Senate forces Saturday vote to push through Kristi Noem as homeland security chief
The Senate will hold votes over the weekend to accelerate the confirmation of one of President Donald Trump’s key Cabinet nominees.
Lawmakers will meet for a rare Saturday session to hold a vote on whether to confirm South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, to the top Cabinet position.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., indicated earlier in the week that the Senate would stay over the weekend to push through the confirmation process if Democrats blocked voting efforts.
“Do we want a vote on these folks on Tuesday or vote on them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Because that’s what we’re going to do,” Thune said after Democrats blocked a confirmation vote for Trump’s CIA director nominee, John Ratcliffe, who has bipartisan support. “This can be easy or this can be hard.”
SCHUMER SUPPORTS DEMOCRATS DELAYING ALL TRUMP NOMINEES WHO LACK UNANIMOUS SUPPORT
“This is about America’s national security interests, and we’re stalling, so that’s not going to happen,” Thune said.
Noem was questioned by lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee during her confirmation hearing earlier in the week.
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The Department of Homeland Security deals with national security and immigration issues, making Noem’s confirmation top of mind for Trump as he makes the crisis at the southern border a priority during his second term.
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Several of Trump’s nominees remain unconfirmed after the 47th president’s first week in office. But Thune promised while speaking on the Senate floor on Friday that he “will continue to ensure that the Senate works as quickly as possible to get President Trump’s team in place.”
GOP trio missed the whole point of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
Pete Hegseth squeaked through his Senate confirmation on Friday and became America’s new secretary of defense, but he needn’t thank Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins.
For all three long-time establishment and anti-Trump senators, the main objection to Hegseth stepping into the top Pentagon job was that they believe he lacks the prerequisite experience to run the mammoth organization. Here is how Murkowski put it in an X post: “Managing the Department of Defense requires vast experience and expertise as the department is one of the most complex and powerful organizations in the world, and Mr. Hegseth’s prior roles in his career do not demonstrate to me that he is prepared for such immense responsibility.”
Never mind that Hegseth was educated at Princeton and Harvard and served more than a decade in the U.S. Army infantry. Forget that he rose to the rank of major while serving tours in Afghanistan. And disregard that he is a published author who has led veteran advocacy organizations. The problem for these senators was that Hegseth lacks the traditional credential of having worked for a defense contractor, the very type that have been captured over the past two decades by the woke agenda Hegseth has vowed to eliminate.
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Let’s take Trump’s last Defense Secretary, the eminently qualified Mark Esper. Like Hegseth, Esper served in the military, but upon leaving active service, he held a menagerie of high-profile jobs with legislators, the Chamber of Commerce, and eventually as a vice president for defense company Raytheon.
This is exactly the kind of resume that McConnell, Murkowski and Collins were looking for. Esper is the kind of guy who gets 90 votes in favor of confirmation, as he did in 2019, but in building that corporate CV he looked the other way as the institutions he served embraced wokeness and DEI.
Here is what Shanda Hinton, Raytheon Technologies’ chief diversity officer, had to say in 2023: “Advancing diversity, equity and inclusion is more than a goal – it’s our duty and a critical element of our ESG strategy. This recognition only encourages us to keep pushing to create generational change.”
This was the gentle cowardice of the old Republican Party, always scared of being called names by the left if they didn’t pretend men can become women and America is a deeply racist country.
I’m not trying to argue that Esper is some kind of Ibram X Kendi when it comes to things like critical race theory. But he clearly looked the other way as these perverse progressive mindsets took hold.
This was the gentle cowardice of the old Republican Party, always scared of being called names by the left if they didn’t pretend men can become women and America is a deeply racist country. But now is time for courage. This is why Hegseth is the right man for this moment. While the Mark Espers of the world stood by as DEI programs and wokeness infected the military and defense industry, Hegseth was writing books about the leftist institutional capture of our armed forces and schools.
The former “Fox & Friends” weekend anchor may never have been a C-suiter at a massive corporation, but all of those companies have been complicit in the anti-merit based policies that Hegseth promised to pull the plug on during his Senate confirmation hearings.
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In a very real sense, Hegseth is qualified because he isn’t “qualified.” Almost anybody who checked the boxes that McConnell, Murkowski and Collins demand would be coming from the same groupthink swamp that has made our military weaker in the name of diversity.
The American people voted for Trump in large part because they know that Democrats have lost their minds in the culture war. We don’t want men in women’s sports and we do want a military focused on being lethal, not politically correct.
If Hegseth winds up in over his head we will know it pretty fast, and I will gladly apologize to his twin detractors on the Republican side of the senate aisle, but that is very unlikely to happen, and how high is the bar really when Biden’s DefSec Lloyd Austin just went missing for a few days and nobody cared?
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Hegseth has a chance to fix the military the way Trump wants him to because the American people elected Trump to get that exact thing done.
Elections, they say, have consequences and a Hegseth-led Department of Defense is a great consequence for those who want merit, fairness, and competence in the military. It is a shame, but maybe not surprising that Collins, McConnell, and Murkowski could not see this. Fortunately, Vance made sure their misguided opinions didn’t get in the way of real change at the Pentagon.
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President Trump’s Justice Department makes Supreme Court move
President Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Friday asked the Supreme Court to freeze a handful of cases, including a challenge to one of former President Biden’s student loan bailouts.
Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris filed several motions Friday asking the court to halt proceedings in the student loan case and three environmental cases while the new administration will “reassess the basis for and soundness” of Biden’s policies.
The Supreme Court was expected to hear oral arguments for these cases in March or April and issue decisions later this term. But Trump’s DOJ requested that the high court halt all written brief deadlines, which would put them on indefinite hold.
BIDEN’S LATEST ROUND OF STUDENT LOAN HANDOUTS BRINGS ADMIN TOTAL TO MORE THAN 5 MILLION
Under former President Joe Biden, more than 5 million Americans had their student debt canceled through actions taken by the Department of Education. But Biden’s actions faced numerous legal challenges, with GOP critics alleging he went beyond the scope of his authority by acting without Congress.
In this case, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had blocked the Biden administration’s borrower defense rule, which would have expanded student debt relief for borrowers who were defrauded by their schools. The court found that Biden’s rule had “numerous statutory and regulatory shortcomings.” Biden appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case earlier this month.
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Now, that case is on hold, and it is possible the Trump administration will revoke the rule change, rendering the issue moot.
The three environmental cases have to do with regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency during the Biden administration that were challenged.
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It is not unusual for a new presidential administration to reverse its position on legal cases inherited from the prior administration. After Biden took office, the DOJ asked the Supreme Court to freeze a challenge to Trump’s attempt to use military funds to construct a border wall. Biden halted the spending and the court dismissed the case.
The Biden administration took similar action with a case that challenged Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. The Supreme Court eventually tossed the case as moot after Biden rescinded the policy.
Four female hostages held in terror’s grip released after 477 days in captivity
The terrorist group Hamas released four additional hostages from Gaza on Saturday after a ceasefire deal with Israel took effect nearly a week ago.
Karina Ariev, 20, Daniella Gilboa, 20, Naama Levy, 20, and Liri Albag, 19 — all of whom are members of the Israeli Defense Forces —were freed on Saturday in the second round of hostage releases after they were abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
In exchange, Israel was expected to free 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees, including 120 militants serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks.
The first round of hostage releases on Sunday freed Romi Gonen, Emily Demari, and Doron Steinbrecher.
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Video from Palestine Square in Gaza shows the four newly released women hostages being taken from the cars. They are alive and walking, wearing uniforms.
“The Red Cross has communicated that four Israeli hostages were transferred to them and are on their way toward IDF and ISA forces in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF and Israeli Securities Authority said in a joint statement.
The IDF and ISA later said: “A short while ago, accompanied by IDF and ISA forces, the four returning hostages crossed the border into Israeli territory. The returning hostages are currently on their way to an initial reception point in southern Israel, where they will be reunited with their parents.”
During their return to Israeli territory, the hostages underwent initial medical assessments.
“The commanders and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces salute and embrace the returning hostages as they make their way home to the State of Israel, the IDF wrote on X.
The four female soldiers were believed to have been, at least at one time, held all together.
“After 477 agonizing days in captivity, Daniella, Liri, Naama, and Karina are finally returning home – to their families who worked tirelessly for their release, to friends who prayed for their well-being, and to an entire nation that never lost faith this day would come,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters said in a press release.
“Their return today represents a moment of light in the darkness, a moment of hope and triumph of spirit, while serving as a painful reminder of the urgency to bring back the 90 hostages still in Gaza,” the release continued. “We will not stop fighting until all phases of this deal are completed and every last hostage returns home to their loved ones. We extend our deepest gratitude to President Trump, whose instrumental efforts made this deal possible.”
Under the ceasefire deal, a total of 33 hostages are to be set free over the course of six weeks, including those already released, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Hamas agreed to release three female hostages on the first day of the deal, four on the seventh day and the remaining 26 over the next five weeks.
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This is the second cease-fire achieved during the war that began more than a year ago.
The 15-month-long war in Gaza started when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompting military retaliation from Israeli forces. Nearly 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza.
Trump calls out LA mayor as she sits feet away from him during wildfires roundtable
President Donald Trump declared a national emergency after touring the devastation of the Los Angeles fires with residents who were personally impacted by the disastrous event.
Trump traveled to Southern California on Friday to survey the damage from the recent wildfires that destroyed over 10,000 structures in the Los Angeles area and tragically took the lives of nearly 30 people.
Trump took an aerial tour of the area before his landing, with images showing the once ritzy neighborhood in ashes.
The president and first lady Melania Trump then experienced the damage up close, meeting with local law enforcement and members of the community for a tour of the destroyed Pacific Palisades neighborhoods.
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“Not even believable,” Trump told reporters on site.
Trump sat down for a roundtable with LA Mayor Karen Bass and other state officials. When the president entered the room, individuals were heard chanting “USA, USA, USA!” Bass greeted the president and said that his presence was welcomed.
“This is an honor to be with you,” during the meeting, saying that homeowners told him that they want to rebuild their homes in the area.
At one point, the president criticized Bass for not using her emergency powers to respond to the wildfires.
“You have emergency powers just like I do … you have to exercise them also,” Trump told Bass, who responded that she did exercise them.
Trump said he would sign an executive order to open up the water valves in the area.
“I don’t think you can realize how rough, how devastating it is until you see it,” Trump said of the wildfire damage. “The federal government is standing behind you, 100%.”
Trump said that he is going to waive federal permits for rebuilding in the area. “I’m gonna be the president to help you fix it,” he said. “We’re going to waive all federal permits… Because a federal permit can take 10 years… we don’t want to take 10 days.”
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After the fires broke out, Trump blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic city policies for the damage, citing their forest and water management policies.
Newsom was waiting for Trump on the tarmac when he exited Air Force One and was seen shaking hands with the president in their first face-to-face encounter since the inauguration.
“Thank you first for being here. It means a great deal to all of us,” Newsom told Trump after they met on the tarmac of LAX in Los Angeles just after 3 p.m. local time. “We’re going to need your support. We’re going to need your help.”
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Speaking about his meeting with Newsom, Trump said that “we had a good talk, a very positive talk.”
Trump traveled to North Carolina to tour the hurricane damage, before heading to California for his first visit to the state since becoming president.
Doctor who investigated JFK assassination reacts to Trump’s declassification of files
A famed doctor who investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy lifted the veil of President Donald Trump’s mandate to declassify the assassination files.
“The various conspiracy theories and other criticisms of the investigation continued and arose after our report and have been amplified by the fact that the entire report was never released by the investigation conducted by Congress,” forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden told Fox News Digital. “Expectations are that the 14,000 documents that will be released by President Trump may shed a light on the various mistakes or disinformation that have circulated since.”
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at declassifying government documents on the assassinations of Kennedy, his brother and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
“A lot of people were waiting for this… for years, for decades,” Trump said in signing the release of the documents. “Everything will be revealed.”
TRUMP SIGNS ORDER TO DECLASSIFY FILES ON JFK, RFK AND MLK ASSASSINATIONS
STREAM ON FOX NATION: THE BADEN FILES
Tragedy in Dallas: JFK assassination on Nov. 22, 1963
On Nov. 22, 1963, America lost a popular young president as he was riding in his presidential motorcade in Dallas and waving to adoring bystanders from his open-roofed vehicle.
The assassination sent shock waves that are still felt today.
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Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald less than an hour later. But Oswald was also killed on live TV just two days later as police were transferring him to a county jail.
Oswald’s killer, Jack Ruby, acted alone, the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known as the Warren Commission, concluded. The commission ruled that Oswald also acted alone.
Multiple Shooter Theory
Dr. Baden was tapped to chair the forensic pathology autopsy panel on the Select Committee on Assassinations that was set up by Congress in 1977.
“Our panel concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from a rifle at the president. The first one struck a curb. The second one struck him in the upper back. And the third and continued through Governor John Connally,” Dr. Baden said. “The bullet was recovered in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas. The third bullet is the one that struck the president in the head and was recovered and part was broken up near the front seat of the car and on the floor.”
Dr. Baden said that skepticism arose, in part, due to the circumstances surrounding Dr. James Humes performing the autopsy despite not having experience.
“Nine chief medical examiners from around the country reviewed the autopsy report, which was poorly done,” Dr. Baden said. “The initial autopsy report was faulty because it was performed by Dr. Humes, who did not have any experience in doing homicide autopsies.”
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During his work on the Select Committee on Assassinations, Dr. Baden, along with the nine chief medical examiners, determined — despite the faulty initial autopsy — that Oswald was the lone shooter.
“We agreed in our investigation that there were many flaws in his autopsy, mainly that he did not recognize that there was a gunshot wound in the back that had exited through the neck. And that was the bullet that struck Governor Connally,” he said. “And this led to immediate conspiracy theories that there had to be at least two shooters, one shooting from the back and one shooting from the front because there were two holes.”
“And our investigation, looking at all the available information, which we thought was sufficient, was that he was shot at twice,” Dr. Baden said. “I don’t think there’ll be anything in those 14,000 documents that would be contrary to that, although we don’t know what will be found.”
The U.S. Government
Dr. Baden said that the delay in the release of the documents may be a “risk to confidential informants” and also may be an “embarrassment” to the intelligence community.
“The various governmental agencies, like the FBI or CIA, were concerned that the release of these documents may jeopardize national security. Even though the death occurred 61 years ago, they believe it may be a risk to confidential information,” he said. “There’s also a concern that the main reason these haven’t been released is because of embarrassment it could bring to the U.S.”
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The Mafia
Theories swirled that Oswald was hired by the mafia to kill the president, Dr. Baden said.
“There was a feeling that he [Kennedy] would be lenient to the organized crime in the mafia because they helped him win over Illinois, which was a critical state in the election,” he said. “But when John Kennedy initiated a very effective investigation into organized crime, there is a feeling that there was motive to hurt the president.”
NATIONAL ARCHIVES COMPLETES REVIEW OF JFK ASSASSINATION DOCUMENTS, 99% PUBLICLY AVAILABLE: WHITE HOUSE
Questions on Oswald’s Motivation to Kill
Dr. Baden said that he is confident that the conclusions the Select Committee on Assassinations made in 1977 still ring true. The committee concluded that it “really was” Oswald and that Kennedy was shot twice, both from behind.
“I don’t think that there will be anything found that would be contrary to our subcommittee’s finding about the cause of the president’s death and how he was shot. But there may be material that would support our diagnosis,” he said.
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“But the other and maybe overriding concern is who put Oswald up to it,” said Dr. Baden. “There’s a feeling on whether the CIA or other governmental agencies or the mafia or another country like Cuba or Russia was involved, and that could contain embarrassing information about what people were doing that led up to the murder of the president or in the cover-up.”
“This could all be clarified by looking at the 14,000 documents and seeing if there is any additional information that shows that anybody else was involved or that somebody didn’t do their job correctly,” he said.
Vance’s family adapting to new lifestyle in Vice President’s official residence
Vice President JD Vance, his wife Usha Vance and their three young children are right now in the process of adapting to a new lifestyle as they get settled into the vice president’s official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.
The Vance family captured hearts across the nation during President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 22, when millions of Americans watched as the new vice president and second lady brought out their three young children: Ewan, 7, Vivek, 4, and Mirabel, 3.
The millennial dad of three and the second lady — they’re both 40 years old — are the first family with children to live at the vice president’s residence since Al and Tipper Gore lived there in 1993.
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Vice President Vance is the youngest politician to assume the role of second in command since Richard Nixon, who was also aged 40 when he began the VP role in Jan. 1953.
Vance recently took to X to share his family’s latest update in Washington, D.C.
“My kids are settling in to the Vice President’s official residence, and I just want to say: thank you to the American people,” he posted on the social media platform.
“While we don’t own this property, it is a beautiful home for our three little kids,” he also wrote.
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“We are grateful, and will take good care of it.”
The three-story home, built in 1893, sits on a 73-acre plot and is “surrounded by a forest-like setting,” according to “Number One Observatory Circle.” Its 33 rooms are for both public and private use.
As they get settled into their new home, here’s a closer look at the Vance family.
Ewan Blaine Vance, age 7
The vice president and second lady’s eldest son, Ewan, was born on June 5, 2017.
Last February on the Senate floor, Vance gave some insight into his family life, calling out his “6-year-old baby boy” before correcting himself joyfully — saying his son was “not so much of a baby anymore.”
Vivek Vance, age 4
The second family welcomed their middle child and second son in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Vivek Vance will turn 5 in February.
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When Vance took the opportunity to reference his children on the Senate floor on Feb. 12, 2024, it was his second son’s birthday — so the then-senator wished his son a happy birthday by reading the well-known Dr. Seuss book, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”
While the Vances tend to keep their children out of the political spotlight, the vice president did post about his son after the two went to Missouri for a fishing trip.
Mirable Rose Vance, age 3
The youngest child and only daughter of the family is Mirabel Vance, born in Dec. 2021.
The baby of the family even made a special appearance during one of the vice president’s blooper reels during his race for a Senate seat.
She most recently stole hearts during the presidential Inauguration, when she was seen sitting on her mother’s lap with a series of Bluey bandaids on her fingers.
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“There is nothing that he cares more about than being there for his kids,” the second lady said in an interview last year with Fox News.
“He wakes up, you know, after a really late night of travel — he wakes up at 6 a.m. to make sure that they have some elaborate breakfast the next day.”
She added, “He is just determined to be there for them.”
Presidential families over the years
It has been some time since young children were seen running around the grounds of the White House, but many presidents have raised their children in the political spotlight across the decades.
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Here are just a few of the presidential children over the years.
Malia Obama and Sasha Obama
In 2008, at age seven, Sasha Obama became the youngest person to live in the White House since the Kennedy family was in the president’s official residence.
Malia Obama was only 10 years old when her father was first elected president.
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The two Obama sisters spent nearly eight years growing up in the White House, from little girls to young women, and would join their father on many of his duties as president — from the annual turkey pardoning to state dinners honoring various political figures.
Jenna Bush and Barbara Bush
The Bush twins were no strangers to the White House. They were only in first grade when their grandfather, George H.W. Bush, was elected president of the United Sates.
The residence eventually became the family home in 2000, but the two sisters went off to college that same year. Barbara Bush attended Yale University and Jenna Bush stayed in Texas as a student at the University of Texas at Austin.
During their time in the White House as both grandchildren and children of presidents, the girls literally left their mark on history. The twins’ handprints, to this day, can be seen in the White House Children’s Garden along with those of other children of past presidents.
Amy Carter
Amy Carter was only nine years old when she moved into the White House with her parents.
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The youngest of the Carter children, she has three older brothers: Jack, James and Donnel Carter.
“Her brothers are so much older that it is almost as though she has four fathers, and we have had to stand in line to spoil her,” Rosalynn Carter once said, according to the White House Archives.
Amy Carter was brought up in the White House and attended many events with her father, including the 50th anniversary of Mickey Mouse in 1978. The youngest Carter hosted the celebration alongside her parents and invited local children with disabilities to join in on the festivities, the White House Historical Association noted.
Caroline Kennedy and John Kennedy Jr.
The Kennedy children were the youngest children to grow up in the White House.
John Jr. was born just two weeks after John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960. Caroline Kennedy was three years old when she moved into the White House with her parents.
Caroline Kennedy and 20 other children went to kindergarten in the White House Solarium, after Jacqueline Kennedy formed a school on the presidential premises.
The school met all the District of Columbia regulations and the teachers’ salaries were paid for by the Kennedy family and the other parents.
Alice Roosevelt
America’s first “wild child,” Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the eldest daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, the nation’s 26th commander-in-chief.
She shocked the nation with her wild antics, from carrying a pet boa constrictor named Emily Spinach around her neck and smoking atop the roof of the White House to racing her car up and down the streets of Washington at 17 years old.
She also played poker or partied all night with the Vanderbilts, as Fox News Digital previously reported.
“She broke the mold and then split it into a million pieces,” presidential historian and Reagan biographer Craig Shirley told Fox News Digital.
“She did it with wit and verve.”
“Presidential families, and especially daughters, were supposed to be quiet and low-key and polite — and she was none of them.”
President Teddy Roosevelt told concerned onlookers that he couldn’t control his daughter and run the country simultaneously.
“She had no filter and she didn’t care,” said Shirley. “And she did it with wit and verve.”
Thomas ‘Tad’ Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln’s eight-year-old son is believed to have been the originator of a long-standing White House tradition.
In 1863, when President Lincoln was gifted a live turkey for his Christmas celebration, his rambunctious son, Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, adopted the turkey and even named him Jack, in an effort to prevent the turkey from being killed for the family’s holiday feast.
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“The boy apparently argued that the bird had every right to live — and the president gave in to his son, writing a reprieve for the turkey on a card and handing it to Tad,” Fox News Digital previously reported.
That’s the origin story of the annual White House tradition of the presidential turkey pardon that occurs each fall.
For years, conservative media, lawmakers and talking heads have been sounding the alarm about President Joe Biden’s cognitive free fall. And for years, left-wing media, lawmakers and their loyal mouthpieces waved it off with the same condescending dismissal — accusing us of lying, fear-mongering or worse. Some even went so far as to say they couldn’t keep up with Biden’s supposed brilliance and jam-packed schedule of what was mostly just one morning briefing and two mid-afternoon naps.
Fast-forward to the post-presidency. Now that Biden has shuffled out of office, left-wing media seems to be waking up to the glaringly obvious. The New York Times of all places — yes, the same paper that acted as Biden’s PR firm — has revealed that he relied on teleprompters during intimate fundraisers in private homes. At events where he was supposed to come across as casual and personable, he needed scripted prompts. Donors weren’t exactly brimming with confidence.
House Speaker Mike Johnson dropped a bombshell about a January 2024 meeting in which Biden was apparently stunned to learn he had signed an executive order halting liquefied natural gas exports just weeks earlier. He repeatedly denied even knowing about it. Johnson believed Biden didn’t know what he signed, leaving him with a terrifying question: “Who is running the country?”
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Spoiler alert: It wasn’t Biden. And to answer Johnson’s question, there are at least five shadowy figures who might have been behind the wheel — or rather, letting the car roll downhill with no one on the brakes.
1. Former President Barack Obama
Remember when former President Barack Obama joked in a 2020 interview with Stephen Colbert that he’d love a third term where he could play puppet master while someone else carried out his orders? Well, guess what — he may as well have been describing the Biden presidency.
The continuity of Obama-era policies under Biden is glaring. Biden’s radical economic and climate boondoggles — like Build Back Better and The Inflation Reduction Act — weren’t just echoes of Obama’s agenda; they were carbon copies, with Biden playing the role of a less convincing understudy. Biden’s own “Obamacare” albatross was just as disastrous, except this time it was painted green, cost even more, and led to an inflation nightmare.
And let’s not forget the Afghanistan withdrawal fiasco, which had Obama’s fingerprints all over it. The same architects of Obama-era failures were in charge, bungling timelines and ignoring warnings. Meanwhile, Biden seemed to be caught off guard at every turn, surprised by how the plan unfolded — because he probably wasn’t the one pulling the strings. Who were Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and CIA Director William Burns actually answering to?
Obama wasn’t exactly subtle about staying in the picture. He was offering Biden advice, headlining White House events, and reportedly holding closed-door meetings with key officials. By 2023, when Biden’s mental decline became increasingly difficult to camouflage, Politico openly wondered, “Is Barack Obama Ready To Reassert Himself?” He might have been asserting himself the entire time, or at least nudging the wheel while Biden tried to figure out where the car keys were.
2. First Lady Jill Biden
The first lady was Joe Biden’s handler, coach and babysitter. Jill Biden’s influence on Joe’s decision-making has been an open secret for years, starting with his decision to run for president in 2020, even though close advisers reportedly warned he didn’t have the stamina for a grueling campaign.
When Joe Biden’s promise to be a one-term president came up, and Democrats began eyeing the door for their next candidate, it was Jill who convinced him to run for re-election — despite what she had to know about his obvious decline. Was this about his legacy, or was it just a desperate power grab?
After Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, where he looked more confused than commanding, Jill delivered the kind of praise that would make North Korean propagandists blush: “You answered every question! You knew all the facts!”
It was as believable as former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas telling us the border was secure while we watched videos showing illegal immigrants streaming across it. Mayorkas lied to protect an agenda; Jill lied to protect her husband’s image — and her own grip on influence.
Remember the infamous photo of her sitting in the president’s chair on Air Force One while “prepping for the G7 Summit”? Or how she led a cabinet meeting last September? Since when does the first lady run cabinet meetings? Jill was stepping in when her husband was disengaged, disoriented or otherwise absent — a role that feels more like acting president than loving partner.
3. Chief of Staff Jeff Zients
Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, often called a “fixer,” quietly emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the administration. Zients’ influence was evident during the early stages of the pandemic, when he spearheaded the COVID-19 response team. Since then, his role has expanded, effectively making him the behind-the-scenes manager of the White House with a president who didn’t grasp what was really going on.
Zients played a crucial part in shaping and managing the administration’s day-to-day agenda, including overseeing staffing decisions and ensuring execution of Biden’s initiatives. He recruited a third deputy chief of staff, Natalie Quillian, to implement the administration’s initiatives, but the move was internally controversial, ruffling feathers of those who saw her as Zients’ enforcer as the “bad cop.”
Given Zients’ reputation as a detail-oriented manager with significant control over White House operations, it’s certainly plausible that he orchestrated the signing of the executive order halting liquefied natural gas exports, ensuring it aligned with his broader environmental or economic goals without requiring Biden’s deep engagement.
4. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
His role as national security advisor positioned him as a key figure in the Biden administration, but given the president’s cognitive abilities, it may have been simply calling the shots. Too bad he wasn’t very successful.
Sullivan was instrumental in orchestrating major policies, such as the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, where he managed the planning process. Sullivan was so involved that it caught the attention of Congressman Mike McCaul, who demanded Sullivan testify in front of a House committee. He also played a significant role in shaping the administration’s industrial strategy, promoting policies to protect U.S. manufacturing and counter China’s technological advancements.
Given these substantial responsibilities and his central role in formulating and implementing policy, it’s plausible that Sullivan functioned as a de facto leader within the administration, especially given Biden’s capacity to govern.
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5. A purple-haired 24-year-old intern who moonlights as a TikTok influencer
The radical shift in gender and race policies under the Biden administration screams of a progressive activist completely out of touch with mainstream America.
Biden’s decision to let biological males compete in women’s sports — signed as an executive order on day one — showcases the extreme agenda of far-left influencers. Add to that the administration’s push for critical race theory training across federal agencies and its abandonment of meritocracy for race- and gender-conscious hiring.
These policies feel like they were dreamed up by a 24-year-old progressive fresh out of college, fresh off a “gap year” funded by their parents while they “roughed it” in luxury hotels across Europe.
Then there’s the White House’s reliance on TikTok and X influencers like Harry Sisson and Chris Mowrey. Watching influencers awkwardly dance while professing their love for an octogenarian president wasn’t just embarrassing — it was a window into who’s really shaping the administration’s messaging.
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The first lady was Joe Biden’s handler, coach and babysitter. Jill Biden’s influence on Joe’s decision-making has been an open secret for years, starting with his decision to run for president in 2020, even though close advisers reportedly warned he didn’t have the stamina for a grueling campaign.
What kind of adult turns to TikTok twerps for serious promotion? Probably another TikTok twerp with access to Biden’s social media accounts. This cringe-worthy reliance on influencers reflects a radicalized youth presence in the White House, wielding outsized influence over both policy and messaging.
The Rejects
Could Vice President Kamala Harris really have been running the show? Unlikely. She treated her VP title the same way she handled her border czar role — loving the prestige while doing next to nothing. As for Hunter Biden, he may have had influence, but running a shadow presidency while hawking finger paintings for Oval Office access? That’s a full-time job all on its own. And actor George Clooney? Sure, he ended Biden’s presidency with one editorial, but let’s be real — would someone who wields that kind of influence give up power so easily? Doubt it.
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