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Matt Gaetz admits to womanizing and partying too much as he slams House’s move to release ethics report: Live

Former Florida congressman says ‘not criminal’ that he partied in his thirties, and now lives a different life

Oliver O'Connell,Joe Sommerlad,Gustaf Kilander
Wednesday 18 December 2024 12:29 EST
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Donald Trump says ‘something strange is going on’ with drone sightings

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The results of an ethics investigation into now-former congressman Matt Gaetz will be made public after a secret vote to share the report in the final days of 2024.

Members of the House Ethics Committee voted again earlier this month, reversing a decision to withhold the findings of a long-running probe into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.

The report is expected to be made public as lawmakers prepare to leave Washington for the holidays, CNN reported. Gaetz, 42, responded on X, arguing his actions in his thirties were “not criminal” and he now leads a different life.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has claimed ex-Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney “could be in a lot of trouble” after a House GOP subcommittee called for her to be investigated by the Justice Department over her stewardship of the panel that examined the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, accusing her of witness tampering by “colluding” with Cassidy Hutchinson on her testimony.

The president-elect posted the taunt on Truth Social, thanking Congressman Barry Loudermilk, who led the subcommittee and produced the interim report, for “a job well done”.

Cheney herself has already rubbished Loudermilk’s report as “a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth”.

LA Times staffers say billionaire owner’s pro-Trump meddling worse than previously reported

Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is now prohibiting “editorials containing criticism” of Donald Trump “unless they are presented side-by-side with another opinion piece representing the ‘opposing view,’” according to a memo written by the newspaper’s editors.

As Oliver Darcy first reported in his Status newsletter, the staff memo reveals that Soon-Shiong’s “meddling” of the LA Times’ coverage – especially regarding the president-elect – has “grown more pervasive than previously realized.”

The memo, signed by several members of the LA Times’ opinion section, was sent to the newspaper’s executive editor, Terry Tang. It comes after Soon-Shiong killed an op-ed last month critical of Trump’s recent Cabinet picks and the incoming president’s suggestion that he may use recess appointments to circumvent the confirmation process.

Read more:

LA Times staffers say owner’s pro-Trump meddling worse than previously reported

Editorials with Donald Trump are now only allowed if they present the ‘opposing view’

Justin Baragona18 December 2024 00:15

MSNBC anchor admits Trump told her to ‘go f*** myself’ when she called for an interview

MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle revealed that President-elect Donald Trump told her to ‘go f*** myself” after she tried to set up an interview with him before the election to discuss his Madson Square Garden campaign rally.

While noting that Trump profanely brushed off her invitation for a sitdown, Ruhle also used this anecdote as an example of how much more accessible Trump is to the press than President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, who she claimed are nearly impossible to contact due to buffers put up by their staffs.

Appearing on Lukas Thimm’s live variety stage show So Many Issues, Ruhle brought up the wild MSG rally in October, which was described as “an orgy of fascism” and sparked outrage after a right-wing comic called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Ruhle said she “rolled the dice” and decided to call up Trump to see if he’d agree to talk to her about the fallout.

Read more:

MSNBC host admits Trump told her to ‘go f*** myself’ when she called for an interview

Stephanie Ruhle contrasted the relative ease that she had connecting to Trump with the beauracratic barries she’s faced when attempting to reach out to President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris

Justin Baragona17 December 2024 23:30

Trump meets TikTok CEO as platform fights US ban

Donald Trump reportedly met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Monday to discuss the app’s potential ban by the US government.

The two men reportedly had a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, according to NBC News.

In the days leading up to the meeting, Trump had expressed some degree of sympathy for the company, saying he had a “warm spot” for the app, and promising that he’d “take a look” at the ban.

Read more:

Trump meets TikTok CEO as platform fights US ban

President-elect tried to ban TikTok in 2020 but changed his tone on it once he realized it could help him win

Graig Graziosi17 December 2024 22:00

Republican report suggests Liz Cheney be criminally investigated because of work on Jan 6

Republicans released a 128-page report Tuesday which suggested that former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney be investigated for her work probing the January 6 Capitol riot.

The report looked at the “failures and politicization” of the now-dissolved January 6 Committee, claiming that President-elect Donald Trump was unfairly blamed for the attack.

“Speaker Pelosi’s multimillion-dollar Select Committee was a political weapon with a singular focus to deceive the public into blaming President Trump for the violence on January 6 and to tarnish the legacy of his first Presidency,” it says.

The conclusion argues that the FBI should investigate Cheney, claiming that her contact with witness Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White House aide, amounted to witness tampering.

“January 6th showed Donald Trump for who is really is – a cruel and vindictive man who allowed violent attacks to continue against our Capitol and law enforcement officers while he watched television and refused for hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave,” Cheney said in a statement, according to The Hill.

She went on to note that “Chairman [Barry] Loudermilk’s (R-Ga.) ‘Interim Report’ intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did. Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth. No reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take this seriously.”

Gustaf Kilander17 December 2024 21:47

The rise and fall of Justin Trudeau as Canadian prime minister is on the brink

After nearly 10 years at the country’s helm, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing growing calls from his own party to resign.

Mr Trudeau’s latest crisis has been sparked by the sudden resignation of his finance minister Chrystia Freeland, amid a row over how best to handle US President-elect Donald Trump’s threatened trade tariffs.

Once the poster-boy for liberal politics, his popularity has waned and his approval rating has dipped below 30 per cent several times this year.

So what went wrong?

The rise and fall of Justin Trudeau as Canadian prime minister is on the brink

The Canadian prime minister was once a poster boy for liberalism but he now faces the latest in a series of crises that threaten his future

Rachel Clun17 December 2024 21:30

Pennsylvania state senator mistakes Star Wars prop for drone

Gustaf Kilander17 December 2024 21:00

Trump formally clinches presidency with Electoral College win

Donald Trump has formally won the Electoral College and the presidency after Texas’ electors handed him the state’s 40 electoral votes Tuesday.

After Trump’s election win on November 5, his victory was formalized Tuesday as presidential electors gathered across the U.S.

It takes 270 electoral votes to win the Electoral College — Trump won 312 last month to Vice President Kamala Harris’s 226.

The votes of each state will be sent on to Congress next month, where Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance will be declared the next president and vice president before they take office at noon on January 20.

Gustaf Kilander17 December 2024 20:55

Senators warn that Pete Hegseth’s hearings will echo Brett Kavanaugh’s with fervor from both sides

Senate Republicans fear that the confirmation hearings for secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth will be a repeat of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s heated 2018 hearings.

Both Kavanaugh and Hegseth have been accused of sexual misconduct and have rejected the allegations. Hegseth’s plan to release his accuser from a nondisclosure agreement is setting up the hearing to be filled with tension and fervor from both Democrats and Republicans.

Hegseth is set to push ahead with his nomination despite warnings from Senate Republicans that he’s likely to face a frenzy of uncomfortable questions about the sexual misconduct allegations and the claims against him of excessive drinking and financial mismanagement.

Read more:

Senators warn that Pete Hegseth’s hearings will echo Brett Kavanaugh’s

Texas Republican Senator tells secretary of defense nominee confirmation hearings will be ‘miserable experience’

Gustaf Kilander17 December 2024 20:30

Trump insiders reveal candid details about Melania and Barron’s relationship

Incoming First Lady Melania Trump is devoted to ensuring her 18-year-old son, Barron Trump, is happy and healthy which will likely make her role in the White House less visible than other first ladies, insiders say.

Melania, 54, strives for “open communication” with her son, who recently began attending college at New York University, to help him adjust to the spotlight, two sources familiar with the Trump family told People.

“Melania worries about the hate in the country and how it falls on her son, who is innocent of any of this,” a social source told the magazine.

Read more:

Trump insiders reveal candid details about Melania and Barron’s relationship

Melania is expected to deviate from a more traditional first lady role when Donald Trump enters the White House on January 20

Ariana Baio17 December 2024 20:00

Comment: Why Elon Musk should get every cent of his $56bn Tesla pay package

The moment my children became interested in the US election was not when Taylor Swift declared her support for Kamala Harris, it was when Elon Musk appeared alongside Donald Trump.

They’re late teenagers – young adults – and Musk is their hero. It’s not just that he’s the world’s richest man, although that adds considerable lustre. It’s because he breaks boundaries, not least with his attempts to award himself a $56bn pay package, compensation that a judge this week ruled excessive.

He’s also the future, their future. They admire the Tesla – ‘faster than a motorbike from traffic lights’ one said to me recently. They can take or leave X, it’s not their network. And the space rocket reversing into a dock, as neatly as any car – that video has been replayed in our household countless times.

Read more:

Why Elon Musk should get every cent of his $56 billion pay package

As Musk’s record-breaking Tesla pay day is back in the news, Chris Blackhurst says we shouldn’t be too hasty to agree with the judge saying he shouldn’t be awarded such a huge sum. Just ask the generation that lauds his achievements

Chris Blackhurst17 December 2024 19:30

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