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President-elect welcomes partner of slain Japanese prime minister to Florida home as nominee for health secretary seeks to reassure dubious senators
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Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump hosted Akie Abe, the widow of slain Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, at their Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Sunday, paying their respects to a man the president-elect worked with during his first term who was shockingly murdered in July 2022.
Trump’s transition team are meanwhile spending the final working week before Christmas sending some of his most controversial nominees for cabinet posts to meet with senators on Capitol Hill.
Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, the president-elect’s choices for health secretary and director of national intelligence respectively, will seek to shore up support and attempt to dispel doubts over some of their controversial past statements, which, it is feared, could imperil their confirmation hearings come January.
Over the weekend, ABC News agreed to a $15 million settlement in response to Trump’s defamation lawsuit launched against the network after it erroneously claimed in a broadcast that the president-elect had been found “liable for rape” at the civil trial brought against him by the writer E Jean Carroll over an incident dating back to 1996.
Trump was actually found “liable for sexual abuse”, not rape.
Over the weekend, ABC News agreed to a $15 million settlement in response to Trump’s defamation lawsuit launched against the network after it erroneously claimed in a broadcast that the president-elect had been found “liable for rape” at the civil trial brought against him by the writer E Jean Carroll over an incident dating back to 1996.
Trump was actually found liable for “sexual abuse”, not rape.
The network’s costly settlement has alarmed legal analysts and drawn criticism that the network and its Disney parent company gave up without a fight.
Here’s why.
Trump claimed George Stephanopoulos defamed him when he said a jury found him ‘liable for rape’
The Trump transition team is kicking into a new gear, as time runs out to secure support for their most important nominees.
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, is reportedly slated to meet with Senators Ron Johnson and Jerry Moran this week while other parts of the transition team are going to begin engaging with the Pentagon.
On the non-defense side of things, Robert F Kennedy Jr has plans to meet over two dozen senators this week, likely in an effort to ease concerns about how his anti-vax views might imperil his confirmation.
Good morning!
The incoming president and first lady hosted the widow of late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, paying their respects to Akie Abe following the murder of her husband in July 2022.
Trump worked with PM Abe during his first term in the White House.
A server in Washington, D.C. has been fired after she said she would refuse to serve certain officials in Donald Trump‘s incoming administration who have been accused of sexual misconduct.
The server was working at Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill when she made the comments to Washingtonian magazine for a story about D.C. preparing for the influx of Trump officials to the city’s dining spots.
After the story ran, Fox News ran its own story following up on her comments and learned she had been fired for what her employer called her “base prejudice.”
Read more:
Capitol workers begin to brace for Trump administration officials
Daniel Penny, the former US Marine who was recently acquitted of the killing of New York City subway rider Jordan Neely, spent Saturday rubbing elbows with President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance at the annual Army-Navy football game in Maryland.
The death of the homeless Black street performer sparked outrage and demands for justice for homeless New Yorkers, while Penny — and some witnesses aboard the train — argued he was a danger to others onboard. The former Marine held Neely in a lethal chokehold for more than six minutes.
“He was just threatening to kill people,” Penny told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. “He was threatening to go to jail forever, to go to jail for the rest of his life.”
Read more:
JD Vance invited ‘good guy’ Penny after he was found not guilty in the killing of the homeless New Yorker
CNN’s State of the Union interviewed retiring senator Mitt Romney on Sunday. The Republican senator has been one of Donald Trump’s last remaining opponents in the GOP, but bowed out of the Senate this year.
Romney 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,” the Utah senator told Jake Tapper, adding: “Democrats have badly misread the direction of the country… and President Trump took advantage of that.”
Watch a clip here:
Utah senator, who is soon to step down, says he was ‘wrong’ about assumption Trump would lose 2024 election
Donald Trump announced on Saturday that Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes and the president-elect’s Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell have been selected to serve in his upcoming administration.
Nunes, as former California House Representative, was tapped for to serve as Chairman of Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board, while Grenell was picked to serve as his Presiential Envoy for Special Missions.
While Nunes was in office he served on the House Intelligence Committee and consistently backed any move then-President Trump made. He also led the two-year investigation into US’s responde to the 2012 Benghazi attack, which ultimate found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the US State Department under Hillary Clinton.
Nunes also refused to back an investigation into Trump former national security adviser and Q-Anon conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn after it was revealed he had unreported discussions with Russian officials while serving under Trump.
“From everything that I can see, his conversations with the Russian ambassador—he was doing this country a favor, and he should be thanked for it,” Nunes said at the time.
Grenell formerly served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany and his Director of National Intelligence.
Prior to his involvement in Trump’s administration, Grenell was a consultant for an eastern European oligarch, Vladimir Plahotniuc. He faced criticism after he wrote articles defending the oligarch without making clear he was being paid to manage the man’s image.
Grenell is a former Fox News contributor and was named as a VP at the far-right media outlet Newsmax in 2021. He earned the ire of the media in 2020 when, during a Trump press conference, he refused to identify himself to reporters and publicly accused the state of covering up incidents of voter fraud in order to help the election prospects of then-Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
These claims were made without evidence, and Mr Grenell refused to answer questions from journalists who demanded he prove his assertions.
A transgender activist who staged a sit-in at the US Capitol to protest House Republicans’ new policy targeting a transgender incoming member of Congress tells The Independent that the 2024 election cycle shows that LGBTQ+ Americans really can’t trust Democrats to have their backs in a fight.
“Unfortunately, the signals coming from our government right now, under a Democratic president, are telling us that we’re essentially on our own,” the 33-year-old activist told our Io Dodds in an interview.
In the face of ‘eradication’, one trans activist is preparing to fight – and she’s sick of silence and neglect from her supposed allies. Raquel Willis tells Io Dodds why Republican bathroom bans are everybody’s problem
Donald Trump Jr is dating a new woman who he thinks will “impress” his father, but has not publicly announced a split from Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose style he has criticized, according to a report.
Photos captured Trump Jr., 46 holding hands with socialite Bettina Anderson, 38, as they went for an evening stroll through Palm Beach, Florida this week.
While neither president-elect Donald Trump’s eldest son nor Guilfoyle, 55, have spoken publicly about their relationship status, insiders told People that after months of criticizing Guilfoyle’s style, he thinks he’s found someone who fits into the Trump family — someone comparable to his father’s wife, Melania. Trump met Melania at a party in 1998, when he was on a date with another woman, the former first lady said in a 2016 interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
Read more:
‘Kim is so uptight and always dresses so professionally in these kinds of dresses and high heels,’ Trump Jr. allegedly said to Guilfoyle, according to a source
With the year coming to a close, the Trump transition team is planning a busy week of meetings at the Capitol for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the incoming administration’s controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
He’s set to meet with numerous GOP senators in the coming days, according to the transition team.
Health experts warn Kennedy is skeptical of mainstream public health interventions like vaccines and flouride in water.
Public health advocates are warning against an incoming powder keg of misinformation and conspiracy theories
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