Tag: trump team
Trump’s New CEO: A Domestic Violence Charge And Possible Voter Fraud

Trump’s New CEO: A Domestic Violence Charge And Possible Voter Fraud

Donald Trump’s new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, was charged with domestic violence in 1996, according to a Politico report out this week, and may have committed felony voter fraud in 2016 by having an active voter registration at a property set to be demolished in Florida.

According to Politico, though the domestic violence case was ultimately dropped, Bannon was charged with battery, dissuading a witness, and misdemeanor domestic violence. The police report Politico relied upon is from Santa Monica, California, and states that Bannon’s wife at the time alleged the couple were having an argument over their finances, and he pulled her neck and wrist. An officer’s report corroborates this account. It is also alleged that Bannon broke the phone when she attempted to call the authorities.

Bannon pleaded not guilty and geared up with representation for the legal proceedings, but Bannon’s ex-wife did not show up in court, leading the case to be dropped.

A spokesperson for Bannon commented on his current relationship with his ex-wife and their twin girls but appeared not to address the allegations directly: “The bottom line is he has a great relationship with the twins, he has a great relationship with the ex-wife, he still supports them.”

That’s not the end of the bad publicity today for Bannon, however: An exclusive report from The Guardian revealed that he is registered to vote at the address of an empty house in a critical swing state: Florida.

Neighbors told The Guardian the house had been abandoned for several months.

Bannon apparently never lived at the house himself, but rented it for his ex-wife. This is also not the first time Bannon linked his voter registration to a house he never occupied: he previously did the same with his ex-wife for a two year period starting in 2013.

Neither Bannon nor Trump’s representatives chose to comment to the publication, initially. Eventually, a Trump spokesman issued the following snippet to The Guardian via email: “Mr Bannon moved to another location in Florida.”

Florida laws mandate voters be permanent residents of the location where they intend to vote. If Bannon’s registration can be shown to be willful, he could face up to five years behind bars for a third-degree felony.

Trump has already faced his fair share of headaches after his appointment of the aggressive alt-right poster boy as CEO. Bannon’s organization, Breitbart News, is known for being closely aligned with alt-right values of nativism, anti-immigration sentiments and, in a twist of irony, voter fraud concerns.

Photo: Campaign CEO Stephen Bannon listens during Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s round table discussion on security at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

GOP Leaders Don’t Buy The Trump Team Overhaul: ‘The Problem Has Always Been Donald’

GOP Leaders Don’t Buy The Trump Team Overhaul: ‘The Problem Has Always Been Donald’

According to a new report published by Politico today, less than a third of Republican party insiders — as counted in the POLITICO Caucus, a survey of Republican leaders and activists in 11 battleground states — believe that Donald Trump’s campaign team overhaul will do any good.

The GOP insiders held back nothing when talking to Politico, but spoke anonymously.

“The problem was never the organization, or obvious lack thereof. The problem has always been Donald,” one Iowa Republican said.

“There is no pivot, no second act, and no path to the presidency that runs down the road of racism and incendiary intolerance. He chose that road when he chose birtherism, and it’s a one-way route to ruin. How fitting that that final word associated with Trump, after all, will be ‘loser.’”

One New Hampshire Republican spoke about the general strategy issues with a campaign-team shakeup this late in the election cycle: “Changes in top staff this late in the game are always a sign that the campaign and candidate recognize that they are lost. In this case, they have gone from bad to worse.”

Not all of the insider caucus team believes the hiring of Stephen Bannon was the wrong move. One North Carolina Republican said the “unconventional pick” of Bannon “makes sense,” but may not “do much to reassure donors and establishment Republicans.”

You can read more about the POLITICO Caucus here.

Photo: Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech at the Alumisourse Building in Monessen, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 28, 2016. REUTERS/Louis Ruediger