Liz Cheney says ‘no one’ should vote for ‘election deniers’ in midterms
Hope Hicks, one of Donald Trump’s closest sides has given an interview to the January 6 select committee today. A former communications aide, she had a number of roles in the Trump campaign and White House, leaving the administration a week after the Capitol riot.
Mr Trump himself was officially subpoenaed by the January 6 select committee last week. He has been asked to sit for “one or more days of deposition testimony” around 14 November.
On another legal front, the Justice Department’s inquiry into the documents hoarded by Mr Trump at Mar-a-Lago is reportedly focusing on a former White House valet, Walt Nauta, who worked closely with Mr Trump during and after his presidency – and who was apparently sometimes charged with moving documents between rooms as Mr Trump moved around the building.
The former president has also hit out at journalist Bob Woodward saying he had “no right” to release recordings of their conversations together during his presidency, now collated in an audio book.
Hope Hicks meets with Jan 6 panel
The January 6 select committee has reportedly taken testimony from Hope Hicks, formerly one of Donald Trump’s closest aides.
Ms Hicks served a number of roles under Mr Trump after joining his campaing in the early days of the 2016 cycle. She served as White House communications director for a time before ending her service to Mr Trump less than a week after Jan 6 while at the time serving as a “senior counselor”.
She was one of the few high-ranking Trump loyalists, outside of members of his own family, to make it through virtually the entire term of Donald Trump’s presidency. Her breaking point finally came in the wave of resignations that followed the attack on the Capitol, which included many high-ranking officials such as Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
Here’s John Bowden with some background.
Andrew Naughtie26 October 2022 14:20
Report: Trump eyeing Swift Boat strategist for 2024 job
As the never-ending speculation about another Trump presidential run continues, The Washington Post reports that the ex-president is considering appointing veteran Republican operative Chris LaCivita to a senior role in a future campaign.
Mr LaCivita is most notorious for spearheading the effort to smear 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry for supposedly lying about his military record in Vietnam, which was the core of his political brand at the time.
It is still not known for certain if Mr Trump will run for another term, though he has alluded to doing so countless times. Previous reports have said that members of the GOP leadership have convinced him that declaring before the midterm elections would risk turning the vote into a referendum on him, possibly to their detriment.
Andrew Naughtie26 October 2022 13:50
Watch: Trump pressed AZ candidate to push big lie
In a somewhat eerie clip from a Tucker Carlson documentary, Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters – who is a controversial for numerous reasons, including his long history of racist online posts – is seen talking on the phone with Donald Trump, who chastises him for not doing enough to push the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
In the clip, Mr Trump specifically tells Mr Masters to be more like Kari Lake, running for governor in the same state, who has become notorious for bringing up the fictional theft of the election in answer to almost every question she is asked.
The polling in the Arizona race shows the Trump-backed Mr Masters roughly four points behind Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly, who is a top Republican target.
Andrew Naughtie26 October 2022 13:20
Ryan: Trump won’t be 2024 nominee
Former House speaker Paul Ryan, who was the GOP’s vice presidential nominee in 2012, has said that he doesn’t expect his party to nominate Donald Trump in the 2024 election – for the simple reason that doing so would lose them the presidency.
“We won’t nominate Trump because we want to win,” he told Fox News. “The new swing voter in America is the suburban voter. And it’s really clear that the suburban voter doesn’t like Trump. We are so much more likely to lose with Trump because of the fact that he is not popular with the suburban voter.
“Why would we want to risk giving a nomination to somebody that we know-we haven’t… my party hasn’t lost this much this fast than we have with Trump.”
Sravasti Dasgupta has the story.
Andrew Naughtie26 October 2022 12:50
Trump vents fury at Bob Woodward
Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday lunchtime to complain about veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s recent release of his recorded conversations with the former president.
Mr Trump wrote: “As he fully understands, writer Bob Woodward never got my permission to release tapes of my various interviews with him. Those tapes were allowed only for purposes of making sure that he got my quotes & statements correct for “the WRITTEN WORD,” in other words, for his, nevertheless, highly inaccurate book.”
He continued: “The tapes are much better than the book, at least if they were not bludgeoned to death by him to make me look as bad as possible, but he & his publisher had NO right to use my ‘VOICE’ or them!”
Mr Woodward, who made his career during coverage of the Watergate scandal, recently called Mr Trump “an unparallelled danger” in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
Read more from Oliver O’Connell.
Andrew Naughtie26 October 2022 12:20
Trump’s valet focus of Mar-a-Lago documents probe, reports say
The Department of Justice investigation into whether former president Donald Trump violated laws prohibiting unauthorised retention of national defence information and obstruction of justice has reportedly zeroed in on a US Navy veteran.
The veteran is Walt Nauta, who served as Mr Trump’s White House valet and remained in the ex-president’s employ after the end of his term.
Trump document probe zeroes in on ex-president’s valet
The Department of Justice investigation into whether former president Donald Trump violated laws prohibiting unauthorised retention of national defence information and obstruction of justice has reportedly zeroed in on a US Navy veteran.
Andrew Naughtie26 October 2022 11:50
Cheney: GOP could split in 2024
Liz Cheney has a dire outlook for the GOP if Donald Trump were to run for president and win the party’s nomination in 2024.
The conservative Wyoming congresswoman says the divides in her party are too deep to endure another run by the ex-president. Speaking on Meet the Press this past Sunday, she warned that they would be stressed to their breaking points should he do so.
“The party has either to come back from where we are right now, which is a very dangerous and toxic place, or the party will splinter and there will be a new conservative party that rises,” she told host Chuck Todd.
Were Mr Trump to successfully win the nomination, the party would “shatter”, she added.
Andrew Naughtie26 October 2022 11:20