Internet erupts after Biden quickly tosses to first lady at first Cabinet meeting of 2024
Social media erupted after First Lady Jill Biden presented at what may be one of President Biden’s final Cabinet meetings in the White House.
Biden convened his Cabinet on Friday for the first time since Oct. 2, 2023 – this time with the first lady joining him to speak about the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.
The president explained Jill Biden’s presence there, saying, “Here and across previous administrations, first ladies have attended these meetings for specific reasons. This is the first time Jill has joined us, and it goes to show how important the issue is, which she is about to speak to.”
He concluded by handing off to his wife, saying, “It’s all yours, kid.”
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The New York Post reported that Jill Biden, seated at the head of the Cabinet Room’s board table, “read from a binder about maternal health initiatives for four-and-a-half minutes after her husband spoke for just two minutes off the top of the meeting.”
The president traditionally sits at the center of the table with Cabinet members seated in order of the founding of their departments. The last sitting first lady to attend her husband’s Cabinet meeting appears to be Hillary Clinton.
The amount of influence the first lady has over Joe Biden, and therefore his administration, has been a frequent source of controversy, and numerous commentators took to social media to criticize her presence at the meeting.
The New York Post said that Jill Biden is “considered by insiders to be the most influential first lady since Edith Wilson, who tightly controlled access to her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, after he suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919.”
Digital strategist Greg Price referenced this comparison, saying, “She’s literally Edith Wilson except right out in the open in a 24/7 news cycle and nobody in the media cares.”
“Wow. A visibly exhausted Joe Biden just held a full Cabinet meeting for the first time in 11 months and immediately turned the mic over to his wife, Jill,” previous adviser to former President Donald Trump Steve Cortes said. He went on to ask, “Who is running the country?”
Political commentator Kate Hyde observed, “Jill Biden is kicking off the first cabinet meeting the White House has had in almost a year and we’re expected to act like this is normal.”
“Jill Biden is the head of the table at the cabinet meeting. No one voted for her to be there… this must be part of her deal to have Joe drop out of the race,” podcaster Tim Young speculated. “She has no reason to be there.”
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The co-founder of The Federalist, Sean Davis, sarcastically quipped, “I wasn’t aware that our constitutional system of government bestowed any power whatsoever to the unelected wife of the figurehead president.”
“It’s insane that the world’s #1 nuclear superpower just sort of stumbled its way into a power vacuum,” The Hill columnist T. Becket Adams mused. “It’s even more insane that the vacuum has been filled by the former ruler’s wife, who holds no legal governing authority.”
“Is this real?” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asked. “Is this who’s running the country”?
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“Before President Biden updated his cabinet and the country on the continued achievements of the most successful administration in modern history, he asked the First Lady to join for the top of the meeting to showcase groundbreaking work they are leading to fundamentally change how we fund and approach women’s health research,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital.
“If the only response these critics have are conspiracy theories that devalue historic progress researching women’s health – including terrible diseases – then that says a lot about why more and more American women feel that the right couldn’t care less about them, including as it pushes radical abortion bans,” he added, while also making a dig about Hawley running out of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Republican issues ultimatum to GOP candidate in swing state after bombshell report
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., issued an ultimatum to North Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson following the bombshell report of his alleged porn scandal, saying that he “owes it to President Trump.”
“If the reporting on Mark Robinson is a total media fabrication, he needs to take immediate legal action,” Tillis said in a Friday post on X.
“If the reporting is true, he owes it to President Trump and every Republican to take accountability for his actions and put the future of NC & our party before himself,” he said.
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Tillis’ statement came after Robinson made a social media video denying his involvement in the scandal and vowing to remain in the race to become the Old North State’s governor.
“Let me reassure you, the things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson. You know my words, you know my character, and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before. Folks, this race right now, our opponents are desperate to shift the focus here from the substantive issues and focus on what you are concerned with to salacious trap, tabloid trash,” he said in the X video.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Robinson’s campaign for comment.
In comments to CNN, Robinson said that this was “not us.”
“This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said. “I’m not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies.”
In CNN’s report Thursday afternoon, the outlet alleged Robinson’s previous use of a pornography site, called “Nude Africa.”
On the pornographic site, Robinson allegedly messaged with fellow users regarding peeping on women in locker rooms as a teenager, describing himself as a “black NAZI” and declaring a fondness for transgender pornography. The candidates’ involvement spanned from 2008 to 2012, according to CNN, well before Robinson entered the political arena in 2019.
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CNN’s report alleged that Robinson used a pseudonym on the porn site, “minisoldr.”
“I came to a spot that was a dead end but had two big vent covers over it! It just so happened it overlooked the showers! I sat there for about an hour and watched as several girls came in and showered,” Robinson allegedly wrote on Nude Africa.
In another post in 2010, CNN reported Robinson allegedly stated, “I’m a Black Nazi!” while discussing Black Republicans.
The allegations come as North Carolina remains a highly contested battleground state as the 2024 election inches closer.
The key battleground states – including North Carolina – had razor-thin margins that decided President Biden’s 2020 election victory over Trump.
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In 2020, Trump narrowly won North Carolina by just over 1 point. The latest polls in the monumental 2024 presidential race suggest a coin-toss race, with the former president holding the slightest edge.
Fan who caught Ohtani’s 50th home run makes decision about what to do with valuable ball
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani made history Thursday night, becoming the first major league player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season, but he won’t have the home run ball to remember it by.
Craig Mish of the Miami Herald reported an unidentified fan decided to keep Ohtani’s 50-50 baseball from the Dodgers’ 20-4 rout of the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park Thursday night.
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Fans who catch historic baseballs will usually return them to teams for perks, but selling such an item on the market could prove to be more valuable.
According to MLB.com, Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run hit during the 2022 season sold for $1.5 million at auction. But the most expensive baseball ever sold was Mark McGwire’s 70th home run baseball from the 1998 season. It sold the following year for $3 million.
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Mish noted a special ball was used during Ohtani’s at bat, meaning the baseball was authenticated.
Another fan came close to catching the baseball (and possibly a big payday.) The Marlins broadcast showed the fan just out of reach, missing the ball — not once, but twice. The man reached over after Ohtani drove the ball out to the left side of the field and missed it. But the baseball bounced, giving him another chance. He missed again.
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Ohtani hit three homers and stole two bases against Miami on his way to reaching the milestone. The win also secured a playoff spot for the Dodgers.
“It was something I wanted to get over as quickly as possible. And, you know, it’s something that I’m going to cherish for a very long time,” Ohtani said through an interpreter after the game.
Teen who gunned down mom learns fate after disturbing video footage emerges
Carly Gregg, the teenager who fatally shot her mother and attempted to kill her stepfather, was sentenced to life in prison Friday.
The jury in Rankin County, Mississippi, found Gregg, 15, guilty on all counts, and prosecutor Kathryn Newman said Gregg had shown “zero remorse.”
The teen was charged with murder and aggravated assault in the March 19 shooting that killed her mother, 40-year-old Ashley Smylie, and wounded her stepfather, Heath Smylie. She was also charged with tampering with evidence for hiding a security camera after the shooting.
On the first and second counts, Gregg was sentenced to life in prison. On the third count, she received 10 years.
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The ruling came after a week-long deliberation into the shocking murder of Smylie inside the family’s home.
The encounter was recorded on the family’s kitchen surveillance camera, which was shown in court Wednesday. The shocking footage showed the 14-year-old’s seemingly nonchalant attitude as she took a .357 Magnum handgun to her mother’s room and shot her.
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In the video, Gregg is seen texting her stepfather in an attempt to lure him home and ambush him.
When Heath Smylie took the stand Tuesday, he testified that when he opened the kitchen door, “the gun went off in my face before the door was even three to four inches wide open, and everything kind of went pretty fast from there.”
“The gun flashed in my face,” he said. “It went off two more times, but my hand was on the gun after the first shot, and I twisted it from Carly.” Heath was shot in the shoulder during the encounter with Gregg, police said.
During the trial, Gregg’s defense attorney did not deny the teen had killed her mother but attempted to prove the teen was suffering from a mental health crisis and did not remember the shooting.
The five-day trial included expert witnesses and provided insight into Gregg’s mental state.
“Dr. Clark, based on your experience, expertise and evaluation of Carly, do you believe that Carly was able to understand the nature of her conduct and appreciate the difference between right and wrong at the time this incident occurred on March 19?” defense attorney Bridget Todd asked Dr. Andrew Clark, a child and adolescent psychiatrist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“I don’t think so,” Clark said.
In closing arguments Friday, prosecutor Michael Smith zeroed in on the damning security footage, saying Gregg “knew what she did.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, there’s no doubt Carly Madison Gregg is the one who killed her mom, Ashley Smylie. There’s no doubt that she attempted to kill Heath Smylie, when she aimed the gun right at his head and shot and hit him. And there’s no doubt that she’s the one who hid the camera, thus tampering with evidence,” he said.
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“She knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew the difference between right and wrong.”
“We would ask that you go back there, and you find her guilty of all three, because she was not insane at the time that this happened,” he said. “She knew exactly what she was doing, and she knew the difference between right and wrong.”
Eight firefighters returning from massive blaze still hospitalized after nasty rollover crash
Eight firefighters were injured – six critically – after their fire truck rolled over and crashed on a California freeway as they were returning from a shift battling a devastating wildfire.
The group of firefighters were returning to the station after battling the exhaustive 23,000 Airport Fire during a 12-hour shift, when the truck unexpectedly overturned on an Irvine, California, freeway around 6:50 p.m. local time Thursday.
The crash left eight people hurt, one of them needing to be airlifted out of the scene.
Six of the eight crash victims were critically injured and taken to local trauma centers.
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Photos and videos from the scene showed the devastated fire truck on it’s side after the crash.
Authorities did not specify what led to the accident, but it remains under investigation.
Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said in a press conference on Thursday night that the vehicle “did swerve for whatever [reason] and did roll several times. What caused that, again, I have some thoughts, but I don’t have any factual information.”
During a press conference on Friday morning, Fennessy provided an update on the injured firefighters, saying that they had a “long road” of recovery ahead of them.
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“We ask that you pray for our firefighters and their families,” Fennessy said. “This is the beginning of a long road for many of those firefighters and our fire departments.”
Fennessy said Friday morning that the six firefighters injured in the crash remained hospitalized in conditions ranging from “stable to critical.”
He said “many of the injured are going to be hospitalized for quite a while,” but he did not provide specifics about the injuries. Two other firefighters injured in the crash were treated and released on Thursday evening.
“Our crews, as you can imagine, are devastated,” Fennessey said. “As you can imagine how traumatic it would be to see your fellow firefighters that injured in the middle of the freeway.”
The California fire chief said that the community was hurting after the incident, but that he was confident that they would “rally around each other.”
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“This is devastating for me, personally, devastating for everybody in the fire service here in Orange County,” Fennessey said. “We’re heartbroken, we’re devastated, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the crews, firefighters, our professional staff — everybody involved are going to rally around each other, and we’re going to be stronger because of it.”
Harris adviser confronted on VP refusing to answer questions from journalists
A senior adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris suggested she’s too “busy” to talk to the press more often as she enters the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
Former Atlanta mayor-turned-prominent Harris surrogate Keisha Lance Bottoms was pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper about how the vice president hasn’t been “sitting down for regular interviews or fielding questions from the press,” particularly in comparison to her GOP rival, former President Trump.
“Why?” Tapper asked. “Why is she not doing more interviews to talk about her policies and answer some of the questions that voters have about her policies and her change on her views on some of them?
“Well, Jake, she’s done interviews,” Lance-Bottoms pushed back. “And I know that we would love- or you would love to see her sit down every single day with CNN and do interviews. But it’s that she’s a very busy person. She’s the vice president as well as a candidate.”
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“And we heard her today talk about her views on these policies,” she continued. “It may not be in the format that the media would like. It may not be that she’s sitting down doing a one-on-one interview, but we heard her today in Georgia talk about her stance on reproductive freedom and if she’s elected as president of the United States, how she would use the power of the pen to make sure that these freedoms are protected.”
Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., have done a combined 15 interviews since last month, while Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have done a combined 55.
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Other news outlets, including The New York Times and Axios, have been calling out Harris and Walz for dodging the media, noting that Harris has been more reclusive in the first two months of her thriving campaign than President Biden was in the last two months of his faltering campaign.
Most recently, Harris sat down for a lengthy conversation with Oprah Winfrey alongside a roster of A-list supporters including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Jennifer Lopez.
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Harris has yet to hold a formal press conference since she emerged as the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, Trump has held several in recent weeks.
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Latest COVID strain, XEC, has reportedly spread to at least half of all US states