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

Congress Narrowly Averts Government Shutdown — And Rejects Trump’s Debt Ceiling Commands

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.

Trump has also called for ramping up the use of the death penalty, after Biden commutted the death sentences of most people on federal death row.

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.

Key Points

• Trump promises to ‘vigorously pursue the death penalty’ in Christmas Eve message
• All the allegations against Matt Gaetz revealed in explosive report
• Greenland prime minister balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory
• Biden vetoes legislation that would have let Trump add more judges
• Speaker’s allies call for Trump to back him to avoid another round of Republican civil war

[24 December 2024 14:15 · Alex Woodward]

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.

[24 December 2024 14:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

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.”

House Ethics Committee report

[24 December 2024 13:00 · Oliver O'Connell]

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.

[24 December 2024 12:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

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.

[24 December 2024 11:00 · Justin Baragona]

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.

[24 December 2024 10:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Chair of Ethics Committee did not vote to release report

The chair of the Ethics Committee, Republican Rep. Michael Guest said that while he does “not challenge the Committee’s findings,” he did not vote to release the report.

I believe, have publicly stated, and remain steadfast in the position that the House Committee on Ethics lost jurisdiction to release to the public any substantive work product regarding Mr. Gaetz after his resignation from the House on November 14, 2024.

While I do not challenge the Committee’s findings, I did not vote to support the release of the report and I take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the Committee’s jurisdiction, an action the Committee has not taken since 2006.

Representative Gaetz resigned from Congress, withdrew from consideration to serve in the next administration, and declared that he would not seek to be seated in the 119th Congress. The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing practice and is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Michael Guest

[24 December 2024 09:00 · Ariana Baio]

Biden commutes most federal death row sentences. Here’s the full list

Thirty-seven people on death row had their sentences commutated by President Joe Biden on Monday morning and will now serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, rather than face execution.

Maintaining the tradition of offering clemency in the last few weeks of a presidency, Biden exercised his power to remove most inmates from federal death row. Only three people will remain.

It comes a little less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Unlike Biden, Trump supports the death penalty and has suggested more people should be given death sentences – though he has not offered specifics on that. Trump restarted federal executions after a 17-year pause during his first term, with 13 being carried out.

[24 December 2024 08:00 · Justin Baragona]

Greenland prime minister balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory: ‘We are not for sale’

The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.

“Greenland is ours,” Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”

Egede’s comment comes after the incoming president announced that he wanted to revisit the idea of buying the semi-autonomous land from Denmark. During his first term in the White House, Trump expressed a desire to make a “large real estate deal” because “strategically” it would be “very nice.”

[24 December 2024 07:00 · Millie Cooke]

Lord Mandelson ‘open to working with Farage to win over Trump’

Lord Mandelson is reportedly set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump in his new role as UK ambassador to the US.

He is said to be ready to work with the Reform UK leader, as part of an attempt to persuade the president-elect not to target Britain with tariffs.

Experts have warned of a looming trade war after Mr Trump himself said: “Tariff is my favourite word”, and promised to implement 10 to 20 per cent tariffs on all goods coming into the country – a figure that rises to 60 per cent for those from China.

[24 December 2024 06:00 · John Bowden]

Biden cheered by Democrats and civil rights groups for commuting dozens of death row sentences

Civil rights groups who were anxiously preparing for the onset of Donald Trump’s presidency breathed a sigh of relief on Monday as President Joe Biden announced the largest single-day commutation of federal death row inmates in modern history.

The White House announced early Monday morning that the president would commute the sentences of 37 inmates awaiting execution in the federal prison system. Now, just three people will remain on death row following the commutations: mass murderers Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers.