Donald Trump

Guardian Melania Trump made an extraordinary declaration in an eagerly awaited memoir to be published a month from election day: she is a passionate supporter of a woman’s right to control her own body – including the right to abortion.“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” the Republican nominee’s wife writes, amid a campaign in which Donald Trump’s threats to women’s reproductive rights have played a central role.

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.

“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”

Melania Trump has rarely expressed political views in public. Her book, Melania, which reveals the former first lady to be so firmly out of step with most of her own party, will be published in the US next Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.

NY Times -  Just over a month from an election that could make Mr. Trump, 78, the oldest person ever to serve as president (82 years, 7 months and 6 days when his term would end in January 2029), he is refusing to release even the most basic information about his health. 

 

Michael Beschloss: Jack Smith prosecutors: on January 6, Trump "pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted—a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role."

An excellent Trump summary by Steve Schmidt - Thirty-three days remain until the United States of America, the most powerful nation state in world history, holds an election that determines if power is handed to a 78-year-old liar, criminal and vicious demagogue, who routinely smears the country he once attacked and betrayed.Donald Trump is more than an unfit man. He is a despicable and dangerous one who should frighten everyone who knows something about history. There has never been a man who promised revenge and retribution against his political enemies who didn’t follow through when they achieved power. Ever.

Trump is a man who does not believe in the American creed or faith that holds that “all men/women are created equal and endowed by a creator with inalienable rights which include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

He does not believe in freedom. He detests the freedoms  of speech, religion and assembly. He has assailed all of them.

He does not believe in the US Constitution, which he desecrated and assaulted.

He is an adjudicated rapist and a serial abuser of women. Trump is surrounded by men who have assaulted women, and who, coincidentally, are all deeply committed to controlling women politically and stripping them of liberty.

He does not believe in elections, nor the peaceful transition of power that George Washington set in motion.

He does not distinguish between fantasy and reality. His delusions are crazed and vicious.

Donald Trump is exactly what Dick Cheney said he is, which is the gravest threat to the American republic since the Civil War.

NBC News - Former President Donald Trump was acting as a private candidate for office, not as the president of the United States, when he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss and “resorted to crimes to stay in office,” a new filing from special counsel Jack Smith asserts. The filing, released yesterday, is connected to Trump’s federal election case and is a response to the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling. It includes new details about Trump’s actions after the 2020 election and leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, including testimony detailing Trump’s conversations with former Vice President Mike Pence. In one discussion on Nov. 12, Pence offered Trump a “face-saving option,” telling him to not concede the election “but recognize the process is over.”

Other revelations include analysis from an FBI expert that showed Trump was scrolling Twitter during the Capitol riot, as well as new evidence that an unnamed assistant overheard Trump saying to family members after the 2020 election, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”  Smith’s team once again argued that Trump knew his statements about the 2020 election were, in fact, lies and said he relied upon his own campaign employees and volunteers to carry out the alleged scheme.