Former President Barack Obama, joined by several other living presidents, will host a dedication ceremony for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Thursday. The Obama Foundation made the announcement in March. The ceremony will have performances from artists such as The Roots, Christina Aguilera, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Stevie […]
Lawmakers say FISA 702 renewal is back to square one after Trump's eleventh-hour decision blew up the Senate process days after a foiled terror plot.
While Donald Trump is being excoriated by Republicans over his Iran deal, which one GOP lawmaker called “… a tremendous foreign policy blunder,” MS NOW’s Bill Rohde stated on Thursday morning that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth can expect that his role in advising the president to launch the war has put his job at risk.Discussing the blowback Trump is facing over the war that, for the moment, has ended in a stalemate, Rohde claimed that Hegseth is already a prime target instead since he is already on the outs with a substantial number of Republican lawmakers.“At some point. President Trump is the person most responsible for this strategic defeat and failure,” Rohde told the "Morning Joe” co-hosts. “But I would argue the person second most responsible, who is in the most dangerous position politically, is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He repeatedly lied to the American public in his press conferences about the progress of the war, and he also refused to give basic information to members of Congress. There's a lot of ill will among senators and House members towards Pete Hegseth.”Quoting Hegseth asserting “The aftermath of this is going to be in our interest,” Rohde asked, “Did he warn the president about the Strait of Hormuz before this war? Was he honest with the American public? And to the 50,000 Americans who risked their lives in the 13 soldiers who died? You know, his performance is just something that has to be looked at.”Co-host Willie Geist added, “We haven't seen the defense secretary in public much since those podium-banging news briefings that he would give every week, where he would lecture the media about how to cover the war, what was actually happening, and from all the reporting that he would show the president of the United States an iPad with things blowing up to show that they were doing well. It turns out this is a much, much more complicated problem than can be solved by blowing things up.” - YouTube youtu.be
Two Supreme Court cases could fire up a battle over Trump's authority to remove federal officials, potentially reshaping presidential power.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) implored President Trump on Thursday to allow Jay Clayton, his nominee for director of national intelligence, to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for his confirmation hearing, warning that preventing him from doing so “puts American lives at risk.” Trump threw the Senate into turmoil Wednesday by announcing on Truth Social…
Georgetown Law School Professor Steve Vladeck has some assumptions about why the U.S. Supreme Court may have put off President Donald Trump's appeal of the E. Jean Carroll settlement a whopping 15 times. Writing for his Substack, Vladeck recalled that Trump filed a "cert petition" last November. A cert petition is when a defendant asks a higher court to review a lower court's decision. This week, the Supreme Court decided to "reschedule" its conference over the matter for the 15th time and refused to explain why they did it. "As I explained in a previous issue, there’s an important but elusive difference between what it means when the Court 'reschedules' a petition and what it means when it 'relists' one," wrote Vladeck. “'Relisting' is more common, and is usually a sign that a case has been discussed, and that we’re just waiting for the Court’s disposition (whether because the justices are confirming that there are no obstacles to granting certiorari, or because someone is preparing an opinion respecting a denial of certiorari)."He noted that rescheduling is less common. In this case, Vladeck said, "a case can be “rescheduled” at the request of a single justice, and is usually rescheduled for reasons external to the case — but that may affect it (e.g., additional proceedings in related cases; pending legislation; etc.)."In one case, Jones v. Oklahoma, the case was rescheduled 24 times, which is the current record. There are two defamation cases from Carroll that are key to the argument. Both were filed by Carroll in a New York court against Trump for defamation. Trump lost, and the jury awarded Carroll $5 million in one case and $83.3 million in the other. Carroll alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her inside of a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman in 1996. To decide whether Trump defamed Carroll it first had to decide whether it believed Carroll or Trump's story about what happened. They ruled that Carroll was "sexually abused" by Trump and then found in favor of Carroll in both defamation cases. Justices are likely waiting for the second Trump case to be submitted for appeal. It is on its way, said former Trump lawyer Justin Smith in a filing. "I write to advise the Court that President Donald J. Trump intends to file a petition for a writ of certiorari in Carroll v. Trump, No. 24-644 (2d Cir.) (Carroll I), within the next month. Because Carroll I involves the same parties and overlaps with the President’s pending petition for a writ of certiorari in Carroll II, the Court may wish to consider the petitions together," he wrote. He pointed out that Smith's filing has "no explanation for how the questions presented in Carroll II are actually affected by the questions that will be presented in Carroll I — which is what we’d normally expect in a request like this."In the background of this, the Justice Department has targeted Carroll, alleging she lied under oath when she said no one was funding her legal fees. Vladeck followed with a disclaimer that "it is really difficult to believe that the Court would show anywhere near the same kind of procedural deference to any litigant other than Trump."
Political commentator Bill O’Reilly said Wednesday the Trump administration reaching a deal with Iran is “plan B” after the war did not turn out as President Trump and his team intended. “This is plan B,” O’Reilly told host Chris Cuomo on NewsNation’s “Cuomo.” “So plan A didn’t work. Plan A was kill the leadership and…
The national average gas price dipped below $4 per gallon on Thursday for the first time since March, following President Donald Trump’s signing of a tentative peace deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Average gas prices stand at $3.99 in the United States, down from $4.03 the day before, according to AAA. The decline ...