Social media shreds VP Harris for laughing at her own word salad: ‘Yeah, I did that’
Even Vice President Kamala Harris was laughing at her own word salads during a post-election speech Tuesday.
As many of her supporters still reel from her defeat in November, Harris urged an audience of young people to “stay in the fight” during a visit to Prince George’s Community College in Maryland.
“I ask you to remember that this struggle is not new. It goes back nearly 250 years to Lexington and Concord,” the vice president told the audience. “Generation after generation, it has been driven by those who love our country, cherish its ideals and refuse to sit passive while our ideals are under assault. “This fight now, it continues with you. You are its heirs.”
Harris told her audience, with a knowing smile, “I ask you to remember the context in which you exist.” She paused and nodded, “Yeah, I did that. Uh huh,” then laughed.
KAMALA HARRIS AIDE ADMITS DEMOCRATS ‘LOSING HOLD OF CULTURE’ AS INFLUENCER MEDIA SHIFTS RIGHT
She seemed to be referencing a previous word salad her campaign had embraced, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
Social media users were quick to mock the vice president.
“She’s in on the joke now, but that doesn’t render it less of a joke,” National Review senior writer Noah Rothman noted.
Political commentator Collin Rugg shared a video and wrote with apparent sarcasm, “I must say, this was impressive,” sarcastically referring to her words as, “profound comments.”
Juanita Broaddrick replied, “She should be forced to sit in a room alone and watch her own videos. She has the intelligence of dirt.”
Rugg added, “This is the woman that 75M Americans wanted to send to negotiate with world leaders like Putin and Xi. Extremely concerning.”
“Your 2028 frontrunner, everyone!” Fox News contributor Joe Concha joked.
Steve Milloy of Junk Science implored followers, “If you have not thanked @realDonaldTrump today for saving us from this, please do so.”
“The context in which I exist is one in which your existence is casting a pall on my existence and yet I feel unburdened by what was or will be,” New York Post columnist John Podhoretz quipped. “Que Sera Sera.”
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National Review contributor Pradheep J. Shanker joked, “Right now, that context where I exist is where you will be unemployed in a month or so.”
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Republican communicator Matt Whitlock encouraged social media users to “Imagine being a young Democrat staffer laid off right before the holidays because bad campaign budgeting and seeing this.”
Biden’s approval rating plummets, while Trump’s is on the rise in new national poll
With one month left in office, President Biden’s approval rating is hitting a new low.
Biden stands at 34% approval and 66% disapproval in a Marquette Law School national poll conducted Dec. 2-11 and released on Wednesday.
That is down four percentage points from October and the lowest approval for Biden in Marquette Law School polling since the president took over in the White House four years ago.
The president’s approval stands in the mid-30s to low-40s in the latest national surveys, including the most recent Fox News national poll, where Biden stands at 41% approval.
WHERE TRUMP AND BIDEN STAND IN THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLL
Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. However, the president’s numbers started sagging in August 2021 in the wake of Biden’s much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and following a surge in COVID-19 cases that summer, mainly among unvaccinated people.
The plunge in the president’s approval was also fueled by soaring inflation – which started spiking in the summer of 2021 and remains to date a major pocketbook concern with Americans – and the surge of migrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the southern border with Mexico.
TRUMP MOVES ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS FORMALLY BECOMING PRESIDENT
President-elect Donald Trump ended his first term in office at 47% approval, according to Fox News polling from four years ago.
The new Marquette survey indicates that 53% of adults nationwide say they approve of the way Trump handled his job during his first term in the White House (2017-2021), a three point increase from their October poll.
“This is Trump’s highest approval rating since March, when this question of retrospective approval was first asked in the Marquette Law School Poll’s national surveys,” the survey’s release highlights.
The survey also indicates the public’s divided on Trump’s Cabinet appointments for his second administration, some of which have sparked controversy.
Forty-nine percent of respondents approved of Trump’s handling of cabinet appointments, with 51% disapproving.
According to the Fox News poll, which was conducted Dec. 6-9, 47% approved of the job Trump is doing on picking his cabinet, with 50% giving a thumbs down.
Trump’s favorable rating stands at 49% favorable and 50% unfavorable in the Marquette survey, his highest in his post-first administration period.
The president stands at 37% favorable and 62% unfavorable.
Vice President Kamala Harris has a favorable rating of 41% and an unfavorable rating of 57% in the new poll. That is a decline from 45% favorable and 51% unfavorable in the October poll, when Harris was the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
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Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance has 35% favorable and 47% unfavorable rating in the new survey.
The Marquette Law School poll has an overall sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
House Ethics Committee votes to release former Rep Matt Gaetz report
The House Ethics Committee has decided to release its report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
Lawmakers on the secretive panel voted to make the report public after the final votes of this year – which are slated for Thursday.
The House Ethics Committee’s multi-year investigation into Gaetz, involving allegations of sex with a minor and illicit drug use, came to an abrupt halt last month after he resigned from Congress hours after President-elect Donald Trump tapped him to be his attorney general.
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Gaetz dropped out of consideration amid quiet but steady GOP opposition, but the committee nevertheless lost jurisdiction over the probe when Gaetz left the House of Representatives.
Gaetz has consistently denied any accusations of wrongdoing, and an earlier federal investigation into the allegations ended without charges against him.
His resignation came just before the committee was expected to meet to consider releasing the report.
That meeting, delayed by a few days, ended in a dramatic fashion after House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters that no agreement had been reached on releasing the report.
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It prompted Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., the top Democrat on the committee, to return after leaving the meeting room without comment to criticize her Republican colleague.
Wild said Guest “betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee, and he has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report.”
She said that conclusion was “untrue.”
“I’d say that a vote was taken. As many of you know, this committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, five Dems, five Republicans, which means that in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side – which happens a lot, by the way, and we often vote unanimously. That did not happen in today’s vote,” Wild said.
The latest decision to release the report indicates at least one Republican lawmaker crossed the aisle and voted with Democrats.
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It is rare – but not unheard of – for the House Ethics Committee to release a report into a lawmaker after they left Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters last month he was opposed to letting the Gaetz ethics report go public, arguing, “It doesn’t follow our rules and traditions and there is a reason for that. That would open up Pandora’s box and I don’t think that’s a healthy thing for the institution, so that’s my position.”
Trump taps longtime ally, former football star for role in new administration
President-elect Donald Trump has a new game plan for Herschel Walker, his longtime friend, ally and former football star.
Three years after Trump handpicked Walker to run for the Senate in his home state of Georgia in a crucial, combative, expensive and high-profile Senate race, the president-elect is now selecting his friend to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Caribbean nation of the Bahamas.
“Herschel has spent decades serving as an ambassador to our nation’s youth, our men and women in the military, and athletes at home and abroad,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday night on social media, as he pointed to Walker’s resume, which includes serving as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition during Trump’s first term in the White House.
HERSCHEL WALKER PROVES THAT IT’S NEVER TOO LATE
Walker is a former professional and college football star running back who won a Heisman Trophy and helped propel the University of Georgia to a national championship.
His friendship with the former and future president goes back to his days playing for the Trump-owned New Jersey Generals USFL football team in the 1980s. Walker also was a major Trump supporter and surrogate in the 2020 presidential election.
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In August 2021, Walker launched a Republican Senate campaign in Georgia after months of support and encouragement from Trump to run for office.
Walker, a first-time politician, was dogged during his Senate run by controversial statements and damaging revelations about his personal life and business career.
The race between Walker and Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock ended up being one of the most closely watched Senate battles in the 2022 midterms. The contest went into overtime, with Walker ending up narrowly losing to Warnock in a runoff election in December of that year.
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This year, Walker joined Trump on the campaign trail in Georgia days before Election Day, as the former president carried the key southeastern battleground state after narrowly losing it to President Biden four years ago.
Walker becomes the third Republican who lost a recent Senate race in Georgia to be nominated by Trump for a post in his second administration.
Former Sen. David Perdue, who lost his seat to Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff in the 2020 cycle, was selected by Trump to serve as ambassador to China, and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who lost to Warnock in the 2020 cycle, was picked by Trump to run the Small Business Administration.
Trump’s naming of Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas is the second time this month the former football star made headlines.
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This past weekend, Walker graduated from the University of Georgia, 42 years after he last attended the school.
Pete Hegseth says he’s heard ‘nothing’ from West Point since employee ‘error’
FIRST ON FOX: It has been nearly a week since the United States Military Academy West Point admitted an error was made when an employee said Pete Hegseth’s application was not accepted, and President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Defense secretary pick tells Fox News Digital he has yet to hear from the school directly.
“I would just say I haven’t heard from West Point,” Hegseth said Tuesday. “Nothing.”
When asked if he would like a direct apology from the school, the former Fox News host said, “One would think.”
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ProPublica senior editor and reporter Jesse Eisinger explained last week on X that the outlet was informed twice by West Point that Hegseth had not even applied for admission. According to Eisinger, he was “100%” never admitted to the school, “because he never opened a file.”
However, Hegseth did apply to West Point and was accepted in 1999 but never attended.
The Defense secretary hopeful provided ProPublica with his original acceptance letter to the academy, and Eisinger said they reapproached West Point, which then admitted that an error was made.
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In a statement, West Point said, “A review of our records indicates Peter Hegseth was offered admission to West Point in 1999 but did not attend. An incorrect statement involving Hegseth’s admission to the U.S. Military Academy was released by an employee on Dec. 10, 2024.”
“Upon further review of an archived database, employees realized this statement was in error. Hegseth was offered acceptance to West Point as a prospective member of the Class of 2003. The academy takes this situation seriously and apologizes for this administrative error.”
When Hegseth was made aware of the story ProPublica had been working on, he shared his acceptance letter publicly on X. “We understand that ProPublica (the Left Wing hack group) is planning to publish a knowingly false report that I was not accepted to West Point in 1999. Here’s my letter of acceptance signed by West Point Superintendent, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, US Army.”
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The “error” at West Point left a number of Republicans with questions. In a Dec. 11 letter sent to U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lieutenant General Steven Gilland after Hegseth revealed ProPublica’s story, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said, “I understand that a civilian public-affairs officer, Theresa Brinkerhoff, informed a reporter that Mr. Hegseth didn’t apply to West Point, as he has said publicly in the past. This statement is incorrect; not only did Mr. Hegseth apply, but he was also accepted to the West Point Class of 2003.”
“Worse, the statement may violate Mr. Hegseth’s rights under the Privacy Act of 1974 by revealing protected personal information. If true, it also demonstrates egregiously bad judgment to share such information about the nominee to be Secretary of Defense with a known liberal outlet like ProPublica.”
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Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., also demanded information on how the error occurred in his own letter last week. The senator-elect wrote to Gilland, asking for “all communication and documentation regarding how West Point OPA falsely accused Hegseth of lying about his application.”
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The school employee’s mistake comes as Hegseth continues his swing on Capitol Hill meeting with senators in hopes of being confirmed in 2025 as Trump’s secretary of Defense.
West Point did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital.
Democrat pitches hot take on men competing in women’s sports — gets torched for it
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., took heat on social media on Tuesday for a post he made about transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Durbin was among the lawmakers who grilled NCAA President Charlie Baker on Capitol Hill. Durbin asked Baker how many athletes were in the collegiate organization and how many of those athletes were transgender.
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Baker said there were about 510,000 NCAA athletes with 10 or fewer of those being transgender.
“Let’s focus on ways to actually improve women’s sports,” Durbin wrote on X.
The senator faced backlash for the post on X.
Baker faced questions from Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., about trans participation in women’s sports and the accommodations for those athletes.
Hawley and Baker sparred over NCAA policies that have allowed trans athletes to compete on women’s teams. Hawley confronted Baker about the NCAA policy that states “transgender student athletes should be able to use the locker room, shower and toilet facilities in accordance with their gender identity.”
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Baker responded by insisting other athletes have the option to find other accommodations if they are uncomfortable with it.
“Everybody else should have an opportunity to use other facilities if they wish to do so,” Baker said.
Baker added that NCAA guidelines give the institutions and organizations that host college sporting events, who he referred to as “locals,” the option to accommodate athletes however they see fit.
“I believe our guidelines give people optionality in how they choose to use their facilities,” Baker said. “We told the local folks who hosted our tournaments that they need to make accommodations for the people who are playing.”
Baker also refused to initially agree with the notion that biological males have physical advantages over female athletes. When asked by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., if trans athletes are at an advantage, Baker said the idea was debatable.
“There’s not a lot of research on it, but it’s certainly debatable,” Baker said.
Kennedy posed the question a second time, asking if Baker did not think that “a biological male has an advantage every time competing against a biological female.”
The NCAA president changed his answer, saying, “I think the way you defined it, yes, I would agree with you.”
When Baker was pressed about why he and the NCAA have not taken action to amend policies to prevent trans inclusion in women’s sports, he repeatedly cited federal law and recent rulings of federal courts that have enabled it. Kennedy loudly encouraged Baker to do something about it anyway.
“Why don’t you go to Amazon and buy a spine online and take a stand?” Kennedy yelled at Baker.
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Trans inclusion in women’s sports has been a major issue in the U.S. The issue has grown in recent years with Lia Thomas winning a women’s swimming national championship and Blaire Fleming helping San Jose State women’s volleyball to a Mountain West Conference Championship appearance.
Archaeologists find amulet that shakes up what we know about the history of Christianity
The earliest known evidence of Christianity north of Italy was recently unveiled by archaeologists, who call the discovery one of the “most important testimonies of early Christianity.”
The artifact, publicized by the Frankfurt Archaeological Museum last week, is called the Frankfurt silver inscription. Discovered in 2018, the inscription has been analyzed and studied for years before finally being released to the public this month.
The Frankfurt silver inscription is an engraving on silver foil that consists of 18 lines written in Latin. It dates to between 230 and 260 A.D. and was discovered wrapped in a small silver amulet.
In a press release translated from German, the museum explained that the artifact was found in a third-century grave in Hesse, Germany, in what was once the former Roman city of Nida. The inscription begins, “In the name of Saint Titus, Holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, God’s Son!”
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Saint Titus was a first-century Christian missionary and disciple of Paul the Apostle. The inscription also calls for the amulet to protect “the man who gives to the will the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son.”
“The heavenly, the earthly and the underground, and every tongue confess (to Jesus Christ),” the text concludes.
Written in Latin, the inscription took several weeks to decipher due to its deteriorated condition. Archaeologists needed to “digitally unroll” the silver foil, which had been crumpled for around 1,800 years.
Using computed tomography and state-of-the-art technological equipment, the text was finally decrypted in May. It was then translated over an extended period of time.
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“Sometimes it took weeks, even months, for me to have the next idea,” Goethe University professor Markus Scholz said of the translation process. “I brought in experts from the history of theology, among other things, and piece by piece we have approached the text together and ultimately deciphered it.”
Scholz added that the inscription was “very sophisticated” and called its author “an elaborate writer.”
“It is unusual that the inscription is completely in Latin,” Scholz said. “This is unusual for this time. Such inscriptions were usually written in amulets in Greek or Hebrew.”
Not only is the inscription not written in Hebrew, it doesn’t reference Judaism at all, nor does it contain any pagan elements, which makes it even more unique.
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“It is unusual that there is no reference in the inscription to any other belief besides Christianity,” the museum’s press release added. “Usually until the fifth century, a mixture of different faiths can always be expected with precious metal amulets of this kind. Often there are still elements from Judaism or pagan influences.”
“But in this amulet neither Yahweh, the almighty God of Judaism, nor the archangels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael or Suriel are mentioned, no forefathers of Israel like Isaac or Jacob. And also no pagan elements like demons. The amulet is purely Christian.”
The press release called the artifact “one of the most important testimonies of early Christianity worldwide.”
“So far, there has been no such early, authentic proof of pure Christianity north of the Alps,” the statement explained. “All [other] finds are at least around 50 years younger.”
“There are references from historiography to the first Christian groups in Gaul and perhaps also in the province of Upper Germania in the late second century,” the statement added. “However, certain evidence of Christian life in the northern Alpine regions of the Roman Empire generally only comes from the fourth century AD.”
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“These 18 lines, experts agree, will enormously enrich previous research on the spread of Christianity and the late period of Roman rule on the right of the Rhine.”
Musk makes another business move — this time reimagining what education could be
Elon Musk is making yet another business move and this time he’s reimagining what education in the U.S. could be.
The multi-billionaire has started funding Ad Astra, a Montessori private preschool, outside Bastrop, Texas, recently state-issued documents show.
The preschool will be located on 40 acres of land and a 4,000-square-foot home will be remodeled for the project, according to Texas Health and Human Services documents obtained by Bloomberg.
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Ad Astra’s website says it will be “centered around hands-on, project-based learning, where children are encouraged to explore, experiment, and discover solutions to real-world problems. Ad Astra offers a progressive learning environment that emphasizes the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) into its curriculum.”
The initial permit shows that the school can educate up to 21 students, but the website lists the population as 18 students from ages 3 to 6 and 30 students between ages 6 and 9.
Ad Astra’s website explains that it is currently open to all children ages 3 to 9 and there are job postings for assistant teachers of all levels.
The cost of tuition will be subsidized initially, according to Ad Astra’s website, but eventually “tuition will be in line with local private schools that include an extended day program.”
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The website describes the curriculum as being “carefully sequenced and activity-based” aimed at allowing children to develop essential skills and problem-solving techniques “at their own pace.”
“This unique approach prepares children for, and ultimately mastery of, reading, writing and mathematics,” the website says.
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This is not the first mention of Musk’s interest in starting a school. Last year, his foundation set aside approximately $100 million to create a technology-focused primary and secondary school in Austin and a possible university.