Hillary Clinton mocks Melania as Trump border wall fraud case ramps up – live

The Lincoln Project has doubled down on its fiery response to a lawsuit threat from Donald Trump, mocking the former president as a “cuck”.

The pugnacious anti-Trump fundraising group had previously dared Mr Trump to make good on his promise to sue over its latest campaign advert, which accused him of funneling campaign money into his own pockets and referred to his supporters as “suckers”.

Mr Trump blasted the Project on his personal social network Truth Social early on Thursday morning, calling them “perverts and lowlifes” and claiming he would sue them for “false advertising”.

After no more details were forthcoming, Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson said on Friday: “Donald Trump hasn’t ‘truthed’ for 20 hours. Cuck.”

Io Dodds has the details for The Independent.

The Republican former secretary of state of Kansas who is running for state attorney general has resigned from the board of directors of We Build the Wall Inc, a nonprofit organisation facing allegations of money laundering, conspiracy and fraud after allegedly defrauding thousands of people who financially supported the group’s mission of building a wall along the US-Mexico border.

Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who was convicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress earlier this year, was charged in New York on 8 September in connection with the alleged scheme.

Board member Kris Kobach, who also served as the group’s chief counsel, told the Kansas City Star on Friday that he has resigned from both roles, one day after Bannon surrendered to charges in New York.

Alex Woodward has the story.

Joe Biden has confirmed that he will attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.

But should he invite Donald Trump?

A number of US presidents had cordial relationships with the Queen during her 70-year reign.

That’s including Mr Trump, or at least, so he claims.

“President Obama, when he was in office, invited president Bush, president Clinton, president Carter to go with him to Nelson Mandela’s funeral as part of the delegation, so there is protocol for having US presidents invite other presidents,” Jeff Zeleny of CNN said on Friday. “Who knows, maybe in the spirt of forgiving and giving, president Biden will invite president Trump onto Air Force 1.”

Panelists recently discussed the matter on CNN. Watch more of their conversation below.

Ty Cobb, who served Donald Trump as a White House lawyer, says his former boss is both a huge narcissist and in huge legal trouble.

The attorney told CBS on Friday that the former president is guided solely by self-interest and revenge.

“I believe former President Trump to be a deeply wounded narcissist, and he is often incapable of acting other than in his perceived self-interest or for revenge,” Mr Cobb said. “I think those are the two compelling instincts that guide his actions.”

These instincts caused Mr Trump, in his former attorney’s view, to peddle election lies, pressure state officials to tamper with the vote, stand by during January 6, and try to influence the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot, all as part of a “desperate” attempt to stay in power.

Mr Cobb said he never saw the president tear up top secret material, but that should be the least of Mr Trump’s concerns. The attorney said the president’s attempts to undercut the 2020 elections and the January 6 scandal could place him at “very high” chance of being indicted.

Read more about Mr Cobb’s time in the White House from our past reporting.

A US Capitol Police Officer who was beaten and subjected to racist threats during the Jan 6 riot hit out at the dozens of Pennsylvania State Police troopers who posed for a photograph with former President Donald Trump last weekend.

Mr Trump was in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania last Saturday for a rally to support favoured Republican candidates like Doug Mastriano. During his visit, he posed for a photograph with 31 uniformed troopers and five non-uniformed men in front of a Pennsylvania State Police banner for Troop P Wilkes-Barre.

Mr Trump then shared the photograph to his page on the social media platform Truth Social. The post got the attention of Pennsylvania Gov Tom Wolf, who appoints the police commissioners who oversee state troopers.

“That’s unacceptable. It alienates a lot of people,” Mr Dunn toldHuffPost. “Taking a formal picture at a rally where he’s literally attacking the FBI and the DOJ, your brothers and sisters in law enforcement, by the way … that’s a slap in the face.”

Hillary Clinton gave a stinging response when asked on a TV show what one question would she like to ask Melania Trump.

“How’s your summer going?” she bluntly told host Andy Cohen she would ask the former first lady in the wake of the FBI’s raid of her and Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and the seizure of top secret documents.

The former secretary of state appeared on Cohen’s Bravo show Watch What Happens Live with her daughter Chelsea Clinton to promote their Apple TV show Gutsy.

Read the full report from Graeme Massie.

Donald Trump “truthed” his reaction to Queen Elizabeth II’s passing on Thursday, minutes after the news was announced by Buckingham Palace.

The former president, who met the Queen in 2019, commented on the Queen’s “generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor”, adding that she was a “beautiful lady”.

“Melania and I are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Together with our family and fellow Americans, we send our sincere condolences to the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom during this time of great sorrow and grief,” he wrote in a series of “truths”.

The former president continued: “Melania and I will always cherish our time together with the Queen, and never forget Her Majesty’s generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor. What a grand and beautiful lady she was—there was nobody like her!”

Continue reading about Trump and Queen Elizbaeth II’s relationship here with this report from John Bowden:

Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project said he welcomed former president Donald Trump’s threats to sue the group of former Republican strategists who have released ads that sharply criticised him.

Mr Trump threatened legal action on his social networking platform Truth Social over a new ad, which aired on a local Fox affiliate and not Fox News proper.

“The Perverts and Lowlifes of the Lincoln Project are back on, where else, Fox News,” Mr Trump said. “The Perverts should not be allowed to ‘false advertise,’ and Fox News should not allow it to happen,” he said. “See you all in Court!!!”

In response, Mr Wilson took Mr Trump up on his challenge, saying in a video: “Go for it! Go for it, b****,” he said. “Come at me. I can’t wait. We’re delighted by the thought you would try to sue us, Donald.”

Read the full report from my colleague Eric Garcia here with The Independent:

Dr Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania Senate, continued to frustrate against his Democratic opponent for not engaging with him in a televised debate.

The TV celebrity took to his Twitter in a series of posts on Friday to vent about Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman not committing to a date where the two could duke it out on the debate stage.

“John Fetterman says he is well, but refuses to stand on the debate stage. Pennsylvanians deserve to know the truth,” tweeted Dr Oz while sharing a video of a campaign spokesperson saying the same thing.

“Tonight would have been another opportunity for John Fetterman to debate the issues in front of Pennsylvanians on @69News – he declined,” he tweeted before that.

The Oz campaign has been accused in recent weeks by the Fetterman campaign of attacking the Democrat for his health after he suffered a stroke in the springtime and was forced to stop public campaigning for several weeks.

Donald Trump spoke with British broadcaster Nigel Farage on Thursday to share more of his reactions to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who he attributed as being an “extraordinary woman” that he had “good chemistry” with.

“Well it is a sad day. It’s sad all over the world,” said the former president when asked by Mr Farage on GB News what his immediate impressions were when learning of the monarch’s passing. “She was a woman that was extraordinary…. she did it so long so well,” he added, noting that “she never made any mistakes.”

Mr Farage specifically brought up the time when the former president met with the Queen in 2019 and asked what the former president remembered from that well-documented meeting and what it meant to him now.

“Well we were going to spend just a short period of time and we just got along really well and we spent a lot more time then people thought and it was really quite something,” he said. “We had a good chemistry. And then as you remember that evening there was a big celebration and I sat next to the Queen, and we just talked all night long. She was incredible. She was incredible to speak to and so sharp. Her mind was so sharp and just to be with her was something very special.”

Mr Trump also discussed how his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, who was born in Scotland, was a “tremendous” fan of the Queen.

“She loved anything to do with the Queen. When the queen was on, my mother would be there watching,” he said.