in federal courts," Rubin explained. "She wanted to know when E. Jean Carroll had an agent, and she said I hired my agent in 1982 or '3, and E. Jean Carroll had already testified she no longer has an agent. Habba's next question was, when did you fire your agent, and of course, that assumes something not in evidence. E. Jean Carroll never said she fired an agent. She simply said she no longer has an agent."

Rubin called those "rookie mistakes for someone in a federal litigation practice."

One would expect a former president to have a lawyer "with greater facility and fluency in trial practice than Alina Habba has shown herself to say. Those are the kind of mistakes that have caused Judge Kaplan to say, 'Oh, come on, this is evidence 101."

See the full discussion in the video below or at the link here.

The rookie mistakes of Alina Habba youtu.be