The Full Belmonte, 3/5/2023
Trump Asks Judge to Block Pence’s Testimony to Grand Jury
The former president’s lawyers cited executive privilege, a tactic they have used with other ex-Trump aides.
“Former President Donald J. Trump has filed a motion asking a federal judge to prevent his former vice president, Mike Pence, from testifying to a grand jury about specific issues that Mr. Trump is claiming are protected by executive privilege, a person briefed on the matter said.
The filing is unsurprising — Mr. Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly sought to assert executive privilege over former aides as a means of blocking testimony — but it underscores how much the Justice Department’s attempts to get Mr. Pence to testify in the investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to cling to power may be drawn out.
The sealed filing was made on Friday, according to the person briefed on the matter. Its existence was reported earlier by CNN. A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Pence was recently subpoenaed for grand jury testimony after negotiations between his team and the Justice Department over his appearance came to an impasse, people briefed on the matter said. Mr. Pence is a key potential witness in the investigation, as the person Mr. Trump pressured repeatedly to thwart the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Electoral College victory by Congress….” Read more at New York Times
Biden’s Selma visit puts spotlight back on voting rights
FILE - Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., lead a group across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., March 3, 2013. President Joe Biden on Sunday, March 5, 2023, is set to pay tribute to the heroes of “Blood Sunday," joining thousands for the annual commemoration of the seminal moment in the civil rights movement that led to passage of landmark voting rights legislation nearly 60 years ago. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to pay tribute to the heroes of ‘Bloody Sunday,’ joining thousands for the annual commemoration of the seminal moment in the civil rights movement that led to passage of landmark voting rights legislation nearly 60 years ago.
The visit to Selma, Alabama, on Sunday also presents Biden with the opportunity to speak directly to the current generation of civil rights activists. Many feel dejected because Biden has been unable to make good on a campaign pledge to bolster voting rights and are eager to see his administration keep the issue in the spotlight.
Biden intends to use his remarks to underscore the importance of commemorating Bloody Sunday so that history can’t be erased, while making the case that the fight for voting rights remains integral to delivering economic justice and civil rights for Black Americans, according to White House officials.
This year’s commemoration also comes as the historic city of roughly 18,000 is still digging outfrom the aftermath of a January EF-2 tornado that destroyed or damaged thousands of properties in and around Selma….” Read more at AP News
Eyeing DeSantis, Trump Readies for a Long Primary Battle
Donald Trump basked in affection from activists at CPAC on Saturday. But his campaign is preparing for an ugly, protracted primary fight for the nomination — and pledging even an indictment would not stop him.
“OXON HILL, Md. — Inside the MAGA-clad corridors of this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, the politics of the Republican Party seemed almost unchanged from the pinnacle of Donald J. Trump’s presidency. Sequin-wearing superfans jostled for selfies with whichever member of the Trump family happened to be nearby. Chants of ‘We love Trump!’ rang out in the halls.
But outside the confines of the friendly gathering, Mr. Trump and his campaign have begun adjusting to the new reality of 2024: The former president may be the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, but he is no longer the singular leader of his party.
After a fitful start, the Trump operation is now actively preparing for the possibility of a drawn-out 2024 primary. That means laying the groundwork to compete in a potential fight over delegates that could extend deep into next year. And it means shadowboxing with his ascendant but not-yet-official challenger, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, over donors and endorsements from inside their shared home state and beyond.
This is grunt work Mr. Trump was slow to undertake in his celebrity-powered, but scattershot, campaign in 2016. In 2020, he used his incumbency to scare off any serious challenges.
On the third time around, the Trump campaign’s focus on the traditional nuts and bolts is an acknowledgment of the race’s expected competitiveness, despite his unmatched standing as a former president and an early edge in the polls. But the threat of indictment hanging over the former president is just one reason that 2024 could unfold in the most untraditional of ways.
Mr. Trump said on Saturday that even indictments would not spur his exit from the race, as he maligned prosecutors eyeing him in Georgia and New York. His address to CPAC, the annual showcase of right-wing activists and energy, demonstrated one element of his continued political strength: the loyalty of vocal activists angry with the old guard of the party.
‘I am your warrior. I am your justice,’ Mr. Trump said in a speech laced with grievances that stretched more than 90 minutes. ‘And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.’
The speech was just Mr. Trump’s fourth public event since his campaign began almost 16 weeks ago. But he is now ramping up his public schedule, with planning underway for his first major 2024 rally and two policy speeches this month, according to two people familiar with the planning.
Notably, Mr. DeSantis, who is expected to run but has not declared his intentions yet, skipped CPAC, instead setting out on a multistate tour to promote his new book about his leadership in Florida as a national model. On Sunday, Mr. DeSantis will deliver a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California about his vision for the party….” Read more at New York Times
Biden's D.C. crime stunner strains relations with House Dems
“President Biden's shock announcement on Thursday that he won't veto a GOP-led resolution blocking changes to D.C.'s criminal code has left House Democrats in a state of shock, anger and distrust.
Why it matters: The hostility threatens to damage the White House's relationship with House Democrats ahead of 2024, as Republicans force them to take votes on wedge issues that could come back to haunt the party on the campaign trail.” [Axios]
Kellyanne Conway and George Conway confirm they are divorcing
The GOP power couple’s marriage drew intense fascination as he grew loudly critical of the Trump White House, where she worked
“George and Kellyanne Conway — the GOP power couple whose marriage drew intense public curiosity as he became ever more loudly critical of the Trump White House, for which she worked as a senior adviser — are divorcing after 22 years together, the couple confirmed late Saturday.
In a statement posted on both of their Twitter accounts, the Conways described the divorce as ‘amicable’ and said they ‘cherish the many happy years (and four corgis) we’ve shared, and above all else, our four incredible children, who remain the heartbeat of our family and our top priority.’
George Conway, 59, declined to comment further on the news, first reported by the New York Post. Kellyanne Conway, 56, replied to a Washington Post reporter via text: ‘be careful with the loose nonfacts and presumptions.’
A veteran Republican pollster, Kellyanne Conway joined Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in July 2016 and rose to campaign manager two months later. Following Trump to the White House, she became one of the most public faces of the administration through frequent TV news appearances — including one in which she defended a Trump spokesman’s false claims of record-breaking inauguration crowds as ‘alternative facts.’
In 2001, she wed George Conway, a prominent New York lawyer who had represented Paula Jones in her 1994 sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton. He initially supported the Trump campaign and later mulled taking a high-ranking job in the administration.
But he quickly soured on the new president, and in March 2018 he launched a streak of heated criticism against Trump on his Twitter account, which eventually gathered more than a million followers. He also took several prominent writing assignments, publishing a 3,473-word essay that summer rebutting Trump’s assertion that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation was ‘unconstitutional.’ In an October 2019 Atlantic op-ed, he declared Trump unfit for office and questioned his mental health.
‘I was angry at Never Trumpers for opposing him and not giving him a chance,’ George Conway explained in February 2020. “But their predictions about him turned out to be chillingly correct — indeed, perhaps understated how bad he’d be.”
Eventually, George Conway helped found the Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed by moderate Republicans with the goal of blocking Trump’s 2020 reelection effort.
As public fascination with their marriage grew, some speculated that their political positioning was a bit of an act — a way for the Conways to build a professional bridge across Washington’s partisan gap. Yet tensions clearly began to mount within the family, especially after Claudia, the couple’s teenage daughter, drew attention for viral tweets and TikToks that were critical of her parents and Trump.
In the summer of 2020, Kellyanne Conway said she would step down from her White House role, citing the needs of their children. Her husband at the same time stepped back from his Lincoln Project work.
‘We disagree about plenty,’ Kellyanne Conway wrote in a statement at the time, ‘but we are united on what matters most: the kids.’
But in her memoir, ‘Here’s the Deal,’ released in May, she bared her fury and frustration with her husband’s decision to go public with his disdain for Trump.
“For the first time since George and I had gotten serious, I was looking at the possibility that the man who had always had my back might one day stab me in it,” she wrote. “Was that too improbable to consider?”
She added: “I had already said publicly what I’d said privately to George: that his daily deluge of insults-by-tweet against my boss — or, as he put it sometimes, ‘the people in the White House’ — violated our marriage vows to ‘love, honor, and cherish’ each other.” She wrote that as her husband’s social media following grew, ‘it seemed the flood of reaction and attention he was receiving was magnetic and irresistible.’
People who talked to George Conway at the time said he was angered by what she wrote and that it added more tension to an already rocky relationship.
After first reports of the couple’s separation emerged, Trump weighed in early Saturday morning on Truth Social, writing: ‘Congratulations to Kellyanne Conway on her DIVORCE from her wacko husband, Mr. Kellyanne Conway. Free at last, she has finally gotten rid of the disgusting albatross around her neck. She is a great person, and will now be free to lead the kind of life that she deserves … and it will be a great life without the extremely unattractive loser by her side!’
‘Looking forward to seeing you in New York at E. Jean’s trial next month! Hugs and kisses,’ George Conway replied, referencing author E. Jean Carroll’s rape and defamation case against Trump that’s set to go to trial in April.” [Washington Post]
Texas GOP censures Rep. Tony Gonzales over gun safety, gay marriage votes
“The Texas Republican Party voted Saturday to censure Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) in a rare move in response to his break from the GOP on several pieces of legislation.
Why it matters: Gonzales has voted against party lines several times since he was first elected in 2020, including for new gun safety laws following the Uvalde school shooting in his district.
Tensions reached a boiling point after his recent votes to codify same-sex marriage and oppose a border security bill proposed by fellow Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy.
Details: The Medina County GOP first censured Gonzales last month, accusing him of engaging in a ‘pattern of action demonstrably opposed’ to the state party's principles and legislative priorities.
Fifteen other counties in Gonzales’ district have since passed resolutions concurring with the Medina County GOP, the Houston Chronicle reports.
A statement from the Texas GOP said Gonzales' censure marks only the second time the state party has censured a party member. The resolution passed 57-5 when voted on by the State Republican Executive Committee, with one member abstaining.
The resolution highlights several votes Gonzales made as a member of Congress that went against GOP principles, including voting against a rules package proposed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The other side: ‘Today, like every day, Congressman Tony Gonzales went to work on behalf of the people of TX-23,’ campaign spokesperson Evan Albertson said in a statement to the Texas Tribune.
‘He talked to veterans, visited with Border Patrol agents, and met constituents in a county he flipped from blue to red. The Republican Party of Texas would be wise to follow his lead and do some actual work.’
Worth noting: Gonzales said he has no regrets about his votes — especially the one on gun safety laws — earlier this week at an unrelated news conference, the Tribune notes.
‘The reality is I’ve taken almost 1,400 votes, and the bulk of those have been with the Republican Party,’ he said.
The big picture: The censure, which requires a three-fifths vote among the 64 members of the State Republican Executive Committee, means Gonzales could face disciplinary action including an end to financial support for his campaign if he runs again in 2024, according to party rules.
Gonzales is also ‘discouraged from participating in the 2024 Republican Party Primary,’ the resolution says.
Gonzales, first elected in 2020, easily won re-election last November in his district, which is heavily Hispanic.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), however, reiterated its support for Gonzales Saturday after the censure vote.
‘Congressman Gonzales is a valued member of the House majority, and we look forward to supporting his re-election,’ NRCC Regional Press Secretary Delanie Bomar said in a statement.” [Axios]
Pot vote has Oklahoma hungry to rake in green from Texas
Ethan McKee, vice president of Mango Cannabis, displays marijuana flowers at a dispensary, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Oklahoma City. Voters in Oklahoma, which already has a robust medical marijuana program, will decide on Tuesday, March 7, whether to legalize cannabis for adults over the age of 21. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)
“OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Tens of thousands of Texans from the bustling Dallas-Fort Worth area routinely drive across the Red River to gamble in glitzy, Las Vegas-style tribal casinos or to relax at cabins or swim and ski in lakes that dot southern Oklahoma.
Soon, they could come north for another draw: recreational marijuana.
Oklahoma voters will decide Tuesday whether to approve a ballot measure that legalizes consuming the plant for adults 21 and older. The conservative state already has one of the nation’s most robust medical marijuana programs, and industry proponents hope an influx of Texas consumers will be a boon for a market that’s become saturated.
‘There are thousands and thousands of Texans who are increasingly coming to Oklahoma as a tourist destination,’ said Ryan Kiesel, a former state lawmaker and one of the organizers of State Question 820. ‘I want to be able to sell legal, regulated and taxed marijuana to those Texans over the age of 21, and take their tax dollars and invest them in Oklahoma schools and Oklahoma health care.’
The population of the booming Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone — closing in on 8 million people — is nearly double that of the entire state of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma is expected to see an increase of $1.8 billion in recreational sales that would generate about $434 million in excise tax revenue alone from 2024 to 2028 if the measure passes, according to an economic impact study sponsored by the cannabis industry. By far the largest number of out-of-state consumers would be from Texas, followed by Arkansas and Kansas, the report shows.
Oklahoma already has one of the most liberal medical marijuana programs in the country, with roughly 10% of the state’s adult population having a medical license. Unlike most other states, Oklahoma has no list of qualifying medical conditions, allows patients to get a recommendation from a doctor online, and gives licenses that are valid for two years.
Supporters of SQ 820 initially tried to get the question on the November ballot, but a delay in verifying the signatures led to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt calling for a special election just for that proposal.
People in the industry say Oklahoma’s low barrier to entry led to thousands of licensed growers, processors and dispensary operators competing for a limited number of patients. While inflation is causing the cost of many products to go up, marijuana prices at dispensaries have plummeted, and many operators are going out of business. A website for cannabis-related sales shows thousands of Oklahoma grow operations and dispensaries up for sale….
While many in Oklahoma’s cannabis industry are eager for recreational sales, opponents include a group of clergy, law enforcement and prosecutors led by former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, an ex-FBI agent. Current Gov. Kevin Stitt and nearly all the Republicans in the Oklahoma Senate also have announced their opposition.
Opponents cite an increase in the amount of Oklahoma marijuana being exported out of state and sold on the black market, as well as criminal activity associated with some marijuana grows, including the execution-style slayings of four Chinese nationals at an illegal marijuana farm in rural Oklahoma.
‘SQ 820 throws a match into the middle of what already is a powder keg in rural Oklahoma,’ said Logan County Sheriff Damon Devereaux, president of the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association.
Not everyone in law enforcement is overly concerned about legalized marijuana. Sheriff Ray Sappington in Cooke County, Texas, which borders Oklahoma and includes a major north-south interstate, I-35, said that while his deputies may end up arresting more people for bringing marijuana into Texas from Oklahoma, it’s not his top priority.
‘Our issues are not marijuana, to be honest with you,’ said Sappington, who said most people caught with less than 2 ounces of cannabis are issued a citation and released. ‘Fentanyl is so deadly, and we’re facing that all across the nation. That’s the battle. It’s not marijuana.’” [AP News]
Cholesterol drug lowers heart attack risk; avoids muscle side effects
A drug called bempedoic acid is an option for patients who cannot tolerate statin drugs because of muscle pain or other side effects
“Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins are credited with dramatically reducing heart attacks and are some of the most-prescribed pills in the United States. But roughly 10 to 30 percent of people who try statins stop taking them because of muscle pain or other side effects.
Now, new research shows that a different cholesterol drug, called bempedoic acid, can significantly lower heart attack risk in the statin-intolerant. The drug, sold under the brand name Nexletol, will not replace statins as a first-line therapy, but the new data shows the pill is an effective alternative for a large number of adults at high risk of heart attack who cannot or will not take a statin….” Read more at Washington Post