Schumer Won’t Rule Out Another Government Shutdown

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declined Tuesday to rule out triggering another government shutdown as Democrats press Republicans to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.

President Donald Trump ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history on Nov. 12 by signing a spending package that funded the government through the end of January and restored pay to affected federal workers. During an exchange with reporters, Schumer repeatedly declined to give a direct answer when reporters asked whether Democrats would again risk a government shutdown by tying federal funding to their health care demands ahead of the Jan. 30 deadline.

“Mr. Chairman, you mentioned January 1. There is also a January 30 deadline to fund the government. Do you have any expectation that Democrats might tie back to ACA like you did last time to try to get a result?” one reporter asked.

“Look, just as I said, it’s on the Republicans that we haven’t had health care done after January 1. It’s very, very hard to put it back in the bottom,” Schumer said.

When asked explicitly whether Democrats would vote to shut down the government on Jan. 30 if they fail to secure an extension, Schumer again avoided a clear commitment. (Read more from “Schumer Won’t Rule Out Another Government Shutdown” HERE)

Trump Stands by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles After Bombshell Vanity Fair Interviews — Admits He Has ‘Alcoholic’s Personality’

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President Trump defended White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in an exclusive interview with The Post Tuesday — saying she was right to tell Vanity Fair he has an “alcoholic’s personality” and that he has confidence in Wiles to continue in her role.

In an afternoon phone call, Trump said that he wasn’t offended by his subordinate’s word choice.

“No, she meant that I’m — you see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that — but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality,” Trump said, a teetotaler who has frequently cited the 1981 death of his older brother Fred at age 42 of an alcohol-induced heart attack as the main impetus for his abstinence.

“I’ve said that many times about myself. I’m fortunate I’m not a drinker. If I did, I could very well, because I’ve said that — what’s the word? Not possessive — possessive and addictive type personality. Oh, I’ve said it many times, many times before.”

In the profile, Wiles — the daughter of late NFL player and broadcaster Pat Summerall, who underwent his own public struggles with the bottle — told author Chris Whipple: “High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” (Read more from “Trump Stands by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles After Bombshell Vanity Fair Interviews — Admits He Has ‘Alcoholic’s Personality’” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Trump Thinks Russia’s Putin Wants All of Ukraine: WH Staff Chief Susie Wiles

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President Trump thinks Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wants much more than what’s on the table in talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, according to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

“The experts think that if he could get the rest of Donetsk, then he [Putin] would be happy,” Wiles told Vanity Fair in August, according to a report published Tuesday. “Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country.”

Trump’s team has been pushing Ukraine to give up some of the Donbas region, a key sticking point in the talks, and they’re now trying to sell Russia on the peace plan. Moscow has not yet agreed to these terms and Ukraine is loath to cede any territory without security guarantees from the United States.

Trump for months has been convinced Putin is hellbent on taking over the entirety of Ukraine with his nearly four-year-old war there — disagreeing with advisers who felt that giving him Ukraine’s easternmost region would be enough, Wiles signaled.

A senior US official told The Post the same late last month as the latest US peace plan push was just kicking off. When asked what concessions Russia would have to make in a peace deal, the person said it was simply getting Russia to accept that it can’t take over all of Ukraine. (Read more from “Trump Thinks Russia’s Putin Wants All of Ukraine: WH Staff Chief Susie Wiles” HERE)

Christmas Day Gas Prices Expected to Drop to Lowest Level in 5 Years

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President Donald Trump’s energy policies are delivering what is expected to be the lowest national average Christmas Day gas price for Americans since 2020, his last full year in office.

GasBuddy projects that on Christmas Day, the average gas price nationally will be $2.79 per gallon, down from $2.95 per gallon last year under former President Joe Biden, who deployed America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve during his administration when prices soared.

“Thanks to President Trump, gas prices have hit a five-year low and Christmas Day gas prices are projected to fall to the lowest level since 2020,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Breitbart News. “Lowering energy prices for American families and businesses will continue to be a top priority for President Trump in the new year.”

Per GasBuddy, Americans are set to save “over half a billion dollars during the Christmas week compared to last year” on gas.

America saw gas prices rocket rapidly under Biden. On December 25, 2020, when Trump was president, prices nationwide averaged $2.26 on Christmas. On December 25, 2021–just 10 months into the Biden administration–the average cost of a gallon of gas rose by a whole dollar nationally, to $3.26 per gallon, according to GasBuddy. (Read more from “Christmas Day Gas Prices Expected to Drop to Lowest Level in 5 Years” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

U.S. Won’t Release Full, Unedited Boat Strike Video to Public, Hegseth Says

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday there are no plans to release the full unedited video of September 2 strikes on a suspected drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean that fueled concerns about the Trump administration’s plans for Venezuela.

Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio conducted briefings on Tuesday for every member of the Senate, responding to lawmakers’ demands for more information about a 3-1/2-month-long campaign of more than 20 strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed more than 80 people.

On Monday, the U.S. military struck three vessels in the Pacific, killing eight people.

“In keeping with long-standing Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course, we’re not going to release a top-secret full unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters at Capitol Hill.

The two cabinet secretaries held a similar briefing for the full House of Representatives.

Concerns about the strikes increased after it became public that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike that killed two survivors on September 2. (Read more from “U.S. Won’t Release Full, Unedited Boat Strike Video to Public, Hegseth Says” HERE)

Bombshell Files Reveal FBI Doubted It Had Probable Cause to Raid Mar-a-Lago for Classified Documents

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The FBI did not believe agents had probable cause to execute a search warrant at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022, according to internal records released Tuesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

The FBI’s Washington Field Office said it “does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ [counterintelligence]) that we have established probable cause for the search warrant for classified records at Mar-a-Lago,” according to one of the records authored by an unidentified assistant special agent.

“DOJ has opined that they do have probable cause,” the document continues, “requesting a wide scope including residence, office, storage space.”

The FBI official noted that agents had spent six weeks trying to establish probable cause that were “counterproductive.”

“We haven’t generated any new facts, but keep being given draft after draft after draft,” one official in the bureau’s Washington Field Office groused in a July 13, 2022, email. “Absent a witness coming forward with recent information about classified on site, at what point is it fair to table this?” (Read more from “Bombshell Files Reveal FBI Doubted It Had Probable Cause to Raid Mar-a-Lago for Classified Documents” HERE)

Accused Lefty Extremist Texted FBI Snitch About ‘Terrorist Diary’: ‘Lmaooooo I Have To Get Rid Of That’

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Leftists charged in a suspected bombing plot in California allegedly told an undercover FBI informant of their radical intentions several times before their Friday arrest, even mentioning a “terrorist diary,” court records show.

The paid informant and an undercover FBI agent were key to infiltrating the leftist group Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF) and disrupting its alleged New Year’s Eve terrorist plot, the FBI said in a criminal complaint filed Saturday. Defendant Zachary Page said during a December in-person meeting — which included the unnamed informant and agent — that he was “100,000 percent” sure the FBI would certainly be tracking TILF’s activities ahead of the attack, according to the complaint.

“I kind of had this notebook where I wrote down multiple plans that never happened or got delayed,” Audrey Carroll, another of the four TILF defendants, allegedly said in a Dec. 10 text to the informant on Signal. “So it’s like / my terrorist diary / lmaooooo / I have to get rid of that.”

The same woman gave the undercover operative a handwritten document labeled “Operation Midnight Sun” that outlined the New Year’s Eve bombing plot, which involved detonating bombs at companies across Los Angeles when the clock struck midnight, the FBI alleged. The FBI’s surveillance climaxed with a Friday SWAT raid in the Mojave Desert, where the four defendants allegedly gathered at a campsite to test explosives, officials said Monday.

Court records do not yet list attorneys for the defendants, who made their first appearance in court Monday on charges of conspiracy and possessing an unregistered explosive device. (Read more from “Accused Lefty Extremist Texted FBI Snitch About ‘Terrorist Diary’: ‘Lmaooooo I Have To Get Rid Of That’” HERE)

Susie Wiles Makes Shocking Statements About Trump, Vance, White House Insiders

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White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles made shocking statements about President Donald Trump and his cabinet during an extensive interview with Vanity Fair.

The outlet published a two-piece profile on Wiles and the inside of the Trump White House on Tuesday. She was the primary subject, though other Trump administration officials’ comments were included in the article. Wiles put out a statement on X calling the article, which was based off of over 10 interviews with the chief of staff, “a disingenuously framed hit piece.”

The profile opens by listing some of the ways Wiles characterized the cabinet.

Wiles said Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality” and called Vance’s conversion from criticizing the president to being his biggest fan “sort of political,” according to Vanity Fair. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought is “a right-wing absolute zealot,” according to the Wiles in the article. On Musk and some of his erratic social media posts, she said: “I think that’s when he’s microdosing.” Wiles said she doesn’t have first-hand knowledge, the outlet reported.

Throughout the two-part series, some of the hand-picked quotes were expanded on to give Wiles’ more complete thinking on the staff she works with. . .

“Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities,” Wiles was quoted in Vanity Fair while talking about Trump. Her father, Pat Summerall, was an absentee father and an alcoholic. It was in this context that Wiles said the president has “an alcoholic’s personality,” adding that he “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing,” according to the outlet. (Read more from “Susie Wiles Makes Shocking Statements About Trump, Vance, White House Insiders” HERE)

12 People, Including One Gunman, Shot Dead at Sydney’s Bondi Beach: Jewish Community Targeted in ‘Terror Attack’; Holocaust Survivor Murdered By Jihadists While Shielding Wife During Beach Mass Shooting

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By Breitbart. Twelve people, including one terrorist, were killed in what has been designated a terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday evening. An additional 29 people were injured and a second terror gunman was arrested after the local Jewish community was directly targeted, according to Australian media.

A Chanukah by the Sea event with upwards of 1,000 attendees was scheduled to take place near a children’s playground from 5pm and had begun when the attack began at the iconic beach.

NSW State Premier Chris Minns confirmed of the 12 individuals killed in the attack, one “offender” has also been killed and another is in custody, the BBC reports.

He says the attack was “designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community.”

What should have been a “night of peace and joy” was “shattered” by a “horrifying, evil attack”, he adds.

There were well over 1,000 people in attendance tonight, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon says, celebrating the Jewish holiday of Chanukah. (Read more from “12 People, Including One Gunman, Shot Dead at Sydney’s Bondi Beach: Jewish Community Targeted in ‘Terror Attack’” HERE)

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Holocaust Survivor Murdered By Jihadists While Shielding Wife During Beach Mass Shooting

By Daily Caller. A Holocaust survivor who escaped Nazi persecution was shot dead while trying to protect his wife during a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, leaving 12 people dead.

Alex Kleytman fell to the ground after gunfire erupted at the Chanukah by the Sea event Sunday night in Sydney, The Australian reported. His wife Larisa watched helplessly as her husband of 57 years collapsed behind her.

“He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me,” Larisa told The Australian at the scene. “His body is still there, and I am sitting there and don’t know what I have to do.”

The retired civil engineer survived horrific conditions in Siberia during World War II alongside his mother and younger brother before immigrating to Australia from Ukraine. He and Larisa shared their Holocaust experiences with Australian Jewish charity Jewish Care in 2023.

(Read more from “Holocaust Survivor Murdered By Jihadists While Shielding Wife During Beach Mass Shooting” HERE)

Trump Calls Epstein Photos ‘No Big Deal’ After Democrats Release Images

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House Democrats on Friday released a small batch of photographs from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including images showing President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s former Prince Andrew in social settings linked to the late financier.

The 19 photographs were selected from a much larger collection of more than 95,000 images that Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee say they obtained from Epstein’s estate. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. The images released by lawmakers are separate from investigative case files that the Department of Justice is now required to make public under a recently passed law.

Several of the photographs had circulated publicly in prior years. Still, Democrats said they plan to release additional images in the coming days and weeks as part of an effort to increase pressure on the Trump administration over what they describe as delays in releasing Epstein-related records.

“It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, in a statement.

The broader photo collection reportedly includes images of a wide range of public figures, including Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, filmmaker Woody Allen and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, among others. Democrats urged the Justice Department to release its investigative files related to Epstein ahead of a Dec. 19 deadline established under the new law.

Trump, who acknowledged a past social relationship with Epstein before the two men reportedly fell out in the early 2000s, has denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes. Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump dismissed the newly released images.

“I haven’t seen it, but everybody knew this man,” Trump said. “He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody… that’s no big deal. I know nothing about it.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson criticized the photo release, accusing Democrats of selectively disclosing images with redactions to suggest wrongdoing. She said the administration supports transparency and argued that Trump has not been accused of any crimes connected to Epstein.

The release of the photos came as House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., renewed pressure on Bill and Hillary Clinton to comply with subpoenas for depositions related to the committee’s Epstein investigation. Comer said the former president and former secretary of state have delayed scheduling testimony and warned that the committee could pursue contempt proceedings if they fail to respond by a Dec. 17 deadline.

A spokesperson for Bill Clinton has previously denied any wrongdoing, stating that Clinton severed ties with Epstein well before his arrest and had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal conduct.

Among the images released Friday was a photograph showing Epstein alongside Clinton and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate, who is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for her role in the sex-trafficking scheme.