Elise Stefanik Went Full MAGA — So Where Is Her Trump Endorsement?

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New York Rep. Elise Stefanik morphed from a moderate, right-of-center Republican to a MAGA champion in just a few years, but she still hasn’t secured the coveted Trump endorsement in her run for governor of New York as she faces a new primary challenger.

Stefanik, whose team argues she has the best shot at defeating incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, is facing Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Even though Stefanik currently leads Blakeman by 31 points, President Donald Trump has asserted both are “great people” and declined to get involved in the race at this point.

The lack of endorsement raises questions about potential lingering tensions from Trump pulling Stefanik’s nomination as ambassador to the United Nations and a recent row with Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as the political expediency of Stefanik’s delayed embrace of the president.

During the 2016 Republican primary, Stefanik publicly criticized several of Trump’s positions but largely avoided mentioning him by name, according to a Roll Call report. Her criticisms included Trump’s attacks on the family of a Muslim U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, his proposal to ban immigration from Muslim-majority countries, his pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the release of the Access Hollywood tape.

In May 2016, Stefanik avoided mentioning Trump by name prior to his nomination, instead reaffirming her commitment to supporting the Republican nominee, stating “Like my Democratic opponent, I will support my party’s nominee in the fall,” she said, according to an Albany Times Union report.

(Read more from “Elise Stefanik Went Full MAGA — So Where Is Her Trump Endorsement?” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Jack Smith Testifies Privately Team Had ‘Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt’ on Trump

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Former Special Counsel Jack Smith told members of Congress in a private interview Wednesday that his team gathered sufficient evidence to support criminal charges against Donald Trump in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the retention of classified documents, even though both cases were later dropped following Trump’s return to the presidency.

In a closed-door hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith defended his handling of two major federal investigations into President Donald Trump. According to excerpts from his opening remarks obtained by the Associated Press, Smith said his team developed “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump criminally conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Smith also said prosecutors amassed “powerful evidence” that Trump unlawfully retained classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and obstructed government attempts to retrieve them.

“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith told the committee. He emphasized his actions were “based on what the facts and the law required.” He also reportedly told lawmakers that if presented with the same facts today, he would again bring charges against a former president, “regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”

Smith was appointed in 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee both probes. His team filed charges in each case but abandoned them after Trump was elected to the White House, citing Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted. (Read more from “Jack Smith Testifies Privately Team Had ‘Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt’ on Trump” HERE)

President Trump Gives Federal Workers 2 New Holidays Around Christmas

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Federal workers are getting a Christmas gift from President Trump.

The president took executive action Thursday to ensure that federal workers get Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas off from work.

Trump had previously given federal workers the day off on Christmas Eve, but his action Thursday goes a step further and adds Dec. 26 to the list.

Previous presidents have given full or half days on Christmas Eve. Trump did so in 2019 and 2020. But adding Dec. 26 off as well is unusual.

The overture comes after federal workers had a rough couple of weeks during the record-breaking 43-day government shutdown that ended last month.

Oftentimes, holidays for federal workers can serve as a model for the private sector to follow. (Read more from “President Trump Gives Federal Workers 2 New Holidays Around Christmas” HERE)

Trump Tells America: ‘I’m Fixing’ Biden’s Mess in Chart-Filled Primetime Address

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President Trump came out swinging against his predecessor in a rare address to the nation while touting the progress he’s made this year — saying that the best was yet to come in 2026.

“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump declared on Wednesday night in a year-end recap beamed live into millions of homes.

“We had the worst trade deals ever made, and our country was laughed at from all over the world, but they’re not laughing anymore.”

“Over the past 11 months, we have brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in American history,” Trump declared, focusing heavily on Americans’ economic concerns.

Trump whipped out a chart to show price decreases and wage increases under his watch — with real private-sector wage growth averaging $1,048 since he returned to the White House, versus losses of $2,919 under Joe Biden.

“Let’s look at the facts. Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22% and in many states 30% or more,” Trump said, ticking through data displayed on other charts. (Read more from “Trump Tells America: ‘I’m Fixing’ Biden’s Mess in Chart-Filled Primetime Address” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

House Passes Last Minute GOP Healthcare Bill

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Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a healthcare reform bill on Wednesday evening targeting rising costs as expiring Obamacare tax credits rally support for change ahead of midterm elections.

The new GOP-backed legislation, titled the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, does not extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits expiring on Dec. 31. The bill, introduced by Republican Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, passed the House in a near party-line 216-211 vote.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was the only GOP member to vote no. No Democrats supported the bill.

Miller-Meeks said on the House floor Wednesday that the new legislation lowers health care costs by “forcing transparency” and implementing “common sense solutions.”

“By lowering premiums through choice and competition, by expanding association health plans, we give small businesses and self-employed workers the buying power of large employers, cutting premiums by as much as 30%,” Miller-Meeks said. “Being transparent to drug pricing, we take on the pharmacy benefit managers who have long operated behind the scenes as middlemen, collecting hidden fees while prescription prices climb.” (Read more from “House Passes Last Minute GOP Healthcare Bill” HERE)

Ghislaine Maxwell Moves to Overturn Conviction

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Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate and former girlfriend of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has launched a dramatic bid to overturn her sex-trafficking conviction and walk free from federal prison, claiming newly uncovered evidence proves her trial was fundamentally unfair.

In a habeas corpus petition filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Maxwell asked a judge to vacate her 2021 conviction and release her from her 20-year sentence. The filing argues that prosecutors withheld critical evidence, relied on false testimony, and committed constitutional violations that, taken together, resulted in what Maxwell’s attorneys describe as a “complete miscarriage of justice.”

According to the petition, information that could have cleared Maxwell was not disclosed to the defense before or during trial. Her legal team contends that evidence emerging from civil lawsuits, government disclosures, investigative records, and newly obtained documents would have changed the outcome of the case.

“In light of the full evidentiary record, no reasonable juror would have convicted her,” the filing states.

The move comes at a pivotal moment. Maxwell’s petition was filed just days before the federal government is required to release a massive trove of Epstein-related records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law signed by President Donald Trump after sustained public pressure for accountability. The statute compels the Justice Department to make public a wide range of investigative materials by Dec. 19.

Those records are expected to include search warrants, financial documents, victim interview notes, electronic data, and other evidence gathered during the sprawling sex-trafficking investigation that engulfed Epstein and his network.

Maxwell’s attorneys argue that the impending document release could complicate matters if her conviction is overturned and a retrial is ordered. While she is no longer opposing the unsealing of records, her legal team warned that public disclosure could severely prejudice any future proceedings, noting the materials contain allegations that were never tested in court.

Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on multiple counts related to recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein. Epstein himself was arrested in July 2019 and died weeks later in a New York federal jail in what authorities ruled a suicide. Maxwell was arrested a year after Epstein’s death and later transferred from a Florida prison to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas following a meeting with senior Justice Department officials earlier this year.

Hegseth Orders Review Of Discharge Characterizations For Troops Booted Over Biden’s Covid Shot Mandate

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum ordering a reevaluation of discharge characterizations for service members removed from service for foregoing the Biden-era Covid shot mandate, the Pentagon revealed Tuesday.

Signed on Dec. 6, the new directive instructs the War Department to undertake a “proactive review of personnel records, to identify individuals who were involuntarily discharged solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and facilitate appropriate discharge upgrades.” As The Federalist previously reported, more than 8,700 troops were effectively forced out of the military for opting not to get the experimental jab.

In his memo, Hegseth acknowledged the Pentagon’s ongoing efforts to reinstate members “who were involuntarily discharged or voluntarily left Military Service” as to avoid the “unfair, overbroad, and unnecessary” mandate. He further noted that “It is unconscionable that thousands of former Service members who held true to their personal and religious convictions were not just separated, but separated with General (Under Honorable Conditions), rather than Honorable, discharge characterizations.”

“While many have applied for and received relief from our Military Department review boards, I believe the onus is on us to make this right,” Hegseth wrote.

In addition to instructing the Pentagon to conduct the aforementioned review of personnel records, Hegseth has ordered the Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata to “provide implementing policy and guidance and direct staffing requirements to the Secretaries of the Military Departments.” Under this edict, Tata “will issue directive guidance in this area, coordinated with the Secretaries of the Military Departments, outside the standard Department process … and with the authority to direct appropriate staffing and to amend this memorandum as required,” according to the memo. (Read more from “Hegseth Orders Review Of Discharge Characterizations For Troops Booted Over Biden’s Covid Shot Mandate” HERE)

Trump Mocks Biden, Obama With New Plaques Under ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ Portraits

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President Donald Trump took some not-so-subtle swipes at his predecessors with new plaques below their portraits in the new White House Presidential Walk of Fame.

Former President Joe Biden had already been mocked in the installation, which was unveiled in September, when Trump used a photo of an autopen to represent the 46th president. Now, there are two plaques that include Trump’s nicknames for Biden.

“Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History,” the top plaque states. “Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction. His policies caused the highest Inflation ever recorded, leading the U.S. Dollar to lose more than 20% of its value in 4 years.”

“Nicknamed both ‘Sleepy’ and ‘Crooked,’ Joe Biden was dominated by his Radical Left handlers. They and their allies in the Fake News Media attempted to cover up his severe mental decline, and his unprecedented use of the Autopen,” the second plaque reads. “Following his humiliating debate loss to President Trump in the big June 2024 debate, he was forced to withdraw from his campaign for re-election in disgrace.”

Trump also took jabs at former President Barack Obama, calling him “one of the most divisive political figures in American History.” (Read more from “Trump Mocks Biden, Obama With New Plaques Under ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ Portraits” HERE)

Chinese Billionaire’s U.S. Baby Factory Exposes Birthright Citizenship Scam

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The left insists that birthright citizenship is “plainly written” into the Constitution and immune from any challenge. But cases like that of Chinese billionaire Xu Bo expose just how stupid that claim is.

Xu, a reclusive tech billionaire, has reportedly fathered more than 100 children — possibly more — through surrogacy agencies in the United States, though Xu himself has never lived in the United States. But his children, through the left’s twisted interpretation of birthright citizenship that has been the prevailing interpretation of the 14th Amendment for decades, are citizens.

It’s a convoluted form of the disgusting practice known as birthright tourism (where foreigners come to the U.S. to give birth to secure their children birthright citizenship) and it’s the exact abuse of the 14th Amendment that the framers — and anyone with a brain — would have found absurd.

The citizenship clause reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The limiting phrase — “subject to the jurisdiction” — was added deliberately, and its purpose was clear: not everyone born in the United States should automatically become a citizen. (Read more from “Chinese Billionaire’s U.S. Baby Factory Exposes Birthright Citizenship Scam” HERE)

FBI Agent Steve Friend, Who Blew Whistle on Jan. 6 Investigation, Is Fired From Agency After Veiled Threat to Director Kash Patel

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A former FBI agent who was suspended under the Biden administration and was reinstated under President Trump to much fanfare has been ousted again, The Post has learned.

FBI whistleblower Steve Friend issued what was deemed to be a threat against Director Kash Patel on a podcast hosted by ex-FBI agent Kyle Seraphin last week and that outburst helped cost him his job on Saturday, bureau insiders told the Post.

Friend gained fame for claiming he was wrongly placed on leave by ex-FBI Director Chris Wray for exposing problems with the Jan. 6 investigation that saw roughly 1,600 defendants prosecuted for the 2021 attack on the Capitol. He went on to become an author, media commentator — and onetime ally of Patel.

Suspended in August 2022 and having resigned in February 2023, Friend returned to the FBI’s payroll on Oct. 10. However, he hadn’t been performing duties at the FBI in Jacksonville, as he had not yet been cleared for a background check, an issue that can arise in whistleblower cases.

While pedaling a conspiracy theory that Patel falsely arrested alleged DC pipe bomber Brian Cole Jr. as part of an elaborate “cover up,” Friend made disturbing remarks about bringing “God’s wrath” to punish him. (Read more from “FBI Agent Steve Friend, Who Blew Whistle on Jan. 6 Investigation, Is Fired From Agency After Veiled Threat to Director Kash Patel” HERE)