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US Monthly Headline News December 2023 - Page 1
Story by Brad Reed

Georgia conservative Erick Erickson is decidedly not pleased that many supporters of former President Donald Trump are spreading fake news about Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reopening a probe into 17,000 "invalid" votes cast during the 2020 election.

Writing on Twitter, Erickson outlined why several pro-Trump influencers are continuing to push "a blatant lie" about the 2020 election despite the fact that Kemp's own office has come out and said it is not opening any new investigations.

Although Erickson thinks that some of the influencers' motivation is simply keeping their audience engaged, he also believes there are far darker and more sinister motives just below the surface.

"Doing all this undermines trust in the system," writes Erickson, who also argued that it was no coincidence that the new conspiracy theory was promoted right after Rudy Giuliani got hit with a massive $148 million defamation verdict. "By undermining the government and trust in the system, they think they can capture that trust."
Story by Jordan Green, Raw Story

A 24-year-old man who is the son of a Florida judge purchased a T-shirt supporting a Greek neo-Nazi political party, according to a Raw Story analysis of data leaked from an online store that distributes racist music.

Stephen Whyte of Bradenton, Fla., confirmed to Raw Story that he purchased a Golden Dawn shirt from the online store Midgård in October 2020. The purchase was made only weeks after a Greek court convicted high-ranking members of the neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, of attempted murder and other crimes.

Stephen Whyte’s father, Matt Whyte, is a circuit court judge in Manatee County, on Florida’s west coast south of Tampa. The leaked customer registry indicates that Stephen Whyte used his parents’ home address to order the T-shirt. “This is his son. I ordered the T-shirt in 2020,” Stephen Whyte confirmed in a phone text message to Raw Story.
Story by Sean O'Driscoll

The two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation case against Rudy Giuliani will likely be called as witnesses in Donald Trump's election fraud case, a law professor has said. The prosecutors in Trump's election fraud case signaled on December 5 that they intended to introduce evidence about election workers Ruby Freeman and Sheye Moss.

"Make no mistake. This huge verdict for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss is a sign of how things will go for Trump before a jury—when these two American heroes are likely to be prosecution witnesses for Jack Smith and the Department of Justice," Ryan Goodman wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Goodman is a former special counsel at the Department of Defense and is now a New York University law professor.
Story by Stephanie Kaloi

Roseanne Barr spoke at the right-wing Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday as part of their annual AmericaFest event. She appeared to stun the conservative crowd into silence multiple time as she delivered a speech about "these horrible Communists… Stalinists, Communists, with a huge helping of Nazi fascists thrown in" who want to "replace every Christian democracy on Earth now."

The comedian appeared wobbly as she took the stage and kicked things off. She said, "If we don't stop these horrible Communists -- do you hear me, I'm asking you to hear me, Stalinists, Communists, with a huge helping of Nazi fascists thrown in, plus one caliphate! To replace every Christian democracy on Earth now! Occupy! Do you know that?!"

"I just want the truth," she continued. "We deserve to hear the truth. That's what we want! We want the truth! We don't care which party is wrong, we know they're both nothing but crap! They're both on the take! They're both stealing us blind! We just want the truth about everything we fought and died and suffered to protect!"
By Katelyn Polantz, Devan Cole, Holmes Lybrand and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN

CNN — Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay nearly $150 million in damages to former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whom he defamed following the 2020 presidential election. But as with all major jury awards, the question is whether Freeman and Moss will see any of that money.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor and onetime attorney to former President Donald Trump, has vowed to appeal the jury’s verdict. During the trial, he and his attorneys repeatedly said that he already doesn’t have funds to cover his various debts, but it’s unclear how much the former New York mayor actually has.
Story by Adam Rawnsley

Donald Trump's plans to give himself sweeping powers on "day one" of a new administration include sending vast numbers of U.S. troops - potentially "hundreds of thousands" - to close the southern border and to help build a new network of immigrant detention camps, three people familiar with the situation tell Rolling Stone.  

Trump and some of his lieutenants have repeatedly stated that any second administration must treat migrant crossings as a "war" on American soil. During Trump's first term, officials and attorneys had thwarted similar plans for a military police force at the border due to legal fears, according to former top officials such as Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

Now, the former president is determined to surround himself with aides and MAGA-friendly lawyers who can make such draconian policies "perfectly legal" in a potential second term, two sources close to Trump say. While a second Trump administration is far from certain, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union are nonetheless preparing for a possible blitz of orders involving military authorities should he win, lawyers and activists say.
Story by Colby Hall

Highly sensitive and classified material regarding Russian election interference in 2016 has mysteriously disappeared, according to a CNN report that seems straight out of a spy novel. Further, former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson is almost certain that former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows took the binder home with him, per her testimony to the House Select Committee on January 6th.

CNN reports:
A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Its disappearance, which has not been previously reported, was so concerning that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing materials and the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the sources said. In the two-plus years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence does not appear to have been found.
By Devan Cole, Holmes Lybrand and Katelyn Polantz, CNN

CNN — Rudy Giuliani didn’t see two former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss as “human beings” when he spread conspiracy theories about them after the 2020 election, their attorney told a Washington, DC, jury Thursday during closing arguments in the defamation damages trial.

“He thought they were ordinary and expendable. He didn’t see them as human beings,” the attorney, Mike Gottlieb, told the eight-person jury.

“It’s dangerous for them to be Ruby Freeman or Shaye Moss because of Giuliani and his co-conspirators,” Gottlieb said.
Is that legal for Trump’s defense fund has spent more on Mar-a-Lago than on legal services?

Story by Alex Henderson

In July 2023, allies of Donald Trump established the Patriot Legal Defense Fund to help the former president and 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner pay down his legal bills. Trump was already facing two criminal indictments at the time, and that number increased to four the following month.

According to a report by the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger published on December 12, however, the Patriot Legal Defense Fund "appears to have placed its spending priorities in a strange place: Mar-a-Lago."

"New tax filings show Trump's legal defense fund raising about $1.6 million over the last six months and spending less than $30,000," Sollenberger explains. "But more notable than how little the legal defense group has spent is what they didn't spend it on — namely, legal services — as well as what they paid for: a party at Mar-a-Lago…. While the fund can accept unlimited donations from both individuals and corporations, its first periodic financial report, submitted to the Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday, indicates a phlegmatic start, with only about $1.6 million in receipts."
ABC News

The resolution, approved 221-212 in a party-line vote, directs three House committees to continue their investigations, which have yet to yield any hard evidence to support Republicans' claims that Biden was directly involved and benefited from his son and brother's foreign business dealings.

Republicans have called Wednesday's vote -- which one Democrat skipped -- a necessary step to fortify the inquiry's legal standing and combat what they said was obstruction from the Biden administration.

The White House has challenged some congressional requests, in part asserting the "Constitution requires that the full House authorize an impeachment inquiry before a committee may utilize compulsory process pursuant to the impeachment power."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden on Wednesday defied a congressional subpoena to appear privately for a deposition before Republican investigators who have been digging into his business dealings. He insisted he would only testify in public.

The Democratic president’s son slammed the GOP-issued subpoena for the closed-door testimony, arguing that information from those interviews can be selectively leaked and manipulated.

“Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say,” Biden said outside the Capitol in a rare public statement. “What are they afraid of? I am here.”

What Mike Johnson said impeachment vs what Mike Johnson impeachment.
Why are some Republicans helping Putin against Ukraine, prompting Russian propaganda and supporting people who committed insurrection and sedition?


State media shows Russia is celebrating as lawmakers remain deadlocked over aid to Ukraine. CNN’s Erin Burnett reports.
Story by Jacob Miller

The case against former President Donald Trump, who is accused of subverting the 2020 election results and inciting the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, is heating up as new court documents reveal more details of his alleged actions.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, submitted new evidence that claims Trump specifically “sent” his supporters to the Capitol to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Smith wrote in his documents that “Evidence of the defendant’s post-conspiracy embrace of particularly violent and notorious rioters is admissible to establish the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6—that he sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification.”
Some Republicans lie like the rest of breath

Story by Peter Wade

Senator J.D. Vance denied that Republicans are trying to restrict access to birth control, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The senator claimed he doesn't know "any Republican, at least not a Republican with a brain, that's trying to take those rights away from people."

The topic came up during Vance's appearance Sunday on CNN's State of the Union after host Jake Tapper asked about the Texas Supreme Court blocking a woman from obtaining an abortion even though her fetus has a fatal genetic condition. Vance said that the GOP has to "accept that people do not want blanket abortion bans. They just don't." He added that there should be exceptions "for the life of the mother, for rape, and so forth."

Vance did not say, however, whether the current situation in Texas would merit an exception. "I want to protect as many unborn babies as possible. I also think we have to win the trust back of the American people. And one of the ways to do that is to be the truly pro-family party. I think we are. We have got to carry that message forward and actually enact some public policy to that effect."
Story by By Jason Beeferman

NEW YORK — The chairman of an Austrian political party founded by ex-Nazis, the conservative Twitter star behind the anti-trans Bud Light backlash and former President Donald Trump all walked into a bar.

Seriously.

On Saturday night in Manhattan, amid butler-delivered bellinis, sequined ball gowns and a five-course French service meal, characters from all corners of the Republican Party’s MAGA faction gathered for “a night of dinner, drinking, and love of country.”

Donald Trump, the club’s 111th Annual Gala Keynote speaker, delivered.

“We want to liberate America because we’re in a country that's in a lot of pain right now, a lot of hurt,” Trump told the crowd, during his 80-minute long speech. “This campaign is on a righteous crusade to rescue our nation from a very corrupt political class.”

Story by David McAfee

Donald Trump is not in the same "league" as Hitler, yet the former president is using the infamous dictator's playbook, a political science expert said. Barbara Walter, a political science professor at the University of California at San Diego, appeared on MSBC's Ayman, where she was asked about the former president's comments suggesting he wants to be a dictator "only on day one."

"This is classic wannabe dictator behavior. We see this again and again and again. People who want power, especially people who thrive on it and love the attention -- they often advertise what their intentions are," Walter said. "They don't sneak around. But Trump's entire playbook has been to identify weakness, attack weakness. And he has been quite successful in doing that. "
Why are some Republicans helping Putin against Ukraine, prompting Russian propaganda and supporting people who committed insurrection and sedition?

Story by Oleksandra Zimko

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's allies will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to seek an end to U.S. military support for Ukraine, reveals The Guardian.

Undersecretary of State in the Prime Minister's Office of the Political Director Marton Ugrosdy and leading pro-Orban academic Attila Demko, as well as staff from the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, DC, will begin a two-day event organized by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation on Monday, December 11.

The first day of the summit will feature panel discussions on the war in Ukraine, as well as topics such as the transatlantic culture wars. According to a Republican source, some of the participants, including Republican members of Congress, have been invited to participate in closed-door talks the following day.

The meeting will take place against the backdrop of intense debate in Washington over Ukraine's future. Last week, the White House warned that without congressional action, money to buy weapons and equipment for Kyiv would run out by the end of the year. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans blocked an emergency spending bill to fund the war in Ukraine.
By Ashley Killough, Ed Lavandera, Alaa Elassar and Taylor Romine, CNN

CNN - The Texas Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a pregnant woman from obtaining an emergency abortion in a ruling issued late Friday. The court froze a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed Kate Cox, who sued the state seeking a court-ordered abortion, to obtain the procedure. “Without regard to the merits, the Court administratively stays the district court’s December 7, 2023 order,” the order states.

The court noted the case would remain pending before them but did not include any timeline on when a full ruling might be issued. Cox is 20 weeks pregnant. Her unborn baby was diagnosed with a fatal genetic condition and she says complications in her pregnancy are putting her health at risk.

Following the ruling, Cox’s attorney said they remain hopeful the state’s request is quickly rejected. “We are talking about urgent medical care. Kate is already 20 weeks pregnant,” said Molly Duane, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “This is why people should not need to beg for healthcare in a court of law.”

The ruling came just hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton petitioned the high court to intervene in the case.
Story by Nick Mordowanec

A witness testifying on behalf of Donald Trump in the former president's $250 million civil fraud lawsuit said Thursday that the price of one of his properties was inflated but that no fraud occurred.

Trump was in the New York courtroom for the first time in about a month, looking on as the months-long legal proceeding accusing him and his sons of inflating their net worth and the value of their properties owned by the Trump Organization continued.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the lawsuit and has been a fixture in the courtroom as testimony has continued, did not show up to her usual front-row seat on Thursday.

Eli Bartov, a research professor of accounting at New York University's Stern School of Business, testified on Thursday on Trump's behalf and previously testified as an expert witness more than 15 times.
by: The Associated Press

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — As Donald Trump faces growing scrutiny over his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave his longtime friend a chance to assure the American people that he wouldn’t abuse power or seek retribution if he wins a second term.

But instead of offering a perfunctory answer brushing off the warnings, Trump stoked the fire.

“Except for day one,” the GOP front-runner said Tuesday night before a live audience in Davenport, Iowa. “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
By Evan Perez, Paula Reid, Marshall Cohen, Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand, CNN

CNN — Hunter Biden has been charged in connection with a long-running Justice Department investigation into his taxes – the second criminal case that special counsel David Weiss has brought against President Joe Biden’s son. The charges span nine counts, including failure to file and pay taxes; evasion of assessment; and false or fraudulent tax return. CNN was first to report a new criminal case had been filed.

According to the special counsel’s team, Hunter Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million” in taxes that he owed from 2016 through 2019. Though Hunter Biden did eventually pay his taxes from 2018, prosecutors allege that he included “false business deductions in order to evade assessment of taxes to reduce the substantial tax liabilities he faced.”

Prosecutors also allege in the 56-page indictment that he “subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company” by withdrawing millions of dollars outside of its payroll and tax withholding process.
Story by Tom Boggioni

A redacted portion of a Jack Smith filing submitted to Judge Tanya Chutkan hints that the Department of Justice has "compelling" evidence that links Donald Trump to the 2020 election violence.

Citing the notice the special counsel had to file under the Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) that previews evidence the DOJ will bring to trial, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance noted the redacted portion that follows the disclosure of an "agent" of Trump, also described as an unnamed campaign official who was in contact with a campaign lawyer in Detroit encouraging "rioting and other obstruction at the TCF Center where the vote count was taking place."

As Vance noted, what makes the revelation even more damaging is that the plea for disruption came after the former president became aware that he was losing. Pointing out the redaction appears to be hiding "something in the substance of their testimony," Vance suggested it could be a bombshell when presented in court.
Story by By GABE STERN, Associated Press/Report for America

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada grand jury on Wednesday indicted six Republicans who submitted certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election in their state, making Nevada the third to seek charges against so-called “fake electors.” “We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged," Nevada's Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a statement Wednesday. "Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”

The fake electors — involved in the state GOP or Clark County GOP — have been charged with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument. Those two categories of felonies have penalties that range from one year up to either four or five years in prison. The indictments in Nevada are just the latest to come out of investigations in several states into the activities of Republican electors. Michigan’s Attorney General filed felony charges in July against 16 Republican fake electors, who would face eight criminal charges including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery, though one had charges dropped after reaching a cooperation deal. The top charge carried a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
Story by Washington Post Staff

The Republican-led House voted Thursday to censure Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) for pulling a fire alarm in September that forced the evacuation of a House office building while lawmakers were laboring to avert a government shutdown. The resolution passed 214-191, in a vote that broke largely along party lines. The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Lisa C. McClain (R-Mich.), secretary of the House Republican conference, who said Wednesday that Bowman had “knowingly pulled a fire alarm to cause chaos and stop the House from doing business.”

“Mr. Bowman should know the consequences of pulling a fire alarm to cause panic,” McClain said, citing Bowman’s time as a former middle school principal in the Bronx. “In New York schools, the policy is clear. When a student commits a crime on campus, police are called and that student is either suspended or expelled. One would think Representative Bowman would be able to hold himself to the same standards as he held his students to.” During debate Wednesday, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called the resolution “profoundly stupid,” trivial and a waste of time.
Story by Brad Reed

Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama — three states that were part of the Confederacy that was founded in part to maintain the institution of slavery — are now at the forefront of a new effort to rebel against court rulings aimed at securing the voting rights of Black Americans.

The Atlantic's David Graham writes that those three states' Republican-led state legislatures have, in recent months, shown a defiant attitude toward legal mandates that they redraw their voting maps so as not to dilute the power of Black voters in their states.

Although Graham said it would be possible to dismiss one of these states' resistance to court orders as an aberration, he thinks that having three states engaged in the same conduct makes it part of a dangerous trend.
Story by Alex Griffing

Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin reported live from a mass border crossing on Tuesday in Arizona after a large hole was cut in the border fence that was built there in 2019. Fox anchor Bret Baier began the segment, saying, “Bill Melugin is live in Lukeville with more. Bill, good afternoon. What are you seeing there?” “Good afternoon to you. We’re seeing a lot of frustration from these migrants out here who feel that Border Patrol has taken too long to pick them up and get them out of this area. We’ll show you a live look at the scene right here,” Melugin reported, adding:
Danny KEMP

Could a second Donald Trump presidency slide into dictatorship? A sudden spate of dystopian warnings has got America talking about the possibility less than a year before the US elections.

Dark scenarios about what could happen if the twice-impeached Republican former president wins in 2024 have appeared in the space of a few days in major US media outlets that include The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Atlantic.

Grim predictions also came from top Republican Trump critic Liz Cheney, who said that the country is "sleepwalking into dictatorship" and that she is weighing a third-party presidential run of her own to try to stop him.

Together, they paint a bleak picture of an angrier yet more disciplined Trump than during his first spell in the White House, one who would wreak vengeance on his perceived enemies and possibly try to stay in power beyond the two-term US limit.
By Melanie Zanona and Haley Talbot, CNN

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is resigning from Congress and will leave at the end of this year, he announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday — a highly anticipated decision that comes two months after his unprecedented ouster from the speakership.

McCarthy’s decision will narrow the House GOP’s already historically slim majority, which just last week got smaller after the expulsion of ex-Rep. George Santos of New York. How much room Republicans have to work with next year will depend on the outcome of a handful of special elections in 2024.

McCarthy, who has been in office for 17 years and spent much of it at the leadership table, touted his accomplishments in the op-ed and made clear he has no regrets about his tenure. McCarthy, who battled through 15 grueling rounds to win the speaker’s gavel in January, was removed just nine months later after infuriating his right flank for putting a stopgap spending bill on the floor with the support of Democrats.
Story by Areeba Shah

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who is leading an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, mischaracterized evidence of payments from Hunter Biden to his father, suggesting purported business dealings with foreign entities, according to The Washington Post.

On Monday, the House Oversight Committee announced that Comer had obtained bank records of Hunter Biden’s legal firm, Owasco PC, making direct monthly payments to Joe Biden in between his time as vice president and president. In an email to reporters, a spokesperson for Comer claimed that the payments “are part of a pattern revealing Joe Biden knew about, participated in and benefited from his family’s influence-peddling schemes.”

Comer also claimed in a video that “this wasn’t a payment from Hunter Biden’s personal account but an account for his corporation that received payments from China and other shady corners of the world.” But documents reviewed by The Post indicate that $1,380 payments made by Hunter Biden, which occurred in September, October and November 2018, were made to repay his father for a truck payment that he couldn't finance himself. Hunter Biden’s credit was low at the time and he “was in the depths of addiction” when Joe Biden signed for the truck and had it in his name, a source close to the Bidens told The Post.
Story by Sean O'Driscoll

Donald Trump has continued to target two Black election workers even after they were the subject of "vile and racist" threats from his supporters, a prosecutor has filed in court. Trump listed one of them as being among the "monsters" who had stolen the 2020 election and "doubled down" on his attacks after the pair testified before the January 6 committee, the court filings show.

Mother and daughter, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss were falsely accused of using suitcases of ballots to add votes for President Joe Biden at an Atlanta voting center during the 2020 presidential election. The prosecutor's filing shows for the first time that prosecutors intend to introduce evidence about Freeman and Moss into the Trump election fraud trial. Allegations that Trump's comments prompted racist abuse could be bad news for the former president. His trial will be before a jury in Washington, D.C.
Opinion by Matson Browning

As a cop who for decades worked undercover in white-supremacist groups and in FBI task forces fighting terrorism, I’ve had a front-row seat to witness hate in its various shapes and sizes, its costs and its causes, and the way it grows when left unchecked.

Hate morphs, and it can pop up anywhere. Just a few examples: A 20-year-old man was beaten to death by young skinheads outside an Arizona pool hall; a man on a train in Oregon screamed anti-Muslim chants at a young woman in a hajib before stabbing two people to death; vigilantes armed with AR-15s roam the U.S. border with Mexico targeting their fellow human beings.

What I used to hear in the 1990s from skinheads and Ku Klux Klan members in Arizona, what I later heard from guys in khakis and golf shirts in Virginia, I now hear from college kids and even a member of Congress.
Story by Arthur Delaney

WASHINGTON ― House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republicans are blurring faces in security footage from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to protect rioters from prosecution. “We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,” Johnson said at a press conference.

The Department of Justice has long had access to the footage and has used it in some of the roughly 1,200 criminal cases against people linked to the riot, which saw participants fight police and storm the Capitol building. Johnson’s comment is a remarkable statement of sympathy for supporters of then-President Donald Trump who illegally entered a restricted federal building as part of a violent attack on Congress.

Though prosecutors already have the video, blurring people’s faces could prevent amateur investigators from sending tips to the FBI. Online sleuths have previously used social media and facial recognition software to help the government track down a number of suspects.
Story by David Edwards

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) curbed a line of questioning on Tuesday after a Department of Justice official informed him that an investigation into Elon Musk's SpaceX was opened during former President Donald Trump's administration.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Jordan asked Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke about a civil rights investigation into SpaceX. The DOJ's lawsuit accused the company of refusing to hire asylum recipients and refugees. "Did Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter have anything to do with the Justice Department's decision to file that lawsuit against SpaceX?" Jordan demanded to know.

But Clarke reminded Jordan that the investigation was started under Trump's administration. "The investigation into SpaceX was open during the last administration, and we filed an administrative action under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an important law passed by this body with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Reagan," she explained.
Story by Rebecca Shabad and Kate Santaliz and Frank Thorp V and Sarah Mimms

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., announced Tuesday that he is dropping the bulk of his months-long hold on hundreds of military nominations. Tuberville told reporters that he has lifted his hold on all military promotions three-star and below, amounting to over 400 promotions.

“I’m releasing everybody. I still got a hold on I think 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released from me.” Tuberville told reporters. “But other than that, it’s over.” The Alabama Republican had been holding up military nominations for months in protest of the Defense Department's policy that allows servicemembers to get reimbursements for travel related to getting an abortion.
Country has had 38 mass shootings – in which at least 203 people have died – so far this year, passing previous high of 36
Chris Michael

A series of murders over the weekend have propelled the United States to a grisly new record: the most recorded mass shootings in a year.

Two attacks on Sunday occurring within a couple of hours of each other in Texas and Washington state were the year’s 37th and 38th mass shootings. Authorities believe a murder-suicide was responsible for the death of five family members in Vancouver, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, just across the border in Washington, while in Dallas a 21-year-old with a previous aggravated assault charge shot five people in a house, including a toddler.

It is the highest number of mass shootings in any year since at least 2006, breaking the previous record of 36, reached last year.

Another attack occurred on Sunday in New York City, when a 38-year-old man stabbed four of his relatives – including two children – as well as another woman and two police officers before they shot him. That was the country’s 41st mass killing of 2023, according to an Associated Press database.
Story by Gabriella Ferrigine

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in her upcoming book "Oath and Honor," disclosed the moment she learned of former President Donald Trump's plot to paint his loss of the 2020 presidential election as fraudulent, calling it "a very dangerous and chilling moment." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow read an excerpt from the book, detailing a phone call made two days before the deadly Capitol attacks in which the former president's legal team allegedly discussed the fake elector scheme. Cheney, who noted that Trump's attorneys were unaware that she was listening in on the call, also observed that former Vice President Mike Pence was acting in cooperation with the plans at that time.
Story by Kelly McClure

During a signature revved up speech delivered in Iowa on Saturday, Donald Trump said the quiet part out loud — as the expression goes — during a key moment of the campaign event, declaring, "We've been waging an all-out war on American democracy," and the internet is having a field day with it.

The slip-up took place as he was, per usual, railing against the 2020 election results, singing his own praises as "an outsider" who was elected to "stand up to those liars, looters, losers, crooks," faulting Democrats for not putting America first, which he feels that he did for the four years he was in office.
Story by Bethan Moorcraft

The National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) legal woes have gone from bad to worse. A new federal class-action lawsuit has been filed in South Carolina, alleging the NAR and prominent real estate brokerage firm Keller Williams Realty colluded to artificially inflate agent commission rates, increasing costs for home sellers in the state.

The lawsuit, filed on Nov. 6, seeks class-action status for all home sellers in South Carolina who used a listing broker affiliated with Keller Williams and listed their home on one of the NAR’s Multiple Listing Services (MLS) since November 2019.

It follows hot on the heels of a landmark ruling in Missouri, which found the NAR and some of the nation’s largest real estate brokerages — including HomeServices of America (owned by Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A)) and two of its subsidiaries, and Keller Williams Realty — guilty of conspiring to keep commissions artificially high.

The Morning Joe panel continues its discussion on The Atlantic's new issue on the dangers of a second Trump term, and Joe Scarborough highlights the dangers of Trump's current rhetoric.
Opinion by Dave Caudill
To borrow part of a phrase from a well-loved former Cincinnati radio personality: Wake up … Republicans. The great Gary Burbank had an infectious sense of humor. He knew what was funny and what wasn’t.

Here’s something not funny: In a Quinnipiac University poll released Nov. 15, a majority of registered voters (52%) said they'd like to see other candidates enter the presidential race. An astounding 72% of independents said this, along with 58% of Democrats. That’s disconcerting, considering that barring unforeseen circumstances, President Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee.      

The House voted to expel Rep. George Santos, ending the New York Republican’s tenure in Congress. MSNBC’s Ari Melber breaks down the expulsion vote. (Check out The Beat's playlist: https://msnbc.com/ari Connect with Ari Melber:
Story by insider@insider.com (Yoonji Han)

Thomas Edison is widely regarded as one of the most celebrated inventors in American history, pioneering technologies like the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. Edison was a genius by his own right, but some historians say he also had a penchant for claiming other inventors' patents.

One such inventor was Granville T. Woods, the most prolific Black inventor in the late 19th century. Woods was regarded the first African American mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War, and jostled with other prominent inventors like Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Frank Sprague.

In 1887, Woods secured a patent for the induction telegraph, which allowed messages to be sent between moving trains and train stations. His discovery was a much-needed improvement to the communication system at the time, which was slow, shoddy, and could lead to train collisions.

Soon after Woods patented his invention, Edison sued Woods, arguing he had first created a similar telegraph and was thus entitled to the patent. Woods eventually won the battle over the patent, but the victory came at a hefty financial and personal cost, according to several historians.
Story by Bevan Hurley

The chair of the Florida Republican Party has been accused of raping a woman who he and his wife, the co-founder of “parent’s rights” group Moms for Liberty, were reportedly in a long-term consensual relationship with. Christian Ziegler is under investigation for alleged sexual battery, according to a heavily-redacted report provided to The Independent by the Sarasota Police Department.

The complaint does not name Mr Ziegler, but his attorney Derek Byrd confirmed to The Independent that the high-ranking Republican official and ally of Governor Ron DeSantis was cooperating with the police investigation and expected to be fully exonerated. The female complainant had been in a long-term consensual relationship with Mr Ziegler and his wife Bridget, according to the investigative journalism site the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which was first to report on the story.

Citing police sources, the site stated that the incident occurred when Mr Ziegler and the complainant were at the woman’s home on 2 October without Ms Ziegler present. The words “rape” and “had been sexual battered…on 10/02/2023” were among the few words visible on the redacted police report.
By Katelyn Polantz and Holmes Lybrand, CNN

Washington CNN — Former President Donald Trump can be sued in civil lawsuits related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot in a long-awaited, consequential decision from the federal appeals court in Washington, DC. The decision will have significant implications for several cases against Trump in the Washington, DC, federal court related to the 2020 election. The decision arises out of lawsuits brought by Capitol Police officers and Democrats in Congress.

The opinion, written by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, states that not everything a president does or says while in office is protected from liability. The president “does not spend every minute of every day exercising official responsibilities,” the opinion said. “And when he acts outside the functions of his office, he does not continue to enjoy immunity. … When he acts in an unofficial, private capacity, he is subject to civil suits like any private citizen.”

The decision to allow the January 6 lawsuits against Trump to proceed was unanimous among the three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Greg Katsas concurred with the decision, and Judge Judith Rogers concurred in part. Trump will still be able to seek additional appeals on the issue, if he chooses.

Unsealed texts from GOP Congressman Scott Perry reveal Perry had a "vast web of contacts" who he was talking to about efforts to overturn the election, including top Republicans. MSNBC’s Ari Melber reports and is joined by Senior Mueller Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.
Congressman, who has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal fraud charges, becomes only sixth member ever expelled from US House
Martin Pengelly in Washington

The New York Republican, fabulist and accused fraudster George Santos has been expelled from Congress. The vote to expel Santos, the second since his election last year, required a two-thirds majority of those present. The final tally on Friday was 311-114, with two members recorded present and eight absent.

Santos therefore becomes only the sixth member ever expelled from the US House. The first three fought for the Confederacy in the civil war. The other two were expelled after being convicted of crimes. Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 federal fraud charges but has not been tried. A previous expulsion attempt, mounted by members of his own party, failed in part because senior Democrats voted no, citing the dangers of expelling members without convictions secured.
By Aaron Navarro

Florida Republican Party chair Christian Ziegler is being investigated by the Sarasota Police Department, Ziegler's attorney, Derek Byrd, confirmed.

Byrd did not say what the allegations were, but in response to a CBS News question about the charges, the Sarasota Police Department sent a heavily redacted police report that mentions an accusation of rape and sexual battery that allegedly took place on Oct. 2 in Sarasota.

Late Thursday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called on Ziegler to resign as state party chair.

"I don't see how he can continue with that investigation ongoing, given the gravity of those situations," DeSantis told reporters in Alpharetta, Georgia, after his televised debate with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "And so I think that he should, I think he should step aside."
By JUAN A. LOZANO

HOUSTON (AP) — More Americans now believe the death penalty, which is undergoing a yearslong decline of use and support, is being administered unfairly, a finding that is adding to its growing isolation in the U.S., according to an annual report on capital punishment.

But whether the public’s waning support for the death penalty and the declining number of executions and death sentences will ultimately result in the abolition of capital punishment in the U.S. remains uncertain, experts said.

“There are some scholars who are optimistic the death penalty will be totally eradicated pretty soon,” said Eric Berger, a law professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “I think what’s more likely is it’s going to continue to decline. But I think it’s less likely that in the foreseeable future it’ll totally disappear.”
The two Nevada state troopers had stopped to check on a driver who was asleep behind the wheel on Interstate 15 around 3:30 a.m. when they were struck, officials said.
By Marlene Lenthang and The Associated Press

Two Nevada state troopers were killed in a hit-and-run on a Las Vegas freeway as they helped another driver Thursday morning, officials said.

The troopers had stopped to check on a driver who was asleep behind the wheel on Interstate 15 around 3:30 a.m. when a white Chevrolet HHR struck them both, Las Vegas police said.

The driver did not stop, police spokesperson Branden Clarkson said.

One trooper was pronounced dead at a hospital. The other died at the scene. The Nevada Highway Patrol identified the victims as Sgt. Michael Abbate and Trooper Alberto Felix. Clarkson described them as husbands with children.
The court’s first female justice was known for her independence on the bench
By Fred Barbash

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice, whose independence on a court that was often ideologically divided made her the pivotal vote in numerous closely contested cases and one of the most powerful women of her era, died Dec. 1 in Phoenix. She was 93.

The cause was complications from advanced dementia — probably Alzheimer’s disease — and a respiratory illness, according to an announcement by the court. Justice O’Connor had said in 2018 that she had dementia and was exiting public life.

In her nearly quarter-century as a justice, from her swearing-in on Sept. 25, 1981, after being appointed by President Ronald Reagan, to her retirement on Jan. 31, 2006, to care for her husband, who had Alzheimer’s, Justice O’Connor tried to avoid what she called “giant steps you’ll live to regret.”
The two governors clashed on major issues, with 2024 in the background.
By Will McDuffie, Hannah Demissie, Lalee Ibssa , and Nicholas Kerr

After more than 90 minutes of argument, insult, crosstalk and a few props, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom ended their debate on Fox News on Thursday night on a lighter note, trading compliments.

But much of what came before underlined their major differences (and different debate styles) on some of the biggest issues of the day, including abortion access, crime and public safety, the economy, immigration and more.

Sean Hannity moderated -- often pleading with the two governors to spend less time talking over one another and more time answering his questions.

Here are seven takeaways from the faceoff, billed as "The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate," though it also played out as one of the two participants is running for the White House and the other is discussed as a future presidential contender.
Odette Yousef

The families of three college students of Palestinian descent who were shot over the weekend in Vermont are calling it a crime "fueled by hate." So far, police in Burlington say they don't have information to suggest what the motive for the attack was.

Still, the shooting surfaces long-standing issues in tracking possible hate crimes committed against Arab Americans.

And the question of whether this attack will ultimately be prosecuted as a hate crime is set against an unique and complex history when it comes to tracking anti-Arab violence in the U.S.
Henry Kissinger sided with military dictators and genocidal regimes in his pursuit of projecting US power during the Cold War, resulting in the deaths of millions of innocents, Bevan Hurley reports

In his eight years at the helm of US foreign policy, Henry Kissinger’s unique brand of realpolitik diplomacy was blamed for genocides, massacres, rape and torture on an industrial scale.

The architect of US efforts to contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War prioritised ideology over morality, and was responsible for the deaths of three to four million people between the years of 1969 and 1976, according to experts including Yale University historian Greg Grandin, the author of Kissinger’s Shadow.

As Secretary of State under the Nixon and Ford administrations, he pursued an interventionist approach to world affairs that shaped the thinking of a generation of neocons who would come after him.
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