Kamala Harris’ Campaign Paid Oprah Winfrey’s Production Company Nearly $2.5 Million for Celeb-Packed Town Hall — Over Double Initial Estimate

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Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign shelled out nearly $2.5 million to Oprah Winfrey’s production company for the celeb-packed town hall it hosted — more than double the initial estimate reported.

It was originally surmised that Winfrey’s company Harpo Productions had been paid around $1 million for the talk show legend’s September town hall with Harris, but a new report shows that the dollar amount was greatly underestimated.

Two people familiar with the matter told the New York Times that Winfrey’s company had actually been paid closer to $2.5 million — still a mere fraction of Harris’ estimated $1.5 billion campaign spending.

The famous TV star has denied receiving any personal payments from the Democrat’s team and a former adviser to the Harris campaign also said they did not pay anyone for their appearances or support.

Winfrey said she did not pocket any of the money and used it to pay her team. She also noted that the Harris team was charged for what they required for the town hall. (Read more from “Kamala Harris’ Campaign Paid Oprah Winfrey’s Production Company Nearly $2.5 Million for Celeb-Packed Town Hall — Over Double Initial Estimate” HERE)

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Why Calling Trump-Voting Christians ‘Hypocrites’ Is a Lie That Will Continue to Fail

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Does character still matter in our politicians? Yes, it does, but not in the same way it did in the past.

“Character is on the ballot.” This is a common refrain from pundits and voters alike during any election season. But is that still true today? For many evangelicals and conservatives, the answer is “yes” — just not with the same weight it held in the past.

Since Donald Trump entered the mainstream political scene in 2015, evangelical Christians and conservatives have faced growing criticism. Observers note our opposition to Bill Clinton in the late 1990s after his sex scandal and then point to our support for Trump, a man with his own flaws and controversies. They ask, “What gives?” Are we hypocrites seeking only power? Is it a matter of having “our guy” in office while condemning “the other guy”? . .

My co-host on “The Bully Pulpit”podcast, Eric Teetsel, has a theory about what’s changed. In the 1990s, the political landscape was different. Back then, the gap between Republican and Democratic policies was not as stark as it is today. On key issues like abortion, Democrats insisted it should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Both parties supported border security. Foreign policy views were more aligned than divided. The differences were there, but they weren’t chasms.

In this environment, character often served as the tiebreaker. Without a deep policy divide, integrity, honesty, and moral standing carried considerable weight in determining which candidate better represented the country’s values. For evangelicals, and voters in general, character was a critical factor because it provided insight into a candidate’s potential for leadership in a relatively aligned political field. Small scandals could derail campaigns because, in a landscape of similar policy positions, they served as differentiators. Think about Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign-ending scream; it seemed unbecoming for a presidential candidate. That standard feels almost unthinkable today. (Read more from “Why Calling Trump-Voting Christians ‘Hypocrites’ Is a Lie That Will Continue to Fail” HERE)

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Smoking Out, Vaping In: A New CDC Report Offers Cause for Optimism

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the 2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey results, an annual assessment of various health-related behaviors among U.S. adults. Tobacco control advocates have reason to celebrate: The adult smoking rate has reached record lows, and in some states, young adult smoking rates are nearly nonexistent.

According to the BRFSS, only 12.1% of adults across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., smoked in 2023, down from 14% in 2022. This drop represents a decrease from 36.4 million smokers in 2022 to 31.7 million in 2023, a reduction of approximately 4.7 million. The decline among young adults aged 18 to 24 is even more notable: Only 5.6% smoked in 2023, marking a 23.5% decrease from 2022 and a dramatic 76.5% decline over the past decade.

While tobacco control advocates credit these historic lows to policies like taxes and smoking bans, the rise in e-cigarette use also appears correlated with the reduction in smoking rates. From 2016 to 2023, vaping among young adults rose by 90%, while their smoking rates fell by 63.8%. Interestingly, young adult vaping rates have also started to decline, dropping 23.5% from 20.9% in 2022 to 18.9% in 2023.

In some states, such as Utah and New York, young adult smoking rates are exceptionally low, at 2.6% and 3.4%, respectively. Even Oklahoma, which has the highest young adult smoking rate at 9.1%, is still significantly lower than the national adult average of 12.1%.

These trends extend to youth smoking and vaping statistics. According to the CDC’s National Youth Tobacco Survey, only 1.6% of U.S. middle and high school students reported current cigarette use in 2023. Youth vaping has also declined significantly, with only 5.9% of U.S. youth vaping this year — a 70.5% drop from 2019, when 20% were vaping. In just five years, America went from one in five youth using e-cigarettes to one in 20. (Read more from “Smoking Out, Vaping In: A New CDC Report Offers Cause for Optimism” HERE)

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Trump Is Suing the Mainstream Media– And They Ought to Be Afraid

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President-elect Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday, vowing to bring justice to his name after years of attacks from the mainstream media.

The incoming 47th president announced he is suing several media outlets, including the New York Times, CBS News, Penguin Random House, and the Daily Beast, alleging widespread bias and defamation. Trump’s lawyer, Edward Andrew Paltzik, demands $10 billion in damages for publishing defamatory material.

In the lawsuit, Trump accused the mainstream media of “defaming and disparaging” him during coverage of the election and making “false and defamatory statements.”

The NYT was at the center of the lawsuit. In the 19-page filing, Trump’s lawyers wrote that the newspaper has been “a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic party” that engages in “industrial-scale libel against political opponents.” They also accused the publication of having “every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States.” (Read more from “Trump Is Suing the Mainstream Media– And They Ought to Be Afraid” HERE)

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Trump Sends His Clearest Message Yet To DOJ Bureaucrats With Unexpected Leadership Picks

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President-elect Donald Trump’s unexpected picks for Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership roles send a clear message to the establishment: this term, his agenda will not be held captive by career bureaucrats.

After being burned by his own choices in his first administration and prosecuted by the Biden-Harris DOJ, his decision to nominate Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and his defense attorneys for the other top slots reflects Trump’s desire to be surrounded by people who fully support his vision for the department — and who are willing to stand up to bureaucratic forces working to undermine his efforts.

“Gaetz is clearly an outsider and disruptor, and that’s the point,” former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Gaetz is “exactly what President Trump promised for the DOJ during his campaign, namely to end the department’s left-leaning focus on lawfare, censorship, and election interference.” He’s “a loyalist who is often in Trump’s orbit” that won’t put up the same resistance as former Attorney General William Barr, Cherkasky said.

Article III project senior counsel Will Chamberlain wrote on X the Gaetz pick is best understood as “a statement by Trump that it’s not 2016 anymore and there will be no internal coup against the sitting President.” (Read more from “Trump Sends His Clearest Message Yet To DOJ Bureaucrats With Unexpected Leadership Picks” HERE)

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Pentagon ‘Scrambling,’ Wiping Evidence of DEI as Trump Readies to Fire Woke Generals

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The Pentagon is in “absolute disarray” with “generals scrambling” due to the incoming Trump administration’s plans to fire woke senior military leaders who prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over combat readiness, according to sources.

One source compared it to a hornet’s nest being kicked over and that “DEI pages are starting to disappear off the main websites.”

“They’re being archived as we speak. They are full-bore focused on cleaning up anything DEI-related,” the source said.

Another source said people are trying to find out if they are on the list to be cut. “They are in panic mode,” the source said.

The scramble to hide evidence comes as President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has begun gathering names of senior officers who pushed DEI.

One source familiar with the plan told Breitbart News that an executive order has been drafted to create a panel to recommend those senior officers for elimination and that the EO is “definitely” going to Trump’s desk. (Read more from “Pentagon ‘Scrambling,’ Wiping Evidence of DEI as Trump Readies to Fire Woke Generals” HERE)

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The Tiny Silver Coin That Could Completely Rewrite American History Books

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A Norwegian coin found at a prehistoric archaeological site in Maine could soon rewrite America’s history books.

The small piece of silver, known as the Maine Penny, may prove that Europeans arrived in the US centuries earlier than what was initially thought.

It’s already known that maritime explorations by Norse peoples from Scandinavia – also known as Vikings – in the late 10th century led to the Norse colonization of Greenland and Newfoundland in Canada. The coin comes from the same era.

Much of the circumstances of how it was found were not well preserved, but it could be evidence that the Norsemen from Greenland traveled farther south than Newfoundland, on the eastern coast of what is now Canada.

The Maine State Museum – where the artifact is being kept – favors the view that the coin is evidence the Norse were the first outsiders to set foot on the actual North American continent, a half-millennia before Christopher Columbus was even born. (Read more from “The Tiny Silver Coin That Could Completely Rewrite American History Books” HERE)

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The Daughters of Malcolm X Sue the CIA, FBI and NYPD Over the Civil Rights Leader’s Assassination

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Three daughters of Malcolm X have accused the CIA, FBI, the New York Police Department and others in a $100 million lawsuit Friday of playing roles in the 1965 assassination of the civil rights leader.

In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the daughters — along with the Malcolm X estate — claimed that the agencies were aware of and were involved in the assassination plot and failed to stop the killing.

At a morning news conference, attorney Ben Crump stood with family members as he described the lawsuit, saying he hoped federal and city officials would read it “and learn all the dastardly deeds that were done by their predecessors and try to right these historic wrongs.”

The NYPD and CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which was also sued, declined comment. The FBI said in an email that it was its “standard practice” not to comment on litigation. (Read more from “The Daughters of Malcolm X Sue the CIA, FBI and NYPD Over the Civil Rights Leader’s Assassination” HERE)

Finally: The News That J6 Political Prisoners Have Been Waiting Years to Hear…

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Dear J6 political prisoners, don’t give up—the cavalry is coming.

If you’ll recall, during the 2024 primary, President Trump made it clear that he would support pardons for J6 political prisoners.

The political persecution these poor people have endured has been nothing short of horrific. For many non-violent January 6 attendees, it’s been a relentless nightmare. They’ve been smeared and demonized by the regime-run media and uniparty politicians desperate to score cheap “battle points” against President Trump. Jobs have been lost, families torn apart, and friendships destroyed in acts of unforgivable betrayal. All because they were angry—angry that their votes were stolen in the most ridiculous election in US history. An election, we might add, that looks even more questionable after 2024, as more people start to notice that the math just doesn’t add up.

Many of these folks are guilty of little more than strolling through the Capitol—some even happily escorted by police like tourists—yet they’ve been branded “insurrectionists,” jailed, or slapped with sham charges. The toll has been devastating. Lives have been destroyed so thoroughly that some have tragically ended in suicide. This is, without question, one of the darkest and most shameful chapters in American history. The government should hang its head in disgrace and shame for treating non-violent citizens like enemies of the state.

But now, with President Trump’s sweeping landslide victory, there is hope. Their pain and suffering could finally come to an end, and this latest news from a federal judge is proof that this nightmare is close to over.

(Read more from “Finally: The News That J6 Political Prisoners Have Been Waiting Years to Hear…” HERE)

Trump Proved Rigged Elections Are Winnable. Now It’s Time to Un-Rig Them

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In the 2020 election, Donald Trump and his voters faced media interference, suspicious ballot dumps, politicized censorship of information, low-security election laws, polling place issues, and legally dubious Democrat get-out-the-vote operations.

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump and his voters faced media interference, suspicious ballot dumps, politicized censorship of information, low-security election laws, polling place issues, and legally dubious Democrat get-out-the-vote operations. On top of those, he faced two assassination attempts and a political lawfare campaign designed to bankrupt and jail him. The fact that Trump succeeded in making this election “too big to rig” doesn’t make those problems any less threatening to self-governance.

After 2020, concerned Americans started paying more attention to the security of our elections. Often on their own time, they perused voter rolls, filed public records requests, and researched election law. After 2020, they uncovered shady schemes like “Zuckbucks” — an effort to dump billions in “grants” into left-leaning jurisdictions in swing states to juice Democrat turnout — that had influenced that election.

By 2024, they had accumulated a body of research on proven or potential flaws in our elections. States that automatically register residents to vote, but don’t require proof of citizenship to do so, created opportunities for noncitizens to end up on voter rolls, sometimes unknowingly so. Overly broad laws governing overseas voters allowed people to vote in certain swing states despite never setting foot there. States with mass mail voting regimes ended up sending ballots to the wrong places, with no way to make sure they didn’t wind up in the hands of bad actors. Laws allowing undated ballots to be turned in after Election Day welcomed illegitimate behavior. States that don’t require ID to vote — or that treat noncitizen licenses as qualifying IDs — invited fraud and decreased confidence in elections. Election officials’ decision to keep dead, moved, or otherwise unqualified “voters” on the voter rolls practically invited abuse. . .

Other problems were reincarnated as new ones. As quickly as sunlight dried up the Zuckbucks pipeline, the federal government replaced it with something worse: a taxpayer-funded scheme to target likely Democrat votes. While Elon Musk transformed Twitter from the chief censorship engine to a free speech platform, actors like Facebook, YouTube, and Google doubled down. While alternative media outlets drew attention to election red flags, the legacy press labeled anyone who questioned the process “election deniers.” (Read more from “Trump Proved Rigged Elections Are Winnable. Now It’s Time to Un-Rig Them” HERE)

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