With Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz facing misleading Republican attacks on his service record in the Army National Guard, some political commentators are drawing comparisons to the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," a GOP smear campaign where Vietnam veterans attacked the service record of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Speaking to Politico in an interview , Bob Shrum, an adviser to Kerry, outlined how significant these attacks might be — and how to defuse them.
When it came to Kerry, who received three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star, he said, "In the end, the attack didn’t matter, except — and this did matter — that it disturbed the campaign in the month of August. But by the time you got to Election Day, if you asked people, 'Could John Kerry be commander in chief?' Their answer was yes. They watched the first debate and they made a conclusion.
I think it’s different this time. People have heard this stuff before, many of them, not the whole electorate. Walz’s record has been defended by a whole host of folks across the political spectrum.
I don’t think this is going to go anywhere." ALSO READ: 21 worthless knick-knacks Donald Trump will give you for your cash Walz, who served 24 years in the Army National Guard on disaster relief missions and support missions in Europe for Operation Enduring Freedom, has been accused by former President Donald Trump's running mate Sen. J.
D. Vance (R-OH), who himself served as a Marine, of abandoning his unit when it came time to deploy to Iraq, even though Walz's retirement papers to run for Congress were put in before any notification the unit would be deployed. As for how the Harris-Walz campaign should respond, Shrum said, they're largely doing what they need to do.
"Keep doing what they’re doing, which is answer the attacks, have other folks answer the attacks, but then pivot — which has also been happening," said Shrum. Additionally, he said, they should go after Trump , who managed to produce a dubious "bone spurs" medical diagnosis to get draft deferments out of serving in Vietnam. "Look, it’s such a rich attack.
And I mean that in an ironic way, coming from a campaign for a guy whose father got some doctor to swear that he had a medical disability that is hardly identifiable." Former President Donald Trump's private Boeing 757 was diverted for an emergency landing in Billings, Montana, on the way to his rally in Bozeman. According to a local radio station, the landing was required due to a "hydraulic leak.
" The aircraft, commonly known as " Trump Force Once," landed safely, and the former president is expected to take a private jet the rest of the way to his destination. Trump has owned the 757 since 2011, when it replaced an older Boeing 727 he originally purchased from his failed Trump Shuttle airline, which had previously been a commuter service for the now-defunct Eastern Airlines prior to the Trump Organization acquiring it. The former president has boasted that the aircraft is more luxurious than Air Force One , although experts have said the 757 is rapidly aging and, being a retrofitted commercial airliner, is larger and less well-pressurized than private aircraft typically enjoyed by the super-wealthy.
Trump's rally in Bozeman, the first to be held since last week, will take place at 8 p.m. local time, or 10 p.
m. Eastern Time. ALSO READ: 21 worthless knick-knacks Donald Trump will give you for your cash Donald Trump's recent — and demonstrably false — tale of a near-helicopter crash was apparently not the first time Trump had made such a claim involving a helicopter.
During his news conference on Thursday, Trump shared a story about a near-helicopter crash with former California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown . Brown denied the story and laughed . Buzzfeed in 2015 found another incident in which Trump made false statements about a helicopter crash.
Andrew Kaczynski and Mark Arce spoke with three Trump biographers who shed light on the tale. Three Trump Organization executives were flying back to Atlantic City instead of driving. According to Trump, he decided not to go with them at the last minute.
An aide told him the helicopter was down, but Trump assumed it meant it couldn't fly due to repairs. It wasn't until a reporter called him that he realized five people were killed in the crash. Read also: 'That's a lie': The 10 quotes Trump said to Black journalists that led to outbursts "I can get some publicity out of this," Trump allegedly said, according to BuzzFeed.
A wire story spread that Trump was supposed to have been on the flight but wasn't. BuzzFeed cited Dan Klores, a Trump spokesperson, who told the Philadelphia Inquirer : "He really doesn't want to talk about it, but he was going to go to Atlantic City, and he did change his mind." All of it was a lie, the biographers said.
Harry Hurt's biography Lost Tycoon recalls Trump in his office with other staffers when a reporter called. "Mr. Trump, I know this must be horrible for you," the book quotes a reporter calling about the crash.
"I know it must be terrible for you to lose your three top casino executives all in the same day. I'm so sorry about what happened..
.I guess the only thing that could have been worse is if you had been on the helicopter with them." The book describes Trump turning to his staff with the mute button on and saying, "You're going to hate me for this.
But I just can't resist. I can get some publicity out of this." That's when he reportedly made up the story that he was supposed to be on the flight.
"The next morning Donald's 'revelation' will appear in a caption on the front page of the New York Daily News beneath photographs of the three dead men: 'Trump decided not to go at the last minute," Hurt writes. Six people confirmed the tale Trump spun was a lie. Wayne Barrett's book The Deals And The Downfall cites Trump as being "personally traumatized by the disaster — saying publicly that it 'cheapened life' for him, showing him just how fragile everything was.
" The BuzzFeed reporters cited Trump's own vice president of entertainment and sport Bernie Dillion disputing the incident. Read the full report here. One of the harshest sentences yet has been handed down in one of the Jan.
6 cases. According to The Associated Press, David Dempsey of Van Nuys, California was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for his conduct at the U.S.
Capitol during the insurrection against the 2020 election results. Prosecutors said Dempsey stomped on police officers’ heads and swung poles at officers defending a tunnel. He also struck an officer in the head with a metal crutch, attacked police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture, and climbed on other rioters like "human scaffolding" to attack officers guarding a tunnel entrance.
At least two police officers were hurt in his attacks. Read also: The day democracy was tested: A deep dive into Trump's attempted coup on January 6 Dempsey pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting police officers, apologized to the victims, and called his conduct "despicable." He was originally arrested in August 2021 and charged with using a dangerous weapon, obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder.
Many rioters were hit with obstruction charges, although a recent Supreme Court ruling cast doubt on the validity of that specific charge in the context of rioting at the Capitol. The only Jan. 6 defendant so far to receive a longer sentence than Dempsey is Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys group, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years .
More than 1,400 people so far have been arrested for alleged involvement in the attack on the Capitol, which took place after months of conspiracy theories circulating about the election on the right, and after former President Donald Trump gave a speech on the National Mall urging supporters to "fight like hell." Most of these cases ended up with far lesser sentences for misdemeanors like disorderly conduct and unlawful picketing..
