ABC slammed for settling Trump ‘rape’ defamation case as Romney admits MAGA has won Republican party: Live
ABC News settles defamation suit ahead of trial as Donald Trump staffs up his incoming administration
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Your support makes all the difference.ABC News on Saturday agreed to a $15 million settlement stemming from Trump’s defamation suit involving a broadcast about E. Jean Carroll, who herself had successfully sued the president-elect for defamatory statements.
According to court documents, anchor George Stephanopoulos and the network were sued after Stephanopoulos wrongly said that the ex-president was found liable for rape at civil trial; he was actually found liable for sexual “abuse” for the incident dating back to 1996.
The decision by the network to reach a settlement with Trump was met with accusations of cowardice online from critics who argued that the company should have fought the lawsuit at trial.
Meanwhile, one of Donald Trump’s last remaining opponents in the GOP seems to have come to terms with the future of the Republican Party as a Trumpified political movement.
“MAGA is the Republican Party and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today,” Mitt Romney says in a new interview.
This weekend the president-elect also named several more picks for his administration on Saturday, including Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes to run an intelligence board, and staunch loyalist foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell as a presidential envoy for special missions.
Trump vows to scrap daylight savings time and looks to axe car crash regulation that highlights Tesla
US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to scrap Daylight Saving Time (DST) and is reportedly considering scrapping a car crash reporting requirement that Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk stongly opposes.
Calling DST “inconvenient” and “costly” in a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump said: “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate DST, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!”
Meanwhile, axing the car crash regulation could hamstring the government’s ability to effectively investigate collisions and regulate the safety of vehicles with self-driving systems, such as Musk’s Teslas and Cybertrucks, according to Reuters, which viewed a new document reportedly proposing the removal. It would likely directly benefit Tesla, which has reported the majority of crashes – more than 1,500 – to federal safety regulators under the program.
Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup
Social media users are misrepresenting a report released Thursday by the Justice Department inspector general’s office, falsely claiming that it’s proof the FBI orchestrated the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The watchdog report examined a number of areas, including whether major intelligence failures preceded the riot and whether the FBI in some way provoked the violence. Claims spreading online focus on the report’s finding that 26 FBI informants were in Washington for election-related protests on Jan. 6, including three who had been tasked with traveling to the city to report on others who were potentially planning to attend the events.
Although 17 of those informants either entered the Capitol or a restricted area around the building during the riot, none of the 26 total informants were authorized to do so by the bureau, according to the report. Nor were they authorized to otherwise break the law or encourage others to do so.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup
Social media users are misrepresenting a report by the Justice Department inspector general’s office, falsely claiming that it’s proof the FBI orchestrated the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021
LA Times billionaire owner killed op-ed that was critical of Trump’s cabinet picks, report says
Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong killed an opinion column that was critical of President-elect Donald Trump’s recent Cabinet picks, telling his paper’s editorial board that it could only publish the piece if it also ran an editorial with an opposing view, according to The New York Times.
The spiked column was set to be published in the outlet’s Sunday newspaper and website on November 24. Soon-Shiong intervened just hours before the op-ed was scheduled to be sent to the printer, prompting the editors to pull the piece as the deadline approached.
Read more:
LA Times owner reportedly killed op-ed that was critical of Trump’s cabinet picks
Patrick Soon-Shiong’s intervention comes after the billionaire owner blocked the editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris
WATCH: Larry Kudlow awkwardly does the Trump dance
Only 17 percent of Americans approve of Hegseth as defense secretary, poll reveals
Less than 20 percent of American adults approve of President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, former Army National Guard soldier and Fox & Friends weekend host Pete Hegseth, according to a new poll.
The results of the AP-NORC poll come as Republican senators appear to be warming up to his nomination in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking, and financial mismanagement.
Only 17 percent in the poll conducted between 5 and 9 December said they strongly or somewhat approve of Hegseth, while 36 percent said they strongly or somewhat disapprove.
Thirty-seven percent said they didn’t know enough to share a view and 11 percent said they neither approved nor disapproved.
The results were the lowest of the four Trump nominees the poll asked about.
First Zuckerberg, now Bezos: Amazon to donate $1m to Trump’s inaugural fund
Amazon’s executive chair Jeff Bezos is reportedly set to donate $1m to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund – following in the footsteps of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who did the same earlier this week.
Bezos’s gesture was first reported by The Wall Street Journal and dwarfs the $57,746 the company donated to Trump’s first inauguration in 2017.
Amazon will also make a second in-kind donation worth $1m by streaming the inauguration on its Prime Video platform, a source told the paper.
Read more:
First Zuckerberg, now Bezos: Amazon to donate $1m to Trump’s inaugural fund
Online retail giant’s founder Jeff Bezos joins Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg in making a generous donation to the president-elect
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