Trump teases control of Greenland and Panama as Matt Gaetz fires back at explosive report: Live
Gaetz stands accused of buying and using illegal drugs and paying for sex with a high schooler
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump is signalling his incoming administration’s readiness to expand U.S. territory, with recent out-of-nowhere snipes at Panama and Greenland.
After seemingly joking about Canada becoming the “51st” state, the incoming president fired off ominous messages alleging the Panama Canal and Greenland pose serious economic and national security threats to the United States.
He claimed the Panama Canal is a “rip-off” that the country “will immediately stop,” and that the “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” — rattling diplomatic relationships less than a month before he returns to the White House.
Meanwhile, allies of House Speaker Mike Johnson are urging the president-elect to reaffirm his support for the Republican leader after Democrats and some Republicans blocked the Trump- and Elon Musk-led campaign to derail the stop-gap funding bill before Christmas, averting a government shutdown.
The House of Representatives is also reeling after an ethics committee report into former congressman Matt Gaetz “determined there is substantial evidence” that he paid tens of thousands of dollars for sex and used illicit drugs while he was a member of Congress.
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Illegal drugs and sex with a minor: All the allegations against Matt Gaetz revealed in explosive report
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Speaker’s allies call for Trump to back him to avoid another round of Republican civil war
Trump promises to ‘vigorously pursue the death penalty’ on Christmas Eve
After railing against President Biden for commuting the sentences of federal death row prisoners, Trump has promised to direct the Department of Justice to “vigorously pursue the death penalty” as soon as he enters office.
“As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters,” he wrote on Truth Social on Christmas Eve.
“We will be a Nation of Law and Order again! to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters. We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!” he said.
In his first term, Trump — who touts himself as America’s “most -pro-life president” — carried out 13 federal executions, more than under any president in modern history.
He has promised to make more people eligible for capital punishment, including child rapists, immigrants who kill citizens, and people convicted of drug trafficking.
Canal threats, money-laundering claims and a hotel battle: Trump’s long, weird history with Panama
Trump rattled North American diplomatic relations over the weekend with a threat to retake the Panama Canal, two-and-a-half decades after the U.S. transfered control of the vital global trade route to Panama.
Josh Marcus dives into Trump’s long strange trip with the Central American country:
Canal threats and a hotel battle: Trump’s long, weird history with Panama
Landmark Trump project in Panama City saw lawsuits, shoving matches, and money laundering allegations before Trump lost it in hostile takeover
Biden vetoes legislation that would have allowed Trump to add more judges to the federal judiciary
President Joe Biden has vetoed legislation that would have added dozens of judges to the federal judiciary, dealing a blow to Trump’s incoming administration and his plans to build on his first term’s radical reshaping of the courts with more right-leaning judges.
The bipartisan bill would have awarded roughly 66 new federal judicial slots over the next three presidential terms. Trump would have been able to appoint a first batch of 25.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously in August but lingered in the Republican-controlled House for months, until after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election. It cleared the House on a largely party-line in December.
The JUDGES Act would have increased the number of trial court judges in 25 federal district courts in 13 states, including California, Florida and Texas, in six waves every two years through 2035.
The bill “seeks to hastily add judgeships with just a few weeks left” in the current Congress, Biden wrote in a letter to lawmakers Monday night.
“The House of Representatives’ 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,” he added.
“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,” the letter continued.
The bill “would create new judgeships in states where senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies,” efforts that suggest “concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now,” according to Biden.
Trump blasts Biden for commuting death row prisoners
Trump, who touts himself as America’s “most pro-life” president, continues to attack Presidnt Joe Biden after he announced the largest single-day commutation of federal death row inmates in modern history.
“Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Christmas Eve. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!”
The White House announced early Monday morning that the president would commute the sentences of 37 inmates awaiting execution in the federal prison system, which Trump has pushed to expedite once in office.
Biden explicitly said in his announcement that he could not let Trump do that.
“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted,” he wrote.
Here are the stories of the three federal death row inmates Biden chose not to save:
The three federal death row inmates Biden chose not to save
Outgoing president decided to spare 37 condemned prisoners from the death chamber – but not three others
Matt Gaetz ‘got a great note’ from Trump... on a month-old story
Matt Gaetz shared a photograph of a printed-out article in The Federalist about the former congressman’s ethics probe.
“I got a great note from President Trump!” Gaetz shared Monday night, hours after the House Ethics Committee shared “substantial evidence” he paid tens of thousands of dollars for sex, including with a high school student, and frequently used cocaine and ecstasy while in office.
“Matt very unfair!” reads the note, drawn in Trump’s classic thick Sharpie print.
The article, however, is from November,
All the allegations against Matt Gaetz revealed in explosive report
As a sitting member of Congress, Matt Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old high school student, used cocaine and ecstasy, and spent thousands of dollars on sex- and drug-fueled partying, according to a bombshell report from the House Ethics Committee.
Monday’s report found “substantial evidence” the now-former Republican congressman “regularly” paid for sex and met women through a “sugar dating” website through a former associate who has since pleaded guilty to sex trafficking.
We combed through the report.
All the allegations against Matt Gaetz revealed in explosive report
A bombshell ethics investigation alleges Matt Gaetz paid for sex with a high schooler, used cocaine and ecstasy, and abused the power of his office. He denies wrongdoing. Alex Woodward reports
Gaetz report states some women said drug use at parties ‘impaired’ their ability to ‘fully consent’
The House Ethics Committee report into Matt Gaetz states that “all of the women interviewed by the committee said their sexual relationship with Gaetz was consensual, but at least one woman said the use of drugs at the parties they attended with him may have ‘impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.’”
“Indeed, nearly every woman that the Committee spoke with could not remember the details of at least one or more of the events they attended with Representative Gaetz and attributed that to drug or alcohol consumption,” according to the report.
Gaetz has rejected the allegations.
The women also discussed instances where Representative Gaetz would try to convince them to have sex with him or Mr. Greenberg: “[H]e would make me feel bad about not having sex with him or [] Joel Greenberg” and that he would say, “Why don’t you want to have sex with me” or “[Mr. Greenberg] looks very sad over there … Make him happy.”
Another woman said that their relationship at some point was a “loving friendship,” but over time came to feel like a “task.”
A third woman said, “[W]hen I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
One woman said, “I think about it all the time . . . . I still see him when I turn on the tv and there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s frustrating to know I lived a reality that he denies.”
Johnson allies call for Trump to back him to avoid another round of Republican civil war
Allies of Speaker Mike Johnson are urging Donald Trump to reaffirm his support for the Republican leader of the House of Representatives in the hope of heading off a messy battle for the role in the new year.
Should other contenders for the speakership emerge with any significant support following last week’s spending bill battle it could delay the certification of the president-elect’s own victory.
So far, there has been silence on the matter from Mar-a-Lago since Friday night’s vote on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through mid-March — a struggle that did not bode well for Johnson’s future.
Oliver O’Connell reports.
Speaker’s allies call for Trump to back him to avoid more Republican infighting
Can president-elect’s support prevent protracted infighting over re-election of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House?
Trump considering attempting to boot Mike Johnson: report
President-elect Donald Trump is considering attempting to boot Speaker Mike Johnson from his post, according to Politico.
This comes after Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown on Friday night.
Trump is reportedly unhappy with the funding deal and that he didn’t get the debt ceiling hike he sought.
“The president is upset — he wanted the debt ceiling dealt with,” a person in Trump’s circle told the outlet.
“In the past couple weeks, we’ve questioned whether [Johnson has] been an honest broker,” another person said.
“I don’t see how Johnson survives,” yet another individual told Politico.
Trump declares Elon Musk is ‘not going to be president’ amid ongoing taunts over who’s really in charge
While Donald Trump still thinks his “first buddy” Elon Musk is a “great guy,” he wants to make it clear that only one man is calling the shots.
“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump declared in a Sunday night speech. “That’s not happening.”
The president-elect’s snarky remark comes as Democrats have sought to drive a wedge between the world’s richest man and the notoriously thin-skinned Trump by highlighting Musk’s growing influence and describing him as the “real president.” The taunts have only grown following last week’s chaos on Capitol Hill after Musk raged against House Republicans’ original spending bill, prompting lawmakers to race against the clock to strike another deal to prevent the government from shutting down.
Read more:
Trump declares Elon Musk is ‘not going to be president’ amid ongoing taunts
‘No, he’s not taking the presidency,’ Donald Trump exclaimed Sunday night. ‘That’s not happening.’
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