Photo: AFP
Former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who has been implicated in the plot to overturn the 2020 election results, is reportedly a top contender for attorney general if Donald Trump wins a second term.
Top officials threatened to resign en masse if Trump installed Clark as the head of the Justice Department in a last-ditch effort to remain in power, but the former assistant attorney general has emerged as a favorite for that leadership position as the former president prepares for a possible return to the White House, reported Axios.
"Back in April, as Clark circulated at Mar-a-Lago wearing a loose-fitting black suit and blue shirt, any troubles related to the Jan. 6 investigation seemed a world away," reported Axios correspondent Jonathan Swan. "Clark sounded optimistic. Half a dozen or so donors and Trump allies surrounded him at the high-top table."
Clark told one of the donors that he believed Trump had learned a lesson from his first and would only appoint a loyalist to lead the Department of Justice, and Swan reported that could be the former official who is currently under investigation by that same agency.
READ MORE: CNN legal expert singles out key 'devastating' evidence against Trump from latest Jan 6th hearing
"There was a buzz around Clark," Swan reported. "Given Trump wanted to make him attorney general in the final days of his first term, it is likely that Clark would be a serious contender for the top job in a second term."
'); */ /*if ( postContent[0] ) { postContent[2].insertAdjacentHTML('afterend',`
Chris Matthews talks to Raw Story: Who would you bet on in 2024, Trump or Kamala?
`); } */
Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
Stories Chosen For You
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani argued on Sunday that President Joe Biden "should be tried for crimes against humanity."
During his Sunday radio program on WABC, Giuliani accused Democrats of lying about the search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and lying about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"How many more times do these people have to lie?" the former mayor asked. "The whole group of them have to lie. They're lying about Jan. 6 right now. It's the same group. Shifty [Adam Schiff] is the guy who told us he had the proof of Russian collusion. There is no proof. It was made up by Hillary Clinton."
"He's a damn liar when he starts calling Jan. 6 an insurrection or a revolt," Giuliani said of Schiff. "He's an inhumane human being when he fails to investigate Ashli Babbit's killing or the involvement of Antifa or the involvement and the mistakes -- or maybe worse -- of the Capitol Police that led to a lot of this."
Giuliani said that people who "pushed around cops" on Jan. 6 should be "punished appropriately."
"By putting them in jail for 14 months and leaving them there, you've got a fascist state going on, pal," he opined. "I'm not afraid to say that. Joe Biden, you run this place like this is a damn dictatorship and you should be tried for crimes against humanity."
CONTINUE READING Show less
AOC says Congress could reverse Trump tax cuts to cancel all Student debt
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday that Congress could reverse the 2017 GOP tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefited the rich and large corporations, to finance the cancellation of all remaining student loan debt after President Joe Biden announced his more limited plan to wipe out $10,000 for most borrowers.
"We can keep pushing," the New York Democrat wrote in an email to supporters. "Remember that the Biden administration didn't want to do this at all. It was YOUR pushing, YOUR pressure, YOUR organizing that got them to this point. They have forgiven far, far more debt for business owners in the form of [Paycheck Protection Program loans] who didn't need to meet ANY sort of income requirements or means testing for almost $1 TRILLION in forgiveness."
"Never forget: 83% of the Trump tax breaks are going to the top 1%."
"Mind you," she added, "forgiving ALL student debt in the U.S. is about $1.7 trillion—you could undo the 2017 tax cuts for the 1% and forgive all student loans plus have money left over to contribute to universal childcare, tuition-free college, homelessness, etc."
Biden's push to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers with under $125,000 in annual income—and his proposed forgiveness of $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients—could help more than 40 million people across the U.S. Around a third of all federal student loan borrowers owe $10,000 or less.
But millions of others will remain stuck under crushing student debt balances despite the president's plan, and limited debt cancellation will do nothing to reform the college financing system that caused the crisis.
"It is now up to us, and to you, to decide if we are going to stop here, or if we are going to keep pushing," Ocasio-Cortez wrote Saturday. "I am very grateful for this watershed moment of a first step—it is encouraging, thrilling, and has already changed SO many people's lives. But I am also thinking about how this still leaves a question mark for those in the highest amounts of debt, who need the most amount of help."
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2017, is projected to cost around $1.9 trillion over a decade. Total U.S. student loan debt is currently around $1.75 trillion.
Despite the deep unpopularity of the TCJA, which permanently slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, congressional Democrats have yet to fulfill their promise to undo the law, leaving the highly regressive changes mostly intact.
"Never forget: 83% of the Trump tax breaks are going to the top 1%," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted Saturday.
Meanwhile, the senator wrote, "87% of Biden's student loan benefits are going to individuals making $75,000 or less and 0% are going to the top 1%."
"Yes. It's about time we stood up for working-class families," he added.
CONTINUE READING Show less
In a recent appearance on Fox News, Rep Lauren Boebert (R-CO) weighed in on President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan and, in doing so, provided a quote that has caused ripples of discourse throughout the weekend.
"How the heck can Joe Biden call America-first conservatives a threat to Democracy with a straight face and a dry diaper? He's the one who has allowed millions to invade our southern border," Boebert said to Fox. "He's the one who is robbing hard-working Americans to pay for Karen's daughter's degree in lesbian dance theory."
Boebert, who is often referenced as being someone who dropped out of high school, is receiving a great deal of backlash for her "lesbian dance theory" comment, and her general views towards Biden's student loan forgiveness plan.
"In response to Lauren Boebert being upset about college student loan relief, the GED Council of America has agreed to refund her $24.99," jokes one commenter on Twitter.
"Conservatives always frame objectively cool hypotheticals as the worst things ever," says Caleb Dume. "Lesbian Dance Theory sounds cool as s**t, actually."
"Just a reminder, Lauren Boebert will not be serving brunch today after church," another commenter quips, along with a photo of what was once Boebert's Shooters, a gun-themed restaurant that went under due to a dispute with the property's landlord.
"A lot of far right politicians end up saying stuff that just sounds like a movie I'd watch: lesbian dance theory, cyborg slaves of Satan, overeducated under-loved millennials microwaving dinner with their cats, etc," says writer Juliet Bennett Rylah.
"Opinion | I am the chair of the Department of Lesbian Dance Theory at Oberlin. Here's why I'll be voting for Ron DeSantis in 2024," Tweets the parody account New York Times Pitchbot.
"I don't know what the hell this lady is talking about, but I absolutely would have gone to college if they were teaching lesbian dance theory. I could argue that today, I'd be dean of this department," says Arlan Hamilton, author and founder of Backstage Capital.
"Biden promised an assault weapons ban if Democrats control Congress after the midterms," Boebert said on Saturday. "He may as well promise two scoops of free ice cream to everyone since that is NOT happening. Americans are going to show Democrats the door in November."
CONTINUE READING Show less