A Texas woman has been arrested for threatening Donald Trump, just weeks after a different lunatic tried to kill him at one of his rallies.
41-year-old Christina Montoya was caught in Washington D.C. with a Smith & Wesson pistol on Friday, as Trump met with donors hundreds of miles away in the Hamptons.
The arrest is the latest reminder of the threat of political violence, even as Democrats have returned to inflammatory rhetoric painting Trump as a threat to the country.
Metropolitan Police in Washington D.C. were tipped off by Secret Service.
They found Montoya and her Honda Accord in a residential area of the city. She had a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield pistol, gun lock as well as a magazine, according to a police report.
The woman was charged with Carrying a Pistol without a License, Possession of an Unregistered Firearm, and Threats Against a Former President.
"On Friday, August 2, 2024, at approximately 12:12 p.m., MPD received information regarding a woman who traveled to Washington, DC.
The woman’s vehicle was located in the First District and subsequent investigation lead to the woman’s location," a police press release said.
The woman reportedly began making threats on July 20, days after the assassination attempt in Butler. Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet, and only escaped death by turning his head to look at a chart.
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks killed a Trump supporter who died protecting his family, Corey Comperatore, and seriously injured two other man, James Copenhaver and David Dutch.
There has been a frustrating lack of accountability from Secret Service, which has blamed local law enforcement for the critical failures that enabled Crooks to take a clear shot from less than 200 yards.
A Florida man who lives just half an hours' drive from Trump was arrested days after the assassination attempt for making threats to kill Trump.
The FBI has yet to identify a motive for the assassination attempt on July 13, but it is clear that Trump faces a continued threat from dangerously unhinged people, many of whom have clearly been radicalized by political rhetoric.
After a brief pause in campaigning, Democrats have returned to painting Trump as an enemy of freedom and democracy while tying the assassination attempt to their gun control agenda.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has suffered a series of legal blows in recent months, and the latest news is yet another example.
According to The Hill, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio confirmed that he has launched an investigation into one of Smith's prosecutors.
Over the weekend, Jordan asked "the Justice Department (DOJ) to turn over all its files related to any internal review of J.P. Cooney."
News of the probe came not long after it was announced that Jordan and his powerful House committee are launching a similar investigation into the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan over her previous anti-Trump activism work in the legal profession.
Jordan and other top Republicans have been at the forefront of investigating those who worked to prosecute President Trump. He recently sent a letter demanding the files to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
The investigation into Cooney is reportedly related to the previous sentencing of Trump ally Roger Stone.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan is launching an investigation into special counsel Jack Smith’s deputy on the Jan. 6 prosecution, asking the Justice Department to turn over all its files related to any internal review of J.P. Cooney. https://t.co/WeUbbh8qPR
— The Hill (@thehill) August 2, 2024
The Hill noted:
The launch of a new investigative angle from Jordan comes after the Justice Department’s office of inspector general released a report reviewing the sentencing of Trump ally Roger Stone after a whistleblower alleged potential improper political influence in reining back their suggested sentence. Stone was later pardoned by Trump.
Cooney, who at the time of Stone's sentencing was part of the fraud and public corruption section (FPC) chief, was mentioned in a review published by a watchdog group regarding political influence in certain cases.
The Hill added:
But Cooney and other prosecutors also feature in the review, with the report stressing their concerns about politicization were "not unreasonable," even as it determines Cooney’s sharing of those feelings with subordinates was "not well considered."
Jordan, in his letter, made it clear what the job of a prosecutor is -- and isn't.
"It is imperative that the Department operates with a high level of professionalism and integrity in all its prosecutions. The role of a prosecutor is to seek justice, not to advance unsupported and politically motivated conspiracy theories," Jordan wrote.
He added, "In light of serious allegations of professional misconduct levied against another one of Mr. Smith’s team of attorneys, we again write to ask what steps the Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is taking to examine these facts and uphold the Department’s commitment to fair and impartial justice."
Only time will tell where the investigation leads.
Now that Vice President Kamala Harris has the spotlight given her new designation as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, bizarre stories of her past are surfacing by the day.
The latest, according to The Post Millennial, is regarding how she ran her office. Many staffers have come forward in past years claiming that the workplace under Harris was toxic and not so great.
A staffer reportedly revealed the most shocking story to date, in which they claim that Harris forced them to greet her a certain way every morning when they arrived at her office.
The stories told by former staffers seem to line up with Harris's historically high employee turnover rate.
Apparently, while she was the attorney general of California, many of her staffers lived "in complete fear."
Other former employees claimed that upon entering her office in the morning, they were forced to say, "Good morning, general."
Harris was also reportedly known for using extreme profanity in the workplace, and some employees said they were often berated by her, including being screamed at by the then-attorney general.
Attorney General Kamala Harris demanded her staff stand and say "Good Morning, General" when she entered the office.
She also forbade interns from looking her in the eye.
If you judge someone on how they treat the little people, Harris is a horrible person. But the media… pic.twitter.com/D6rbyxOXGX
— Gerry Callahan (@GerryCallahan) July 30, 2024
The Post Millennial noted:
The claims were made in a recently unearthed 2019 op-ed for The Union written by Democrat professor Terry McAteer, who detailed his son Gregory's "eye-opening" experience while working as an intern for Harris - the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee - when she was California's Attorney General.
"Gregory was also given instruction to never address Harris nor look her in the eye as that privilege was only allowed to senior staff members," McAteer wrote, noting that he wanted to provide the public with the truth about how Harris was behind closed doors -- a version of her that the public was not aware of.
Users across social media had plenty of feedback regarding the bizarre reports.
"Kamala is a fantasy candidate in a fantasy campaign. I have to agree with the idea they are going to continue the shell game, and swap her, with a new face. To much dirt in her recent past," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Kamilla is a BULLY. DICTATOR."
Hopefully, additional former staffers and interns come forward and expose Harris for what she truly is.
Anita Dunn, a driving force in the Biden administration who helped hide his cognitive decline, is leaving the White House to work for a Kamala Harris super PAC.
A longtime Democratic strategist for both Biden and Barack Obama, Dunn has been one of Biden's top aides since the start of his disastrous presidency. She is the first high-profile person to quit the White House since Biden announced he would not seek another term in July.
The Biden family blamed Dunn for Biden's disastrous debate in June, which exposed Biden's cognitive decline and led to speculation about a high-level cover-up. Dunn had helped Biden prepare for the debate, which essentially ended his 50-year career in politics.
Dunn has been described as a driving force behind the administration's strategy of keeping Biden away from the press. When she left the administration for the first time in 2021, the New York Times said she was "adamantly opposed to Mr. Biden regularly taking questions from reporters, which she believes does little to advance his agenda."
Throughout her time in the Biden White House, Dunn was also known for her flagrant conflicts of interest and dizzying turns through the "revolving door" of government and corporate power.
She revealed in 2022 that her consulting firm's clients included Pfizer, a company that benefited from the Biden administration's COVID vaccine policy.
She initially dodged having to share her clients at all by working for Biden as a temporary employee and taking a salary just below the threshold to trigger transparency requirements.
Dunn's husband is Biden's personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, who represented Biden in Special Counsel Robert Hur's classified documents investigation.
Biden called Dunn a key asset to his presidency and 2020 campaign.
“Four years ago, when I launched my campaign for the battle for the soul of our nation, I was grateful Anita Dunn was right there with me,” Biden said.
“She’s not only a key senior member of our team that helped us win a historic election in 2020 — she’s also been an invaluable part of our White House."
“I’ve known Anita throughout my career. She’s served our nation through three Administrations and countless campaigns for candidates at every level,” Biden said.
“I deeply value her counsel and friendship and I will continue to rely on her partnership and insights as we finish the job over the next six months,” he added.
Dunn's next job is at a liberal super PAC that is backing Kamala Harris' campaign, Future Forward.
Donald Trump has called for an end to taxes on Social Security benefits.
The pitch - part of a broader push of tax relief for working class voters and seniors living on tight budgets - could complicate the efforts of Democrats to keep Trump out of the White House by fearmongering about his fiscal agenda.
"SENIORS SHOULD NOT PAY TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Social Security tax was enacted by President Ronald Reagan to help keep Social Security solvent. Retirees pay taxes on up to 50% of their Social Security benefits, and up to 85% if their income is above $34,000.
As president, Trump flirted with ending the payroll tax that workers must pay to fund Social Security. But he has been generally supportive of the program, breaking with the GOP's traditional skepticism of it.
The party's 2024 platform includes an explicit pledge to leave Social Security and Medicare alone.
"President Trump has made absolutely clear that he will not cut one penny from Medicare or Social Security," it reads.
Seniors are particularly important voters in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which will be heavily contested in November.
Trump has similarly called for an end to taxes on tips in a pitch to service workers struggling under inflation.
While Trump's proposal for Social Security would leave seniors with more cash in their wallets, it could also exacerbate the Social Security insolvency crisis. The trust fund is set to run out of money in the 2030s, at which point retirees would receive reduced benefits.
Without a solution, Social Security benefits will get automatically cut by 21% and Medicare Part A will get slashed by 11%.
Democrats have long accused Republicans of wanting to gut Social Security and upend the lives of seniors. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has doubled down on those attacks, picking up where Joe Biden left off when he ended his re-election bid.
Despite the partisan rhetoric, for the most part, entitlement reform has become a third rail that neither party wants to touch.
In the short term, Trump's proposal could help fend off accusations that he wants to end this popular program that millions of Americans rely on and spend their working lives paying into.
More than two weeks after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the FBI doesn't know how the attacker got his gun up on the roof.
FBI deputy director Paul Abbate told Congress Tuesday that the gunman lifted himself on the roof at 6:06 p.m., minutes before opening fire at 6:11 p.m.
When asked how the gun got on the roof, Abbate said the shooter may have kept it in a backpack, but the FBI isn't sure.
Abbate said the FBI has examined the gun and it would have been visible if placed in the backpack.
“It’s possible that he broke the rifle down, although we don’t have conclusive evidence of that, and took it out of the bag on the roof in those moments before and reassembled it there, that’s one of the theories we’re looking at and working on right now," Abbate said.
At a previous hearing, FBI director Christopher Wray said Crooks' rifle had a collapsible stock that may have made it easier to conceal.
Wray also caused outrage by suggesting Trump wasn't actually shot, a comment the FBI retracted.
Abbate continued to play cleanup for Wray's remark, saying there "never has been" any doubt Trump was hit with a bullet.
While the FBI still doesn't have a motive, Abbate said a social media account associated with the shooter made "anti-immigrant" and "anti-Semitic" postings in 2019 and 2020.
Abbate did not mention in his opening statement that the shooter had a different social media account with more recent posts. During questioning from Republican senator Marsha Blackburn (Tn.), Abbate admitted the gunman shared "differing views" on Gab in 2021.
The owner of Gab, Andrew Torba, has claimed that the posts include left-wing, pro-immigration, and pro-Biden messages.
"From what I've been told, that is accurate," Abbate said. "Though that's been publicly revealed through the CIO and other things, we're still working to certify and verify that that's his account. But it does have differing points of view, it would appear."
Meanwhile, the Secret Service is doubling down on blaming local police for failures of communication.
Local police spotted Crooks acting suspiciously and reported him to Secret Service 25 minutes before he pulled the trigger.
They lost track of Crooks for six minutes and did not see him on the roof until 6:08 p.m, Abbate said. Crooks was not seen with a gun until 30 seconds before the shooting when a local officer went on the roof.
The acting director of Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, said the agency did not know there was an active threat because of a lack of information from local law enforcement.
"Nothing about man on the roof, nothing about man with a gun. None of that information ever made it over our net," he said.
Democrats in Georgia have warmed to ditching the state's electronic voting machines - a stunning concession that is sure to infuriate Democrats nationwide.
Since the 2020 election, Democrats have mostly opposed any efforts to ensure that only legal votes are cast. But Georgia Democrats are backing calls from the state's Republicans to replace Dominion voting machines with paper ballots.
The bi-partisan push is a rare example of agreement since the 2020 election deepened partisan divisions on how America should vote.
Democrats were more open-minded about voting machine vulnerabilities before the election, but they have since dismissed vote hacking as a trivial issue that only "conspiracy theorists" care about.
Cybersecurity experts disagree. Some Trump supporters were accused of breaching a Georgia election office in 2021 and copying software from Dominion's machines. Incidents like those show that hacking is a real concern, the experts say.
"If you look at the series of breaches, global breaches of cybersecurity systems over the last two years, it’s story after story like this where some vulnerability in a system was ignored," said Dr. Rich DeMillo, founder of Georgia Tech’s School of Cybersecurity, told 11Alive.
Members of both parties want the state's Republican-controlled election board to make the change.
The chair of the Democrats in Morgan County, Jeanne Dufort, called the use of voting machines "madness" and an invitation to election meddling.
"It's madness, actually, to go into a system and have all of our ballots relying on that," Dufort said.
"We believe the experts who tell us that bad guys, foreign and domestic, are interested in overturning election results or interfering with them. And we absolutely believe they now have really good tools to do that," Dufort said.
The state's election board voted Tuesday to backtrack on new election rules after a liberal group sued, claiming the rules were advanced at an illegal meeting without public notice. Dr. Janice Johnston, a Republican board member, said a public outcry was the result of misleading information.
“There was a weirdly overdramatic and excessive alarm raised — a seemingly coordinated misinformation campaign — followed by apparent media attacks and outrageous and ridiculous threats made to the State Election Board,” she said.
The rules would allow more access for poll watchers and require counties to share daily ballot counts during early voting. The board will debate the rules again on August 6.
Former Donald Trump aide Mark Meadows has asked the Supreme Court to move his Georgia election "conspiracy" case into federal court.
It's the latest example of the cascading effect of the Supreme Court's immunity ruling, which derailed Democratic efforts to prosecute Trump over the 2020 election.
Meadows' efforts to move his trial to federal court have been unsuccessful, so far.
An appeals court shot Meadows down last year but that was before the Supreme Court clarified that presidents have immunity from prosecution for their official acts.
The Supreme Court alluded to a chilling effect on U.S. presidents if they are exposed to prosecution for "official acts" upon leaving office.
Meadows has made similar arguments to push for his case to be moved to federal court. In his petition Friday, he doubled down, citing the Supreme Court's July ruling.
“As the Court explained … immunity exists not just to protect current officers from the distractions of litigation, but ‘to protect against the chilling effect [later legal] exposure might have on the carrying out of’ an officer’s duties,” Meadow’s lawyers wrote.
"It is hard to imagine a case in which the need for a federal forum is more pressing than one that requires resolving novel questions about the duties and powers of one of the most important federal offices in the Nation,” his lawyers added.
An appeals court rejected Meadows' federal removal claim in December, finding his charged conduct did not relate to his official functions.
In his petition to the Supreme Court, Meadows pointed to the Supreme Court's finding that immunity extends to former officeholders.
“Just as immunity protection for former officers is critical to ensuring that current and future officers are not deterred from enthusiastic service, so too is the promise of a federal forum in which to litigate that defense,” Meadows wrote.
Trump, Meadows, and 17 others were charged by Fani Willis, a far-left Fulton County prosecutor, last summer in the sprawling election "subversion" case.
The Georgia case has already been delayed past the 2024 election because of Willis' indiscretions with another prosecutor, which gave Trump and his lawyers an opening to seek her disqualification.
The Supreme Court's immunity ruling has also scrambled prosecutor Jack Smith's attempt to try Trump on federal charges relating to the 2020 election.
Former President Barack Obama reportedly wasn't keen on Vice President Kamala Harris being endorsed by President Joe Biden after he dropped out.
That was partially because he had his eye on Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D) and reportedly wanted him to be at the top of the Democratic Party's ticket in November.
But according to The Hill, it looks like Kelly will have to settle for a potential VP slot, as it's now being reported that he's at or near the top of Harris's VP shortlist.
Along with a handful of other potential vice presidents in a Kamala Harris administration, Kelly has recently received vetting materials from the current vice president.
Reports also indicated that Obama didn't want Harris at the top of the ticket because unlike the rest of the gaslit Democratic Party, he knows Harris stands little chance at besting Trump in November. But clearly the party is going for the diversity angle instead of the most qualified.
Kelly is an obvious pick. A former astronaut and veteran, his main draw is that he's popular in Arizona, which is said to be a critical swing state for the upcoming election, and Harris needs all the help she can possibly get.
Democratic strategist Matt Grodsky, a former communications director for the state Democratic Party, weighed in on the potential of Kelly becoming Harris's 2024 running mate.
"I think you need someone that’s got national ID and has been tested to a degree, and I think [Kelly] brings that," Grodsky said.
The Hill noted:
Democrats have expressed enthusiasm around Kelly since he first won his Senate seat in a 2020 special election to serve the remainder of the late Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) term. He was then elected to a full term in the Senate in 2022.
Observers have noted that Kelly's ability to consistently perform well for the party in Arizona could possibly transcend into other key battleground states.
With news of Kelly's ascension in the VP race, his background is already under heavy scrutiny, including his reported ties to a Chinese balloon company.
🚨 NEW: AZ Sen. Mark Kelly, who is a top contender for Kamala Harris’ VP spot, literally OWNS a Chinese-funded spy ballon company, per NYT
You just can’t make this stuff up 😂🤣
Great pick, Kamala pic.twitter.com/toaQsJIecd
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 27, 2024
"Kelly stole his Senate seat from McSally via the Arizona mafia. He’s dirty," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Harris' roots to the Chinese runs deep. Makes perfect sense..."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Christopher Wray recently suggested that former President Donald Trump was not struck by a bullet from the would-be assassin's gun, which caused a firestorm of backlash.
In recent days, the FBI released a statement confirming that he was, in fact, hit by a bullet, sparking a reply from Trump in which he "accepted" the federal law enforcement agency's "apology," Breitbart reported.
Trump's critics and some in Congress had floated a conspiracy that Trump wasn't shot, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
The FBI's statement vindicated Trump, but it was also what everyone who has seen the videos and iconic photographs already knew.
In previous testimony before Congress, Director Wray suggested that Trump might not have been struck by the shooter's bullet, but didn't clarify what else it could have been.
"With respect to former President Donald Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear," Wray said at the time.
Breitbart noted:
While speaking at Turning Point USA’s Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach on Friday, Trump spoke about how an immigration chart that he had turned to look at, “saved” his life and how the FBI had made remarks raising doubts about whether Trump had actually been shot by a bullet.
At the Turning Point summit, Trump mentioned the controversy and said he "accepts" the FBI's apology after the statement was released.
"Did you see the FBI today apologized," Trump said. "They said, 'Well, it might’ve been a bullet, but it might’ve been glass.’ So, really, where did the glass come from? ‘Or, it might’ve been shrapnel,’ where did the shrapnel come from?"
Trump used the moment to slam the FBI, even mentioning the raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence with regard to the classified documents probe.
"They then said there was a bullet," Trump added. "It just never ends with these people. They raid Mar-a-Lago, they do things so bad, so bad. Our country is so sick. But, they apologized. We accept their apology."
Users across social media reacted to Trump's speech, with many of them slamming the FBI for its initial suggestion.
"Oh look, the FBI is just as useless as local law enforcement and SS-ervice Thanks for confirming what we always knew," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Question should be. Why on earth would they want to minimize it? Why?"