(J. Scott Applewhite/AP photo)

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) claimed on Thursday that the United States is not at war with Iran, the day before a potential deadline to involve Congress in foreign military action.

The 1973 War Powers Act sets a 60-day deadline to conduct military strikes without Congressional approval. In regard to the strikes in Iran that began on February 28, the deadline would be Friday.

When approached by NBC News on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Johnson said the Iran conflict does not apply to the deadline because “we are not at war.”

“I don’t think we have an active, kinetic military bombing, firing, or anything like that. Right now, we are trying to broker a peace,” Johnson told NBC News. “I would be very reluctant to get in front of the administration in the midst of these very sensitive negotiations, so we’ll have to see how that plays out.”

When asked about the deadline, Johnson told the network, “We are not at war.”

He added: “We’re policing the Strait of Hormuz and trying to get a peace. The president and the administration are moving as aggressively as possible. There’s nothing Congress can do to move that along any further, so we’ll see how it plays out. That is my position.”

Under the War Powers Act, President Donald Trump can request a 30-day extension. It remains unclear whether he has or will. Trump himself has repeatedly called the conflict a “war.”

As he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. is currently not subject to the 60-day deadline while a ceasefire is in effect in the region

The post Mike Johnson Claims US ‘Not at War’ With Iran Ahead of Key Deadline first appeared on Mediaite.

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Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) confronted Pete Hegseth on a fake Bible quote that the defense secretary read during a Pentagon prayer service earlier this month, which was lifted from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction.

The moment came on Wednesday as Hegseth faced Carbajal and the rest of the House Armed Services Committee to testify on the Pentagon’s 2027 budget.

As Carbajal began his questioning, he said, “I recently realized that we have something in common. I’m also a fan of Pulp Fiction. And no, the movie is not an accurate portrayal of the Bible.”

Smirking, Carbajal added: “You know what I’m talking about.”

During the prayer service on April 15, Hegseth (as first flagged by A Public Witness, a religion-themed Substack) urged his audience to join him in a prayer, which he said was delivered at the beginning of a mission to rescue a downed pilot in Iran during the early days of the war.

“They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17,” Hegseth said at the time.

He went on:

So the prayer is CSAR 25:17 and it reads, and pray with me please, “The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of camaraderie and duty shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother, and you will know my call sign is Sandy 1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Amen.

In the King James Bible, Ezekiel 25:17, simply reads, “And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.”

But Hegseth’s words bore a strong resemblance to the fake version of Ezekiel 25:17, strikingly delivered in Pulp Fiction by Samuel L. Jackson in a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination.

Carbajal went on to rebuke Hegseth over rising costs related to the Iran war and flu shots for soldiers.

It’s not the first time that Hegseth and Carbajal have clashed on Capitol Hill.

Last year, Carbajal called Hegseth “an embarrassment to this country” as the former Fox News host testified before the committee, adding, “You should just get the hell out and let somebody competently lead this department.”

Invoking those remarks during Wednesday’s hearing, Carbajal told a smiling Hegseth, “You were incompetent then, you’re incompetent now, and you’re the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to incompetence.”

Watch above via C-SPAN3.

The post Democrat Confronts Pete Hegseth Over Fake Bible Quote: ‘I’m Also a Fan of Pulp Fiction’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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Ben Shapiro said he would shed “zero tears” if Jimmy Kimmel gets fired for his “widow” joke about Melania Trump, which sparked another round of feuding between the ABC late-night host and President Donald Trump.

But Shapiro also said on his Tuesday podcast that canning Kimmel for the joke would be “like getting Al Capone for tax evasion.”

“You’re hitting him with the wrong charge,” Shapiro said.

He then did a quick recap of the joke that reignited the feud, from a skit Kimmel did last week where he parodied the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. While acting like the host of the event, Kimmel cracked: “Our First Lady Melania is here. Look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

Two days later, the Trumps and several members of the president’s administration were rushed off the stage at the annual event when a shooter fired multiple shots in the venue’s lobby. It was the third known assassination attempt against President Trump since 2024.

Shapiro said Kimmel’s joke was “incredibly stupid.” At the same time, he said being “tasteless” was “not the reason he should’ve been fired long ago.”

“If you want to talk about the kinds of rhetoric that lead people to try to kill the president, the answer is not his joke about Melania, or making light of the idea of the president passing away, or something. That is not the thing that leads to violence,” Shapiro said.

He then shared why he believes Kimmel should’ve been axed by ABC way before his “widow” joke. Kimmel defended the joke on Monday night, saying it was clearly about the age difference between Melania and Donald Trump.

“The thing that leads to violence is pretty obvious — the actual conspiracism. The actual conspiracism. Jimmy Kimmel has spent years at this point calling the president a pedophile; he has imputed Epstein involvement to him,” argued Shapiro.

Shapiro said the latest assassination attempt made his point clear.

Cole Tomas Allen — the 31-year-old suspected shooter — appeared to be motivated by conspiracy theories about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein; he wrote in his manifesto that Trump was a “pedophile” and “rapist” who needed to be killed.

“It’s actually in the manifesto — I don’t have to speculate,” Shapiro said.

He then played several clips of Kimmel harping on Trump and Epstein. Those clips included Kimmel saying Trump was “protecting pedophiles,” that his “best friend was a pedophile,” and that he had not released the “unreleased Trump-Epstein files.” Kimmel also said that “if Trump wants to send a rapist somewhere, he can just jump on a bus himself.”

Shapiro said remarks like those created the “permission structure” for people to try to murder Trump.

Watch above.

The post Ben Shapiro Argues Firing Kimmel Over Widow Joke Is ‘Like Getting Al Capone for Tax Evasion’  first appeared on Mediaite.

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This weekend’s London Marathon was a phenomenal event, with not one but two men (Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha) breaking the sub-two-hour barrier that people used to say would never be broken. The women’s winner, Tigst Assefa, also smashed her own world record. So what kind of running watches do these elite marathoners wear? Mostly cheap ones, including older Garmins. 

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I was able to confirm some of these runners’ specific watch models with Garmin and Coros. Since fans seem to be wondering whether the runners are sponsored by their respective watch companies, I also asked Garmin and Coros about sponsorships. Only two of the six appear to be sponsored. Here are the top three men and women:

• Sabastian Sawe, with a world record time of 1:59:30: Garmin Forerunner 55 ($167). I confirmed this with Garmin. He is not sponsored by Garmin, though.

• Yomif Kejelcha, the second person ever to run sub-2 with a time of 1:59:41: Coros Pace 3 ($199). He is not sponsored by Coros.

• Jacob Kiplimo, 2:00:28: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 ($349-$239 - unclear exactly which model, but not the Classic). He seems to be a sponsored athlete—here’s a Samsung article about how he uses the watch in his training. 

• Tigst Assefa, with a new women’s world record at 2:15:41: Garmin Forerunner 255 ($243). I also confirmed this with Garmin, and they do not sponsor her either.

• Hellen Obiri, 2:15:5: Coros Pace 4 ($249). I confirmed this with Coros; she is a sponsored athlete, newly signed just before the race.

• Joyciline Jepkosgei, 2:15:55: another older Garmin, which Ivan Jovin at Gadgets and Wearables identified as possibly the Forerunner 955 ($449). She is not sponsored by Garmin.

Of the six, four are wearing older models (released 2021-2023) with reflective MIP screens. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and the Coros Pace 4 are the only watches in this group that were released in the past year (and they are the only two with the more modern style AMOLED screen). Most of these watches cost less than $250. 

That may be surprising if you think of running watches as a cutting-edge tool where newest is always best. But even though watch manufacturers keep coming out with new features, that doesn’t mean those features are necessary to support training and racing, even for elite runners. Ever since I started reviewing and writing about fitness watches, I’ve been asking every runner I meet what kind of watch they have. Most of the time, it’s an older Garmin. Sometimes they don’t even know what model. Basic watches make perfectly good workhorses, even for elite runners.

Why elite runners don’t wear top-tier watches

These mostly budget picks don't surprise me, because elites need to focus on what their body is doing, not what’s going on inside their watch. The most important job of a running watch on race day is letting you know what pace you’re running—especially if you’re betting everything on being able to break a certain world record. Even the most basic digital watches can tell you how long it’s been since the starting gun went off, but a modern GPS-enabled watch can also give you a reasonably accurate sense of how many miles you’ve gone and how far it is until the next mile marker. (That said, it’s the official race timing and distance that counts; your watch just gives an estimate.) 

I haven’t spoken to these athletes myself, so what follows are my opinions based on knowing what running watches offer to the people who wear them. In short: Everything besides your time and pace is icing on the cake. 

Elites don’t need the training scores and statuses that some watches offer; they have coaches handling that stuff. They don’t decide the day’s training based on how many steps they’re getting; again, they and their coaches, not tech, are in control. It doesn’t matter if the watch has 150+ activity modes if your only job is to run. 

So why do newer watches have those features in the first place? A lot of the features are there to help you feel a little more elite. For example, you may not have a coach, but your watch can coach you by suggesting a workout. Watch features also aim to keep you interacting with the watch—checking your scores, tracking other activities besides running—which helps the watch company’s bottom line by getting more engagement from you and keeping you excited about the brand.

As I’ve mentioned before, companies keep adding features to justify new models and higher prices—just look at Garmin’s Forerunner 570, which has one athletically meaningful upgrade from the 265 (a more accurate heart rate sensor) and otherwise tacked on a lot of bells and whistles to justify what was, at the time, a $200 price hike. Meanwhile, I've loudly proclaimed that the Forerunner 255, which you can still buy new, is probably the best value Garmin out there.

None of the top-tier features actually help you run faster, unless it’s by keeping you more interested in the hobby of running. So it should be no surprise that professional runners don’t prioritize extra features. And I may be a mere recreational runner, but I’m quite happy to run with a basic watch, as well. How excited I get about fancy features really depends on how much I’m relying on the watch to structure the way I train. If you aren’t looking to the watch to make decisions for you, a basic watch is just fine. 

Cole Tomas Allen is facing life in prison after he was told he is facing three counts for his attempted shooting spree at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last weekend, including two federal gun crimes and one count for attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump.

The 31-year-old suspect donned a neon blue jumpsuit while making his first appearance inside federal court in Washington, D.C. on Monday.

New York Times court reporter Zach Montague reported from the courthouse:

Jocelyn Valentine, a federal prosecutor, told Magistrate Judge Sharbaugh that Mr. Allen came to Washington with a pump-action shotgun, a pistol and three knives, all with the intent of carrying out a political assassination.

The court has set a hearing for Thursday morning to determine whether Mr. Allen will be kept in detention. Mr. Allen did not enter a plea through his lawyer Tezira Abe.

Fox News correspondent David Spunt reported Allen is also facing a count of transporting a firearm across state lines, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; the third count is for discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, which carries a mandatory 10 year sentence.

Spunt noted this was not an official arraignment but just an initial appearance for Allen. He also reported the California native has two public defense attorneys.

U.S. attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro watched the proceedings from inside the courtroom, Montague reported. He added Allen “appeared calm” and was “nodding to acknowledge instructions and quietly answering prompts form the judge.”

The attempted assassination happened at the Washington Hilton on Saturday evening, just minutes after the annual event started. President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt were among those who were rushed off stage when shots were fired in the lobby.

Trump told 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell on Sunday he “wasn’t worried” during the frenzied moment shots started firing.

“I wasn’t worried. I understand life,” Trump said matter-of-factly. “We live in a crazy world.”

The president later told her he wasn’t as worked up as you’d expect during the shooting because, “I have been through this a couple of times.”

Trump was obviously referring to the previous assassination attempts against him, including the 2024 attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania where a bullet hit his ear before killing firefighter Corey Comperatore.

Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel are expected to share more details at a press conference at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Watch Spunt’s report above.

The post Suspected WHCD Shooter Charged On 3 Counts, Faces Life in Prison for Attempted Assassination of Trump first appeared on Mediaite.