He also criticized Trump for not firing Dr. The Florida governor described himself as an electoral winner, rather than a name-caller and social media warrior, a clear reference to Trump. To be sure, DeSantis knows he will not benefit - and in fact, could suffer, as many Republicans did during the 2016 campaign - by attacking Trump personally, which could explain his hesitancy to retaliate up until this point.īut last week, in a sit-down with Piers Morgan, DeSantis attempted to draw an implicit contrast with Trump, offering his sharpest criticism to date. Support for DeSantis is at the lowest levels since December, and he now trails Trump 54% to 26% in a full field primary, per Morning Consult’s GOP primary tracker. The relentless barrage of attacks Trump has unleashed, which have gone largely uncontested by DeSantis, have only hurt the latter’s standing in the polls. Trump has attacked his ex-protégé for his “disloyalty,” slammed him for previously supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, called him a “RINO” (Republican in name only), and promoted unsubstantiated, lewd claims about DeSantis’ past. Recently, at his rallies and on social media, Trump has lambasted DeSantis, who the former president has admitted is his only real competition for the nomination. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair, I just can’t speak to that,” he quipped when asked about it this week. Ron DeSantis, the current second-place candidate for the nomination, and the target of Trump’s latest tirades, also slammed progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, describing him as “a Soros-funded prosecutor” who, like others, “weaponize their office to impose a political agenda.” Criticizing Bragg and other progressives is red meat for Republicans, and DeSantis likely went on the attack in hopes that it would endear him to the party’s base, which largely still backs Trump.ĭeSantis certainly didn’t offer full-throttled support for Trump, and even took a veiled swipe at him when asked about the specifics of the case. Even Trump’s potential competitors for the nomination, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who has broken with Trump a number of times, criticized the investigation.įlorida Gov. Prominent Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, rushed to Trump’s defense, labeling the impending indictment a political prosecution. Since Trump’s post over the weekend, he has raised a reported $1.5 million, and there has been an outpouring of support for him within the GOP. Speculation about the indictment ultimately puts Trump back in the spotlight, and gives him a springboard to run his preferred type of campaign, one centered on his personal grievances and largely devoid of policy, where he can position himself as a victim of the political establishment. While Trump still has yet to face charges as of this writing, the former president and current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination is using his legal woes to raise money, rally his base and encourage his supporters to protest. In what was clearly a calculated move, Trump preemptively announced on Truth Social last weekend that he would be indicted and arrested in New York last Tuesday in relation to a grand jury investigation into his improper use of business finances to make a campaign-related hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. “Police have vast information about all of us at their fingertips, yet they move in secrecy.Establishment Republicans hoping that an arrest and indictment of Donald Trump will be the nail in his political coffin should prepare to be disappointed. “You can use it to identify officers who are causing harm in your community” the group wrote. Stop LAPD Spying Coalition opposes police intelligence-gathering and says the database should be used for “countersurveillance.” It was not immediately clear how many of the officers listed were undercover. The database includes information on each officer including name, ethnicity, rank, date of hire, badge number and division or bureau. The watchdog group Stop LAPD Spying Coalition posted more than 9,300 officers’ information and photographs last Friday in a searchable online database, the Times reported, following a public records request by a reporter for progressive news outlet Knock LA. LAPD Chief Michel Moore offered his “deep apologies” to the undercover officers, who were not given advance notice of the disclosure, during a police commission meeting Tuesday. The Los Angeles police chief and the department’s constitutional policing director are under investigation after the names and photographs of undercover officers were released to a technology watchdog group that posted them online, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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