By James Reinl, The DailyMail.com | November 8, 2023
- Judges in two cases have slapped the former president with gag orders
- Fully 56 percent of voters say that violates Trump’s rights to freedom of speech
- READ MORE: Ivanka Trump testifies in father’s trial for overvaluing properties
Americans by wide margins say gag orders imposed by judges against Donald Trump violate the former president’s right to free speech, a DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll shows.
Fully 56 percent of voters say orders barring Trump from commenting on the cases against him undermine his first-amendment guarantees, our survey reveals.
Another 32 percent said the orders did not infringe his rights, while 12 percent said they were not sure.
Our exclusive poll of more than 1,000 US adults comes as Trump, his lawyers, and voters grapple with the implications of curtailing the speech of a prominent politician.
Gag orders are not unheard of in high-profile cases, but courts have never had to wrestle before with whether they can curb the speech of a leading presidential candidate.
Trump’s supporters have posted angrily online against the orders.
Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican congresswoman, called a gag order ‘unconstitutional and illegal.’
Trump was effectively being blocked from revealing problems in a civil case against him, Stefanik said.
Right-wing commentator Libby Emmons said the order ‘only goes in one direction: to silence Trump.’
Trump has been hit with gag orders in two of the cases against him.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a gag order on October 16, restricting the Republican’s speech about those involved in the case accusing him of scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The order prohibited Trump from targeting Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting his case, or witnesses who might be called to testify about his efforts to upend his election defeat.
A federal appeals court temporarily lifted that order on Friday, and set arguments for November 20 before a panel of three judges — all appointees of Democratic presidents.
Trump’s lawyers say they will seek relief from the US Supreme Court if the appeals court denies his request.
The order violates Trump’s First Amendment rights and those of ‘over 100 million Americans who listen to him,’ they said.
The defense has said prosecutors have provided no evidence that potential witnesses or anyone else felt intimidated by the former president’s social media posts.
Arthur Engoron slapped a separate gag order on Trump during the New York civil fraud trial over inflated property values by his family business.
Engoron has twice fined Trump for violating the order, which bars him from criticizing the judge’s law clerk.
On November 3, he expanded the order to cover Trump’s lawyers.
Our DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll shows that while voters are split about the orders, most side with Trump.
Our respondents, especially men and those living in the South and the Northeast, called it a violation of his right to free speech.
Seven in ten Republicans said the gag order went too far, as did a sizeable 57 percent of Democratic voters.
Our survey was carried out from November 1-3, before Judge Chutkan’s order was temporarily lifted.
It is the latest polling boost the Trump campaign has enjoyed this week.
Polls by The New York Times and Siena College found that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is trailing Trump in five of the six most important swing states one year before the 2024 election.
The results show Biden losing to Trump, his likeliest rival, by margins of four to 10 percentage points among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
But Trump’s legal woes persist. He is facing four criminal cases and has made disparaging comments about prosecutors in each of them, as well as against the New York state attorney general who brought civil fraud charges against him.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to interfere unlawfully in the counting of votes and block the congressional certification of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
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TIPP Takes
Geopolitics And Geoeconomics
1. Israel PM Rules Out Role For Current Palestinian Authority In Post-War Gaza – AFP
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a role for the current Palestinian Authority government in Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.
“There will have to be something else there,” he said when asked whether the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the occupied West Bank, may govern Gaza after the war. “There won’t be a civilian authority that educates their children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to wipe out the state of Israel.”
2. Egypt’s Rafah Crossing To Reopen Today For Evacuations – Reuters
Gaza’s border authority announced that the Rafah land crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders and dependents.
Evacuations from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, including for Palestinians needing urgent medical treatment, were suspended on Friday, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said, due to problems transporting medical evacuees from northern Gaza.
3. Arab-Islamic Summit: MBS Says Israel Responsible For ‘Crimes’ Against Gaza Civilians – Al Arabiya
“We are before a humanitarian catastrophe that [shows] the failure of the UN Security Council and the international community,” the Crown Prince said during his opening speech at the extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit.
He added that “Israeli occupation authorities” bear the responsibility for the crimes committed against civilians in the Gaza Strip. Leaders from the GCC and the wider Arab and Muslim world have gathered in Saudi Arabia for crisis talks on the escalating Israel-Gaza conflict.
4. Israeli Army Says Will Help Evacuate Babies From Al Shifa Hospital In Gaza – AFP
“We will provide the assistance needed,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.
“There is a real risk to the lives of 37 other premature infants,” Physicians for Human Rights Israel said, citing doctors at Al Shifa Hospital. Witnesses at the hospital said there was relentless gunfire, air strikes, and artillery fire, which prevented people from moving even within the medical complex.
5. ‘What We’re Doing In Gaza, We Can Also Do In Beirut,’ Says Israeli Defense Minister – Al Arabiya
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Iran-backed Hezbollah that launching a war would result in widespread destruction in Lebanon similar to that in Gaza, where Israel battled Hamas militants.
“If it (Hezbollah) makes this kind of mistake here, the ones who will pay the price will be first and foremost Lebanese citizens,” Gallant told soldiers on Israel’s northern border in remarks relayed by his office.
6. Ukrainian Military Officer Coordinated Nord Stream Pipeline Attack – The Washington Post
A senior Ukrainian military officer played a central role in the bombing of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines last year, according to officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe.
Roman Chervinsky, a decorated colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, people familiar with his role said, managing logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines.
7. IMF Staff, Ukraine Reach Agreement On $900 Million In Funding Disbursement – RFE/RL
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ukrainian officials agreed on an updated set of economic and financial policies for the second review of the four-year Extended Fund Facility to allow the disbursement of $900 million in funding.
The IMF said performance criteria for end-June and indicative targets for end-September were met. “However, the outlook remains extremely uncertain as exceptionally high war-related uncertainty persists,” it said.
8. Putin Visits Moscow’s Old Ally Kazakhstan – AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kazakhstan to cement Moscow’s ties with its old ally, while Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the West over the Israel-Hamas war during a separate trip to Uzbekistan.
The visits are the latest in a flurry of diplomatic activity in Central Asia, as Europe, Russia, Turkey, Iran, and China all vie for influence in the region. Moscow’s sway over a region it considers its sphere of influence has waned since it invaded Ukraine.
9. Microsoft Chief Says Russia Is Spreading Middle East Disinformation – AFP
Brad Smith was asked about the role of the U.S. tech giant in promoting peace at an international forum in Paris. He said Microsoft and its competitors were fighting against disinformation.
“We are getting very good at identifying a Russian campaign, like when they tried to tell people not to get the COVID vaccine,” he said. “Or today, when we see Russian disinformation in the Middle East.”
10. U.S. Treasury Chief Warns Beijing: Chinese Firms Aiding Russia Face ‘Significant Consequences’ – Reuters
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the U.S. government had seen evidence that Chinese firms may be aiding in the flow of equipment to Russia’s war effort despite Western sanctions and said she had urged China to crack down.
Yellen said she raised the issue during meetings with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, expressing concern that equipment “helpful to Russia’s military” was evading sanctions and getting to Moscow to aid its war against Ukraine.
11. Li Keqiang’s Death Fueling Distrust, Opposition Toward Xi Jinping: Experts – RFA
The death of former Premier Li Keqiang has reignited talk of economic reform in China, making him potentially a more threatening figure to Xi Jinping than if he were still alive, analysts said.
His death is widely regarded as a symbol of the end of an era of relative openness and economic growth in China, according to Zhang Lun, a professor at the University of Cergy-Paris in France. Li was buried with due honors but at a low-key funeral ceremony that seemed designed to prevent any public outpourings of grief that might trigger protests.
12. North Korea Russia Condemn Blinken’s Comments About Military Ties – UPI
Blinken on Thursday said there’s a “growing and dangerous” relationship between the two countries, with North Korea providing Russia with military equipment and Russia supporting North Korea’s military programs.
North Korea’s and Russia’s foreign ministries said Blinken’s comments about a military partnership between the two countries were baseless.
While Pyongyang said Blinken’s comments were “irresponsible and provocative,” Russia called the accusations “groundless and unsubstantiated.”
13. World Health Leaders Call For Fossil Fuel Phaseout Ahead Of COP28 – Kyodo News
Global medical and health organizations have called on world leaders ahead of U.N. climate talks to swiftly phase out of fossil fuels, saying climate change-induced extreme weather events are causing serious health problems worldwide.
The signatories of the open letter, which include the World Medical Association and the International Pediatric Association, stressed the upcoming gathering must address the root cause of the climate crisis – the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels.
14. Pope Francis Fires Texan Bishop After Criticism Of Reforms – BBC
Pope Francis has fired the Texan Bishop Joseph Strickland, a fierce critic who has questioned the Pope’s leadership of the Catholic church.
Bishop Strickland is a voice in U.S. Catholicism that opposes the Pope’s reforms. Bishop Strickland has launched a series of attacks on the Pope’s attempts to update the Church’s position on social matters and inclusion, including on abortion, transgender rights, and same-sex marriage.
15. Toyota Trials Hydrogen-Powered Vehicle On Public Roads In Australia – Kyodo News
This makes it the Japanese automaker’s first such test of an environmentally friendly car on public roads for commercial use.
The move came as Toyota seeks to popularize hydrogen as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels. It put a liquid hydrogen engine car into a 24-hour endurance race in central Japan in May, making it the first car in the world to participate in an official race.
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Republished with permission from TIPP Insights
