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ABC News on Saturday agreed to a $15 million settlement stemming from Trump’s defamation suit involving a broadcast about E. Jean Carroll, who herself had successfully sued the president-elect for defamatory statements.
According to court documents, anchor George Stephanopoulos and the network were sued after Stephanopoulos wrongly said that the ex-president was found liable for rape at civil trial; he was actually found liable for sexual “abuse” for the incident dating back to 1996.
The decision by the network to reach a settlement with Trump was met with accusations of cowardice online from critics who argued that the company should have fought the lawsuit at trial.
Meanwhile, one of Donald Trump’s last remaining opponents in the GOP seems to have come to terms with the future of the Republican Party as a Trumpified political movement.
“MAGA is the Republican Party and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today,” Mitt Romney says in a new interview.
This weekend the president-elect also named several more picks for his administration on Saturday, including Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes to run an intelligence board, and staunch loyalist foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell as a presidential envoy for special missions.
Chicago mayor vows to protect residents after Trump’s border czar singles out Windy City for mass deportations
Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” has suggested the president-elect’s plans for mass deportations will begin in Chicago, part of a plan that would deploy law enforcement officers into communities across the country for broad sweeps targeting people living in the country without legal permission.
The Windy City’s mayor is vowing to protect his city’s residents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents who could push into schools and workplaces, butting against so-called “sanctuary” policies barring federal forces from using local police for deportation enforcement.
“What the Trump administration has called for is for local police departments around the country to behave as ICE agents. In sanctuary cities, that is not permissible,” Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson told CNN.
Tom Homan told Democratic officials to ‘get the hell out of the way’ or risk prosecution
John Bowden15 December 2024 15:02
Polio survivor Mitch McConnell slams ‘dangerous’ push by RFK Jr lawyer to kill vaccine
Senate Republican leader and polio survivor Mitch McConnell on Friday condemned “dangerous” efforts to abolish the polio vaccine following news that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lawyer’s tried to do just that.
Attorney Aaron Siri in 2022 petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval for multiple critical childhood vaccines, including the polio vaccine. News of Siri’s action resurfaced just weeks after RFK Jr. was named by President-elect Donald Trump as his pick to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Siri is currently helping Kennedy vet officials to serve in the department.
Kennedy is known for his extreme anti-vaccine positions which are widely derided by the mainstream medical community. Siri’s petition claimed the vaccine was not properly tested to ensure it was safe, despite its decade-long use protecting millions of children from contracting the disease.
‘The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease,’ said outgoing Republican Senate leader
Graig Graziosi15 December 2024 14:00
Even liberals like popular Barron Trump at New York University
Barron Trump has been described as a “ladies’ man” around the New York University (NYU) campus, where he is so popular that even his liberal classmates like him.
An insider at NYU’s Stern School of Business, where Barron enrolled this fall, told People magazine that Donald Trump’s only son with third wife Melania Trump has proven to be “popular with the ladies.”
“He’s tall and handsome,” the source said of the 18-year-old, who stands an astonishing six feet nine inches tall.
Donald Trump’s youngest son is reportedly a ‘ladies’ man’ on NYU campus
Graig Graziosi15 December 2024 13:00
Trump set to scrap car-crash regulation Musk hates: Report
Donald Trump’s transition team is reportedly considering scrapping a car-crash reporting requirement that Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk stongly opposes, according to a new report.
According to Reuters, which viewed a document reportedly proposing the change, the removal of the requirement could hamstring the government’s ability to effectively investigate crashes and regulate the safety of vehicles with self-driving systems, like Musk’s Teslas and Cybertrucks.
Musk, who is the world’s richest man, used his vast wealth to pour a quarter of a billion dollars into Trump’s 2024 campaign. If Trump’s team does remove the accident reporting requirements, it would likely directly benefit Musk’s Tesla, which has reported the majority of crashes — more than 1,500 — to federal safety regulators under the program.
The NHTSA said the information collected by the reporting requirement is crucial to improving the safety for American motorists
Graig Graziosi15 December 2024 11:00
ABC agrees to pay $15 million to Trump in defamation lawsuit settlement
ABC has agreed to pay $15 million as part of a settlement with Donald Trump after the president-elect sued the network and host George Stephanopoulos for defamation.
In March, Stephanopoulos pressed congresswoman Nancy Mace about her support for the former president despite a judge finding him “liable for rape by a jury,” he said.
“Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury,” Stephonopoulos said on ABC’s This Week at the time. “It’s been affirmed by a judge.”
Host George Stephanopoulos incorrectly claimed Trump was held civilly liable for rape
Graig Graziosi15 December 2024 09:00
Don Trump Jr didn’t like Kimberly Guilfoyle’s fashion sense and thought new beau would be more of a win with dad
Donald Trump Jr is dating a new woman who he thinks will “impress” his father, but has not publicly announced a split from Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose style he has criticized, according to a report.
Photos captured Trump Jr., 46 holding hands with socialite Bettina Anderson, 38, as they went for an evening stroll through Palm Beach, Florida this week.
While neither president-elect Donald Trump’s eldest son nor Guilfoyle, 55, have spoken publicly about their relationship status, insiders told People that after months of criticizing Guilfoyle’s style, he thinks he’s found someone who fits into the Trump family — someone comparable to his father’s wife, Melania. Trump met Melania at a party in 1998, when he was on a date with another woman, the former first lady said in a 2016 interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
‘Kim is so uptight and always dresses so professionally in these kinds of dresses and high heels,’ Trump Jr. allegedly said to Guilfoyle, according to a source
Graig Graziosi15 December 2024 07:00
Devin Nunes and Ric Grenell — who are Trump’s latest administration picks?
Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes and the president-elect’s Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell have been selected to serve in his upcoming administration.
Nunes, as former California House Representative, was tapped for to serve as Chairman of Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board, while Grenell was picked to serve as his Presiential Envoy for Special Missions.
While Nunes was in office he served on the House Intelligence Committee and consistently backed any move then-President Trump made. He also led the two-year investigation into US’s responde to the 2012 Benghazi attack, which ultimate found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the US State Department under Hillary Clinton.
Nunes also refused to back an investigation into Trump former national security adviser and Q-Anon conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn after it was revealed he had unreported discussions with Russian officials while serving under Trump.
“From everything that I can see, his conversations with the Russian ambassador—he was doing this country a favor, and he should be thanked for it,” Nunes said at the time.
Grenell formerly served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany and his Director of National Intelligence.
Prior to his involvement in Trump’s administration, Grenell was a consultant for an eastern European oligarch, Vladimir Plahotniuc. He faced criticism after he wrote articles defending the oligarch without making clear he was being paid to manage the man’s image.
Grenell is a former Fox News contributor and was named as a VP at the far-right media outlet Newsmax in 2021. He earned the ire of the media in 2020 when, during a Trump press conference, he refused to identify himself to reporters and publicly accused the state of covering up incidents of voter fraud in order to help the election prospects of then-Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
These claims were made without evidence, and Mr Grenell refused to answer questions from journalists who demanded he prove his assertions.
Graig Graziosi15 December 2024 06:00
Elon Musk shares photo of himself with Trump and Vance at Army-Navy game
Tesla, SpaceX, and X CEO Elon Musk was at Saturday’s Army-Navy game alongside President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance. The image shows the three men on a stadium Jumbotron and is yet another example of Musk — the world’s richest man and presumably a very busy person leading three massive companies — spending a significant amount of time hanging around with Trump.
Graig Graziosi15 December 2024 04:38
Vivek Ramaswamy poses with Daniel Penny, recalls donation to his legal defense
Failed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy posted a photo of himself posing with Daniel Penny, who was recently acquitted for the death of Jordan Neely, a Black street performer who struggled with homelessness and schizophrenia, and recalled that he donated to Penny’s legal defense fund. Neely died after Penny held him in a chokehold for more than six minuted on a New York City subway train.
Neely was allegedly yelling threatening things at the other passengers, but witnesses said he never touched anyone.
“Our family contributed to this man’s legal defense fund last year because he was wronged. We don’t regret it. Hope Daniel Penny has a bright future & good life ahead,” Ramaswamy wrote. According to reports at the time, Ramaswamy donated $10,000 to Penny’s defense.
Graig Graziosi15 December 2024 04:20
CNN contributor Bakari Sellers calls Daniel Penny praise ‘identity politics of the right'
CNN contributor and former South Carolina Representative Bakari Sellers lamented that Daniel Penny, who was recently acquitted for the death of Jordan Neely, a Black street performer who struggled with homelessness and schizophrenia, was invited to the Army-Navy football game to hobnob with President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
“The prism through which this country views race is fascinating. Look at conservative avatars….Daniel Penny kills a black man has no accountability, chills with the POTUS. Caitlin Clark acknowledges black women’s professional contributions and gets crucified,” he wrote on X. “Watching the identity politics of the right…”
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