Trump in Arizona

Hilarious.

Arizona Republic national politics editor Dan Nowicki tweeted a birds-eye view photo of the rally stage that showed Lake speaking to a crowd of supporters while a teleprompter message from someone named "Colton" instructed her to "wrap asap" with a timer showing that her speech had gone on for six minutes longer than her allotted time.

[...]

Lake wasn't the only speaker at Trump's rally who he rushed off the stage. When Arizona Police Association president Justin Harris was speaking about crime rates, Trump — who was standing directly over his shoulder — was heard telling him "you gotta go." Harris then thumbed through several other pages of his speech, while asking the crowd to "let me finish up here please."

According to the Daily Mail, the crowd grew impatient with Harris after his speech dragged on for more than ten minutes. At one point, supporters reportedly chanted for the former president to take back the microphone.

  MSN

I assume she did.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Republican resistance is alive and well in Arizona

Is Trump snubbing Arizona?

He's throwing a tantrum after the E Jean Carrol hearing today, I guess.

“Regrettably, the AZGOP Freedom Fest 2024 has been canceled as President @realDonaldTrump is required to attend to court obligations,” the state party posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

[...]

“We stand with him during this time and eagerly anticipate welcoming him back to Arizona in the near future,” the Arizona Republican Party posted. “Everyone who purchased a ticket will receive a full refund.”

[...]

The AZ GOP Freedom Fest was scheduled to take place in Phoenix on Friday evening. Closing arguments in the trial have been scheduled to take place in the New York court Friday morning, though Trump is not required to attend.

  MSN

And I don't expect he will.*

The judge told the jury they'd probably be set to deliberate after lunch. I bet Trump's afraid he's going to get hit with a "yuge" penalty right before the "Fest".

And, oh yeah, the ARP probably isn't hearbroken to call off the event.

The chair of the Arizona Republican Party, Jeff DeWit, announced he was resigning Wednesday, after audio leaked that appeared to show him attempting to pay Kari Lake, an avid Trump supporter, to not run for Senate.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*UPDATE 01/26/2024: 

Trump attended closing arguments but stormed out before Carroll's attorney finished. Great publicity, I guess.

The Big Lie in Arizona

Wow, $2,000.  However will they survive?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Katie Hobbs saves Arizona

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has defeated conspiracy theorist and former TV personality Kari Lake in the state’s gubernatorial election. But Lake ― who has been spreading misinformation about the election since even before Election Day ― isn’t conceding.

  Yahoo News

And Twitter responded:

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Another GOP ad using Russian stock footage

A recent campaign ad for Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) uses stock footage of Russian soldiers.

The footage is shown while the ad claims Lake will use the National Guard to help secure the U.S. border with Mexico. There is a brief, zoomed-in view of soldiers marching that is implied to be the Arizona National Guard. However, this footage can be found in its original form on the stock footage website Shutterstock, which shows that the troops are, in fact, Russian soldiers marching in a victory parade.

  Heartland Signal

This isn't a first. My guess is they're either using the same unbeknowst-to-them Russian based consultants, or they're intentionally seeking the Russian support that Trump got in his campaigns. Or both.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Shit just got real - Part 2

It is reasonable to presume that top DOJ leadership, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, personally approved this warrant, which appears to be the first warrant executed at the home of a former President.

That suggests to me that they think the case is going places.

However, this presumption is somewhat at odds with recent reporting from both New York Times and the Associated Press that the search warrant is related to classified material taken from the White House by Trump when he left office.

James Comey was right when he testified that the DOJ typically does *not* prosecute cases involving the mishandling of classified material unless that material was deliberately transferred to a third party.

That suggests to me that there is something we don't know here.

  Renatto Mariotti

Exactly.

Part 1.

As you can guess, right now Trump supporters and the GOP are shitting bricks (h/t Stephen) enough to build that border wall.

Just a couple examples:

 
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.