Trump Takes Aim at Kamala’s ‘Illegal’ Pre-Interview Campaign Payments to Sharpton, Potentially Spelling Trouble for Comcast’s Bid To Spin Off MSNBC– freebeacon.com
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Excerpt:President-elect Donald Trump accused MSNBC host Al Sharpton of taking illegal donations from the Kamala Harris campaign ahead of softball interviews with the Democrat last year, potentially spelling trouble for MSNBC and its parent company Comcast ahead of a planned corporate spinoff.
In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump accused the Harris campaign of seeking to “illegally buy endorsements” from Sharpton and celebrities like Beyoncé Knowles and Oprah Winfrey prior to the election.
Trump’s remarks were based on a Washington Free Beacon report that the Harris campaign donated $500,000 to Sharpton’s nonprofit, the National Action Network, weeks before the activist interviewed Harris on his MSNBC show, PoliticsNation.
“Totally against the law,” Trump asserted.
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Biden to award Presidential Citizens Medal to Jan. 6 committee heads– www.washingtonexaminer.com
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Excerpt:
President Joe Biden is awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to the heads of the Jan. 6 committee.
On Thursday, Biden announced a slew of awardees, including We Were Soldiers Once … and Young author Joseph Galloway, attorney Mary Bonauto of Obergefell v. Hodges fame, and former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd. The two sure to turn the most heads, however, are Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who served as the heads of the Jan. 6 committee.
“Throughout two decades in public service, including as a Congresswoman for Wyoming and Vice Chair of the Committee on the January 6 attack, Liz Cheney has raised her voice — and reached across the aisle — to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency. Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together,” Cheney’s nomination read.
“Born and raised in a segregated Mississippi, as a college student inspired by the Civil Rights movement, Bennie Thompson volunteered on campaigns and registered southern Black voters. That call to serve eventually led him to Congress, where he chaired the House January 6th Committee — at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth,” Thompson’s nomination read.
Biden’s move serves as a final salvo against President-elect Donald Trump. Cheney, in particular, has made a career after her landslide primary loss as a Republican opponent of Trump, even campaigning alongside outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris to prevent him from retaking the presidency.
U.S. Capitol building encircled by security fencing in Washington, D.C. – People’s Daily
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Excerpt:
This photo taken on Jan. 5, 2025 shows the U.S. Capitol building encircled by security fencing in Washington, D.C., the United States. After the 2020 U.S. presidential election, then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, refused to concede to his Democratic opponent Joe Biden and repeatedly claimed that there was widespread election fraud. On Jan. 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters violently broke into the Capitol building, and interrupted the certifying process of the 2020 presidential election, prompting hundreds of lawmakers to evacuate in panic
Hamas stands by hostage release terms as Trump pushes for deal by Jan. 20 – National– globalnews.ca
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Excerpt:
Hamas stood by its demand on Tuesday that Israel fully end its assault on Gaza under any deal to release hostages, and said U.S. president-elect Donald Trump was rash to say “all hell will break out” unless they go free by his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Officials from the Islamist group and Israel have been holding talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intensive effort for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of 100 hostages that remain captive in Gaza.
The outgoing U.S. administration has called for a final push for a deal before Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region now view Trump’s inauguration as an unofficial deadline.
“If (the hostages are) not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East,” Trump said Tuesday at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“It will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.”
Tel Aviv protesters rally against Netanyahu, demand efforts on hostage deal with Hamas
Trump is dispatching his incoming special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to Qatar this week for additional talks. Witkoff said real progress has been made.
“The red lines he’s put out there — that’s driving this negotiation,” Witkoff told reporters while standing next to Trump.
But with the clock ticking, both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.
Hamas says it will free its remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end its military offensive and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end its assault until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.
“Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages,” the director general of Israel’s foreign ministry, Eden Bar Tal, told a briefing with reporters, saying Israel was fully committed to reaching a deal.
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Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who held a news conference in Algiers, said Israel was to blame for undermining all efforts to reach a deal.
While he said he would not give details about the latest round of negotiations, he reiterated the Hamas conditions of “a complete end to the aggression and a full withdrawal from lands the occupation invaded.”
Commenting on Trump’s threat that there would be “hell” to pay unless all hostages were freed before the inauguration, Hamdan said: “I think the U.S. president must make more disciplined and diplomatic statements.”
At least 70 killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza amid ongoing ceasefire talks
Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not comment.
In one notable step towards a deal, a Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce, alongside Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The list included female Israeli soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had so far received no confirmation about whether those on its list were still alive.
Israel keeps up airstrikes in Gaza
Nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to Hamas health officials in the enclave. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israeli military strikes killed at least 24 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory urged international donors to immediately provide fuel to run generators and maintain medical services.
One of those strikes killed four people in a house in Gaza City and six were killed in separate strikes across the enclave, medics said.
UN report slams regular Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals
Later on Tuesday, an Israeli strike on a tent in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip killed four children and eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia in the north, medics said.
Additionally, an Israeli strike on a car in Khan Younis killed two people, medics and civil emergency service officials said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those strikes.
It said 240 Palestinians its forces had detained in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last month had provided “substantial intelligence.”
The military released footage of the interrogation of a purported Hamas militant who detailed how militants “operated from the hospital area” and transferred weapons to and from it.
Hamas and the Gaza health ministry deny any armed presence at the hospital.
—With additional files from the Associated Press