Biden mocks Trump as ‘the great MAGA King’ in speech on economy
As Donald Trump’s chosen candidate David Perdue struggles to gain momentum in Georgia’s gubernatorial primary, Mike Pence has announced he will visit the state to get out the vote for incumbent Brian Kemp – a Republican who refused to bow to Mr Trump’s insistence that the state was stolen from Joe Biden in 2020.
Meanwhile, the select committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol has issued subpoenas to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other GOP lawmakers who are close allies of Donald Trump: Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Mo Brooks of Alabama. Each was given the opportunity to voluntarily give evidence.
And the Department of Justice is now investigating whether former President Trump or any of his aides violated federal law by mishandling classified documents that ended up at Mar-a-Lago instead of at the national archives at the end of his term.
Lindsey Graham says he was “wrong” to suggest Biden should be president on Jan 6
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was not flattered by the recent release of audio recordings from after the 6 January riot on which he said Donald Trump bore responsibility for the events of the day and said Joe Biden would be “maybe the best person to have” in the White House.
Now, Mr Graham has gone back on his comments, telling Fox News host Jesse Watters that he was “wrong” about Mr Biden.
“I’ve known Joe for 30 years. He’s a nice guy, but he’s been a disaster as president,” he said. “Nobody fears Joe Biden abroad, and at home his policies are failing.”
Eric Garcia has the story.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 16:16
Pence breaks with Trump in Georgia governor’s race
Donald Trump’s endorsee in the Georgia governor’s race, David Perdue, has failed dismally to catch up with the Republican incumbent, Brian Kemp. And with the vote set for 24 May, Mr Kemp has attracted a high-profile supporter of his own: Mike Pence.
While Mr Pence has not explicitly condemned Mr Trump for his actions after the 2020 election, Mr Trump has essentially ruled out including him on a future presidential ticket. For his part, Mr Pence has continued a schedule of speaking engagements and campaign-style appearances around the country, raising some speculation that he might make a tilt at the presidency if Mr Trump does not or cannot run.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 15:29
Report: DoJ under Trump subpoenaed reporter’s phone records
It has emerged that during the Trump administration, the Department of Justice issued a subpoena for the phone records of an investigative reporter looking into its family separations policy at the US border.
The journalist in question was The Guardian’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner – and the paper itself was apparently not made aware of the subpoena at the time it was issued.
Gino Spocchia has the news.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 15:00
Hillbilly Elegy director “surprised” by JD Vance’s far-right turn
Ron Howard, who directed the widely panned movie adaptation of JD Vance’s memoir of Appalaichan cultural dysfunction, Hillbilly Elegy, says he is surprised by the now-candidate’s embrace of Donald Trump and hardcore right-wing politics.
“I always knew he was conservative, but [he] struck me as a very center-right, a kind of a moderate thinker,” the director said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, reflecting also that the movie he directed “wasn’t ever meant to suggest that he was headed in the direction of politics.”
Around the time his well-received book elevated him to national prominence, Mr Vance was an unsparing critic of Donald Trump, whom he warned could become “America’s Hitler” and described as the political equivalent of the ferociously addictive opiates that had ruined lives in the region where he grew up. But by the time of this year’s Ohio Senate primary, Mr Vance had transformed himself into an ardent Trumpist and belligerent culture warrior.
Read more from Abe Asher below.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 14:30
ICYMI: Prosecutors probing Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents
The Department of Justice has begun its investigation into how several boxes of official Trump administration documents, some of them classified, found their way to Mar-a-Lago instead of being turned over to the National Archives as required by law.
Under federal law, all records created during Mr Trump’s term were the property of the United States and should have been transferred to the archives by the time he left office on 20 January, 2021.
The investigation is aimed at determining how the boxes of documents were transported to Florida, who was responsible for boxing them up, if anyone was aware that classified material was taken out of the White House in a way that was improper, and how they were stored in Florida, according to The New YorkTimes.
Andrew Feinberg and Gustaf Kilander have the story.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 14:00
Laura Ingraham defends extreme candidate Kathy Barnette
After Sean Hannity spent a remarkable portion of his show laying into Pennsylvania candidate Kathy Barnette, his Fox News colleague Laura Ingraham followed up with a hearty defence of the surging right-wing candidate.
Ms Ingraham not only criticised Dr Mehmet Oz, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump for the seat, but hosted a guest to speak out in Ms Barnette’s favour – and warn that tearing her down could alienate Black voters whose votes the GOP currently struggles to win.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 13:25
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As the Biden administration scrambles to punish Russia for its assault on Ukraine, Congress fights over abortion and the 6 January investigations steadily heat up, The Independent has launched a new US Morning Headlines newsletter to keep you in the know.
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Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 12:55
Elon Musk’s Twitter deal “on hold”
Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk appears to be rethinking his decision to buy Twitter, if a tweet sent early this morning is anything to go by.
In his post, Mr Musk said the deal would be postponed until he could see the reasoning for the company’s claim that only a tiny proportion of accounts are fake or exist to pump out spam.
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” he wrote.
The prospect of Mr Musk going back on the deal will be an unpleasant one for many right-wingers who hoped to see Donald Trump and others restored to what used to be their platform of choice.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 12:18
The astonishing cost of the Cyber Ninjas’ Arizona vote audit
The self-styled “Cyber Ninjas” who conducted an “audit” of Arizona’s 2020 election result reportedly spent $8.8m on their futile effort to uncover nonexistent voter fraud in the key swing state. That towering sum represents $2.1m more than the group had on hand.
More gallingly still, much of the money seems to have been spent on high fees for individual contractors, among them inventor and conspiracy theorist Jovan Pulitzer, who offered the use what he described as a technology that could detect “kinematic artifacts” – or folds in paper ballots.
The Cyber Ninjas, whose effort was mandated by Republican state senators, ultimately filed for bankruptcy last year.
Andrew Feinberg has the story.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 11:45
Would you watch a ‘Maga version of Netflix’?
The pro-Trump right has for years been angry at large tech companies for supposedly censoring conservatives’ “free speech”, and since the end of the Trump presidency, its focus has widened to include the wider business world and the culture industries.
Disney is for now the top target, but also on the list are other entertainment giants who are viewed as insufficiently hospitable to hardcore right-wing thought. In the latest attempt to create a new ecosystem for that tendency, Donald Trump’s media company is recruiting for its upcoming streaming service in hopes that it will become the right wing’s answer to existing streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Hulu.
The Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) made the announcement in an ad posted on Wednesday that described the streaming service, named TMTG+, as “a ‘Big Tent’ platform offering broad-based entertainment rooted in free speech”.
Sravasti Dasgupta has the story.
Andrew Naughtie13 May 2022 11:10