Trump suggests freeing Jan 6 rioters and slams ‘miscarriage of Justice’ after Biden pardons son Hunter: Live
Biden’s announcement came after Trump unveiled more administration picks, nominating Tiffany’s father-in-law Massad Boulos as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs and Charles Kushner as ambassador to France
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has suggested he will free the January 6 Capitol rioters as he slammed President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden as a “miscarriage of Justice.”
On Sunday, Biden announced he had pardoned his son following his federal gun conviction, saying Hunter had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” by the Justice Department.
Biden previously insisted he would not pardon his son.
Trump blasted his rival on Truth Social: “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
Biden’s decision has divided critics. Colorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis said he was “disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country” while Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks said Hunter “would not ever be prosecuted for the gun crime but for his last name.”
In other news, Trump looks set to fire the head of the FBI after tipping MAGA loyalist Kash Patel for the role. He also nominated people in his family’s orbit to join his administration including Tiffany’s father-in-law Massad Boulos as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs and Charles Kushner as ambassador to France.
President Biden issues pardon for son Hunter Biden despite pledging not to do so
Trump slams Hunter Biden’s presidential pardon as an ‘an abuse and miscarriage of Justice’
Democrat Chris Murphy says ‘no question’ Biden refusal to drop out hurt Harris
Bernie Sanders praises DOGE boss Elon Musk over defense spending
Trump’s blitz of anti-trans ads probably worked – but not for the reason you might think
Republicans spent at least $215 million on attack ads about transgender rights. The question is, did it actually move voters?
Io Dodds investigates:
Trump’s anti-trans ad blitz probably worked – but not for the reason you might think
Republicans spent at least $215 million on attack ads about transgender rights. The question is, did it actually move voters?
Will Donald Trump use Kash Patel to attack his critics and the First Amendment?
Limitations of US law shield most journalists, but long-term use of the Espionage Act to prosecute leakers provides Trump an alleyway to attack critics.
Washington DC reporter John Bowden provides analysis about what Patel’s nomination could mean for the First Amendement.
Read more here:
Will Donald Trump use Kash Patel at the FBI to go after his critics?
Limitations of US law shield most journalists, but long-term use of the Espionage Act to prosecute leakers provides Trump an alleyway to attack critics. Reporter John Bowden provides analysis about what Patel’s nomination could mean for the First Amendement
Trump appoints another son-in-law’s father to position in his adminstration
Donald Trump has announced he will appoint Massad Boulos, a billionaire from Lebanon whose son Michael is married to Tiffany Trump, to serve as his senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
Boulos is the second father of one of the President-elect’s son-in-laws to be selected for a position in his forthcoming administration, following the nomination of Charles Kushner – father of Jared Kushner, on Saturday.
Kash Patel's determination to upend the FBI
Though he may be running the FBI in a matter of months, Kash Patel has previously signaled through interviews and public statements a determination to upend the agency and radically reshape its mission.
He’s called for dramatically reducing its footprint and limiting its authority, as well as going after government officials who disclose information to reporters.
In an interview earlier this year on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” Patel vowed to sever the FBI’s intelligence-gathering activities from the rest of its mission and said he would “shut down” the bureau’s headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., and “reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state.’”
“And I’d take the seven thousand employees that work in that building and send them across America to go chase down criminals,” he added.
In a separate interview with conservative strategist Steve Bannon, Patel said he and others “will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media.”
”We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said, referring to the 2020 presidential election in which Biden, the Democratic challenger, defeated Trump. “We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.”
DACA immigrants worry their protection from deportation won’t last under Trump
Reyna Montoya was 10 when she and her family fled violence in Tijuana and illegally immigrated to the U.S.
Growing up in Arizona, she worried even a minor traffic violation could lead to her deportation. She didn't feel relief until 11 years later in 2012, when she received a letter confirming she had been accepted to a new program for immigrants who came to the country illegally as children.
But as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, after an unsuccessful bid to end DACA in his first term, the roughly 535,000 current recipients are bracing yet again for a whirlwind of uncertainty. Meanwhile, a years-long challenge to DACA could ultimately render it illegal, leaving people like Montoya without a shield from deportation.
Read more:
DACA recipients worry their protection from deportation won’t last another Trump term
Roughly 535,000 DACA recipients are bracing for Trump’s return to the White House
What happens to the current FBI director?
FBI Director Christopher Wray was appointed director by Trump in 2017 and has three years left on his 10-year tenure.
Presidents have typically but not always retained the director who was in place at the time they took office, as Democratic President Joe Biden has done with Wray, the Associated Press reported.
Trump’s announcement of Kash Patel as his pick for FBI director means that Wray can either resign from the job, consistent with the president-elect’s apparent wishes, or wait to be fired once Trump takes office in January.
Either way, the selection of a successor is a clear indication that Wray’s days are numbered.
Progressive Democrats try and chart a path after Trump
Trump’s victory saw his Republican allies flip the Senate and hold the House of Representatives by the thinnest of majorities, giving Democrats plenty of time to lick their wounds, sift through the ashes of defeat and figure out what comes next.
As various factions play the blame game, progressive Democrats who remain in Congress, albeit in the minority, are trying to offer an appealing alternative to the voters who ditched their party in November.
Eric Garcia reports:
Progressive Democrats try and chart a path after Trump
Progressives talk about appealing to the working class. What policies they will deploy is not entirely clear yet, Eric Garcia reports
Who is MAGA loyalist Kash Patel?
Donald Trump has announced he will nominate MAGA loyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI.
Trump announced his pick of Patel, who has pledged to go after Trump’s enemies in the media, on Saturday evening.
A conspiracy theorist who wants to restrain federal law enforcement agencies, Patel has advocated for firing workers and going on a prosecution spree to fulfill Trump’s promise of retribution. He is a Trump loyalist who has railed against the so-called “Deep State.” Even among the most staunch MAGA loyalists, he is viewed as a controversial figure.
Read more:
Trump picks MAGA loyalist Kash Patel as his new FBI director
Kash Patel could only serve as FBI director if current Director Christopher Wray is fired or resigns
Critics say nomination of Patel is ‘as dangerous as it gets’
Critics expressed concern over Trump’s pick of Kash Patel to lead the FBI.
In reaction to the news, the Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols said he “believes in nothing except serving” President-elect Donald Trump and described the nomination as “as dangerous as it gets.”
“I suppose if we still have the ability to be shocked, it’s shocking,” Nichols said. “But I think this is something … many of us saw it coming and, you know, shouldn’t be that surprising. But it’s an incredibly dangerous development.”
Far-left commentator Mehdi Hasan accused Patel of being a “deeply strange and alarming and sycophantic figure.”
MSNBC’s Morning Joe previously called Patel the “personification of MAGA rage about the Justice Department and the FBI.”
Andrew McCabe, who briefly served as acting FBI director under Trump in 2017 before being fired for allegedly leaking to the media and a “lack of candor,” called the nomination “a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI.”
“It’s a terrible development for the men and women of the FBI and also for the nation that depends on a highly functioning, professional, independent Federal Bureau of Investigation,” McCabe said on CNN. “The fact that Kash Patel is profoundly unqualified for this job is not even, like, a matter for debate.”
JUST IN: Former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe rushes to CNN to whine about how "dangerous" Trump's nomination of Kash Patel is, says it's "terrible" for the "men and women" of the FBI.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 1, 2024
Amazing.
"It's a terrible development for the men and women of the FBI and also for… pic.twitter.com/QbArxg3rd3
Kash Patel's nomination met with praise from Republicans
Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel as FBI director was met with enthusiasm and instant praise from Republicans.
Patel, longtime Trump loyalist, is a critic of government corruption and has blasted the bureau in the past, saying he would “shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen the next day as a museum of the deep state.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called Patel an “America First fighter.”
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, wrote: “Kash was INSTRUMENTAL in President Trump’s first term and will be EVEN GREATER in his second! Time to clean this place up, and Kash is the man to do it!!! MAGA!”
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