Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani raised some eyebrows last week when he traveled to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in pricey first-class seats . The reason that this was surprising was that Giuliani had declared bankruptcy after being hit with a $148 million judgement for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss after the 2020 presidential election. Now CNN reports that Giuliani's trip to Milwaukee was bankrolled by the media company owned by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell , who is also facing multiple multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuits for false claims he made about Dominion Voting Systems stealing the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump.
"Lindell told CNN on Tuesday that Giuliani is an employee of the media company, but declined to say how much he was being paid for the job, which he said started July 1," notes CNN. Lindell also defended giving first-class seats to Giuliani, as well as his girlfriend and his personal assistant who also joined him at the RNC. “It’s not like he’s living the life of luxury,” Lindell said of Giuliani.
“We’ve got a company thing where that’s just what we do.” ALSO READ: For sale: How much influence does $50,000 buy you at the Republican convention? The report adds that, in addition to the $148 million that he owes to Freeman and Moss, Giuliani also owes $350,000 to a forensic accountant. Giuliani's presence at the RNC has his creditors swarming and trying to get a better insight into his finances.
"Creditors have been attempting to trace Giuliani’s expenditures around the RNC," CNN writes. "They have only been able to obtain so far transactions of Giuliani’s personal debit card – not cards he typically uses for charges. That revealed only nominal purchases by the former mayor in Milwaukee, such as two charges for less than $100 at a hotel, according to a person familiar with the payment.
" The amount of attention the far-right Heritage Foundation and its authoritarian Project 2025 playbook for the next Republican administration have been getting is also ensnaring several major GOP figures. On Tuesday, Democratic election attorney Marc Elias' Democracy Docket website delved into the ties nine high-ranking Republicans have to Project 2025. Some of those links are direct while others are more tangential.
However, these Republicans are likely to be asked about their connections to the controversial initiative on the campaign trail as Project 2025 and its proposals continue to garner media coverage. In fact, one recent poll found that just one in 10 Americans had a favorable view of Project 2025 after learning about it. 1.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) READ MORE: Anti-Trump group posts video of him praising Project 2025 authors after latest denial Democracy Docket reported that as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Banks published a budget blueprint that was praised by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts. That document called for funds to build a border wall, diverting money from several federal agencies to boost the military budget and protecting Americans from what he referred to as "the Radical Woke Agenda.
" "The Republican Study Committee, led by my friends Chairman Jim Banks and the RSC Budget and Spending Task Force Chair Kevin Hern, have put forward an important Blueprint to Save America," Roberts said in a statement. "The RSC is going on offense, setting the tone for what conservatives must do when the people take back control." 2.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Cruz, who is running for a third U.S.
Senate term this November, previously spoke at a Heritage Foundation event in 2019 in the wake of former President Donald Trump's first impeachment. He complained about the House's impeachment over Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which the former president threatened to withhold aid unless Ukraine investigated then-candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Cruz accused House Democrats of impeaching Trump "without an article claiming a criminal violation.
" READ MORE: Exhaustive review finds at least 140 ex-Trump advisors behind Project 2025: report "There’s no federal statute that makes abuse-of-power — what they’ve called it — a criminal offense. They’ve just made this up," Cruz said. 3.
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) Like Cruz, Fischer is also running for reelection this fall. Democracy Docket reported that Fischer spoke at a virtual Heritage Foundation session on the " future of nuclear modernization " in 2021.
One of Project 2025's proposals is to bring back nuclear weapons testing at Yucca Mountain in Nevada (less than 100 miles from Las Vegas). The document also calls for radioactive waste to be deposited there again after former President Barack Obama ended it in 2009. Nevada Republican Governor Joe Lombardo, who has endorsed Trump, is against the proposal.
4. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) Hawley, who is running for a second Senate term this fall, has common ground with one of Project 2025's core goals and has spoken at several Heritage events.
In its report on the document, People Magazine called it "a blueprint for marrying church and state at the highest levels of government," which is a goal of Christian nationalists. Rather than run from that label, Hawley embraced it at a recent conservative conference. “Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian Nation.
So I am,” Hawley said . “And some will say that I am advocating Christian Nationalism. And so I do.
” 5. Former Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) Maryland's former two-term Republican governor is now the Republican nominee for the Old Line State's open Senate seat. Despite his more moderate reputation, Hogan still elevated a senior fellow at Heritage to a post within his administration in 2017.
To his credit, Hogan has since distanced himself from Project 2025, saying it would put the country on a " dangerous path " in a Washington Post op-ed. READ MORE: Trump hopes you won't notice 'close partnership' with Project 2025: former Labor Secretary 6. Governor Jim Justice (R-WV) West Virginia's billionaire coal baron governor — who switched parties from Democrat to Republican in 2017 — is likely to win the U.
S. Senate seat left open by the outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia).
In 2021, Justice signed a bill into a law that directs education funds from public schools to home schools and private school tuition. Heritage lauded the bill and credited one of their experts for advocating for it in the West Virginia legislature. Project 2025 calls for the total elimination of the Department of Education in favor of "parental authority," meaning it would champion policies that weaken public education while strengthening home school programming.
7. Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) In Obama's last year in office, his Department of Health and Human Services put a regulation in place to protect LGBTQ+ youth in foster care.
Project 2025 has called for repealing that regulation, which advocacy group DemocracyForward estimated would impact more than 368,000 kids . In 2020, Schweikert participated in a virtual Heritage Foundation session on proposed changes to the foster care system. READ MORE: 'One of the oldest dictator tricks': Here's why Trump is lying about Project 2025 8.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) Florida's junior U.S.
senator is currently in a tight race for reelection against former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Florida), who is within striking distance of Scott in the latest polls. Scott — who is in the running to become the next Republican leader in the Senate after Sen.
Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) retires from the role next year — participated in Heritage's five-part video series on inflation and the economy. Scott repeatedly blasted the Biden administration for higher prices, even though real wages (meaning inflation-adjusted) are up and the rate of inflation has leveled off significantly . 9.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) Mississippi's senior U.S.
senator, who is the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is running for a fourth term this fall. In January, he participated in a Heritage Foundation talk on "Restor[ing] America's Military Power." Project 2025 has called for rescinding Pentagon policy that pays for female service members' travel costs in the event they have to travel out of their home state to get an abortion — the same policy Sen.
Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) protested in his months-long blockade of military promotions. Project 2025 also proposes restoring Trump's ban on transgender Americans serving in the military. READ MORE: Trump: 'I know nothing' about Project 2025 despite numerous ex-officials' involvement Click here to read Democracy Docket's full report.
CONTINUE READING Show less Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both smiling and appearing gleeful and excited, publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for President Tuesday. President Joe Biden, recovering from a week-long stretch of Covid, announced he will address the nation Wednesday evening in a primetime special to explain his decision for ending his re-election campaign. As Democrats across the board get their ducks in a row, Donald Trump appeared to melt down late Tuesday morning in a series of angry rapid-fire social media posts.
“We are here today to throw our support behind Vie President Harris!” a rarely-excited Majority Leader Schumer declared, almost shouting, as he announced he was “clapping.” Both Leaders vowed to hold the Senate and take back the House. READ MORE: Democrats Rake in a Quarter-Billion Dollars in 24 Hours After Biden Exits Race The two top congressional Democrats were going to meet with the now-presumptive presidential nominee on Tuesday before endorsing, but that meeting has reportedly been postponed.
On Monday, Jeffries talked to reporters while appearing to try to not make any announcement: But after the Democratic donation site ActBlue took in nearly $150 million in the time since Biden ended his re-election campaign, and the Harris for President campaign announced it had received a record-breaking $81 million in donations in the first 24-hour period, and with every Democratic governor endorsing Harris, and nearly every House and Senate Democrat endorsing the VP, it appears Schumer and Jeffries decided time was of the essence. As all these moves are being made, Donald Trump appears to be maintaining a slow campaign schedule. His campaign website continues to list only two upcoming scheduled rallies per week, Trump this week is holding a solo rally without his new vice presidential running mate, U.
S. Senator JD Vance, on Wednesday, and the two candidates will hold a joint rally Saturday. But on his social media website Truth Social, Trump is far more active, and ranted for an hour and a half Tuesday morning: READ MORE: Eight Years Ago JD Vance Wondered How Many Americans Donald Trump Had ‘Sexually Assaulted’ 10:32 AM : Trump accused the Biden/Harris Administration of not properly protecting him when a 20-year old registered Republican opened fire on the crowd at his Pennsylvania rally ten days ago, killing a supporter, seriously wounding two others, and apparently causing the ex-president a bloody ear.
Trump claimed he was “forced to take a bullet for Democracy,” and called it his “great honor” in all-caps. 11:25 AM : “Why did Fox News put up Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, where I am leading? They make me fight battles that I shouldn’t have to fight!” Trump angrily declared. 11:26 AM : A furious Trump lashes out, writing, “I can’t believe it! They’re turning Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, into a ‘Hero’ – He was pushed out of power like a dog, and look what the Radical Left is able to do.
MAGA2024!” 11:26 AM : In his second rapid-fired post, Trump announced, “I don’t know who said it, or where it came from, perhaps the Radical Left, but I never discussed, or thought of, Jamie Dimon or Larry Fink for Secretary of the Treasury.” 11:26 AM : His third rapid-fire post, Trump writes, “Lyin’ Kamala Harris destroys everything she touches!” 12:03 PM : Trump brands the Vice President and his presumptive opponent, “Lyin’ Kamala Harris,” and demands she answer if she thinks President Biden can serve for the next six months. Inexplicably, he adds, “Now it appears Joe is delegating his Presidential Authority to unelected Washington Bureaucrats! He doesn’t even trust his Vice President.
WHO IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY?” READ MORE: RFK Jr. and Trump Explored Endorsement Deal in Exchange for Administration Post: Report CONTINUE READING Show less Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) said he plans to resign his congressional post after a New York City jury found him guilty of federal corruption charges , the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Menendez told associates he plans to step down in late August, according to the the Times. The New Jersey lawmaker will resign in the middle of his third term as he plans an appeal to his criminal case, according to the report. New Jersey Gov.
Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, is expected to appoint a replacement to serve until Jan. 1.
Read the full report here . CONTINUE READING Show less.
