Donald Trump wishes Easter to ‘radical left maniacs’ and endorses JD Vance for Ohio senate seat

The Senator is an institution in California, and she risks having an impressive legacy overshadowed by her refusal to walk away, writes Eric Garcia.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on Friday marked the traditional 15 April deadline for Americans to file their federal income tax returns by releasing a copy of their own — though this year Tax Day falls on Monday 18 April.

“With this release, the President has shared a total of 24 years of tax returns with the American public, once again demonstrating his commitment to being transparent with the American people about the finances of the commander in chief,” the White House said in a statement.

The release of the Bidens’ tax returns marked the second year in a row that the president and First Lady have put their tax documents in the public record since moving into the White House, returning to a practice dating back to the post-Watergate era which lapsed under Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, who never released a single year of tax returns during his four years in office while falsely claiming he could not because they were under audit by the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr Biden, whose presidential salary is $400,000 per year, and Ms Biden, who works as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, reported a total of $610,702 in gross income on their joint tax return, $150,439 of which was returned to Mr Biden’s employer in the form of tax payments.

A report detailing concerns of colleagues that Sen Diane Feinstein is mentally unfit to serve in the Senate needs to be discussed seriously by the US national media, The Independent’s Eric Garcia.

“[S]hying away from doing so would be an unforgiveable error,” he writes.

Read more from Eric about the senior California senator:

A Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska endorsed by Donald Trump was accused by multiple women of unwanted groping in an article published on Thursday in a local newspaper.

Charles Herbster, a frontrunner in the Republican primary for governor, has denied the allegations from eight women in the Nebraska Examiner.

Women said the incidents occurred while Mr Herbster was a beauty padgeant judge as well as during his campaign for governor.

One of the Senate’s oldest members, Diane Feinstein, was the subject of debate on Twitter on Thursday as users discussed a San Francisco Chronicle article that cited the senior state senator’s own Democratic colleagues questioning whether her mental faculties were slipping.

A Demcoratic member of the House from her home state even described having to reintroduce himself to the senator multiple times in one conversation.

“She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that’s why my encounter with her was so jarring. Because there was just no trace of that,” they said.

NBC News reported on Thursday citing multiple Republican sources close to Donald Trump that the former president plans to endorse author JD Vance in Ohio’s tight Senate race.

Polls have shown Mr Vance trailing others in the race including Josh Mandel, another right-wing conservative who has vied for Mr Trump’s blessing. And Mr Mandel’s campaign reportedly did not take the news well, according to NBC.

“The Mandel people hit the roof,” one Republican source told the network.

Veteran pollster Frank Luntz said in an interview with The Daily Beast that New Hampshire Gov Chris Sununu’s roast of Donald Trump at the DC-based Gridiron Dinner was a symptom of a larger phenomenon within the GOP: the tendency of its members to privately mock the bombastic Trump behind the scenes.

“They won’t say it [in public]but behind his back they think he’s a child. They’re laughing at him. That’s what made [Sununu’s comments] significant,” he said.

Read more from The Independent’s Graeme Massie:

A Tennessee state legislator justified his support for a bill targeting homeless camps on public property by citing the example of the genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler.

In a shocking set of remarks to his fellow lawmakers on the state Senate floor, he justified his support for a bill meant to drive homeless encampments away from highways and other state property by decribing the suppsedly inspiring tale of the German Nazi dictator who was responsible for the murder of millions.

“For two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory and his body language and how to connect with the masses, and then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books,” Senator Frank Nicely exclaimed.

Read more in The Independent from Andrew Feinberg:

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is going forward with his plan to bus undocumented migrants to Washington DC despite concerns from most legal experts regarding his total lack of authority to do so.

The Texas Republican’s administration oversaw the first arrival of a busload of undocumented migrants to the nation’s capital on Wednesday; the bus arrived at the headquarters of right-leaning network Fox News.

Read more from The Independent:

Stephen Miller, a former top aide in the Trump White House, will testify before the Jan 6 committee today. It’s a huge reversal for Mr Miller, who has sought to keep lawmakers on the committee from obtaining his phone records, and shows how even some of Donald Trump’s fiercest allies fear the wrath of the Justice Department.

Read more from The Independent: