Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was in no mood to take questions about Matt Gaetz on Wednesday, or perhaps ever.
Fox News Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram approached Graham outside the Capitol to ask about Gaetz, whom President-elect Donald Trump nominated for attorney general last week. The selection shocked Washington for several reasons, not the least of which was the House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz, who resigned
from Congress last week. One witness testified to the committee that she saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a drug-fueled party in 2017 when Gaetz was about 35. Two other witnesses said the congressman paid them for sex. On Wednesday, the committee declined
to release the findings of its investigation.
The former congressman, who met with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, denies all wrongdoing.
Afterward, Pergram approached Graham outside the Capitol as the senator walked toward an SUV.
“How was your meeting?” Pergram asked in a recording that aired on Your World. “What do you have to say about it? Are you concerned about Gaetz at all?”
Graham said nothing, got into the passenger’s side, and slammed the door.
“All right, well that went well,” host Neil Cavuto responded. “Senator Lindsey Graham not speaking – can you believe this? Not speaking to our own Chad Pergram on his meeting today with one Matt Gaetz.”
Graham, who will become chair of the Judiciary in January, said
earlier on Wednesday that the confirmation process will not be a “lynch mob.”
Cavuto welcomed to Pergram to the show and reported that Vice President-elect JD Vance “guided Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz through a series of meetings with senators.”
Your World then played a clip of Pergram interviewing Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
“I will be supporting each of these nominees,” she said.
“Are you concerned about any of those allegations?” he asked. “Are you clear that there’s no problem there?”
“Everybody deserves a fair hearing,” she responded. “And I know that as we get into the process of the hearings, you’ll have information that will come up.”
Republicans are gearing up for a trifecta of control in Congress next year with a heightened focus on legislation
against transgender medical procedures on minors.
During a Senate panel on Wednesday afternoon, lawmakers discussed the future of legislative action in Congress
, such as bans on biological males competing in women’s sports, restrictions on gender-related surgery on minors and cessation of taxpayer funding of these types of procedures for children, and expanding parental consent requirements.
The discussion was hosted by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and was led by Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project (APP). Schilling interviewed Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., and Paula Scanlan, a swimmer who shared her experience of competing alongside Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete on the women’s team at the University of Pennsylvania.
“This movement from the beginning has been about saving America, but mostly about protecting our children,” Schilling said in his opening remarks.
“Here, today, we’re protecting young ladies and men from genital mutilation, ’cause this is what this is,” Marshall told the panel. “It’s hard for me to believe we’re doing irreversible damage to these young children.”
Tuberville, who introduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, said that “we’ve gotten no help from the Democratic side,” but that Republicans are going to continue working on the issue in the next Congress when Senate Republicans
will likely have a majority.
“I can’t believe we’re even having to do this,” Tuberville added. “It is pure insanity and has caused irreversible damage on children. This isn’t about politics folks, this is about good and evil.”
“Title IX is the best thing to come out of this building in 50 years,” Tuberville, a former coach, said. “Biological men playing in women’s sports is not a right.”
Scanlan told the panel about her experience competing for the University of Pennsylvania’s swim team alongside a biological male, saying that she had to change in the locker room with Thomas “18 times per week.”
Marshall revealed that Congress will be introducing the Safeguarding the Overall Protection of Minors Act (STOP), which will aim to “punish people who perform surgery or mediation on minors.”
According to an APP report recently covered by Fox News Digital
, total revenues for transgender drugs and surgeries in 2023 are estimated to surpass $4.4 billion. That number, according to the study, could exceed $7.8 billion by 2030.
A well-known Ugandan opposition figure appeared in a military court Wednesday days after he was reported missing in neighboring Kenya
, and denied a charge of seeking military support from abroad to destabilize Uganda’s military forces.
Kizza Besigye, a fierce critic of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
and once his personal doctor, has faced arrest and assault on previous occasions. He has contested and lost four presidential elections.
Besigye, who at first appeared in court without lawyers and in a cage, rejected government legal representation and said he should be tried in a civilian court because he’s not a member of the armed forces.
The former president of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party also was charged with possessing an illegal firearm, which he denied. He will stay in custody until Dec. 2 with FDC member Hajj Lutale Kamulegeya, who was also charged and denied wrongdoing.
Besigye’s reappearance came four days after he went missing in Nairobi. On Saturday his wife, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima, claimed he had been kidnapped and put in a Ugandan military jail.
The Ugandan government has not commented.
Kenya’s foreign affairs permanent secretary, Korir Singoei, told local media that Kenya was not involved in the alleged incident.
Besigye’s lawyer, the Kampala mayor and FDC member Erias Lukwago, expressed concern that his client was arrested abroad.
“For his liberty to be curtailed in a sovereign state like Kenya, and no actions being taken by the Kenyan government against the sister country violating the territorial integrity of Kenya, that is a very serious matter and we are not going to let it lie down,” he said.
Museveni, who has ruled the East African country since 1986, has long been criticized by human rights
groups over alleged violations against opposition figures.
Like Kennedy, Oz has no experience running a massive bureaucracy. CMS operates Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the federal Healthcare.gov ObamaCare exchange.
Between all four programs, CMS oversees health coverage for more than 150 million people.
“The husband of a wonderful woman, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a STAR on Fox News, and the father of nine incredible children, Sean knows how important it is for families to be able to travel safely, and with peace of mind,” the president-elect said.
Before beginning his career in public service, Duffy was a prosecutor and a reality TV star, appearing on several shows including The Real World: Boston, and Road Rules: All Stars.
In 2011, he was elected as a Republican to represent Wisconsin in the US House of Representatives, where he served until 2019.
The good news is that these aren’t the kind of picks that put a pit in my stomach, so there’s that, I guess. But that is just a comparative metric to things like Tulsi Gabbard for DNI.
Struggling NFL teams looking to poach their next head coach from the college football circuit can count Colorado’s Deion Sanders
out after the Buffaloes head coach addressed the recent speculation linking him to one of his former teams at a press conference on Tuesday.
Only two NFL teams have called it quits with their respective head coaches this season, but Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy
has found himself in the hot seat following their fifth-straight loss to the Houston Texans on Monday night.
Sanders’ name has recently been floated — Cowboys great Michael Irvin was the latest to suggest the move on X, but Sanders shut down those rumors this week.
“I’m happy where I am, man. I’m good,” he told reporters during his weekly press conference ahead of Colorado’s game against Kansas on Saturday.
“I’ve got a kickstand down. You know what a kickstand is? A lot of people in here are not of age, they don’t know what a kickstand is. It means I’m resting, I’m good, I’m happy, I’m excited, I’m enthusiastic about where I am. I love it here. I truly do. Next question.”
Despite their struggles, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones essentially ruled out firing McCarthy midseason when he spoke to reporters on Monday.
“I’ve made a change early and on a coach with Chan Gailey [when he went 18-14 in 1998 and 1999 combined], and I’ve always regretted that. I’ve made a change during the season (with Wade Phillips in 2010), and I’ve regretted that,” Jones said, via CBS Sports.
“That’s the music I’m listening to.”
Monday’s loss marked Dallas’ longest losing streak since a seven-game slide in 2015. They are 0-5 at home for the first time since 1989, and they become the first team in NFL history
to trail by at least 20 points in six straight home games.
McCarthy might be safe until the end of the season, but if the Cowboys can’t turn it around, his future in Dallas could be in trouble.
The Oregon Ducks
remained in the top spot. Ohio State, Texas, Penn State and Indiana rounded out the top five. Georgia, which hoisted the College Football Playoff national championship trophy in 2021 and 2022, was slotted in the No. 10 spot.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart
appeared to take issue with the Bulldogs’ ranking as of late. Smart voiced his apparent frustration during one of his recent media sessions and suggested the selection committee lacks transparency as it relates to its criteria.
“It’s a hard one because I don’t know what they’re looking for,” Smart said, via On3 Sports. “They can’t define that. It’s not simple, either. I mean, anybody can be on that committee and say, ‘This is what we’re looking for. This is our criteria. And there’s so much that it overlaps things and everybody debates it, and I don’t have time to really waste energy on it.”
Georgia has played one of the more challenging schedules in the country this season. The Bulldogs went on the road to play Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss. The Longhorns were the No. 1 team in the nation when they took the field against Georgia
.
Smart argued the opponents a team faces should be given serious consideration when the committee conducts its evaluations. He also described the selection committee’s benchmarks as “unjust.”
“So, I think it’s more than your non-conference games and who you play,” Smart said. “It just seems unjust to me when you evaluate somebody’s got a third-ranked defense or somebody’s got a fifth-ranked defense.
“Well, don’t you think their defense is dictated by who they played on offense? And how many top offenses they play? Because last time I checked, our offense and our defense have played the top offenses and defenses across the country. Well, you’re not gonna be ranked as high if you play top ones than if you player lower-ranked ones, and that’s what gets me.
“They talk about the eye test. How do you play in the game? Well, how you play in the game is dictated by where you’re playing — home or away — and who you’re playing. That’s the two No. 1 indicators of how you play. It’s who you’re playing, who you line up across from that matters. But point differential, I don’t believe they look at just that. I don’t know if that’s actually the case. They’re looking at the whole picture of how you play and that’s dictated by who you play.”
Georgia finishes the regular season with two home games against UMass and in-state rival Georgia Tech
.
The 12-team playoff bracket projection entering Week 13 has Georgia at the 11th seed. If the playoff started today, Georgia would play the sixth-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions in the first round.
“The View” co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin clashed on Wednesday over school choice while discussing President-elect Trump’s pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon
.
“When you hear about school choice, it’s really connected to the voucher system,” Hostin said. “The Department of Education is responsible for $18.4 billion that fund high poverty K-12 schools. Schools where kids are poor. Kids that grew up in neighborhoods like I grew up in the South Bronx projects.”
Trump’s education secretary pick comes amid discussions of abolishing the Department of Education
, which experts say the president would need congressional approval to do.
“And what happens with vouchers? The studies show very clearly that they fund students already attending private schools. So people with money get those vouchers, use the vouchers to pay less for their private schools and their kids go on to do well. Where do you get the money from vouchers? You pull that money from the poor schools,” Hostin said. “Wealthy families are overwhelmingly the recipients of school voucher tax credits, I’m not making this up.”
Hostin touted a 2020 study that found just half of states with voucher programs required teachers to have a bachelor’s degree, teacher training and licensing.
Griffin asked Hostin for the sourcing of the study she mentioned, but Hostin continued to speak.
“That’s just not my experience, if I may get in just to make it a conversation,” Griffin said, as Hostin continued to talk. “I went to public school, I believe you got to go to private school,” Griffin said of Hostin.
After more crosstalk and back and forth, Hostin tried to make a final point before co-host Whoopi Goldberg shut down the conversation and said nobody could understand what was being said.
“I haven’t gotten a word in, she’s been talking for three minutes,” Griffin said.
After returning from a commercial break, Goldberg pointed out the “beauty” of their show was that they have different opinions.
“We lost the election. We’re miserable. Half of this country is miserable. And let’s just tell the truth: we hate that he won. We hate it. And everybody is uptight and crazy right now,” co-host Joy Behar chimed in.
Hostin argued that voucher programs do not benefit students academically and said definitively “that’s the truth.”
Citing other statistics and her personal work on the D.C. opportunity scholarship program while she worked in Congress, Griffin argued that the tax dollars should follow the students if a parent wants to give their child a leg up in a school district that may be falling behind.
“It’s simply that a parent should be able to make the best choice for their student. I also think that there are schools that are falling behind. It doesn’t mean they don’t deserve education, but I don’t think students should be victims of a falling-behind school. Their life is at stake, their future, their earning potential,” Griffin said.
Hostin said that she didn’t go to a good school district in the South Bronx and said, “that’s the inequity.”
Griffin pointed out again, “did you get to go to a private school?” Goldberg threatened to shut the discussion down again before she made her argument.
In a recent television interview, prospective Trump administration border “czar” Tom Homan said that state officials will be liable to federal prosecution if they actively impede federal agents in the enforcement of immigration law — including apprehending and detaining illegal aliens.
In context, Homan was being asked about Boston Mayor Michelle Wu
, who has vowed that the city would protect non-citizens in “every possible way” from the Trump administration’s plans for large-scale deportations.
Homan made clear that the feds would not attempt to commandeer state and city officials. He acknowledged that such officials have no duty tohelp federal immigration agents. But they may not interfere with the agents in the execution of their duties or take affirmative steps to conceal or shield illegal immigrants from federal law enforcement.
He pointed out that it is a federal felony under Section 1324(1)(a)(iii)
of the immigration laws (Title 8, U.S. Code) if a person,
knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation[.]
The Supreme Court has explained, in United States v. Gillock (1980), for example, that “in those areas where the Constitution grants the Federal Government the power to act, the Supremacy Clause dictates that federal enactments will prevail over competing state exercises of power.” As a result, state or municipal officials who are accused of violating federal criminal law will not be heard to claim in their defense that they were carrying out official state policies — even if those policies are codified in laws, regulations, or ordinances at the state or local levels.
Sanctuary cities have been tolerated for too long because Democrats — at the federal, state, and local levels — refuse to enforce federal law. But sanctuary cities have never been legal.
The Supreme Court has now held a number of times, including in Arizona v. United States
(2015), that “the Government of the United States has broad, undoubted power over the subject of immigration and the status of aliens.” In Arizona vs. the United States, the Court went so far as to forbid the state from enforcing state laws that were designed to support federal immigration laws that the Obama-Biden administration did not want enforced.
Let’s face it: We know from past experience (in the last Trump administration
) that, inevitably, open-borders advocate organizations will forum-shop cases to activist progressive judges who will surely rule in their favor. But such setbacks will be temporary.
Ultimately, higher federal courts, including the Supreme Court
, are not going to countenance the actions of state and city officials that violate federal immigration law and obstruct federal enforcement of incontestably constitutional immigration laws.
In essence, I hear Tom Homan saying that the era of sanctuary cities is over. I hope that is true.
If it is, many illegal aliens will return to their home countries — that is, they will self-deport. This would free up resources for federal immigration agents to prioritize apprehension and deportation of criminal aliens — especially the ones in such gangs as Tren de Aragua, which has become a significant violent crime threat in big cities across the country thanks to the collapse of border security under Biden-Harris administration policies
. Federal authorities can also then concentrate on the magnets of illegal immigration — such as employers who hire illegal aliens because they are willing to work for lower wages than the law mandates that Americans must be paid.
Getting illegal immigration and border security under control would be a boon for legal immigration. That’s something those who champion immigrants and those who prioritize pro-border security
should be able to unite behind.
– Google AI chatbot tells user to ‘please die’ – Ben Affleck is confident AI cannot replace Hollywood movies for this reason – Donald Trump will be very good for AI: Jeff Sica
‘PLEASE DIE’: Google’s AI chatbot Gemini is at the center of another controversy after a user reported a shocking answer in a conversation about challenges aging adults face. A graduate student in Michigan was told “please die” by the artificial intelligence
chatbot, CBS News first reported.
‘LAST TO GO’Ben Affleck
is getting a lot of attention for his views on artifical intelligence. Last week, the actor spoke at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha 2024 investor summit, taking time to share his thoughts on how AI will affect the entertainment industry. “Movies will be one of the last things, if everything gets replaced, to be replaced by AI
,” he explained.
HERE COMES THE BOOM: Circle Squared Alternative Investments founder Jeff Sica explains how President-elect Donald Trump policies will aid the construction of A.I data centers
on ‘Varney & Co.’
CHINESE STRENGTH: China’s Shanghai Kepler Robotics is making waves in the world of humanoid robotics
with its innovative Forerunner series. Its latest humanoid robot, the Forerunner K2, has quickly become a hot topic, showcasing Kepler’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of what robots can do.
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future with Fox News here
.
The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal lit into President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary this week, concluding that “nominations impulsively made can also be withdrawn.” The editorial made the case that former Fox News host Pete Hegseth likely did not alert Trump’s team that he had paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault in recent years.
“Press reports say the accusation took Mr. Trump’s transition team by “surprise,” which might be a lesson about picking unvetted cabinet secretaries on a whim,” wrote the editorial board at the Rupert Murdoch-owned publication. Trump’s transition team has reportedly refused to use FBI background checks before making nominations, which has long been the standard procedure.
The editorial argues that whatever the reality behind the sexual assault allegation aimed at Hegseth, the fact he may have misled Trump should be disqualifying for the person leading the armed forces.
“Mr. Hegseth denies wrongdoing. But the Senators holding confirmation hearings next year also might inquire about what, if anything, he told Mr. Trump’s transition team regarding the woman’s claim and the legal settlement,” wrote the editorial, adding:
Whoever leads the Pentagon needs to have the President’s trust. If Mr. Trump wasn’t informed about this political liability before announcing the nomination, he might reasonably wonder what else Mr. Hegseth hasn’t told him.
The editorial then goes into the details of the accusation against Hegseth and his legal team’s defense – claiming that the woman was part of a # MeToo-inspired blackmail and extortion scheme.
“What happened in Monterey seven years ago might be impossible to prove or disprove, but even granting Mr. Hegseth the benefit of the doubt, it raises questions about judgment, including whether he warned the President-elect that this might come out,” argued the editorial, concluding:
“Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed,” Mr. Trump’s spokesman said. “We look forward to his confirmation as United States Secretary of Defense.”
Maybe so, but the Senate will have further questions, and nominations impulsively made can also be withdrawn.
