Trump describes his threat to NATO allies

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Trump implied that it was a negotiating tactic. “Now if I said,‘ No, I don’t mean that, ’then why would they pay? So somebody had to say it, ”he said.

Trump said he was “amazed” the conversation hadn’t leaked during his presidency.

The comments – an apparent reference to NATO’s 2018 summit in Brussels, which Trump shook up with his threats— were the most extensive account from Trump himself about his mindset and intentions at the time. They don’t fully jibe with how others described the conversations at the time, although they may still be an accurate window on how he felt.

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Leaders and others who were inside the room at that summit said that Trump’s threats to them were actually less explicit than the former president recounted in his Thursday speech. Trump said that if countries did not live up to their spending targets by the end of 2018, he would “do his own thing,” according to interviews in the hours after the meeting with two officials familiar with the conversation

Policymakers had different interpretations of what he meant. Some felt he was threatening to pull out of NATO altogether. Others believed he might be saying he would make decisions about whether to defend countries based on whether they were meeting their spending commitments

Trump’s national security adviser at the time, John Bolton, has said that he was worried the president would pull out of the alliance during the summit, a fear recounted in his memoir and in an interview with The Washington Post last month.

Bolton said last month that he “had my heart in my throat at that NATO meeting.”

“I didn’t know what the president would do,” Bolton said. “He called me up to his seat seconds before he gave the speech. And I said, look, go right up to the line, but don’t go over it. I sat back down. I had no idea what he’d do. ”

Trump has previously danced around whether he would commit to Article 5, including conspicuously declining to endorse it in May 2017. The following month, he did endorse it. But by the summer of 2018, he was again calling that into question, suggesting it might not be worthwhile for NATO countries to commit to defending “tiny” Montenegro, which was at the time a new member.

Trump has regularly tried to claim credit for making NATO countries pay more, though the reality is more complex. NATO countries were already increasing their funding substantially before Trump’s presidency, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The guidelines state that each should spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

Trump’s comments come as NATO appears set to potentially expand its alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; both Sweden and Finland have indicated they will look at joining in the months to come. It also comes as neighboring NATO counties worry about the conflict crossing into their territory and, domestically, as US lawmakers have rallied around NATO – though recently 63 House Republicans voted against a symbolic resolution reaffirming support for the alliance, for a variety of reasons.

Article 5 has only been invoked once in NATO’s history: the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

Washington Post

Rep. Greene testifies in suit over reelection plans

ATLANTA – Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, testifying Friday about her alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as part of a case seeking to disqualify from her from seeking reelection, declined to say whether unlawfully interfering with the counting of electoral votes in a presidential election would make someone “an enemy of the Constitution.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if it defines it that way, ”the Georgia Republican said in response to questioning by an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case.

Greene noted that “breaking the law is unlawful” and that more than 700 people have been charged with various crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. She has previously visited the DC jail where some of those charged are being held and has described them as “patriots.”

Greene also said during Friday’s hearing that she believed Joe Biden had lost the 2020 election to Donald Trump but claimed it was “not accurate” that she wanted Congress not to certify Biden as the winner.

In the days before the Jan. 6 attack, Greene said, “‘We aren’t going to let this election be stolen by Joe Biden and the Democrats.” She was among the 147 Republicans who voted in support of at least one objection to counting Biden’s electoral votes.

There is no evidence that widespread voter fraud took place in the 2020 presidential race.

The case against Greene was brought by Free Speech for People, a campaign-finance reform organization, on behalf of a group of voters from Greene’s district. The reform group alleges that Greene, who has become a lightning rod for controversy and has gained a reputation as one of the Republican Party’s most hard-right members, helped facilitate the ransacking of the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential win.

In his opening statement, Ron Fein, Free Speech for People’s legal director, said that “this was not the type of insurrection where leaders were standing in Richmond, Va., Giving long-winded speeches.”

“Rather, the leaders of this insurrection, of whom there were a number, were among us – on Facebook, Twitter, and corners of social media that would make your stomach hurt. The evidence will show that Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of them, ”Fein said.

Greene’s lawyer, James Bopp Jr., argued that Free Speech for People wants to “deny the right to vote to the thousands of people in the 14th District of Georgia by having Greene removed from the ballot.”

“Voters have a right to vote for the candidate of their choice unless there is very compelling legal – not rhetorical – justification for that,” Bopp said.

He accused Free Speech for People of trying to “hold against [Greene] First Amendment-protected speech ”for her comments about the Jan. 6 attack. And he argued that the 14th Amendment was meant to bar any “direct, overt act of insurrection to overthrow the United States government,” such as the Confederacy marshaling troops.

In an interview, Fein said the case “could also set a national precedent for other members of Congress and officials who broke their oath and helped the insurrection, and including, if he chooses to run again in 2024, the former president, Donald Trump. ”

Trump weighed in on the case Thursday afternoon in a statement criticizing Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – both Republicans – for allowing “a horrible thing to happen to a very popular Republican.” Trump lamented that Greene, one of his closest allies in Congress, “is now going through hell in their attempt to unseat her, just more of an election mess in Georgia.”

Since his 2020 loss in the state, Trump has aggressively spread baseless accusations about the state’s election systems and lambasted GOP lawmakers who did not acquiesce to his false claims. Trump has endorsed primary challengers to both Kemp and Raffensperger.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled Monday that the case could proceed, a ruling that stands in contrast to other lawsuits against members of Congress over their alleged roles in the Jan. 6 attack. Free Speech for People levied a similar case against Representative Madison Cawthorn, Republican of North Carolina, but he successfully sued in federal court to block the proceedings. The organization has also filed lawsuits against Representatives Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, both of Arizona.

Washington Post

Meadows still registered in more than one state, officials say

COLUMBIA, SC – Mark Meadows – a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump who was removed from North Carolina voter rolls earlier this month – is still a registered voter in two other states, according to officials.

Chris Whitmire, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Elections Commission, told the Associated Press the former Republican congressman and his wife registered as voters in the state in March 2022.

“That’s when he became active,” Whitmire said, noting that neither Meadows had yet cast a vote in the state. “From our perspective, it just looks like any new South Carolina voter.”

The South Carolina registration was first reported by The Washington Post, which noted that Meadows had been a registered voter simultaneously in three states – the Carolinas and Virginia – until North Carolina removed him from its rolls earlier this month. Meadows remains a registered Virginia voter, the paper reported.

Mark and Debra Meadows bought a home on picturesque Lake Keowee for $ 1.6 million in July, according to records for the property, which was listed on their South Carolina voter registration records.

Associated Press

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