‘Biden was so nice’: Trump takes a pause from the rhetoric at Flint rally
“It’s a dangerous business being president,” Donald Trump said to rapturous applause inside the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan.
This was his first public appearance since his golf course became a crime scene on Sunday afternoon.
He was being questioned by a fawning interviewer in Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former press secretary and now the governor of Arkansas.
“Mr President, nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” she said, inviting him to retell what happened when he heard shots ring out from between holes five and six at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“I have to say, Secret Service did a hell of a job,” he said. “One of the agents was walking a couple of holes in front and he saw a rifle.”
Trump appeared with former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Pic: Reuters
Trump then joked that a woman who witnessed the suspect running and took photos of his vehicle did so because “women are smarter than men”.
Secret Service agents, who were flanking both sides of the stage as he retold the tale, stared intently into the stands of the arena, scanning for danger.
At one point, Trump excitedly asked the agent who spotted the suspected gunman to identify himself to the crowd, but quickly decided better of it.
Trump had previously, and without evidence, blamed the “rhetoric” of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for inspiring the apparent would-be assassin.
Pic: Reuters
But that sort of finger-pointing was absent on Tuesday evening.
Instead, he was almost gushing as he told the crowd about phone conversations he had with the president and vice president over the past couple of days.
“President Biden was so nice,” Trump said. “I do feel he’s so, so nice.”
About Harris, he said: “I got a very nice call from Kamala. It was very nice. It was very nice.” Some in the crowd shouted out “she’s a liar”, but Trump shook his head.
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Trump meets officers who arrested golf course suspect
I ask Brian Menasco, from nearby Columbiaville, if he thinks it was a concerted effort by Trump to lower the political temperature.
“I think so,” he says. “I’ve wanted him to do that since 2016. He’s amazing but sometimes I think ‘why has he said that’.”
Trump was scheduled to appear in Flint, Michigan, before the apparent assassination attempt – but the venue was no accident.
He won Michigan in 2016 but lost it to Joe Biden four years later. If he is to get back into the White House, he must win over voters in key swing states like this.
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Flint, about an hour’s drive northwest of Detroit, is known for a man-made water crisis in 2014.
Lead contaminated the drinking supply here, killing at least a dozen people, poisoning many more and leaving part of the population still traumatised 10 years later.
It’s also known as “vehicle city”, its economy shaped by the auto industry and shattered by its decline.
The North Dort Highway, though, is still peppered with garages selling car parts, others fixing vintage motors and a couple of yards buying and selling scrap metal.
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Gary Grundy says both political parties need to ‘calm down’
At Trevor’s Tires, I find Gary Grundy with his friends loading several tyres into the boot of his SUV.
Gary is an independent voter and says there is a shared responsibility of both the Republican and Democratic parties to tone down the rhetoric.
“When I heard, I was like, that’s two attempts on his life, that’s kind of crazy,” he said.
“But the talk on both sides needs to be dialled down. When they said people were in Ohio eating cats and dogs, now they’ve got school bomb attempts and all that.
“So the rhetoric on both sides needs to calm down, it’s collective responsibility.”
Kristin Martinez, a Trump voter, says the Democrats should shoulder some responsibility for the attempts on Trump’s life.
“I really do think that they are responsible for, you know, maybe not calling out somebody to do it, but, you know, their words triggered somebody.”
But even with a nod from Trump to civility from across the political aisle, with 49 days to go until the election and the race intensifying, the potential for political violence persists.
US
Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet – and that he and Barack Obama ‘probably’ like each other
Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.
Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.
“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.
“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.
“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP
Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’
Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
The pair sat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.
Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.
Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.
“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.
“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.
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Insults continued for years, with Mr Obama famously dedicating much of his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in 2016 to jokes at his political rival’s expense.
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.
On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”
“He was asleep in his bed, where he still is right now, as I wait on the coroner.”
The haunting words of Kimiko Nickerson stopped us in our tracks.
Her father Rodney, 82, was sure the fire wouldn’t reach his home in Altadena. He was wrong.
The inferno cut through this quiet suburb north of Los Angeles at an alarming rate, its path unpredictable.
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She said: “He just didn’t want to evacuate. He’s been living here since 1968, and he’s been in Altadena my whole life.
“Like all of us on this block, in four blocks, he didn’t think it was going to be this devastating.
“It jumped whole streets, and it hit this community, but it didn’t touch the mountainside at all.”
They’re still trying to process the apocalyptic scenes here and grieving for those who did not get out.
Kimiko said: “I have no words to explain my feelings at this point in time.
“I’m just silent and numb and just mentally trying to go through the process.”
Rodney Nickerson decided not to leave his Altadena home.
Pic: Kimiko Nickerson
‘Truly apocalyptic scenes’ as flames swallow homes in LA wildfires evacuation zone
It would be impossible to exaggerate the scale of the destruction, cars burnt to a cinder, palm trees still alight, powerlines strewn across roads.
So many people have lost the roof over their head but there’s one thing Kimiko says she’ll never lose – her memories.
“Every laugh, every joke he told.
“He was a smart man. He read the LA Times from cover to cover and walked around the Rose Bowl every day.
“He was healthy, he was ambitious… but he went to sleep and died in his bed back there.”
The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.
Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.
By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.
Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.
At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.
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Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP
Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.
Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.
Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.
Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.
Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.
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