In deep red Indiana, Sen. Mike Braun, the choice of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), won the primary for governor although Nikki Haley, not even running for presidential candidate, took almost 22 points from DDT in the presidential primary. GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz, who quit the race and then rejoined it, managed to defeat a crowded field despite her vote against Ukraine although that it her heritage. Her hometown is not happy with her.
After promising President Joe Biden that it will allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, Israel has seized control of the Rafah border crossing, the only entry to Gaza from Egypt. Israel said the crossing “was being used for terrorist purposes,” the same excuse it uses for destroying hospitals, homes, and everything in Gaza. Rafah has one toilet for 850 people, and one shower for every 3,500 people in a city with 700,000 women and children.
Israel began strikes against the city late Monday afternoon a few hours after warning 100,000 Palestinians in Rafah, a designated demilitarized zone, to evacuate and rejected a ceasefire agreement negotiated by Qatar and Egypt that Hamas accepted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified Rafah as the solution to regaining its hostages. Israel demanded 40 of the children, women, elderly, and wounded and will agree to a ceasefire only long enough to rescue them. Hamas said it doesn’t have that many in the categories, and the number of original hostages alive or in Hamas control is unknown.
Sharing a border with Gaza, Egypt risks becoming a part of the hostilities and wants to keep Gaza refugees from flooding their country, negating a decades-old Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and UN agencies also worry about Israel’s dangerous escalation. Aid agencies in Gaza have less than a day’s fuel for trucks and tankers to deliver life-saving food, medicine, water, and diesel for millions with an almost complete shutdown of operations including bakeries and hospitals. Widespread looting of stocks in Rafah is accompanied by the closure of all entry points into southern Gaza.
The U.S. worked for months with Qatar and Egypt for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, but President Joe Biden has become increasingly frustrated, now blocking two shipments of ammunition to Israel. Monday morning, Biden warned Netanyahu about airstrikes on eastern Rafah without a clear plan to protect civilians. Israel’s attack on Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital, one of the principal medical centers receiving people wounded from Rafah airstrikes, developed a greater rift between Israel and the U.S. Earlier, Israel agreed to the agreement with a phased release of hostages with gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, completed with a “sustainable calm,” defined as a “permanent cessation of military and hostile operations.”
DDT Trial Day 13: Calling Stormy Daniels as a witness caused DDT’s lawyers to file a motion for a mistrial with the excuse that her story was “new.” Prosecutors disagreed, saying the details in her testimony has been public for years, and Judge Juan Merchan denied the mistrial. Todd Blanche, DDT’s lawyer, also claimed that the testimony was “extraordinarily prejudicial” with nothing related to the charges in the indictment, but only to cause DDT embarrassment in describing her one-night stand with DDT in 2006. Merchan expressed surprise that DDT’s attorneys didn’t make more objections during her testimony, saying, “The defense has to take some responsibility for that.” During cross examination, another of his lawyers also insisted Daniels walk through the alleged sexual encounter so that the jury can assess whether she is credible. Scowling during much of her testimony, DDT appeared to encourage his lawyers to object.
The first nondisclosure agreement collapsed after Daniels didn’t get the payment so she signed another one on October 28, 2016, days before the election and immediately after the Access Hollywood tape about DDT’s willingness to commit sexual assault became public. A week later the Wall Street Journal ran an article on the National Inquirer’s “catch-and-kill” deals in which American Media Inc. purchased stories to block them from being published. Daniels said she couldn’t respond to that article or another one in January 2017 about her $130,000 payment because of the NDA. InTouch Weekly magazine then published her interview from 2011 but didn’t pay for it as promised. Daniels also said she signed a denial of the sexual encounter in 2018 under duress.
As a criminal defendant, DDT was forced to hear Daniels’ testimony including sometimes salacious statements about his private life: he and his wife Melania don’t share a bedroom, he compared Daniels to his daughter Ivanka, and he wanted Daniels to spank him with a rolled-up copy of Forbes. DDT didn’t nap while she testified, and the judge warned Daniels to stay on topic while sustaining defense’s objections. DDT has repeatedly denied all accusations of sexual misconduct from over two dozen women, but he could go to jail for if he lashes out at Daniels. During her testimony, the judge criticized DDT to his lawyer because “he is cursing audibly and he is shaking his head visually and that’s contemptuous. It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.” Merchan told the lawyer to stop him.
Hannah Hudnall’s factcheck debunks the lies circulating on social media attempting to protect DDT from paying hush money to Stormy Daniels and covering it up in election interference.
Before Daniels’ testimony, Sally Franklin, senior vice president and executive managing editor for Penguin Random House, provided excerpts from DDT’s books into evidence, identifying which parts he had written and which ones were provided by a ghostwriter, a DDT staff member. DDT had written that he signed all of his checks and try to read his bills. One of the chapter titles of Trump: Think like a Billionaire is “Sometimes you still have to screw them.”
After testifying for three hours and 44 minutes on Tuesday, Daniels returns on Thursday for cross examination, giving DDT’s attorneys time to prepare. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said the city’s jail commissioner was “prepared for whatever comes” in terms of a possible DDT incarceration. Joyce Vance has more details.
The war between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson may be cooling off—temporarily. They met twice in the last two days with Rep. Thom Massie (R-KY) present to resolve Greene’s motion to vacate because Johnson allowed Democrats to participate in passing bills. DDT also entered the fray with a two-hour phone call to Greene telling her he doesn’t want any more intraparty drama before the election. Johnson said that DDT told him “he’s not in favor” of Greene’s attempt to oust him. Greene and Massie had presented four demands to Johnson:
No further aid for Ukraine.
A return to the “Hastert Rule,” referring to a former Speaker’s mandate that no legislation can be brought to a vote without support from a majority of House Republicans.
Defunding the special counsel probes into DDT.
Enforcement of the “Massie Rule,” automatically cutting government funding across the board if no superseding agreement is reached before a set deadline.
To protect himself, Johnson attacked the executive branch, the judicial system, states’ rights, and the rule of law by vowing he will use every power of Congress to end all DDT’s criminal prosecutions. He made his statements while Stormy Daniels was giving testimony in the New York state criminal case about falsifying business records to pay hush money to Daniels and then covering up his actions. Ironically, Johnson, declared that “we need accountability.”
Without support from Democratic House members, including their leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Johnson won’t have enough votes for anything because of the fractured House GOP. With Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-NY) now sworn in, the chamber’s split of 217-213 gives Johnson only one vote majority until May 21 when a Republican is likely to win the runoff to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Johnson also stated that the judicial branch is “in jeopardy” although he wasn’t referring to all the conservative activist judges and justices that Republicans put on the bench. He complained about the “Biden donor judge,” referring to Judge Juan Merchan who donated $15 to the Biden campaign, and his ”indefensible gag order.”
Johnson made other promises he may not be able to keep. To big GOP donors, he declared he would crack down on the rebels derailing the House before meeting with Greene and Massie. His assertions only riled Greene more. She Xed Monday before meeting with Johnson:
“Speaker Mike Johnson is talking about kicking Republican members off of committees if we vote against his rules/bills. It’s not us who is out of line, it’s our Republican elected Speaker!!”
The stories about South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem just keep rolling out. The publishing team working on her first book two years ago, Not My First Rodeo, wouldn’t allow the stories about killing animals—a 14-month-old puppy, a goat, and three horses—because it was a bad-taste anecdote hurting her brand. With a different team and imprint, she insisted it be put into the current tome, No Going Back.
Annoyed with defending her book, Noem snapped at Fox Business host Stuart Varney during an interview:
“Enough, Stuart. This interview is ridiculous, which you are doing right now. So you need to stop.”
Noem loves guns so much that she tried to replace Wayne LaPierre as NRA CEO or executive vice president. Her spokesperson denied that she talked with LaPierre, saying that “she loves her job as Governor of South Dakota.”
Nel's New Day 
