Trump says ‘there’s something wrong’ with top Democrat he’s known ‘a long time’
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has “lost his confidence” and suggested that “there’s something wrong” with the New York Democrat.
Trump made the remarks while traveling to Qatar for the second leg of his Middle East trip when reporters aboard Air Force One asked about Schumer’s threats to block the president’s Justice Department political appointees until the senator gets answers about a jumbo jet gift from Qatar’s royal family.
“Schumer is Schumer,” Trump said. “You know, he’s become a Palestinian. Something wrong with him? I don’t know, I’ve known him a long time and there’s something wrong. He’s lost his confidence, totally. And there’s something wrong with him. I don’t know what it is with Schumer.”
Schumer called the Qatari gift a “grave national security threat” on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
ALLIES TURN ON PRESIDENT TRUMP FOR ACCEPTING LUXURY JET FROM QATAR
“News of the Qatari government gifting Donald Trump a $400 million private jet to use as Air Force One is so corrupt that even Putin would give a double take. This is not just naked corruption, it is also a grave national security threat,” the top Democrat said.
“So, in light of the deeply troubling news of a possible Qatari-funded Air Force One, and the reports that the Attorney General personally signed off on this clearly unethical deal, I am announcing a hold on all DOJ political nominees, until we get more answers,” he added.
TRUMP DEFENDS QATAR JUMBO JET OFFER AS TROUBLED BOEING FAILS TO DELIVER NEW AIR FORCE ONE FLEET
Trump has defended the U.S. preparing to accept a jumbo jet gift from Qatar’s royal family to serve as a temporary Air Force One as Boeing failed to roll out a new Air Force One fleet in a timely manner.
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“We’re very disappointed that it’s taking Boeing so long to build a new Air Force One,” Trump said Monday morning. “You know, we have an Air Force One that’s 40 years old. And if you take a look at that, compared to the new plane of the equivalent, you know, stature at the time, it’s not even the same ballgame.”
Ban on stock trading for members of Congress one step closer to becoming reality
FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., will introduce legislation that would ban congressional stock trading on Wednesday, serving as the House companion bill to Sen. Josh Hawley’s, R-Mo., “PELOSI Act” in the Senate.
Alford’s proposed bill would ban lawmakers and their spouses from holding, purchasing, or selling individual stocks while in office, but it allows investments in diversified mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or U.S. Treasury bonds. If passed, current lawmakers would have 180 days to comply with the legislation. Likewise, newly elected lawmakers must achieve compliance within 180 days of entering office.
“As public servants, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard and avoid the mere appearance of corruption,” Alford said in a statement. “Unfortunately, too many members of Congress are engaging in suspicious stock trades based on non-public information to enrich themselves.”
“These gross violations of the public trust make clear: we must finally take action to ban members and their spouses from owning or selling individual stocks,” he added.
CBS ANCHORS SALUTE OUTGOING ’60 MINUTES’ PRODUCER, SAY EFFORT TO SETTLE TRUMP LAWSUIT TIED TO CORPORATE MERGER
Under the proposed legislation, lawmakers who continue to make wrongful transactions would be required to hand over any profits they made to the U.S. Treasury Department. The House or Senate ethics committees could also impose a fine on such lawmakers amounting to 10% of each wrongful transaction.
CBS ANCHORS SALUTE OUTGOING ’60 MINUTES’ PRODUCER, SAY EFFORT TO SETTLE TRUMP LAWSUIT TIED TO CORPORATE MERGER
President Donald Trump himself endorsed banning trading for members of Congress in an interview with Time Magazine last month.
“I watched Nancy Pelosi get rich through insider information, and I would be okay with it. If they send that to me, I would do it,” he said of a trading ban.
“You’ll sign it?” the reporter pressed.
“Absolutely,” Trump responded.
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Democrats in the House of Representatives have also expressed support for a ban, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries throwing his weight behind the proposal last week.
Read the full text of Alford’s legislation below (App users click here)
Karen Read defense grills trooper on SUV search, Michael Proctor’s ties to police
Following testimony from John O’Keefe’s niece, prosecutor Adam Lally called Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Zachary Clark to the witness stand.
Clark was working with the state police’s crime scene services section when he was called to the Canton Police Headquarters on Feb. 1, 2022 to meet with former investigator Michael Proctor regarding the initial investigation into the death of John O’Keefe.
Upon arriving at the location, Clark was tasked with carrying out a search warrant of Karen Read’s Lexus SUV alongside Massachusetts State Police Forensic Scientist Maureen Hartnett.
“My recollection is that [Hartnett] was chiefly concerned with the exterior of the vehicle,” Clark said. “Namely the rear right corner. She was looking for DNA and trace evidence, I believe.”
Clark testified he went on to process the vehicle’s front passenger area for DNA evidence but was unable to locate any usable fingerprints before traveling to 34 Fairview to gather photographs of the front yard.
Lally then presented photos from the inside of Read’s vehicle showing the dashboard of the SUV.
Following a short line of direct questioning, defense attorney David Yannetti began cross-examining Clark on his knowledge of Proctor’s friendship with Canton police detective Kevin Albert.
“Did Michael Proctor reveal to you that he and Kevin Albert had socialized together by drinking alcohol in his [police] cruiser?” Yannetti asked.
Before Clark could answer, the prosecution objected and Judge Beverly Cannone dismissed the jurors for morning recess.
The prosecution in Karen Read’s trial started the day off by playing a televised interview Read gave to Investigation Discovery on June 15, 2024.
In the clip, Read dismisses the possibility that her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, could have started a fight with ATF agent Brian Higgins after Read and Higgins exchanged flirtatious text messages in the days leading up to O’Keefe’s death.
“I don’t see how John would have known about my texts with Brian,” Read said. “I’m not sure if he knew, he would have reacted very strongly. I think we would have broken up, but I don’t think John would’ve lost it and caused a fight. I didn’t feel that John’s emotions with me got really strong.”
Read’s statements directly conflict with defense attorney Alan Jackson’s suggestion that O’Keefe fought Higgins in a jealous rage in the hours before his death.
“You were just asked about your opinion whether or not there was a motive that you found for Brian Higgins to want to murder John O’Keefe,” Jackson asked Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik of the Massachusetts State Police on Monday. “I’m asking you a different question. Did you, in your mind, in your opinion, after having read those texts, find a motive for Brian Higgins, perhaps want to confront John O’Keefe because of jealousy?”
“If you’re asking for my opinion, my opinion is that he wouldn’t need to confront Mr. O’Keefe,” Bukhenik said. “Mr. O’Keefe was not the one pursuing Mr. Higgins. It was your client that was pursuing Mr. Higgins.”
Judge Beverly Cannone called Court into session Wednesday morning, kicking off Day 15 of testimony in Karen Read’s trial.
Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Laura McLaughlin began the day by calling the Commonwealth’s next witness, John O’Keefe’s niece, to the stand.
Cannone previously issued a ruling barring the media from reporting the girl’s identity and testimony, citing the fact that she is a juvenile.
Karen Read arrived at the Norfolk Superior Courthouse alongside her defense team on Wednesday morning to face Day 15 of her murder trial.
As Read entered the courthouse, she flashed a thumbs up and told reporters she “feels great” after yesterday’s court session was unexpectedly cancelled due to “unavoidable circumstances.”
Karen Read’s defense team
opened the door to new evidence from a fight she got into with boyfriend John O’Keefe in the month before she allegedly killed him in a drunken hit-and-run that prosecutors say could illustrate the slaying as a “domestic violence homicide” and that she couldn’t accept the victim’s attempts to break up with her, according to a new court filing.
Alan Jackson, one of her lawyers, had Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik read a string of text messages between the suspected killer and a potential romantic interest, ATF Agent Brian Higgins, who was present at a bar and after-party that Read and O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, visited the night O’Keefe was last seen alive.
“Where the defendant has opened the door, it is especially significant for the jury to understand that it was the defendant who repeatedly refused to accept the victim’s desire [to] terminate their relationship, the defendants made repeated hostile accusations that the victim was having an affair, and that there was an established pattern of hostility, occurring in the weeks and days preceding the murder,” special prosecutor Hank Brennan wrote.
Because the texts discussed claims directly made by Read about O’Keefe in Aruba, Brennan is arguing that prosecutors now have a right to rebut her with evidence and witness testimony that contradicts her story.
In the texts, Read flirted with Higgins behind her boyfriend’s back, referred to herself as single, complained about O’Keefe’s adopted children and claimed he “hooked up” with another woman in a hotel lobby.
Without mention of the Aruba incident, the prosecution wouldn’t have had a chance to bring it up at trial.
“Four weeks prior to the murder, the defendant became enraged at the victim for speaking to a female friend who was on their group vacation in Aruba and accused the victim of having an affair,” Brennan wrote in court filings Monday. “This incident was observed by numerous individuals who will testify to their personal observations of the incident as well as to statement of the defendant in the immediate aftermath.”
Read the full story here.
Testimony in Karen Read’s murder trial
is expected to resume after Tuesday’s court session was unexpectedly canceled due to “unavoidable circumstances.”
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan is set to call the Commonwealth’s next witness following three days of testimony from Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik.
Read is facing murder charges for the alleged killing of Boston police officer John O’Keefe and could spend the rest of her life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors allege Read struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV during a drunken argument in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022 before leaving him to freeze to death in the front yard of 34 Fairview Road. However, Read’s defense team, led by attorney Alan Jackson, insists she never hit O’Keefe.
Child star who rose to fame at the age of 5 reveals how much money she got from hit show
Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson is speaking out about her struggles as a child star.
The now-19-year-old rose to fame at the age of 5 when she appeared in a classic episode of TLC’s “Toddlers & Tiaras.” TLC later gave her family their own reality show, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” in 2012.
Thompson claimed in a new interview with People that despite starring in the popular show, she’s never seen any of the money from it. She also alleged that her mother, June “Mama June” Shannon, took $35,000 from her earnings during her appearance on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2019, only returning the money recently—but without any apology.
MAMA JUNE REVEALS SHE SPENT ALMOST $1M IN FINAL YEAR OF ADDICTION
“There was no, ‘I’m sorry,’” Thompson said.
Shannon has been candid about her struggle with drug addiction, sharing in the past that she went broke funding her habit. She’s now sober, but for much of Thompson’s childhood, she was in active addiction, to the point where Thompson’s older sister, Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird, took custody of her when she was 14.
“I noticed something was off about her,” Thompson told People of Shannon’s addiction. “She started locking her doors, which really made me think, ‘Oh, what is she doing?’”
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MAMA JUNE ADMITS TO A $2,500 PER DAY DRUG HABIT IN EMOTIONAL PLEA TO REUNITE WITH HER KIDS
Thompson admitted her mother’s drug addiction humiliated her, even when she attended school.
“People were like, ‘I saw your mama on the news with a busted tooth, strung out,’” Thompson remembered. “I’m like, ‘Great, like I didn’t see that too.’”
Still, she pushed past her hurdles and focused on her education, explaining, “I just always told myself you know that you want to do something better with your life and bigger with your life than just being on TV, so you’ve got to get up and go, you’ve got to graduate so you can make it to college and be the nurse that you want to be.”
In 2019, Shannon along with her boyfriend, Geno Doak, was arrested on suspicion of drug possession following a domestic dispute at an Alabama gas station. Details about what drew police to the gas station were not released at the time. Doak had a lengthy criminal history that included arrests for theft, burglary and criminal damage to property. The couple had been dating for three years.
Around this time, Shannon began selling her belongings, and eventually her home. This was also when she lost custody of Thompson.
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In 2020, Shannon and Efird met on the family’s latest reality show, “Mama June: Family Crisis,” to discuss a path for her to return to Thompson’s life. That’s when she dropped the big confession about her past drug habits.
“The only reason I sold the house… we was dead f—ing broke,” she explained. “Because, you know, at that point we was doing quite a bit. I mean, it was a couple ounces a day. Our habit was $2,500 a day, if not more.”
While Shannon is now five years sober, Thompson opened up about how difficult it was to forgive her mother’s tumultuous past.
“[Forgiveness] was hard, but at the end of the day, she’s my mom. When she was bad in her addiction, I just kept thinking about the day she’d recover. We’re going pretty good. Hopefully it lasts. I just no longer have any expectations for her.”
Thompson is currently a rising junior in college, studying nursing and living in Colorado with her longtime boyfriend, Dralin Carswell, 24.
Shannon did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Helen Mirren goes scorched earth against ‘grumpy’ old Hollywood stars
Helen Mirren didn’t hold back in voicing disdain for “grumpy” older actors while heaping praise on co-stars Pierce Brosnan and Harrison Ford.
The 79-year-old actress played Cara Dutton, the wife of Ford’s ranch owner Jacob Dutton, in the “Yellowstone” spinoff “1923,” and she portrays Maeve Harrigan, who is married to Brosnan’s crime boss Conrad Harrigan in the new Paramount+ series “MobLand.”
During an interview with Fox News Digital, the Academy Award winner shared her thoughts on what had surprised her about working with Ford, 82, and Brosnan, 71.
“I think with both of them, as I say, it’s the way they behave on set, professionally,” Mirren said.
HARRISON FORD RESPONDS WITH NSFW ANSWER WHEN ASKED ABOUT CO-STAR, SAYS HELEN MIRREN IS ‘STILL SEXY’
“Harrison would sit around and chat with the cowboys,” she added. “And it was cold, it wasn’t comfortable. He didn’t go off to his trailer and sit in a nice, warm, comfortable trailer. He would sit in the cold with everybody else. You know, chatting to the guys, for example.”
“And Pierce — Pierce just is so great. And you know what the other thing is great about them both? They both love what they do. And I’ve noticed, in my profession, a lot of older actors kind of get grumpy. Actresses don’t, but actors do.
“They get grumpy, and I think, what the — excuse my language — f— do you have to be grumpy about? You’re working, you’ve been paid a lot of money, everyone’s looking after you. Well, what do you got to be grumpy about? Harrison and Pierce are so not grumpy. They’re just — they love what they do. They’re positive about it. It’s what they do, and they love it.”
Mirren has earned praise for the chemistry she shares with Ford and Brosnan when they played her on-screen husbands. While speaking with Fox News Digital, Mirren reflected on the secret behind her strong rapport with the two actors.
WATCH: ‘MOBLAND’ STAR HELEN MIRREN CALLS OUT ‘GRUMPY’ RICH ACTORS
“You don’t develop chemistry. It’s there or it isn’t, you know,” she explained. “It just totally depends on what sort of person they are, what sort of person you are.
“And they are two really, really great guys,” Mirren continued. “I think it also comes from respect, you know, professional respect and respect for the character of the other or maybe love for the character of the other person. And both Harrison and Pierce share a sort of commitment to their craft — professionalism, generosity on set. There’s no sort of, ‘Oh, I’m a big movie star’ thing going on at all. They’re both great guys.”
Prior to filming “1923,” Mirren had co-starred alongside Ford in the 1986 movie “The Mosquito Coast.” In a December 2022 interview with the U.K. newspaper the Times, Mirren explained why their working dynamic on the “1923” set was “very different” from the first time that they had teamed up.
WATCH: HELEN MIRREN TALKS CHEMISTRY WITH CO-STARS HARRISON FORD AND PIERCE BROSNAN
“The relationship was obviously very, very different then because Harrison was already an enormous movie star, and I was a theater actress out of London and nobody had heard of me,” Mirren said of the “Star Wars” actor.
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“Now our relationship is very different because I’ve sort of caught up with him,” she added. “Well, I’ll never catch up with him completely, but I’m a little bit closer than I was.”
Brosnan and Mirren had both previously appeared in the 1980 British gangster movie “The Long Good Friday,” which marked the future James Bond franchise star’s film debut. In a recent interview with TVLine, Mirren recalled that she never met Brosnan while filming “The Long Good Friday,” noting “he played a very small role, nonspeaking role — important little role, but nonspeaking — and I was never in any scenes that he was in.”
However, Mirren had the chance to work with Brosnan when they co-starred in the upcoming Chris Columbus-directed movie, “The Thursday Murder Club.”
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While speaking with Fox News Digital, Mirren shared that Brosnan played a pivotal role in her decision to join the cast of “MobLand,” which also stars Tom Hardy.
“I was working with Pierce Brosnan on a great film called ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ that is coming out very soon but was shot before Mobland,” she recalled. “And we were both working together for the first time really, properly together. We both got sent the script at the same time, so we could talk to each other about it. ‘Oh, Pierce, I’ve been sent this. I hear you’ve been sent it. Yeah, what do you think about it?’ ‘Well, I don’t know. What do you about it?’
“So, a lot of those sort of conversations went on,” Mirren continued. “But the fact that Pierce was going to be in it was hugely influential on my decision.
“He’s the nicest, best, most professional, great guy,” she added. “And, and at my point in life, the people I work with have become really very, very important.”
Mirren said Hardy’s involvement in “MobLand” was also a factor in her choice to sign on for the series.
WATCH: ‘MOBLAND’ STAR HELEN MIRREN SHARES WHY CO-STAR PIERCE BROSNAN WAS ‘HUGELY INFLUENTIAL’ IN HER DECISION TO JOIN SERIES
“Tom Hardy, a seriously great film actor that I admired as an audience so much and always rather secretly wanted to be a movie with him,” she said. “So. a combination of things like that.”
In “Mobland,” set in modern-day London, Mirren and Brosnan play the matriarch and patriarch of the powerful Harrigan crime family, while Hardy portrays their “fixer,” Harry Da Souza. Over the course of the series, the Harrigans engage in an escalating war with a rival crime family “in a battle that threatens to topple empires,” according to a plot synopsis.
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During her interview with Fox News Digital, Mirren raved about playing the ruthless character of Maeve.
“I love Maeve,” she said with a laugh. “I love Maeve. Oh my God, I’m having such a good time playing her. I was saying to someone just now, it’s like a very beautifully made comfortable coat or dress or something that I adore putting on, and I just feel great in it. And that’s what Maeve is like.”
“Mobland” is streaming on Paramount+ with new episodes released weekly on Sundays.