Speaking at a gathering of the conservative Federalist Society in Florida, Pence said, "President Trump is wrong: I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president."
A new Gallup analysis examined how Americans' partisan preferences shifted over the course of the year 2021, with findings that indicate momentum for Republicans heading into this midterm election year.
Gallup found that Americans' partisan preferences were relatively stable when looking at the entire year 2021. But when the year was broken down into quarters, there was a discernible shift. In the first quarter of 2021, Democrats had a 9-point advantage over Republicans, but by the final quarter of the year that had shifted sharply to a 5-point Republican advantage, according to Gallup's aggregate data.
There is something neat about home painted signs or even displays like that of a model Donald Trump riding a snowmobile in North Brookfield, NY or riding a fake missile in Bald Eagle, Penna. It’s just piles of junk bolted together but it shows creativity and passion, far more than just store bought political sign placed on a lawn briefly before chucked in a burn barrel or sent to the landfill.
New Yorker writer Jane Mayer says the Arizona audit is an unprecedented undertaking, with potentially explosive consequences for American democracy.
Mayer notes that although the audit appears to be the work of local extremists, it's actually being funded by sophisticated national organizations whose boards of directors include some of the country's wealthiest and highest-profile conservatives.
Former President Donald Trump's family business and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been charged by the Manhattan district attorney's office in a case involving an array of alleged tax-related crimes.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, prosecutors allege that starting from as early as 2005 and up until last month, the Trump Organization and Weisselberg have committed tax fraud and falsified business records as part of a scheme to compensate executives at the Trump Organization "off the books." The goal, prosecutors claim, was to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes by compensating employees with lavish perks in addition to their regular pay.
Weisselberg allegedly received indirect compensation — including housing expenses, home furnishings and leases for two Mercedes-Benz automobiles — with a total value of around $1.76 million and is accused of evading more than $901,000 in federal, state and local taxes combined. Private school tuition for two of Weisselberg's family members, according to the indictment, was paid with personal checks signed by Trump. Weisselberg, an employee of the Trump Organization since 1973, is also alleged to have arranged for various Trump businesses to make payments to him and to other executives as independent contractors, conferring tax benefits on retirement accounts.
Though this year’s proliferation of bills restricting ballot access in red states has commanded national attention, it represents just one stream in a torrent of conservative legislation poised to remake the country. GOP-controlled states—including Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Iowa, and Montana—have advanced their most conservative agenda in years, and one that reflects Donald Trump’s present stamp on the Republican Party.
In 1970 McCall was faced with a potential riot in Portland. In May of that year a week-long student protest at Portland State University over the Kent State shootings had ended with charges of excessive police violence. The American Legion had scheduled a convention in Portland later that summer; local antiwar groups were organizing a series of demonstrations at the same time under the name of the "People's Army Jamboree" and expected to draw up to 50,000 protesters.
After attempts to convince the People's Army Jamboree to either not carry out their plans or to move the date, McCall decided to hold a rock festival at Milo McIver State Park near Estacada, Oregon called "Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival of Life," in imitation of the famous Woodstock Festival held the previous year.
"I think I just committed political suicide," McCall is reported to have remarked immediately after approving the event. Vortex was the first and so far only state-sponsored rock festival in U.S. history.
The festival, nicknamed "The Governor's Pot Party" by Oregonians, was a success, attracting between 50,000 and 100,000 people. Gold, The Portland Zoo, Osceola, Fox, and Chrome Cyrcus were among the bands that played. The media announced that Santana, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead were on the way, but none of them appeared. The feared violent clash between the antiwar groups and the conservative American Legion was avoided, and the city of Portland passed the summer relatively uneventfully. McCall was re-elected in November, with 56% of the vote.