A decision by NC counties to accept dead voters’ ballots upsets some, unites others – NewsBreak
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02c U.S. Politics – Election
President Donald Trump saw his 2024 election victory certified by the U.S. Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris having to preside over the whole affair. She said of the process that “It’s a peaceful transition of power. It’s a good day.” The President won the election 312 electoral votes to 226, 77 million votes to 75 million votes.
Harris calls it a ‘good day’ for democracy as she oversees peaceful certification of Trump’s victory – wnyt.com
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After less than a half hour, she formally announced that Trump had won the election. She smiled tightly as Republicans applauded.
“The chair declares this joint session dissolved,” Harris said. “Thank you.”
The process was vastly different than four years ago, when Trump’s supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers were certifying his defeat to Joe Biden. This time, everyone honored the results of the election.
The Mass Mailer President Joe Biden Committee has ordered all American offshore drilling banned to help “ensure our oceans and coasts are resilient to the threats of climate change and nature loss.” The administration believes somehow the Trump administration cannot undo this order with his own order, though legal skeptics abound.
The White House claimed, “Drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs. It is not worth the risks. As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.”
Biden bans most offshore drilling in one of his final acts of ‘political revenge on the American people’– www.theblaze.com
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President Joe Biden evidenced his desire Monday to continue burning bridges and salting the earth on his way out of office, this time announcing a ban on all new offshore oil and gas drilling along the entire U.S. Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as in Pacific waters off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington and in the Northern Bering Sea bordering Alaska.
While Biden has approved numerous offshore wind projects that not only can have a devastating impact on wildlife and the environment but generate a tremendous amount of pollution, the White House framed his decision to ban offshore drilling as a way to help “ensure our oceans and coasts are resilient to the threats of climate change and nature loss.”
Biden’s ban, executed under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, applies to roughly 334 million acres of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf running down America’s eastern flank from Canada to the southern tip of Florida; to 250 million acres of federal waters off the West Coast; and to 44 million acres of the Northern Bering Sea.
The White House suggested that Biden’s unilateral decision to prevent Americans from taking advantage of the rich and internationally coveted resources under 625 million acres of U.S. ocean would not adversely impact the nation’s energy needs.
“Drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs. It is not worth the risks,” Biden said in a statement. “As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.”
Venezuelan opposition leader says his son-in-law has been kidnapped in Caracas – WETM – MyTwinTiers.com
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Self-exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González, who claims to have defeated President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, said his son-in-law was kidnapped Tuesday in Venezuela’s capital.
González, who was traveling in the United States, said Rafael Tudares was kidnapped while on his way to drop off González’s two grandchildren at school in Caracas.
In a post on X, González said “hooded men, dressed in black” intercepted the vehicle and loaded Tudares “into a gold-colored van.” He did not say what happened to his 6- and 7-year-old grandchildren.
Democrats slammed after 159 vote against Republican bill allowing ICE to deport illegal migrants who steal – Daily Mail
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House Democrats are getting skewered after 159 voted against the Laken Riley Act, a bill that would more easily allow illegal migrant criminals to be deported.
The legislation, which passed with bipartisan support 264 – 159, was named to honor the late Laken Riley, 22, a college student who was murdered by repeat criminal Jose Ibarra.
Ibarra, a Venezuelan national, had entered the U.S. illegally and committed numerous crimes before eventually murdering the nursing student in February 2024.
U.S. Capitol building encircled by security fencing in Washington, D.C. – People’s Daily
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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
President-elect Donald Trump has petitioned the Supreme Court, asking them to delay a hearing on the potential TikTok ban from America should it not be sold to an American company. The President submitted an amicus curae, or “friend of the court” brief. He only requested a delay in the hearing, nothing more.
Trump asks Supreme Court to delay hearing on TikTok injunction – The Desk
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President-elect Donald Trump has weighed in on a forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court hearing that could decide the fate of short-form social video service TikTok in the coming weeks.
Last Friday, Trump invoked a legal doctrine known as “amicus curae” to file a so-called “friend of the court” brief, during which he took no position on the case at hand but encouraged the Supreme Court to delay its hearing on whether to approve an injunction that prevents TikTok from being banned in U.S. app stores.
The banishment is rooted in a law passed earlier this summer that forces TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest its U.S.-based business to a stateside entity. The law was rolled into a federal appropriations bill that was mainly intended to green-light financial funding for the wars in Ukraine and Israel. President Joe Biden signed the measure into law in April, and ByteDance filed its legal challenge soon after.
The law requires ByteDance to divest its U.S.-based business by January 19; if it doesn’t, the measure requires U.S. app stores run by Google, Apple, Samsung, Amazon, Microsoft and others to pull the TikTok app, making it unavailable for download to computers, phones, tablets and smart TVs.
The law doesn’t ban Americans from using the service, and the TikTok app currently installed on devices will continue to work as long as ByteDance and the manufacturers of those devices support it. But it makes TikTok much harder to access when users buy new devices or switch from one platform to another, or if they delete the app and decide they want to reinstall it at a later time, because it won’t be available in app stores. (Android and Microsoft users will still be able to download the app beyond app stores, but Apple device users cannot download apps that aren’t available whiten the Apple App Store).
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-AR) is facing a potentially tough battle this Friday, January 3, 2025 when the new House votes for next session’s speaker. Facing a number of critics, Johnson’s re-election has been in doubt, but now the Speaker has an official endorsement from President-elect Trump.
The President said, “Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!”
BREAKING: Trump Endorses Unpopular House Speaker Mike Johnson for Speaker in Suprising Move | The Gateway Pundit– www.thegatewaypundit.com
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President Trump made a surprising endorsement on Monday for House Speaker Mike Johnson to be reelected as Speaker as he faces challenges from other GOP lawmakers.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!” Trump said after touting his own accomplishments on the campaign trail– no thanks to Mike Johnson.
Trump: We are the Party of COMMON SENSE, a primary reason that we WON, in a landslide, the magnificent and historic Presidential Election of 2024. ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, 312 ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES, AND THE POPULAR VOTE BY MILLIONS OF VOTERS (Despite large scale voter fraud taking place in numerous states, including California, where votes are ridiculously still being counted, or under review!), ALL WON WITH EASE, CALM, & PROFESSIONALISM. Republicans are being praised for having run a “legendary” campaign! Democrats are being excoriated for their effort, having wasted 2.5 Billion Dollars, much of it unaccounted for, with some being used to illegally buy endorsements ($11,000,000 to Beyoncé, who never even sang a song, $2,000,000 to Oprah for doing next to nothing, and even $500,000 to Reverend AL, a professional con man and instigator, who agreed to “interview” their “star spangled” candidates, Kamala and Joe). We ran a flawless campaign, having spent FAR LESS, with lots of money left over. They ran a very expensive “sinking ship,” embracing DOJ & FBI WEAPONIZATION against their political opponent, ME. BUT IT DIDN’T WORK, IT WAS A DISASTER!!! LETS NOT BLOW THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY WHICH WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN. The American people need IMMEDIATE relief from all of the destructive policies of the last Administration. Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!
The DNC-serving content market “The Hill” published an “op-ed” from two lawyers who appear to have been tasked with the job of testing a narrative to see if a new coercive method of precenting Trump from taking office might be viable. The two lawyers are Evan A. Davis and David M. Shulte. Their narrative is being picked up by the other DNC content marketing companies, like MSNBC and CNN.
The lawyers’ central claim is this: “The Constitution provides that an oath-breaking insurrectionist is ineligible to be president. This is the plain wording of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution…. This disability can be removed by a two-thirds vote in each House. Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel.”
Congress Must Stop Trump From Being Sworn In, Argues Column in The Hill– legalinsurrection.com
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An op-ed in The Hill by two lawyers argues that Congress has the right and the duty to prevent Trump from taking office because he allegedly committed insurrection and is disqualified:
The Constitution provides that an oath-breaking insurrectionist is ineligible to be president. This is the plain wording of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” This disability can be removed by a two-thirds vote in each House.
Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel.
The first fully contested proceeding was Trump’s second impeachment trial. On Jan. 13, 2021, then-President Trump was impeached for “incitement of insurrection.” At the trial in the Senate, seven Republicans joined all Democrats to provide a majority for conviction but failed to reach the two-thirds vote required for removal from office. Inciting insurrection encompasses “engaging in insurrection” against the Constitution “or giving aid and comfort to the enemies thereof,” the grounds for disqualification specified in Section 3.
President Donald Trump published a post on Truth Social on Christmas Day that suggests America might have to take the Panama Canal back because the country is charging outlandish rates and handing over the canal’s operations to the Chinese military.
Trump posted, “Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal (where we lost 38,000 people in its building 110 years ago), always making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in ‘repair’ money, but will have absolutely nothing to say about ‘anything.’”
Trump alleges ‘Chinese soldiers’ operating Panama Canal – Türkiye Today
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump alleged on Wednesday that ‘wonderful Chinese soldiers’ are operating the Panama Canal, sparking questions about U.S. investments in the vital waterway.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Christmas Day, Trump alleged that the Chinese presence is aimed at ensuring that the U.S. invests billions of dollars in repairs without reaping any benefits. “The United States puts in billions of dollars in ‘repair’ money and gets nothing in return,” he said.
Trump also addressed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him “Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada” and suggesting that Canada could achieve significant tax cuts and “would be militarily protected like no other country anywhere in the world” if it joined the U.S. as its 51st state.
Fulton County Attorney General Fani Willis and her entire office were disqualified from their cases against President-Elect Donald Trump and his allies. The disqualification came from the Georgia Court of Appeals, who ruled Willis had disqualified herself in how she conducted herself during the trial and even outside the trial, including on the campaign trail leading up to her election as the Fulton County DA in the first place.
The ruling means a board of Georgia Prosecutors will have to select a prosecutor to replace her, but most experts believe her cases are dead in the water as the basis for the cases in the first place was always on “novel” approaches that many would argue are flat-out unconstitutional.
Fani Willis Was Just Officially Disqualified From the Prosection of Donald Trump – RedState– redstate.com
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In a major blow to the prosecution against Donald Trump in Georgia, Fulton County DA Fani Willis has been officially disqualified from the case. An appeals court ruled on Thursday morning that her conflicts of interest were simply too great for her to remain involved.
That comes after a years-long fight involving Willis’ affair with Nathan Wade, a lawyer she had hired to be part of the prosecutorial team. Questions about how much taxpayer money he was paid and the impropriety of their relationship infected the process and led to the Trump team seeking Willis’ disqualification.
The Georgia Court of Appeals has just ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is disqualified from the election-interference case against Trump and his co-defendants. Court says it will not take “extreme sanction” of tossing out entire indictment. pic.twitter.com/JJBLtGrQYq
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) December 19, 2024
In 2017, it was revealed that the FBI had been spying on members of congress. After that, the DOJ issued “reforms” intended to prevent such action from happening again. A recent IG report, however, suggests the DOJ has not fully closed the legal loopholes to assure it doesn’t (or isn’t continuing to) spy on members of congress.
IG Report Reveals FBI Could Still Be Spying On Congress– thefederalist.com
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Can you imagine the danger to our republic if the Executive Branch could secretly, for months on end, and without any clear and compelling justification, surveil the very people in Congress conducting oversight of those agencies?
That chilling constitutional nightmare transpired. And we’re only getting the details about the separation-of-powers-eviscerating, civil liberties-undermining, and transparency-imperiling activity seven years after it started.
The revelations come in a recently released Justice Department Inspector General report. Like much of this corrupt activity, the story begins with Russiagate. In the spring and summer of 2017, the first year of the Trump presidency, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post published articles containing classified information concerning Trump and Russia.
… When news reports emerged during the Biden years of what had transpired, DOJ issued a new congressional investigations policy ostensibly requiring greater scrutiny of and higher-level approvals for subpoenas and NDOs, while still not requiring approval from or notification of the attorney general or deputy attorney general — not that any such processes necessarily would have prevented such malfeasance. Only after reviewing the IG report in September of this year did DOJ even create rules mandating that prosecutors disclose to the court when an NDO involves a congressional office or staffer.
Another notable takeaway from the IG report is that the bar to subpoena communications records from members of the media is actually higher than that from members of the legislative branch. Unlike the DOJ’s News Media Policy, the Congressional Investigations Policy contains no “exhaustion requirement.” Prosecutors need not exhaust “all other reasonable means of identifying the sources of the unauthorized disclosures,” prior to seeking a subpoena. Only then, in the case of news media, must the feds request “Attorney General authorization.”
Remarkably, even after modifying its Congressional Investigations Policy, according to the IG, it is not clear that illegal leaks are subject to the policy. The policy is located in a chapter of DOJ’s Justice Manual called “Protection of Government Integrity,” the first provision of which states that the chapter deals with crimes “including bribery of public officials and accepting a gratuity, election crimes, and other related offenses.” Unauthorized disclosures do not make the list.