Trump says he wants to rename Gulf of Mexico and retake Panama Canal during press conference: Live
President-elect held baffling — at times alarming — press event at Mar-a-Lago, wandering from topic to topic and threatening allied nations
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump gave a bizarre, rambling press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, bafflingly leaping from one topic to another.
Ostensibly arranged to announce new foreign investment in the US, the president-elect also attacked President Joe Biden over the transition process and refused to rule out using military or economic coercion to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.
Trump further railed against windmills, electric heaters, water pressure and soap, Canada, dishwashers, and the legal cases against him. At one moment he said he wanted to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and then claimed Hezbollah might have been at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Meanwhile, his lawyers are attempting to block the “imminent” release of a final report by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith covering his classified documents and election interference cases. Aileen Cannon, the judge in the former case, has temporarily blocked the release of that final report.
Further, Judge Juan Merchan refused Trump’s latest attempt to delay the sentencing over his hush money conviction — still scheduled for Friday.
This all came just a day after Congress formally recognized the president-elect’s 2024 election win over Kamala Harris.
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Full story: Trump loses last-ditch attempt to stop hush money sentencing
An appeals court judge has rejected Donald Trump’s last-ditch attempt to stop this week’s sentencing hearing in his hush money trial.
The president-elect has desperately fought to return to the White House with a clear record. But after his latest courtroom failures to overturn his conviction and sentence, Trump is set to enter office as the first criminally convicted president in U.S. history.
Moments after a brief hearing with Trump’s attorneys and Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday, a New York state appellate court judge issued a one-page denial of the president-elect’s latest attempt to avoid his imminent court date.
Alex Woodward reports from New York.
Trump loses last-ditch attempt to stop hush money sentencing
New York appeals court rejects president-elect’s latest move to halt his imminent sentencing date
Harris will travel to Asia, Mideast and Europe during her final week in office
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to close out her term with an around-the-world trip making stops in Singapore, Bahrain and Germany, her office said.
The trip, which is scheduled to last from Jan. 13 to Jan. 17, will be a final opportunity for Harris to address U.S. foreign policy challenges before Donald Trump takes office. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is expected to join the vice president.
Although she has not disclosed her next steps after losing the presidential election, the expansive travel suggests that Harris might want to continue playing a role on the global stage. There’s also speculation that Harris could run for governor of her home state of California.
Dean Lieberman, Harris’ deputy national security adviser, said in a written statement that “the vice president felt it important to spend some of her final days in office thanking and engaging directly with U.S. servicemembers deployed overseas, which as she has said, has been one of her greatest privileges as vice president.”
There are U.S. troops based at all three of Harris’ stops.
Read on for more details...
Harris will travel to Asia, Mideast and Europe during her final week in office
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to close out her term with an around-the-world trip
Watch: Trump wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico
Donald Trump says he will rename ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’
President-elect, Donald Trump claimed he plans to change the name of the 'Gulf of Mexico' to 'Gulf of America'. During an odd press conference on Tuesday, January 7th, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm beach, Trump said this, along with many other off-base comments. The newly elected United States President backed up his idea by stating "we do most of the work there" and claiming the Gulf is "ours". Other notable comments from Trump include calling The Panama Canal a "disgrace" and attacking Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for announcing his resignation.
What you need to know as Biden admin moves to scrub medical debt from credit reports
Unpaid medical bills will no longer appear on credit reports, where they can block people from mortgages, car loans or small business loans, according to a final rule announced Tuesday by the Biden administration.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CSPB) rule will remove $49 billion in medical debt from the credit reports of more than 15 million Americans, according to the bureau, which means lenders will no longer be able to take that into consideration when deciding to issue a loan.
Andrew Georgeson reports.
Biden admin moves to scrub medical debt from credit reports. What you need to know
Unpaid medical bills will no longer appear on credit reports, where they can block people from mortgages, car loans or small business loans
Trudeau says not a ‘snowball’s chance in hell’ Canada would become part of US
‘That’s like the whole ocean!’: Trump rants about Biden’s offshore 625 million acre drilling ban
Donald Trump ranted about Joe Biden’s 625 million acre offshore drilling ban in the Atlantic and wrongly claimed it covered almost “the whole ocean.”
“Take an acre, you have a house on a half-acre or a quarter-acre, or an acre, you have a big deal,” the President-elect exclaimed during a wild press conference on Tuesday. “Now you multiply that by 625 million acres. That’s like... it feels like the whole ocean!”
However, Trump’s math was off by some margin, as Mike Bedigan reports.
Trump claims Biden’s offshore 625 million acre drilling ban covers ‘the whole ocean’
The President-elect’s math was off by large margin during latest wild press conference at Mar-a-Lago
Watch: Aguilar says Trump ‘not entitled to his own set of facts’ regarding Jan 6
White House reportedly negotiating with Taliban to swap Americans for alleged bin Laden ally
President Joe Biden is reportedly trying to negotiate a hostage deal with the Taliban to bring home three Americans in exchange for an alleged Osama bin Laden associate who has been held in Guantanamo Bay since 2008.
Among his last acts as president, and in keeping with his promise to bring home every wrongfully detained American, Biden is trying to work out a deal to bring home George Glezmann, Ryan Corbett and Mahmoud Habibi, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ariana Baio has the details.
U.S. reportedly in talks with Taliban to swap Americans for Guantanamo Bay prisoner
Three American men have been held by the Taliban since 2022
Jan 6 felony defendant allowed to attend Trump inauguration
William Pope has been granted permission by Judge Rudolph Contreras to attend Donald Trump's inauguration, the first January 6 Capitol riot felony defendant allowed to attend.
It is also the first time someone has been permitted to attend over an objection from the Department of Justice.
Former Proud Boys ringleader begs Trump for Jan. 6 pardon
The former leader of the Proud Boys has asked President-elect Donald Trump for a pardon.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio once served as the national chairman of the far-right group, which federal prosecutors said played a “central role” in the breach of the Capitol building four years ago.
More than a year after he was sentenced to 22 years in prison and 36 months behind bars for his role in the Capitol riot, Tarrio has asked to be pardoned by Trump, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.
Kelly Rissman reports.
Former Proud Boys ringleader Enrique Tarrio begs Trump for Jan. 6 pardon
‘Henry is nothing more than a proud American that believes in true conservative values,’ his lawyer argued
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