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Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Judge Merchan Rejects Trump’s Request to Dismiss Felony Case

Washington Times: A judge Monday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to have his hush money conviction dismissed because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. But the case’s overall future remains unclear. Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan’s decision eliminates one potential off-ramp from the case ahead of Trump’s return to office next month, but his lawyers have raised other arguments for dismissal. Prosecutors have said there should be some accommodation for his upcoming presidency, but they insist the conviction should stand. A jury convicted Trump in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump denies wrongdoing (Washington Times). Fox News: The ruling comes after President-elect Trump and his team in July requested Merchan overturn his guilty verdict in New York v. Trump, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents have immunity for official acts. Merchan ruled that the evidence presented in the trial was related “entirely to unofficial conduct and thus, receive no immunity protections” (Fox News).

Trump to Sue De Moines Register Over Attempting to Influence Election With Iowa Poll

Just the News: President-elect Donald Trump announced on Monday that he plans to sue the Des Moines Register over Ann Selzer’s Iowa election poll in the homestretch of the 2024 election…Selzer’s final poll showed Vice President Kamala Harris up by 3 points. Trump ultimately won the state with 56% of the vote compared to 42.7% for Harris. In a recent interview, Selzer rejected the criticism of her poll (Just the News). Eric Daugherty: The final poll in Iowa was Harris+3 – wrong by 16 points (X). Collin Rugg: Donald Trump announces he is launching a lawsuit against pollster Ann Selzer for allegedly rigging her Iowa poll to influence the 2024 election. Trump also announced that he would be suing 60 Minutes for editing Kamala Harris’ answers (X).

Trump, SoftBank CEO Announce $100 Billion Investment Into U.S. Technological Projects

Wall Stret Journal: Donald Trump and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son jointly announced Monday that SoftBank plans to invest at least $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years, as the president-elect seeks to project enthusiasm over his return to power. The Japanese internet and telecommunications company estimates that its U.S.-based investments will create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies and plans to complete the work before Trump leaves office in 2029 (Wall Street Journal). Trump War Room: PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I’m gonna ask him right now. Would you make it $200 billion instead of $100 billion?… Would you do that?” Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son: “I will try to make to make it happen. He is a great negotiator!” The art of the deal (X).

Justin Trudeau’s Government Falls Apart Because of a Tweet from President-Elect Trump

New York Times: Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister who led Canada’s response to the first Trump administration, resigned abruptly on Monday from the cabinet in a stinging rebuke to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, marking the first open dissent from any cabinet member and raising questions about his hold on power. The revelation, in a letter of resignation, came hours before Ms. Freeland, who had been the finance minister, was scheduled to outline the government’s commitments to improve border security with the United States as part of an interim budget (New York Times). Washington Post: Freeland — a former journalist whom Trudeau named foreign minister in 2017 as part of a cabinet shuffle designed to prepare the government for the first Trump administration — said that for several weeks, she and Trudeau had been “at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” including on how best to respond to the “grave challenge” posed by the U.S. president-elect’s threatened tariffs of 25 percent on Canadian imports. Canada sends three-quarters of its exports to the United States, and economists project that such levies could plunge Canada into a recession (Washington Post). AJ Huber: Pierre Poilievre just announced that he’s going to try to get a NON-CONFIDENCE VOTE to take down the Justin Trudeau government after Chrystia Freeland announced her RESIGNATION. Good riddance! It’s time for Trudeau to RESIGN (X)! Reporter Viva Frei: It’s actually insane… Freeland resigns two hours before the full budget was to be presented. Then the replacement resigns/refuses to take the helm. The Trudeau regime is going down, and it looks like it might be going down today (X). Libs of TikTok: Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned. Here she is laughing about freezing the bank accounts of truckers who protested Trudeau’s tyrannical Covid policies. Good riddance (X)!

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Sympathizes With Those Who Want UnitedHealthcare CEO Murdered

Townhall: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared to offer a justification for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Sanders made the remarks in an interview on Sunday. “Obviously, killing and murdering and shooting somebody in the back is totally unacceptable, uh…but what I think has happened in the last few months is that what you have seen rising up is people’s anger at a health insurance industry which denies people the health care that they desperately need while they make billions and billions of dollars in profit,” Sanders told NBC News (Townhall). RNC Research: BERNIE: “Shooting somebody in the back is totally unacceptable, but…..” (X).

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Wants to Reopen ICE Office on Rikers Island

New York Post: Mayor Eric Adams told incoming border czar Tom Homan he wants to reopen the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Rikers Island — sparking swift outrage from immigration advocates and setting up an almost-certainly fierce fight with the City Council. The mayor’s desire to thaw the troubled jail complex’s ICE office — recounted to The Post by Homan — came during a cordial face-to-face between the pair Thursday at Gracie Mansion focused largely on sanctuary cities, deporting alleged criminal migrants and finding more than 320,000 missing migrant children, sources said. The hardline Homan, who was handpicked by President-elect Donald Trump, said he left the hour-long sit-down convinced that the Democrat and former NYPD captain pulled a “complete 180” on his previously progressive immigration views (New York Post). Townhall: Predictably, left-wing advocates spoke out against the idea to reopen the ICE office at Rikers. “Quite frankly, I am disappointed about everything that is coming out of his mouth as of late. He needs to cut it out because we will fight that vigorously and it’s going to be a problem,” Deputy Council Speaker Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan/Bronx) told The Post (Townhall).

Trump Inherits a Dangerous World; He Must Embrace Our Allies

Mitch McConnell: When he begins his second term as president, Donald Trump will inherit a world far more hostile to U.S. interests than the one he left behind four years ago. China has intensified its efforts to expand its military, political, and economic influence worldwide. Russia is fighting a brutal and unjustified war in Ukraine. Iran remains undeterred in its campaign to destroy Israel, dominate the Middle East, and develop a nuclear weapons capability. And these three U.S. adversaries, along with North Korea, are now working together more closely than ever to undermine the U.S.-led order that has underpinned Western peace and prosperity for nearly a century. The Biden administration sought to manage these threats through engagement and accommodation. But today’s revanchist powers do not seek deeper integration with the existing international order; they reject its very basis. They draw strength from American weakness, and their appetite for hegemony has only grown with the eating… But the response to four years of weakness must not be four years of isolation (Foreign Affairs).

Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin Announces a New “No Tax on Tips” Initiative

Katie Pavlich: Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is taking “No Tax on Tips” to the Commonwealth and is pushing for the new policy in the state’s upcoming budget (Townhall). Glenn Youngkin: No Taxes on Tips will become the mantra in Virginia (X)!

Israel Closes Embassy in Ireland Due to Nation’s Anti-Israel Policies

National Review: Israel will shut down its embassy in Ireland due to the European nation’s “extreme anti-Israel policies,” including its decision to recognize a Palestinian state. “The actions and antisemitic rhetoric used by Ireland against Israel are rooted in the delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state, along with double standards,” Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar announced Sunday. “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.” The statement cited Ireland’s decision in May to formally recognize a Palestinian state, as Israel continued waging its war against Hamas in Gaza. Ireland also backed South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, alleging the Jewish state is committing genocide against Palestinians (National Review). Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris: This is a deeply regrettable decision from the Netanyahu government. I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-International law (X). Daily Wire: Despite Harris’ protestations that Ireland’s government is not anti-Israel, the evidence suggests otherwise. In February 2024, then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar denounced a possible Israeli operation into the Hamas stronghold in Rafah, saying it would be a “gross violation of international law on top of all the other violations of international law which Israel is responsible for.” He continued by ripping Israel for not bowing to the wishes of outsiders, saying, “It’s very, very clear to me though, that Israel is not listening to any country in the world, I don’t even think they’re listening to the Americans anymore. They have become blinded by rage” (X).

10.

German Chancellor Loses Vote of No Confidence

Washington Post: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence on Monday, triggering the dissolution of parliament and rare early elections at a moment when Europe’s largest economy is faltering. The parliamentary elections will take place on Feb. 23, seven months earlier than the standard schedule. The latest opinion polls suggest a rightward shift in the results — and a next chancellor who would cut welfare benefits, take a harder line on migration policy and lift restrictions on weapons use by Ukraine (Washington Post). Wall Street Journal: Without a majority in Parliament, Scholz called a confidence vote—which he fully expected to lose—to clear the way for the dissolution of Parliament and a new vote, now expected in February. Germany’s post-World War II constitution instituted a multistep process for early elections in an attempt to prevent the endemic political instability of the prewar years, where governments were formed and fell in quick successions (Wall Street Journal).