Quote:A new Quinnipiac University study, conducted January 25-29 found Biden is leading Trump by 50 percent to 44 percent in the national presidential matchup, up from 47 percent against 46 percent in the previous survey the university conducted in December. Biden had built up a particularly strong lead of 52 percent to 40 percent with independent voters, according to the poll.

Quote:WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Donald Trump has made his myriad legal woes a major focus of his presidential campaign, but after raking in millions around his first court appearances last year he has seen a sharp dropoff in fundraising off his sometimes combative clashes with judges.

Trump's main fundraising group raised about $4 million on each of his two biggest single-day hauls last year: on April 4 after pleading not guilty to charges around alleged hush money payments to a porn star, and on Aug. 25 after pleading not guilty to charges of election fraud in Georgia, according to disclosures by WinRed, the dominant online fundraising platform for Republicans.

By the last three months of the year, Trump's fundraising around days in court held close to his daily average for the year of just under $300,000, according to WinRed's most recent disclosure to the Federal Election Commission filed on Wednesday.

On Dec. 7, when Trump appeared in a Manhattan court for a civil fraud trial, his main fundraising group reported taking in around $200,000 in online contributions. On Nov. 6, when Trump and Judge Arthur Engoron repeatedly raised their voices at a civil trial appearance, the group raised under $400,000 through WinRed.

The recent slowdown suggests Trump is getting diminishing returns from his legal problems as he closes in on his Republican Party's nomination to face Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.

Republican political strategist Jason Cabel Roe said the initial news about Trump's indictments was bound to have a bigger impact than subsequent developments.

[...]

The smaller daily hauls around Trump's legal problems in late 2023 were part of a broader slowdown in his campaign's fundraising.

His campaign reported bringing in $19 million in the last three months of 2023, compared to around $25 million in the prior three months. Biden's campaign took in $33 million in the fourth quarter.

Trump's legal problems are also showing increasing signs of being a direct drag on the finances of his election effort.

The main super PAC supporting his bid transferred $30 million in the second half of 2023 to another Trump group that is paying his legal bills. That money represented nearly two-thirds of what the super PAC, known as MAGA Inc, raised from mostly wealthy donors during the period.

(February 3, 2024 at 3:27 am)neil Wrote: Kyle Kulinski said on his YouTube podcasting channel (Secular Talk) that apparently the Biden campaign has banned Muslims from their rallies.

Quote:What did Trump do? He did what he always does - used money and stagecraft to create the illusion of substance while doing absolutely nothing to help anyone. We saw this same production with the train derailment in East Palestine, OH, where Trump flew in for a photo op, passed out expired waters from one of his resorts, and had a few pallets of Goya beans from his friend flown in. Now we learn from recent FEC filings from his PAC that he did the same thing during the autoworkers strike.

The Trump campaign paid Drake Enterprises, a non-union auto parts shop in Clinton Township, $20,000 to stage a fake event with people holding up "Union Members for Trump" signs behind him to make it look like he was holding a rally with union auto workers on strike. During the rally, he rambled nonsense that if he wasn't elected the entire American auto industry was going to move to China. 

(February 3, 2024 at 4:12 am)Belacqua Wrote:

(February 3, 2024 at 3:27 am)neil Wrote: Kyle Kulinski said on his YouTube podcasting channel (Secular Talk) that apparently the Biden campaign has banned Muslims from their rallies.

I saw a video of two women being turned away from a Biden rally because they were wearing hijabs. 

Whether this was a policy decision or just a staffer making a stupid mistake, I don't know. The staff member refused to explain to the two women.

I've never heard of Kulinski before. Do you think he's reliable, or would he exaggerate a small incident?

Quote:Two women have accused Biden-Harris campaign staffers of Islamophobia, claiming they were profiled and disinvited from a campaign event because they were wearing hijabs.

Staff with the campaign have since countered that the women were barred after disrupting other events held by Democratic leaders.

The incident was captured on video and shared to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday by an account named Nevadans for Palestinian Liberation.

The viral video, which has garnered over 2m views, shows an unidentified staffer for the Get the Vote Out event in Las Vegas on Saturday telling the women that they are not allowed to enter the venue.

“We are choosing who’s going in and out of the event. I’m sorry,” the staffer said.

Off camera, one woman responds: “Why are you choosing us not to go in when we have an invite?”

A separate woman, also off camera, says: “You specifically singled us out.”

The women then accuse the staffer of being “racist” and asks if they were prevented from attending because they are wearing hijabs.

As the women and the staffer talk, the staffer allows others to enter the event venue.

“They’re disinviting us because we have hijabs on our heads. That’s why,” one woman shouts to attendees as they enter the venue.

When a separate attendee asks the staffer if the women can enter, he says: “No, I’m sorry.”

[...]

A spokesperson with the Biden-Harris campaign said that the women were specifically barred after staff discovered that they had disrupted previous events with Democratic lawmakers.

“These individuals were among the group of people not allowed to attend Saturday’s event after previously disrupting and shutting down events with Democratic elected officials,” Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the campaign, said in a statement shared to X.

A spokesperson with the Clark County Democrats in Nevada forwarded the Biden-Harris campaign’s response to the Guardian when asked for comment.

A source close to the Biden-Harris campaign added that the women had previously protested during a speech by the Nevada senator Jacky Rosen earlier this month.

After being disinvited from Saturday’s event, the women reportedly continued to protest across the street from the event, the source added.

(February 3, 2024 at 11:06 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: ^So, it’s seems that Muslims weren’t denied entrance to the event, but disruptive people were.

Boru