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Raw Story
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[l] at 11/22/24 6:39pm
President-elect Donald Trump's plans for the Department of Justice (DOJ) are reportedly going to include a mix of retribution and historical revisionism, according to a new report.The Washington Post reported Friday evening that Trump is planning to not only fire special counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors, but will also deputize "investigative teams" that will "hunt for evidence in battleground states that fraud tainted the 2020 election." One swing state election official insisted that the Trump DOJ is free to conduct any investigation they see fit, but asserted they won't find anything of value."Since there’s no malfeasance, we will certainly work with anyone who wants to investigate our work,” Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told the Post. “But we will expect them to act with integrity and go where the facts — not their agendas — will lead.”ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manVarious legal experts and commentators are cautioning that Trump using the DOJ to bolster his false claims of election fraud in 2020 will set a dangerous precedent and waste taxpayer resources. Writer Charles Johnson opined: "Getting away with treason and many other crimes isn’t good enough. He also needs to hurt anyone who failed to pledge fealty to him in any way, starting with the ones who investigated his crimes.""Trump is going to spend an insane amount of DOJ money and resources trying to manufacture evidence that he won the 2020 election," journalist and author Radley Balko wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.Roosevelt Institute economist Stephen Nuñez sarcastically wrote that he "can't wait for the DOJ report that states that Trump totally won the 2020 election and Democrats engineered a coup." Revolving Door Project director Jeff Hauser responded to the Post's report by saying it "ritualistic stupidity" for anyone to suggest that Trump's campaign bluster was "hyperbole.""He is what most alarmist people say he is," Hauser added.Click here to read the Post's report in full (subscription required).
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[l] at 11/22/24 6:27pm
Russell Vought, a co-author of the highly controversial “Project 2025” initiative, has been nominated to be the country’s next director of the Office of Management and Budget – a position he’s held before.President-elect Donald Trump made the pick Friday as part of his rollout of his economic team just hours after naming Wall Street insider Scott Bessent to lead the Treasury Department. Vought’s nomination would return him to the powerful agency that he ran during Trump’s first term, where he would be tasked with setting budget priorities, managing agencies and executing the incoming president’s campaign promises to slash government regulations. “I am very pleased to nominate Russell Thurlow Vought, from the Great State of Virginia, as the Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB),” Trump said in a social media post Friday. “He did an excellent job serving in this role in my First Term – We cut four Regulations for every new Regulation, and it was a Great Success!ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manTrump added that Vought was an “aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies.”“Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People,” Trump wrote. “We will restore fiscal sanity to our Nation, and unleash the American People to new levels of Prosperity and Ingenuity. I look forward to working with you again, Russ. Congratulations. Together, we will Make America Great Again!”CNN’s Erin Burnett noted on air while breaking news of Trump’s latest cabinet selection that Vought was a main architect of Project 2025, which Trump disavowed during his campaign.“But Russell Vought is one of the main architects of it, and he has been picked by Trump to head the Office of Management and Budget," she told viewers.Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said Trump clearly wants Vought in a key role to move forward on priorities laid on in the Project 2025 agenda. “He is putting the architect of Project 2025 in a central position to enact the agenda of Project 2025," Crow told Burnett Friday “And that's everything from federal abortion bans, to weaponizing the military for his culture war, and gutting Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid – all the things that are explicit in that program are articulated by Mr. Vought and he wants him in a key role to effectuate it.”
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[l] at 11/22/24 6:12pm
Donald Trump's selection of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to head up the Justice Department following the implosion of his nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is largely motivated by a deep desire for loyalty — Bondi was accused of accepting campaign contributions to shut down a probe into Trump University and served as Trump's defense counsel during the first impeachment trial.But one group of Trump loyalists in particular are worried she may not go to bat for them, Politico reported Friday: Jan. 6 defendants.For her part, Bondi promoted many of the same conspiracy theories as the Jan. 6 defendants about the 2020 election being stolen — but, noted the report, "there’s no record of Bondi commenting on the massive FBI manhunt to apprehend nearly 1,600 people for storming the Capitol that day, including hundreds who assaulted police." And some of those defendants now worry she can't be trusted to help them.ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven man“I have never seen Pam Bondi speak out on January 6. Hopefully, she isn’t too distant from the issue to clean house and investigate DOJ wrongdoing,” said William Pope, who will go to trial next year for his role in the Capitol attack. “This is a top priority for our next Attorney General!” Another defendant, Phillip Anderson, posted, "Is she on our side? Will she end the J6 prosecutions and start prosecuting democrats? If not then she’s the wrong choice.”The fact that Bondi has few associations with Jan. 6 investigations, noted the report, "stems from her contact with Cassidy Hutchinson, a witness to the House Jan. 6 select committee who described efforts by figures close to Trump — including Bondi — to line up jobs and legal representation for her. Hutchinson interpreted those overtures as an effort to keep her in the fold amid fears that other allies might reveal damaging information to investigators."Regardless of Bondi's stance, she may not even have much of a role in the January 6 prosecutions. That's because Trump has repeatedly suggested he could pardon them upon taking office, a power he will have. However, after the election, Trump appeared to walk this back slightly, with his team suggesting he would review the charges "case by case" rather than a blanket pardon for everyone.
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[l] at 11/22/24 5:55pm
President-elect Donald Trump on Friday night nominated an Oregon congresswoman to become the nation's next labor secretary, touting her as the right person for the job to grow languishing wages and resurrect manufacturing jobs.Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) was the first Republican woman to represent the state in the House and one of the first two Hispanic women from the state elected to Congress. She has in the past touted her "strong record of delivering bipartisan results." "I had the second-most bipartisan voting record last year because I’m not afraid to stand up and do what’s best for the 5th District," she told Oregon Public Broadcasting in October. ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manShe lost her re-election bid to Democrat Janelle Bynum during an election in which Chavez-DeRemer was described by Democrats as an "extremist in moderate’s clothing who has attempted over and over to mislead Oregonians about her out-of-touch beliefs – especially on her votes against reproductive freedom."Trump said in a statement that he looks "forward to working with her to create tremendous opportunity for American Workers, to expand Training and Apprenticeships, to grow wages and improve working conditions, to bring back our Manufacturing jobs.""Together, we will achieve historic cooperation between Business and Labor that will restore the American Dream for Working Families," said Trump. "Lori’s strong support from both the Business and Labor communities will ensure that the Labor Department can unite Americans of all backgrounds behind our Agenda for unprecedented National Success - Making America Richer, Wealthier, Stronger and more Prosperous than ever before!"
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[l] at 11/22/24 5:35pm
Donald Trump's new plan to strong-arm the Justice Department goes well beyond what any president in modern history has ever done, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig warned CNN's Pamela Brown on Friday.According to new reports, Trump plans to fire career prosecutors who worked under outgoing special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the two federal criminal cases against him. This comes as Trump, who in his previous term reportedly even wanted to use the Justice Department to target comedians who made fun of him, nominates a close ally, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, to head up that very department."How big of a deal is this, that Trump wants to totally overhaul the DOJ and get rid of the team, Jack Smith's team that investigated him?" asked Brown.ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven man"Well, Pam, this is a red line that presidents going back through modern history have respected and have not crossed," said Honig. "And here's what I mean. Presidents unquestionably have power and authority to hire and fire political appointees. The attorney general, the deputy attorney general, the 93 U.S. attorneys. Donald Trump, during his first term, did fire Jeff Sessions essentially, and two U.S. attorneys. However, the line that sounds like it would be crossed here, if this reporting plays out, is the firing of nonpolitical career prosecutors, law enforcement agents, staff who were on Jack Smith's team.""Those people — I used to be one of them," he continued. "That is 99 percent of the Justice Department's workforce. Those people are nonpolitical. They are career prosecutors. They are career law enforcement officers. They are there in a nonpartisan capacity. And what we've not seen before, and why this would be fundamentally different, is because now we're looking at a president ordering the firing of those career prosecutors.""Again, even Donald Trump himself, during his first four years, did not cross that line," Honig added. "But if this is how it plays out, then we're in new territory."Watch the video below or at the link here. - YouTube www.youtube.com
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[l] at 11/22/24 5:23pm
Donald Trump’s choice of Tulsi Gabbard to be his next administration’s director of national intelligence is igniting new scrutiny after reports surfaced Friday that the former Hawaiian congresswoman was briefly placed on a government watch list.According to CNN, Gabbard’s overseas travel patterns and foreign connections landed her on a Transportation Security Administration list, which triggers additional security screening before flights. She was quickly removed, however, after she took to social media to claim she was added to a “secret terror watchlist.” “Gabbard has claimed she was put on the list because she had criticized then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris in an interview with Fox News — something two of the sources flatly denied had anything to do with it,” CNN reported.“The TSA placed me on the Quiet Skies domestic terror watchlist in what I can only describe as the ultimate betrayal,” Gabbard told her followers on X in September. “The Harris-Biden regime has now labeled me a domestic terror threat. Why? They see me as a threat to their power.”ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manCNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero raised doubts about those claims Friday evening, saying the TSA program that led to Gabbard being flagged uses highly technical and anonymous data to identify passengers for enhanced security measures.“I think senators would want to know where are the places that she was, why was she traveling there, what types of activities was she engaged in with respect to maybe foreign leaders that she was talking to and what she was doing,” Cordero said during an appearance on CNN. “But the actual placement on the list, as long as she was removed promptly once it was realized who she actually was, this doesn’t strike me as anything that was intentional or politically motivated in other ways.”Senate Republicans have expressed concerns about Gabbard's confirmation prospects, with some calling for her full FBI file.Watch the clip below or at this link.
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[l] at 11/22/24 5:15pm
An Iowa senator has been tapped to take the helm of a new Senate caucus that will work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's largely symbolic Department of Government Efficiency, which is tasked with identifying areas to slash spending.Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) will head the Senate DOGE Caucus after meeting with Ramaswamy at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, Politico reported. "The tables are finally turning, the knives are out, and waste is on the chopping block," Ernst said in a statement, according to the news outlet. "The Senate DOGE Caucus is ready to carry out critical oversight in Congress and use our legislative force to fight against the entrenched bureaucracy, trim the fat, and get Washington back to work for Americans."ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manRamaswamy wrote on social media that he and Musk look forward to partnering with the Senate to "downsize government." "Grateful to Sen. Joni Ernst for her excellent suggestions yesterday!" he exclaimed.Ernst is Iowa's junior senator. She has stirred controversy by promoting conspiracy theories, including about COVID-19, such as expressing skepticism about the death toll. In 2020, she suggested healthcare providers could be inflating coronavirus-related deaths for financial gain, a debunked claim echoed by far-right commentators and QAnon supporters.On the House side, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) will join a congressional subcommittee that will coordinate with DOGE.
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[l] at 11/22/24 5:00pm
Walmart — the world's largest retailer — issued a warning to customers that they may pay more for the same products if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on his promise to impose new tariffs on imports.Walmart's finance chief, John David Rainey, acknowledged that new tariffs would likely be passed on to the people buying goods imported from overseas, Fortune reported Friday. Currently, anywhere from 70% to 80% of goods sold at Walmart are made in China, and could be affected by potential new tariffs. In September, PBS reported that Trump proposed tariffs as high as 60% on imports from China, and 20% tariffs on products made elsewhere."Tariffs are going to be inflationary, there’s no disputing that," Rainey said earlier this week.ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven man“We’re going to work with our suppliers as well as our own private brand assortment to continue to try to bring down prices for customers,” he added. “But we’re not immune, and tariffs will be inflationary for customers.”While Trump has argued that a tariff is a tax imposed on a foreign country with no downside for Americans, the National Retail Federation (NRF) says that's not true. On the eve of Election Day, NRF vice president Jonathan Gold stated that unless exporters are willing to drop factory gate prices, tariffs will be paid with either higher import duties, higher prices or a combination of the two."A tariff is a tax paid by the U.S. importer, not a foreign country or the exporter," Gold said.In September, journalist David Cay Johnston pointed out that if Trump's proposed tariffs become reality, it would incentivize American companies to raise prices far beyond what it would cost to cover the tariff in order to maximize profit margins. He warned that in this way, Trump's key economic proposal would "aggressively transfer wealth from the poor to the rich."Click here to read Fortune's report in full.
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[l] at 11/22/24 4:43pm
Congressional Republicans are aiming at a new target in their promise to gut federal agencies once Donald Trump reemerges in the White House with a GOP trifecta.Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) said he plans to introduce a measure that would abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, which he attacked for continuously violating “citizen rights and Second Amendment rights.” “The ATF is a disaster,” Burlison told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “For decades they’ve been a disaster agency and they’ve been violating the Constitution’s Second Amendment.”Burlison, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, added that states should have the ability to regulate the matters themselves without federal oversight.ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven man“Every time they try to get involved, they mess things up," Burlison said. “They have a long history of mistakes of abusing individuals' Second Amendment rights – all the way back to Ruby Ridge, to what happened at Waco, and then you had the Operation Fast and Furious."He added: “I think at the end of the day, this agency needs to be abolished, and we need to let the states police what happens to the states.”An ATF spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement the agency “provides enormous benefits to the American public through all of its efforts fighting violent crime every day.”The ATF isn't the only federal agency in Burlison's crosshairs. He also told the network he thinks the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency should be abolished, and said downsizing government was a top priority for Republicans next year that he hopes can be accomplished in the first 100 days.“A lot of the ABCs of this town need to be abolished starting with the Department of Education, I think we should eliminate the EPA…let all of these decision be made at the state level.”He added that he was “looking forward” to working with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in their new advisory roles to “consolidate or eliminate entire agencies.”
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[l] at 11/22/24 4:30pm
President-elect Donald Trump has offered hedge fund executive Scott Bessent to head the Treasury Department, CNN reported.The reporting on Trump’s transition team came Friday afternoon days after the incoming president named Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary.The news seemed to please Republicans.ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven man“I think he’s got the right skill set and experience to do the job,” longtime GOP strategist Scott Jennings said on CNN. “I don’t know how you can be critical of Bessent for Treasury if you follow the financial markets closely. This is a home run pick.”Jennings added that he thinks both Republicans and the financial world will be happy with the selection of Bessent. The report comes a day after Trump reportedly talked with Kevin Warsh at Mar-a-Lago about Warsh taking the job. The Wall Street Journal characterized Warsh as the "front-runner" with plans to possibly later have him lead the Federal Reserve once Jerome Powell’s term as chair ends in 2026.
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[l] at 11/22/24 4:19pm
Donald Trump plans to purge the team that worked with special counsel Jack Smith to try to prosecute Trump and assemble teams to investigate the 2020 election, The Washington Post reported Friday.According to the report, Trump wants to immediately seek revenge against the federal prosecutors who helped outgoing special counsel Jack Smith file two criminal cases against him, firing every attorney working under him "including career attorneys typically protected from political retribution, according to two individuals close to Trump’s transition."He also plans to "assemble investigative teams within the Justice Department to hunt for evidence in battleground states that fraud tainted the 2020 election," according to two people near the Trump transition team. Before narrowly winning the presidency in 2024, Trump lost the 2020 election and has repeatedly pushed baseless claims it was stolen. No audit in any battleground state has found evidence of fraud.ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manWhen asked for comment Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said her boss "campaigned on firing rogue bureaucrats who have engaged in the illegal weaponization of our American justice system, and the American people can expect he will deliver on that promise." "One of the many reasons that President Trump won the election in a landslide is Americans are sick and tired of seeing their tax dollars spent on targeting the Biden-Harris Administration’s political enemies rather than going after real violent criminals in our streets," she said in a statement.There is no evidence that the prosecutions against Trump were politically motivated. Moreover, under the Biden administration, violent crime dropped to nearly a 50-year low.This comes after Trump stirred up a firestorm of controversy, including within his party, by nominating former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to serve as attorney general, despite a House Ethics Committee report detailing allegations he engaged in child sex trafficking. After Gaetz withdrew, Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, another far-right Trump loyalist who represented Trump during his first impeachment trial.
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[l] at 11/22/24 4:05pm
A Democratic lawmaker ridiculed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after the Georgia Republican scored a new job that will coordinate with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Greene will join a new congressional subcommittee that will work with the Department of Government Efficiency, a largely symbolic agency that Trump announced will identify severe cuts and be headed by Musk and Ramaswamy."This is good, actually," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wrote on X. "She barely shows up and doesn’t do the reading. To borrow a phrase I saw elsewhere, 'It’s like giving someone an unplugged controller.'"Also Read: The 50-year war on democracy that built Trump's oligarchy and killed the American dream"Absolutely dying at those two now getting assigned the 'privilege' of 'working' with MTG," she continued. "That is actually hilarious. Enjoy, fellas! Very prestigious post you have there."Punchbowl News congressional reporter Melanie Zanona agreed Friday afternoon, telling MSBC panelists that some committees require actual work, while others are more for "show horses.""I think in this case, this is another example where Marjorie Taylor Greene will hold a bunch of hearings and draw a lot of attention, but I'm not sure she's going to be holding all that much," said Zanona. "I think it is important to note that the Appropriations Committees are the ones that actually do the work of authorizing and doling out spending, so she can go after the government agencies from her perch on the subcommittee, but she doesn't have the power or the authority from that committee to do any spending cuts."Rev. Al Sharpton said Greene, Musk and Ramaswamy "almost deserve each other if they were not talking about serious issues." "The conversation they have — we should make a reality show of Elon talking with MTG," he suggested. "Imagine that conversation. And it is furtherance of how they made a mockery of government."Greene has bragged that she will have subpoena power, and specifically threatened Dr. Anthony Fauci. See the comments from the panel below or at the link here. - YouTube youtu.be
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[l] at 11/22/24 3:52pm
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) may have been forced to withdraw from Donald Trump's nomination for attorney general, at a cost to the GOP and Trump's ability to control the caucus. But the battle to prevent unqualified nominees from controlling critical agencies is just beginning, The Washington Post editorial board wrote Friday.This comes as multiple other picks for the Trump administration deal with sexual misconduct scandals of their own, just after Gaetz was derailed by an ethics investigation into accusations he engaged in child sex trafficking."Mr. Trump has privately told allies that he hopes Mr. Gaetz’s failure will ease confirmation of other controversial nominees," wrote the board. "It should do the opposite, steeling senators to conduct the scrutiny required of Mr. Trump’s remaining picks. Several are plainly unworthy of high office." This includes Fox News personality Pete Hegseth for Pentagon chief, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services, despite promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines, COVID, AIDS, and Jews; and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, even though she has pushed pro-Russian conspiracy theories.ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manFor that matter, wrote the board, even Trump's pick to replace Gaetz, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, has a questionable record — even if she is significantly more qualified as a prosecutor."She sued to invalidate the Affordable Care Act," wrote the board. "She took contributions from prominent Scientologists and declined to pursue allegations against the church. Mr. Trump’s charity contributed $25,000 to a political group backing Ms. Bondi in 2013, around the time she decided not to pursue fraud complaints against Mr. Trump’s for-profit seminar business." She also acted as a foreign agent to lobby for Qatar. Moreover, noted the board, she led "Lock Her Up" chants against Hillary Clinton in 2016, and pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, neither of which suggest an impartial law enforcement official.Senators should not let her off the hook just because they're relieved Trump didn't pick Gaetz, the board concluded. "In Ms. Bondi’s confirmation hearings, senators should ask: What would be her red lines? What could Mr. Trump ask her to do that would prompt her to resign?"
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[l] at 11/22/24 3:34pm
A former Florida Republican said he's breathing a "sigh of relief" that Pam Bondi is now Donald Trump's new attorney general choice, noting that she's not only qualified, she hasn't been embroiled in any sex scandals.Legal analysts debated ethics and experiences during Friday's MSNBC discussion about Bondi. Former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) confessed that he's a friend of Bondi's and he sees her as completely qualified for the job. She also has the added benefit of not having had any sex scandal, he said.The previous appointee was former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who resigned from Congress ahead of an Ethics Committee vote on whether to release a report on an investigation into allegations against him. Some details of the report have dripped out, including testimony from two witnesses who spoke to the committee.Also Read: Pro-Trump super PAC fined for election law violation Despite calls from Trump and lobbying efforts with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, Gaetz withdrew his promised nomination on Thursday."We should breathe a little sigh of relief," said Jolly about Bondi. "The big difference between Matt Gaetz and Pam Bondi is this. Pam Bondi is qualified to run the department. ... She hasn't been accused of sexual misconduct or sex trafficking."But it was Andrew Weissmann, former top prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller, who said that the standard should be higher than not having been investigated by the Justice Department. "One thing that is important is for our viewers not to recalibrate simply because there is a new normal that she is not Matt Gaetz," said Weissmann. "That's not the standard for whether somebody should be the attorney general of the United States."He pointed out that it is also not a qualification to be a state prosecutor for years. "Absolutely, she has that experience, but the real issue is, I think, sort of the second part of what David was talking about, which is, one: Does she believe that facts and law are what is supposed to govern the Department of Justice and all decision-making?" asked Weissmann. "Two: Do you think it is right for the president to say who you should prosecute and who you should not prosecute?" he continued. "And so, questions like 'Do you believe there is a stolen election in 2020,' are totally appropriate ones. When she talks about going after, you know, political enemies of Donald Trump, is that the appropriate role for the Department of Justice? She shouldn't have to walk them back because that is the critical issue."See the discussion below or at the link here. - YouTube www.youtube.com
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[l] at 11/22/24 3:09pm
With former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) out of the running as head of the Justice Department, Republican senators are shifting their attention to another one of Donald Trump’s controversial nominees.While former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has made some eyebrow-raising comments – including her calls for the U.S. government to “drop all charges” against Edward Snowden – and taken other curious foreign policy views, Trump still selected her as director of national intelligence in his new administration. But that hasn’t stopped some Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee from calling for Gabbard’s full FBI file, according to a new report in Punchbowl News.“Trump’s choice of Gabbard is in keeping with his desire to completely overhaul the federal bureaucracy,” Punchbowl reported. “But GOP senators are already indicating they’ll be interested in probing Gabbard’s controversial and often outright hostile posture toward the very intelligence apparatus she’d run if confirmed.”ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manWhile FBI probes into cabinet picks are standard practices, suggestions have been raised that Gabbard’s file could reveal new information about the former lawmaker who appears to have a cozy relationship with Russia, including possible foreign contacts, according to the report. “I start out saying, OK, this is an individual the president wants on his team,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told Punchbowl. “But now let’s talk about information that maybe the president didn’t have, or information that comes up, and at that stage do we advise the president to look elsewhere or do we offer our consent?”Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who like Rounds, sits on the Intelligence Committee, told Punchbowl that he “has no doubt that she’s a patriot,” but added that he would still like to question Gabbard on her views toward Russia.And Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) called Gabbard “a nominee that illustrates the importance of a full background check, a public hearing, and the constitutional role of the Senate.”Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said Friday afternoon during an appearance on Fox News that while Gabbard is one of three nominees that will be a challenge to win Senate confirmation, he was confident she would get there.“She’s got a little bit of work to do but I’m going to help her get where she needs to get,” Mullins said, adding that former Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also face tough roads in their confirmation processes.“Those three are going to be a challenge but we’re going to deliver that to Donald Trump and do it hopefully in a fast order,” he said.
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[l] at 11/22/24 2:52pm
Donald Trump received a slap on the wrist Friday from the Wall Street Journal in the form of a snarky editorial video that lists multiple lessons they urge the president-elect to learn. Ominous music pulses underneath a dire video editorial that warns Trump he needs to change his ways after initially selecting former Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general nominee. "Not all allegations against Republicans are partisan shams," the narrator tells Trump. "Take your lead from people who know, not MAGA Twitter insurgents."As the camera zooms in on a grinning Sen. Mitch McConnell, the narrator explains to Trump that Republicans are well-versed in protecting their own from "nonsense." The image cuts to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and the narrator adds, "even their unpopular colleagues."The Journal then issues a snide slam of Gaetz, who was forced to withdraw his name from the Cabinet contest as Republican senators balked at confirming a candidate accused of having sex with a minor at a drug-fueled party. ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven man"There was a reason few if any Republicans rushed to Mr. Gaetz's defense," the narrator said. "They know him." This zinger leads to the Journal's final lesson for Trump, which appears above an image of a smiling Gaetz sitting next to Rep. Lauren Boebert as she sticks her tongue out. "There's a bright line between a candidate who is aggressive, committed and professional," the narrator says, "and one who is unthinking, partisan and a liability." The Journal praises Trump for choosing as Education Department head Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment executive accused of covering up child sex abuse, and Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state.The Journal also reminds Trump of the two sides of their bright line. "Gaetz was always clearly the latter," the narrator says. "Big on bravado, short on ideas."Watch the video below or click here.
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[l] at 11/22/24 2:37pm
Former Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera was overjoyed that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) dropped out of contention to serve as Donald Trump's next attorney general, he told CNN's Brianna Keilar on Friday."I first want to get your thoughts on Gaetz," said Keilar. "Are you surprised that Trump didn't end up going to the mat politically for him?""I am relieved, tremendously relieved. I don't know if I am particularly surprised," said Rivera, a conservative commentator who nonetheless opposed Trump in the 2024 election. "Matt Gaetz is a toxic stinker of a legislator, I think that he would have been a horrible choice at the Department of Justice. He's barely a lawyer. He's never prosecuted anything. You know, he has a couple of hours in his — in a family firm down in Florida. His sex with the underage — alleged sexual encounters with the underage young lady, the 17-year-old in Florida and the threesomes, and then The New York Times releasing, you know, the diagrams of how he paid off scores of these ladies, allegedly, with a PayPal and Venmo. He's just a low-life."ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manUltimately, he said, "How the president picked him I will never know. Seems that it was an impetuous choice. You know, there are a lot in that potential cabinet, Brianna, that are very controversial, but at least they are arguably competent. Not like this guy, this guy who tried single-handedly to destroy the House of Representatives, you know, going after the speaker, Kevin McCarthy. It's a relief."Geraldo added that he's much more enthusiastic about Trump's selection of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to replace him."I wish her the best," he said. "I've known her for years, interviewed her many times. She was a regular on my 'At Large' show on the weekends and often run into in the green room at Hannity. She's a real prosecutor, a county prosecutor, you know, with vast experience. Yes, she's controversial with Trump University and a bunch of other things that I've heard you mention. But she's the real deal." Even if, he added, "you may not like her politics."Watch the video below or at the link here. - YouTube www.youtube.com
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[l] at 11/22/24 2:20pm
President Elect-Donald Trump is reportedly expected to offer a businesswoman and former U.S. Senator from Georgia the job of Agriculture secretary, CNN reported Friday.Trump was expected to meet with Kelly Loeffler at Mar-a-Lago on Friday afternoon, according to the report. Loeffler is a Trump loyalist — even boasting of a "100 percent Trump voting record" — who served as a senator for about a year beginning in January 2020 upon being appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp. She filled the seat left vacant by Sen. Johnny Isakson, who resigned.Loeffler was reportedly in “advanced talks” about selling her company, a subsidiary of commodity and financial service provider Intercontinental Exchange, to Donald Trump's Truth Social. A few days later, she was reportedly teased for the agriculture role, CNN reported. Loeffler was CEO of the cryptocurrency trading firm Bakkt, according to the Financial Times. Her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is now overseeing the company. The Times broke the news of the possible sale on Monday.News of the possible deal caused shares of Trump Media — which is majority-owned by Trump — to shoot up by double digits minutes after the Financial Times report was published, CNBC reported.Also read: Marjorie Taylor Greene gets fresh scrutiny from regulators after election violation fineAs a result of the deal, Trump Media, "the company, which operates the Truth Social app and trades on the Nasdaq as DJT, closed more than 16% higher," according to that report.Loeffler is also serving as a co-chair for Trump’s inauguration team.This position will be significant, as reports on Friday revealed that Congress is likely to "punt" on the latest reauthorization of the farm bill. The 2018 farm bill expired on September 30, 2023. WOSU reported on Friday that the delay in reauthorizing the farm bill is causing problems for Ohio farmers.Read the full report on Loeffler's sale to Trump Media here.
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[l] at 11/22/24 1:51pm
Senate Democrats are under massive pressure to fight Donald Trump as he prepares for his second term — and they are coalescing around a strategy to do so, reported Carl Hulse for The New York Times.Specifically, they have realized Trump is damaging the GOP with his most controversial Cabinet nominations, and they can simply sit back and let Republicans fight over what their incoming president is doing.Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) "is keeping quiet for a reason, and it is not because he does not have opinions on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s administration in the making," wrote Hulse. "With some Republicans raising their own profound concerns about Mr. Trump’s ethically and legally challenged choices, such as the former Representative Matt Gaetz to be attorney general and the Fox News personality Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, why get in the way of their intraparty hand-wringing?"Gaetz ultimately withdrew from consideration over allegations of child sex trafficking investigated by the House Ethics Committee, necessitating Trump to replace him with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Hegseth, meanwhile, is similarly mired in sexual assault allegations.ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manAccording to the report, Schumer believes if he was too outspoken against Trump's picks, he could be made into the villain around which MAGA could rally to get the nominees confirmed — but if he is on the sidelines and the predominant voices arguing over the picks are Senate Republicans, it fractures and demoralizes the GOP more effectively.The strategy is already having its intended effect, reported Hulse — because when Gaetz dropped out, "he claimed privately that a handful of recalcitrant Republicans — Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as well as Senator-elect John Curtis of Utah — had prompted his exit. Right-wing activists quickly went after them, calling on MAGA world to vote them out."
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[l] at 11/22/24 1:30pm
Dana White, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has been a Donald Trump ally for many years. And he supported him in the 2024 presidential race.But according to The New Yorker and the Daily Beast, White has grown fed up with politics.White told The New Yorker, "I'm never f------ doing this again. I want nothing to do with this s---. It's gross. It's disgusting."READ MORE:'Wrong': Christian GOP senator fears 'slippery slope' of OK school chief’s Bible pushWhite's comments, according to the Daily Beast's Janna Brancolini, "came as Trump took a victory lap at last Saturday's UFC fight with an entourage that included Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and musician Kid Rock.""White himself also joined their group after endorsing Trump at this year's Republican National Convention and stumping for him on the campaign trail," Brancolini reports. "The promoter has been loyal to Trump for years, after Trump agreed to host UFC fights at his since-bankrupt Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City back in 2001, when most venues considered cage fighting too violent."Brancolini notes that White praised Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention," donated "$1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC" in 2020 and supported him again in 2024."That's nearly a decade of service to Team Trump," Brancolini observes. "But now that Trump is entering his second and presumably final term in office in January, suddenly White is ready to be done with politics."READ MORE: Ron DeSantis slams the door on Matt Gaetz's hopes of being a senator
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[l] at 11/22/24 1:08pm
Interviews with Donald Trump's voters reveal a dark truth about the "mandate" his supporters say the president-elect has been granted, a new report reveals. The truth, according to Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, is that the mandate doesn't exist — but may be acted upon anyway."Many people who voted for him believe he will do only the things they think are good (such as improve the economy) and none of the things they think are bad (such as act as a dictator)," Serwer wrote. "This is the problem with a political movement rooted in deception and denial; your own supporters may not like it when you end up doing the things you actually want to do." Serwer spoke with several Trump supporters who revealed alarming confidence that the president-elect will strictly follow their specific moral codes and dismiss his darker pledges as campaign rhetoric.One Trump voter claimed there was no evidence the president-elect had ever made a racist claim."I found this extraordinary," wrote Serwer, "because the list of racist things that Trump has said and done this past year alone is long."ALSO READ: A giant middle finger from a tiny craven manThat list includes lying about Haitians eating pets, questioning Vice President Kamala Harris' race, and claiming immigrants had "bad genes" that made them more likely to murder. People who say they've heard the president-elect use the n-word include his nephew Fred Trump III, niece Mary Trump and "The Apprentice" producer Bill Pruitt.In 2016, then-presidential candidate Trump suggested Vladimir Putin had called former President Barack Obama the n-word then said of the Russian president, "I hope he likes me." This was not the only misconception of Trump's views, Serwer reported. "There were the day laborers who seemed to think that mass deportations would happen only to people they—as opposed to someone like the Trump adviser Stephen Miller—deemed criminals," he wrote. "There was the restaurant owner and former asylum seeker who told CNN that deporting law-abiding workers 'wouldn’t be fair,' and that Trump would not 'throw [them] away; they don’t kick out, they don’t deport people that are family-oriented.'"During his first administration,Trump spearheaded a deportation program that separated families — the Washington Post reported in May of this year that 1,400 children remain separated.Serwer said many voters he interviewed on the campaign trail didn't understand why Democrats compared Trump to Adolf Hitler — seemingly unaware his own former chief of staff had revealed the former president praised the Nazi dicator's generals and actions. The Atlantic writer credited the right-wing media with Trump's ability to survive what might once have served as career-killing scandals — but warned his voters they might have some unsavory surprises ahead. The worst would be discovering of the true contents of character only after it is too late, Serwer argued. "Some may change their minds once they realize Trump’s true intentions," he wrote. But added, "all of this may be moot if Trump successfully implements an authoritarian regime."

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