President-elect takes in Army-Navy game with VIP entourage as fans roar approval
President-elect Trump took in the Army-Navy football game with a power posse that included his running mate, the world’s richest man, a host of cabinet hopefuls and a newly cleared subway hero from New York City.
The soon-to-be 47th president arrived at the 125th edition of the game Saturday at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, less than 15 miles from the White House. Trump was joined in a suite by his running mate, Vice President-elect JD Vance; Speaker of the House Mike Johnson; incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Elon Musk, nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence, and Daniel Penny, who was recently acquitted of charges in the death of subway menace Jordan Neely.
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Navy won the game, 31-13, behind quarterback Blake Horvath, who passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more. The Midshipmen raised their record to 9-3, while the loss dropped Army to 11-2. Both teams have had strong seasons. Navy will face Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl, and Army is slated to play in the Independence Bowl, although no opponent has been announced since Marshall dropped out.
But as big a story as the game itself was the VIP spectators. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Navy veteran who has been floated as a possible alternate to Hegseth should his confirmation fail, was seen on the sidelines.
During the national anthem, Trump saluted along with the service members in attendance.
Trump attended the annual rivalry game throughout his presidency, first attending in 2016 shortly after winning that year’s election. He also was at the game during each year of his presidency, including in 2020 at West Point.
Saturday marked his sixth time at the game since 2016 and his first since 2020. Throughout his presidency, he would be on the field for pregame events, including the coin toss.
For the first time, both programs entered the game with a combined 19 wins (Army is 11-1, while Navy is 8-3).
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Penny was acquitted earlier this week in a racially charged trial. He could have faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge, but in the end was found not guilty by a jury that believed he acted to defend fellow subway riders when he put Neely in a fatal chokehold. He attended as a guest of Vance.
With Army playing in the American Athletic Conference this season, both teams have spent time in the Top 25. This will be their first meeting this season and will be a non-conference game.
Outside of bragging rights for their respective military academies, this year’s game marks the first time since 2017 the winner will have a chance to secure the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy, thanks to wins by Army and Navy over Air Force this season. It also marks the first time since 2017 that both teams enter the matchup having clinched spots in bowl games.
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Army won its first conference title earlier this month after a win over Tulane in the AAC championship game to improve to 11-1. But that accomplishment pales in comparison to what’s at stake Saturday.
ABC and Stephanopoulos apologize to Trump, pay millions in defamation fallout
FIRST ON FOX– ABC News and its top anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a settlement with Donald Trump in his defamation suit, which will result in the news network paying the president-elect $15 million.
The settlement was publicly filed on Saturday, revealing that the two parties have come to an agreement and avoided a costly trial. According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past.” Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in Trump’s attorney fees.
Stephanopoulos and ABC News also had to issue statements of “regret” as an editor’s note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, online article, about comments made earlier this year that prompted Trump to file the defamation lawsuit. The note reads, “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”
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ABC News said the network was “pleased” to have concluded the case.
“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” an ABC News spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Trump filed a defamation suit against Stephanopoulos after he asserted that Trump was found “liable for rape” in a civil case during a contentious interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., last March.
After playing a clip of Mace discussing being a victim of rape, Stephanopoulos asked her, “How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”
“You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape,” Stephanopoulos said, alluding to the legal victory by Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll.
Stephanopoulos repeated that claim ten times during his spat with Mace, despite the fact that a jury actually determined Trump was liable for “sexual abuse,” which has a distinct definition under New York law.
After the federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, but not rape, Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in a later ruling that just because Carroll failed to prove rape “within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”
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Initially, Stephanopoulos was defiant in the face of Trump’s lawsuit, telling CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert that he wouldn’t be “cowed out of doing my job because of a threat.”
“Trump sued me because I used the word ‘rape,’ even though a judge said that’s in fact what did happen. We filed a motion to dismiss,” Stephanopoulos said.
The settlement came after U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos on Friday to sit for depositions next week ahead of the Dec. 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment, in order to avoid a trial.
In his lawsuit against Stephanopoulos and ABC, Trump was represented by Florida attorneys Alejandro Brito and Richard Klugh. The settlement with ABC was filed in the Southern District of Florida Federal Court where both parties signed and agreed to the terms.
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The settlement comes after a string of legal victories for Trump and his legal team, coordinated by senior legal adviser Boris Epshteyn.
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan recently granted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s recent request to dismiss his case against Trump related to the 2020 election. Smith also tossed his appeal in the classified records case on Monday after a federal judge dismissed the charges altogether in July, ruling that he was unlawfully appointed as special counsel.
In New York v. Trump, Judge Juan Merchan granted Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss the charges stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case and removed the sentencing date for the president-elect from the schedule.
Trump is also suing CBS News for $10 billion in damages, stating the network practiced “deceptive conduct” for the purpose of election interference in its interview in October with Vice President Kamala Harris.
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And the winner of the 2024 Heisman Trophy is …
Colorado’s Travis Hunter is college football’s most outstanding player, winning the Heisman Trophy Saturday night.
Hunter won the Heisman Trophy over Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel and Miami quarterback Cam Ward.
An emotional Hunter shared a long embrace with head coach Deion Sanders, wiping away tears on Coach Prime’s shoulder.
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“I thank God, man. I never thought I’d be in this position,” Hunter said when accepting the award.
Hunter received 552 first-place votes, beating out Jeanty’s 309. They were, by far, the top two finishers in the vote, and it was the closest vote since 2009.
Hunter, 21, had one of the most prolific seasons in college football history, playing both wide receiver and cornerback for Colorado.
The Colorado superstar played a whopping 1,380 total snaps this season, rarely leaving the field.
Hunter played 670 snaps on offense and 686 snaps on defense while also playing 24 special teams snaps.
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As a wide receiver, Hunter had 92 catches for 1,152 yards and 14 total touchdowns. Hunter won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top wide receiver.
Hunter also won the Bednarik Award as the nation’s best defensive player, becoming the first player ever to win both the Bednarik and Biletnikoff.
As a corner, Hunter had 31 tackles, 11 pass deflections and four interceptions, anchoring Colorado’s defense.
Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders led Colorado to a 9-3 record, and the team fell just short of making the Big 12 championship game.
Jeanty came in second place after the Boise State running back had one of the best seasons for a running back in college football history.
Jeanty’s numbers were out of a video game. He ran for 2,497 yards and 29 touchdowns on 344 carries, averaging 7.3 yards per carry.
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Jeanty helped lead Boise State to the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff, which includes a first-round bye. Boise State will play the winner of SMU and Penn State.
Harris’ former running mate admits middle-class question he’s struggling to answer
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz marveled in a post-election interview that middle-class Americans struggling with economic issues chose billionaire Donald Trump over him and Vice President Kamala Harris, a team he billed as a more middle-class ticket by comparison.
Walz, Harris’ running mate, sat down for an interview with Minnesota Public Radio on Thursday where he weighed in on what he thought went wrong during the Democratic presidential campaign. He concluded there must have been a disconnect with the Harris campaign’s messaging to middle-class voters if they went on to vote for a rich candidate like Trump.
“I thought it was a real flex when the Wall Street Journal pointed out that I might have been the least wealthy person to ever run for vice president,” Walz told MPR News.
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“How in the world did we lose to a billionaire or a venture capitalist, when we were making the case of a country attorney and a high school teacher?” he asked later in the interview, contrasting his ticket with Trump’s.
Walz made the point that he thought his more humble economic status should have appealed to voters, and seemed puzzled that wasn’t the case.
“And I thought that would be something people say, ‘Well, this guy knows where we’re coming from. He’s had to pay his bills and still does,'” he said, referring to himself.
Earlier in the discussion, Walz stated, “And this is the one that keeps me up at night, is I focused my whole career in focusing on the middle class… And it seemed like a lot of good ideas were coming from the Democrats.”
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“I still believe that,” he continued, “but apparently in this election, not the majority of Americans did. They chose to vote with a billionaire, who’s talked about not paying overtime, who has a long history of not paying his workers, someone who wants to take away the ACA.”
Seeing this, Walz concluded that this happened because his party did not communicate their middle-class appeal well enough.
“So, I come back to the conclusion, is we did not do a good enough job – we as a Democratic Party and we as a ticket – did not do a good enough job of showing them that we understand where they’re coming from,” the governor said.
He added, “And I feel like one of my roles is – going forward here is – figuring out a way to make the case to the public, the American public, is that the Democratic Party really is focused on the things they care about.”
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In an interview with local Minnesota outlet KSTP-TV last week, the governor admitted he was surprised that his ticket lost the 2024 election.
“It felt like at the rallies, at the things I was going to, the shops I was going in, that the momentum was going our way, and it obviously wasn’t at the end,” Walz said. “So yeah, I was a little surprised. I thought we had a positive message and I thought the country was ready for that.”
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Accused Ivy League killer stuns court with game-changing legal defense move
Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has retained a high-powered New York attorney and former CNN legal analyst to represent him, Fox News Digital has learned.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo will represent Mangione as he faces a second-degree murder charge in New York for the Dec. 4 shooting in Manhattan, a spokesperson for Friedman Agnifilo has confirmed.
Friedman Agnifilo previously worked as the chief assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for seven years and has experience in New York City’s criminal justice system. She has worked in private practice for the past three years with Agnifilo Intrater LLP.
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“Karen Friedman Agnifilo of Agnifilo Intrater LLP has been officially retained to represent Luigi Mangione in New York,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“Ms. Friedman Agnifilo is a longtime veteran of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and served as the second-in-command for seven years under DA Cyrus Vance, in addition to serving for four years as the Chief of the Office’s Trial Division.”
Friedman Agnifilo has three decades of experience in criminal justice, litigation and trials, according to Agnifilo Intrater.
Her practice focuses on criminal defense in state and federal courts and prosecuting serious violent crimes, including complex homicide cases.
She also represents plaintiffs in civil and employment matters and individuals in Title IX matters, a statute that protects persons from sex-based discrimination. She also specializes in internal investigations relating to misconduct, discrimination and sexual assault.
“While serving in the Manhattan DA’s office, Ms. Friedman Agnifilo was also integral to creating the office’s Human Trafficking Unit, Hate Crimes Unit, Antiquities Trafficking Unit, Terrorism Unit, its Cybercrimes and Identity Theft Bureau, as well as working on the creation of Manhattan’s first Mental Health Court,” her bio states.
The news of Friedman Agnifilo representing Mangione comes as investigators have uncovered new evidence in recent days, including law enforcement determining that the 3D-printed gun Mangione had in his possession when he was arrested matches the three shell casings found at the crime scene in Midtown Manhattan. His fingerprints also matched the fingerprints found on items near the scene of the shooting.
Mangione remains in custody in Pennsylvania, where he was apprehended on gun-related charges, as he fights extradition to New York. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said there were indications Mangione may waive his extradition next week.
A Pennsylvania judge denied Mangione bail on Tuesday, leaving him behind bars at the Huntingdon State Correctional Institution.
The suspect is also facing charges in Pennsylvania of carrying a gun without a license, forgery, falsely identifying himself to the authorities and possessing “instruments of crime.” New York prosecutors additionally hit him with three counts of illegal weapons possession and forgery, on top of the murder charge.
Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks in Pennsylvania said his office is prepared “to do what’s necessary” to move Mangione to New York.
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Mangione’s attorney in Pennsylvania, Thomas Dickey, has denied that his client is responsible for the killing in New York and believes he will plead not guilty in the Big Apple to the murder charge and other charges. Mangione also plans to plead not guilty to charges in Pennsylvania related to possession of a gun and fake ID authorities say was found on him when they arrested him, according to Dickey.
The suspect appeared to be driven by frustration with the health insurance industry and alleged “corporate greed,” police have said, although he was not an insured member of UnitedHealthcare.
Convicted killer gambles on a two-pronged strategy in bid for a get-out-of-jail-free card
Attorneys for lawyer-turned-convict Alex Murdaugh filed to appeal his sentence on Tuesday, saying improper testimony and court clerk Becky Hill’s alleged jury tampering “infected the trial with unfairness.”
Murdaugh, 56, is serving a life sentence for fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, in June 2021 on their family’s hunting estate in Colleton County, South Carolina. Prosecutors argued that their murders were an attempt to distract from Murdaugh’s mounting financial crimes, which were beginning to come to light around that time.
This April, the disgraced legal scion was sentenced to an additional 480 months, on top of his two life sentences, for conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, bank fraud, five counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 14 counts of money laundering.
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Prosecutors allege that Murdaugh used his power and family influence in the Lowcountry to take on clients’ cases, win them “significant funds” and then keep a decent portion of the earnings for himself.
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But in their 132-page appeal, filed on Tuesday, Murdaugh’s attorneys argue that their client’s financial crimes should not have been included in his earlier murder trial, stating they were irrelevant and could have painted him in a bad light that negatively influenced jurors.
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The appeal also alleges that former Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill, who resigned over allegations of jury tampering in Murdaugh’s case, swayed jurors to find him guilty.
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Of 12 jurors who found Murdaugh guilty of murder in March 2023, 11 said Hill did not influence their decisions. One said he heard the clerk make comments about watching Murdaugh’s body language, but said her words did not influence his verdict.
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Judge Jean Toal ruled in January that the allegations against Hill were not enough to grant the defendant a new trial in the murder case. Murdaugh’s attorneys argued against that ruling in their appeal.
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Hill, who is accused of 76 ethics violations, was expected to face the State’s Ethics Commission on Dec. 19. But that hearing is on hold in light of a pending criminal investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, the State newspaper reported.
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The appeal also alleges that prosecutors introduced multiple guns as evidence that had no evidence linking them to the murders, and that gunshot residue on a raincoat shown as evidence in court were not linked to their client by any evidence.
College ref interrupts call with a gesture every American should be programmed to do
Jackson State’s Travis Terrell Jr. just returned a punt return 81 yards for a touchdown to give Jackson State a 7-0 lead over South Carolina State in the first quarter of the Celebration Bowl on Saturday.
The only problem for Jackson State was that there was a flag on the play.
Then, when making the call, referee Rory Bernard did something unusual.
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“I’d like to salute our military veterans,” Bernard said before saluting.
Bernard’s salute drew applause from the crowd. After paying homage to the military veterans, Bernard announced the flag.
“Personal foul, unnecessary roughness, return team, number 11, the fifteen-yard penalty will be enforced from the spot of the foul, first down,” said Bernard.
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Unfortunately for Jackson State and Terrell Jr., the touchdown was wiped off the board.
The Celebration Bowl is an annual matchup of the champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Jackson State is playing in its third Celebration Bowl in four years but has yet to win one as Deion Sanders was unable to win it for the school before departing for Colorado.
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Jackson State came into the game with an 11-2 record, with South Carolina State at 9-2. Their meeting in this year’s Celebration Bowl is the seventh all-time meeting between the schools, with the teams 3-3 against each other.
Bernard’s show of patriotism is likely to be the first of many on Saturday, as Army and Navy are set to face off for the 125th time at 3:00 p.m. ET.
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will both be in attendance for the Army-Navy game in Northwest Stadium, Landover, Maryland, on Saturday afternoon.
Server boasted about refusing Trump officials — then the restaurant stepped in
A Washington, D.C.-area restaurant server has been fired after she spoke out about possibly refusing service to incoming Trump administration officials.
“I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people,” Suzannah Van Rooy, a server at Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill, told the Washingtonian this week. “It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans.’ It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.”
Her remarks were part of a report about whether there would be local “resistance” to certain Trump figures when they were in public settings again after several high-profile incidents during his first term. They included then-aide Sarah Huckabee Sanders being ejected from a restaurant in Lexington, Va., and protesters swarming then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a D.C. Mexican establishment.
“People were a lot more motivated the first time around to do those kinds of shows of passion. This time around, there is kind of a sense of defeat and acceptance,” Van Rooy said, according to the Washingtonian. “But I hope that people still do stand up to this administration and tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior.”
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According to a review of her LinkedIn page on Friday, which has since been taken down, Van Rooy listed her duties as doing daily operations, messaging strategies for the restaurant, developing relationships with influencers, and managing in-house events for political figures and VIPs.
Her page also said she worked as an organizer for Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s failed run for governor in 2022.
Beuchert’s Saloon told Fox News Digital that Van Rooy’s remarks were “reprehensible” and she had been fired for violating their “zero-tolerance policy on discrimination.”
Beuchert’s said the former employee was a part-time server and not a manager. It put out statements on social media condemning her remarks after being made aware of them on Thursday.
“Recent comments made by a member of staff who had no authority to speak on behalf of our entire restaurant have been, quite rightly, flagged as inappropriate, hostile, intolerant, and unacceptable. This staff member does NOT speak for us as a restaurant,” Beuchert’s initial statement on Thursday said.
“After the inauguration in January, we will begin serving our fourth administration as a neighborhood restaurant on Capitol Hill open to all and welcoming to all. We have always been a safe space for all. Everyone, especially anyone who feels prejudged or misunderstood, will always find friendly service and a sympathetic ear at Beuchert’s Saloon. Again, we deeply apologize for the comments made by a member of staff. They are NOT representative of our restaurant and do not reflect how we operate as a business, and how proud we are to be a gathering place on Capitol Hill.”
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By Friday, the restaurant said it had decided to dismiss the server because of this incident, calling her comments and subsequent behavior, “unforgivable.” It also said she had signed on to the restaurant’s social media accounts to speak on behalf of the restaurant without authorization.
“Not only do Ms. Van Rooy’s comments clearly violate our zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, but her decision to sign into our social media accounts in the middle of the night to post her own rhetoric in wildly offensive responses to comments is a further breach of conduct and protocol. She has no authority to speak on our behalf, and her comments do not reflect the positions of over twenty other people who make up our staff,” the Friday statement read.
“For these reasons as well as the sheer dismay and disgust we feel at her unforgivable behavior, Ms. Van Rooy has been dismissed immediately. Our staff and families (many of whom are personally offended by Ms. Van Rooy’s comments about them) are still reeling from what Ms. Van Rooy said and did, and we as a restaurant are simply horrified to be associated with base prejudice.”
The comment went on to urge the entire restaurant not to be blamed for her rogue actions.
“We are still the same restaurant known for its warm service and friendly staff, and hope you will all visit us soon. We look forward to serving you. All of you,” it wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to Van Rooy for comment.
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