Election News
Melania Trump Was Paid For A Rare Appearance At A Political Event. It’s Not Clear Who Cut The Unusual Six-Figure Check
Melania Trump has not been seen much on the campaign trail this year. She received a six-figure salary for one of the few times she has attended a political event, which is a very unusual move for a candidate’s spouse.
According to former President Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure form, the former first lady appeared at two Log Cabin Republicans political fundraisers this year and was paid $237,500 for one of them in April. The payment was categorized as a “speaking engagement.”
According to Trump’s most recent disclosure form, the Log Cabin Republicans paid Melania Trump for the April fundraiser. But it’s unclear who cut the bill: Charles Moran, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, told CNN earlier this month that the group did not pay for her to appear, and the disclosure form provided no additional information regarding the source of the cash.
Melania Trump Was Paid For A Rare Appearance At A Political Event. It’s Not Clear Who Cut The Unusual Six-Figure Check
Ahead of the conservative LGBTQ group’s next gala in July, a source said at least one donor was asked for a similar payment. It’s unclear whether Melania Trump was eventually compensated. The campaign has yet to release its financial disclosure for that period. According to CNN, Ric Grenell, a Trump friend and former ambassador to Germany, made the plea on Melania Trump’s behalf. According to sources, Grenell has also aided the former first lady with other business enterprises.
Campaign finance and government ethics experts argue that paying a presidential candidate’s spouse to speak at political fundraisers during an election is rare, ethically problematic, and should, at the very least, be properly disclosed in disclosure forms.
“It appears to be quite self-serving. Virginia Canter, the principal ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, stated that she is surprised to see this.
If the organisation did not make the payment to Melania Trump, Canter believes the former president’s financial disclosure form may have violated ethics laws because it should have named the sponsor who paid Melania Trump rather than merely where she spoke.
“You could indicate that payment was for a speaking engagement for the Log Cabin Republicans, but you also need to report who the source of the payment was, otherwise you can’t assess for the conflicts of interest, and it wouldn’t be in compliance with the rules,” she told me. “It should have properly been reported so that the source of the income is listed for the honorarium.”
Melania Trump supporters who attended Log Cabin Republican events and were unaware she was paid for at least one of them defended her, claiming it is her right to choose how she spends her time and to get compensated for it. According to a source close to Melania Trump, she has determined that “my best and highest use is where I am,” and that “she’s a priceless, timeless asset” for Donald Trump.
A spokesman for Melania Trump declined to respond to CNN’s questions.
Melania Trump was also paid $250,000 for speaking at a Log Cabin Republican event in December 2022, one of three payments of $250,000 or more she received that month, shortly after the former president announced his candidacy for reelection, according to Donald Trump’s prior year financial disclosure form. One of the events was held in Florida, while the other was for Grenell’s California-based nonprofit, Fix California. Grenell did not reply to repeated requests for comment.
The former first lady was also paid $155,000 by a Trump-aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again, Again, for a speech she gave in Palm Beach, Florida, in December 2021, before Trump became a contender.
She has previously been at Log Cabin Republican events; in 2021, she was the guest of honour at the group’s annual Spirit of Lincoln Gala.
Melania Trump’s fundraising visits highlight her limited involvement in the campaign this year. In addition to the two Log Cabin Republican engagements, she’s appeared alongside her husband at a fundraiser organised by billionaire investor John Paulson in Palm Beach and made a brief appearance at the Republican National Convention, albeit she did not talk as much as in 2016. There is no evidence that she was paid for her appearance at Paulson’s benefit.
“She’s been so disconnected from this campaign and so absent that I could see her saying, ‘If I put in my time, I’ll get paid for it,'” said Stephanie Grisham, a former Trump White House press secretary and top adviser to Melania Trump who has become a critic of the former president. “Even when we were in the White House, she was always so concerned about people making money off of her because she felt it was money she should be earning.”
According to Grisham, Melania Trump instructed her staff in 2018 to direct a White House gift shop to stop selling Melania Trump memorabilia, such as bobbleheads, without permission.
“She was outraged.” “She didn’t like that they were making money off of her,” Grisham added.
According to Donald Trump’s financial records, the former first lady made more than $330,000 last year from a license agreement for the sale of digital trading cards, or NFTs. Her website sells jewellery and collectibles.
In addition, the former first lady will release a memoir next month and go on a promotional tour independent from the campaign. In a series of short videos promoting her book X, she made rare remarks about her husband’s attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, the 2020 election results, and her career as a nude model.
“I can’t help but wonder, why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech?” she asked in one of the recordings, referring to the gunman who shot and injured Trump at a rally on July 13 before being apprehended by the Secret Service.
Melania Trump is not the first member of the Trump family to receive compensation while in the political spotlight. Kimberly Guilfoyle earned a $60,000 speaking fee for presenting her fiancé, Donald Trump Jr., at the “Stop the Steal” protest on January 6, 2021, ahead of the revolt at the US Capitol. Her speech lasted less than three minutes.
Former government officials have been known to charge speaking and appearance fees for events other than political fundraisers.
Melania Trump Was Paid For A Rare Appearance At A Political Event. It’s Not Clear Who Cut The Unusual Six-Figure Check
From 2001 to 2016, former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton earned almost $153 million in paid speeches. Former President Barack Obama reportedly earned $400,000 from a single speech at a Wall Street health conference in 2017, drawing condemnation from members of his own party at the time. Joe and Jill Biden earned a total of $15.6 million in the two years following his resignation as vice president and before commencing his presidential candidacy, mostly from book agreements and speaking appearances.
However, spokespeople for Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Bill Clinton claim they were not compensated for any fundraising appearances during a political campaign.
Hunter Biden, the president’s son, was investigated after selling pieces of artwork priced at $85,000 each at a Manhattan art gallery last spring while his father was running for reelection.
By all accounts, this year’s Log Cabin Republican fundraisers were a success. Grenell said on X in July that the former first lady “opened her NYC penthouse tonight to raise money” for the organisation.
“It’s the first campaign event ever held at the Trump residence,” he said. “And we raised $1.4 million in a single night.” Our goal is to secure 50% of the LGBT vote for Donald Trump.”
Politico reports that the organisation launched its “Road to Victory” effort to target voters in battleground states during Melania Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago in April.
SOURCE | CNN
Election News
Kamala Harris Exceeds $1 Billion in Presidential Run Fundraising.
(VOR News) – A sum of money that is equal to or more than one billion dollars has been gathered by Kamala Harris’s campaign since the beginning of her candidacy for the post of United States Senator.
This sum of money is equivalent to or exceeds one billion dollars. At the present time, Kamala Harris is a candidate for the candidacy of the Democratic Party for the position of president of the government of the United States of America.
Compared to the political campaign of former President Donald Trump, which has received more than $430 million in contributions over the course of the past three months.
Kamala Harris’ campaign appears to be significantly farther along.
It would appear that Harris’s campaign is making great progress in its progress. It would appear that Kamala Harris’ campaign is significantly further along than Trump’s campaign at this moment in time, given the circumstances that are now in place.
According to Kamala Harris, she is in a position of comparative advantage in comparison to other candidates who have previously surpassed the threshold of one billion dollars in donations.
This is because of the incredible rate at which she is collecting money and the quickness with which she is doing so. One of the reasons for this is that Kamala Harris is collecting money at a rate that is far faster than that of other contenders.
As for the Democrats, on the other hand, they have not yet made such a pronouncement regarding the official disclosure of the precise number of votes that are being cast in the election campaign.
According to Forbes, wealthy businessman Timothy Mellon made a contribution to the Republican candidate for their platform that was greater than 115 million dollars. The contribution was made in support of the candidate’s agenda.
There are already allies associated with Trump, like Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who gave $79 million to the Republican cause. Trump is already affiliated with allies. In addition to being linked with other Republicans, Trump has already amassed a significant degree of popularity.
Regardless of this, Trump did not even come close to matching the amount of money he raised for the 2020 election campaign compared to the amount he raised for his previous campaign.
Despite Trump’s Kamala Harris-like popularity, this is the situation.
The picture that emerges as a result of this is one that should be reason for concern, especially when one considers the fact that elections are becoming closer and closer. In particular, this is the case with relation to Trump’s conception of competitive politics.
On the other hand, Kamala Harris has demonstrated that she is a highly influential female presidential candidate who has been able to raise a substantial quantity of money for her campaign. She has also been able to collect a large amount of money.
Additionally, she has been successful in garnering support from a significant number of individuals. Furthermore, she has been successful in acquiring a substantial amount of money over the course of her life. To add insult to injury, she has been successful in garnering the support of a very large number of individuals.
As stated by Sarah Bryner, who is employed by OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization that is non-partisan, “It is indisputable that Harris has done something that has never been done before.”
A charitable organization, OpenSecrets is a non-profit. OpenSecrets is the moniker that we give to an organization that operates according to the principles of impartiality in its business practices.
The astonishing domination that she has demonstrated in the realm of campaign fundraising has received accolades from political observers from all over the world. It is a direct result of her dominance in this profession that she has received tremendous accolades.
SOURCE: GN
SEE ALSO:
Sanewashing? The Banality Of Crazy? A 10 Years Into The Trump Era, Media Hasn’t Figured Him Out
The Hurricane Center Chief Urges Immediate Evacuation As Hurricane Milton Approaches.
Election News
Sanewashing? The Banality Of Crazy? A 10 Years Into The Trump Era, Media Hasn’t Figured Him Out
NEW YORK — Nearly a decade into the Trump Era of politics, with less than a month until his third election day as the Republican presidential nominee, there is still shockingly little agreement among the media about how to cover Trump.
Are journalists “sanewashing” Trump, or are they falling to the “banality of crazy?” Should his rallies be televised as whole or not at all? To fact-check or not?
“If it wasn’t so serious, I would just be fascinated by everything,” said Parker Molloy, a media critic and the author of Substack’s The Present Age column. “If it didn’t have to do with who is going to be president, I would watch this and marvel at how difficult it is to cover one person who seems to challenge all of the rules of journalism.”
Long after Trump is gone, there will be books and studies written on him and the press. He has always been press-conscious and press-savvy, even as a celebrity builder in Manhattan who paid close attention to what tabloid gossip columns said about him. Most problems originate from Trump’s disregard for restrictions, his propensity to say outlandish and demonstrably false things, and his supporters’ tendency to believe him rather than those who report on him.
It’s even come full circle, with some experts now believing that the best approach to cover Trump is to give people more opportunities to hear what he says – the polar opposite of what was once popular opinion.
Molloy used the term “sanewashing” this fall to describe journalists’ tendency to launder some of Trump’s wilder or barely intelligible utterances to make them appear like the sensible pronouncements of a conventional politician. She cites CNN as an example, which distilled a Trump post on Truth Social about the “radical left” and “fake news” into a straight news story about the former president agreeing to face his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Sanewashing? The Banality Of Crazy? A Decade Into The Trump Era, Media Hasn’t Figured Him Out
At its finest, refining Trump generates a new narrative, she said. At its worst, it is misinformation.
Trump warned of the dangers posed by illegal immigrants during a rally in Wisconsin on the last weekend of September. “They will walk into your kitchen, they’ll cut your throat,” they’ll say. Michael Tomasky of The New Republic was astonished to see the phrase missing from The New York Times and Washington Post coverage, despite the fact that The Times underlined Trump’s vilification of undocumented immigrants and other media allusions to what Trump himself described as a dark speech.
“Trump constantly saying extreme, racist violent stuff can’t always be new,” Tomasky observed. “But it’s always reality. Is the press justified in disregarding reality just because it is not new?”
One potential reason the remark received little attention was because Trump, at the same rally, referred to Harris as “mentally disabled” without providing any evidence.
That remark was quickly mentioned on the ABC and CBS evening newscasts the next day, following criticism from two other Republicans and coverage of Hurricane Helene’s devastation and war in the Middle East. NBC’s “Nightly News” did not mention it at all.
In other words, Trump said something outlandish. What is new? More than sandwashing, political analyst Brian Klaas refers to it as the banality of insanity, in which journalists become accustomed to things Trump says that would be surprising from other candidates simply because they are desensitized to them.
Illuminating reporting about Trump rarely follows the trend of fast news reports that summarize daily occurrences. “This really serves the small group of news consumers that we would call news junkies, who follow the campaign day to day,” said Kelly McBride, senior vice president of the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank. “But it doesn’t help people decide how to vote, or understand the candidate better.”
Trump critics frequently complain about how the country’s major news outlets cover him. However, they sometimes disregard attempts to provide perspective on matters that affect them. In an article published Sunday, The Times, for example, employed a computer to compare Trump’s recent speeches to those from the past, and on September 9, the paper investigated doubts regarding Trump’s age and mental capacity. The Post has written about how Trump fails to mention his father’s Alzheimer’s disease while attacking others’ mental capacity and making false claims about a cognitive test he underwent. The Associated Press noted of Trump’s Wisconsin event that he “shifted from topic to topic so quickly that it was hard to keep track of what he meant at times.”
“Trump is a really difficult figure to cover because he challenges news media processes every day, and has for years,” The Times’s Maggie Haberman, one of Trump’s best-known chroniclers, told NPR last month. “The mechanisms… were not designed to deal with someone who frequently says things that are false or speaks incoherently. I believe the media has done a wonderful job of portraying who he is, what he says, and what he does.
Sanewashing? The Banality Of Crazy? A Decade Into The Trump Era, Media Hasn’t Figured Him Out
Instead, press critics may be frustrated because the work lacks the desired impact. “The people who don’t like or are infuriated by him cannot believe his success and would like the press to somehow persuade those who do like him that they are wrong,” said Tom Rosenstiel, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland. “And the press can’t do that.”
Fact-checking is a point of debate.
One of the key topics surrounding the three general election debates was how, or whether, television networks would fact-check the candidates live on air.
CNN did not cover Trump’s debate with President Joe Biden last spring. When ABC’s moderators corrected Trump four times during his September debate with Harris, the former president’s supporters were outraged. During the vice presidential debate, CBS News attempted to strike a balance and discovered how difficult it is to please everyone.
“F you CBS — how DARE YOU,” Megyn Kelly wrote on X after CBS briefly removed JD Vance’s microphone after correcting him on a comment concerning immigrants. Melanie McFarland, a media critic at Salon, argued that those who are best suited to pointing out reality “barely rose to that duty.”
The fact-checking sector flourished under Trump’s presidency, with the number of such websites increasing from 63 in 2016 to 79 in 2020, according to the Duke Reporters’ Lab. However, limits were also revealed: Republicans have stigmatized the process to the point where many Trump supporters either don’t believe individuals who attempt to determine what is real or incorrect, or don’t bother reading. Rosenstiel believes that simply pointing out when a politician is wrong is insufficient for daily reporting. They must clearly explain why.
Sanewashing? The Banality Of Crazy? A Decade Into The Trump Era, Media Hasn’t Figured Him Out
In the heady days of 2015, television news networks such as CNN aired extended coverage of Trump campaign rallies. It was entertaining. It boosted ratings. What harm could be caused?
Many eventually regretted their decision. Throughout his administration and beyond, non-Trump-friendly media sources have battled with the question of how much to show Trump unfiltered, and have yet to reach a definitive conclusion. CNN occasionally shows Trump at rallies, but rarely for extended periods of time.
However, in a step back to the future, some experts now believe it is best to let people hear what Trump has to say. Poynter’s McBride applauded The 19th for a child care report in which, unsatisfied by an attempt to clarify Trump’s beliefs with his campaign, the website merely printed a perplexing 365-word verbatim quotation from Trump when questioned about the matter.
While truth checks and context are important, there is value in presenting Trump as is. “Showing Trump at length is not sanewashing,” Rosenstiel added.
Molloy acknowledged to being surprised by the response to her original column on sanewashing. It could represent a desire to define the undefinable, to figure out what the news industry hasn’t been able to do after so long. She mentions politicians that attempt to emulate Trump but fail.
“They don’t have what makes him Donald Trump,” she went on: “People can see it as a sign of his intelligence, or as evidence of his insane behavior. It’s probably a combination of the two.”
SOURCE | AP
Election News
2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
Washington — Trump Media, The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.
The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.
The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.
The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.
Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.
Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.
The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.
The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.
SOURCE | AP
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