Data and Research Manager , CD3 DFL

Trump appears to acknowledge tax schemes while questioning whether alleged violations are crimes

Former president Donald Trump lashed out at Manhattan prosecutors Saturday night for indicting his organization and its chief financial officer for tax fraud, calling it “prosecutorial misconduct” in his most extensive comments on the charges since they were unsealed Thursday.

As Trump criticized the investigation, he appeared to acknowledge the tax schemes while questioning whether the alleged violations were in fact crimes.

“They go after good, hard-working people for not paying taxes on a company car,” he said at a rally in Sarasota, Fla. “You didn’t pay tax on the car or a company apartment. You used an apartment because you need an apartment because you have to travel too far where your house is. You didn’t pay tax. Or education for your grandchildren. I don’t even know. Do you have to? Does anybody know the answer to that stuff?” Continue reading.

Woman Afraid of Vaccine Side Effects Dies From Delta Variant: ‘I Couldn’t Convince Her’

A woman in Missouri was afraid of the side effects from COVID-19 vaccines and chose not to get the shots, but later contracted the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus and died in the hospital.

Deborah Carmichael, the mother of now-deceased 45-year-old Tricia Jones, is speaking out and urging those hesitant about the vaccine to get the jab after losing her daughter in June. She spoke to Kansas City’s news channel Fox 4 WDAF-TV about her daughter’s death and vaccine hesitancy in an interview broadcast this week.

“She was afraid of the side effects, I think. You hear a lot of horror stories. I, myself, when I had the shot, it was rough, so it scared her and freaked her out. So she didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t convince her,” Carmichael told the Missouri news channel. Continue reading.

Eric Trump gets pilloried after giving away the game about the Trump Org indictment on live TV

The Trump Organization and its Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg found themselves in hot water this week when the Manhattan DA revealed an indictment alleging a pattern of criminal financial conduct dating back more than a decade.

While it comes as no surprise that the Trump Organization remains a major topic of discussion today, legal experts, observers, and Twitter users are also puzzled by the public comments about the matter from one person who probably should have been silent: Eric Trump.

Under normal circumstances, people under the heat of criminal investigation are well-advised to refrain from making any remarks about the matter. But the former president’s son didn’t heed that counsel. Continue reading.

Why Is Tucker Carlson Still On TV After Advertisers Have Fled?

Remember when bigoted Fox News hosts were forced to take unscheduled ‘vacations’ when their hateful speech kicked up controversy and advertisers, feeling pressure from outraged consumers, would head for the exits? It’s been a long-standing Fox News tradition, as a way to cool the marketplace temperature and ride out storms.

In 2018, Laura Ingraham hastily left for “a pre-planned vacation” as advertisers started fleeing her show after she mocked a Parkland school shooting survivor online. The year before, Sean Hannity suddenly vanished from the airwaves when advertisers began dropping his time slot when he kept fueling an ugly conspiracy theory about the murder of Seth Rich, a former Democratic National Committee staffer.

And last summer, Tucker Carlson announced a “long-planned” vacation that weirdly started on a Tuesday night, just as high-profile advertisers were ditching him after CNN discovered that Carlson’s head writer had spent years pseudonymously posting wildly vulgar, KKK-like rants online. Continue reading.

BUSTED: Arizona official was told to ‘stop the counting’ during blitz by Trump, Giuliani and GOP chair

Donald Trump is under investigation in Georgia for his caught-on-tape efforts to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 12,000 votes to overturn the election in the Peach State. A bombshell new report by The Arizona Republic documents a parallel effort to overturn the election results in Arizona.

“Then-President Donald Trump tried to speak directly with the chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in the weeks after the November 2020 election as his allies sought to change the election results in a state he narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden. New records obtained by The Arizona Republic reveal the behind-the scenes efforts by Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and state GOP Chair Kelli Ward to pressure the county supervisors, who make up the elected body that oversees elections in the state’s most populous county,” the newspaper reported.

“Much of the attention from Trump’s allies was focused on Supervisor Clint Hickman, the 56-year-old lifelong Republican from a prominent West Valley family that runs an egg company. At the time, Hickman chaired the five-member Republican-controlled board, a position that gave him the power to set agendas, hold hearings on the election process, and certify — or delay — the 2020 election results,” the newspaper explained. Continue reading.

Trump Is Said to Have Called Arizona Official After Election Loss

Donald Trump tried to reach the top Republican in metropolitan Phoenix as his allies were trying to overturn the state’s 2020 results, according to the official, who said he did not pick up the calls.

President Donald J. Trump twice sought to talk on the phone with the Republican leader of Arizona’s most populous county last winter as the Trump campaign and its allies tried unsuccessfully to reverse Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s narrow victory in the state’s presidential contest, according to the Republican official and records obtained by The Arizona Republic, a Phoenix newspaper.

But the leader, Clint Hickman, then the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said in an interview on Friday that he let the calls — made in late December and early January — go to voice mail and did not return them. “I told people, ‘Please don’t have the president call me,’” he said.

At the time, Mr. Hickman was being pressed by the state Republican Party chairwoman and Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to investigate claims of fraud in the county’s election, which Mr. Biden had won by about 45,000 votes. Continue reading.

CNN reveals that a man from the Capitol riot joined House Republicans on a border trip

Anthony Aguero, a far-right YouTuber and ally of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, was reportedly among the group at the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, though at this point he has not been charged with any crime related to the insurrection. And his proximity to the shocking attack, apparently, isn’t preventing some House other Republicans from associating with him. According to CNN reporters Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Drew Myers, Aguero “accompanied Republican members of Congress” on a visit to the U.S./Mexico border earlier this week and served as a translator for them.

“During his livestream of the Tuesday visit,” the CNN journalists explain, “Aguero interviewed and chatted with Reps. Tom. Tiffany of Wisconsin, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Chris Jacobs of New York, Michael Cloud of Texas, John Rose of Tennessee, Ronny Jackson of Texas and Mary Miller of Illinois.”

During the livestream, Aguero can be seen getting Cawthorn’s last name wrong and saying, “Hi guys, Congressman Hawthorn is behind me. That is freaking awesome. That is freaking awesome. I’ll tell you that.” Continue reading.

130 countries sign on to global minimum tax plan, creating momentum for Biden push

The White House believes countries need to move together to prevent firms from taking advantage of weak tax rules

President Biden on Thursday celebrated a victory in his drive to make corporations pay a larger share of the cost of government, as 130 countries endorsed a blueprint for a global minimum tax on giant businesses and pledged to work for final approval by the end of October.

The agreement announced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris showcased the president’s preference for patient diplomacy rather than the unilateral moves favored by his predecessor.

Potentially the most significant change in global tax rules in 100 years, the accord is designed to stop countries from competing to lure corporations by offering lower tax rates and to help governments fund their operations at a time of soaring pandemic-related expenses. Biden administration officials also describe the tax plan as a partial remedy for the offshoring of manufacturing jobs that have hollowed out American factory towns and fueled populist resentments. Continue reading.

DFL Party Statement on the Resignation of Laura Bishop

Saint Paul, MINNESOTA – DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin issued the following statement regarding the resignation of Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Laura Bishop ahead of her likely ousting by Senate Republicans:

“Today, Minnesota has lost a dedicated public servant due to the despicable behavior of Senate Republicans. Laura Bishop worked tirelessly as head of the Pollution Control Agency to defend our environment, protect public health, and hold polluters accountable, and I am tremendously grateful for her service to our state.

“Let us be clear about what happened today: Senate Republicans forced the resignation of the Commissioner of our Pollution Control Agency in order to defend big polluters, exact revenge on Governor Walz for his strong leadership during a once-in-a-generation public health crisis, and harm our ability to be responsible stewards of our environment. Senator Paul Gazelka’s pathetic temper tantrum just goes to show that Republicans will not let divided government work for the people of Minnesota.

“Paul Gazelka is profoundly misguided if he thinks trying to break our state government will help his run for governor.”

The Memo: Dangers intensify for Trump as Vance brings charges

The legal and political dangers facing former President Trump became a lot more real Thursday, when his closest lieutenant in running his businesses, Allen Weisselberg, gave himself up to prosecutors at dawn.

Weisselberg, along with the Trump Organization, was formally charged in court a few hours later. He was brought into court handcuffed.

The 15-count indictment alleges that Weisselberg committed grand larceny and tax fraud, and that the Trump Organization was complicit in many of those offenses. Continue reading.

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