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Robert F Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard head to Capitol Hill to drum up support ahead of confirmation hearings
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Presidential electors are meeting in all 50 states and Washington D.C. to ratify President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a mostly ceremonial voting process, 538 electoral votes will be handed down. Thirteen of the electors are Republicans who took part in the fake electors plot in 2020, and some of them face criminal charges.
This comes as Trump’s choices for his cabinet head to Capitol Hill to meet with senators ahead of their confirmation hearings. HHS secretary nominee Robert F Kennedy Jr. and the nominee to serve as the director of national intelligence, former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, are on the hill Tuesday to drum up support for their respective nominations.
Meanwhile, Trump has lost his latest bid to throw out his New York hush money conviction, with the judge overseeing the case rejecting his attorneys’ conjecture that he is protected by “presidential immunity”.
The president-elect appears likely to enter the White House as a convicted felon, though it remains unclear when, or if, the justice will continue to postpone a sentencing date after a unanimous jury found him guilty in May of falsifying business records tied to hush money payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels in October 2016.
After amassing more than 170 million users in the country in less than seven years, TikTok is now facing an outright ban in the US.
On 19 January, just one day before Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated as president, the country is set to become the latest to completely ban the Chinese-owned app.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is still attempting to reverse the ruling, and has three potential ways to avoid the nationwide ban. The first is to ask the US Supreme Court to intervene, which it did on Monday. The second is to convince Trump to reverse the decision when he comes into office, with TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew reportedly meeting with the incoming president on Monday. And the third – though this appears increasingly unlikely – ByteDance can abide by the ruling and sell TikTok to a US-based owner.
Read more:
More than 3 billion people are already blocked from using the app, writes Anthony Cuthbertson
Donald Trump Jr has said he will always “care for” Kimberly Guilfoyle and that the couple retain “a special bond” amid reports that they have ended their four-year engagement and parted ways.
While the couple has still not officially confirmed the split, the president-elect’s eldest son, 46, was recently pictured with Florida socialite Bettina Anderson celebrating her 38th birthday at Buccan, an exclusive Palm Beach restaurant, and enjoying a romantic evening stroll along the beach.
The photos, published by The Daily Mail, coincided with Guilfoyle, 55, being picked by President-elect Donald Trump to be his next US ambassador to Greece, leading to jokes from the likes of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that she had effectively been exiled to Athens to avoid an embarrassing break-up.
Now, Don Jr has told Page Six he and Guilfoyle “will never stop caring for each other” – though he stopped short of confirming their relationship is over.
“Kimberly and I will never stop caring for each other and will always keep a special bond,” he said.
President-elect’s eldest son has still not officially confirmed the split but was pictured last week with Florida socialite Bettina Anderson
The US embassy was damaged Tuesday in an earthquake striking Port Vila, the capital of the South Pacific Ocean nation Vanuatu.
The 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck at about 12.53 p.m. and there were following “aftershocks,” an embassy alert said.
“There are also reports of landslides in the Port Vila area. People are advised to avoid entering buildings as they may be damaged or unstable,” the embassy added. “The U.S. Embassy in Port Vila has sustained considerable damage during the earthquake and is closed until further notice.”
Presidential electors are meeting in all 50 states and Washington D.C. to ratify President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a mostly ceremonial voting process, 538 electoral votes will be handed down. Thirteen of the electors are Republicans who took part in the fake electors plot in 2020, and some of them face criminal charges.
Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly has beaten Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the ranking member spot on the House Oversight Committee.
Connolly received 131 votes to Ocasio-Cortez’s 84.
HHS secretary nominee Robert F Kennedy Jr. and the nominee to serve as the director of national intelligence, former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard are on the hill Tuesday to drum up support for their respective nominations.
Congressional Republicans have reached a deal in principle to fund the federal government, according to CNN.
Speaker Mike Johnson has said he hopes to release the on Tuesday afternoon. It reportedly includes almost $100 billion in disaster aid and another $10 billion in banking relief for farmers.
The deal also includes an extension of the farm bill for one year, a provision aiding biofuels, a measure extending telehealth flexibilities, and another measure for pharmacy benefit managers, the network noted.
Leaders of both parties remain confident that a government shutdown will be averted before Friday.
Donald Trump lashed out at Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court Juan Merchan after he rejected the president-elect’s attempt to throw out his hush-money case conviction based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
“In a completely illegal, psychotic order, the deeply conflicted, corrupt, biased, and incompetent Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court, and its Historic Decision on Immunity,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday.
Calling Merchan a “radical partisan,” the former president went on to claim that he wrote, “an opinion that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution, and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.”
“I am the only Political Opponent in American History not allowed to defend myself,” Trump added in a subsequent post after nominating some of his own defense lawyers to top roles at the Department of Justice.
Rising Democratic star Mallory McMorrow isn’t running for DNC chair — she went viral for a Michigan Senate speech against anti-trans attacks and “groomer” panic and was on the stage during this year’s Democratic National Convention.
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