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If you take a step back – make that several steps back – it’s easier to understand what Donald Trump is doing.Why would he deliberately ignite a media firestorm over such controversial nominees as Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth, and to a lesser degree with Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr.?The short answer is that the president-elect can’t run again and wants these nominees to disrupt – or even blow up – the departments they’d be in charge of running. And if they don’t have the usual credentials, if they’ve never run a large organization, he doesn’t give a damn.But wouldn’t it better serve his purposes to nominate equally disruptive Cabinet members who don’t have the baggage of a Matt Gaetz? But would they have the unquestioned loyalty?TRUMP, DEFYING MEDIA PREDICTIONS, MAINLY PICKS SEASONED CAPITOL HILL VETERANS SUCH AS MARCO RUBIOEven skeptical members of his inner circle have no choice but to let Trump be Trump.  If Gaetz were to become attorney general, for instance, he could fire FBI chief Chris Wray rather than Trump having to be the bad guy. The thinking in Trump World is that the Senate won’t be able to reject more than two of his nominees. So even if Gaetz, who doesn’t appear to have the votes, is rejected, and perhaps Hegseth as well, everyone else gets through, including Kennedy and Gabbard.And wouldn’t it be hard for the Republican Senate, in the wake of such rejections, to be essentially obligated to approve the replacement nominees, given the magnitude of Trump’s victory? Is this 4-dimensional chess?White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was on the plane, with Gaetz, when Trump offered the now-former congressman the AG’s job. Whether Wiles, who ran a tightly organized campaign, knew about it or not, she had no power to stop it.Privately, some Trump advisers are opposed to the most radioactive picks, but they also know that the boss gets what he wants.  THE PODCAST CAMPAIGN: IS IT CURTAINS FOR MAINSTREAM MEDIA?The incoming Senate majority leader, John Thune, who’s not a Trump fan and was opposed by Trump, is deemed not likely to go along with recess appointments, which would be surrendering the chamber’s constitutional role of advise and consent.New reporting has complicated things for Gaetz and Hegseth, the decorated Army combat veteran and former Fox weekend host tapped to run the Pentagon. The Washington Post scoop about Hegseth’s lawyer saying he paid off a female accuser who says he raped her in 2017, as part of a non-disclosure agreement, would sink a nominee under any other president. Hegseth, visibly intoxicated, says the encounter in his hotel room was consensual; the 30-year-old woman was at the conservative conference with her husband and small children.In the case of Gaetz, House Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t want the ethics committee report released, since the man has resigned his seat. Does anyone doubt that if this was a Democrat, he would take the opposite stance and denounce the nominee as a pervert?  In any event, a lawyer for multiple women making accusations of sexual misconduct told ABC that two of his clients say Gaetz paid them for sex. And he plans more interviews.Attorney Joel Leppard said that in their House ethics testimony, staffers “essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex.'” .MEDIA LIBERALS SAVAGE KAMALA AS TRUMP PICKS EXPERIENCED HARD-LINERSLeppard had previously said that one of his clients had also watched Gaetz have sex with a minor.John Clune, another lawyer for a woman who contends that Gaetz had sex with a minor then in high school, called the Gaetz nomination “a perverse development in a truly dark series of events.”And as CNN noted, one of the underage girls says she had sex with Gaetz on an air hockey table, according to her testimony.One thing is certain: Trump continues to support both nominees. He is not going to back down.By the way, if Kamala Harris had won the election, I’d be scrutinizing her nominees the same way. A number of pro-Trumpers online accused me of Trump Derangement Syndrome for covering the most controversial nominees, which is hilarious because the president-elect granted me two interviews in 10 months, one just a couple of weeks before the election, and told me that both were fair.Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to meet with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who have relentlessly bashed him for the last seven years, was a brilliant move. Both made the request, and Trump was magnanimous enough to grant them an audience at Mar-a-Lago – really a stunning development.As they explained yesterday on “Morning Joe:””We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets. We talked about that a good bit,” Scarborough said.”It will come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so.”‘MORNING JOE’ CO-HOSTS HOLD FACE-TO-FACE MEETING WITH TRUMP FOR FIRST TIME IN SEVEN YEARSWhat they did agree on, Brzezinski said, “was to restart communications.”She noted that her father, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, “often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed. That is a task shared by reporters and commentators alike. We had not spoken to Trump since March of 2020, other than a personal call that Joe made after the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.”Trump was “cheerful and upbeat” and “seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.”As for the expected liberal backlash for meeting with a man they’d described as a fascist, Mika turned it around: “Why wouldn’t we?”Trump later told Fox’s Brooke Singman: “Many things were discussed, and I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication. In many ways, it’s too bad that it wasn’t done long ago…”In order to Make America Great Again, it is very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press.” MSNBC’S ‘MORNING JOE’ CO-HOSTS REVEAL THEY MET WITH PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP AT MAR-A-LAGOTrump also said of his meeting with the husband-and-wife MSNBC hosts that they “congratulated me on running a ‘great and flawless campaign, one for the history books,’ which I really believe it was, but it was also a campaign where I worked long and hard — perhaps longer and harder than any presidential candidate in history.””We talked about various Cabinet members — both announced and to be announced. As expected, they like some very much, but not all. The meeting ended in a very positive manner, and we agreed to speak in the future.” And here’s the olive branch: “I expect this will take place with others in the media, even those that have been extremely hostile.”Trump said he has “an obligation to the American public, and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press.””If not treated fairly, however, that will end.”So there you have it, a carrot and a stick. The denunciations came fast and furious.SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES”Byron York – Annals of shamelessness: They call Trump a fascist, and much, much more, and then, just 22 days after his ‘Nazi-like’ rally, they fly to Florida for an audience. Afterward, they say, ‘We didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues,’ but they want to ‘restart communications.’ What?”Steve Cortes – “It’s difficult to overstate how dishonest these two are. Mika & Joe scream for months that Trump is a ‘fascist’ who would ‘end democracy.’ Now that he’s elected — and very popular — they visit him like it’s just coffee with an opposing party politician???”I couldn’t disagree more. The meeting, which may not be unrelated to ratings, means they will have some access to their onetime friend and, they say, criticize him when they think he’s wrong.Who wants to hear another four years of Trump-bashing, which didn’t work? This way they can report what the next president says and then take a stance. And with Trump vowing to reach out to other hostile outlets, I hope the truce lasts.Footnote: Trump has named former Congressman Sean Duffy, a co-host of “Bottom Line” on FOX Business, as Transportation secretary.



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Publish date : 2024-11-19 08:00:33

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The University of Iowa has placed one of its fraternities on interim suspension after an alleged hazing incident last week.Alpha Delta Phi has been accused of having 56 blindfolded pledges “with food thrown on them” in the fraternity house’s basement, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Iowa City Press-Citizen.The pledges were discovered by Iowa City police and university police when the agencies responded to a fire alarm at the fraternity house at around 12:45 a.m. on Nov. 15.The fraternity was ordered by the university’s Office of Student Accountability to “suspend all operations” pending the outcome of the investigation into the hazing allegations. The fraternity’s national organization also placed the UI chapter under suspension.SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY SUSPENDS FRATERNITY AFTER ‘REPUGNANT’ HAZING VIDEO SURFACES ONLINEOne person, who is not a student and does not live at the fraternity house, was arrested and charged with interference with official acts, the university said.The Iowa City Press-Citizen identified that person as 21-year-old Joseph Gaya. His charge stems from standing “in front of the officers in the doorway of the room full of pledges” and refusing to move out of the way, the outlet reported.He allegedly stepped between two witnesses and an officer during a conversation, and told the witnesses “not to talk to the police.” The officer told Gaya to step away, but he allegedly refused and eventually told the officer, “You can (expletive) leave, how about that?” The two witnesses told Gaya they were “fine,” according to the Press-Citizen, but he still did not leave.FLORIDA FRATERNITY BROTHER WITH BRAIN DAMAGE FROM HAZING SENDS LIFESAVING WARNING TO FUTURE GREEKSThe university said its Office of Student Accountability will follow its discipline procedure for student organizations, which includes issuing sanctions for prohibited behaviors, such as hazing.”As registered student organizations, fraternities are expected to uphold the values of the university, and their members are expected to comply with the Code of Student Life,” the university said in a news release.The affected students have been offered “counseling and resources,” according to UI.”The university is committed to protecting the health and safety of its students and will address any behavior that puts student safety at risk,” the university said.Fox News Digital has reached out to Alpha Delta Phi’s national organization and the University of Iowa police.



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Publish date : 2024-11-19 06:54:17

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The Houston Texans have won the battle of Texas, as they dominated the struggling Dallas Cowboys, 34-10, on “Monday Night Football.”Houston came into this game losing back-to-back games, and there were some murmurs from the fan base about what needs to be done on offense with C.J. Stroud struggling to get going of late. But, with his trusty receiver Nico Collins back from a hamstring injury, Stroud looked more poised, and it opened up a lot for offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik to work with. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMCollins’ return to the football field led to 54 yards on four receptions. His first catch of the game was a screen that went all the way for a touchdown, which would’ve been the ultimate welcome back. However, it was called back due to an illegal man downfield. But a few plays later, it was Joe Mixon, the Texans’ workhorse running back, scoring his first of three touchdowns on the night – a 45-yard sprint that got past every Cowboys defender on his way to the end zone. LARGE METAL PIECE FALLS ON AT&T STADIUM FIELD BEFORE COWBOYS-TEXANS GAMEMixon’s second came on the Texans’ third drive of the game, as he bounced out to the right and showboated his way into the colored paint to give the Texans a definitive 14-0 lead. He finished the game with 109 yards on the ground on 20 carries. But Cooper Rush and the Cowboys’ offense didn’t just roll over like last week against the Philadelphia Eagles. Rush needed to get something going for Dallas after an opening-drive fake punt was thwarted by Houston, and the signal caller threw an interception on the team’s second drive. He did just that with KaVontae Turpin’s speed, as he caught a slant and hit the jets for a 64-yard touchdown. It was exactly what the Cowboys, and Rush in particular, needed to feel confident with the ball in their hands after scoring just six points a week ago. While no other play found the end zone after Turpin, there was a back-and-forth of field goals between Ka’imi Fairbairn and Brandon Aubrey, the latter of who knocked through an incredible 64-yard field goal. In the second half, with Houston owning a 20-10 lead, the Cowboys were knocking on the doorstep, looking at fourth-and-2 from the Texans’ 8-yard line. Head coach Mike McCarthy opted to go for it, but a pass that went incomplete turned the ball over on downs for the second time this game. The Cowboys were able to force the Texans to punt, but a costly mistake came when Rush was strip sacked and despite one of his offensive lineman scooping up the fumble, it was knocked out of his hands and Derek Barnett took it into the end zone to make it 27-10 early in the fourth quarter.Mixon would later rush for his third touchdown of the night, which was the kill shot for the Cowboys, who have now lost five straight games and moved to 3-7. Stroud was efficient with his passes in this one, going 23-of-34 for 257 yards, though he didn’t throw a touchdown. He hit eight different receivers, including Tank Dell who matched Collins’ output of 54 yards on four catches. For the Cowboys, Rush had to throw 55 times, completing 32 of them for 354 yards with one touchdown and one interception. CeeDee Lamb hauled in a game-high eight catches for 93 yards, though his face said it all on the sidelines after yet another crushing loss. Finally, the Cowboys have now trailed by at least 20 points in six straight home games, which continues to be an NFL record as they can’t figure things out in their own barn. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.



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Publish date : 2024-11-19 04:36:05

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I’m here. I’m here. Chairman of the Joint Chief of Sexiness. Happy Monday, everyone. So with Trump’s election, Mexico is now planning to strengthen its borders. This as Canada also cracks down on illegal immigration. When asked why, officials point to the influx of liberal celebrities that could overwhelm their obesity treatment centers. My God. Because they’re fat. Last week, Donald Trump met with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski at Mar-a-Lago. It was hard for them to see eye to eye since Trump only saw the tops of their heads. It’s polishing their shoes. Joe Biden appeared to wander off into the Amazon rainforest after making a statement. If you don’t know where he was, don’t worry. Neither did he. When told he was at the Amazon, Joe said, Tell them I paid for two days shipping on my Depends. Turns out the Harris campaign shelled out 2.5 million to Oprah for that disastrous Kamala town hall. Not the original 1 million, as reported. That payout comes to $10 a pound. I know. Funny. And Air Portugal flight was grounded after 132 hamsters ran loose around the plane. Didn’t Richard Gear announce he was leaving the country? I guess they found out where his lost luggage went. But passengers knew something was amiss when the pilot illuminated the clench your ass sign. Tight spaces. They love them. ‘SANCTUARY CITY’ MAYOR VOWS SHE WILL DEFY TRUMP’S MASS DEPORTATION PUSH: ‘CAUSING WIDESPREAD FEAR’Doctors are warning of a condition called winter penis, in which low temperatures can cause it to shrink by up to 50%. They’re also warning of Behar penis, in which exposure to Joy Behar can cause the penis to shrink in size of up to 90%. Finally, Snow White star Rachel Zegler has apologized for her anti-Trump post. It was the fakest apology since Bill Clinton said, I’m sorry to hear your parents are out of town. All right. It’s Monday. Over the weekend, Donald Trump hit Madison Square Garden again for another one of his unique Nazi rallies. You know, the ones that contain about as many Nazis as Ben Stiller’s bar mitzvah. To say he was greeted warmly would be like saying, I’m not a bad looking guy. Trump rolled in with his crew, including Elon, Tulsi, RFK, Vivek and Kid Rock. It looked like an ad for workplace diversity. Except these folks, they have accomplishments. Of course, it was a crowd of mostly men who were actually born that way. So Democrats worst nightmare. Thousands of penises and none inside a woman’s locker room. Of course, most of these dudes voted for Trump, as did their wives, girlfriends and pit bulls. Here’s some of what it looked like. Of course. But of course, CNN would reference ancient Rome. That’s the last time they had an audience. But it wasn’t just UFC celebrating. Trump’s dance took over the NFL. Now, if you listen carefully, you can actually hear Colin Kaepernick rolling over in his grave. And he’s not even dead. Yeah. But it’s the kind of thing that the other side could never achieve today. And right now, the Dems are asking themselves why. True, they literally have to pay their friends to hang out with them. It’s a question echoing throughout the liberalverse Why don’t we have a Rogan? Where’s our Elon? Well, it’s simple. You had Rogan, you had Elan, you even had me in college. But who didn’t? Back then, all it took was a lukewarm Zima. The truth is, in the intolerant world the Dems created, no one like Rogan or Musk can exist. And that’s because you attract people like that. You need freedom of thought. Or hell, any thought at all. So how did the Democrat Party get here? Well, first it was the lazy way out. Rather than making policies that benefit Americans. They slid mindlessly into the toxic path of identity politics. This wasn’t thinking. It was a cessation of thought. Like when you’re in a coma or watching Fox and Friends. Their discussions were never about what can we fix or what can we create. Instead, they began and ended with who I am and why it makes me better than you. They turned everything into an identity pissing contest with their egos as a diuretic. Now, if you could claim some intersectionality, you were a neighborhood celebrity, especially if that neighborhood was a college campus or a newsroom. But as these scolds got louder and louder and more of our media invertebrates cowered into line, the resistance started to look a lot like the First Amendment.Ordinary people wanted the freedom from being canceled. And that’s where the Musks and Rogan’s came from. They were the revolution. They were the resistance. So you can’t be the resistance when you’re the machine controlling, controlling all thought. It’s why they couldn’t create their own Rush Limbaugh or their own Twitter. The left turned into everything they used to hate about the right. It’s been the ugliest transition since Admiral Levine turned in his boots for pumps. The machine can’t make its own resistance. The resistance leaves, and you’re left with humorless, hectoring hags like Joy Reid, who’s shedding viewers faster than her hair. So are the Dems ready to give up and grow up? Well, here is Jen Psaki doubling down on that dissent. Is this information that must be regulated? That was on Katie Couric’s podcast, which is slightly more thoughtful than our colonoscopy. But remember that still they embrace censorship rather than figure out what they did wrong. But there’s another reason the Democrat media complex can’t change ego. Rather than identify with the real people, they chose to please the peers in their industry because that’s where the cocktail party is. That’s where they can impress people who might write about them in Vanity Fair. Their egos need that, so they mirrored each other’s assumptions. It was a giant circle jerk – emphasis on jerk.But as they no longer identified with real people an orange billionaire with brass balls and a willingness to call Bull**** did it by standing up and yelling, Fight, fight, fight. He attracted renegades inspired by his fearlessness. You saw them at the UFC, on the street, at football games. They’re no longer afraid to speak their minds. And if you don’t like it, cool. There’s the door. If you can fit your fat ass through it.



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Publish date : 2024-11-19 04:37:12

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