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Trump news – live: Trump celebrates return to Facebook as Elaine Chao condemns his racist attacks

Trump news – live: Trump celebrates return to Facebook as Elaine Chao condemns his racist attacks

Donald Trump celebrated his return to Facebook and Instagram on Wednesday after parent company Meta announced its decision to reinstate the former president’s accounts in the “coming weeks”.

In a statement on Truth Social – where he described himself as the “favorite president” despite failing to be elected to a second term – Mr Trump claimed that “such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution”.

Mr Trump was banned from the platforms for two years in the wake of the attacks on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021, fuelled by his baseless narrative that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, announced on Wednesday that he can return to the platforms but that there will be new guard rails put in place to “deter repeat offences”.

The former president’s transportation secretary Elaine Chao, meanwhile, has issued a rare public rebuke after enduring the former president’s racist remarks targeting her and her husband, Mr Trump’s GOP rival Mitch McConnell.

Key points

  • Meta to restore Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts

  • Trump mocks Meta in response to decision to reinstate him on Facebook

  • Elaine Chao responds to barrage of racist attacks

  • Prosecutor wants to keep grand jury report private, for now, as her office prepares charges

Arizona’s Republican lawmakers shield themselves from public records law

15:30 , Alex Woodward

GOP lawmakers in Arizona – at the centre of antidemocratic efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and reverse Joe Biden’s victory – have adopted new rules to exempt themselves from public records laws and authorised the erasure of all emails sent by lawmakers and their staff after 90 days.

Rules in the state’s House also will allow members and their staff to immediately delete all texts, calendars and “communications on online platforms”.

The moves from the state’s Republican-controlled state legislature come after media outlets obtained correspondence related to the GOP’s partisan-driven “audit” of the 2020 results an emails from the wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas urging lawmakres to reject Trump’s defeat.

Trump calls John Bolton ‘one of the dumbest people in government’, ‘moron’ and ‘unhinged warmonger'

15:02 , Alex Woodward

The former president has called his former national security adviser John Bolton “one of the dumbest people in government” and a “total” and “unhinged warmonger” in a searing post on his Truth Social account.

Mr Bolton, who said he would consider entering the 2024 presidential race, “was one of those very stupid voices that got us into the Middle East quicksand,” Trump said.

“Seven Trillion Dollars, & Millions of deaths later, NOTHING!” he wrote.

“The good news is that I won big negotiations with this moron by my side,” Trump added. “When I brought him into a room with hostile foreign leaders, they thought I was going to war, CONCEEDED ALL!”

Trump to hold back to back campaign events this weekend

14:30 , Rachel Sharp

This weekend, the former president is set to begin his 2024 presidential campaign trail this weekend with back-to-back appearances in New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday.

First, he will speak at the New Hampshire Republican Party’s annual meeting in Salem before heading to South Carolina.

It comes at the end of a week where parent company Meta announced that it would reinstate his Facebook and Instagram accounts in the “coming weeks”.

Inside the presidential scramble to check for classified documents

14:00 , Alex Woodward

After attorneys for former vice president Mike Pence discovered “a small number of documents bearing classified markings” at his Indiana home, people all over Washington have been asking if other former officeholders might be harbouring classified contraband from their time in power.

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg is checking in with all of them. Read what aides for Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have to say:

Trump, Biden, Pence - who else? The presidential scramble for classified documents

California state bar seeking to strip John Eastman’s law license over Trump 2020 election lies

13:30 , Rachel Sharp

The man behind a widely condemned memo that advanced a bogus legal theory to overturn the 2020 presidential election could be stripped of his ability to practise law in California.

John Eastman was hit with 11 charges by the State Bar of California in a Notice of Disciplinary Charges, stemming from his efforts to “plan, promote, and assist then-President Trump in executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by obstructing the count of electoral votes of certain states.”

California state bar seeking to strip John Eastman’s law license over election lies

Trump’s secret donation to Arizona election audit revealed

12:53 , Rachel Sharp

Donald Trump made a secret $1m donation to an election audit in Arizona as part of his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, it has been revealed.

According to The Guardian, it was Mr Trump who largedly bankrolled the discredited audit which the president hoped would support his baseless claims that the election was “stolen” from him and swing the outcome in his favour.

The money was traced by watchdog group Documented from the former president to his Save America Pac, onto an allied conservative group and then a shell company.

From there, the money was handed over to the individuals involved in the audit, the paper reported.

ICYMI: Trump orders House ‘weaponisation’ panel to probe his grievances in video rant

09:00 , Alex Woodward

In a video posted to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump called a new GOP-controlled House Judicary subommittee, which will be chaired by Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, a “rare chance to expose the breathtaking corruption of the security state, the media and the Washington swamp”.

He then launched into a list of “questions” which the panel should “hopefully ... be asking”.

Trump orders House ‘weaponisation’ panel to probe his grievances in video rant

Elaine Chao: Trump’s attacks say ‘a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans"

08:00 , Alex Woodward

For months, the former president has unleashed a string of thinly veiled racist comments about his former transportation secretary, the wife of his party’s Senate leader, to relative silence from other GOP officials.

Days after his latest abuse, Elaine Chao issued a rare rebuke of her former boss:

Elaine Chao responds to Trump’s barrage of racist attacks

Here’s how George Santos could still be removed from office

07:00 , Alex Woodward

The Independent’s John Bowden explains how a wave of ethics complaints and mounting legal issues could complicate things for embattled congressman George Santos:

Here’s how George Santos could still be removed from office

ICYMI: National Archives asks former presidents to double check for unauthorised records

06:00 , Alex Woodward

The National Archives and Records Administration has asked representatives of former presidents and vice presidents dating back to the Reagan administration to search their personal papers and collections for any records that should have been deposited with the Archives under the Presidential Records Act.

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington:

National Archives asks former presidents to check for unauthorised records

Trump pilloried as ‘4-year-old cheat’ over golf tournament claims: ‘Guy can’t even con right anymore’

05:00 , Alex Woodward

Sportswriter and author Rick Reilly has criticised Donald Trump as a “cheat” after the golf-loving former president claimed victory in a competitive tournament earlier this week – despite missing the first day.

It’s not the first time that the former Sports Illustrated journalist has accused rump of cheating. He had made similar claims in his book Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.

“To say ‘Donald Trump cheats’ is like saying ‘Michael Phelps swims’,” he wrote in his 2019 book.

“He cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching and he cheats when they aren’t. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that’s how he plays golf … if you’re playing golf with him, he’s going to cheat,” he wrote.

Trump pilloried as ‘4-year-old cheat’ over golf tournament claims

ICYMI: Trump invokes another racist attack on his transportation secretary, baselessly linking her to Biden documents

04:00 , Alex Woodward

Elaine Chao issued a rare rebuke against the former president this week after his latest attack, which baselessly roped her into allegations involving Joe Biden’s classified documents case.

Trump baselessly links Elaine Chao to Biden documents in racist attack

Meta lays out special rules that will apply to Donald Trump when he returns to Facebook and Instagram

03:00 , Alex Woodward

When, or if, Donald Trump returns to Facebook or Instagram, he will be held to new “guardrails” that are intended to stop him acting the same way in the future.

What’s more, those rules will also be applied to other public figures.

They were announced in a blog post by Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg.

He said the former president would be subject to Facebook and Instagram’s Community Standards in the same way that any other user of the site would be. In the past, Meta and other social media platforms have been accused of treating public figures and lucrative users of the site differently from normal users.

Andrew Griffin explains:

The special rules that Meta will apply to Donald Trump when he comes back to Facebook

Classified documents found in Pence’s home include briefings for foreign trips: report

02:00 , Alex Woodward

Background briefings prepared for Mike Pence’s official international tours were reportedly among the 12 classified documents recovered from the former vice president home.

Classified documents found in Pence’s home include foreign trip briefings

ICYMI: Trump rages against ‘Radical Left’ AT&T over ‘disgraceful’ move to drop Newsmax

01:00 , Alex Woodward

On Wednesday, US telecoms giant AT&T announced that it would be dropping Newsmax from its DirecTV service, just as it had previously ditched conspiracy theory-promoting right-wing network One America News.

Trump wasn’t thrilled.

Trump rages against ‘Radical Left’ AT&T over ‘disgraceful’ move to drop Newsmax

Eric Garcia: Why Adam Schiff and Katie Porter won’t wait for Feinstein as they jump into California’s Senate race

00:00 , Alex Woodward

After Adam Schiff announced his entry into the California Senate race to replace Dianne Feinstein, The Independent’s Washington chief Eric Garcia writes that while the state has become a hotbed for anti-Trump sentiment, voters might want be looking for a more pugnacious Democrat:

Adam Schiff and Katie Porter won’t wait for Feinstein in California’s Senate race

House Republican gifts hand grenades to lawmakers

Thursday 26 January 2023 23:00 , Alex Woodward

Republican congressman Cory Mills passed out green grenades branded with a silver GOP logo to his fellow House lawmakers on Thursday.

“I am honored to be a part of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees,” he wrote in an attached letter to his colleagues. “In that spirit, it is my pleasure to give you a 40mm grenade, made for a MK19 grenade launcher. These are manufactured in the Sunshine State and first developed in the Vietnam War.”

The Trump-endorsed congressman is among a new class of House lawmakers who denied that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. He flipped a Florida House seat by defeating Stephanie Murphy, who sat on the House select committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

He also bragged in his campaign that he “sold tear gas used on Black Lives Matter protesters.”

Full story: California state bar seeking to strip John Eastman’s law license over Trump 2020 election lies

Thursday 26 January 2023 22:42 , Alex Woodward

John Eastman, who led Donald Trump’s legal bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, could be stripped of his license to practise law after he was hit with 11 charges stemming from his efforts fuelled by the former president’s election lies.

Mr Eastman – who also was subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol – has been under investigation by the state bar since last March.

His speech on 6 January as part of Mr Trump’s “Stop the Steal”-themed rally on the Ellipse was a contributing factor to the charges against him, according to the complaint, which pointed to his unfounded remarks about election fraud before a mob violently breached the halls of Congress.

“Eastman knew, or should have known, that the factual premise for his proposals – that massive fraud was at play – was false, and that Trump had lost his bid for re-election,” according to an accompanying statement from the state bar.

Mr Eastman was behind a shocking memo that articulated a widely condemned strategy that would give Mike Pence a pathway to declare Trump the winner of the 2020 election, pointing to a clause in the US Constitution that is now central to a massive US Supreme Court case.

His extreme reading of the so-called “independent state legislature” theory has animated bogus right-wing efforts to overturn democratic election results.

California state bar seeking to strip John Eastman’s law license over election lies

John Eastman was ‘grossly negligent’ or knowingly advanced bogus legal arguments as he pushed 2020 election strategy, officials find

Thursday 26 January 2023 22:01 , Alex Woodward

In the filing from California bar officials, Trump attorney John Eastman is charged with knowlingly advancing a bogus legal avenue to overturn the 2020 election, and he “continued to work with Trump and others to promote the idea that the outcome of the election was in question and had been stolen from Trump as the result of fraud, disregard of state election law, and misconduct by election officials”.

According to the filing, he violated his obligation as an attorney as he provided “legal advice, formulated legal strategies, and engaged in litigation based on, and made public statements propounding, allegations of election fraud that he knew, or was grossly negligent in not knowing, were false”.

It continues, saying that Mr Eastman also misinterpreted other legal analysis or was “grossly negligent in not knowing” they were “fundamentally flawed” as he pressed the bogus idea that the vice president could “disregard or delay the counting of electoral votes” – an argument “that he knew, or was grossly negligent in not knowing, was contrary to and unsupported by the historical record and established legal authority and precedent.”

“No reasonable attorney with expertise in constitutional or election law would have concluded that the Vice President was legally authorized to take the actions respondent proposed,” according to the filing.

Just in: John Eastman faces disbarment for promoting Trump’s election lies

Thursday 26 January 2023 21:44 , Alex Woodward

John Eastman, who led Trumpworld’s legal bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, could be stripped of his license to practise law after he was hit with 11 charges stemming from his efforts fuelled by Trump’s election lies.

The State Bar of California’s Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona announced the case against Mr Eastman on Thursday.

An 11-count complaint includes charges based on “allegations that Eastman engaged in a course of conduct to plan, promote, and assist then-President Trump in executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by obstructing the count of electoral votes of certain states.”

“Specific charges allege that Eastman made false and misleading statements regarding purported election fraud ... that contributed to provoking a crowd to assault and breach the Capitol to intimidate then-Vice President Pence and prevent the electoral count from proceeding,” according to a statement.

The Office of Chief Trial Counsel intends to seek Mr Eastman’s disbarment before the state bar court.

Biden on GOP tax plans: ‘This ain’t your father’s Republican Party'

Thursday 26 January 2023 21:30 , Alex Woodward

In remarks on the economy from Virginia on Thursday, the president criticised Republican lawmakers’ plan to impose a national sales tax on food, clothing and cars while defunding the Internal Revenue Service, a plan that opponents have argued would disproportionately impact taxes on lower-income households and allow wealthier Americans to avoid paying them.

“This ain’t your father’s Republican Party,” Mr Biden said. “This is a different breed of cat.”

He said the plan from House Republcians would “cut taxes for billionaires who pay virtually only 3 percent of their income” and “impose a 30 per cent national sales tax on everything from food, clothing, school supplies, housing, cars – whole deal.”

Georgia congressman Buddy Carter introduced a bill earlier this month that would eliminate income, payroll, estate and gift taxes, and instead impose a 23 per cent national sales tax. It would also effectively abolish the IRS.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy does not appear to support the plan, and it would be a dead on arrival in the Democratically controlled Senate, but it speaks to the priorities of an emboldened GOP-controlled House after 2022 midterms.

Full story: National Archives asks former presidents to double check for unauthorised records

Thursday 26 January 2023 21:00 , Alex Woodward

The National Archives and Records Administration has asked representatives of former presidents and vice presidents dating back to the Reagan administration to search their personal papers and collections for any records that should have been deposited with the Archives under the Presidential Records Act.

National Archives asks former presidents to check for unauthorised records

One of three US Marines charges with Capitol riot crimes makes first court appearance

Thursday 26 January 2023 20:30 , Alex Woodward

US Marine Dodge Hellonen made a first appearance in US District Court on Thursday after he was arrested along with two other active-duty Marines on charges connected to the Capitol attack.

More from The Independent’s Bevan Hurley on their cases:

Three active duty US Marines charged over Jan 6 riot

Investigation reveals Durham probe has failed to show evidence of Trump’s allegations of a ‘deep state’ plot against him

Thursday 26 January 2023 20:00 , Alex Woodward

After former Attorney General William Bar appointed John Durham to investigate allegations that the Russia investigation stemmed from federal law enforcement officials targeting Trump, the special counsel’s work – coming to an end nearly four years later – hasn’t uncovered anything close to a so-called deep state plot against the former president, according to an investigation from The New York Times.

A monthslong review “found that the main thrust of the Durham inquiry was marked by some of the very same flaws — including a strained justification for opening it and its role in fueling partisan conspiracy theories that would never be charged in court — that Trump allies claim characterized the Russia investigation,” according to the newspaper.

Among the findings: Mr Durham used Russian intelligence memos that officials suspected contained misinformation in an attempt to access emails from an aide to George Soros, which ultimately yielded no evidence that was cited in any case, according to the report.

The probe was “roiled by internal dissent and ethics disputes,” according to the newspaper.

DeSantis wants change in RNC leadership

Thursday 26 January 2023 19:15 , Alex Woodward

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has called for a change in leadership at the Republican National Committee, as current chair Ronna McDaniel – who was tapped by Trump – seeks another term leading the GOP’s governing body heading into 2024 elections.

“I think we need a change. I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC,” he told right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

He said party leadership oversaw “three substandard election cycles in a row – ‘18, ‘20, and ‘22, and I would say of all three of those ‘22 was the worst.”

Mr DeSantis suggested Harmeet Dhillon for the role, pointing out support for removing RNC headquarters from Washington DC.

“Why would you want to have your headquarters in the most Democrat city in America?” Mr DeSantis said.

Full story: Trump rages against ‘Radical Left’ AT&T over ‘disgraceful’ move to drop Newsmax

Thursday 26 January 2023 18:45 , Alex Woodward

While Trump was once dependent on Fox News for favourable coverage, he has more recently experienced a more fractious relationship with the conservative broadcaster and preferred its upstart right-wing rivals like Newsmax and One America News Network.

But, on Wednesday, US telecoms giant AT&T announced that it would be dropping Newsmax from its DirecTV service, just as it had previously ditched OAN. The move provoked a furious reaction from the former president and former host of The Apprentice.

Trump rages against ‘Radical Left’ AT&T over ‘disgraceful’ move to drop Newsmax

Proud Boys trial on seditious conspiracy charges abruptly canceled and will resume Monday

Thursday 26 January 2023 18:30 , Alex Woodward

The 10th day of proceedings in the trial for five members of the far-right gang the Proud Boys, including former leader Enrique Tarrio, was canceled on Thursday morning with no apparent reason given.

The cancellation comes one day after defendants – who are charged with seditious conspiracy after breaching the halls of Congress on 6 January, 2021 – suggested that they would subpoena Donald Trump.

Proceedings will resume on 30 January.

National Archives asks former presidents and vice presidents to sweep for documents

Thursday 26 January 2023 18:15 , Alex Woodward

The National Archives is formally asking former presidents and vice presidents to perform a sweep of their personal records for any classified documents and related records following the discovery of sensitive materials at the homes of Trump, Pence and Biden over the last several months.

A letter reviewed by CNN was sent to representatives of former presidents and vice presidents from the last six administrations requesting that they check and re-check files to ensure that materials thought to be personal do not “inadvertantly” contain records that are required by law to be in the archives agency’s possession.

“The responsibility to comply with the [Presidential Records Act] does not diminish after the end of an administration,” the letter states, according to CNN.

Trump, Biden, Pence – who else? Inside the presidential scramble to check for classified documents

Thursday 26 January 2023 18:00 , Alex Woodward

After attorneys for former vice president Mike Pence discovered “a small number of documents bearing classified markings” at his Indiana home at the end of the Trump-Pence administration, people all over Washington have been asking if other former officeholders might be harbouring classified contraband from their time in power.

Experts tell The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg that Joe Biden is unlikely to face any legal repercussions as a result of the document discoveries:

Trump, Biden, Pence - who else? The presidential scramble for classified documents

Trump orders House ‘weaponisation’ panel to probe his grievances in video rant

Thursday 26 January 2023 17:45 , Alex Woodward

Trump has demanded that a new House Judiciary subcommittee focus its investigative work on a series of his long-held grievances and oft-told lies about investigations into his conduct.

In a video posted to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Mr Trump called the new panel, which will be chaired by Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, a “rare chance to expose the breathtaking corruption of the security state, the media and the Washington swamp”.

He then launched into a list of “questions” which the panel should “hopefully ... be asking”.

Trump orders House ‘weaponisation’ panel to probe his grievances in video rant

Former Trump DHS official Ken Cuccinelli testifies to DC grand jury

Thursday 26 January 2023 17:30 , Alex Woodward

A federal grand jury is hearing from former Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli as federal prosecutors investigate attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election under a probe directed by special counsel Jack Smith.

“Yep,” Mr Cuccinelli told CNN when asked if was there to testify to the grand jury. He told reporters he didn’t know what he would be testifying about.

Mr Cuccunilli was among Trump-era officials who also testified to the House select committee that investigated the attack on the US Capitol.

House Oversight Committee schedules interview with Archives official over Biden documents

Thursday 26 January 2023 17:15 , Alex Woodward

The new House Oversight Committee under Republican control of the chamber has scheduled a transcribed interview with Gary Stern, general counsel for the National Archives, according to Politico.

Republican congressman and Oversight chair James Comer had requested an interview, scheduled for 2pm on 31 January, in a letter that also pushed for documents and communications between the archives agency and the White House, Justice Department and attorneys for Joe Biden regarding classified files discovered at the president’s affiliated think tank in Washington.

The Treasury Department, meanwhile, has denied the same committee’s initial request for suspicious activity reports for Hunter Biden and other Biden family associates and their related companies, according to CNN. The cabinet agency has asked the committee for a more specific request.

77 Democrats demand Biden end Trump-era Title 42 border policy

Thursday 26 January 2023 17:00 , Alex Woodward

US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez led a group of more than 70 Democratic lawmakers demanding Joe Biden reverse a Trump-era policy that has blocked people seeking asylum from the US-Mexico border under a public health order.

“We write to express our great concern over the new asylum restrictions announced by your administration,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the White House.

“While we applaud the creation of new legal pathways for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans modeled off the existing parole programs for Venezuelans, it is disappointing that these pathways come at the expense of the legal right to seek asylum at the southern border,” they added, noting that the right to seek asylum is “enshrined in domestic and international law”.

“Instead of issuing a new asylum transit ban and expanding Title 42, we encourage your administration to stand by your commitment to restore and protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees,” the lawmakers wrote to Mr Biden.

The Title 42 order “circumvents domestic law and international law,” they wrote, pointing to human rights groups’ research finding thousands of violent attacks against people seeking asylum who were automatically expelled to the Mexico side of the border.

A recently announced Biden administration plan expands the Trump-era order while capping entry to migrants from four impacted countries. Up to 30,000 migrants would be accepted under a “parole” programme if they have a financial sponsor in the US.

The lawmakers said the creation of legal pathways for those migrants is a positive development, but said that the policies “cannot displace existing asylum laws”. Requirements for passports, financial support and air travel would leave behind those most vulnerable, they said.

Last month, border authorities wrestled reported an average of roughly 7,000 daily encounters with migrants at the US-Mexico border, a figure that has reportedly dipped in recent weeks.

The US Supreme Court has put a temporary hold on the termination of Title 42 as courts review a lawsuit filed by Republican officials in 19 states to keep the policy in place.

Trump blames the ‘Radical Left’ after DirecTV drops right-wing network from its lineup

Thursday 26 January 2023 16:30 , Alex Woodward

Donald Trump erupted after news that DirecTV dropped right-wing cable network Newsmax from its programming, a move that the former president – who has relied on favourable coverage across networks like Newsmax and One America News Network to advance his agenda – called “disgusting”.

He blamed “the Radical Left” for taking over “the mind and soul” of DirecTV’s parent AT&T.

The distributor also dropped One American News from its lineup last year.

“This is a big blow to the Republican Party, and to America itself,” Trump said on his Truth Social account.

“For DIRECTV to drop very popular NEWSMAX, without explanation, will not be accepted,” he said. “I, for one, will be dropping all association with AT&T and DIRECTV, and I have plenty. This is just one of many reasons why we must WIN IN 2024!!!””

Newsmax still offers a free feed on its website and programming on YouTube. It is also carried by Roku and other cable carriers.

But over the last few years, Newsmax began asking providers to change the model that includes annual license fees, with some smaller carriers also refusing to carry the network under such terms.

DirecTV said it had hoped to “continue to offer the network” but the channel’s demands for carriage fee increases would have led to “significantly higher costs that we would have to pass on to our broad customer base,” according to a statement.

Rick Scott is running for re-election

Thursday 26 January 2023 16:00 , Alex Woodward

Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida – who had served as the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and sought to oust Mitch McConnell from Senate leadership after the GOP’s midterm performance – is running for re-election.

“Our work is not done yet and that is why I am running for re-election,” he said a statement on his campaign website. “We must rescue our great country from the destruction the Democrats have caused and keep working to make Florida the best state to live, work and raise a family.”

The statement from the senator – among lawmakers who voted to reject 2020 election results – suggests he’s still promoting his “11-Point Plan to Rescue America”, a controversial GOP agenda that drew widespread condemnation for his improbable tax plans and attacks on LGBT+ people and immigration, among other so-called culture war issues.

Just in: Adam Schiff enters US Senate race

Thursday 26 January 2023 15:26 , Alex Woodward

California US Rep Adam Schiff has announced his candidacy for US Senate, joining a field of Democrats to replace Dianne Feinstein.

Mr Schiff, a frequent target of ridicule and outrage from the former president and Republican officials, led the House impeachment of the former president in 2020, chaired the House intelligence committee, and served on the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol.

That committee ultimately voted to refer Trump to the Justice Department for criminal charges after a months-long investigation finding that he fuelled the mob in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently announced he has blocked Mr Schiff from serving on the House intelligence committee.

“We’re in the fight of our lives for the future of our country,” Mr Schiff said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our democracy is under assault from MAGA extremists, who care only about gaining power and keeping it,” he said. “And our economy is simply not working for millions of Americans, who are working harder than ever just to get by.”

He said that “the fight for our democracy and working families is part of the same struggle” and warned that democracy’s failure to serve Americans fuels antidemocratic agendas.

“They’ll look for alternatives, like a dangerous demagogue who promises that he alone can fix it,” he said, a referencing to the former president’s infamous claim from 2016.