Former President Donald Trump will be the main speaker during the Alabama Republican Party Summer Dinner in Montgomery, and embattled U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville will introduce him.
“We are pleased to announce that Senator Tommy Tuberville will introduce the President at Friday night’s ALGOP Summer Dinner,” said Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl in a release. “President Trump and Senator Tuberville are two of the most popular political figures in the State of Alabama. I am looking forward to hearing from these two conservative leaders when they make their remarks.”
Trump’s visit comes as the property manager of his Mar-a-Lago estate has made his first court appearance facing charges in the ex-president's classified documents case. Carlos De Oliveira didn't enter a plea Monday in Miami because he hasn't found a Florida-based attorney to represent him. De Oliveira is accused of scheming with Trump to try to delete security footage investigators wanted. De Oliveira was added last week to the indictment with Trump and the Republican ex-president’s valet, Walt Nauta. De Oliveira faces charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to investigators. He was ordered to turn over his passport and agree to pay $100,000 if he doesn’t appear in court. Arraignment is scheduled August tenth 10 in Fort Pierce.
This week’s appearance also comes as a Georgia prosecutor is expected to seek a grand jury indictment in the coming weeks in her investigation into efforts by Trump and his Republican allies to overturn the then-president’s 2020 election loss. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began investigating shortly after the release of a recording of a January 2021 phone call Trump made telling Georgia’s secretary of state he wanted to “find 11,780 votes.” Willis has strongly hinted any indictment would come between Monday and August 18. A judge on Monday rejected Trump's request to bar Willis from prosecuting him. Trump insists he did nothing wrong and says his phone call was ”perfect."
Here in Alabama, the GOP event occurs follows President Joe Biden decision to keep the U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-ditch decision by the Trump administration to move it to Alabama. The choice ended months of thorny deliberations, but an Alabama lawmaker vowed to fight on. U.S. officials say Biden was convinced by the head of Space Command, Gen. James Dickinson, who argued that moving his headquarters now would jeopardize military readiness. His view, however, was in contrast to Air Force leadership, which studied the issue at length and determined that moving to Huntsville, Alabama, was the right move. The location debate has become entangled in the ongoing battle between Alabama U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville and the Defense Department over the move to provide travel for troops seeking reproductive health care. Tuberville opposed the policy is blocking hundreds of military promotions in protest.
The U.S. officials said the abortion issue had no effect at all on Biden's decision. And they said the president fully expected there would be different views on the matter within the Defense Department.
Tuberville, in a statement, said the top three choices for Space Command headquarters were all in Republican-leaning states — Alabama, Nebraska and Texas — and bypassing them “looks like blatant patronage politics.”
