ICYMI: Trump's civil fraud case: A family affair in New York

Trump’s civil fraud case is a family affair

Donald Trump’s civil fraud case in New York continued Wednesday, with his son Don Jr. taking the stand. Daily Kos covered it live and a full recap of the testimony can be found here. Eric Trump is scheduled to take the stand on Thursday, with Donald Trump on the docket Monday, Nov. 6, and Ivanka Trump on Wednesday, Nov. 8. We will be covering the testimony live.

Did Republicans even bother to vet this guy?

Rep. Mike Johnson was a back-benching nobody until he was suddenly elected speaker of the House. Because of his low profile, you’d expect Republicans to have vetted him more. Alas. By the hour, it seems, new information keeps bubbling up about his long history of bigotry and deep involvement with a conversion therapy-backing “ex-gay” group that launched a campaign to bully LGBTQ+ kids.

If that weren’t enough, Johnson’s personal finances are now under scrutiny. In financial disclosures, the Johnsons have reported for years that they have no savings accounts, no checking accounts, and no retirement accounts. Needless to say, red flags abound.

Johnson is now pushing his Israel aid package, which is DOA in the Senate since it tries to offset the aid with multibillion-dollar cuts to the IRS’s beefed-up tax enforcement. The issue here? The offsets are pointless since the purpose of the increased tax enforcement was to bring in revenue that the IRS lost to tax cheats. A commissioner from the IRS said that taking away such funding from the IRS could increase the deficit by up to $90 billion over the next 10 years. So much for fiscal responsibility. And are we really supposed to be lectured on financial responsibility from a guy who allegedly doesn’t even have a basic checking account?