Will Mitch McConnell Cave to Trump Again?

Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are not friends. They have not spoken since December 2020, when the powerful lawmaker recognized that Joe Biden had won the presidency, undermining Trump’s election interference campaign.

And yet there is a coordinated effort by key advisers behind both politicians to reconcile the rift, according to unidentified members of both camps that spoke with The New York Times.

Should he get it, McConnell’s endorsement of Trump would prove an incredible vote of confidence amid unparalleled legal troubles for a presidential candidate, suggesting to Republican voters and (more importantly) donors that the front-runner could still have a shot at retaking the White House. That could translate to a much-needed spending boost for Trump, who is so far on the hook for $354 million for committing real estate–related bank fraud in New York state; $88.3 million to E. Jean Carroll after he sexually assaulted her, lied about it, and defamed her twice; $50 million in legal fees; and $400,000 he owes The New York Times.

Trump and McConnell have both been aware of the back-channel communications since at least January, when Trump acknowledged to members of his team that he would be expecting McConnell’s endorsement.

Even without the added communications, that would make sense. McConnell has pledged to endorse the GOP nominee, even if that nominee turns out to be Trump. It is still unclear, however, if the GOP intends to nominate its front-runner amid a flurry of ongoing criminal trials, the first of which is set to begin in late March.

“President Trump is the presumptive nominee and it is time for the entire party to coalesce behind him to defeat Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, told the Times.

“Senior members of the campaign have had many conversations,” he continued, “but only engage with those who are actually willing to fight for America First principles and to take back the White House.”

Special counsel Jack Smith argued Monday that a blistering report on Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents actually demonstrates just how bad Donald Trump’s handling of sensitive material is.

Smith indicted Trump in June for hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Trump claimed two weeks ago that the charges are part of a pattern of selective prosecution by attorneys working at the behest of the Biden administration. Trump had argued that his behavior was no worse than that of Biden, who was found to have kept classified documents after leaving the vice presidency.

Smith’s team said in a Monday court filing that the report on Biden shows that the two cases are not comparable at all.

“T​here has never been a case in American history in which a former official has engaged in conduct remotely similar to Trump’s,” assistant special counsel David Harbach wrote.

“The defendants have not identified anyone who has engaged in a remotely similar suite of willful and deceitful criminal conduct and not been prosecuted. Nor could they. Indeed, the comparators on which they rely are readily distinguishable.”

Trump faces 41 criminal counts for willful retention of national defense information, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice, among other things. Smith’s indictment revealed Trump stored the sensitive material in the ballroom and in bathrooms.

Trump also refused to give the documents back, despite requests from the National Archives and urging from his lawyers. The material wasn’t recovered until the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago in 2021, and even then, Trump may still have some documents hidden in the Palm Beach compound.

The report on Biden’s handling of classified documents, which was released two weeks ago, painted a damning portrait of the president as senile and unable to recall basic facts of his life, including his time as vice president or the death of his son Beau. Special counsel Robert Hur described Biden as having “significant limitations” with his memory. But Hur also found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and did not issue charges against Biden. Biden also made sure to cooperate fully with the investigation.

“Trump, unlike Biden, is alleged to have engaged in extensive and repeated efforts to obstruct justice and thwart the return of documents bearing classification markings,” Harbach wrote in his filing. “And the evidence concerning the two men’s intent—whether they knowingly possessed and willfully retained such documents—is also starkly different.”

Donald Trump ally Kenneth Chesebro is suddenly up to his neck in his own legal troubles.

On Monday, the architect of Trump’s 2020 fake elector plot was discovered to have been lying to Michigan prosecutors about his social media presence at the time, hiding the presence of an account with dozens of posts that reveal his role in the plot and  illustrate a far more aggressive election subversion strategy, according to a CNN investigation.

In a recording of Chesebro’s interview with Michigan investigators obtained by the outlet, Chesebro repeatedly denied having any social media presence or alternative identities online, claiming he didn’t do “any tweeting.”

But attorneys for Chesebro have since confirmed the presence of one such hidden ID to CNN, after the outlet tied the anonymous account—BadgerPundit—to the Trump ally via matching “biographical information regarding his work, family, travels and investments” and its notable interest in the Electoral College process.

In a series of posts starting even before the 2020 election, Chesebro used the account to make arguments that he would later disavow when interviewed by Michigan prosecutors, including claims that Republican legislatures could override the electoral system and that former Vice President Mike Pence could be leveraged to throw the election for Trump—the last of which he posted about more than 50 times.

“You don’t get the big picture. Trump doesn’t have to get courts to declare him the winner of the vote. He just needs to convince Republican legislatures that the election was systematically rigged, but it’s impossible to run it again, so they should appoint electors instead,” wrote BadgerPundit on November 7, 2020, the day after the majority of U.S. media outlets called the election for President Joe Biden.

That could mean bad news for Chesebro, who struck a plea deal in Trump’s Georgia election interference case and has so far managed to skirt charges in other states impacted by the fake elector scheme thanks to his cooperation with prosecutors.

“Chesebro appears to have pursued a legally perilous path in his dealings with Michigan authorities,” Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University, told CNN after reviewing some of Chesebro’s posts, noting that the cover-up could put Chesebro “at great legal risk.”

“The Twitter posts strongly suggest Chesebro committed the crime of making false statements to investigators … his entire cooperation agreement may now fall apart,” Goodman added.

Republicans are working on a mass rebranding following a devastating ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court that effectively stalled in vitro fertilization across the state. The instant backlash to the decision has led droves of GOP lawmakers to issue statements in which they claim to be champions of the procedure—despite the fact that many of them had supported a bill to ban the practice just three years ago.

On Friday, the Senate Republican campaign arm issued a memo urging its political candidates to “clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee derided the all-conservative court’s decision in a deep-red state as “fodder for Democrats hoping to manipulate the abortion issue for electoral gain,” according to a copy of the memo obtained by Axios.

Since then, several lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Representatives Nancy Mace and Byron Donalds, have come out in support of the medical procedure, claiming that they would do anything in their power to thwart restrictions to the practice.

“I totally support the procedure,” Donalds said on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “We really want the Alabama legislature to make sure that that procedure is protected for families who do struggle with having children, that helps them actually create great families, which is what our country desperately needs.”

But that doesn’t quite square away with their recent voting records. In 2021, those legislators and 163 other House Republicans co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, which hoped to recognize fertilized eggs as children at the federal level in an attempt to ban abortions nationwide.

On Friday, Johnson issued a statement supporting IVF, correctly arguing that it “has been a blessing for many moms and dads who have struggled with fertility.” That is, however, not how he felt just one year ago. In 2023, Johnson affirmed his legislative stance against the medical procedure, supporting another iteration of the Life at Conception Act, which garnered 124 Republican co-sponsors.

Donald Trump Jr. managed to get even more crass over the weekend while leveling a new attack on Joe Biden’s age.

In previews of an upcoming book about first ladies throughout the past few decades, the president reportedly quips the secret to his marriage is “good sex.” The author notes Biden has said this before, “much to his wife’s chagrin.”

Apparently it was also to Trump Jr.’s chagrin, because he took to social media on Sunday to air out his grievances.

“There’s literally no amount of Viagra on earth that’s going to give Joe Biden (who can barely walk without falling over) wood. Just stop!” he tweeted.

“The more desperate they become trying to make him seem young and vibrant the more obvious it is to everyone that he’s not up to any task!”

Trump Jr.’s gross and wholly unnecessary comment is just the latest in one the GOP’s favorite refrains on Biden. Republicans have repeatedly argued (and some Democrats worry) that Biden, who at age 81 is the oldest president ever, is mentally and physically unfit to hold office.

But those attacks ignore the fact that Trump, at a spry 77 years old, doesn’t seem to be doing so well, himself. The Republican primary front-runner has made multiple slip-ups recently, including mixing up the names of two authoritarian leaders, confusing Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley, and describing a missile launch as, “Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding…Missile launch. Woosh. Boom.”

Most recently, on Saturday, Trump completely forgot to name one of his children in speech—despite the fact he appeared to be using note cards to aid his memory. After winning the South Carolina primary, Trump thanked his family members for supporting him.

“My family, Melania, Barron, Don Jr. and Kimberly, Ivanka and Jared, Tiffany and Michael, they are so, so supportive,” Trump said, noticeably looking down at notes in between listing names. “So supportive of me, and we really appreciate it and love them. We have a great family.”

He failed to mention his son Eric Trump or his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, despite the fact that they were standing on stage with him, just a few feet away.

What’s more, Trump has tapped Lara to be the Republican National Committee co-chair. Since she’s clearly central to his plan for a total Republican Party takeover, you’d think he’d remember her.