Trump says he wants to buy Glock on gun store tour: Live updates

The judge overseeing the classified documents case in Florida, Aileen Cannon, has scheduled two hearings on 12 October to hear Special Counsel Jack Smith’s arguments regarding possible conflicts of interest for the Trump lawyers representing Mr Trump’s co-defendants and staff members Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.

The Court will hold two separate Garcia hearings on October 12, 2023, in the Fort Pierce Division. Defendant Carlos De Oliveira’s hearing will commence at 1:00 P.M. Defendant Waltine Nauta’s hearing will commence at 3:00 P.M.,” the judge wrote. “Defendants De Oliveira and Nauta, associated defense counsel, and attorneys for the Office of Special Counsel must be present.”

The Democratic Party is divided on the issue of New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez’s resignation as he faces federal bribery charges.

The senator is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash and gold from three New Jersey businessmen with ties to Egypt. In exchange the senator, formerly chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, provided sensitive information “to benefit the government of Egypt”. He is also accused of interfering in a criminal investigation of the businessmen’s allies.

Mr Menendez has denied the allegations and while he has stepped down from his committee post, he is digging his heels and refusing to resign from the Senate.

Yet a growing list of Democrats across his home state and in Congress are calling for the senator to step down. The list includes New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and a cadre of Democratic county chairs in the state, as well as prominent members of the party in the House and Senate. Several of New Jersey’s Democratic House members broke ranks with their Senate counterpart almost immediately, including Bill Pascrell, Josh Gottheimer, Tom Malinowski, Frank Pallone and Mikie Sherill.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the party’s most prominent members in the House, joined those calls on Sunday.

“I think what is here in this indictment is quite clear. And I believe [resignation] is in the best interest to maintain the integrity of the seat,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said on CBS over the weekend, following a number of other Democrats who had already released similar statements.

The New York Democrat was asked why she does not own an electric vehicle made by union workers on CBS’s Face the Nation. “We are actually looking into trading in our car now,” responded Ms Ocasio-Cortez, known informally as AOC. “So we are looking into it and hopefully we will soon.”

Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla and Ms Ocasio-Cortez has sparred several times with him on social media platform X/Twitter, also owned by Mr Musk.

She said she bought her Tesla during the pandemic to commute between her New York City district and Washington DC. However, Ms Ocasio-Cortez said there are now vehicles manufactured by unions that have the required range for the journey.

“Our car was purchased during the pandemic when travel – before a vaccine had come out. So, travel between New York and Washington, the safest way that we had determined was an EV. But that was prior to some of the new models coming out on the market that had the range available.”

When Félix Llerena arrived in Miami in 2017, he quickly got involved in the city’s politically active community of Cuban exiles. He was soon drawn to President Donald Trump for his aggressive approach toward Cuba’s communist government and his stated affinity for Cuban American culture.

Today, Llerena is ready to apply for citizenship and vote for the first time. He’s more skeptical of the former Republican president. And his mother was able to come to the United States earlier this year under an immigration program created by Democratic President Joe Biden‘s administration that’s admitted tens of thousands of Cubans and other people from countries with expatriate communities in South Florida.

Both parties’ efforts affect Llerena’s life and fulfill different priorities he has. While he’s leaning toward a Republican candidate next year, he says he tries to avoid sticking to one side.

“I do not worship politicians,” he said. “They are simply doing their job. I do not defend political or partisan interests.”

During an interview with MSNBC broadcast over the weekend, Hillary Clinton was asked by former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki if she believed Donald Trump when he said it would be very unlikely for him to try to pardon himself if he wins in 2024.

“I don’t believe him on anything. Why would I start believing him on that? You know, the thing about him – and I’m not the only person who’s noticed this – is he engaged in what psychologists call projection. So, whenever he accuses somebody else of doing something, it’s almost guaranteed he’s doing it himself or he’s already done it,” she said. “Or whenever he denies thinking about doing something or doing it, it’s almost guaranteed he is thinking about it or he’s already done it.”

Former prosecutor Mary McCord appeared on MSNBC’s Why Is This Happening? podcast, speaking about the upcoming federal trial against Donald Trump.

“Unless the Supreme Court decides to change the rules, there will be no cameras in the courtroom,” she said. “So, we’re going to have to be relying on journalists who are reporting out throughout the day about what’s happening, and that’s raising a lot of debate about whether the rule that has been part of the federal rules for a very long time is a good rule.”

“I have somewhat mixed feelings about it because I think I think the whole American public ought to be able to see this trial, and probably ought to be able to see it from almost all trials because it’s transparency. Talk about the double, you know, or more than double standard, there’s no better way to kind of test out how our criminal system works than by having people see it,” she added.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, was once asked if she would “take a bullet” for Donald Trump.

Loyalty to Mr Trump was so important in his White House that staffers set up “leak traps” to find out who was giving information to the press, the paper noted.

Appearing on the MSNBC podcast Why Is This Happening? former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said: “I think that what Donald Trump has done is quickly learned where there are fissures in the structure where he can exert power. I was on the special counsel Mueller investigation – there it was about what he could do, essentially just Saturday Night Massacre whoever because, you know, I can fire these people.”

“He can issue pardons, he can dangle pardons. He was figuring out what they can do. Now since he is not the president, he can sit there and say, ‘okay, you know what, I can’t fire but maybe I can defund them’. And toss a stop that way because ‘I do not have the power but maybe I can get my friends in Congress to deepen them and figure out how to use them as a lever of power. I can use fear’,” he added.

The office of the governor said in a press release on 19 September that Pennsylvanians “who are obtaining new or renewed driver licenses and ID cards and are eligible to vote will be automatically taken through the voter registration application process unless they opt out of doing so”.

“Pennsylvania is at it again! The Radical Left Governor, Josh Shapiro, has just announced a switch to Automatic Voter Registration, a disaster for the Election of Republicans, including your favorite President, ME!” Mr Trump wrote just after midnight on Sunday.

“This is a totally Unconstitutional Act, and must be met harshly by Republican Leadership in Washington and Pennsylvania. Likewise, the RNC, and Ronna McDaniel, must spend their time working on this, instead of meaningless Debates where I am up by more than 50 points,” he added before launching into his mocking nicknames for his GOP primary rivals.

Facing calls to resign from his Democratic colleagues in New Jersey, US Senator Robert Menendez defended his record and shot down allegations of wrongdoing in a press conference days after a sweeping federal indictment accused the chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee of engaging in a years-long bribery scheme.

A grand jury indictment unsealed in US District Court on 22 September includes photographs of thousands of dollars in cash in wrapped bills on top of jackets bearing the senator’s name. Investigators allegedly discovered more than $480,000 in cash and $100,000 at his home.

“For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account,” Mr Menendez said in remarks on 25 September.

Mr Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants, said he stored cash at his home for emergencies and “because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.”

“Now this may seem old fashioned, but these were monies drawn from my personal savings account based on the income that I have lawfully derived over those 30 years. I look forward to other issues at trial,” he added.