Trump’s communications are ‘erratic and unmoored from truth,’ says former Georgia Lt. Gov

Posted on (Updated by Olafimihan Oshin

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) said Monday that former President Trump and his legal team’s recent communications are “erratic” and “unmoored from truth.”

Duncan made the comments when discussing the former president's continuing legal challenges during an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer.”

They were in response to Blitzer mentioning that Trump’s legal team argued on Monday that the former president should not be the subject of a protective order to limit what he can say in his Jan 6. criminal case. 

“Well, I think everything's on the table for that team, right? Everything. He's very unpredictable,” Duncan told Blitzer. “We've seen this play out, even the communications that we've seen in the last 48 to 72 hours that he has put out on social media just seem erratic and unmoored from truth.”

Judge Tanya Chutkan recently ordered Trump’s attorneys to respond to Special Counsel Jack Smith's request for a strict protective order by Monday, which would prevent Trump from discussing case evidence in public.

Duncan, who served as lieutenant governor of Georgia from 2019 to 2023, also told Blitzer that Trump’s recent social media posts and remarks on his legal challenges remind him of Trump's lead up to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6. 

“It's very concerning,” Duncan added. “And unfortunately, there's similar hallmarks I'm watching play out in the last few days, that really bring me back to a terrible place and that was the lead up to January 6, where it's just a continued deluge of misinformation, and a feverish pitch through 10-second sound bites and short little social media posts.”

Trump was indicted last Tuesday by a Washington, D.C., grand jury on four charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Biden.

Smith’s 45-page indictment accuses Trump of trying to conduct a campaign to block the transfer of power. It alleges Trump was the director of a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and played a central role in an attempt to block the certification of votes on Jan. 6.

Duncan also said that he received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury investigating the efforts Trump and his allies made to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

Federal workers told to leave early as severe weather threatens DC, Northeast

Posted on (Updated by Olafimihan Oshin

Federal workers have been told to go home early as severe weather is expected to hit the Washington, D.C., area and parts of the Northeast region of the country. 

In a news release Monday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said federal employees located in the D.C. area were authorized to leave their workplaces two hours earlier than expected, and that all employees must evacuate their buildings “no later than 3:00 at which time Federal offices are closed.”

The OPM added that emergency federal employees are expected to remain at their worksite unless otherwise directed by their employer. 

The National Weather Service (NWS) declared a tornado watch for D.C. and parts of the southeastern region of the country through 9 p.m. Monday. The NWS said widespread storms with strong winds, hail and tornadoes are likely to happen throughout the day across parts of the mid-Atlantic region and cautioned area residents to plan to be inside when the storm hits.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) also announced that it will prepare to deploy additional services.

“Due to severe weather expected today, we understand many are heading home. Our trains & buses are operating on time,” WMATA said in a statement. “We strongly advise our customers to avoid traveling later this afternoon.”

NWS’s Baltimore-Washington center already informed residents of Hagerstown, MD to take shelter as a severe thunderstorm capable of producing tennis ball sized hail is moving to their region.

Parts of Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky are under the tornado watch.

It's been a decade since the D.C. metropolitan area was placed under a Level 4 risk Tornado watch. According to NWS Prediction Center, a set of severe storms brought six tornadoes to the area in June 2013. 

Updated at 5:24 p.m.

Democrat says booting Schiff, Swalwell from Intel committee ‘hurts our national security’

Posted on (Updated by Olafimihan Oshin

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) removal of Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell (Calif.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.) from the panel will hurt the county.

Himes told “MSNBC Reports” host Alex Witt that he understands why Republicans are so angry with Schiff, who led the first impeachment of former President Trump.

“That made them angry. And to appease his right wing, Kevin McCarthy sort of had to throw Adam Schiff on the fire along with Eric Swalwell,” Himes said, referring to the Speaker's decision to block the lawmakers from the Intelligence Committee.

“That hurts our national security. Between the two of them, they’ve got 20 years of intelligence oversight, and that evidently is gone now,” Himes added. “And that’s a — that makes us a less safe country.”

McCarthy formally blocked both Schiff and Swalwell from serving on the Intelligence Committee in a letter to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), writing that both lawmaker's previous actions made them unfit to have jurisdiction over and access to sensitive national security issues. 

“In order to maintain a standard worthy of this committee’s responsibilities, I am hereby rejecting the appointments of Representative Adam Schiff and Representative Eric Swalwell to serve on the Intelligence Committee,” McCarthy wrote in his letter. 

McCarthy is also seeking to block Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. However, unlike Intelligence, which is a select committee, McCarthy will need majority support in the House to oust Omar, and it's unclear he has the votes.

All three Democrats targeted by McCarthy appeared on Sunday shows to defend themselves.

“This is some Bakersfield BS,” Swalwell said on CNN’s “State of the Union”.

“It’s Kevin McCarthy weaponizing his ability to commit this political abuse because he perceives me, just like Mr. Schiff and Ms. Omar, as an effective political opponent,” he said.

Pence special counsel ‘more likely than not,’ says former WH ethics lawyer

Posted on (Updated by Olafimihan Oshin

Norm Eisen, a former Obama White House ethics lawyer, said Wednesday it's “more likely than not” a special counsel will be assigned to investigate classified documents found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s residence.

During an appearance on “CNN Newsroom,” host Abby Phillip asked Eisen, a legal analyst for the network, if the Justice Department would deploy a special counsel in Pence's case, as it has for former President Trump and President Biden.

“Abby, there’s no question the pressure is on Attorney General Merrick Garland to treat the Pence case as he treated the Biden and the Trump cases," Eisen told Phillip.

“But it's not assured that we're going to have a special counsel because, as the attorney general said yesterday, what DOJ does is try to look at every case on the facts and on the law,” Eisen added. “We need to know more details about Pence. It's more likely than not that we are going to get a third special counsel to look at the Pence situation.” 

Eisen was also a co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during then-President Trump’s first impeachment trial.

His remarks come a day after officials confirmed that classified documents were found at Pence’s Indiana residence, with his attorney, Greg Jacob, writing in a letter that Pence’s team notified the National Archives the week prior about the discovery of a small number of documents at the former vice president's residence. 

Pence’s attorney added in his letter to the Archives that his client was “unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump said that his former vice president is “an innocent man. He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!”

The discovery has complicated GOP attacks against Biden's handling of classified material.

“Politically, this makes it difficult if not impossible for the GOP to criticize Biden, w/out damaging Pence; the situations look very similar,” tweeted Joyce White Vance, a law professor and legal analyst on MSNBC.

Biden approval at highest level in new poll since December

Posted on (Updated by Olafimihan Oshin

President Biden’s approval rating has reached its highest level since last December in a new poll. 

The Politico-Morning Consult survey, published on Wednesday, found that 46 percent of all respondents approve of the job Biden is doing as president.

Eight-five percent of Democrats surveyed currently approve of the job Biden is doing, while only 10 percent of Republican respondents agree with the sentiment. 

Thirty-five percent of independents in the survey approve of the job Biden is doing as president. 

A similar Morning Consult poll in early June showed that 39 percent of respondents approved of the job Biden was doing as president, which marked an all-time low for him. 

Recently, Biden and his administration have seen a slew of legislative victories, which include the passing of his climate, health care and tax package, his signing of a bipartisan gun safety bill and the announcement of an initiative to cancel student loan debt for millions of Americans. 

When asked in the new survey about the upcoming midterm elections, 46 percent of registered Democrats said they will vote in November, compared to 41 percent of registered Republicans.

The new Politico-Morning Consult poll, which was conducted earlier this month, has a margin of error of 2 percentage points for all respondents and 4 points for party breakdowns.