Tag: donald trump

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Special Counsel Seeks Gag Order on Trump

If approved, the gag order would ban Donald Trump from making statements “regarding the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses” and “statements about any party, witness, attorney, court personnel, or potential jurors that are disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating”.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the federal election meddling case against former US President Donald Trump, has asked District Judge Tanya Chutkan to place him under a gag order, limiting on what he can publicly comment .

The request was among a slew of older court documents from the case that were released on Friday, reports the BBC.

Prosecutors have said that their proposed order — which they never refer to as a “gag order” — is “a narrow, well defined restriction” that is necessary to prevent disinformation, threats and “prejudicing” the case.

If approved, it would ban Trump from making statements “regarding the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses” and “statements about any party, witness, attorney, court personnel, or potential jurors that are disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating”.

“The defendant is now attempting to do the same thing in this criminal case — to undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and prejudice the jury pool through disparaging and inflammatory attacks on the citizens of this District, the Court, prosecutors, and prospective witnesses,” the prosecutors wrote in their filing.

Chutkan, an Obama appointee overseeing the criminal case in Washington, D.C., is yet to make a decision on the request, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, Trump on Friday blasted the special counsel’s motion in a Truth Social post on Friday, calling Smith “deranged”.

“So, I’m campaigning for President against an incompetent person who has WEAPONIZED the DOJ & FBI to go after his Political Opponent, & I am not allowed to COMMENT? They Leak, Lie, & Sue, & they won’t allow me to SPEAK?

Addressing a dinner for the group Concerned Women for America in the capital on Friday night, he said prosecutors wanted to take away his right to speak freely and openly, reports the BBC.

“Did you see today that deranged Jack Smith … wants to take away my rights under the First Amendment, wants to take away my right of speaking freely and openly?” Trump said.

“These people are sick and they want to silence me because I will never let them silence you… But in the end they’re not after me, they’re after you, and I just happen to be standing in their way,” he told the group of around 300 socially conservative evangelical Christian women.

Trump, the current frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, faces mounting legal troubles.

He has been criminally indicted four times, including in this federal investigation into efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.

ALSO READ: General Milley Dismisses Trump’s Iran Attack Accusations

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Pence ready to challenge Trump in debate

Pence is preparing for a mighty showdown with his former boss Trump in the first Republican debate …reports Asian Lite News

Former US Vice President Mike Pence, humiliated by former President Donald Trump as a “wimp” for not invoking the 25th amendment to keep him in office and oust Joe Biden, is seeking to exact revenge next week in the widely publicised TV debate of republican hopefuls by denying the 2020 election was stolen and that he had no part in the conspiracy and that he upheld the constitution and knew his limits of power.

Pence is preparing for a mighty showdown with his former boss Trump in the first Republican debate where eight candidates have qualified for crossing the threshold limits, even if Trump doesn’t show up. 

Pence said he would sign the loyalty pledge which under the RNC convention requires every candidate to support the eventual nominee picked by the GOP for presidency,  multiple media reports said. 

In a Fox News interview at the Iowa state fair, Mike Pence appeared ready to face off with his former boss at next week’s first Republican presidential nomination debate — whether his former running mate is on the stage or not. 

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to be on that stage,” Pence had told Fox News Digital in an interview in New Hampshire.
 
For four years in the White House and on the campaign trail, Pence was the then-president’s loyal co-pilot. But that all ended on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the US capitol. 

The attack temporarily disrupted congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory over Trump, the subject of the four indictments handed down to Trump by juries at the federal and state level (Atlanta in Georgia) .

Pence, who was at the Capitol at the time it was attacked, overseeing the joint session of Congress was forced, along with members of Congress to temporarily flee to safety as the rioters — some chanting that the then-vice president should be hanged — stormed the building, Politico reported. 

After witnessing the unprecedented scene, Pence endured the wrath of the former president and plenty of Trump’s most devout loyalists and supporters. Now, in the wake of Trump’s back-to-back indictments in connection with the attack on the Capitol and his alleged efforts to try and overturn the 2020 election, Pence is raising the pitch about his role in not listening to Trump’s legal counsels on the 25th amendment and doing the right thing in calling the national guard to quell the mob.

Though initially Pence was proud of Trump’s record in administration, he said, the president and I took a different path in the end, and sadly, in the last two and a half years, the former president has continued to maintain that I had the right to overturn the election. I had no right to overturn the election. 

“If the American people hear us out, they know that we kept our oath to the Constitution. I’m confident more and more Americans every day are understanding the stand that we took and appreciating our commitment to keep the oath that we made to them and to almighty God.”

Pence had said “my differences with him go far beyond that fateful day (January 6, 2021)”. 

ALSO READ: Georgia election was not stolen: Pence

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Trump vows to submit ‘irrefutable claims nullifying indictments’

Trump hit with 34 serious criminal charges after historic arrest; denies them

Donald Trump in a surprise move cancelled a scheduled news conference, reports T.N. Ashok

Former US President Donald Trump in a surprise move cancelled a scheduled news conference and said his lawyers would submit “irrefutable claims to deny the indictments” he had been handed over by federal and state juries of criminal conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election results that elected Joe Biden as President.

Trump, a frontrunner in the GOP race for the 2024 presidential elections in a field of some five prominent candidates, said he had reasons for cancelling the press conference as his  lawyers would instead put “irrefutable and overwhelming evidence” in their legal filings over his latest indictment. Both the federal jury in Washington D.C. and state jury in Fulton County in Georgia had indicted him on four and 41 counts of felony to conspire with 18 associates to overturn a duly elected result of a President in 2020.

“I will no longer hold a news conference nor release a supposed extensive report that I previously said would clear me and allies of wrongdoing in the wake of the latest indictment by a Georgia grand jury,” he said on Thursday.

“Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable and Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta,” Trump was reported by multiple media outlets in the US as saying.

“Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

Trump on Tuesday had announced his plans to hold the news conference, the morning after a Fulton County grand jury levied a racketeering charge over efforts to unravel the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump (C) raises his fist as he leaves Trump Tower for his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, the United States, on April 4, 2023.

“A detailed but irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia is almost complete & will be presented by me at a major News Conference at 11:00 A.M. on Monday of next week in Bedminster, New Jersey,” Trump said in the post announcing the news conference.

The reversal by Trump to call off the news conference followed advice from his lawyers as they were “increasingly concerned” about the information the former President shares with the public as his legal woes keep multiplying by the day, the New York Times reported.

Trump, the current frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary, is facing four indictments, including two federal indictments for his efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election in the days leading up to the January 6 Capitol riot, and for classified documents he is accused of removing from the White House and failing to return. He is also facing charges in New York related to hush money payments made to a porn star ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Additionally, he faces a $250 million penalty suit from New York DA Letitia James in a criminal case involving inflating his realty values to secure billions of dollars of loans fraudulently from Deutsche bank besides orchestrating a tax fraud availing of concessions he was not entitled to. He also faces a libel case from one Carroll for defaming her on TV and social media for which she has sued him for $10 million.

Trump is also facing a charge of manipulating investors into a Ponzi scheme in which they had lost several millions, media reports said.

ALSO READ: Trump proposes trial date of April 2026 in election subversion case

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Trump indicted in Georgia 2020 election probe

The former president is accused of violating the Peach State’s anti-racketeering law, conspiring, making false statements, and encouraging a public official to neglect their oath…reports Asian Lite News

Former President of the United States Donald Trump was indicted by the Georgia grand jury in connection with the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State, New York Post reported on Tuesday.

The charges, brought late on Monday by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charge Trump, the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination and 18 associates for a scheme intended to reverse his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

It reported, the charge against the former president includes violation of the Peach State’s anti-racketeering law, conspiracy, false statements, and asking a public official to violate their oath of office.

According to the New York Post, all 19 defendants are charged with Georgia’s equivalent of the federal RICO statute, which can be used against any group of individuals deemed to use criminal means to attain an objective. The acronym refers to the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

“[The] Defendants … [30] unindicted co-conspirators … and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in … false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury,” the 98-page indictment read.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who launched the investigation into Trump and his associates nearly two years ago, told reporters at a late-night press conference that she intended to try all 19 defendants together and that they would be given less than two weeks to turn themselves in.

“I am giving the defendants the opportunity to voluntarily surrender no later than noon on Friday the 25th day of August 2023,” Willis said.

Hoping to move quickly, Willis added that her office will be seeking to take the case to trial “within the next six months.” If approved by a judge, that would make Georgia the first jurisdiction and Willis the first prosecutor to put a former American president on trial.

Trump denounces fourth indictment

Coming out hard after his fourth indictment, former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that he will produce an “irrefutable” report that “should” lead to all charges against him getting dropped, New York Post reported.

“A Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia is almost complete & will be presented by me at a major News Conference at 11:00 A.M. on Monday of next week in Bedminster, New Jersey. Based on the results of this CONCLUSIVE Report, all charges should be dropped against me & others – There will be a complete EXONERATION! They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!” Trump said on ‘Truth Social’ platform.

The charges, against the former President was brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

The raps against him include violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, conspiracy, false statements, and asking a public official to violate their oath of office, New York Post reported.

Right after the indictment, Trump denounced the ruling and called the situation a “total shutdown of democracy”.

“These monsters, all controlled and coordinated by the DOJ and Radical Left Lunatics, are Criminalizing Political Speech, a total SHUTDOWN OF DEMOCRACY!” Trump stated on Truth Social.

“WITCH HUNT!” he added in a subsequent post.

ALSO READ: Trump indicted again

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Trump demands recusal of judge in 2020 US election fraud case

Former US President Donald Trump.(photo:Instagram)

Trump has said that he will ask the judge to step aside on what he called “very powerful grounds”…reports Asian Lite News

Former US President Donald Trump has called for recusal of the judge in the 2020 election fraud case.

Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday morning to express his displeasure with a federal indictment for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. He described the case as “the ridiculous freedom of speech, slash fair elections case” and said that his legal team would immediately be asking for recusal of the judge.

Trump has said that he will ask the judge to step aside on what he called “very powerful grounds”, the BBC reported.

He gave no details of his grounds for asking her to step down.

The former President has said there is “no way” he can get a fair trial with the judge assigned to his case.

Federal judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Trump case, was appointed in 2014 by former President Barack Obama.

Judge Chutkan previously ruled against Trump’s efforts to shield evidence from the House January 6 Committee and has faced frequent attacks from Trump allies in recent days. Trump had described her and the Department of Justice (DOJ) as “highly partisan and very corrupt”, the BBC reported.

She is the only federal judge in Washington who has delivered sentences against defendants in cases related to the 6 January Capitol riot that are longer than the sentences that the DOJ asked for, according to NBC News.

According to DOJ, any judge of the US shall disqualify themselves in any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

ALSO READ: Trump and Pence trade accusations on Capitol Siege

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Trump says indictments boost poll numbers

Former US President Donald Trump.(photo:Instagram)

Trump said that the growing list of charges he faces has only helped his campaign and said he considers each indictment a “truly great badge of honour.”

Hitting out at the Biden administration, former United States President Donald Trump on Friday said that he wears the indictments as a “badge of honour” and he needs just one more to “close out” the upcoming presidential elections, New York Post reported.

He was delivering a speech at the annual Alabama GOP dinner in Montgomery on Friday.

Trump said that the growing list of charges he faces has only helped his campaign and said he considers each indictment a “truly great badge of honour.”

“It’s not going to make any impact, because every time they file an indictment we go way up in the polls,” New York Post quoted Trump, the front-running Republican presidential candidate, saying to the crowd.

“We need one more indictment to close out this election,” he joked, to cheers. “One more indictment and this election is closed out, nobody has even a chance.”

Trump has been indicted three times since March. The latest charges, filed Tuesday after an investigation by special counsel Jack Smith, accuse Trump of knowingly spreading false information about widespread voter fraud after he lost the 2020 election to President Biden.

Trump told the crowd Friday that he referred to the indictments as “a badge of honour” because he is “being indicted for you.”

“So, thanks a lot,” he said.

Slamming the Biden government further, Trump called the Justice Department “corrupt”, saying charges could have been filed against him years ago, but instead “they waited right until the middle of the election”. (ANI)

“They waited until I became the dominant force in the polls because we’re dominating everyone, including Biden, in the polls. And then they filed them all, everyone, one of them, at the same time,” New York Post quoted Trump as saying.

The former President blasted the trio of indictments as “election interference” and called the latest case “an outrageous criminalization of political speech.”

“This ridiculous indictment against us, it’s not a legal case — it’s an act of desperation by a failed and disgraced Joe Biden and his radical thugs,” Trump said.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump (C) raises his fist as he leaves Trump Tower for his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, the United States.

“The reason this is happening is simple: Joe Biden is the most incompetent and at the same time the most corrupt president in the history of the United States,” the New York Post quoted Trump as saying.

“Every time more Biden corruption is exposed his henchmen indict me because they want to knock out the bad publicity,” he said, calling it a “cover-up” for the “Biden crime family.”

Earlier in the day, Trump posted on his Truth Social a vague warning: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU.”

However, he had reportedly been warned not to issue threats by the judge during Thursday’s arraignment, as per New York Post.

Earlier on Friday, Trump also pleaded not guilty to the new charges special counsel Jack Smith brought against him in the case alleging mishandling of classified documents from his time in the White House, CNN reported.

The filing marked the second time in 24 hours that the former president entered a ‘not guilty’ plea, following his arraignment Thursday in the special counsel’s separate investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges related to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Poll: Trump holds significant lead over DeSantis

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Trump indicted over efforts to overturn 2020 polls

Trump will make his first court appearance in the case on Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C, as per the Court filings…reports Asian Lite News

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on Wednesday (local time) for his efforts to overturn the 2020 US Presidential polls which resulted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, The Hill reported.

The indictment comes after Trump stated that he received a target letter alerting him that he is the focus of the investigation, a move that is frequently followed by the filing of charges. Trump has been indicted as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the matter.

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has notably been hearing evidence in the case when it typically meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, reported The Hill.

According to the docket of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Trump’s case has been assigned to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan.

According to the court’s website, she was appointed in 2014.

As part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, Trump was charged with: Conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights, a CNN report said.

Trump will make his first court appearance in the case on Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C, as per the Court filings.

Prior to the announcement of his indictment, Donald Trump had said that he is expected to be indicted “any time” today as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of his behaviour following the 2020 election.

“I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.”, Trump wrote on media platform Truth Social, according to The Hill.

“Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!” Trump added. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Poll: Trump holds significant lead over DeSantis

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Poll: Trump holds significant lead over DeSantis

Trump leads DeSantis 54 to 17 per cent, with no other candidate receiving more than 3 per cent of the vote….reports Asian Lite News

Former US President Donald Trump has a 37-point advantage over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary campaign, according to a recent poll.

The New York Times/Sienna College poll found that among potential Republican primary voters, Trump leads DeSantis 54 to 17 per cent, with no other candidate receiving more than 3 per cent of the vote. DeSantis receives only 9 per cent and 13 per cent of the support, respectively, among voters aged at least 65 and those without a college degree, two of the major voting categories in the Republican Party. According to the poll, DeSantis received only 15 per cent of Republicans who identified as “very conservative” but who also supported Trump by a margin of 65 per cent.

Republican voters nevertheless overwhelmingly supported Trump in a fictitious one-on-one contest with DeSantis after ruling out all other GOP contenders, with Trump receiving 62 per cent support to DeSantis’s 31 per cent.

Other Republican candidates for the White House, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and Sen. Tim Scott (SC), each won 3 per cent of the vote, while businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie each received 2 per cent.

The survey, according to pollsters, showed Trump winning the GOP race in practically all demographic, geographic, and ideological groupings, including leads among a range of age groups, education levels, gender, and those in suburbs, cities, and rural regions. This was despite Trump’s mounting legal issues.

The survey of 1,329 registered voters, with an oversample of 818 of likely Republican primary voters, conducted July 23 to July 27, has a margin of error of 3.67 percentage points for all registered voters and 3.96 per cent points for GOP voters, reported The Hill.

The 2024 United States presidential election will be the 60th quadrennial presidential election, scheduled for November 5, 2024. Voters will elect a president and vice president for a term of four years. Incumbent President Joe Biden, a member of the Democratic Party, is running for re-election. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Trump hit with more charges in documents case

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Trump loses immunity in defamation lawsuit

Former US President Donald Trump.(photo:Instagram)

E. Jean Carroll, 79, is currently seeking $10 million in the defamation lawsuit against Trump for the statements …reports Asian Lite News

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that former President Donald Trump should not be entitled to immunity for the comments he made about a woman who has accused him of rape, allowing the civil lawsuit to move forward to trial in January 2024.

E. Jean Carroll, 79, is currently seeking $10 million in the defamation lawsuit against Trump for the statements he made while President — denying her allegation of rape decades earlier’ that he didn’t know her’ and that she wasn’t his “type”.

The DOJ had previously taken the position that Trump could be defended by government attorneys because he was serving in his capacity as President when he made the remarks, the BBC reported.

But on Tuesday, Department lawyers said “there is no longer a sufficient basis to conclude that the former President was motivated by ‘more than an insignificant’ desire to serve the US government”.

In a letter filed with the judge presiding over the case, the DOJ said: “Mr Trump was motivated by a ‘personal grievance’ stemming from events that occurred many years prior to Mr Trump’s presidency.”

The letter said new evidence had emerged since he left office in early 2021.

The DOJ added that though Trump’s comments were made via official channels, the accusation that prompted the statements were in regards “to a purely personal incident: an alleged sexual assault that occurred decades prior to Mr Trump’s presidency”.

In addition, in a separate lawsuit brought by Carroll last year under a New York law allowing a one-year lookback for civil claims involving sexual assaults, a federal jury in May found that Trump sexually abused Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation, reports CNN. 

Trump, who is appealing the decision, does not face any jail time as a result of the civil verdict.

Welcoming the development, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan said on Tuesday they were “grateful that the Department of Justice has reconsidered its position”.

“We have always believed that Donald Trump made his defamatory statements about our client in June 2019 out of personal animus, ill will, and spite, and not as President of the United States,” CNN quoted Kaplan as saying.

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Trump vs. DeSantis puts McCarthy in a bind

US House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (Photo:Instagram)

Even as McCarthy’s supporters have endorsed Trump, many Republican members are keeping away, report by T.N. Ashok

The Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy is under tremendous pressure between former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the two will spar off in Iowa setting the temperature high within the party before the primaries kickoff.

McCarthy is unrelenting and a truce could be short lived as the Speaker’s allies understand why he is not offering an formal endorsement toTrump, media reports said.

The pressure on McCarthy to choose sides will only keep growing throughout the summer as the former President locks down support across the House Republicans, says Politico, a leading media outlet.

By delaying a decision, media reports have claimed that McCarthy is only risking Trump’s ire by not officially endorsing his third White House bid.

But political observers say the Speaker is fulfilling a vital mission, that is of sparing the House Republicans over a ‘civil war’ in 2024 as Trump and DeSantis up the ante with harsh words against each other.

Even as McCarthy’s supporters have endorsed Trump, many Republican members are keeping away.

Political observers say that this camp of ‘stay away from Trump’ fear embracing him could spell their electoral doom next fall — as well as allies of the former President’s rivals, from DeSantis to Doug Burgum.

Even as McCarthy risks alienating Trump by staying on the sidelines, the California Republican is shielding his members who are right now very vulnerable.

“The pressure on the speaker to choose sides will only grow throughout the summer, though, as Trump locks down support across the House Republican and questions intensify about why McCarthy isn’t fully embracing the man who helped deliver him the speakership,” the Politico said in an analysis of trends.

Probably McCarthy will choose sides at the near end of the primary, Republican Dan Meuser said, suggesting the Speaker is subtly clearing a path for his members to rally behind the former president by the end of the primary.

“Hey, you’re with DeSantis right now. That’s OK. We get that. You’re with Mike Pence, Tim Scott. But in the end, we’ve got to come together with who’s going to be our winning candidate,” Meuser was quoted as saying by media reports.

Several Republican lawmakers feel a McCarthy endorsement so early before the primaries kickin could result in a potential disunity and infighting across different factions within the party. 

McCarthy will find it difficult in the coming months to thread the needle. The speaker, it might be recalled, backtracked last week after questioning whether Trump was the strongest candidate for the party to run in 2024. 

For the Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, things are quite different.

McConnell and Trump have a history of serious differences and he was never expected to back the latter and he’s been more focused on winning back the Senate.

McConnell has taken painful paths to yank himself off Trump, though that distance from the former president is too cold for comfort and untenable.

On the contrary, McCarthy’s relationship with Trump has often affected his standing with his more conservative members.

Politico claimed that McConnell is facing a much more favorable electoral 2024 map than McCarthy, who’s in a tossup battle to hold onto the House.

McCarthy has a razor edge majority of five members, margin in the house quite tenuous for the party.

More than a dozen Republican-held battleground seats are in the deep blue, high-turnout states of New York and California.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua/IANS)

If one looks at the Joe Biden friendly turf nationwide, only 18 House Republicans sitting in that green have made an endorsement in the 2024 primary.

New York Republican George Santos backed Trump in May, on the eve of his being indicted on a string of federal charges considered a death knell for his re-election.

Conservatives among the party feel that McCarthy and his leadership team are highly focused on their conference’s work before next November, against their fate with voters.

It’s not just McCarthy staying out of the primary. His two deputies, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, have also not endorsed Trump.

ALSO READ: Trump’s rally in South Carolina draws thousands