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Ex-US VP Pence Declines To Endorse Trump For President

Published

2 months ago

March 16, 2024

Editor

Former US vice president Mike Pence said Friday he would not be backing Donald Trump as his old boss runs for a second term in the White House.

“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence said in an interview with Fox News.

US media called the announcement a “bombshell” and “startling,” although in reality deep divisions have driven the two men apart since leaving office, and an endorsement would have been a surprise.

The pair became estranged after Trump tried to pressure Pence to help him overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden, repeatedly attacking him on social media when he wouldn’t go along with the scheme.

After various attempts by Trump and his allies to subvert the election results failed, the then-president directed a mob of his supporters to march on the Capitol, where they ransacked the building as some chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”

Pence told Fox News that Trump was “pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years.”

The 64-year-old’s comments come days after Trump secured enough delegates to clinch the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in November.

Pence was one of Trump’s early rivals in the primary contest ahead of the 2024 election, although he quit the race last October after failing to poll in double figures.

– ‘Reckless’ –

Pence did not offer an alternative endorsement — there are several third-party candidates running — and said he would never vote for Biden, who secured the Democratic nomination this week.

Pence gave Trump years of unswervingly loyal service before the insurrection in Washington.

But he called the president’s actions on January 6, 2021, “reckless” and said they “endangered me and my family.”

Trump had demanded Pence, a former governor of Indiana, to derail the congressional certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

Pence refused, gaining the enmity of Trump’s diehard followers and becoming persona non grata within the hard right “Make America Great Again” movement.

The evangelical Christian also received unwelcome headlines after leaving office over an FBI search of his home — part of a wider Washington scandal over mishandled classified documents — and a subpoena to testify before a federal probe into the Capitol riot, which he resisted.

He defended the record of the 2017-21 Trump administration in his Fox News interview, saying he was “incredibly proud” of its achievements.

“It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure, and saw conservatives appointed to our courts in a more peaceful world,” he said.

“But that being said, during my presidential campaign I made clear there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues.”

Headline

JUST IN: ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Hamas Leaders

Published

6 mins ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza for war crimes.

According to BBC, Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from at least 7 October 2023.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years – and more recently the actions of Hamas as well.

Mr Netanyahu recently called the prospect of senior Israel figures joining the ICC’s wanted list “an outrage of historic proportions”.

Last week, 13 Western countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Japan and others cautioned Israel over its resolve to launch a full-scale operation in Rafah.

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BREAKING: Nnamdi Kanu Loses Fresh Battle On Bail, Removal From DSS Custody

Published

25 mins ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the request by the detained leader of the Biafra nation agitators, Nnamdi Kanu for the restoration of his revoked bail and the removal from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) to a house arrest or prison custody.

The Judge on Monday said that the same request had been brought before her by Kanu but was dismissed for want of merit.

In a ruling on Kanu’s request, Justice Nyako said that she found as a fact that Kanu jumped the bail earlier granted him and escaped out of the country.

The Judge also held that the sureties who stood for him in the earlier bail had applied to be discharged and had been discharged on the ground that they could not locate Kanu and did not know his whereabouts.

Justice Nyako said that the only option left for Kanu was to go to the Court of Appeal and exercise his right of appeal.

The Judge disagreed with Kanu’s lead counsel that the Supreme Court held that the earlier bail granted him ought not to have been revoked, adding that she had perused the Supreme Court judgment copy and did not see the claim of the lawyer.

DAILY POST reports that as of the time of this report, Kanu is shouting on top of his voice, insisting not to stand trial before any court in Nigeria.

He is claiming that any attempt to put him on trial would amount to a breach of Nigeria’s Constitution and the international laws.

Details later…

Headline

Iran Declares 5 Days Of Mourning Over President Raisi’s Death

Published

41 mins ago

May 20, 2024

Editor

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced on Monday five days of mourning for President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash.

“I announce five days of public mourning and offer my condolences to the dear people of Iran,” said Khamenei in an official statement a day after the death of Raisi and other officials in the crash in East Azerbaijan province.

President Raisi died on Monday after his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country.

Raisi was travelling with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who also died in the accident.

Rescue teams had been scouring the area since Sunday afternoon after a helicopter carrying Raisi, the foreign minister and other officials had gone missing.

Early Monday, relief workers located the missing helicopter, with state TV saying the president had died.

“The servant of Iranian nation, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi has achieved the highest level of martyrdom whilst serving the people,” state television said Monday, with Mehr news agency also saying he was dead.

State television broadcast photos of Raisi, with the voice of a man reciting the Koran playing in the background.

Iran’s vice president for executive affairs Mohsen Mansouri posted on X a Koranic verse used to express condolences.