Latest news with #election2024
New York Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Hunter Biden Trashes Democrats He Saw as Betraying His Father
In a pair of podcast appearances over the past several days, Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., appears to be trying to settle scores with Democrats he sees as having contributed to his father's political undoing. Mr. Biden delivered a broad critique of the party last week on the debut episode of a podcast hosted by Jaime Harrison, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, arguing that Democrats lost the 2024 election because they did not remain loyal to his father. In a separate, three-hour-plus podcast released on Monday, the younger Mr. Biden named names, unleashing a profane tirade against a host of perceived enemies, including the senior Biden aide Anita Dunn; the Democratic éminences grises David Axelrod and James Carville; the Obama administration alumni who built Crooked Media, a booming liberal podcast network; the CNN host Jake Tapper; and the actor George Clooney. In a single minute-long clip, he used a version of the same expletive 13 times. His interviewer this time was Andrew Callaghan, a YouTuber previously known for crisscrossing America in an R.V. In the videotaped conversation, Mr. Biden dismissed Mr. Clooney as 'a brand' and Mr. Carville as someone who 'hasn't run a race in 40 years.' Mr. Axelrod, he said, 'had one success in his political life, and that was Barack Obama, and that was because of Barack Obama.' The former Obama aides behind Crooked Media and its 'Pod Save America' flagship, he said, were 'four white millionaires that are dining out on their association with Barack Obama from 16 years ago.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Trump's subordinates ran an Epstein Ponzi scheme. Now comes the bank run.
Some political frauds have a rational endgame. Take the cover-up of President Joe Biden's age-related decline. It was clear in 2024 that Biden was incapable of serving out a second term as president. But if the public could be misled about his capacities for long enough, perhaps he could at least block Donald Trump's return to the White House. The ruse was unsuccessful. Still, it's clear what the participants intended to accomplish and why they thought it could work.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
It's been 1 year since Trump was shot in Butler, Pa. Did the assassination attempt 'change' him?
Exactly a year ago today, on July 13, 2024, once and future President Trump was bundled offstage in Butler, Pa., with blood staining his cheek and his fist raised in defiance after the bullet of a would-be assassin grazed his ear, just millimeters from his brain. 'I didn't know exactly what was going on,' the president recalled last week in an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. 'I got whacked. There's no question about that. And fortunately, I got down quickly.' A lot has changed since Trump managed to get back up that day. Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed him within the hour, then donated more than $250 million to a super-PAC supporting his candidacy. A week later, Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, ended his reelection campaign, becoming the only president in U.S. history to surrender his party's nomination after winning its primary. Four months later, Trump defeated Biden's replacement, Vice President Kamala Harris, by about 2 million votes. Now, in the spot where an official portrait of former President Barack Obama once hung, every visitor to the Grand Foyer of the White House passes a painting of Trump rising to his feet in Butler and imploring the crowd to 'fight, fight, fight.' A similar image adorned Trump's recent limited-edition sneaker drop ($299), and those three words double as the name of one of his new fragrances ($199). 'It was a scary time, and it changed everything for us,' White House chief of staff Susie Wiles recently told the New York Post. But has Trump himself changed since the shooting? And if so, how? In the aftermath of last year's assassination attempt, the president and his allies repeatedly promised a new Trump. 'Getting shot in the face changes a man,' conservative pundit Tucker Carlson insisted at the time. 'He's changed and we're all freaking out,' a source close to Trump told Vanity Fair. 'He was like, 'Holy shit, that was close.' He feels blessed.' At the time, GOP officials described him as 'emotional,' 'serene,' 'existential' — even 'spiritual.' With the Republican National Convention just days away, Trump 'put the word out that he [didn't] want any talk of revenge or retaliation in speeches or anywhere else,' a Republican close to the campaign told VF. Trump then went on to claim, in an interview with the New York Post, that 'I had all prepared an extremely tough speech, really good, all about the corrupt, horrible [Biden] administration. But I threw it away. 'I want to try to unite our country,' Trump continued. 'But I don't know if that's possible. People are very divided.' Yet when he took the stage in Milwaukee to accept his party's nomination, Trump couldn't help but stray from his new script to complain about 'crazy Nancy Pelosi ... destroying our country' and Democrats 'cheating on elections.' Finally — about halfway through the nearly 100-minute speech, after lengthy digressions on the border 'invasion' and Hungary's Viktor Orbán — Trump attacked his opponent by name. 'If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States and added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done,' he said. 'I will only use the name once... Biden.' Trump's convention speech was an early sign that his tone, at least, wouldn't be changing. And true to form, the president has continued to blame Biden and demonize Democrats well into his second term. He has also continued to commemorate national holidays by attacking his perceived enemies on Truth Social. 'Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country through warped radical left minds,' Trump wrote in May. 'Hopefully the United States Supreme Court, and other good and compassionate judges throughout the land, will save us from the decisions of the monsters who want our country to go to hell,' he added. Revenge and retaliation still seem to be on the table as well. To pick just one example, the New York Times reported last week that the Secret Service had former FBI Director James Comey followed by law enforcement officers in unmarked cars and street clothes after Trump recently accused Comey of threatening his life with an Instagram photo of seashells. Finally, and most consequentially, Trump's actual politics don't seem to have shifted either. Before Butler, for instance, Trump confirmed in an interview with Time magazine that he was planning 'a massive deportation of people' using 'local law enforcement' and the National Guard — and 'if they weren't able to,' he added, 'then I'd use [other parts of] the military.' His inspiration, he said at the time, was the 'Eisenhower model' — a reference to President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1954 campaign, known by the ethnic slur 'Operation Wetback,' to round up and expel Mexican immigrants in what amounted to a nationwide 'show me your papers' rule. Trump has since done just that in Los Angeles — even though far more Americans say they disapprove (50%) than approve (36%) of his actions there, according to the latest Yahoo/YouGov poll. One of the only major policy areas where Trump has changed his mind since the shooting is cryptocurrency. 'I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,' he said in a series of social media posts in 2019. 'Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.' Bitcoin 'just seems like a scam,' Trump added in 2021; cryptocurrencies are a 'disaster waiting to happen.' 'I think they should regulate them very, very high,' he concluded. But the fact that Trump has done the opposite since returning to office probably has less to do with last year's brush with mortality than with his family's new $1 billion crypto empire. Last summer, Vanity Fair asked whether Trump's 'chastening' was a 'short-term response to a near-death experience' or 'smart politics?' 'Would a reformed Trump replace his extreme policies with a moderate agenda?' the outlet continued. 'And would Trump, who has spoken ominously of seeking vengeance and retribution if elected, suddenly temper those dark impulses?' One year later, it seems the answer is no. Yet there is one thing about Trump that does seem to have changed, according to those around him: He now feels empowered to follow his own instincts in a way he didn't during his first term as president. In a National Review interview published to coincide with the release of her new book, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland, Washington Examiner reporter Salena Zito — who is often described as a 'Trump whisperer' of sorts — recalls how the president started attributing his survival to the 'hand of God' in their post-Butler conversations. 'He has this recognition that, in that moment and from that moment on, God was watching him, and that there was a reason that he didn't die,' Zito says. '[He's] very much the same person, but [he's changed] even in the way that he handles the urgency of what he wants to accomplish. ... He is on a mission to do as much as he can because he was saved in that moment.' If true, nothing demonstrates this dynamic like Trump's second-term tariff strategy. Import taxes aren't a new obsession for Trump. 'I believe very strongly in tariffs,' he told journalist Diane Sawyer in 1988, nearly 30 years before his first presidential run. 'America is being ripped off. We're a debtor nation, and we have to tax, we have to tariff, we have to protect this country.' Trump has long insisted (contra nearly all mainstream economists) that universal tariffs will level the proverbial playing field by incentivizing companies to retain American workers and ramp up U.S. manufacturing — all while funneling 'trillions' of dollars in new revenue to the federal government. But after fitfully pursuing these ideas during his first term — his advisers mostly objected — the president is now putting his pet theories fully into practice, launching trade wars with allies and adversaries alike. Enabled by the loyalists he's surrounded himself with — and liberated by the fact that he isn't allowed to run again in 2028 — Trump has taken a similar you-only-live-once approach on deportation, Iran, the courts and the federal government itself. Ultimately, the shooting has 'made [Trump] more aggressive,' Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida told Time magazine last week. 'It actually did define him in the presidency.'
Fox News
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump stands 'stronger than ever' one year after surviving Pennsylvania assassination attempt, staffers say
In a matter of minutes on a hot summer Saturday in northwestern Pennsylvania, the already unprecedented 2024 election cycle was rocked by an assassination attempt on President Donald Trump's life that had a sweeping effect not only on the upcoming presidency, but also staffers who witnessed the harrowing moment. Eight shots rang out at the Butler Farm Show Grounds at about 6:11 p.m. Eastern Time, roughly six minutes after Trump took the open-air rally's stage. The rally began on its typical lively note, with the former and upcoming president swaying to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" and engaging with supporters by pointing at them as they clapped and held up signs declaring, "Joe Biden, you're fired." The rally came to a screeching halt after Trump began his address and was seen grabbing the side of his head before abruptly dropping to the ground. Rally-goers were also seen ducking for cover as confusion gripped the small fairgrounds located just north of Pittsburgh. Secret Service agents threw their bodies over Trump as shields as they worked to get him off of the stage and to a secure location. Acting Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran, one of the agents who rushed to protect Trump that day, told Fox News Digital that July 13, 2024, has remained at the top of his mind since he was tapped to lead the Secret Service. "One year ago, I was by President Trump's side when a lone gunman attempted to assassinate him in Butler, Pennsylvania," Curran said. "My heart will always be with all those impacted on that day, especially Corey Comperatore, who lost his life while protecting those around him." "Since President Trump appointed me as director of the United States Secret Service, I have kept my experience on July 13 top of mind, and the agency has taken many steps to ensure such an event can never be repeated in the future," he continued. "Nothing is more important to the United States Secret Service than the safety and security of our protectees. As director, I am committed to ensuring our agency is fully equipped, resourced and aligned to carry out our important mission each and every day." Trump emerged into the camera's view with a trail of blood streaked across his cheek and famously raised a fist before defiantly chanting, "Fight, fight, fight" as law enforcement escorted him from the stage. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who served as Trump campaign manager in 2024 and witnessed the harrowing attempt, told the New York Post's Miranda Devine earlier in July in a podcast interview that she "100%" believes divine intervention protected Trump from a greater tragedy that day. "The way the rally itself unfolded, the chart he had them put up on the screens… it was always the last chart in the rotation. And it was always on the other side" of the stage, Wiles told Devine in an interview that published Wednesday. "To have him ask for that chart eight minutes in and to have it come on the side that is opposite caused him to look in a different direction... I believe God wanted him to live." Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick, who was in the midst of his election cycle to unseat longtime Democrat Sen. Bob Casey, said in comment to Fox News Digital that he was just feet from Trump when the gunshots rang out. "I was sitting just 15 feet from the stage at the Butler rally when the shots rang out. Moments before the attempted assassination, President Trump asked me to come on stage to give my remarks. As I was headed onstage, he prompted me to wait until after he spoke to the crowd about an immigration chart. Returning to my seat, I watched as President Trump turned his attention and head towards the chart—a decision that likely saved his life," McCormick said. "Moments later, a bullet meant for his head struck his ear. He went down, then stood up and raised his fist in defiance. That moment captured who he is at his core—a strong leader—and marked a turning point in the 2024 election. Strong leadership sets a tone -- like a ripple effect. President Trump didn't panic and stood strong and so did the crowd. Instead of chaos, chants of 'USA' rang out." The shooting injured three people, including Trump, and killed local father and former fire chief Corey Comperatore. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reflected on Comperatore's tragic death in a comment to Fox Digital, underscoring that the president "will never forget Corey and his beautiful family." "One year ago in Butler, Pennsylvania, we tragically lost an American hero, Corey Comperatore, who selflessly laid down his life to protect those around him," she said. "President Trump will never forget Corey and his beautiful family. On that dark day, God spared President Trump's life by a miraculous millimeter. Now one year later, President Trump is standing stronger than ever as he continues to 'fight, fight, fight' for the American people." Comperatore's widow, Helen, spoke to Fox News in an emotional interview about her husband's death earlier in July, demanding accountability from the Secret Service over how a gunman was able to fire off shots without intervention. "We were all sitting ducks that day," Helen Comperatore told Fox News. "Our blood is all over their hands. I am angry. I lost the love of my life. They screwed up." "Why Butler? Why was that such a failure? Why weren't they paying attention? Why did they think that that roof didn't need covered?" she asked. "I want to sit down and talk to them. I have the right to. They need to listen to me." McCormick remembered Comperatore as a heroic dad and husband who died protecting his family. "Corey Comperatore—a Pennsylvanian, volunteer firefighter, and father—was sitting behind me. He died shielding his family. I'm remembering Corey and praying for the Comperatore family on this one-year anniversary," the Republican Senator said. Longtime political reporter Salena Zito published a book in July detailing her recollections of the day, and said in an interview earlier this month with Fox Digital that she refused to duck for cover as gunshots rang out. "I didn't get down," Zito said in an interview ahead of the book's release Tuesday. "There was this inner voice that told me, 'You have a job to do, continue doing it.'" Zito was located near the stage and the Secret Service's secure permitter when the gunman opened fire on Trump and the crowds. "Time has these layers that happen," Zito added while reflecting on the 2024 events. "It's not remembering them. It's experiencing them. It's this interesting thing that happens. I see a sea of navy blue suits immediately surround him. Then, I hear the second four shots. I still didn't get down." McCormick told Fox Digital that recent politically-motivated attacks, including the targeted attacks and murder of a Minnesota state lawmaker in June, need to end and be replaced with civility that protects democracy. "From the attempts on President Trump's life, to arson at the Pennsylvania Governor's Residence, to the murder of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, these politically-motivated attacks are an assault on democracy itself. Regardless of party, we must choose to engage civilly. This anniversary serves as a solemn reminder that for our country, violence borne from political disagreement is never the answer," he the assassination attempt, Trump quickly was whisked away from the rally to receive medical attention. Just a day later, June 14, 2024, the Republican National Convention was set to kick off in Milwaukee, with concern initially mounting that Trump might not be able to attend the convention due to the injury. The president, however, made his public return in Milwaukee that week while wearing a bandage over his ear. Trump officially accepted the party's nomination for him to serve as president, and delivered a 93-minute speech that was underscored by how the attempt on his life changed him. "There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way I felt very safe, because I had God on my side," Trump told the crowds of supporters on the final night of the RNC. "The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had NOT moved my head at the very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be with you tonight."
CNN
13-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Analysis: One year from the Butler assassination attempt: How it changed the 2024 race, the MAGA movement and Trump himself
A year ago today, I watched as an attempted assassin opened fire on then-candidate Donald Trump. During the chaos and fear that unfolded — unlike anything I had previously experienced — I questioned not only if he was safe, but also if his ambitions of becoming president yet again would be forever impacted by the events of that day. The answer to both of those questions was yes. July 13, 2024, ultimately became the one of the most pivotal moments of Trump's entire campaign. And the days that followed changed the entirety of the general election and MAGA movement. Less than 48 hours after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump named then-Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate. Three days after that, Trump took the stage triumphantly at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, wearing a bandage over an ear that had been hit by a bullet. That Sunday, then-President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the race after his disastrous debate performance in June. Butler made the final stretch of the race far more personal for the president and his team, a White House official who also worked on the Trump 2024 campaign told CNN. The Trump team deliberately chose to ramp up the former president's schedule after that, ensuring he 'never missed a beat' on the trail, the official added. The goal was to show Trump was more committed than ever to winning the race. 'If people were going to try to do this, we were going to go even harder,' the official said. 'It became bigger than the election.' After a bullet grazed Trump's ear, I watched as he dropped to the ground behind his podium and Secret Service rushed the stage to form a circle around him. After the spray of gunshots finally ceased, and the officers began escorting the former president off the stage, Trump slowly rose up as blood dripped down his face and lifted his fist in the air. 'Fight, fight, fight!' an angry Trump shouted to the crowd. In conversations with multiple Trump campaign officials and advisers in the following weeks, I learned that the president later remarked to his close allies that he knew in that moment he needed to leave his supporters with a potent image. Trump, who has long fixated on projecting a portrait of strength, did not want the assassination attempt to leave him looking weak, they said. 'He has better political instincts than anyone I know,' a then-Trump campaign adviser told me at the time. The photo of a defiant Trump raising his fist high, with blood on his cheek and his clothing rumpled, quickly became a critically defining image of the 2024 race — and 'fight, fight, fight!' became a call to arms for the MAGA movement. Within days, that image and the 'fight!' slogan was printed on t-shirts, mugs, signs and more. At nearly every one of the dozens of rallies I attended following July 13, that picture and phrase were prominently displayed — on the clothing his supporters wore, the merchandise being sold and the screens that served as the backdrop for Trump's speeches. The photo is now proudly hung in both the West and East Wings of the White House. And the 'fight!' slogan continues to be displayed prominently at many of the president's private events. The events that unfolded in Butler had an immediate impact on the president. Trump, who had long feared that he would one day face an assassination attempt, argued in the days that followed that he believed God intervened on July 13 to save him. In public speeches, he frequently remarked that the shooter might have been successful if Trump had not turned his head at the right moment. In conversations with his close allies and advisers, they said Trump admitted he was lucky to be alive. In recent conversations with those close to the president, they say that day made Trump believe that God had a hand in his 2024 victory — adding to his conviction that he has a mandate to rule the country, they told me. Trump has also continued to recount the details of what happened on July 13 in vivid detail, whether it's during speeches or at private events. In the weeks that followed the Butler rally, he repeatedly talked about a chart that detailed US-Mexico border crossings from his first administration that he referenced when the gunfire began, crediting the graphic for saving his life. Trump had his head turned to look at the graphic as one of those bullets made contact. The chart 'probably saved my life,' he later told his supporters at one campaign event, arguing that he would 'sleep with that chart for the rest of my life.' The graphic became a recurring campaign prop, and one Trump continues to reflect back on fondly. And while the president is still affected by the attempt on his life, advisers said he can still strike a lighthearted tone on the subject. During a July 3, 2025, speech in Iowa, while doing a victory lap for the passage of his landmark congressional agenda bill, he paused when a sound in the distance went off. 'Did I hear what I think I heard?' Trump said, after a loud boom caught the attention of the crowd at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. 'Don't worry, it's only fireworks, I hope! Famous last words.' As the president continued his speech, he turned his attention back to the noise, telling his supporters: 'You always have to think positive, I didn't like that sound either.' Trump delivered those remarks behind a full frame of bulletproof glass, something that became standard for any outdoor speech he delivered as a candidate, and later as president, after the Butler rally. On July 13, 2024, I interviewed multiple rally attendees who, like me, had been evacuated from the rally site shortly after the shooting. Emotions were high, chaos was rampant, and everyone I spoke to was scared. Some people were angry. They said the media and Democrats had fanned the flames of animosity toward Trump. Others were saddened, telling me how deeply disappointed they were that the US had become so violent. 'I'm sad that we've come to this in America. Really sad,' rally attendee Joan Rimenschneirder told me. She went on to say she was 'fearful of what's going to happen now,' adding that she was scared Trump supporters could be targeted for wearing MAGA apparel. However, she said if Trump could stand up and shout 'fight' after being hit by a bullet, then she would be 'brave' too. That sentiment was conveyed by many of the people I interviewed that day. Trump's supporters were shaken, but more determined than ever that they must continue to back him. Months later, Trump returned to Butler to deliver the speech he never had the opportunity to give in July, describing his second visit as unfinished business. 'I said that day when I was shot, I said, 'We're coming back. We're going to come back.' And I'm fulfilling a promise,' Trump said in an interview with NewsNation the week of his return. 'I'm fulfilling, really, an obligation.' I also returned to Butler that day, as did many of the people who had stood in that same field a few months prior. I spoke again with many of Trump's supporters, and was surprised to learn that every single one of them told me they weren't afraid to return to the scene. Instead, they were glad to have an opportunity to show their support once more. Teresa Boyd, who had attended the first Butler rally in addition to his second, put it this way: 'If he could come back, I could come back to support him.'
