Country’s vice president makes bizarre threat against leader in the event that she’s killed
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte shockingly declared Saturday that she had contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and other top officials should she meet an untimely demise.
Duterte warned in an online press conference that she is deadly serious and not joking about her threat to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. killed if something happens to her first. Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin referred the “active threat” against the president to an elite presidential guard force “for immediate proper action.”
The Presidential Security Command said it has “heightened and strengthened” Marcos’ security protocols. “We are also closely coordinating with law enforcement agencies to detect, deter, and defend against any and all threats to the President and the First Family.”
Security officials are treating the threat – “made so brazenly in public” – with the “upmost seriousness.”
PHILIPPINES DEPLOYS NEW COAST GUARD SHIP TO SABINA SHOAL, DEFYING CHINA’S DEMANDS FOR WITHDRAWAL
“We consider this a matter of national security and shall take all necessary measures to ensure the President’s safety,” the command said.
It is unclear what action, if any, will be taken against the vice president.
Marcos and Duterte ran on the same ticket in the May 2022 elections and both were elected with landslide majorities after campaigning on national unity.
But divisions over policy towards Chinese aggression in the disputed South China Sea and other key issues interrupted the honeymoon and led to a falling out between Marcos and Duterte.
A TIMELINE OF CLASHES BETWEEN CHINA AND THE PHILIPPINES IN SOUTH CHINA SEA, FOLLOWING LATEST SHIP COLLISION
Duterte, a populist, is the daughter of the equally controversial former President Rodrigo Duterte, a well-known critic of Marcos, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s ally and cousin. Duterte has accused them of corruption, incompetence and political persecution of her family and supporters.
Her threat to have Marcos killed came after House members allied with Romualdez and Marcos detained her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, who was accused of hampering a congressional inquiry into the possible misuse of her budget as vice president and education secretary. Lopez was later transferred to a hospital after falling ill, and wept when she heard of a plan to temporarily lock her up in a women’s prison, the Associated Press reported.
Furious, Duterte held an online press conference Saturday and accused Marcos of incompetence as president and of being a liar, along with his wife and the House speaker, throwing several expletives at them in her remarks.
When asked about concerns over her security, the 46-year-old lawyer suggested there was an unspecified plot to kill her. “Don’t worry about my security because I’ve talked with somebody. I said ‘if I’m killed, you’ll kill BBM, Liza Araneta and Martin Romualdez. No joke, no joke,’” the vice president said without elaborating and using the initials that many use to call the president.
EX-PHILIPPINE LEADER RODRIGO DUTERTE LAUNCHES ALLEGATIONS AT SUCCESSOR, SPARKING POLITICAL RIFT
“I’ve given my order, ‘If I die, don’t stop until you’ve killed them.’ And he said, ’yes,’” the vice president said, per the AP.
Philippine law criminalizes public remarks that may constitute a crime of threatening to inflict a wrong on a person or his family, which is punishable by jail time and a fine.
In light of the chaotic political divisions, military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner put out a statement that pledged the 160,000-member Armed Forces of the Philippines would remain nonpartisan “with utmost respect for our democratic institutions and civilian authority.”
“We call for calm and resolve,” Brawner said. “We reiterate our need to stand together against those who will try to break our bonds as Filipinos.”
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Duterte’s father Rodrigo Duterte presided over polcie-enforced anti-drugs crackdowns when he was a city mayor and later president tthatleft thousands of drug suspects dead in killings the International Criminal Court has been investigating as a possible crime against humanity.
The former president has denied authorizing extrajudicial killings under his anti-drug crusade, but some of his public statements have contradicted his denials. He told a public Philippine Senate inquiry last month that he had maintained a “death squad” of gangsters to kill other criminals when he was mayor of southern Davao city.
Blue state to shutter migrant shelters ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration
Deep blue New York will shutter 12 migrant shelters before the end of the year, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Two hotels-turned-migrant shelters in the city have already closed – the Hotel Merit in Manhattan and the Quality Inn JFK in Queens – while 10 other shelter facilities across the state are earmarked for closure by Dec. 31, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office told Fox News Digital.
The 10 shelters are located in Albany, Dutchess, Erie, Orange and Westchester counties and had been put into operation by the city when it ran out of space, such was the sheer scale of the crisis.
BLUE CITIES RUSH TO DISMANTLE MIGRANT SHELTERS AS TRUMP INAUGURATION APPROACHES
Additionally, New York City’s sprawling migrant shelter on Randall’s Island, which was designed to house up to 3,000 people, is slated to shut down by February, a couple of weeks after Trump’s inauguration to a second term on Jan. 20, 2025.
The closures come as Adams revealed Monday that the city has catered to more than 223,000 migrants and asylum seekers who have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022, which he said equated to about half the population of the state capital of Albany.
City taxpayers were footing a $352 nightly bill per migrant with just $130 of that going to the hotels for housing. The rest went to costs like social services, food and cleaning, according to the New York Post.
There are currently 58,000 migrants still staying in taxpayer-funded shelters, the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital. There are around 210 city-run shelter sites scattered across the five boroughs, according to the Post. The city’s website states that the crisis could cost taxpayers around $12 billion over the next three fiscal years without policy changes.
The city said the declining numbers of migrants arriving in New York is the reason for the closures and thanked the federal government and executive orders issued by the Biden-Harris administration for the reduction.
In September, there were 101,790 encounters at the border, the lowest number since February 2021, and there have been no major signs of a significant increase in numbers since then. The Post reported that in the week ending Nov. 10, more than 600 new asylum seekers arrived in Gotham.
“Our staff is on hand to help guests plan for next steps as the city consolidates its operations,” a city hall spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“Over the past two years, our teams have accomplished the Herculean task of providing compassionate care for a population twice the size of Albany and saving taxpayers billions of dollars,” Adams said in a statement.
“We’ve focused on helping people take their next steps out of shelter and that focus is paying off. And with our census declining for the past 19 weeks in a row, it’s clear that our efforts are working. The new policies we’re implementing today will build on our successes, save taxpayers millions, and help even more migrants take their next steps towards fulfilling their American Dream.”
TRUMP LIKELY TO MAKE SEVERAL BORDER SECURITY MOVES ON FIRST DAY, SAYS EXPERT
Adams also revealed that migrant families who were issued their second 60-day eviction notice can stay in the same shelter they were previously assigned to if they still need more time in the system.
He touted the move as saving “taxpayers millions of dollars,” making it easier for those children to continue attending their same public schools and saving the city hundreds of thousands spent on busing those students to those schools.
However, the easing of the eviction rule for families was not enough for a group of about 50 left-wing activists who stormed City Hall on Wednesday during a hearing on the shelter rule for adults, which permanently evicts migrant adults from city shelters after 30 days.
“Immigrants are welcome here – Trumpian policy is not!” members of the Jews For Racial & Economic Justice chanted from the mezzanine while unfurling three banners reading: “Mayor Adams: end shelter evictions,” “Let all New Yorkers stay” and “Housing justice now.”
The group was removed from the chamber after about two minutes. The group said in a statement that the eviction rule is a “cruel and destabilizing policy” and is a direct violation of the city’s controversial decades-old right to shelter rule. The rule was initially put in place on the premise of sheltering the homeless.
While the flow of migrants has slowed in recent months, some experts have raised concerns that migrants may make a last-ditch effort to cross the border before Trump clamps down on illegal crossings.
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For instance, around 1,500 migrants have formed a caravan in southern Mexico, just over the border from Guatemala, and hope to cross before Trump takes office.
Trump has promised to seal the southern border and carry out the largest deportation operation in the history of the U.S. He has appointed hardliner South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, while Tom Homan will be the new “border czar.”
Additionally, he has also pledged to end the use of parole programs by the Biden administration that allow migrants to enter in via the expanded “lawful pathways” and to shut down the Biden administration’s CBP One app, which allows migrants to apply for asylum appointments while in Mexico.
High school runner pleads for removal of trans athlete amid safety fears
A girls’ cross country runner at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, delivered an impassioned plea to her school board on Thursday amid an ongoing controversy over a trans athlete on her team.
The 16-year-old high school student, Kylie Morrow, addressed a recent lawsuit by her teammates alleging that their “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts were likened to a swastika by school officials. The plaintiffs had worn the shirts after a transgender athlete, who hadn’t consistently attended practices or met key varsity eligibility requirements, was placed on the varsity team, displacing one of the girls from her spot, the complaint alleged.
Athletic department school officials allegedly then forced the students to remove or conceal the shirts, claiming they created a “hostile” environment and comparing wearing these shirts to wearing a swastika in front of Jewish students.
Morrow spoke at a Riverside Unified School District board meeting on Thursday, lambasting her school officials and the notion that trans athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
“I’m constantly affected by the actions taken place this season, and I have been around the females, and just my team in general, who have felt almost silenced to speak out about it, because the whole LGBTQ is shoved down our throats!” Morrow said.
“We live in a society where it’s almost impossible to speak out on it without facing repercussions.”
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Morrow said she had even approached the school’s athletic director herself about the situation. She went on to passionately defend her teammates who filed the lawsuit amid comparisons of their messaging to swastikas.
“It feels as though that my school and the school district is choosing to support one person instead of the whole team,” Morrow said. “To see the athletic director turn around and tell my teammates that their shirts that say, ‘Save girl’s sports’ be compared to a swastika, that is not okay. These girls feel silenced, they felt silenced, and when they finally did something to speak out against it . . . they were completely stabbed in the back.”
Morrow concluded her testimony by expressing how “unsafe” the entire situation has made her feel as a girls’ athlete being forced to share a locker room with a biological male.
“It is not okay that I have to be in position, and I have to see a male in booty shorts, and having to see that around me, as a 16-year-old girl I don’t see that as a safe environment,” Morrow said. “Going into a locker room and seeing males in there, I don’t find that safe, I don’t find going to the bathroom safe when there’s guys in there. It’s not okay. I’m a 16-year-old girl!”
The two girls who have filed the lawsuit, known as Kaitlyn and Taylor, previously told Fox News Digital how difficult the situation has been.
SJSU WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL’S 1ST OPPONENT DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT TRANS PLAYER, SUGGESTS MATCH WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED
“My initial reaction was like, I was really surprised, because it was like, ‘Why is this happening to me?’” Taylor said. “There’s a transgender student on the team. Why am I getting displaced when “I’ve worked so hard and gone to all of the practices, and this student has only attended a few of the practices.”
The shock of having their shirts compared to swastikas was unexpected to them.
“It was definitely hard to hear because we’re by no means trying to be hateful,” Kaitlyn said. “We’re just wearing a shirt that expresses what we believe in trying to raise awareness to a situation.”
Martin Luther King High School is just one of many public education institutions in California that is currently embroiled in a controversy over a trans athlete on a girls’ or women’s sports team.
Stone Ridge Christian High School’s girls’ volleyball team was scheduled to face San Francisco Waldorf in the Northern California Division 6 tournament but forfeited in an announcement just before the match over the presence of a trans athlete on the team last week.
A transgender volleyball player was booed and harassed at an Oct. 12 match between Notre Dame Belmont in Belmont, California, against Half Moon Bay High School, according to ABC 7. Half Moon Bay rostered the transgender athlete.
In response to complaints of boos and harassment, athletic director Steve Sell of Aragon High School in San Mateo, California, intervened. In his capacity as co-chair of the Peninsula Athletic League Athletic Directors, Sell informed Notre Dame that there could be consequences, according to ABC 7.
Meanwhile, at the college level, San Jose State’s volleyball team has been at the center of a national media firestorm over the presence of a transgender athlete on the team and a teammate being involved in multiple lawsuits over the issue.
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San Jose State women’s co-captain Brooke Slusser has joined a lawsuit against the NCAA and filed her own lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference and her own school alleging she was deceived about the natural birth sex of her teammate, Blaire Fleming, who is a biological male.
The two have continued to play together this season amid the ongoing controversy but have had seven matches on their schedule forfeited. San Jose State will compete in the Mountain West tournament, but a ruling from a Biden-appointed judge after an emergency hearing in Colorado on Thursday could prevent that from happening.
A Mountain West spokesperson said it is possible for San Jose State to win the championship if opponents forfeit upcoming tournament games in Las Vegas starting Nov. 27. But federal Judge Kato Crews will deliver a judgment on whether that plan will stand or not, or whether the team and transgender player may even compete.
“The law is an ass” is an English proverb now liberally practiced by certain American judges who are neither sensible nor fair.
New York Judge Juan Merchan has consistently proven the point by his maltreatment of Donald Trump in the ill-conceived, if not farcical, prosecution brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The case resulted in preordained guilty verdicts last May in a trial that stands as a monument to injustice.
But on Friday, in the aftermath of Trump’s presidential victory, Merchan canceled next week’s scheduled sentencing and reluctantly agreed to formally consider a defense motion to dismiss the case entirely. A sensible and fair judge would grant it. That may exclude Merchan.
NEW YORK JUDGE GRANTS TRUMP REQUEST TO FILE MOTION TO DISMISS CHARGES, CANCELS SENTENCING INDEFINITELY
In previous letters to the judge, defense attorneys make a compelling argument that the convictions should be vacated given their client’s election as the next commander-in-chief. It is a position that is constitutionally unique.
They correctly contend that “immediate dismissal is mandated by the federal Constitution, the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, and the interest of justice to facilitate the orderly transition of executive power…”
Indeed, it is well established that presidents are immune from state or federal. This same principle necessarily extends to a president-elect who must be free from “disruption occasioned by the transfer of power.” (3 U.S.C. 102 note)
States have no authority to transgress federal laws passed by Congress, including the Transition Act. Interference by a local prosecutor and/or judge could jeopardize the national interest and prove detrimental to the safety and well being of its people, as the statute explains.
BRAGG VS. TRUMP: NYC IS DROWNING IN CRIME. HOW DOES CONVICTING THE FORMER PRESIDENT MAKE US SAFE?
In his Friday order, Merchan also recognized his authority to set aside the verdicts if mistakes were made at trial which would merit reversal. There were so many that you’d need a calculator with infinity technology to keep track.
Chief among them was that prosecutors relied on tainted evidence prohibited in the presidential immunity standard enunciated by the Supreme Court on July 1.
Testimony from White House officials such as Hope Hicks and Madeleine Westerhout, as well as numerous presidential records, should never have been introduced. They quite clearly constituted “official acts” that are protected and thereby inadmissible, just as the defense argued in vain pre-trial. Merchan was unmoved.
Judge Merchan’s courtroom was a cesspool of incomprehensible rulings that deprived Trump of a fair trial. Both judge and prosecutors worked in concert to engineer the guilty verdicts.
For months, Bragg has opposed dismissal. He implausibly claims that such immunity evidence was wholly unimportant and had “no bearing” on the outcome. Really? Why then did his prosecutors emphasize the crucial nature of that very evidence during closing arguments?
Considering Merchan’s blatant anti-Trump bias throughout the trial, he could still side with Bragg by asserting that the court’s reversible error was merely harmless and had little or no impact on the jury’s verdicts. If he does, the judge must to turn a blind eye to how the high court specifically foreclosed this type of harmless-error analysis.
BRAGG CASE ‘EFFECTIVELY OVER’ IN ‘MAJOR VICTORY,’ TRUMP OFFICIALS SAY
Should Merchan reject dismissal, it would allow the Trump team to seek an immediate appeal on the immunity issue. It represents such an affront to the law that the entire case stands an excellent chance of being overturned on that basis.
The trial court’s immunity mistake is just one of many egregious errors committed by Merchan. His courtroom was a cesspool of incomprehensible rulings that deprived Trump of a fair trial. Both judge and prosecutors worked in concert to engineer the guilty verdicts.
At every turn, they manipulated the law and mangled evidence while operating outside the confines of the legal process. Political bias smothered the defendant’s due process rights. They were run through an industrial-size shredder.
The charges themselves were so convoluted as to be incoherent. We still don’t know what Trump was convicted of. Theoretically, bookkeeping errors were allegedly committed to further another crime in an unlawful attempt to influence the 2016 election.
But what a minute. What crime exactly? Was it federal campaign law violations? Taxation laws? False business records? Select from the aforementioned menu of imaginary possibilities.
TRUMP LAWYERS DEMAND BRAGG CASE BE ‘IMMEDIATELY DISMISSED,’ SAY ELECTION ‘SUPERSEDES’ POLITICAL ‘MOTIVATIONS’
Trump doesn’t even know because prosecutors never said. And neither did the jurors when they rendered their verdicts. In an appalling instruction to the panel, Merchan declared that they did not have to identify which crimes were supposedly perpetrated and need not agree unanimously.
If you’re scratching your head, you are not alone. Even a high school civics student knows that unanimity in criminal convictions is a bedrock principle. The Supreme Court has reinforced that standard repeatedly. Yet, Merchan ignored it with impunity.
The dilemma for Trump is that he can not appeal any of the judge’s legal errors at trial (with the exception of an adverse immunity ruling) until there is an official “adjudication” which occurs only at sentencing. At present, that process is on hold indefinitely.
This is by design. Merchan and Bragg both know that the convictions will get tossed if an appellate court ever gets a gander at the trial charade. That is precisely why they aim to defer or delay sentencing, perhaps until after Trump leaves office in 2029. The president would spend four years with a coercive “sword of Damocles” dangling overhead.
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If that is their unscrupulous scheme, it would violate New York state law (CPL 380.30) which requires sentencing at “a specified date no later than twelve months from the entering of a conviction.” Not that Merchan cares.
Thus far, he seems unmoved by the great weight of the law that frowns on his Machiavellian machinations. Either determined or desperate, his honor clings dishonorably to a vindictive prosecution. Trump was falsely accused and wrongfully convicted.
Yet Merchan persists in propping up a tortured case that should have been quashed by him the moment the indictment was rendered. It was a harebrained prosecution from the outset, motivated by a politically-driven DA who happily embraced the Democrats’ corrupt lawfare campaign against Trump.
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This eight-year-old odyssey is the personification of a shameful miscarriage of justice.
The law itself is not an ass. But Merchan has made it look like one.
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Bill Maher on Trump’s Cabinet: ‘Let’s see what the disruptors can do’
“Real Time” host Bill Maher vowed that he wouldn’t “pre-hate” the incoming Trump administration despite his own personal animosity towards President-elect Donald Trump.
“They are calling themselves the ‘disruptors,'” Maher began during a panel discussion Friday night. “The country does need disrupting. I mean, the country needs a colonic and a slap in the face so bad.
“This is not who I would choose to administer the colonic but it’s not like the bureaucracy isn’t bloated. It’s not like the debt isn’t $36 trillion. it’s not like there aren’t thousands of regulations that do stop people from living lives that they could live better and don’t do anything. There is woke in the military. Whatever they’re going after… I’m not going to pre-hate anything,” Maher said.
“Do I have really good, optimistic feelings about it? No, I don’t. I’m just not gonna pre-hate. I can’t get into that mind[set]. Let’s see what the disruptors can do. Because, quite frankly, the experts have just sort of, like, let something go for so long that it’s just sclerotic now and constipated.”
BILL MAHER SAYS ‘MY HEAD’S NOT EXPLODING’ OVER TRUMP PICKING RFK JR. FOR HHS: ‘WE DO NEED SHAKING UP’
The HBO star offered some skepticism towards how effective the “disruptors” will be when the “corn lobby,” “pharmaceutical industry” and “defense contractors” begin voicing their objections towards the administration’s policies.
“Let’s see what happens,” Maher said.
MAHER BLASTS LEFT ‘DOUBLING DOWN’ ON WHAT ‘F—ED’ THEM IN ELECTION: ‘TAKE ONE WEEK TO ASK WHAT YOU DID WRONG’
Later in the conversation, Maher conceded that Trump was correct in his assessment on how to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war after mentioning the Biden administration allowing Ukraine to fire US-made missiles into Russia, fueling fears of further escalation by the Kremlin.
“It just looks like everybody’s coming on board to the idea that, I hate to admit it, Trump said at the beginning, it’s gonna be a negotiated settlement. Marco Rubio was saying- he’s going to be Secretary of State,” Maher said. “And I feel like– that they are losing the war, Ukraine. And they are noble, and we support them, certainly in spirit, should we do it as we have been?”
He went on to compare the ongoing war to last week’s highly-watched boxing match between 27-year-old influencer Jake Paul and 58-year-old boxing legend Mike Tyson.
“I remember a week ago and I was leaving here, everyone was talking about it. ‘Oh, what’s gonna happen?’ And then you saw the fight and you realize- we kind of really knew in the rational part of our brain from the beginning that a 58-year-old man who was over the hill in the 90s was not gonna beat this [27]-year-old behemoth. And yet we all were like, ‘Maybe- oh, I’m gonna go home and watch it!’ Maher said.
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Last week, Maher appeared open-minded about the prospect of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading the Department of Health and Human Services, saying “we do need shaking up.”
“Well, the system as it is, the way we do health, is already very f—ed,” Maher said. “So maybe he’ll make it worse. But, like, my head is not exploding about it.”
Big city mayor who ditched Dem party explains Trump’s ‘gift’ to Republicans
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson spent over a decade in office as a Democrat before making a significant political shift.
Just over a year ago, he announced his decision to join the Republican Party.
Johnson wrote in a Fox News op-ed that his switch should have been a wake-up call for Democrats ahead of the 2024 election.
“It turns out I was kind of a canary in the coal mine, right? I didn’t think I was going to be some anomaly that everyone needed to worry about,” Johnson told “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones, Wednesday.
EX-DNC VOLUNTEER TURNED TRUMP VOTER MOCKS CLAIMS THAT HARRIS RAN A FLAWLESS CAMPAIGN
“I thought I was going to be a harbinger of things to come. And it turns out, that was exactly right.”
Dallas is a predominantly blue area, voting for President Joe Biden in 2020 by over half. With Johnson’s change, Dallas became the largest U.S. city led by a Republican mayor.
He joined Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker as one of only two Republican mayors leading a major Texas city. Johnson attributes this to a broader realignment in cultural dynamics across the country, a change he credits to President-elect Trump.
“Donald Trump has given the Republican Party a gift,” Johnson explained. “He has caused parts of the Democratic coalition, that people thought would never, ever consider voting Republican, to do exactly that.”
One of the key factors behind Trump’s resounding victory in 2024 was his surge in support from minority groups, particularly Hispanic voters. In Texas, Republicans experienced a 28% increase in Latino support compared to the 2020 election.
Trump also made inroads with Black voters and young voters, significantly narrowing traditional Democratic advantages.
“I think now is an opportunity for the Republican Party to double down on his message,” said Johnson, describing Trump’s focus as one aimed at revitalizing U.S. cities.
“An agenda for urban America. That is what these groups are hoping that’s going to happen now,” Johnson explained.
“They believe that Donald Trump, our president-elect, can actually deliver on the promise of making our cities great again. And he can, and I think he will.”
DEM PARTY BLAME GAME: ACCUSATIONS FLY AS TO WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HARRIS’ MASSIVE LOSS TO TRUMP
According to Fox News’ voter analysis of the 2024 election, Republican voters were most driven by concerns over the economy, immigration, and crime — issues Johnson argues have been neglected under Democratic leadership.
“All the things that people have been asking for generations from our cities that have under Democratic leadership … failed to deliver on those things.”
A vocal advocate for law enforcement funding, lower taxes, and a pro-business environment, Johnson has made his policy priorities clear and says he’d like to help the president-elect enact his agenda over the next four years.
“The Republican Party shouldn’t give up on our cities. We need to actually invest in them and focus on them. And I think that’s what he’s going to do and I want to help him do that.”
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Joe Rogan’s explanation for why liberal media outlets are ‘hemorrhaging’ viewers
Podcaster Joe Rogan dunked on left-wing media for losing viewers as many Americans have grown distrustful and wary of their bias.
Rogan spoke on his podcast about a recent op-ed from billionaire Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, headlined, “The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media.”
He summarized the piece as “essentially saying that you have to take divergent viewpoints, you have to take a bunch of different perspectives, we can’t just be this left-wing echo chamber, and it’s the reason why the business is faltering.”
Rogan argued that the truth of Bezos’ observations appears to be playing out across the media landscape.
JEFF BEZOS ADDRESSES WASHINGTON POST ENDORSEMENT FIASCO, CITES DISTRUST IN MEDIA LED TO ‘PRINCIPLED DECISION’
“I was just reading something about CNN’s ratings and MSNBC’s ratings post-election – they’ve crashed,” Rogan said on Wednesday’s episode. “All these left-wing kooks on YouTube are hemorrhaging subscribers. Where people go, ‘You guys are out of touch, you’re not accurate, you’re delusional.’ And people are speaking with their subscriptions and they’re speaking with their purchasing of the Washington Post and their purchasing of the New York Times.”
He then recalled how the New York Times published a baffling fact-check this week of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim that a popular breakfast cereal contains several artificial ingredients in the United States that are not used in other countries.
“The New York Times just debunked – in the most insane way – debunked RFK Jr’s assertion that the ingredients in Froot Loops are different in Canada than they are in the United States. They fact-checked it, while saying he was accurate, so their fact-check – it’s so dumb when you see the fact – I tweeted it.”
He went on to say, “The fact check is so dumb because the fact check says it’s not correct, they have the same ingredients… except for these harmful chemicals.”
WASHINGTON POST OWNER JEFF BEZOS WANTS MORE CONSERVATIVE OPINION WRITERS AT PAPER: REPORT
He then read the fact-check, adding his own commentary at the end that these are “f—ing dangerous chemicals that are banned in Canada that we’re trying to get rid of in America. So, they’re literally saying he was wrong, but he was right.”
“That made my brain hurt just reading it,” one of Rogan’s guests said.
“That’s the New York f—ing Times,” Rogan exclaimed in disbelief. “This is what the New York Times is doing, so, of course, you’re gonna hemorrhage subscribers, of course. You’re crazy, you’re saying something that’s nuts and also… What is your motivation?”
“If we’re saying that these things have been eliminated in other countries because they’ve been proven to be dangerous – what is your motivation for saying he was wrong?” he wondered.
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After one of his guests said the motivation was money, Rogan asked, “What else could it be?” before listing other possibilities like “ideology.”
“Left-wing rejection of RFK Jr. because now ‘he’s connected to Trump, which is connected to Nazis,'” he suggested as another reason. “It’s like, you go down this f—ing weird rabbit hole with these people, and you’re like, ‘What are you trying to do? Are you trying to remove all leftover credibility?'”
“Are you trying to eliminate – because you lost so much credibility – are you trying to kill it all? Are you secretly working for the Chinese? Like, what are you doing?” he asked.
Who is Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s new pick for attorney general?
Just hours after former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration to be attorney general, President-elect Trump tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his AG nominee.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore,” Trump wrote in his announcement. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.
“I have known Pam for many years – She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!”
Bondi chairs the Center of Litigation and co-chairs the Center for Law and Justice at the America First Policy Institute.
PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP ANNOUNCES PAM BONDI AS HIS NEW PICK FOR US ATTORNEY GENERAL
Here’s what to know about Trump’s new AG pick:
Bondi worked as a prosecutor before becoming Florida’s first female attorney general
Bondi, 59, is a Tampa native and earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Florida and her law degree from Stetson Law School. She was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1991.
She worked as a prosecutor out of the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office for more than 18 years, trying a variety of cases from domestic violence to murder.
Bondi made history in 2010 as the state’s first female attorney general. Her campaign emphasized challenging the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and later focused on human trafficking issues once in office. She also notably shut down pill mills and tackled the state’s opioid crisis.
She held the post until 2019.
Bondi has worked closely with Trump, including on his defense team for his first impeachment trial
Bondi worked as one of Trump’s defense lawyers in 2020 after he was first impeached on allegations that he had abused his power and obstructed Congress.
“They have not charged the president with any crime because the president did nothing wrong,” Bondi said when articles of impeachment were sent by the House to the Senate. “There was no crime. The transcript of that phone call speaks for itself.”
MATT GAETZ WITHDRAWS FROM CONSIDERATION TO SERVE AS ATTORNEY GENERAL
Bondi also worked on Trump’s Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during his first administration. In her role on the commission, Bondi collaborated with national leaders on drug prevention and treatment.
Bondi is a partner at a lobbying firm with ties to Trump and incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles
Bondi is a partner at Ballard Partners, a Florida-based lobbying firm founded by Brian Ballard. Bondi splits her time between Florida and Washington, D.C., chairing the firm’s corporate regulatory practice.
The D.C. office notably earned more than $70 million in lobbying fees during Trump’s first term by representing various corporate clients, according to federal disclosures.
Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, also works for the firm after becoming a partner there following Trump’s 2016 victory.
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Bondi has been a staunch supporter of Trump throughout his legal troubles
Bondi has been vocal in her criticism about Trump’s prosecutions, going so far as appearing alongside Trump in New York City during his hush money trial.
“They make it sound like it’s a first-degree murder case, and I’ve tried plenty of trial cases, Trace, and never seen anything like this,” Bondi told Fox News host Trace Gallagher in April, shortly after Trump was issued a gag order in his New York case.
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“They’re trying to gag him not only of his First Amendment rights but of defending himself,” Bondi said at the time.