House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) disagreed on Sunday with criticism of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that claimed she was undercutting his leadership.
An anonymous member of the Congressional Black Caucus told Axios that Pelosi wasn't being respectful of Jeffries, who is also Black.
Another anonymous senior Democrat said, "She needs to take a seat."
Neither source was specific about what Pelosi was doing to undercut Jeffries.
Jeffries disagreed with the critics, at least publicly.
He said on "Meet the Press": “I think Speaker Emerita Pelosi has been incredibly respectful of the entire leadership team."
“It’s an honor to stand on the shoulders of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an incredibly consequential public servant in the history of America, and to continue to work closely with Speaker Pelosi and, of course, Jim Clyburn and Steny Hoyer,” Jeffries said.
Pelosi is widely believed to have pushed President Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential race by saying she thought he needed to step aside.
She then criticized him for not doing it sooner and complained about the lack of a competitive primary.
Jeffries tried to stay out of the controversy.
“I think that President Biden will go down in history as one of the most consequential presidents of all time. And I was thankful for all of the work that we were able to do together,” Jeffries said.
“It was a selfless decision to pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. I think she ran with it and did the best job that she could under incredibly challenging circumstances in a little over 100 days. She came close, but we fell short," he said. “And we’ll have to figure out, do an after-action analysis."
It's a valiant effort to spin what actually happened: Harris never had what it takes to get elected president.
She was clearly made vice-president because she was a black woman, not because she was most qualified. Democrats' wokeness cost them the presidency, and Jeffries and Pelosi would both do well to face that fact before the next election.
There's no doubt that Barron Trump, 18, President-elect Donald Trump's youngest child, is nothing short of a rockstar level player in the Trump family.
Given reports of his major influence his father's presidential campaign, which ended up a total and complete success, it's no wonder Trump fans want to know more about the youngest Trump sibling, as his life has been clouded in a bit of mystery.
According to Sky News, a rare video clip of Barron Trump when he was younger has surfaced online, and it's garnering a lot of attention for what's in it.
The video was cut from a clip of a "Larry King Live" special that aired in 2010. At the time, Barron Trump was only four years old.
The video footage shows a four-year-old Barron Trump, speaking with his parents while getting ready for school in their home in the iconic Trump Tower in New York City.
But it's how Barron Trump was speaking in the clip that garnered the response, as he can be heard talking in a thick Slovenian accent, likely due to his mother, Melania Trump, a Slovenian immigrant, being his primary caregiver.
Baron spoke 3 languages as a little kid and had an accent. pic.twitter.com/BxtzTn8PI2
— Rare 🇺🇸 (@RareImagery) November 15, 2024
Sky News noted:
In the rare footage, Barron asks his mother, “I have to go to school now?”
Melania responds, in a near identical accent, “Yes, first you will have lunch and then you’ll go to school”.
Barron’s businessman father, now president-elect of the United States, assures his son, “You can do reading, writing and arithmetic”.
Those stricken with Trump Derangement Syndrome ridiculed Barron and his family in the footage, but Trump fans were more than impressed, as it was reported Barron, at a young age, spoke multiple languages like his mother.
Interest in Barron Trump has skyrocketed in recent weeks, especially after it was revealed that his insight regarding popular podcasts that he encouraged his father to do are at least partly responsible for Trump's incredible victory earlier this month.
Users across social media weighed in on the resurfaced video footage of a young Barron Trump.
"I like how you can tell he's a real mama's boy because his accent is Melania’s. I wonder when it changed," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "I think it's lovely and says a lot about Melania. Many women in her position would hire nannies, but him speaking just like mom implies a close relationship."
Clearly, Melania Trump had a major influence on her son, and was widely praised for being so active in his life while others in her position might have just pushed their child off on nannies.
Legendary music star Dolly Parton lost a dear member of her family and her sister, Stella Parton, announced the sad news in a social media post over the weekend.
According to the New York Post, Dolly Parton's brother, David Wilburn Parton, has died. He was 82.
Stella Parton announced the tragic news in an X post, revealing that he passed away "peacefully," and said he died in the early morning hours.
No cause of death for David Parton has been revealed at the time of publication.
Stella Parton paid tribute to her brother, praising him for his kindness and pointing out his nickname of "sweet David" due to his kind demeanor.
My brother David passed away peacefully this morning. It’s never easy to say goodbye to a loved one but he got his angel wings and is now at peace," Stella Parton wrote.
She added, "Thank you for all your kind thoughts to my family as we continue to grieve the loss of our much loved and cherished oldest brother David."
My brother David passed away peacefully this morning. It’s never easy to say goodbye to a loved one but he got his angel wings and is now at peace.
— Stella Parton (@StellaParton) November 15, 2024
The Post noted:
David was a retired bridge builder superintendent for Simpson Construction. He worked on the bridges in the Kingsport, Johnson City, and Knoxville areas.
His obituary confirmed that he passed away at his White Pine, Tennessee home.
It added, "The family would like to extend special thanks to Dr. David McNabney, Smoky Mountain Home Health & Hospice, his Cornerstone caregiver, Aubrie Smith & caregiver, Robin Schmidt."
Many of Dolly Parton's fans paid their respects via social media responses to the saddening news.
"Holding you and all your family in the light. I recently lost my oldest sister and she too passed peacefully and I was so grateful; she lived long and full life," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Stella I’m so very sorry for you and all your family including Dolly. My husband passed away at the age of 46 in his sleep from a widow makers heart attack not to long ago. I know it’s extremely hard for all of you.I’m sure he will be looking down on you all and smiling. Stay strong we’re thinking about you and sending our prayers."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A worker has won his fight with a union over its insistence on withholding "assessments" from his paycheck, claiming that the Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME applied only to "dues."
The Liberty Justice Center is the organization that announced the result for plumber Nicolo Giangrasso.
It reported the UA Local 9 in the region has agreed to settle, prompting the legal action in court to be dropped.
Liberty Justice Center had charged that it does not matter whether the union calls money "dues" or "assessments," it still has no authority to take it under Supreme Court precedent.
"In its landmark 2018 decision Janus v. AFSCME, the U.S. Supreme Court found that public employees have a First Amendment right to decide whether to join or financially support a union. The court also held that unless workers give their 'affirmative consent' to waive that right, a union cannot legally withhold any union dues or other fees from their paychecks," the legal team explained.
At that time, Giangrasso, a New Jersey plumber employed by the Hamilton Township School District, resigned his union membership and requested the union stop deducting dues from his paychecks.
However, the legal team noted, the union simply refused, making the claim the high court impacted only "dues" and not its "assessments."
A federal lawsuit followed shortly and the Liberty Justice Center explained to the court it doesn't matter what the union calls the money it takes, it's not allowed to do that.
It's because the Supreme Court's opinion specifically cited 'any other form of payment."
The result was the union agreed to settle the fight.
"It should not have taken a lawsuit for the union to honor Mr. Giangrasso's First Amendment rights," said Jeffrey Schwab, lawyer at the Liberty Justice Center. "But we are proud to have taken a stand for his constitutional rights and will continue to challenge union policies that violate workers' rights across the country."
Details of the settlement were not immediately released.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A former government mouthpiece, now using the bully pulpit of a talk show on the leftist MSNBC, says America's laws need to be changed so that censoring what Americans read, and learn, online is easier.
This is from Jen Psaki, who now talks on MSNBC.
She formerly was the White House press secretary for Joe Biden, a deputy press secretary for Barack Obama, a spokeswoman for the Department of State, and White House communications director.
A video posted by Libs of TikTok, a team that provides "News you can't see anywhere else," reveals her comments.
One social media commenter reacted to her agenda with, "She's pushing for a law that would force everyone to get their information exclusively from the news. I stopped watching mainstream media back in 2012, and I've become ten times more informed than she is about what's really happening in the world as I'm not stuck with morons."
Psaki complains, "One of the things that's changed even since I got involved in politics is, uhm, just the rise in the percentage of people who get their information off of platforms that have no fact-checking mechanism. And no accountability for having disinformation spread. Right, uhm, as you know well, when I, when I got started in Democratic politics, you know, most of it was like local TV ads, that was what it was about. Obviously national TV, local print. Those local TV is held to a higher standard of accountability than social media platforms in terms of having accurate information on their platform. That is crazy."
She said, "Uhm. And so it is how to the change. How is it how are people held to account. Laws have to change."
Over recent years, Democrats and other leftists repeatedly have insisted on "fact-checking" and truthfulness in online comments and reporting. However, the version of the truth that they endorse largely is nothing more than their opinion, and they've condemned as disinformation, misinformation and even malinformation as anything with which they disagree.
Libs of TikTok added, "She also claims there's no fact checking mechanism. False. Community Notes isn't perfect but it does a far better job than the MSM 'fact checkers.'"
Community notes is a social media platform feature that allows readers actually to correct misstatements online. And legacy media "fact-checkers" have established a reputation for attacking every statement from someone like President-elect Donald Trump, while allowing leftists like Kamala Harris to escape without comment when they blatantly lie.
Already sitting in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Sean “Diddy” Combs now stands accused of additional conduct that prosecutors say should derail his latest attempt to secure bail.
The latest allegations against Combs came in a Friday filing made by federal prosecutors who stated that the music mogul has been working to contact potential witnesses and sway public sentiment ahead of trial, as Breitbart reports.
As ABC News reports, just last week, Combs made yet another to secure pre-trial release, offering what was described as a “far more robust” bail package.
In his filing, Combs stated that the federal case mounted against him is “thin” and suggested that the terms of his latest offer are more than sufficient to ensure his appearance at all future proceedings.
Combs, through his attorneys, has offered to remain subject to home detention supervised by 24-hour security monitoring.
His legal team also asserted that Combs would have “near-total restrictions” on his ability to make contact with anyone other than his own lawyers.
The latest bid for pre-trial freedom comes after the presiding judge in his case already denied the rapper, producer, and entrepreneur's release on bail due to findings that he remained a danger to the community and was likely to make attempts to obstruct justice and intimidate potential witnesses against him.
Despite what Combs' team says is a beefed-up bail proposal, prosecutors in the case continue to stand in staunch opposition to his potential release.
In a court filing last week, the government revealed that a review of jailhouse phone calls made by Combs indicated that he has requested that family members reach out to possible victims and witnesses.
Prosecutors also suggested that Combs has asked relatives to develop “narratives” and marketing ploys that might succeed in persuading public opinion in his favor.
The filing stated, “The defendant has shown repeatedly -- even while in custody -- that he will flagrantly and repeatedly flout rules in order to improperly impact the outcome of his case. The defendant has shown, in other words, that he cannot be trusted to abide by rules or conditions.”
A hearing on Combs' proposed $50 million bail package is scheduled to take place next week.
It was back in September that Combs was indicted on charges that include racketeering, sex trafficking by force, as well as facilitating transportation for the purposes of prostitution, as ABC noted, with counts relating to narcotics offenses, arson, bribery, kidnapping, and more also in the mix.
The government's indictment claims that Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct, and though the disgraced music industry phenom has pleaded not guilty, it will be up to a jury to render a verdict when the trial -- now scheduled for May -- finally gets underway.
Vice President Kamala Harris might have had the upper hand with rubbing elbows with celebrities and having them campaign for her, which ultimately failed. But President-elect Donald Trump has popular friends in the business, too.
According to JustTheNews, Sylvester Stallone recently heaped praise on Trump, calling him the "second George Washington."
The moment happened as Stallone introduced the president-elect during an America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Stallone also invoked part of a famous speech he made in his iconic "Rocky" movies as he introduced Trump, who he also described as "mythical."
Stallone had the crowd at the gala hyped to the maximum degree. The New York Post described how he opened for Trump:
The 78-year-old Stallone described the opening scene of the first film where the camera pans down from a mural of Jesus inside an old church converted into a boxing gym as Rocky Balboa gets punched by his opponent, with the word “Resurrection AC Club” shown in the background.
"At that moment, he was a chosen person and that’s how I began the journey,” Stallone told the gala audience. "Something’s gonna happen, this man is gonna go through a metamorphosis and change lives."
"Just like President Trump," Stallone added, invoking an eruption of cheers from the attendees.
JUST IN: Sylvester Stallone introduces Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, says Trump is like the “second George Washington.”
“We are in the presence of a really mythical character. I love mythology.”
“This individual does not exist on this planet. Nobody in the world could have pulled… pic.twitter.com/3SZn7bOjsM
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 15, 2024
Stallone continued to praise Trump, saying he was in "awe" of what Trump has managed to accomplish.
"This individual does not exist on this planet. Nobody could’ve pulled off what he pulled off, so I’m in awe," Stallone said.
Stallone wasn't done there, going on to describe Trump in one of the most honorable ways possible.
"When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world. ‘Cause without him, you could imagine what the world would look like," the award-winning actor said.
He added, "Guess what? We got the second George Washington."
Stallone then congratulated Trump on his victory and welcome him to the stage.
During President Donald Trump's first stint in the White House, he made several controversial moves that set the Democrats on fire, including withdrawing from the Paris Agreement climate pact.
Not surprisingly, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris entered the United States back into the pact after the 2020 election, but according to reports, Trump is ready to pull us out of it once again.
In addition to a long list of amazing Day One actions Trump and his cabinet will take, his transition team is already preparing the appropriate executive orders to withdraw the United States from the pact.
Trump's main point of contention with the Paris Agreement is that it allows some countries to dictate their emissions standards while forcing much higher standards on some larger countries, like the United States.
Once again undoing what the Democrats initiated, Trump's withdrawing the USA from the Paris Agreement will be one of the first major steps to securing energy independence for America, as we had under his first term.
WINNING. President Trump has repeatedly stated that ‘Climate Change’ is one of the ‘Greatest Hoaxes of our time’ and will be withdrawing from the money-laundering SCAM of the Paris Climate Agreement. pic.twitter.com/2ZeuIpsb2i
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) November 9, 2024
The Populist Times noted:
Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement will allow the President to authorize drilling and mining on western lands to reinstate the United States’ global energy leadership.
Trump, during his campaign, promised to slash energy prices by up to 50% in his first year in office. That, combined with reversing the Inflation Reduction Act, will allow American energy companies to operate at a much fuller capacity, therefore providing better, cheaper energy to American consumers.
Also helping boost Trump's ambitious energy initiatives is the fact that he's appointing Rep. Lee Zeldin as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Zeldin is a strong proponent of American energy and deregulation to make it happen.
The outlet added:
The withdrawal will also allow Trump to redraw the boundaries of federally reserved lands in southern Utah which were created during the Obama administration.
The expansion of usable/drillable land will affect the Bears Ears National Monument which sits on 1.36 million acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante which rests on 1.87 million acres of land.
Users across social media reacted to the news of Trump's plans to withdraw from the pact, with many pointing out that they believe it's nothing more than a giant scam in the first place.
"Its the biggest scam, all the propaganda to make others rich by implementing ridiculous regulations on our farms and food and transportation," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Net Zero is the biggest scam in history and it's purpose is to destroy Western Civilization. It is close to succeeding, especially in Europe. The whole Climate scam needs to be ended."
It's beyond exciting to see what changes Trump will bring to Americans under his second term. We're all waiting for cheaper gas and energy, and it looks like he's working hard on making that happen.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
With renewed vigor and the 2024 election behind him, President-elect Donald Trump is set to take on the Deep State, and one of his proposals is strongly resonating with service members and veterans alike.
In a video shared on X on Nov. 8, Trump can be seen offering a 10-step "plan to dismantle the Deep State." At the 1:46 mark, making his sixth point, he states: "We will make every inspector general's office independent and physically separated from the departments they oversee, so they do not become the protectors of the Deep State."
For many former and current members of the U.S. military, Trump's point powerfully resonates and is a welcome departure from the past. Lt. Col. Ryan Sweazey (USAF-Ret.), a former F-16 fighter pilot and founder of a Walk the Talk Foundation (WTTF), spoke to WorldNetDaily about Trump's new proposal. Having once served as inspector general in the Air Force and thus possessing a clear, first-hand understanding of exactly how government can fail in oversight, Sweazey has been advocating for an independent Office of the Inspector General outside of the Department of Defense for quite some time.
In November 2023, he launched a petition, calling upon others to support revamping the current Department of Defense Inspector General (DODIG) system that "consistently fails in its role to protect military members from reprisal and fails to impartially investigate complaint allegations which are brought forward at high risk by members of the DOD." To date, over 2,800 have signed the petition.
In June 2024, Sweazey's Walk the Talk Foundation offered a proposal to various members of Congress to form an independent Inspector General entity outside Defense Department influence. Pointing out the failures of the current DODIG system and those involved in it, the report was "referred to as the Lapdog Report," a reference to the widespread view that the current inspector general system plays the role of lapdog to the military institution it's supposedly investigating.
Most recently, Sweazey and his team have drafted an executive order that could be enacted by Trump when his new administration starts in January. He describes the order as a "formalized reiteration of what [the Walk the Talk Foundation] has been pitching all along, in both the petition drive and the 'lapdog report' on the failure of the IG system." WTTF's proposed order not only outlines the problems within the Department of Defense Inspector General system, but also offers remedies for them.
For example, Section 4 reveals, "The ultimate aim of this Order is to establish an independent entity through which members of the Department of Defense can attain recourse in a fair and timely manner free from the threat of retribution and/or reprisal."
According to Sweazey, "That aim is just as the president said in his video: The inspector general, for so long, has been a protectorate of the institution and that's got to stop." In order for the current corrupt system to come to an end, he agrees with Trump that "you've got to separate them from the organizations they allegedly oversee, and inspect, and investigate."
The former fighter pilot is hopeful, having been reassured by "friends who are in the inner circle" that a draft of the executive order has indeed made it to the Trump administration. "For too long," he argues, "the system has been wrought with this seething conflict of interest, in which your 'independent' investigative entity is subordinate to the commander/boss of the organization they supposedly oversee."
But as a hopeful Sweazey told WND, "With the president's proposal to remove that conflict of interest, you're going to have an investigative entity that now is able to carry out its duty and uphold its loyalty to the truth."
President-elect Donald Trump has faced furious backlash for wanting to fill his Cabinet through recess appointments, but he would not be the first president to use the controversial method. In fact, the precedent was set by none other than Barack Obama.
President Obama made "routine" use of recess appointments, Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow told America First with Sebastian Gorka.
Normally, the president nominates officials and the Senate votes to confirm.
With recess appointments, the president can unilaterally appoint officials without input from Congress.
The Constitution allows the president to fill all vacancies that "may happen during the Recess." While the recess appointments power was meant to ensure the smooth functioning of government, it has been used by presidents in recent years to overcome opposition to political appointees.
Some of Trump's Cabinet picks, such as Matt Gaetz and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have faced furious pushback in Washington. But Trump could get his polarizing nominees appointed "because of the idea of a recess appointment, which, until Barack Obama, was rarely used," Marlow said.
"But Obama used it for routine appointments that weren’t going to get through the Senate. So, now, the precedent’s there and Trump can do this.”
Trump's insistence on using recess appointments has sparked backlash, with critics accusing him of an unconstitutional power grab - but he is not the first president to use them.
According to the Congressional Research service, President Clinton made 139 recess appointments, George W. Bush made 171, and Barack Obama made 32.
Trump did not make recess appointments during his first term.
The first Supreme Court ruling on recess appointments came in 2014, when the court unanimously rebuked Obama for filling the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was holding "pro-forma" sessions, meaning the Seante was not actually in recess.
“For purposes of the Recess Appointments Clause, the Senate is in session when it says that it is, provided that, under its own rules, it retains the capacity to transact Senate business,” the court ruled at the time.
The newly elected Senate Republican leader, John Thune (Sd.), has said recess appointments are "on the table" after Trump demanded that all leadership candidates agree to use them.
"We must act quickly and decisively to get the president’s nominees in place as soon as possible, & all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments. We cannot let Schumer and Senate Dems block the will of the American people," Thune said.