During an appearance on MSNBC, longtime
Washington insider Jonathan Alter claimed that Donald Trump's gag orders are especially important to watch. Alter, a contributor for MSNBC who has covered 11 presidential campaigns and recently secured a seat at the ex-president's hush money trial in
New York starting April 15th, appeared on the network on Saturday. He was asked about the upcoming trial, which he will be observing. "What to expect to see in court? What kind of evidence you expect to be featured?" the host asked. ALSO READ: ‘It’s on my ID’: Presidential candidate Literally Anybody Else explains legal name change "Michael Cohen will be the star witness," Alter said, adding that Trump's former attorney and fixer "will deliver devastating testimony against him." "We do not know whether Trump will take the stand in his own defense. It is less likely, given the steamy details of this case that he does. You cannot rule it out," he added. "In the meantime, something quite extraordinary happened at the end of last week." "Judge Reggie Walton, a federal judge not connected to the case, took extraordinary action. He went on television and denounced Trump for his comments, which led to the gag order that Judge Merchan has applied in this case," he said. "And Judge Chutkan applied a gag order in the past." He continued: "Gag orders normally are for hardcore criminals who cannot restrain themselves. The idea that a former president of the
United States needs a gag order not to attack our judges and system of government and court employees and relatives of the judge. It is shocking and we should not lose our sense of outrage about how horrible former president Trump's conduct is in this legal realm." Watch the full MSNBC interview below or click the link here. A former
Trump campaign advisor is out to debunk the ex-president's latest "lies" about President
Joe Biden and Easter. MAGA influencers raged Saturday against Biden and the White House, claiming that the president has declared Easter to be "transgender visibility day." The Trump campaign joined in parroting this line, and it was reported on
Fox News. But A.J. Delgado, formerly a senior advisor to the Trump presidential campaign in 2016 who worked for the Trump transition team after the 2016
election, is taking a blowtorch to the MAGA claim. ALSO READ: ‘It’s on my ID’: Presidential candidate Literally Anybody Else explains legal name change Conservative Matt Walsh, who has been referred to as a "wingnut" who says the quiet part out loud, called Biden a "demon." "I have as low an opinion of Biden as you can possibly have and yet this is so outrageously evil that I had to check to make sure it was real. It is," Walsh said Saturday. "Our 'catholic' president has chosen the highest holiday on the Christian calendar to celebrate transgenderism. This man is a demon." Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy also repeated the argument: "Joe Biden just proclaimed that 'Transgender Visibility Day' is on Sunday, March 31st," he wrote. "I wonder how he came up with that date." But all of that is nonsense, Delgado explained. "For those of you with an IQ higher than 50 (this excludes much of MAGA), or ethics higher than a con-artist (this excludes much of MAGA), let me explain to you their latest bullshit re [Easter]," she said. "You'll see a lot of liars or low-IQ influencers shrieking that Biden has declared Easter as 'transgender visibility day,' linking to a
White House statement acknowledging March 31st as Transgender Visibility Day." The attorney goes on to explain that the date is a mere coincidence. "This year, Easter happens to fall on March 31st. (It falls on a different day each year -- sometimes in March, sometimes in April)," she said. "They're taking this and claiming that Biden has turned Easter into a day to celebrate trans. After all, he picked to make this 'March 31st = trans day' proclamation on the one year where March 31st is the day Easter falls on. OK, let's explore that." That, too, "leads you to the land of the stupid and/or liars," she added. "Because, a five second
Google search reveals Biden didn't choose 'March 31st' as trans day. Rather, that tradition started a DECADE ago." "But wait, it gets better," she said. "Not only did 'March 31st = trans visibility day' start a decade ago (and no, it wasn't Biden and his advisors sitting around, deliberately picking the day on which Easter falls this year)... but also...Biden has issued these March 31st proclamations every year he's been in office." "Was Biden supposed to ABSTAIN from issuing a [statement] in support of trans-visibility THIS year (even though he's issued the [statement] every other year, for March 31st), just [because], randomly, Easter happens to fall on March 31st this year?" she asked. CONTINUE READING Show less The far-right is outraged over a traditional White House Easter event Sunday where kids will be invited to hit hard-boiled eggs with wooden spoons . "A deliberate push for his extreme policies," declared Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC). "They must be stopped," warned
Donald Trump Jr . "Disgraceful," claimed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY). The cause of their moral outrage? A flyer and an international holiday that has existed since 2010. Specifically, the conservatives were angry over a White House invitation inviting children from families of the National Guard submit artwork to appear on the traditional holiday event eggs kindly refrain from using religious symbols. It also asks kids not to submit artwork that is disparaging, defamatory, hateful, discriminatory, unlawful, or promoting drugs or firearms. While the White House does not make any distinction toward a particular religion, the far right leaders who expressed their outrage felt the restriction was an insult to one in particular. "Joe Biden has taken it upon himself to disrespect our Christian values," said Robinson. "He bans Christian symbols," said Stefanik. The trio also were particularly outraged that the White House decided this year to acknowledge the Trans Day of Visibility , which normally falls on March 31 and this year, on Easter. ALSO READ: 11 ways Trump doesn’t become president "Transgender Day of Visibility celebrates the joy, strength, and absolute courage of some of the bravest people I know — people who have too often had to put their jobs, relationships, and lives on the line just to be their true selves," Biden said in a written statement. " Today, we show millions of transgender and nonbinary Americans that we see them, they belong, and they should be treated with dignity and respect." Trump Jr. responded with the statement, "This is the left's new religion. They want people worshiping the trans flag instead of God." Religion was pushed to the forefront of the political discussion this week when his father, former President Donald Trump, decided to hawk $60 Bibles amid financial woes that include legal fees linked to civil and criminal trials and dwindling campaign coffers . ALSO READ: ‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills "Just what the world needs," New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd quipped Saturday, "a soul cleanse with a grifter Bible, where the profits could well be going to pay legal costs in trials about
BREAKING commandments — bearing false witness to try to steal democracy, coveting a porn star, then paying the star hush money to keep quiet about the sex." Trump also managed to pull artwork into the 2024 presidential race debate by sharing images of Biden hog-tied , raising concerns that his increasingly aggressive rhetoric could result in violence against elected officials . “No one is saying Trump can’t campaign or that he can’t criticize Biden,” former prosecutor Joyce Vance said in her plea for greater restrictions against the former president. “What he can’t do is suggest Biden should be kidnapped, knocked out & bound in the back of a pickup truck. I can’t believe that I have to write that out—there is no universe in which that’s acceptable.” CONTINUE READING Show less "
Texas woman charged with murder for self-induced
abortion sues Starr County district attorney " was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. When a Texas woman was arrested and jailed for self-inducing an abortion in 2022, her name and mugshot were quickly broadcast around the world. Three days later, the Starr County prosecutor dropped the charges and was later disciplined for bringing them at all. But for Lizelle Herrera, now Lizelle Gonzalez, the damage had been done. The “humiliation of a highly publicized indictment and arrest” has “permanently affected her standing in the community,” according to a new federal lawsuit filed Thursday. Gonzalez is suing Starr County District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez and Assistant District Attorney Alexandria Lynn Barrera for more than $1 million. Prosecutors typically have wide-ranging immunity but the lawsuit alleges Ramirez and Barrera waived that when they undertook the investigation of this case and misled the grand jury. Starr County, in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, is home to about 65,000 people. This indictment and the alleged abortion happened before the overturn of Roe v. Wade and the state’s near-total ban on abortion. At that time, abortion in Texas was prohibited after about six weeks of pregnancy; Gonzalez was 19 weeks pregnant when she went to Starr County Memorial Hospital after allegedly taking an abortion-inducing drug. But Texas law, then and now, does not allow murder charges to be brought against a pregnant person who undergoes an abortion. There were no grounds for Gonzalez to be indicted for terminating her own pregnancy, which Ramirez acknowledged after Gonzalez spent two nights in jail. An investigation by the State Bar of Texas found that Ramirez “sought to pursue criminal homicide charges against an individual for acts clearly not criminal.” Ramirez agreed to pay a $1,250 fine and his license will be held in a probated suspension for one year. The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Friday, Ramirez told the Associated Press he had not yet been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment. The lawsuit says Gonzalez is bringing this suit to vindicate her constitutional rights, and “to hold accountable the government officials who violated them.” New details emerge When Gonzalez was first arrested in April 2022, few details were made public. This new lawsuit offers additional insight into the timeline of events that led to her arrest. According to the lawsuit, Gonzalez first went to the Starr County emergency room in January 2022. She was 19 weeks pregnant and, according to the lawsuit, had taken Cytotec, also known as misoprostol, to purportedly induce an abortion. She was still registering a fetal heart rate, so she was sent home. The next day, she returned to the hospital by ambulance, complaining of abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. There was no fetal cardiac activity, and she was diagnosed with an “incomplete spontaneous abortion” before she delivered the stillborn child by cesarean section. At some point between those January visits and late March 2022, the lawsuit says, employees of Starr County Memorial Hospital told the Starr County District Attorney’s Office about Gonzalez’s attempted abortion. The allegations were investigated directly by Ramirez’s office, not the sheriff or the local
police department, according to the filing. Barrera and Ramirez then took their findings to a grand jury. The lawsuit says they “present[ed] false information and recklessly misrepresented facts in order to pursue murder charges against Plaintiff for acts clearly not criminal under the Texas Penal Code.” Gonzalez was arrested for murder on April 7, 2022, and incarcerated at the Starr County jail on a $500,000 bond. Her arrest made international news and mobilized activists across the country, led by organizers in the Rio Grande Valley . The lawsuit says she was taken to the hospital while incarcerated, although it does not say why. Gonzalez was released on bail organized by national advocacy groups. Three days after she was arrested, Ramirez dropped the charges. “In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her,” Ramirez said in a news release at the time. This did little to quell the attention on the case, the lawsuit says. “Because the charges stemmed from abortion – a hot button political agenda – the dismissal of the charges did not result in any less media attention,” it says. “Rather, the media attention was heightened after the dismissal due to the fact that the prosecution was frivolous.” Gonzalez is asking for an excess of $1 million for the “deprivation of liberty, reputational harm, public humiliation, distress, pain, and suffering” she experienced as a result of this prosecution. No hearing dates have been set. CONTINUE READING Show less