Some conservatives have warned each other not to protest Trump’s indictment, citing a conspiracy theory that January 6 was orchestrated by Democrats.
Gulzar was the only MAGA protester outside the Fifth Avenue skyscraper for most of Saturday. Trump has said he’ll spend Monday night in his Trump Tower penthouse before surrendering to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Tuesday morning on charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Later Saturday, when the rain made way to a warm spring afternoon, a Bronx Republican exchanged barbs with a Southern Democrat on Fifth Avenue in front Trump Tower.
“I’m going to stand out here Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday,” said Mario Laboy, 78, of the Bronx. “If you look at the facts you’ll see it’s a political persecution against Trump, but this will just make him stronger,” he said, waiving a Trump 2024 flag and chanting, “I supported Donald J. Trump.”
A tourist from Tennessee shouted at the retired septuagenarian, calling him “fucking crazy.”
“Where do I start, who in the world supports Donald Trump?” said Lucy Wright, 56, a divorce attorney from Chattanooga, who said she was seriously contemplating extending her vacation in New York so she could take part in anti-Trump protests on Tuesday.
“I would be perfectly fine to be thrown in jail for assault, just to grab his [Trump’s] balls once, if he can grab our pussies, I would grab his balls,” she said referring to the infamous remark Trump made in 2005 that was released during the presidential election in 2016.
The scattered pockets of political tension outside the building were small manifestations of larger discussions online surrounding the former president’s imminent arrest.
Trump predicted “death and destruction” if he were to face criminal charges in a post on Truth Social.
Rep. Greene took up the call after a Manhattan grand jury voted Thursday to indict Trump.
“New York put your MAGA hats on. Under our constitutional rights, we WILL support President Trump and protest the tyrants,” said Greene in a tweet Friday. “I’ll see you on Tuesday.”
Threats of violence and protest filled conservative websites as well. On the far-right chat site patriots.win, once TheDonald.win — a site which lawmakers said played a significant role in organizing January 6 — users called for a “nationwide strike” and for “all patriots” to “bring society to a halt.”
The indictment of Donald Trump was the top section in the chat site on Saturday, with users saying they planned to arrive in New York Tuesday.
The NYPD is preparing for potential unrest, by potentially blocking off the streets around the lower Manhattan courthouse and removing all cars in the case of a bomb threat, a law enforcement officer told POLITICO last week. The former president plans to arrive via motorcade, that officer said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Despite Trump’s prediction Saturday that he would be arrested Tuesday and his call for supporters to “protest,” the courthouse was relatively quiet Tuesday as the grand jury on the probe only sits on Mondays and Wednesdays. Jurors heard what was believed to be the final witness Monday before they vote on an indictment.
Across the street from the anti-Trump rally, five supporters of the former president walked around holding signs including one that highlighted liberal billionaire George Soros support for Bragg, a common right-wing talking point. Trump has seized on a $500,000 donation to Bragg from a political action committee funded by Soros that was part of a nationwide effort to help elect progressive district attorneys.
“I wish more people had shown up,” said Trump supporter Philippe Lejeune. The 38-year-old New Jersey resident said he had expected more people to show up after Trump’s post on the social media platform Truth Social over the weekend.
By the afternoon, a few more pro-Trump protesters arrived outside the courthouse including one man dressed like the ‘QAnon Shaman’ who was riding a bicycle. The newcomers engaged in shouting matches with pro-indictment demonstrators, but the tension quickly died down. It was not clear if the pro-Trump supporters were sincere or performance artists.
“I am not worried about Trump supporters engaging in any violent activities. I am completely against violence. I am worried about ANTIFA showing up or anyone in masks and you aren’t sure who they work for,” Lejeune said.
An anti-Trump protester said she expected the two sides to remain peaceful.
“I’m not nervous, we’ve been protesting Trump since 2015. We’ve dealt with many of the Trump protesters. We disagree with them but our group is non-violent. We don’t escalate, we deescalate,” said Jamie Bauer, 64, who lives in Manhattan’sWest Village.” Bauer said she is part of a small group of anti-Trump New Yorkers called Rise and Resist.
Tuesday morning, a non-credible bomb threat was made to nearby courthouses, including one where a hearing was underway in New York Attorney General Tish James’ $250 million lawsuit accusing Trump and his real estate firm of financial fraud.
“An anonymous individual emailed they would bomb different locations. but the threats were deemed illegitimate at the moment. Investigation is ongoing,” a law enforcement official said. The individual was granted anonymity to discuss a pending investigation.
The NYPD released a statement shortly after the email was received.
“While you will see an increased uniformed presence throughout the five boroughs, there are currently no credible threats to New York City. The department remains ready and available to respond to protest and counter protests and will ensure everyone is able to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights,” the statement read.
At least two more related events were scheduled for Tuesday — a march of MAGA supporters from Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan to the downtown courthouse and a separate small caravan of pro-Trump cars was expected to drive from Long Island to Lower Manhattan.
Police didn’t expect either event to raise security concerns.
Erica Orden contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The news will likely come as a relief to traditional Republican leaders who are trying to unite the party around Dave McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO and Bush administration official, in an effort to unseat Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) next year.
Party officials in Washington and Pennsylvania believe McCormick can attract suburban voters in a general election — a key voting bloc that they think abandoned them in the 2022 cycle. When Barnette ran for the Senate last year, she campaigned as an unabashed MAGA ally.
Just a day ago, Barnette appeared open to campaigning again for the Senate. Asked whether she was considering a run on conservative radio station WPHT, she said, “At this particular juncture, we have not made a decision on what it is that I’m going to do.”
Last week, Barnette’s former campaign manager, Bob Gillies, echoed her comments, saying “I don’t think she’s ruled it out yet.”
Barnette is an Army veteran who jumped to the top of the GOP field for Senate last year before finishing third between celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, who captured the nomination, and McCormick. Oz went on to lose to now-Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).
In the interview, Barnette appeared to take a swipe at past GOP nominees who lost in the general election after dominating the primary. Though she didn’t refer to him by name, that description could certainly apply to 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, who she campaigned with last year during the primary. After overwhelmingly winning the primary, Mastriano lost to now-Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro by 15 percentage points.
“As a warning to Republican Pennsylvania voters, we need to take into very strong consideration not just who can win a primary in a landslide, but who will win and work extremely hard to win in the general because that’s ultimately what matters,” she said. “We have the better policy ideas, but as we have witnessed, it’s not ideas alone, but who is willing to do the hard work of getting in front of all the people and convince them.”
Barnette also criticized candidates in last year’s Senate primary who she said didn’t live in Pennsylvania. Both Oz and McCormick were tagged by their opponents as carpetbaggers during the race, which they refuted.
Asked later if she was referring to Mastriano and McCormick in her remarks, Barnette declined to comment.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
But not long after Durr donned a suit and entered the Statehouse in Trenton, the TV cameras stopped following him. He soon faced the reality of his situation: He’s a backbencher in a minority party — someone with little clout and, on top of that, someone who Democrats want to work against.
Durr now finds himself facing rivals within his own party who believe his election was a fluke, who fault him for politically-damaging social media posts that emerged after his surprise victory and who believe he’s wasted a year by focusing on culture war issues that have already proven to hurt Republicans in the post-Roe era.
In terms of making laws, he’s accomplished little to nothing. And Democrats, of course, are plotting to take him down.
“There are going to be certain bills of mine they’re never going to touch because they’re too conservative,” Durr, 60, acknowledged in a phone interview. “I’ve had bills that even Democrats will probably appreciate, but they won’t move them because it’s Ed Durr.”
Since taking office, Durr has been among the top sponsors of 167 pieces of legislation — the 10th most of the state’s 40 senators. None have been signed into law, ranking him in a tie for dead last among senators who have served since the beginning of the term.
Durr has introduced many bills that reflect right-wing causes and have near zero chance of passage. They include several measures that would severely restrict abortion access; ease New Jersey’ strict firearm carry and permitting restrictions; repeal vaccine requirements; punish educators and school districts that teach critical race theory; and a bill that would ban teaching younger students about gender identity and sexual orientation that critics called the New Jersey version of the Florida law activists have labeled “Don’t Say Gay.”
“I didn’t have any expectations. I just knew that I wanted to get in there and be a voice for my constituents,” Durr said. “And I think I have, to be quite honest with you.”
Democrats eye a comeback as Durr, GOP feud
Democrats are working to oust Durr this year. Sweeney, who is considering running for governor in 2025, had been mulling whether to challenge Durr in November but reportedly will stay out of the Senate race and his old district running mate, former Assemblymember John Burzichelli, will run instead.
As such, Durr said that he’s even gotten shunned by Democrats on his more policy-focused bills, like a measure inspired by Billy Cray, a developmentally-disabled man who died in his group home. The bill, which would allow adult group homes to give residents the choice to have electronic monitoring devices in common areas and private rooms, had been sponsored by state Sen. Fred Madden, another South Jersey Democrat, before Durr entered office.
Durr said he asked Madden to again sign onto that bill, “and he chose not to.” The Democratic chair of the state Senate Health Committee, Joe Vitale, has refused to advance it as well, Durr said.
“You tell me why he won’t. He’ll give you a lame excuse, but it’s clearly me,” he said.
Vitale said he’s not blocking the bill because of Durr.
“I told him to do the hard work. There are likely as many individuals and organizations in favor and as many opposed,” Vitale said. “I’ve asked him to do the hard work and reach out to those who don’t support the bill, work with them on potential language changes and let me know how he wants to proceed.”
Madden also cited advocates’ opposition to the measure as the reason he chose not to sign on again, saying he’d rather stay off the bill until those issues are resolved.
“That’s it,” Madden said. “Here we are a year later, and you’re telling me he’s claiming I won’t go on a bill because I was told not to do something? It’s just bizarre.”
Burzichelli, who lost in 2021 to Durr’s Assembly running mates, said Durr has not reached out to the right people to be an effective senator.
“Clearly the people who took our place have been ineffective at building relationships, ineffective at delivering anything of significance for the legislative district. And there’s no indication it will get better,” Burzichelli said.
Burzichelli, who was chair of the influential Appropriations Committee, said he and his defeated district-mates had lined up somewhere around $1 billion in programs that were to “find their way to the district” but “that momentum stopped” with Durr’s swearing-in.
“I’m not aware of anything they’ve gotten done,” Burzichelli said. “That’s not a harsh statement about personalities. It’s just a fact like a report card.”
Meanwhile, Durr and one of his two former running mates, Assemblymember Beth Sawyer, have spent much of the last year feuding. Now, Sawyer is expected to run for Assembly in the Republican primary on a slate opposite Durr’s, headed up by Salem County Commissioner Mickey Ostrum. (Sawyer did not respond to a call seeking comment and Ostrum said he would hold off commenting pending a formal announcement).
But Adam Wingate, a Republican candidate for Gloucester County commissioner in 2022, blamed Durr in part for his loss — noting Democrats tried to link him to Durr’s social media posts, including one 2020 Facebook post in which Durr said, “A woman does have a choice! Keep her legs closed.”
“Ed’s been polarizing since day one,” Wingate said. “Just his social media presence and the way he carries himself.”
Nevertheless, Durr has managed to secure Republican Party backing in two of his district’s three counties, which makes him the favorite for reelection.
Durr’s brief national fame never translated to fundraising prowess, however. In the last three months of 2022, his campaign reported raising just $1,800, and he began the new year with about $35,500 in the bank. Should Burzichelli run, he’d likely be able to count on the help of multi million-dollar super PAC unofficially controlled by South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross.
Durr said he’s worked hard on constituent services in the district, telling POLITICO his office has fielded calls from constituents to help navigate the bureaucracy of the Motor Vehicles Commission and Unemployment Insurance fund, both of which have had major customer service issues since the pandemic.
“When I’m out and about throughout the district, just to have someone come up and say how good they feel that somebody’s actually listening to them and paying attention,” Durr said.
And Durr said the district was still plagued with problems after 20 years of Democratic representation, like one town where the only place to buy food is a dollar store.
“There are issues throughout the district that were not addressed when Sweeney was Senate president and Burzichelli was Appropriations chair,” Durr said. “To complain about our ineffectiveness given that we’ve only been in one year and are the minority seems laughable for the lack of progress they made for the 20 years they were in office.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Even Fox News, a network that has kept Trump at arm’s length in recent months, ended up airing some of his speech live on television following complaints from the CPAC mainstage a day earlier about a lack of Trump coverage.
In his one-hour, 45-minute CPAC finale speech, Trump boasted that the crowd here was firmly with him while bashing Republicans who were once stars of the annual confab.
“We had a Republican Party that was ruled by freaks, neocons, globalists, open border zealots, and fools, but we are never going back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush,” Trump said to the crowd. “People are tired of RINOs and globalists. They want to see America First.”
Speaking to a not-quite-full convention hall, Trump painted a bleak picture of the current state of the world, complained about the numerous investigations he faces and described his run for president as the “final battle” for his supporters.
“Either they win or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country,” Trump said.
Earlier, during a gaggle with reporters, Trump said he would “absolutely” stay in the 2024 race even if indicted in any of the investigations he faces over handling of classified documents and the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Trump received some of the loudest applause from the audience when taking on culture war battles over parental rights and women’s sports. And while he railed about election laws, he drastically changed his tune on mail-in ballots and early voting. “We have to change our thinking because some bad things happened,” Trump said. “You have to do it.”
The annual conference once welcomed Republicans of all stripes, but this year it was clearly steeped in MAGA. Beyond Trump, headliners included some of the former president’s most loyal allies in Congress. And while there were other 2024 contenders like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and “anti-woke” entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the biggest threat to Trump’s presidential run, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and other prominent Republicans were hundreds of miles away.
That didn’t seem to matter to the crowd here.
During one of the most rousing speeches of the multi-day conference, former Trump adviser and conservative talk show host Steve Bannon on Friday suggested that the Republican primary starting to play out was a futile exercise.
“Don’t fall for the primary stuff,” Bannon said from the CPAC stage. “You have good and decent people. Gov. DeSantis, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, you have Nikki Haley — that’s all fine. It’s not relevant.”
Bannon continued by telling the crowd they “don’t have time for on-the-job training” for a new leader, when Republicans have “a man that gave us four years — four years — of peace and prosperity.”
“Buckle up,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 3 House Republican, told POLITICO in an interview at the conclusion of the conference. “Trump is going to win the primary and defeat Joe Biden.”
It was a sentiment shared by most CPAC attendees — who literally wore their Trump support on their sleeve, like one attendee with a tattoo of Trump’s face. People wore Trump T-shirts and bedazzled Trump clutches. They posed for photos in a mock Trump Oval Office set up by a pro-Trump super PAC, complete with a faux Resolute Desk that was sourced from a souvenir shop near the White House. Overall, they seemed uninterested in any other 2024 candidate. And many weren’t exactly polite about their unwavering support for Trump.
Despite garnering applause throughout parts of her speech, Haley stepped out of the main hall Friday to a crowd of MAGA hat-wearing hecklers. Part of the mob surrounding her broke out in chants of “Trump.”
And during a speech by Ramaswamy, another declared presidential candidate, a voice in the crowd shouted out “Trump 2024!” Ramaswamy sought to defuse the brief moment of tension, saying he “love(s) the man” and would discuss the former president later in his speech.
But when Ramaswamy got to that point, he didn’t take even a minor swipe at Trump, as he had initially planned. Excerpts from his prepared speech, obtained by POLITICO beforehand, showed that Ramaswamy was going to say that he respects Trump and believes he cares about national unity, but Trump would have already delivered on unifying the country if he had truly intended to do so.
“That’s what I can deliver that he can’t,” Ramaswamy had planned to say, according to the prepared remarks.
Instead, Ramaswamy skipped over that line, only saying that both he and Trump care about national unity.
Save for a couple of vague comments that could be construed as digs at Trump — Pompeo cautioning against following “celebrity leaders” with “fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality,” and Haley again calling for competency tests for politicians over 75 — no one dared to criticize the former president.
Trump’s rivals, however, were by no means rewarded by him for holding their fire. A few hours before he took the stage on Saturday, Trump posted a meme on his social media app of rows of empty chairs while Haley was on stage Friday. “Nikki Haley speaking at CPAC,” was emblazoned across the bottom of the image.
But Trump mostly held off when he was asked by reporters ahead of his speech about a potential DeSantis challenge and what it says about his own leadership if former Trump administration officials, like Haley, are getting in the race. Many Trump allies see an advantage with a large primary field, with the non-Trump candidates potentially splintering the vote — a scenario similar to the one that played out in the 2016 primary.
“I really say the more the merrier. I mean, they think they did a good job,” Trump said. “They’re very ambitious people, but they think they did a good job.”
Despite holding off on the broadsides, Trump did not commit to signing any kind of loyalty pledge in order to participate in RNC debates.
“There are people I probably wouldn’t be very happy about endorsing … I won’t use names, I don’t want to insult anyone, but I wouldn’t be happy about it,” Trump said.
Trump overwhelmingly won CPAC’s conference straw poll, garnering 62 percent support from attendees compared to 20 percent for DeSantis. Trump’s 40-point margin was similar to straw polls conducted at prior years’ CPAC events, illustrating the former president’s enduring grip on the party’s activist class.
But the poll did feature one twist: Perry Johnson, a little-known Michigan millionaire and failed gubernatorial candidate who announced his presidential run last week, earned 5 percent support. That put Johnson in third place, ahead of Haley and Ramaswamy.
Johnson, whose bus was prominently parked outside the Gaylord National, had the only campaign booth in the CPAC exhibit hall on Thursday. His staffers passed out branded items and invited guests to attend a VIP reception while also encouraging attendees to cast a vote for him in the straw poll.
The conference once attracted a broad spectrum of conservative voices from Paul Ryan to Rick Santorum. But now, it has become almost entirely focused on Trump and the America First movement he inspired. On Friday night at the annual Ronald Reagan Dinner, attendees paid $375 for a steak and fish dinner and to hear from Kari Lake, the failed gubernatorial candidate who is considering a run for Senate in Arizona and is a popular Trump surrogate.
“We took the whole thing over,” said conservative radio host John Fredericks, calling this year’s event the “disruptor CPAC of all time.”
Some of the GOP’s top leaders didn’t show at the large gathering this year, while a past major sponsor, Fox News, also steered clear. Matt Schlapp, who heads CPAC, has not appeared on the network since allegations surfaced in January that he sexually assaulted a GOP campaign staffer in October — a claim Schlapp denies.
“CPAC was a sanitized, corporatized, Wall Street-backed organization with big donors. They’re all eradicated,” Fredericks said. “The populist movement has taken it over.”
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his daughter in law, Lara Trump, and future daughter in law, Kimberly Guilfoyle, were main-stage speakers. Other headliners included some of Trump’s biggest allies in Congress, like Sen. J.D. Vance from Ohio and Rep. Matt Gaetz from Florida. But notably, the only member of Republican congressional leadership to attend was Stefanik, the New York congresswoman who was one of the first to endorse Trump for president. She said the support for Trump at CPAC was a reflection of the “grassroots,” adding, “Trump is in the strongest position by a longshot.”
“I don’t know about you guys, but this feels like MAGA Country,” Trump Jr. said as he took the stage on Friday, instructing attendees to check under their seats for a gold chocolate bar — “a golden ticket,” he said, for entry to an exclusive reception Saturday held by a super PAC supporting his father.
Trump Jr. then quickly pivoted to attacking other Republicans mulling a primary run against Trump, most of whom skipped CPAC to attend a Club for Growth donor retreat in Palm Beach this weekend. Among those appearing at the anti-tax group’s cattle call were DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. Trump was not invited to attend the dueling event.
“They’re raising money from the people who don’t necessarily believe in America First,” Trump Jr. continued. “But they need their money.”
At the Club for Growth event, DeSantis touted his record as Florida governor and criticized Republicans who have sat like “potted plants” during “woke ideology” debates, according to Fox News. Haley sought to make her case for being the GOP alternative to Trump, calling herself “decisive” for officially getting in the primary while other candidates at the retreat were “hemming and hawing on the sidelines.”
“All the major conferences that cater to the grassroots are with MAGA and the people are with Trump,” said Alex Bruesewitz, a Republican strategist and influencer. “The donors are with the Washington establishment Republicans — and there is a major disconnect.”
This year’s CPAC had the usual trappings of the annual grassroots confab, like an exhibition hall filled with an assortment of pro-Trump paraphernalia and information booths for businesses run by or catering to Republicans, such as a booth for the Right Stuff, a dating app for right wing singles run by a former top Trump White House aide, Johnny McEntee.
Inside a private reception ahead of Trump’s speech, an event sponsored by a super PAC supporting him, Make America Great Again Inc., showed off right-wing luminaries who have remained loyal endorsers of Trump.
Gaetz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) were whisked through the crowd as attendees chowed down on Rice Krispy Treats, brownies and miniature cupcakes. The pair walked on stage to entertain the audience while Trump took questions from reporters in another room prior to making his appearance before the VIP crowd. Lake and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) trickled in separately, stopping to take photos with members of the invite-only audience.
And throughout his public speech Saturday, Trump at times paused to acknowledge some of his high-profile supporters in the audience who have continued to stick with him as a primary field has emerged. Trump praised people like Greene, Gaetz, right-wing talk show host Mark Levin and others — flaunting the conservative influencers who have tied themselves to him despite others in the party quietly pushing for his replacement.
“I didn’t know this was a rally, Matt,” Trump said to Schlapp as he stepped up the lectern to a chorus of “USA” chants in the audience. “It really is a rally.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
