by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisc | The Hill
Former President Trump found his way back into headlines Monday, despite global attention on the Middle East, dysfunction in Congress, today’s off-year elections and President Biden’s shaky efforts to sell his economic policies to voters.
Trump made history Monday as an ex-president and civil defendant who railed and rambled about political witch hunts during trial testimony about liability for false valuations of Trump Organization assets.
“The fraud was on behalf of the court. The court was the fraudster in this case,” he told reporters following his testimony.
The former president avoided direct answers in a New York courtroom, offered conflicting explanations and political bromides that strained the judge’s patience more than once. Trump appeared eager to defy courtroom decorum in order to repeat his allegations of judicial and prosecutorial bias, a central theme of his campaign to win another White House term.
I’m sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me,” Trump interjected, referring to Judge Arthur Engoron.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba complained to the media that Engoron demanded short answers from the former president because the judge is biased. Yet, the judge ruled in September that Trump’s financial statements contained fraud. That left for trial whether Trump and the other defendants should pay the $250 million in penalties that New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking, and whether to ban the former president from New York state real estate business as punishment for civil fraud.
As the Republican Party’s front-runner for the nomination next year, Trump also faces 91 criminal indictments and additional trials stretching into 2024. Leading in polls but unpopular among a majority of registered voters, Trump stokes supporters and donors with personal grievances about his foes while disputing any wrongdoing. He plans to hold a rally Wednesday in Florida while skipping the third televised Republican primary debate the same night in Miami.
NBC News: Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, formerly a White House press secretary for Trump, will endorse his presidential primary bid during his Florida rally on Wednesday.
AS ELECTION BALLOTS are counted tonight across the country, The Hill’s campaign team, partnering with Decision Desk HQ, will post results from gubernatorial, mayoral and state legislative ballots. The results are widely expected to offer clues about the mood of the electorate heading into the presidential primaries early next year.
- The Hill: Here’s when and where polls close today.
- The Hill: Five key questions for today’s elections.
- The Hill: Expert predictions about five of the off-year elections today.
Meanwhile, Biden’s Democratic allies are wringing their hands about dismal poll numbers for the incumbent, which are tied to the economy, his age at nearly 81 and views of his foreign and immigration policies, among others.
- The Hill: Biden allies look to limit the fallout over the latest poll results.
- NBC News: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) took a weekend swipe at California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for “running for president right now” while not announcing it.
David Axelrod, former White House and campaign adviser to Biden and former President Obama, on Monday repeated his weekend advice that Biden should do some soul-searching ASAP about whether he should end his reelection bid because of his age and Trump’s chances of victory.
3 Things to Know
- President Vladimir Putin, 71, will be a candidate in Russia’s March presidential election, a move that will keep him in power until at least 2030, Reuters reports. … Moscow on Tuesday formally withdrew from a landmark post-Cold War European arms control treaty.
- Hollywood actors with SAG-AFTRA, striking since July, responded to the studios Monday to say the latest contract offer fell short of its artificial intelligence demands.
- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina qualified for Wednesday’s GOP debate, hosted live by NBC News in Miami. Here’s how to watch from 8-10 p.m. ET.
