Dem’s new tipline for ‘abuses of power’ turns into online mockery: ‘I wanna report Biden’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., faced widespread mockery after launching a tipline to “expose corruption, abuses of power, and threats to public safety.”
On Monday, Schumer shared a link calling on “whistleblowers” to report violations, arguing they “are a vital part of Congressional oversight to hold the administration accountable.” The categories whistleblowers can report include “retaliation,” “wasteful spending,” “fraud,” “criminal activity,” and “other.”
“Today, I’m calling on our brave public servants,” the Senate Minority Leader wrote as he shared the tipline form on X. “I’m launching a new portal for anyone who wants to expose corruption, abuses of power, and threats to public safety with the legal protections of being a whistleblower.”
The new project was shredded by a wide variety of commentators online.
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“We already have that… it’s called DOGE,” comedian Tim Young quipped.
Tesla founder Elon Musk joked, “Look into this Schumer guy, he’s definitely done crime!”
“Great! I wanna report: Joe Biden. Kamala Harris. Chuck Schumer,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, replied. “And the entire corrupt Democrat party that weaponized & abused the federal government for the past four years.”
While some commentators shared a video of Schumer’s failed Father’s Day photo-op where he appeared to not know how to properly grill a burger, others called out far more serious aspects of his political past.
Many commentators recalled when Schumer issued a warning to Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in 2020, during a rally held as the court heard arguments in a high-profile abortion case.
“I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” Schumer warned. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Judicial Network president Carrie Severino noted his mention of “’Threats to public safety…’” and wrote, “This is rich coming from Senator Schumer, who stood on the steps of the Supreme Court and threatened Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, saying they would ‘pay the price’ for exercising judicial review.”
CHUCK SCHUMER MOCKED BY LATE-NIGHT HOSTS FOR RECENT ATTEMPTS TO SLAM TRUMP
“I have someone to report, pictured here at the Supreme Court threatening Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch,” Fox News’ Katie Pavlich said.
The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Z. Hemingway responded with a screenshot of a lengthy report she was filing using the tipline to call out Schumer for either “retaliation” or “criminal activity.”
“Wild that you’re recruiting government employees involved in the corruption to target the people exposing the corruption,” market analyst and political commentator Jeff Carlson wrote. “Public Servant is a pretentious term for people who went into government because they knew the graft pays well.”
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Another country buckles, sends planes to US to collect illegal aliens
Two planes sent by Venezuela returned home Monday with nearly 200 Venezuelans who were in the U.S. illegally as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan.
The 190 migrants returned to Venezuela signals a possible ease in tensions between the two longtime adversaries and a win for the Trump administration as it seeks to have countries take back their citizens found in the U.S. without authorization.
The Conviasa airline flights arrived in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas from Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base in El Paso, Texas.
“Two planes of illegal immigrants left El Paso today headed to Venezuela – paid for by the Venezuelans,” Trump envoy Richard Grennell, who oversaw the deportations, wrote on X.
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Deportation flights from the U.S. to Venezuela had been stopped for years, except for a brief period in October 2023 under the Biden administration.
Large numbers of Venezuelans began arriving at the southern border in 2021 and are still among the nationalities with the most people entering the U.S. illegally, which has made Venezuela’s refusal to accept their return a major hurdle.
Venezuela’s newfound willingness to take back the migrants came after Grennell visited Caracas a few weeks ago.
“This is the world we want, a world of peace, understanding, dialogue and cooperation,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said.
TRUMP DEPORTING CRIMINAL ALIENS TO GUANTANAMO BAY: MEET THE HARDENED TERRORISTS THEY’LL JOIN
The Venezuelan government confirmed the flights earlier on Monday, criticizing in a statement the “ill-intentioned” and “false” narrative surrounding the presence of Tren de Aragua gang members in the U.S. The statement said most Venezuelan migrants are decent and hard-working people and that American officials are attempting to stigmatize the country.
The deportation flights on Monday came days after some illegal aliens were sent to the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, where they are separated from 15 detainees who were already there, including planners in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
A federal judge in New Mexico temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan men to Guantánamo Bay on Sunday. Lawyers for the trio argued that their clients “fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantánamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang.”
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The flights also came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio reached agreements with El Salvador and Guatemala for those countries to accept their citizens and U.S. deportees of other nationalities.
Trump said after Grennell’s visit that the Venezuelan government had agreed to accept “all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua,” and pay for their flights home. Half a dozen Americans held in Venezuela were released at the time.
Report blows the lid off how much money DOGE’s top target funneled to terrorists
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided millions of dollars in funding to extremist groups tied to designated terrorist organizations and their allies, according to a report published by Middle East Forum, a U.S. think tank.
“The Middle East Forum’s multi-year study of USAID and State Department spending has uncovered $164 million of approved grants to radical organizations, with at least $122 million going to groups aligned with designated terrorists and their supporters,” the conservative think tank wrote in its report published Feb. 4.
“Billions more of federal dollars have been given to leading American aid charities which have consistently failed to vet their terror-tied local partners, and show little interest in improving their practices, to the apparent indifference of the federal government.”
The Middle East Forum’s report focuses specifically on funds from USAID and the State Department that wound up in the hands of radical groups and organizations tied to terrorism.
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The think tank reported that among its top findings, USAID was found to have given more than $900,000 to a “Gaza-based terror charity” called Bayader Association for Environment and Development. The funding began in 2016, and its most recent allocation was made just days before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Bayader describes itself as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that works “to build a civil society” on the Gaza Strip.
“Founded in 2007, shortly after Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip, Bayader operates in close cooperation with the Hamas regime. Its 2021 annual report notes ‘coordination’ and ‘meetings’ with Hamas’s Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture,” the report found.
‘VIPER’S NEST’: USAID ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION, MISMANAGEMENT LONG BEFORE TRUMP ADMIN TOOK AIM
The funds were secured through other NGOs, such as Catholic Relief Services and medical groups.
“But USAID coordinates directly with Bayader as well,” according to the report. “USAID officials have praised Bayader’s work on social media, and even visited Bayader’s offices, where one senior USAID official, Jonathan Kamin, received an award from the terror-linked charity.”
The report also found that USAID approved a $12.5 million grant in 2024 to the American Near East Refugee Agency, which is also “a long-standing partner” of Bayader. The American Near East Refugee Agency is an NGO that was established in 1968 in an effort to assist refugees following the Arab-Israeli War.
The report found staffers with the NGO have repeatedly and publicly posted “violent ideas, without apparent censure from top charity officials.” The comments on social media posted by employees include: calling on God to “erase the Jews,” expressing support for the “brave prisoners” in Israeli jails during the Hamas-Israel war, and describing Oct. 7, 2023, as a “beautiful morning.”
Sam Westrop, the director of the Middle East Forum’s counter-extremism project, Islamist Watch, posted a highlight thread on X of the report’s findings, describing the examples as “horrifying.”
“USAID won’t even tell us how much they gave the Unlimited Friends Association, a Gaza terror charity which operates with help from Hamas. The head of the charity promises to ‘cleanse’ their land of ‘impure Jews,’” Westrop posted in the thread of an example.
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“USAID gave millions to Islamic Relief, whose Gaza branch openly works with senior terrorist officials in Gaza, including Hamas politburo member Ghazi Hamad. who promised that Hamas would repeat Oct 7 attacks ‘time and again until Israel is annihilated,’” he posted in another example from the report.
USAID funds totaling $125,000 were found in the hands of the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) in 2015, despite the U.S. Treasury designating the group a global terrorist organization in 2004 due to its ties to Osama bin Laden.
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The report continued that USAID “undoubtedly knew of ISRA’s terrorism activities. In 2010, the executive director of ISRA’s U.S. branch (IARA-USA) and a board member pleaded guilty to money-laundering, theft of public funds, conspiracy, and several other charges. The plea was listed on USAID’s own website,” the report found. IARA-USA stands for the Islamic American Relief Agency.
The funds were directed to ISRA via an evangelical charity called World Vision that works to provide clean water to areas of Sudan, according to the report.
A World Vision official told Fox News Digital when asked about the report that the charity earned approval to work in Sudan “to help build a better world for the most vulnerable children and their families” and that it takes “compliance obligations seriously.”
“As soon as we became aware that a local partner, Islamic Relief Agency, might be on the list of organizations banned from transactions by the United States, we suspended the grant and asked the US Government to confirm its status,” the official said. “We would never knowingly put those we serve or our staff at risk by working with a partner on the list of banned organizations. We exist to help build a better world for children and their families, serving in the name of Jesus Christ. We have no evidence that any of our funds have been used for anything other than urgent humanitarian work.”
“As a Christian humanitarian organization, we do not compromise our beliefs nor commitment to integrity as we work with governments throughout the world,” the official said. “It is not easy to operate in fragile contexts, yet this is where the Lord is calling us. We remain committed to our vision of bringing life in all its fullness to vulnerable children around the world.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Bayader, the American Near East Refugee Agency and Catholic Relief Services but did not receive replies.
USAID is under fire from the Trump administration as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its chair, Elon Musk, investigate the agency’s spending practices and prepare to revamp and potentially shutter the agency. USAID is currently led by interim director Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The agency announced on its website on Tuesday, Feb. 4, that nearly all personnel would be placed on leave by Friday, making a few exceptions for those in roles related to “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.” Its overseas missions reportedly also had been told to shut down.
Lawmakers, news outlets and think tanks have dug into past reports related to USAID spending amid the apparent dismantling of the agency, finding countless examples of money channeled to questionable organizations or programs, such as creating a version of “Sesame Street” in Iraq or funding pottery classes in Morocco.
USAID was established in 1961 under the Kennedy administration, operating as an independent agency that works closely with the State Department to allocate civilian foreign aid. Under Rubio, the agency could be abolished after its reorganization over the coming days, he said in a letter to bipartisan lawmakers on Feb. 3.
“In consultation with Congress, USAID may move, reorganize, and integrate certain missions, bureaus, and offices into the Department of State, and the remainder of the Agency may be abolished consistent with applicable law,” Rubio wrote.
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Musk, meanwhile, has posted on X that USAID is a “criminal organization” and that it is “time for it to die.”
Police sergeants flee as Dems reveal how much cash is flowing to illegals instead
The NYPD is losing sergeants in droves as New York City leaders scale back the allure of achieving the rank for police officers, who can make more in annual salary due to a system that allows experienced members of the rank-and-file to make more than freshly promoted supervisors.
Under an expired contract, pay for sergeants starts at $98,000 and is capped at $118,000 after roughly five years, according to the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA). Patrol officers top out at $115,000 – meaning hundreds of sergeants make less than thousands of rank-and-file cops who have reached top pay for their position.
“We’re going to have guys potentially in the next year, year and a half that will be making upwards of anywhere between 9 to $15,000 less than a police officer,” said Vincent Vallelong, the president of the SBA. “So you’re going to take a rank with more responsibility, you took a test, three tests, and at the end of the day, you’re losing money.”
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Over the course of a career, a sergeant could lose out on $80,000 to $100,000 in earnings, he said.
Rather than creating a step program to incrementally increase sergeants’ pay, city taxpayers could be on the hook for an estimated $170 million if sergeants are promoted to top pay to outpace their subordinates, according to the SBA.
“It doesn’t seem like anyone’s priorities are in the right place, because back in the ’90s, when the city needed to be turned around and we corrected crime, it was the NYPD that did it,” Vallelong told Fox News Digital.
For comparison, the city reached a $220 million deal with the Roosevelt Hotel, owned by the government of Pakistan, to house illegal immigrants.
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“They’re bleeding money, the city, in all the wrong places,” Vallelong said. “Somebody in city governance either needs to go, or they really need to sit down and think this through and go back to basics. … Go back to basic math. Go back to basic economics.”
There are about 4,300 sergeants in the NYPD currently, roughly 200 shy of the target, according to the SBA. More than 70 left the department in January 2025, and 1,100 are eligible to retire by June. Others have been promoted to lieutenant in another blow to staffing levels.
An estimated 1,200 active-duty sergeants are working second jobs to make ends meet in the high-cost metropolitan area.
“We are currently going through the mediation process with the SBA and are committed to coming to a fair solution that will continue to protect public safety,” a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox News Digital on Monday.
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While they see additional work in their normal range of duties due to understaffing, NYPD sergeants have also been given new assignments ranging from monitoring low-level nonemergency calls, vehicle pursuits from outside their own units, and reviewing hours of bodycam video on a monthly basis, according to the SBA. Those jobs give them less time to go out on patrol in New York City.
In that environment, officials worry top-pay officers will have no motivation to take promotion exams, earn promotions and refill depleted ranks.
Contract negotiations that had been scheduled for the first week of February were postponed, and Vallelong said the city has ignored proposals from the SBA.
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Adams, a former NYPD captain himself, previously said he would reach a new contract agreement. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
“The mayor was a sergeant at one point in time. He had to be in order to get to the point where he’s at,” Vallelong said. “And you would think that he would understand this more than anybody else, because I guarantee you that if push came to shove, he’s not taking this rank unless he’s getting compensated the right way.”
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Departments around the country are struggling with recruitment and retention, making experienced NYPD members attractive to smaller departments where the cost of living is lower, while those departments also increasingly appeal to cops fed up with life in the Big Apple.
As a result, according to the SBA, NYPD members now face an increased workload while they have less experience overall.
“The mayor was just up in Albany asking for more money for migrants,” Vallelong said. “I know he’s had meetings with the president … maybe he should ask the president to step in like Clinton did back in those years and pass a bill in order to further law enforcement and recruit people and make it more of a respectable job again.”
“We have already spent over $7 billion on this crisis alone, and the previous administration committed only $237 million in funding to help house the migrants in our care and for future services,” a City Hall spokesperson told Fox News Monday. “We have continued to receive previously allocated reimbursements through the past week. We will discuss this matter directly with federal officials.”
Communists expand power near wealthy Florida enclave as influence emerges
China’s growing presence in America’s backyard could grant the communist country access to Florida’s coast, coinciding with a dramatic rise in Chinese national border encounters.
The Caribbean region, also known as “America’s third border” due to its proximity to the U.S., has been financially backed by China in maritime logistics and infrastructure projects in recent years.
“I think the Chinese are trying to gain influence in a region which is very close to the American homeland,” Gordon G. Chang, an author and expert on U.S.-China relations told Fox News Digital.
Chang pointed to the $3.4-billion Freeport Container port project in the Bahamas, just 87 miles east of Palm Beach, Florida.
A report from the House Foreign Affairs Committee found that China invested over $10 billion in six Caribbean countries between 2005 and 2022.
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The Panama Canal and Chinese Influence
During his inauguration speech, President Donald Trump repeated his desire to retake control of the Panama Canal, the vital strategic waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“Above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
The U.S. controlled it from its 1914 completion until 1999, when it was handed over to Panama under the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The treaties permit the U.S. military to preserve the canal’s neutrality, allowing the U.S. to perpetually use the canal.
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Chinese companies have invested heavily in ports and terminals near the canal. A Hong Kong-based company runs two of the five ports close to its entrances.
“This is going to take some time because China didn’t take over the Canal Zone with soldiers, they took it over with people in business attire with large checkbooks and suitcases of cash,” he said. “And the United States needs to come in with cash of its own to drive the Chinese out of the Canal Zone and Panama.”
The U.S. has for decades turned a blind eye to the Western Hemisphere when it comes to national security, Chang said. But the Trump administration has sought to change that in its first few weeks in office.
As evidence, Chang pointed to Secretary of State Rubio’s trip to Panama as his first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat.
“I think that that shows that President Trump’s foreign policy, at least initially, will be focused on North and South America,” he said. “This is the first time in more than a century that an American president has given his primary principle focus to countries closest to the United States.”
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Influx of Chinese migrants
The increase of China’s influence in the west correlates with the rising number of Chinese migrants apprehended at both the northern and southern borders.
The number of Chinese nationals has increased enormously since 2021. There were 1,970 encounters in FY 2022, more than 24,000 in FY 2023, and 24,376 in the first half of FY 2024, according to a May 2024 report by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability.
Chang noted that the border initially saw an influx of family groups fleeing to the U.S. from China, and now two thirds of Chinese migrants coming into the U.S. are single men of military age, traveling alone, and claiming they don’t speak any English.
“And Border Patrol has noticed that in some of these packs, they’re coming across in packs between 4 and 15, that everybody in the pack has an identical kit,” he said. “That is an ominous sign.”
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Chang noted that the border initially saw an influx of family groups fleeing to the U.S. from China, butnow two thirds of Chinese migrants coming into the U.S. are single men of military age, traveling alone, and claiming they don’t speak any English.
“Border Patrol has noticed that in some of these packs, they’re coming across in packs between 4 and 15, that everybody in the pack has an identical kit,” he said. “That is an ominous sign.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.
Trump admin’s Hegseth says legendary US fort will regain original name – but with a twist
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed the U.S. Army to change the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, but with a twist.
Hegseth signed a memo aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 before landing in Stuttgart, Germany, ordering the renaming of the North Carolina base to Fort Roland L. Bragg, not the Confederate general that was the previous namesake.
“That’s right. Bragg is back,” said Hegseth after signing the memo.
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The name of the military installation was changed in 2023 as part of a broad Department of Defense initiative, motivated by the 2020 George Floyd protests, to rename military installations bearing the name of Confederate soldiers.
The base was originally named in 1918 for Gen. Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general from Warrenton, North Carolina, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles that contributed to the Confederacy’s downfall.
The new name pays tribute to Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.
“During these hellish conditions and amidst ferocious fighting, PFC. Bragg saved a fellow soldier’s life by commandeering an enemy ambulance and driving it 20 miles to transport a fellow wounded warrior to an allied hospital in Belguim,” the memo states.
MILITARY INSTALLATIONS, SHIPS NAMED AFTER CONFEDERATES BEGIN RENAMING PROCESS
The military installation is one of the largest in the world and is home to the Army’s famed 82nd Airborne Division and the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).
“The directive honors the personal courage and selfless service of all those who have trained to fight and win our nation’s wars, including PFC. Bragg, and is in keeping with the installation’s esteemed and storied history,” the memo said.
In addition to the North Carolina base, several other Army posts were renamed, including Fort Benning, home to the Army’s infantry school, to Fort Moore, after the late Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, a Vietnam War commander, and Fort Hood to Fort Cavazos, named after Gen. Richard Edward Cavazos, a four-star general who fought in both the Korean and Vietnam wars.
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At the time the Army was renaming several bases, Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule said at a commission meeting that Fort Liberty was chosen as the new name because “liberty remains the greatest American value.”
Young co-star pulled into drama as internet sleuths hurl new accusations at Blake Lively
The ongoing “It Ends With Us” legal drama has placed an unexpected spotlight on the film’s young co-star, Isabela Ferrer.
Ferrer played the teen version of Blake Lively’s character in the film, Lily Bloom, and the duo were paired together for multiple interviews.
Internet detectives put together a compilation of the actresses, claiming a pattern of Lively either talking over Ferrer or barely letting her get a word in for the duration.
“I’ve never heard someone say so much and nothing at the same time. It’s just so unreal,” one person wrote under the TikTok video.
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“The BOTH of them are being interviewed, so Blake is embarrassing herself yet again by always hogging the spotlight and dominating the conversation, even when some questions are aimed for Isabella – Blake’s overinflated EGO has to take over. Smh [Shaking my head]. Dammit Blake, let her talk!” one person wrote in the YouTube comments of the video.
Another noted Ferrer looks all the better for her near silence, writing, “Actually in a way I feel like she won the conversation by not speaking much because now Blake is exposed for who she is. People can now see through the verbal hijacking and the glaring red flags that [were] there all along.”
“Did anyone have an interview without her? I feel like she needed to speak for them so that they wouldn’t say anything they ‘shouldn’t,’” one person suggested on TikTok.
“The question isn’t necessarily whether or not Blake stole the spotlight on purpose, but why it was done at all?” Kara Schmiemann of Senior Director, Red Banyan, told Fox News Digital. “The age of women seeing each other as competition and stepping on other women’s toes to ‘get their flowers’ should be over.”
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“Women in any industry, especially in Hollywood, should be setting an example for the newcomers — setting the stage for them and making a seat at the table. Isabela may have wanted or needed a bit of mentorship–but it should never be at the expense of her moment to shine.”
Doug Eldridge of Achilles PR noted it may not have been intentional, explaining, “Lively was both the lead in the film and a more established star. There’s always a bit of jockeying for position during media sit-downs, but this was probably less sinister, and more about seniority.”
Ferrer did have praise for Lively during other interviews around the time of the film’s premiere.
She told People Magazine in August that Lively was “an angel,” and they shared a bond.
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“To be able to connect with the person that you’re sharing a role with is huge, and she’s just a really good person,” the 25-year-old said.
Ferrer also told The Hollywood Reporter in a joint interview with Lively she felt supported by the star.
“You came up to me and you were like, ‘I want you to know that this role is just as much yours as it is mine,'” she shared. “It was like the most supportive and uplifting thing to feel as a young actor coming into this, to feel like somebody like you who has such a high status and is so important in this project to also be like, ‘What do you think?’ That’s the biggest privilege and compliment.”
The up-and-coming actress was further pulled into the legal drama surrounding the film last month when texts between her and her co-star and director Baldoni were revealed in legal documents.
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In the 179-page, $400 million lawsuit filed on Jan. 16 against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist, Baldoni claims defamation and extortion over behind-the-scenes conflicts on the set of the movie.
One of the claims includes allegations that Lively “induced the other cast members to shun Baldoni, in an early attempt to give fans the impression that Baldoni had committed an egregious sin.”
Ferrer was one of the film’s collaborators who reportedly unfollowed Baldoni on social media and was not photographed with him during the press run.
According to the lawsuit, “the unfollowing of Baldoni by cast members and even the author of the book,” was “in stark contrast to the warm praise and appreciation cast members had until that point always showered on him.”
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To that point, the filing contains screenshots of texts purportedly between Ferrer and Baldoni showing her thanking the actor and director “for an incredible experience” on her first feature film.
“I also have to say thank you SO so much for an incredible experience on my first film,” Ferrer allegedly wrote. “I still can’t shake the feeling of it all because it truly was life changing for me, you are such a wonderful, smart and sincere director and you created such a comfortable, safe space for me to feel like I could fully step into this role.
“I couldn’t have asked for a more welcoming environment. It will stay with me for the rest of my life!!” she concluded.
The lawsuit highlights the point that, “Tellingly, Ferrer worked with Baldoni when Lively was not on the set; it was not until Ferrer spent substantial time with Lively during film promotions that Ferrer felt compelled to shun Baldoni in repudiation of her warm words.”
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Fox News Digital reached out Ferrer, Lively, and Baldoni for comment.
Ferrer is unlikely to face any fallout from the legal drama, even as it shines an unexpected spotlight on the actress.
“Isabela’s performance was incredibly strong, and being named in the drama is a footnote, at best,” Schmiemann said. “Her image should remain intact. Her communications with Justin Baldoni were nothing but kind, grateful, and magnanimous. Most people who are looking at this situation unfold are not holding Isabela accountable for what is currently at play. With some time and carefully chosen next steps and projects, she should have a plethora of opportunities ahead of her.”
Schmiemann also felt for Ferrer and her scene partner, Alex Neustaedter, who played young Atlas, that the “situation may have shone a spotlight on their name in a way that would not have occurred without the long-term news cycle that has been focused on this film. As long as any potential future statements and legal testimony continues to follow the current trajectory, the cast, as a whole, is unlikely to be impacted in the long run.”
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She also noted that Brandon Sklenar, who played Atlas, and Jenny Slate, who played Baldoni’s sister in the film, “both have noteworthy credits to their names, with upcoming projects, and there is no reason to anticipate they would be harmed by this issue.”
There is some risk though, according to Eldridge.
“If it is proven — through discovery, depositions, or actual cross-examination — that she or any other cast members had a more active role in the overarching dispute, then that stigma will certainly attach to some degree. But otherwise, a ‘guilt by association’ just for being part of the same cast and crew is far less likely.”
“Hollywood, almost by definition, is a town based on drama and discord; this type of situation is not unprecedented — but the media coverage and eye-popping damages being sought might be,” he added.
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As more of the legal drama unfolds, the unexpected scrutiny of Ferrer’s relationship to the movie and its battling stars is likely to fade.
“One or both parties will likely try to pull her to their respective side as this case progresses. But Isabela might want to take the ‘Switzerland’ approach: a permanent neutral state; no sides and no standoffs,” Eldridge advised.
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Ferrer is also unlikely to see either Lively or Baldoni defend her from public scrutiny, primarily for legal reasons.
“The Blake Lively legal camp likely isn’t happy that this exchange exists, but then again, the actress did subtly align herself with Blake during the premiere — knowingly or not. As professionals, both camps are likely to be cautious not to continue to directly embroil Isabela into this saga.”
Vance warns world leaders of censorship in first trip abroad as VP
Vice President JD Vance told world leaders in Paris on Tuesday that the United States intends to remain the dominant force in artificial intelligence (AI) and warned that the European Union’s far tougher regulatory approach to the technology could cripple it.
Vance warned that the technology should be free from ideological bias and that President Donald Trump’s administration would ensure that the most powerful artificial intelligence systems would be built in the United States. He added that Washington wanted to partner with the world in the industry.
“We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” said Vance, at his first scheduled trip abroad since taking office.
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“We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off, and we’ll make every effort to encourage pro-growth AI policies and I’d like to see that deregulatory flavor making its way into a lot of the conversations at this conference.”
Vance was speaking at the AI Action Summit where world leaders, top tech executives and policymakers gathered to discuss the technology’s impact on global security, economics and governance. French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Shri Modi and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing were among those in attendance.
The summit comes weeks after Trump announced a new $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate.
Vance said that Europe’s online privacy rules, known by the acronym GDPR, meant endless legal compliance costs for smaller firms.
European lawmakers last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology. Tech giants and some capitals are pushing for it to be enforced leniently.
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Vance has previously suggested the U.S. should reconsider its NATO commitments if European governments impose restrictions on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.
“Many of our most productive tech companies are forced to deal with the EU’s Digital Services Act and the mass of regulations it created about taking down content and policing so-called misinformation,” Vance said.
“And of course, we want to ensure that the internet is a safe place, but it is one thing to prevent a predator from preying on a child on the internet, and it is something quite different to prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation.
Vance said that hostile foreign adversaries have weaponized AI software to rewrite history, surveil users, censor speech and undermine other nations’ national security. He said the Trump administration will work to safeguard American AI and chip technologies from theft and misuse.
He also said American workers will be central to the United States’ policies on AI.
“We believe – and we will fight for policies that ensure – that AI is going to make our workers productive, and we expect that they will reap the rewards, with higher wages, better benefits and safer and more prosperous communities,” Vance said. “From law to medicine, manufacturing, the most immediate applications of AI almost all involved supplementing – not replacing – the work being done by Americans.”
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The U.S. and the U.K. did not sign the Paris AI Summit’s declaration entitled “Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence.”
The communiqué prioritizes “ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all” and “making AI sustainable for people and the planet.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why the U.S. and the U.K. did not sign up.