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4 minutes ago
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Obama backs California effort to redraw districts in response to Texas
Former President Barack Obama is supporting California's mid-cycle redistricting effort as a 'responsible approach' to Republicans drawing new maps in Texas. Obama praised California Gov. Gavin Newsom's ballot measure proposal to redraw congressional districts and tilt at least five congressional districts in the state towards Democrats at a fundraiser on Tuesday for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. 'I believe that Governor Newsom's approach is a responsible approach,' he said, according to excerpts obtained by POLITICO. 'I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.' California Democrats are expected this week to allow voters to bypass an independent commission established by voters and decide whether to approve the new partisan maps for the next three election cycles in response to the Republican's move in Texas. Obama's remarks comes as both parties in California gear up for what is expected to be a hard-fought campaign over the ballot initiative to redraw political boundaries in the state in response to President Donald Trump's efforts to keep the House in Republican hands in the 2026 midterms. The former president said redrawing the lines is 'not my preference,' but that the Democratic-led effort in California is 'responsible' in this context. 'We cannot unilaterally allow one of the two major parties to rig the game,' he said. 'And California is one of the states that has the capacity to offset a large state like Texas.' The Associated Press first reported Obama's remarks. Obama said he hopes that the NDRC and national Democrats will work to eliminate partisan gerrymandering as a 'long-term goal,' but applauded Newsom's response to the new Texas maps and Trump's broader campaign to push other red states to draw new, more favorable maps. 'Given that Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House that is effectively saying: gerrymander for partisan purposes so we can maintain the House despite our unpopular policies, redistrict right in the middle of a decade between censuses — which is not how the system was designed; I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this,' he said. Newsom thanked Obama for his support in a social media post and promised that California's redistricting proposal will 'neutralize any attempts Donald Trump makes to steal Congressional seats.'
Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Fox News' Mark Levin defends Trump calling himself a ‘war hero': ‘Let me educate the truly stupid'
Shortly after Donald Trump brazenly declared himself a 'war hero' on Tuesday – despite famously never serving in the military – former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger derided the president's remarks before noting that 'his people are going to find a way to justify this.' It didn't take long for Mark Levin to answer that challenge. 'YES, TRUMP IS A WAR HERO,' the Fox News host – who also serves on the president's Homeland Security Advisory Council – tweeted on Wednesday. It was on Levin's radio show where the president delivered his self-declaration of heroism in battle, which was in the context of Trump and Levin – an outspoken supporter of Israel – lauding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Describing the Israeli leader as a 'good man' who is 'in there fighting,' Trump went on to praise Netanyahu as a 'war hero' before bestowing that title upon himself. 'He's a war hero, cause we worked together, he's a war hero,' Trump said while chuckling. 'I guess I am, too. Nobody cares, but I am, too. You know, I sent those planes.' The president was referring to the United States joining Israel in its military air campaign against Iran in June, which resulted in American bombers striking three critical nuclear enrichment facilities. Throughout the interview, the president grumbled that he hadn't been given enough credit for the airstrikes – which he's repeatedly claimed 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear capabilities – or other foreign policy accomplishments. 'Let me educate the truly stupid in the grotesquely moronic media and their crackpot surrogates, since President Trump made the war hero comments on my radio show last evening,' Levin posted on X amid criticism of Trump's claiming to be a war hero. Levin, who privately advised Trump to take military action against Iran and raged against MAGA critics of the airstrikes, went on to justify his position by citing past presidents and their achievements as commander-in-chief. 'There are lots of presidents who are war heroes who did not actually fight in a war. Reagan defeated the Soviet Union,' the conservative pundit continued. 'War hero. FDR defeated the Axis powers. War hero. Lincoln won the Civil War. War hero. Trump destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities and everything with them -- which Bush 41 and 43, Clinton, Obama, and Biden said they would prevent, but failed to do. Trump stopped Iran's nuclear threat to the United States in its tracks. He gave the order. He is the commander-in-chief. War hero.' Additionally, Levin also defended the president's description of Netanyahu as a 'war hero.' Unlike Trump, who never served in uniform, Netanyahu was a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces who fought in both the Yom Kippur War and the 1967-1970 War of Attrition, and was injured several times in combat. 'AND congratulations to President Trump for also recognizing Prime Minister Netanyahu as a war hero. He most certainly is,' Levin blared on X. 'Now, back to the quislings and Hamas/Iran mouthpieces in the media and their crackpot surrogates.' The International Criminal Court, meanwhile, has accused Netanyahu of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, issuing an arrest warrant for him and Israel's former defense minister Yoav Gallant last November. Israel has slammed those allegations, and the United States has backed Netanyahu by imposing sanctions on several of the court's judges in retaliation. As for Trump's self-annointing himself as a war hero, Kinzinger – who served in the Air National Guard and flew missions in Iraq and Afghanistan – pointed out that the president declined the opportunity to don the uniform when he had the chance. 'You can like what he's done. That's fine. I hope he gets a resolution in Ukraine,' Kinzinger said Tuesday night during a CNN interview. 'But to put himself on the same level of people that have actually gone out and served this country, not claimed bone spurs, is an offense to anybody who served.' Kinzinger was referencing the multiple deferments that Trump received during the Vietnam War, one of which was for having 'bone spurs' while the others were for attending college. 'And frankly, you just take somebody that served, calling themselves a war hero, even that would be inappropriate. For a guy that never served to say it, it's nuts,' he added. 'But somebody, they'll defend it, they'll find a way.' Beyond that, early in Trump's first campaign for president, he infamously mocked the late Sen. John McCain's service during the Vietnam War, which saw the former Navy pilot held captive and tortured for nearly six years in the notorious prison camp known as the 'Hanoi Hilton.' 'He's not a hero,' Trump exclaimed in 2015, sparking intense backlash at the time. 'He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK? I hate to tell you that.' During his first term, Trump also came under fire after The Atlantic reported that during a 2018 trip to France, he scrapped plans to attend the commemoration for the 100th anniversary of World War I at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, fearing his hair would be mussed because of expected rain. 'Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers,' Trump reportedly said, adding later that Marines who died in battle were 'suckers.' While the president has repeatedly denied he said that, calling it 'disinformation' and 'fake news,' his then-chief of staff John Kelly – a former commander of U.S. Southern Command who lost his son in Afghanistan – insisted Trump did make those remarks.
Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Kilmar Abrego Garcia highlights the Trump administration's criminal vengeance, too
Kilmar Abrego Garcia became the face of the Trump administration's cruelly incompetent immigration agenda, when the government illegally sent him to El Salvador and resisted remedying its unlawful action — until it finally relented and returned him to the U.S., where it had criminal charges waiting for him. In a new motion, his lawyers say that those criminal charges must be dismissed on the grounds of selective and vindictive prosecution. Writing that Abrego 'was charged because he refused to acquiesce in the government's violation of his due process rights,' his lawyers argued that his criminal case 'results from the government's concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.' Noting that he brought a civil lawsuit for his return while he was 'being tortured in El Salvador' earlier this year, they alleged that senior government officials responded by seeking 'vengeance' and beginning 'a public campaign to punish Mr. Abrego for daring to fight back, culminating in the criminal investigation that led to the charges in this case.' The motion argues that the campaign kicked off with Vice President J.D. Vance falsely calling Abrego 'a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here,' with other executive branch officials joining the effort to publicly criticize him, including by calling him a terrorist. Abrego pleaded not guilty to the charges of illegally transporting undocumented immigrants. But regardless of whether the government can prove his guilt on those charges beyond a reasonable doubt if the case goes to trial, any reasonable observer can see the vengeful political motivation behind him facing those charges in the first place. Yet, can that reality lead to dismissal of criminal charges? As I noted when Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., recently filed her own such motion to dismiss charges that she assaulted federal officers at an immigration facility, selective and vindictive prosecution is a high legal bar to clear. Abrego's lawyers acknowledge this, writing that these motions 'are infrequently made and rarely succeed.' But they insist that 'if there has ever been a case for dismissal on those grounds, this is that case.' They recalled that the criminal case centers on a 2022 car stop from which Abrego was released without charge. The only thing that changed in the intervening years, they wrote, 'was that the government unlawfully renditioned Mr. Abrego to El Salvador, and he challenged that illegal conduct. As a matter of timing, it is clear that it was that lawsuit — and its effects on the government — that prompted the government to reevaluate the 2022 traffic stop and bring this case.' The government will have a chance to respond before the judge overseeing the case in Tennessee weighs in. Before deciding on such motions, judges can order discovery and an evidentiary hearing to assist in their decision. Presumably, the administration doesn't want a formal public airing focused on its motivations, so expect the Justice Department to argue in its forthcoming response that Abrego's motion should be denied without a hearing or discovery. The motion comes ahead of Abrego's potential release from criminal custody on Friday, though the government has signaled its intent to put him back into immigration proceedings, which would move forward in Maryland (where he had been living), separately from the Tennessee criminal case. As for the criminal case, it would be a fitting end for a court to dismiss it based on recognizing the vengeance that's plain for all to see. And though, as Abrego's lawyers noted, such motions are rare, there have been at least two recently, the other coming from McIver, whose charges also came in response to scrutiny of the administration's immigration actions. While we don't yet know whether these latest motions will succeed, if this vengeful administration continues along a similar trajectory in President Donald Trump's second term, such motions may no longer be rare. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration's legal cases. This article was originally published on
