Latest news with #2024:HowTrumpRetooktheWhiteHouse
Mint
a day ago
- Politics
- Mint
Trump told donors he threatened to ‘bomb the sh** out of Moscow' if Putin invaded Ukraine: Audio tapes reveal
In newly surfaced audio tapes from 2024 fundraisers, Donald Trump, then Republican-nominee for US President, boasted to donors that he directly threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with bombing Moscow if Russia invaded Ukraine. 'With Putin I said, 'If you go into Ukraine, I'm going to bomb the sh*t out of Moscow. I'm telling you I have no choice,'' Trump said at one closed-door fundraiser, according to the tapes obtained by CNN and detailed in the new book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf. 'And then [Putin] goes, like, 'I don't believe you.' But he believed me 10%,' Trump added. The tapes, aired on Tuesday (July 8) by the news outlet, provide a rare window into Trump's claimed private dealings with world leaders during his 2024 campaign. Trump has long claimed the Russia-Ukraine war would not have happened if he had remained in office. Since returning to the presidency earlier this year, Trump has struggled to broker a resolution to the ongoing conflict, which has only intensified, leaving hundreds dead. 'We get a lot of bull---- thrown at us by Putin,' Trump said. 'He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.' 'We're not happy with Putin, I'm not happy with Putin, I can tell you that much right now. Because he's killing a lot of people. And a lot of them are his soldiers.' Despite this, Trump announced plans to send more US weapons to Ukraine, signaling both discontent with Moscow and an ongoing American commitment to Kyiv's defense. The tapes also captured Trump recounting a similar threat made to Chinese President Xi Jinping over Taiwan. 'He thought I was crazy,' Trump said of Xi. 'But we never had a problem.' Beyond foreign policy, Trump used the fundraising events to signal hardline domestic plans. He vowed to deport student protesters, particularly those involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. 'Any student that protests, I would throw them out of the country,' Trump said. 'Those people made a big mistake.' He added that this policy would 'stop' the wave of campus protests that had concerned conservative donors. When one attendee said some student activists might one day 'run the country,' Trump urged donors to give generously: 'If you get me elected, we will set that movement back 25 to 30 years.' The tapes also reveal Trump's aggressive fundraising tactics. At one event, he recounted turning a $1 million offer into a $25 million donation. 'He gave me $25 million,' Trump said. 'It's crazy.' He also claimed other major donors upped their contributions after pressure from him: 'You have to have the courage to ask,' Trump said. 'You have to get them into the mindset.' At a separate fundraiser, Trump made controversial comments about voting patterns and welfare. 'The unions give big money, the civil service stuff gives big money, and they have the advantage of welfare,' he said. 'The one thing that I have to say to my Jewish friends: You've got to get them to start voting Republican.' According to CNN, the Trump campaign declined to comment on the tapes, which had not been aired previously.
New York Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Harris aide urged ‘The View' hosts to ask again after VP flubbed question on differences with Biden
Former Vice President Kamala Harris' aide implored the co-hosts of 'The View' to try asking Harris a second time about what she would have done differently from Joe Biden during the October 2024 interview on the ABC show, according to a new book. 'As you showed the famous clip there on 'The View,' she gives that answer, and our book reports her aides backstage, head in their hands. They try to get the hosts to actually do the question again, to hopefully revise her answer, which she never does,' Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal told MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Tuesday, explaining that Harris was unwilling to differentiate herself from Biden. Advertisement Dawsey, Washington Post reporter Isaac Arnsdorf and New York Times reporter Tyler Pager's new book, '2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,' was released on Tuesday. Harris sat down with the co-hosts of 'The View' in October 2024, as liberal host Sunny Hostin asked the former vice president if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden over the course of their administration to date. Harris responded, 'there is not a thing that comes to mind.' Her response quickly went viral and was widely viewed as a misstep, given Biden's unpopularity and Harris passing up a chance to create some respectful distance. Hostin initially asked Harris about the biggest specific difference between a potential Harris presidency and Biden's presidency. The then-vice president said the two were obviously two different people and said she planned to focus on home healthcare. Advertisement 3 Reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf join Morning Joe to discuss their new book '2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America'. MSNBC The new book explains that Harris aide Stephanie Cutter asked two of the co-hosts to try asking Harris the question again. 'Backstage on The View's set in Manhattan, Rob Flaherty, a deputy campaign manager, put his head into his hands and swore. During the next commercial break, Stephanie Cutter went to cohosts Whoopi Goldberg and Ana Navarro to ask them to try the question again, but Harris didn't get a second chance. After the interview, Harris knew she'd messed up and asked how big the problem was,' the authors wrote. 3 Harris sat down with the co-hosts of 'The View' in October 2024. ABC Advertisement An adviser said her answer on the liberal ABC talkshow was 'the defining error of the campaign,' the authors reported. Harris didn't give the answer she prepared with her aides, which according to the authors, praised Biden and emphasized that she didn't want to look back and critique their administration. 3 US President Joe Biden speaks during a conference of the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) at the Sofitel Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, on April 15, 2025. AFP via Getty Images The prepared answer also acknowledged that she was her own person. Advertisement Her aides also encouraged her to mention that she planned to appoint a Republican to her cabinet, which the former vice president did mention towards the end of the interview. Dawsey said during the MSNBC appearance on Tuesday that Harris didn't want to create public distance from Biden. 'She thinks it won't be authentic, she believes that it wouldn't work,' he said.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kamala Harris had profane message for governors uneasy about supporting Biden
Former Vice President Kamala Harris had a profane message for anxious Democratic governors uneasy about publicly supporting Joe Biden during the 2024 presidential campaign following his disastrous debate against current President Donald Trump, a new book reveals. "This is about saving our f–king democracy," Harris reportedly told the governors at a July 3, 2024, gathering at the White House after numerous officials expressed reservations about supporting Biden over concerns about his cognitive state. The comment is revealed in the upcoming book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, according to the New York Post. Biden's campaign was in freefall after the then-81-year-old president appeared tired and disoriented at the June 2024 presidential debate, his only debate against Trump. 'The Kamala Excuse': Tensions Between Biden And Harris Plagued Their Campaigns, New Book Reveals "I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don't think he knows what he said either," Trump remarked at one point. Read On The Fox News App The June debate was held much earlier than presidential debates were traditionally held. According to the book, Biden's aides persuaded him to hold the early debate, claiming doing so would allow him to act from a position of strength. "By holding the first debate in the spring, YOU will be able to reach the widest audience possible, before we are deep in the summer months with the conventions, Olympics and family vacations taking precedence… In addition, the earlier YOU are able to debate the better, so that the American people can see YOU standing next to Trump and showing the strength of YOUR leadership, compared to Trump's weakness and chaos," a campaign memo, published by Politico, reportedly said. Biden Made Harris Campaign A 'Nightmare,' Destroyed Her Chances By Staying In 2024 Race Too Long, Aides Charge Biden's performance created worries in the Democratic establishment that he would lose the election, and the 45th president began facing calls to drop out of the race. On July 10, 2024, the New York Times published an op-ed by the actor George Clooney urging Biden to exit the race. More Democratic politicians began to follow suit until Biden ultimately dropped out of the race on July 21, 2024. Harris succeeded him in the race, mounting a truncated roughly three-month-long campaign that ultimately failed. Harris' comments to the governors, made before Biden dropped out, were part of an effort to salvage his flailing candidacy. Following the meeting, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appeared in the White House driveway to voice their support for the president. Numerous high-profile Democratic governors, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer – all of whom were touted as possible replacements for Biden – did not appear to vouch for Biden in public. Walz was later tapped to be Harris' running mate when she stepped into the race. Hochul claimed that all of the governors "pledged our support" for Biden, however, according to the book that claim wasn't true and rankled the governors in attendance. "Many of the governors were deeply skeptical that Biden could continue his campaign, and they were furious with Hochul for suggesting otherwise," the book article source: Kamala Harris had profane message for governors uneasy about supporting Biden
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Biden's team walked back idea of a public cognitive test in 2024 over optics concerns, new book says
Aides for Joe Biden considered having the then-81-year-old president undergo a cognitive test to prove his mental acuity — but ultimately decided the publicity of him taking it would cause more harm than good, a new book says. In the upcoming book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, the authors — Tyler Pager of the New York Times, Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal and Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post — shed light on the critical few months before the president belatedly bowed out of his 2024 run. Although his aides were certain Biden would pass the test, some feared that the optics of him taking the test could raise concerns over his mental sharpness, according to the book, obtained by the New York Times. Biden's team discussed the matter in February 2024 — the same month that Special Counsel Robert Hur described him as a 'sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory' in his report on Biden's handling of classified documents. After the report's release, the then-president insisted, 'My memory is fine.' Months later, though, the world became worried about Biden's mental fitness after his fumbled debate performance against Donald Trump. In the wake of Biden's performance at the first debate, donors, media pundits, editorial boards and some Democrats urged the president to drop out of the 2024 race. Trump lied 30 times in the 90-minute debate, a CNN fact-check at the time found. Still, all eyes were on Biden. Later that month, the president quit the race. Even before the debate, Trump, although just three years younger than his Democratic rival, frequently played into Biden's cognitive abilities on the campaign trail in both 2020 and 2024. In 2020, Trump bragged about taking a cognitive test of his own. In an interview, he boasted about his memory recall of five words: 'person, woman, man, camera, TV.' He claimed the test was usually difficult for others, although not for him: 'If you get it in order you get extra points. [The doctor] said nobody gets it in order, it's actually not that easy, but for me, it was easy.' Back in 2022, some prominent Democrats grew concerned about Biden's age, citing his frequent gaffes and falls. David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama's campaigns, told the Times at the time: 'The presidency is a monstrously taxing job and the stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue.' Although he praised Biden for "restoring decency' to the White House, passing notable legislation, and leading the country through the Covid-19 pandemic, Axelrod said he doesn't get the credit he deserves because of how he's perceived. 'He looks his age and isn't as agile in front of a camera as he once was, and this has fed a narrative about competence that isn't rooted in reality,' he said.
The Independent
04-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Biden's team walked back idea of a public cognitive test in 2024 over optics concerns, new book says
Aides for Joe Biden considered having the then-81-year-old president undergo a cognitive test to prove his mental acuity — but ultimately decided the publicity of him taking it would cause more harm than good, a new book says. In the upcoming book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, the authors — Tyler Pager of the New York Times, Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal and Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post — shed light on the critical few months before the president belatedly bowed out of his 2024 run. Although his aides were certain Biden would pass the test, some feared that the optics of him taking the test could raise concerns over his mental sharpness, according to the book, obtained by the New York Times. Biden's team discussed the matter in February 2024 — the same month that Special Counsel Robert Hur described him as a 'sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory' in his report on Biden's handling of classified documents. After the report's release, the then-president insisted, 'My memory is fine.' Months later, though, the world became worried about Biden's mental fitness after his fumbled debate performance against Donald Trump. In the wake of Biden's performance at the first debate, donors, media pundits, editorial boards and some Democrats urged the president to drop out of the 2024 race. Trump lied 30 times in the 90-minute debate, a CNN fact-check at the time found. Still, all eyes were on Biden. Later that month, the president quit the race. Even before the debate, Trump, although just three years younger than his Democratic rival, frequently played into Biden's cognitive abilities on the campaign trail in both 2020 and 2024. In 2020, Trump bragged about taking a cognitive test of his own. In an interview, he boasted about his memory recall of five words: 'person, woman, man, camera, TV.' He claimed the test was usually difficult for others, although not for him: 'If you get it in order you get extra points. [The doctor] said nobody gets it in order, it's actually not that easy, but for me, it was easy.' Back in 2022, some prominent Democrats grew concerned about Biden's age, citing his frequent gaffes and falls. David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama's campaigns, told the Times at the time: 'The presidency is a monstrously taxing job and the stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue.' Although he praised Biden for "restoring decency' to the White House, passing notable legislation, and leading the country through the Covid-19 pandemic, Axelrod said he doesn't get the credit he deserves because of how he's perceived. 'He looks his age and isn't as agile in front of a camera as he once was, and this has fed a narrative about competence that isn't rooted in reality,' he said.
