NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is renewing attention to his long history of turning a blind eye to bigotry after dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West just days into his third campaign for the White House.

Trump had dinner Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago club with West, who is now known as Ye, as well as Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist who has used his online platform to spew antisemitic and white nationalist rhetoric.

Ye, who says he, too, is running for president in 2024, has made his own series of antisemitic comments in recent weeks, leading to his suspension from social media platforms, his talent agency dropping him and companies like Adidas cutting ties with him. The sportswear manufacturer has also launched an investigation into his conduct.

In a statement from the White House, spokesman Andrew Bates said: “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America — including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned.”

Trump, in a series of statements Friday, said he had “never met and knew nothing about” Fuentes before he arrived with Ye at his club. But Trump also did not acknowledge Fuentes’ long history of racist and antisemitic remarks, nor did he denounce either man’s defamatory statements.

Trump wrote of Ye on his social media platform that “we got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’” He added, “Why wouldn’t I agree to meet?”

The former president has a long history of failing to unequivocally condemn hate speech. During his 2016 campaign, Trump waffled when asked to denounce the KKK after he was endorsed by the group’s former leader, saying in a televised interview that he didn’t “know anything about David Duke.” In 2017, in the aftermath of the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump was widely criticized for saying there was “blame on both sides” for the violence. And his rallies frequently feature inflammatory rhetoric from figures like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who spoke earlier this year at a far-right conference organized by Fuentes.

The latest episode, coming just one week after Trump launched his third run for the Republican nomination, also underscored how loosely controlled access to the former president remained, particularly without a traditional campaign operation in place.

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club came under intense scrutiny amid revelations that Trump was storing hundreds of documents with classified markings there — sparking a federal investigation. But the club — and the people it gave access to Trump — had long been a source of consternation among former White House aides.

Mar-a-Lago is not only Trump’s home, but also a private club and event space. Paid members and their guests dine alongside him and often mingle with him; members of the public can book weddings, fundraisers and other events, and Trump often drops by.

Ye first shared details of the dinner in a video he posted to his Twitter account Thursday. Ye said he had traveled to Florida to ask Trump to be his 2024 running mate, and that the meeting had grown heated, with Trump “perturbed” by his request and Ye angered by Trump’s criticism of his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian.

“When Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was gonna lose. I mean, has that ever worked for anyone in history, telling Ye that I’m going to lose?” Ye asked in the video. “You’re talking to Ye!”

Ye also said Trump was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes,” whom he described as “actually a loyalist” and said he’d asked Trump, “Why when you had the chance did you not free the January 6th-ers?” referring to the defendants who were alleged to have participated in the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump released a series of statements Friday trying to explain the circumstances of the meeting.

“Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about,” Trump said in his first statement released by his campaign.

Not long after, Trump took to his social media network to say that Ye and “three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about” had “unexpectedly showed up” at his club.

“We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport,” he wrote.

Hours later he again posted, saying he had told Ye that he “should definitely not run for President,” and that “any voters you may have should vote for TRUMP.”

“Anyway, we got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’” he added. “Why wouldn’t I agree to meet? Also, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes.”

Fuentes, meanwhile, said after the trip that, while he couldn’t rule out that Trump had heard of him, “I don’t think he knew that I was me at the dinner.”

“I didn’t mean for my statements and my whole background to sort of become a public relations problem for the president,” he added on his show.

The meeting drew immediate criticism from Trump critics as well as some supporters, including David Friedman, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Israel.

“To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this. Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable,” Friedman wrote in a tweet. “I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong.”

On Saturday, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a potential 2024 rival, also denounced antisemitism, without directly referencing the dinner or the president under whom he served.

“Anti-Semitism is a cancer,” Pompeo wrote, adding: “We stand with the Jewish people in the fight against the world’s oldest bigotry.”

Biden, asked about the Trump dinner meeting while vacationing in Nantucket, Massachusetts, replied, “You don’t want to hear what I think.”

© Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country’s intends to have the world’s most powerful nuclear force as he promoted dozens of military officers involved in the recent launch of a new ballistic missile, state media reported on Sunday.

The announcement comes after Kim inspected a Nov. 18 test of the Hwasong-17, North Korea’s largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and pledged to counter what he called U.S. nuclear threats.

North Korea’s “ultimate goal is to possess the world’s most powerful strategic force, the absolute force unprecedented in the century,” Kim said in the order promoting the officers, adding that building up the country’s nuclear capabilities would reliably protect the dignity and sovereignty of the state and the people.

He described the Hwasong-17 as the “world’s strongest strategic weapon” and said it demonstrated North Korea’s resolve and ability to eventually build the world’s strongest army.

North Korean scientists have made a “wonderful leap forward in the development of the technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles,” and were expected to expand and strengthen the country’s nuclear deterrent capabilities at an extraordinarily rapid pace, Kim was also quoted as saying.

Kim was pictured in photos posing with scientists, engineers and military officials involved in the test.

According to state media, those workers pledged to defend the “absolute authority” of the party and Kim, and vowed that “our missiles will fly vigorously only in the direction indicated” by Kim.

Capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, the launch of the Hwasong-17 prompted the United States to call for a United Nations Security Council presidential statement to hold North Korea accountable for its missile tests, which are banned by Security Council resolutions.

State media also showed Kim Jong Un’s daughter accompanying him as he reviewed the officers. Her unexpected first appearance at the Hwasong-17 test has raised the prospect that leadership of the totalitarian state could pass to a fourth generation of Kims.

North Korea’s powerful Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly awarded the Hwasong-17 missile the title of “DPRK Hero and Gold Star Medal and Order of National Flag 1st Class”, state news agency KCNA reported in another statement, using the initials of the country’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“(The missile) clearly proved before the world that the DPRK is a full-fledged nuclear power capable of standing against the nuclear supremacy of the U.S. imperialists and fully demonstrated its might as the most powerful ICBM state,” KCNA said.

Attention is turning to Taiwan’s next presidential election in 2024 after the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was thrashed at local elections on Saturday, with President Tsai Ing-wen’s move to focus on China backfiring with voters.

The main opposition party the Kuomintang, or KMT, romped to victory in the mayoral and county elections, winning 13 of the 21 seats up for grabs, including the wealthy and cosmopolitan capital Taipei, in line with expectations.

None of those elected have direct say in policy on China.

China views the island as its own territory and has been ramping up military activities to assert those claims, fuelling global concern especially given Taiwan’s major role as a semiconductor producer.

The KMT traditionally favours close ties with China but strongly denies being pro-Beijing. It had been on the back foot since 2020’s presidential election loss, and also suffered a blow last December after four referendums it had championed as a show of no confidence in the government failed.

Speaking to reporters late on Saturday at party headquarters, its chairman Eric Chu said the KMT understood that only by uniting could it win.

“Taiwan’s people have given us an opportunity,” he said. “Being selfless is the only chance that the KMT could win the 2024 election.”

Tsai resigned as DPP chairwoman after the defeat, the worst showing in the party’s history, and is now left with just five mayor or county chief positions.

She had framed the vote as being about showing defiance to China’s rising bellicosity, especially after it held war games near the island in August and President Xi Jinping, who has vowed to bring Taiwan under Chinese control, won an unprecedented third term in office last month.

But Tsai’s strategy failed to mobilise voters, who disassociated geopolitics from the local elections which traditionally focus more on issues from crime to pollution.

Turnout on Saturday was at record low, just 59% for Taiwan’s six most important cities, compared to an overall figure of around 75% in 2020.

China has been distracted with its own internal problems, including unrest linked to its zero-COVID policy.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said last week Taiwan was seeing less Chinese interference ahead of the local elections, possibly due to China’s own domestic problems and its efforts to improve its international image.

DPP Secretary-General Lin Hsi-yao told reporters the party will perform a “review” of what went wrong, declining to comment directly on their tactic of making the China issue such an important one.

The KMT had focused its campaign on issues like the COVID-19 pandemic, especially after a surge in cases this year and whether the government favoured a local vaccine over imported ones.

In a Sunday editorial, Taiwan’s pro-DPP Liberty Times newspaper said it was tougher to motivate voters at local elections using “abstract political ideas”, and warned the DPP could face distracting splits in deciding its 2024 presidential candidate.

“Tsai Ing-wen’s second term is halfway through, and the issue of succession may breed internal contradictions, damaging the combat effectiveness of having all guns pointing outwards.”

Vice President William Lai, considered by party sources the most likely candidate for 2024 and who took a high profile campaigning role for the local polls, apologised on his Facebook page on Saturday for the poor performance, but did not address his future.

Still, the DPP did recover after a similar trouncing in 2018’s local elections to win a landslide at the presidential and parliamentary polls in 2020, after successfully portraying a vote for the KMT as a vote for China in the wake of a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters in Hong Kong.

The KMT bristles at accusations it will sell out Taiwan to China or is not committed to democracy, but accuses the DPP of deliberately hyping confrontation with Beijing for political benefit.

The DPP denies this and Tsai has repeatedly offered to hold talks with China, which have been rejected as Beijing views her as a separatist.

“The KMT’s landslide victory doesn’t mean a pro-Beijing political atmosphere in Taiwan is being shaped. The KMT is not a pro-Beijing party, either,” said Huang Kwei-bo, an associate professor of diplomacy at Taipei’s National Chengchi University and a former KMT deputy secretary general.

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The fox is back to attacking the henhouse and boy oh boy do they have a unique way of doing it! So the miserable entity we call Fox (non-news) is up to its old tricks again. But this latest trick comes with a twist. Let’s go back in time for a moment to make this all make sense.

Over the years, Fox has relished in the war over Christmas — loudly accusing Democrats of conducting a “war on Christmas.” They have pushed this absurd theory many times. This accusation, of course, is as far-out and non-existent as most of what the hate network says. But now they’re saying something else.

President Biden cares TOO MUCH about Christmas seems to be the new message. It’s true. Hey — nobody EVER accused Fox of being sane. On the Laura Ingraham show on Monday night, the following words appeared: “Biden jumps the gun on Christmas.”

Say WHAT? This had to do with President Biden putting up a Christmas tree, which Fox evidently thought was much too soon. I kid you not. This is their latest issue of concern. Biden jumped the gun on a Christmas tree. But there is a problem.

The problem is Fox did a Christmas tree lighting — on the same day it attacked the Biden administration. Twitter noticed this and appeared baffled why Fox was accusing President Biden of celebrating Christmas too early when they were doing the same thing.

And, of course, for years, it’s been the relentless mantra that democrats do not care about Christmas — that, in fact, we hate it. So why are they now saying Biden cares about it at all? So it should come as no surprise that Fox was pilloried on social media as many Tweeters are brighter than Fox pundits and pick up on these things rather quickly.

“Is Fox declaring war on Christmas now?” many wondered. So once again, Fox was left with an egg on their face. They seem to be showing more and more carelessness toward their television news content — or what they think passes for news.

The post Fox in the henhouse appeared first on Palmer Report.

The progressive government of Australia’s Victoria state won re-election on Saturday, clearing the way for spending on infrastructure, education and healthcare.

After eight years in power in the country’s second-most populous state, centre-left Labor was tipped to defeat its Liberal-National coalition opposition, and the government, led by Daniel Andrews, was comfortably returned at Saturday’s poll.

With 67% of the vote counted, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Sunday forecast Labor to win 49 seats in the state’s lower house, and the Liberal-National coalition to take 24 seats.

Forty-five seats are needed to form a majority government in the 88-seat Victorian legislative assembly.

“I’m humbled and so grateful, so so grateful, that Victorians have re-elected a majority Labor government,” Andrews told ABC television on Sunday morning.

Four years ago, Labor returned to power in a landslide, winning just under two-thirds of seats, but polling in the final days of this campaign had suggested a tighter race.

Going into the campaign, both sides pledged millions to spruce up the state’s infrastructure, education and healthcare system.

Labor has pledged to build a rail loop project for state capital Melbourne, which local media estimates will cost about A$125 billion ($85 billion), but the coalition, led by Matthew Guy, vowed to shelve it if elected.

Guy conceded his conservative coalition had “a lot of work to do” after the third straight election loss to Andrews, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

Under the Andrews government, Melbourne, a city of 5 million people, spent more time in COVID-19 lockdowns than any other city in the world. The premier on Sunday referred to the “unprecedented time” in the state’s history.

“You don’t get to choose the challenges you face, that’s what leadership’s about,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, also a Labor politician, said Andrews deserved a pat on the back on the election win. “I congratulate Dan Andrews and his entire team,” he told reporters in Canberra.

Heavy snowfall was expected in Kyiv starting on Sunday, with temperatures dropping below freezing day and night, while millions of people who still live in and around the Ukrainian capital remain with little electricity and heat.

Grid operator Ukrenergo said on Saturday that electricity producers were able to cover only three-quarters of consumption needs, necessitating restrictions and blackouts across the country.

Sergey Kovalenko, chief operating officer of YASNO, which provides energy to Kyiv, said the situation in the city has improved but still remained “quite difficult.” He indicated that residents should have at least four hours of power per day.

“If you haven’t had at least four hours of electricity in the past day, write to DTEK Kyiv Electric Networks, colleagues will help you figure out what the problem is,” Kovalenko wrote on his Facebook page.

YASNO is the retail branch of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy provider.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 6 million people were without power on Friday after the latest Russian bombardment last week, which inflicted the worst damage so far on Ukraine, leaving millions of people with no light, water or heat. read more

Russia says it does not target the civilian population, while the Kremlin said that Moscow’s strikes on energy infrastructure are a consequence of Kyiv being unwilling to negotiate. read more

In a rare public spat involving Ukrainian leaders, Zelenskiy on Friday criticised the mayor of Kyiv for doing what he said was a poor job setting up emergency shelters to help those without power and heat after Russian attacks. read more

Ukrenergo said that blackouts will continue and urged limited use of power.

“We would like to remind you that now every Ukrainian whose home has had electricity restored can help restore it to others faster, simply by consuming electricity sparingly,” it said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Snow is expected to continue in Kyiv, a city that had 2.8 million residents before the war, until midweek while temperatures are forecast to stay below freezing.

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It would have been difficult enough for a witless weakling like Kevin McCarthy to successfully wrangle a House Republican majority made up of this many loons even if he had a forty seat majority to give him breathing room on each vote. Instead, because so many of you put in so much work on the most competitive House races and won most of them, McCarthy is stuck trying to work with the slimmest of majorities.

Aome folks on social media got excited today when they learned the “breaking news” that McCarthy doesn’t have the votes to become Speaker. But this isn’t news at all. Based solely on the “no” votes from his own caucus that have already been publicly announced, at no point has McCarthy had enough votes. At no point has he been on track to become Speaker. And while he may yet find a way to come up with the votes, if the vote were held tomorrow and every House Republican voted the way they’ve publicly claimed they’re going to vote, McCarthy would fail to become Speaker.

In other words, this new House Republican “majority” is officially in disarray already. Back when the Democrats won a narrow House majority back in 2018, there was a lot of buzz from the most conservative House Democrats about trying to elect a Speaker other than Nancy Pelosi. But even with as much hyperbolic hype as the media gave that storyline, it was never really going to happen. If you knew Pelosi, you knew that she’d find a way to bring everyone in line and get the votes. And even if the holdouts had somehow managed to line up enough support behind an alternative candidate, the upshot is that House Democrats still would have elected a Democrat as Speaker of the House.

The same can’t be said in 2022. The holdout House Republicans aren’t just expressing concerns about McCarthy. They aren’t just saying some other candidate would be better than McCarthy. They’re saying they’re a “no” on him, and they’re doing it publicly. While they’re always free to change their minds at any time, it’s not as easy to publicly walk back a “no” as it is to walk back “I have concerns.” These holdouts seem confident that they’ll be able to derail McCarthy, and that they won’t have to reluctantly fall in line behind him at some point.

This is notable because of what will happen if House Republicans do fail to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. He’s the closest thing to a consensus pick they have; no one likes or respects him, but if only because he’s already the elected leader of the caucus, he’s the one with the best shot at rallying his caucus behind him. If McCarthy can’t get to 218 votes, it’ll be difficult to imagine any other House Republican getting 218 votes.

At that point we’d be looking at a number of variables. House Democrats would be able to nominate their own pick for Speaker, and could theoretically pick anyone – even someone who’s not a House member. This plan would require Democrats to convince four House Republicans to vote with them to elect their nominee for Speaker. It’s difficult to imagine four House Republicans voting for a Democrat like Pelosi or Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker, due to the optics. But, as we’ve already seen leaked to the media by someone who wants it to happen, the Democrats could try to get four House Republicans to support the idea of a traditional Republican like Liz Cheney becoming Speaker. Yes, she could become Speaker of the House without even being a member of the House.

If things got this far, House Republicans would be in an absolute panic, because it would put their entire unhinged agenda at risk. It would certainly give House Republicans more motivation to reluctantly fall in line behind Kevin McCarthy, on the premise that they’d be better off with a weak Speaker than an opposition Speaker. Then again, with the Republican House majority set to be a dumpster fire of ill-received Hunter Biden hearings and such, it’s possible a few House Republicans in moderate districts would rather have a Speaker like Cheney who will refuse to let that dumpster fire happen.

But that’s all several steps ahead of where we are, and there are just too many variables to try to predict how this will turn out. What you need to know for now is that as of today Kevin McCarthy does not have the votes to become Speaker of the House, and neither does any other House Republican. That could change tomorrow. Backroom deals are surely being attempted as we speak. But as of now, none of this is trending in McCarthy’s favor. Keep in mind that persuadable voters in the middle hate chaos and embarrassment, and the stupider this all gets for House Republicans, the worse it is for their chances of keeping the House in 2024.

The post The new House Republican “majority” is officially in disarray appeared first on Palmer Report.

While the former guy finally announced his presidential bid – he picked probably the most inopportune moment to do it – after his party received a stunning rebuke from voters and the leadership in the House he endorsed is uncertain. It’s also when Republicans are desperately trying to win a race in Georgia and don’t want to see his obvious influence being exerted over the party. Some are trying to make the case that the GOP did win the House and they did have a few landslides – in the districts that were drawn for them to do so – on Nov 8, so all is good with Donald Trump and all of the insane beliefs he wears on his sleeve.

The trouble is, after their embarrassing losses in Arizona after the votes were tallied last week, the GOP – and the MAGAsphere specifically – got another stinging rebuke on Wednesday in the reliably red state of Alaska. The former guy won there in 2020 – by ten points – the lowest performance for a Republican there since 1992.

This year, he tried to primary Sen. Lisa Murkowski who overwhelmingly won re-election by 53.2% once all the votes were counted. Who fared even worse was his surrogate Sarah Palin, as her opponent Rep. Mary Peltola went on to win re-election with even more votes than Murkowski who endorsed her – and claimed victory by a 10-point margin. It’s fine if Republicans want to deny it, but it’s getting harder and harder to deny that the MAGA brand and everything that it stands for is overwhelmingly toxic to voters.

The post Donald Trump’s timing couldn’t be worse appeared first on Palmer Report.