President-elect Trump pledged this week to undo former President Obama’s 2015 decision to change the name of North America’s tallest peak to its Koyukon Athabascan name "Denali," meaning "High One" or "Great One."
Speaking to conservatives at a Phoenix conference, Trump made the pledge and noted President William McKinley was also a Republican who believed in tariffs. He first promised to undo Obama's action in August 2015 and called it an "insult to Ohio," where McKinley was born and raised.
During his Phoenix remarks, he also pledged to undo Democrats’ rebranding of southern military bases named for Confederates – like Fort Liberty in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which was formerly named after Gen. Braxton Bragg.
The 20,320-foot mountain was first dubbed Mount McKinley in 1896 by gold prospector William Dickey, after learning the Ohioan had won the GOP presidential nomination – and as a swipe at silver prospectors he met who preferred Democrat William Jennings Bryan and his plan for a silver standard for the dollar.
Six months into his second term, McKinley was visiting Buffalo, New York, when anarchist laborer Leon Czolgosz assassinated him in a gladhanding line. Czolgosz believed the root of economic inequality stood with the government and was reportedly inspired by the 1900 assassination of Italian King Umberto I.
However, many Alaskans have appeared to prefer the historic name Denali:
GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski told KTUU that Trump’s plan to bring back "Mt. McKinley" is an "awful idea."
"We already went through this with President Trump back and at the very, very beginning of his first term," she said Monday.
Murkowski said both she and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, – who originally hails from McKinley’s Ohio – support the name Denali.
"[Denali] is a name that has been around for thousands of years… North America’s tallest mountain – shouldn’t it have a name like ‘The Great One’?" Murkowski added.
In 2015, Sullivan told the Anchorage Daily News that "Denali belongs to Alaska and its citizens" and that the naming rights are held by Alaskan Natives.
In a statement to KTUU this week, Sullivan said many Alaskans prefer the "name that the very tough, very strong, very patriotic Athabascan people gave" the peak.
Meanwhile, then-Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, spent decades in Congress preventing any name change from McKinley to Denali – as the namesake president hailed from his Canton district.
Regula, who died in 2017, lambasted Obama over the name change, saying he "thinks he is a dictator."
Appearing to cite his own work presenting procedural roadblocks and language added to Interior-related bills, Regula said Obama could not change such a law "by a flick of his pen."
However, some Ohio officials have also been deferential to the will of Alaskans.
Current Lt. Gov. Jon Husted told the Dayton Daily News in 2015 that if Denali is what Alaskans want, then he in turn understood, as he wouldn’t want Alaskans dictating Ohio name changes.
"So, I guess we shouldn't tell people in Alaska should do in their own state. But I'm a big fan of Canton and McKinley and I'm glad that he's getting talked about some more," he said at the time.
A top ally of President Biden is "disappointed" after he vetoed a bill that would have increased the number of federal judges currently serving.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who served as a campaign co-chair for both of Biden's recent presidential campaigns, stressed that he and his Republican colleague Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., kept bipartisanship top of mind when crafting the bill.
"I am disappointed by this outcome, for my own state and for the federal judges throughout the country struggling under the burden of ever-higher caseloads. I’ve worked on this bill for years, and thanks to tireless bipartisan effort with Senator Young, it made it to the president’s desk. It’s highly unfortunate that it will not become law," Coons said in a statement on Tuesday.
He then put the blame on House Republicans for the bill's ultimate failure, however, for voting on it after the 2024 election.
"Senator Young and I took pains to make this a nonpartisan process, structuring the JUDGES Act so that Congress could pass the bill before any of us – Republican or Democrat – knew who would occupy the White House in 2025 and therefore nominate the new federal judges," Coons said.
"The Senate did its part by passing the bill unanimously in August; the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, however, waited for election results before moving the bill forward. As a result, the White House is now vetoing this bill."
Republicans in turn have accused Biden of making threats to veto the bill – which he issued two days before the House voted on it – to avoid giving President-elect Trump new roles to fill.
"This important legislation garnered broad, bipartisan support when it unanimously passed the Senate in August because it directly addresses the pressing need to reduce case backlogs in our federal courts and strengthen the efficiency of our judicial system," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pointed out in a statement after the bill passed earlier this month.
"At that time, Democrats supported the bill – they thought Kamala Harris would win the presidency. Now, however, the Biden-Harris administration has chosen to issue a veto threat and Democrats have whipped against this bill, standing in the way of progress, simply because of partisan politics."
The bill would have added 66 federal district judicial roles, spreading their creation out over more than 10 years to prevent a boon on new appointments for any one administration.
At the time of its Senate passage, Democrats' morale was high after Biden ducked out of the 2024 race and was replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.
It passed the Senate with unanimous consent, however, meaning no Republicans objected to the legislation's advancement.
A group of 51 bipartisan lawmakers is urging House negotiators to keep up the flow of dollars to a visa program for Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover of their country.
Reps. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, wrote to the House of Representatives' top appropriators as they continue to negotiate federal funding for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2025.
"We write to urge you to maintain critical provisions for the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program1 in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 appropriations package. Authorizing new Afghan SIVs is critical to vetting and relocating qualified Afghan principal applicants currently in the processing pipeline," they wrote to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., and others.
It comes as President-elect Trump promised to work toward steep spending cuts in the coming federal funding fights. He wrote on Truth Social last week, "The United States will cut Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in spending next year through Reconciliation!"
People in Trump's orbit, including some House Republicans, are pushing for him to have greater control over how congressionally appropriated funds are spent.
Meanwhile, Trump tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy last month to lead an advisory panel on cost-cutting dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The duo have already positioned themselves as influential players in Congress' spending discussions as well, having led the revolt against a 1,547-page government funding bill that was a product of bipartisan negotiations. They have not, however, said where they want to see Congress pull back on spending.
The 51 lawmakers pushing for the Afghan SIV program to be preserved argue it is "a life-saving path to safety for Afghan nationals who face serious danger as a result of their work alongside U.S. troops, diplomats, and contractors."
"Congress must continue this work so that the State Department is able to issue visas to eligible Afghans who face imminent threats from the Taliban, Islamic State, and other hostile groups because of their service to the U.S. and our allies," they wrote.
The Afghan SIV program was first enacted in 2009, but saw new importance after the Taliban's lightening-fast takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 – which precipitated the U.S.'s withdrawal after decades in the Middle Eastern country.
Congress authorized additional visas under the program every year since FY 2019, according to the letter.
Congressional negotiators have so far failed to come to an agreement on FY 2025 spending, forcing lawmakers to pass two extensions of last year's funding levels to prevent a partial government shutdown.
The most recent extension, called a continuing resolution (CR), gives lawmakers until March 14 to make a deal.
Several prominent California Democrats are calling on the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve a grant application for $536 million in federal funds to move forward with the state’s long-awaited high-speed rail network.
The monies would come from funds already allocated in general to "federal-state partnership[s] for intercity passenger rail grants" through the 2021 "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law" and made available via the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024.
Democrats urged Secretary Pete Buttigieg to approve the funds, saying progress on the "California Phase I Corridor" is "essential to enhancing our nation’s and California’s strategic transportation network investments."
"The Phase 1 Corridor aims to address climate concerns, promote health, improve access and connectivity, and boost economic vitality, while addressing current highway and rail capacity constraints," a letter to the outgoing Cabinet member read.
Drafted by Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, Sen. Alex Padilla, and California Democratic Reps. Jim Costa, Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar, the letter calls for the funds to go to two projects in particular: tunneling through the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California and through the Pacheco Pass of the Diablo Mountains in Northern California.
"These investments will continue to support living wage jobs, provide small business opportunities, and equitably enhance the mobility of communities in need – including disadvantaged agricultural communities – all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Schiff and the other lawmakers wrote.
"Please consider the enormous value and meaningful impact that FSP-National grant funding will provide to advancing CAHSR beyond the Central Valley," they told Buttigieg.
The bores are needed, the lawmakers said, to connect with other intercity passenger rail systems including the Brightline West, CalTrain, Metrolink and Altamont Commuter Express.
According to California Republicans, the overall high-speed rail project is nearly $100 billion over budget and decades behind schedule.
Trump’s DOGE duo of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy aren’t keen on the idea of continuing to fund what many Republicans consider a costly and unfruitful endeavor.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., said as much earlier this month in remarks on the House floor.
"I am very happy to report that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has honed-in on perhaps the single greatest example of government waste in United States history – and that is California’s high-speed-rail boondoggle," Kiley said.
The official DOGE X account also described both California’s high-speed rail expenditures and requested funding in a November tweet.
Earlier this month, Ramaswamy also called the plans a "wasteful vanity project" that burned "billions in taxpayer cash with little prospect of completion in the next decade."
He said Trump "correctly" rescinded $1 billion in federal funding for the project in 2019 and lamented President Biden’s reversal of that move.
"Time to end the waste," Ramaswamy said.
California’s top state Senate Republican echoed the DOGE leaders’ concerns.
"California's 'train to nowhere' has already wasted billions of taxpayer dollars – now Biden wants all Americans to fund this boondoggle," State Sen. Brian W. Jones of San Diego told Fox News Digital.
"When President Trump returns to office in a few weeks, he must defund the high-speed rail. This wasteful government experiment must end once and for all," he added.
If approved, the federal funds will be bolstered by $134 million in state monies from California’s "cap & trade" program, according to the Sacramento Bee.
At a 2013 conference, Musk floated the idea of a "hyperloop" which was also presented in a white paper. Though it has not yet come to fruition, Musk said at the time he had thought whether there is a better way to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco than what California has proposed.
"The high-speed rail that’s being proposed would actually be the slowest bullet train in the world and the most expensive per-mile," he said. "Isn’t there something better that we can come up with?"
The world’s richest man described Hyperloop at the time as a combination of a Concorde, a rail gun and an air-hockey table.
President Biden on Monday vetoed a bill that would have added 66 federal district judgeships over a span of more than a decade, a once-bipartisan effort designed so that neither political party would have an advantage in molding the federal judiciary.
Three presidential administrations, beginning with the incoming Trump administration, and six Congresses would have had the opportunity to appoint the new trial court judgeships, according to the legislation, which had support from organizations representing judges and attorneys.
Despite arguments from the organizations that additional judgeships would help with cases that have seen serious delays in resolution and ease concerns over access to justice, the White House said that Biden would veto the bill.
In a statement, Biden said he made his decision because the "hurried action" by the House of Representatives left open questions about "life-tenured" positions.
"The House of Representative's hurried action fails to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how the new judgeships are allocated, and neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate explored fully how the work of senior status judges and magistrate judges affects the need for new judgeships," Biden said.
"The efficient and effective administration of justice requires that these questions about need and allocation be further studied and answered before we create permanent judgeships for life-tenured judges," Biden added.
He said the bill would also have created new judgeships in states where senators have not filled existing judicial vacancies and that those efforts "suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now.
When Biden’s plan to veto the legislation surfaced earlier this month, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told "America’s Newsroom" that the act is "the last spasm of a lame-duck."
"President Biden and his team don’t want to allow it to become law simply because a Republican administration would get to appoint some of the judges," Kennedy said.
"I wish they’d put the country first," the senator added.
The legislation was passed unanimously in August under the Democratic-controlled Senate, though the Republican-led House brought the measure to the floor only after Donald Trump was reelected president in November, creating an air of political gamesmanship.
Biden’s veto essentially shelves the legislation for the current Congress.
Overturning Biden's veto would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, and the House vote fell well short of that margin.
Nebraska's Republican Gov. Jim Pillen was in intensive care at a hospital on Monday to be treated for injuries after he was thrown off a horse while riding with his family the day before.
Pillen, 68, was treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where he underwent a medical procedure for an injured spleen he suffered when he was bucked off a new horse.
Doctors said Pillen's prognosis was positive despite seven rib fractures, a partially collapsed lung, a minor fracture in one of his vertebrae and a minor kidney injury that is expected to heal on its own. He is expected to remain in the hospital for at least another day, but is in stable condition.
The governor underwent a minimally invasive procedure called a prophylactic embolization for the spleen injury. Doctors passed a wire into his arteries near the spleen and inserted coils to stop the bleeding, according to Nebraska Medicine trauma surgeon Hillman Terzian.
Terzian said Pillen did well during the procedure, which he was sedated for. The operation lasted less than an hour and GOP Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly acted as governor for the time being in a routine transfer of power.
The governor did not suffer any damage to his nervous system and there were no signs of an injury to his head, neck or spinal canal, according to Terzian.
Pillen has been motivated to get out of bed and has already been walking laps, Terzian said, noting that this is "very impressive."
The doctor said being in intensive care is normal for people with a spleen injury similar to Pillen's and with rib fractures at his age. Terzian said the governor had "a very good prognosis."
"We don't expect anyone with his injuries to be up and running a marathon the next day, but we like them to be out of bed, to show us that they can pick up small objects, that sort of thing," Terzian said.
The biggest priority for Pillen's doctor right now is controlling his pain.
No other operations are planned, although physicians have options for treating his ribs, Terzian said.
Pillen has made arrangements to work from his hospital room.
The governor's office said his injuries were serious, but not life-threatening, and could have been much worse.
Pillen was elected as governor in 2022, running in the gubernatorial election that year because former Gov. Pete Ricketts, also a Republican, was term-limited.
The House Democrat who chairs the party’s campaign committee says she wants to "build on" the "things we did right" in the 2024 elections as she works to win back the chamber’s majority in the 2026 midterms.
While the party lost control of the White House and Republicans flipped the Senate majority while holding on to their fragile control of the House, Democrats were able to take a small bite out of the GOP congressional majority.
Republicans will hold a razor-thin 220-215 majority in the next Congress, which means the Democrats only need a three-seat gain in the 2026 midterms to win back the chamber for the first time in four years.
"We won in tough districts, outperformed across the country," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state emphasized in a recent Fox News Digital interview.
DelBene, who is sticking around for a second straight tour of duty steering the party’s campaign committee, said the 2024 successes are "a good example of what we need to continue to follow heading into 2026."
"Number one, have great candidates who are independent minded, focused on the needs of their communities," DelBene said. "Those candidates and their voices were critically important in this election."
DelBene said "making sure that they [the candidates] have the resources they need to get information out to voters and to continue to address head on the issues that are most important to their communities, lowering costs, making sure there's economic opportunity" are also top priorities.
With President-elect Trump returning to the White House next month, and the GOP in control of both chambers of Congress, DelBene said Republicans are "going to be accountable for what they do in this country and the impact that has on working families"
"We're going to hold them accountable for their votes and the actions they take, especially if they aren't supporting working families," she emphasized. "I think people want to see governance work. So, if Republicans aren't willing to work in a bipartisan way to get things done, that's going to be a key part of the 2026 election as well."
The party in power traditionally takes a gut punch in the ensuing congressional election, which means the Democrats will have historical winds at their backs.
Looking to the 2026 map, DelBene touted that Democrats will have "opportunities across the country."
And she said it’s the DCCC’s job to "reach voters where they are and make sure they're getting accurate information about where our candidates stand."
Fox News' Emma Woodhead contributed to this report
As President-elect Trump begins his second term in the White House, his days as a candidate are numbered.
But even though he's term limited and his name will no longer be on the ballot, Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley says Trump will play a "significant" role in supporting GOP candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
"President Trump is going to be a very significant part of this because at the end of the day, what we need to do is hold on to the House, hold on to the Senate so that we can finish his term and his agenda," Whatley emphasized in a recent interview with Fox News Digital at the RNC headquarters in the nation's capital.
Republicans enjoyed major victories in last month's elections, with Trump defeating Vice President Kamala Harris to win back the White House, the GOP flipping control of the Senate from the Democrats, and Republicans holding on to their razor-thin majority in the House.
Whatley argued that "as we go forward into this next election cycle, the fundamentals are going to remain the same."
"We need to make sure that we are building our state parties, that we're building our ground game, we're building our election integrity apparatus to be in place to make sure that when we get those candidates through those primaries in ‘26, that we're going to be in a position to take them all the way to the finish line," he emphasized.
But the party in power traditionally suffers setbacks in the ensuing midterm elections. And Trump, who was a magnet for voter turnout in this year's elections, won't be on the ballot in 2026.
Whatley predicted, "Donald Trump will be very active on the campaign trail for Republicans. And his agenda is the agenda that we're going to be running on."
The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee outraised the Trump campaign and the RNC this past cycle, but Whatley is confident that with the party soon to control the White House, Republicans will be even more competitive in the campaign cash race in the midterms.
"We're pretty excited about where we are in terms of the fundraising that we did throughout the course of this cycle and what we're going to do going forward," he said.
Whatley said his message to donors will be, "We were successful in putting Donald Trump into the White House, and we need to carry forward with his agenda by keeping these House majorities and Senate majorities."
He also pushed back on the persistent questioning of the RNC and Trump campaign's ground game efforts during the general election.
"We focused very hard on low propensity voters. This was an entirely new system that we put in place over the course of this election cycle. It worked very, very well," he touted.
And looking ahead, he said, "In a midterm election cycle, low propensity voters are going to, again, be very, very important for us. So, we're going to continue to focus on building that type of a program."
Whatley spotlighted that "we also focused on outreach to communities that the Republican Party has traditionally not reached out to – Black voters, Hispanic voters, Asian American voters. That's why we were able to see such seismic shifts toward Donald Trump versus where those blocs had been in 2016 and 2020. We also saw seismic shifts among young voters and women voters because we were talking to every single American voter. Our ground game was very significant."
Whatley was interviewed earlier this month, a week after Trump asked him to continue as RNC chair.
In March, as he clinched the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Trump named Whatley to succeed Ronna McDaniel as RNC chair. Whatley, a longtime ally of the former president and a major supporter of Trump's election integrity efforts, had served as RNC general counsel and chair of the North Carolina Republican Party.
Donald Trump says it is "an absolute necessity" for our country to own Greenland.
He says the U.S. should take back the Panama Canal unless the "ridiculous" shipping fees are lowered.
He threatened that any Republican who opposed him on the bill to avoid a government shutdown can and should be primaried.
The president-elect is earning his reputation as a disruptor, with enough influence over what is now his party to blow up carefully negotiated bipartisan compromises. Let’s look at each of these.
Trump tried in his first term to buy Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark but under home rule. That went nowhere, though it created a diplomatic crisis with Danish officials.
While the U.S. built the Panama Canal in the early 20th century, it was turned over to Panama under a treaty approved by both countries. Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino says "every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zone is Panama’s and will continue to be so. The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable."
That didn’t stop Trump from posting an AI image of an American flag flying over a waterway presumed to be the canal.
The incoming president has certainly demonstrated the ability to engineer primary challenges to those who cross him. But three dozen conservative Republicans voted against him on the government shutdown bill, including on final passage, which dropped his demand to eliminate the debt ceiling during his term. Would he really gin up primaries against all of them?
So the overwhelming likelihood is that the status of Greenland, the Panama Canal and rebellious Republicans won’t change in the second term.
The reason Trump does this is that it reinforces his role as a disruptor, someone taking on the decrepit Washington establishment, even though a president, by definition, is the new establishment.
Beyond that, whether he’s making outrageous demands or not, Trump shapes, and often dominates, the news agenda. As the 47th president has acknowledged to me, he sometimes crosses the line because he knows it will provoke a strong media reaction. As Trump sees it, even negative coverage is good coverage because the press is playing on his turf.
And sometimes these are just negotiating positions to win concessions, as with the threatened 25 percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico.
Remember, most people outside the media-political complex aren’t breathlessly following these developments. Since the government didn’t actually close down, they don’t see it as a setback for Trump that he didn’t get most of what he wanted. They probably don’t recall that he tried to buy Greenland before.
What Trump clearly has the power to do is to blow up carefully crafted bipartisan agreements. He did it after Speaker Mike Johnson–whose own future is in doubt because, like Kevin McCarthy before him, he didn’t have the votes–let the bill grow into a Christmas tree monstrosity.
And he did it during the campaign when both parties agreed on a tough border enforcement deal, which was then trashed by Trump’s objections.
But there are clearly limits to Trump’s ability to shape events, especially with the country. For three dozen Republicans to defy him on as fundamental a matter as the debt ceiling shows that he can only push his party so far.
Rep. Nancy Mace, a Trump supporter who voted against him on final passage–told me on Sunday’s Media Buzz that was because she wants to keep the debt ceiling.
But with the GOP clinging to a 1-vote House margin, for now, the cauldron of campaign rhetoric is running up against the cold, hard math of getting to the number 218.
Democrats have to wonder if it’s worth negotiating with the other party if they’re just creating a target for Trump’s demolition derby.
It was Elon Musk who first tweeted about how bad the original bill was–at Trump’s suggestion–and after 70-plus tweets (including some falsehoods), the new president was drawn into the fight.
Over the weekend, Trump denied that he had surrendered his presidential powers to his billionaire buddy, and half-mockingly said Musk could never be president:
"You know why? He wasn’t born in this country. Hahaha."
A favorite media parlor game is whether the two strong-willed men will eventually have a falling out.
For now, though, Trump’s tough talk about Greenland and the Panama Canal shows that he’s most comfortable playing offense, even if nothing much comes of it.
In other news:
--The House Ethics report says Matt Gaetz "regularly" paid women for sex, including with an underage girl, and used illegal drugs.
In 2017, the former attorney general nominee "engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl," who was also paid.
Gaetz used or had possession of such illegal drugs as cocaine and Ecstasy "on multiple occasions," and also accepted lucrative gifts, such as transportation and lodging in the Bahamas.
"Many of the women interviewed by the committee were clear that there was a general expectation of sex," with one woman telling the committee Gaetz paid her more than $5,000 and that sex was involved "99 percent of the time."
The panel said Gaetz was "uncooperative" and that he "knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the committee’s investigation of his conduct." The Justice Department investigated but brought no charges.
Gaetz also misused House resources when he had his chief of staff "assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent…
"There was substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress."
If Gaetz was still in the running for AG, this would have blown him out of the water.
Says Gaetz: "I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me. Then, the very 'witnesses' DOJ deemed not-credible were assembled by House Ethics to repeat their claims absent any cross-examination or challenge from me or my attorneys. I’ve had no chance to ever confront any accusers. I’ve never been charged. I’ve never been sued." He says he even sent money to women he wasn’t dating.
--A dogged reporter the Dallas Express discovered what happened to Texas Rep. Kay Granger, who went "missing" months ago. He found her, and got on-the-record confirmation, at a nursing facility that specializes in dementia and other memory problems. She put out a statement about health challenges that utterly missed the point: How could she not tell her constituents about this? Why did she insist on hiding it? There would have been enormous sympathy for her. Instead, the congresswoman kept it all shrouded in secrecy.
--Actress Blake Lively was the target of an online smear campaign, as laid out in texts and emails that blatantly discuss planting stories to ruin her reputation, while cautioning that this must remain secret because they can’t very well admit that they are trying to "bury" her. "You know we can bury anyone."
Lively obtained these documents through legal action against her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, and reviewed by the New York Times. She is alleging sexual harassment, saying Baldoni and others routinely came into her trailer unannounced when she was topless, such as having body makeup removed, or breast-feeding.
The Wayfarer studio said that the company and its PR people "did nothing proactive or retaliatory" against the actress, accusing her of "another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation."
Lively says Baldoni tried to add unneeded sex scenes, had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including instances in which he may not have gotten consent. Another member of the team showed her a video of his wife naked.
The sad thing is that this sort of thing goes on all the time. We just happened to get the goods this time, with Lively being portrayed as difficult, tone-deaf and a bully.
--The Daily Mail reported that Jeff Bezos was going marry his fiancé Lauren Sanchez this weekend in a $600 million extravaganza in Aspen.
The Amazon founder, who owns the Washington Post, says that’s a crock:
"This whole thing is completely false — none of this is happening…
"The old adage ‘don’t believe everything you read’ is even more true today than it ever has been. Now lies can get ALL the way around the world before the truth can get its pants on. So be careful out there folks and don’t be gullible."
Good for Jeff for punching back against a crappy story.
A spokesperson for President-elect Trump lashed out on Monday against President Biden's decision to commute the death sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row, calling the move a "a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones."
In a short statement, Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director, noted the different approaches to crime between Biden and Trump.
"These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones," he said in a statement. "President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people."
The White House announced that Biden was commuting the death sentences to life without the possibility of parole on Monday. Among the victims of the 37 men are law enforcement officers, children and other inmates.
"Biden’s decision is a slap in the face to the victims and to the families of the victims that thought justice was going to be served," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., wrote on X.
Many other Republican lawmakers echoed the same reactions.
Biden believes the federal death penalty should only be imposed for acts of terrorism and hate-motivated killings, the White House said.
"When President Biden came into office, his Administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions, and his actions today will prevent the next Administration from carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice," the White House said.
Three federal inmates whose death sentences were not commuted are Robert Bowers, who is responsible for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, which left 11 people dead; Dylann Roof, a White supremacist who killed nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who worked with his now-dead brother to perpetrate the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds.
Biden said the move would prevent the incoming Trump administration from carrying out the executions.
"In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted," he said.
The action came after Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 prisoners placed in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 40 others, including his son, Hunter.
As of Dec. 13, Biden has pardoned a total of 65 individuals and commuted sentences for 1,634 inmates during his time as president, according to the Department of Justice.
"The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms," White House officials said in a previous statement.
Trump has taken a tough stance on the death penalty, previously suggesting that drug dealers should be eligible for the ultimate punishment.
"We're going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts," Trump said earlier this year on the campaign trial. "Because it's the only way."
Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
**Please note that while we plan on publishing tomorrow, Dec. 24, the newsletter will take a short hiatus for the Christmas holiday, returning on Monday, Dec. 30.***
Here's what's happening…
-TikTok divestment could be ‘deal of the century’ for Trump, House China Committee chair says
-Trump names several new White House picks to work on AI, crypto and more: 'America First Patriots'
-Gaetz sues to block release of Ethics Committee report
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is calling out the Biden administration for spending over a trillion taxpayer dollars on "government waste" this year, including on a bearded lady cabaret show, Arabic Sesame Street, and "girl-centered climate action."
The Kentucky senator released his annual "Festivus" report that details different ways in which the current administration spent taxpayer dollars throughout the year.
The 2024 Festivus Waste Report found that the Biden-Harris administration spent over $1 trillion this year, including giving a $10,000 grant to "Beards on Ice" — an ice skating drag show on climate change put on by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, a self-described "queer cabaret arts organization."…Read more
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Allies of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are urging President-elect Trump to publicly reaffirm support for the House GOP leader to avoid a messy, protracted battle that could delay the certification of his own victory.
"If we have some kind of protracted fight where we can’t elect a speaker — the speaker’s not elected; we’re not sworn in. And if we’re not sworn in, we can’t certify the election," Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.
"I would hope that President Trump would chime in and talk to those who are maybe a little hesitant, and say, ‘We’ve got to get going. We don’t have time.’"
Meanwhile, Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital "it would be immensely helpful" if Trump chimed in.
"Any time would be great, but right after Christmas if President Trump said, ‘You know, listen’ — it would even be really cool if somehow Mike Johnson ended up at Mar-a-Lago for Christmas… wherever the president is," Fallon said. "I think it would be incredibly powerful."
House lawmakers are returning to Washington, D.C., for a chamber-wide vote to elect the speaker on Friday, Jan. 3. Just days later, on Monday, Jan. 6, the House will meet to certify the results of the 2024 election.
Johnson is facing a potentially bruising battle to win the speaker’s gavel for a full Congressional term, with several House Republicans vocally critical of the Louisiana Republican and his handling of government funding.
His predecessor went through 14 public defeats in his quest to win the gavel, finally securing it after days of negotiations with holdouts on the 15th House-wide vote.
When he was ousted, Johnson won after a three-week inter-GOP battle that saw Congress paralyzed for its duration.
But some House Republicans are now warning that they can afford few delays in what Trump himself said he hopes will be a very active first 100 days of his second term.
"To ensure President Trump can take office and hit the ground running on Jan. 20, we must be able to certify the 2024 election on Jan. 6. However, without a speaker, we cannot complete this process," Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital.
Tenney warned it could delay "the launch of his agenda."
Congress narrowly avoided a partial government shutdown hours after the Dec. 20 federal funding deadline, passing a bill to extend that deadline to March 14 while also extending several other key programs and replenishing the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund.
It angered GOP hardliners who opposed the addition of unrelated policy riders to what they believed would be a more straightforward government funding extension.
Johnson also tried and failed to heed Trump’s demand to pair action on the debt limit — which was suspended until January 2025 — with his government funding bill, after 38 House Republicans and all but two Democrats voted against it.
Fallon told Fox News Digital that it did not necessarily mean they would defy Trump if he backed Johnson again ahead of Jan. 3.
"Some of the people in the 38 — that was more of a principle thing — they really want to attack the debt," Fallon said. "They felt like just letting the debt ceiling latch for two years — they like to use that as a negotiating tool to say, 'Let's reduce the debt to GDP ratio.'"
But one of Johnson's biggest critics, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has already told reporters he is not voting for Johnson next year.
Two more, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., and Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, suggested they were no longer committed to backing Johnson over the weekend.
Meanwhile, there have been media reports that Trump is unhappy with how Johnson handled government funding and that his demand for the debt limit was not heeded.
Trump himself has not mentioned Johnson publicly since the Friday vote. But top Trump allies, like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have come to Johnson’s defense.
"He’s undoubtedly the most conservative Speaker of the House we’ve had in our lifetime," Cruz said on his podcast "The Verdict." "If Mike Johnson is toppled as Speaker of the House, we will end up with a speaker of the House who is much, much more liberal than Mike Johnson."
Others have also signaled that Trump’s influence will weigh heavily on what ultimately happens.
One House Republican granted anonymity to speak freely told Fox News Digital early last week that they considered opposing Johnson but said Trump would be the final deciding factor.
"I think, ultimately, it's going to be decided who President Trump likes, because I believe that will weigh in heavily on the decision-making of that, because, currently, President Trump works very well with Mike Johnson. They have a great relationship," Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told CNN’s "State of the Union."
When asked if he would support Johnson if Trump did, despite opposing his government funding plans, Burchett said "Possibly."
Johnson will head into the Jan. 3 speaker vote with just a slim GOP margin of three votes — and is virtually unlikely to get Democratic support.
Former President Bill Clinton was admitted to a hospital Monday afternoon for testing and observation after developing a fever, a spokesperson for Clinton said.
"President Clinton was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center this afternoon for testing and observation after developing a fever. He remains in good spirits and deeply appreciates the excellent care he is receiving," Angel Urena wrote.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
The White House is concerned that Iran’s weakened position will prompt the regime to pursue a nuclear weapon, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan is coordinating with the Trump team on this concern.
Iran has suffered a year of setbacks amid Israeli assaults on its proxy forces and a pull-out from Syria amid the takeover by Sunni Muslim forces, hostile to Iran's Shiite government.
Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defenses, have reduced Iran’s conventional military capabilities, Sullivan told CNN on Sunday.
"What I found over the last four years is that when good things happen, like Iran being weaker than it was before, there are frequently bad things lurking around the corner," Sullivan said.
"If you’re Iran right now and you’re looking around at the fact that your conventional capability has been reduced, your proxies have been reduced, your main client state has been eliminated, Assad has fallen, it’s no wonder there are voices saying: ‘Hey, maybe we need to go for a nuclear weapon right now,'" the outgoing national security official said.
"They’re saying it publicly, in fact. They’re saying: Maybe we have to revisit our nuclear doctrine. A doctrine that has said: We’ll have a civilian nuclear program and certain capabilities, but we’re not going for a nuke," he added. "It’s a risk we’re trying to be vigilant about now."
While Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, but it has expanded uranium enrichment since the last Trump administration to 60% purity, a short step away from the 90% needed for a nuclear weapon.
Last week the United Kingdom, Germany and France publicly called on Iran to "reverse its nuclear escalation," arguing there is no "credible civilian justification" to stockpile 60% uranium.
Sullivan said there was a risk Iran would abandon its promise not to build nuclear weapons.
"It's a risk we are trying to be vigilant about now. It's a risk that I'm personally briefing the incoming team on," Sullivan said, adding that he was consulting with Israel too.
Sullivan held out hope Trump could come in and use Iran’s weakened position to get them to agree to a new nuclear deal.
"Maybe he can come around this time, with the situation Iran finds itself in, and actually deliver a nuclear deal that curbs Iran's nuclear ambitions for the long term," he said.
Trump's team is currently weighing its options to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including preventive airstrikes.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is calling out the Biden administration for spending over a trillion taxpayer dollars on "government waste" this year, including on a bearded lady cabaret show, Arabic Sesame Street, and "girl-centered climate action."
The Kentucky senator released his annual "Festivus" report that details different ways in which the current administration spent taxpayer dollars throughout the year.
The 2024 Festivus Waste Report found that the Biden-Harris administration spent over $1 trillion this year, including giving a $10,000 grant to "Beards on Ice" — an ice skating drag show on climate change put on by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, a self-described "queer cabaret arts organization."
Additionally, the Agency for International Development (USAID) spent $20 million on a Sesame Street spin-off show in Iraq, titled "Ahlan Simsim," in an effort to promote "inclusion" and "mutual respect."
About $1.5 was spent experimenting how different species, such as young female kittens, respond to motion sickness.
According to the report, researchers would strap kittens to a table, where they are spun around in several directions and have holes drilled into their skulls to keep them in place — "and it’s all being done with your money," Paul writes in the report. "More than one and a half million dollars of it."
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reportedly gave New York University (NYU) over $400,000 to study whether lonely rats seek cocaine more than rats who are in positive environments, while the Department of the Interior (DOI) allocated $12 million to fund a pickleball complex in Las Vegas, according to the report.
"Now, did the government really need to spend nearly half a million dollars to verify that social isolation and starvation may lead to increased drug usage? One thing is for sure, we must end this rat-wheel of waste!" Paul wrote in the report.
The State Department spent $3 million on "Girl-Centered Climate Action" in Brazil, a program reportedly designed to "empower young women to become climate leaders by integrating equity and inclusivity into environmental activism," the report writes, citing the grant details.
"As the average American taxpayers struggle to pay rent, their hard-earned dollars are ironically funneled into more real estate," the report read, referring to the Biden struggles spending $10B on maintaining and furnishing buildings that were almost entirely empty.
The Department of Energy (DOE) gave automakers $15.5 billion to push the industry into the electric vehicle (EV) sector, while another $388,000 was given to "Magic in the United States," a podcast discussing how magical beliefs and practices have evolved in the U.S.
The senator also mentioned the Biden administration giving $2.1 million to fund Paraguay's border: "Nothing says "America First" like securing someone else’s border," Paul wrote.
EXCLUSIVE: Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is charging that overseas conflicts escalated under the Biden administration.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken testified before the committee in December after a report on the administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan, where he was pressed to "take responsibility" for the widespread conflicts that erupted across the globe following the deadly event.
Speaking with Fox News Digital on Monday, Lawler delved into the report that claimed the Biden administration "has left the world in a worse off place than it inherited it" — beginning with the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"The report on the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is his legacy and that of the Biden administration, because in my estimation, it's set about a series of events around the globe that have left us in the most precarious place since World War Two, starting with that disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of 13 U.S. service members," Lawler told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
The congressman detailed several tragic events under the Biden administration that followed the Afghanistan withdrawal, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, threats in the Indo-Pacific from China, and the "illicit" oil trade between China and Iran that Lawler says is "funding terrorism."
"This administration has left the world in a worse off place than it inherited it. And that, in my view, is the legacy of the Biden-Harris administration and that of Secretary Blinken," the New York Republican said.
Lawler added that while national security has appeared in the most "precarious" position since WW2, foreign policy will soon look different under the incoming Trump administration.
"I think President Trump obviously had four years in which there was greater peace and prosperity around the globe. And the difference between Biden and Trump is that Biden is unable to stop conflicts. Trump is willing to act," Lawler told Fox. "When you are strong, when your adversaries acknowledge and understand that you are willing to act and strike. They think twice about it."
Lawler also said that he thinks "President Trump will be a very strong leader when it comes to foreign policy, when it comes to bringing these conflicts to an end."
Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., will serve as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee next Congress, where Lawler says there will be "a lot of the focus is going to be on reauthorizing the State Department operations," such as how the agency programs operate and how its funds are used.
"I think, obviously, with President Trump coming in, the foreign policy of the United States is going to change," Lawler said of the incoming administration. "It is going to be much stronger, much more unforgiving on our adversaries. And certainly seek to bring these conflicts to an end."
