Trump news – live: Kushner says ex-president ‘would have stopped Jan 6 riots had he anticipated violence’

Jared Kushner has claimed that the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago was another example of Donald Trump’s “enemies” persecuting him.

“President Trump is a fighter, he’s always been a fighter,” Mr Kushner told Fox News host Mark Levin on Saturday in his first public comments about the 8 August search of Mr Trump’s Florida home.

“In the way that he drives his enemies so crazy, they always over pursue him and make mistakes in trying to get him. That’s basically what happened here.”

Jared Kushner has accused former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon of constantly leaking stories to the press, as he shared some details of the turbulent ties.

“Bannon single-handedly caused more problems for me than anyone else in my time in Washington,” Mr Trump’s son-in-law wrote in his memoir “Breaking History”.

“He probably leaked and lied about me more than everyone else combined. He played dirty and dragged me into the mud of the Russia investigation,” Mr Kushner has written in the book, reported The Washington Times.

Mr Kushner was frustrated with Mr Bannon to the extent that he had requested the White House staff to seal the connecting door between both their offices.

The videos share a few common themes: they are filmed by an excitable solo protagonist. That protagonist is often addressing fellow “patriots” and asking them to prepare for something very big to happen. They include some veiled or explicit threat of violence in response. And many of them are posted on TikTok, the short-form video app made popular by dancing teenagers.

In the wake of the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, threats of violence against federal agents from Donald Trump’s supporters have skyrocketed, according to extremism monitors. Warnings of civil war and veiled threats of violence against politicians have also increased.

In a departure from the norm, many of those threats are being made in the open, on social media platforms like TikTok, with no attempt to hide their identity.

Richard Hall reports on the new phenomena.

Look no further than the fate of Liz Cheney to find an illustration of the long-lasting political effects of the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 – and the false claims of Donald Trump, about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, that preceded it.

As Republicans who have embraced the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election being ‘stolen’ make their way to the midterms, Chris Stevenson asks what it means for the contest in 2024.

Read the full story here:

President Joe Biden and his allies hope big recent wins on climate, health care and more will at least temporarily tamp down questions among top Democrats about whether he will run for reelection.

That optimism may be short-lived, at risk if and when former President Donald Trump announces another White House campaign. But for now, the “Will he or won’t he” Washington parlor game appears to be on hold.

Jared Kushner has claimed that the FBI raid on his father-in-law’s Mar-a-Lago estate is another example of the former president’s “enemies” persecuting him.

“President Trump is a fighter, he’s always been a fighter,” Mr Kushner told Fox News host Mark Levin on Saturday in his first public comments about the 8 August search of Mr Trump’s Florida home.

“In the way that he drives his enemies so crazy, they always over pursue him and make mistakes in trying to get him. That’s basically what happened here.”

Read the full story here:

Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has said that the former president would have attempted to stop the violence at the US Capitol building had he known about it beforehand, calling the historical attack on the prestigious building unexpected.

In his new memoir “Breaking History”, Mr Kushner wrote: “What is clear to me is that no one at the White House expected violence that day. I’m confident that if my colleagues or the president had anticipated violence, they would have prevented it from happening,” reported The Washington Times.

“After more than six hundred peaceful Trump rallies, these rioters gave Trump’s critics the fodder they had wanted for more than five years,” Mr Kushner said.

He added: “The claim was as false as the narrative that the violent Antifa rioters who desecrated American cities that summer were representative of the millions of peaceful demonstrators who had marched for equality under the law.”

Donald Trump has claimed rank and file FBI agents “love” him after he spent days verbally attacking the agency over the Mar-a-Lago raid.

Mr Trump’s comments on Truth Social came as his new lead attorney Jim Trusty promised to “come out swinging” as he prepares to file a new legal challenge against the breadth of the Justice Department search warrant.

Mr Trump has led a chorus of Republican criticism against the FBI over the 8 August search of his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, for classified materials he took with him when he left office.

There’s more bad news for Donald Trump-endorsed GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Dr Mehmet Oz.

As per a new Fox News poll, Dr Oz trails his Democratic opponent, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, by a significant margin.

What’s unique about this poll, however, is the deficit it shows the Republican nominee faces among even his own supporters. Many other polls have also shown the same report card for Mr Trump’s elect.

The celebrity TV doctor already faced questions about his Yinzer bona fides before posting an embarrassing video last weekend filmed in a grocery story in which he tried to point out the painful toll of inflation, succeeding only in attracting mockery with his mispronunciation of the market’s name and apparent unfamiliarity with the task of shopping for groceries.

Congressman Adam Schiff warned that a potential decision by a judge to unseal an affidavit detailing the evidence that led to the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago could imperil the DoJ’s investigation.

The move could potentially lead to witnesses being intimidated by former president Donald Trump, which his panel has warned publicly on multiple occaisions is occurring in regards to their own witnesses, the California Democrat and Jan 6 committee member speculated while speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union.

Mr Schiff said: “You could learn a great deal [from the sealed affidavit] and that’s just the problem for the Justice Department.”

“I think probably their concern is very legitimate … we’ve seen the president retaliate against anyone he considers a whistleblower, accuse them of treason,” he said.

John Bowden has the full report here: