Latest news with #then-Republican
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump lawyer: Pre-election '60 Minutes' segment caused president 'mental anguish'
While Donald Trump and his allies have long tried to present him as tough and the epitome of classical masculinity, the president himself hasn't done the myth any favors. On the contrary, the Republican, far from demonstrating strength and vigor, has an unnerving habit of whining and throwing routine tantrums. What's more, his lawyer's latest legal filing does fresh harm to the idea that Trump is the embodiment of toughness. The Associated Press reported: President Donald Trump suffered 'mental anguish' from CBS News' editing of a '60 Minutes' interview with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris last fall, his lawyers are arguing in court papers. Oh my. By now, the basic elements of this story are probably familiar, but to briefly recap, shortly before the 2024 presidential election, it's customary for the major-party nominees to sit down for '60 Minutes' interviews. Last fall, Harris agreed, while Trump initially accepted the invitation before backing out soon after. Harris' interview wasn't especially memorable — it was, however, recently nominated for an Emmy — though Trump has whined incessantly about it for nearly seven months, claiming that the program deceptively edited the segment. The Republican's claims have already been thoroughly discredited, but his hysterics have only gotten worse: The president last month accused '60 Minutes' of, among other things, 'unlawful and illegal behavior.' Trump added that CBS should lose its broadcast license and 'pay a big price,' while calling on the Federal Communications Commission to 'impose the maximum fines and punishment.' But in case that weren't quite enough, Trump also has an ongoing civil suit against CBS, in which the Republican is asking for $20 billion in damages (that's not a typo), based on the president's conspiratorial beliefs about the news magazine's election coverage. Paramount Global, CBS's corporate parent, has asked a court to dismiss the civil case, prompting the president's lawyers to defend the litigation on the merits. It was against this backdrop that Trump's counsel claimed in a court filing that the '60 Minutes' segment in question 'led to widespread confusion and mental anguish' among news consumers and Trump personally. The same filing claimed that Trump's status as a 'content creator' was damaged; the public steered clear of his social media platform; and the then-Republican candidate had to 'redirect significant time, money and effort' after the episode aired. Given that there really wasn't anything meaningfully wrong with the broadcast, it remains unclear why anyone would take any of Team Trump's arguments seriously, or why anyone would believe that the president suffered 'mental anguish' that warrants $20 billion in damages. That said, Paramount Global is reportedly trying to settle the case anyway, and critics have expressed fears that the company is prepared to give Trump millions of dollars, not because '60 Minutes' did anything untoward, but because Paramount wants the Trump administration to approve an unrelated merger deal. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Paramount Global recently offered $15 million to settle the case, citing people familiar with the situation. The same report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that the president's lawyers want more than $25 million and an apology from CBS News, which, again, didn't actually do anything wrong outside of Trump's overactive imagination. This ongoing debacle has already cost the network — in the last month, the head of CBS News and the executive producer of '60 Minutes' have both stepped down — and we'll learn soon enough if the tally gets even worse. Watch this space. This article was originally published on
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Leavitt blasts Jill Biden over husband's health 'coverup'
"I think anybody looking again at the videos and photo evidence of Joe Biden with your own eyes and a little bit of common sense can see that this was a clear coverup," Leavitt responded. "And Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that coverup." More: Robert Hur defends characterization of Biden's memory in testimony to Congress: Recap Aides close to President Biden and his wife did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the growing calls from the Trump White House. The 82-year old Democrat announced last week that he'd been diagnosed with an "aggressive" Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Questions around the president's mental capacity reached a fevered pitch when former Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report in early 2024 about Biden mishandling classified documents after his time as vice president concluded in the Obama White House. Hur concluded that a potential criminal jury would find Biden to be a "sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory." Biden's performance during a June presidential debate with then-Republican nominee Donald Trump also raised questions about the Democrats' well-being, and he ultimately dropped out of the White House race in deference to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The Trump White House's focus on Biden echoes criticism from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. The Kentucky Republican has asked several high-ranking Biden administration officials and his physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, to appear for transcribed interviews to "uncover the truth" about Biden's "mental decline and potential unauthorized use of an autopen for sweeping pardons and other executive actions. Letters seeking testimony have been sent to staffers including former senior adviser to the first lady Anthony Bernal, former Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden and former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini. Comer said during the last Congress that the Biden White House obstructed his committee's investigation into the president's mental capacity and refused to make aides available for depositions or interviews. "The American people demand transparency and accountability now," Comer said in a statement. According to a new book, Original Sin, written by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson, one person familiar with workings of the administration said Biden was only one of five people running the country. During her May 29 briefing at the White House, Leavitt claimed there was documentary evidence showing Jill Biden was shielding her husband from public scrutiny. "She's still lying to the American people. She still thinks the American public are so stupid that they're going to believe her lies," said Leavitt. "And frankly, it's insulting, and she needs to answer for it."
USA Today
3 days ago
- Health
- USA Today
Trump White House: Jill Biden should speak up about Joe Biden's mental health
Trump White House: Jill Biden should speak up about Joe Biden's mental health Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said former first lady Jill Biden should address 'when she saw and what she knew' about her husband's health Show Caption Hide Caption Here's what we know now about Biden's final exit from politics President Joe Biden announced he has prostate cancer. He was already under scrutiny for his mental acuity. Here's what we know now. President Donald Trump's top spokesperson called for former first lady Jill Biden to speak up about former President Joe Biden's alleged mental decline, saying she conspired to keep her husband's health from the American people. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's comment on May 29 - that Jill Biden should address 'when she saw and what she knew" - came in response to a reporter's question on whether the former first lady should testify to Congress about the former Democratic president's health. 'I think anybody looking again at the videos and photo evidence of Joe Biden with your own eyes and a little bit of common sense can see that this was a clear coverup,' Leavitt responded. 'And Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that coverup.' More: Robert Hur defends characterization of Biden's memory in testimony to Congress: Recap Aides close to President Biden and his wife did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the growing calls from the Trump White House. The 82-year old Democrat announced last week that he'd been diagnosed with an 'aggressive' Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Questions around the president's mental capacity reached a fevered pitch when former Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report in early 2024 about Biden mishandling classified documents after his time as vice president concluded in the Obama White House. Hur concluded that a potential criminal jury would find Biden to be a 'sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory." Biden's performance during a June presidential debate with then-Republican nominee Donald Trump also raised questions about the Democrats' well-being, and he ultimately dropped out of the White House race in deference to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The Trump White House's focus on Biden echoes criticism from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. The Kentucky Republican has asked several high-ranking Biden administration officials and his physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, to appear for transcribed interviews to 'uncover the truth' about Biden's "mental decline and potential unauthorized use of an autopen for sweeping pardons and other executive actions. Letters seeking testimony have been sent to staffers including former senior adviser to the first lady Anthony Bernal, former Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden and former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini. Comer said during the last Congress that the Biden White House obstructed his committee's investigation into the president's mental capacity and refused to make aides available for depositions or interviews. 'The American people demand transparency and accountability now,' Comer said in a statement. According to a new book, Original Sin, written by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson, one person familiar with workings of the administration said Biden was only one of five people running the country. During her May 29 briefing at the White House, Leavitt claimed there was documentary evidence showing Jill Biden was shielding her husband from public scrutiny. 'She's still lying to the American people. She still thinks the American public are so stupid that they're going to believe her lies," said Leavitt. "And frankly, it's insulting, and she needs to answer for it.'
The Age
5 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Trump wants to check on the gold at Fort Knox. His allies are cashing in on the fear
Trump's Fort Knox obsession has resurfaced one of the deeper cuts in the American conspiracy theory catalogue. One reason the government holds onto such large stores of gold is to confer a sense of financial stability, even though the country moved off the gold standard in the 20th century. According to the United States Mint, 147.3 million ounces of gold, about half of the government's stash, is held at Fort Knox. The Kentucky facility, known formally as the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, almost never allows visitors and is kept under heavy lock and key – an inaccessibility that may explain much of the intrigue around it. One of the early proponents of the idea that gold was missing was a lawyer named Peter Beter, who earned a modicum of notoriety in the 1970s by spreading dark theories in a mail-order audio cassette series. Among other things, Beter believed that 'organic robotoids' controlled by Bolsheviks had infiltrated the federal government. By 1974, concerns about the gold reserves grew so intense that a congressional delegation and a few news outlets, including The New York Times, were invited to Fort Knox for a rare inspection. A reporter for the Times described the effect of seeing a vault 6 feet wide and 12 feet deep, stacked with 36,236 glistening gold bars, as 'awesome'. Another wave of concern crested in 2011, when then-Republican Ron Paul introduced a bill calling for an inventory of the reserves. At a subcommittee hearing, Paul said people had become worried that 'the gold had been secretly shipped out of Fort Knox and sold'. He added, 'And, still others believe that the bars at Fort Knox are actually gold-plated tungsten.' The inspector general of the Treasury at the time, Eric Thorson, told Paul that audits were performed yearly, with 'no exceptions of any consequence'. More recently, Trump's first-term Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, had a chance to check on the gold in August 2017, with Senator Mitch McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, in tow. Photos were taken of the men among the gold bars. 'Glad gold is safe!' Mnuchin wrote on Twitter, now known as X. Questions bubble up again The latest concerns appear to have taken off on February 14, when the website ZeroHedge, which occasionally promotes conspiracy theories, tagged Elon Musk in a post on X. The post asked him to make sure the gold at Fort Knox was there. 'Surely it's reviewed at least every year?' Musk replied. 'It should be. It isn't,' ZeroHedge responded. (Bessent would later say that the gold is still audited annually.) Senator Rand Paul, the son of Ron Paul, chimed in, calling for an audit. 'Let's do it.' Then came Glenn Beck, the conservative radio and TV host, who posted an open letter to Trump, asking if he could take a camera crew to Fort Knox to 'restore faith in our financial system'. He later dedicated a segment of his show to casting doubt on the confirmed audits. The chatter about the gold reserves was growing louder. By February 20, Trump was telling a press gaggle on Air Force One that he planned to go to Fort Knox to 'make sure the gold is there'. Sales pitches follow Loading Since then, the idea that the government's gold reserves may have gone missing has been integrated into the sales pitches of companies that trade in gold coins and gold investment accounts. The companies advertise heavily on Trump-friendly TV and internet shows. A number of 'gold IRA' companies have suggested that a future audit of Fort Knox could determine that gold is missing, setting off a crisis among Americans about the stability of the economy. Amid such chaos, the companies argue, privately held gold would be a lucrative safe haven for investors. One of the companies, Birch Gold Group, is endorsed by the president's eldest son and bills itself as 'Donald Trump Jr's gold company'. Loading A recent article on Birch Gold's website stated that the idea of an 'empty Fort Knox' had gone 'from conspiracy theory to mainstream concern'. A discovery that gold was missing from Fort Knox, the article stated, would be the 'quickest way down for the US dollar'. 'It is only those without physical gold exposure that feel the need to panic, perhaps with good reason, about the greenback's admittedly dismal prospects,' states the article, which includes an offer for a 'FREE gold IRA info kit'. The younger Trump lauded his father's plans to visit Fort Knox in a February 24 episode of his online talk show, on which he regularly makes pitches for Birch Gold. 'If it's empty,' he said, 'I would imagine there's hell to pay.' On another section of Birch Gold's website, a 'Message from Donald Trump Jr' raised the possibility that his father's administration could 'revalue America's gold reserves on the national balance sheet from their outdated book value of $42' – the price per ounce the government assigns for bookkeeping purposes – 'to current market prices'. This, he wrote, 'could cause a surge in gold prices', adding that 'the potential upside for gold investors is substantial'. A gold IRA, he added, would be a great way to benefit. He did not mention that Bessent had publicly stated that he had no plans to revalue the gold reserves. Above the message was a digitally altered photo of the president at a desk, showing off an important-looking signed document, a wall of gold bricks behind him.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
As Donald Trump raises Fort Knox conspiracies, his allies are cashing in
Trump's Fort Knox obsession has resurfaced one of the deeper cuts in the American conspiracy theory catalogue. One reason the government holds onto such large stores of gold is to confer a sense of financial stability, even though the country moved off the gold standard in the 20th century. According to the United States Mint, 147.3 million ounces of gold, about half of the government's stash, is held at Fort Knox. The Kentucky facility, known formally as the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, almost never allows visitors and is kept under heavy lock and key – an inaccessibility that may explain much of the intrigue around it. One of the early proponents of the idea that gold was missing was a lawyer named Peter Beter, who earned a modicum of notoriety in the 1970s by spreading dark theories in a mail-order audio cassette series. Among other things, Beter believed that 'organic robotoids' controlled by Bolsheviks had infiltrated the federal government. By 1974, concerns about the gold reserves grew so intense that a congressional delegation and a few news outlets, including The New York Times, were invited to Fort Knox for a rare inspection. A reporter for the Times described the effect of seeing a vault 6 feet wide and 12 feet deep, stacked with 36,236 glistening gold bars, as 'awesome'. Another wave of concern crested in 2011, when then-Republican Ron Paul introduced a bill calling for an inventory of the reserves. At a subcommittee hearing, Paul said people had become worried that 'the gold had been secretly shipped out of Fort Knox and sold'. He added, 'And, still others believe that the bars at Fort Knox are actually gold-plated tungsten.' The inspector general of the Treasury at the time, Eric Thorson, told Paul that audits were performed yearly, with 'no exceptions of any consequence'. More recently, Trump's first-term Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, had a chance to check on the gold in August 2017, with Senator Mitch McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, in tow. Photos were taken of the men among the gold bars. 'Glad gold is safe!' Mnuchin wrote on Twitter, now known as X. Loading Questions bubble up again The latest concerns appear to have taken off on February 14, when the website ZeroHedge, which occasionally promotes conspiracy theories, tagged Elon Musk in a post on X. The post asked him to make sure the gold at Fort Knox was there. 'Surely it's reviewed at least every year?' Musk replied. 'It should be. It isn't,' ZeroHedge responded. (Bessent would later say that the gold is still audited annually.) Senator Rand Paul, the son of Ron Paul, chimed in, calling for an audit. 'Let's do it.' Then came Glenn Beck, the conservative radio and TV host, who posted an open letter to Trump, asking if he could take a camera crew to Fort Knox to 'restore faith in our financial system'. He later dedicated a segment of his show to casting doubt on the confirmed audits. The chatter about the gold reserves was growing louder. Loading By February 20, Trump was telling a press gaggle on Air Force One that he planned to go to Fort Knox to 'make sure the gold is there'. Sales pitches follow Since then, the idea that the government's gold reserves may have gone missing has been integrated into the sales pitches of companies that trade in gold coins and gold investment accounts. The companies advertise heavily on Trump-friendly TV and internet shows. A number of 'gold IRA' companies have suggested that a future audit of Fort Knox could determine that gold is missing, setting off a crisis among Americans about the stability of the economy. Amid such chaos, the companies argue, privately held gold would be a lucrative safe haven for investors. One of the companies, Birch Gold Group, is endorsed by the president's eldest son and bills itself as 'Donald Trump Jr's gold company'. Loading A recent article on Birch Gold's website stated that the idea of an 'empty Fort Knox' had gone 'from conspiracy theory to mainstream concern'. A discovery that gold was missing from Fort Knox, the article stated, would be the 'quickest way down for the US dollar'. 'It is only those without physical gold exposure that feel the need to panic, perhaps with good reason, about the greenback's admittedly dismal prospects,' states the article, which includes an offer for a 'FREE gold IRA info kit'. The younger Trump lauded his father's plans to visit Fort Knox in a February 24 episode of his online talk show, on which he regularly makes pitches for Birch Gold. 'If it's empty,' he said, 'I would imagine there's hell to pay.' On another section of Birch Gold's website, a 'Message from Donald Trump Jr' raised the possibility that his father's administration could 'revalue America's gold reserves on the national balance sheet from their outdated book value of $42' – the price per ounce the government assigns for bookkeeping purposes – 'to current market prices'. This, he wrote, 'could cause a surge in gold prices', adding that 'the potential upside for gold investors is substantial'. A gold IRA, he added, would be a great way to benefit. He did not mention that Bessent had publicly stated that he had no plans to revalue the gold reserves. Above the message was a digitally altered photo of the president at a desk, showing off an important-looking signed document, a wall of gold bricks behind him.
