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Dean Obeidallah: Finally, someone has the courage to stand up to Trump!
Over the past month, we have witnessed a pathetic parade of cowards who have bent a knee to Donald Trump from corporate media figures to CEOs of companies to even some Democratic officeholders who are now looking for “common ground” with the fascist. And the last few days have featured a pitiful level of surrendering to Trump by the CEOs’ of Meta and Amazon plus ABC News paying Trump $15 million to settle a defamation case—that as a lawyer I can assure you ABC would’ve won. These actions were motivated not just by selfish concerns about the bottom line but actual fear given Trump had in the past threatened these CEOs or companies by name—and with his return to power imminent–they appear truly fearful.
Read the rest of Dean Obeidallah’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack
F.A.A. Bans Drone Flights Near Key Sites in New York
The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday temporarily banned drone flights over parts of New York State, including sections of Brooklyn, Queens and two communities on Long Island.
The regions include “some of New York’s critical infrastructure sites,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said in a statement.
“This action is purely precautionary,” she said. “There are no threat to these sites.”
The no-fly zones include Far Rockaway in Queens, Brooklyn and two communities on Long Island, Ridge and Garden City, according to the F.A.A. The ban will last through Jan. 18.
Luigi Mangione Extradited To New York In UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting
Luigi Mangione was extradited to New York on Thursday where he faces state and now also federal charges in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The 26-year-old was taken to Manhattan after waving his right to an extradition hearing during a morning court appearance in Pennsylvania, the state where he was arrested on Dec. 9 after a five-day search. In exchange for also waiving a preliminary hearing on Pennsylvania charges filed against him, prosecutors gave him a 20-page investigative report from the Altoona Police Department, according to The Associated Press.
He flew to Long Island and was then taken by helicopter to lower Manhattan, where he was escorted into the city by numerous law enforcement officers, as well as New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Hakeem Jeffries Slams GOP For Bending To The Will Of Billionaire ‘Puppeteers’
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) criticized Republicans for tanking a bipartisan government funding agreement, saying the party was bending to the will of wealthy backers and “puppeteers.”
The lawmaker’s remarks were a direct attack on billionaire Elon Musk, whose displeasure with the spending bill — aired on X, the social media site he owns — precipitated holiday season chaos in Washington. President-elect Donald Trump demanded Republicans put forward last-minute changes, including raising or eliminating the debt ceiling.
But the effort bombed Thursday night after many Republicans and almost every Democrat refused to go along with it, raising the stakes of a government shutdown just days before Christmas.
House votes down Republican bill to avert shutdown on eve of the deadline
The House rejected a bill Thursday to keep the government funded temporarily after Republican leaders reneged on an earlier bipartisan deal and made modifications to appease President-elect Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk and an internal GOP revolt.
The vote was 174-235, with one Democrat voting present, falling far short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass it under a fast-track process. Two Democrats voted for the bill, and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, was the lone present vote, while the rest of the party opposed it. Thirty-eight Republicans voted against the bill, as well, with conservatives saying it did not substantially reduce federal spending.
The rejected measure leaves Congress without a clear plan to avoid alooming government shutdown with less than 30 hours left before the deadline, driving up the odds of a funding lapse just ahead of the holidays. A shutdown is scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday.
House Ethics Committee to release report on its Matt Gaetz investigation
The House Ethics Committee has voted to publicly release a report detailing the findings of an investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News — a reversal from last month when the panel deadlockedon whether to publish the report.
The report is expected to be made public as soon as this week, after the House finishes its final business of the year: voting to keep the government open.
The committee’s yearslong investigation included looking into allegations that Gaetz had engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, gave special favors to people with whom he had personal relationships and obstructed the House probe.
Federal prosecutors considering charges against Luigi Mangione in insurance CEO’s death
Federal prosecutors are looking into whether to charge Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News on Wednesday.
If federal charges are filed, the New York state murder case against Mangione would have priority, the sources said.
Mangione, 26, was indicted Tuesday on first-degree murder and other charges in the targeted killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who authorities said was shot from behind as he walked on a Manhattan sidewalk on Dec. 4.
Stocks plunge following Fed inflation projections
Major stock indices plunged Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled a slower pace of interest rate cuts for 2025 than previously forecast, renewing concerns about how fast inflation would fall.
The S&P 500 lost 2.4% and the Nasdaq Composite shed nearly 3%, with losses intensifying as markets closed for the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 1,100 points for its biggest loss since August. The Dow’s 10th-consecutive day of decline is now closer to becoming the worst losing streak in 50 years. Though eye-popping, the streak largely reflects a rotation by investors out of more established companies into tech stocks, to which the Dow tends to apply less weight.
Government Shutdown Grows Closer as Trump Tells G.O.P. to Kill Spending Deal
A bipartisan spending deal to avert a shutdown was on life support on Wednesday after President-elect Donald J. Trump condemned it, leaving lawmakers without a strategy to fund the government past a Friday night deadline.
Mr. Trump issued a scathing statement ordering Republicans not to support the sprawling bill, piling on to a barrage of criticism from Elon Musk, who spent Wednesday trashing the measure on social media and threatening any Republican who supported it with political ruin.
Malcolm Nance: FREEDOM! The Syrian Dictator Falls and Takes Iran & Tulsi Gabbard with Him
“Freedom! We are free of the Dictator!” said a released prisoner from Bashar al-Assad’s Saydnya Prison, a house of horrors that was the last stop for tens of thousands including many of the corpses discovered on the site.
What happened in Syria is nothing less than the final leg of a revolution that started in 2011 and lasted thirteen years. Just three weeks ago, the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin’s Arab protégé seemed stable and under the firm control of all but two small parts of the Syrian hinterlands. Assad did not have the north central rebel city of Idlib and the northeastern Kurdish regions in his grasp. The Northeastern areas were taken by force from the Islamic State terrorist group by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and, by extension, the US Special Forces who advised and guided them.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack
Abundant Life Christian School shooting latest: Local schools report ‘false threats’
Police are investigating the online footprint of 15-year-old Abundant Life Christian School shooting suspect Natalie Rupnow — who went by Samantha — as they piece together the course of events that left three people dead, Rupnow among them.
Meanwhile, numerous schools in the Madison Metropolitan School District “were targeted by false threats often known as swatting” Tuesday, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told reporters at a news conference.
Police are investigating, Barnes said, and he noted authorities do not believe there are any current threats. “Making false threats is a crime, and we are working with the district attorney,” he said.
Donald Trump Sues Iowa Newspaper, Veteran Pollster Over ‘Deceptive’ Poll
President-elect Donald Trump filed suit Monday night against the Des Moines Register newspaper and veteran Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer over a pre-election poll that showed Vice President Kamala Harris beating Trump in a state he easily carried just days later.
Trump is alleging the Nov. 2 poll that had Harris 3 percentage points ahead of him amounted to “brazen election interference” and contained “leaked” and “manipulated” data. Filed in Polk County, Iowa, under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, the lawsuit seeks an order preventing Selzer from releasing “any further deceptive polls” as well as unspecified damages.
Trump’s lawyers, in a filing first reported by Fox News Digital, accused the “defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party” of hoping “the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election.”
Luigi Mangione indicted on first-degree murder charge in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing
Luigi Mangione was indicted on first-degree murder and other charges in the ambush killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson this month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced Tuesday.
The indictment on first-murder degree in furtherance of terrorism elevates the case against Mangione, 26, in Thompson’s killing outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4.
The New York state Supreme Court indictment also charges Mangione with two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is charged as a killing in the act of terrorism; two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon; four counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon; one count of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon; and one count of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
Congress releases short-term funding bill as deadline nears to avert a holiday shutdown
Congressional leaders on Tuesday evening released the text of a short-term bill to keep the federal government open until March 14, rolling it out just days ahead of a key deadline to prevent a shutdown and after numerous delays.
Funding expires at the end of Friday, when the House and the Senate hope to adjourn for the Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s holidays.
The 1,547-page bill includes $100.4 billion for disaster relief funding to address damage caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton in places like western North Carolina and Florida. That was roughly what President Joe Biden had requested of Congress.
In his first postelection news conference, Trump boasts of his popularity with CEOs
President-elect Donald Trump was upbeat at his first postelection news conference Monday, saying there was a big difference from when he took office in 2016: Some of his former adversaries are now being nice to him.
“Everybody wants to be my friend,” he said about how he’s being treated by CEOs of major technology companies, whom he has portrayed as adversaries in the past. “I don’t know, in personality changed or something.”
Trump said During the wide-ranging news conference at his Mar-a-Lago property that one of the biggest differences over the last four years is that “everybody was fighting me.”
Judge in Trump’s hush money case denies bid to toss out guilty verdict
The New York judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money trial denied the president-elect’s bid to vacate his guilty verdict on presidential immunity grounds.
“Defendant’s motion to dismiss the indictment and verdict is denied,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote in a ruling Monday.
Merchan handed down the decision after he also denied Trump’s argument that he’s already protected by presidential immunity because of his election win. “This court does not agree,” he wrote.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung bashed the ruling, calling it “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity.”
‘Something strange is going on’: Trump calls for more information about N.J. drone sightings
President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that the government should disclose more information about the recent drone sightings in New Jersey.
At his first press conference since winning the presidency, Trump criticized the Biden administration for not sharing more information on the drones, which were first spotted in New Jersey in November and have since become a national topic of concern and conspiracy theories.
“Something strange is going on,” he added. “For some reason, they don’t want to tell the people.”
What we know so far about the Abundant Life Christian School shooting in Wisconsin
A teacher and a student were killed at a private school in Wisconsin on Monday after a person authorities identified as a teenage student at Abundant Life Christian School opened fire.
Six people were injured, and the suspected shooter, a 15-year-old female student, was killed, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told reporters.
Here’s what we know about the shooting:
When did the shooting happen?
Authorities were dispatched to a report of an active shooter at Abundant Life Christian School, east of downtown Madison, at 10:57 a.m., Barnes said.
Charlie Pierce: The Curious Case of Trump And ABC News
That stirring in the earth that you felt over the weekend was the result of a man named Robert Goodloe Harper spinning at a velocity that may have rendered him invisible. Harper volunteered in a cavalry unit of the Continental Army when he was 15, and he also served in the War of 1812. In 1798, he was serving in the House of Representatives when the so-called XYZ Affair exploded. It began when France started seizing American merchant ships and demanding loans and bribes to stop doing so. President John Adams sent three envoys to France to negotiate on this country’s behalf. The French demands were so blatantly corrupt that the Americans were outraged. One of them, future chief justice John Marshall, was particularly scathing. Back in Washington, at a dinner party, Harper rose to compliment Marshall’s stand against what Harper considered extortionate demands.
“Millions for defense,” Harper famously said, “but not one cent for tribute.”
Chuck Schumer requests drone detection system for New York, New Jersey as mysterious devices litter the skies
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has requested that a drone detection system be sent to New York and New Jersey after a series of mysterious drones disrupted the skies in recent weeks, even prompting a temporary shutdown at an airport over the weekend.
Schumer made the request to the Department of Homeland Security on Sunday, two days after New York Stewart International Airport closed because of multiple drone sightings near it. He pushed for the Robin Radar Systems for their “360-degree technology,” which he said has a better chance of detecting the drones compared with linear systems.
The unidentified drones have been spotted across the Northeast, significant number of them above New Jersey.
ABC News agrees to contribute $15 million to Trump presidential foundation to settle defamation suit
ABC News agreed to contribute $15 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump against the network, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court on Saturday.
Trump had accused ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos of acting “with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth,” after Stephanopoulos said that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in a March 10 interview with Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Trump claimed in the filing Stephanopoulos “knows that these statements are patently and demonstrably false.”
RFK Jr. heading to Capitol Hill today for meetings ahead of confirmation hearings
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is set to head to Capitol Hill next week for meetings with multiple senators, Kennedy’s spokesperson says.
Kennedy transition spokesperson Katie Miller told ABC News that Kennedy will be on the Hill for four consecutive days for marathon meetings as Kennedy works to shore up support ahead of Senate confirmation hearings.
The meetings, which are typical before confirmation hearings, are planned for Dec. 16, 17, 18, and 19.
Nancy Pelosi ‘On The Mend’ After Hip Replacement
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had a hip replacement after sustaining an injury while travelingearlier this week, according to a statement from her office.
“Earlier this morning, Speaker Emerita Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement and is well on the mend,” spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement sent to HuffPost on Saturday.
The statement added that the former House Speaker was “grateful to U.S. military staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at Landstuhl Army Base and medical staff at Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg for their excellent care and kindness.”
The Rude Pundit: Sorry, CNN and MSNBC, But It’s Not Us. It’s You
I haven’t watched CNN or MSNBC for a single second in the month since the 2024 presidential election. I’ve been a loyal viewer of CNN pretty much since it started, through the bullshit times of enforced patriotism, like the first Gulf War or after 9/11, and through the transition from being a news channel to being, in its current state, an extended talk show, one long episode of The View or the Sunday political chat fests, with occasional breaks for a news story.
With MSNBC, I’ve had a more tortured relationship, vacillating between appreciating the early weirdness of the channel as it featured shows hosted by liberals like Phil Donahue and crazed conservatives like Pat Buchanan, to being a semi-regular viewer of Keith Olbermann and an occasional guest on Ed Schultz’s show. But as it descended into a kind of smug insider party with smirky outrage expressed in the most pin-headed way possible, it lost me. And not just because of Morning Joe. I’ve never been able to handle the most recent primetime lineup, probably since the failure of Mueller Report to do anything that it was hyped to do by the hosts on that lineup.
Biden Commutes 1,500 Sentences, Pardons 39 People In Biggest Single-Day Act Of Clemency
President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press.
Suspect in CEO’s killing wasn’t insured by UnitedHealthcare, company says
Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the ambush killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, was not insured by the company, the overarching business that owns it said.
There is no record that Mangione, 26, was ever insured by the company, UnitedHealth Group said.
Mangione is the suspect in the fatal shooting of CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City street on the morning of Dec. 4, as Thompson was walking to a hotel where an investor conference was being held.
The killing remains under investigation.
Meta donates $1M to Trump’s inaugural fund after Zuckerberg Mar-a-Lago meeting
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, said Thursday it had donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund.
A spokesperson for the company confirmed the donation, which The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.
The donation is the latest swing in the up-and-down relationship between Trump and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s company. Trump this year publicly threatened Zuckerberg with “life in prison” if he did anything Trump viewed as illegal during this year’s presidential election campaign.
Trump says it will be ‘hard’ to bring down grocery prices, pins hopes on lower energy costs and better supply chains
President-elect Donald Trump is acknowledging it may be difficult to bring down grocery prices, despite making it a key tenet of his presidential campaign.
In an interview with Time magazine, which named him person of the year for 2024, Trump said he nevertheless believes it’ll happen through lower energy costs and supply chain improvements.
Asked whether his presidency would be a “failure” if grocery prices don’t come down, Trump responded it would not, while blaming the Biden administration for the way it handled the inflation that led to higher food prices in the first place.
Mitch McConnell Says Trump Win Puts Americans In A ‘Very Dangerous World’
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly said that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory puts Americans in “a very, very dangerous world,” stressing that he plans to spend his final two years in the Senate pushing back against the growing Trump-fueled isolationism within the GOP.
The 82-year-old Kentucky Republican, who last month stepped down from his role as the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, has a complicated record with the incoming president. While McConnell has worked to significantly move the country to the right — much of it under the first Trump administration — he is no fan of Trump and his isolationist worldview that’s spreading throughout the Republican Party.
On Reddit account linked to Luigi Mangione, posts describe back pain and spinal surgery
The man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson posted online in recent years about undergoing spinal surgery and struggling with chronic back pain, numbness and restless sleep, according to what appears to be an archived version of his deleted Reddit account.
Luigi Mangione, 26, was charged Monday in New York with one count of murder, three counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of possession of a forged instrument. Thompson’s murder, which occurred last week outside a hotel in New York City, has captured national attention, spurring conversations about gun violence, corporate America and the health care industry.
Mangione’s attorney has said that he intends to plead not guilty to all charges.
Iranian ‘mothership’ isn’t behind drone sightings over New Jersey, Pentagon says
Federal officials Wednesday rejected claims the mysterious drones spotted in New Jersey are coming from an Iranian “mothership.”
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said Wednesday on Fox News that the unidentified flying objects in his state’s skies are coming from an Iranian vessel off the East Coast — a claim the Defense Department flatly denied.
Drew, who is on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he has heard from “high sources” that Iran is controlling the mysterious objects.
FBI Director Christopher Wray says he’ll resign as Donald Trump takes office
FBI Director Christopher Wray plans to resign at the end of the Biden administration, as President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Wray told bureau employees on Wednesday.
“After weeks of careful thought, I’ve decided the right thing for the Bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current Administration in January and then step down,” Wray said, according to prepared remarks. “My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day. In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.”
Trump has already said he will nominate Kash Patel for the position of FBI director, which typically is for a 10-year term, part of a post-Watergate reform intended to make FBI directors less beholden to the whims of presidents.
Bob Cesca: No Political Capital For Donald
As I write this, Pete Hegseth’s Mom is calling aroundtrying to convince U.S. senators to let him run the Pentagon. You know, like all alpha males. By the time you read this, it’s quite possible Hegseth will have withdrawn his nomination.
Set aside his alleged sexual abuse, serial cheating…
Read the rest of Bob Cesca’s piece at and subscribe to The Banter
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s embattled Pentagon pick, appears to be gaining GOP support
President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks were back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday looking to shore up support among Republican senators, including Pete Hegseth, his embattled choice for defense secretary.
Hegseth last week faced significant headwinds after new allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety and other disqualifying behavior were reported by the New Yorker. ABC News has not independently confirmed the magazine’s report, and Hegseth’s denied many of the accusations.
But he might be gaining back some ground. On Monday, a key Republican senator appeared to soften her view toward Hegseth.
Sen. Mitch McConnell says he’s ‘feeling good’ after falling and spraining his wrist
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 82, is recovering from minor injuries after he fell following Senate Republicans’ weekly lunch Tuesday, his office said.
“Leader McConnell tripped following lunch. He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist. He has been cleared to resume his schedule,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
On his way to the Senate floor later Tuesday, McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters he is “feeling good.” He had bandages under his left eye and on his left wrist.
Bankruptcy judge rejects The Onion’s bid to buy Alex Jones’ Infowars
A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by The Onion’s parent company to buy Alex Jones’ far-right media empire, including the website Infowars, ruling that the auction process was unfair.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said after a two-day hearing that The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, had not submitted the best bid and was wrongly named the winner of an auction last month by a court-appointed trustee.
“I don’t think it’s enough money,” Lopez said in a late-night ruling from the bench in a Houston court. “I’m going to not approve the sale.”
UnitedHealthcare Shooting Suspect Has Outburst Before Hearing On Move To New York
The suspect charged with killing a health insurance executive had a brief on-camera outburst ahead of a hearing Tuesday.
Luigi Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan. The 26-year-old appeared at the Blair County courthouse for a hearing on his extradition to New York, where he faces charges of murder and other gun crimes.
Footage from local ABC affiliate WNEP and Reuters shows Mangione stepping out of a police car in front of the courthouse, handcuffed and wearing the orange inmate uniform also seen in his new mug shot. The car is surrounded by officers and press.
What We Know About The Suspect In The UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting
The man arrested as a person of interest in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson appears to have left a digital footprint that showed scattered political beliefs and an embrace of extreme measures — including a comment about Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist known as the “Unabomber.”
Authorities have identified the arrested man as Luigi Mangione, 26. Mangione was arrested by law enforcement in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
Mangione is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, having majored in computer science and earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree. He was a member of the class of 2020, a spokesperson for the university confirmed to The New York Times and CBS News. A commencement program identified Mangione as being a member of Eta Kappa Nu, an academic honor society for computer scientists and electrical engineers. And a since-removed Penn Today article credited him with establishing a video game development club at the school. Several reports, including from The Baltimore Sun, have also identified him as the valedictorian of the Gilman School in Baltimore.
Sen. Joni Ernst, Under MAGA Pressure, Signals Backing for Hegseth’s Pentagon Bid
Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, signaled on Monday that she would not oppose Pete Hegseth’s bid for defense secretary, hinting at a turnabout after days of hectoring and threats by President-elect Donald J. Trump’s hard-right supporters who threatened political retribution if she failed to fall into line.
Only days after emerging from a private meeting with Mr. Hegseth sounding unconvinced about his fitness to lead the Pentagon, Ms. Ernst, the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate and a survivor of sexual assault, indicated that a second sit-down had allayed her concerns.
Trump picks for FBI director, defense secretary and more face pointed questions on Capitol Hill
President-elect Donald Trump‘s picks for top jobs in his administration were making the rounds on Capitol Hill on Monday ahead of potential confirmation hearings next month.
Some of the choices come with controversy and face pointed questions from Republican senators.
Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth has had to deal with multiple allegations of misconduct and sexual impropriety, which he’s denied. Tulsi Gabbard, tapped to be the director of national intelligence, has been scrutinized over her views on Russia and a 2017 meeting with Syria’s Bashar Assad. Kash Patel, a longtime Trump ally chosen for FBI director, has vowed to take on the alleged “deep state” and Trump’s enemies.
Luigi Mangione has been charged with murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO
Luigi Mangione faces a second-degree murder charge in New York in connection with the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to an online court docket filed Monday.
The 26-year-old was also charged with possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the docket.
The forged instrument is the fake NJ driver’s license that he allegedly used to check into the hostel on the Upper West Side.
Charlie Pierce: RFK Jr.’s Nomination is Growing More Worrisome
I continue to be fascinated by speculation of what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. may do when he’s in charge of the country’s public health systems-if, by “fascinated”, you mean running down the middle of the street, screaming like Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And this story, from Forbes, prompted several city blocks of high-speed, high-volume “speculation.”
The disease, currently referred to as Disease X by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appears to be limited to the Kwango Province, a remote area in the southwest of the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo]. But broader spread certainly is possible. The exact magnitude of the outbreak is unclear. Some reports indicate that 79 people have died. Reuters has reported that 143 people have died. The first case apparently occurred in late October. The timeline of the other cases has not been clearly reported.
Lara Trump Steps Down As RNC Co-Chair, Considers Bid For Florida Senate Seat
Lara Trump will step down as co-chair of the Republican National Committee as she considers a number of potential options with her father-in-law, President-elect Donald Trump, set to return to the White House.
Among those possibilities is replacing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump tapped to be the next secretary of state. If Rubio is confirmed, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will choose who takes the seat through the remainder of Rubio’s term, which expires in 2026.
“It is something I would seriously consider,” she told The Associated Press in an interview. “If I’m being completely transparent, I don’t know exactly what that would look like. And I certainly want to get all of the information possible if that is something that’s real for me. But yeah, I would 100% consider it.”
Tulsi Gabbard Trolled by Critics After Assad’s Regime Collapses in Syria
Former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump‘s pick for the director of national intelligence (DNI), was trolled by critics online after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad‘s regime collapsed Sunday.
Gabbard, a Democratic 2020 presidential candidate turned Republican Trump ally, advocates for anti-interventionist foreign policy and has been criticized for her seemingly warm view of dictators.
In a letter published on Thursday by the group Foreign Policy for America, almost 100 former intelligence and national security officials told Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator John Thune, the incoming Republican majority leader, that Gabbard “aligned herself with Russian and Syrian officials” and would be “the least experienced” person to ever lead national intelligence.
Syrian rebels capture Damascus as President Assad flees the country
The Assad family’s decadeslong reign in Syria came to an abrupt end Sunday when rebel forces captured Damascus after a stunning lightning-strike rout across the country.
Hassan Abdul-Ghani, senior commander of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), claimed victory for the rebel forces that stormed across Syria in a matter of days and entered Damascus overnight.
“We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” he said in a post on WhatsApp. “To the displaced people around the world, Free Syria awaits you.”
Trump will ‘most likely’ pardon Capitol rioters on day one and says Jan. 6 committee members should be jailed
President-elect Donald Trump said he is looking to pardon his supporters involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as soon as his first day in office, saying those incarcerated are “living in hell.”
Trump made the comments, his most sweeping since he won the election, in an exclusive interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker. He also said he won’t seek to turn the Justice Department on his political foes and warned that some members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack “should go to jail.”
On his first day in office, Trump said, he will bring legal relief to the Jan. 6 rioters who he said have been put through a “very nasty system.”
The Rude Pundit: Note to Democrats… We Have to See You Fight, Even If It’s a Losing Cause
Since the (re)election of Donald Trump, it’s natural that Democrats would engage in some self-reflection. Of course, it’s not like Republicans did that after Trump lost in 2020 and then tried to overthrow the election. But, you know, if you’re a rational group of humans, you reassess after you lost and think about what you could do better. Perhaps you come up with some new ways to inspire voters. Perhaps you think about the running of campaigns and methods. Maybe you even figure out how to present your party’s beliefs in a way that makes more sense.
You know what you don’t do? You don’t cry, “Uncle” for an extended period of time while punching yourself in the face repeatedly. You don’t decide that the real solution to your failure to move the needle the two percent it might have taken to win is to abandon your values and to turn your back on the rhetoric you used throughout the campaign about Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. You don’t throw people and movements under the bus. And you don’t, you absolutely don’t offer a helping hand and any words of encouragement or praise for a man who you declared a “fascist” and a “Nazi” and a criminal and a rapist whose return to power would mark the end of American democracy and would plunge the world into chaos.
Secret Service chief and GOP lawmaker get into screaming match at hearing
The final hearing of the House task force that investigated the assassination attempts against Donald Trump devolved into an explosive moment Thursday as the acting U.S. Secret Service director engaged in a screaming match with a GOP congressman.
During the hearing on Capitol Hill, Rep. Pat Fallon, of Texas, began his line of questioning by pressing acting Director Ronald Rowe about the agency’s failures to provide adequate protection for Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
‘Deny,’ ‘defend,’ ‘depose’ written on shell casings where UnitedHealthcare CEO was killed, official says
Shell casings found at the scene where the UnitedHealthcare CEO was shot dead by a masked gunman in front of a busy New York City hotel had “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them, a senior New York City law enforcement official briefed on the investigation confirmed to NBC News on Thursday.
Brian Thompson, 50, was killed in a “premeditated, preplanned targeted attack” outside the New York Hilton Midtown in the heart of Manhattan, police said.
Police say they don’t yet know the motive of the gunman, who remains still at large.
Biden considering blanket preemptive pardons for perceived enemies of Trump
President Biden is considering blanket preemptive pardons for prominent critics of President-elect Donald Trump in both parties to shield them from possible “retribution” or legal prosecution by the incoming administration.
Multiple people familiar with the ongoing discussions tell CBS News the president has debated with senior White House aides the possibility of issuing the preemptive pardons, but no specific names have been formally recommended to him. The concept of preemptive pardons, and names of people who could benefit from them, have been more rigorously discussed among administration officials expected to help Mr. Biden make final determinations, a group that includes White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients and White House Counsel Ed Siskel.
Key GOP Sen. Joni Ernst says she’s not ready to support Hegseth for defense secretary
Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said Thursday she isn’t ready to support Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary.
“Well, I did have a very long, lengthy discussion with Pete yesterday, and I do appreciate his service to the nation. I also am a combat veteran. So, we talked about a number of those issues, and we will continue with the vetting process. I think that is incredibly important,” Ernst told Fox News. “So, again, all I’m saying is we had a very frank and productive discussion, and I know that we will continue to have conversations for months.”
Pressed by host Bill Hemmer that it “doesn’t sound in your answer that you got to a yes,” Ernst replied, “I think you are right.”
French government collapsed after no-confidence vote. What happens now?
The trouble is, there’s no obvious cast of characters who could form a stable government. New legislative elections that might alter the political dynamics can’t happen before summer. And without a government in place, France couldn’t address the gaping hole in its public finances or resolve uncertainty that has the potential to spook markets and weigh on other euro-zone economies.
Hegseth’s history with alcohol shadows Pentagon selection
“I’d look around at 10 o’clock and be like, ‘What am I going to do today? How about I drink some beers? How about I go have some lunch and have some beers? How about I meet my one or two buddies and have some beers?’” Hegseth recounted in an August 2021 appearance on “The Will Cain Show” podcast. “And one beers leads to many, leads to self-medication, leads to ‘I’ve earned this.’ Like, ‘Don’t tell me I can’t.’”
Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to Tennessee ban on transgender youth treatments
The conservative-majority Supreme Court on Wednesday leaned toward upholding a Tennessee law that restricts gender transition treatments for minors in a significant case about transgender rights.
It did not appear based on a lengthy oral argument that conservative justices believed the law constitutes a form of sex discrimination that would mean courts have to give it close scrutiny. The court’s three liberal justices all appeared to view the law as classifying people by sex.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is considering a challenge to the recently enacted law brought by the Biden administration and transgender teens and their families.
UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot outside NYC hotel in ‘premeditated, preplanned targeted attack’
The CEO of UnitedHealthcare was fatally shot in what police said appears to be a “premeditated, preplanned targeted attack” outside the New York Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
Brian Thompson, 50, was on his way to speak at UnitedHealth Group’s investor conference when the gunman approached from behind and “fired several rounds,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
He was struck at least once in the back and at least once in the right calf, Tisch said, adding that the gunman was “lying in wait for several minutes.”
South Korean lawmakers seek president’s impeachment after 6-hour martial law declaration
Opposition lawmakers in South Korea moved to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday after he shocked the East Asian democracy by declaring martial law only to lift the order hours later under intense pressure.
Six opposition parties, led by the Democratic Party that controls the parliament, submitted articles of impeachment against Yoon on Wednesday afternoon local time, swiftly responding to what the Democratic Party called the Yoon administration’s “unconstitutional and illegal declaration of martial law.”
Voting on the Yoon impeachment motion, which requires a two-thirds majority vote by members of the unicameral legislature to pass, could take place as early as Friday or Saturday. The Constitutional Court would then hold a trial to determine whether to confirm the impeachment motion.
Trump urges judge to toss hush money case, citing Hunter Biden pardon
Lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump urged the judge who presided over his conviction for falsifying business records to dismiss the indictment against him, citing the language President Joe Biden used when he announced he had pardoned his son.
“Yesterday, in issuing a 10-year pardon to Hunter Biden that covers any and all crimes whether charged or uncharged, President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently,'” reads the filing, which was made public Tuesday.
“President Biden argued that ‘raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.’ These comments amounted to an extraordinary condemnation of President Biden’s own DOJ,” the filing continued, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has engaged in ‘precisely the type of political theater’ that President Biden has condemned.”
Trump’s pick to lead the DEA withdraws from consideration
Chad Chronister, President-elect Donald Trump’s selection to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday that he would withdraw from consideration.
Chronister, who is the sheriff in Hillsborough County, Florida, said he would turn down Trump’s planned nomination to be the next DEA administrator just three days after Trump announced it.
He is the second of Trump’s administration picks to take his name out of the running, after former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., dropped his bid to become attorney general last month.
Trump considers replacing Hegseth with DeSantis to run Pentagon, WSJ reports
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is considering dropping his nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, and nominating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his place, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the discussions.
Hegseth’s nomination has run into trouble on Capitol Hill over allegations about his personal and professional life and Trump allies increasingly think Hegseth may not survive further scrutiny, the Journal reported. A combat veteran and former Fox News host, Hegseth would need the support of Senate Republicans to win confirmation to the post.
The Trump transition office and DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Malcolm Nance: Five Steps To Resist The Coming Tyranny
As you know, I have been a practitioner of intelligence collection and secret activities for over thirty years. But I have also been an ardent student of the World War Two French resistance in Nazi-occupied France. The American people can learn lessons from how French society stood firm in the face of tyranny.
Why France Resisted Tyranny
On May 10, 1940, the armies of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany invaded France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Belgium. Three countries were subjugated within days. France finally capitulated after a month’s combat. A new French government was quickly formed to collaborate with the Nazis under a former decorated WWI General, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, and Pierre Laval, the day-to-day administrator.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack
Michael Tomasky: Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won?
I’ve had a lot of conversations since Tuesday revolving around the question of why Donald Trump won. The economy and inflation. Kamala Harris didn’t do this or that. Sexism and racism. The border. That trans-inmate ad that ran a jillion times. And so on.
These conversations have usually proceeded along lines where people ask incredulously how a majority of voters could have believed this or that. Weren’t they bothered that Trump is a convicted felon? An adjudicated rapist? Didn’t his invocation of violence against Liz Cheney, or 50 other examples of his disgusting imprecations, obviously disqualify him? And couldn’t they see that Harris, whatever her shortcomings, was a fundamentally smart, honest, well-meaning person who would show basic respect for the Constitution and wouldn’t do anything weird as president?
Read the rest of Michael Tomasky’s piece at The New Republic
Biden surges arms to Ukraine, fearing Trump will halt U.S. aid
Yet some in the administration have taken the view that no matter what Washington does, Kyiv’s military will remain outmatched without far more soldiers to sustain its fight. And even as they accelerate arms shipments, there is growing frustration with Ukraine’s leaders, who have resisted U.S. calls to lower the country’s draft age from 25 to 18.
How Biden Changed His Mind on Pardoning Hunter: ‘Time to End All of This’
A dark sky had fallen over Nantucket, Mass., on Saturday evening when President Biden left church alongside his family after his final Thanksgiving as president.
Inside a borrowed vacation compound earlier in the week, with its views of the Nantucket Harbor, Mr. Biden had met with his wife, Jill Biden, and his son Hunter Biden to discuss a decision that had tormented him for months. The issue: a pardon that would clear Hunter of years of legal trouble, something the president had repeatedly insisted he would not do.
Support for pardoning Hunter Biden had been building for months within the family, but external forces had more recently weighed on Mr. Biden, who watched warily as President-elect Donald J. Trump picked loyalists for his administration who promised to bring political and legal retribution to Mr. Trump’s enemies.
Kash Patel Has Plan to Remake the F.B.I. Into a Tool of Trump
“Fire the top ranks of the F.B.I.” Encourage Congress to demand testimony exposing “every single bit of filth and corruption” at the agency, and withhold its funding “until the documents come in.” Prosecute leakers and journalists. Replace the national security work force with “people who won’t undermine the president’s agenda.”
These are among a long list of changes Kash Patel recommended in his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters.” President-elect Donald J. Trump has now said he intends to make Mr. Patel the next F.B.I. director.
Hegseth Faces Allegations Of Boozing, Partying And Mismanagement Helming Veterans Groups
Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host who’s President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee the Pentagon, was forced out of top roles at two veterans groups, according to a new bombshell report from The New Yorker.
Hegseth was forced to resign his roles at both Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America due to “serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct,” the outlet reported Sunday night. The former Army National Guard officer also faces allegations he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017, though Hegseth maintains the encounter was consensual.
The magazine cited a damning whistleblower account of Hegseth’s behavior at CVA, which he ran from 2013 to 2016. According to The New Yorker, “[Hegseth] and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers” and promoted a culture of sexism that culminated in the attempted assault of a female employee by a male colleague during a 2014 team outing to a Louisiana strip club. The report also alleges that Hegseth got so drunk that night he had to be restrained from joining the dancers onstage.
Charlie Pierce: Pete Hegseth’s Mom Ratting Him Out Was Not Yet (!) Rock Bottom for the TV Host
National treasure Jane Mayer has the grotesque skinny on Pete Hegseth, to whom the incoming administration is planning to hand the most powerful military in the history of the world. You might have figured we touched bottom on this guy’s nomination when his mom gave him up. But you would be wrong. From TheNew Yorker:
A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. The detailed seven-page report—which was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015—states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team.
Trump calls Biden pardoning son Hunter a ‘miscarriage of justice’
President-elect Donald Trump has reacted to President Joe Biden issuing a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, from a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions.
Trump called the president’s decision a “miscarriage of justice” while pointing to those imprisoned for the Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol in his post to Truth Social on Sunday.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump wrote.
Arctic blast continues to hammer Northern U.S., disrupting post-Thanksgiving travel
An Arctic blast brought snow, frost and dangerously cold winds to the northern Plains, the Midwest and the Great Lakes, creating “very difficult to impossible” travel conditions on one of the busiest days of the year, as millions of people head home from their Thanksgiving destinations.
About 9 million people are under winter alerts across the nation, with nearly 3 million in parts of New York state, Pennsylvania and Ohio under warnings for lake effect snow showers, triggered by a clash of the south-moving arctic blast and comparatively warm lake water.
More than 2.3 million in parts of New York state, Michigan, Minnesota and West Virginia are covered by winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories, with the warnings stating heavy snow, ice and blizzard conditions are almost certain. The advisories state rapidly accumulating snow, freezing rain and blowing snow are likely.
Trump taps loyalist Kash Patel as choice for FBI director
President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday he would pick Kashyap “Kash” Patel, a 44-year-old loyalist with little management experience in federal law enforcement, to serve as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social. “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”
Patel, who will have to win Senate confirmation to become FBI director, has earned a reputation as an extreme Trump loyalist who has spread baseless “deep state” conspiracy theories and called for a purge of perceived Trump enemies from the FBI.
President Biden pardons his son Hunter Biden
Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Sunday night, a reversal for the president, who repeatedly said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence.
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” Biden said in his statement.
Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12 for his conviction on federal gun charges. He also was set to be sentenced on Dec. 16 in a separate criminal case in which he pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges in September.
The Rude Pundit: A Thanksgiving Poem from Indigenous America
I.
we inherit:
every gathering pool a blessing
formed by careful hands each monsoon
a heartbeat turquoise vein
the sound of underwater
brimmed with mosses
here laps the quiet tide of love
we inherit:
every gathering pool a blessing
formed by careful hands each monsoon
a heartbeat turquoise vein
the sound of underwater
brimmed with mosses
here laps the quiet tide of love
Trump names COVID lockdown critic Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as pick for NIH director
President-elect Donald Trump is nominating a critic of COVID-19 lockdown policies to serve as the head of the National Institutes of Health.
In a statement, Trump said he has picked Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to serve as NIH director to work in cooperation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — whom Trump named as his pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — to direct the nation’s medical research.
“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest Health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease,” Trump said in the statement. “Together, they will work hard to Make America Healthy Again!
Trump transition signs White House agreement after delay
After a lengthy delay, President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has signed a memorandum of understanding with the White House, allowing the next administration to coordinate with federal agencies.
Trump’s incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said in a statement the memo’s signing allows for “critical preparations” to begin.
“After completing the selection process of his incoming Cabinet, President-elect Trump is entering the next phase of his administration’s transition by executing a Memorandum of Understanding with President Joe Biden’s White House,” Wiles said in a statement.
Biden announced Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire begins, halting war in Lebanon
A U.S.-backed cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect at 4 a.m. local time Wednesday, halting the deadliest war in Lebanon in decades. Fighting continued up to the 11th hour, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that Israel would strike again if the Lebanese militant group violated the deal. Both sides warned displaced residents not to return to southern areas under Israeli evacuation orders, but many did not take heed. A senior Biden administration official told The Washington Post that Israeli troops would hold their positions and not immediately withdraw. The deal is due to stop fighting for an initial two-month window, and is intended as “a permanent cessation of hostilities,” President Joe Biden said in an address.
‘I Can’t Pay My Bills’: Rudy Giuliani Rants At Judge Over $148 Million Defamation Judgment
Rudy Giuliani interrupted a routine court hearing Tuesday with a bizarre rant about his dire financial straits as the former New York City mayor faces the ramifications of defaming two Georgia election workers.
Giuliani blurted out “I don’t have a credit card” and “I can’t pay my bills” when questioned about why he had not yet turned over the title to his 1980 Mercedes-Benz convertible to help satisfy the $148 million judgment against him for defamation.
U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman scolded the onetime presidential candidate for his explosion and warned him against further eruptions during a touchy hearing in Manhattan federal court.
Biden pardons the last turkeys of his presidency
President Joe Biden might be a lame-duck president, but he spent Monday sparing the lives of two birds.
Carrying out an annual White House tradition for his last time, Biden pardoned two lucky turkeys: Peach and Blossom, who hail from Minnesota and are roughly 17 weeks old, according to a National Turkey Federation press conference Sunday.
The two names are meant as an homage to Biden’s home state of Delaware and its state flower, the peach blossom.
Trump Plans Tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China That Could Cripple Trade
President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Monday that he would impose tariffs on all products coming into the United States from Canada, Mexico and China on his first day in office, a move that would scramble global supply chains and impose heavy costs on companies that rely on doing business with some of the world’s largest economies.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump mentioned a caravan of migrants making its way to the United States from Mexico, and said he would use an executive order to levy a 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico until drugs and migrants stopped coming over the border.
Top Trump Aide Boris Epshteyn Accused of Asking for Money to ‘Promote’ Potential Appointees
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s legal team found evidence that a top adviser asked for retainer fees from potential appointees in order to promote them for jobs in the new administration, five people briefed on the matter said on Monday.
Mr. Trump directed his team to carry out the review of the adviser, Boris Epshteyn, who coordinated the legal defenses in Mr. Trump’s criminal cases and is a powerful figure in the transition. Several people whom Mr. Trump trusts had alerted him that Mr. Epshteyn was seeking money from people looking for appointments, three of the people briefed on the matter said.
Jack Smith Seeks Dismissal of Two Federal Cases Against Trump
The special counsel Jack Smith asked two courts on Monday to effectively shut down the federal criminal cases he brought against President-elect Donald J. Trump last year, bowing to a Justice Department policy that says it is unconstitutional to pursue prosecutions against sitting presidents.
The twin requests by Mr. Smith — made to judges in Washington and Atlanta — were an acknowledgment that Mr. Trump will re-enter the White House in January unburdened by federal efforts to hold him accountable through charges of plotting to subvert the last presidential election and holding on to a trove of highly classified material following his first term in office.
Charlie Pierce: Now the Extreme Right Is Coming After the New Deal
In case you were wondering, they’re coming after the New Deal next. Last Friday, Robert Taft, leaving a trail of sod from his political grave, walked grimly toward Capitol Hill again. From The Washington Post:
“The Supreme Court announced Friday it will hear a pair of cases that will examine how far Congress can go in delegating powers to federal agencies, decisions that could chip away at the authority of the executive branch. The cases explore whether Congress violated the Constitution when it allowed the Federal Communications Commission to gather fees to help pay for critical telecommunications service in communities that might not otherwise have it.”
Sounds like something an advanced democracy might want to do. Of course, if you’re playing by the rules of an advanced democracy of 1789, there might be … problems.
Sen. Duckworth says Trump defense secretary pick is “flat-out wrong” about women in combat roles
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Sunday that Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary is “flat-out wrong” in his view that women should not serve in the military in combat roles.
“Our military could not go to war without the women who wear this uniform,” Duckworth said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “And frankly, America’s daughters are just as capable of defending liberty and freedom as her sons.”
Trump tapped Hegseth, a former Fox News host and Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as his pick to head the Defense Department earlier this month. The 44-year-old has drawn criticism for his stance on women in combat roles, along with his level of experience.
Since the election, some disappointed in the results are tuning out the news
Donald Trump won reelection with 312 electoral votes, but the popular vote shows a closer outcome between him and Vice President Kamala Harris. Among the 74.5 million people who did vote for her (with current tabulations coming within about 1.5 percentage points of all votes), some now treat the news like the plague. For the sake of sanity and self-preservation, they’re turning it off and tuning out.
Adam Schiff Stays Steadfast In Face Of Trump’s Tyranny Talk
Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) isn’t going to let President-elect Donald Trump discourage him from doing his job in Congress.
During a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Schiff appeared unwavering when asked if he was worried about being targeted by Trump and his vows to retaliate against his political opponents.
After host Kristen Welker shared a clip of Trump comparing Schiff and other Democrats to “the enemy from within,” the newly elected senator dismissed Trump’s “dictator talk” while warning Americans of the dangers of having an aspiring strongman in office.
Trump Is Running His Transition Team on Secret Money
President-elect Donald J. Trump is keeping secret the names of the donors who are funding his transition effort, a break from tradition that could make it impossible to see what interest groups, businesses or wealthy people are helping launch his second term.
Mr. Trump has so far declined to sign an agreement with the Biden administration that imposes strict limits on that fund-raising in exchange for up to $7.2 million in federal funds earmarked for the transition. By dodging the agreement, Mr. Trump can raise unlimited amounts of money from unknown donors to pay for the staff, travel and office space involved in preparing to take over the government.
The Rude Pundit: Democrats Must Stand Up for the Rights of Transgender People, Including Trans Youths
It wasn’t that long ago, less than ten years, in fact, where, in a confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was a prick even before his mouth became Donald Trump’s penis koozie, wailed and gnashed about the growing passage of laws in the states allowing same-sex couples to marry, “What’s the legal difference between a ban on same-sex marriage being unconstitutional but a ban on polygamy being constitutional? Could you try to articulate how one could be banned under the constitution and the other not?” While this whole issue would be put to rest a few months later by the then-relatively sane Supreme Court in the Obergefell decision, Graham’s screaming mimi routine had been echoing throughout the nutsosphere for years: same-sex marriage would lead to legalizing marriage with animals or marriage with babies. It was crazy shit. One ultra-evangelical group of fucknuts said that if New York legalized same-sex marriage in 2011, it “could prove to be decisive in the culture war for America’s soul.”
Pete Hegseth Falsely Claims He Was ‘Completely Cleared’ On Sex Assault Allegation
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the entire U.S. military, former Fox Newspersonality Pete Hegseth, was confronted Thursday by a reporter who asked point-blank whether he raped a woman in 2017, as described in a police report.
“As far as the media is concerned, it’s very simple,” said Hegseth, who was on Capitol Hill to meet with senators tasked with weighing whether to approve him as the next U.S. defense secretary.
“The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m going to leave it,” he said.
Trump’s Team Threatening GOP Senators With Elon Musk-Funded Primaries If They Vote Against Cabinet Picks, Reports ABC
ABC News’s Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang reported on Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump’s team has been threatening Republican Senators with Elon Musk-funded primaries if they vote against his cabinet nominees.
“Well, Trump has been working the phones. He’s been upping the pressure on Senate Republicans, even calling some of them directly. This is as JD Vance is also making the pitch. It was up on Capitol Hill with Matt Gaetz yesterday meeting with some of those Senate Republicans,” Wang began.
Could Matt Gaetz decide to keep his House seat? It’s complicated.
Ever since Matt Gaetz resigned from the House — and subsequently withdrew his name from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general — questions have swirled about his political fate.
While Gaetz resigned last week from the current Congress, he was re-elected this month to represent his Florida district when the next session begins in January. That raises the question: Could he return?
Here’s what to know.
Trump names longtime ally Pam Bondi as his new attorney general pick after Matt Gaetz withdraws
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named longtime ally Pam Bondi as his new choice for attorney general, capping a tumultuous week for previous pick Matt Gaetz.
Bondi’s elevation came just hours after Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration following increased scrutiny over allegations of sexual misconduct.
If confirmed, Bondi would lead the Justice Department and set the agenda for federal investigations and prosecutions. Trump’s pick for the nation’s top law enforcement official comes as some of his critics fear he will use his administration to seek retribution against them.
4 Trump administration picks have sexual misconduct allegations in their past
Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Elon Musk are all in line to serve as top government leaders.
All have faced varying degrees of sexual misconduct allegations.
The president’s picks to carry out his agenda reflect an incoming administration hostile to the norms of the “Me Too” movement. Behavior that might have gotten a person fired or canceled (or not nominated to a cabinet position) over the last several years, appears to be less problematic in the Trump 2.0 era.
Leaders at Walmart And Lowe’s Warn That Trump’s Tariffs May Cause Price Hikes
The vast tariffs President-elect Donald Trump has promised to implement will likely lead to price increases at major American retailers like Walmart and Lowe’s, the companies’ chief financial officers said this week.
Walmart CFO John David Rainey told CNBC it is not yet clear which items would be affected.
“We never want to raise prices,” Rainey told the outlet Tuesday. “Our model is everyday low prices. But there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson says he supports banning transgender women from using women’s bathrooms
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday he supports restricting “single-sex facilities” in the Capitol, including restrooms, to “individuals of that biological sex”— which would effectively ban the first transgender congresswoman from using women’s bathrooms in the next Congress.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution this week that would ban transgender women from using women’s bathrooms and other facilities at the Capitol. She said Tuesday that the bill “absolutely” targets Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.
Democrats try to force a full House vote to release Matt Gaetz report as House Ethics panel has ‘no agreement’
Members of the House Ethics Committee met behind closed doors Wednesday but did not reach an agreement on whether to publicly release a report detailing their sweeping investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general.
Several Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have said they want to review the House report on the yearslong investigation into Gaetz, R-Fla., before a Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for him next year. The Ethics Committee had examined allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, gave special favors to people with whom he had personal relationships and obstructed the House probe.
Dean Obeidallah: Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz are Pete Hegseth are the worst versions of men
Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth are the worst version of men. But then again so is adjudicated rapist Donald Trump—which explains why he picked these two despicable, unqualified white men to be his Attorney General and Secretary of Defense.
The red flags about Gaetz and Hegseth ranging from sexual misconduct to bigotry would deem them unfit to serve in any presidential administration–any administration except Trump’s that is. The reason being all Trump cares about is abject loyalty and both clearly have sworn allegiance to Trump–much in the same way Hitler required the members of the military swear allegiance to him above Germany.
Read the rest of Dean Obeidallah’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack
Republicans Are Mad That Democrats Are Confirming Lots Of Biden’s Judges
Senate Republicans are acting pretty mad that Democrats are using the lame duck to confirm lots of President Joe Biden’s judges.
“I’m a bit frustrated,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told reporters Tuesday. “After last night’s voting extravaganza, I wonder what we are doing.”
Capito was referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) scheduling votes on some of Biden’s court picks on Monday night. Republicans don’t have the votes to stop Biden’s nominees from advancing, so they dragged out the process by hours, forcing time-consuming votes on otherwise routine procedural steps.
It kept everyone in the Senate later than they wanted to be.
What to know about Dr. Oz as Trump picks him to lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that heart surgeon-turned-TV-host Dr. Mehmet Oz would lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
“America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said in a statement. “He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades.”
The position of CMS administrator requires Senate confirmation.
Tracking Trump’s picks to serve in his Cabinet, administration
President-elect Donald Trump, ahead of his return to power in January, is announcing who he wants to fill Cabinet positions and other key roles inside his administration, including names like Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz.
Trump began to roll out his nominees and appointees just days after his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Among them are some of his staunchest allies on Capitol Hill and key advisers to his 2024 campaign.
Trump will have a Republican-controlled Senate and possibly a Republican-controlled House to help usher his picks through. But he’s also urging the incoming Senate leader to embrace recess appointments, which has led to speculation some of his choices may be more controversial.
Gaetz sent over $10K in Venmo payments to 2 women who testified in House probe, records suggest
The House Ethics Committee obtained records, including a check and records of Venmo payments, that appear to show that then-Rep. Matt Gaetz paid more than $10,000 to two women who were later witnesses in sexual misconduct probes conducted by both the House and the Justice Department, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
The Venmo records show that between July 2017 and late January 2019, Gaetz — who was first elected in 2016 — allegedly made 27 Venmo payments totaling $10,224.02 to the two witnesses, who were over the age of 18 at the time.
Trump Praises ‘Extremely Cordial’ Meeting With MSNBC’s Joe and Mika: Congratulated Me On a ‘Great and Flawless Campaign’
President-elect Donald Trump spoke to Fox News Digital on Monday about his recent meeting with MSNBC morning show hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, praising the discussion as ‘“very cordial” and something that should have happened “long ago.”
“I received a call from Joe Scarborough requesting a meeting for him and Mika, and I agreed that it would be a good thing if such meeting took place,” Trump told Fox’s Brooke Singman. “We met at Mar-a-Lago on Friday morning at 8:00.”
“Many things were discussed, and I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication. In many ways, it’s too bad that it wasn’t done long ago,” added Trump.
House Ethics Committee to meet Wednesday amid growing pressure to release Gaetz report
The House Ethics Committee is set to meet Wednesday as it faces increasing pressure to release a potentially damaging report detailing its investigation into allegations former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, two sources told CBS News.
The movements of the Ethics panel have been under heightened scrutiny since President-elect Donald Trump announced last week that he had selected Gaetz to serve as attorney general. The Florida Republican resigned his seat in the House in the wake of the announcement, which ended the Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction over Gaetz since he is now a former member.
Trump picks a second Fox host to join his Cabinet, with Sean Duffy for Transportation
President-elect Donald Trump on Monday named former congressman and Fox Business host Sean Duffy as his pick for transportation secretary in the next administration.
Duffy is the second Fox host Trump has tapped for a Cabinet post after he said last week that he would nominate Fox News personality Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department. Hegseth left Fox News after Trump’s announcement.
In a statement announcing him, Trump described Duffy, R-Wis., as “a tremendous and well-liked public servant.”
Gaetz allegedly flew 2 women to New York, paid them for sex: Attorney
Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, allegedly paid for two women in 2019 to travel to New York to have sex, watch his appearance on Fox News, and attend the Broadway show “Pretty Woman,” an attorney for the women told ABC News.
In an interview with ABC News’ Juju Chang, Florida attorney Joel Leppard revealed new details regarding his clients’ closed-door testimony before the private bipartisan committee — including that his clients told congressional investigators that Gaetz paid for them to travel across state lines to have sex on at least two occasions.
Read the rest of the story at NBC News
Charlie Pierce: The Democrats Need to Stop Giving Such a Damn
It is a very, very bad day when I have to wonder about Sherrod Brown, whose loss two weeks ago is incalculable. But he gave an interview to Tiger Beat on the Potomac and, well, his analysis was acute and —thank you, Jesus—he avoided TBOTP’s Eugene Daniels’s attempts to blame the Democratic party’s commitment to universal human rights for the fact that the country has turned once again to a vulgar talking yam.
J. Ann Selzer Is Ending Her Election Polling Career Following Iowa Fail
J. Ann Selzer, who wrongly predicted Iowa would turn blue and vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s election, is ending her polling career to take on new opportunities.
“Would I have liked to make this announcement after a final poll aligned with Election Day results? Of course,” Selzer wrote Sunday in a guest column for the Des Moines Register. “It’s ironic that it’s just the opposite.”
In the column, she noted that she had already planned to part ways with the Register prior to the election polling results.
GOP Senator Says Chamber Should ‘Absolutely’ Have Access To Matt Gaetz Ethics Report
Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Okla.) said Sunday the Senate should “absolutely” have access to the findings from a House Ethics Committee investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz.
“I believe the Senate should have access to that,” Mullin told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “Now should it be released to the public or not? I guess that will be part of the negotiations. But that should be definitely part of our decision making.”
President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gaetz to serve as his attorney general last week, a decision that sent shockwaves through the Justice Department. If confirmed, Gaetz would be tasked with overseeing the agency that investigated him on allegations of sex trafficking.
Biden authorizes Ukraine to strike Russia with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles
President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-provided long-range weapons inside Russia for limited strikes, according to two U.S. officials.
Longtime restrictions are being eased as North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to the Kursk region of Russia to support Russian troops fighting Ukrainian forces.
The new authority applies to Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, which Ukrainian officials have sought from the Biden administration. U.S. officials had resisted, citing concerns over limited stockpile, the repositioning of Russian assets outside of ATACMS range and the fact that Ukraine has been using other assets with success, primarily drones, making ATACMS less critical to the fight.
Trump defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth denies sexual assault allegation, acknowledges payment to accuser
Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s attorney on Sunday confirmed to NBC News that Hegseth, whom President-elect Donald Trump has named as his candidate for defense secretary, paid a woman an undisclosed amount after she accused him of sexual assault.
“In 2023, Hegseth paid the complainant as part of a civil confidential settlement agreement and maintains his innocence,” Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, said in a statement.
He also denied that the encounter between Hegseth and an unnamed woman, which she alleges happened in 2017, was sexual assault.
The Rude Pundit: Biden Will Be Remembered More for What He Didn’t Do Than What He Did
Other than the election and everything related to it, one thing stuck in my craw this past week, and it stuck there hard, so much so that I can’t cough it up. At her daily briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if President Joe Biden would pardon his son Hunter, who is facing sentencing after pleading guilty to federal charges related to tax evasion and lying on an application for buying a gun. She responded, “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.”
Now, you can tell me that Joe Biden respects the law and lots of such shit. But Hunter Biden was the subject of a slavering witch hunt by Republicans who were out to destroy his life for simply being Joe Biden’s son. The fact that we know anything about him at all is a testament to how clean Joe Biden’s record is: they had nothing on the father, so they went after the son so they could make the father guilty by association. In other words, the motherfuckers wanted blood, and they weren’t going to stop until they got it.
The Onion buys InfoWars in bankruptcy auction
The satirical website The Onion purchased InfoWars on Thursday, a capstone on years of litigation and bankruptcy proceedings following InfoWars founder Alex Jones’ defamation of families associated with the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Those families backed The Onion’s bid to purchase InfoWars’ intellectual property, including its website, customer lists and inventory, certain social media accounts and the production equipment used to put Jones on the air. The Connecticut families agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid, enabling its success.
Elon Musk’s new ‘department’ seeks ‘super high-IQ’ staff for unpaid jobs
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s new commission to slash government spending began soliciting applications for staff jobs Thursday, saying it wants to hire “revolutionaries” who score highly on IQ tests.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting,” the so-called Department of Government Efficiency said on X.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants,” the post said.
Senators want details of Matt Gaetz ethics probe before his confirmation vote for attorney general
Republican senators are preparing for a robust vetting of Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department, with a keen interest in details from a House Ethics Committee investigation into the former congressman from Florida.
The ethics panel has been investigating Gaetz off and on since 2021, most recently focusing on alleged sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, obstruction and other allegations. But the results of that probe may not become public because Gaetz resigned from the House at noon on Thursday. The Ethics Committee has jurisdiction only over sitting House members.
Trump picks RFK Jr., anti-vaccine activist, for health and human services secretary
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Trump, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump made the announcement on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” he wrote. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.”
Malcolm Nance: My Family Died For The Republic We Have Just Lost
William Henry Nance, was an African-American man aged 37. He was sweating profusely in a US Army Hospital bed in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. At that time, the fort was one of the last major government outposts protecting what would be known as Indian country. Wagon trains and lone riders were heading west to populate land allotments given to them by the US government. Of course the land was taken from the Native Americans, but they were not considered people. The US Army provided protection to these settlers.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack
Trump thanks Biden for ‘smooth transition’ in White House meeting
President-elect Donald Trump returned to Washington on Wednesday — entering the White House for the first time since he was voted out of office — to meet with President Joe Biden for a ceremony meant to signal the peaceful transfer of power.
The two men appeared briefly for photos, with Biden speaking first and calling for a smooth transition.
Trump responded that politics “is tough” but thanked the president for a smooth transition. “You’re welcome,” Biden responded. They did not respond to shouted questions from reporters.
Republicans win the House, NBC News projects, as Trump’s party takes full control of Washington
Republicans will maintain control of the House of Representatives by the thinnest of margins, NBC News projected Wednesday, handing President-elect Donald Trump and his party all the levers of power in Washington.
A Republican-controlled Congress will allow Trump to quickly fill out his Cabinet and other top administration roles and advance his agenda for at least the next two years, though Democrats will have some sway with small majorities in the House and Senate.
House Republicans’ razor-thin victory was propelled by Trump’s decisive win over Vice President Kamala Harris in both the Electoral College and the popular vote. It represents a stinging blow to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats, who now will have virtually no check on Trump, a man they warned on the campaign trail is a threat to democracy, an extremist and a fascist.
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for top intel job, has been accused of ‘traitorous’ parroting of Russian propaganda
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, former Democratic lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard, has been accused of amplifying Russian propaganda and would come to the job having never worked in the intelligence world or served on a congressional intelligence committee.
Gabbard, who served in the Hawaii Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq with a medical unit, has long criticized U.S. foreign policy as imperial and heavy-handed. She also has sharply criticized Trump in the past over his approach to the Middle East during his first presidential term, portraying him as dangerous.
Trump announces Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general
President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to be the 87th attorney general of the United States in a move that could fill the nation’s top law enforcement position with an ardent supporter who was once criminally investigated by the department he would oversee.
No charges were filed in the case, which was investigated by the FBI and centered on allegations of sex trafficking. It ended last year. Afterward, Gaetz called for abolishing the bureau.
“I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy, we either get this government back on our side or we defund, get rid of, abolish the FBI,” Gaetz said at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.
Mike Johnson Pleased To Report Election Not Tainted By Fraud This Time
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that the widespread voter fraud he’d warned about all year turned out not to be a problem in last week’s elections that Republicans happened to win.
“I’m happy to report to you that because of all the emphasis we placed on that, and because of all the attention the American people put on it, that I think we were able to limit, to a high degree, the amount of fraud and irregularity and many of the things that concerned all Americans after 2020,” Johnson said in response to a question from HuffPost.
Trump says he will nominate Kristi Noem for homeland security secretary
President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem to be the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, four sources familiar with the decision confirmed Tuesday morning.
“Kristi has been very strong on Border Security,” Trump said in a statement announcing he will make the nomination. “I have known Kristi for years, and have worked with her on a wide variety of projects — She will be a great part of our mission to Make America Safe Again.”
As homeland security secretary, Noem would oversee a number of key federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard.
Trump picks Fox News host and Army National Guard veteran Pete Hegseth for defense secretary
President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and military veteran, as his pick for defense secretary.
In a statement, Trump described Hegseth as “tough, smart and a true believer in America First.”
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” Trump said.
Trump says Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will head a new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’
President-elect Donald Trump named tech billionaire Elon Musk and conservative activist Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday to head up a new Department of Government Efficiency, fulfilling a campaign pledge to give Musk sweeping oversight of government spending.
Trump said in a statement on to social media that the department will help “dismantle Government Bureaucracy” and slash excess regulations. The name of the agency, DOGE for short, is a reference to a meme and a cryptocurrency associated with Musk.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said in the statement released by the transition team.
Trump Transition Co-Chair Floats Plan To ‘Yank’ Vaccines ‘Off The Market’
The co-chair of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s transition team promoted the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism in a CNN interview Wednesday. He also said Trump ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr., hopes to get “data” through a Trump administration to have vaccines pulled “off the market.”
Howard Lutnick, the billionaire CEO of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a longtime friend of Trump’s, told the network’s Kaitlan Collins that vaccines are “not proven” to be safe. Lutnick said he’d recently been schooled on vaccines by Kennedy, the failed independent presidential candidate and anti-vaxxer who has endorsed Trump.
Harris rebukes Trump for saying he will protect women whether they ‘like it or not’
Vice President Kamala Harris chastised Donald Trump on Thursday after the former president said he would protect women whether they “like it or not,” calling the comments “very offensive” and reflective of an individual who doesn’t understand women.
Harris told reporters that the remarks revealed how Trump sees women and showed a disregard for their autonomy. Her criticism added to a backlash from critics who have seized on the comment, characterizing it as a demonstration of Trump’s long history of misogynistic statements and a reminder of the civil court case that found him liable for sexual abuse.
Polls show Harris with big early-vote lead — despite GOP gains
But there are plenty of reasons not to overinterpret the data Musk and his allies are citing, as The Post’s Philip Bump and Lenny Bronner wrote Wednesday. Those include that 2020 was an unusual election held during a historic pandemic, that many early votes are “cannibalized” from voters who otherwise would have turned out on Election Day anyway, and — perhaps most notably — that we don’t actually know who these people are voting for.
Trump and Vance Escalate Efforts to Sow Doubts on Pennsylvania Voting
Former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, escalated their false attacks about the security of the Pennsylvania elections on Thursday, ramping up baseless accusations about voter fraud that could erode confidence of the results in one of the most critical battleground states.
On Thursday Mr. Trump posted on his social media site that Pennsylvania was “cheating” and breaking the law. He called for prosecutions, though he made no specific allegations. Earlier in the day, Mr. Vance seized on deceptive posts online claiming that Democratic Party volunteers were impersonating election officials at polling sites.
Trump Nearly Face-Plants On A Garbage Truck During A Trashy Photo-Op
Donald Trump’s photo-op with a garbage truck on Wednesday almost got off to a disastrous start as the former president appeared to miss the door handle and almost slipped on the wet ground.
Trump also briefly grabbed his right thigh, then ultimately made it into the truck with some visible effort.
Trump later in the evening said that the truck was too big.
“I said how the hell do you get into this truck? It’s way up high,” he said at a rally in Wisconsin. “I said they didn’t have to buy it that big, right? You have to get it that big?”
More than 55 million people have voted early in run-up to Election Day
More than 55 million people have cast their ballots either in person or by mail during early voting, according to recent figures, weighing in on the presidential contest and down-ballot races ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5.
Data compiled by the University of Florida Election Lab shows that more than 29 million early votes have been cast at polling places in-person, and another 25.9 million mail ballots have been returned. There were more than 65.6 million mail ballots requested.
A higher number of registered Democrats, just under 11 million, have already voted, compared to nearly 10 million registered Republicans, according to data from 25 states that report party registration. Of those who have submitted ballots in-person during early voting, 3.8 million are registered Republicans and 3.1 million are registered Democrats
Los Angeles Dodgers defeat New York Yankees in five games to win World Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 7-6 in Game 5 on Wednesday to win the World Series four games to one.
The Dodgers were trailing 5-0 before they scored five runs in the fifth inning — all of which came in the wake of three fielding miscues by the Yankees. New York retook the lead in the sixth inning, but two sacrifice flies by Los Angeles in the top of the eighth put the visitors ahead for good.
“We just took advantage of every mistake that they made that inning,” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández said of the fifth. “We put some good at-bats together. We put the ball in play. A lot of people say ‘when you put the ball in play, things might happen.’ It happened to us in that inning, and we scored five runs.”
Supreme Court allows Virginia to purge voter rolls ahead of the election
The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Republican officials in Virginia to revive a plan aimed at removing noncitizen voters from the rolls ahead of next week’s election.
The justices blocked a federal judge’s ruling that put the program on hold and required the state to restore 1,600 voters to the rolls.
The brief order noted that the three liberal justices on the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, all dissented.
Malcolm Nance: Kneel. Pray. Win. We Have Orders from General George Washington.
The morning before I left on a weeklong bus tour of the southern states for National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A), I visited my late wife at Washington Crossing National Cemetery. Even though I go quite regularly, there was something special about this trip. I would share a bus from Florida, Georgia, to North Carolina with admirals, generals, and ambassadors. NSL4A had been a non-partisan advocacy group of high-ranking government policymakers from the defense, intelligence, and State Department. But this year was different.
Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack
Nikki Haley pans Trump world for ‘bromance and masculinity stuff’
Former presidential candidate and onetime U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley criticized Trump world on Tuesday for being “overly masculine with this bromance thing” after former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
The event in New York City drew a massive crowd and featured speakers who were divisive, dark and, at times, offensive.
On Fox News on Tuesday, Haley addressed a comedian’s racist jokes about Puerto Rico and Latinos, a moment that has roiled the Trump campaign and was condemned by multiple Republicans, including members of Congress.
Steve Bannon released from prison after serving contempt of Congress sentence
The last time Steve Bannon was a free man, Joe Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
Early Tuesday, Bannon, the right-wing podcast host and former Donald Trump campaign official, was released from federal Bureau of Prisons custody, with exactly one week to go until voters choose between his former boss and Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day.
Randilee Giamusso, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson, confirmed that Bannon was released. He returned to hosting his “War Room” podcast later Tuesday morning.
Trump rallies in majority-Latino Pennsylvania city after supporters’ crude and racist remarks
Former President Donald Trump worked Tuesday to tamp down anger over a comedian’s insulting jokes about Latinos and Puerto Rico at his rally at Madison Square Garden, campaigning in a majority-Latino city as the uproar threatens to erode gains he has made with Latino voters.
Trump made no mention of the comedian’s remarks in New York City in his 75-minute address, citing polls that show him performing well among Latino voters and voicing solidarity with Puerto Rico.
Kamala Harris pairs anti-Trump attack with economic pitch at packed DC rally
Kamala Harris called on Americans to “turn the page” on the Donald Trump era at a rally Tuesday, rallying thousands of voters at the site where the former president addressed the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.
On a chilly fall evening one week before Election Day, the Democratic nominee criticized her Republican rival as “unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.” She vowed to govern as a pragmatist by listening to everyone, including “people who disagree with me.”
Ballot drop box fires in Oregon and Washington are likely connected, officials say
Ballot drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and neighboring Vancouver, Washington, were set on fire Monday morning in what authorities believe are connected incidents about a week out from Election Day.
An identical Volvo was spotted at both scenes, and the use of an “incendiary device” in Portland was “similar in nature” to what occurred in Vancouver, the cities’ police departments said. Portland police described the act as targeted and intentional.
Three ballots were damaged in Portland, while potentially “hundreds” were affected in Vancouver, local officials said.
CNN bans conservative guest for telling Muslim journalist ‘I hope your beeper doesn’t go off’
CNN has banned a conservative commentator from appearing on the network again after he told a Muslim journalist “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” an apparent reference to the spate of exploding pagers in Lebanon that killed members of the Hezbollah militant group last month.
Ryan Girdusky made the comment during a heated debate with Mehdi Hasan, a prominent British-American broadcaster and an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, on “CNN Newsnight” with host Abby Phillip.
The guests were discussing the racist jokes made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, which overshadowed former President Donald Trump’s rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday and continue to make headlines two days later.
Kamala Harris to hold campaign rally in Washington DC tonight
Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to deliver a speech in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, one week before Election Day.
Harris’ rally comes as the election hangs on a knife’s edge, with polls in various swing states showing a statistical tie between the Democrat and Republican former President Donald Trump.
Trump on Tuesday morning is scheduled to hold a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. On Sunday, Trump held a rally at Madison Square Gardenin New York City.
Vance says ‘we have to stop getting so offended’ when asked about racist jokes at Trump rally
Sen. JD Vance said Monday that while he hadn’t heard the racist jokes made by a comedian at his running mate’s New York City rally the previous night, he thinks Americans need to “stop getting so offended.”
“I’m just — I’m so over it,” Vance said after an NBC News reporter asked about the inflammatory remarks about Latinos and others by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, the first speaker at former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
“I’ve heard about the joke, I haven’t actually seen the joke that you mentioned, but I think that it’s telling that Kamala Harris’ closing message is essentially that all of Donald Trump’s voters are Nazis, and you should get really pissed off about a comedian telling a joke,” Vance said.
Charlie Pierce: Trump’s Madison Square Garden Rally Was a Pageant of Lowbrow Fascism, and It Wasn’t Even Funny
And at the end of the day, all that was proven was that these people can’t even be fascists with any kind of dignity. In February 1939, with World War II having already begun at the Marco Polo Bridge two years earlier (although nobody knew it at the time) and seven months before the Wehrmacht rolled into Poland, there was a famous rally in the old Madison Square Garden held in concert with the German-American Bund and the isolationist America First crowd. The latter was insignificant. It was a Nazi rally.
The Rude Pundit: We Need to Be Done With Donald Trump
One of the most stunning things about the last near-decade now is how much the country has been contorted by one man. We’re in this fucked beyond fucked moment, teetering on the brink of totally and irrevocably fucked, because of Donald Trump. Yes, it’s also everyone who voted for him, everyone who elevated him, everyone who kowtowed to him, and everyone who wipes his ass so that he keeps going. But, in the end, it comes down to one goddamned man. It’s perfect example of what happens when your nice little democracy relies too much on basic human decency and when the decent ignore or elide the acts of the indecent.
Far-Right Figures Escalate Talk of Retribution and Election Subversion
In the weeks after the 2020 election, retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Donald J. Trump’s former national security adviser, was a key figure in efforts to subvert the election outcome. In recent interviews and speeches, he and an associate are warning that this year’s election will be stolen from Mr. Trump, advising supporters to take action to prevent a theft and vowing retribution once Mr. Trump is back in power.
At the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival, a far-right event in Pennsylvania this month, Mr. Flynn told the crowd that after a Trump victory: “Katie, bar the door. Believe me, the gates of hell — my hell — will be unleashed.”
In the heart of Philadelphia, Harris argues Trump is about ‘retribution and revenge’
Vice President Kamala Harris, campaigning in Philadelphia on Sunday, described a stark choice voters face in the presidential election, inviting them to visualize either her in the Oval Office or her opponent, Donald Trump, “stewing over his enemies list.”
Speaking to reporters after an appearance at a Black church in West Philadelphia, Harris reiterated an argument she has been making of late that the election comes down to a binary choice between two candidates with vastly different conceptions of presidential power and responsibilities.
“Just imagine the Oval Office on Jan. 20,” she said, invoking the date that the next president will be inaugurated. “It’s going to be one of two people. It’s going to be Donald Trump or me.”
Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally overshadowed by his allies’ crude and racist remarks
Former President Donald Trump delivered his standard lines on topics from immigration to the economy Sunday at a packed rally at Madison Square Garden, an event that was designed to be the start of his closing argument nine days out from Election Day at a venue off the battleground map that he has wanted to campaign at for years.
But Trump’s remarks in his hometown, New York City, which went for more than an hour, were overshadowed by comments made by warm-up speakers in the roughly five hours before his prime-time address. They included a comedian’s racist jokes about Latinos and Black Americans and were condemned by multiple Republican members of Congress, as well as speakers who used increasingly inflammatory language to describe Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris regains slight lead nationally yet Electoral College holds the cards: POLL
Vice President Kamala Harris has regained a slight lead among likely voters nationally in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll, albeit with the race close enough to leave the outcome of the 2024 presidential election to the uncertainties of the Electoral College.
Turnout is key. Just 2 percentage points divide Harris and Donald Trump among all registered voters, 49-47%. This goes to a slight Harris advantage among likely voters, 51-47%, with some pro-Harris groups showing a bit more propensity to vote.
Compared with earlier this month, Harris has regained a more customary Democratic advantage among Hispanic people and widened her advantage among suburban women, while remaining strong in core groups including Black people. Trump pushes back in rural areas and among non-college white men, and runs competitively among younger men.
Elon Musk ‘Has Been in Regular Contact’ with Putin Since 2022, WSJ Reports
Billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk has had “regular contact” with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday night.
According to the newspaper, Musk has regularly communicated with Putin, who asked him not to activate his Starlink internet in Taiwan as a “favor” to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Journal reported:
“Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022. The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions.”
‘Y.M.C.A.’ vs. The Boss: Kamala Harris Answers Trump With A Rocking Rally Of Her Own
A DJ spun banger after banger. President Barack Obama warmed up the crowd. Rock legend Bruce Springsteen sang and played guitar. And Kamala Harris played lead vocals at a packed college football field in the Atlanta suburbs on Thursday, firing up thousands of people into a joyous frenzy just days before the November presidential election in one of the country’s most crucial swing states.
Harris supporters sang, danced and swag surfed along to soul and hip-hop jams at her first rally featuring a musical performance, a day before none other than superstar Beyoncé is set to headline another event for the vice president in Texas. Top celebrities, including Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee and Tyler Perry, also spoke on her behalf as the smell of barbecue and Mexican burritos wafted out from half a dozen food trucks parked on the football field.
Trump denies ever saying he wanted generals like Hitler’s or that the Nazi leader ‘did some good things’
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday denied ever having said positive things about Hitler during his time in office, including that he needed “the kind of generals that Hitler had.”
“I never said that,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about an article this week in The Atlantic.
“I would never say that,” he added, directly denying the magazine’s reporting.
Trump went on to criticize the article’s author and the publication, calling it “a failing magazine.”
Trump says the U.S. is ‘like a garbage can for the world’ as he dials up immigration rhetoric
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday the U.S. is “like a garbage can” for the rest of the world because of its border policies during an immigration-focused rally in Tempe, Arizona, less than two weeks out from Election Day.
“They unleashed an army of migrant gangs waging a campaign of violence,” said Trump, who regularly uses dehumanizing language when he talks about undocumented immigrants. “We’re a dumping ground. We’re like a garbage can for the world.”
Immigration has been a major focus for Trump throughout the campaign, when he has highlighted stories about undocumented immigrants’ committing crimes and blamed them for a surge in violence.
Man arrested in Arizona DNC office shootings: Police
A suspect has been arrested in connection to three separate shooting attacks on a Democratic National Committee office in Arizona, according to the Tempe Police Department.
Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, faces multiple charges that include unlawful discharge, shooting at a non-residential structure, terrorism and criminal damage.
Kelly is also accused of “hanging suspicious bags of white powder from several political signs lined with razor blades” in Ahwatukee, police said.
Former Model Says Trump Groped Her During Encounter Facilitated By Epstein: Report
Less than two weeks before the presidential election, a former model has gone public with accusations that Donald Trump groped her in a 1993 encounter facilitated by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Stacey Williams, now 56, shared the incident with the Guardian on Wednesday, saying she felt Trump’s actions were part of a “twisted game” he and Epstein were playing with her.
According to her recollection to the Guardian, Epstein introduced Williams to Trump at a 1992 Christmas party, and it was clear to her that the two men “were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together.” She said she and Epstein began dating shortly after the party.
Justice Department warns Musk’s PAC that $1M voter giveaway could be illegal
The Justice Department has sent a letter to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, warning that its $1 million daily giveaway in battleground states may run afoul of federal law, a source familiar with the matter said.
The letter, which was reported earlier by CNN, came from the department’s Public Integrity Section, the source said. That section handles election-related prosecutions and related cases.
The Justice Department declined to comment, and the super PAC’s treasurer did not immediately reply to a voicemail message requesting comment.
Kamala Harris calls Trump a ‘fascist’ as she argues he’s ‘dangerous’ and unfit for office
Vice President Kamala Harris called former President Donald Trump a “fascist” at a CNN town hall Wednesday in Pennsylvania — echoing his onetime chief of staff’s criticism as she makes a more vocal pitch to voters that he is unfit for office.
John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who was Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, came forward this weekto warn that his former boss meets “the general definition of a fascist.” And he said that in private conversations, Trump admired dictators and said he wished he had military generals as loyal as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s.
Harris said Kelly’s comments, coming just two weeks before the election, are “a 911 call to the American people.”
Bob Cesca: Yes, Joe Biden Really Did Prevent World War III
Caught in the constant undertow of the Donald Trump tsunami, it’s easy to lose touch with qualities we ought to prioritize in our political leadership. It’s understandable given decades of misguided hack punditry and horserace election coverage that too often misleads us into believing that whoever had the most recent zinger…
Read the rest of Bob Cesca’s piece at and subscribe to The Banter…
Kamala Harris Says She’s Ready If Trump Goes Back To 2020 Ploys
Vice President Kamala Harris said her team is prepared to counter former President Donald Trump if he prematurely declares victory in the 2024 election.
Harris spoke with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson on Tuesday, with just two weeks to go until voters head to the polls. Harris has been on a nonstop tour of swing states across the nation and has used her appearances to cast the race as a choice between stability and chaos.
Jackson asked what her team planned to do if Trump once again declared victory — as he did in 2020 — before all votes had been counted.
Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries arrested on sex trafficking charges
Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, has been arrested on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Jeffries was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida. Two associates, Matthew Smith of West Palm Beach and James Jacobson of Wisconsin, were also arrested in connection with sex trafficking charges.
Jeffries and Smith made their initial court appearance in West Palm Beach on Tuesday afternoon.
Biden says ‘Lock him up — politically lock him up’ in remarks about Trump
President Joe Biden on Tuesday echoed language former President Donald Trump has used in the past, saying of the former president that “we gotta lock him up.”
Speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire, Biden said Trump’s policies are so “bizarre” and dangerous that if he’d warned about them five years ago “you’d lock me up.”
“We gotta lock him up,” Biden said to applause from the small crowd before he appeared to catch himself and added, “politically lock him up.”
Former White House chief of staff John Kelly says Trump meets the definition of a ‘fascist’
John Kelly, who was White House chief of staff during the Trump administration, said in a series of recent interviews that former President Donald Trump meets the definition of a fascist.
The remark, published Tuesday, was made in one of Kelly’s interviews with The New York Times. Audio of his comments was made available online.
“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” Kelly said.
Kamala Harris’ Record Campaign Money Haul Laps Donald Trump In Final Weeks
Vice President Kamala Harris has lapped former President Donald Trump in fundraising after pulling in a record $1.6 billion across various campaign committees compared to $700 million for Trump.
In total, Harris has raised $928 million for her official campaign, $364 million for the Democratic National Committee and another $307 million for a joint fundraising committee after accounting for transfers made to her official campaign and other party committees, according to FEC filings running through Sept. 30. That total, which includes funds raised when President Joe Biden was the party’s candidate, is a record sum for a presidential candidate.
Fox News Decision Desk Chief Predicts When We’ll Know The 2024 Election Winner
Arnon Mishkin, who runs the Fox News Decision Desk, said he thinks the winner of the 2024 presidential election won’t be known for at least several days after the final ballots are cast on Nov. 5.
“It is dependent on a number of states, like Pennsylvania, that we believe are going to be reporting in a pattern similar to the way they have reported in the past,” Mishkin told Politico in an interview published Monday.
The “over/under is Saturday,” he explained.
Tim Walz says Trump is ‘spiraling down,’ pitches Harris’ message of change
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, appearing on ABC’s “The View” on Monday, gave a more definitive answer to a question his running mate Vice President Kamala Harris did not have an answer to at first: What policy would he have handled differently from President Joe Biden over the past four years.
Maybe better prepared as a result, Walz said he wished one of their ticket’s proposals — an expansion of Medicare — “would have been proposed sooner,” and later said Harris was “really leaning into these issues” on matters such as the care economy and child care affordability — a departure from the current administration, which he said are “tackling the issues that they need to.”
Harris holding moderated conversations with Liz Cheney in 3 battleground states
Vice President Kamala Harris is doing a series of moderated conversations with former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in suburban cities in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday — the day before in-person voting begins in Wisconsin.
With roughly two weeks until Election Day, the effort is part of the Harris campaign’s effort to reach swing voters in the crucial battleground states. Harris is speaking with Cheney in the suburban areas of Chester County, Pennsylvania; Oakland County, Michigan; and Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
The conversations were to be moderated by Bulwark publisher and longtime Republican strategist Sarah Longwell and conservative radio host and writer Charlie Sykes.
Charlie Pierce: Trump Looked Like an Adorable Lil’ Cutie Pie at His McDonald’s Campaign Visit
Golf is a game of long shafts and balls, and what say we leave it there, okay?
Also, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago looks adorable in a full-body apron.
Semi-seriously, I’m not sure why everybody is making a big deal about this McDonald’s stunt. It was fake? Color me not astonished. It’s an example of what a veteran pol once told me about campaigning: Sooner or later, no matter how smart you are, or how brilliant your strategy is, you have to pet the pig. This was petting the pig, not dissimilar to flipping pancakes in New Hampshire or wolfing down corn dogs at the Iowa State Fair. (In 2000, Republican candidate Gary Bauer nearly killed himself flipping flapjacks in New Hampshire.) And then there was Speaker Moses, appearing with Jake Tapper on CNN, finding himself driven to distraction by the topic at hand. Well, it wasn’t exactly a drive. More like a short putt.
U.S. investigating apparent leak of ‘top secret’ U.S. documents about Israel
U.S. officials are investigating the apparent leak of two top-secret U.S. documents that show American spy agencies tracking possible Israeli preparations for conducting an attack on Iran, three U.S. officials said.
The region has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to an Iranian missile barrage launched on Oct. 1, which Iran said was in response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the assassination of its allies, including Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah’s powerful leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Beirut.
Trump attempts to troll Harris by serving french fries at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s
Former President Donald Trump served up french fries Sunday at a Philadelphia-area McDonald’s, oversalting spuds and peppering in some jabs at Vice President Kamala Harris.
The franchise in Feasterville was closed for normal business during Sunday’s photo op. The customers who went through the drive thru were pre-selected by the franchise and the local Trump campaign team, according to a person familiar with the event. The cars were also screened and searched, and the people in them were wanded down, according to the source.
Harris Rallies Georgia’s Black Churchgoers With Help Of Stevie Wonder
Kamala Harris on Sunday summoned Black churchgoers to turn out at the polls and got a big assist from music legend Stevie Wonder, who rallied congregants with a rendition of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.”
Harris visited two Atlanta area churches as part of a nationwide push known as “souls to the polls.”
It’s a mobilization effort led by the National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders, which is sending representatives across battleground states to encourage early voting.
Trump makes vulgar comments about Arnold Palmer at Pennsylvania rally
Former President Donald Trump delivered unusual and vulgar remarks Saturday about the late golf legend Arnold Palmer while campaigning in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, as the campaign enters the final stretch to Election Day.
The former president spoke for more than 10 minutes about Palmer, who was born in Latrobe, at a rally at the local airport named in Palmer’s honor.
“He was an incredible man, he was an incredible champion, and he came from Latrobe,” Trump said.
Then his comments appeared to go off script.
The Rude Pundit: It Really Matters That We Don’t Know a Great Deal About Donald Trump
The louche punditocracy of the corporate media made a huge deal about “what we know” when President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and was replaced with Vice President Kamala Harris. Story after story was all about how voters didn’t “know” Harris and how that would impact her election chances. And it never really stopped. Hell, at the beginning of this month, Fox “news” was still blaring, “Some Biden 2020 voters say they don’t know enough about Kamala Harris,” with an article that included such insightful words from supposedly undecided voters like “She has been the vice president for the past four years and not really implemented anything,” which means they’ve probably only been watching Fox “news.”
But there’s a fuck of a lot we don’t know about Donald Trump and it’s some pretty basic, life-or-death shit. I mean, think about what we do know. It’s a fact that he’s a rapist. It’s a fact that he’s a 34 times convicted felon. It’s a fact that he stole money from a charity. It’s a fact that he defrauded people with Trump University. It’s a fact that he is currently out of jail on bail. All these are Things We Know.
Battle of the billionaires: Harris deploys Mark Cuban as Elon Musk stumps for Trump
As Elon Musk steps up his work on behalf of former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris is calling in her own billionaire, Mark Cuban, to reprise the role he played for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by holding a series of high-profile appearances alongside her and her husband this week.
Cuban appeared with Harris in Wisconsin on Thursday and is set to hold a town hall for her Saturday in Phoenix before he heads to Michigan on Sunday to campaign alongside second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
“This election is a battle for entrepreneurs,” Cuban said in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday, before he warned that Trump’s trade and tariff policies would drive up prices, ruin Christmas by making gifts more expensive and “crush the dreams” of entrepreneurs by making their costs unsustainable.
Jan. 6 rioter who attacked multiple officers sentenced to 17 months in prison
A Texas woman who pleaded guilty to assaulting police during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced to 17 months in prison on Thursday.
Dana Jean Bell’s sentencing is just one among scores of other defendants set to face accountability for their roles in the attack on the U.S. Capitol in the coming weeks, even as former President Donald Trump attempts to rewrite the history of that day in his bid for reelection – including describing it as a “day of love” during a town hall Wednesday.
Thursday’s sentencing hearing, however, painted a much different picture of the day’s events.
Harris jabs at Trump with help from Molly Shannon in Al Smith dinner video
Vice President Harris on Thursday swiped at former President Trump with jokes about his election denialism and his criticism of Detroit during a pre-recorded video address to the Al Smith charity dinner in New York City.
Harris did not attend the dinner in person as she campaigned in Wisconsin. Instead, she addressed the event via a video that featured comedian Molly Shannon portraying her “Saturday Night Live” character Mary Katherine Gallagher, who is a Catholic school girl.
“So tell me something, I’m giving a speech. Do you have some thoughts about what I might say tonight?” Harris asks Shannon in the video.
Biden, Harris say Yahya Sinwar’s death offers chance to end Israel-Hamas war in Gaza
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris described Thursday as a good day for the world after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Sinwar, considered the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel that prompted war in Gaza and wider regional conflict, was killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Thursday.
Biden, in a lengthy written statement, said he had directed U.S. intelligence officials to help Israel locate and track Sinwar as well as other Hamas leaders hiding underground.
‘Visibly Showing Disgust’: Trump Town Hall Audience Wasn’t Buying His ‘Stream Of Lies’
Donald Trump faced a rare non-MAGA audience on Wednesday during a Univision town hall event featuring undecided Latino voters.
And it didn’t go well for the ex-president.
One former Republican offered Trump the “opportunity” to win back his vote ― then confronted Trump directly over his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, his botched response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how many members of his own administration have since turned against him.
Liam Payne, member of One Direction, dies after falling at hotel in Argentina, officials say
Liam Payne, a member of the British pop band One Direction, died Wednesday at age 31 after he fell from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina, local authorities said.
Sistema de Atencion Medica de Emergencia, the emergency health service, said in a statement to Telemundo, NBC News’ Spanish-language sister network, that Payne fell from the balcony in Palermo.
Police “were directed to the hotel by a 911 call reporting an aggressive man,” said the emergency services agency. It did not say whether drugs or alcohol were involved, just that the 911 call reported that could be the case.
The agency confirmed Payne’s death, it said.
Harris slams Trump for claiming to be ‘the father of IVF’
Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday slammed former President Donald Trump’s recent comments about in vitro fertilization, pointing to his administration’s impact on abortion restrictions across the country.
Harris told reporters that she “found it to be quite bizarre” when Trump said at an all-women Fox News town hall that aired Wednesday morning, “I’m the father of IVF.”
“He should take responsibility for the fact that 1 in 3 women in America lives in a Trump’s abortion ban state,” Harris said as she departed Detroit. “What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working towards growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk.”
Harris spars with Fox News host and says she wouldn’t be a ‘continuation’ of Biden
In a combative interview with Fox News, Kamala Harris said in the most emphatic terms to date that, if she wins the election, she would pursue an independent presidency that wouldn’t be a repeat of President Joe Biden’s nearly four years in office.
“My presidency would not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris told interviewer Bret Baier, an anchor with Fox News. “And like every new president that comes to office, I will bring my life experiences and professional experiences” to the job. “I represent a new generation of leadership.”
Harris faced criticism over her recent interview on ABC’s “The View,” in which she couldn’t identify any policy differences she has had with Biden since she has been his vice president.
Ted Cruz Dodges Abortion Question In Senate Campaign Debate With Colin Allred
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) repeatedly avoided giving a direct answer to questions about his position on abortion rights during a debate with Rep. Colin Allred, the Democrat hoping to spoil his bid for a third term.
Debate moderator Gromer Jeffers asked Cruz whether he would support exceptions to abortion bans for cases for rape and incest.
“Well, listen, abortion is an issue that many Texans, many Americans, care deeply about, and it’s an issue that people of good faith can disagree,” Cruz said, adding that it’s appropriate for states to set their own laws.
Kamala Harris is set for her first Fox News interview today. What to know.
Following a cautious rollout after moving to the top of Democratic ticket, Harris has in recent days embraced a spate of unscripted interviews in a bid to engage a broader audience. She has appeared on CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” and on Tuesday participated in a live interview with Charlamagne tha God, a well-known radio personality.
Trump’s erratic endgame: Dark threats, personal insults and some dancing
With three weeks left until Election Day, Trump is running an unorthodox, freewheeling campaign, directing threats and insults at a wide mix of people and institutions, pushing his travels deeper into Democratic states where nonpartisan analysts do not regard him as competitive, and wielding darkening rhetoric about undocumented immigrants and personal attacks against Harris at campaign events where he often veers off-script and has mixed up words.
Kamala Harris urges Black Americans not to be fooled into sitting out the race
“The solutions that we all want are not going to happen in totality because of one election,” Harris said during a conversation with radio host Charlamagne tha God that was broadcast live across 140 radio stations. She acknowledged the sentiment of some Black men that Democrats have not always delivered on their promises, but urged them to fight through their disillusionment and vote in November rather than letting Trump and his allies dissuade them from voting.
Armed Man Arrested After Reportedly Threatening FEMA Workers In North Carolina
A North Carolina man was arrested on Saturday and accused of threatening federal emergency responders who have been administering aid since Hurricane Helene ravaged parts of the state last month.
The man, William Jacob Parsons, 44, of Bostic, N.C., was charged under a law that makes it illegal to carry a weapon in a way that threatens the public. He was arrested at a supermarket where a Federal Emergency Management Agency bus was parked, according to Capt. Jamie Keever, a spokesman for the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Parsons had a handgun and a rifle in his possession.
No FEMA personnel were at the site, he said.
Harris calls Trump ‘increasingly unstable and unhinged’ during Pennsylvania rally
Vice President Kamala Harris deployed a new show-and-tell approach to lambasting former President Donald Trump at her Monday night rally, playing clips of him calling his opponents the “enemy within” and saying that it signaled that he was “increasingly unstable and unhinged.”
“After all these years, we know who Donald Trump is: He is someone who will stop at nothing to claim power for himself,” Harris said during her campaign stop in Erie, Pennsylvania.
“And you don’t have to take my word for it. I’ve said, for a while now, watch his rallies, listen to his words,” she added.
Kamala Harris Agrees To Fox News Interview
Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to a sit-down interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, the network announced Monday.
The interview will be taped in Pennsylvania and is expected to consist of 25 to 30 minutes of questions. It’s scheduled to air on Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. EST, on Baier’s show, “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
Baier serves as the network’s chief political anchor.
Trump’s Bizarre Turn At Town Hall Has Critics Asking New Questions About His Health
Donald Trump’s critics say the former president’s strange town hall event on Monday is raising new questions about his health and mental stamina.
The Q&A event was paused when someone in the crowd fainted, then paused again when someone else fainted in the room, which Trump complained was too hot.
“Personally, I enjoy this. We lose weight, you know,” Trump joked. “No, you lose weight. We could do this ― lose 4 or 5 pounds.”
After the second person fainted, Trump decided to ditch the Q&A.
Charlie Pierce: Another Nutcase with a Gun Tried to Show Up to a Trump Rally, This Time in Coachella Valley
Apparently, another right-wing gun fondler showed up at the former president*’s Coachella fiasco this weekend. (Oh, to bask in the aroma of the breezes at a manure farm near the Salton Sea, especially when the temperature clears 100 degrees.) This guy never got within shouting distance of the president, who was yelling some out-and-out fascism over the fields of manure and the many acolytes gathered there. Then many of the acolytes in question were stranded at the manure farm after the event because the organizers apparently hadn’t paid for buses to take them back from the event to the parking lots.
Harris releases her medical report to give Trump’s health and advanced age new scrutiny
Vice President Kamala Harris released a report with details about her health and medical history on Saturday, as the Harris team tries to place former President Donald Trump‘s health and advanced age under new scrutiny.
Harris “remains in excellent health,” her physician, Dr. Joshua Simmons, said in a letter on Saturday. “She possesses the physical and mental resilience required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”
Biden, surveying Milton’s aftermath, announces $600M for rebuilding in Florida and other states
President Joe Biden announced while surveying storm-damaged Florida on Sunday that over $600 million will flow to states affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton, which ravaged Georgia and North Carolina as well.
During remarks in St. Pete Beach, a barrier island city off of St. Petersburg, Biden said nearly $100 million of the money would go toward improvements to Florida’s power system. He noted it was his second time visiting the state in two weeks.
Trump wasn’t in danger from armed man at California rally, officials say
A Las Vegas man was charged with possession of a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine on Saturday after deputies assigned to a rally by former President Donald Trump in southern California’s Coachella Valley stopped him at a checkpoint.
Federal law enforcement said Trump was not in danger.
The suspect, 49-year-old Vem Miller of Las Vegas, was stopped by deputies at 4:59 p.m. in a black SUV at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
The Rude Pundit: Unfucking What You Can… A Case for Voting for Harris Even If You’re Pissed About Israel
I’m going to try to be as clear as possible here in where I’m coming from.
I’m not going to make this about Israel’s war with Gaza and Lebanon except to say that I stand with the large number of Israelisand Palestinians and the Lebanese people who want a ceasefire and the hostages and prisoners brought home. Nor am I going to talk about the Biden/Harris administration’s continued policy of arming Israel. I’ve been pretty clear that I oppose the blank check on weapons the United States has given Israel and that conditions need not only to be met but enforced when it comes to massacring civilians. I want the mass killing of children to end. Dismiss me if you want because of that.
Trump says big companies have ‘raped our country’ in economic speech
Former President Donald Trump said in an economic address Thursday that the U.S. has allowed “big companies” to “come in and raid and rape our country.”
“‘Oh, he used the word ‘rape.’ That’s right. I used the word ‘rape,'” Trump said at the Detroit Economic Club after his remarks were met with what sounded like some gasps from the audience. “They raped our country,” he repeated.
Trump did not specify what companies he was referring to but indicated he was talking about businesses that export goods to the U.S. that were made overseas.
Biden calls on Congress to “move as rapidly as they can” on emergency funding after hurricanes
President Biden gave an update Thursday on the government’s aid efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, urging Americans affected by the hurricane to continue to exercise caution and follow the directions of local authorities as dangerous conditions persist.
“We’ve had search and rescue teams at the ready for any calls for help this morning,” he said from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “There are still very dangerous conditions in the state, and people should wait to be given the all clear by their leaders before they go out. We know from previous hurricanes that it’s often the case that more lives are lost in the days following the storm than actually during the storm itself.”
Obama rips Trump, chides Black men over ‘excuses’ for not voting for Harris
Former President Barack Obama sternly chided Black men over “excuses” to not vote for Vice President Kamala Harris during a stop at a campaign field office on Thursday in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood ahead of his rally, saying he finds them sitting out or voting for former President Donald Trump “not acceptable.”
The event kicked off a blitz through battleground states as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign deploys its strongest political asset headed into the final stretch.
“I remember when I was running for the U.S. Senate there were people who didn’t think I could win that and, certainly, when I was running for president, people like, ‘what’s his name, again?’ And ‘that’s not going to happen,’” Obama said. “And that included, by the way — in our own communities there were people who were skeptical. They liked me and they really liked Michelle, but they thought, ‘well, that’s not going to happen,’ because sometimes we have a tendency to put a ceiling on ourselves.”
Steven Beschloss: Snapshot… The Appeal of Kamala Harris
I thought about holding off for a couple of days and sharing these data points as part of a broader discussion, but they are so interesting and uplifting that I’m spotlighting them now. I’m not talking about the overall polling by New York Times/Sienna College that currently has Kamala Harris edging out Donald Trump 49 to 46 percent nationally—which is a positive shift but still too nail-bitingly tight for comfort. Rather, I’m focused on some of the underlying indicators in this survey conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 6 that illustrate voters’ moods and attitudes.
Read the rest of Steven Beschloss’ piece at and subscribe to his Substack
‘It’s so stupid’: Biden shoots down Marjorie Taylor Greene’s conspiracy theory about controlling the weather
As President Joe Biden delivered a stark warning Wednesday about the dangerous hurricane barreling toward Florida, he shot down misinformation about the storm, including one particular conspiracy theory propagated by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather, we’re controlling the weather. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s so stupid. It’s got to stop,” Biden said in televised remarks at the White House.
Biden, Netanyahu speak for 1st time in months as Israel plans response to Iran attack
President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday, according to the White House.
Vice President Kamala Harris also joined the call, the White House said.
It marked the first phone call between the two leaders in months, and since fighting has intensified in the Middle East as Israel continues its war against Hamas in Gaza while also seeking to root out Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the call lasted about 30 minutes and included a “range of issues.”
Harris’ political operation crosses $1 billion raised for the 2024 election
Vice President Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign operation crossed the $1 billion fundraising threshold in September, two months after she took over as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer, according to two people familiar with the numbers.
The figure includes money raised by the campaign committee itself and by a campaign-affiliated joint fundraising committee that also collects cash for the Democratic National Committee and state parties.
Milton Slices Across Central Florida as Powerful Hurricane
Milton carved a path of destruction after crashing ashore Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, making landfall near Sarasota and making its way across the state overnight with ferocious winds and heavy rains.
The storm had already soaked and battered the state for much of Wednesday and unleashed a spate of tornadoes that caused even more damage and destruction.
Malcolm Nance: A Horrible Anniversary… October 7 One Year Later
On this first anniversary of the 10–7 massacre, I made a special video where I visited the sites of the massacres and heard the voices of the dead. Listen to the story carefully because it is heartbreaking. I find it very hard to watch, but we must witness how old this horrific cycle of violence came about.
FBI foils alleged ISIS-inspired Election Day terror plot by Afghan national
The Justice Department announced the arrest Tuesday of an Afghan national living in Oklahoma and accused him of plotting to kill Americans on Election Day on behalf of the terror group ISIS.
Nasir Tawhedi, 27, is alleged to have sought to purchase semiautomatic firearms and ammunition to further his alleged plans to carry out the attack, and even went so far as to liquidate his family’s assets and resettling family members overseas in preparation.
According to the complaint, Tawhedi entered the U.S. in September 2021 on a special immigrant visa and is currently on parole status pending adjudication of his immigration proceedings.
Trump disputes report that, as president, he secretly sent Putin COVID-19 testing kit
Former President Donald Trump is disputing a report that he has had “as many as seven” phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he left the White House, and that, back when he was in office, Trump secretly sent Putin a COVID-19 testing kit for his personal use.
Journalist Bob Woodward wrote about the alleged interactions between Trump and Putin in his soon-to-be released book, titled “War,” according to the Washington Postand CNN.
Woodward reportedly cited an anonymous Trump aide as the source for his reporting regarding Trump maintaining contact with Putin after leaving the White House.
Kamala Harris kept up a media blitz while Donald Trump postponed a virtual town-hall event.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in a blitz of interviews on Tuesday, pitched a proposal to help people raising children while also caring for aging parents and denounced former President Donald J. Trump, calling some of his statements “surreal” and saying he was too friendly with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.
On “The View,” Ms. Harris said the former president’s willingness to spread false information during the response to Hurricane Helene showed how he “really lacks empathy on a very basic level.” A couple of hours later, on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show, she faulted Mr. Trump over a new report that he had sent Covid tests to Mr. Putin for his personal use at the height of the pandemic. Her interview with Mr. Stern was also one of the most revelatory she has given about herself as a person.
Fearful Residents Flee Tampa Bay Region As Hurricane Milton Takes Aim At Florida Coast
Fearful Florida residents streamed out of the Tampa Bay region Tuesday ahead of what could be a once-in-a-century direct hit from Hurricane Milton, as crews worked furiously to prevent furniture, appliances and other waterlogged wreckage from the last big storm from becoming deadly projectiles in this one.
Tuesday marked the last chance for millions of people in the Tampa metro area to prepare for lethal storm surges, ferocious winds and possible tornadoes in a place that has narrowly avoided a head-on blow from a major storm for generations.
“Today’s the last day to get ready,” said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA director who previously ran the state’s emergency operation division. “This is bringing everything.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis Refused To Answer Hurricane Relief Calls From The White House
The White House called out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a Monday afternoon press briefing in response to reports that the Republican has refused to answer phone calls from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris about hurricane relief efforts.
“It’s up to him if he wants to respond to us or not,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters with a shrug Monday, confirming the reports.
“We invited the governor, right, to come and survey the damage areas with the president. Obviously, we were in Florida, we invited the governor of Florida to come. It was his decision not ― to not attend or not be there with the president,” Jean-Pierre said. “The president has reached out around Hurricane Helene. He reached out. It is up to the governor. It is really up to the governor.”
’60 Minutes’ Kicks Off With Detailed Damning Explanation About Why Donald Trump ‘Backed Out’
CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Monday opened with a detailed account from correspondent Scott Pelley on the lead up to former President Donald Trump bailing on the show’s customary interview with presidential candidates before the election.
“It’s been a tradition for more than half a century that the major party candidates for president sit down with ’60 Minutes’ in October,” Pelley explained.
Harris undergoes a ’60 Minutes’ grilling as Trump sits it out
Vice President Kamala Harris for weeks was criticized for avoiding tough questions that came with long-form traditional media interviews.
In an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that aired Monday evening, she faced many of them all at once.
Chief among them was whether she regretted the initial border policy during the Biden administration that allowed a historic swell of immigrants across the border.
“Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did?” “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker asked.
Foreign adversaries will try to cast doubt on election results after Nov. 5, U.S. intel officials say
Foreign adversaries will try to shake Americans’ confidence in the legitimacy of election results in November by giving voice to false claims or spreading their own disinformation about ballot counting, U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday.
“As we approach Election Day, the intelligence community is also stressing that foreign efforts to undermine America’s democracywon’t end on Nov. 5,” a senior intelligence official told reporters in a virtual briefing.
In its latest assessment of foreign threats to the election, intelligence officials said the main foreign powers seeking to shape the outcome of the vote — Russia, China and Iran — also were focusing on meddling in congressional and state races.
Charlie Pierce: Trump’s Comments About Undocumented People’s ‘Genes’ Is One Of The Worst Things He’s Ever Said
I don’t want to alarm anyone unduly, but the Republican candidate for president of the United States has said something in public that hits the trifecta of being a lie, insane, and historically vile. It is a parlay beyond the reach of most politicians, and of all decent humans everywhere. He was in conversation with Hugh Hewitt, but even that is no excuse. We’ll get to the interview in question. First, however, some preliminary crazy:
[Kamala Harris] wants to go into government housing. She wants to go into government feeding, she wants to feed people. She wants to feed people governmentally. She wants to go into a communist party type system. When you look at the things that she proposes, they’re so far off, she has no clue.
One-year mark of Oct. 7 attack prompts U.S. intelligence warning of violent extremism
A joint federal intelligence bulletin obtained by CBS News warns of potential violent extremism and hate crimes committed in response to the one-year mark of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas and the resulting conflict in Gaza.
The bulletin, authored by FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center, was first disseminated by federal law enforcement to local law enforcement partners late Wednesday.
The agencies found that the one-year mark of the attack “as well as any further significant escalations” in the Israel-Hamas war “may be a motivating factor for violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators to engage in violence or threaten public safety,” the bulletin read.
Vance says a future Trump administration would defund Planned Parenthood
Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, confirmed to reporters Saturday that former President Donald Trump is “consistent” in his views on defunding Planned Parenthood.
A journalist asked Vance, R-Ohio, whether a future Trump administration would defund Planned Parenthood, the reproductive health care group that has garnered opposition from many conservatives for its pro-abortion-rights positions.
“On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions,” Vance said after Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view.”
Harris and Walz embark on massive media blitz
With 30 days to Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are launching a media blitz that began on Sunday, with the two set to appear in a handful of interviews with traditional and new media figures, a senior Harris campaign official told NBC News.
The two sat down with CBS’ “60 Minutes” for separate interviews that will air on Monday, and each will appear on late-night comedy shows later this week. Harris will appear on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday while Walz will sit down with Jimmy Kimmel for the Monday edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
While in New York on Tuesday, Harris is also set to appear on “The View” and “The Howard Stern Show.”
Mike Johnson won’t commit to bringing House back before the election for more hurricane relief
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday did not commit to calling Congress back into session before the election after President Joe Biden pressed congressional leaders about potential funding shortfalls in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Johnson was asked about Biden’s letter to congressional leaders on Friday requesting more money for federal disaster recovery efforts and after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned that the department doesn’t have enough money to get through the rest of hurricane season.
The Rude Pundit: Three Things That Matter from The Vice-Presidential Polite-Off
My quick take on the vice-presidential debate last night between Peter Thiel’s gimp and Governor Care Bear is that it doesn’t matter who “won.” If you give a shit about reality, Walz won. If you prefer your political leaders to be smooth-talking sociopaths spewing bullshit, Vance won. Otherwise, beyond a surprise line or two (like Walz saying that his son witnessed a shooting), it was a disappointingly normal debate where the Democrat was overly deferential and polite and the Republican was a merry liar.
But three things stand out for me.
First, to that liar point, the most important moment in the evening was when the moderators corrected Senator JD Vance. Talking his usual fuckery about immigration, Vance said, “In Springfield, Ohio and in communities all across this country, you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes.” After Walz spoke, quoting the Bible, moderator Margaret Brennan added, “And just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status. Temporary protected status.” And that’s absolutely, completely true. Vance tried to lump legal immigrants in with undocumented ones.
Los Angeles District Attorney Says He Is Reviewing Menendez Case
George Gascón, the Los Angeles district attorney, said on Thursday that his office was reviewing a decades-old case involving the brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home and were sentenced to life in prison.
The case in the 1990s was one of the first to draw a daily national audience to a televised criminal trial. By their own testimony, the two young men marched into the den of the family’s mansion one evening with shotguns and fired more than a dozen rounds at their mother and father while the couple sat on the couch.
Dockworkers strike suspended, tentative agreement includes 62% pay raise over 6 years
A historic United States port strike has been suspended and a tentative agreement was reached “on wages,” according to the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance.
“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the ILA and USMX said in a joint statement Thursday evening.
The tentative agreement would increase workers’ wages by 62% over the life of the 6-year contract, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.
Tim Walz makes direct appeal to conflicted Muslim voters
Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz addressed a Democratic Muslim voter group Thursday night as the Harris campaign works to engage a group of voters who threaten to defect in large numbers over the Biden administration’s handling of the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.
The virtual event, organized by Emgage Action, which endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris last week, was the most direct pitch yet to conflicted Muslim and Arab voters from her or Walz.
The appearance, which coincided with the launch of a group called Arab Americans for Harris-Walz, comes after Harris’ top national security adviser met with Arab and Muslim community leaders.
Liz Cheney campaigns with Kamala Harris for first time, as campaign continues GOP outreach
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, the highest-profile Republican to announce her support for Vice President Kamala Harris, joined her on the campaign trail at an event at Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican Party.
“I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Cheney said Thursday.
Cheney, along with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, announced in September that Harris would have their vote. The Cheneys and Harris have practically nothing in common in their views on policy, but they a shared antipathy for former President Donald Trump and see him as a threat to democracy after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Trump Goes off in First Interview Since Latest Jack Smith Filing: ‘They Rigged the Election’
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed the motion, which contained several new revelations.
Hours later, the former president attended a fundraiser in Houston, where Ali Bradley of NewsNation caught up with him.
“We know that Special Counsel Jack Smith had filed court documents calling her actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election, quote, ‘a private criminal effort,’” she told Trump. “Can you respond to that?”
“Yeah, he’s a deranged person,” he replied. “I call him deranged Jack Smith.”
WORLD Israel says 8 soldiers killed in Lebanon amid “intense fighting” on the ground with Hezbollah
Israel’s military said Wednesday that eight soldiers had been killed in “intense fighting” with Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, three days after it launched ground operations in the country. The update on the ongoing ground raids came almost a year after Israel launched its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for that Iran-backed group’s Oct. 7 terrorist rampage, prompting Hamas’ ally Hezbollah to start firing rockets at northern Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces announced the beginning of it said would be “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Monday, after about two weeks of blistering airstrikes on the group’s strongholds in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Those ongoing strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced about 1 million from their homes, according to Lebanese officials.
Biden visits Carolinas, Harris goes to Georgia to view Hurricane Helene damage
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took separate tours on Wednesday of the catastrophic damage resulting from Hurricane Helene, from which at least 183 people have died.
Biden visited North Carolina and South Carolina days after the storm swept through Florida and traveled north, causing damage as far north as Tennessee and Virginia. He is also expected to travel to Georgia and Florida on Thursday.
Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ to stay in office after 2020 loss, Jack Smith’s team says
Former President Donald Trump was “fundamentally” acting as a private candidate for office and not as president of the United States when he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss, special counsel Jack Smith’s team argued in a filing Wednesday that revealed new details of the scheme at the heart of Trump’s federal election interference case.
The filing asserts that Trump knew that the claims he was spreading about the 2020 election were lies, with Smith’s team arguing that Trump didn’t believe his own falsehoods but instead spread them as part of his broader scheme to stay in power.
‘That Is a Damning Non-Answer’: Walz Hammers Vance for Refusing To Admit Trump Lost Election
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz scolded Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance for refusing to say whether former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election on Tuesday.
During CBS’ vice presidential debate, Walz criticized Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election and the subsequent January 6 Capitol riots, declaring, “He was very clear. I mean, he lost this election and he said he didn’t. 140 police officers were beaten at the Capitol that day.”
He continued, “They were chanting, ‘Hang Mike Pence.’ Mike Pence made the right decision. So senator, it was adjudicated over and over and over. I worked with kids long enough to know, and I said as a football coach, sometimes you really want to win, but the democracy is bigger than winning an election. You shake hands and then you try and do everything you can to help the other side win.”
What products could be affected by the port strike?
The first dockworkers strike at major East and Gulf coast ports in almost half a century could soon mean shortages of bananas and pricier imported cherries at U.S. grocery stores. That’s because both fruits are among the more than 100 categories of food that depend on the now-shuttered operations, with the labor dispute also expected to delay auto shipments.
Just how much American consumers and the U.S. economy will be impacted by the strike’s immediate disruption of ports that handle about half of the country’s trade in cargo containers depends on the duration of the work stoppage, now in its first day.
“Each day that this goes on it creates a backlog of containers and ships,” American Farm Bureau Federation economist Daniel Munch told CBS MoneyWatch. “A 3-to-5-day strike will take two weeks to clear — if it goes into three-week territory, it will be early January before it gets cleared.”
Iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel
Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, causing sirens to sound all over the country, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Orange fire illuminated the sky over Israel as NBC News crews in both Tel Aviv and across the border in Tyre, Lebanon, viewed the apparent missiles being fired. Smaller streaks of light were also seen, appearing to come from Israel’s aerial defense system as it tried to ward off the attack.
Booms were also heard in video captured by NBC News, but it’s unclear whether the sound erupted from clashing missiles in the air or from Iranian missiles landing in Israel.
5 key takeaways from the VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz
Republican Sen. JD Vance and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz clashed Tuesday on everything from economic and gun policy to immigration and school shootings in the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election.
The Ohio senator and Minnesota governor largely kept things cordial personally, even appearing chummy at times and saying they could work with each other. But they repeatedly attacked each other’s running mate and defended their party policies and tickets.
The debate, hosted by CBS News in New York City, could be the last event featuring candidates from both campaigns, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump not currently scheduled to debate again.
‘He’s lying’: Biden hits back at Trump on storm Helene as he announces plans for surveying damage
President Joe Biden angrily hit back at Donald Trump’s false accusations after the former president and Republican presidential nominee leveled a baseless claim about the federal response to Hurricane Helene on his social media platform.
Earlier on Monday, Trump suggested that Biden and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper were ignoring the devastation wrought by the storm, which has killed over 100 people and left hundreds missing and unaccounted for in the Tar Heel state.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he “[didn’t] like the reports” he was allegedly getting about the federal and state governments “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas” hit by the hurricane.
Port strike called at East and Gulf Coast cargo facilities as dockworkers walk off the job
Thousands of dockworkers at ports from New England to Texas went on strike just after midnight on Tuesday as they rally for higher pay and more job security.
The work stoppage, the first at East and Gulf Coast ports since 1977, follows a lengthy impasse in labor talks between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), a shipping industry group representing terminal operators and ocean carriers.
The strike was expected to involve 25,000 workers, according to USMX, and close 14 ports: Baltimore; Boston; Charleston, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; Miami; Houston; Mobile, Alabama; New Orleans; New York/New Jersey; Norfolk, Virginia; Philadelphia; Savannah, Georgia; Tampa, Florida; and Wilmington, Delaware.
Israeli military says “targeted” ground operation in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah has begun
The Israeli military says it has begun a “limited, localized” ground operation against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
In posts shared on social media, the Israeli military said it was carrying out “targeted” ground raids in villages close to the Israeli border.
“A few hours ago, the IDF began limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon,” the military said. “These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”
Tim Walz and JD Vance’s 2024 VP debate is Tuesday. Here’s what to know.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — both relative newcomers to the national political spotlight — face off Tuesday in the only scheduled vice presidential debate before the November election.
The debate is being held three weeks after former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris had their only scheduled debate.
Walz, who is Harris’ running mate, has had a long career in politics but was largely unknown to voters outside of Minnesota before he joined the Democratic ticket.
Dean Obeidallah: Long time CNN anchor shares that if hosts slam MAGA guests you could be fired
We all watched in disbelief as the CNN moderators failed to fact check Donald Trump during the June presidential debate as he unleashed a firehose of lies. Beyond that we’ve seen other CNN anchors remain silent when MAGA representatives are on air peddling misinformation. Why? Well as former long time CNN anchor Don Lemon candidly told me, those anchors fear being fired because the policy to allow Trump and MAGA supporters spew lies on air comes from the top.
Lemon explained in our interview on Friday that the demise of corporate media can be linked to corporate media outlets –not just CNN of course—repeatedly “both siding” issues regarding Trump and the unique threat he poses.
Read the rest of Dean Obeidallah’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack
Charlie Pierce: Trump Ranted and Raved About Immigration, ‘The Purge,’ Movie Casting at a Rally In Pennsylvania
The former president* of the United States, who is also the current Republican nominee for president, got up onstage in Pennsylvania on Sunday and said a great deal that was insane. I just thought I’d take note of that. He said of undocumented people:
They don’t even think about it….These are rough, vicious, rougher than you can possibly imagine. And I say it all the time, if you want to do a movie about some of these people… There’s no actor that could play the role. You know, these actors, some of them are very shaky. You see a big actor and you say, “He’s got no muscle content.” NO MUSCLES! Then they bring in another one, and they say, “He’s got a weak face.” These guys have the whole package.
(Note for context: I do not know what constitutes a “weak face.” And I’d like to point out that, since 2001 anyway, a lot of actors have played rough, vicious foreign terrorists—and have made a lot of dough doing so.)
Hassan Nasrallah, Who Led Hezbollah for Decades, Killed By Israeli Airstrike Into Lebanon
Hassan Nasrallah, who led the militant Hezbollah organization in Lebanon for more than three decades and built it into a domestic political force and potent regional military power with ballistic missiles that could threaten Tel Aviv, was killed on Friday in heavy Israeli airstrikes just south of Beirut. He was 64.
Both Hezbollah and Israel announced his death on Saturday. Israeli officials had said that Mr. Nasrallah was the target of the attack, which rocked the area known as the Dahiya, a dense urban area south of the capital, with such violent force that residents fled in fear as a giant mushroom cloud rose over the city.
Harris vows to keep Biden’s border crackdown: “The United States is a sovereign nation”
During a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to keep President Biden’s asylum crackdown in place if elected, solidifying Democrats’ embrace of more stringent immigration rules.
Harris used her visit to Douglas, Arizona, to address one of the most pressing political vulnerabilities faced by her presidential campaign: illegal immigration. It’s an issue that Americans have grown increasingly worried about in recent years amid record levels of migrant crossings at the southern border, polls show.
