DeSantis comments on Trump’s indictments
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that the indictments of former president Donald Trump had “distorted” the Republican presidential primary, tacitly admitting that the former president’s legal problems have helped him.
“If I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff,” DeSantis told David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network in an interview that aired Thursday. He added that the indictments had “just crowded out, I think, so much other stuff, and it’s sucked out all the oxygen.”
With just weeks until Iowans cast the first votes in the race, DeSantis’ campaign has struggled to gain ground on Trump and has had to focus more on battling former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for second place.
When DeSantis entered the race in May, he was widely regarded as the most viable challenger to Trump. That reputation frayed as his campaign struggled to articulate an effective message, organize in key early primary states and guard against internal turmoil. Last week, the top strategist for DeSantis’ super political action committee, Jeff Roe, stepped down from his post.
DeSantis did not elaborate on his comments during a campaign appearance at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Coralville, Iowa, on Thursday morning, and he barely mentioned Trump. He did not take questions from reporters after the event.
But DeSantis has previously expressed frustration over how much attention Trump’s various legal troubles have attracted. “That is not what we want from this election,” DeSantis told reporters during a campaign stop outside Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday. “What we want is a referendum on the failures of the Biden administration.”
Trump’s allies and supporters have maintained that the charges against him have only fueled his rise and fortified his strength as a candidate.
In August, days before Trump was charged in Georgia over his efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, he boasted to a crowd of supporters in Alabama that he needed “one more indictment” to solidify his win in the race.
Now facing four indictments and 91 felony counts, Trump has maintained a significant lead. A new poll from The New York Times and Siena College found that even as a growing number of Republican voters believe he has committed serious federal crimes, they still support his return to office.
And Trump’s legal problems continue to grow. On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that he was ineligible to hold office again because of his actions related to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The decision could strike him from the state’s primary ballot, but Trump’s campaign has pledged to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. NEW YORK TIMES
Justice Thomas faces more calls to recuse himself
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas faces escalating calls to recuse himself from upcoming cases centered on former president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The requests gained new urgency in recent days as consequential cases related to Trump speed toward the high court. Critics — including Democrats in the House and Senate — say Thomas’s wife’s publicly documented efforts to challenge the 2020 election results should disqualify him from making decisions on pivotal issues related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Thomas, who was appointed by President George H. W. Bush, has garnered a reputation for refusing to back down to his critics. But legal experts said it will be more difficult for Thomas to ignore the requests to abstain from participation in the Trump cases this time — particularly considering provisions of the Supreme Court’s new code of ethics.
‘’Under the standard in the new Supreme Court code, an objective, unbiased observer would question whether Justice Thomas can be objective in a case so closely related to his wife’s political interests,’’ said Steven Lubet, a judicial ethics expert at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.
The code, released in November, was signed by all nine justices. It includes a section saying a justice should recuse him or herself if their ‘’impartiality might be reasonably questioned.’’ The code specifies that a justice’s spouse having an ‘’interest that could be affected substantially’' by a case or who could be a ‘’material witness in the proceeding’' would be grounds for recusal.
Thomas’s wife, Virginia, known as Ginni, was involved in efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election results. She attended the pro-Trump rally that preceded the Jan. 6 attack, sat on the board of a conservative political group leading the ‘’Stop the Steal’' movement, and traded more than two dozen texts with Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urging him to fight to overturn the results.
A group of eight House Democrats and several senators, including Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, called on Thomas to recuse himself this week due to Ginni’s highly public role on Jan. 6. BLOOMBERG NEWS
Wis. GOP to reveal pot legalization plan
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Republicans plan to unveil a proposal soon to legalize medical marijuana in the state and could vote on it sometime in 2024, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said.
Republicans have been working behind closed doors for years on a medical marijuana bill. Along the way, they have rejected calls from Governor Tony Evers and other Democrats to legalize all uses of marijuana, including medical and recreational.
Vos, in an interview Wednesday, said the proposal will be limited and modeled after the medical marijuana law that had been in place in neighboring Minnesota before it moved to full legalization.
“It is not going to be widespread,” he said. “We are not going to have dispensaries on every corner in every city.” He said Assembly Republicans are on board in concept, but no one has seen the actual proposal yet. He expected to unveil it in January. Vos had said in April that he hoped to have the bill by the fall of 2023, but he said it took more time to find consensus.
“In concept most people are there, but I don’t want to guarantee anything until we have a wider discussion,” he said. “I feel pretty good that we’re in a place where I think it can get through our chamber.”
Democratic state Senator Melissa Agard, who has advocated for full marijuana legalization, said Thursday that she could support a more limited medical marijuana program, but “I remain skeptical as to whether or not this is it.” Agard, who has traveled the state calling for legalization, said she has offered to work with Republicans on the bill but has been rejected.
Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer said Democrats were open to discussing the Republican bill.
“We hope that it’s a serious proposal from our colleagues that addresses the past harms that have been caused by the criminalization of marijuana and that really allows access for the people who need it,” she said Thursday. ASSOCIATED PRESS