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Former President Trump is plunging Republican lawmakers into more turmoil over his legal troubles, setting them on edge by calling for mass protests in case he is arrested by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.  

As much as Republican senators try to escape from what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the “chaos” and “negativity” surrounding Trump, the former president finds new ways to pull the GOP back into the orbit and make the news of the day all about him.

“It’s going to blow up our country and it’s a bunch of B.S.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned in a Fox News interview Tuesday.  

Graham accused Bragg of acting because of political pressure and slammed him as “George Soros-backed prosecutor” because the billionaire financier gave money to Color of Change PAC, which endorsed Bragg’s 2021 election.  

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday tweeted that a Trump indictment “would be a disgusting abuse of power” and “the DA should be put in jail.”  

Many other Senate Republicans are trying keep their party from becoming engulfed by the tumult surrounding Trump, which they see as a political drag heading into the 2024 election. 

McConnell in November said Republicans failed to win back the Senate because the party was associated with “too much chaos” and “too much negativity” that “turned off a lot of these centrist voters.” 

The Senate GOP leader usually plays the role of the adult in the room at moments if political crises. He’s tried this year to keep the national spotlight on President Biden and his policies instead of Trump-related dramas.  

But McConnell is away from the Capitol again this week after falling and suffering a concussion at a private dinner on March 8 and many of his Republican colleagues miss his steadying personal influence on the party. 

Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), an adviser to the Senate Republican leadership team, said Tuesday that he’s not eager to see Republicans drawn into a political battle with Bragg, responding to a letter that three House GOP chairmen sent to the district attorney Monday requesting he testify before Congress. 

“I would think that there’s more than enough to do and I would hope they’d stick to the agenda they ran on when they got elected to the majority,” he said of his Republican colleagues in the House.  

Republican lawmakers who want the party to move on from Trump are worried that an indictment of the former president might boomerang on the Manhattan district attorney and have the effect of rallying GOP voters around Trump.  

“It’s likely to backfire. The case won’t survive, it’s legally frivolous,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “If Bragg brings it to a jury and loses, ironically this left-wing Soros DA could play a pivotal role in reelecting Donald Trump as president.”  

“I don’t think the country is going to blow up,” Cruz said, before adding “I do think it’s likely to rally Republican primary voters behind Trump.”  

Cruz has not made an endorsement in the 2024 presidential primary. 

Trump’s calls for mass protests has stirred nervous memories of Jan. 6, 2021, and prompted police to set up crowd control barriers around the Capitol to prepare for worst-case scenarios.  

The former president’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, warned of “all-out war” if he is indicted. 

A Manhattan courthouse where a judge was to hear a $250 million fraud lawsuit against Trump was forced to close briefly Tuesday after it received a bomb threat. 

The Senate sergeant-at-arms informed senators on Monday that there had not been any specific or credible threats against the Capitol but warned of the “potential for demonstration activity.”  

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), one of the few Republican senators who has publicly endorsed Trump’s 2024 White House campaign, said any indictment would be an attempt at “political assassination.”  

“It’s going to look to the average person out there [as] a political assassination … going after a political candidate. It doesn’t look good for our country,” he said.  

Tuberville said turmoil surrounds Trump “because he’s outspoken and Democrats don’t like him because he stands for ‘Make America Great Again’ and that’s not really on their agenda,” he said.  

The looming indictment is giving heartburn to some Democrats, who worry that it may backfire.  Americans who survived Mexico kidnapping ‘continue to recover,’ attorneys say California bill could ban the sale of Skittles, Hot Tamales, and more

“There’s many reasons not to support Donald Trump. There’s many reasons why Donald Trump should not be president again of the United States but you should not allow the court system to be viewed as a political pawn,” warned Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who is up for reelection next year in a state that Trump carried by large margins in 2016 and 2020.

“I think it would basically have the reverse effect as what some people would think, not for the good,” he said, predicting a public backlash.  

Al Weaver contributed.  

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Reds: 1st since 1960 to lose 3 straight by 1-0

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Reds: 1st since 1960 to lose 3 straight by 1-0

MILWAUKEE — The Cincinnati Reds lost 1-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night to become only the second team in the live-ball era (since 1920) to lose three consecutive 1-0 games.

The Reds joined the Philadelphia Phillies, who lost three straight in the same fashion in 1960, according to ESPN Research.

“Nobody’s happy with what’s happened the last three games,” Reds manager Terry Francona said after the string of 1-0 losses continued in the opener of a four-game series at Milwaukee. “We’ll figure it out together. I feel strongly about that.”

Cincinnati’s lineup showcased its potential Monday in a 14-3 victory over the Texas Rangers, but the Reds haven’t scored since.

Texas’ Nathan Eovaldi outdueled Carson Spiers on Tuesday. Jack Leiter and four Texas relievers combined for 10 strikeouts Wednesday as the Reds wasted a brilliant performance from Hunter Greene.

Milwaukee’s Nestor Cortes shut down Cincinnati on Thursday, allowing one hit, striking out six and walking two over six innings.

Cincinnati’s Nick Lodolo gave up four hits and one unearned run in 6⅔ innings Thursday, but he took the loss because the Reds mustered just two hits.

“It’s part of the game, you know?” Lodolo said. “I’ll be honest with you. Obviously I want us to score, but I’m not really thinking about it. I’ve got to do my job at the end of the day, regardless. We’ll turn it around. I guarantee that.”

That’s the attitude Francona wants to see from his pitchers as Cincinnati’s hitters try to break out of their slump.

“We’re not going to have a situation where it’s ‘us’ when we win and it’s ‘they’ when we lose,” Francona said. “We’ll do this together.”

Francona said there’s no common thread between the games that explains his lineup’s struggles. The Reds have faced different styles of pitchers each time.

Eovaldi is a veteran right-hander who went the distance while allowing four hits and no walks. Leiter’s a hard-throwing rookie right-hander. Cortes, a veteran left-hander, doesn’t have the velocity of Eovaldi or Leiter but effectively mixed his cutter and changeup with his fastball.

Cincinnati’s struggles Thursday may have been particularly frustrating because Cortes looked so awful in his last start, a 20-9 loss to the New York Yankees. Cortes allowed homers on each of his first three pitches that day and ended up yielding eight hits and five walks in two innings of a game that drew attention to the Yankees’ use of “torpedo bats.”

The Reds made Cortes look like an entirely different pitcher.

“It was embarrassing, what happened to me last time,” Cortes said. “I think, as a starter, you’ve got 30 or 32 of these. There’s going to be a lot of bad ones throughout the way. You’ve just got to learn how to brush them off and go to the next one. That’s what I did.”

The Reds’ lone hit off Cortes came from Jose Trevino, who delivered a one-out double in the third off his former Yankees teammate. Cincinnati’s only other hit Thursday was a single by Jeimer Candelario off Elvis Peguero in the seventh.

Cincinnati has a combined nine hits, three walks and 27 strikeouts during the skid.

“To be totally honest, you see this all the time throughout a baseball season,” Trevino said. “Pitchers will pick up the hitters and the hitters will pick up the pitchers. It will all switch at some point. We’re going to need them. They’re going to need us. And at some point, we’re all going to be together. That’s just how the baseball season goes.

“Right now, our pitchers are doing really well and our hitters, we’re grinding. It’s not like we’re out there trying to give outs away. We’re out there putting some good at-bats together. We’re going to turn this thing around. I have full confidence in this team.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Dodgers’ Freeman placed on IL after shower slip

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Dodgers' Freeman placed on IL after shower slip

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who slipped and fell in the shower Sunday morning, was put on the injured list for his ankle injury, the team announced Thursday.

The move is retroactive to Monday. He hasn’t played since Saturday and is 3-for-12 this season with two home runs and four RBIs.

The incident happened at home during the Dodgers’ off day. Freeman’s wife had to drive him to Dodger Stadium on Sunday for a three-hour treatment session. By the time it was over, he was able to drive himself home. An X-ray showed no serious damage.

Freeman sprained his right ankle on a play at first base in late September and struggled in the first two rounds of the postseason, but it was hardly evident during the World Series. He homered in the first four games and had 12 RBIs, earning the World Series MVP award as the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in five games.

He had debridement surgery in December to remove loose bodies in the ankle.

The Dodgers (8-0) begin a three-game series at the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Judge gets 500th extra-base hit; 3rd-fastest Yank

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Judge gets 500th extra-base hit; 3rd-fastest Yank

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge smiled and perhaps blushed when informed of Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s praise.

“We all tell him every day: ‘Hey, we want to be you when we grow up,'” Chisholm said after Judge became the third-fastest New York Yankees player to reach 500 extra-base hits with a three-run homer in the first inning of Thursday night’s 9-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And the two players who reached the mark in fewer games than Judge? Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig.

“When I’m an old man coming to Old-Timers Day, I can look back and we can joke about it and laugh about it,” Judge said.

Coming off his second American League MVP award, Judge fell a triple short of the cycle and is hitting .417 with five homers and 15 RBIs in the first six games this season. He has 320 homers, 175 doubles and five triples in 999 games, and only DiMaggio (853) and Gehrig (869) reached 500 extra-base hits in fewer games among Yankees.

“I feel like he’s still getting there, which is remarkable,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s that part of me that takes him for granted a little bit. I just feel like he should get an extra-base hit every time. I kind of say it out loud just to try and remind myself what we’re watching every day.”

Judge lined a 1-1 fastball from Merrill Kelly at 112.1 mph to the opposite field and into the Yankees’ bullpen for a 3-0 lead. He added a run-scoring single in the fourth inning as the Yankees moved ahead 7-3 and hit a 111.3 mph double in the sixth. He also flied out and hit a 109.5 mph groundout.

“I’m like, did you miss that one?” Boone recalled, laughing. “I catch myself having these ridiculous conversations with him sometimes, just because he keeps setting the bar so darn high.”

Judge knows he’s in for ribbing when he singles or doubles.

“He gives me a little smirk when I get on base like that,” he said.

Judge also stole his first base of the season, as did Chisholm. Judge swiped 10 last year to Chisholm’s 40.

“I told him I was going to catch him in stolen bases this year,” Judge said playfully.

“He’s starting to steal bags now. It’s just getting ridiculous out of him, man,” Chisholm said.

Chisholm and Trent Grisham hit two-run homers off Kelly (1-1), who allowed a career-high nine runs, nine hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings. Chisholm is hitting .292 with four homers and eight RBIs.

“I’m OK compared to him. I’m trying to get to his level right now,” Chisholm said of Judge. “I told him I’m not going to try to fall behind him too far. I got to keep up with him.”

New York had 22 homers on a 4-2 opening homestand, five more than any other team ever hit in its first six games. Even though it was game No. 6, the Yankees felt an urgency after losing the Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Big G said a couple words before the game, just about this was our home turf. We got to go out there and we don’t get swept at home,” he said of Giancarlo Stanton. “Guys took that to heart.”

Carlos Carrasco (1-0) got his first Yankees win, giving up three runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. After New York opened a 9-3 lead, Geraldo Perdomo hit a seventh-inning grand slam off Ryan Yarbrough. Luke Weaver got four outs for his first save this season, ending Arizona’s three-game winning streak.

Judge repeatedly refers to last year’s World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. It weighs on him far more than historical accomplishments.

“Especially after last season where we weren’t able to finish the job, guys are motivated to go out and do something special,” he said. “It starts every game you play.”

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