Donald Trump has threatened “all hell to pay” if the remaining hostages in Gaza are not released by Hamas before his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
The president-elect posted on Truth Social: “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”
Trump dined with Sara Netanyahu, wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend.
In his latest nomination, the president-elect has named billionaire donor Warren Stephens as his choice for US ambassador to the UK.
Meanwhile, Trump suggested he will free the January 6 Capitol rioters as he slammed President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden as a “miscarriage of Justice.”
On Sunday, Biden announced he had pardoned his son following his federal gun conviction, saying Hunter had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” by the Justice Department.
Biden previously insisted he would not pardon his son. The White House has defended his decision.
Biden’s decision has divided critics. Colorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis said he was “disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country” while Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks said Hunter “would not ever be prosecuted for the gun crime but for his last name.”
Will Trump use Kash Patel to attack critics and First Amendment?
The nomination of Kash Patel to serve as America’s next FBI director is a warning shot across the bow for journalists — as Donald Trump’s threats to attack the First Amendement intensifies.
Patel, a longtime Trump loyalist, served in the previous administration in a political appointment at the Pentagon. Now, he’ll be in charge of the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, pending approval by the Senate.
John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.
Oliver O’Connell3 December 2024 03:30
DACA immigrants worry their protection from deportation won’t last under Trump
Reyna Montoya was 10 when she and her family fled violence in Tijuana and illegally immigrated to the U.S. Growing up in Arizona, she worried even a minor traffic violation could lead to her deportation.
She didn’t feel relief until 11 years later in 2012, when she received a letter confirming she had been accepted to a new program for immigrants who came to the country illegally as children.
“All of the sudden, all these possibilities opened up,” Montoya said, fighting back tears. The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program granted her and hundreds of thousands of others two-year, renewable permits to live and work in the U.S. legally.
But as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, after an unsuccessful bid to end DACA in his first term, the roughly 535,000 current recipients are bracing yet again for a whirlwind of uncertainty.
Oliver O’Connell3 December 2024 02:30
Watch: Kash Patel says he wants to turn FBI HQ into ‘museum of deep state’
Trump’s FBI pick says he wants to make HQ ‘museum of deep state’
Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, said he wants to make its headquarters a “museum of the deep state” on his first day. In resurfaced footage from September, the MAGA loyalist told The Shawn Ryan Show he would shut down the Hoover Building and send the headquarters’ 7,000 employees “across America to chase down criminals” instead. For Patel to steer the agency, current FBI Director Christopher Wray would need to resign or be fired. Trump appointed him in 2017 and he has three years left in his 10-year term.
Oliver O’Connell3 December 2024 01:30
Can Trump pardon himself now he has won the presidency again?
Gustaf Kilander takes a look at whether Trump can make history with another presidential first…
Oliver O’Connell3 December 2024 00:30
ANALYSIS: I’m not surprised at all that Biden pardoned Hunter. It fits a disappointing pattern
Oliver O’Connell2 December 2024 23:30
RFK Jr shares bizarre shirtless workout video joking he’s training for his confirmation hearing
The video, posted Sunday on X, captures a ripped RFK Jr pulling himself up before performing a flip over an exercise machine to the beat of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” The 70-year-old completes the pull-up-rollover without knocking into another shirtless man, in sweatpants and a hat, doing a headstand on the machine above him.
Kelly Rissman has the story.
Oliver O’Connell2 December 2024 23:00
Hunter Biden responds to special counsel asking judge not to dismiss gun case
Hunter Biden’s response to special counsel David Weiss, who earlier today pushed back on “baseless” claims that Hunter’s prosecution was politically motivated and urged a judge not to dismiss the gun case:
The Special Counsel repeats the very argument that the government made in Bannon, that the Court should administratively terminate the case, rather than dismiss the Indictment. But the Special Counsel acknowledges that the Bannon court rejected that argument and dismissed the indictment as to him. This Court should reject that same argument and dismiss the Indictment as well. As in Bannon, the pardon here comes before sentencing and before any judgment in the case based on the Indictment (as opposed to pardons being issued post judgment, often years later). The appropriate course, in this procedural context, is to dismiss the Indictment.
The Special Counsel’s argument in opposing the dismissal of the Indictment rests on the non sequitur that the pardon “does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away as if it never occurred.” … The fact that Mr. Biden has been indicted will remain true even with a dismissal of the Indictment, just as it would remain true even if Mr. Biden had been acquitted at trial. It is not wiped away as if it never occurred. Neither a dismissal nor an acquittal eliminates the fact of indictment; they merely reflect that an indictment has been resolved. The pardon here before sentencing prevents this case from running its course based on the Indictment that was filed. The Court should reflect that by dismissing the Indictment and indicating—accurately—that is due to the pardon.
Oliver O’Connell2 December 2024 22:37
