America in Focus

A judge on Monday fined former President Donald Trump for violating a gag order in his New York hush money case for a tenth time. Prosecutors had alleged Trump violated the gag order an additional four times, but Judge Juan Merchan found only one instance violated the order. In his ruling, the judge fined Trump $1,000 for comments he made during an April 22, 2024, interview with "Just the News No Noise." During the interview, Trump said the jury was packed with Democrats. 

U.S. Supreme Court Justices on Thursday grappled with multiple questions about what a president can and can't do as they heard oral arguments in a case that could have wide-reaching political ramifications not only for the 2024 election, but well beyond. Supreme Court justices are considering a case involving former President Donald Trump and if presidents have immunity from criminal prosecutions. Trump's attorney D. John Sauer said the president must have immunity for a functioning democracy to flourish. 

Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_3e8012f8-02a2-11ef-856b-37be46049bb5.html

President Joe Biden this week touted what he called a major drop in inflation, saying prices had fallen more than 60%. Those comments come on the heels of more federal data showing prices are on the rise, raising the question: Has inflation really fallen or is something else going on? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Consumer Price Index, a key marker of inflation that has spiked recently. BLS found the CPI rose another 0.4% last month, part of a 3.5% increase over the previous twelve months. Soon after that data was released, Biden released a statement boasting of a drop in inflation.

(The Center Square) – Americans want states to have a role in stopping the flood of illegal immigration, which comes as the federal government and Texas grapple over who has the right to secure the southern border amidst the ongoing crisis there. According to the survey, 29% said border states, 29% said the federal government, and 37% said a combination of both should have the final say on immigration policy. The rest are unsure. This new poll comes as the Biden administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are embroiled in a legal battle over what Abbott says is the state's right to defend itself from an invasion.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a case evaluating how the federal government censored Americans’ speech online, especially about COVID-19 and other controversial topics. During the arguments, justices seemed to express doubts about a prior ruling that limited federal cooperation and coercion of social media companies, particularly when the federal government pushes those companies to censor Americans’ speech. “My biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways in most important time periods,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said during oral arguments for Murthy v. Missouri Monday.

(The Center Square) – Former President Donald Trump is narrowly beating President Joe Biden in a head-to-head faceoff going into November, a new national poll shows. The Center Square’s Voter’s Voice poll conducted with Noble Predictive Insights was released Wednesday, showing Trump beating Biden 46%-45% with likely voters. The rest are unsure. When you include options to vote for third party candidates as well, Trump’s lead over Biden grows. When the poll includes Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Jill Stein, Trump’s lead grows to 3 points.

President Joe Biden's budget proposal seeks to set aside billions of dollars to push progressive gender, sexuality and race ideology at home and around the globe. Released this week, the $7.3 trillion budget also proposes spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to train school teachers in diversity, equity, and inclusion dogma. The White House touted the spending in its announcement of Biden’s budget, which includes $3 billion to “advance gender equity and equality worldwide.”

Former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential primary Wednesday and declined to endorse former President Donald Trump. "I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we have received from all across our great country, but the time has now come to suspend my campaign," Haley said during her remarks. "I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that." Haley said she has no regrets.

President Joe Biden delivered a wide-ranging State of the Union address Thursday evening, touching on the economy, Ukraine, the border and more while attacking Republicans during his remarks, possibly his last time to give the address as president. “Good evening, if I were smart I’d go home now,” Biden said to begin, drawing laughs from the assembly. Biden quickly turned serious, though, saying that freedom and Democracy have not been under such great threat since the Civil War, making reference to the Jan. 6 riots. He said that the same threat is abroad, beginning his speech focusing not on domestic issues, but on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In his first trip to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas since he took office, President Joe Biden blamed Republicans for the border crisis that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, 25 Republican governors, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and many others argue he created. Biden arrived in Brownsville on Thursday afternoon and met with local law enforcement, Border Patrol agents and Democratic officials around the same time that former President Donald Trump arrived in Del Rio, Texas, and met with Abbott and Republican officials.

Former President Donald Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in Michigan’s Republican presidential primary while President Joe Biden cruised to an easy victory on the Democrats' side. The races were called within an hour of polls closing, with the GOP primary determined with about 80% of the vote counted. Biden received more than 126,000 votes while the “uncommitted” spot received more than 23,000 votes, a vote protesting the Israel-Hamas conflict and the U.S’s continual funding of the war.

The rise of pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. university campuses often feature protesters calling for violence against Jews, leading to Jewish students feeling unsafe and frustrated by the lack of response from school administrators and federal officials. Pro-Palestine sentiment is not new to many of these campuses, but the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli civilians and the ensuing war in Gaza have sparked far more frequent and zealous demonstrations. For Ethan Melman, a born-and-raised Chicagoan attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, that issue came to a head last fall when he, a Jewish student, attended one of the pro-Palestine protests to investigate.

James Biden, the president’s brother, testified before lawmakers Wednesday in the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The testimony comes as the indictment of a key witness in the inquiry has left Republicans playing defense and Democrats calling for the inquiry to end. Several media outlets reported Wednesday that during his opening statement, James defended his brother, President Biden, saying the president was not involved in his dealings and did not financially benefit from those deals. House Republicans on the Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees are leading the inquiry, alleging that the Biden family and associates, with the president’s knowledge, raked in more than $20 million from entities in adversarial nations, including Russia and China.

In its second vote attempt in exactly a week, the U.S. House on Tuesday night impeached Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who becomes the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history. Mayorkas was impeached largely along party lines by a vote of 214-213, with three Republicans voting with 210 Democrats against. As more than 10 million illegal border crossers entered the country in three years and a record number of known or suspected terrorists have been apprehended under Mayorkas’ watch, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, MD, R-Tenn., led the charge to impeach him.

All nine U.S. Supreme Court justices challenged constitutional arguments for removing former President Donald Trump from Colorado’s 2024 presidential primary ballot during arguments before the court on Thursday. During arguments scheduled to last 80 minutes, the justices spent almost 130 minutes listening to and questioning three attorneys: Jonathan Mitchell representing Trump, Jason Murray representing six Colorado Republicans who filed suit last year to remove the former president from the ballot, and Shannon Stevenson representing the Colorado secretary of state.

A visibly upset President Joe Biden addressed the nation late Thursday to respond to news that the special counsel tasked with investigating his handling of classified documents had chosen not to charge him, but also detailed numerous examples of his memory loss. The blockbuster special counsel report, while clearing Biden, sparked questions about Biden’s mental fitness when it called him an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Biden is 81 years old. "My memory is fine," Biden fired back before getting hostile with reporters who asked about his mental fitness to serve as president.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan tax bill with a vote of 357-70 late Wednesday, but that bill now faces an uncertain future in the Senate. The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act had bipartisan support after months of behind-the-scenes deals involving both parties. Whether the Senate can get the bill passed, though, remains unclear. The Senate faces several other deadlines, including a March deadline to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Act, two looming government shutdown deadlines the same month, as well as a border bill and a potential spending bill for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine. Meanwhile, the potential impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary could soon land in the Senate’s lap.

The world is awaiting President Joe Biden’s response to a drone attack in Jordan over the weekend that left three U.S. service members dead and more than 30 injured. In his statement Sunday, Biden said “we know [the attack] was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” and pledged to respond to the “despicable and wholly unjust attack.” That statement raised questions about what the response could look like and if it would be severe enough to escalate to a broader war in the region.

Former President Donald Trump touted his victory Wednesday afternoon in the state of New Hampshire, where he won the Republican presidential primary and may have sealed the fate of his only remaining opponent: former UN Ambassador and South Carolins Gov. Nikki Haley. Trump won contested races in Iowa last week and New Hampshire this week, making him the first non-incumbent presidential candidate to do so in modern history. In another record, Trump’s win was fueled in part by record voter turnout, with 320,000 New Hampshire voters heading to the polls.

Support continues to pour in for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott from fellow Republican governors who have sent their National Guard troops to Texas. They are also participating in an Emergency Management Assistance Compact with Texas, sending personnel to assist in Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star. In the face of ongoing threats by the Biden administration to strip Texas of what Abbott says is its constitutional right to defend itself, the governors have vowed to “stand with Texas.”

House Republicans have the votes to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, MD, R-Tenn., said Thursday. Green, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, said all 18 Republican committee members support impeaching him. Three articles of impeachment have been filed against Mayorkas alleging he is derelict in duty, violating laws established by Congress, and creating a national security threat.

One-third of Americans say that President Joe Biden is guilty of corruption and should be impeached, including some Democrats, according to a new poll. The Center Square Voter’s Voice Poll found that 34% of likely voters say “Joe Biden is guilty of corruption and should be impeached.” An additional 35% said it’s not clear if the president did anything wrong but that a Republican-led House investigation into the president should continue.

 Former President Donald Trump dominated the Iowa Caucuses Monday evening, leaving little room for his opponents to forge a path forward and make the pitch they are viable candidates. Regardless, they seem intent on trying and still do have hope, since Iowa only has 40 delegates to offer and it takes 1,215 to win the GOP nomination. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign suffered this week in particular, investing heavily in time and campaign funds in Iowa, his best chance to prove his viability before New Hampshire, where he is expected to lose handily.

Consumer costs increased at an elevated level again in December, according to newly released federal economic data, raising new concerns about spiking inflation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released the Consumer Price Index, a key marker of inflation, showing the cost of a range of every day goods and services for Americans rose more than expected. According to the federal data, the CPI rose 0.3% in December alone, a break from the recent months of very low inflation. Overall, prices rose 3.4% in the last 12 months.

The Republican primary’s Iowa caucuses are scheduled for Jan. 15, the first chance for voters to determine who they want to represent their party in November's presidential election. Iowa's January caucuses are a regular tradition for a presidential primary season that – this time around – has been unusually enshrouded in indictments, impeachment inquiries and lawsuits heading into election year.

As the U.S. gross national debt topped $34 trillion, groups across the political spectrum continue to call for a fiscal commission to address the mounting federal debt. The thinking behind the idea is that a bipartisan commission could help facilitate agreement on difficult fiscal issues. However, few see such a commission as a panacea for a problem with deep roots and politically controversial solutions.

The Michigan Supreme Court has refused to hear a case that would have attempted to ban Donald Trump from being on the state's 2024 presidential primary ballot. In November, Michigan Court of Appeals Justice James Redford ruled Trump would remain on the primary ballot. The state's highest court declined to hear an appeal. There has been a nationwide movement to have Trump removed from state ballots across the country, alleging he incited an insurrection against the government on Jan. 6, 2021, during a speech he gave at the U.S. Capitol.

The Colorado state Supreme Court voted 3-4 Tuesday to block former President Donald Trump from receiving votes on the 2024 presidential ballot, saying he is disqualified because he “engaged in an insurrection,” a reference to his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol protests gone awry. The majority opinion acknowledged the U.S. Supreme Court could weigh in, and as a result postponed the effect of its ruling until Jan. 4, giving the court about two weeks. The Colorado secretary of state has until Jan. 5 to certify the 2024 ballot.

Abortion-providing groups received $1.89 billion in taxpayer money from fiscal years 2019 to 2021, a newly released federal watchdog report shows. The Government Accountability Office, a federal agency, conducted the report at lawmakers' request, showing that Planned Parenthood received the lion's share, taking in $1.78 billion in those years. Planned Parenthood is estimated to have performed more than one million abortions during that time.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 221 to 212 Wednesday to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, who faces allegations that he personally benefited from and lied about his son's overseas business dealings, which raked in millions of dollars. This vote was not a vote to impeach the president, only to formalize the impeachment inquiry which has been gathering and releasing evidence for months.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked former President Donald Trump’s age and sparred with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over Trump’s mental fitness to be president during the Republican primary debate at the University of Alabama on Wednesday night. The remarks came after DeSantis was asked about previous comments in which he said Trump has “lost the zip on his fast ball” and whether that meant he was questioning Trump’s mental fitness.

The rapidly growing debt of the U.S. federal government has hit another milestone, topping more than $100,000 per person. While the U.S. population and the U.S. national debt are large numbers that are difficult to calculate, the rough debt estimate and rough population estimate end up at about $100,000 of federal debt per person in the U.S.

President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is facing new charges.  Federal prosecutors released a 56-page indictment late Thursday. The indictment unsealed in the Central District of California alleges Biden failed to file and pay taxes, evaded an assessment and filed false or fraudulent tax returns. The indictment alleges Biden attempted to dodge paying taxes of at least $1.4 million from 2016 through 2019. The new indictment contains nine charges, including lying about the taxes he eventually filed in 2018 to significantly reduce what he owed.

The Biden administration is under fire after a website to help keep federal funding of union work transparent disappeared. The federal site in question tracks what is called “official time,” a term for when taxpayer-funded federal employees use part of their work hours to work on behalf of a public union. The Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group that works on these issues, released a report on the Biden administration change. The tracking site was on the Office of Personnel Management’s website since 2013, but appears to have been taken down over the summer.