Source reveals how Trump was key factor in Stefanik’s decision to leave politics
FIRST ON FOX: Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s surprise announcement on Friday night that she is dropping out of the race for New York governor and leaving her seat in Congress was partly due to lack of full support from President Trump, Fox News Digital has learned.
“The biggest piece of this puzzle was Donald Trump and the fact that he passed three times on endorsing her candidacy, including in the Oval Office with the Miracle on Ice Team last week,” a GOP source close to the situation told Fox News Digital. “I think [that] played the largest role in this decision,”
Stefanik’s original thought process when she jumped into the race last month, according to the source, was that she would have a “clear shot” at current New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. But once Trump ally and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced his candidacy earlier this month, “it became clear that was not going to happen.”
“When you start to add these things up, and you see a contested primary, you see an assumed ally in the president who passes on endorsing, and it does not seem that you’re going to have the wind to your back in this cycle, I think [it] all played into this,” the source said.
STEFANIK EXITS NY GOVERNOR RACE, WILL NOT RUN FOR RE-ELECTION TO US HOUSE
Stefanik’s decision to also leave Congress was based on a feeling that it was time to “move on,” the source said.
“I am truly humbled and grateful for the historic and overwhelming support from Republicans, Conservatives, Independents, and Democrats all across the state for our campaign to Save New York,” Stefanik posted on X Friday afternoon.
“However, as we have seen in past elections, while we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York.”
Stefanik has been a staunch ally of President Trump during her time in Congress, including defending him during both of his impeachments. Trump nominated Stefanik to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a high-profile cabinet-level position, before the nomination was pulled to protect the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the House and amid worries Republicans could lose Stefanik’s seat to the Democrats in a special election.
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After Blakeman joined the race for governor, Trump opted to stay neutral, telling reporters at the White House after Blakeman announced his candidacy that “Elise is fantastic and Bruce is.”
“Two fantastic people, and I always hate it when two very good friends of mine are running, and I hope there’s not a lot of damage done,” the president added.
Hochul’s re-election campaign released a statement on Friday shifting its attention to Blakeman.
“Elise Stefanik has finally acknowledged reality: If you run against Governor Kathy Hochul, you are going to lose,” Hochul’s campaign said in a press release Friday. “As Donald Trump raises costs on New Yorkers and targets this state relentlessly, Governor Hochul has cut middle-class taxes, put money back in New Yorkers’ pockets, and fought this administration and won when New York has come under attack.”
“The fact is, ‘100% MAGA’ Bruce Blakeman traveled all the way to D.C. to celebrate Trump’s tariffs, he ran Long Island’s safety net hospital into the ground by appointing corrupt cronies to run it, and let violent crime in Nassau County spike to its highest level in a decade. Governor Hochul’s message to him or whichever lackey Trump picks to run against her is simple: Bring it on.”
The source confirmed to Fox News Digital that “multiple county leaders are reaching out to Congressman Mike Lawler” as a potential candidate, adding it is “premature” to assume the New York GOP is “coalescing around Blakeman.”
“Very fluid. Many folks are taking time to regroup.”
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The source did say that Blakeman “can be a strong candidate” and that the “Mamdani effect” is something Hochul will still have to combat in a general election.
“I wish Congresswoman Stefanik nothing but success as she pursues her priorities and continues her service to our nation,” Blakeman posted on X Friday. “At this pivotal moment for New York, it is essential that Republicans and all New Yorkers come together in unity.”
Lawler responded to the news in a post on X saying that Stefanik “has been a terrific Congresswoman” and “would have been a great governor.”
“As her friend and colleague, I respect her decision and wish her and her family all the best as she moves forward.”
The White House directed Fox News Digital to the social media reactions from the president and his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump responded to Stefanik’s announcement, writing, “Elise Stefanik, a fantastic person and Congresswoman from New York State, has just announced she won’t be running for Governor. Elise is a tremendous talent, regardless of what she does. She will have GREAT success, and I am with her all the way!”
Leavitt also posted praise of Stefanik on social media.
“Elise Stefanik has been an incredible advocate for the people of her district in Upstate New York, and she will always be a true friend to President Trump,” Leavitt posted on X. “On a personal note, Elise is my former boss. She is a great leader, and an even better person. We love you, @EliseStefanik!”
Unearthed video exposes Dem Senate candidate’s violent fantasy against SCOTUS justices
A Michigan Democratic Senate candidate is facing backlash after a clip went viral Thursday revealing what she would do if she saw Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh out in public.
Mallory McMorrow, who is running in the crowded Democratic Senate primary, ignited social media backlash from conservatives after her comments to supporters last month surfaced. McMorrow was asked by a female attendee at a Huron Valley Indivisible event on Nov. 12 whether there “was any sense in dealing with the Supreme Court,” adding that she “blame[s] them for a lot.”
“So I’m a Notre Dame grad and Amy Coney Barrett coming out of my university makes me furious. Just on a personal level. I talked to somebody yesterday who said they saw her and Brett Kavanaugh at a tailgate last weekend,” McMorrow said last month. “I would not have been able to control myself. That would be bad. There would be beers thrown in peoples’ faces.”
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Conservatives immediately slammed McMorrow on social media for her violent rhetoric, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who said, “She needs help.”
“It’s impossible for a Democrat candidate to not be a crazed and violent radical,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh wrote on X.
“Sounds as if she shouldn’t be in the Senate, then,” Charles Cooke, a senior editor at National Review, wrote on X.
“I really don’t understand political figures who openly brag about being overcome by emotions such as disgust as though this were an asset,” Wall Street Journal columnist Kyle Smith wrote on X.
“Pattern of Democrat politicians up to and including Chuck Schumer openly encouraging violence against Supreme Court justices,” The Federalist’s editor-in-chief Molly Hemmingway wrote on X.
“Sounds like she should seek professional help and consider therapy instead of a Senate run,” conservative writer A.G Hamilton wrote on X.
“Democrats are now openly threatening Supreme Court justices with violence,” GOP operative Steve Guest wrote on X.
Fox News Digital reached out multiple times to the McMorrow campaign about the clip, but did not receive a response.
Several people online likened the comments to those said by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. in 2020 when he targeted Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, both conservative Supreme Court justices, and said, “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You will not know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions” during an abortion rights rally.
Schumer would later walk back the quote, saying, “I should not have used the words I used yesterday. They did not come out the way I intended to.”
This isn’t the first time that McMorrow has received scrutiny this year. Back in October, McMorrow was a headliner at the “John D. Dingell Unity Dinner,” which featured a sign with coded language threatening President Donald Trump and equating his supporters with Nazis.
The sign, displayed by local Democrats, said “MAGA=NAZI” and “86 47.” The number “86” originated in restaurants to mean “cancel” or “throw out,” but in underworld slang it is frequently used as a call sign for murdering someone. The number “47” is commonly interpreted as denoting the 47th president of the United States, Trump.
“This sign was wrong. Especially now, we each have a responsibility to choose our words and signs carefully, and avoid anything that may be interpreted as a call to violence,” Andrew Mamo, a spokesman for McMorrow for Michigan, told Fox News Digital at the time.
She has also come under scrutiny for fundraising with far-left radicals, including a blogger who mocked the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The month-old clip of McMorrow dropped as news spread that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was verbally harassed in public at a luxury Washington, D.C. restaurant and wine bar on Wednesday night by Code Pink, a radical left-wing group.
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“We want to make an announcement! We have a special guest here, and we want to make a toast for the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent!” DiNucci said after striking her glass to get everyone’s attention. “So let’s give it up for the man who is eating in peace as people starve across the world based on his sanctions, which are economic warfare.”
“He oversees the deaths of 600,000 people due to sanctions annually,” she added. “How many people are going to die because of the blood that’s on your hands?”
Devastating final moments of NASCAR star’s fatal plane crash caught on camera
A plane crash that killed NASCAR legend Greg Biffle and his family was caught on video Thursday.
Doorbell footage showed the burning plane crashing down and barreling across a runway at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina, leaving a massive blaze in its path.
The aircraft was registered under GB Aviation LLC, a company owned by Biffle.
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The plane departed the regional airport Thursday morning but was diverted back to Statesville and crashed during a landing attempt, authorities confirmed.
Biffle and wife Cristina shared a daughter, Emma, 14, and a 5-year-old son, Ryder, all of whom were on board during the deadly crash along with Dennis Dutton, Jack Dutton and Craig Wadsworth, a statement from the victims’ families confirmed.
The seven-person flight was making its way to the Bahamas via Sarasota, Florida, when it crashed at Statesville Regional Airport, about 45 miles north of Charlotte. NTSB Investigator-In-Charge Dan Baker said the plane took off at approximately 10:05 a.m. ET and began to turn back to the airport five minutes after takeoff.
The plane crashed roughly 10 minutes after departure.
Officials did not provide a cause and noted that weather conditions were relatively calm despite light rain.
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National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) board member Michael Graham told reporters Friday three people aboard the Cessna C550 were licensed pilots, but officials were not able to verify as of Friday who was piloting the flight.
“This is the beginning of a very long process, and we will not jump to any conclusions while on scene here in North Carolina, nor will we jump to any conclusions,” Graham said of the investigation.
The deadly crash prompted an outpouring of sympathy and prayers from across the country.
North Carolina political figures, including Gov. Josh Stein, Rep. Pat Harrigan and Rep. Richard Hudson, weighed in after learning Biffle and his family were among the seven victims in the plane crash. Gov. Stein described the loss as “heartbreaking” and recalled Biffle’s selfless response after the state was devastated by Hurricane Helene.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon and other racers expressed condolences on social media, and the organization made a statement commemorating Biffle.
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“Greg was more than a champion driver, he was a beloved member of the NASCAR community, a fierce competitor, and a friend to so many,” NASCAR said in a statement. “His passion for racing, his integrity, and his commitment to fans and fellow competitors alike made a lasting impact on the sport.
“On the track, Greg’s talent and tenacity earned him championships in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, as well as numerous wins and accolades in the NASCAR Cup Series. Beyond his racing career, he gave of himself for the betterment of our community. Most notably, Greg spent countless hours of his time helping the citizens of North Carolina during the disasters that followed Hurricane Helene. His tireless work saved lives.”
‘Massive refund checks’ may hit American wallets as tax law changes take effect
A leading contender to become President Trump’s next Federal Reserve chair said the administration expects larger tax refunds and higher take-home pay next year, as many Americans continue to express concerns about affordability.
“We are going to see the biggest refund cycle ever in the history of America, and people are going to get massive refund checks,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said in an interview on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.” on Thursday.
“We’re expecting just that part of it alone to be worth a couple-thousand-dollar refund … the numbers are striking.”
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During his Wednesday evening address, President Trump said the administration expects “the largest tax refund season of all time” next spring and claimed many families would save between $11,000 and $20,000 annually.
Hassett backed up this claim and pushed back against sentiment from a recent Fox News Poll, which found that 44% of those surveyed say they are falling behind financially, and 74% view the economy as “not so good” or “bad.”
“You saw in the jobs report that … wages for the typical worker were up 3.7%. So if you’re running 3.7% wage increases at 1.6% core inflation, then real wages are growing at a rate of about 2 [to] 2.5%. By our estimates right now, blue-collar workers have already seen an almost $2,000 raise this year after inflation, because wages are growing so much faster than prices,” Hassett explained.
“I think that what happens in the end — and this is what happened in the first [Trump] term — is that people will see it in their wallets,” he continued. “We didn’t pass the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ until the middle of the summer. And so a lot of the tax changes, which affect last year, weren’t in any tax forms that people filled out at the beginning of the year.”
Overall, Hassett struck a bullish tone on the economy and pointed to what he described as a “blockbuster” November inflation report, with figures coming in cooler than economists expected.
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“What’s happened is, as we predicted throughout this term, that if you really put the pedal to the metal on aggregate supply, then that’s gonna put downward pressure on prices,” he said.
“And don’t forget, that’s where we were last time in President Trump’s first term. We were growing in the 3% range, and we had inflation in the 1% range. And it looks like that’s where we are again.”
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Far-left curriculum at public university exposed after lecture material leaked
EXCLUSIVE: More leaked PowerPoint lectures from a first-year University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign class show left-wing ideology interwoven into the fabric of the course.
Fox News Digital obtained course material from weeks six and nine of EDUC 201, “Identity and Difference in Education,” from a concerned student. The course is taken by future teachers, and is part of the university’s education department.
Week nine’s lecture is titled “Cultivating Belonging.”
“Recent data indicate that close to 40% of US high school students do not feel connected to school. This sense of alienation is particularly acute among students facing racism, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities. Evidence points to curricular and school structures that fail to engage many students as a primary reason students reject that devalues them, as opposed to rejecting school,” says a slide early in the presentation, quoting a paper from the Aspen Institute.
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The key to teaching about belonging, according to the presentation, is intersectionality.
“When talking about belonging it’s important to consider if we’re asking students to conform to norms that don’t reflect their bodies of knowledge (e.g., assimilation, erasure) or are we thinking about belonging in culturally relevant and intersectional ways?” asks a slide that is part of the lecture.
Another slide is called “Erasure of Racially Minoritized Students.” The entire slide is simply a quote from a person named Xóchitl, identified as a ninth grader at Shields High School.
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“When you’re with your Mexican friends some white people don’t acknowledge you when you’re in the hallways, and you see someone that you know and it’s like they’re with their white friends, they don’t see you, but when you’re playing sports, they know you’re there,” Xóchitl’s quote says. “They start talking to you differently than when they talk to you outside of sports.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the course’s professor, Gabriel Rodriguez, for clarification on the origin of the quote. He did not return a request for comment.
Slide 14 of the lecture features a three-minute video from Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D., published by The Root, a news outlet whose tagline is, “Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude.”
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Tatum is the author of “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” The book is a national bestseller. Tatum’s video is titled, “Why the Black Kids Still Sit Together.”
“We’re all influenced by race and racism in our society,” said Tatum in the video. Tatum is also the president emerita of Spelman College, a historically Black college in Atlanta.
“If you’re growing up as a young person of color in the society, part of that experience is to get messages from the wider world about who you are racially, and how people are responding to that,” she said.
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Tatum later brings up segregation.
“Residential segregation and school segregation go together across,” she said. “And to the extent that the schools and the neighborhoods are segregated, it means that the social networks that help you find employment, that help you access higher education, that help you move up the economic ladder, are more limited — and that’s a problem.”
“We are still dealing with racial hierarchies,” Tatum continued. “We’re still dealing with white supremacy. We’re still dealing with the kind of systematic racism that impacts communities of color.”
Toward the end of the lecture, a slide instructs the future educators on how to cultivate belonging.
“Affirming and accepting students for all their complexities – particularly for students with minoritized identities,” says one point.
“Embracing and implementing culturally relevant teaching practices that reflect students’ identities,” is another.
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Week six’s lecture is called “Understanding the role of class in educational inequality,” and begins with a list of the top high schools in Illinois.
It then discusses stereotypes of rural, suburban and urban schools, noting that rural schools are often thought of as “poor” and white, suburban schools are often thought of as “resource rich” and white, and that urban schools are often thought of as “dysfunctional” and “composed by students of color.”
“Class inequality is increasing and part of everyday life in these contexts,” says the next slide, followed by another slide quoting the author of a book called “Radical Possibilities: Public policy, urban education, and a new social movement,” which says the federal government plays a “proactive” role in maintaining the poverty of families and neighborhoods where schools are “poorly funded, staffed, and resourced…”
A concept called “Opportunity Hoarding,” defined as “the process through which dominant groups who have control over some good (e.g., education) regulate its circulation, thus preventing out-groups from having full access to it,” is a major focus of the lesson.
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According to the slides, that definition is derived from a 2015 book by Amanda Lewis and John Diamond, called “Despite the best intentions: How racial inequality thrives in good schools.”
“Opportunity hoarding, such as fundraising efforts of middle- and upper-middle class parents to support school programming exacerbate existing resource gaps between schools,” one lecture slide says.
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“Opportunity hoarding, such as resistance from middle- and upper-middle class parents to de-track or to create open access to honors/AP courses lessens educational opportunities for low-income students,” says another.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign did not return a request for comment.
Former Alabama coach reveals stadium where he couldn’t ‘hear yourself think’
Despite dropping their regular-season finale to in-state rival Texas, the Texas A&M Aggies qualified for the College Football Playoff and earned the right to host a first-round game at Kyle Field.
Nick Saban, who won seven national championships during his storied coaching career, experienced his fair share of hostile environments on road trips.
But the former Alabama coach and current ESPN college football analyst floated a surprising theory about how Texas A&M turns up the volume to try to keep opposing teams off balance.
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While Saban did describe Kyle Field as one of the sport’s “noisiest” atmospheres, he also claimed the stadium’s operators have leaned on artificial crowd noise to pump up the volume during games.
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“I did more complaining to the SEC office—it was more than complaining that I don’t really want to say on this show—about this is the noisiest place. Plus, they pipe in noise… You can’t hear yourself think when you’re playing out there,” he told Pat McAfee on Thursday afternoon.
Adding crowd noise during games does not explicitly violate NCAA rules. However, the policy does mandate a certain level of consistency.
According to the governing body’s rulebook: “Artificial crowd noise, by conference policy or mutual consent of the institutions, is allowed. The noise level must be consistent throughout the game for both teams. However, all current rules remain in effect dealing with bands, music and other sounds. When the snap is imminent, the band/music must stop playing. As with all administrative rules, the referee may stop the game and direct game management to adjust.”
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Regardless of the possible presence of artificial noise, the Miami Hurricanes will likely face a raucous crowd when Saturday’s first-round CFP game kicks off at 12 p.m. ET.
Woman cancels sinus surgery after mysterious voice guides her to different doctor
One of the main premises of my new book, “The Miracles Among Us,” is that we all experience miracles — we just have to look hard enough to find them, and that they come to us in many different forms, from direct divine intervention to great doctoring to advanced technology wrapped in a compilation of coincidences.
Sadly, despite praying directly to a personal God, there are countless tragedies in which not amount of prayer appears to impact the outcome. As New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan told me, God brings us the miracles He wants us to have, not necessarily the ones we ask for.
My book has resonated with people who have experienced some kind of miracle and want to talk about it. This past week I was standing outside Fox News headquarters in a cold wind with a sign that said, “Bring me your miracle.” Many people stopped to share their stories, including Kathleen, an elderly woman from Long Island.
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“I had a problem with my sinuses,” she told me. “I saw two top sinus specialists, both of whom looked at my CT scans and said I needed surgery. The night before the procedure, I went to the healing center I go to and prayed with my priest for a successful healthy outcome. But as I was praying, a voice came to me and said, ‘Go see Scully. Go see Scully.’ I looked, but there was no one there.”
“Scully?
“He is my general doctor and he works in an urgent care center. I hadn’t gone to him in the first place because I thought this kind of problem needed a specialist to solve. But when I heard the voice, I knew God was telling me to see Dr. Scully, so I went to the urgent care center the next day. He talked with me, tapped my sinuses with his fingers — which the sinus specialists hadn’t done — and told me I just needed a Benadryl at night and nothing else. So, I cancelled the surgery, and I have been feeling completely fine ever since.”
“Allergic sinusitis. Sounds like you avoided an unnecessary surgery. And the voice?”
“An angel from God, of course.”
Indeed, not all miracles are strictly medical. Some are based on intuition, on a moment of faith, or on a doctor working with their patient and refusing to give up. Some are due to direct divine intervention and others are based on a combined mixture of belief and science.
We continue to pray for National Guard Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who, more than three weeks after being shot in the head, is now breathing on his own and can even stand with assistance, according to Medstar Washington Hospital Center where he is being treated. He faces a long road of rehabilitation, but his progress so far is already a medical miracle.
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This week we also continue to pray for the victims of the shooting at my alma mater, Brown University — a true ivory tower where centuries of dedicated peaceful study and discourse was suddenly shattered by a gunman, leaving profound fear, anxiety and two tragic student deaths.
According to Dr. Craig Spencer, a renowned emergency room physician who was working at Rhode Island Hospital — the Level 1 trauma center where the victims were taken — the initial efforts at triage and stabilization last Saturday were successful. This means the medical team was able to stop the bleeding and stabilize their vital signs right away. Successful surgeries followed.
We hope and pray that God will bring a full recovery to these victims and restore peace and tranquility to the university shaken to its core.
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Brown University President Christina Paxson reported to the campus community on Friday that “the condition of the other shooting victims continues to improve. As of late last night, six were in stable condition, and three had been discharged from the hospital.”
Brown badly needs this miracle of recovery – and soon, as Christmas approaches.
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Supermodel Gisele Bündchen quietly weds jiu-jitsu instructor Joaquim Valente
Gisele Bündchen and Joaquim Valente have tied the knot months after welcoming their baby boy.
Bündchen and Valente filed a marriage license in Miami-Dade County on Dec. 1. They cited their marriage location as Surfside, Florida, and their wedding date as Dec. 3.
According to TMZ, the couple had a small wedding with only close friends and family in attendance.
Valente first came into the picture as a jiu-jitsu instructor for Bündchen and her son, Benny. Bündchen’s own interest in jiu-jitsu was originally spurred on by her son.
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Having been referred to the Valente Brothers academy through a friend, the supermodel told Dust magazine in 2022, “I wanted to steer my almost teenage son in the right direction. I thought he might be interested in this.”
The Brazilian beauty started studying jiu-jitsu herself in December 2021. “Initially, I wasn’t even considering it for myself,” she said. “But when I brought [Benny] to the first class and started talking to Joaquim, I realized that it was much more than self-defense.”
After spending time as friends, Bündchen and Valente’s relationship reportedly turned romantic in June 2023.
“First, their relationship was teacher/student. Then… they became friends. And eventually, way after she was already divorced and she had no commitment to Tom Brady, something else started,” a source previously told Fox News Digital of how their relationship progressed.
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The source added that Valente is an extremely charismatic person with “a great sense of humor” who is “very intelligent, very loving, he’s just a good person,” noting that “he loves kids.”
The supermodel began dating Valente roughly seven months after finalizing her divorce with Tom Brady.
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News broke that Bündchen and Valente welcomed their son in February.
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Brady and Bündchen announced their divorce on Oct. 28, 2022, in separate Instagram posts.
“In recent days my wife and I finalized our divorce from one another after 13 years of marriage,” Brady wrote at the time. “We arrived at this decision amicably and with gratitude for the time we spent together. We are blessed with beautiful and wonderful children who will continue to be the center of our world in every way. We will continue to work together as parents to always ensure they receive the love and attention they deserve.”
Bündchen wrote, “The decision to end a marriage is never easy but we have grown apart and while it is, of course, difficult to go through something like this, I feel blessed for the time we had together and only wish the best for Tom always.”
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Former colleague says Rob Reiner’s son was ‘dark, twisted’ years before murders
Years before Nick Reiner was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, several people in contact with the family recognized red flags in his behavior.
One of those people worked alongside Nick in the production of “Family Guy.” In 2014, Nick joined the crew as an intern fresh off of a stint in rehab. He interned for the long-running TV show for a few months, and a production assistant who also worked on the show around the same time spoke to Fox News Digital about his impression of Nick, who he remembers as “a dark, twisted, kind of rough kid.”
The man claimed that Rob was the one who got Nick the job, saying, “Really, the executive producers were like, ‘Just let him hang out. Like, he doesn’t need to have a lot of responsibility. Don’t let him touch anything. Just let this kid hang out, it’s a favor to his dad, who we adore, and he’s trying to get back on his feet.'”
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He said that he and Nick got “really close” because, as an intern, he was shadowing him around four hours every day.
“I was really compelled by Nick Reiner,” the man admitted. “He’s stuck in my brain for all these years.”
When he met Nick, he was just getting his life back on track. He was sober, though the man did say that he felt like Nick was “struggling” with his sobriety. He claimed that Nick had been homeless for a time before he started working on “Family Guy.”
“He felt like this really raw kid,” he recalled. “He had a very dark sense of humor … He was an introverted human, like he wasn’t very loud. But he was also funny, and he felt very human. I remember really liking him, like I thought he was a really nice kid.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that Nick was “dark” and “not in the best mental health space” when he knew him.
“He was a really troubled kid,” he told Fox News Digital.
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He said that he and some other crew members encouraged Nick to pursue stand-up comedy when he expressed an interest in it, telling them that with his sense of humor and his Hollywood connections, he’d easily be able to get his foot in the door. He recalled Nick landing sets at Los Angeles‘ famed venue, The Comedy Store, but he said he never went to a show.
During the time they worked together on “Family Guy,” the man said Rob would drop Nick off and pick him up every day.
“It felt like the family wanted him to succeed, and it felt like they were constantly trying to set him up for success,” he remembered. “And he was just this dark, twisted, kind of rough kid.”
Although he and Nick worked closely together, the friendship wasn’t one that lasted beyond the job. When the internship was over, they didn’t stay in close contact, though they did remain friends on social media — enough that he nearly reached out when he read the news that two people were found dead in Rob’s home on Dec. 14.
“I went to send him a DM that was like, ‘Holy s—, man, if you need anything, hit me up,'” he revealed. “And then I kept reading, and it was like, ‘The son was apprehended at the scene.’ And I was just like, ‘This is crazy … I’m not going to send anyone a DM today.'”
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While Nick was ultimately arrested and charged with the murders of his parents, he was not apprehended at the scene.
On Sunday, Dec. 14, police discovered the bodies of Rob and Michele in the primary bedroom of their home in Brentwood, California. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiners’ office later said that they died due to multiple sharp force injuries.
Nick was quickly named a person of interest in the investigation, and hours later, around 9:15 p.m. local time that same day, he was arrested.
On Dec. 16, authorities charged Nick in the double homicide of his parents. He was hit with two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders.
WATCH: NICK REINER SEEN ON SECURITY FOOTAGE AFTER HIS PARENTS WERE FOUND DEAD
“He also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon that being a knife,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said during a press conference. “These charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.”
No decision has been made on whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
Nick made his first court appearance in the case on Dec. 17, where his lawyer, famed defense attorney Alan Jackson, requested a continuance. He only spoke once: when the judge asked if he agreed to delay his arraignment, he said, “Yes, Your Honor.”
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His arraignment is now set for Jan. 7.
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